Chapter Text
Node 6174 has opened. ModRiver has invited you to NewGroup.
Say, Think, or Type ‘Yes’ to accept invitation!
Daisy stared numbly at the translucent box that had appeared in the corner of her vision. Maybe it was a result of the chip in her neck? Quickly she pushed her chair across the Lighthouse control center to one of the scanner stations on the hall and checked for incoming signals. Nothing out of the ordinary. So whatever this is, she thought to herself, it has to be something that only she can really access. Unless…
“Hey Noah,” she called out with a growing amount of urgency. “There’s some kind of interactive box popping up in my vision, can you run some sort of scan to see if something here is causing it?
Node 6174 has opened. ModRiver has invited you to NewGroup.
Say, Think, or Type ‘Yes’ to accept invitation!
Ruby looked up from where she was servicing Crescent Rose, narrowing her eyes briefly at the box that was tucked away unobtrusively at the edge of her peripheral vision. This was probably a prank or someone’s semblance pulling tricks… somewhat juvenile for what was basically monster hunting university, but she was one to talk, having gotten in way ahead of schedule.
“Sure, why not,” she muttered to herself. “Yes, I’ll join in whatever this is.”
Warrior has joined NewGroup
ModRiver: Ah, Ruby Rose. I thought you might be first, you and the good captain are the types to charge fearlessly into the unknown. It’s good to have you here.
Warrior: Right, um, what is this if I might ask? Some kind of communication semblance?
ModRiver: Oh, hardly! This, my friend, is a multiversal chat room. It’s one of my kind’s few actual capabilities when interacting with other dimensions. I can’t shape your worlds for the better, but I can put you together so that you can help each other out.
Warrior: Huh. That sounds interesting. If I may ask, why am I called “Warrior?”
ModRiver: I gave you all names based on your mantles. Long story. You can use “/rename “name”” if you want to change it though.
Warrior: /rename Rubyrose
Rubyrose: Thanks!
Reclaimer has joined NewGroup
Reclaimer: Okay, very funny, whose idea was this and can you undo it now?
ModRiver: I’m afraid I can’t do that, Edward.
Reclaimer: Right then, I’ll go and get my HUD reset. Don’t think I won’t figure out who you are, prankster.
Rubyrose: I don’t think it works like that mister. Like, I’m not wearing a helmet or anything and I’m also seeing this. Also ModRiver is supposedly an alien from another universe.
Reclaimer: Hostile intrusion then. Just my luck. Well fuck you, I’m off.
Rubyrose: He seems mean.
ModRiver: He’s a soldier fighting a losing war. Like I said, I’m hoping that you can help each other.
Rubyrose: Well then I will do my best!
Jean-Luc stared at the box that floated in the lower corner of his sight, before briefly rubbing his temple. Scanners had detected nothing, transporting solely himself and isolating any abnormalities had failed to get rid of it, and even a minimally invasive scan from Medical had said that his optic nerve was functioning normally.
This entire thing reeked of Q’s shenanigans, though so far all it had done was put his meeting with Dr. Stubbs slightly behind schedule.
Oh well, perhaps it was better to get this anomaly out of the way now. His hands went to a PADD and started an audio recording, so as to note down his findings. “Stardate 43125.8, beginning interaction with a sensorial anomaly affecting myself, Captain Picard,” he muttered. “Current appearance is a text box reading ‘Node 6174 has opened. ModRiver has invited you to NewGroup,’ followed by a prompt to respond in the affirmative to accept the invitation. Now proceeding.”
“Yes, I accept this invitation,” he enunciated clearly.
Tested has joined NewGroup
Tested: group implies the presence of multiple people, so I suppose that I should start with a greeting to you all on behalf of myself and my crew.
ModRiver: Ah, Captain, lovely to have you here! And you’re discerning as always.
ModRiver: You’re the third one to arrive! Reclaimer is Edward Buck, and Rubyrose is, well, Ruby Rose.
ModRiver: Wait, you aren’t seeing the previous messages are you? i need to check something
ModRiver: /chathist
Chat History is disabled.
ModRiver: /chathist set true
Chat History is now enabled
ModRiver: Hopefully that works better now!
Jean-Luc hesitated, reaching out towards the box for a moment, before instead thinking ‘scroll up’ at it in an effort to make the anomaly respond. It did as requested. “Quite an intuitive system,” he murmured for the recording as he read through the messages. “It appears for all intents and purposes to be a communication interface that works between universes. I am currently sharing it with the creator of the space and two others. A soldier named Edward Buck, and a woman named Ruby Rose. The creator of this group has likened her to me, though her curiosity seems to more closely embody the exuberance of youth. I am currently labelled as ‘Tested,’ furthering my suspicions of this being connected to the Q Continuum.”
