Comic 1166 - Ask about time gods
Posted on 16th Jan 2019, 9:10 PM
in Like a Bullet from Behind
Average Rating: 5 (4 votes) /
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Author Notes:
You look up at Mom's red. Is there any sort of... time god you might be upsetting by doing all this?
"There do exist entities with influence over time," the big mouth on the wall states. "I am not overly familiar with them, I simply know that they exist."
"The tradesman woulda mentioned it, though, right?," Michelle asks. "They said goin' back in time's a bad idea, but they didn't warn ya about... just... messin' with stuff in the red. It shouldn't piss anybody off."
Fuse shrugs his shoulders. "I don't know if we should rely on what the tradesmen offhandedly mention. They don't have to tell us anything we didn't pay for."
"That's... true, I guess," Michelle concedes. "They been kinda protective about us not messin' up too bad, though. If makin' stuff go faster in the red's as big a problem as time travel, I dunno why they wouldn't bring it up."
"If it is any consolation," the large mouth adds, "time behaving differently in the red is natural. Forcing it to progress at a designated rate is new, I must admit, but time has never flowed in the red the way it does outside. That I have never encountered any sort of time entity, with that in mind, should suggest your actions are safe."
"Time entity," Fuse mutters. "Every time I get used to how weird our shit is, shit gets weirder. I guess if god damn time monsters were gonna come after us, they'd have probably done it about the error room."
Everyone falls silent as a faint... scraping, shuffling sound crosses the ceiling at a rapid pace. The noise leaves as quickly as it came.
"...Uhhh," is all Michelle manages out, her eyes wide.
"Bunker's old," Fuse says, before adding "let's talk about something else."
You have a theory about Edison's brain static effect. Her... ghostly aura is more wild and barbed feeling than those of her sisters--you suspect it may have to do with her personality. It's like her energy is... angrier. You... think that if someone else with a similar disposition could astral project, maybe beef up their energy a bit, then a member of your team could replicate Edison's trick. Then, you could have a way to shut down the Many--one that doesn't involve potentially endangering the girls.
"So..." Michelle pauses, "we'd need somebody with a prickly personality?"
Michelle and Fuse both turn and stare at Liz.
"Hard pass," Liz says bluntly. "I've experienced a lot, but my brain is still way, way too much of Patton's."
"Oh, yeah," Fuse remarks. "That... yeah, I could see how that might get weird. Your astral form might look like... uh..."
"Some sort of half-me, half-Patton abomination," Liz says in the same flat tone. "I doubt I have whatever moxie is required for a spirit to be useful, regardless, and you'd have to put me through Incident F kicking and screaming."
"Experiment Odin would probably be enough," Fuse suggests, "or even that ritual we got that makes ghosts stand out more for a while. ...Still, fair point on the Thale thing. Also, moxie?"
"Yeah," Michelle says with a slight grin, "y'know. Chutzpah. Mojo. Pluck. Moxie."
"Moxie's a street drug," Fuse replies, "and the rest of those sound like street drugs. Who the hell says moxie?"
"Patton is old," Liz practically blurts out, though her pitch remains about the same.
Caius and Dr. Finch return with several bags full of... stuff.
"We got stopwatches," Caius says, "we got more tinfoil, we got sheet music, and we got some CDs."
"I attempted to procure us a variety," Dr. Finch states, "though I do fear the majority of Caius's selection is going to lead to us summoning demons."
Might be a good idea to tell everyone via red that you’re going to send something after it, while you continue the conversation to distract it/them. Possibly throw a few red herrings, in case it is a spy?
besides that, for now, we got some stuff to do, trades, info rituals, other stuff
we should also probably ask Michelle what she lost when she asked the Tradesmen about the worm last time then give her a hug
afterward, maybe we could hit up BX
Do we know where the sound came from, and where it went? Did it start in the middle of the ceiling, or go from one edge to another?
While we investigate the noise, can Finch, Pierce and Liz sort the music into bundles for trading?
As an aside, it might be worth figuring out what kind of aura EVERYBODY has, and inventorying ourselves spiritually.
We might want to touch base with Liz later privately about reducing her "Thale-ness" through meditation and some increased personal expression. I know that we value her Thale-ness for tactical purposes, but I feel like part of our mission here is also to improve the health and well-being of our friends and some potential enemies (we did help Macland, after all, and he seems to be appreciative) - plus we hopefully won't be needing Liz to be Thale-like forever, I think helping her to un-Thale herself would be beneficial to her long-term emotional health.
+1 to checking out the skittering noise, although it might be too late this time - we should be ready with a blooded cat/rat or even just a set of blood-bugs up in the rafters for when/if it happens again.
I seem to remember we used Willard for scouting when we first got here, so there's definitely places little spying critters could hide, which means there's places we need to secure against little spying critters. Filling in those gaps with some blood-based physicality (meat, bone, clots, or whatever sounds fun) could be in our best interests.
but i would suggest doubling down: assign at least 1 hour of dayly training to selfcentering meditations and astral manifestation for everyone with a potantial spot on our go-team. i think its should help improving defences against the many and lessening the burden on whatever maindefence we will use.
They will undoubtedly have cool things, but also have fires that need time and attention to put out. But as those issues have been going on for so many years, they can wait a few more days until we can properly handle them.
I approve of sending a blood bug or two into the rafters, perhaps totally tricked out with bioluminescence if need be. Once the inside is checked, I recommend sending Lumpy outside to check the roof, boosted up by flesh walls if need be.
And my thoughts on what the noise is, as much for my own benefit as anyone else's:
Skittering ice, a bubble in the pipes, or something equally mundane. 30% chance. Our crew seems fairly unfazed by this, in spite of EVERYTHING. Plus, Occam's razer applies here.
A monster, either zone 50 or local, such as a yeti. 10% chance. Mentioned in the discord. A possibility, and more likely here than most other settings, but nothing really tips the scales on this one.
A local animal, such as a rat. 5% chance. Due to the climate and lack of signs prior this seems unlikely.
A spy for Thale or Carpenter. 20% chance. They don't know we're here, but they'll never know if they don't check. This is the worst case scenario.
An attack by Thale or Carpenter. 2% chance. Again they don't know we're here, but if the did, with this current location, they wouldn't give us any warning, they'd attack. Hard. With a bomb.
The Time Beings, or their minions. 10% chance. Actually a bit of a coin toss in some ways. We just logiced that they're unlikely to be interested in what we're up to. Buuut… they are mysterious Time Beings, and if there's any point in time to stop us from stepping on their toes, this is the time to do it.
Edison, being mischievous and seeing how far she can push her new freedom. 15% chance. The dark horse in this contest. It's plausible that she snuck through the doors with somebody, and quite likely this bunker isn't specifically ghost proof.
Something else entirely. 8% chance. We've got a good list of ideas and paranoia altogether, but I still wouldn't put it past Morgenstern to come up with something that all of us combined wouldn't come up with.
Edit: Posted as the next page came up, so all this is kinda moot.