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Paradox (SI)

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    • Chromie adjusted her brand new vambraces before looking up at me, "Are you sure this will work?"

    "Yep," I agreed and peeked out behind the tree into the darkness. It was the last large tree outside the construction site, "At least somewhat sure. Best I could build in this short time."

    Chromie nodded, "So… what's the plan when we get to the pit?"

    "I have some ideas, but let's burn that bridge when we come to it," I said, "There has to be a way for the earthen to get from here and into the tower itself. It's still under construction and I can't see Loken building that thing himself."

    Chromie slowly nodded again before pressing the gem on her left vambrace. Her image shimmered to be replaced with a mechagnome, "How do I look?" she asked, raising her hand and clicking her now pincher looking hand, "This is so strange."

    "Looks fine," I said, "I just wish I could pass for an Earthen," I said and activated my own, activating several fields covering me. The first being a muting field, dampening any sound I made. The second blended out my outline as well as copied the color and pattern of the background. The last one cutting off any magic I was giving off.

    I could have done a real invisibility one, but… then I wouldn't be able to use the anti-magic field and could be detected by a Blue dragon.

    If I could just have pretended to be an Earthen, I could have done the same thing as I did for Chromie, but I was just way too tall.

    But it was the middle of the night, it should be alright.

    "Can you hear me?" I asked Chromie.

    "Barely, it's really muffled," she answered.

    "Good," I agreed, "that's what I was going for. Let's get going, follow me."

    Chromie looked in my direction and spread her arms, "How!?"

    I stared at her before I rubbed my forehead. Fucking damn it.

    "Fair," I admitted, "You lead the way, I follow," I said and lowered my hand to rest on the hilt of my weapon, "We move slowly, quietly and safely. Stay away from any Blues if at all possible. I'm good, but I don't want to risk it."

    "Wouldn't most be asleep by now?"

    "Most, not all."

    Chromie nodded, "Okay," she said and poked her head around the tree, "Follow me."

    Then she set out from behind the tree and I followed as quietly as I could. It was a good thing we were doing this at night, even the mechagnomes and earthen weren't as active in the middle of night. There were some movements still, sparks of metal and lights set up at workshops.

    But between it all were also still earthen, mechagnomes unmoving. Dragons curled up asleep, mostly drakes, but the large mounds of wyrms visible in the light of the moons.

    We slowly made our way towards the massive pit containing the tower, "Do you remember a way across?" Chromie asked quietly, glancing back to where she knew I had to be.

    "No," I answered, "No bridge or openings. We need to look for a teleporting array."

    Chromie nodded and looked around, "Any idea where we could find that?"

    "Should be somewhere around the rim, no reason to have them further away," I said and looked the other way, "Should spot it if we move around the pit."

    "And if not?"

    "If not, I had a dumb idea."

    Chromie groaned softly but nodded and started towards the right, "Is it bad that most of your dumb ideas work?" she asked quietly.

    "It's only a dumb idea if it doesn't work," I answered, "If it works, it's called genius."

    "You just said it was going to be a dumb idea."

    "Yeah."

    Chromie froze as a shape ahead of us moved and a drake slowly started to get up, stretching as her sapphire scales reflected the light of the moons above. I stopped dead still. My breathing slow and controlled.

    I'm not here. I'm a shadow. I'm just the night. I'm the night.

    The dragoness slowly got up, stretching and heading off into the night without a second glance. We stayed very still for another couple of very long moments in complete silence.

    Chromie waited for another couple of long moments before she started to slowly move again, following the rim of the large pit and I followed behind her.

    I should have summoned Rogue when I had the chance back before we went out into the open or got too close.

    "There," Chromie said softly, "that looks like it," she said as we started to approach a platform open to the air.

    "Agreed," I confirmed and glanced around.

    No guards.

    Why would there be any guards? The only people that had even evolved at this time were the trolls… I think. Maybe murlocs had existed as well.

    But everything else was Titan created.

    There was nobody to guard against.

    I stepped onto the teleport platform with Chromie and there was a flash of light and we were somewhere else.
     
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    • I doubt they don't have regular defense system set to guard against them
    , but they wouldn't really be calibrated to react to the dragonflights, guard are more needed to stop intruder that can actually be stealthy or go around said security system, also most of them wouldn't even dare do something that would anger the Titans.
     
