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Aberrant: Children of Quantum Fire - A Brave Old World


z017

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February 3rd, 2028

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They appeared on a deserted island. The island had not always been deserted. In fact, by the timeline of the universe they had just entered it had only recently been a veritable hive of activity. Less than six months ago, this island had been the capital of the Exalt! Nation and the center of an entirely new nova-centered controversy. Now it was silent, the buildings dotting land like dead coral sticking up from the ocean.

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It wasn't a grave, though; or at least not a silent one. Birds chirped among the trees and ocean lapped happily along the beaches. The air smelled of tropical fruit and flowers. Arisi decided that it was odd, but pleasant. Her body had already made minor alterations to account for the differences in the quantum field, the presence of what Puck called "that other energy I felt in the old universe" and shorthanded by Bohdi to kistha, and the variation in background radiation. She noted these changes but wasn't really paying attention to them.

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She glanced up at the man with her. He was a friend and mentor and lover, and now her travelling companion as she became the first of Puck's children to wander outside the comfortable but entirely safe environs of his personal universe. Her loose shirt and skirt ruffled attractively in the wind and she smiled, reaching out to request information from him through the Gestalt. Her smile faltered as she remembered that the Link was a universe away now and unavailable to her, and Darrik had insisted that if she really wanted to understand the world her people came from then she would need to learn what it was like to be alone in her own mind. He could link to her, but unless there was a need for it, he wasn't going to.

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She wet her lips and chose the language she'd been shown had been most prevalent on Earth when her father had created his own universe and brought the Family with him. "Well, is this the right place?" English is not a very concise language, she not-quite complained to herself.

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The eternities of time were not going to change Darrik's age, much less his overwhelming beauty. From a single glance, one would assume he had just blipped off the radar for a time before striding back into the scene. Even a more in depth observation of his capacities would supplement that view. Unfortunately, that vital component of pressure and challenge was too... lacking in Puck's home now. Safety at too high a price.

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What he did learn, and added to the faint look of age in his eyes - was something just as important, and not as flashy as anything else of his novahood. Dear Arisi, she was going to be the first to learn. And be changed by the experience of course. Teras was change and self-discovery, as Chang said. Time to find out how she reacted.

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"Just about." Darrik told her, ignoring the quirks and marks of her first interactions with practical use of a language not Bodhi. "Exalt! was based here, separating the Children of Teras on one end of the island chain - and the Anavasi on the other end." With nary a flicker of focus, the shadows lifted up to provide a dark portal for them to enter. "And you're going to meet our old friends of the Anavasi. Prudence, Shiv, Snow, Darion, everyone. And of course, Chang Zha-Yang, the Mirror Queen. The mentor of your father and mine. I think you'll like her."

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But, Darrik wondered, as he led his protege-lover into the passage breaking onto Anavasi sands, would Chang like Arisi? What in the end, would her insightful yet critical mind make of Puck's children now?

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Darrik and Arisi emerge onto those parts of the Kiribati island chain which were formally reserved for the Anavasi. The landscape already looks different from where Darrik remembers. Now towers of peculiar construction and impossible material jut into the air, all of them the result of some artistic endeavour, collaborative or not.

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There is little sign of major development, however. Rather it has the look of portions of land being cut away, almost, and converted as much as the reigning artists decide and turned to whatever end they please. The central building, however, remains the same, if anything it is larger than before, a palatial building and true collaboration where all the Anavasi are free to show off their work and sculpt exterior and interior both to demonstrate their vision.

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Perhaps to their surprise, they are met on arrival.

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Nearby, Cyndi Carter, better known as The Alchemist, lies upon the ground, arms outspread, looking up into the sky. She is dressed as ever in blacks, purples and reds, with long, straight black hair and black makeup, quite the picture of the traditional goth. She is accompanied by the unmistakable figure of Shiv, blinded by a bondage mask of dark red leather that leaves her lower face bare, bound with her arms tied tight behind her back, a fetish queen of corsetry and latex with blowjob lips and a queer, unnatural stance that should leave her unbalanced.

