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

[fireandhoney]

That's both creepy and fascinating to watch. Who would have thought the Sith would have an interest in botany? Finn wants to deny Jadus, tell him that the betrayal came completely out of nowhere and Finn would have seen it coming otherwise. He doesn't lie.

"He had shown discontent before, but I thought he was just having a bad week."

[jadus]

Color slowly soaked into the leaves through the veins, blood red on white. "A misplaced confidence in your ability to read him. In your connection."

The plant shivered, though there was no breeze. "There is a natural instinct to fall deep into wariness after an injury. Your challenge now is to learn, rather than to simply react."

[fireandhoney]

"I suppose," Finn continueed to watch Jadus' plant, feeling a mixture of fascination and just being creeped out. It was the way the plant moved and the color shifted.

"I intend to find him and convince him to return. I'm even going to offer him co-rulership of New Solstheim." Despite everything, Finn still cared about Jonathan. He even kept all the photos and paintings of the two of them. Perhaps it was a foolish thing to admit to a Sith.

[jadus]

"And what will happen?" The leaves slowly began to green, but evidently at a cost: other, older leaves were reddening now.

"He has betrayed you, and you entice him to repent. Why will he do so?"

[fireandhoney]

"Because I can offer him anything, and I truly believe that he still has feelings for me. Surely he'll come back to be with me again."

Finn knelt down by the leaves, slowly reaching a finger out as if to touch one of the dying ones.