Ladybird
First Post
Episode 1, Chapter 15: Where Do We Go From Here?
Where do we go? What do we do?
We can't communicate with TimeWatch - we're not even sure whether there's a TimeWatch to go back to. All we can do is stay together. Even Yves wants to stick with the group.
In the end, we decide to find the one person we know is in this timeline: Elizabeth Jackson. We spin up our AutoChrons and head back to Georgia in 1796.
As soon as we land, Elizabeth rushes towards us, flinging herself at Kat in giddy joy. "It worked!" she cries. "It worked! Everything works. My tether is up again!"
"Oh," says Edward. We succeeded, but he's too numb and shocked to feel much joy at the confirmation. "That's…what I thought would happen."
[sblock]If you're the kind of person who likes a soundtrack to your RPGs, we decided that 'Where Do We Go From Here?' from Once More With Feeling would be playing over this scene.[/sblock]
Our tethers only work to let us communicate with each other. Kat texts to Edward: "We won. Hooray?"
Edward texts back: "I'm not feeling much of the joy either."
"Any timeline designed by Forrest is not one we really wanted to live in," Hypatia suggests. "Think of it that way."
We all agree - that's what most of us had been saying all along, after all. But it doesn't change the fact that we've erased our own timeline, and it doesn't make us feel any better about it.
Michel has at least some idea of how he can make himself feel better. "Du biere, Yves?" he suggests.
Yves nods. "The strongest possible, Michel."
Kat sees their drink offer, and raises them one more: "Gin. Lots of gin."
Hypatia's not interested in drinking, but ventures one more small suggestion: "I suppose the rest of you are against killing Churchill? We could stop Operation Unthinkable..."
"No," says Edward immediately. "No more intervention."
Where do we go from here? Well, Elizabeth can show us the way. She sets her Autochron to lead us back to the end of time - the end of her time. We spin through stars and time, past tiny glimpses of alternate timelines - alternates to this one, not the one we were born into.
We arrive at the end of time, at the headquarters of His Majesty's TimeWatch.
It looks like the place we left, and also not. Just like the TimeWatch we left, this room is full of agents in silver uniforms and scientists in white lab coats, all bustling in different directions as they coordinate dozens of missions at once. But the color of the carpet is different, the shape of the viewscreens is different, the corridors run off at different angles. And of course, there are crowns over all the logos.
But it's still TimeWatch, and it's all we have now.
As we step out of our Autochrons, still reeling with disorientation, Edward spots a familiar face: his younger brother, Richard. In a rush of sudden joy, he races towards his brother, arms out to embrace him…
…only to be faced with a look of utter confusion. "Who are you?" Richard asks.
Edward's heart sinks. "I'm your brother Edward," he says slowly, the painful realization starting to come over him.
Richard shakes his head. "I'm sorry," he says, sincere in his apology, but still blank with lack of recognition. "Are you…from another timeline where I wasn't imprisoned?"
"No, we were both imprisoned!" Edward struggles to explain. "I was the elder brother - I was the one deposed, and then we were both rescued…"
"Pardon, Your Majesty," a tech says as she edges between the brothers on her hurried way through the crowded room.
Edward starts to respond - he still responds to the title instinctively - but Richard is the one that the tech was addressing, and it's Richard who reassures her, "It's quite all right."
This is what it means to Fade from the timeline. Even though Edward and Richard were born long before 1757, when the timelines changed, Edward faded out. That means that in this timeline, Richard was the oldest son: he was the deposed king, and he alone was imprisoned in the Tower and rescued by Timewatch.
Edward is heartbroken. The one person he knew from home, the person he loved the most, doesn't know him. Yes, Richard is safe and happy, which is what Edward wanted, but now Edward is more alone than ever.
Our team may be confused, uncertain, and ambivalent about what we've done, but HM TimeWatch's commanders are unanimous in treating this mission as a success. For our heroic service to HM TimeWatch in rescuing the timeline, we're all named Companions in the Order of St. Michael and St. George.
Well, except for Elizabeth - she's named a Dame Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George, and promoted to a desk job. With the pivotal role that she's played in the destruction and restoration of this timeline, it's just too dangerous now to send her out into the field anymore and risk having her Fade.
And, except for Edward. It's not clear what Edward's status is in the Order of St. Michael and St. George. He's not really in the line of royal succession, but does he still outrank knights? In HM Timewatch, these distinctions matter.
One kind of status is clear: the status of Kat and Elizabeth's relationship. "Please come back with me to the 21st century to meet my family?" Elizabeth offers. "You've met them before, but they don't remember you. And I want them to know you."
And so we move forward into the original timeline, which we've restored - in the service of His Majesty's TimeWatch.
***
Here ends Episode 1!
Thanks to Cerebral Paladin for GMing, thanks to Piratecat for creating the game, and thanks to all of you for reading! I hope you'll stay tuned for Episode 2 - we all had such a great time that we wanted to keep playing.
