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]

"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.

[brave_heart_verity]

"Okay." That's an easy rule to follow. She doesn't much like talking about it anyway. "I'm sorry if the information is dangerous. I hadn't considered that it might give people ideas." She really hadn't thought about the blueprints for planet-busting weapons mixed in with the other research. It's a ton of data, too much for one human to process alone in the course of a few emotional days.

"Thank you for helping. I hope you can find something useful for your own world in this too. Or. I'll find some way to repay you." Even if they don't ask. She's determined to do something useful for someone somewhere.

[rekindledtitan]

"You couldn't know," Hirune reassures her. "So much knowledge seems harmless until you fit it into just the right context."

The Warlock seems to focus properly on the present, drawing her attention from the data to Verity. She speaks evenly, her voice growing firmer as she goes on. "It will take us some time to go through all of this, to understand it in relation to our studies. But I believe we can help one another. We study the reshaping of reality, the ways in which timelines can be brought together, crossed over, chosen elements taken from one to the other... and how the Vex control this, with the weapons they create in the Vault of Glass. Learning to restore what has been shattered on your Earth will save us both."

She deliberately doesn't use the word 'if'.

"Good!" Blaze jumps to the next question. "Can you guess how soon?"

"I- not yet. All the data you've given us will help immensely, but we won't be able to even guess how much work lies ahead until we've analyzed what we have."

[brave_heart_verity]

She gives a slow nod, reassured by the certainty. It's not an empty promise. Something good will come of this, and Verity can hold onto that. It makes a lot of things seem more worthwhile. Anything to keep the final act of her home from being one of desperation and evil.

"Don't rush on my account. Even though. I know two people from other worlds like mine, worlds that are likely to be caught up in this, but they're from several years in my past. It'll help them to know what's coming before the situation is irreversible." It'll help someone, and that might be all they can do.

[rekindledtitan]

"Isn't that a fine thing to have on our side for once?" Ulysses muses. "Never fear, we won't waste time. We can't promise not to lose it, though. Bringing knowledge out of the Vault is a feat in itself."

"Oh, then we have some telemetry of a run-in with the oracles that might help," Blaze remarks casually, shrugging when the other Exo gives her a suspicious look. He leans forward as her Ghost relays that data to the display, optics flaring brightly.

"Impossible!" But plainly it's not, and Blaze gives a satisfied chuckle at the startled look he shoots her.

"Is there any more vital information you might wish to share with us?" Hirune asks the three of them with bemusement.

[brave_heart_verity]

Verity is very much out of her depth now, so she sits back to watch with as much bemusement in her expression as in the one Hirune is wearing.

"Not me. I gave you what I have and I am hopelessly lost at this point."

But... "I have shared this with other people--not people from here, but other people. If they find anything, do you want a copy?"

[rekindledtitan]

"Certainly." Hirune inclines her head, masking the curious look in her eyes. "Everything you find - just as we will share our findings."

She glances at Blaze questioningly, and the Titan shrugs cheerfully. "That's all I've got."

"Working on a joint project with mysterious strangers from other timelines," Ulysses muses. "If the signs weren't right, I'd laugh you out of the Tower."

Hirune sighs. "I think perhaps we should begin our work. We will need to speak with you again, Verity. Perhaps quite soon."

[brave_heart_verity]

"Sounds like a good plan." Maybe they can all help each other. Who would ever have thought Verity would be a mediator between worlds like this? Her mother might actually laugh herself to death at the idea.

She doesn't get signs and portents, but whatever works for them. It's clearly working for Ulysses--or not working against him at least. He can have them.

Hirune gets a nod, though she wonders what kinds of questions they might have. "I don't know what our plans are after this, but... I'm sure we can work out some way for you to contact me?" Do they have cell phones?

[rekindledtitan]

Hirune doesn't know either, yet. But part of her being the team leader is having the foresight to make time for these things. Once they've studied the data, they may have all kinds of questions. Some might even be related to the problem at hand.

