reach the residents

[ximilian]

● ● ● REACH THE RESIDENTS

For any questions you want to ask Viveca or Degar and receive an IC response, please direct them here. Please indicate in the subject line who you are trying to contact.

// VIVECA

Hi, what can I help you with?

// DEGAR

Today was gonna be the day, but they'll never throw it back to you. And by now, you should've somehow realized what you're not to do.

▶ NAV

Comments

[peerlesscucumber]

Yet these contracts, can we see them?

( a pause, and the smallest, briefest sigh, versus the extremely long one he wants to give instead. )

I'm not saying I don't want it undone. The person I want to change things for, and regret having done what I've done to, is here. That doesn't conflict?

[vivecai]

The Orb doesn't exactly write anything down, you know. It's a magical contract, and not made with us. All I can do is show what I just told you in writing, if you really want.

[ she isn't the one who makes the contract, after all — the team simply happens to be working towards the same goal as she and the commander are. ]

No, it doesn't. I don't suppose you know of branching timelines?

[peerlesscucumber]

Ah, my apologies. I would appreciate the same in writing, yes, if it isn't an inconvenience. If it is, this one can wait. Though... which us did we join, in responding to the Orb's request?

( this is technically a better situation than his transmigration had been, and not just because it's the second time he's been offered to do something to change something else in order to... well. not just be dead, he supposes. that's motivational in its own way. )

This one is aware of the theory, not the practise. Is the presence of a familiar face here an indication of a timeline branch already having occurred?

( are they already living in reality inception, what kind of alternate universes have already spawned?! )

[vivecai]

[ after a few minutes, he gets a message in writing, with the topic CONTRACT, and it reads... well. exactly what viveca said, in the exact same words, even. the document itself looks very professional, with a round, golden seal on the bottom, and somehow shen qingqiu's signature next to it. ]

I hope that satisfies you.

[ is she 100% serious or just fucking with him... who knows! ]

Technically, yes. It hasn't occurred yet, but in leaving your world to come here, the timeline fractures. Those fractures have the possibility to become branches, when you reach your goal of undoing your regret. You come here from different points in time, and once you return, you return to a timeline where your regret has been undone. If the regret you have, and the regret Luo Binghe has end up conflicting, you will create two different timelines. That's how there's no conflict.

[peerlesscucumber]

( when the hell had he even signed--oh come on, did they spiritually sign documents? that's irrelevant, really, but he has to lift a fraction of an eyebrow when he sees it. )

Thank you. It has a nice seal. A unique design.

( is he serious or fucking with the AI back, we... probably shouldn't guess, because he delivers that statement so utterly neutrally even he's not sure. then she? she. sure. she-sounding Viveca talks about the way timelines diverge, and he inches closer and closer to actually frowning. )

Then there's a potential of creating any number of timelines, should regrets of those sharing an original timeline cause conflicts of some kind.

( that's... somewhat... relieving? but also sad, in a way where he doesn't know that Luo Binghe getting what he regrets resolved is going to actually help Luo Binghe get the life he deserves. the one with the harem and the power and the standing on top of the world, unassailable. (one might wonder if he ever bothered asking Luo Binghe what he wanted. one might learn, no, he's kind of a dumbass on that count.) )

Does nothing else cause that divergence? Such as death experienced in pursuit of the orbs?

[vivecai]

Thanks.

[ delivered equally neutrally. ]

Yes, that's right. As for anything else... no, if you die on a mission, you're dead. We can't bring you back — your death belongs to the Orb, then. All that does is that your timeline continues on without you.

[peerlesscucumber]

Ah. Then there are indeed two ways to affect our timelines.

( for himself, no, there's nothing; he was dead, wasn't he? he'd failed. but there's a whole new terror that strikes deep, claws at his throat. luo binghe. he cannot be allowed to die here. )

Thank you for your words, Miss Viveca. It's greatly appreciated.