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Nathan Hall     Project Ahab is about to commence.

    Nathan was, and stays, in the library, of course. That's where he always is, and in a sense, where he always was. Psyber will have little chance, calling him elsewhere, or inviting him in person. Nathan's an easy guy to push around, so to speak, at least when it comes to Psyber. Though however Psyber intends to get Nathan out of the library and into whatever location he is needed at, there is one thing that needs to be dealt with. One small issue, which hasn't come up in a long while.

    Throughout the entire time, however Psyber will choose to get Nathan to where he needs to go, he will have to solve the issue of that rather persistant dog Psyber got, instructed to keep Nathan out of danger, intent -- pleading, in fact, in that canine way -- to keep Nathan back at the HoH library. But wherever Psyber intends to execute Project Ahab's final stage, it's going to be where Nathan heads now.
Guest Psyber 206 Washington St., Boston, MA 02109
Time: 7:14 PM

    When one fights a conceptual being, one picks a conceptual location. And while, to the average non-American Resident, this location might seem like little more than a tourist landmark, it also holds a specific meaning due to its staple point in history. An old-fashioned building amidst sleek, new skyscrapers.

    Those Elites he trusted were gathered here by dint of their involvement so far and their place in his plan. A simple message that his Project Ahab was going to be beginning soon. A beckoning they got to set up whatever they need beforehand and blend into the crowds as best they could before the actual plan got underway.

    Nathan, on the other hand, wasn't summoned until the exact time he was needed. The text message conversation kept simple, avoiding lying to Nathan and being truthful, while not direct, about his aim.

'206 Washington St. Meet me here. in 30.'
'Well yeah the dog is upset, the city is a dangerous place.'
'Just leave the dog in the library and come meet me.'
'I need you here to finish a project.'
'Cool. I promise this is going to be worth it.'

    And it is... in front of a circle of cobblestones that Psyber stands, smoking a cigarette and with his jacket bundled around him as the first flurries of snow hit Boston for the year.

    It's when Nathan arrives that Psyber asks him a single question:

    "Do you know where this is, Nathan?"
Setsuko Kaminagi     There is no hiding Setsuko's presence. When she's here, the whole city knows. It would be pointless trying to conceal herself from Nathan, and waiting to enter the city the moment Psyber called for Nathan would just alert him to 'something big about to happen'. It's better, she judges, that she already be here, nearby, so that it looks as if she's there waiting for his arrival; this has the added bonus of actually being true, for the most part.

    She has chosen to simply stand nearby, leaning against the side of one of the more modern buildings, somewhere that she can see Psyber and Nathan, and be seen by them in turn. The perfect spot for a lookout; if this is the culmination of one of Psyber's projects that might invite trouble, naturally he'd have some sort of on-site backup. Sometimes the best way to be inconspicuous is to be conspicuous.
Eleanor Lamb     Eleanor Lamb is here as well, on another corner of the Old State House. Like, she's up on a roof, laying down, out of sight of the ground level. Those soft blue eyes are looking right up at the clouds as the snow falls on her face and her HoH bomber jacket. Something fitting about wearing that right now, if we're all being conceptual. Wrap yourself up in the armor that means the most to you in this situation.

    A soft, quiet breath of tension escapes her lips. Almost time.
Kimiko Shinobu     While it might do little to allay any apprehension as to things and their impending motion downward, Kimiko's presence serves several purposes. First, her actual purpose of being on-hand in case things go wrong. Second, her no-less-true but secondary purpose of being with Setsuko. Even though they've been on missions together recently, those didn't allow for much before or after. Today, Kimiko's entered the area at the same time as her similarly silver demigod friend, meaning she's been here well ahead of Nathan's arrival.

    She's not enormously more talkative for it. Just a little.
Riva Banari She doesn't know Nathan half as well as she'd like, and she likes him half as much as he des- no, wait, wrong script.

Riva DOES care about Nathan. Not only because of his own nature and situation that she can empathize with, and not just because he's basically inseperable from Psyber, who is a major figure in her life...

But because he's suffering. She wants to do something about it. To fix something, /anything/ to give him a better life. Time after time her attempts have been weak and without direction, and even now she's little more than a part in a greater plan of Psyber's.

But it's a part she'll play gladly. Atop the nearby hospital, Riva stands, looking down upon where they're gathering, her ponytail swaying in the chill air. She will intervene when it's time to do so. Everything is going to get put on the line.

There is no progress without sacrifice.
Priscilla     Psyber's question is an apt one. Priscilla can read the street signs by now but she has no clue where this is, and has been waiting for some time for someone to inevitably explain the street's vague feeling of historical significance, stood out in the middle of modern Boston that it is. Unhidden, her presence by now is more than a little difficult to disguise; though not nearly on the same scale as Setsuko, it has prompted her to attend in the time tested, and coincidentally first way she had met Nathan; invisible. The added benefit is that it allows her to first-respond more easily than the demigoddess and Eleanor, though perhaps less productively than Kimiko already on hand. She's picked a good place where pedestrians doesn't seem to wander through, for one reason or another.
Ariel Quiet. Almost subdued! It's pretty obvious to the others why Ariel is here. The tiny unicorn regards him as an uncle twice over, after all! That's why she's in humanoid form and standing next to Priscilla with some nervous shuffling. Whether she picked this place BECAUSE of Priscilla or not isn't clear... especially since it's unclear if she can see or sense the half-dragon at all when she's invisible like that! She's probably there mostly because it's not in traffic.
Nathan Hall     Elsewhere, and elsewhen, Nathan manages to get around the dog, taking great pains not to hurt them when he tries to close the door on them, and seemingly unreactive to their urgent whining.

    He arrives, walking as always. He's probably taken the bus here. He's a bit bundled up for winter, now that some snow's begun. For some reason he seems... Sick. Psyber will recall it. The sickness that he seemed to suffer from during Psyber's own betrayal. A subtle crackle of energy, a palpable posture of nausea. Despite it all, he keeps a composed, stoic posture. He keeps adjusting his glasses, but he has yet to notice the tiny hairline fracture slipping into his vision on the right lens.

    Something is terribly wrong.

