Andromeda levelly accepts Wingblade's critiques "Smart and ethical..."
Andromeda doesn't think about what she overheard Sam say.
"I have easier access to resources if you don't object to them being sourced from the unethical, without their understanding. We should speak with Chroknight - the armored time manipulator - when they next appear. I haven't seen them draw from alternate timelines, but if the Wraiths brought you here it might be a more connected powerset than I believed. The dragon also claims to have breached dimensional boundaries, though I don't know if that was on purpose or targeted or poetic license." She frowns. "I don't have the sensory apparatus required to determine whether you are identifiably from a particular dimension... Do you have your own phone? It would be unable to connect to devices not within the same reality, but if you arrived with anything saved on it, that could be worthwhile data."
"Is there anyone else you see besides Chitin?" she asks, still anxious, "I would like to believe... I think that Xaiara may not easily accept help, and neither Ava or I will be there for her. She does not know Whippoorwill."
Chloe looks at Sam in bafflement at her interactions with Jessie, before concentrating on slowing things down around her. She needs a few moments to think - and test out if her powers are altered as well.
No, the timeline was just patched together. Things needed a moment to settle before she could go jumping around with time.
Instead, she focuses on Sam. "I get it. You were rushed for time, quite literally. You didn't mean for all of these big differences. We can fix it fully once we've got a chance to breathe." She places a hand on Sam's shoulder gently. Trying to get her to calm down.
The hand on Samantha's shoulder is almost like a burning brand, making Sam wince. "No. Your mother is alive, that isn't something to be fixed. Ever." there is steel in that response, a flash of pain so bright in her eyes it should blind someone. "Mine passed. Computational intermingling of chronological pathways will not change that fact. For yours, it did." new memories of actually talking in Mr. Tanner's art class, at becoming friends so long ago instead of barely over the last year, feel like foreign matter inside her brain but not unpleasant ones.
Having a friend through school... her secret dream, not dwelled on since it was an impossibility. Now she had lived it.
Samantha shakes her head, removing superfluous data "Chloe, do not waste this. Find her. Please, my matrix says it is okay to be happy, for you to be happy."
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Oh. Sam hadn't realized it yet. Chloe felt awkward to say this. The memories were there of them bonding over their lost mothers. The memories of Beebee, once always in her periphery, now seemed to have her on the edges before becoming little more than classmates with Sam occupying more of her time.
And yet, that was also a lie.
"...my mom never died, Sam. She just had to let everyone else believe she was dead. That's not what we have to fix. All of our relationships have changed because we're both younger than we were. Beebee...I think we drifted apart. Probably because I spend so much time with you here...and Joy and Deedee are missing, and my dad's fully lost his leg, and that's just what I'm noticing immediately. Don't you want your friendship with Jessie?" Chloe asks.
"What?" shock causes a word to stumble out of Samantha's mouth, a word she doesn't utter, because it is useless when you can just learn everything yourself so why waste the auditory prompt to Ask.
Besides never asking that simple phrase, Samantha... no Sam, is rarely shifting or moving, she is efficiently still.
But after her friend, her best friend, someone her matrix, both new and old, types out could be much more just never defining More, this person...
lied about her mother's death
To Sam.
To. Sam.
She steps back away from the other girl's touch, a statue in the flesh, all movement frozen other than what is absolutely needed. "I respected your privacy. In a world of data, that is needed to understand everything that I cannot, I created a barrier to the search engines, so what we had could be normal." her green eyes blink, nothing more "Allowing you to lie to me." every word becomes flatter, harder, colder like a concrete floor in a cold steel freezer "I changed time to let you have her back. I wanted you to have what I couldn't. Because you were my friend."
"What are you talking about?" Chloe looks confused now that Sam is backing away from her like this. It must seem incredibly strange to others. "Wait, how much do you remember of that point? Where she was wearing the armor?"
Chloe gets close to Sam, whispering to her. "I don't know why, but she was wearing Chroknight's armor like it was made for her. She must have time powers too. That has to be why she faked her death."
Her fists ball up at her sides. "...That's why I could never have saved her."
Sam stops, her head tilting again, "You didn't know." her eyes track the other girl's posture, stance, look, everything, feeding it into something to make her feel Trust again.
Sam sends that process into the background.
"I filtered chronologically until I could include a realized reality where your mother was alive, but if the script parameters could have been misinterpreted, shifting 'Alive' with 'With'. Which may explain while our former timeline would not have been included in the answer set."
Sam tilts back "She is available to you in this timeline with a 99.9991231 confidence. Your mother."
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Indy watches the emotions go through Glasswing and gives a lengthy nod, "That's because it did, uh and didn't. I'm still sorting it out in my head a bit, but I can explain it all, to the best of my ability, if you want."
He looks conflicted for a moment more, "Though the long short is we just snapped to a fifferent timeline after a paradoxical event. I think, my friend Sam should be able to explain it more, scientifically."
Shayera checks her own handheld device after Andromeda suggests some of her team who might be able to help. "Great. The more angles we approach this, the more likely we'll succeed. Can I borrow your sim card to connect to the network?"
She takes a few pictures of the Silver Shield display using her own phone. "I'd also like to see the Whippoorwill display? You guessed right she trained me. So far, I haven't seen anyone else definitely with a version in my timeline."
When she reaches the Modern Age exhibits, Shayera gasps in amazement. "It's him!!" she shouts way too loud and slaps an embarrassed hand over her mouth.