    WaleXdraK said:
    I doubt they don't have regular defense system set to guard against them, but they wouldn't really be calibrated to react to the dragonflights, guard are more needed to stop intruder that can actually be stealthy or go around said security system, also most of them wouldn't even dare do something that would anger the Titans.
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    Literally every single race I listed waged war against the Titans.

    In fact, given this is after the Titan's transformed the five groups of Proto-Dragons into the Flight's, but before the 20,000 year's before modern day marker when the Primal Incarnates were sealed away. The Proto-Dragons and their Primal Incarnate leaders should be in the middle of waging war against the Titans this very moment.
     
    Vaermina said:
    In fact, given this is after the Titan's transformed the five groups of Proto-Dragons into the Flight's, but before the 20,000 year's before modern day marker when the Primal Incarnates were sealed away. The Proto-Dragons and their Primal Incarnate leaders should be in the middle of waging war against the Titans this very moment.
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    Sure, but they wouldn't try to be stealthy and infiltrate a titan stronghold so guard would be pretty useless, any actions from the protos against the titan would be easy to see coming and to respond in kind.
     
    I was thinking about this story, and I now have a theory about what is going on. I'm just missing a bit of the information to be honest.
    See, there were two blue dragons assigned to inspect the leylines. Our MC and his mate got distracted by their friend before they could finish the inspection, which means they missed the issue up the ley line that caused that installation to begin destroying the world. My predicted solution is that they will have to finish that inspection to fix things at the end of the story.
    The only question is whether they had to come back from the time when the story started for the time loop, or if there was originally two different dragons that were supposed to do that inspection, but something happened to them that the Protagonists will end up stumbling over.
     
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    • The enchantment matrix was the most advanced one I had ever seen.

    ...And yet… not.

    Once past the security, it was massive, complex and actually fairly straight forward, at least the part I was working on.

    Advanced, yes. Complicated, yes.

    But I could follow it.

    It glowed in my mind, flows of magic shifting and interacting with itself in complex patterns. There.

    Users. Or rather… individual registration.

    Now, I just need to imprint my own signature on it and…

    There. I'm added to the list of beings authorized by the system. Now I hope nobody checks this before activating it.

    Well, there was only so much we would be able to do with this. I may be able to follow what this insanely large enchantment was doing here, but it was just so…

    Huge.

    I'd never be able to go through if I had a year to do so. It was like the massive machine reached all the way to the core of the planet, to the core of Azeroth itself.

    The Titans built…

    Big.

    Someone shook my arm and I blinked my eyes open to look down at Chromie. She stared up at me, eyes open and she held her hand up, finger to her lips.

    I stayed very, very still, just shifting a bit further into the shadow we had been hiding in, just next to a massive gear.

    Heavy footsteps approached. We stayed still.

    Loken slowly walked past. Chromie stayed very, very still. I did the same beneath the chameleon enchantment. Held my breath. Didn't even breathe.

    I squeezed my eyes closed before he got into view. Didn't want to see. Didn't want to… don't know what it would do. Don't see us, don't speak.

    The footsteps continued and I snuck a glance.

    Nobody in sight, the heavy footsteps slowly moving away. I didn't move, eyes glued at the corner he had gone past.

    "Chromie?" I whispered.

    "...Yeah…"

    "We're leaving."

    Chromie nodded silently. I put my hand on her shoulder, giving it a small squeeze. She was trembling.

    Because it was the disguised gnome that was trembling and not my hand.

    "Atreus?"

    "Yeah?"

    "Did you… get it done?"

    "Yeah."

    "So why aren't we moving?" she answered quietly, her voice slightly trembling. I took a slow and deep breath, giving her shoulder another firm squeeze.

    Move.

    My feet wouldn't move.

    Move!

    I moved. Not a lot, just a small step. My hand gave Chromies shoulder a small tug to get her moving. She stumbled slightly.

    One step. Then the next. Then we were moving quickly and quietly along the path the opposite direction to where Loken had moved off to.


    #####


    Our way back was very slow and very careful.

