Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ladybird" data-source="post: 6245865" data-attributes="member: 10689">Episode 1, Chapter 3. The First Date?When should we go next? 1860, or 1797?1860 has the advantage of being more precise: we know when Eli Whitney Jr. made his invention, but we don't know exactly when Eli Whitney Sr. made his decision. But 1797 has the advantage of being earlier in the disrupted timestream, and therefore both safer and more productive. In the end, we decide to go to July 1796.Once again, we duck into an alley; once again, six Autochrons whir in unison, sending six purple spheres spinning through space and time.Georgia, July 15, 1796In the sweltering summer heat that is barely eased at all by the thick shade of live oaks towering above us, seven purple spheres shimmer into being.…wait, seven?Yes. Seven.The seventh Autochron - TimeWatch standard-issue, keyed to its owner and only its owner - winds down, its purple sphere winking out. Standing there is a young black woman, probably in her late twenties, with the telltale flash of a silver TimeWatch jumpsuit peeking out from the cuff of her nondescript eighteenth-century clothes.None of us have ever seen her before in our lives."Kat!" the young woman cries, her dark eyes lighting up with ecstatic relief. "Oh, Kat, thank God you're all right!" She flings herself at Kat and starts kissing her passionately.We have no idea who this person is. None at all.Which puts Kat in a rather awkward position at the moment. Very gently, Kat extricates herself from the kiss; even more gently, she says, "Yes, I'm fine. Please don't worry about me. But…I'm terribly sorry, but I'm afraid I don't know you." "I'm Elizabeth!" the young woman cries. "Elizabeth Jackson. Do you mean that you don't remember me?" She sounds somewhere between North American and British - maybe early twentieth-century upper-class New England, or someone born in Britain who's spent a lot of time in the US and Canada?Kat squeezes the newcomer's - Elizabeth's? - hand, and shakes her head. "I'm so sorry." Elizabeth squeezes Kat's hand back, but something feels odd about the gesture - even though Elizabeth is clearly holding desperately tightly to Kat, her grasp doesn't feel as firm as it should be.Elizabeth's face crumples as she looks from one team member to the other. "You really don't recognize me? Any of you? Your Majesty?" she asks, looking to Edward first. Edward blinks in surprise - not many agents call him that - but shakes his head. "I'm very sorry," he says gently. "But no, I don't either.""Michel?" Elizabeth continues, increasingly pained with each new blank look she gets from the team. "Hypatia? Mace? Yves?""No, I do not remember you," Yves replies with a flirtatious grin, "but I am very much looking forward to renewing our acquaintance. I am certain you were a priceless addition to our team."Matching glares from Kat and Elizabeth cut him off before he can get any further. No, Elizabeth is not in the mood for flirting, and is clearly not interested, but hope springs eternal, and so does Yves.As the rest of us look closer at Elizabeth, we're starting to notice that something looks a little off about her. Kat noticed it first because she was hugging her, but as time goes on, we can start to see that Elizabeth seems a little wavery around the edges. Plus, the instant that the newcomer said her name, Hypatia was on the tether checking TimeWatch records. There's no Elizabeth Jackson listed anywhere in TimeWatch personnel records.This is the downside of time travel: if you do it too much, or too recklessly, you can change time so much that you'll erase your own existence. Fading, it's called, and it seems to be happening to Elizabeth.The only reason that she's lasted this long is the strength of her relationship with Kat - that's what's tied her to reality.Rules sidebar:[sblock]This is a nifty game mechanic, and a way to prevent the potential for infinite time-travel, which would give GMs infinite headaches. PCs can travel anywhere in space and time, but every time they do, they need to make a Chronal Stability check. If they fail, they lose Chronal Stability points; if their Chronal Stability gets too low, then they start to Fade.[/sblock]"I'm Elizabeth!" she persists. "I'm a member of your team! I always have been. But - but if you don't remember me," Elizabeth falters, tears starting to fill her eyes, "then that means we've truly failed to fix this timeline.</blockquote>

Verification