However, though she draws some attention for her outburst, it's perfectly understandable to anyone native to this timeline. The gigantic display of Captain Stalwart is truly a grand tribute to this beloved hero.
"It's the Forgotten Hero," Shayera whispers.
==============================
At the end of every session, choose one:
• Grow closer to the team. Explain
who made you feel welcome; give
Influence to that character and clear
a condition or mark potential.
• Grow into your own image of yourself.
Explain how you see yourself and why;
shift one Label up and another down.
• Grow away from the team. Explain why
you feel detached. Take Influence over
you away from another character.
Andromeda knows that she's not a strong conversationalist. When she's uncomfortable she often retreats into specificity and precision; some people appreciate it. She's attempted many times to expand her social skill set during the limited period that she's been using it again, but some experiments have been more successful than others.
None provide a naturalistic way to respond to the sudden reverie of her displaced friend's near-duplicate, while also acquiring the necessary information. Still she makes an attempt: "What's the Forgotten Hero? We call him Captain Stalwart."
I'm still too high for this
Glasswing literally rubs her eyes as she looks over to Sam when Indy mentions her. "Your friend Sam looks like a kid," she comments, but when her eyes go wide and opaque like an insect's, she adds, "she's affected by this. The other girl with her, too. Okay, so it's not that odd you have a friend who looks like she's just starting high school."
Before Indy or Glasswing are able to approach Sam and Chloe, three other people walk up to them. Two teenagers and an adult chaperone.
"'sup, nerds!" says a pretty girl with dyed red and blue streaks looking about the age that they used to be. Though dressed for the Gala, she's wearing a Hal-Prep varsity marching band pin on her dress and little trumpet earrings. Next to her, smirking at the two younger girls, is Beebee!
"Kaitlyn Jieun, be nice to your sister," the adult says, bearing a strong similarity to Kaitlyn only a couple decades older. She goes to Chloe's dad and gives him a kiss.
"Step-sister," Kaitlyn corrects. "Mom, can Beebee and me go now? We'll take the skyrail straight to her place. I promise."
"No, this is a family outing. We paid a lot for these tickets and we're staying."
"Uggghhhhhh!" She pitches her head backwards and groans.
"Chloe? Samantha? Everything okay?" Chloe's dad asks while his second wife deals with her child.
* * *
Shayera circles the display, amazed. "He's just the Forgotten One. We know he saved the world a bunch, but for some reason, everyone forgot who he was. He's got a big monument in a memorial, but that's about it. Weird."
She moves to the Whippoorwill display and critiques it with a lot less reverence for the winged hero. "She's off world? Any idea how soon she'll be back? I hope I can meet her before I go home. And seriously? If the other me is having a hard time, you probably should introduce me to her. My Whip helped me out, like, a lot."
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Indarius lay down on the base's main platform, aside the room with the entertainment center. Between his claws was a table sized crimson scale with arcane etchings across it's surface, a blessing, his curse.
Heated thoughts scrambled under his scales and itched at the back of his mind about what to do with it. But indecisiveness caused him to mull over them flipping the plucked piece of his arch-enemy's' carapace end over end in his own clutches.
A small plume of mist rises from the scale. "I sense you, whelp. Have you capitulated yet?" Indarius hears in his mind like claws rasping against the inside of his skull. "No one will see you as normal. No one will see you as anything but better than them. I am right, aren't I?"
"I have not." He sounded unsure and let his eyes fall around the rest of the room, unsure if Chloe was still around the base today, at least with his mind being preoccupied. "That I don't know, but I didn't exactly come to ask advice from anyone especially yourself."
Running a claw over the edge of the scale his mind seriously contemplated just how easy it would be to break it and release them both. "I am however filled with new impulses, feelings that I'm still trying to figure out. One that I know however is the desire to break this damned scale and settle things again. Allowing us both our preferred selves." He felt an anger well up inside him but took a breath again allowing himself another few moments of respite. "To have a taste of walking among them normally again. To hide within and observe them, watch their precious little lives and all the intricacy within."
Drake's voice is smooth as ever, but it carries a note of understanding. "Ah. Your new impulses are nothing to fear. You are growing into your true self; I can tell it from here.
"My own fury at your interference has subsided, something I can thank your gift for. I might be willing to give you another chance at becoming my ally, if suitable compensation is extended. The rewards would be well worth it. Under my tutelage, we would have wealth and power beyond imagining."
Indarius sighs as he contemplates that offer for longer than he should, "Drake, as much as I really want to learn more from you about dragon things. I must politely decline, I'm not in this for wealth or power. I would still like to work with you in an amicable manner, but I don't believe our paths of thinking are ever going to go down the same road."
The cloud burns a deeper shade of red and the acrid scent of burning and ash fills the base. "Still the obstinate hatchling, I see. Very well. Enjoy the coming storm. The curse you've placed on me will see me passed over while you shine like a beacon. And the encroaching darkness will snuff you out."
"Heroes are made to weather the darkest of storms Drake." He thinks maybe that was a bit too optimistic or at least the corniest thing he could have said. But he calls out one last time before Drake withdrawals his presence completely.
"Drake, do you think honestly if humanity didn't see us as monsters. Would there be a better path for us. One where we might not be on opposite ends of this conflict?"
Drake growls dismissively. "Baseless, wistful conjecture is not the province of the mighty. Humans quail in fear of our power, and so they see us as monsters. That is simply the way of things."
