“Pleasure to meet you Stella, my name is Jack. Though I feel like people already know that everywhere I’ve gone today,” Jack replies in a pleasant manner, offering her a smile to go with his words as he squints his eyes to try to make out her features. Cool. Listening to her explanation of how things work, he thinks for a second about how she works and comes up with an idea.

Anything he can think of. He can think of a lot of things, but he’d already tapped out her ability to make spells for him, so he’ll have to think in a different direction. He already has his compass, wand and amulet, and he can still improve those on his own.

“Since you can’t go anywhere. How about you create an engram of your personality and memories, embed it in a sword? That way you can travel and see things with me, since you are stuck here. And then when I leave wherever I go from here, you can regain those memories from your engram, and experience travel with me. It sounds lonely here,” he suggests. Thinking that he’d rather not be stuck in a place like this.

Stella responds by handing him a gem to embed however he wants, created in that instant, "You are kind-hearted. Thank you. I'd like to show you part of the reason this is called the Rabbit Hole:"

Suddenly the cavern opens into a world-sized Warren, and humanoid rabbits of about 4' average height are hopping around here and there, going about ordinary day-to-day city activity.

"These are the souls of those we saved from the violent age of the Leporidaean civilization - particularly when my other-self out in the regular universe first met them. This place was created to be their home for as long as they wanted to stay. It's been thousands of years, and many have left to die and move on, but the rest are happy here.

"I actually have multiple selves roaming around the multiverse already, and I'm in constant unity with them (my selfs) almost always. I'll be happy to add one more. But you must understand, if I'm embedded in a weapon, there will be times I may not allow myself to be used. I'm actually pretty non-violent."

((Also, Stella is another player's character creation, and if that player ever wants to speak on behalf of the embedded Engram, I'd let them.))

"I'm pretty non-violent too, Stella. I was mostly just learning combat magic and to become a Mage Knight so that I wouldn't get bothered when I was out exploring and researching in the field. Nobody wanted to tangle with them on my homeworld," Jack explains with a bright smile as he takes the gem and puts it into a pocket. Then after a moment, he decides to put it into his compass instead, fiddling with it so that it sits flush on the cover when he closes it and tucks it back into his clothing.

It's not that he wants to be restricted from hurting others, but that he feels that she is better suited to be a companion attached to that. He hadn't really been thinking about personality when he'd suggested a sword.

"So, were there other things you can show me to pick from, or is that all?" he asks.

((That's great. I do prefer Solo most of the time, but I love when another player's input can get thrown in from time to time.))

Stella the shining woman grins, "I'm glad you asked!" She steps forward in a mahogany humanoid form with flowing black silk trenchcoat and dark glasses. Suddenly rows upon rows of every lethal and nonlethal weapon and armor imaginable. Each one has a miniature solid tactile hologram demonstration of the item in use.

"Take your pick! Now is your chance to express yourself as your ideal self-image. Whatever item, magical or technical, will be yours in some form.

"This may seem almost too good to be true, that we would be willing to invest so much in you, a stranger. But hundreds of years ago, the 7th Jack prophecied that one day a Jack who followed his heart would save the world from all future verser Jacks. Evil would struggle and claim a portion of the remnant, but if good prevailed, many would be spared while if evil prevailed, only few.

"We believe in you. That's why you were chosen by our deceased comrade. We have faith in you, even though we have breached your right of self-determination, we trust you will do the right thing, because even if you don't, one Jack finally will. If you are the one, this will all be over whether you win or lose. But we will be much more likely to survive if you win.

"That said, my existence cannot be threatened any longer. But the people of this collection of portal-joined universes have become precious to me, so I want you to win in whatever way you think best. I'll do my best to help make that happen, young man."

Jack watches her cool trenchoat as it flutters around her, and the romantic chivalry of it, he wishes he was as cool as her. But he isn’t about to admit that, the first rule of being cool is not to admit that you want to appear cool. Leaning over, he looks at all of the bizarre weaponry and types of armor, and scratches the back of his head.