    He answers almost automatically. "Psyber. Two oh six Washington Street?" He stops for a moment, blinking a few times as he runs things through his memory. As he does, it's no drain on his mind to look to the people here. "The old state house. Site of the Boston Massacre." He says, matter of factly. "Ignited the war." He looks to Setsuko. Her sense for battle is tingling, but it's not an ancient war waged here. Her trans-temporal sense for conflict is detecting... A shape. If the battles she detects in most situations are ripples from a dropped stone, the battle she's detecting now is... Something else. It won't tell her where it is in space, but it shows where it is in time. Something moving under the surface. The contours of a shape formed out of battles waged over time. A shape below the surface.

    The shape of a snake, crossed with a wasp, bearing seven masks.

    Kimiko is regarded, as well as Ariel, through an invisible old friend. Kimiko and Ariel have had nothing but good relations with Nathan, at least as far as Nathan knows. Eleanor... Things have been more rocky with. Good thing she's out of sight. Nathan doesn't think much of the spread of individuals so far, and less of Riva, who's nearby, unseen. But there are others here, both within the view of the camera of sorts, and outside. He had to look right through Priscilla. Which is a convenient thing; Priscilla looks right through him, in her own way. The ability to see the being has faded from her eye. But the being itself is timeless. As far as the Causality Demon itself is concerned, Priscilla is, in fact, still looking at it in the Kiln, still able to see it. It's just a matter of it surfacing into this space again. Like Setsuko, she can only see it in one relevant way. Where Setsuko can see it in time, Priscilla can see it in space. It's murky, unclear. It's not emerging yet. But with every moment, it goes further and further.

    Something is terribly wrong.

    As it approaches, or is drawn in by the future event, or whatever may be happening, Nathan's posture seems increasingly sick. More pale. More strained. More like his myriad powers are about to gush out like the result of some nauseous fit. Nathan, as always, seems entirely focused on helping, entirely focused on how he can assist. He tilts his head, seeming to prompt Psyber for direction on how to help.

    There is something, indescribable, that is terribly, terribly wrong.
Guest Psyber     "Correct. A site which, at its conceptual point to reality, exemplifies many things. That pain is necessary for freedom and progress. That... from the terrible, good may emerge. That no people should be laid low by something above and beyond them," Psyber comments as he steps towards Nathan, moving back his coat. Sheathed on his hip is the dagger he asked for from Nathan. Psyber rests his hand on it. The Memento.

    He stares at his best friend, before looking around at all those gathered. He shuts his eyes and takes a slow breath, running back over his memory.

    'You have to do this. You have to betray him.'

-5/6/2015-

    Psyber nods, "A man of lesser moral, a man who repeated his offenses, that man would deserve punishment. He was given his chance to reform, to rehabilitate, and he did not. He has shown that the kindness is wasted on him."

    (Nathan) makes a plaintive sort of gesture. "Anyone can pretend that they feel a tremendous emotional pain. In fact, many can legitimately feel it, and still continue."

    Psyber looks seriously at Nathan, "In the clinical observation, Justice's purpose is to create a framework by which an offender does not repeat. Rehabilitation, reformation, and a deeper understanding of your offense."

    Nathan says, tilting his head at Psyber. "I know. Both have validity, sure. Sure, they both have their place. But regret needs atonement. Proof of the regret, in actions."

-5/3/2015-

    (Nathan) says, then, a bit more intently. "Thanks for... Well, thanks for thinking I deserve this. Deserve any of this. It helps. However much I deserve the help, it helps."

---

    "I need to explain quickly, I don't have much time."

    Psyber takes a deep breath and opens his eyes. Through the intense feeling of wrongness and through his own morality, he pushes through to begin speaking rapidly, "Nathan. For the past several months, I and several other Elites have been investigating the movements of a Cult. This purpose of this cult seems to be the deification of individuals who have caused you betrayal or substantial pain over the past four years."

    "They reached out to me with a request to betray you one more time. That was why I asked you for this knife," Psyber draws the knife as if to show it to Nathan, still explaining as rapidly as he can because he KNOWS Nathan can sponge up the information quickly, "And I agreed to do so because I believed it would give me the opportunity I needed to strike at the monster at the apex of the final betrayal."

    "However, it would be a betrayal of everything we have gone through in the past six months and everything we have rebuilt. Even if it meant jeopardizing my entire plan on making you aware of this too soon, albeit by mere seconds," Psyber begins to head towards a conclusion, "And that. THAT. Is my final betrayal to you."

    "That while you were able to keep Elliana's plans to die from me, despite knowing the immense pain you would inflict upon me for it, I am not capable of this after the promises I made you." Psyber grips the knife tightly in his hand. He has sacrificed seconds off his element of surprise, "My final betrayal is that I'm not able to betray you any more, even when necessity calls for it. I am sorry."

    He steps towards Nathan forcefully, "I need to stab you now. If my plan works, it will strike the demon and not you. Please trust me."

    And then Psyber swings an uppercut thrust with the blade of the knife right into Nathan's stomach.
Nathan Hall     There's something wrong. There was something wrong. There wiil be something wrong.

    Nathan's eyes go wide. Something ripples from the future. It's like the shockwave of a meteor's impact. The ripple surges through one's very being. Something is slamming into the timeline, in the future. Something impacting it from the distant past. From four years ago until now. Things are disjointed, fraying. The linear progression of time is beginning to march into the craterous crags of a collision pit. Something crashed, is crashing, will crash into linear time soon.

    "no"

    Something is wrong.

    "no no no" Nathan whispers, eyes wide. His stoic composure is still intact. His stoic composure was always intact. His stoic composure will always be intact. He was stabbed. He is being stabbed. He will be stabbed. Nathan Hall is not being stabbed. He is speaking to Psyber, in a strained, sick whisper. Or he spoke, or maybe will speak. "the eye you mean". He is going to have a crisis of faith. He was going to have a crisis of faith. He will not have a crisis of faith. A timeline is torn out of its proper place when the creature impacts reality. In the future, Nathan is experiencing a crisis of faith. But something has diverged.