Glasswing literally rubs her eyes as she looks over to Sam when Indy mentions her. "Your friend Sam looks like a kid," she comments, but when her eyes go wide and opaque like an insect's, she adds, "she's affected by this. The other girl with her, too. Okay, so it's not that odd you have a friend who looks like she's just starting high school."
Before Indy or Glasswing are able to approach Sam and Chloe, three other people walk up to them. Two teenagers and an adult chaperone.
"They were aged down before everything got um.. rearranged." It quickly comes to his attention that actively going over and addressing either Chloe or Sam about anything that just happened would blow a lot of cover. Not to mention the new-found age gap a bit worse, how would they even know him or more importantly vice-versa. Did they even recall as much as he had, more, less?
"I'll try to signal them, but I don't think it's wise for us to approach them ourselves."
He tries to wave one of his wings under the guise of stretching towards the Captain Stalwart display in order to signal Sam or potentially Chloe, then started to head that way alongside Glasswing. "I suppose we should still try to enjoy the gala despite everything right?"
Grow away from the team: Indy has been trying to interact with more individuals outside of the team for projects, but also he sees that the team doesn't require him to be there to function well as a unit. That's actually a good thing in his eyes cause it means they'll definitely still work together. Removing Dee Dee's influence, I believe she's the longest time non-interact with Percy.
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Well, slowing time works still. Allowing Chloe the time to avoid looking at her new mother with shock and horror and put on the right face for the situation. Including Beebee...no longer her Beebee. That hurt.
Of course this happened, somehow time got twisted so you were born two years later, that's insanely complicated - and somehow it happened twice!
Chloe resumes the flow as she gives a performative huff to Kaitlyn and a smile. "You should want to be here, it's fancy. And they've got a lot of those Daedalus students too if you want to meet any of them," She notes as her gaze drifts towards Johnny. Trying to ignore the marching band pins that make her realize she's a totally different Chloe with other interests.
"I'm fine, dad. Just worried we won't see all of the exhibits. Can Sam and I talk to any of the heroes here?" She asks, before pointing over at Percy. "Look, it's Silver Dragon! Sam, you can ask him how magic works."
"If you're hoping to meet sensei tonight, I'm afraid she's unlikely to appear." A well dress young Japanese man says as he overhears the louder part of Shayera's inquiry. "I'm sure she'll take up your call if you try to contact her. Your...skill set seems to be in her purview."
He looks up at the display. "I came to make sure the exhibits here aren't painting a biased picture of our city's history. I'm not exactly happy with the portrayal of certain figures."
He nods to the two young women. "Plenty of stuff to learn here still, as long as you take it with a grain of salt. Excuse me," He tells Andromeda as he steps past - there's a brief moment where it something is drawing on her force field and weakening it, before it passes along with Shin.
Samantha looks at Chloe's stepmother, her eyes narrowing even though THIS Samantha has nothing but acceptable memories of the woman. Old Samantha feels the other woman is too close to IT for her own liking.
"Interacting with meta-exceptional will aid me in my research, Mr. Myeong" and then the red head doesn't wait as she grasps her friend's hand and takes her to the Silver Dragon.
Without pause Samantha starts telling her once teammate "Your proximity to the epicenter of temporal activity provides a significant percentage that you will retain memories from the separated timeline." a thin line appears on her lips and she tilts her head, making her black glasses to slip down her nose a little. "The enlarged wraith was without proper anchoring, which should have allowed you to dislodge it, pushing it into the abyssal time space maelstrom if you had shifted your barriers another 0.34 degrees then accelerated the radius with a force of 1877 Newtons, singularly directional." Samantha paused, then frowned "I apologize but I do not have proper charts to demonstrate."
"If you're hoping to meet sensei tonight, I'm afraid she's unlikely to appear." A well dress young Japanese man says as he overhears the louder part of Shayera's inquiry. "I'm sure she'll take up your call if you try to contact her. Your...skill set seems to be in her purview."
He looks up at the display. "I came to make sure the exhibits here aren't painting a biased picture of our city's history. I'm not exactly happy with the portrayal of certain figures."
He nods to the two young women. "Plenty of stuff to learn here still, as long as you take it with a grain of salt. Excuse me," He tells Andromeda as he steps past - there's a brief moment where it something is drawing on her force field and weakening it, before it passes along with Shin.
"Cryptic and nosey. If Whip really did train you and she's anything like my Whip, you're fairly convincing, Shayera says as she matches the Japanese student's pace. "I'm not concerned about her taking my call, I just need to know how to reach her. And I'm working on a deadline here since I don't plan on staying long."
She maneuvers so she's standing directly in front of him. "And you wouldn't have butted in to say something unless you were willing to help. So, what's it going to take?"
Shin stops and observes Shayera for a moment. "...sensei gave me a method to contact her. I can relay a message for you. But I can't guarantee when or if she'll reply."
His eyes glance at her steel wings, then back at Andromeda who was flanking him. "If you have something that will get her attention, I'm sure that she'll respond quickly. Since you don't plan on staying long." He smiles, melacholic. "I had that idea too when I got here over a year ago. Different times."
"It won't be that long," Andromeda retorts automatically. "You being here didn't-" She fumes at the intruder and tries to keep her temper to a tremor. She smiles. "Thank you for your offer." Back to Shayera, "Don't rely on one single shared secret. It sounds like she's very similar, but you don't know what's different."