“I was trained to use sword and halberd, and rely on my magical shields. My armor was always light because of that, though I can’t imagine it’d be that difficult to learn to wear something a bit heavier. Could you perchance recommend something to me? I feel that my knowledge of all things sharp and shiny is going to pale next to yours,” he says with a pleasant smile. Hoping that her knowledge of these things would improve the outcome for him.

Hearing about her ‘faith’ and the destiny to save the multiverse from his-selves, he nods a little.

“No pressure though, right?” he says.

Stella suits Jack up with:
-full robes which absorbs attach energy, softening most kinds of damage to non-lethal
-The Glove which forms a nearly impenetrable material protecting both arms and forearms while projecting an energy shield around him
-Liteblade: legendary halberd of the elemental Knight of light
-Cagedeath: one of the most ancient Vampire blades which contains the hearts of two immortal enemies, drinks the blood it touches and produces powerful magical boosts

When Jack says, "no pressure, right?"

Stella sincerely replies, "My apologies!" She morphs back to the giant rabbit, "I didn't mean to miscommunicate. There is tremendous pressure on you - the lives of most everyone are depending on you." She smiles with her crooked yellowing rabbit teeth.

Donning the robes and adjusting everything so that it hangs in a manner that fits accessibly, Jack feels like he at least looks the part even if he's totally in over his head. He never wants to die, but now he especially doesn't want to die because apparently he'd "lose these things" if he dies. Though he would imagine he'd lose everything if he died, he's still getting the hang of how all of this works.

When she tells him that his sarcasm wasn't received, he gives her a double thumbs up with his Gloves.

"Okay, now what?" he asks.

"Time to go."

Stella shows Jack out of the Rabbit Hole, out the red door back onto the train, but Stella stays behind. The tugging sensation returns.

Dotter and Djaymi are sitting down at a table eating a purple and blue bread-wrapped hand held meal that he doesn't recognize. Djaymi hands one to Jack, "Wanna eat before we go?"

However he responds, mid-lunch, they go through a tunnel and the tugging sensation shifts direction and intensity.

After lunch, Dotter leads them to the next car on the train, which is set up as a mobile command center with numerous humanoid and completely alien people at different stations working away.

Dotter begins explaining the plan of attack when suddenly the entire train is forcefully teleported into downtown Jacktown. Emperor Jack is decked out in his finest war suit. He makes a complicated motion with his hands and whispers something, then the train splits in half lengthwise like it was filleted by a giant invisible sword.

Emperor Jack shouts, "Finders keepers, rebels, I found you alive, so I'm taking your lives. Jack, if you know what's good for you, stay out of this!"

Emperor Jack moves to attack Dotter and Djaymi.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:49, Mon 04 Apr 2022.

((You’ll want to find-replace my name in the last post with Jake.))

Jack eats lunch with the others and is still getting used to his gear. His mind elsewhere as he occasionally feels that tugging sensation with a bit more clarity, and out of curiosity, he pulls out his compass and starts fiddling with it. Trying to determine the nature of the pull. “What a curious thing,” he murmurs to himself as he eats the kalkine with the other hand.

After lunch, he is following the other still and at the change in intensity, he is about to ask about it when the answer presents itself in a ‘war suit.’ His eyes on the identical man’s motions and words, he debates trying to learn them, but the whispering is too quiet to copy. Even if the motion of his lips was visible.

When the evil Jack tells him to ‘stay out of it’ he acts like he might, backing away from the fight just long enough for attention to shift and then unleashes his most potent of assistance. Casting magic that’ll make Dotter and Djaymi’s reactions and actions considerably faster. He starts layering on assisting magic on them.

Between spells: “Yeah right, because if I stay out of it you’re going to send me home with a pat on the head?” he questions.

