video | un: apocalypseArisen

[timebender]

[ Now that the storm has settled, and rebuilding efforts seem well underway, it seems like a good time for Aradia to do something she's wanted to do since she arrived. The girl who appears on the network feed is smiling, bright eyed and almost certainly inhuman, both in physiology, and in attitude. Between the gray skin, darkened lips, yellow sclera, and curved, ram-like horns atop her head, there's no mistaking her for anything even remotely human. Though she's very new here, and the last few days have been rough, her grin says a little condescending, but amused and a little bit eager. ]

Hello there! It's been a few days now, and I thought I should introduce myself. My name is Aradia, and I am still very new around here.

I have to say, I've never heard of anyone falling through a magic portal into a completely different universe before. [ Something about the way she says that sounds like she might just be sarcastic. ] But it sounds like my help is very sorely needed here! I guess you could say I am independently in the business of tidying up timelines, so I have to wonder if the methods we're using here are… well, effective! It sounds to me like we're a bit of a ragtag band with no training whatsoever. Have I gotten the right impression?

I know everyone is very busy cleaning up after that storm, but I have a lot more questions than ALASTAIR seemed to have time to answer. If anyone has a moment to tell me more about the timelines we have worked with so far, I'd very much like to hear it. The sooner I can figure some things out, the more I'll be able to help out.

[ With all the difficulty she's had in traveling this timeline, any lead would be better than none at all. She hasn't been successful yet, but that doesn't meant she's going to stop trying. Maybe learning more about the nature of their missions will help. ]

Comments

voice

[hsalf]

That is the correct impression.

[Well, the majority of people at least.]

There was only one other world before this one. It was one inhabited by humans and goblins, co-existing.

voice

[timebender]

Oh, good. So we've just started, then? That's promising. How did it go, were we successful?

[hsalf]

Well, the sun had been hidden away through some warped mage's mechanics. Our job was to bring it back and we did. So I would call it a success in the most literal of senses.

[timebender]

And... that's the mission ALASTAIR sent us on? To bring back the sun, specifically?

[ There's a reason for all this questioning, though she's not forthcoming about it. ]

[hsalf]

We also seemed to be tasked with mending the relations between humans and goblins. Personally I think the sun was the priority.

video | un: sinclair

[anteil]

"Ragtag" describes it quite well, yes.

| And she's slowly getting used to that, mind. Doesn't mean the grey girl doesn't have a point. |

Frankly, it's less a lack of training | as she has encountered a few trained or at least practiced fighters, herself aside | and more a lack of consistent strategy, command structure, and crew-wide organisation.

video

[timebender]

That could be a problem.Then again, it might not be.

[ She stops, considering for a few moments, before she switches gears. ]

I understand that they've been secretive, as well. Is that your experience?

video

[anteil]

You could say so. I presume you, too, received the bare minimum of information regarding both ALASTAIR as a whole, as well as the current mission?

| That was the standard, at least as far as she's gathered. |

No matter whom I have spoken to on the matter, further information seems to be kept carefully under key and lock. They seem to have a baseline of "need to know" information and add more only if it's absolutely necessary.

video

[timebender]

I like a good mystery as much as the next person, but it must be pretty frustrating.

[ She's a little frustrated herself, though not overwhelmingly so. It's more a passing, fleeting thought, the itch to do what she knows she can do, but being unable to. ]

I'm going to have to hope that this is part of their plan. If it were me, I know I'd have my reasons. Though I can't say I've ever had anyone else so invested.

video

[anteil]

| Helga's life is frustration, she barely notices any differences here. |

I'm sure they have their reasons for all of this. | Casual pessimism: | And we are almost guaranteed to not like them one bit, if they feel the need for such a level of secrecy.

AUDIO. UN: LOKI

[selfimage]

There's a first for everything ...

[ and then there's an exasperated sigh that follows. ]

There's no means of finding out whether it's affective or not—kinda like hit or miss. [ despite that, Loki always had a decent handle on things, because he was, well, self-serving. ] That's really up-in-the-air sort of debatable. They keep the ontological gone corporeal cooped up in a little closet in the center of a bitty pocket dimension. The norm.

