The Prometheans' world. The high towers of Vr'nigh School.
"You believe this will be enough?"
"With each one containing a three person guest allowance? I think a hundred and fifty is excessive, myself." Dawn said, as she closed the box and placed it on the table in front of their mutual guest: the odd ghost with the most (time), Jumpropeman.
"My thanks for delivering the invitations, Time Spirit. I do not know if there is a boon I could grant you..." Evangelina "Angie" Stavros said.
The small blue ghost
rubbed the back of his head, doing his best to approximate a humble
headscratch with neither the fingers nor scalp to do one, his little hat
bouncing around from the act only making it all the more harder to
parse the meaning of the motion. "Eh... You ever thought about signing
up for a fite? I’m rather simple to please really. Letting me do the
time travel saves me a ton of work, I only have to account for the paper
I brought through time... and well, the confetti and other crap you
didn’t ask me to bring. The art of the singing telegram shall not die
out on my watch!"
"I will see what I can do."
"Also, I think that might embarrass Paul. However, from what I have learned from my interactions with her, I think Laura would go for it." Dawn said. "But we didn't bring you here just to serve as a glorified mailman, Jumpropeman. There is something else."
"What?...Oh. Is it the scattershot arrival last year?" Angie said.
"Yes. Your methods and mother's...did not intersect well. You ended up in our realm weeks before you actually recruited her. And I can only venture what that did to the timeline, showing up before you were even summoned."
"Nothing pretty I can
tell ya, but Tut-Tut and I have swept up most everything but the crumbs.
If we hadn’t, things would look a lot more cracked next time you visit
Vegas. Time travel is about making the world agree with itself, and
sometimes the world gets pissy if a rock in Tacoma a second ago is now
vacationing in Peru. Plus you cats came in from another universe as
well. If any of you kids took Chemistry, you know that despite being
pretty boring, it also recommends you don’t mix volatile things. Like
Time Travel and Universe Travel. The world would be even angrier at that
layabout rock if it dropped in from an entirely different existence to
start with."
"...My apologies. The situation was...urgent." Angie said.
"There is something else. Jumpropeman, do you know anything about DNA?"
Jumpropeman’s normally
goofy grin contorted into something between a confident smirk and an
offended slant, the kind of face one might make if looking at a cute
baby of an unidentified species, "Chemistry was a yawn but I did pay
attention in Biology. Millions of years have made me rusty on all the
details and being a ghost has made me care less, but I still know it
wasn’t normal genetics that made Marina’s hair blue but it did give her
her mother’s eyes...Don’t know if mentioning superhero genetics proves I know more or less about DNA than you expected."
"I have some knowledge myself."
"Right then. Actual DNA isn't important, it's just an allegory. Now, to simplify this..."
Dawn brought out the holograms, manifesting a wide variety of blue orbs.
"These are our 'worlds' for simplification. And this, running between them, nourishing them with the higher essences...is the Bleed, which mother travels through. The Bleed is dangerous, but in a rough seas sense. With a good boat and a good captain, you can still sail. However...within some corners of the Bleed...is this."
Dark lines sprouted from the red lines twining around all the orbs. Not many, but enough.
"This is the Todash Darkness. Here's where my DNA reference comes in. If the Bleed is the lifeblood of the DNA of existence...then the Todash is the sealed off paths that progress didn't go down. It's much more complicated than that, of course, but...well, the Todash Darkness is off the end of every map. Here there be monsters."
"...I see. But your point?"
"Jumpropeman, you're familiar with the grandfather terresect obliteration, correct? What happens if someone alters the past and it doesn't create a new timeline? The old timeline has to go SOMEWHERE...and mother's studies have shown that if it goes anywhere we can measure, it's the Todash Darkness."
The spirit’s mouth was
now twisted into a more definitive frown, as if that undefined baby of
earlier mention proved to be quite lethal. "Ugh, the Bleed. A perfect
name for a place that only causes pain. Another tick against the whole
time/universe travel at the same time idea." Jumpropeman’s face lifted a
tad as he actually took the time to observe the orb, neutrality of
expression restored as curiosity became the dominant emotion. "This
Todash stuff is technically not my domain... and kinda is at the same
time. When I clean the timeline I'm specifically trying to avoid making
timeline splits like that. I connect and cut the old and new timelines
rather than dumping one in a place that will only cause more trouble. So... this is the part where you tell me you want to fuck with it, or it is already fucking with us, right?"
