Log:Lost Time, Scene 5

Lost Time 2017/02/03 	 Spirit|Dorian Grimm Radical|Connor Duran Griffin Ellbeth Ten

5

(Editor's note: The Cartesian that appears in this scene is Connor Duran.)

The reception area has muted black tiled floor, with the walls and roof painted off-white. The secretarial desk enclosure is barely twenty feet from the double set of glass doors. To its left is a large double-hinged door ominously labeled 'Security'. A seating area full of soft couches is to the right. Down the hallway that leads deeper into the building is the office of the Director of Operations and the exit to the landing field outside.

To recap: The time travelling villain Dr. Temple, AKA Tempus, AKA Time Pharaoh, released two people from Tranquility, namely Syphon and Inferno. But to what end? Dr. Temple turned up only a week ago in town, but apparently earlier in 'his timeline', as he looked younger. He was in town to try to stop Autolycus, an alien visitor, from becoming a mass murderer. The heroes did not avail themselves of a similar opportunity in potentially stopping Temple, however.

Commander Perrault has called the local heroes together again to discuss some recent intelligence that he has received, intending to meet in Starguard's conference room.

Grimm returns from a late lunch, just in time for her meeting. She playfully bids (Very) Special Agent Malcolm Gibbs farewell with a salute before heading into the conference room. The poor fellow is stuck on paperwork duty and another mission.

"Hi, Commander," Gabrielle offers politely as she takes a seat.

Cartesian enters from Alien District.

Ten gets to the conference room on time. She regrets, once again, having an enhanced sense of taste as she sips her Starguard coffee. "Hey."

Dorian is in front of the room, standing there waiting with another man who is significantly less well known in the area. The Cartesian of Order.

Ellbeth brings a tray of glasses into the room when she arrives. Putting the tray down on the table she casts a spell to fill the glasses with a fine mature Sauvignon. "Good afternoon everybody." she greets while settling into a chair with a glass of the wine.

This is the first time Griffin Freeman has entered StarGuard Gamma Base since he helped Paragon free Alpha from custody in exchange for Para & Porter's daughter's life. Unsurprisingly, Griffin has been held up at security for 15 minutes while they confirm with their superiors that he's clear for entry.

Griffin has explained he's here for Commander Perrault's 'All-Hands Call' on the HeroNet.

Finally, they agree to let him past the first security door and on to the conference center but only if he's escorted all the way to the meeting.

Griffin agrees. Soon enough, Griffin and his escort arrive.

The StarGuardsman nods to Commander Parrault and turns on his heel to return to his post.

Almost embarrassed, Griffin nods cordially to those who have arrived and takes a seat quietly.

Ten glances across at Ellbeth. "*That's* a much better idea."

Dorian raises a brow at the wine being poured, but he doesn't say anything about it. "Thank you all for coming. "

Cartesian stands silently, just watching the group.

Ten takes one of the glasses of wine, sitting to drink it rather than leaning against the wall as usual.

Grimm avoids taking any of the glasses. Definitely not on the job. She gets...a little wild when she starts drinking.

Dorian continues, "I'm sure you're all aware of the recent prison break from Tranquility. I had some concerns about the person who facilitated the escape, and from what I can tell, that's been well-founded. There was a report of him appearing here and taking a local alien visitor with him into the time stream someplace, to try to keep a particular future from happening." He pauses, considering how to relay the next part, "Shortly thereafter, I was contacted by the Cartesian." He motions to the man on his right. "...who informed me that something in the time stream had changed. It's unclear if it's for good or ill."

Griffin nods to Dorian as he begins. He doesn't go for the glasses of wine- only because he's already done a great deal of damage to his reputation with StarGuard in the incident that cost him his Bounty hunting License.

"Oh man..." He mumbles to himself as he thinks .o0(Altered Time Streams? Boy do I know how to pick 'em.)

Ellbeth nods, "That confirms a feeling I had. I believe I expressed it as the entire world shifting sideways. Cartesian, do you have any information on how the timeline has changed?"

Ten says, "So time streams *can* be changed? Or do you mean a forking thing or something?"

