janitorscloset | [Event] Introduction to the Nexus / MoI crash

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[Event] Introduction to the Nexus / MoI crash

I.
Within the fabric of the multiverse the differing possibilities of each branch are woven, overlapping but separate, converging and looping at times, but often wriggling apart by ever-increasing degrees until the substance of it is thick with possibilities. This fabric is five-dimensional, not recognizable in its true form to the beings that are forced to live within the constraints of linear time and three-dimensional space. Unknown to those who live out the events contained within it, the sense of it is only kept by the special properties of the interactions between universes—it would seem that each universe is independent, but the nature of this fabric is such that certain events—convergence events—tie each universe together in an indelible way.

This is not to say that these convergence events all take place in the same way in each universe. But there are key threads that cannot be unraveled from their neighbors, and though the players in a scene may not all be the same in each universe, the moments contained in these convergence points are so tightly woven that in some ways they may be indistinguishable from their neighbors.

II.
An indelible part of those universes where Project Freelancer came to be is the fact that the Project could not succeed. It was based on flawed theories, illegal activities, biased science, no matter which lifetime this particular founder of the Project was living out. And so its failure, or more specifically that moment where its impending failure came to a head, became a convergence event. Like a network of strong magnets, the turning point brought the multiverse together in an intimately linked way. For this reason, when in one universe the ship Mother of Invention fired upon itself and began its descent into the atmosphere of the nearby planet, it sent shockwaves of destiny through the multiverse, bringing each doom destined for Project Freelancer into clear focus.

Much of the technology in the Project's facilities, both on the ship and the planet itself, were experimental. Dimension-hopping was one of the unsanctioned activities taking place under the Project's purview, though it was intended for fast travel through space within the same universe rather than through the multiverse itself. This didn't change the fact that once again, the Project was messing around with things that weren't entirely understood. The emotional states of the users of the dimensional portals had a huge effect on them—and the person effecting the portal didn't necessarily have to be actively using it, either. This wasn't known or considered when the Project moved one of its portals from its planet-side facility to the labs on the ship.

III.
And so it was that the combined anger, fear, and desperation of the occupants of the ship at the time it crashed reprogrammed the portal in the ship's belly, and in turn created havoc in the transporter nexus that resided on the planet. Like an arc of electricity sparking from a Tesla coil, the wave of reprogramming touched every portal in the nexus. Every portal would now lead to the Mother of Invention in the aftermath of the crash. Worse than this, it caused the portals in the nexus to draw in users from other parts of the multiverse. They would enter the nexus unknowingly, simply hearing a ringing like crystal and finding themselves within it. Attempting to leave would simply send them to the Mother of Invention at a most dangerous time.

IV.

Timeline of events:

• Day 1: Residents of other times and places will find themselves on the planet containing Freelancer facilities in the teleporter nexus. Everyone who comes to the nexus will find that their cell phone, 2-way radio, comm device, or helmet radio can be used to communicate with anyone else who has arrived in the nexus at any point. Attempting to leave the nexus via any portal will lead to the crash site of the Mother of Invention. Recovery agents and guards will be evident all around the grounds, but things are chaotic. It will be impossible to locate the end portal the character arrived through to return to the nexus.

• Days 2-5: Things are calming down at the site, but time itself will seem to be undergoing an echo effect—recovery agents and guards will still be on patrol, but as time goes by they will seem to be in several places at once and though they may spot characters who arrive, they will be unable to apprehend them. The end portals that lead back to the nexus will be intermittently visible, but in a shivery way that will make it difficult to use them to return. When one manages to return to the nexus, they will find that they're unable to reprogram the teleporters. Teleporters now lead to various locations, however, rather than just the ship crash site—they also lead to various bases inhabited by simulation troops. Like the guards and recovery agents at the crash site, however, the simulation troops will not be quite able to interact with the characters who have arrived.

• Days 6-10: The shivers that are going through time and space now seem to be settling down, and the teleporters are increasingly responsive to attempts to reprogram them. By the time the ten days are up it's easy to cycle them between other Freelancer and UNSC facilities, and many technologically-savvy characters will be able to deduce the fact that there is a resonant frequency inherent to their own universe that can be programmed into a teleporter via their radio or comm device.

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...

[He actually stops. Just...stops and looks at her, his face blank. Doing that whole unreadable thing, that says he's thinking and feeling far too many emotions at once.]

[ She stops a few footsteps after he does, and she's not … she's not looking at him. She knows the face he's wearing. She remembers it, despite the years separating them. It was one of those little details that hadn't slipped through her fingers. ]

… He asked me for an hour, and I gave it to him, five minutes at a time. "Five more minutes" is how I've been living for … [ too long ] years.

Maybe I was still a kid when I killed an alien for the first time. Maybe I was still a kid when I thought it was funny to dodge a bullet wearing a sundress and sandals. I wasn't a kid when I killed another human being before they could put a bullet through Idaho.

.... [He listened, going over it, filing it away as 'differences.' At the very least, it was very easy for Puma to differentiate between the same people.]

Can you take off your helmet? [He finally asks, his voice neutral.]

You're not going to like what you see.

[ Her voice is as neutral as his. She doesn't want to. She doesn't want to do this, doesn't want to be here. (She should be happy. She is, deep down, so goddamn happy, but she's holding it all back. It's too wrapped up in everything else, and way too vulnerable, too volatile.) ]

[ ( … isn't she doing a shade of what Wash had done when she'd found him again?) ]

Doesn't matter. You know why I want you to take it off. At least, I hope you do.

[Because the helmet is to hide. The helmet is a barrier. To keep everything away, to be safe by never letting anyone close.]