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Samantha looks at Chloe's stepmother, her eyes narrowing even though THIS Samantha has nothing but acceptable memories of the woman. Old Samantha feels the other woman is too close to IT for her own liking.
"Interacting with meta-exceptional will aid me in my research, Mr. Myeong" and then the red head doesn't wait as she grasps her friend's hand and takes her to the Silver Dragon.
Without pause Samantha starts telling her once teammate "Your proximity to the epicenter of temporal activity provides a significant percentage that you will retain memories from the separated timeline." a thin line appears on her lips and she tilts her head, making her black glasses to slip down her nose a little. "The enlarged wraith was without proper anchoring, which should have allowed you to dislodge it, pushing it into the abyssal time space maelstrom if you had shifted your barriers another 0.34 degrees then accelerated the radius with a force of 1877 Newtons, singularly directional." Samantha paused, then frowned "I apologize but I do not have proper charts to demonstrate."
"Well that saves the skullduggery side of things. So you've got all your memories, or at least most of them too?" He cocks his head towards Chloe, "Your friend as well?"
Offering a toothless smile, he nods, "I think I'll need your direct imput the next time cause those calculations are a bit much for me in the moment, but I'd still love to see the charts later."
Motioning with a hand to Glasswing, "We recall all of what happened, but I don't think we'll be able to..." Trailing off he realizes this is a perfect opportunity to cause a bit of a harmless distraction to buy them some time to talk. "A moment."
Taking the last pulled together spindles of arcane essence that he had internalized just before their confrontation with The Governess and the Wraiths Indarius subtly weaves together a spell. It begins with little animated playfully colorful glowing motes of energy dancing through and around the crowd of people throughout the room to draw their eyes. They weave upwards into the high ceiling and dance around just below the hanging lights which are soon bloated by a backdrop of darkness significantly lowering the brightness of the room and limiting it to being lighted by the motes of energy. The motes continue to dance and twirl in the fake nightsky slowly popping and forming the words
Taylor Industries would like to welcome you to the grand reopening of the Praetorium. They crackled and danced after a few moments for everyone to read.
Please, enjoy the exhibits and all entertainment available to you this evening. Swirling into fancy galactic shapes for a few more moments they reformed into one last phrase.
Don't forget to give thanks to all of the brave individuals powered and non-powered who help to keep Halcyon city safe.
The motes then continued their dance in the 'night sky' putting on a mesmerizing show for a small time before eventually fading.
Now with a look of concentration Indarius looked at Sam, "On a scale of one to ten how badly have things changed? My memories are fairly clear, but will take time to sift through."
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The space between the bespeckled green scrunches "A singular scale between 1 and 10 is inadequate. But I will attempt to do so." but Samantha cannot do so with explanation.
She pinches her gift from her former friend and draws out the silk of the spider into a long thread "For representation purposes, treat this the primary timeline. Linear with rare branches resulting in a stable branch" wisps of broken thread hover on the edges. "In greater detail, it is not a single thread, but an almost incalculable number representing each life in the universe." while she has a full wad of spider silk, Samantha only pulls a clump holding a few dozen.
"As we get close we would see thousands of small threads along the main pipeline, representing potential alternate timelines, but the chronowraiths, like the ones we fought, appear to truncate those timelines to prevent a near-infinite multiverse. IT took a few threads, mine... and Chloe's so I wouldn't be alone." Samantha lied "Shorting them to remove the years, and then stretching them to place us in the proper time, but it drew others with us, causing a 'bunch' or 'knot', which drew even more them to help deal with the mess." Samantha attempts to mimic that with the threads but just creates a mess. She is brilliant, not a master of manual dexterity.
"Given the parameters stated above, I smoothed out the knot. Our stretched threads still create ripples in the threads most attached to ours, but major events still have happened, even if my persona was not part of them."
"Time 'fixes' itself. " she adds in case her explanation was too involved.
With that over, Samantha finally answers the question
"Two."
"...hey, can I point out that we're literally in a museum of history and maaaaybe if we take some time examining the exhibits, those of us with some idea of the changes can tell what's been altered?" Chloe says, not wanting to be left out of this conversation. "Shouldn't you also find the rest of your team and discover what they remember?"
Chloe fidgets, anxious and worried as she glances back over her shoulder towards her family. Bizarrely familiar and unfamiliar. They'd been married...a little over a year ago? And Chloe had even given her blessing to her dad to remarry. It was crazy to realize what she remembered of this timeline's version. How much would she retain of her old life?
"I'm going to look around while you do that. I think Sam should come with me - we should stick together," Chloe says, looking around at the exhibits. Perhaps there will be a clue there to help her at least deal with the age thing. Or an opportunity to switch to Chroknight and make sure no chronowraiths were around anymore...
"I won't be dancing tonight. We should go," Andromeda states, with whatever warmth she might have mustered smothered by tension. Shayera hesitates, looking at the exhibits. "You want to stay." Even Andromeda can read that body language.
With a wave of her hand toward the exhibits she hasn't looked at yet, Shayera nods. "Well, yeah. It's great that you're here to help, but this may not be an easy fix so I have to be informed about this world. And even if it is, this is fascinating! So much is different, but it feels so similar... plus Bron-- er, someone close -- would never let me live it down if I didn't report on all this, you know?"
Wingblade is dating some guy named Brawn? Is Whippoorwill the only one from her reality without a stupid name. At least he's not dating alternate Sam, alias The Brain. They could still be partners though. She scowls. Stupid. Brawn'd better not be so stupid he doesn't recognize Xaiara though.
