IC INTRO - JAN 2019

[phantasmods]

Sometime after the group all heads back down the mountain, comes another mass text from home base -

Hey guys? We started getting some weird readings overnight... It might be good if you started heading back this way? We're not sure what the Fissure is doing right now. (,,꒪꒫꒪,,)

So back you had better come! Along with that new friend of yours, who surely won't raise questions...

With the time issue being what it is, it's over the course of a day or two that people actually get back to the Station. Thus, there is no single feast set up like usual; instead, there are lots of hot drinks and various pots of soup made up throughout the two days that people trickle back to base. It's warm and filling, can't ask for much more.

The Station you return to hasn't changed that much from the one you left, though all your left behind pets are very glad to see you. It's now January and frost is on the ground, though not snow, at least for now. There is an air of emptiness around the Station that the first group of arrivals - the few of you who remain - will likely find familiar, though the murder sign has been updated while you were away as usual.

The androids, for their part, are very glad to see everyone (or at least, most everyone) returned safe and sound. (Though certain injured parties are destined for the medbay and Strange's fussing before they even get a chance to settle on rooms of their own.) In particular, Muon - now in a bright yellow vest instead of her previous scarf - spends a lot of time hanging out in the glider bay to welcome everyone back, both new faces and old.

TRADING POST - STRANGE - MUON - SIGNAGE CATCHALL - And don't forget to get on the housing post!

Comments

[nojohnyouare]

...He'll try to understand. I think so. Even demons. ...As long as you don't try to hurt someone.

[She's not going to forget the comments on the SHITlist.]

[eudaimonikos]

I'd say that's racist, but not trusting demons is really the best option. [He folds his arms, frowning.] If you ask me, though, the angels are even worse. They act like they care about humans, and then they just toss them all into Hell like it's nothing!

[A nerve seems to have been struck]

[nojohnyouare]

...So it's like that where you're from. [She pauses.] The list... You said it left us open. That's why I said it.

[eudaimonikos]

It does leave you open! If you did something like that where I come from, you'd be screwed for the rest of eternity. Literally, they could drive screws through your bones to attach you directly to a few of these.

[Although a lot of them are more psychological. The kinds of things that would only be really acted on by...well, a demon like him.]

I've actually seen pocket dimensions that were eternal Fridays. Right around three o'clock.

[nojohnyouare]

This isn't home. Any of our homes. And you're not the first to say something like that. But if anyone tries, there are people who retaliate.

...Why Friday.

[eudaimonikos]

Can't retaliate against everything.

Friday's on the list. [He points.] Also Tuesdays. We actually have those too. Tuesday's just a temporally odd period all around.

[nojohnyouare]

There was a pattern. That's why it's on the list. But... I doubt it's the same reason for the dimensions you mentioned.

[eudaimonikos]

........torture...?

[nojohnyouare]

...You could say that. More complicated. And a pattern that's hard to believe.

[eudaimonikos]

I mean, I have seen some things.

[nojohnyouare]

...

[Fair, she seems to guess.]

Kawasumi Mai. Champion Scapegoat. If that means something to you.

[eudaimonikos]

...not really, no. [?????] I'm Michael.

[nojohnyouare]

...Oh.

[Well, he's not getting an explanation for that, but she'll just nod.]

Okay. ...Explanations. Right?

[eudaimonikos]

[It wasn't really intriguing enough to be worth prying about. He'll let it pass.]

I'd appreciate a few.

[nojohnyouare]

Keystone Station. Researching Fissures. Finding ways home for those who want them. Not many rules. You've seen the major ones.

[She just stands there, trying to think.]

...Questions?

[eudaimonikos]

Fissures.

[.....oh, that's the question]

[nojohnyouare]

Points of unstable reality. Manifest as biomes with strange effects on them. We stabilize them as we investigate. Like the time slowdown in the mountains. Some have sub-Fissures. Like the visions in the cave.

[eudaimonikos]

Oh, I got inside and stayed there on the mountains. Last time we went in an icy cave, things got very bad.

[But regardless]

That does sound like something that needs to be stabilized, but what are we investigating for? Is there something we expect to find?

[nojohnyouare]

First, just how things worked and how to return. Recently... Fragment. But they're here now.

[eudaimonikos]

Fragment?

[Boy, this is like pulling teeth. He should know.]

[nojohnyouare]

Of a god. Or something similar. Lost.

[eudaimonikos]

It's remarkable how many gods don't seem like they can take care of themselves at all. Last world I was in, we had to go save a bunch from a shitty cult.

[nojohnyouare]

...How does that work?

[eudaimonikos]

Walk up to the nearest cult person, yell at them for a few hours until they feel bad about what they've done and stop doing it?

[nojohnyouare]

............................

[Mai just takes this in and doesn't really seem to react. Maybe she's still processing it.]