Microstory 495: Architect

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The Architect has a knack for solving problems, which I know, seems like something everybody around here can do. He’s always preferred to work alone but has recently become more engaged with others in an attempt to be a better person. He is often found with The Composer and The Crafter; two other quiet people who just sort of get him. Together they carry out special projects and missions, sometimes without speaking a word, each one understanding what the others are thinking by their actions. He acts as a conduit between these two and the rest; able to kind of translate what they mean by something. He can be a little over-critical, but he always has everyone’s best interests in mind. He has a level of secrecy, but unlike The Promoter—who has legitimate reasons to keep everyone in the dark—The Architect is really just trying to protect himself. Yet he can’t help himself when it comes to his interactions with other people. A lot of people know his secrets. What none of them knows, however, is all of his secrets. This level of compartmentalization serves as a subtle hint as to how the new organization should operate. Independent departments are created, inspired by The Architect’s theories of cooperation, each one tasked with taking care of a different aspect of oversight. But that is not his only legacy...

Microstory 494: Promoter

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A great deal of mystery surrounds The Promoter. He claims to be from a planet that no one has ever heard of. Nor can he tell anyone exactly where it is. A few theories are indeed floating around about planets spinning somewhere in the galaxy that have not yet connected with everyone else, or have lost contact, and been forgotten by history. The most recent of these was Rinen Rinen, but that was a special circumstance, because its settlers were traveling at relativistic speeds. Since its discovery, scholars and scientists have pored through the records, looking for any evidence of secret planets, but have come up with nothing, not even the Promoter’s home. Just the same, he assimilates into society perfectly. He and The Mastermind are best friends with much in common. Both are spontaneous and ever-present, but while the Mastermind tends to be more independent, the Promoter prefers to use his easy-going attitude to lighten the mood for others. He is always game for a good joke, or an intriguing story. He is an excellent problem-solver, and could probably work well alone, but chooses to help others around him find the answer at their own pace. He is a strong advocate for both self-reliance and communal assistance. He is often seen eating literally, or biting off more than he can chew on a new project. He has no apparent education—which only adds to his mystery—but likes to get his hands dirty and try new things. He’s always asking questions, and it’s hard to tell whether he wants to know the answer, or if he already does, and is just testing you. Because of how mindful he is of the present, he can often lose focus on the future, and stresses too much about immediate results. He also likes to disappear with no explana

Microstory 493: Inspector

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For certain political reasons, the most senior member of the military contingency becomes unable to lead the team. She remains as...a consultant, but someone else has to take charge of the team, and be the public face of it. She thusly appoints The Inspector to be the de facto leader. This works out, because the Inspector feels a responsibility towards them anyway. She failed her first attempt at enlisting and has slightly more experience than the others, so she takes her job seriously. She failed before because of her inability to make snap-judgment calls, but she knows now that they won’t survive if that character flaw isn’t addressed. Her team trusts her for her loyalty, realistic perspective, and dependability. She values planning and organization, but knows when to delegate tasks...and appreciates a level of interpretation. Thorough and careful, the Inspector works tirelessly to protect the legacy of her fallen comrades, while understanding that this is the time for drastic change. She pushes the galaxy into the future, and instead of dismissing their enemy’s wishes, tries to find compromises. She respects everyone’s position, and though she can, at times, be impatient, always recognizes other people’s strengths. And that is her biggest strength. She has a sub-sub-magnus degree in public administration.