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The Alchemist raises her head. "Oh hi there! We've been waiting for ages." Her legs suddenly stretch, with a distinctive fleshy groaning sound, bending impossibly to plant both feet on the grass. The body-warping trick continues all the way up her length, until she essentially flexes from prone to standing and contracts to human proportions once again. She approaches. "Nice to see you again, Darrik. And this is... Arisi?" Cyndi smiles. "Chang told us you were coming and sent us out to greet you. She... um... heard your name," she says, to Arisi in particular. "You're both welcome to the Anavasi islands, the essential home of the Teragen and last bastion of evil Nova bastardry on planet earth, or so Utopia would have you believe. I'm Cyndi Carter, better known as The Alchemist, this is Shiv, friend, bodyguard and surprisingly efficient secretary."

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Arisi smiled at both of them, stepping forward before Darrik had the moment to remember how different life could be between Puck's personal playground and 'the real world'. The beautiful young nova engulfed Cyndi in an exuberant hug, then kissed her deeply, sparks and entire bolts of pleasure spiking through Cyndi in a manner so perfectly reminiscent of Arisi's father as to make her parentage absolutely unquestionable. The Alchemist made a surprised noise, but before she could really respond herself, Arisi was on to Shiv; the red-clad bondage nova leaned back away from the girl. Arisi blinked in confusion and stared at her for a heartbeat.

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Darrik chuckled. It was amusing and Arisi's predicament was sort of adorable. She was just being friendly, greeting the two novas how most everyone did where she had grown up, and Shiv's reticence had startled her. She'd tried to reach out through the Link to ask Shiv what was wrong, and there had been nothing. No mental contact, no comforting assurance that everything was fine or explanation of why she didn't want to engage in a proper greeting. The Shadowmancer stepped forward and clapped his young lover on the shoulder. "Things are different here, remember, Arisi?" he prodded her memory gently.

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The girl flushed bright red and babbled something, little pulses of quantum washing over the group with her words before Darrik cleared his throat again, she flushed even deeper red and remembered to switch over to English. "I am so sorry, Cyndi, Shiv. I didn't mean to..." she glanced at Darrik, wondering if she was finding the right words and frustrated at the silence in her mind, "intrude? That's the right word?" She fidgeted, obviously distressed that she'd already made so many mistakes and they hadn't even been here for longer than a conversation.

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  • 3 weeks later...

"It's all right," Cyndi assured her, though Shiv was a bit more neutral in her expression. After all, given their long experience with Puck, this display was a bit unexpected, but not really surprising or shocking to them. "You'll learn, Arisi." Darrik nodded with an amused, yet comforting smile to Arisi. "It's a whole new world. Mistakes aren't that bad."

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"So," Darrik observed, turning his attention back to their greeters, "I'm glad Chang heard we were coming and still rolled out the welcome wagon. This place has changed quite a bit. Do you mind giving us the tour and filling us in on how long it's been here since The Great Puck Escape?"

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The Alchemist smiles at both of you, and nods. "Yeah, I can handle that. Come on."

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Shiv falls in behind, walking with that strange, back-bent gait that is all her own, halfway between torture and seduction. The Alchemist walks at Darrik's side.

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"You haven't been gone that long. Six months thereabouts. But a lot's changed. Puck ripped the heart out of the Teragen when he left. Between the loss of everyone that departed with him and Team Tomorrow beating the shit out of Geryon, Nova Vigilance and the Harvesters we're on life support. Even we're in a right mess now, and we were the faction least affected by his departure. The Nursery's non-existant, of course, the Pandaimonion is far weaker than it was, the Casablancas are messed up, and when Infinity left she gutted the reformed Cult of Mal, too... it's grim. We're getting new whispers out of Project Proteus, but we don't have the information networks to get even as much as we used to. The movement's not back to square one, we've just had to kick the king over and start a fresh game.

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"Mal's gone back into seclusion and took Scripture with him. They're probably chilling out on Jupiter or something, trying to figure out what to do next. Meanwhile," she turns a smile on you both, "Chang Zha-Yang has become the de facto leader of the Teragen remnants."

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You walk in silence a while, as The Alchemist leads you in front of the huge central building, and into the approximate middle of the central part of the Anavasi island.

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"The main building is pretty much what you remember. Lots of wackiness everywhere you go, plenty of new work and alterations to old works as people have experimented with everything from dimensional bending to fire sculpture. That annex is new, it's for Chang, and Chang alone."

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The building she gestures to is huge, almost as large as the main building, at least five stories.