"Language. Sir." Angie said, the teacher coming out.
"My apologies. So who is doing the fricka-fracka-freaking, it or you?"
"Actually, no, Jumpropeman. Well, at least that is the hypothesis. Mother only really figured out the Todash in the last two years; she's suspects it's where that memory devourer came from. And Cocytus, a minor issue you and yours had back in the bar's first year." Dawn said. "There's really no purpose going into it. It's beyond dangerous, and there's no benefit. It's a mess of never should bes and broken discarded hateful wannabes."
"You say creatures came out of it?"
"Yes, but to be fair, that was technically mother's fault, which we will discuss later. I have studied some...incidents where planes like ours has had a spot wear thin and the Todash had started pushing through. An incident in Brighton, Maine...another in a hotel in New York City...but that's another story. Here is my point. The Todash is, among other things, broken possibility. So, if you travel through the Bleed, you're end up in a different place and roughly the same time. But if you brush against the Todash..."
"Then it's a different place AND time."
"We've actually had several incidents in your past that I believe are connected to it, Jumpropeman. Your jobs spiked when Zephyrus was looking for mother, and the next year when that stranger showed up at the bar, that old man remember? That was because mother was fleeing another threat and wasn't watching where she was going, and in her wake was...a mess, no other way to put it. Carol's travel to our plane MIGHT be another...but in any case, it's the same issue. Travel through Bleed, dip or touch the Darkness, and you end up dropping into your exit area in the wrong time, probably hitting the fabric of reality like a car crash. Madame Stavros, you're a magician, you fiddle with reality, and you've worked on your own method of Bleed travel...and yours, I'm afraid, pinpongs against the Darkness far more than mother's."
"So what, are you trying
to blame me for the Todash acting up when I’m one of the few people
trying to hold reality together? If you haven’t noticed Zoofights and
its related stuff made our universe a mess, it’s a marvel it’s held
together at all. If I wasn’t in the background fixing stuff... Nah nah
nah, now ain’t the time for a rant. I figure you have a point or some
suggestion on how we can avoid this or shut the Todash up. The Blame
Game is fun, but you guys rarely pull people aside just to do it · .
You’ve always got something cooking."
"Oh no, Jumpropeman. This is you having to clean up other people's messes."
"So I assume you don't want me and my fellows using our methods to dimension jump." Angie said.
"I would really recommend against it. Not just because it leads to time issues. As said...it's not good for the Todash to leak. I've done some studies, and I'm pretty sure I've identified one plane where it does constantly. It's the Warp."
"Oh yeah... of course!
I’m not a magician, and I’d never try to figure out Bleed travel..."
Jumpropeman laughed nervously, but he made sure his admission was under
the current conversation. These folks loved to talk, and they’d be
listening more to their words until they needed some feedback from him.
By the time the Warp was mentioned, his nervousness switched back to a
more cool and detached expression. "The Warp? I know a few other
hellholes if we’re going to get them all involved. Certainly does
explain a lot though. I suppose nukes won’t clean out the Todash
infection like it did our other problems, huh? What my role gonna be
here · ?"
"Just letting you know the source of a problem and pinching it off where I can, so you can do likewise if more such incidents come your way. I mean, it helps if you know a source, does it not, Fleming?"
Jumpropeman stared.
"...Your name is not Fleming, is it."
"Nope!"
"Springtrap got me again."
"I am a fan of Bond though, after all I hired the guy once upon a time! Although if my real name was Ian
I certainly wouldn’t be grinning all the time. Anyway, proceed. I’ll
stop asking my part in this play and assuming I’m the center of
attention every five seconds now."
"Simple information granting, which I felt would work better if you came along instead of me shuttling back and forth between this realm and ours. Plus you are the best person I know to hand out wedding invitations. So unless you want to raise your own issue and study magic, the heavy stuff is done."