    Getting caught on the way out would be way worse than getting caught on the way inside so we took the long and careful route. At least on the way out we knew where the Big Boss was and he was the one most likely to be able to spot us as we were.

    Even so, it was sunrise by the time we got back to camp and I was exhausted.

    Walking into our temporary camp, I removed the gear, turned back to my real form and flomped onto the ground.

    I didn't remember much more after that. I think I was asleep before I landed.

    By the time I opened my eyes again, the sun was well up at zenith and I yawned as I raised my head. Nozdormu was curled up to one side like a minor mountain, seemingly asleep.

    Everyone else was gone.

    "Hey, finally deciding to join us living?" a voice asked and I turned my head to spot Alexis sitting beneath a nearby tree.

    "Mmm," I agreed and stretched before relaxing again, turning my head in her direction, "Where is everyone?"

    She shrugged, putting her book down, "Hunting. Chromie went with them to make sure nobody killed the wrong butterfly. Nozdormu says that we'll be able to go back by tonight, that he's gathered enough energy by then."

    Damn.

    This really was difficult if a Flight Leader with an Aspect had to work to get it done.

    "Chromie said it went well?" she continued.

    I nodded, "I think so. What remains is... does anyone think to check or happen to spot it before our return?"

    Alexis frowned, "You didn't check before we left?"

    I dug my claws into the ground, "Chromie wouldn't let me. Something something paradox. All the Bronze worries about."

    "I think listening to the time travel expert while time traveling may be a good idea," she pointed out with a small smile.

    "I know, I know," I grumbled, "Don't want to paradox myself out of the timeline or get eaten by a grue or something."

    "Indeed," a voice said and I looked over to find Nozdormu watching us, "Which gives you more sense of these things than most not of my flight. The flow of time is both immutable and unstoppable and very vulnerable to disruption. At the right spot, it can handle a civilization falling, a species going extinct without getting affected. Or the entire history could change at the wrong stroke of a pen. That's what makes time travel so dangerous for non-bronze. You have no sense of what is a danger and what's not. It can be innocent or obvious. Or it can be completely unexpected."

    I nodded, "Which is why listening is a good idea," I agreed, "Doesn't mean it's not annoying at times however."

    The large wyrm looked amused, "I can't argue with that at times. But what comes naturally for us, is impossible for you."

    The sound of wings made me look up just in time to see Chromie and everyone else return. Chromie swept in low across the clearing, a dead deer dropping from the sky and hitting the ground before Nozdormu. A moment later a second one crashed next to me as Sheila came in for landing, dropping her cargo.

    I got up and moved to dig in. It was still nice and warm.

    "Thank you," I said, looking at Sheila after swallowing a strip of meat.

    "Figured you would be hungry when you woke up," she said and settled down next to me, "Sleep well?"

    I nodded, "Thank you," I repeated and nosed around for the liver before Wrathion could try stealing it again.

    Alexis made a small choking sound by the tree and I raised my head to look at her, "What?"

    She shook her head and got up, moving around to sit on the other side of the tree, facing away. I blinked and then mentally shrugged, going back to my meal.

    Nozdormu more or less swallowed his deer whole, waited until I had my fill and then took those remains as well.

    Then he turned his head to Chromie, "I have detected no ripples in the timeline from our actions in this frame. It appears we have succeeded."

    Chromie nodded, "Agreed," she said and stretched her wings before returning to mortal form to stretch her arms in turn, "Are you ready to head back?"

    "Almost, a few more hours will bring us to a more suitable departure time. It's closer to a split."

    I watched them for a moment and then shifted to relax, resting my head across the back of Sheila's neck as she got comfortable.

    Might as well get as much rest as I could because even if this ended up working and giving us access, guess who will have to figure the entire system out?

    Yeah..

    In this case, breaking into the control system was the small part of the operation. Then I needed to figure out how the planet destroying weapon of mass immolation worked.

    Without triggering it.

    Because that would be bad.

    And say we managed to shut it down, stop it from activating. Something triggered it. Assuming it wasn't a false positive, it was bad enough to make it think crust inverting the planet was the right course of action.

    Letting out a small sigh, I tried to get some more sleep.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Hiver said:
    There. I'm added to the list of beings authorized by the system. Now I hope nobody checks this before activating it.
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    Wasn't... Wasn't he supposed to hide that?

