Void Rift (rp) - Intermission

"How did you know we were coming here to fill out paperwork?" The forest guardian asks, suspicious.

 

“Telepathy, lightspeed communication, fiber cable links, audio from security cameras. All of the above, really,” they say offhandedly, pulling out three pens and clipboards from below the desk.

 

The air guardian looks around nervously, unsure whether or not to hope to see a camera.

"Regardless," The earth guardian starts, "We would like to fill out the paperwork. It's the least we can do to repair some of rift that has only been opened further by the actions of the demons."

 

She notices one camera pointed at the entryway and another pointed down a hall behind the front desk.

“I assure you, you fret too much over this,” the guard sighs as he clips a few of the papers to each clipboard, clips a pen onto each board, then slides the three towards the earth guardian.

 

The earth guardian takes all three, distributing two to the forest and air guardian; who appears to be rather unsettled by the surveillance.

"Is there somewhere where we may fill these out? Or should we return to the common area to do so?" The earth guardian asks.

 

“Official forms should be filled out in a room under surveillance, just because it prevents anyone from trying anything underhanded. The common area has one camera pointed at the entry, but your quarters are camera free. We’re not here to spy on you, but the last thing anyone wants is a guard doing something shady or underhanded. It kind of undermines the whole guard part of being a guard. That aside, you could come back and fill them out in the meeting room or pretty much any bench out in the main halls.”

 

"Thanks." The earth guardian says, leading his group back to the main halls.

The trio begins filling out the forms, the earth guardian seeming to have the most morale out of the three.

 

The forms are simple but tedious; there are separate fields for things as small as "Observations: Touch/Echolocation" and "Observations: Scent/Pheromonal Response." Fortunately, the nitpicking fields don't apply to the scenario. At the top of each stack, though, is a sheet of notes in messy but discernible handwriting. Some of them are marked with "Observations," others seem to be a list of names. The task winds up resembling an irritating jigsaw puzzle with an unhelpful reference picture.

 

The air guardian eventually gives up, frustrated and tired, handing off the work to the earth guardian who seems happy to accept. It doesn't take much longer for the forest guardian to crack either, though the pair help out the earth guardian by providing a cool breeze and sustenance.

 

It takes them the better part of an hour, but when they finish they find the guard at the desk waiting nearby with the rest of the stack.
"I appreciate the help, but two of you look like you could go for a nap," they joke.

 

"We're planning on it." The air guardian says sleepily.

"I just hope we fixed the damage the demons have done," The earth guardian says, "In a metaphorical sense, I understand we can't bring back the dead."

 

“There are stand-out good and stand-out bad in every group. Where the average falls is what counts, and you’ve certainly helped with that image,” the guard reassures.

 

"Thank you, I'm glad to have helped." The earth guardian says, turning to leave with his group.

 

“Rest easy. Tomorrow’s still a big day.”


Temporus finds Petunia waiting for him, seeming to have raided a margin of his party’s cake supply - despite time being on his side.
“For a partier, you sure haven’t figured out cake like you have ways to get people drunk,” she complains.

 

"And what brings you here?" Temporus asks, a snap of his fingers replenishing the supply to full.

 

The snap only replenishes a third of what Petunia ate.

“The end of time, of course. And disappointment. Mostly the end of time.”

 

"Ah, so we have strayed into a doomed timeline. I could see some of the signs earlier, though I wasn't certain," Temporus says, seeming to be completely calm, "Is it another simple collapse of this reality? Or will it be the hive master finishing us off?"

 

“If it were either of those, it would be a much simpler matter. Shifting the alpha away would have solved those affairs; this is a matter of those who created this revoking these possibilities. Some memories will be kept, others will be lost. You will be forcibly set back by those who created your torment-ridden feedback loop of a home, which may be rather new to you,” Petunia says, yawning.

 

"Interesting, this rarely happens," Temporus says, seeming familiar, "I'd rather not stick around through another hard reset, though."

A clockwork gun appears in Temporus' hand, gears turning slowly.

"As I recall, they're not wholly pleasant experiences for me. The others won't see much of a difference, little more than a dream before they continue on where we restart from. However, the convergence and removal of several split selves for me is more than a little painful. Erasure is much easier," Temporus explains, "I assume you can find your own way out? You're welcome to erase your soul after me, though."

 

"No, no - you fail to understand. It's not a hard reset," Petunia says, blocking Temporus' wrist in some sort of stasis as she summons a small crystal and offers it to Temporus.

"I could call upon The Golden Queen, if you are truly interested in partial erasure. Otherwise, it is a disconnect; another secret for another version of you to keep. Not all that has happened will be lost, and mother will see to it things remain stable through the resultant paradoxes. Beyond that, I must ask you acknowledge two things; one, the rift binding you to the warring reality is fate of sorts - a way out, if you will. Two, the twisted loop you find yourself caught in is not foreign to The Allmother - but, you must deny immortal influence on the other side of the rift. Actions from your friends will skew things back to this... abnormality. Those who fight in Ihra's memory can only bring one relic with them apiece - all else must come from their reality. Monitoring this will be a chore, but I trust you're capable of it."