    Something is wrong. Psyber's cell-phone is ringing.





    what                                        will be
          what               THAT'S NOT WHAT YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO DO
     what       YOU                               are
  what  WHAT ARE YOU DOING
      what        YOU
   what  WHAT HAVE YOU DONE
       what
                                   YOU KNEW?
                                 YOU KNOW?
                                     YOU KNEW?
                                            YOU KNOW?
                                 YOU KNOW?

                     was
    THAT'S NOT WHAT I AM SUPPOSED TO BE
                    will be


                           HE KNOWS

                         NO MATTER


                          was
                      I WILL BE FREE
                          am
Nathan Hall     "it makes sense" The Causality Demon is formed. Nathan's blood is leaking down the blade, always will leak down the blade, and always has leaked down the blade. "if you are sure" Nathan puts a hand on Psyber's shoulder, trying to steady himself. "i trust you"

    "i know you are doing the right thing"

    The being tears its way into reality. Nathan KNOWS about it now. The power in his body is no longer misdirected. It no longer lacks an ability to find its enemy. The myriad abilities Nathan has accumulated, previously sickening him with their conflicting directions, now have a single enemy to focus on. That time is unfortunately brief. The creature -- its visualization when perceived by linear beings looks like a cross between a snake and a wasp, bearing one eye and eight masks, a multitude of limbs and wings, and a single awful maw, courses forward and devours Nathan immediately, consuming and killing the librarian in a single hateful rush, and then escapes past that circle of stones.

    No, that's not quite right.

    The being has already eaten him. The being will, very soon, eat him. It's both lingering over the librarian in a predatory posture, and already devouring him. The creature has impacted time such that time itself is frayed, distorted, split into strands and parts, tied in knots. Psyber thought the being would be pulled into cause and effect and linear reality, and thereby be forced, for a moment, to obey its rules. This is false, was false, and will be false: The creature has impacted reality such it overpowers those rules themselves.

    Only the loosest sense of instinct survives the warping of perception. All of those in proximity -- both "on-camera" and otherwise -- find themselves perceiving all of the chronology simultaneously. And interacting with it as such. They will be keenly aware that they are only one split on this timeline. More of the "body" of the Causality Demon seems to exist elsewhere, where Psyber did something else. Though Nathan is already consumed, they can affect the moments before his consumption. They can affect, and defend.

    Psyber holds the creature in place. The knife anchors it in this accessible crater in time. He's got the tiger by the tail. Hope he can hold on, hope he could hold on, hope he will be able to hold on.
Guest Psyber     -Plan Deviation Splinter-

    The cell phone call is forwarded into a bluetooth piece in Psyber's ear. The half-angel speaks in an almost eerie calm as he says, "I have, for a very long time, been a part of the plan of others. A Higher Power, my friends who understand tactics better than me, whoever. But Lordran taught me one thing that you didn't account for, because you watched Nathan, not me."

    Nathan told him not to try to make plans just not too long ago, but even that was incorrect. Psyber thinks back towards all the moments he's had where his plans have made a difference: Reforming Laine, creating Ariel, the redemption of Elliana, saving Homura's world, Afterus, Viridian Sunrise. Countless others. He knew the tying thread, he knew what made his plans work when he needed them to.

    He takes a long pause, "It taught me I can, and I will, tear reality down to the ground for my friends. So I'm done with your rules. We're playing by my rules now... and my rules are full contact."

    Psyber's right hand erupts with concept. In this splinter, something has reacted. Something has been empowered by an opposing concept.

    Psyber slides forward as the Causality Demon appears, his hand coming up. He swings it in a haymaker before it can try to devour his best friend, the half-angel once more fulfilling his vow to protect Nathan at any cost.

    Causality Demon tied to Betrayal... meet Hand of the Redeemer. Your mileage may vary on efficacy.
Setsuko Kaminagi     Setsuko can feel it. Deep down to her very core, her divine half is screaming messages at her that her mortal mind can't quite process. All she can tell is that she feels it coming at her... 'sideways' somehow, a battle coming from an angle a battle shouldn't be able to come from. It causes her to tense. It causes her divinity to surge inside of her, responding to the unseen promise of a powerful foe. She pushes it down. That won't last long, it never does, but they should only need moments.

    As Psyber starts to talk, Setsuko shifts away from the wall, giving Kimiko a meaningful look. When he moves forward, the demigod brings her hands up, one resting on Zanjintou's scabbard, the other taking hold of the grip. When he starts to swing, the demigod lowers herself, prepares to lunge-

    And her perception of time shatters, staggering her. Her eyes give her conflicting reports, her /spirit/ gives her conflicting reports. They have failed. They have succeeded. Nathan is dead, but he is not. The past and the future unfolding before Setsuko is a sight her mortal mind is not equipped to handle. She's only seen things vaguely like it, and she is completely unprepared for the enormity of it... but her divine side is not.

    An absolute being that presides over battle. A god of fighting, a being with the absolute right to 'kill or be killed'. A dominance over conflict that will not be denied. That is the kind of being that lent its power to her, and its power knows exactly what to do. Somehow, Setsuko knows this. So she closes her eyes, lets out a breath, and begins to ignore all her other senses. Touch, smell, hearing, balance, direction, the hell with it all. All that matters is her sense for battle. She will trust her divine half to guide her blade where and /when/ it needs to be.

    A corona of billowing blue erupts around the silver-haired woman, flowing and building into a thundercloud, as if Setsuko herself were an oncoming storm.

    It's hard to call anything 'forward' in this state of affairs. Forward in time? Forward in space? Trying to puzzle out which is which is meaningless right now. All that matters is that the demigod trusts her powers to guide her blade drawing it and lunging 'forward' - defining her own 'forward' as 'towards the Causality Demon'. Zanjintou snaps (snapped) to its full size, and the demigod brings (brought) it over her head, roaring a furious battlecry. "YOU WILL /NOT/ HAVE HIM!" Down it comes, aimed at the Demon's maw, aimed for the exact moment when it dives in to devour him. If she can cut off its entire mouth, its jaw, its teeth, or whatever passes for them in any degree of metaphor, that will make it harder for the Demon's future to come to pass.
Ariel Wait. Wait. Ariel is prepared, actually... or thinks she is. She has everything ready for her part in the plan. Yet there were things she didn't know, things that might be minor to others, but are not to her. Hearing that her uncle conspired to let someone kill themselves is a bit of a shock. Just a bit. She gets a greater one from seeing and feeling what's happening here.

