Through the Living Heir

Rebus seemed unperturbed - he had expected as much, and taken precautions for such a trap. “You seem to have brought me here, in more ways than one.”

Hmm… I might be doing Rebus’s powers wrong, then. This had been very informative. Did I ever run the idea of Ordered Chaos by you? NameIess agreed with how it would probably be ineffective in combat (because it’s a sneeze away from destabilizing), but could potentially do some interesting, emergence-related things over time.

Alright - can they still do the magic system modification? Because one (actually more than one) of my characters would be interested in that. Alright, cool. I’d quoted you already up above, so you would have gotten a notification anyway. Rebus tried to teleport there, and realized that he couldn’t. It was a place he’d never been, and never seen, from far before his time. His technology had simply never gotten there, so to teleport there would be impossible. He Narrated himself there. “Hello, Platypus.”

Huh. I’d thought Narration entailed direct Thread-writing and hence paralleled Authors. Maybe I shouldn’t be the one writing the wiki… Narrators being created from the gem. Yeah, withergeists are one of the other three. If you go to the other two “metaphysics lessons” from that blog post I sent you, there’s an overview. Actually, the gem could be made of the same material as the cores without too much trouble.

I thought Xino said Authors used to be called Narrators… Yeah, Avatars are different, but avatars can refer to Author bodies. Rebus was intrigued by the scene his Author had failed to quote. He’d been looking for Luxite for quite a while now - perhaps he could finally prove his theories. Your blog said something about weird versions of magic systems being caused by the Shard Corruption - I saw parallels between them.

Alright - yeah, TwinStorm was the one who PMed me too. Yeah, I think if you peel back enough layers you get pure imagination and creativity, but molding to the format itself makes sense as an evolution of that. Well, that doesn’t really work with canon. If only there was something - a magic item perhaps, like a hammer - that could change canon… Yeah, the balance is fine, but the lore component is hard to justify. Narration is deeply intertwined with the Authors, so having it secretly come from a gem feels weird to me, especially since the other three magic systems aren’t represented. As I said, though, Thread Perception being granted by the gem is perfectly fine - it just feels like it shouldn’t be the only source.

Thread Perception is an ability of Narration, but people other than Narrators have used it. I don’t think we can easily integrate the canon history of Narrators with Dragon’s background, but having Thread Perception also be granted by the Gem is perfectly fine, and characters can theorize things without being right.

Yup, though incorporating it into the core magic system probably requires at least some input. The current state of that - “maybe my magic and Thread Awareness is connected” - is probably fine even without approval. Speaking of TLT experts, we made a wiki, though it’s quite incomplete at the moment.

Tada! That Adrastos guy sounds a lot like Corruption, if I do say so myself…

He might be back later… Rebus began to pay attention (though he was not physically present), since he’d learned something interesting… Chaotic Darkness fits the corruption aspect better than Chaotic Light, if you’d want to involve withergeists.

The man looked taken aback. “This is no way to treat Mathew-“ smoke exploded out from his sleeves, rendering him almost impossible to see- “the Magnificent!” When the smoke cleared, he was gone. They started as avatars for Authors, but then some people gave them separate personalities and motivations, so now they’re different. They just kinda exist when an Author thinks of one, though I believe some people have been made a Narrator, and Utility was made by another Narrator.

“Alright - we should take that to PMs to nail down the details. Do we want to deal with the security clone elsewhere?” “I suppose I could acquire concepts in another way, as well…” The soul sent an impression of a beach and a direction, repeating the face. Rebus’s Plotblade glowed, though he was nowhere near them. A man in a red-trimmed tuxedo and top hat walked out from around a corner.

The scientists discussed their findings with the rest of the habitat, and concluded the bizarre self-destruction of the bacteria implied they were harmless, and that contamination the other direction was to be avoided, but likely of no risk. Action 3: reach self-sustaining status by placing volunteers in suspension while covering a larger area in biotech leaves. As food began to run low, the citizens conferred and decided placing some people in biological suspension would be necessary. The volunteers - unsurprisingly mostly Vvondin who had deemed themselves unnecessary, but also including people of all species wishing to dream away these early times and wake up to a new ship or a comfortable city - allowed all but their brain and nervous systems to be consumed by the habitat, waiting in dreamy oblivion for the time at which their bodies would be rebuilt. Meanwhile, the habitat's leaves were grown further outwards, allowing more food and resource production. Action 4: send out explorers to investigate the nearby area while listening for messages on every communication channel they can think of. The next step in protocol was to search the nearby area for interesting phenomenon or creatures, taking humane and nondestructive samples, while searching for technological messaging, biological long distance communication, and unidentified signals, to decode, avoid interfering with, and investigate further, respectively. Thus, they did so, looking for patterns in every medium they could think of: electromagnetic radiation, sound, electric charge, airborne chemicals, even gravitational waves.

