Time Rift

[hasbeendispatched]

All irregularities will be handled by the forces controlling each dimension. Transuranic heavy elements may not be used where there is life. Medium atomic weights are available: Gold, Lead, Copper, Jet, Diamond, Radium, Sapphire, Silver and Steel. Sapphire and Steel have been assigned.

The two Elements resolve themselves in a span of verdant forest. In one direction, waves crash against a shoreline which is too much a line to be natural. In another, a jagged rift of oily black and red absolutely reeks time disturbance, mayhem creeping through it like tentacles -- Sapphire can feel the fabric of time tugged in that direction as it whizzes like a spindle out of control, tugging a thread to unravel.

Bizarre, Sapphire comments. We are very far from home. This is a young place.

This is out of control. Operatives should have been sent much sooner, Steel replies, striding towards the monstrosity.

The earth shakes, suddenly, making the trees sway and creak. Steel remains stock-still, feet firmly planted, but Sapphire stumbles and nearly falls before Steel extends a hand to catch her.

It's very strong, Steel, she sends, pressed against his side. We must find the source of the disturbance.

Comments

[sturdycoldsteel]

This... 'Human' is about one hundred and forty five years old.

The earth shakes again, just lightly this time, but she finds it very concerning. She shakes her head and opens up an unobtrusive little bag, tossing a bracelet with a stylized bird's wing as the centerpiece to Sapphire. Another one gets floated over to hover in front of Steel.

[hasbeendispatched]

They have life extension technology, Steel, and I think something that can cause breaks in Time.

There is no way Sapphire is touching that bracelet.

[steelyglance]

The briefing said 1975. That's a significant anachronism. Occupy her until I get there.

Steel also ignores the bracelet and heads back towards the others, having satisfied his curiosity about the rift.

[hasbeendispatched]

Yes, Steel, I know.

[sturdycoldsteel]

Fine. If the square falls, she can swoop down and catch them. They're the only ones stupid enough to be near a mature rift so she won't have a hard time plucking them from the void. Those flight bracelets will continue to follow them until picked up or otherwise interfered with.

She ascends a little bit and pulls out her earlier map and resumes doing the math for her cascade simulation. There's almost no people within ten tiles, but it's best if the destruction is minimized nonetheless. (She absently lances a ghost-like thing with fire, resetting its loop.)

[steelyglance]

Steel jogs back up to Sapphire and takes her hand to show her the information he gleaned from the rift.

[sturdycoldsteel]

Rocksuit person says something else to them, then sighs.

The math says that if she starts replacing tiles it'll cause an unacceptable amount of cascading. Ugh. Who was shortsighted enough to let two adjacent rifts fester, with half a dozen more sitting within a few tiles, anyway? Her money is on either Tenno or Ysender.

She'll have to shore up surrounding tiles before cascading this place. She should probably keep an eye on those two weirdos while doing planning it out.

[steelyglance]

...I don't think that's a good idea, Sapphire...

[hasbeendispatched]

Yes, but I do. It didn't look like she caused the time problems.

"Hallo!" Sapphire calls upwards, waving at the flying human.

[sturdycoldsteel]

Her holographic map obligingly moves off to the side as she looks down.

[hasbeendispatched]

Sapphire smiles and waves her down, pointing at the ground nearby.

[sturdycoldsteel]

So she lands, arms folded, rock smoothly flowing to allow the motion. Her head is visible, like before, but the rest of her is covered.

[hasbeendispatched]

Pantomime time. Sapphire raises one hand, wiggles her fingers demonstratively, then puts it on Steel's cheek.

"Look at me, I'm saying things," she says inanely, since the human can't understand anyway.

Smile, please, Steel, she adds.

[steelyglance]

Steel smiles. Sort of. A little bit. Smiling is not in his top ten skills.

[hasbeendispatched]

Good enough. Okay, Sapphire takes her hand off Steel's face, and approaches the stranger. Slow...cautious...hand outstretched...

[sturdycoldsteel]

She doesn't look particularly impressed, but obligingly peels back the rock on her forearms and holds out one hand.

[hasbeendispatched]

That went well! Sapphire takes the stranger's hand and closes her eyes.

...there. Telepathy bestowed.

Hello, Sapphire sends. The thought is complex, a multilayered snapshot of sound and text and concept and a vague association with people waving.

[sturdycoldsteel]

There is a brief display of !!IMPOSSIBLE!! coupled with a vague impression of some kind of technology before she steps back in alarm.

Mind-to-mind communication is not supposed to exist. They touched her brain! Just think of all the possible side effects...

[steelyglance]

What did I say? Steel asks Sapphire. You can't just go around giving out telepathy to humans. It didn't work out for you last time either.

[hasbeendispatched]

I'll take it away when we're done.

To the stranger, Sapphire sends hello again. Without touch, only the word itself comes across, without context or even intonation.

She holds out her hand, palm up, and stands very still, like she's trying to coax an animal to eat from it.

[sturdycoldsteel]

There's no such thing as a mental checklist. She tries anyway. Can she remember things? Her parents, her old house, what she was doing last Wednesday, where her mountain is. Yes. Fourteen times nine is... A hundred twenty six. She checks with a little calculator. Seems alright. She still feels the same way about puppies. And Tenno. And the rift. Of course, if it was an attack that alters the way she thinks she's already done. They would have made her unable to notice the change.

Fine. Holding hands. I think you are very lost.

[hasbeendispatched]

The sentiment comes through along with the unfamiliar words. Sapphire pays attention to both -- depending on how long this assignment takes, she might need to pick up some of the language. She can always use another one.

Visiting, not lost. We are here to repair the rifts.

[sturdycoldsteel]

Fixing the rifts is my job. I'm a Fate. Let's pack as much meaning as she can into that last word, since this... Whatever... Seems to work like that. She's a magically powerful former human immortal-unless-killed who makes the world. I don't have a good chance to make the right squares to close the rifts, and convincing other Fates to help would be expensive, so I need to knock them down and start over. You think you can close them directly?

[hasbeendispatched]

Squares. Rifts. The pictures Sapphire's getting along with the words are ... flat. This isn't Earth, or even another planet. They're very far from home.

Steel, come over here, please. Sapphire takes his hand with her free one and relays.

To the "Fate": It's our job. You must know that they distort time?

(There's a lot of context on that last word. Sapphire has a very clear mental image of time, and it's terrifying and personified and malevolent and immense.)

[sturdycoldsteel]

That's why everyone stays away, and why I clear them out when I can. They only start causing... Time effects if they get very bad, and if they fall time returns to normal. I don't know much about time, admittedly. But if that one's messing with time already, I can't even try to repair it, I'll just have to collapse the whole zone so it doesn't spread to the other rifts. If the monsters keep looping they could kill a whole lot of people.