    Hiver said:
    Nozdormu more or less swallowed his deer whole, waited until I had my fill and then took those remains as well.

    Then he turned his head to Chromie, "I have detected no ripples in the timeline from our actions in this frame. It appears we have succeeded."
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    This is where I inform everybody that it's canon via the three Legacies video's that the Titan's are perfectly capable of blocking Nozdormu's time vision from accessing chunks of history and erasing Nozdormu's memory about certain events.
     
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    • We moved through the golden whirling portal and it deposited us just outside the titan structure.

    I moved out of the way, stretching my wings as I looked around. Everything was like we left it, including the fireplace and the dome shelter.

    No massive empire of intergalactic hamsters in sight or anything like that.

    Nozdormu and Chromie seemed to have been right.

    Nozdormu went through last, the portal closing behind him. He looked tired, apparently it was a really long trip.

    "I will leave you now," He told us and a blue normal portal opened next to him, "Good luck."

    "Before you go," I said and looked up at the large flight leader, "Have we met before?"

    He looked amused, "From which reference frame?"

    Bloody bronzes.

    I snorted in annoyance and Nozdormu chuckled before turning and heading through the blue portal. A second later it closed behind him.

    Chromie looked up at me, "So... test?"

    "Test," I agreed and channeled some magic, turning to my mortal form, "But I want you outside and ready by a timeportal, Chromie. If it blows up the world, stop me before I go inside."

    Chromie nodded, "I'll stay here."

    I glanced back, "Everyone else too."

    I gave Ren and Sheila a tight hug and then I walked over towards the entrance of the building.

    Nobody tried to stop me.

    No bronze dragon appeared to tackle me. I shot one last glance backwards before walking down the ramp into the building.

    Because if no time traveling dragon tries to stop you, how bad of an idea could it really be?

    Right?

    Before I could change my mind, I picked the gem I made to replicate Malygos magical signature out of my pocket and activated it without the part that suppressed my own magical signature. The mix was the key. Something I had not tried before.

    I put my hand on the pedestal and waited.

    The globe activated and started to fill. Seconds past, the longest seconds ever. Then the globe flickered out and was replaced by several hovering windows of scrolling titan symbols.

    I stared at them as I disengaged the gem and put it back into my pocket.

    It worked. It worked!

    We were in.

    I looked at the three hovering windows, the symbols slowly moving across them.

    We did it. We had access.

    Now a new problem presented itself.

    I can't read bloody titan!

    There was a sound behind me and I glanced back to see Ren looking into the chamber, "Did it work?"

    "It worked," I confirmed, "But we have a new problem. Do you read titan? I have no idea why my magic translation rings aren't working."

    She slowly walked up next to me, frowning at the holograms, shaking her head, "I know a few symbols."

    "Same," I agreed with a sigh, "I have to ask Chromie, she's old enough... maybe. Or we have to find a lexicon, I know we had one at the Nexus. Should be one in that library too, we might have to go back."

    Slipping an arm around her, I pulled her close as I looked at the floating magical holograms, "One down. One obstacle down, many left."

    "But we are doing it," Ren said quietly, leaning her head against my shoulder, "And you thought you couldn't get in."

    I smiled and looked at her, "Well, technically I didn't break it. I'm an authorized user."

    "That counts."

    I nodded and rested my head against hers, "...He spoke to me. Norgannon. Here… a couple of dozen meters away. On the first arrival."

    "Me too," she answered softly, "The creator."

    The way it made me feel. The way his words… took over. It scared me.

    But I couldn't get angry about it. Even when I tried.

    I held her closer.



    AN// Part posted early. God Jul!
     
  • Threadmarks
    • You know...

    Its really lucky the beings of fundamental Order that are the Titans didn't bother to do even a single check of their world destroyers access database in the tens of thousands of years between Arty adding himself and then showing up to use it. :facepalm:
     
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    Double checking your work is for lesser beings of chaos that make mistakes the first time apparently.
     
    That would make sense given just how much of the Titans' infrastructure the Old Gods and minions were able to either corrupt, corrode, or otherwise coopt. Oh and that one time where they made one inadvertantly.
    Because there's a lot even leaving out the dragons entirely.

