In the beginning, there was one gargoyle named Oliver Spout. But then his
pattern spread to three others. For the four of them, every day at sunrise,
their bodies would slip into a stasis bubble, which essentially sent them
forwards in time however long was necessary to reach sunset. For the rest of
the world, hours would pass, but for them, only seconds. The length of
daylight shifted throughout the year, so they always hated winter more than
summer. Things got a bit wonky when their, Kansas City, was copied into the
Fourth Quadrant parallel reality, leaving two of them on the original
nighttime schedule, while the other two ended up only experiencing daytime.
They eventually became the Presidents and Vice Presidents of this new world,
sharing responsibilities across the diurnal cycle. Half a century ago, a
team of heroes came to their reality, and gave them the technology they
would need to break out of their patterns. Their consciousnesses were
transferred to new clone bodies, freeing them to live at all times of the
day. It was after this that Andrei was born to Skyler Spout and Kostya
Orlov.
They all assumed that Andrei would be born completely normal. After all, he
was the product of two clones whose pattern had been supposedly successfully
stripped of them after they were downloaded into new bodies. Unfortunately,
some of his mother’s gargoyleness seems to have been hardcoded into
her DNA. While she never fell back onto her old pattern, Andrei grew up to
experience one of his own. He has some choice in the matter, but not always.
While his family’s perceptions of time were being slowed down to a fraction
of a fraction of a percentage of what it should be, his perception is
altered by a very minute amount. It only slows him down to about 99% of
realtime. But during this time, Andrei is as hard as a rock. He can’t move,
he can’t be moved, and if he’s not lying down when it happens, he’ll become
incredibly fatigued while he’s waiting to return to the fray. Unless someone
is there to help him out.
Selma Eriksen is the Vice President of the Fourth Quadrant Earth. After
Princess Honeypea transports them from their neighbor’s penthouse on a
planet called Hockstep, she looks over to find that Andrei has become stuck
in one of his bubbles again. This can happen when he travels to a new world,
but not always. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to predict when he’ll get
stuck, or for how long. They’re standing on the manicured grass next to a
fast-moving stream or river. Boats are tied to the bank, but she doesn’t
know what kind they are. They kind of look like old, wooden motorboats,
except there’s no motor. They’re surrounded by flowering plants,
non-flowering plants, shrubs, and short trees. From what they’ve been told,
this is a nature preserve of some kind, so this whole place could be
designed with intentional obsolescence to protect the wildlife. “Nuadu, can
you help me?” Selma requests.
“What’s wrong with him?” Nuadu asks.
“He’s stuck in a bubble. It’s not good for him to be standing up like this.”
“Put him in one of the broads,” Honeypea offers. “I thought you might like
to take the scenic route to the Citrus Inn. I didn’t know this would happen
to him.”
“Why would we go to an inn?” Cosette questions. “We’re not staying.”
“You’re not speaking with the Magnolia until he’s ready...and he’s not
ready,” Honeypea explains. “Everyone into the broadfloats. Four per. One on
each needs to steer the rudder in the back. It’s pretty intuitive.”
Selma and Nuadu lay Andrei down on the floor of the boat. Since he can’t sit
up, no one else joins them. Selma keeps an eye on him while Naudu steers.
The steering section is raised up a little, so he can see where they’re
going while still seated on his little perch. The river takes them in the
right direction, but he has to navigate around rocks, limbs, and little
whirlpools. The two rows of seats before him could probably fit six
additional people total, but there may be a weight issue. If this thing has
a rudder, it can’t sit too deep in the water.
The inn is wooden and rustic, with no electricity, but it at least has
running water. It has no apparent means of climate control, but no one feels
that this is necessary. The whole world seems to be sitting at the perfect
temperature. The beds are simple in design too, but the mattresses are
modern and comfortable. They’re not animals. Princess Honeypea tells
everyone to get settled, because it could be a while. The Pryce Tree is a
unique lifeform, the origins of which no one here knows much about. Trying
to understand his motivations and sense of time would be a waste of
their time. Fortunately, they have been assured that they are not
wasting it just by being here. The garden is located, not only in another
spatial dimension, but also temporal. They should be able to pick up right
where they left off when they return to the Sixth Key.
Selma wishes they could have just spent a few nights here before, back when
they were being isolated to protect the timeline, and then gone back several
months later after the danger had passed. No one else is bringing that up,
though, so she’s not going to rock the boat. Something strange is going on
here. The magical tree’s power is awe-inspiring, and if there’s some other
entity out there that rivals its might, that could be a real bad thing, and
they could be in real big trouble, as could all of reality. They just have
to hope that something can be done about it.