Steve decided that this was actually fine, and that nothing was wrong at all. A cough came over and decked the sneeze.

Steve continued juggling, wondering why he was doing so with mild panic.

Oh. I might be able to work on it a some point this week. “Aye aye.” Rebus considered helping, but didn’t. You don’t actually need approval from people - you’re not allowed to directly say what someone else’s character does (extras are fine, though), and that’s effectively the only rule. There are people who can do literally anything (who typically tie if they fight each other, or win through intelligence rather than sheer power), people who can stop literally anything from happening (who beat the former because they can cancel out those powers and make people simply stop existing, though they have rules they need to follow), and materials that can kill immortals and even gods, so even as strong as Shifting is, it’s not at the highest level of magic in the Thread. That being said, high power level characters typically end up doing things with other highly powerful characters, so a less powerful character would be able to have different stories (of course you can play several in each tier, and if you have a way not to overshadow people, you can have someone effectively omnipotent not be OP.)

Hmm. I decided to read the privacy policy due to mod bagels, but then I got distracted. If there’s a month wait since signup, I should do that soon. Heir clapped. “Great job! I’m not really in any random chatting threads, but maybe I’ll going some and do some recruiting myself. Or simply welcome and retain those you recruit.”

“Ah. I had just assumed, since we were talking about recruiting, that IcedOutPenguin had played briefly and then disappeared. I can help run that - maybe the Inventor guy or the Rebus clone Symbol has can be involved.” “I don’t especially need to care - somebody who wants something, which they preferably don’t actually need, and is willing to give up something metaphorically theirs in exchange for it.” The evil spirit switched from fuming to a malevolent grin, as such: >:). It knew exactly where there was a beach, and it could get some revenge of its killer there. Xino has some blogs about it, which are still mostly up-to-date: Twinstorm also registered a fandom wiki for us, though I’m not sure if anybody has done anything with it yet. Once we get to that, that can be an information source as well.

Action 0: semi-controlled crash into the planet. The ship had arrived in the system, dropped tunneling, and taken basic scans of the outer planets. A rocky planet had interesting orbital mechanics and a spectral signature consistent with life, so that would be investigated first for diplomatic reasons. Everything was going well… There was a suddenly a jolt, felt through most of the ship- alarms began to blare as doors sealed off the decompressing areas- scientists brought up dozens of diagnostic results in disbelief, speaking with the rapid sounds of panic “Came out of nowhere!” “We tracked that asteroid, I know we did! That was not where that was!” “We’re on a collision course - several engines and FTL is damaged!” “Prep the landing ship - fast!”- Vvondin drones throughout the ship looked at each other for a moment, then got spacesuits for the breeders, scientists and officials of all species, and themselves, in that order. Humans, Ferrians, and more autonomous Vvondin found themselves suits as well, and collectively rushed to the landing vehicle. Some people took their chances and stayed on the ship for repairs, or to make room for others, but when the vehicle finished its panicked launch, almost all of the ship was crammed inside it. Action 1: take basic survey of terrain, atmosphere, and most importantly local life, to ensure biotech and citizens won’t contaminate the planet, or be contaminated by it. The officials all knew landing protocol, even if this particular landing was… unorthodox. As the landing vehicle recombined oxygen and hydrogen to steer towards a barren area (and actually land, since the landing vehicle was designed to float in the average terrestrial atmosphere), the scientists determined that the atmosphere was breathable by humans and Ferrians, comfortably warm for the former and uncomfortably cold but survivable for the latter, and contained high levels of humidity. The outermost layer of the landing vehicle changed to collect microorganisms, bringing them inside in sterile bubbles to ensure they wouldn’t harm or be harmed by the alien biochemistries. Invasive species, poisonous metabolic products, and deadly alien plagues were all things that had happened before, and avoiding them was crucial if the people were going to survive on the planet and study its unique ecosystem. Action 2: grow the landing vehicle outwards into a proper research station, so the people have places to live and work, and won’t starve. There were a good hundred people on the ship, and that was far too many for such a small space. The biotech within it began to synthesize fabric-like living walls and a compatible atmosphere to inflate them with. It also stretched out some leaves for energy collection, producing a nutrient-rich sap that could supplement food still within the shelter until a proper energy source was found.