Cartesian nods. "I'm not quite sure of the cause...but I view time perhaps differently than many do. I look at each person's timeline like a thread. We interconnect, entwine...or separate. This isn't a fork. It's more like...the flow of a river being changed."

Grimm blinks and sits up more attentively. "Oh man, wait til I tell my professor about this. Throws out all the theories in the books, that's for sure."

Ten nods, "Interesting - and frightening! I guess the Anachronist wasn't crazy after all."

Cartesian continues, "Most people wouldn't notice, because they view time linearly. You experience each moment, linking to the next. There was a rather large event that was due to occur someplace...and just...isn't going to happen. Those threads are no longer going to end abruptly. But...that creates additional issues. The universe works to 'correct' itself. It tries to nudge things back into place."

Cartesian says, "This is the idea that if say...Hitler was killed, someone else would rise and take his place, and do something similar. Or Dr. Destroyer."

Grimm leans over to Griffin and whispers conspiringly with a cheeky grin, "Let's kill Hitler."

"That means we could be stuck with something worse that what was in store..." Griffin says with a worried look.

Ellbeth sips at her wine, "With all due respect to your nature, Cartesian, I cannot think that a multitude of life threads not being cut short is a bad thing. I can get behind working to mitigate undesirable consequences though."

"Otherwise... that sounds like a great way to spend the evening." Griffin adds with a grin.

Ten says, "Or not as bad. Scary thought though - maybe Hitler is the best that time travelers could leave us with, the alternatives being worse...."

Cartesian nods to Ellbeth, "I agree. However I noticed something else that concerned me. I started to look into the future...and it was no longer...clear. It's murky. For a time period of one year, surrounding a particular date."

Grimm flashes a grin back at Griffin. What can she say, she has a type. She glances over at Cartesian and gets a serious expression on her face. "Uhh...which date is that?" she asks, hanging in suspense.

Cartesian says, "Much like say...opening your eyes underwater. That's how it looks. A colored blur. The date in question is February 10th, 2067."

Cartesian says, "I would expect that whatever caused the aberration will happen at or around that date."

Ten says, "Hang on - aren't we already in the year surrounding that date?"

Ellbeth frowns, "You said 'surrounding' a specific date? So if that's equally before and after, the timeline has been murky for the last five and a half months already?" She grins, "Yeah. What Ten said."

Cartesian nods to Ellbeth, "Correct. It was not this way prior to Dr. Temple's recent arrival. Things had much more clarity."

Griffin returns Grimm's smile until a due date is given. He looks confused. "How can something in the past be murkier?" Time travel has clearly confused him.

Ten says, "And how can the *present* be murky? For those of us who see things in the regular way."

Cartesian says, "It IS possible that the event in question was his recent arrival here, as that would fall within a standard deviation of the mean."

Ten says, "Hm. Maybe I should have stuck to the coffee. Or maybe this requires the sort of thinking wine helps. It's hard to say."

Ellbeth says, "On the other hand that is already in our past. So short of a handy time machine we cannot influence it. Thus it makes sense to focus on the assumption the trigger event is still in our future. Closer to 10th Feb."

Dorian listens to the conversation quietly. This is out of his realm of expertise, after all.

Ten says, "Ah, so changes in the time stream have to affect things before the point of change as well as after? That fits with the 'stream' metaphor, actually. And maybe explains why it's difficult to do and generally thought to be impossible."

Cartesian rubs his chin slowly, "I will attempt to pinpoint where the event may occur. I have a rough area already, though. I suspect that whatever is going to happen will be at the history museum. But I will work on getting as much confirmation as possible."

Ten says, "Temporal anomalies at a history museum? This is getting a little meta. Or something."

"Is there something at the museum that might mean something to Dr. Temple? Or Tempus? Or the Time Pharaoh?" Grimm asks curiously. "Something there to change history, even? I mean...that would be something unusual, right?"

Ten says, "Wait - could changing something in the past change the contents of the history museum and thus cause some sort of ripple because of the change of contents in the present - I suppose if the contents were supposed to be relevant to the future - oh, my head hurts."

Cartesian says, "I'm not aware of anything of the occult there at the moment, but I haven't seen if they have any upcoming exhibits, either."

