003 - Besides, by and large she was having a very good time.

[una_persson]

[AUDIO, public. Una sounds as composed and friendly as ever, her cut-glass accent as reassuring as a BBC news anchor's.]

To those of you I've not met before—hello. My name's Una Persson. I'd like to canvass the foreigner population here with just a brief question—who here is familiar with time travel, in the world from which they come? I'll be quite transparent: it's something with which I'm very familiar, and I'm curious to know who else is as well. Should you prefer to discuss this face-to-face, I live in the Wood sector. [A pause.] And if you're familiar with the technology behind it, I'd be especially interested in hearing from you.

---

[TEXT, separate messages sent privately to Bruce Wayne and Dorian Gray, basic encryption. Subsequent to her conversation with Iorveth, after his fail!private post.]

You may recall that there was a name in my notes that I showed you. Do not speak it out loud and be very careful with whom you share it.

Comments

audio;

[sciencewhizard]

Whoops- shoulda been clearer.

I mean- he copied designs that he saw in the future. I don't know the specifics, but it was something my uncle figured out.

audio;

[una_persson]

Ah, I see what you mean. It's interesting, that time travel remains theoretical but that any information at all—even just visuals—can be accessed in any way across time.

audio;

[sciencewhizard]

Information's probably easier to move around than actual objects. Where I come from there're a lot of civilizations on other planets with tech that blows Earth out of the water.

Sometimes stuff like that gets lost. [ Or even stolen, with some of the things he's encountered. ]

audio;

[una_persson]

I think I read a novel like that once. Some kind of alien visitation, leaving terribly advanced artifacts on Earth that might be a gift, or that might be nothing more than the equivalent of trash left behind by a roadside picnic.

audio;

[sciencewhizard]

At this point I'd wish we'd get more trash... I mean- a lot of the stuff is dangerous and ends up in the wrong hands back home. Hence why there're people like my uncle around to stop 'em.

audio;

[una_persson]

Always good to have people like that around. Is he a scientist or something like?

audio;

[sciencewhizard]

Yeah. He works CSI with the local police department. [ Among other things he's not at liberty to discuss just now. When he talks about Barry, though, it's obvious he admires him. ]

So you're familiar with time travel- is it something a lot of people do where you're from?

audio;

[una_persson]

Not very many. Those who do all tend to know one another.

audio;

[sciencewhizard]

[ Snort. ]

Is there a secret society of time travelers, then?

audio;

[una_persson]

[Amused:] You're not far off, actually.

audio;

[sciencewhizard]

Wait- Seriously? [ So cool. ]

So are there rules to it like, "Don't step on any butterflies?" or "Don't cross your own timestream?" Stuff like that?

audio;

[una_persson]

Naturally. Watch out for anachronisms, don't leave any trash in the Lower Devonian—common sense stuff, really.

[The way she says it, she sounds as if she might be joking. Hard to tell.]

audio;

[sciencewhizard]

Huh, no translation matrix or anything like that for anachronisms and slang? [ Of course, he's thinking of some kind of sci-fi TV show from back home. ]

Do things like that exist where you're from?

audio;

[una_persson]

Usually where I tend to go, it's not a problem.

[She's being a bit deliberately vague; it seems like she usually knows at least one relevant language besides English wherever and whenever she goes, and it's something she's never thought about. It's probably part of the general psychic camouflage that allows her kind of time traveller to blend in.]

There is one place and time where they've developed a thing called translation pills. Take one and you'll speak your interlocutor's language perfectly, but no other until it wears off. It's not a perfect solution, but it sometimes has amusing results, which I think they consider a feature rather than a bug, so to speak.

audio;

[sciencewhizard]

Huh. Sounds like a quick way to have an international incident. [ Though he might just see the humor in a normal situation. ]

Or- I dunno- the term'd be "intertemporal?" [ Thank goodness he knows his Latin. ]

audio;

[una_persson]

Got it in one. It works surprisingly well, but that's mostly because the people who invented them don't travel much themselves. People go to them, not entirely voluntarily sometimes.

audio;

[sciencewhizard]

Non-voluntary time travel? Sounds like another sci-fi book.

audio;

[una_persson]

Funny how it all does, after a while. No, usually it's the result of a navigation error, or a rogue current in Time, or something called the Morphail Effect, where an attempt to travel into the past results in the traveller getting forcibly pitched forward into the future. Sometimes a very long way away.