❧ Flashback

[luministimods]

[After getting dug out, Nathan makes his way over to the general store, limping as he walks. He looks quite the sight with cuts, scrapes, and gashes all over his body (the worst of it is on his legs), and his suit is scorched, tattered, and just plain non-existent around his calves. He's even missing a shoe and looks a bit thinner than he was the last time he was there. But for a man who was crushed under so much debris, he doesn't seem in pain or anything; just inconvenienced.

Once he's inside the general store, he walks over to the vid screen, activating it so he can contact everyone's CAT devices and all of the other vidscreens around town. When he speaks, he doesn't sound strained, not like he has in any of his other appearances in the town and spacestation.]

I hope everyone can hear me and none of you were caught in that blast. I'm sorry it even happened, but--[He falls silent, his eyebrows knitting in concern.] There is much I need to tell you now that I'm here.

Please, meet me in the White Rabbit pub in half an hour. All of you. It's time you had some answers.

[The video transmission ends.]


Plot Details: Flashback

That was a close one! But thankfully, Nathan was found! Good job! Not only that, though, but something else was too. This is Nathan's CAT and it revealed a very, very interesting fact to Sophie and Fuu.

Yep, that is indeed the man in black. It's taken him a couple years to finally show himself--or rather, accidentally get recorded.

But you know what? Instead of me just sitting here explaining things, I am going to let Nathan do that for me. No doubt once everyone hears the transmission from him--and when they hear everything Sophie and Fuu have learned--they'll probably have questions. So! What a better way to discuss things than over dinner? The pub is unharmed, and Nathan is starving, and no doubt some people may need a drink or two.

All action and stuff will, again, happen in this entry. I'll make a starting comment with Nathan and we can go from there. This is kind of like a mingle/party post, so if people want private conversations with each other, you can make threads in this entry. In Nathan's thread, everything he says can be overheard, so people can bring things up again to him or threadhop, whichever works best. (Just in case, I would recommend tracking your threads if this does happen.) Also, if your character wants a private conversation with him, definitely say so in the subject heading! (And if your character wants a conversation with Ten or Wash, please say so too.)

What else... Oh yes! Those who lost powers should have them back in full now, and those gained them, well, you're back to normal. Balance is restored and all that. As for the town itself, the townspeople have started to clean things up. Oddly, things haven't been reset yet as they have when odd things happen. By the way, if people want to continue their other threads from the previous entry, you are more than welcome to do so! There just won't be any more searches for Nathan.

This plot will only last a week, so don't waste any time in getting to asking him questions! The sooner you ask, the more you can find out. When a week has passed (so until Tuesday evening), unfortunately, I won't be continuing those threads.

If you have any questions/concerns/etc, I'm making an OOC comment in here so everyone can use that! Or ping me through the usual channels~

Comments

[luministimods]

[He's quite surprised by that display, Ichijou, but on a small level, he's actually touched.] It was stolen from me, yes, but I was able to steal it back today, plain and simple.

I'm sorry I worried you, Ichijou. I...was made very much aware of your attempts to contact me, and really, if it weren't for your persistence, he might not have replied at all.

[manicurious]

Yes, well, it was the only potentially useful course of action I could think to take at the time. That, and Proctor instructed me to continue my attempts before--

[He sighs deeply, pouring himself a generous glass of wine. He figures he's going to need every drop of it to get through this discussion.]

You know. You were there. And after all the talk I got about Proctor "knowing too much," I figured that surely you also must've known too much. Though I suppose you must also be quite a bit more resilient than Proctor, considering you've just had a building explode all over you.

Which I'm quite annoyed with, by the way. Not the fact that you're alright - obviously I'm relieved and confused by that, but exploding a quarter or so of the town? I might be alone in my attachment to this place, but seeing an attractive area like this turn into a horrible mess makes my blood boil! Hopefully it'll turn out like those sundials.

But even more than that, I'm just so tired of everyone fighting over whatever this whole "experiment" is. You must be doubly so, if I'm this irritated when I can only see a tiny fraction of the big picture here.

[luministimods]

[He nods.] I'm not surprised Proctor gave you those instructions. He wanted so very badly to be done with everything and everyone involved, but since he couldn't, he wanted to make sure to express his displeasure in any way possible. [A small smile graces his lips.] And it annoyed our captor, so I think that was a job well done in the end.

[He has a couple bites of his sandwich while he listens to Ichijou talk. It doesn't come as a surprise that the man has a particular attachment to the town. After all, he volunteered to stay quite willingly last year.]

I can spare your confusion and tell you that I am far more resilient simply because I am not human. Gives me a bit of an edge in the exploding buildings department. And...I am not tired so much as I am ready to stop it once and for all. And I will stop it--but I suppose that leaves you wondering what you're going to do when it does. Correct?

[manicurious]

Did it now? He was good enough at hiding it that I thought my constant flood of messages amused him more than anything. It always seemed to me that he liked the attention. Really, once I figured out what sort of role our thief had in this whole thing, I was hoping that he would at least be kind of open to the possibility of cooperating with me.

Though I guess his interests lie more in keeping people here against their will than spoiling them until they actually want to stay. I was talking to Hawk about this right after everyone else came back - I'd take the Resarci kid over this guy any time.

[He sort of hums quietly, taking a drawn-out drink of his wine. Nathan being non-human would've surprised the hell out of him a little over a year ago, but now it has no impact. With everything else he's experienced in this place, that shit seems pretty normal.]

