In reply to Sal (msg # 100):

The Caretaker gestured to the vial and then down the street. There was a door down that way that stood there in the paused time of 1800's new york. "Your choice then." There was an odd stain spreading across the abdomen of the caretaker like it had been bitten by something. It made no sign of discomfort.

It had odd green-colored blood.

In reply to Mistral (msg # 103):

The young man smiled, "Sounds like a chicken or the egg situation to me. Who knows, there are a lot of strange critters with a lot of strange powers out there." He had no idea he wasn't on his homeworld anymore. But strangeness never broke his stride before.

He pointed up, "Sometimes unrestrained optimism is the only reason we make it through the rough patches. Now, let's get you set so I can go kick this things brain and ruin it forever."

He crossed his fingers a few times and made a thin sheet of the fibers. "Wear the veil if you please. It should keep you nice n' separate even if Necros loses his discipline. It isn't very sturdy, so don't let someone touch it, but it will treat your mind as if it is an entirely different reality."

He nodded once, "And thanks, it takes a special kind of person to even be around him. He has been through a lot of horrors, it's nice to see he has found some bright shiny spots in the dark." He then cast a spell, one that formed not a portal but a true Gate. A portal that could puncture right through planar boundaries without traveling the spaces between.

"Off you go now. Right as rain and twice as delightful."

Not believing that the Caretaker's wound could possibly be real, but knowing he was being tested, Sal said, "Are you okay? You seem to be... bleeding."

Mistral hesitated at first when offered the veil, having seen the ruinous effect of the glass walker fibers on the caretakers.  Somehow she found it difficult to be suspicious of this charming young man and his extraordinary power, however.  "The Collector reads minds like a book open to all pages, it is said.  If this will shield me from this it would be worthwhile in itself."  With care, she draped the veil over her head and tried to secure it in place as best she could.

With face now enshrouded in the diaphanous supernal veil, Mistral agreed, "I do not doubt that he has.  Now to reunite him with the shiniest spot of them all, in his eyes."  She looked to the Gate, which was a remarkable construction that defied its own impossibility.  Mistral inclined her head to the young man, "Merci encore, stranger.  I am in your debt.  Au revoir."

Mistral then projected herself toward the Gate, and passed through it.

In reply to Sal (msg # 106):

The Caretaker did not seem to react, if anything it looked as if it was caught in the same memory time stop as the rest of the scene. It was also starting to bleed from the nose. Something was very wrong and getting worse. An idea given light by the fact that a brick near his foot fell into a white nothing just before a street light started degrading into dust. The memory he was in was starting to buckle.

Sal hurried through the door that had been pointed out to him.

 As Mistral stepped into Talion's room, she caught the scent of unfamiliar air, an unfamiliar sky, and alien vegetation. The land was a blasted hellscape scourged by magical warfare and a stone tower jutted out of its crater near a mountain. The moon had cracked open and was descending towards the planet.

 Talion had composed himself but Mistral could see the faint traces of tears still in the corners of his eyes. He looked at Mistral and the Gate and smiled. It was the distant, bittersweet smile of a fond old memory turned painful. "He never was particularly subtle."

Mistral had no idea what to expect beyond the gate into Talion's memory, but she strode through nonetheless and emerged in the aftermath of a calamity on an alien world.  There stood Talion upon a battlefield rent asunder and scorched by vast works of will, with a stone tower in the distance, silhouetted against a strange sky.  Mistral approached and read upon his face that this was an important yet bittersweet recollection of his.  She joined him in surveying the blasted landscape and answered, "Oui.  I met him only briefly, but 'subtle' is not the word I would use."

Mistral hesitated for a beat, then said, "Remember why we are here, Monsieur.  You cannot undo the past, but you can save the future.  Come.  We haven't much time before this realm falls apart around us."  If a door was in evidence Mistral would start toward it, beckoning Talion to follow.

 Talion closed his eyes and nodded, inhaling one more time to savor the smells of his homeworld one last time before he began striding toward the portal. As he walked, before he reached the door, he spoke (but did not stop). "By the way, that veil you're wearing is woven from Paradox."

 However, he said no more as he entered the next room.

https://soundcloud.com/desktop...-final/s-hrZyJR2NqMU

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qwjd...oom%20final.mp3?dl=0

https://youtu.be/_uoI6W8NeBY

 Talion looked from wall to wall, floor to ceiling and each golden scale... each tombstone connected to his emperor's raiment just as Mistral's thread did and vanished once he moved too far away.

 There was no mistaking who these names were. They were all people like Mistral... and like Sal. They were all souls who's fate had been intertwined with Talion's. Millions... billions... trillions of lives.