[ hm. ]

So, how do you deem something affective or not?

AUDIO

[timebender]

Well, in my own universe, knowing is kind of my job. It comes with the territory! But it's a lot easier when you have free travel throughout the timeline, to know what's effective and what isn't.

As it turns out, being a Maid of Time doesn't help that much outside of paradox space, so I think I'm just as reliant as anyone else here on ALASTAIR telling us what needs to be done. [ She almost leaves it there, but then considers her own actions back in her own universe, and adds, ] But then again-- maybe letting us run amok is all part of the plan?

[selfimage]

[ part of him wonders what anyone would do if ALASTAIR actually gave them more specific orders; part of him also wonders if it's possible that ALASTAIR has no idea what they're doing, either. ]

We are, after all, anomalies. Whatever "fate" was set up for those worlds that we touch, well, it's already been diverted by our presence, hasn't it?

[ more curious, to himself. ] They're more stable than the mayflies, considering ...

[timebender]

Yes, the presence of this many strangers to the timeline would almost certainly disrupt it in some way! Not by necessity, but because so many people in one place, being sent on a nebulous and dubiously important mission can't be expected to sit back and do nothing.

[ Give her an inch of interest, and she'll take it a mile, as it turns out. She's not used to people actually paying attention; usually their eyes glaze over at best, or they become hopelessly lost at worst. ]

But diverting might not be the only goal. If you clean your home, you don't just move things around, do you? You put it all in its proper place. Tidying up timelines is very much the same!

[selfimage]

[ she talks, and there's a rude, long, exaggerated sigh that punctures the middle of her explanation. ]

Doing nothing is doing something in the grand scheme of things. [ it's the story of being an anomaly. ] Proper place is always subjective.

Their idea of a proper place, most likely.

video-- UN:terios

[chaoscontrol]

[excellent color choices, Aradia. Shadow approves]

Ragtag is far more accurate than you could ever imagine. [EYES. ROLL.]

The only mission I have personally been involved in took place on some backwater planet where humans and goblins were at odds with each other over a hidden sun. I'm not entirely certain how ALASTAIR finds these supposed disruptions to the timeline, and I'm not sure how the interracial tensions of one pathetic city in one tiny world could effect the multiverse... but perhaps I am naive.

video

[timebender]

There's no perhaps about it. I've seen first hand how the decisions in one universe can interfere with what happens in another. Somehow I doubt that ALASTAIR are the only ones capable of inter-universe travel.

What would happen if someone with a chip on their shoulder were to gain that power as well?

[ Because that's basically what happened. ]

video;

[chaoscontrol]

First hand? You have experience with this sort of nonsense? That would make you more qualified for this job than... 99% of the employees.

[he ignores the rest, for now. It would be bad obviously. He's not going to dignify something so silly with a response]

video;

[timebender]

Yes! This is the exact thing I was doing back in my universe before I came here, so I do think I am qualified for the job. It's too bad they don't seem interested in helping me utilize my abilities to their full potential.

video;

[chaoscontrol]

... Interesting. What do you mean by that? Your powers have been... limited?

text - un: archer

[anti_altruisms]

[ There is plenty to strike one's interest in this post, but there is one thing in particular that catches his eye: ]

How much experience do you have with cleaning timelines?

text

[timebender]

Quite a bit! I don't know if I could quantify it for you, since my consciousness is both my own, and that of my alternate selves, and time travel is a bit hard to measure anyway. So you'll just have to take my word for it!

[anti_altruisms]

[ That actually makes sense to him, hilariously enough. Time travel and maintaining timelines usually results in paradoxes... ]

I see.

And how is it you came to be involved in work of that nature?

[timebender]

Hmm. That's a good question. I could have told you before, but exactly how paradox space chooses our designations is now beyond me! I suppose the powers that be thought that it would be good for me for some reason. Call it coincidence, accident, or fate... I think it may have been a combination of all three.

[anti_altruisms]

"Paradox space"... that is what you call the force that governs such activity in your world?