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"She just goes in there to be alone. It's hollow inside, but she fills it up with herself. We've come to refer to it as the hall of mirrors, because that's what she turns herself into. A massive, winding mirror maze that goes on forever. All made of her. And she..." her eyes narrow a moment, and her left hand clenches. "She spends a lot of time in there these days. Guess she's taking her role as new Mal seriously."

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Cyndi turns and points at the various sunken compounds and towers. "These are all the homes of various Terat artists. The sunken compounds are for communal projects and art groups. After you bugged out all of the basic Mad Lab ideas went kaputski, but there's been an influx of capital nonetheless. I've begun funding projects, but nothing like what we dreamed back then. It's a smaller, meaner world for us now. And that's a pretty grim prospect. Project Utopia's riding higher than ever. The Aberrants are still around but they seem kinda toothless these days. They exposed Proteus, Utopia cut ties. What else can they do? Utopia's recovered from that little hiccup thanks to Glory, and now it's recruiting better than ever before. Pretty much the only chance we've got is that we don't have too many Terats with violent pasts, but we've got enough in the Anavasi that it's only a matter of time before they find an excuse to drop the hammer. When that happens, we're kinda screwed. Without Vigilance, the Primacy and the Harvesters, the Teragen's got no scary muscle anymore. So, too long didn't read version? Sorry, kid. We're a bit fucked. Trying to live the dream as long it lasts, and stringing out its dying days as long as we can."

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  • 2 weeks later...

....This wasn't right. Darrik had never exactly gotten the time to try to communicate to Puck about thinking things through before he made the global scale offer to so many people - and dragged along many more on a whim. Mainly because Puck had already made this offer before Darrik even knew. By the time he truly had the chance to assess things, Puck had locked the way back and set the clock running like Mercury, so to speak. Under the circumstances, Darrik had acknowledged it would be best to use the time dilation to learn being a parent by experience - but in no way had the shadow manipulator decided to forsake the commitment he'd made to the Anavasi.

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Now, he'd come back, hoping to break the grip of unbearable taffy reality and stasis (Arisi first), but Darrik, listening to Cindi unwinding her tale of woe and downturn, felt his mind race and frustration mount. He had not come back to see this die! There were a multitude of options, but it seemed like a malaise of resignation had set in. Even Chang, who Darrik always believed to have commitment unrelenting, seemed to be succumbing.

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Arisi couldn't follow, like Darrik knew she wouldn't, but Darrik needed to show her an example first, tell second. "Things may not be going well, but they CAN be changed." The firmness in his voice was undeniable. "I want to see Chang, and Arisi comes along."

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"Chang sees those perceptive enough to see her," Shiv whispers.

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The Alchemist gives her a wan smile and turns to you. "Cryptic, but not far off the truth. Come along, if you're so eager to get shot of us."

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You are led to the entrance of the building she showed you both. The doorway is constructed of a queer, luminous stone that, though once natural, has clearly been altered by an unknown method so that it possesses its own eerie illumination. The light is soft blue, like will o the wisps from fantasy depictions, or faerie lights at a distance. Beyond the doorway you see nothing but a corridor of mirror-shine glass, reflecting itself into infinity from above, from the sides, and from below.

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"There you go," she says, and gestures with one delicate, pale-skinned hand. "I can't show you the way, it changes. When Chang goes into meditation, she only sees those who are sharp enough to find their way through the maze without assistance. She'll hear if you call out, but she won't respond. It's all her, but 'she' waits in the heart of the maze. as for her," she gestures to Arisi, "why would I care whether or not she goes with you? You might need her help, after all. I'll catch up with you later, Darrik. I had been doing something when Chang gave me a buzz. Come on, Shiv. Let's go cut you up."

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The pair walk away, shoes crunching on the gravel around the entrance as they proceed to the main mansion.

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  • 2 months later...

Darrik sniffed and put his arm around Arisi, walking in with her. "I suppose you'd best lead the way. I'm sorry I haven't filled you in more earlier, but I do need to discuss the state of the movement with Chang. But I know you'll start picking up as we go along."

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They entered, the glimmering off mirrored surfaces, flesh truthfully underneath. Chang was all around them and Darrik closed his eyes. Words were more important than anything now, and he needed to present his case. "Hello Chang. The island isn't quite what I was picturing after a twenty year departure."

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Everyone could pick out the edge of disappointment present in his voice. "I'll be right there to admit Puck let his fear get ahead of him when the attack occurred. But it happened, regardless - so why is the Teragen just deciding to roll over and die?!"

