Excerpt 002: Traveler's Rest

[rekindledtitan]

TYPE: Personal log

LOCATION: The Last City, Earth

PARTIES: Three [3]. One [1] Ghost-type, [1] Guardian-type, designate Blaze-37, Class Titan [rekindledtitan ], One [1] Unconfirmed, designate Willis, Verity [brave_heart_verity ]; [other parties redacted]


ASSOCIATIONS: Multiversal Nexus; Verity Willis; Earth; The City; Vanguard; Blaze-37; Glass-smiths


An Exo ought to be good at waiting. They're soldier and machine both, trained for stoicism and designed for tireless analysis. Blaze sometimes thinks she’s the only one built who ever gets bored. (Aside from Cayde, maybe, and he makes it sound like he's had a very long time to learn.)

Her patrol concluded without much incident, she paces back to the Forum, guns still dozing at her back and her Ghost zipping curiously from one side to the other ahead of her. It murmurs its observations to her in passing, and she responds gladly. A fight would be better, but she’ll take the idle chatter. Her memory is brimming with new half-processed data, even from one patrol in the Nexus – odd discussions heard and alien kitchens smelt, the weird spiky grass in the park crunching under her boots, so many- one hundred and forty-three new faces since the last trip, ninety-one human by visual-

But she isn’t one for dwelling on things. So she circles the Forum to take in the sights, cutting her route through the spot where she and Verity last spoke to make sure of spotting her friend.

Comments

[rekindledtitan]

She did warn them. It's just a bit unexpected when someone remarks on things you can't see - but nothing to be troubled by, at least to Blaze.

"Ah, don't encourage them too much." Blaze presses the pad by the door, producing a soft chime. "Besides, if we ask a Titan we'll get to understand the story." There will also be about five hundred percent more punching in it.

There's a robed woman at the door when it opens, a tablet in her hand and a Ghost peeking over her shoulder. Blaze lifts a hand in greeting. "Hi. Blaze-37 and Verity Willis. We're looking for the Glass-smiths. Hirune Markel's team."

"Ah- well, that's easy-" The Warlock's eyes take in Verity as she lists off a short string of directions. There are two machines in the group: she can count on at least one of them having a reliable memory. "Just... knock before you go in."

[brave_heart_verity]

"I'll be careful." Stories with punching in. Where has she heard that before... right. Asgardians. But it's a type of story she can understand and that's not a bad thing.

Verity turns to the door when it opens and gives the woman and her Ghost polite smiles. She mouths the directions to herself after they've been relayed; maybe her memory isn't so unreliable, lady. The sight of another Ghost does bring to mind a question for when there's another private moment with her friends.

[rekindledtitan]

It's definitely not a coincidence that Norse myth tends to influence Titan iconography in particular. But they're pretty fond of legendary warriors in general.

"Thanks for the help." Blaze gives her comrade a nod, and off they go into the halls of the Warlocks. There are a few others about, and not all of them are space magicians, but the colorful robes are the ones most in evidence. The architecture is simple, but not overly harsh; the floor is tiled quite prettily in simple patterns of grey and blue. Carpets tend to meet bad ends in the Tower. Blaze gives it all a curious but brief look, focused on finding the side passage they're supposed to turn down. Her Ghost pays more attention to the doors and people they pass.

"So about this team," she remarks, once there aren't too many people about. Not because she's thinking of being overheard, it's just easier to talk. "Figure I oughta fill you in a bit."

[brave_heart_verity]

Yet another reason they're friends: they both love (some portion of) the Norse gods, and neither of them drink mead.

She's paying a little bit of attention to everything. There's just so much to see. But finding the path is primary. It's good there are lots of different kinds of people around. Being over insular wouldn't be good for anyone, especially not in a place like this.

"Okay. I'm guessing they don't actually make glass?"

[rekindledtitan]

It's a pretty specialized club but they have great drinking games.

"Not that I know. There's this place on Venus called the Vault of Glass. It's a place where realities - all realities, all possible timelines - come so close they touch. Heh. Sound familiar? They say the Vex who created it can use that, control the boundaries somehow. Even rewrite the fabric of reality to suit them."

