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

At the cafeteria

[verunandesu]

[My deepest apologies for contacting you and then disappearing for days!]

Noon comes and goes, and Sypha realizes that she has missed the midday meal only when her stomach starts to growl. She had been walking around the site for the new Gate, watching with a critical gaze. The construction seems sound, to her untutored eye, but it is what the Gate represents that Sypha wrestles with.

Going abroad... Sypha is a wanderer, but keeps her peregrinations inside the borders of the Seekers of the New Dawn; has since she arrived and joined with the faction. She at first told herself it was because there was so much to learn in this one place - so many new and old settlements to see, so many people to meet, so many stories to hear and record. As the years wear on, however, Sypha finds herself more and more unable to put her heart into that explanation.

The building of the Gate is a feat of architecture and magery and represents good fortune and economic prosperity for the DawnSeekers as a whole, but to Sypha it represents the unknown. Or ... that is not quite right. It represents the known and rejected. Her belief in the goodness of humanity, of the righteousness of her cause, of her own ability to save the day, had been shaken to the core by the events at Lindenfeld, so many years ago. The Gate makes Sypha conscious of her own withdrawal, and it is uncomfortable.

Sypha grabs a plate of food and a glass of water at the cafeteria and turns around to see another reminder of her uneasiness with the world at large and its encroachment on her faction: Yenh Quryoja. The woman's red hair stands out among the crowd, and Sypha is almost automatically drawn towards her. She was friendly with Yenh, though the two women were not close, but Sypha had begun, over the past while, to almost unconsciously note Yenh's comings and goings, and she was not quite sure why. She approaches Yenh's table.

"May I join you?"

[eightfoldlight]

[no worries!]

At the sound of approaching footsteps, Yenh lifts her head. Though she doesn't mind eating alone with her thoughts (or sometimes, with her phone), Yenh believes her time is always better spent in the direct company of Glimmershire's residents. They are her community, without whom none of her wandering would be possible. If she didn't tend toward liking people in general, she would feel obligated.

"Absolutely," she says in a warm tone. She pats the table to reinforce the invitation. "Come, have a seat! How have you been, Sypha?"

[verunandesu]

Yenh's warm tone and merry manner only serve to make Sypha feel awkward in relation. She sits, simultaneously uncomfortable with and glad of the other woman's casual cheeriness.

"Well," she replies, trying a smile and conversation. "I did not realize you were back in Glimmershire, Yenh. Where did you come in from?"

[eightfoldlight]

She bobs her head. "Just got back this morning," she says. Making others occasionally uncomfortable with her attitude is a normal state of affairs in her life. She carries on as though she doesn't notice.

"I spent some time in Krakoa, arranging with one of their scientists to do a diplomatic exchange of information with a few of ours. Took some meetings to make sure there weren't going to be any conflicts of interest," Yenh gestures abstractly with her eating utensils as she speaks. "Then there were was the water well blueprint delivery for a local town nearly a hundred miles out from Phoenix. They weren't expecting an imPort, much less one who teleported into their town square. I think I made a good impression after the initial startle and confusion. Once I managed the return jump, I took the gate to Jeopardy and spent some time recovering and catching up with their local happenings. Sailing is smooth as it ever is, there."

"Which reminds me! Would you like a spider cookie?" Even while she asks, she's already abandoned her fork and has begun digging at the backpack between her knees.

[verunandesu]

Sypha nods as Yenh speaks. Yet... "Do you not find it exhausting, visiting as many places in one trip as you do?"

It sounds harrying and disorienting to travel as Yenh does. Sypha much prefers her feet under her, travelling at a human pace; she had used a Gate once, long ago, to travel to the west coast, but has shunned them ever since.

She watches in amusement as the woman digs in her bag for the cookies.

sorry this is so late! life happened at me. if it's been too long, no worries!

[eightfoldlight]

"Exhausting?" she's slightly surprised by the question, pausing before fishing out the bag of black-frosted cookies. A couple cookie legs have broken off here and there. "It is tiring, but I live for the road. The people I meet, the lands I see, the problems we solve together... I fear the day I won't be able to do it anymore."

She unties the bag and offers the slightly crumbly contents.