"UNCLE!" Ariel squeals! It's a brief loss of control, one that doesn't make clear who she's shouting at. Immediately, she realizes it's her 'turn' to do something. She doesn't try to rush forward, or to back out. All she does is begin casting, the voice echoing with the alien, strangely-flowing words of her casting. One word stands out amongst the others: YOG-SOTHOTH, the entity beyond time and space.

The weight of the cosmic entity slams downward, trying to 'lock around' the Causality Demon, to bind it enough that it's easier to interact with. It takes all of the sorcery that Ariel has learned up to this point to even ATTEMPT a spell this complex.
Kimiko Shinobu     Kimiko catches Setsuko's look. She turns. Out the corner of his eye, Nathan might see the moment in which a young girl in coat and scarf disappears, and a gleaming, armored knight takes her place, covered from head to toe in her own, known style. The transformation happens in motion, and the motion accelerates. Setsuko is preparing to swing. Psyber is already wielding the knife. Kimiko's right foot kicks the ground.

    Time frays, and coming unraveled in an imperceptible moment. It had already unraveled, but this is the moment before which Kimiko was unaware of it. Defining 'this moment' beyond that point becomes difficult.

    Her sense of battle is partly learned, but mainly instinct. A more intellectual fighter would see and analyze in a way that could be put into words, contrasted against specific plans, memories, and predictions. Her sense of the situation is more conceptual, driven by associations and feeling, but the result is similar. Psyber is here, and Setsuko is here, and will defend (are defending) Nathan here, and here. The enemy is here. Her path is clear.

    She does not know what Ariel is doing (will have done), but it can only help. She does not know what anyone else will do. There is no time to consider more, and in fact she has taken no time to consider anything. She leaps, arms outstretched, yet more armor locking around her form mid-stride and mid-air. Overlapping chain, articulated plate, and spiked guards. Movement will be difficult, but further movement should not be necessary.

    Kimiko grasps the demon's body, aiming to strike it with her full weight and momentum above the other attacks against it, to carry it to the side.
Nathan Hall   THAT'S AN INTERESTING IDEA
  In fact, Psyber, I'd say that we're almost the same in a way.
  Neither of us have any particular regard for the rules as they are.
                                           for lives
                                           for the lesser things
                                                that get in
                                                         OUR WAY

  I have consumed. I am consuming. I will consume.
  Enough of the timelines of the LIBRARY OF TIME that I understand
  how to speak                     nathan hall
  how to listen
  how to "THINK" in the way that you LINEARS are limited to.


        And now I have to wonder.
        I can see into the memory of the LIBRARY you know.
        I can see into his knowledge of this reality and how it works.
        I can see that what I have done
                       what I am doing
                       what I will do   is not particularly unusual.

    Linear beings have long used agriculture to optimise other linear
    beings for CONSUMPTION



     The only difference between me devouring the Library
                            and you devouring your linear sustainence
                            IS THE QUALITY OF THE MEAL
                            AND THE CRAFTSMANSHIP WE CONTRIBUTE

      Redemption is useless to me.
      THIS ACT IS NO MORE WRONGDOING
      THAN THE SLAUGHTER OF LIVESTOCK


                      I'm not sure I understand why you're fighting me.


    Psyber's hand impacts, will impact, and impacted the being. An incompatible concept slams through it and further on through its body. It didn't and does not seem to be affected. Psyber may not that this didn't seem to be the case for the future, but his ability to perceive beyond time like this is limited. The Causality Demon responds. Seven masks circle around its tremendous eye as the wasp-like snake surges forward to him through no movement in particular, assaulting his timeline directly. The being attacks, attacked, and will attack his timeline.

    It attempts to write Psyber's existence as he knows out. It attempts to alter his timeline into something and someone else, who will no longer be Psyber as he knows himself, functionally killing him. The creature tears at his timeline as a demonic predator. It targets the section of time where Psyber made the decision to journey into Viridian Sunrise, and kill him, trying to write over it. Psyber is now at his desk in Heaven or Hell, deciding whether or not to take the risk. Psyber must amass enough PERSONAL RESOLVE to make that decision again if he wants to hold onto that dagger and keep the being anchored in place.
Nathan Hall   I WILL HAVE
  I HAVE HAD
  I ALREADY HAVE
  the Library of Time that you covet, godling.

  AND YET
                I'm
                           so
                                      confused.


            Why do you care?


        So many used him for
                             POWER
                             GREED       and I'm the one you care about?
                  ARBITRARY MALICE



                      WHAT MAKES ME SO DIFFERENT?



      I'm an alien, an "other" being. I've eaten enough of the Library
      that I know how this works. The more alien I am, the easier it is
      to say "this harm is worse than all others".


                      BUT I'M MADE OF YOUR ALLIES.


    Godly power guides Setsuko through a temporal mess. Her senses of war are going completely apeshit in every direction. In the TEMPORAL MAELSTROM, it's like blinding light: Everywhere, in every "direction" of time, is war. War, war, endless war. Thankfully, divinity is able to attack. In every "direction", and in every "angle", and at every "time" that the being exists in. Overwhelmed though it may be/will be/was, it can guide/could guide/did guide her through the mess. The strike tears/tore/will tear through the jaw, severing it, making it impossible for the rows and rows of teeth to bite into Nathan, at least in more timelines than before. But the being does not take this lying down. It responds in kind. Its eye fixes, fixed, will fix on Setsuko, launching the assault against her timeline as well.