Any questions? Comments?
Where do we go? What do we do?
We can't communicate with TimeWatch - we're not even sure whether there's a TimeWatch to go back to. All we can do is stay together. Even Yves wants to stick with the group.
In the end, we decide to find the one person we know is in this timeline: Elizabeth Jackson. We spin up our AutoChrons and head back to Georgia in 1796.
As soon as we land, Elizabeth rushes towards us, flinging herself at Kat in giddy joy. "It worked!" she cries. "It worked! Everything works. My tether is up again!"
"Oh," says Edward. We succeeded, but he's too numb and shocked to feel much joy at the confirmation. "That's…what I thought would happen."
[sblock]If you're the kind of person who likes a soundtrack to your RPGs, we decided that 'Where Do We Go From Here?' from Once More With Feeling would be playing over this scene.[/sblock]
Our tethers only work to let us communicate with each other. Kat texts to Edward: "We won. Hooray?"
Edward texts back: "I'm not feeling much of the joy either."
"Any timeline designed by Forrest is not one we really wanted to live in," Hypatia suggests. "Think of it that way."
We all agree - that's what most of us had been saying all along, after all. But it doesn't change the fact that we've erased our own timeline, and it doesn't make us feel any better about it.
Michel has at least some idea of how he can make himself feel better. "Du biere, Yves?" he suggests.
Yves nods. "The strongest possible, Michel."
Kat sees their drink offer, and raises them one more: "Gin. Lots of gin."
Hypatia's not interested in drinking, but ventures one more small suggestion: "I suppose the rest of you are against killing Churchill? We could stop Operation Unthinkable..."
"No," says Edward immediately. "No more intervention."
Where do we go from here? Well, Elizabeth can show us the way. She sets her Autochron to lead us back to the end of time - the end of her time. We spin through stars and time, past tiny glimpses of alternate timelines - alternates to this one, not the one we were born into.
We arrive at the end of time, at the headquarters of His Majesty's TimeWatch.
It looks like the place we left, and also not. Just like the TimeWatch we left, this room is full of agents in silver uniforms and scientists in white lab coats, all bustling in different directions as they coordinate dozens of missions at once. But the color of the carpet is different, the shape of the viewscreens is different, the corridors run off at different angles. And of course, there are crowns over all the logos.
But it's still TimeWatch, and it's all we have now.
As we step out of our Autochrons, still reeling with disorientation, Edward spots a familiar face: his younger brother, Richard. In a rush of sudden joy, he races towards his brother, arms out to embrace him…
…only to be faced with a look of utter confusion. "Who are you?" Richard asks.
Edward's heart sinks. "I'm your brother Edward," he says slowly, the painful realization starting to come over him.
Richard shakes his head. "I'm sorry," he says, sincere in his apology, but still blank with lack of recognition. "Are you…from another timeline where I wasn't imprisoned?"
"No, we were both imprisoned!" Edward struggles to explain. "I was the elder brother - I was the one deposed, and then we were both rescued…"
"Pardon, Your Majesty," a tech says as she edges between the brothers on her hurried way through the crowded room.
Edward starts to respond - he still responds to the title instinctively - but Richard is the one that the tech was addressing, and it's Richard who reassures her, "It's quite all right."
This is what it means to Fade from the timeline. Even though Edward and Richard were born long before 1757, when the timelines changed, Edward faded out. That means that in this timeline, Richard was the oldest son: he was the deposed king, and he alone was imprisoned in the Tower and rescued by Timewatch.
Edward is heartbroken. The one person he knew from home, the person he loved the most, doesn't know him. Yes, Richard is safe and happy, which is what Edward wanted, but now Edward is more alone than ever.
Our team may be confused, uncertain, and ambivalent about what we've done, but HM TimeWatch's commanders are unanimous in treating this mission as a success. For our heroic service to HM TimeWatch in rescuing the timeline, we're all named Companions in the Order of St. Michael and St. George.
Well, except for Elizabeth - she's named a Dame Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George, and promoted to a desk job. With the pivotal role that she's played in the destruction and restoration of this timeline, it's just too dangerous now to send her out into the field anymore and risk having her Fade.
And, except for Edward. It's not clear what Edward's status is in the Order of St. Michael and St. George. He's not really in the line of royal succession, but does he still outrank knights? In HM Timewatch, these distinctions matter.
One kind of status is clear: the status of Kat and Elizabeth's relationship. "Please come back with me to the 21st century to meet my family?" Elizabeth offers. "You've met them before, but they don't remember you. And I want them to know you."
And so we move forward into the original timeline, which we've restored - in the service of His Majesty's TimeWatch.
***
Here ends Episode 1!
Thanks to Cerebral Paladin for GMing, thanks to Piratecat for creating the game, and thanks to all of you for reading! I hope you'll stay tuned for Episode 2 - we all had such a great time that we wanted to keep playing.
Any questions? Comments?
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