Microstory 492: Fieldmarshal

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History and Anthropology is the name of the game when it comes to The Fieldmarshal. Though he was never considered a genius, he appreciates academic pursuits. He has memorized fact after fact about history, culture, and the sciences. He will usually be explaining the reason behind situations, and is able to apply random knowledge to solve problems in an out-of-the-box manner. He is quick to accept leadership if it comes to him, but will not seek it out. He can be stubborn and may shut down when he comes across something he does not so easily understand. Much of what he knows is rather useless to practical application, but he believes that merely the absorption of knowledge is intrinsically important, and has never worried himself with what skills could help him in his life. He is rather famous in certain circles, actually. Though the galaxy is vast, carrying with it trillions of individuals, he enjoys a level of familiarity across a multitude of planets. His books have been downloaded billions of times, and not only because they are required reading for a number of educational programs. Before joining the military, he was spending most of his time as a lecturer. He particularly loved explaining basic scientific inquiry to young ones. While part of the team, he becomes a tool of problem-solving. When others have technical expertise to help them achieve their goals, he provides them with unique insight, especially into older cultures. Sometimes the best way to get something done is to remember how it’s been done before, possibly in order to avoid mistakes experienced by these predecessors. Though his background is in academics, he takes well to combat training, understanding almost immediately that any preconceived notions of how the galaxy worked before needed to be seen from an historian’s perspective. Things have changed, and he’s ready to make a difference in a new way.

Microstory 491: Teacher

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The Teacher’s behavior is often misinterpreted as condescending, but he is always acting in the best interests of those around him. His primary goal in life is promote the education of the populace. Though he has sub-magnus degrees in educational philosophy and theology, he’s never worked as an actual teacher. Instead, he uses his own education and experience to lobby for educational programs designed to lift society, and propel the galaxy towards enlightenment. He never really wanted to be in the military, and is actually a pacifist, but pragmatism and family legacy sort of forced him into it. Though he accepts his new role, and will harm people in order to protect the innocent—and his team—he will always look for a nonviolent solution. Much like The Counselor, he likes to help others find their way, and will become especially excited when he encounters a challenge. He finds that helping others learn something new helps him understand it better, or even in the first place. He is excellent at planning for the future, and is an invaluable source in creating safeguards and contingencies for potential problems. Though his ability to predict the future nowhere near matches what The Crafter possesses, their similar perspectives as big-picture thinkers leads them to having an interesting—and unexpected—friendship with each other. Before joining the team, he was taking part in a special mission that very few people even knew about, including The Crafter. But it is what he learns while on the team that puts him in a position to really execute change...and save the galaxy.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: June 24, 2109

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Mateo had his face buried in his hands. Literally everyone on the island was standing around in a jagged semicircle.

“It’s not that we don’t believe you,” Leona said. “We just want to understand. What were these buildings?”

“There were several of them,” Mateo tried to explain. Our mansion from Kansas City was here, there was a movie theatre-slash-video store. Téa, you were responsible for a clothing shop where salmon could jump in briefly and get what they needed to blend into their new surroundings. And Samsonite, you...you were a teacher. The Historian and The Archivist moved their operations over here. My God, why doesn’t anyone remember?” Probably more than any other emotion right now, Mateo was feeling furious. He didn’t imagine these last couple weeks. The buildings were real. Baudin was real.

“And one man built all of it? By himself?” Mateo’s once-father, Mario was likely exhibiting a healthy level of skepticism, but it just made Mateo more angry. This was coupled with the fact that Mario never did find a way to remember Mateo from an alternate timeline.

“Yes!” he screamed. “Because he has superpowers! Like so many of us do. I don’t know how he did it. He cut off his leg and jammed the bone into the dirt, and then a building would show up. Maybe he was just creating some sort of temporal bubble, I don’t know!”

“Okay, honey,” his once-mother, Aura tried to say. “You don’t have to yell. We can figure this out.” She didn’t remember Mateo as her son either, so hearing from her wasn’t all that comforting.

“Gilbert, Gilbert.” Mateo thought of an idea. “You have to remember him. You were him once. You possessed his body and you helped Meliora construct The Sanctuary.”

“What’s that?” Gilbert asked.

“It’s a special place that nearly all time travelers can’t enter. It was designed to protect humans who were in danger from people like us.”

They just looked at him.

“Oh, come on, you have to remember Sanctuary!”

“There is no Sanctuary.”

“Good, Gilbert. That’s good. You remember movies. So it’s not like you people can’t fucking remember anything!”