The tastes are completely foreign, but they are tasty. If you've ever had gothu roti, it tastes like that, but with a sweeter and stringier meat than chicken.




The timing of Jack's comment causes Dotter to notice and explain what she knows, "I suspect you're experiencing a tugging kind of sensation. Apparently all versers like yourself feel that sensation guiding them in the direction of their possessions and any other versers in the universe they're in at the time. That's why we're in this train. The train is traveling from planet to planet across this and a few other portal-connected universes to prevent Emperor Jack from catching up to us while our location is vulnerable to discovery."


*Roll*


((Be more specific, what kind of assistance?))
*Roll*


Djaymi and Dotter as well as all surviving rebels from the train (and a few sleeper agents in the streets) are attacking the Emperor. Even so, he doesn't seem to be using much effort to overcome their spells and gunfire. He has time to respond to Jack, "They lied to you, Jack. You probably saw images of me doing all sorts of horrendous things, but it's all fake! Those things were done by the other Jacks, and I made sure they'd never do that in this universe ever again."

Dotter, staining to survive, yells, "Don't listen to him, Jack! He's a liar, I'm a Truthteller, I literally cannot lie."

Emperor Jack scoffs, "If he's anything like me, he won't fall for your trickery again. I'll give you one final chance: stop this futile fight - you can't win, and stop creating more versers, it's cruel to kill people and take them from their homes forever."

"I like this food."

Jack wonders if he’d misplaced anything in this universe, he doesn’t think he had, so he has to expect it’s another ‘verser.’ He’ll need to ask for clarification of that term as well, though contextually he think it means people who move between universes.  “So, if it gets closer, that’d be a bad thing, right?” he asks, knowing that Emperor Jack is apparently a verser too, and not the local version of him.

The magic he layers on is all of the most powerful buffs he can manage. Stoneskin, Blur and enhancements to their strength. It should help them resist Emperor Jack for longer.

He actually thinks that the Emperor might be convincing. If he hadn’t met Stella. Stella clearly was even more powerful than this Emperor, and had seemed “good” and had been anti-Emperor Jack. She serves as his compass in this case, both literally and in the sense that her consciousness is bound to his compass.

Once his buffs are up, he switches to another tried and true methodology, and his first real ‘attack’ on Emperor Jack: Banishment! It takes a bit longer to cast, but maybe he can punt Emperor Jack from this dimension. That should give them time, if he ends up in some random dimension without his “technology.” Maybe he won’t be able to come back, and hopefully if he can, not to this exact place on this moving “train.”

Dotter answers, "Yes, that would be Emperor Jack finding us. Also, sorry for reading your mind without asking first, but you are right, a verser is someone like you who cannot permanently die - versers just pop into a different universe every time they die."

((Minor clarification, the train was teleported into downtown Jacktown by Jack. BTS, Jack was trying to triangulate their location when one of his spies on a planet in a distant galaxy saw the train go by, and reported to the Emperor its coordinates. Emperor Jack teleported the entire train in front of him at that point.))



As Jack prepares to attempt to banish the scourge who shares his face and his name, Emperor Jack makes quick work of the remaining rebels. He flies at each of them, outmatching their speed and crushing through their buffed defenses. He ignores Jack, presuming Jack listened to him.

When only Dotter and Djaymi remain, he shoots them with a ray-gun and they stop in mid-air. Just as he's about to decapitate them both, Jack's banishment spell is completed. Suddenly Jack, Emperor Jack, and everyone else in this universe whose name begins with a "j" sound and ends in a "k" sound disappears.

((Wrap up anything left in this universe from before this moment, and we'll go from there soon.))

Jack is surprised that Dotter can read his mind at all! His mental defenses aren’t shabby, he’s a combat mage with a strong sense of self and willpower! But if anything, this world is full of interesting people and interesting magics. Even their “technology” magic is rather surprising, it’s almost like it doesn’t use magic at all!

