mogmelodies | To All Heroes

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To All Heroes

To Everybody:

Whether we've met or not, I'd appreciate a reply from as many people as are willing, especially if you didn't just come from a version of Earth.

So, let's talk holidays. Christmas, I was willing to let pass as a coincidence. Any civilized planet out there with a winter season ends up with some version of a winter solstice. It doesn't matter the time or the planet or the alien race, they've got some kind of tradition that we would recognize. Celebration for being 'almost out of the dark,' as a friend of mine would put it.

But Valentine's Day? Definitely a product of Earth, of a specific time period of Earth, to be sure. At least, in my experience. And that's where you guys come in. Anybody else, not from Earth, have a custom or a legend like this? Something specifically surrounding a holiday, something that's celebrated. Also, is anybody else reading up on Aqures Ixen legends enough to know if we're going all going to be dealing with rabbits and eggs in two months? If so, I'm calling shenanigans now.

-Captain Jack Harkness

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Believe me, I don't mind. There aren't that many people who can hear, "So I've traveled time and space" and not immediately blow you off.

I've had to clean up, well, nothing quite on that level before, but people messing around with time travel technology always leaves some kind of a mess, and it used to be my job to corral that sort of thing.

So, do you know anything about the tech that the people on Exsilium were using to grab you out of time and space? Jump right ahead to my next question: what are the odds they have something similar here?

-Jack

Not only did they screw their own world, who knows if it did anything to the places they took people from, too. People disappeared all the time before things got really bad, too. Like they just slipped out of existence. Happened to several people I knew.

I don't know how their machines worked. As far as I know, nothing involving crystals was used, but I never really asked them about their technology. Now I wish I had, because for all I know, it did. But the word "magic" never got tossed around by the scientists in that regard.

--Johnny

I hadn't even thought about that. I can disappear, okay, I was already disappearing, really. My world won't even notice a difference. But, as much as I'd like a few other people from my timeline to help out? They can't just disappear. Great.

But they've pulled us out of time, can't they just put us back when we came from? I guess there's another question: could the process get reversed? Or, they were only pulling people through, no hope of sending them home?

Fuck. I've been working on the principle that we'd just be able to get back when we came from, that's how time travel is supposed to work. Provided you're not really bad at calculating destination times, like some people I know. If this crystal thing is only one-way, what do we do?

-Jack

[Oh you just had to mention "sending back".]

The Initiative didn't know how to send people back, at first. They could only send us through their planet's own timeline. They eventually figured it out, and sent a guy back to him home world, and to make a long and horrific story short, it backfired.

Considering here, no one knows how we got here, we can't really go thinking they're going to know how to send us back. Maybe they'll figure it out, but I'm not holding my breath. And not just because I don't plan to go back to my world or Exsilium's.

-- Johnny

ps - Explaining this in person might be easier. And if I'm going to continue to do so, I need a drink. [He gives the address of a small tavern in their district and a time to meet.]

Edited 2015-02-09 04:38 (UTC)

Jack rather had a feeling that this was heading in this direction, so he goes to meet Johnny. He finds he does recognize Johnny's face from around town, when he arrives, and pulls up a chair next to Johnny and his empty glass.

Jack just nods in lieu of a greeting, because the reason for their meeting isn't the most positive. "Good to meet you in person." He puts in an order for Johnny's next drink, and another for himself.

"So, alternate Earth, using time travel as a weapon. I'd love to say that any of this sounds surprising, but somehow, I can completely see everything that you were describing." Jack shakes his head sadly.

Johnny is definitely someone that's hard to miss. When Jack sits down, he thanks him for the drink, but can't help but make a crack about it. "Dude, if anyone's owed a drink, it's you for listenin' to all this bullshit."

He rubs his face tiredly for a moment as he tries to remember where in the story he was, and debates how much detail he wants to give.

"Man, if there are other places out there that have to go through the same bullshit we did in Exsilium, I feel sorry for 'em. No one should have to. But things were so bad there, the Initiative felt like they had no other option. I'm not fans of theirs, considerin' we were kidnapped and forced into fighting for our lives, but..." He shrugs, not knowing how to finish that thought.