They were clearly not super happy about his use of foul language, but they could all tell that voicing their concerns would not be the best use of their time.

“Darko, you remember The Cleanser at least, right? He’s your brother...kind of.”

“We all do,” Horace confirmed. “Gilly killed him a few years back.”

“And The Warrior killed his sister, Nerakali, right?” Mateo asked. Whoa, that was weird. He remembered that happening, but could also remember experiencing a night without that happening. Maybe his friends’ weren’t the only ones whose memories were being messed with. He was being affected too. What else was he missing? Was this even real life? Does he even exist?

“Yes,” someone responded. He couldn’t even tell who it was since he was deep in thought.

So some things were the same, but others weren’t. “Saga, Vearden.” He stood up and approached the door-walkers. “You remember building the Colosseum, right? I mean, the replica. I experienced three tribulations there. Or was it two? I’m not sure if Glaston’s pocket dimension was part of that.”

“We do remember,” Vearden said. “Was this Baudin guy part of that?”

“No,” Mateo said. “I’m just trying to get a baseline.” He turned around and started pacing. “Xearea, how did we meet?”

“You forced your way into my house and protected me from killers.”

“Why were the killers there?”

“Apparently I piss them off in the future. I never really did learn why.”

“How long have you been on the island?”

She briefly shook her head, not understanding how he didn’t already know. “Well, I’ve been here ever since. That was, what, ten years ago?”

“What are you talking about?” Mateo questioned. “You’re the Savior! You haven’t been on the island, you’ve been teleporting around, saving people’s lives!”

“Mateo,” Leona spoke up again. “She’s been here. We’ve all been here. This is our island. You came her first in 2014. The rest of us followed over the course of the next few decades. Occasionally, they let us leave. Xearea was the last.”

Mateo closed his eyes, trying and failing to find patience. “So we’ve never been to Antarctica? Or Australia? Or Mars, or Iceland, or 1945!”

“You remember us going to 1945?” Leona asked, eyes wide.

“Well, no, I guess only Gilbert and I were there. But that’s what started everything in this reality. I killed Hitler—”

That got some eye rolls. Killing Hitler was not something you just throw out there casually and expect people to trust.

“I can see that you don’t believe me, at least not about that part.”

“Now, hold on,” Aura began, “that’s not fair. We are really tryi—”

“Zip it!” Mateo interrupted. “I can see now that someone somewhere somehow created yet another reality. This is not what happened for me. We’ve not been stranded on an island like...like...”

“Like LOST?” Saga suggested.

“Yes, like LOST,” Mateo agreed. He took a deep breath and composed himself. He was indeed finding his calm once more. If this was another reality, that meant it could be reversed. He didn’t know how, or who would help him, but he knew it could be done. “Darko, if we’re lost on this island, then we had to come with things from Earth. Like our clothes. Can’t you thread someone’s shirt, or something, and take us home.”

“My powers of object threading were turned off the moment I arrived,” Darko explained. “I’m stuck here too.”

So that was out. How convenient for whomever made this all happen. “Paige?” Mateo asked simply.

“I don’t have any pictures. My powers might still work, but there’s nowhere for me to go.”

Strike two.

“Saga and Vearden, these huts have doors.”

“They do,” Vearden agreed. “So what?”

“Have you tried walking through one and ending up somewhere else?”

“Why would that work?”

So apparently, Saga and Vearden weren’t door-walkers in this reality. They must have just been apported to Tribulation Island, and had no memory of being anywhere else. When they built the Colosseum, they did so here, so that explained why some things happened the way they did before, but not others.

Mateo sat back down on his log and scanned the crowd. Darko and Paige were their only hope. Everyone else was a salmon, and had no control over their patterns. Not that it mattered all that much. At best, they could get them back to Earth, but what he needed were answers. He needed to find a way to his reality. Or did he? Was this best? Who was to say say this reality was any worse than the other ones he’d seen? Maybe the only answer to this problem was to stop thinking of it as a problem. There were still a few things he needed to know, though, either way. “Who is Kivi Bristol?”

