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TimeWatch RPG Playtest Story Hour (Updated 9-2-14)
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<blockquote data-quote="Ladybird" data-source="post: 6257506" data-attributes="member: 10689"><p><strong>Episode 1, Chapter 8: A Royally Complicated Situation</strong></p><p></p><p>"Oh, mon dieu," Michel groans.</p><p></p><p>Kat texts Edward over the tether: "Our duty is to whichever is the true timeline. We have to know. I'll take her for a walk. Figure it out."</p><p></p><p>Edward, his head spinning just as much as everyone else's, meets Kat's eyes and gives her a short nod. "I understand," he texts back. "We'll try."</p><p></p><p>"Mais comment?" Michel texts. And then, having run out of even questions in French, just says "Merde." He plunks down to the ground in the grove of live oaks where we've retreated, head buried in his hands.</p><p></p><p>Kat clears her throat. "Elizabeth? I think they need some time to process this." Elizabeth nods, her eyes full of uncomfortable sympathy, as Kat takes her hand and offers, "Let's go for a walk." Kat is still texting, though - she'll make her thoughts known.</p><p></p><p>Yves is the one who starts. "We are TimeWatch agents, and we are sworn to uphold the timeline of <em>our</em> TimeWatch. Our mission is to prevent the nuclear attacks in 1938, so we must prevent Forrest from altering the timeline in 1793."</p><p></p><p>"Our mission is to uphold the <em>true</em> timeline," Edward objects, echoing Kat's words. "No matter which one that is. We have to go back to 1757 and thwart Forrest then, because that's his first intervention in the timeline. That's what our other selves were already trying to do."</p><p></p><p>Hypatia raises a different question: "Do we really feel comfortable with assassinating an innocent man? Admittedly, one with a somewhat unsavory personal life, but…"</p><p></p><p>"I assure you," Edward retorts, "I'm really not comfortable with a scenario where victory means killing a king!" </p><p></p><p>Sidebar:</p><p>[sblock]The style changes here because the speeches I'm reproducing are actually what the players wrote themselves - we debated this over email. A Lot. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /> Mace and Michel are quiet in this discussion because their players were super-busy that week.[/sblock]</p><p></p><p>Kat's text comes through the tether: "Moral dilemma, my sainted great aunt. You <em>know</em> I come from a vanished timeline. Did you somehow imagine innocents didn't vanish with it? Our job is to preserve the real timeline, whether or not it's the one we might most prefer. Once we start making decisions according to personal preference, we're no better than that moron white supremacist I just shot. There's no dilemma here. The only thing that matters is the truth. I'll keep her distracted. Figure out which is the real timeline, and then let's do what we have to do to fix it."</p><p></p><p>Yves lounges back against a tree trunk. "Ma cherie, you make it all sound so...noir et blanche. We are tasked by Timewatch to restore the timeline, not HM Timewatch. Shouldn't our loyalty be to them even if it isn't the original? And who's to say what the original is? Perhaps there is une belle French woman on our team who sadly disappeared due to chronal instability from the true original timeline...should we rescue her from the abyss of non-existence? My dear Katarina, maybe you originate from the real timeline and Timewatch was set up by an aberration whose only goal is self-preservation. The "real" timeline is whatever we think it is, n'est-ce pas?"</p><p></p><p>"In any case, aren't we rather putting the horse before the cart?" Hypatia objects. "Before we worry about 1757, shouldn't we first be concerned with 1793, when Forrest shows up and convinces Whitney not to move back to Connecticut? After all, we all agree that's the wrong timeline, and we haven't actually fixed it yet!"</p><p></p><p>Edward shakes his head. "The trouble with going to 1793 is that it's already in the timeline that Forrest changed in 1757. If we alter what happened in 1757 and capture Forrest in that time, then there won't be any need to change anything in 1793. It won't matter where Whitney sets up his factory, because there won't be any Civil War at all for his factory's location to affect. The bigger question is, do we change 1757? As TimeWatch agents, we're tasked with protecting the original timeline, but which <em>is</em> the original timeline? Is it the one we came from? From what Miss Jackson says, it sounds as if it's not. The timeline that we came from has already been altered by Forrest, and therefore it is not the original. So I think we may have to change what happened in 1757. Still, as I hope you'll understand, I can't entirely bring myself to declare that our goal should be to kill a king."</p><p></p><p>"Quelle surprise!" Yves snorts. "Le roi d'Angleterre thinks it's a good idea to have a British Timewatch. I am sure your motives are nothing but pure, your majesty."