    But then again, the presence of so many failsafes and tripwires just in general and on the particular installation Atregos and Co are trying to crack disagrees with that.
     
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    ChaosGreen said:
    That would make sense given just how much of the Titans' infrastructure the Old Gods and minions were able to either corrupt, corrode, or otherwise coopt. Oh and that one time where they made one inadvertantly.
    Because there's a lot even leaving out the dragons entirely.

    But then again, the presence of so many failsafes and tripwires just in general and on the particular installation Atregos and Co are trying to crack disagrees with that.
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    The Old God's were literally created by the Void Lords to corrupt Titan stuff.
     
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    • As it turned out, yes, Chromie knew how to read Titan glyphs better than any of us. Sadly, she was also far from fluent.

    So it took time to translate and learn.

    "No, no!" Chromie said and pointed, sitting on the pedestal, "That previous one is a negation symbol. That changes the entire grouping."

    "You're right," I admitted, shifting my wings as I studied the scrolling script, "So it's 'no significant anomalies detected in sector 416-Beta'."

    Chromie frowned, "Uhm… maybe? Might be 4-16 Beta."

    I squinted, "Maybe?"

    She stood up and pointed, "See? There is a tiny dash at the upper quadrant of the one symbol. That's a notation for the previous split from the previous number."

    I growled and sighed, "Yes. You're right. The titan writing is… annoying."

    Chromie nodded and dropped back down to sit, "Yeah. Which is why I'm not fluent either. But you're almost as good as I am by now."

    I nodded and looked at the scrolling datastreams, "Might be enough to figure out how to work this thing. But my head hurts."

    Chromie smiled and jumped down from the pedestal as she reached up to pat my nose, "Not surprising. It does take quite a bit of beating to get knowledge into that thick skull of yours."

    I growled at her before standing up and snapping my teeth at the back of her clothes, lifting the dragon-gnome off her feet, turning to head up the ramp.

    "H-hey!" Chromie protested and struggled, "Stop that!"

    Ignoring her, I spotted Wrathion and Umbria stretched out on the sun warm stone outside. I moved over to them and dropped the gnome, "You deal with this," I told them before I took to the skies.

    It felt nice to stretch my wings.

    When even I thought I had spent too much time holed up nerding about things, it has been too long.

    It seemed like I had picked a good time too, at the horizon were thick and heavy dark clouds, a mist of rain visible beneath them. Quite a heavy looking storm actually.

    Rain might not bother dragons as such, but lazing in the sun was a lot nicer than the middle of a rainstorm. And flying in it was horrible.

    Made it hard to see.

    It'll be here in about an hour, which means that if I wanted something to eat before it arrived, I'd need to pour on some speed.

    Beating my wings harder, I peered down towards the forest below.



    ######


    I miscalculated.

    By the time I returned to the camp, the wind was howling and the rain was pouring down. I shifted course, coming in for landing in the clearing as the wind threatened to throw me off course and into the trees.

    A gust of wind hit me from the side in a spray of heavy rain and I almost ran into a tree.

    Folding my wings, I dropped several meters before spreading them wide again, beating hard as I came in for landing just outside the dome shelter.

    My claws hit the ground and I quickly folded my wings before I was even properly down. I stumbled, but at least the wind didn't catch my wings and throw me to the side.

    I have seen it before and I have experienced it before.

    It looked even more undignified than it felt.

    The rain came down like a waterfall. The rain was so outright apocalyptic I had a sudden urge to build an ark.

    Doing my best to shake it off myself, I then ducked down and moved inside, pushing the heavy cloth over the opening to the side with my head.

    Everyone was already inside, a fire burning in the middle, the warm light filling the dome, the smoke being magically compelled out of the water shielded hole on top of the dome.

    Rounding the fire, I moved to lay down next to Sheila with a sigh, setting my head down on the stone.

    "You," Sheila said and shifted to press her nose against my neck, "are wet."

    "Mistimed the storm," I grumbled quietly, "Wanted to get something to eat before getting back to work with Chromie tomorrow."

    Everyone else looked asleep, and didn't want to wake them.