“You don’t remember me, father?” Kivi asked.

“I just met you yesterday,” Mateo replied.

“You’ve known me for years. I’ve been here the whole time too. I’m your daughter.”

He sighed again. “Same same, but different. Very well.”

She was holding back tears, but did a pretty good job of hiding it. Presumably she had all these memories of getting to know her father, but he had no idea. Was this what it was like to be his parents? Was this karmic retribution for killing Hitler and doing this to them? No, karma wasn’t powerful enough for this, not in the world of choosing ones. It had to be them. But who? Who was angry enough for that? With time travel, it could be anyone, even someone he had not yet met, like with Xearea’s attackers.

Everyone looked around awkwardly, not knowing what to say. It wasn’t until then that he realized that there was one face he didn’t recognize. Was this it? Was this the man who was doing all this? The man caught his eye and made a subtle motion for them to talk alone.

“Okay. Everyone is really stressed out right now, and I can see that the things I’m saying are upsetting everyone. Maybe I’m remembering an alternate reality, maybe I came from one. Maybe someone gave me false memories, or maybe it was just a dream. Regardless of the truth, I’m tired, and I feel like I need to be alone. Please...carry on with whatever you were doing on an island with nothing to do.”

They were hesitant, but everyone did eventually wander off, not quite sure how to deal with his problem. The stranger started heading for the treeline, looking back once more to make sure Mateo understood, but Leona was still there.

“It’s okay,” Mateo said to her. “I really am fine. I just need some time.”

“I’ve seen what these people can do, my love. When I told you that I believed you, I wasn’t just patronizing you. I don’t doubt for one goddamn second that something has been changed, and that the person who did it wants only you to remember. You can tell me anything. I promise that I’m on your side.”

“I can’t tell you how much of a relief it is to hear that from you, Leona.”

“Were I you,” she said.

“Were I you.” As she went for the beach, Mateo went off to catch up with the stranger, grabbing a pointy stick on a whim.

“You got my message,” the man said once he was sure no one else was around.

“You did this. You did this to me! To them! So what do you want from me? How have I slighted you that I don’t even remember, or haven’t even experienced?”

“It’s nothing like that. I’m not the one who screwed with your memories, but I know who did.”

“Oh, do you now? And how might that be? How come you and I are the only ones? I don’t even know you,” he spit.

“You don’t know me, but I know you. My name is Lincoln Rutherford.”

“What did you say?”

“I’m Lincoln. I too hail from an alternate reality. I was Horace Reaver’s security guard, back when he and Ulinthra were working together. My adopted daughter, Meliora accidently sent me back along with him.”

“They say you helped me. They say you stopped Reaver from hurting me many times, and that you protected my family too.”

“I did what I could. I wish I could have done more.”

“Did you ask people not to mention you to me.”

“I did, yes.”

“Why?”

“It seemed appropriate at the time.”

“That was Reality One,” Mateo tried to work out, “so to speak. You ended up in Reality Two, but then I went back to 1945 and created Reality Three, erasing everyone’s memories of Two. How come it is that you remember it?”

“I remember all realities. It’s my chosen one power. I see everything...except when it comes to spawn. That’s why I don’t always understand you, because Leona is in the way.”

“How convenient.”

“I suppose there’s no real way to convince you that what I say is true. I recognize that you’ve been tricked by both Zeferino, and Gilbert.”

“This isn’t about them. This is about me and you, baby. If you can tell me what happened, I may just start to trust you. Who’s responsible for this?

“It’s Arcadia.”

Of course.

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Protector

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Now that you’ve seen a few of these personalities, you can look them up and find out where they come from. They’re used in what’s known as the Keirsey Temperament Sorter. If you read a few of the descriptions, they might seem familiar. That’s because it’s closely related to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, which is probably more famous, and older. Both of them do a great job of categorizing people into sixteen different types, however there are differences. I prefer Keirsey—not because he uses more creative type names—but because it focuses less on each bullet point for a given personality, and more on how those characteristics interact to form a whole person.

