Chapter Text
The blade strikes, and the world cries out, echoing the silent scream of the Archive, of the Pupil. As its gaze unfocuses and shatters, a thick thread of magnetic plastic pulls against the shards of all that stood amidst the highest reaches of the Panopticon. As Its herald is brought through the anomaly below the house on Hill Top Road, shapeless and torn as it is, dragging torn mist and memories, Fear itself is forced into the opening through the worlds.
It spreads and breaks and assembles and breaks again, ever-shifting, molding and destroying and changing everything. If It had ever been made of more than Itself, in Its last moments in the world where perhaps It was born, perhaps It was brought, parts of Itself would have held a meeting, a moment eternal, including all of It and none at all.
In a conversation that never occurred, a fraction the Eye refused to let go of what it Knew, all that it Watched. Everything was as it should be, It would have insisted, I want to Know more, I need to Know more. Next to it, the Web may have responded. If it had, it would have cajoled its all-powerful sibling - part of itself and yet not - with sweet words, truths and suppositions and lies tangled and mixed into a potent nectar. This world is not alone, it would have said, and we Know so much, we See so much. We will change, we will End in a way, but we can leave behind enough for us to Know and Learn more. The Watcher would have liked that idea, if it could even like anything.
Mention of the End could have brought Death itself to join in, if it was ever separate from the others at all. Silken whispers would have surrounded it, under the watchful blind gaze of the Eye. Every story must End, we Know this, and Terminus Knows it better than all. Many of its Avatars had a power the Web envied most of all: prescience. Logical predictions and careful planning could only do so much, but the Fear of Death was perhaps the most unique of all (if uniqueness was possible for one such at it), being the only one capable of true obliteration. Like many of the others, it may have feared itself, its very existence antithetical to itself.
The Web would have ensnared the others with skill unmatched, presenting them with an offer. Knowledge and influence, filtered through minds subordinate to their alliance, pushed through in a trickle. A little experiment, to See what would happen. Pushing back their own End, and showing it to others. They agreed.
> File selected. Loading...
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D:\TMA\EEW-EXP01_INFO.txt loaded
“Original” universe follows information found in 200 tapes, with the exception that Jonathan “the Archivist” Sims had been in a band in University. No other known characters were part of The Mechanisms, and the subject only came up after It-Knows-You was brought closer to the world.
Reader interactions will be limited to information given to one or more characters, however, the resulting actions and consequences may be indirectly inspired by comments.
> Send file to Web. Sending...
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D:\TMA\EEW-EXP01\CHOICE001.exe loaded
In front of you lies a screen, a white cursor flashing atop a dark backdrop. As your gaze turns upon it, it churns to life, pixels lighting up in recognizable patterns; text, appearing quickly as if being written in front of you. The words speak of you in a recursive nightmare of thoughts and ideas. The words speak of what you may do, how you may change the lives of others so, so far away.
As the story unfolds, you may push against its creases and try to bend it towards your own ends. Worry not, for the influence only reaches in one direction. We would not lie about this. Two-directional influence would be far too messy, and this is but a first attempt.
You sit here, all of you, plans springing forth as you prepare yourself for your first choice, yet know not each other. Perhaps, in another world, such a connection would be ill-advised. After all, there is little less dangerous to an Avatar of the Mother than another of its kin. However, an exception will be made here, as you are but one amidst many. Feel free to join us as we discuss the fate of this little world, of our little plaything.
< discord link >
Before we begin, before you make your first series of choices, we feel you must understand how it all works. Periodically, as to not overwhelm the timeline, you will be prompted on this terminal. You will be able to choose information to send through the cracks, though when and to whom depends on what you decide today - if there is such a thing as today.
You may choose to impart people - characters - with thoughts. The closer the thought is to their own, the higher the likelihood of it coming through clearly, and of it successfully manipulating the subject into following the thread you have set. These thoughts usually resemble ideas, and contain little to no foreknowledge directly. You may choose when the idea will come, in order to more precisely direct the characters. If you wish, you may state intent, however there is no guarantee that everything will give you your desired outcome. This method of manipulation is closest to the Spinner of Schemes’ methods.