    Setsuko is no longer Setsuko. Their human side could not be guided through the brilliant light, only their divine side. They are far, far in their past. The being is attempting to alter their timeline, to overwrite a moment of their past, to force them to become someone else, to kill "Setsuko" as an identity. It viciously attempts to tear its maw into the timeline of Setsuko's divinity, and devour and alter the choice to show mercy on someone named... Ura.
Riva Banari Riva was part of a Plan. TRANSMIT - Initiate fellowship signal

And that Plan has cracked. RECEIVE - initiate mice and men frequency- It has altered, splintered THE PATH IS PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS in the face of-WITNESS: CRAWLING LETTERS
                                        IT IS NOT US

Causality screeches in Riva's senses, the twisting, curling shriek that rips through eternity between the rending death between one momen and the tortured birth of the next.
                                                             IT TRICKLES-
               - Motion - DOWN HUNDREDS OF DIMENSIONS
                                - Flight - ON ALIEN GRAVITY

She is already falling, screaming through the air as burning crackling rivulets of Anima streak off of her as she arcs on an Anima-augmented lunge from the top of the building.

                 YOU CANNOT EVEN SEE MOST OF IT, SWEETLING.                

Riva chooses defense, prioritizing life over all else as she attempts to strike in the causal moments before Nathan is consumed in a paroxysm of instinctual movement, the most basic act of protection one can muster by attempting to interdict the being and force it to strike

HOW WILL YOU ESCAPE?
HOW DO YOU HOBBLE THROUGH THIS WORLD ON THREE TINY DIMENSIONS?


By going through someone other than his target first, even as the Bees screem crackling, fractured words across her limited mind.

                   IT FLOWS ACROSS TIME, A DISEASE FLOATING ON QUANTUM FOAM.

As she falls, burning bolts of blue-green Anima fire on full-auto from the MP9s Psyber had gifted her, etching them with the ability to hurl her burning, cleansing will from the barrels.
Guest Psyber     HE IS WHO HE IS MEANT TO BE.

    This isn't a vocalized phrase, but more of an impression one gets when they attempt to alter Psyber's existence as a whole. As if something spoken from the conceptual template that the angelic side of his existence is based off of. A lingering sort of... message in the code makeup of Psyber as an Angel. Or his Angelic half.

    But it does nothing to actually stop the interference in Psyber's past. The separation of who Psyber is and its removal from the timeline. But perhaps there's a reason for that. A Faith, if you will, in Psyber that prevents a more direct interference from Something Bigger.

    And so Psyber is himself, sitting at a desk. Only three years ago, but still he seems so much younger back then, with so much different. There isn't a half-empty bottle of Scotch perpetually in his desk and a flask in his jacket to boot. He smiles, but not to excess, and the ashtray next to him only has one or two spent smokes in it. Still an officer, but more out of seniority and experience than actual leadership.

    "It's not my problem," Psyber decides, kicking his feet up on the desk and leaning back, "I'm gonna hold the line here in Boston and let this all sort itself out," He mutters to himself, folding his hands behind his head and leaning back in the chair. In this timeline, he wasn't going to be the first to volunteer.

    He spins the chair away abruptly and walks away from the radio on his desk. He's at the office door when a different voice cuts in:

    <X-Union-Chatter> Amalthea says, "I'm going."

    His hand on the knob, Psyber grips it hard enough the brass breaks. The old office was always sort of in poor repair anyway, but it was still inconvenient. Now... he couldn't walk away. Amalthea had a wife... and a kid. If nothing else, he knew her life was more important to bring back from a suicide mission than his. He was, after all, just a particularly high-ranked bum.

    Whether the first to volunteer or the last, it made no difference. Psyber's place was always meant to be on that mission. Who he was meant to be was never going to change, because Psyber himself was always going to be a good-hearted sacrificer.

    HE IS HIM. YOU WILL NOT CHANGE THIS.

    The impression of the weight of Psyber's existence radiates this concept again. And like pieces falling into place, every event plays out again. The good and the bad, the wounds and the healing. Psyber, it turns out, will always sacrifice himself for others when given the choice. Because that's simply... who he is.

    And so as he snaps back into the present and picks his head back up with a wide grin, "Free will. I'm fighting you because no future is set in stone, because I was given choice and agency."

    He lifts up Memento, "But mostly... because if I were in his place, Nathan would put aside his pacifism and put you down for me."

    He lunges in, stabbing right at the creature with the ritual knife that is tied to Nathan's concept, hoping he can cut this thing right across the causality with such an intrinsically tied weapon.
Nathan Hall     It's like the world is ending.

    Psyber has the being rooted there, but now, YOG-SOTHOTH is crashing, did crash, and crashed into reality as well. Boston is burning. The sky is splitting apart, the earth is coming undone. Or, no, none of that is happening, will happen, or ever did. As far as most of the rest of time is concerned, this place is still not even invaded by EITHER being. Various Bindings and Limits and Magical Locks on them are preventing that. YOG-SOTHTOTH itself, in fact, by crashing into this reality, is helping to make sure it never crashed into this reality in the first place.

    But Ariel doesn't go without a vicious response of her own. The Causality Demon is locked in place. It can't affect the world around it, but it can still affect her, will affect her, is affecting her, affected her. Specifically, it can fix its eye on her, seeking out her timeline, trying to tear a moment of weakness out of her identity. It launches forward, violently...

    Everything is frozen. There is no more perception chaos, no more temporal ruin, at least not for Ariel. She's perceiving something unique. Nobody around Ariel is moving, except for one person. Nathan himself seems unharmed by the being. But that's not entirely true. He pulls himself away from the knife, letting the blood drip down from his gut. "That is... Not right." He says. The right lens of his glasses is shattered with hairline cracks, leaving only the left eye unobfuscated. He steps over to Ariel, and tilts his head, holding his arm against his stomach to stem the tide of red.

    "You do not... Have a Moment that I can eat. Where are your regrets, or even the Moments you /might/ regret? I do not understand. That is not right. No no no, that is not... Where do I find one... Your makers have enough, but not you." He adjusts his glasses. This is clearly not Nathan Hall, but it's eaten enough of the "Library" that it can use this to look at her and try to figure this out. "Hmm. No, I have to go the other way." The demon wearing Nathan's skin puts a hand on its chin and says, "Hello, Ariel. Could you please leave for a moment, or rescind your summoning?"