"That is very sensible. There is someone smart and resourceful I should speak to about this dilemma at the party. Are there too many scents in here to make it difficult to find me again?" Shayera smirks where Xaiara would have rolled her eyes, and Andromeda feels another cortisol surge rushing through her, tempting her to find something to fight or break or balance her out. "Good," she manages, "If someone talks to you like you're Xaiara, try not to tell so many jokes. There are benefits and risks to your status being more broadly known."
"Samantha" the red head says simply as Chloe drags her away for Indarius. At the odd look, "I go by Samantha it seems. Now." one of the changes. Sam was picked since it was the shortest while still keeping the identity provided by her father and mother.
But since the changes happened, Samantha had one less step in completely divorcing herself from other people, so had never shortened it.
"Just tell her another student of hers from another time is hoping to catch up," Wingblade tells the stranger. "If that doesn't pique her interest, she may be so different it's not worth the effort."
Turning back to Andromeda, she pops the sim card out of her phone and puts it into the elaborate device still in her clutch purse. After a moment, she nods satisfactorily. "Tech is pretty similar. Good. I'm in." She replaces the sim card in Andromeda's device and passes it back to her. "Okay, I'll will try to be an unfunny Xaiara. Talk to you soon."
The winged girl wanders off deeper into the museum.
When Andromeda retrieves her phone, she sees that there's a text message for her.
Ava: I do not want to alarm you, but I am suspicious that Xaiara has been replaced by another entity.
Ava: Since she's not through a wall, I estimate that there is more to the story. I will assist where I can, should you need me
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Andromeda takes her phone back gratefully, and almost as gratefully stops looking at not-Xaiara in Xaiara's silver dress.
She follows one of her best practiced social maneuvers and finds a resilient wall to lean against as she pulls out her phone. Ava's message is answered with a small smile and a Yes. Thank you. I will tell you more when I can, or when your assistance is required.
Her smile fades. "Text messages. Sam." She frowns. "Text messages. Samantha."
She tries to collect herself, tries to figure out how to start, but she keeps scanning the screen, taking in what data lies there. Is that really all we ever texted about? Shouldn't there be more? Can I not remember her number because I don't put numbers in anymore, or because it's not in my head? "Text messages. Chloe," she says with a flinch of how uncool - even for her - it was to make friends with someone that much younger. What was I thinking going shopping with her, or wasting my voucher on that dress? I could have had an actually nice dress instead of something stupid a kid picked out. She didn't need something expensive. She scans. There has to have been more. This isn't enough for... for what's missing.
She exhales in frustration and a new crack spiderwebs across her screen. This is still unstable; I can't trust that digital, ephemeral communication will function.
She goes back into the party. It's not hard to find Chloe and Samantha. They're some of the youngest people there; there's Samantha's hair and Chloe's stupid dress to help pick them out as they head deeper into an exhibit, the dragon's stupid light show covering their extraction.
"We need to talk," she announces, placing herself with a clean angle to cut off their escape routes out of habit. A problem: Shayera was hard to look at. Chloe? Samantha? Impossible. She fixes her eyes above and behind them, allowing a gentle green overlay to make sure she's still keeping them within the field of her vision if not the focus, never the focus. "She remembers, right?" she asks at Samantha. "I don't want her involved, but this..." She shuts her eyes, breathes, breathes, breathes; her purse collapses to the ground in a heap of disintegrating pleather. "You did all this. You're not stu- You understand what you did, and you still did all this."
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"Given the parameters stated above, I smoothed out the knot. Our stretched threads still create ripples in the threads most attached to ours, but major events still have happened, even if my persona was not part of them."
"Time 'fixes' itself. " she adds in case her explanation was too involved.
With that over, Samantha finally answers the question
"Two."
Indarius nods and breaths a not so confident sigh of relief, "Two is... manageable. I'm glad you were able to reweave things, not as glad that you had to sacrifice so much to make it happen, but I understand that if you hadn't done anything then well." He pauses for a short moment as the true weight of things settled onto his mind, "None of us would be having any conversation right now. Thank you Samantha. Let's find a time to review those charts later, please."
"...hey, can I point out that we're literally in a museum of history and maaaaybe if we take some time examining the exhibits, those of us with some idea of the changes can tell what's been altered?" Chloe says, not wanting to be left out of this conversation. "Shouldn't you also find the rest of your team and discover what they remember?"
"Yes, we should look around considering we'll learn more here than by sifting through mixed memories and doing the guesswork. I also plan on finding the rest of the team, but I can't be making a scene about it either." He started to turn back to Glasswing and the exhibits, "Better to split up and search for information."
Starting to move away he watched as Andromeda as if by divine intervention, swooped in and started to maybe make a scene. Well she's still all here so that's a relief.
Pulling out his phone quickly he texted to Gui and the rest of the group. He squinted at the name that popped up in the group chat for himself, and then gave a short chortle at it, this version of him must have let Connie change it then never changed it back.
Bolas: Hey, Everyone sound off, we've been merged into a new timeline after a chronowraith attack. Need to meet up with everyone after the Gala ends as soon as possible to get everything straightened out about the 'new' us. And also to maybe see if there's a way to fix other things.
