Continuation.

[shimmermods]

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Vitali doesn't seem inclined to come much closer to any of you; there's a wall of glass between her and you, and she appears to want to keep it that way. Any attempts to breach it are likely a terrible idea; just because there aren't any soldiers with them doesn't mean that they're unarmed, after all.

"So you've decided to act up," she says, her hands folded behind her back, her posture formal and stiff in a way that doesn't suit her; her gaze remains as icy as her words, though she's refraining from making direct eye contact with any one of you in particular. She's still audible, despite the glass; it isn't as all-encompassing as the Shimmer seemed to be whenever it spoke to you within the boundary, but it's sharp, commanding. "If that's what you want to do, then fine. We can talk about that. You guys haven't wanted to settle since you got back; maybe this will make you actually sit down for a moment.

"If you're going to talk, get it out of your system before we throw you back in quarantine and figure out what to do with you. And try to keep from launching at the glass or doing anything stupid to yourselves in the meantime. We'd hate to have a reason to classify any of you as a threat."

code by vuvuzela

Comments

[atrueheroine]

I see.

[...]

...and what if they can't be reversed, or cured at all? What if we just...never go back to normal?

What then?

[shimmermods]

That's a possibility that we can't rule out.

[It sucks?? It sucks.]

I can't promise anything either way. But if they truly are permanent... Well, then it becomes a matter of seeing whether this is something that can be transmitted.

I know you guys don't want to stay here. But we don't want your worlds being infected, either.

[atrueheroine]

[......well. If Page didn't already looked drained enough, that's...certainly taken her down another peg.]

No, I...agree. My world has suffered enough.

[To put it mildly.

...]

Hubert said we were in there for a year. Do you...

[.....]

...do you know how things are, back in Bowerstone? I didn't plan to be away for so long.

[shimmermods]

[...That...seems to mildly alarm her for a moment, hang on- ]

I don't know how things are going now, but - we're not going to completely screw things up by writing you out of existence, whenever we put you back it'd be where we got you from.

[instrumentalized]

So there'd be... no time loss? That's... that's incredible.

[ HE MIGHT NOT HAVE MISSED THE WHOLE WAR?? ]

[atrueheroine]

[...! Oh, that...]

...you mean you can put us back at the exact moment you took us from? So it'll be like no time has passed at all?

[shimmermods]

Yes.

[atrueheroine]

[...

.......]

....can you go back further....?

[shimmermods]

...You want to shoot the crap out of him before all the business with the Queen, don't you.

[atrueheroine]

[ma'am did you have to read her like this]

...I was trying to be subtle about it. But that would solve a lot of problems.

[shimmermods]

Unfortunately, we can't do that specific thing for you. But we can come up with something, maybe. Talk to me later.

[atrueheroine]

[Is that....a hope spot...? Could it be? Page is still a bit suspicious (look, she's been let down a lot, lately), but the thought of killing Reaver always makes her smile, so...]

...I will, then.

[skelkro]

I... would also like to know if we can go back further somehow as well or do something similar like Page asked, actually.

[emma is suddenly paying more attention to the conversation now because maybe then... she can actually save everyone and not light mr skelkro on fire...]

[shimmermods]

We can't do that for the world you came from. But... Well, like I said. Talk to me later.

[skelkro]

Okay.

[A pause.]

If it turns out it can't be done at all, in any way, then... you can go ahead and use me as a test subject or whatever, since I don't have anything to go back to otherwise.

[Just... casually putting that out there.]

[me_underfire]

You aren't staying here.

[Hell, she'll take Emma back to her own world if she has to. Schloss Ritter could use a groundskeeper.]

[notjustawriter]

Gracie’s right. No one should stay behind.

[skelkro]

[Emma deadass stares in confusion here.]

Why not? I mean... last week living in a basement aside, this is still a step up from my home right now.

[me_underfire]

[oh honey]

You can go somewhere where you won't be a guinea pig for somebody else's science experiment, for starters.

[skelkro]

[That does give her some amount of pause, before she says--]

It's not as bad as being nothing at all.

[she... really doesn't have any plans for her future that doesn't involve either getting emily back or being useful in some way elsewhere]

[me_underfire]

[Okay that does it Grace is adopting you]

Surely there's better things you want to be?

[skelkro]

[...]

I want to be someone that can live by my angel's side.

... But the only way to achieve that is to bring her back to me somehow, or... go to her side on my own. And the latter would involve abandoning all of you to do it, which... I don't feel ready to do yet.

[So if being a lab experiment can help Emily or even her new friends here, then why not, right?]

[pr159]

How is that supposed to work? We go back as we are now, with whatever changes we end up with, and replace whatever version of us was there before?

[shimmermods]

You technically wouldn't be replacing anything - that version of you came here, remember. So it'd just be putting you back.

Not the exact moment, if that makes you feel better about it, but close enough that it wouldn't count as much time having passed, if any passed at all.

[pr159]

[ Frowns... okay, kind of hate that, actually. ]

That one was from a fractured dimension, wasn't it? There could have been hundreds of "versions" of me out there as long as you both arrived and left before it was destroyed.