He watches as the magic defenses are cut through with ease by the Emperor and he feels even more certain of his judgement in this matter. If the Emperor is that strong, he’s strong enough to do all of that with some sort of stunning device or capture device, certainly, and strong enough to build a prison to hold them.

That’s what a just ruler would do. Then again, he has no interest in ruling anything, so maybe that gives him the wrong perspective.

When he is banished by his own spell, his eyes temporarily go very wide for the briefest of moments before he pops off the train.

Jack ((all items still with him - hint - use any of the items Stella gave you if you want a chance to keep them after this place)), Emperor Jack, and all of the J*k named people find themselves inside a huge abandoned black brick burned out warehouse. A 41 km square building - huge enough to hold the 6,000,000,000 or so people with a few feet of space each, who suddenly found themselves banished from their home universe.

Emperor Jack screams and teleports in front of Jack, "You whiny little..." He punches Jack in the chest. Jack's defensively buffed robes prevent his death, but Jack feels like he was hit by a charging mountain-sized bull. Jack goes flying through the air backwards and slams through the black brick wall that was 20km away a second ago. In the back of his mind, Jack notes that the verser-vector ((tugging that-way sensation)) switches from receding in front of him to approaching him from behind the moment he plows through the wall.

Since he was punched backward and upward, he also slams through the roof, only to find himself emerging through the floor nearby.

Emperor Jack catches him from behind before he his the ceiling again.

From punch to catch, 2 seconds have passed for Jack. Jack notices that the room seems to have fewer people in it than it did before he was punched.

Emperor Jack apologizes, "I'm sorry about that, little dude. You really pissed me off, but I've let it go." Anxiously he continues, "Listen, where did you go when the wall closed up behind you and a few hours later the roof reformed behind you?"

When the Emperor teleports in front of him, or at least seems to, Jack immediately swings out with one of his Glove covered fists in an attempt to counter the blow. Though having seen how effective the Emperor was on the train, he sort of doesn’t expect it will do much. As he is sent flying, he has very little time to even have an inner monologue. More of an ‘Oh shi—” before he impacts and seems to disappear.

When he reappears from the other side of the dimensional cube, he immediately begins to deduce the effect of the cube. It’s a pocket dimension. He’d banished himself along with the Emperor, and based on the number of other people here, he expects maybe some others as well? Though how, he has no idea! To a fold in space where passage through one plane results in emerging from its folded opposite.

Looking around at the ground, he then looks at Emperor Jack and says, “I accept your apology. I have no memory of any time loss from your perspective, it was a simultaneous experience for me. I just arrived a few seconds ago, from my perspective,” he explains without lying.

He debates pulling out his compass, but he isn't sure if the Emperor is going to just leave it at that. So instead, he prepares to bring out the weapons he has been given.

((I hope you don't mind expletives. Also, how much gore are you okay with?))

Emperor Jack panics, holding his head he repeats, "OMG, OMG, OM mother effin' GEE! FRAK! All my shit is back there, and I'm stuck here! Someone kill me now!"

About a third of the people within earshot look suddenly eager for just a moment before pretending not to have heard.

Emperor Jack says, "No, I'm absolutely freaking serious. Please, someone kill me! Is there a Truthteller here?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:21, Tue 05 Apr 2022.

(I’m fine with everything.)

Jack makes a face at the Emperor as he shouts nonsense. What is an ‘Ohemgee?’ he hasn’t the foggiest, but he really doesn’t want to talk to the Emperor more than he has to, so he doesn’t ask about that. Instead he asks, “If you want to die, why not just kill yourself? And what’s a Truthteller?” curious if it has something to do with being a Verser.

As he tries to find out about being a Verser, he pulls out his compass and starts to try to make sense of how this pocket dimension is attached to whatever world it’s in, or if it’s a detached space in some sort of cosmic void.

Adjusting the dial on it, he swings it around a bit and mentally records the findings.