</p><p></p><p>"That's not what this is about!" Edward snaps. "This is not about England or France; this is about which timeline is the original! And about killing an anointed king."</p><p></p><p>"Let me say again," Kat texts, "I think you are all missing the point. The issue has nothing to do with any preference any of us might have for democracy over monarchy, the metric over the imperial, or HM TimeWatch over TimeWatch. Or whether Elizabeth Jackson lives or dies. Trust me, I have some preferences myself on some of these issues, but preferences don't matter.</p><p></p><p>"Nor does it have anything to do with our willingness or reluctance to kill a king. Edward, I actually do understand your perspective, but... when we correct timelines, people fade out of existence as an unavoidable side-effect. People die. Kings and chambermaids and Napoleonic war veterans and Regency debutantes and mad scientists. And sometimes TimeWatch agents. We *have* to follow the rules we say we follow. Yeah, it's black and white, Yves. Sometimes that's the way things are. Our task is to preserve the main timeline. Therefore, our next step needs to be to determine which timeline that is. What I may personally hope for doesn't matter; I'll do my job either way. I don't say we should trust Elizabeth's word - in fact, I think we should not, as she is clearly compromised here. I think some independent confirmation should be sought. </p><p></p><p>"I would also accept Yves's argument that our duty is to preserve the timeline that commissioned us to preserve it, rather than to whichever was here first - you could persuade me of the merit in that approach. I do not accept the any plan that sounds at all like 'we should examine each timeline, decide which we like better, and preserve that one.' We don't get to make those choices. If we did, I would have altered the timeline before now to bring some other people back from the dead."</p><p></p><p>While the rest of us debate killing kings, national rivalries, lost timelines, and other issues that hit far too close to home, Hypatia has, of course, been doing research. "It occurs to me that attempting to find the person who attempted to assassinate Louis XV might give us a different perspective. His name was Robert-Francois Damiens, and I suspect that he might be a time traveler himself. The tether indicates no clear reason other than mental instability and vague religious grudges for Damiens' attempt. Or maybe a time-traveler convinced Damiens to do it somehow. If Damiens or his instigator was a time traveler, then that further suggests that ours is the original timeline." She starts to draw large complex diagrams of intersecting lines and circles in the red Georgia dirt, which most of us manage to follow, mostly. "So T1 = Life as we Know It; T2 = Louis XV gets assassinated, Falklands War happens, no Amer. Rev. (Jackson's timeline); T3 = Forrest eliminates assassin, creating (originally) something similar to T1; T4 = Forrest makes Whitney settle in Georgia, creating nuclear war in 1938."</p><p></p><p>This suggestion actually gives Edward a little hope. "If the assassin was a time-traveler, then yes, we <em>should</em> find him and address the matter, because the real issue," he says, with a pointed glare at Yves, "is which timeline is the original one! That is what I have been saying - that we need to determine which timeline is original and protect that one. We know that the one we're in at the moment was created by Forrest's actions - so now we need to figure out if Miss Jackson's timeline was the original, or if it was created by Damiens."</p><p></p><p>Yves is unmoved by glares or diagrams or arguments about lost timelines - he's back to lounging against the tree. "Mademoiselle Katarina, you seem to be under the delusion that there is one objective Truth to all of space and time. Allow me to relieve you of that burden. The first thing we learn as time agents is that time is relative, n'est-ce pas? If your British poet Keats is correct in his presumption that truth is beauty and beauty truth, and beauty, as we all know, is in the eye of the beholder, then doesn't it logically follow that truth is just as intimate a quality?</p><p></p><p>"It is self-evident that I work for Timewatch, that is my personal truth. You may believe Mademoiselle Elizabeth for I have no doubt that HM Timewatch is just as real. But there is no external judge to tell us which is more valid over the other. It is we who decide what is ultimately real, and you would be fooling yourself if you didn't think our preferences weren't part of that consideration."</p><p></p><p>"It seems as if we need more information before we can make a final decision," Hypatia says. "Our options are: to go to 1793 to try to prevent Forrest from influencing Whitney, to go to 1757 to find out more about Damiens, or to go to 1757 to try to stop Forrest from intervening then."