To be honest, I hadn't put much thought into what will happen to me once this has all ended. Well, I had - but I had also completely misunderstood exactly how all of this worked. I thought that I'd be able to just live here and have control over everything, including the thing that moves people to and from here, so that I could turn it into a kind of sanctuary. Speaking of which...

[He couldn't look much guiltier if he was making a conscious effort to do so.]

After Proctor was killed and I had suspected that you were as well, I... Sort of lifted the restriction on Lab 3. And it completely invalidated all of what I thought I knew about this place.

I made some guesses, though. It was really the pictures of all of us that I was supposed to be protecting, wasn't it?

[luministimods]

It did annoy him at first, yes. But after the annoyance passed, he decided to have fun with it and used your emotions against you. And there's no way he'd cooperate with anyone, not while he still has one person working for him. Or afraid of what will happen to him, I'm not sure. Resarci is a difficult man to read.

Ichijou...[Nathan leans forward, lowering his voice.] When this is over, I won't be able to give you such control that you're asking, but if you'd like to remain here, I may be able to arrange something.

As far as Lab 3 goes...you actually weren't protecting the pictures. [He looks away for a second.] I was protecting you and the others.

[manicurious]

You know what? I'm fine with that outcome. I'd be fine with nearly anything at all, as long as I don't have to go back to where I came from. If that's mandatory, you may as well just end my life with your own hands.

[On that note, he seems to be in higher spirits. Basically his number-one fear when it came to Nathan was that he'd eventually force EVERYONE to go back to their proper times and places. He rolls his eyes and waves his hand.]

Whatever! Protecting them, protecting us from them, same thing. I'm more interested in knowing if those photos were the really important thing in that room than being pedantic.

Mister Thief acted like it was the scandal of the god damn century when I found out that the fancy stuff along the walls in there didn't actually do anything. But I knew that you wouldn't just tell me to stay out of there for the hell of it.

[luministimods]

I'd rather not end your life with my hands, Ichijou. [He smiles faintly] Your adoring fans in this universe would never forgive me.

[He opens and closes his mouth, then opens it again.] For some...learning that Lab #3 did nothing at all and was just used as a ruse to convince you all that it was needed in order to send you home... Yeah, that is a shock. Lab #3 was originally meant to house the photos to keep them safe and in one place, and the holographic machines were made up just for show. When Filippo Resarci came in, he wanted the lab nice and close to him, knowing its significance to everyone, and he hung up the photos because he could.

And I...well, I wanted to protect people from the truth. The less you knew, the better off you'd be and you'd be able to forget everything easier when you went home. To send everyone home, I destroyed their pictures and kept the ones of those who had stayed. But it was the sight of the pictures of those who were already sent home that concerned me. There shouldn't have been any in the first place, but...he must have made copies in case he ever wanted to pull them back, to give them another chance and see if this time, they met his criteria for this experiment of his. [He sighs, running his hands through his hair.] That part has baffled me, I'll admit. I didn't even know they could be copied...

Anyway, I didn't say anything then because I still had answers of my own I needed to find. I figured it was better that way.

[manicurious]

I don't think I'd like that very much either. I'm still young, you know?

[He giggles into his wine and takes another sip of it.] I guess I just wouldn't fully understand the impact of that since... [In a significantly lower voice;] I've always been reluctant to help everyone escape, anyway. Everyone- well, almost everyone -has been so nice, and I was so lonely by myself.

[And back to a normal volume;] Wording it as "protecting people from the truth" makes it sound awfully scandalous, don't you think?

When I still believed that there was a complicated piece of machinery involved, I was afraid that one of us would get a hold of it and accidentally send someone to the middle of a star or something. I don't think too many people believed that it was a good enough reason to wait until someone who knew what they were doing came along. With that in mind...

Not that I held it against you before, but I can see why you kept that information to yourself. Even now it worries me that my fate is tied to something as delicate as a photo, even if it can be copied somehow.

I wonder if that's also how we come back no matter what happens to us. See, a while ago I was literally torn apart, I mean, just all over, ripped open. It was so unbearable that I asked Agent Washington to just shoot me right here. [He presses a finger to his forehead.]

But later I was just fine, like nothing had happened. I know that this place originally started as part of an experiment to raise the dead, but I also know that it doesn't work on everyone - which is why Proctor is no longer with us. Ever since that incident it's been bothering me. Was I cloned? Or something else?

[luministimods]

[He nods] That's why I didn't say anything at all originally. I didn't want to give you all the wrong impression.

[He lowers his gaze] I...I was forced to watch that. I remember. You've always been yourself. Nothing will ever change that. If you were cloned, you'd have a body out there potentially rotting on the spacestation floor or blown up completely if Agent Washington had his way. But what he does...he undoes the damage done to you. He doesn't want any of you to die permanently. Why kill off the things that he think are perfect? You are still you.

[manicurious]

[Scoff!] I'd still be myself, even if I was cloned! I'm not sure that I understand how undoing that kind of damage is possible, though. It sounds almost like restoring a computer's software to a previous save point, but... With a person, I guess.

[luministimods]

[He'll never stop being amazed by you, Ichijou.]

It's something like that, but not quite.

[manicurious]

[Well he's a pretty amazing guy, in his opinion.]

So... A really really isolated time anomaly? Or... Somehow putting everything back together?