"They actually had a few things the UE didn't have, but wanted. Two big things, considering. Not only could they do the time travel thing, but believe it or not, they could bring people back from the dead. It took awhile, and you felt like hell for days after, but, Christ. Think about that. Raising the dead." He shook his head, and took a long drink.

"Even that wasn't enough, though. United Earth had more resources, more people, more power than we could ever hope to beat. They attacked us repeatedly. We only made it away most of the time because we could hide. At least all the time fuckery kinda worked after awhile. The Initiative managed to change things big time. Too bad it totally screwed time 'n space all up."

Jack's eyes go slowly wider as he listens to the details of the story of Exsilium. When Johnny mentions raising the dead, Jack grows tense, and he gives Johnny a very peculiar look, but he remains silent until Johnny hits a natural pause. He has to take a second to take all of this in.

"Well. Funny story. I've actually got some experience with death and coming back from it. Supposedly the damn crystals here do something similar. Not something I'd ever want anybody else to experience." But he knows it's only a matter of time, really.

"You said they changed things, but it sounds like it wasn't exactly a victory. What does this mean, though? The damage stayed localized to that timeline, or with them messing with other people's universes, does that radiate the effects out? Was you coming here an aftereffect, maybe?" Cue Jack getting paranoid.

"Yeah. Same here." Johnny stared off with an empty look, recalling falling in battle during the New York debacle, dying in the arms of the man he'd dare call his best friend in Exsilium. He was pretty sure Coby never forgave him for that, considering how hard he was on him in training later.

"I wouldn't call it a victory. The UE still existed, even if they weren't nearly as bad. The world has still a really harsh place to live in, just in a different way. And as far as how other people's universes go, I don't really know. When I was leaving, I wasn't tryin' to go back to my home. I was hoping to follow a, uh, friend of mine. It didn't work, obviously."

Jack knows that faraway look, and god damn is it depressing that anyone else can know what that's like. The best response he can give is to drain his drink and raise a hand for another one. He gives a sympathetic look and a respectful pause, but he knows better than to ask for details.

He will, however smirk at the usage of the word 'friend.' "Friend of yours?" Only one or two reasons somebody would decide to jump ship from their entire world to go to another one.

"I guess we can never know what's happening in someone else's world. Unless another metacrisis event happens, when you've already been through one." Jack scowls at his drink.

"...Somethin' like that." Though the way in which he turns he looks away and nervously taps on his glass suggest more. "I really couldn't go back to my own home anyway, for a lotta reasons. Not that I knew how things were gonna be somewhere else entirely new for a guy like me, I was still willin' to take my chances."

Johnny finished off his drink, lost in thought for a moment. His friends from that terrible place, the first real ones he ever had, were never far from his mind. "Wish there was some way I could at least know if the people from Exsilium were at least okay, no matter where they went."

The expression that crosses Jack's face gets a raised eyebrow from Johnny. "Do I even wanna know what a 'metacrisis' is?"

H-unh. Okay, based on Johnny's reaction, something a lot more. Maybe Jack shouldn't have joked about it. File that question away for later, then.

He'll follow the slight change of subject. Jack waves a hand around them. "All this. Really, 'metacrisis' is a term for any timelines colliding. Two parallel universes accidentally connecting? Two versions of the same person from different points in one timeline in the same place? Or, in our case, even more than two."

"Ridiculous that you've had to go through more than one. It's the kind of crap that was mostly theoretical back home. Even with time travel, most people knew better than to do something like this. Either that, or anyone who tried? Didn't stick around to tell anyone else how it went. But I've never heard of anything on this scale before. And you've gone through it twice."

"Yeah. Sounds like the universe likes the idea of me hoppin' around to help fix someone else's problems. Like I don't got enough of my own, right?" He manages a tired smirk at that. "Like we all don't."

Johnny thought over something for a moment though as he took a drink, before turning to Jack with a questioning look. "Did you say somethin' in one of the letters about this kinda stuff havin' to do with your job? What kinda job deals with time anomolies, or whatever you wanna call 'em. Or how. I can't even imagine. Unless someone out there got right what the Initiative had tried to do."

"Enh, yes, but no. If my universe'd gotten wind of the Initiative, we would have been the people trying to stop it." Jack sets his drink down, so he can use his hands to gesture as he talks.