Emperor Jack rolls his eyes, "If you kill yourself too many times, you go nuts." He shouts over the crowd, "PLEASE ANY TRUTHTELLERS, COME FORWARD, I WON'T HARM YOU!"

The first person Jack noticed in Jacktown - the beggar - comes forward (he is without his cart), "Jack off eh?"

"I want to be killed, could you verify this for everyone present?"

Since Jack has his compass out, he notices the magic infused vapor stuff swirling around the beggar's third eye. The beggar says, "It's true. He wants to be killed. Can I do it? Yup, but I won't. That one will." He points toward Jack.

Behind Jack, a woman on a bikini leaps over Jack's head and thrusts her hand into Emperor Jack's throat, ripping or his esophagus and pay of his carotid arteries. Emperor Jack mouths 'thank you' as arterial spray covers her - some going into her mouth which she swallows accidentally.

This pocket dimension is completely separate from all other locations - it is a pocket universe, and it is shrinking.

Emperor Jack quickly becomes lifeless, and the moment his eyes go dark, he and his blood disappear.

 That was unfortunate, Jack was hoping he could squeeze some more juicy information out of the Emperor now that he was certain of who was evil in this scenario. “Won’t he just go back to the world he was ruining?” he asks, looking at the Beggar and others in the area. “Or is that not how it works?” The question comes out even as he is considering the nature of the pocket dimension. The fact that it is shrinking is either alarming or just curious, he’s not sure which. He supposes it depends on how fast it’s shrinking and how fast he can figure out a means to escape.

The violence of the woman’s action earns a look, wide-eyed in the same way he’d looked and felt at the violence on the train. So terribly violent!

He has his skills, but he has never really used them to hurt anyone. His skills are all theoretical and practical against dummies.

“It’s interesting that his body disappeared. I wonder if there is a connection between the number of people and the size of the dimension,” he considers and goes over to where the Emperor died, holding the compass nearby as he looks through it at the corners of the room.  He doesn’t know the Gate spell, or any other portal that has cross-dimensional abilities, though given the results of banishment, he might try to teleport in a few minutes.

I didn't mention, but it's worth noting that most people on the train had between 7-9 above their heads, but Emperor Jack was 8192.

The temperature readout shows consistent temperature throughout the room. The compass sign is blinking next to it.

Beggar has a 13 above his head


The beggar answers, "No, you banished him, and anyone who has a name which begins with a 'jah' and ends in a 'kah'.

The warehouse is shrinking proportional to the number of people in it.



The beggar replies by making a stick puppet nod its head.

Stella pipes up, "It looks like there's no way out of here but by death. Sad to think so many people might die of starvation here."

((there are lots of random people in the warehouse from a universe with powerful but different magic from what Jack is used to. They won't actually starve to death, because they'd figure out a way to use their magic to survive before that happenned. I'm giving Jack an opportunity to help them find that way or learn any of their magic he might want to try to learn before something happens and the multiverse finds a way to kill him))
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:19, Wed 06 Apr 2022.

“I’m sorry.”

 Jack is only really surprised by the apparent strength of the Beggar, though since it’s nowhere near that of the Emperor, he doesn’t really plan to ask too many questions. Taking his things, he walks over to the nearest wall and pulls out his sword and halberd, taking turns with each to cut into the wall and attempt to assess the walls.

It also gives him some time to think.

His banishment should not have worked like that. It’s strange, he’d need to investigate the spell-form that’d been used and how that universe functioned to really get to the bottom of it. Though that’d require him to go back there, and he isn’t sure how long it’ll be before he can figure out spells to travel between universes.

"Yeah," he agrees with Stella.

The beggar shrugs and wanders away, pulling out a blank book from his coat and "reading" it.