"If you have a comms device of some sort, I'm sure our Ghosts can open a channel between them. However, if you're in another timeline..."

"There are gadgets that'll relay comm channels," Blaze says easily. "Not a problem."

[brave_heart_verity]

"Nexus phone," she explains, holding hers up and rattling off the number. Best investment ever. "So you can call me whenever you have questions."

She'll just hope that doesn't wake her up. She's very grumpy when she's woken up unexpectedly and it might not make a great impression.

"We should let you work." Significant look to Blaze. Time to go now, they've been dismissed.

[rekindledtitan]

"Got it," Ulysses says promptly. Hirune bows.

"Until our next meeting. I wish you luck out there."

"Don't get lost," Ulysses agrees, pretending not to eye them speculatively.

"Likewise." Blaze stands, gives the pair a quick salute. Her Ghost detaches itself from conferring with its brethren and returns to her side. Visiting the Warlocks' lair is interesting, but she has no objection to being off. Anyway, it looks about what she'd expect - a place to fix weapons and do weird calculations of sacred geometry without too many people getting in the way. Unless those doors lead somewhere interesting. Who knows?

She's already considering where to go next as they head out. "That's that taken care of. So, what sounds good - check out the gardens? Find some music? A lounge where people aren't bragging too much?"

All of the above may contain or include dancing, so it doesn't occur to her to specify that. She's pretty much winging this 'nonviolently entertaining guests' thing.

[brave_heart_verity]

"Good luck to you too."

The doors probably hide all kinds of cool stuff and fun places. That's what doors do. But there's something to be said for leaving some mysteries for the next time around. Namely, if they go snooping right now, they might piss the Warlocks off and lose their help.

"All of that sounds good," she admits. "I do wonder what music sounds like here. I'd imagine it's quite different than what I'm used to." And she loves music, so she's enthusiastic about the idea. A far cry from her usual cynical detachment, but then, she hasn't been so detached lately.

[rekindledtitan]

Okay, good, so she's onto a winning tactic with that one! Blaze mentally refines their route to focus on 'places she's heard music around', although for now they're just heading back toward the lift.

"Interesting question. There's a lot of classical stuff played here, especially on the jukeboxes. You know, all the way back to the twentieth century. Guess it's not surprising if we Guardians have old-fashioned tastes, huh? But the newer stuff from the City sounds pretty good too. You can dance to it, you know?"

This is the primary criterion. Blaze doesn't know enough to discuss how the music of the City includes and reworks numerous traditions much older than the twentieth century, harking back to the myths and carefully-protected treasures of antiquity as often as they experiment. Successfully preserving their heritage is a symbol in itself, to these people.

But Verity will soon discover that 'classical' covers pretty much anything from the twentieth to the twenty-second centuries, because City Age people are roughly as discerning when it comes to their ancestors' genres as twentieth-century people are of theirs.

https://youtu.be/ZyyybBfNHfE

[brave_heart_verity]

Verity can't hide her smirk, but she nods enthusiastically to the idea of dancing to it. "Yeah, I can dance to it really well. I was born in the twentieth century."

She's not sure if she should be feeling old or amused, so she's going with some of each. It's not a surprise that things she grew up with are going to be treasured classical artifacts here, she expected this intellectually. It's still something of a blow to the feels, though.

"If you like to dance, I might be able to teach you a thing or two about the classical dances invented to go with these songs."

I am so happy that link was exactly what I hoped it was :D

[rekindledtitan]

"You'll be in good company. Probably some Guardians were too." If it makes Verity feel any better, a lot of the 'old-time' music around here is to help the resurrected ancients feel at home. ...Okay, maybe that's not comforting.

"Yeah? That sounds great!" Her enthusiasm is immediate. New dances to try out on precarious points in the wilderness! And in front of enemy artillery! "Okay, so we get outside and follow our audios. Or ears, in your case."