"Where I'm from, time travel is a certainty. Case in point, I was born in the 51st century. Used to work for the Time Agency, which is exactly what it sounds like. Time travel tech exists, not everybody uses it for just sight-seeing, and when they mess up, you need people who can go clean up the timeline."

"Things got complicated, I got stranded in the 20th Century- well, 19th, but who's counting? But all that time travel? Can lead to weak spots, rifts, where anything can come through. Turned out there was one in Cardiff, Wales, so I started keeping watch over it. Seen a lot of weird stuff, but all this multiverse thing has been-" he waves a hand back and forth, sort of kind of, "theoretical. Saw evidence of a parallel universe once."

"This?" Jack picks up his glass again. "Blows everything I've seen before out of the water."

Johnny's eyes go a bit wide at "51st century". He's met a lot of people from a lot of times, but no one from so far ahead.

"Damn. And I'm from 2012 myself. Must seem beyond ancient to ya. Like me gettin' stuck in ancient Egypt or somethin'. Man, it's too bad youse never got wind of the Initiative. Woulda been good to have someone who really knew what they were doin' to swing in and fix things.

"Wait, Wales? Huh, weird. Exsilium was what used to be England. Most of the rest of the world was uninhabitable, but the UE took up whatever was left."

Jack shakes his head. "Hey, 20th, 21st centuries are a pretty nice place to live. There's so much changing, humanity's right on the edge of all these new innovations. No space travel, no time travel...yet. But it's on its way. And, you've got things like Broadway." Tiny smirk.

"That's one hell of a coincidence, but my own organization, and this other guy in the 'Save The Universe' club, just kept coming back to Great Britain. We tell ourselves that it was a coincidence, instead of maybe thinking it was our faults that invasions kept sparking off from that point."

Jack waves his hands to illustrate his point. "The more we go to that geographic location, the more things get messed up, the more technology gets left behind, the greater the infrastructure of that one area gets built up, and then, the more that looks like the prime location to invade from anyone looking at the planet from the outside." He shakes his head. "At least I had the excuse of the rift being in one physical spot. Everything else? We might have contributed to the problem."

"The more ya try to fix things, the more fucked up they get. Sounds familiar." The Initiative had good intentions too, after all.

"Y'know, whatever happens, however this shit happened or how we got here, I just hope things don't get like in Exsilium. This place... it's pretty nice. Fuckin' war notwithstanding, I guess. The weather's good, it's not raining 24/7 or is covered in permafrost, there's clean food 'n water... And booze. Good booze. Shit here tastes awesome after gettin' used to Exsilium moonshine."

The demon shakes his head, grinning a bit now. Perspective was important. He also wasn't sleeping on the street, constantly running for his life, and the natives seemed mostly okay with him. Confused, sometimes intimidated, but not outright hostile. And that counted for a lot.

Jack laughs and raises his own glass. "I can imagine! End of the world, hiding in secret from a much larger force, but nothing can stop human ingenuity for producing alcohol." Jack could tell his own story or two from being stuck behind the Blitz.

"This place. I guess one of the reasons I'm not as pissed off as I really should be about being dragged here is that it is so nice. It's worth protecting. Not that any place isn't. But there's so many people here. People who shouldn't have been so open-minded about strange people just showing up in their towns, needing food and shelter." Jack looks around, and while the Heroes are never quite warmly welcomed, they certainly aren't shunned, or looked at in fear. "But they are anyway. Still doesn't quite feel like a place where you could make a life for yourself. But it's a nice place."

Johnny thought that over - Jack was right about this place not feeling like a home. Maybe because it was so radically different than what he was used to, and the culture shock hadn't worn off quiet yet. But Exsilium didn't feel much like home at first either, and he had almost opted to stay there.

He raised up his glass a bit in toast. "To this place: it ain't shitty."

After finishing off his glass, Johnny let out a sigh, feeling strangely better after unloading the Exsilium experience to someone. "Hey uh, sorry for dumping all that on ya. Pretty sure from what ya tell me, ya got enough problems of your own without needing to be dragged here, too."