Tested: Yes, I can see your short conversation now. It is a pleasure to have a peer in this.
Tested: /rename Picard
Picard: I have to attend a briefing, so I will likely be unavailable for the next hour.
ModRiver: Okeydokie! Also, because I feel I can trust you captain, I went into the backend and gave you mute permissions. Just type /mute and then a time and you won’t perceive the chat unless you specifically think of it.
Picard: Thank you ModRiver.
Picard: /mute 1 hour
Though out of curiosity, he stuck around for a bit longer. How would his younger counterpart react to him being granted a reprieve?
Rubyrose: can I also mute? I’m gonna be doing maintenance work on Crescent Rose, and that’s rather meditative for me.
ModRiver: of course! In fact, I’ll allow that ability for all of you, and work on whipping up a priority ping that can cut through it should one of you end up in an emergency.
Rubyrose: Thanks! You’re a really good host.
ModRiver: I try :3. The others of my lot are rather passive, and I wanted to not be like that. Plus, half of this group is rather paranoid…
Paranoia… mister Buck certainly fit that bill, which implied there was at least one other member. Jean-Luc nodded to himself, jotted down a transcript of the chat into his padd alongside the audio recording, and then headed off to his now pressing meeting.
Taylor stared at the ceiling, trying not to pay attention to what was obviously some cape bullshit. She’d been careful in trying to avoid being noticed before she was ready to go out, but apparently that had failed. At least this seemed to be relatively benign, and wasn’t actively influencing her… right?
After several minutes of deliberation she quickly steeled her resolve and muttered a quick “yes” under her breath, bracing herself for whatever would happen.
Khepri has joined NewGroup
Reclaimer: oh hey, new person. Khepri’s an odd name. Another alien?
ModRiver: Hiya Taylor! Your slice of the multiverse is rather popular for this thing, so I couldn’t really resist pulling you in. It’s good to have you here. Kara and Buck are active right now, so you should be able to just jump right in!
Huh. Taylor reached out a hand and quickly scrolled up to try and achieve context.
ModRiver: I try :3. The others of my lot are rather passive, and I wanted to not be like that. Plus, half of this group is rather paranoid…
Rubyrose: /mute 30 minutes
Paragon has joined NewGroup
Paragon: so um… what is this? Some kind of telepathy from M’arzz or Titan?
Paragon: why are you trying to interface with random humans?
ModRiver: As much as I wish I were a martian, no. This is an interdimensional chat room, and if I got your chronology right, then this can offer you a chance to have somewhere you don’t need to pretend to be human.
Reclaimer: wait wait, there are aliens that look human?
ModRiver: Oh yeah lot’s of them, for a bunch of different reasons. Kara and Jean-Luc, and one of our next members all have humanoid aliens, with each being for a different reason.
Reclaimer: great, split-lips that can infiltrate us.
ModRiver: … I forgot how racist your universe can be. Please be nice to Kara.
Reclaimer: Why? Why can’t it just piss off back to its planet instead of hiding among humans?
Paragon: Because my planet is gone. And I can’t breathe in space.
Reclaimer: okay that’s somewhat fair. Still don’t like you, but I’ll play nice with a fellow refugee.
ModRiver: Lovely!
ModRiver: So, now that I’ve got both of you, why don’t you introduce yourselves?
Reclaimer: Sure. Gunnery Sergeant Buck, ODST, 11th Shock Troops Battalion. Currently stationed on Reach. Won’t be telling you where, in case this is some kind of trap.
Paragon: and I’m Kara Danvers, or Kara Zor-el, of the planet Krypton. My world orbited a red dwarf star that in my universe is categorized by humans as LHS-2520
Paragon: actually, give me a moment
Paragon: /rename Kara
Kara: There we go. So yeah, I’m from krypton, was born in 1966 in earth years. Krypton was destroyed in 1979, and I got caught in a spacetime anomaly that kept me in stasis for 24 years, and I arrived on Earth in 2003. Then my baby cousin who’s now older than me handed me off to two of his family friends and told me to pretend to be normal, so i can’t even go into science which is what i was quite literally made for. Anyway, so that’s my life, and the current year is October 2015.
Reclaimer: That’s quite a difference from me, I was born in 2510, with cryo I’ve honestly lost track of how old I am, so something between 25 and 42, it’s currently 2552. Enlisted in the UNSC Marines in 2528, was away when my homeworld was found by the covenant and the population was slaughtered, hunted down and eaten by the grunts and jackals.
