Chiasmata: Found Footage

==~>

Some eldritch equilibrium shifts, and they rubberband back into a 'normal' ten-odd feet tall.

ARCHIVIST: "Now, I recall that humans don't tend to like that kind of perspective shift for too long. Well, the human I last met didn't, said it made the eyeballs itch. And, er, wait! I have a form better suited for interacting with humans!"

They blur with motion and, er, unpeel into a far more normal-looking person^{[dubious - discuss]}. It's really rather unsettling, and reminds you of what you and Daniel saw, with what you assume was Arbiter. Or some component thereof.

Honestly, everything these people do is low-to-highkey unsettling.

SAM: "Well, thanks? I guess?"
ARCHIVIST: "Happy to be of service! Now, dear Sage, dear Tinkerer, can you still hear us?"
DANIEL: "Are you talking to us?"
ARCHIVIST: "I am!"
SAM: "Why do you use those weird names?"
ARCHIVIST: "I'm not sure I understand your question."
SAM: "They're called Daniel and Jacqueline. Not 'Tinkerer' and 'Sage'."
ARCHIVIST: "Well, I'm using a non-standard shortening, but those are the names I see when I look at them. Hm. That's a bad analogy. 'See' gives an entirely erroneous description of the sense I use. Er, the last time I heard it described, it was called 'florgle', but that was a made-up word by the last person I explained this stuff to outside my dear siblings."
JACQUELINE: "Not that this isn't fascinating, but we're still in different rooms, blocked off by impenetrable black stuff."
ARCHIVIST: "Aha, well, that's where you're wrong. The Voidwalls are perfectly penetrable, it's just that human-borne abilities are specifically disallowed from breaking it. Sometimes. There have been exceptions, but that wouldn't stop you using conventional means to get through."
ASH: "Conventional means? Like what?"
ARCHIVIST: "Er, as a point of comparison... do you remember what a 'nuclear bomb' is?"
ASH: "I think so?"
ARCHIVIST: "They are the most energy-dense unassistedly human-made bombs on Earth Crimson."
ASH: "And those would get through the Voidwalls?"
ARCHIVIST: "Well. You'd have to use all of them. But yes!"
DANIEL: "Given that, unless someone's been holding out on me, we don't have all the world's nukes hidden somewhere about our persons, couldn't you just do the brain-breaky thing again so we can climb over?"
ARCHIVIST: "Um. It'd probably not work. And you might die. But apart from that, it's a good plan."
DANIEL: "Yeah, some slight issues with that plan, then."
ARCHIVIST: "They're actually rather significant - you'd be moving through dimensions you don't normally inhabit, that you couldn't see, and that might end up with you dropping out of the shadow of the Location and being uniformly spread over the entire wheel of universes."
SAM: "So, can't you get through?"
ARCHIVIST: "Oh, I can. Er, in fact, I should, shouldn't I? Let your friends in, that is."
SAM: "Mmm-hmm."









<Θ>

You immediately regret giving them the go-ahead. Your eyes regret it, and then your brain regrets having to interpret the input from your eyes.

The space between them and the wall contracts and you nearly trip over as the room lurches. It's like being dizzy, and then they reach their hands out, and part the wall like a curtain. Shadows writhe across the floor, as if they're confused about where they should be.

Wait, no. That isn't right. They hold out their hands, and the wall obliges by not being where they ask it not to be. Or maybe it just... wasn't ever there, because Archivist deemed it so.

ARCHIVIST: "Now, breaking parts of the Voidwall would be dangerous, so I've merely circumvented it. Step through the presented aperture. Please avoid thinking about the physics of the situation. Experience has told me that, without a thourough background in differential geometry and higher-dimensional topology, that'll just hurt your head."
DANIEL: "I still can't tell what I'm looking at."
ARCHIVIST: "Good! That'll make the not-getting-a-headache easier. Or not-harder."
ASH: "Why do you keep doing weird things? Like, surely there's an easier way to do this. None of our powers break brains to watch."
ARCHIVIST: "Aheheh, well, this is the easy way. Or, at least, the way that's least damaging to the systems without drawing the attention of my siblings. Er. Hmm. Well, I guess I was kinda being overdramatic? You're the first audience I've had in a while, and I wanted to make a good impression."
ASH: "By hurting our heads and scaring us?"
ARCHIVIST: "My previous audience was slightly more used to it, I must admit. And you were scared? That's terrible, and I apologise unreservedly!"
ASH: "Er, um. Thanks? I was more alarmed than, er, scared though."
ARCHIVIST: "Hm. You're mildly alexithymic, I think, looking a bit closer at your neurochemistry."
ASH: "What?"
DANIEL: "Can we stop getting lost in tangents and digressions? Who or what are your 'siblings', why do you look like that thing in the coffin back in... where the hell ever in this stupid hellmaze? Where are we? Why are we here?" And who even are you?
SAM: "Well, they told us some of that."









==~>

You then, with mild prompting and as few digressions from Archivist as possible, explain what they told you about the situation.

Daniel pauses, thinking before asking his next question.

DANIEL: "So, what'll happen if your siblings notice what's going on? That you're alive?"
ARCHIVIST: "Um. It depends? My dear brother will probably try to kill me, my dear sister... I'm not sure, and my dear sibling will probably stop my dear brother from wringing my sorry neck?"
JACQUELINE: "A functional family, then?"
ARCHIVIST: "You'd think so, wouldn't you? You'd think the oldest beings on all the Earths would have figured out their family dynamics by now."
ASH: "Oldest?"
ARCHIVIST: "Yes, well. I think so? I don't quite remember my earliest memories, but I do recall that we're older than the cold of the Earth."
JACQUELINE: "I'm not sure what that means."
ARCHIVIST: "Hmm. Well, there was that time when your Earth was hit by another planet. That wasn't so long ago, but it did kick up enough stuff to form Earth's natural satellite. That was pretty impressive."
SAM: "Still not ringing any bells."
ASH: "Sounds old, though."
JACQUELINE: "We're missing an important detail. What do you plan, going forwards. You're going to get us all out of here alive, yes?"

Archivist looks decidely uncomfortable.

ARCHIVIST: "Funny thing about that... My siblings are all evenly matched with me, Strength-wise. If more than one of them disagrees with getting you out of here, you're not getting out of here. And I'd love to say that, er, you're all going to be fine, but I don't like making promises about things that aren't certain."

There is a brief silence.

DANIEL: "Welp. We're doomed."
ARCHIVIST: "I will try my best to avoid that eventuality! I even have the vague seed of a plan! Admittedly, it is mostly a plan to fix the Location and the systems it oversees, the power it routes and so forth. But, as a side-effect, it will make releasing you back where you came from a trivial matter, once the relevant systems are repaired. Optimistically, it'll take an hour or so of your subjective time."
DANIEL: "Pessimistically?"
ARCHIVIST: "We all die, the Location collapses, and every living thing on every Earth from mauve through to apricot dies, and it takes a few thousand years for me and my siblings to pick up all the pieces."
JACQUELINE: "Yeesh."
DANIEL: "I reiterate my previous statement about us all being doomed."

---

Footnote:

SpoilerShow

It's been two-ish weeks, and here's some Cute Archivist.

Sheesh, they talk an awful lot, don't they?