    "How's it going?" she asked quietly, "Chromie said you're making progress?"

    "Mmm," I agreed and shifted a bit closer, turning my head against hers in turn, "And tomorrow we can start for real to try to turn this thing off."

    Sheila nodded and closed her eyes.

    I followed her example.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • ChaosGreen said:
    That would make sense given just how much of the Titans' infrastructure the Old Gods and minions were able to either corrupt, corrode, or otherwise coopt. Oh and that one time where they made one inadvertantly.
    Because there's a lot even leaving out the dragons entirely.

    But then again, the presence of so many failsafes and tripwires just in general and on the particular installation Atregos and Co are trying to crack disagrees with that.
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    on failsafes you could also count that it's probably supposed to be the last installation to survive in a worst case scenario.
    as for it to even be needed means that a "all is lost" scenario has occurred.
     
    So I dunno how long this particular jaunt of the story is going to be, but I'm really not feeling any sort of tension? Like, every problem in the story has been easily resolved with very little effort, despite the stakes? Time travel ignores the time limitation; Malganis was easily fooled and forgotten; the party got mind controlled for two chapters and it was resolved without fighting; the titan sneak session went off without a hitch.

    It just kinda feels like this 'chapter' of the story has been everyone talking about how hard everything is and then doing it anyways, without any stakes or effort involved, because every issue save the looming vague deadline is easily handled.

    The usual 'tech advancements and social interactions' bit of these planeswalker stories doesnt even come into play, just the same 6 or 7 people vaguely talking about how their lives are hard but never showing any signs of difficulty.

    Dunno, I'm just whining vaguely and its your story of course, but this has been remarkably dull following the fast paced and energetic moments in earlier arcs. Doesnt feel like the story is being written out of any sense of enjoyment, just to say 'hey I wrote more of this.' I like your writing style because you rarely put out content that feels stale or boring, you tend to swap between stories and fandoms rapidly enough that I never feel bogged down despite the 'total length' of the fics, and the shorter chapters + near-daily uploads mean I never forget whats going on and can recap earlier chapters easily. This story feels like a departure from the usual quality.
     
    PurpLexed said:
    Dunno, I'm just whining vaguely
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    Your entire complaint is "hiver is bad at experiential narration."

    I mean, he definitely is, but this feels more like you grasping for something to talk about, something worth commenting about, in a story that so far off the beaten path that there is nothing interesting to discuss, it's all a fog of "what happens next".
     
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    • "Oh," I said and took a step back, pulling my hand back.

    Chromie looked up in alarm, "Oh? What's oh?" she asked, "I don't like oh!"

    "It's… done," I said, "The mechanism is shutting down."

    Chromie frowned, "...What? We only been here for ten minutes?"

    I looked at her and shrugged, "It was a switch. Just needed to find it, all the security was getting in here."

    The data streams across the screens slowly slowed down before winking out. I looked at the pedestal, touching it for a second. It was still online, but it wasn't… active.

    More like in standby mode. Inactive.

    Could be turned on again and I could see how to do it, but…

    It was inactive.

    After all that it took to get here, just… turning it off like this seemed like a bit of an anticlimax. To be honest, I wasn't sure what I expected.

    Maybe some rumbling or a lightshow or… something.

    But just pressing the off switch was a bit of a letdown to be honest.

    If it stayed off…

    I looked at Chromie as she climbed onto her feet, "Look at the timeline?"

    She shook her head, "Will take a while for the timeline to catch up with itself. Several days, perhaps weeks until we will be able to see the interference point in the far future. Weeks longer until it reaches the current now or at least until it reaches the split point of the activation of the machine."

    I frowned at her, "A month until we know it worked? We're working with a time traveler, how can everything always take so much time!?"

    Chromie shrugged, "I don't make the rules."

    "You are a Bronze, you literally do."

    "No more than you make the rules of magic," she said and rolled her eyes, brushing her robes clean of dust, "But yes, it can be annoying."

    "In the meantime, if this didn't work, we would have lost a month of time we could have worked on the problem," I said, crossing my arms, "Because it occurs to me that this wasn't ever completely confirmed to have been the thing that did it."