I’ve taken the test a few times and gotten different results each time. That’s why I ultimately created a seventeenth personality for the story I’m writing that involves these. I call it Consultant, and I will not be giving it its own entry in this series (partly because I don’t have the space). Basically, the Consultant role variant expresses personality traits from all other types. I don’t mean that they pick and choose a few traits from a few types; I mean all of them. After doing significant reading into these types, I noticed that I myself identified with a lot of them. I feel like a Supervisor, because I appreciate standardization and rules; but I also feel like a Teacher, because I’m creative and abstract. I don’t feel like I fit well into any category, but I’ve found that most people do. I know that sounds pretty  self-aggrandizing, but that’s not really what it’s about. This system works. Not one of the personalities is better or worse than any other—nor do they diminish the concept of individuality—but they are rather accurate and helpful in describing social interconnectivity.

I might be more like a Counselor than any other. Indeed; Counselors most closely resemble my description for Consultants, but I also tend to lean more towards the Protector variant. I have a deep, almost obsessive, need to protect the people around me. When I see someone crossing the street, I hope that traffic is slow enough to allow me to watch them, and make sure they get to the other side safely. I’ve developed a desire to learn medical skills, not so much that I could heal people, but so that—wherever I am—I know that someone can help alleviate a medical issue to some degree. Protectors do not necessarily contribute to the progress of society, they often let others handle that. What Protectors do is keep the world safe, so it survives long enough to enjoy social and technological change.

Still, there are other aspects of the Protector variant that do not effectively describe me. Protectors regularly perform other people’s jobs, and complete tasks that others don’t really want to do. Though I have a strong work ethic, if I don’t feel like a job really needs to get done, then I either won’t do it, or I’ll do it grudgingly. I kind of have a problem with motivation and procrastination, which makes me a little like an Inventor. Which in turn makes me more like a Consultant.

The Protector character in my story exemplifies all facets of the type. She steps up on her own accord to become second-in-command to the group leader, even though she was not selected. The two of them disagree with each other more often than they agree, but they both value each other’s opinions and perspectives. They have a great deal of respect for one another, and eventually fall into a healthy rivalry that supports the group’s efforts, because it promotes balance, and prevents closed-mindedness or tunnelvision. The Protector, however, is not as worried about the group’s mission, but is instead concerned for the people themselves. She always makes sure everybody has what they need, and schedules time to speak with each and every one of them so that she understands what their concerns are. She is always looking for ways to improve their situation, and I would say that she succeeds in her goals, even if only for a limited time.

Microstory 490: Crafter

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The Crafter is the resident computer expert. His mind can process massive amounts of data, which are exceedingly difficult for him to forget. Furthermore, he understands the concept of causality so well that it borders on precognition. He is extremely quiet and speaks only when contributing something he feels is important. In fact, he has spent entire strings of days not saying a single thing to anyone else. He often forgets how much smarter he is than others, which frequently leads to a gap in communication. He sometimes has trouble knowing what is important to say, because he assumes others have already came to the same conclusion. He regularly speaks in half-sentences that are either setting up—or finishing—a thought he had in his own mind. Whenever he finds himself in a new group of people, he usually attaches to one particular person. Most of the time, there is at least someone around who can sort of translate his thoughts for the rest. He doesn’t even always have to speak to that person for them to understand what he’s going for. In this latest situation, that person happens to be The Architect, whom he grows closer to than anyone he’s met before, including his family. Though he appreciates efficiency, he is flexible, and willing to accommodate other people’s needs. Rather, even when he has an idea of how to proceed, and can’t fathom doing it any other way, he can at least acknowledge other people’s perspectives. He works incredibly hard to make sure everyone around him is on the same page, even if it doesn’t seem that way to people who don’t “get” him. He has magnus degrees in data management, computational systematics, cognitive science, and linguistics. He has a sub-magnus degree in network security.