</p><p></p><p>Consensus leans towards 1757 - and if we find out that the would-be assassin was in fact a time traveler, then that would allow us to bypass all of the arguments about killing kings and HM TimeWatch. </p><p></p><p>So we head off to 1757, to try to find out who wants to kill King Louis XV and why.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ladybird, post: 6257506, member: 10689"] [b]Episode 1, Chapter 8: A Royally Complicated Situation[/b] "Oh, mon dieu," Michel groans. Kat texts Edward over the tether: "Our duty is to whichever is the true timeline. We have to know. I'll take her for a walk. Figure it out." Edward, his head spinning just as much as everyone else's, meets Kat's eyes and gives her a short nod. "I understand," he texts back. "We'll try." "Mais comment?" Michel texts. And then, having run out of even questions in French, just says "Merde." He plunks down to the ground in the grove of live oaks where we've retreated, head buried in his hands. Kat clears her throat. "Elizabeth? I think they need some time to process this." Elizabeth nods, her eyes full of uncomfortable sympathy, as Kat takes her hand and offers, "Let's go for a walk." Kat is still texting, though - she'll make her thoughts known. Yves is the one who starts. "We are TimeWatch agents, and we are sworn to uphold the timeline of [i]our[/i] TimeWatch. Our mission is to prevent the nuclear attacks in 1938, so we must prevent Forrest from altering the timeline in 1793." "Our mission is to uphold the [i]true[/i] timeline," Edward objects, echoing Kat's words. "No matter which one that is. We have to go back to 1757 and thwart Forrest then, because that's his first intervention in the timeline. That's what our other selves were already trying to do." Hypatia raises a different question: "Do we really feel comfortable with assassinating an innocent man? Admittedly, one with a somewhat unsavory personal life, but…" "I assure you," Edward retorts, "I'm really not comfortable with a scenario where victory means killing a king!" Sidebar: [sblock]The style changes here because the speeches I'm reproducing are actually what the players wrote themselves - we debated this over email. A Lot. :) Mace and Michel are quiet in this discussion because their players were super-busy that week.[/sblock] Kat's text comes through the tether: "Moral dilemma, my sainted great aunt. You [i]know[/i] I come from a vanished timeline. Did you somehow imagine innocents didn't vanish with it? Our job is to preserve the real timeline, whether or not it's the one we might most prefer. Once we start making decisions according to personal preference, we're no better than that moron white supremacist I just shot. There's no dilemma here. The only thing that matters is the truth. I'll keep her distracted. Figure out which is the real timeline, and then let's do what we have to do to fix it." Yves lounges back against a tree trunk. "Ma cherie, you make it all sound so...noir et blanche. We are tasked by Timewatch to restore the timeline, not HM Timewatch. Shouldn't our loyalty be to them even if it isn't the original? And who's to say what the original is? Perhaps there is une belle French woman on our team who sadly disappeared due to chronal instability from the true original timeline...should we rescue her from the abyss of non-existence? My dear Katarina, maybe you originate from the real timeline and Timewatch was set up by an aberration whose only goal is self-preservation. The "real" timeline is whatever we think it is, n'est-ce pas?" "In any case, aren't we rather putting the horse before the cart?" Hypatia objects. "Before we worry about 1757, shouldn't we first be concerned with 1793, when Forrest shows up and convinces Whitney not to move back to Connecticut? After all, we all agree that's the wrong timeline, and we haven't actually fixed it yet!" Edward shakes his head. "The trouble with going to 1793 is that it's already in the timeline that Forrest changed in 1757. If we alter what happened in 1757 and capture Forrest in that time, then there won't be any need to change anything in 1793. It won't matter where Whitney sets up his factory, because there won't be any Civil War at all for his factory's location to affect. The bigger question is, do we change 1757? As TimeWatch agents, we're tasked with protecting the original timeline, but which [i]is[/i] the original timeline? Is it the one we came from? From what Miss Jackson says, it sounds as if it's not. The timeline that we came from has already been altered by Forrest, and therefore it is not the original. So I think we may have to change what happened in 1757. Still, as I hope you'll understand, I can't entirely bring myself to declare that our goal should be to kill a king." "Quelle surprise!" Yves snorts. "Le roi d'Angleterre thinks it's a good idea to have a British Timewatch. I am sure your motives are nothing but pure, your majesty." "That's not what this is about!" Edward snaps. "This is not about England or France; this is about which timeline is the