Escher and Rothko were devastated at the loss of their good friend, Savitri.
They didn’t know if she was dead, or just somewhere else, but they felt they
needed to memorialize her either way. They decided to honor her at a
particular cliff she used to frequent. They didn’t realize that this was where
she had once considered committing suicide, and returned often to remind
herself that her life had value. Effigy asked to attend Savtri’s memorial, and
they let her, because even though she was indirectly responsible for all of
this world’s problems, it didn’t appear as though she had set out to do them
harm. They were mostly just in her way. This was the first time she had
thought to sit down and explain herself. Yes, an army of white monsters were
trying to come through the portal, and yes, she wanted to bring them
through intact, rather than broken and damaged. The army, however, was just
there to make sure the world they landed on was safe. Most of the people who
would be making the trip were civilians, looking for a better life. She
explained to them how the universe, as the humans saw it, was either infinite,
or might as well have been. There was plenty of space and resources for
everyone. Her universe of origin, however, was very finite. It barely went
past the orbit of their moon. They could see stars in the distance, but they
seemed to be holographic illusions, as a great impenetrable wall prevented
them from traveling anywhere close to them. Several of her people had died in
the attempt. Unfortunately, the threat of overpopulation wasn’t enough to stop
that population from growing. People just kept having kids, and they were
already so great in numbers that it was nigh impossible to coordinate a way to
prevent them from continuing to do so. Scientists worked tirelessly, trying to
solve the problem, and they did find a solution. They built a gigantic machine
that could transport thousands of people to other universes. Sadly, this
machine was all but destroyed before it could ever be used for this mission,
and while time travel did suggest that didn’t matter, the remnants of this
machine made its way into human hands, which was where it stayed throughout
multiversal eternity. The machine was first built using stolen technology, and
there was no way to get it back. They simply did not have the resources, or
political backing, to try this again. The portal was the only way, according
to Effigy. Escher and Rothko listened to her politely, and after hours of
discussions, they formulated a truce. The two of them would no longer
interfere with the time monsters coming through, but neither would they let
her repair the portal, so the full beings could cross over. Effigy had to be
all right with this, because it was really her only choice. Even without
Savitri, the humans here were unbeatable. Besides, she was immortal, and they
were not, so she figured she could just wait them out. After a while, the
three of them formed a deeper working relationship, and eventually, there was
no denying that they were kind of nearly the approximation of friends.
She even ended up joining them in a more formal way, which served to
reconstitute the Triumvirate.
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