Crack Omake 4: setstage MQ303 180
Feels Omake 1
??? Years Later
It's finally finished.
A part of you still has trouble believing it, really. Your Task isn't finished, of course--far from it, in fact--but this is a major stepping stone on the road to your goal of bringing Autochthon into the Nowhere Universe.
You are standing just off the rim of Brockton Bay Crater, in front of the massive archway that your Assembly (particularly Devoted Architect of the Peerless Mind), Iris, and Dragon have spent the last several months constructing. Gathering the materials for its construction alone took nearly three years of work and Devoted Architect spent over three months in seclusion with Iris, in a continuous state of Clarity, working out the designs for it beforehand. This is not to mention the amount of work that went into putting together the Vat (despite the fact that it takes up an entire block in downtown Philadelphia, Iris refuses to let such a 'primitive and inelegant work' be described as a Complex) required to give all of your Assembly the necessary upgrades to even begin working on the Portal.
Most of the members of your Assembly are arrayed behind you on a podium, along with several important government officials from around the world (including the remaining senior officials of the Protectorate and PRT). Devoted Architect of the Peerless Mind and one of Dragon's Avatar Bodies are still tinkering away at the nearby control panel and muttering softly to each other as they make several last minute adjustments to the crystal tuning array. While she has shown nearly boundless patience, you are sure that Dragon is happy to have Colin (grudgingly) returned from his most recent bout of self-induced Clarity--while you appreciate his zeal in making sure the Portal works as efficiently as possible, he is even harder to deal with under the effects of the Maker's Clarity than you had initially feared. Dragon had been able to convince him that such an auspicious occasion would require interacting with the VIPs in attendance, and that doing so properly necessitated a more delicate touch than he was capable of with Clarity directing his actions.
The last several hours have been taken up by official greetings and speeches made by the aforementioned VIPs. While you understand the necessity of oratory at times of great import, you have been left with the near certainty that most of the speakers here are in it primarily to hear themselves speak. You yourself gave a rather brief speech, thanking those who had aided you in this endeavor and remembering the individuals that perished in the long fight to vanquish the Endbringers (Leviathan and Behemoth, at least. The Simurgh has spent the last several years producing detailed artworks that crawl across the surface of the moon, using only regolith and shadows.). Despite his pleas, you were able to keep Prodigal Scion of Oration from taking a turn at the lectern; you somehow doubt the gathered dignitaries would be comfortable listening to his
particular brand of enthusiasm. As the latest politician (a brief check of the program stored in your Elsewhere pocket confirms that it is the French Prime Minister) continues to drone on about 'international and interplanetary cooperation' and 'the dawn of a new era,' you turn your attention to the massive construction in front of you.
The Portal itself is as much a work of art as one of science and magic. You suspect that many of the flourishes were added by Dragon, as Devoted Architect is still quite enamored of clean, hard lines, though you also see evidence Transfusion's design work in the engravings that flow across the bulk of the magical machinery. The device is primarily constructed of gleaming orihalcum and moonsilver, with starmetal forming much of the frame. At the peak of the frame sits the Heart of the nascent Brockton Bay Volcano, surrounded by an opaque shell made of a bizarre alloy of flerovium and potassium. Traceries of soulsteel and moonsilver wind their way outward from the Heart to nodes of adamant (painstakingly grown over the course of a year by Geode) that are dotted around the inner rim of the archway. A thick coil of moonsilver and orihalcum cables connect the archway to the instrument board Dragon and Devoted Architect are working at, which is studded with numerous dials and sliders. Hypothetically, there are an infinite number alternative universes that could be reached by finding the right settings, but the calculations required to find them would be immensely complex, well beyond what even Dragon could reliably calculate in any reasonable amount of time.
Finally, the current speaker winds to a close, and with a start you realize that your inspection of the Portal has taken you through an additional two speeches, marking the end of the ceremonial aspect of today's events. All that is left now is to finally bring the artifact up to full power and hope that the Great Maker successfully passed your message to your counterparts in the city of ?. Despite the seemingly endless series of tests and the personal assurances of Devoted Architect, Dragon, and Iris as to the likelihood of success today, a thrill of nervousness shoots down your spine, coiling uncomfortably in your stomach. The Exaltation of the various members of your Assembly has quelled most of the rumors concerning your origins and mental stability, but there are still those who look on your Task with skepticism. Beyond that, the sheer cost involved in constructing the Portal has left many uneasy. Failure of any sort today could set you back immeasurably, and that is unacceptable.