They reluctantly retire to their respective new rooms, and try to get some
sleep. Selma is sharing one with Andrei. He doesn’t like to come out of his
time bubble alone. It’s not typically she who has to wait on him, but she’s
all he has right now. His relationship with Ayata is still too new for them
to spend the night together, even though there’s nothing romantic going on
here at any rate as Selma chose this particular room for its two beds. When
she wakes up to use the restroom, she passes by him again, and sees that the
bubble popped at some point, but he’s still asleep. If he’s in the right
position, he can sleep while he’s in there, but it’s reportedly agitating,
and he prefers to be able to change positions, and get comfortable.
She takes care of business, then goes back to bed, waking up with the
eastern sun a few hours later.
Andrei is hovering over her with a cup of tea. “Get any rest?”
She’s still groggy. “I should be asking you that.”
“The answer’s yes. Thanks for taking care of me. I should have liked to see
the sights on the way down the river, though.”
“I’ll remember that next time,” Selma replies. They have a decent rapport,
but they actually don’t know each other all that well. In the Fourth
Quadrant, the President and Vice President run for office separately, and
once the election is over, they operate independently, living and working on
distant islands. This is done for practical reasons. If something should
happen to the President, the VP shouldn’t be there to suffer the same fate.
The whole point is that she’s the backup. This is the most time they’ve ever
spent together.
Andrei takes a sip. “The princess thinks that the tree’s about to talk. Best
get dressed, and grab something to eat. They have citrus here.” Citrus
didn’t exist in their reality, and that’s because it didn’t start out as a
full-fledged reality of its own. It was a pocket dimension at first, and
citrus fruits can’t travel between the dimensions. All the lemons, limes,
and oranges exploded every time a new region was expelled to it, both on the
trees, and elsewhere. Grocery stores were a mess. That was their biggest
concern when they were negotiating for their interests during the Rock
Meetings. The other civilizations had citrus because they were really just
from another timeline that ran concurrently with the main sequence. Selma
and Andrei were not super satisfied with the results, but they had little to
offer their opponents. But if there’s a way to get what they need from here,
without the help of the rest of the Sixth Key, they might end up in a better
position moving forward.
Selma gets up and dressed in a tunic that she found in one of the dresser
drawers. Wearing it isn’t a requirement, but most everyone else in the group
made the same decision, because they’re soft and convenient. General Medley
is still wearing his IMS. He says it’s versatile, but it looks restricting
and itchy. She’s never worn one before. Again, the Fourth Quadrant was once
only a collection of pocket dimensions. By the time it was upgraded to full
reality status, space travel was too much trouble with no projected rewards.
While Selma and Andrei, and a few others, are still eating breakfast,
Princess Honeypea walks into the communal area. “The Magnolia will see you
now. I will escort you upriver to the Confluence.”
“Can those broadfloat things do that?” Kalea Akopa of the Parallel asks.
“We’ll take the airboats,” the princess clarifies.
They climb in, and speed back up the river, past where they first appeared,
and into what has to be what Honeypea was talking about. It’s this big open
area of water, where even from their low vantage point, they can see other
rivers moving off in other directions. In the center is an island of roots
underneath a giant tree. They really weren’t kidding when they kept calling
him that. They have only ever seen him in his human form. Mysterious blue
glowing fruits are hanging down from the blue leafed branches. At the base
is a gravestone where monarch butterflies are fluttering about. They stop by
a flat and level part of the arboreal island, and step out one by one.
As soon as the last person gets out, the boat drives away on its own, and
the human form of the Magnolia appears. Tamerlane Pryce wasn’t a good guy
when he was just a regular person, but this is just what the tree chooses to
look like, for whatever reason. It’s not really him, though...not anymore.
They were never given a whole lot of details. He steps forward. “I apologize
for the delay, but I was seeking information. I know what our issue is now,
but I don’t know how to solve it.”
“Is season two of our unauthorized reality show moving forward?” Andrei
asks.
“I hope not,” Pryce replies, “but as it stands, I can’t stop it.”
“Who’s doing this to us?” Cosette demands to know.
“She calls herself The First Explorer. She claims to have witnessed
the big bang, and while she did so through some form of time travel, I
believe that she sees herself as the first being to exist in the whole
universe. This universe, that is; not Fort Underhill.”
“What does she want?” Selma presses.
Pryce Tree takes a moment to respond. “She’s convinced that she’s at war
with Fort Underhill and the Sixth Key. She perceives you as a threat. She’s
more powerful than I am, I’ll admit that...but she’s not more powerful than
me and The Nucleus.”
“The Nucleus is a place, not a person,” Nuadu insists.
“That’s what you think.” Pryce sighs. “Still, we won’t be able to do
this alone. We need human agents to accomplish some of our goals. Any
volunteers?”
