409/Days of Abstractum Past I Part 1

Days of Abstractum Past I Part 1
Date of Scene:	13 August 2014
Location:	The Homeworld
Synopsis:	Abstractum Users rewind time while in Unshift Space.
Cast of Characters:	2, Vruasa Telash, Fiora O'Brien, 219, 253, 347, 353, 357
Tinyplot:	When They Return

---

Vruasa Telash has posed:
    With few exceptions, those of you gathered today received a simple card bearing a cog-shaped symbol within the last three hours. It was signed by VRUASA, and stated simply:

At X:XX you will enter my node and we will take a magical journey into a brand new world. But no seriously, be there or it'll cause a time paradox and we'll all die in the rotting corpse of a dead universe.

    This was a fairly simple 'invitation', and one that came without further explanation. It may or may not be telling the truth. The door to the node was left open, allowing others to venture inside. The actual appearance of the node is, for the moment, irrelevant. It is not the setting that we will be exploring indeed, nor indeed is it the time that we will be exploring today. It is merely a rest stop on the way to someplace more interesting.

    To the extent that it matters, VRUASA'S node resembles the world of RUST, only there are a bunch of horrible bug monsters roaming around in the distance.

    There is an automatic recording playing in the hallway leading into the node.

    "Is this piece of shit on? Whatever, just get your ass down the hallway. We're going to go violate Burden's privacy and look at his past. If you're here it's because you're predestined to be here, unless you're Fiora I guess."

    "We're going to unshift in the node and go from there, so be ready for THAT kind of adventure."

    The recording shuts off. At the end of the hallway, Vruasa is waiting. There may or may not be a bunch of bugs impaled on wooken stakes nearby.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    Nothing pleases Homura more than receiving a card telling her to show up somewhere or else time explodes. This is a complete lie but she's not going to tell Vruasa no either way. Whether or not it's true doesn't override the fact he wouldn't ask for help if he didn't want and/or need it, and Vruasa's not the 'ask for help pointlessly' sort of person.

    It is under that logic that the Puella Magi shows up-- it looks like she has avoided needing to have any of her limbs put in casts despite the utter beating she took from Corvo and Ariah, but if anyone looked under her plain white shirt and black pants, they'd find way more healing wounds than she'd care to elaborate on, under an anime quantity of bandages.

    Entering Vruasa's Node, she is surprised it appears to be plains and forests for the most parts. This seems oddly nonviolent and peaceful at first glance.

    She reaches Vruasa, giving an idle nod and then glancing around. "I don't know how useful I'll be if combat breaks out but here I am. I need to catch you and Fiora up on something regarding Samael and Speaks, afterwards. You might be able to dig further than we were able to."

    But that'll be for later.

Laer (353) has posed:
    Laer is occasionally willing to risk dying in the rotting corpse of a dead universe, but she's also generally pro-magical journeys, so she'll turn up anyway. She's brought along the Electric Eclectic Bass, recently repaired, and Nyarie is naturally along for the ride, tucked in safely behind her ear for the moment.

    "Next time I'm predestined to be somewhere, can you give me a little more notice?" She'll ask Vruasa, deciding to just play along and pretend she knows what the hells unshifting is. "Not that I'm objecting to violating that guy's privacy or anything, of course. I just had to reschedule some dinner plans, and move some paperwork off onto Serori's desk."

Ariel (219) has posed:
"Mm." Ariel is right behind Homura - figuratively, not literally - in trotting into the Node. She's shown up dressed in what has become her 'adventuring gear' for lack of a better term, that is a light tunic and satchel, plus of course Harmonious Diea in cape form wrapped around her. When she hears the recording, she scuffs at the ground nervously and frowns.

"I'm not really big on violating his privacy like that..." she admits. But she isn't leaving, either. "I do need to talk to him, though. Maybe after this I'll have a better idea of what to ask him."

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
    Fiora is here. Was there any doubt? She is, as is her trick for this world, not, in fact, Fiora O'Brien.

    She is Fiiora Obrien, Purple Blooded Troll and all around haughty bitch and asskicker. But, you know, in the troll sense. She rests on a large rock, sunning herself because there's no GLOREY to roll around in.

    Her horns curl back and her normally red hair is black, and then she's just... A purple-blooded troll. Grey skin, purple eyes, yellow sclera, purple-tinted cheeks and shoulders and such. She wears grey jeans and a black t-shirt with a purple tentacle motif on the front.

    "Just tell me when all the candy-blooded necessaries take their sweet time filtering in, and I'll get us shifted out of here like nobody's business." She offers, offering a fangy smile before resting her head back on her broom-pillow Hecate.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    Psyber won't say he's unsurprised to get a note from Vruasa on this topic. But he also can't say that he's surprised either. This kind of thing is part and parcel of knowing a timetravelling man/woman on a mission. Still, he looks around the Node as he heads through, tuning into the overhead message idly while munching on a big burrito full of carnitas, egg, and cheese.

