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

[ifhebeworthy]

[ and almost, as if by some godly omnipotence... ]

I can search for him, if you wish. All you need is speak the words.

[numberthree]

[ Allison's mouth presses and she knows the words she should say. Thre words that go something like, she (/they) are deeply moved by the offer but they'll need to refuse because of every article that ties Krakoa to safety of the White Tower. But Allison has been breaking those articles for three years now. They all have. Even if it's not public. And part of her thinks if they're willing to do it for the children, then Josh, who made all of this possible, shouldn't be so hard a leap.


She wants to say yes. Wants someone tenaciously unstoppable following down every lead and breaking every single door, and face, and bone in a body, until the stone Josh, or whatever happened to Josh, is under is overturned. And then she wants that stone bludgeoned straight through whoever put all of them through this.

She should say no. She wants to say yes.

But Allison has been dealing with keeping everything about the concept of 'want' in check since she was old enough to understand the concept. To understand how much of the world could change in a heartbeat, in a single word, if she wasn't careful. If she wanted too strongly. And even if it feels desperately wrong, and too long game for her likes, she tries to think what Josh would do in her place, and what she ends up with, is some blend of them, she thinks. ]

Not yet.

[ She glances back to him finally. ]

But thank you. I will keep it in mind.

And I can relay your wishes to help to Council, as well?

[ifhebeworthy]

If you think it wise, for so long as it not compromise our agreement.

[ he says that for krakoa's benefit more than his. thor is an outlier to them, offering his help for as much as he has to anyone else worthy of receiving it. he follows his own rules, his own moralities, for as unsure as he may be on what those are right now, and up until this point that has worked for them all rather nicely.

but josh was a friend. he does not make this offer lightly. he was a god of war, and lest others forget, he will remind them swiftly of what that means. ]

[numberthree]

[ It's not that it isn't tempting. A promise, an offer, kept on the side, a secret. An answer she could change at any time. Thor might not have sworn an oath, but he was loyal to those he respected, in his own way. He didn't lie to them, and let him be the one exception to that rule so long as Allison could keep telling them that was still true of him, of his word.

Even if the children didn't think of it that way (weren't supposed to have to if they made it to Krakoa), all of them who were older, who had come from other, worse place, on this world, and theirs, got it. That loyalty was written in blood on the stones, too, where it came to people who crossed the wrong lines, touched, and took what was yours to protect with every breath.

There's considering look. She gets what it is he's offering. She does. ]

David, at least, if not all of them.

[ And Luther.

The voices that tempered her.
When temptation was too strong. ]

[ifhebeworthy]

[ his eyes move out towards the water again, silent in thought except for the gentle crashing of the waves. his hand rests on the pommel of his axe. ]

I trust your judgment, Allison. If you think it wise, then let it be so.

[numberthree]

[ She nods, maybe that is that at least for the time being. She wasn't lying. She will think about it. She already knows she'll think of it more than she should, and she'll probably be less than anything like subtle at him. Drop down on Luther, and put her head in his lap, maybe even on top of his book, while he's reading it, as petulant as though she's still thirteen and heedless, and none of the things she is now, and just open their conversations asking him to remind her why she shouldn't send a god of destruction and death after the person she loves, after the people she hates.

But that's for later tonight. That's for home.

That's for the place she's still allowed to be more weapon than girl.

She shifts it instead. ]

How long are you thinking of staying this time?