"Unfortunately, its a
bit hard to do magic without any sleeves. Thankee kindly for the
information and the respect." The ghost dips slightly forward, bowing
without a bend of the waist. He could bend forward for a proper bow, but
levitation breeds laziness in most ghosts.
"Of course, sir. I shall endeavor to not complicate your job further." Angie said.
"Now can you get your mom to do that too, Hypotenuse?"
"I don't think even the whole bar could work that miracle, Jumpropeman."
---
"...May I ask you something?"
"Yes." Dawn said. Jumpropeman had gone back to their dimension, Dawn staying behind to track his progress and make sure her data lined up. She didn't want to end up making the issue worse, and the issue with Bleed travel was that new balls were constantly in the air. Dawn suspected that if her mother didn't have her mutated layered brain, she wouldn't have been able to handle it. There but for the grace of any god you wish to invoke...
"I wrote down my process. Can you study it, see if it's understandable and in any way improveable?"
"...It IS good to have emergency options. Mother was inordinately fond of them. Too much so, I think. I was studying her security issues, I think part of them might have been the same programming conflicts that downed me in my first Brawl entry...she overdoes it and the programs contradict each other and leave holes that people purposely or accidentally exploited..." Dawn said, mostly thinking out loud as she took the offered book and began trying to match the language of Thaumaturgy with what she knew about quantum, chronal, and dimensional matters. Not wanting to bother Angie, she began to walk as she read, absorbed in the book.
",..There might be possible modifications, but I am unsure if I can translate it properly into your 'language' unless I stay to learn it, or vice versa. And at the moment I am under something of a time crunch." The Keres will stay away another two months at most. I need to make sure the seal's secure and then deal with whatever comes out through its filter. My children also need tending to, and I have to speak to father and get data on my tornado generator idea...
In her thought, Dawn looked up at the massive painting in front of her. How she hadn't noticed the size of the wall was a mystery. Maybe it was a perspective trick, or a space folding one that worked similarly to the one her mother had on her TARDIS machine. There were more than a few familar faces on it, Angie being one front and center. There was Ash, Christine, Paul, Victoria...all the Prometheans, and numerous other people.
"The 44?"
"More or less. It's not the Sistine Chapel, but it's still lovely."
"It should be on display."
"Unfortunately, there's magic in it. Anywhere else the pictures might break down. Here, it can be modified. Watch." Angie said, swiping her hand across it. The image around Ash and Christine shifted, showing an alternate pose where they were kneeling with Beck.
"Ah yes. Ash invited him into the group."
"He's not the only one who's done that. The 44 is basically an artifact title. No longer literal." Angie said, waving her hand around to show other places where the picture altered. "This way, new faces can be added where they belong..."
Angie waved her hand at the edge of the photo, the tone shifting to dark. Angie frowned and waved it back, replacing the figure with the original pictures, the briefly-revealed form now in shadow.
"Issue with the magic?"
"Unfortunately no." Angie said. Dawn waved her own hand, altering the picture back. Angie did not protest, instead turning away.
"Bad memories?"
"Problem child." Angie said. "The people who went to face Xaxargas, we'd like to call them our best and brightest...but in truth, a more accurate descriptor would be strongest and most likely to get the job done, any other factors be damned. They deserve the same honors that Ash and I and the rest receive, but..."
"You don't exactly want to hang around with them."
"Very much no."
"May I ask what they did?"
So Angie told her.
----
"It’s a long story, but one you’ve never heard before. This story is
about a place that dwells on the mountain; a place where bad things
happen. And you may think you know about the bad things, you may decide
you have it all figured out but you don’t. Because the truth is worse
than monsters or men...."
Dawn turned the recording off. Her computer was doing all the hard work, leaving her to sit and think. Sine had once called the Kobbers the doctors of this plane, the immune system summoned when extraordinary circumstances had fudged it all up...
How did that line from the man who spawned the oath go? First, do no harm. Or more specifically, "Whenever a doctor cannot do good, he must be kept from doing harm."
...But there was something else that man had said.
"Extreme remedies are very appropriate for extreme diseases."