[brave_heart_verity]

Drinking games where nobody wastes all the honey because seriously, mead is gross.

"Huh. I wonder how many places like that exist?" Are there other Nexuses(Nexi?)? Are they all one big one? She wouldn't know how to even begin to find out. "That sounds dangerous. But I suppose the ones who get to use it know what they're doing."

[rekindledtitan]

"No idea. I mean, if the Vex can create one, who's to say how many other species ever figured it out. Across all of time and space? In every universe?" She shakes her head. Let's not even contemplate what it means if the Vex in one reality are aware of/synonymous with the Vex of all the others.

"It's incredibly dangerous, though. At least for intruders. The Vex use it to create weapons that can restructure reality - write the target out of it so that they never existed. And there's certainly no field that prevents violence. Anyway, these guys study the Vault and the data recovered from it. They're supposed to be experts on it- some of the best you can actually track down."

[brave_heart_verity]

"But are they all different, or are they parts of a greater whole?" Which has its own dangers. Dangers they've both witnessed.

"So... you're hoping they might know a little something about multiversal collapse?"

[rekindledtitan]

"Good question. For what it's worth, we've never detected the Darkness' influence in the Nexus. But the way geography works in a space like that, best to stay sharp." Which is to say, she has no idea how the geography works, or what 'distance' might hide creatures of Darkness and Light from one another.

"Exactly. If anyone here can find a way to set the bounds of reality straight, it ought to be them." How else to fight enemies who break those borders?

[brave_heart_verity]

"Yeah. There's no telling what will show up next." More demons or AIM or a vegan Loki. Oh gods. It could be terrible. Hopefully, it'll be cute, like Pikachu or the chao.

"That makes sense, and would be really helpful," she admits. But she's trying not to get her hopes up. That seems unwise. "I hope we're not bothering them."

[rekindledtitan]

"Hmm. It'd be nice if all the Guardians who ever got lost in the Vault just wound up in the Nexus. But I'll settle for friendly aliens. Those are great." That's one novelty she delights in, as much as getting to glimpse so many human cultures and experiences.

"Bothering them? We've got all this impossible data for them, and an urgent mission for the good of humankind. This is the stuff they live for!"

[brave_heart_verity]

"Maybe they will. And if they do, we know where to send them. But it would be nice to meet more friendly people, I agree." She finds humans alien enough half the time. People with fur or antennae don't much faze her.

She smiles in relief at that. Being interesting to other people is one of so many things she's still getting used to. "Oh? Well then. Let's not keep them waiting."

[rekindledtitan]

But antennae are totally cool, Verity. And the stranger the forms they wear, the more distracting interesting they are.

Blaze doesn't really get those kind of nerves much, but she kind of gets that Verity's more shy than she is. She gives a firm nod and zeroes in on a door not far ahead. "It's got to be this one." The instructions said so!

She remembers her manners: she hits the door chime and gives a heavy knock for good measure. It's meant to be brisk, even if it sounds a little impatient. She gives it a few seconds, and hearing no sound, knocks again. This time it's opened by a pale woman, dark brown hair bound and pinned up neatly, her robes purple-blue and sharply cut. She has a rather gentle looking face, but right now it's creased in a hard frown.

"Yes, yes, you don't need to- oh." She looks Blaze up and down, expression easing as she blinks. "You must be the Titan. And... contact?" She gives Verity a puzzled look. "You're early."

"We are?" Now Blaze is puzzled, looking at her Ghost and shrugging. There's laughter from inside - a male voice, faintly electronic? "Well, we're here now. I'm Blaze-37, this is Verity Willis. She's a friend of ours. You're Fireteam Glassforge?"

The Warlock lifts a hand, waving almost sheepishly. "Of course. I am Hirune Markel. Come in, and welcome."

[brave_heart_verity]

Antennae are totally cool, and distracting, but she tries not to make people uncomfortable about their appearances. A world full of mutants has taught her some particular matters. "I hope so."