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Fine, there was a hint of accusation. Was Chang really letting this occur on her watch? "We may be at square one, but we could easily regain what ground we lost. But what I see, is a bunch of fatally depressed novas who have given up. Have you given up? Is that it? You're a leader Chang. The leader... and that means: when the backs are to the grindstone, you tell the people what to do so the threat of annihilation is not looming over us! They need someone to inspire the energy and will to live..."

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Darrik laid a hand lightly on the mirror-flesh of a wall. "Maybe your future-hearing covered this conversation long ago. And you've thought about it for the equivalent of years in your head. But nobody has that kind of insight like you do, so if there's a chance to still succeed - either you get out and seize the moment OR I WILL!"

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Shoot to wound and to provoke a reaction, then? "I'm really disappointed Chang. I can only imagine the depths of Lucrezia's feelings on your inactivity."

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She heard every word, of course. Chang could hear every word spoken for miles around, determine and differentiate every sound. And as Darrik guessed, she'd heard the accusation already. More important, though, she'd heard accusation from others, and from those she'd known and cared for long before she met Darrik. Darion had come to her with accusations, Meh'Lindi had. There was an odd timbre to Shiv's silence. Only Cyndi - always in love with her - trusted that she did the right thing. And Lucrezia... she wished she could be accused or criticised by her.

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In truth, Chang herself did not know yet. Heavy is the head that wears the crown, she thought.

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Darrik did not understand the rules, she supposed. And he had returned to the island after a long lay off, far longer for him than them. It warranted at least a little response.

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Chang focused her consciousness away from the part of her in the centre of the maze, shaped into her humanoid form. She left that extrusion and focused instead on the winding, complex corridors and chambers of mirrors that made up the mass of her body.

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A mirror near Darrik and Arisi bulged outward with the sound of crackling glass, and the mirror surface slowly took on the shape of her own naked female torso. She never dropped the mirrored appearance, though, so that the light entering through the doorway caught on her slight curves and refracted in rainbows and in bright, star-like glints.

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"Twenty years away, and that is the best you have, Darrik Reynolds?" She shook her mirror-self's head. "I see you have wasted your time. That is disappointing. Were I so easily provoked, the Teragen would have ceased to exist by now. I assume this form to think, so as not to be disturbed by fools. If you wish to speak with me, navigate it to the heart, and we will talk. If you cannot find your way there then I have no time to soothe you and no interest in your ignorant, egotistical babbling."

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She looked away from him, to Arisi. Her tone, coolly dismissive to Darrik, warmed significantly. His words did not upset her. That he thought so little of her to believe they would, disappointed her. Arisi, though, was an enigma, a new Nova come before her from a land she would never see. That made her happy. "I do not know you, Arisi, and I apologise if you find my behaviour towards you discourteous. I assure you it is unintentional. There are many matters for me to consider, and I am in a tenuous position, balanced on the point of a dagger. If you have not the patience to seek out the heart, then I hope my Anavasi can entertain you in a more fitting manner."

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Chang reabsorbed the mirrored torso, letting it melt back and flatten into the mirror. She spread her focus out through herself, concentrating on the inrush of sensations experienced by her gigantic, transformed body. And from there she transitioned back to thinking through the problems before her and - most painful of all - her own role in them.

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Arisi glanced between the mirror-nova and Darrik, biting her lip in dismay at the contention between the two. She gave Darrik what she hoped was an encouraging look.

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"Well, she did say something, that's good....right?" she asked hopefully in Bodhi, slipping into her native language out of habit. Looking around, she closed her eyes and oriented, then took Darrik's hand and started off in the direction of 'away from where they started'. "Let's see if we can find the center of the maze and then the two of you can talk more and figure out what's going on and what you want to do about it."

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She made pretty good progress through the maze, though Darrik had to guide her away from areas he could feel were dead ends and occasionally pull her back from making faces and generally playing around with her own form and repeated reflections. Focus, Chang could easily tell, was not a superhuman ability of the young nova. She was easily amused and easily distracted and apparently lacked Darrik's depth of concern of the current state of the Teragen on Earth. For her, the maze was an amusing puzzle with a new friend to be made once she managed to wander all the way to its/her center. That she was another shifter was a pleasant surprise, though she hadn't yet shown the extreme facility most of Chang's inner circle possessed.

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She was an enigma, wrapped in a labyrinth and laughing her way through.

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