    Chromie shook her head, "...No," she admitted, "But we were sure enough to go get you to fix it. We'll know more when the timewave reaches the right split point. But then there is the… triggering anomaly to consider."

    I crossed my arms, leaning back against the console, "Yeah. Considering the planet didn't crust invert from the burning legion invasions, I'm… worried," I admitted with a frown, "If it's worse than that, I have no idea what we can do."

    "Well…" Chromie said with a smile, "You could try blowing a hole in the planet again. Worked last time."

    "Fair," I said and frowned, "...Admittedly, I likely won't have a dark portal to throw a device into this time. But that's an idea, maybe I cou-"

    Chromie spun to face me, pointing at me, "No! Bad Atregos! No making continent destroying bombs unless we need one!"

    "Oh come on, it would barely destroy an island. Besides, this entire continent is going boom eventually anyway. Nobody'd notice."

    "That's thousands of years into the future! I'm not having you cause the Sundering early!"

    I glowered at her, "Never let me have any fun."

    Chromie glared at me before she grinned, "I'm sure you will get to blow up a continent eventually."

    "You know, considering our track record so far, I'm pretty sure you're right," I agreed with a small snort, "The fact that that's true is kind of depressing."

    Chromie nodded, "It was a lot easier when it was just Azeroth to worry about," she agreed with a small sigh, "Kind of miss it. I used to do missions to correct the timeline with a handful of mortal adventurers. It was difficult. Dangerous. People died. Important. But it was… I don't know. It mattered, I could act directly. I… I don't know. It was simpler. At least I can see now that it was, at the time… well…"

    I nodded and then eyed her speculative, "...How old ar-" I started to ask before I rubbed my eyes, "Forget I asked. I should have learned by now, never ask timeline or age related questions to a bronze dragon."

    "See, you can learn!"

    I glowered at her and then shook my head, pushing off the pedestal and heading towards the ramp, "And on that note, if you excuse me, I'm going to go design a continent destroying bomb."

    "No! Absolutely not!" Chromie protested, rushing to follow, "No continent destroying bombs! Make a flying ship or something! You like those!"

    I hesitated slightly, "You know… I think I would be able to do that now. I learned a lot more since I tried last. If I could convince Wrathion and Umbria to find me the materials, I might be able to construct a vessel for us. No matter what, that could be useful."

    Chromie seemed relieved, "Yes! Do that instead!"
     
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    • ...I can sort of see Chromie forcing herself into their little dynamic just to make sure he doesn't blow the world up on accident, haha.

    "I used to spend my time running around with mortals to keep the timeline in check; now, I just run around with this doofus to keep him in check."

    Nozdormu chuckled, lowering his head to swallow his meal in a single bite, but then he abruptly froze. "Atregos just tested a self-propelled carriage."

    "That doesn't sound so bad." Chromie rubbed her chin and looked up at him questioningly with a cocked eyebrow. "I mean, the Dwarves and-" she smiled a little "-Gnomes have been using those for years now."

    "This one is powered by an unstable mana crystal that could detonate with the force of three Deathwings."

    Chromie's smile froze and faltered. She blinked, then facepalmed. "Of course he would use something like that. Titans-dammit, Atreus!"

    Nozdormu abruptly looked to the north in alarm. "Quickly, young dragon, before he blows up the Eastern Kingdoms!"

    "I'm on it, I'm on it," Chromie said with a grumble as she stretched and flexed her aching muscles. Only just a few months ago, she never would have dreamed she'd be speaking and acting so cavalierly with her flight-leader.

    Months of being Atreus' caretaker, however, have resulted in her not giving one murloc shit about it.

    "I swear, Atreus," she said bitterly as she transformed and took to the air, "if Alexis doesn't brain you for this, Sheila will. And if she doesn't, I will. Titan-damned Blue..."

    Behind her and on the ground, Nozdormu chuckled as Chromie became nothing but a spec in the sky: Dinner and a show while saving the world in one fell swoop.

    Sometimes, he loved his job.
     
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    You know Chromie could end up regretting pointing him in that direction with a month on their hands to kill, something like an Eclipse-class SSD would technically be a flying ship and a continent cracker (if not a bomb) at the same time, and Atreus's planeswalker BS has been turned up to 11 here...
     
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