❧ 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

[tactilekonesis]

[Nathan's reaction manages to subdue Kon. He laughs nervously, watching the recording before he presses his lips together. So THAT'S why all the townspeople were in a frenzy...]

So the man in the video manipulated Caligan to get the original off-worlders here, right? [If he sounds like he's unsure, it's because it's a lot for him to take in. He didn't like being an experiment of an experiment.] And of those guys, the ones that were successful... are the ones who're still here?

Were our worlds giant experiments too?

[luministimods]

[Nathan nods, taking a drink from his glass.] That man is called Ferran. Some of you refer to him as the "Man in Black", which makes sense since he likes to wear a hell of a lot of black. And yes, of everyone still here, they--and yourself--are the successful ones.

[His expression darkens as he folds his hands in front him. Conner's the first to bring this up, and in truth...Nathan hasn't mentioned it yet because he hasn't wanted to worry everyone else.] No, your worlds are not part of the experiment--but they're slowly becoming so. This technology isn't supposed to be used all the time. The constant use for the past couple years have...created small bleeds. So far, it's only showing here, as this is the epicenter of it all. You may have noticed strange buildings and structures around the town and the spacestation. Those haven't been Ferran's doing. They've come here on their own.

That's why he must be stopped. Not just to send you all home, but to prevent this universe from colliding with every single one it's connected with.

[tactilekonesis]

[Okay, so the people in his world aren't clones or experiments. That's a relief---or it would've been, if Nathan hadn't told him the truth.

Kon inhales sharply.] Damn. I knew something was going on, what with the Talon and Luke's professor's car and Willis's house and everything being here...

But if this "Ferran" keeps going, then we're gonna end up with a pretty ugly multiverse. Singleverse? I don't know what we'd call it.

[luministimods]

[Nathan makes a face and slowly speaks] Actually...it won't be any of those. The universes will collapse completely. It's happened in the past. Hundreds of years ago, mind, but...yeah...

[tactilekonesis]

[Crap.] It's happened before?

... I know everyone else'll want to know how to fix this, 'cause I certainly do, but when it collapsed before, was it natural? Or was it because of some jerk like Ferran?

[luministimods]

Yeah... It happened not too long after my people perfected the anchor system--what we use in order to stay in universes that aren't our own. Granted, this was still centuries ago. But anyway, a team of scientists took the technology to a neighboring universe to see how well it worked there, and proceeded to pull in a few primitive animal subjects from another universe to see how they survived in a different environment. The test was slated to last for five years.

They didn't make it to five. After three years, it became difficult to receive progress reports from them, and when nothing was heard for the yearly update, a couple government representatives were sent to investigate them--and they found nothing. They were nearly lost too, but since they couldn't anchor themselves to anything--there was nothing to anchor themselves to--they made it back.

At first, the scientists thought maybe the other universes just couldn't handle the use of the technology, but they tried again under similar circumstances and found correlations to the first incident and their own. There was bleeding over from the other universe that became worse and worse as things went on, but one brilliant scientist had the idea to switch it off. They survived past the point of the last team.

Mind you, this was back in the days when the technology was only used to study different animals in other universes. Not people. No, anthropologists got their hands on the tech after it'd been tested safely on other things before they were unleashed on people. [Nathan just...shakes his head. He's not too keen on the use of the technology for such things. Then again, if he was, he wouldn't be right where he is today.]

Ferran came along much later, and yeah, he is a jerk.

[tactilekonesis]

[Kon stares at Nathan blankly. Wait, what?

It takes him a moment to process what he'd just heard - and when he does, he rubs his temples and tries not to sigh out of frustration.] So the tech from your world was exploited by Ferran for whatever his stupid purpose was? That's kinda dumb. Not surprising, but dumb.

[There's a small pause, before he remembers to say:] Thanks. Will you be okay at the end of this? I know I'll be fine [he doesn't know, but he'd rather stubbornly cling onto denial] but do you have plans to get back to wherever you are too?