THE FRACTURED WORLD: ARRIVAL

[modormenace]

 

A

rrival for some goes all but unnoticed. It's a sudden shiver, the sensation of being watched... and then nothing at all. Life continues serenely as it always has. The only indication of any change comes with sleep, wrapped in dreams: vague and distant echo imagery of another life, melting away in the morning.

 

F

or others, arrival is a sharp jolt. In the space of a single blink, they find themselves in an unfamiliar world, surrounded by the trappings of a life they have not lived. They are replacements, spirits taking possession of bodies belonging to people very much like themselves...

 

A

nd for the rest, arrival is a procedure. Routine. Those ported in to the Fractured World wake hazily in the comfortably dim light of the Porter room, laid out on an exam table. Their wounds, if they remember having any, have been healed— and even those who remember their own deaths find themselves miraculously restored. As they regain consciousness, an automatic audio-visual presentation is triggered. Regardless of their backgrounds or physiology, all imPorts 'see' and 'hear' this message as if in their own language:

"Greetings, imPort."

The voice is calm and gently authoritative, almost certainly selected by committee.

"On behalf of the Synod and all imPorts it represents, we welcome you to the planet Earth."

A decidedly non-humanoid robotic arm holds out a palm-sized device and rather insistently demands the new arrival take it. This is the imPort's comm, used for accessing the Porter's database of information, as well as the communications Network— though it won't receive communications from outside the Porter building until carried through one of the many Gates set up in a long, crescent-shaped array on the far side of the room.

As each Gate is approached, information about the faction it leads to flashes up on the comm device's screen. Which will you choose?

THE WHITE TOWER SANCTUM AURORAE KRAKOA HOUSE OF M EMPIRE OF LIGHT EQUALITY BEFORE LAW THE TWIN CITIES OLIN VALE EDEN SEEKERS OF THE NEW DAWN NORTHWESTERN IMPERIUM GREEN PIECE MAD BURNISH LUMINARY

Comments

[onepip]

[Maybe a problem? Shit, is he suspicious? Wait no he just seems... confused. In fact he seems in-general confused, not just 'I'm new here' confused. Maybe she can use that--

--but uh, okay, that's an interesting question.]

Uh, maybe. I mean, they've gotta have some way of telling who's who. [She peers at him closely.] You know I've wondered that. Do you get a tag or a tattoo or something? A number? Greek letters?

[ttwwiiccee]

Huh... Well if it were me, and I am me... I'm not me.

[ He's talking to himself more than her as he pats his pockets and pulls out his wallet. He finds a business card with a 12 box grid on the back, some of the boxes blacked out and a few others with stamps on them. On the other side in Japanese reads "Bubaigawara Jin. National Gallery of Canada's Coat Check, Synod representative, Network liason." ]

Synod representative? Eh, yeah uh - [ He remembers she's there and that he's supposed to know all this already. ] Yeah! We all have these!

[onepip]

What is that, the Jin-of-the-Month club membership card? Be Jin four weeks and get a fifth week of being Jin free? [she's not sure if his behavior right now is just him being an oddball or if he really is playing hooky from somewhere else. or maybe he's just shortcircuiting? critical clone brain overload?

oooh but that other thing he says.] But hey, wow, Synod rep! You must be pretty high up on the chain to land that. Unless that one's something you can all do.

[ttwwiiccee]

Haha, yeah, it's - uh.

[ He looks back down at the card, staring at the words as if this time they'll actually make sense. ]

We wouldn't bother writing it down if we could all do it, right?

[onepip]

Exactly! I mean, they can't send all of you there, you'd run out of room real fast. Dimensional safety field or not.

Sooo, got any big plans? Any big improvements for these old Twin Cities of yours? And yours and yours?