    "So a couple quick questions. Question one: Am I going to damage the timeline if I spill burrito on the floor? Because this is from Sanchez's Mexican Fiesta, best mexican in Boston." He gestures at the breakfast burrito. Then he adds, "Question the second: How does THIS 'Be there or a time paradox will fuck the universe' compare to the other 'Be there to ensure my timeline stays in one piece or the Universe might never have been not-fucked in the first place?'" He asks, comparing this to the SGrub events that have been on haitus for a worrying length of time.

    Still, he shrugs to either respond. He adjusts the massive sword slung across his back and then looks sidelong to Homura when she talks about filling people in on what they found. That did have to get done eventually.

Vruasa Telash has posed:
    "Don't worry about this place, the GM is terrible and doesn't know the rules so I've got a few aces up my sleeve to make sure she's guaranteed to lose a few encounters at minimum. If she turns up I'll just swat her before we leave." Vruasa replies to Homura, like the Land is some kind of bizarre tabletop game and there's somebody out there running it. This is in fact what is going on, but he's not inclined to actually deal with it today. That bitch is bound to do some reading sometime and come up with a nasty surprise, but he doubts second encounter would be it.

    A glance is cast towards Laer. He shrugs, "If you insist." While he doesn't always know these things in a convenient timeframe, there is nothing stopping Vruasa from sending his messages back to more convenient timeframes regardless. It is, however, contingent on his message delivering not being predestined.

    Fucking Time Travel.

    To Ariel he remarks, "Douche is cagey, gotta get answers somehow. You can cover your eyes and ears if you want to leave his privacy intact."

    As for Psyber, he just grins broadly at him and waves a hand, "Don't fuckin' worry about it, Fiiora there can keep us hidden when it's absolutely critical. As it is, you should probably assume that anything we actually affect is going to constitute a closed time loop. Also..." Vruasa points at the burrito, "Inconsequential shit is barely ever a significant temporal problem. The less important something is the less it matters if you introduce alterations. So for instance, sabotaging our ectobiological creation by spilling soda on the machines would definitely kill everyone, but just spilling it on the floor doesn't mean shit."

    "Fiiora, we've got one more coming--" In comes Hana, "-- and there she is. Do your THING, highblood!"

Psyber (253) has posed:
    Psyber nods to Hana as she arrives, "Good to see you again. Sorry about the unpleasantness the last time we talked." He says as an add-on note to his prior actions, referring to him calling her to the mat on the Users channel. Which while he felt had a purpose, also felt was unnecessary to demean someone in public. He rubs his hands together and then nods to Vruasa.

    "Cool. I just didn't wanna introduce carnitas to the timeline and destabilize his past or some crap."

Laer (353) has posed:
    "It would be appreciated." Laer says, though she hadn't really expected him to agree. It throws her off her game for a minute or two, even. Fortunately, Fiiora is there to give her something else to complain about.

    "Oh! I didn't even have time to get my offensive troll costume on. Maybe next time." She adds, before greeting some of the others who arrived, offering a brief wave to Hana and Psyber before turning to Homura. "I understand congratulations are in order for being the most capable person at injuring people for the entertainment of a crowd this year. Oh, you as well, Ariel."

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
    Fiiora reaches back as she sits up to grab Hecate from behind her, laughing as she goes with a touch of wickedness or aggression. "Offensive? More like accurate. Getting in character is what you do with roleplaying games. But that's not why we're here. Just... Humor the costume." She sighs, before swinging the broom through the air with a dark swish.

    "Let's get this shindig rolling before the bitchy GM decides to be herself at us." She offers, before the area goes dark. And then it goes black.

    For a moment, you all have the distinct feeling of ceasing to exist, which is not unpleasant, but is ODD. And then a tugging!

    And then a bunch of CONCEPTUAL BULLSHIT happens.

Ariel (219) has posed:
Ariel shakes her head at Vruasa, "No, I'm coming. Just because I don't like it doesn't mean you aren't... right." Unlike some, she doesn't seem surprised at the idea of unshift, since she's done it before. She just glances over at Laer and sticks out her tongue. That's about as angry as she gets under these matters. "Come on, let's insist on heading for the unexplored part of the map."

About then, Unshift happens, and Ariel ceases to be a simple unicorn and becomes a bundle of hope and forgiveness.

"Mind your step," she warns belatedly.

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    The Unshift takes the group, as is, by now, well known among them. Those within the group cease to be their physical manifestations in whatever manner they tend to physically manifest and, once again, instead become pure concept. Their Abstractum anchor them as effectively as they always do, meaning they'll inevitably return right back to reality.

    Reality as the group currently understands it is disconnected from. The Node itself was already disconnected from reality, but the pocket plane of reality that composes it has even less connection now. Those who indulge the disconnection will find themselves freely drifting away from reality, and lacking any real concrete sensory connection to each other, will continue to communicate purely in ideas.

    Vruasa's first objective of the day is to see what a Node looks like from the outside. That's easy. The Node is essentially a combination of the concepts of a shield and a funnel; a massive artificial construct intended to force the influence of Them to be blocked and redirected into its interior in a certain way, like a trap.

    Honestly, that's really about all there is to say about it, unless people have more through investigations and observing to do.