Jack gives a genuine laugh as he raises his glass right back. The ability to just pause and find something good in the middle of so much going wrong is probably going to serve them better here than any other survival skill. He drains his glass, and kindly shakes his head at Johnny's words.

"It's all in the past. Or, some in the future, some in the past," he waves a hand. "Time travel gets strange like that. But, I tied up the last loose end back at home the night before I arrived here. We were watching this hole in spacetime, well, I figured out a way to close it. Didn't think I'd survive the trip, but," Jack shrugs, "surprise!"

"I was actually leaving Earth behind, when I got pulled here. I was ready to leave." He pauses, because he hasn't admitted that out loud since he got here. Some of the things he's been trying to ignore for three months are trying to peek back into his mind. "Job was finished. I can at least take some comfort in that."

"Yeah? Were ya headin' to the next one, or on vacation? Hope not vacation, cuz otherwise you got robbed, man. I know what ya mean, though. When I left Exsilium, it was March. I show up here, it's December. My birthday was in January, and as far as I'm concerned, this past January don't count."

He goes ahead and orders himself another drink - this guy can really put them away.

"I hope there's a chance we can get a vacation here. Is there a beach around here? Or hell, I'd go now. Mountains ain't far off. Wonder if this place's heard of snowboarding."

Jack stretches and leans back in his chair exaggeratedly. "Vacation. The permanent kind. British Government decided my division wasn't worth the trouble any more. Wish I could see the looks on everybody's faces when they find out that I just casually closed up that rift for them on my way out the door. You're welcome, and fuck you very much," Jack finishes up that sentence with a rude gesture.

Hunh. Looks like Jack needs another drink, too. "North sea coast, it's all cliffs and cold, fun times, but not exactly speedo weather."

"There's this place out west, haven't been yet, but airships go there all the time, Transo Gol-sau-cia?" He has to take a second to pronounce it out. "Locals make it out like the equivalent of Vegas. Which, after that crap," Jack points at Johnny, "sounds like you need."

"Yeah, I wouldn't recommend snowboarding in a speedo. But ya got a point. I think I've had enough snow after Exsilium to last me a long damn time. Maybe this Vegas place is a better idea."

He does seem to like the idea, until he remembers how broke he is. But he also obstinately refuses to get a real job, and gets by on playing music on corners or for the occasional pub or theater gig. It was a good thing the roof over his his head was already covered, or he'd be in trouble.

"Guess I better start savin' up. And hope no one decides to wage war on the place til I get a chance to visit."

"Oh, don't even joke about that," Jack shakes his head. "That's when we know they're serious, because attacking a neutral place like that? Something that's mostly for entertainment? That's what'll really get people off their asses and fighting."

"But I can't really complain about the paydays for this hero gig. Or, really, you should see the amount of cash my room mate is floating around with. She's a natural at one of the card games here. It's not exactly direct gambling, like poker? But she gets ridiculous amounts of money for card games. I should'a gotten in on that, but it just doesn't quite make sense to me."

"Man. This place is pretty sweet if ya can make a livin' like that. I'm just a musician, though. Make what I can in the town squares and bars 'n stuff. I think business will pick up once the weather gets warmer.

"I don't really got many other skills. I was pretty good at fighting, then I got here and they took all my strength from me." He rolls his eyes at that, thinking how backwards this whole Job thing is. "I worked so damn hard to become a decent fighter while in Exsilium. Learned from the best. I mean, the whole Dark Knight/Monk thing is cool, I guess, but I woulda rather left things the way they were."

"In one way, oh, tell me about it," Jack shakes his head. "Gimme a gun over this bow-and-arrow crap any day. Why, how am I suddenly a terrible shot? I've been doing this-" slight amendment of what Jack was about to say there, "for- a really long time. How do my hands just forget overnight everything they knew about shooting a gun?"

Jack taps himself on the chest. "Same thing for the second job, Dark Knight. It works on a weird logic, but I'm starting to get the hang of it. The idea of absorbing energy from your opponent, literally stealing their time away to add to your own? And then turning that energy back around to power the attacks? That's about the only way I can frame it."

"Same said card-game-playing roommate is also a White Mage, and it makes a lot better sense when you've got a healer backing you up." Jack shakes his head again in bewilderment. "It's still all so- ridiculous."

To All Heroes

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