Samantha did not react in anyway to Andromeda other than answering with a simple "Yes"
Andromeda doesn't, can't look at Samantha, but something in her eyeline shatters, and the exhibit goes dark. "You stole friendships, abandoned your own, stole a woman from her home, and stranded another one to die just to make Chloe live through her mother's death again? There is no happy ending here, Samantha. How many days of happiness do you think she gets before her life is misery? Everyone dies. No one comes back without leaving again. You had no right, and I thought-" she clenches her fist without thinking, and the marble beneath her crumbles to powder.
"I was stupid too. I never thought you would do this."
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Everything about Samantha settles as one algorithm after another places firewalls into place, stopping a series of responses that the world will never know.
Blankness was a word that held no meaning before it was seen on this young woman's features in this very moment.
"All data was collated from all available sources, resulting the model with the least possible aberrations. The computations necessary for the simulations needed to facilitate the most acceptable outcome scaled to the multibillion range, requiring either technology peta-years past quantum..." the girl does not even blink at the pause "... Or you require Me."
There is miniscule tilt of her head, a fraction is if something it yelling with all it has to STOP!!!!
But Samantha ignores it.
"You neither have that technology or am Me. So your data is incomplete and potentially faulty. In scientific evaluation, it would be suggested to conduct a more thorough analysis of your theories before stating them again as fact, but as you have said, or would have said, you are just a Red, one that destroys. Nothing more. Concentration of relevant tasking is essential for an efficient team."
Sam shifts then, moving her hands to her back, hiding the slight shake in her fist.
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"Don't lie to me!" Andromeda's gaze swings dangerously close to Samantha as her mask of reserve crumbles into anguish. "I was right there! Bringing your best friend's mom back to life was the simplest way forward? Don't treat me like I'm stupid," Corposant energy arcs from the inside of her sheath to the tears on her face, crackling, spitting, sizzling. "Please?"
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"Hey, stop it. Both of you!" Chloe intersects herself between the two. "Throwing around blame helps no one and does nothing to deal with this. Most of what's changed seems centered on me and Sam..."
She rubs her temple. "...this isn't the place to talk about this. Can we research and then meet later? And then you and I..." She looks at Andromeda. "We need to talk."
Samantha had opened her mouth, seeking to end this discussion as quickly as possible, no matter the consequences, but then the Please happened. And then Chloe is there.
Understanding was not something she needed from anyone, but Samantha had been infected much as the older Sam had been. She had people now, and couldn't fathom being alone again.
The bland-nothing softened into a human being and she nodded. "Okay, I'll research it more." she looks to Andromeda and then to Chloe. "I'll call my father to come pick me up."
"Fine." Andromeda bites off the word. She looks at Chloe's shoes. "I'm sorry. This shouldn't have happened to you." She doesn't look at Samantha, but the sarcasm dripping from her voice makes it painfully clear to whom she's speaking. "Congratulations."
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The tense scene is interrupted by Chloe's father and stepmother. "Chloe, Samantha, we're going to the reception now," she informs the pair. Several paces away, Beebee and Kaitlyn are absorbed in their phones.
Mr. Myeong smiles politely at Andromeda, but can't help noticing the pulverized floor beneath her. "Thank you for talking with my daughter and her friend," he says but with a disguised urgency to get the girls safely away.
A bank of elevators in the center of the Tower offer the way up to both the public and private receptions and afterparties. While a good number of the guests are still visiting the exhibits of the Praetorium, a steady stream are moving upstairs.
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The timeline switch somehow left her in her other's clothes, which was frustrating (since it was way below her standards) and also left her with none of her superhero gear except, mercifully, her Abacus handheld. While no longer connected to the main computer, the handheld was robust enough to duplicate Andromeda's sim card and connect to the local cellular networks. What came next was a rapid familiarization process, learning the major players in the timeline since she found herself in a remarkably dense population of super beings. Aliens, alternate dimensions, magic, super science, and everything in between seem to have shown up in Halcyon City at some point in its history.
It was enough to make Shayera feel a pang of jealousy.
Pushing that feeling down, she tries to focus on the task at hand: finding the resources to get her home. It was hard; she'd learned the heroic persona of the Forgotten One, found out that Whippoorwill existed in this timeline, but that none of the other Defenders had counterparts, and that her own self here hadn't had the mentorship that she had. Trying to imagine herself without the humanizing exposure to Whip and Bronwyn forms a lump of ice in her belly.
Her fingers twitch as they long to type in a search for BRONWYN PASCAL. It's a battle she almost loses, but she forces the handheld back into the clutch purse. There is no way that will end well.
Blinking away a tear that wants to form, Shayera goes through the exhibits of the Modern Day wing once more, then the X-treme Age, and finishing with the Bronze Age. She doesn't bother with the earlier generations, figuring the heroes from then to be too long ago to be of use. The names, faces, and powers plus news clippings and occasional videos of noteworthy battles was a nice overview, but Shayera's experience with Whippoorwill's detailed files left her dissatisfied and frustrated.
With Silver Shield seemingly the best choice outside of Andromeda's suggestions, she set about to find her. Another internet search Infini-search? The hell is that? later, she discovers that the heroine was in attendance at the very Gala that Shayera had been dropped into. Nice.
Asking around if anyone had seen the Silver Shield sends her upstairs to the reception. The massive upstairs hall is thumping with wholesome but danceable music, a full spread of buffet-style food, and a packed crowd. Keeping her wings pulled as tightly against herself as possible to avoid nicking anyone as she squeezes through, Shayera moves around the hall as best she can, hoping to spot her objective.