The Warlock gets a smile when the door is answered. Her gaze flicks behind the woman briefly, wondering about the laughter. "Thank you for agreeing to see us." She didn't realize they had an appointment. Or that they'd managed to be early. Maybe it's someone's idea of a joke?

"Call me Verity, please."

[rekindledtitan]

"Hirune, then." Her smile is returned, the Warlock seeming to recover her manners. She shows them inside a large room, bare enough to suggest it's a lab or workroom of sorts. There are a couple of other doors but no windows; crates stacked high in one corner beside a heap of cushions, a wall of machines that look set up to contain and examine samples. Next to a rack where rest various guns is a desk piled with books.

The center of the room is taken up by a broad table, currently projecting a hologram of a bizarre, tangled structure whose components fade in and out arrythmically. There's another Warlock standing over it, an Exo with a bronze and blue paintjob. Hirune gestures to him and the pair of hovering Ghosts as he bends to switch off the display.

"I apologize if I seemed... surprised at your arrival. We, um, lose track of time quite easily. This is Ulysses-10, one of my team-mates."

"Hello." He tips a salute to them, eliciting one from Blaze in turn. Hirune's already pulling more chairs over to the table, snatching cushions from atop the crates to pile up on the seat she offers Verity. "I have to say, I am all kinds of curious about you two. Three." He's not discounting you, little Ghost. He can see you there, hiding in your Titan's shadow.

[brave_heart_verity]

"Thank you." It's certainly an interesting space. Guns, books, machines that go ding when there's stuff... she chalks the lack of windows up to being too far inside the tower to allow for that sort of thing. She's not thinking about it much anyway, because that hologram is fascinating.

"It's okay. I didn't know we were expected, so, surprises all around I guess." Awkward jokes are the best jokes in these situations, right?

The Exo gets a smile from Verity. "Hello. So... do I want to know what you've heard?" She definitely wants to know what they've heard and what they're expecting from her. She can only breathe metaphorical fire, in the form of swearing and sasstalk.

[rekindledtitan]

Ulysses chuckles again. "It's more about what I haven't heard. According to your friend's Ghost, you have some data for us. Data for people who study one very special place in all the universe - all the universes. You're not a Guardian, there's no record of you in the City, and either you've never been here before or you've been away for a very long time. And after all that, well..."

Rather than clarify the thought, he shifts his attention to Blaze. She's giving him a very hard look. "Then there's you. A novice Titan. Still alive despite all expectations. You've never done business with the factions - real business, you know what I mean - no loyalty to anyone but the Vanguard. No interest in mysteries you can't beat into submission, I'm guessing. You've never been into the Vault. So what could either of you know about things that interest us? More importantly, how can you possibly know it?"

While he's talking, Hirune's been quietly arranging chairs (with cushions for the non-Titans), making sure everyone has a comfortable seat around the table while also watching their faces. Blaze snorts at the end of the other Exo's speech. "That's all? Whole lot of talking to ask something we're already here to tell you."

"What's your connection with the War Cult?" Hirune asks, straight to Verity.

[brave_heart_verity]

That's a lot to take in. By her expression, some of those things that sound insulting to Blaze don't sit well with her. But she'll sit down and wait until the question is posed to her.

"I have no idea what that is. I'm not from here, as you guessed. I'm from another part of the multiverse. The section of the multiverse that includes my home is starting to collapse. I've brought all the data I could find about what's happening because Blaze offered to help me try to find... something useful. Maybe a way to save my world. Maybe a way to save others." She sighs and looks down at her hands. "She told me you're experts in this kind of thing."

[rekindledtitan]

Blaze is less annoyed by the Warlock's mild trash talk than what she perceives as a pointless attempt to rattle them. That's rude, especially to a civilian visitor. And why would his friend even bring up the War Cult? Pah. Luckily Verity's revelation seems to have stopped them cold. She's quick to follow up.