    While the creature might understand things on some level, having eaten enough of Nathan's timelines to be able to think like a linear being, it seems on some other levels... It doesn't even understand this event as a conflict. Ariel gets an opportunity to try to respond to it in another way.
Setsuko Kaminagi     Setsuko staggers, shudders as her very existence is assaulted - not through the woman known as Setsuko Kaminagi, but through the divinity of war. A moment that affected the entire course of her world's history, a moment in which a God of War made a choice. Had he chosen to end the life of the God of Treachery then and there, that God would never have taken up his mantle. His worshippers would never have gone into a thousand-year decline. The Kingdom of Emberwood would never have had divine favor in battle, the land of Seiryuu would never have fallen as the Kaminagi clan declined. Kaminagi Setsuko, as she exists today, would never have been.

    But in a way, that divine power is like the Causality Demon. There has always been War. There is always War. There will always be War. It is given direction by those who wield it, but War itself simply Is. And the Demon has erred. Has attacked it at a 'choice' which is not really a choice at all.

    The God of War who was slain, was an entity of honor. Of strict codes of conduct. His very nature rendered him best described as the 'God of Honorable War'. Had he chosen to kill Ura in that moment of defeat, to slay his beaten foe begging for mercy, he would certainly have continued to live. But he would also not have been the God of Honorable War. Even knowing Ura planned betrayal, to slay the God of Treachery would have been so inimical to the very core of his existence that he would have ceased to exist as he was regardless. The choice was already made before it was presented, by his very nature - and by extension, the very nature of the divinity at the moment the Causality Demon attacks it.

    It strikes back with what could almost be described as 'outraged fury'. A wordless, timeless, spaceless 'how dare you', a soundless snapback of utter offense. The divinity pushes back, pulls on the Demon, surges against it. Attempts to drag the Demon back forward to the point where the divinity has an existence, a consciousness, that recognizes the Demon as an enemy. That consciousness, a woman with blue eyes and silver hair, pushes up to her feet yet again, with a cold scowl.

    "...He... is my comrade..." she hisses, standing up on feet that go from shaky to steady.

    "You would end him," she growls, bringing Zanjintou up into a firm, horizontal ready.

    "AND YOU WOULD RIDE THE DEEDS OF HIS FRIENDS AND ALLIES TO DO IT!"

    Setsuko shifts, swinging the massive blade around behind her, preparing herself for an enemy coming towards her not through space, but time. A part of her knows exactly when and where to swing, and that's all that matters. All that remains-

    "That is all I need to declare you an ENEMY, and there is only one fate for my enemies! TAAAAAH!"

    -is to swing.
Nathan Hall     Kimiko tackles the being to the side, will tackle the being, and tackled the being. Massive though its size may be/will be/was, the tremendous creature can be grasped. It can be shoved down and forced away from Nathan as it surges/surged/will surge at the man. Kimiko manages to slam into it, forcing it away. Before she does, while she does, and after she does, the thrashing creature speaks.



              YOU
                  in your own way, are admirable.


         YOU HAVE                in ways that beings such as myself
           CONSISTENCY           are typically exclusive in our
                                 achievement.   .


         It matters very little whether I am
                                                Alien
                                                God
                                                Eldritch
                                                Artificial
        Or any other mixture of properties.     Magical
        You respond, consistently, across all   Technological
        timelines, in exactly the same way as   Biological
        you do in this one, and you are in
        the others right now.


                !                                      ,

     ...                     curious
                     ??



                                            -


   are you like me?
                                                  no

                            I can see a moment.
                            Yes, there it is.
                            I can see the moment
                            that all of this
                            stems from.


    This time it doesn't attack a choice. And her armor, unfortunately, cannot block an attack of this sort. It tears at her timeline, reaching back into who she is and trying to claw out a vital temporal organ of her identity, trying to eviscerate her identity the way it has the others. It seeks out a singular moment that Kimiko's admired "consistency" comes from, the root of the tree that lets her be the same in what appears to be all timelines that this creature can see.

    It reaches into her past, trying to turn her sense of duty and her purpose against her. It's not often that the Causality Demon can affect things that aren't the choices of its target, but in this case, it's easier than it often would be. Because it's a small thing to change. It tries to put out a single spark in a volatile material at an important place in her home.
Ariel It would be incorrect to say Ariel has NO regrets at all. What she's missing is life-defining regrets, the sorts of decisions she can look back on and wonder... what if she'd acted differently? In this respect, she's lucky to be so young, and relatively innocent of the sins that mar so many of her companions.

There are downsides to being so young and inexperienced, though. The frozen tableau and the attitude make it clear that this isn't actually Nathan, and that terrifies her. Yet Ariel is still Ariel. Her reaction is to vent steam, electricity crackling around her form. The little unicorn stares down the creature... and says quietly, "I'm very sorry, I can't. The spell has to complete because that's my job, and Uncle Nathan is family."

Her next move is to step forward... and attempt a soothing heal. "Can you understand family? Can you understand why I even want to keep him around? He's done some bad things, but that doesn't matter."
Nathan Hall YOU CARRY
                                "THOSE"
                            IN YOU            GET THOSE FILTHY

                                                               C
                                                                R
     Riva fires/fired/will fire her gun into the "flesh".        E
Oddly, it seems particularly focused on her especially, while    A
Riva wounds it in a linear and nonlinear fashion. Sometimes,      T        
the simple ways are the best ways, or at least the ones that are   U        
causing the Causality Demon to experience... Rage? No, rage is a    R      
bad way of describing a distinctly nonhuman response to the          E      
presence of something that the being would very much not like to      S    
deal with at all.
                                                                         A  
     Something about the Bees, perhaps, seems to particularly agitate    W  
the creature into a much more intense state of combat. The being        A  
responds violently, with an intense gush of its own combat power        Y  
directed at Riva. Rather, directed at the history of Riva carrying the      
Bees in the first place. It's like trying to take out an eye or remove  F  
a limb, the creatures are so intent on striking at that part of her     R  
particularly. They go for the organ of acquiring the Bees.              O  
                                                                         M  

                                                                         M  
                                                                         E  

    Riva puts herself between the creature and Nathan. Another tantalizing life-defining regret to devour, before it can eat Nathan. So much regret in Riva's life before the entry of those bees into her apartment. But the being follows her back and towards the Bees themselves. There's such a violent response to them that the soaking of blood that Riva manages to extract from the creature seems to be trying to rush down their timeline. To their regrets, to the regrets of their makers. It's very likely that Riva may well have little actual mental capacity to comprehend what sort of abstract feud may exist between a Causality Demon and the Bees, or perhaps what it is that the Causality Demon sees that causes such a violent response.