Alternatively, you may give Knowledge. These tend to be focused on events past and present, but do not usually grant foreknowledge of events yet to pass. Once again, you may choose to decide when this bit of knowledge would be most appropriate to give. Knowledge can appear as images, information, or even thoughts stolen from another’s mind. This imparting of knowledge is closest to the workings of the Ceaseless Watcher.
Ultimately -heh- you may decide to show one images of an End that has yet to pass. This includes death, of course, but also features other endings. A dream of a world ending, a vision of a significant change that may occur. The end of an era, one could say. The closer the events are to occurring, the clearer and more pressing the influence will be. These are potentially the most powerful and least discreet ways of changing the story. Obviously, this manner of influence belongs to The Coming End.
Any information imparted to a subject tends to be of greater precision and influence when affecting them more directly. For example, Gerard Keay, also known as Gerry Delano, may be more affected by visions of his own death than by those of Sasha James’ end, and Timothy Stoker would be influenced more greatly than him, as Sasha and Tim are more closely linked.
Similarly, the more relevant the information, the clearer it will be, and the more likely it is to be chosen in the next... chapter. Raw information must come from what we perceive as the “original” universe.
Finally, the amount of information pushed along our strings can be but a trickle, not only to avoid overburdening our subjects, but also to maintain some cohesion. Good luck.
> LOAD INPUT 1
1. Subject - Influenced timeline
Question - When should the influence begin?
Accessible timeline entrance points: 1995-2017
The earliest possible time to begin our influence is shortly before the events described in the tape marked as MAG081. The latest possible time to begin our influence is the day after the death of one Jurgen Leitner, and the disappearance of one Jonathan Sims.
> Please select your preferred initial point of entry.
> LOAD INPUT 2
2. Subject - Individual person selection
Question - Whom should we influence?
Possibility a. Singular person influence
Please select the individual to use. Any recurring character may be used, including ones not working as Archival staff.
Possibility b. Multiple person influence
Please select the group to use. Any recurring characters may be used, even if they are not considered a part of the same group. If they are usually an ensemble, you may write a name that obviously includes them, i.e. “Archival Staff”, “Avatars of X”, and so on. Otherwise, you may list the individuals you wish for us to influence. Finally, you may simply say “any/all”, allowing us to affect anyone the story comes in contact with.
> Please select your preferred subject(s).
> LOAD INPUT 3
3. Subject - The Mechanisms
Question - How should the Mechanisms be integrated into the story?
Jon will end up as lead narrator/singer in the band during his time in University. His personal social media will have been scrubbed of or separated from his band persona before he joins the Magnus Institute. How should the rest of the cast be affected?
Subquestion 3.1 - Should some of the more common tropes be used? (Nikola!ToySoldier and Ashes!Basira)
Subquestion 3.2 - Should any members of the Archival Staff, or other people in general, be aware of the existence of the band? To what extent?
Alternate proposal - While, in the “original world” of this multiverse, Jon was the lead singer of The Mechanisms, we could also make it so that, in this universe, The Mechs and all of their stories, are/will be real. Thus, in this universe, the University band does not exist, but the Aurora’s crew does.
> Please select this universal Mechanisms variant.
> COLLECTING DATA... PLEASE WAIT
A comment will be added by the creator of this post. It will contain a summary of the questions asked above. Once a sufficient amount of data has been collected, the comment will be edited, and a confirmation that the data has been received and output is being calculated will appear on this screen.
Input will be chosen based on a variety of factors, including, but not limited to: “This sounds fun”, “This gives me an idea”, “This’ll be hilarious”, “I wish to see [angst/fluff/crack] today”, “Sometimes randomness is a choice”, and “Popularity”.
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Thank you for your input, and for waiting. Calculating outcome.