She catches the scent of the other Whippoorwill protégé, then spots him talking with a group that she thinks she recognizes from the modern hero teams, though since they're out of costume she couldn't be 100 percent sure.
Before she is able to interrupt, a tall, handsome youth with a commanding presence gets her attention. "Scythe! You look gorgeous!"
Trying not to grit her teeth at being called Scythe, Shayera tries to imagine how her other self would respond to being called gorgeous."That's flattery," she starts, trying to think back to her early and awkward days starting school. "But thank you for the compliment."
The young man chuckles. "True flattery, if that's a thing. Seriously. You're Miss Badass, and cute as all f#+#. I meant it when I said it, and seeing you dressed up, I am like, gyat!"
"Okay," Shayera can only say, feeling trapped. She had no idea if Xaiara liked this boy.
"Come on, dance with me," he urges, and takes her hand. "I'll show you how."
Swallowing a nervous lump and hoping she's doing the right thing, Shayera allows herself to be led out onto the dance floor.
Samantha looks up to Chloe's father "I wish to leave early and do not wish to intervein in your family's enjoyment. I apologize for the inconvenience. I will call my father for a ride" Samantha does feel the need to be with him, to make sure everything is okay. She checked all major events but there was no way something couldn't have been altered.
That is a reason, but she knows the other is to get away from these feelings that being around her former teammates, her former friends, and the look in Andromeda's eyes.
"The lobby has four security guards, seven cameras, twenty three miscellaneous sensors. I will be safe waiting there." she assures the other family, then promptly leaves.
Chloe glances back at Andromeda briefly, then looks at Beebee and Kaitlyn. She tries to place Kaitlyn in the previous timeline and draws a blank. Did she lose a parent too?
Sam wanting to leave immediately takes Chloe aback, as she reaches out and grasps gently onto her hand. "I thought that we were going to dance," She says. "Sam-mantha. Please don't leave me alone."
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Indarius makes sure to check the exhibits to get a better grasp on what has changed. Then makes doubly sure to stop by the Star Pharoah exhibit that Max had seemed to be interested in, as well as the thug that assaulted the store in this, no the previous timeline, though he was pretty certain it happened in this one too.
Then he looked to Glasswing, "So want to dance still after everything that's happened?"
Samantha looks down in the hand in hers and realizes her matrix and dampeners are more fine tuned in this new reality. Well at least in relation to a singular set of emotions.
A light pink dances through her freckles as she says more softly than normal "okay"
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Chloe's stepmother smiles warmly when Samantha rejoins them. "That's good. Give your father a little more time for his date. Besides, weren't you two planning on having a sleepover?"
<My wife, the matchmaker,> Chloe's dad says in Korean, giving her a kiss.
An unfamiliar memory strikes Chloe, that of how her father opted for amputation after her effort at rescuing him went awry (was the injury worse because she was younger?). Kaitlyn's mom was a physical therapist specializing in helping amputees get used to their prosthetics and the two hit it off, eventually falling in love and marrying. Chloe suddenly remembers Kaitlyn had been in orchestra at Hal-Prep previously, but her own father's interest in marching band must have sparked her switch.
Her father and stepmother get the attention of Kaitlyn and Beebee, herding the four girls into the elevator up to the ballroom. "Are you hungry? Let's see what they have at the buffet!" her dad shouts over the music, pointing to the long buffet table near the wall away from the dance floor.
"Joon, come on. Food can wait. I love this song!" Chloe's stepmother pulls her husband to the dance floor, leaving the four girls to themselves.
"You two losers do whatever, just not around us," Beebee says, grabbing Kaitlyn's hand and disappearing into the crowd.
* * *
Glasswing gives Indy a bright smile. "Technically, nothing's happened, even though it did. I'm up for it! Come on, we don't have to worry all the time!" She joins him on the ballroom level, her antennae bobbing to the beat of the music.
Several photographers float around the Gala, snapping pictures of the attendees for the gossip mags. They home in on Glass and Indy quickly since they easily stand out. She offers her West Coast-practiced smiles, turning her shoulders the same as out on the runway as the flash bulbs strobe. To escape, she pulls on Indy's claw towards the dance floor and starts grooving to the music.
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Well. This was actually embarrassing as hell considering that apparently everyone could tell that Chloe had a crush on Samantha in this timeline. She's blushing even as she refuses to let go of her hand right now while they're effectively left unsupervised by Chloe's family.
"...You never got to see my really amazing dress I got for this. I wanted to show off for you," Chloe says. "We did manage to avoid total temporal annihilation thanks to you. So no matter what anyone else says, you saved the universe. Not a lot of people can boast about that."
She fidgets and looks to the dance floor, before pulling Samantha towards it to try and work off this nervous energy in a way that didn't violate her personal space. "Let's dance, and celebrate, and we can worry later, okay?"
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Glasswing gives Indy a bright smile. "Technically, nothing's happened, even though it did. I'm up for it! Come on, we don't have to worry all the time!" She joins him on the ballroom level, her antennae bobbing to the beat of the music.Several photographers float around the Gala, snapping pictures of the attendees for the gossip mags. They home in on Glass and Indy quickly since they easily stand out. She offers her West Coast-practiced smiles, turning her shoulders the same as out on the runway as the flash bulbs strobe. To escape, she pulls on Indy's claw towards the dance floor and starts grooving to the music.
Indy offers a toothy smile and nods along, "Yeah can't get wrapped up in the details all the time." One nice thing about having silver metallic scales is they played hell with flash photography something many of the photographers would learn.