"No politics. No dancing around the questions," Blaze says firmly, making it both a promise and a ground rule. She sits back, folding her arms with a clank. "Just a threat to Earth and a problem that needs a Warlock's eye. Are you with us or not?"

Hirune nods immediately, if slowly, still looking at Verity with wide eyes. "But how did you... there's a stable crossing point, isn't there? How did you breach it?"

"Hive magic," Blaze answers shortly, and chuckles at the grimaces they pull. "But that's a whole other story."

"All right," says Ulysses. He seems to have sobered. "Then let's start by defining 'multiversal collapse'."

[brave_heart_verity]

She's not sure what Hive magic is either, but, now doesn't seem the time to ask. "We-ell, from what I can understand of the data, something happened to weaken the barriers between universes. And they've been... sort of lined up to send Earths crashing into each other when the barriers fail. And that collision seems to be the end of everything for those universes."

It's not pleasant to talk about, so she'll stop there and wait for Blaze to hand over one of the thumb drives. "I guess the old-school Catholics were right, we really are the center of everything."

[rekindledtitan]

"A crux, certainly," Hirune agrees, despite looking uncertain as to what a Catholic is. Blaze has handed her Ghost the drive to feed into their system; in a couple of seconds the data is spilling out in projection, popping up reports and figures as the lead Warlock extracts and converts and rearranges them for readability. Fortunately they've refined the automatic features such that the language and unit drift is corrected for nearly automatically. The Warlocks' two Ghosts swoop in to help, scanning and pulling apart sections of data.

"So- remove the linchpin, collapse the probability space?" Ulysses is speculating as he eyeballs the numbers (despite having green lights for eyeballs). "Multiple outcomes trying to exist simultaneously or just trying to occupy the same physical space? That would be weird." ...And disturbing. That would also be a good word for it.

"Data first, my friend." Hirune's looking more absorbed and more concerned the deeper she gets.

[brave_heart_verity]

Sometimes it's better not to know.

Verity watches the familiar data pop up, trying to focus on the Warlocks more than the numbers. The numbers don't hold any good news. "The same physical space. The different Earths literally crash into each other, unless something is done to destroy one of them first." Survive only by committing genocide, and hope that nobody ever gets the drop on you. What a way to live.

The data is... weird. The Beyonders wanted to do a science experiment: destroy all the Earths in the multiverse at once, to see what happens. People objected. Dr. Doom time traveled to try and prevent that particular experiment and caused the Incursions instead. People objected to that, too. Planet-destroying weapons were built and used. Cults were started. Pieces of destroyed Earths were cobbled together to form a new world. A raft for the "best and brightest" was built to try and get them to that new patchwork Earth.

It's not really the best example of what her particular Earth has to offer.

[rekindledtitan]

"Unless... I'm so sorry," Hirune murmurs sincerely, staring into the numbers. They're no strangers to visions of death and shadow, but every snuffed light is worth mourning. She reaches out to catch that report on the patchwork world and draws it close for somber study. "...All of you. Dead Orbit must not see this."

"Fine," Blaze agrees, leaning over the table to peer at what she's reading. One might wonder if a robot really needs to do that. "I said no politics. Why though?"

"Never mind them," Ulysses says dismissively. He's watching the graphs and numbers fall into place with fascination. "The Darkness mustn't see this." He lifts his head, optics tracking the record of incursions. "...I know this logic. Not from the Vex. It's... Mechanistic solutions may not be enough. Necessary, though."

[brave_heart_verity]

"Thank you."

She looks down, grinding her thumb hard into her palm in a well-worn path. "I won't tell them, but I don't know who those people are. Should... should I just assume I don't tell anyone outside this room?"

[rekindledtitan]

Hirune seems to remember who she's talking to and drops her eyes to Verity, speaking gently. "That would be best, yes."

"Except the Vanguard," Blaze adds. "They're trustworthy."

"Should I assume they've already been given this information?"

"Yep." Blaze looks between the two Warlocks, trying to get a feel for how they're responding. "So- you think you can help us?"

"We're here for no higher purpose," Hirune replies serenely.