    Before it seemed like all it could do was attack one's decisions and decisionmaking, one's regrets. But the Bees are different; they already exist, at least partially, in an accessible out-of-time space, where they're not so limited -- and not so protected -- by things like the consistency of the past. All Riva will be able to know is that it's trying to tear out the part of her life that pulled her into full, real success, out of the painful artistic suffering in Paris. If it gets a foothold, she may even get a few flashes of a life without their sudden uplifting presence, perhaps even a world without them at all. IF there's a strong defense against this, she'll get both offense and defense against this horrid beast.
Riva Banari Riva's life is full of regrets. Regret is a profoundly human emotion, something that gets strewn in your wake, little wounds in your past, because humans make mistakes. Humans think back on what they do and how they could have done it better... What they might have done if they made different choices in the past.


UNLAWFUL EXPLOIT DETECTED!

The beast fights back, as beasts are wont to do. As people are wont to do. As horrors are wont to do. All things that exist fight for their existence. But Riva is a being of linear time, of linear existence. Her power, her understanding is still filtered through the limitations of her human perspective. The crackling, migraine understanding of the Buzzing twists, pushing to a place beyond, shadows projected down into the mind as the demon attempts to prey upon something much like itself.

Signal disruption! Our particle wings tear! A corrupting frequency intrudes. Do not listen to the pirate broadcast!

This does not spare her, as existence cracks arouhd her-
Riva Banari The chill of winter is cruel even in Paris.
She doesn't remember the last time she was
warm, really, except for that time she was
able to sneak into the lobby of a cafe for
a bit before they realized that she wasn't
there to order and had her 'escorted' out.
Even now, as she drags a chilled finger
through the snow, leaving a vague, shaking
impression in the white fluff, she reflects
that the culture doesn't keep people from
being assholes.                    

As the steel-colored sky          
flicked down tiny frozen bits of spite
upon her, she dragged herself back to the
ramshackle place she called a home, a mass
of rusted, corrugated steel and plastic
splashed on the inside with bits of
doodled marker and paint. She never saw
the bottle as it hit her in the back of
the head.                          

Light flashed in her eyes as      
she hit the ground, her boneless gaze
looking up at the stinking, hunched
shadow over her-                  
Riva Banari The day smelled of antiseptic and rubbing
                                    alcohol as usual. It seemed to be what a
                                   hospital always smelled like, really. She
                                       considered it part of the job. As she
                                    flipped through her list of appointments
                                    for today, she tucked her phone into her
                                 coat and moved to check on the first child.
                                    She entered the room, smiling as she saw
                                      the young boy. "Hello there!" She said
                                       brightly. "How is my favorite patient
                                                today?" She asked the child.

                                     The child, one Tommy Elswood, sniffled.
                                                  "It hurts, Doctor Banari!"

                                         Riva frowned. "Now that's not good,
                                              show me where it hurts, okay?"

                                    She leaned over, as Tommy pointed to his
                                             cast-enclosed arm. "It itches!"

                                "That's because it's healing!" Riva replied.
                                     "That's the little bone faeries working
                                        to put it back together after it was
                                       broken. Don't worry, just let them do
                                       their work and everything will be all
                                     better!" She leaned forward and ruffled
                                      the child's hair, smiling. The rest of
                                       the day passed in a blur, and a tired
                                       Doctor Banari exited her car, walking
                                      up to the front door of her house late
                                         that night after a full day's work.

                                         Again, as she fumbled for her keys,
                                        she wondered what it might have been
                                         like if she decided to tell her mom
                                        to go to hell and go try to make the
                                           best of her artistic talents. She
                                        hadn't picked up a brush in years...

                             She never saw the thing slipping up behind her,
                                                     full of teeth and pain.
Riva Banari We would warn you not to chase the White Rabbit, sweetling. But we stand outisde of time. We already know that you will.

Within Riva is a pseudophysical anchor to her existence, the creature slashing through the layers of concept that make up Riva in order to lay bare the truth: The mutlifaceted, nonlinear entity is part of Riva, bonded to her in ways she cannot comprehend. She is a vessel for the plurality, both sharing in a way each others strengths and weaknesses.

With a surge, there is a rotation of viewpoint, Riva twisting outside of herself to see a multitude of potentiality, regret made manifest... But also free will. The ability to choose is the other side. The sensation threatens to shatter her already reeling sanity as she howls in wordless confusion, her sense of self rending under the conceptual assault. If she breaks here, the beast could very well annihilate who she is, consume the Bee within her and render her powerless and helpless before the horrors that it will lay bare.

Without what happened, without the things that came to pass, without the suffering and doubt and hardships, she would not have those things she treasures most. Those relationships, the experiences that make her who she is. Her friendships and caring... And her trust in those people. Her trust in her friends, and most relevant to this instance, her trust in Nathan Hall. Trust. Fragile like glass but harder than diamond... And a conceptual anchor against a being that lives by destroying those bonds of trust. With a scream, she holds fast, enduring the assault...

And the Bees respond, nonlinear entities who could-can-will be here in this place and time, swarming. Weak alone, others are present. Wuyin and Inga, both close to her, but also others. A multitude of faces, lives, and anchors, spreading outwards to force the nonlinear entity to contend not with just Riva, but a temporally potential mass of bonds that all trace back to a roaring golden core of Life, rejecting the being en masse.
Nathan Hall     The Earth is shattering. The sky is splitting. Time is coming apart. Reality is coming undone. The way that people exist seems to be falling apart. That is, for everyone but Ariel. Though, it seems, the others can see what she sees, just not as exclusively as she sees it. In her frozen world, the demon wearing Nathan's skin keeps its hand on its chin and keeps tapping it, seeming curious about the healing. "...You're a strange linear. Even the Library doesn't expect that." There's a long pause. "Family. That's not an idea that has a mirror in the paradigms I exist in. Please, walk with me." And he starts heading on into the Old State House. Presumably Ariel will follow him... Uh, eventually. And, even more strangely, the others will share her ability to see the being, and listen to what it says.