You stand and approach the Portal, the rest of your Assembly spreading out to either side of you. Devoted Architect takes up his position at the console he had been tinkering with just moments before, while Dragon moves a few steps to the side. You make a mental note to talk to her sometime soon; the last several months have been hectic, but you have noticed that she has seemed distracted at times, her attention seemingly drawn elsewhere whenever there is a moment of downtime. After a brief moment of hesitation, wondering if something should be said to mark the occasion, you turn and give Devoted Architect a nod. He returns the nod and throws a switch on the console. You hear a quiet, all-too-familiar clunk as the mechanisms surrounding the Heart shift slightly to bring into alignment with the other systems of the Portal. After a few minutes, the shell surrounding the Heart begins to glow, then slides quickly into transparency as the energies it contains cause a shift in the alloy's structure. The adamant nodes spaced around the portal's frame also begin to shine before lines of light burst out of them, meeting in the center of the archway. Devoted Architect carefully adjusts several of the sliders on the control panel--something to do with harmonic frequencies and dimensional barriers, you recall--and at last a vortex forms in the center of the Portal. After several more minutes, and a few more adjustments by Devoted Architect, the swirling mass of light begins to resolve into an image, curiously two-dimensional until with a sudden 'POP!' the wormhole stabilizes and you can see, standing on the other side, Lissome Avid Engineer and numerous dignitaries from the Patropolis of Ot, including several Alchemicals who are unknown to you (you only recognize Lissome Avid Engineer due to repeated communion with the Great Maker, wherein you discovered that she was leading the project to construct a terminus for the Portal's gateway).
-----
After a round of final checks to ensure the stability of the dimensional doorway, Exemplar of Blades, having quite cheekily informed you several days prior that she would be the one 'risking her fool neck on using an unproven piece of equipment,' confidently steps through. After a few moments to ensure no ills have befallen her, you, your Assembly, and diplomats and leaders from several world powers follow through, and you take your first breath in Autochthonia.
Wait, no... that ca/Aa/t/N'n/can't beeeEEEEE
The area you find yourself in, though well outside of the Patropolis itself, already has numerous buildings set up, though they don't match the styles in the memories the Great Maker gifted you with during your Exaltation. You suspect that they were designed by the Starmetal in front of you, as an expression of pride crosses her face when she notices where your attention has fallen. The area is surprisingly well lit, a combination of torches on the sides of the structures, numerous mineral outcroppings that emit a soft glow, and the harsh light emanating from the edges of the gateway.
That can't pos/SSSS/ly/poooos/ibly be...
Formal greetings and pleasantries are exchanged with the various members of the local Tripartite Assembly before you introduce the diplomats that accompanied you and hand off much of the conversation to them, with the members of your Assembly acting as translators. Meanwhile, you stand back and watch the proceedings, a small knot in your soul unravelling as it truly sinks in that you are in Autochthonia. A chuckle escapes you as the native Autochthonians begin to genuflect when Iris floats through the Portal behind you, and, bemused, you realize that you never got around to clearing up what exactly it meant that he was Autochthon's 'Secondary Fetich.' For his part, Iris is radiating pleasure and contentment at the attention, and you roll your eyes as a definite sense of smugness enters the mixture.
How c/C/aaaa/N/Aaa s/HEEEEE...
Still, as you gaze about you, drinking in the sight of your second homeland, you realize that something feels... off. After spending a moment in thought, you realize with a slight jolt of panic that the mental threads you had devoted to observing the people around you have been going silent, one after another, almost as if--
w/W/hhhh/T/AA/a/t...?
As if--
Wh/o/who...?
You go over the last memories of each mental thread and realize that they all fail at around the same point in space, as they sweep across a large crowd, made up of Alchemicals and Populat alike. Carefully, you turn your attention to just before your eyes would pass onto that spot, leaving your visual augmentations deactivated. You slowly look to the location where your other minds have shut down, and...
It takes you a moment to comprehend what you are seeing, but you suddenly realize
why your other mental threads were thrown for a loop.
It's so different, and yet so much the same. Where your form absorbs light, almost hungrily, hers reflects it, shining in the light of the torches around you. Her charms differ from your own--bulkier, in many ways--and yet... and yet...
It's like looking into a mirror.
"Mom?"
----------------
It's finally done. Well, mostly... I'm probably going to come back and poke at it in a few days, because it feels a bit too wordy. Or something.
Special thanks to anyone who answered questions in the thread, and particular thanks to Landcollector--if for no other reason than he prevented me from gracing you all with Moonsilver!Feint (and, y'know, put up with my general ignorance of all things Exalted).
Anyway, thoughts, comments?
Pseudo-Edit: Also,
@Kerashana, shame on you for making me think that I had somehow summoned Grom back to the thread by getting ready to post this.