Ellbeth floats another glass of wine over to Ten telekinetically. "More wine won't help, but neither will anything else. Even Max gets a headache when he thinks about time travel. And Max doesn't even have a head."

Ten says, "Or maybe there's something in the history museum already that should be there. Something a time traveler left in the past. Or would that be supposed to have been there already - is that even a sentence?"

Cartesian snaps his fingers, "That would make sense. Perhaps it's something that was owned by the Time Pharaoh previously in the past?"

Ten blinks, surprised that her confused rambling have turned up a possible idea.

"I think its a sentence- now whether or not that sentence describes what's happening accurately? I have no idea." Griffin says, clearly out of his depth. He leans back in his chair. Not fully understanding won't keep him from working through the problem or contributing to the team.

Dorian interjects, "Do we know where he's appeared in the past? In say Egypt? Maybe we could look up the associated artifacts that match that particular dynasty?"

Ellbeth sits up straighter. "Seems the wine is helping, Ten. Dorian, Cartesian, would you like me to look over the items in the museum? My reputation is such in the field of Archaeology and History I shouldn't have any difficulty getting permission to view the items in storage as well as the items on display."

Ellbeth turns to the other heroes, "Company would be welcome. Just in case someone objects to me presence."

Dorian nods to Ellbeth, "Thank you. that would be great."

"I can go with you. I'm a regular relic anyway." Griffin offers, making a joke at his expense.

Ten says, "I'd be happy to go... though I'm not sure I'd help people getting access in a museum."

Cartesian says, "I'm sure that being part of Starguard on an investigation will give you some leeway in that regard."

Ten shrugs. In her experience she gets judged on looks a lot.

Ellbeth says, "I do consulting for the Museum. I don't expect any difficulty getting access. In fact if there is any difficulty I would view that as a warning sign."

"Good. I'll back you guys up and try not to get put on display." Griffin says to Ellbeth and Ten.

Ten says, "Though it could just be a sign of *time* not wanting to change - if I've understood this right."

Cartesian nods again, "I had another thought, after Dorian told me about the prison escape. Tempus, or whatever he's going by, might be putting together a team of some kind. At least that's my best guess. I'm not sure to what end, though."

Grimm rubs her chin in thought. "I guess if we're worried about time travelers, wouldn't hurt for us all to be there in case that triggers Tempus or TP to show up earlier than scheduled. Murkiness and all that."

Ellbeth nods.

"Did these escapees have any particular talents? I mean obviously they're metas but I mean beyond that. Something that would make them particularly valuable on a team?" Griffin inquires.

Ten mutters quietly, "Maybe to stop himself from going to have been about to have had assembled another team in the past perfect future. Or something."

Ten decides the second glass of wine is a good idea.

Ellbeth thinks either Ten or she has already had too much wine.

Dorian says to Griffin, "Syphon is basically energy, or at least an energy battery. Inferno controls fire, or generates it. Autolycus...I have no idea."

Dorian says, "Assuming he's involved at all."

Dorian adds, "Syphon and Inferno also both have personalities that I would describe as 'Does not work well with others'."

Ten says, "Odd people to choose for a team then."

Ellbeth nods, "Unless Tempus is selecting based of abilities rather than personality."

Cartesian nods. "Agreed. If he managed to get them to work together, he'd need to use a 'carrot' of some kind. These are not the kinds of people to act out of altruism."

"Hmm... strange team. I mean I get it if they're all so powerful that you can't do the job without them- but it seems like that becomes half the job right? Managing these lone wolves?" Griffin asks as he thinks aloud. "A living battery huh? Well so am I. We'll see who's got more juice."

Grimm folds her arms over her chest. "Well, 'Work with me or I erase you from history' can be reaaaal motivating," she muses.

Ellbeth nods to Grimm. That hadn't occurred to her but it's obvious now Grimm has mentioned it."

Ten says, "I suppose if I had to be erased from any class I could do worse than history - never my favourite subject."

Cartesian says, "One final thought about this, before we adjourn:"

Cartesian says, "Normally, when someone travels to the past to stop something, it actually causes it to happen. History 'fixing itself', as it were. It didn't happen this time. I intend to find out why, but it's something to consider when dealing with Dr. Temple."