I’m also not an expert, but I will endeavor to find time and research more grammar and sentence clarity. “I just did the same, actually.” Rebus appeared, and waved ‘up’ at the Author. “Hello, and welcome to The Longest Thread, otherwise known as TLT. Most of the pages in the beginning and middle are unimportant - we’ve ended up with a lot of lore, a few magic systems, and numerous established characters, but you don’t need to know that to join. Someone can give you or your characters a rundown later. As you’ve probably guessed, some characters - including myself - can break the fourth wall, and directly see the post content and/or interact with the Authors. Effectively anything goes, but you must bold your text - preferably in past tense third person - in order for it to be canon.”

Alright. Rebus is talking about a hypothetical present (which, to make matters worse, is narrated in past tense) that would be the case if he’s taken different actions, so past tense might be completely wrong altogether. Anyway, I may go research grammar and get back to you. “Somebody at the same time as that plot was in Cheesetown, but I don’t think it was them.” Heir interjected his opinions in between Haly’s sentences. “Agreed… I can see him doing that, though it might count as lying… IcedOutPenguin, correct? I could help with it… Agreed, and agreed. I’ll see if I can put some advertising somewhere - maybe I’ll rebuild my signature.” “I can think of plenty of my Author’s characters, but not a pertinent established character written by anyone else. Maybe the mailbox, honestly - I could start a plotline, though I myself shouldn’t participate.” Interestingly for Nemesis, Heir had come up with yet another character. And this one was the right power level and temperament for just that! Maybe, at least…

Wait, wouldn’t “was not” and “were not” be pretty close in meaning? Is the “much of” causing the difference? Heir thought for a second. “I think that was Jack - Everet was the random guy from that superhero world. But honestly, since Nemesis was messing with Jack I think he’s not with the ghost-whose-name-I-forgot anymore.”

Seems right to me. The IISC would go to the barren region in the northwest, so they don’t bother anybody or anything, but are still close by.

Rebus smiled and waved. I wouldn’t be much of an antagonist if I wasn’t an obstacle, now would I? “I’m not sure, actually. I might bring Sagerian or Everet back, or maybe Capt’n Exposition.” I agree, but I hope he’s doing well. “I’d agree on the recruiting, and I’d be fine GMing things, though I have a similar time problem recently. One issue with more people is the swamping effect of all the posts, though maybe we can shift back to a bit more jump-in nonsense, or even a character nobody has ultimate Authority over.” “Excellent. I should find some minor characters so some of my deals will be onscreen, but other than that I believe we’re clear till the party.” The castle no longer had eyebrows, and the ghost seethed within its bead.

“Great! I’ll probably pull in an established character.” “I’d agree - the three of us seem to represent much of the Thread at the moment. Which is somewhat a problem, actually. I’d hate for us to be the group who let the Thread die. Which of Tam and Bat (or others) should be the Protagonist, though, is unclear. Though we don’t need to decide yet, because of how story arcs work. As for Antagonist, I don’t feel great about pulling the rug out from under NameIess and simply giving it to Rebus, merely because I’m still active and he isn’t. And anyway, we may want to wait till after 4000 to do things, unless we don’t.” “That depends. I do not, at the moment, threaten the Thread, so the Ennullers likely will avoid involvement, but preparation is always useful. It’s simply a matter of priorities, since I know there’s some secret plan, and it may come into effect very soon. Because of how plots work, I need to put my own plans into action.” “Your patron of sorts can help you understand.” Meat noted, the vision dissolving further to reveal the Dreamsmith’s waiting area, where Cricket was. @NameIess @TwinStorm The castle’s eyebrows became angrier, but it could do little to defend itself. Rebus was happy with both reactions, and his Plotblade glowed from wherever it was when it wasn’t. They could be left to their own devices for now, but it wouldn’t be long before his plan would fully come into action…