Doing his best to keep up with Glasswing and the music that was playing, showing that he was slowly becoming more proficient not only in aerial manuvering, but also that on the dance floor. Though that's not to say his tail doesn't cause a few hiccups.
The back of Andromeda's neck practically sizzles as her anger has embarrassment heaped on top of it.
"...Yes. Good bye."
She wants to go; she wants to just be gone already, but Shayera's still here. If I help her, then maybe someone's helping... Anger shivers down her spine and into the foundations of the building. Stupid. Like anything's fair like that.
Still, she looks. Shayera's no longer in the exhibits so eventually she makes her way to the dance. Red hair, green dress, they were easy to spot, silver wings were nothing.
There she was, and there was Valence dancing with her.
Valence.
Her anger walks before her, forcing a path through the crush. "What are you doing, Valence?"
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Suddenly Sam cannot hear anything other than an echoing knocking, eclipsing everything from brain to ears. "I... I would like that." she says with unaccustomed stumbles. "I have been practicing."
Her father had looked at the animatronic dance partner, she had made out of a dress fitting manikin, wire, and some semi-nuclear power source, with a bit a conflicted wonder. For several weeks.
"Thank you, Chloe.' her praise settled some of the anxiety of her decisions "Without your presence and perseverance, I would have never have connected to the aberration of IT's... her timeline." they had been shifting through the bodies on to the floor, now they were in the mix, with people all over, but more alone than it felt ever before... in a good way, Samantha realized, her matrix nudging, but she needed to finish.
Grasping the other hand of the other girl, holding both now, she said with complete sincerity "Time and space would have rendered into indefinable nanonothings without you, Chloe." she smiles, one of those rare full smiles, but it falters when she needs to ask "Do you still... want to be a hero in this timeline? Even at half your 46% of your age, you exhibited all the traits needed."
A sudden circle materializes in the dance floor, with Shayera, Valence, and Andromeda in the center.
Liam puts a possessive arm around the shoulders of his dance partner. "Well, I was dancing. And really having a good time, you know. Xaiara doesn't need your permission to dance with someone," he challenges meeting Andromeda's eyes without flinching and certainly not cowed by her power.
Shayera gently tries to extricate herself from Valence's arm. "I could come back later, if you two have business," she says.
Valence lets her slip under his arm, but holds on to her hand. "I'd rather spend my time with you, if it's all right."
"Um," Shayera pauses, looking trapped. "I'm just trying to, ah, be nice. No one needs to fight over me. Okay?"
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Chloe hesitates for a moment. Then decides she would find out anyways. Her arms loop around Sam's neck and she pulls herself in close, dancing and ignoring the commotion happening near the center.
"Course I do. It's what I have to do." Her voice is soft and breath warm on Samantha's ear. "...I am still older than you. I mean, in experience. Uh, in that, despite the closeness of our ages, the fact I spent a lot of relative time with stuff around me slowed down means that I am older. Not a crazy amount, just by a few months."
She leans on Sam, pressing her cheek against the other girl's. "So I guess that we're both old souls now, technically."
A moment's reflection shows Andromeda just how few angles of attack are open to her, but a full retreat is unthinkable.
"She doesn't need my permission for anything," Andromeda snaps. "I came over to offer assistance. After everything you said to her the last time, my working hypothesis was that your little magnetokinesis had gotten you stuck near her wings and she was being... Gracious."
Samantha cannot remember feeling warmth like this before. Covering her from head to toe, but especially in any place Chloe's skin connects with hers. The data obsessed nerd girl wants to know if the phenomenon is environmental or a symptom of a on coming illness, the two most likely causes of sudden heat flashes in a girl her age.
Her matrix tells her both are wrong, and NO she cannot stop dancing to measure either.
Samantha didn't need the matrix to tell her the last part. She was certain her hands looped around Chloe's waist wouldn't have obeyed a mental command to let her go. Not in the slightest.
Instead she leans into her friend, just a touch, and closes her eyes to remember this forever. Which is easy if you have a super brain.
"Interspersed in a research paper on cryogenic sleep, there were philosophical discussions on whether chronological or biological age would be considered 'older' when the technology was commonplace. The author argued in all things other than family, biological would win."
Her matrix informs her that the comment had nothing truly to do with the path of the conversation, and that her 'spewing' data was a nervous reaction.
A moment's reflection shows Andromeda just how few angles of attack are open to her, but a full retreat is unthinkable.
"She doesn't need my permission for anything," Andromeda snaps. "I came over to offer assistance. After everything you said to her the last time, my working hypothesis was that your little magnetokinesis had gotten you stuck near her wings and she was being... Gracious."
[Dice=Provoke]2d6+1-2
"How considerate of you, though we have had other conversations since then," Valence says, holding Shayera's hand out loosely. "Scythe, if you want to be somewhere else, it's cool. No pressure."
Looking even more trapped now that she's set free, Shayera glares at Andromeda. "No, I'll stay. Just give me a sec."
She steps away from Valence and hisses in Andromeda's ear. "I'm trying not to burn any bridges for Xaiara here. Sorry if I'm stepping on some kind of rivalry, but I'm doing the best I can with really limited information. If you want to help, find Silver Shield. She's supposedly here somewhere."
She punctuates her request with one last glare, then returns to Valence. He seems to smile genuinely at her return as he takes her arms and leads her into the next dance.