Around the warehouse, people are beginning to organize themselves. Someone has begun painting the walls with beautiful scenes from nature and space. Every 500 meters or so, a depression in the floor has been designated as the latrine. Engineers are working on a plumbing system while a few Nature mages are turning human waste into manure. Someone gathered the seeds that people happenned to have on them and the nature mages are speeding up their growth, harvesting what they can as it becomes available. Someone has cobbled together a VR room for entertainment from communications and gaming devices. A few Kinetic Element mages are constructing housing units from the warehouse debris. Life goes on.



Stella says, "Can I help you with that? I really should've shown you how to use those before everything went down."

Assuming it's a yes, she says, "The sword has the hearts of two Sanguin - one willingly trapped, the other trapped against her will. If they are ever released from their cage within the sword, they will consume blood any way they can and their bodies will reform. If that were to happen, it would be detrimental to everyone's health since they'd be in an uncontrollable murder spree until their bodies had consumed enough blood to be at full health. While in the sword, any blood that touches the sword is consumed and converted into a solid-state pure magical energy known as Magustone. Any Magus related spell used when holding or touching the magustone is enhanced, consuming a portion of the stone in proportion to the power added to the spell.

"The Halberd enhances any Light magic spells attempted - any magic related to light."

Hacking at the wall with the sword doesn't do much. It's just like hitting a wall with a sword - a hole might be cut into the wall, but these walls are self-healing and return to their regular state after being damaged. That said, looking through the hole does show what's on the other side ((two hours into the future)). Which looks normal enough for the few seconds the holes remain open.

“Thank you, that's informative. Light magic? I can use light magic here, I think,” Jack says to Stella after the explanation and stops using them as blunt instruments. He’ll design a spell to knock down the wall instead! Or maybe he can use the time difference to travel through time? He knows where the hole will be forming, can be send a message back in time? He make a mental note to test. He’ll have to prepare the experiment. Further, maybe he could even learn to send a person back in time with it, and if time, he can maybe manipulate space? Time and space are tied together after all.

Pulling out his wand, he smooths out a patch of ground with his hand and then starts to write spell forms there, but he quickly runs out of space. Looking around, he spots the Beggar in the distance and walks over.

Cupping his hands, he requests, “Sir Truthteller, would you by chance have a book that I could have? I need something to write on, and the margins of one of your books are as good as any.”

((Which weapon would your prefer to keep, the halberd or the sword?))

The beggar hold up his empty book and proclaims, "I hereby give full ownership of this book over to the Jack in exchange for his robe which is about to vanish." He presses the book into Jack's chest, and deftly removes the robe Stella gave him. The robe indeed starts to vanish. Stella explains that it only had enough power behind it to last about this long outside her reality.

The moment Jack touches the book, his mind goes blank. Not coma blank, but zen blank. The moment he places it in a pocket, he returns to normal.

While Jack is coming back from the beggar, he notices someone breaking through the wall from the other side (meaning 2 hours ago that same someone broke through from the other side of the warehouse) someone else is standing ready to give a message to himself from 2 hours ago. The moment he does so, reality begins to split in two. But this abnormal choice divergence of reality doesn't work like a normal choice divergence, instead, everybody is ripped into two pieces. Including Jack.

He feels his body being torn in half from bottom to top, and experiences two awarenesses for a moment - one left brained analytical and frustrated, the other right brained and transfixed by the experience. Then everything goes black. Thou art dead. ((New post coming soon, wrap up anything you'd like before the split death))

((The sword, mainly because it sounds cooler. Though the halberd would help with magic more.))

"Oh, thank you," Jack replies and is about to start writing in the book, coming up with plans and spells that can make use of the strangeness of his pocket dimension when his mind goes blank. The loss of his robe is a bit disconcerting, but easy-come easy-go, he didn't really put any effort into getting it. So he can't be too upset about losing it.

Turning his head at the sound of him or maybe a different him hammering through the wall, he glances over and prepares to test his theory.

Then he's ripped in half.

Analytical: This is not supposed to work this way.

Creative: I am a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.