[ Of course she knows. ]

[ And, of course, that's exactly why she doesn't want to do it. Armor is a sanctuary, and the helmet more than anything else spells safety. ]

… [ With a sigh, she reaches up to thumb the seals. Tugs the helmet off slowly, and holds it tucked under her arm. There. There she is, Puma, are you happy now? She looks so much older now, within a year of his own age. Her skin is pale, littered with scars—the cut on her chin from Washington's knife, a gash over the bridge of her nose, the score of a bullet's path across her cheek—and the bags beneath her eyes are dark; far darker than his. ]

[ But. ]

[ There's still that spark in her eyes, burning bright and fierce. It's a spark that's matured over the years, blossomed from naïve joy, to Kyriakos' stumbling resolve, to … this. To a woman who gets back up again no matter how many times she's knocked down, no matter how much she loses. ]

[He just takes her face in and...a bit of sadness shows on his face. Because the scars did mean she survived, but they meant she had been HURT. She had suffered, some by the hands of another him, and by the life he probably dragged her into.]

[But he sees the spark and he reaches up, and briefly ruffles her hair as an affectionate smile comes to his face.] There's my little sis.

[ She almost jolts back when he reaches for her, because when was the last time somebody ruffled her hair? ]

[ When was the last time Puma ruffled her hair? ]

[ He'd done it a lot. She remembers. She remembers that, if she lets herself think about it. Callused fingers in her hair, mussing it up, always gentle, always careful not to hurt. Swatting at him and ducking away, grumbling complaints despite liking it somewhere (not at all) deep down. Those times she'd leaned into it, those times she'd toyed with the idea of picking up his hand and dropping it on her head like some kind of obnoxious cat. ]

[ She stares at him blankly, wide-eyed, breath caught in her throat. ]

Well?

I know you've been fighting the urge to hug me.

[Because it's still Aoko, and he's still good at reading body language through armor, and he knows how she is.]

[ No. No, she hasn't, she's been fighting the urge to run. She wants to. She wants to run (doesn't she?) because this is too much. Seeing him again after all of this time, hearing him calling her little sister, knowing that he's right there now but that at any moment he could be gone all over again. ]

[ And ]

[ (let's not think about what happened between you and Wash, Cali) ]

[ She jerks back a half step, cagey. ]

...okay, wrong move. [He steps back, holds up his hands in surrender.]

[ Somehow, that hurts worse. ]

Jesus Christ … [ It's a mutter under her breath, and she scrubs a hand over her face. What the hell is she doing? FUCKING UP, that is what she's doing. Good job, Agent California. ]

[ Do it. Just do it. It'll hurt later, of course it will, but you can have this for now, and you can be happy about it. ]

[ … Sets the helmet down on the floor, carefully, before stepping closer to Puma. ]

[He's weird to hear her swear without there being RAGE.]

[But he'll stay still and wait for her to decide what she wants to do.]

[ It might be weirder still to hear her use that swear in particular. Wash might have taught her a few bad habits over the years. ]

[ She studies him in silence for a long moment, taking in the bags under his eyes (fainter than the ones she's used to) and the other, fainter tells of how he's been holding up. Notes the differences (plenty), notes the similarities (plenty of those, too). … Slowly, very slowly, she reaches up … ]

[ and measures the height difference between them ]

[ GUESS WHO'S TALLER WHILE SHE'S WEARING ARMOR ]

[He's a terrible influence, you should dump him.]

.....

You cheeky...

[Judging big bro look.]

[ She finally cracks a smile. ]

… little shit? [ drops her hand. onto his head. ] Not so little anymore, am I?

[ … ]

[ RUFFLES HIM. ]

[rjioejwaew]

I am pretty sure you're still younger then me! [Indignant squawking.]

[ Now, there's a face she remembers. ]

[ She can pick them all out, the subtle differences, the minute similarities, and all of the shades in between. Puma. Not Wash, Puma, her brother. She can do it, can't she? She can look at him and see him for him. The only problem is … looking at him, seeing him for him, and still knowing exactly what she's done with Wash. ]

I wouldn't recommend betting on it, Puma ... [ takes a steadying breath. ] Puma-nii.

[ (she knows he's still older than her. shh. let her have this.) ]

I was over eighteen in the desert. And you were from Kyriakos, so unless you were there for years, I'm still older.

[FEAR HIM AND HIS DEDUCTION SKILLS.]

Plus, you called me nii. You might have used.....whatever is the proper form for younger brothers if that was the case. To be cheeky.

… [ Gives him an odd glance. ] I was nineteen when I left Kyriakos.

[ But she snorts, and after one last ruffle—FOR GOOD MEASURE and because she can, she can do this thing, she can do it—drops her hand back to her side. ]

I could call you Puma-kun, but that's too distant. Puma-chan, on the other hand … [ No, that just sounds weird. ] Unless you really like sounding like a little girl, try not to tempt me.

....were you really that old? I thought you were barely eighteen, if that.

Oh good god, no, not Puma-chan.

Somewhere around that, yeah. [ Clucks her tongue. ] The amnesia makes it hard to tell for sure, but I know that between the jungle and Kyriakos, I was away from home for years. [ And she remembers having her seventeenth birthday at home. ]

Which makes me ... [ mid-thirties. SOME NUMBER IN THE EARLY/MID-THIRTIES. ]

[ She lets the Puma-chan drop for now. For now. ]

...well, still. Eighteen was if I was really talented. I was probably closer to twenty.

[ … or maybe she won't drop it ]

Whatever you say, Puma-chan.

[ It's easier to see the girl she used to be when she smiles like this. It's … also easier to see how much she's grown and changed since then, of course, but at least some things were never truly lost. ]

[Oh my god.]

[He's gonna reach up and REALLY RUFFLE HER HAIR in revenge.]

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