Hana Umikazeno (357) has posed:
    Hana waves a hand vaguely in Psyber's direction. "You could probably have come at it more tactfully, but I also needed to hear it, regardless." So far as she's concerned, she was more or less at fault. The oni nods politely in Laer's direction as well, one of the very few people who's been informed of her guns' full capabilities.

    And then they all become concepts and Reality more of a distant acquaintance than a close personal friend.

    One idea, more strongly than any other, escapes the oni. 'If I could bottle this sensation and sell it as booze, I'd probably be the richest girl in my world.'

    All business, even as she observes a Node from outside reality.

Homura Akemi (2) has posed:
    "To be honest, I'm fine with that," Homura tells Hana, without so much of a bit of resistance. Perhaps to her chagrin, if she was really trying to needle. Then to Vruasa: "GM? So your Node's a tabletop session?" Weird-- but then again, Nodes tend to be. Just look at Fiora's.

    "Nice horns, by the way," is offered to Fiiora.

    Then to Laer: "Err... thank... you?" That was a compliment, right?

    Anyway, off to Unshift Space they go.

    The concept of Homura conceptually looks about, gathering itself. It then conceptually soaks in the fact Nodes appear to be the concept of a shield and a funnel. That seems about right. No weird concepts going on here.

    The concept of Homura conceptually inquires towards the concept of Vruasa which conceptual path they are even going to be taking to go conceptually bug the concept of past Burden. Fuck this place so much.

Psyber (253) has posed:
    The complex network of concepts that make up Psyber, which the player is too lazy to define are probably weird and one of them is BRIGHT BLUE somehow. Go figure. Still, he remains mostly passive about unshifting and about the experience in general. He returns the greeting to Laer with a concept of a wave and then is content to trail after the group in a meandering fashion.

Vruasa Telash has posed:
    "Controlled demolition of history is something that is prominent in my home universe. It's just a matter of what is acceptable to Paradox Space." Vruasa says to Psyber, because fuck miming the conceptual nonsense this actually looks like in unshift space. He draws in his power, a spinning cog presenting itself in his form in Unshift. No sense in spending a lot of time in the present. They all know what this looks like now. Without further waiting or interruption, he attempts to impose his own laws of time upon the group of them and rocket them back towards...

    No point in particular. Just whatever 'feels' right. There is always a point of narrative interest to be found when pushing yourself or others through time, and Vruasa suspects that it will not be difficult to find relevant timestreams now. For ease of use, he filters the results through a lens of, 'Relevant to people immediately here.' It wouldn't be much use to do otherwise anyway.

    While they're in the process of being shunted through TIME, Vruasa asides to the others, "If you're going to come to my Node later, you should come up with a character. Fiiora decided she was going to be a highblooded troll, which..." He looks in Fiora's direction, "... Is fucking amazing in practice actually, I want to see the look on the Queen Bitch's face when she gets a look at her."

    "For bonus points, dress up like lowblooded trolls with wings." He adds.

    Homura gets an answer that is the approximate equivalent of 'Lol Dunno.' It's very obvious that Vruasa is winging this.

Laer (353) has posed:
    It's Laer's first time doing this, of course; as usual, anything that actually makes it obvious what she's like below the surface probably doesn't paint her in the best light, with stories and fun and entertainment interweaved with lying and selfishness and uncaring.

    There's a whole lot of amusement, at least. Someone's having fun in life.

    She will drift along after Vruasa, not particularly worried about where they're going because she's still trying to figure out the concept space thing. "I can do wings, but they won't work unless I'm a dragon. Do you want a dragon there?"

Vruasa Telash has posed:
    "I want to horribly abuse a dragon's stats there." Vruasa replies to Laer, bluntly.

Fiora O'Brien has posed:
    Fiiora's whole disguise doesn't really work in Conceptual Space/The Unshift. Well, it sort of does, as there is the thin veneer of Fiiora's adopted guise over her normal concept, but it's kind of a moot point.

    "Thanks. I would say I try really hard, but honestly it's just kind of cheating the whole way through. I have a blast doing it though. So, uh... what are we even doing?" She wonders, 'looking around' in the unshift.

    Which is kind of dumb in and of itself, usually.

Hana Umikazeno (357) has posed:
    "You'll have to help me come up with one," Hana replies to Vruasa.

Vruasa Telash has posed:
    "I'm trying to figure out when to take us." Vruasa says to Fiiora, a little distractedly. He takes the time to answer Hana as well, "That's fine, but costumes and disguises aren't my goddamned thing. Don't be surprised if you end up with a big pile of bullshit."

Laer (353) has posed:
    "Well, that's fine, then. I might have to get a form for Nyarie I can use as a dragon. I'll be thinking about that." Laer replies, though she'll probably have to borrow or trade for red to afford that anyway. "Are we then yet?"

Psyber (253) has posed:
    "I will be a lowblooded troll warlord named Pyrbes Legnas," Says Psyber to Vruasa, idly considering where he can get the proper materials and if he should cosplay for Flarp.

Ariel (219) has posed:
"Uhhh..." A character? "Maybe a member of the evil underground race that is entirely patriarchal, breaking away from her normal role to struggle alone to do good in a world that shuns her, wielding twin khopeshes." Hmm. "Whatcha think? Too farfetched?"