 Hearing them question him, walking past the monuments to his own failure, Talion clutched at his chest with one hand and his head with the other. He didn't speak. He did not answer the chorus of voices. He did not answer the Collector. Drops of liquid tass streaming down his cheeks, he continued his steps forward... onward to his goal... onward to Emily.

 But Mistral and Sal could both see that Talion's steps began to slow, that his shoulders began to slump... and, before he got even a third of the way through the graveyard, his strength failed him and he dropped to his knees. "I... can't answer that..."
This message was last edited by the player at 05:20, Mon 10 Aug 2020.

The news that the veil was woven of paradox was unnerving, but Mistral took it in stride.  She remarked, "I might be alarmed, but at this point I've come to expect such existential shocks at every turn."

Mistral passed through the strange tunnel of scales until it opened out into a galactic-scale graveyard.  From every headstone a thread tracing back to Talion, and every thread had a name and an accusatory voice all asking the same two-word question.  Mistral surmised that these graves must be the numberless casualties of Talion's endeavors, spanning from before that ancient magical war on an alien world to the destruction of New York City.  the Caretaker's voice boomed above the thunderous clamor to denounce Talion for a coward, and it was clear that the accusation struck to the core of the accused.

When Talion faltered, Mistral turned to him and took him by the arm.  Looking him in the face, she urged him with some force behind her words, "You must press on, Monsieur.  You must look forward."  She yanked on his arm, trying to drag him to his feet as she echoed the inescapable question in a new light, "Are you going to let this defeat you?"

Sal wormed his way through into the cube with Talion and Mistral, and ran up and roughly hauled Talion to his feet, holding him up face to face, "Are you gonna tell me, we came all this way, risking so much, and you don't know the answer to a question Descartes answered hundreds of years ago?!"

https://youtu.be/1w35vbh5_3E

 Talion was heavier than he appeared, but not quite so much that both Sal and Mistral were unable to lift him to his feet. He looked to each of them in turn, his eyes haunted by the horrors of the past. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath as he gained his composure.

 "That is not the question they are asking me. When all things began and Infinity was born, it asked a question... and Fate began to search for an answer.

 If that question is ever answered, everyone will die... not just here. Not just on Earth. Every world, every realm, everything, everywhere... it all dies.

The synthetics were not the first of my creations. I fought a war to prevent that question from being answered. I bought souls with wishes and put those men and women through hell to train them to fight.

 I fought beside them... and I watched them die.

 When I scoured my world clean of life, they were singing... because they thought it was over.

 ...and, since then, I have seen things. Beautiful, terrible things.

 Talion steadied himself so that he no longer leaned on the two of them for support.


  I have watched civilizations rise. I have been present for the birth of stars. I have watched universes freeze... and I have watched. time. end.

 As he spoke, Talion regained his strength... or perhaps it was simply that, after all this time, the dam on his emotions finally broke and it all just came pouring out.

 I have walked in realms where the very laws of physics were devised by mad gods just like you and I have learned something... no matter where you go, the weight of a life is the same.

 You like to feast on memories, don't you, Collector?!?

 Look around you! There are trillions of lives here and I remember each and every one!

 ... so come then! Let me tell you a story of how all these men and women lived! I will tell you of their bravery! of their sacrifice!

 ... and of those they left behind.

 The story continues, Collector! It will, for as long as I draw breath! ... and I will remember them all!"

 As he spoke, figures emerged from the gravestones, golden shadows of men, women, and children. Soldiers and citizens, people of all ages, creeds, and races across the ages.

 These people went through the motions of Talion's memories of them: The little urchin girl who sold flowers, the men armed for war, and every possible scenario in between. Trillions of lives that Talion had touched... and who's lives had touched him in return... and, together, they all began to sing.

 "These people lived! Each and every one of them! Great and small, they lived! Can you bear that weight, Collector? Can you bear the burden of a trillion lives?!"
This message was last edited by the player at 03:38, Wed 12 Aug 2020.

Feeling his willpower mysteriously bolstered, Sal focused his will against the magic Talion was working.

It was a relief to see Sal arrive to help  with Talion, although his appearance did not bode well for the stability of this realm.

Mistral was awestruck as Talion elucidated a vast history of reality, and then conjured to life countless golden memories of people all throughout the indescribably vast graveyard.  She had to wonder: would this overabundance of memories choke the Collector as Talion hoped, or would it be a feast?  Given the scale of the Collector's domain, it was difficult to tell.