original! And about killing an anointed king." "Let me say again," Kat texts, "I think you are all missing the point. The issue has nothing to do with any preference any of us might have for democracy over monarchy, the metric over the imperial, or HM TimeWatch over TimeWatch. Or whether Elizabeth Jackson lives or dies. Trust me, I have some preferences myself on some of these issues, but preferences don't matter. "Nor does it have anything to do with our willingness or reluctance to kill a king. Edward, I actually do understand your perspective, but... when we correct timelines, people fade out of existence as an unavoidable side-effect. People die. Kings and chambermaids and Napoleonic war veterans and Regency debutantes and mad scientists. And sometimes TimeWatch agents. We *have* to follow the rules we say we follow. Yeah, it's black and white, Yves. Sometimes that's the way things are. Our task is to preserve the main timeline. Therefore, our next step needs to be to determine which timeline that is. What I may personally hope for doesn't matter; I'll do my job either way. I don't say we should trust Elizabeth's word - in fact, I think we should not, as she is clearly compromised here. I think some independent confirmation should be sought. "I would also accept Yves's argument that our duty is to preserve the timeline that commissioned us to preserve it, rather than to whichever was here first - you could persuade me of the merit in that approach. I do not accept the any plan that sounds at all like 'we should examine each timeline, decide which we like better, and preserve that one.' We don't get to make those choices. If we did, I would have altered the timeline before now to bring some other people back from the dead." While the rest of us debate killing kings, national rivalries, lost timelines, and other issues that hit far too close to home, Hypatia has, of course, been doing research. "It occurs to me that attempting to find the person who attempted to assassinate Louis XV might give us a different perspective. His name was Robert-Francois Damiens, and I suspect that he might be a time traveler himself. The tether indicates no clear reason other than mental instability and vague religious grudges for Damiens' attempt. Or maybe a time-traveler convinced Damiens to do it somehow. If Damiens or his instigator was a time traveler, then that further suggests that ours is the original timeline." She starts to draw large complex diagrams of intersecting lines and circles in the red Georgia dirt, which most of us manage to follow, mostly. "So T1 = Life as we Know It; T2 = Louis XV gets assassinated, Falklands War happens, no Amer. Rev. (Jackson's timeline); T3 = Forrest eliminates assassin, creating (originally) something similar to T1; T4 = Forrest makes Whitney settle in Georgia, creating nuclear war in 1938." This suggestion actually gives Edward a little hope. "If the assassin was a time-traveler, then yes, we [i]should[/i] find him and address the matter, because the real issue," he says, with a pointed glare at Yves, "is which timeline is the original one! That is what I have been saying - that we need to determine which timeline is original and protect that one. We know that the one we're in at the moment was created by Forrest's actions - so now we need to figure out if Miss Jackson's timeline was the original, or if it was created by Damiens." Yves is unmoved by glares or diagrams or arguments about lost timelines - he's back to lounging against the tree. "Mademoiselle Katarina, you seem to be under the delusion that there is one objective Truth to all of space and time. Allow me to relieve you of that burden. The first thing we learn as time agents is that time is relative, n'est-ce pas? If your British poet Keats is correct in his presumption that truth is beauty and beauty truth, and beauty, as we all know, is in the eye of the beholder, then doesn't it logically follow that truth is just as intimate a quality? "It is self-evident that I work for Timewatch, that is my personal truth. You may believe Mademoiselle Elizabeth for I have no doubt that HM Timewatch is just as real. But there is no external judge to tell us which is more valid over the other. It is we who decide what is ultimately real, and you would be fooling yourself if you didn't think our preferences weren't part of that consideration." "It seems as if we need more information before we can make a final decision," Hypatia says. "Our options are: to go to 1793 to try to prevent Forrest from influencing Whitney, to go to 1757 to find out more about Damiens, or to go to 1757 to try to stop Forrest from intervening then." Consensus leans towards 1757 - and if we find out that the would-be assassin was in fact a time traveler, then that would allow us to bypass all of the arguments about killing kings and HM TimeWatch. So we head off to 1757, to try to find out who wants to kill King Louis XV and why. [/QUOTE]
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