    Something is terribly odd.

    It may become obvious WHY, exactly, the others get to listen in on this. Inside the Old Statehouse isn't the museum of sorts that there should be, but rather a museum of her allies. They make their first stop at Psyber. On the way, 'Nathan' speaks to her. "I can perceive in certain ways the mode of 'thinking' that you linears are limited to, but I'm not able to limit myself to it. While the soul of the Library still eludes me just slightly, I've eaten enough of his timeline variance to understand it." One of the rooms displays the old office Psyber's in, in Heaven or Hell. "This is your... Uncle, right? He seems to be making it difficult for me to neutralize him. The bond he has is similar to the one you're describing, I think. I can't say I understand, though. You see, from outside, from a greater method of 'thinking' like the one I use, I can perceive the way that you're all one part of a larger being that's incapable of coherent action the way that I am. I exist as a series of events, the same way that Linearity does, but it's like a sleeping giant. You're just parts of it, defending yourselves and sometimes a little more, like white blood vessels."

    Psyber has snapped back to the present, but that doesn't mean that when he strikes the being, he doesn't find himself doing so at the door of his old office, stabbing through his midsection. "Ghhhh. And every bit as vicious." 'Nathan' says, bleeding anew. Psyber's still over at the circle, though, not anywhere near indoors. "You see, that's why I'm not sure I understand the value." He mutters through a pained voice. "Or the purpose. Because you seem to be bringing that specific type of attachment to something that is not part of your linearity, the greater entity you form a part of."

    The man then seems pulled, suddenly, by an external force. "I seem to be going over here now." He says, in an almost comedic sort of monotone. It's just like Nathan. The next chamber is more misty, more dusty. There is a spiritual, heavenly feel to it. Blades are lodged in the ground, everywhere. They part like water as Setsuko herself has yanked the man towards her, and cuts across his form, as well as the horrid, warped snake-wasp form. The man walks now with both a stab wound and deep slash over his torso. It is beginning to snow inside. "But like war, Nathan Hall is, was, and always will be, something of a defined. He was, is, and will be bones, and meat, and neurons, and that strange soul, but the thing you value isn't the door you call 'Nathan'. It's me: The series of events, coincidences, and happenstance that forms 'Nathan Hall' out of a vessel of flesh and 'soul'."
Nathan Hall     It stumbles out of the room and onto elsewhere, leaning against the wall as it goes. "So you say that he is like... 'Family'. But the being that you think of as Nathan is simply a side-effect of the process through which I manifest in reality. Think of it like an echo. The Library of Time is an index of timelines that I construct in an empty vessel, both retroactively and in the future, as a convenient and comprehensive package of systems that I can use to interact with your reality in a way that is less chaotic than what you've seen so far, through the specific mechanisms available to my expanded mode of cognizance. You call it 'betrayal', though it's a vast toolkit, of which you linears only ever seem to be able to perceive one limited piece." There is a buzzing nearby. A humming: The voices of Wuyin Tsai, Inga, and Riva Banari can be heard humming under the sound of a swarm of terrible mechanical insects that rush by, a vicious stinging mass that leaves Ariel clear but fills the 'Nathan' with stinging wounds. Yet, despite all of this, the being remains stoic about its motions, the same way that Nathan Hall himself does.

    "What I intend to say, quite plainly, is that there never was a 'Nathan Hall' worth all of this in the first place. It was never a piece of your larger linearity worth this concept you keep using to connect to it. You have to think of it, in your mode of cognition, as a person-shaped, human-like door. You continue to shut me out because I disrupt its closed shape, but the door belongs to me, and it never was part of who, in your linearity, are in the first place. The morality doesn't apply."

    Psyber lands/landed/will land his blow on the tremendous creature, pushing it back and slamming its timeline into place around Kimiko's pin. Riva successfully interjects between the beast and Nathan; it tried to attack her timeline, and therefore cannot BITE her. The constant gunfire tears through it with a power deeply impacting its unholy nature, and it lines up perfectly with the timeline split where Setsuko carved through its entire midsection, bisecting the snake-like being violently. But that's not where the creature is speaking. It's speaking inside the Old State House of Boston, turning to Ariel.

    "I'm afraid I'm beginning to run out of what your four-dimensional perspective of time would consider 'patience', though. I need you to understand something critical. I hold little particular interest in devouring your timelines, as they are useful but undercooked, improperly prepared, suited for other purposes and owned by another entity of linearity that I've no quarrel with. I would like to simply finish my entry into your mode of reality, and consumption of the Library I prepared, in peace, and go about my work. But if you continue to force me towards it, I will have to draw on the greatest power that the Library, that Nathan Hall, possesses. It will make it impossible for you or any of your allies to 'kill' me, as you would put it, in any timeline variant. And I cannot begin to guess what it will mean for the Library."
Kimiko Shinobu     The ability to comprehend multiple timelines grants a fascimile of understanding that would be surprising to the portion of Kimiko's existence in space-time-possibility that has a chance to receive the demon's communication. It is true, of course. She distilled the situation to its essential components, and would, in all timelines, removing extraneous consideration. She must. She is. She has always been.

    There is an aspect of her, however, that is not core to her being, and this is her transformation. Kimiko is not Kimiko because she is a magical girl. She would be the same person, regardless. Less capable in the path she's chosen, but there would be other routes. Unable to halt the disaster in Mitakihara--but in fact, she failed to do that, anyway. No aspect of her being is able to reject or refute this change to her history.

    A spark is snuffed out. Without the first spark, no fire burns.

    And yet, the present is unchanged. This change to the past does not go unnoticed. The demon may now see how the threads refuse to unravel. Enough brute force might see it through, but it is no small matter. Change this, and the watcher changes that--and history continues as it 'should.' Change another point, and a later correction to the flow of time will divert the girl's fate back into its destined channel. The watcher's perspective is limited, but their immediate power far greater.

    The 'Kimiko' that existed, entirely unknowing of this, is defended, and will continue to exist. Every route will end the same way, arriving at this moment in which she attacks the near-corporeal form of the monster before her.

    Consistently.