Kara: That’s, well I can’t imagine how terrible that was, Krypton died in a single day, collapsing due to the core being rendered unstable. Yours puts my world into perspective. At least they died quick.
Reclaimer: Yeah, so now you should know why I’ll have very little compassion for you, split-lip.
Kara: Okay. Journalism has taught me that some people won’t listen to each other, this is good enough to be workable for our forced proximity.
Reclaimer: I’m sorry, you’re a journalist?
Kara: I wasn’t allowed to go into science. Journalism felt good, Krypton didn’t have anything like this, there was no way for the population to know that the high council was destabilising the core with the geoengineering attempts. If I can’t be a hero like Kal, then I can try to keep humanity from destroying itself through this work.
Reclaimer: Right, yeah with your time point if we’ve got similar timelines then humanity’s still confined to earth. Well, I suppose if this is true then I wish you the best of luck.
Khepri has joined NewGroup
Reclaimer: oh hey, new person. Khepri’s an odd name. Another alien?
ModRiver: Hiya Taylor! Your slice of the multiverse is rather popular for this thing, so I couldn’t really resist pulling you in. It’s good to have you here. Kara and Buck are active right now, so you should be able to just jump right in!
ModRiver: Taylor’s human… mostly. I can’t really talk about more, because if Cortana worries me, a roused Queen Administrator is flat-out terrifying. I’m gonna dip until Skye joins in.
Kara: Well, that’s worrying. I wonder if they’re connected to an Imp…
Reclaimer: ‘Imp’?
Kara: Fifth dimensional lifeforms, see us as little more than interesting bugs to mess with occasionally. They can be incapacitated by getting them to say or write their name backwards.
Reclaimer: You’re bullshitting me, aren’t you?
Kara: I wish!
Taylor blinked as she caught up. Multiple other universes, including an alien? This definitely felt like powers nonsense, something like Haywire’s tech, though the moderator of the ‘group chat’ seemed to have a different origin. but there was something about the moderator’s recent words that her perception seemed to slide off of and that was definitely some Stranger bullshit.
Khepri: Hello. Sorry, I was reading through the backlog. I suppose that the moderator already revealed my identity, so hello. I’m Taylor Hebert. Please don’t spell it as Herbert, I already get enough of that from Madison and her cronies.
Kara: That’s fair. I suspect that it’ll be a bit of a problem with our apparent next member. It’s nice to meet you Taylor. Going by what you said I’m guessing that you’re still a kid or younger adult?
Khepri: That would be correct. I’m currently 15 and a half years old, and since you two seem to have different timeframes, it’s 2011 for me.
Reclaimer: Okay, so that’d make you, ＠Rubyrose, or our sixth member the youngest.
Rubyrose: I’m slightly younger than Taylor. I got into Beacon a full two years ahead of normal admittance!
Khepri: I imagine that Beacon is some sort of university? My mom taught at the one here in Brockton Bay before she died.
Rubyrose: Beacon’s the best academy for training to become Hunters and fight off the creatures of Grimm. My parents were both ones. My mom also died when I was young, went on a mission and never came back.
Kara: Great. Child soldiers.
Rubyrose: Hey! The Grimm feed on emotions, training youths to defend themselves and control our fear is basic essentials for survival. We’re far from child soldiers!
Reclaimer: Riiight…
Rubyrose: Oh, and I’m also human, though it might be different than Buck and Taylor, since I’ve never heard of Earth. I’m from Remnant.
Reclaimer: Okay, more confusion. Lovely. Hey split-lip, what’s your bet on the “Remnant” bit? Colony world cut off and suffered a cultural collapse?
Kara: Probably? Like, convergent evolution exists, but *that* doesn’t explain the name.
Rubyrose: I don’t think so. Dust – the substance we use as fuel – breaks down above a set altitude that makes it impossible to travel to space, and if we used to be more advanced then our ruins would be more metal and plastic than normal stone bricks.
Kara: Huh. A mystery for another time then. Wait, Taylor you mentioned “Madison and her cronies,” are you getting bullied?
Khepri: Yeah, but it’s not like the trio can accomplish anything worse.
Kara: What did they do?
Khepri: I don’t want to talk about it.
Destroyer has joined NewGroup
Destroyer: Oh fuck off.
Destroyer: I am NOT going to be the Destroyer of Worlds.
Khepri: Well that’s a good enough distraction from my shit. You can use /rename to rename yourself. I haven’t bothered with it yet.
Destroyer: Thanks. But don’t think I won’t set aside what happened before I joined this mess.
Destroyer: /rename Quake
Quake: Better.
ModRiver: Ah lovely, everyone’s here! Now I can give you all the deets!