As they awaited a response from their beleaguered host Mistral remarked, "Well-spoken, Monsieur.  Prior to shattering this realm, I think it may be wise to locate the Doctor and secure our escape, non?"  She cast her supernal sight wide and searched for doors leading out of this place.

https://soundcloud.com/desktop...s/caretaker-response

https://www.dropbox.com/s/q6ac...%20response.mp3?dl=0

 Talion seemed as though he were about to answer Mistral until a young woman took his hand in her own and claimed the entirety of his attention. Her hair was black and her eyes the same heterochroma as Talion's. There was no mistaking her blood relation to him. She was about Mistral's age, maybe a little younger and Talion closed his eyes to (unsuccessfully) fight back the tass laden tears that flowed freely.

 From his reaction, it was clear that this manifestation was not of Talion's magic... but, instead, something else entirely. She led the song as all those lives that Talion touched marched with them... a procession spanning eons as they passed through the graveyard.

 As Talion approached the exploded collector, the singing faded and the golden procession faded back into dust and memory. He turned to Mira one last time and she smiled at him, hugging him one last time as if the speak the goodbye he had never gotten to say... then she, too, returned to dust and memory.

 It took him several moments to collect himself, even in the presence of the collector... but, finally, he turned to look at him. "Sariel is trying to revive himself using the Collector as a host."

 He patted the now catatonic creature on the shoulder. "Couldn't have happened to anyone more deserving."

 Talion shoved lightly on the Collector's shoulder, letting him fall like a log to the ground. It was malicious, perhaps, but cathartic nonetheless. Talion popped his neck. "Looks like the time for playing by the rules is over. Hold on tight because things are about to get rough."

 He took a deep breath, squared his shoulders, and began to chant. It was an alien language, similar to Atlantean chants... but different... and Atlantean runes began to glow about Talion's head.


 He raised his hand and spoke a ginal word, completing the incantation. "Antigenesis!"

 The space where Talion touched with his outstretched hand turned dark and grey, expanding outward, destroying existing planar boundaries and replacing them with traversable space. Within seconds, it expanded to nearly 10ft in diameter... but it was rapidly continuing to expand.

 But, more than that, it opened into the next room...

 He took a deep breath before stepping over the ashes and dust of annihilated space.
This message was last edited by the player at 10:55, Thu 13 Aug 2020.

Mistral was stunned when a rush of lost memories came flooding back into her mind.  It was a deluge of events, things and people she had entirely forgotten until they were returned by the memory-thieving Collector.  She remarked idly to Sal, "A clever ploy, to harvest memories we were no longer aware we had forgotten..."  There did remain a particular absence that she'd bargained away to Hat-man Jack, however...

Then Talion reunited with the golden memory of a young woman who bore a striking resemblance to him.  A daughter lost to death and time, if she had to guess.  The whole scene was poignant in a strange way, and even stone-hearted Mistral felt tears prickling at the corners of her eyes as she walked with the golden procession.  It ended with the multitudes fading away, leaving them with a catatonic caretaker to be unceremoniously-but-deservedly shoved by Talion.

Mistral said, "These rules were disagreeable, en tout cas.  Do as you will, Monsieur.  I will be ready.  She hadn't gotten a name from the strange fellow with the threads, but she could only assume that had been Sariel.  When Talion's terrifyingly mighty magic began to burn a hole in the Collector and its planar bindings, Mistral followed.

Notes!

Once Talion had broken down the planar structure of the Collector to a sufficient degree Mistral regained the power to perceive and manipulate space, though this space was still very different from the reality she was accustomed to.  She explained, "This reality is asynchrone.  Spatially non-linear, and likely problematic for one's equilibrium.  Importantly, however, the Doctor is here.  I have traced her sympathy, for the first time since she went missing.  Follow, if you would."

Once they had all transitioned to the adjacent cube Mistral led them unerringly toward Dr. Lennis's sympathetic signal.  If the distance was too vast to arrive quickly, she would instead conjure a mist-limned portal to cross most of the intervening space.

Sal angrily kicked the fallen caretaker, and responded to Mistral, "I don't appreciate any rules that permit stealing from one guests. Now let's get out of here before this realm collapses around us." After her explanation of local space, which surprisingly, he had already assumed to be the case, even if he didn't quite understand how it worked, he followed Mistral without another word.

 Talion's eyes were still red from his emotional ordeal in the past two rooms but he straitened notable at the mention that Mistral had located her sympathy. He followed, eyes scanning the white expanse frantically for any sign of her.

 As they walked, he spoke, though he seemed a bit distracted by the search. "Thank you, both of you. I do not believe I would have been able to look into the faces of all those I've failed were I alone."

"You're welcome. I know what it is to have failed people, myself. I didn't want to add you and the doctor to that list." Truly, in many ways, looking at Talion was like seeing a much older, much more powerful version of himself.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0yfk...nal%20audio.mp3?dl=0


https://soundcloud.com/desktop-adonis/final-audio

Something only Sal can see:
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:35, Sat 15 Aug 2020.