Stage 1 ► Video [Console]

[makesright]

[ The video feed flickers on and Tom is staring into the camera, then glancing off to the side -- then smiling. He looks tired, but relieved. ]

Well, that was simple enough.

Hello, there. My name is Dr. Thomas Light. I arrived some time ago, during a festival, and... I seem to have lost some time? I'm not sure what day it is, but I have one of these now --

[ He holds up his arm, motioning toward the simple metal bracelet on his wrist, with a dark stone set neatly inside it where a watch face would normally be. ]

If anyone could be so kind as to tell me how long I was out? And why I woke up... somewhere completely different?

[ A quick glance at the world behind him reveals he's in the... water sector. ]

Comments

Re: video

[makesright]

Aya.

[ He matches that smile, happy to see another familiar face. ]

I don't recall going home -- if that's what happened, it must have been quick.

[ His expression falls at that. He didn't even get an opportunity to speak with his kids. ]

video

[looksfine]

From your perspective, that is the most likely scenario.

[She could not speak from personal experience, having never left the world herself, but rather from second-hand accounts and theoretical mathematical equations that would account for the discrepancies.]

It is also entirely possible you were never brought back to your own world, but simply displaced for the aforementioned duration. As such, you would technically have been transported through time only, from the moment you last recall to now.

video

[makesright]

I see. I've done some basic tests on spacetime manipulation back home to design an AI intelligent enough to handle the technology that was being developed, so I do know a... basic thing or two about displacement, though I'm hardly a quantum physicist.

I understand there's some sort of magic pulling us in -- I suppose, given all the scientists already here, that force has been measured and observed to the best of our ability. Has anyone managed to gather useful data on it? Perhaps that might shed some light on my displacement.

video

[looksfine]

[Ironically, Aya herself would later have experience in that precise area of science; after contamination by the Anti-Monitor, she would go on to obtain the necessary components to travel back all the way to the beginning of time in an attempt to reset the universe in her inorganic image.]

I am. In theory. Although the necessary calculations to travel across time, space, and dimensions is still beyond my current database references.

[Even the information she might have possessed on the subject had been blocked, unbeknownst to her, by her own creator.]

Unfortunately, the magical catalysts you referred to are too widely varied and unpredictable to accurately plug into any known equations. I have attempted on numerous occasions to hypothesize variables, but thus far, all results have been inconclusive.

video

[makesright]

Maybe once I'm settled I'll have a look at the data myself, if it's available. At the very least it might bring me up to speed with everyone else.

All that aside, how have the past few months been, Aya? Are you doing well?

video

[looksfine]

You need only ask, and you may have access to whatever you like.

[Robot. Living robot, yes, but one with a near-perfect eidetic memory. Every equation she had ever seen was permanently recorded in her database.]

I am fine.

There has been very little change in my standing since we last spoke, despite recent localized developments that have come to light.

video

[makesright]

Thank you. I'll be sure to take you up on that. I know you and I aren't the only scientists here -- perhaps we could all put our heads together over it. Could make a little get-together out of it -- it'd do me well to get a little socializing in.

So what's this about localized developments? Anything I should know?

video

[looksfine]

[Like a briefing? She certainly would not mind a gathering of the Science people to deliberate over a shared interest.]

Arguably, yes.

It has been revealed to us that our current Host, the turtle whose back we currently reside on, is slowly receding further and further into the waters below. For carbon-based life forms that require oxygen in its gaseous form to survive, that would be an area of great concern.

[makesright]

Oh, my...

Er, yes. Thank you, Aya. That really is quite relevant to me.

Is that why we went to port? Iroh mentioned something about it.

[looksfine]

I can not be certain about motives without corroboration from the original source, which I currently do not have access to--

[Translation: it wasn't like she could ask Asti...or whoever was steering him...why he chose to come ashore]

--but I would not deny the possibility that this is so.