Valiance

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Valiance>

Is everything the same as far as you can tell?

@Meta

I was incredibly young, so it's hard to remember every detail. But besides the obvious things, like the live fires that have since died away and the last signs of chaos before everything inevitably went silent, I don't for the life of me recall anything happening that would be a source for this in particular.
*Walks in the direction of, but not terribly close to, the nearest crack in the ground from which the ethereal dark smoke is incessantly rising from*

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Valiance>

That makes sense. And the buildings—
*Gestures toward one of the toppled structures*
Were they like this when you left?

@Meta

Unfortunately so.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Valiance>

How long has it been like this? I wouldn’t have expected something so well-preserved.

@Meta

In regards to how time flows here, I think it just recently passed the twenty year mark.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Valiance>

Oh, something less visceral, then. I get it.

@Memory

And a bit more instant as well.

<Snipped quote by Valiance>

<Snipped quote by Memory>

Speaking of gross ways to put things...

@Meta

*Takes a few slow steps through the dirt, walking between the petrified remains of a woman posed as though she were running and a man on his back as though he were crawling away from something he was looking at. I look out over a swath of mostly flat land into the horizon*
It's hard to believe the place can remain so unnatural for so long after.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Valiance>

Is duplicating painful for Ridge?

@Memory

No, but he doesn't do it the same way you do. He just... Manifests duplicate bodies.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Valiance>

Hurt? No, I don’t really feel it. Why, does it look painful?

@Memory

It looks like it might hurt if it were me doing it.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Valiance>

Here’s hoping they stand out...
*Steps to the side, while at the same time another instance of me steps the opposite direction as if it were peeling away from where I stood*

@Memory

I have to ask, you know I do. Does that hurt?

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Valiance>

We can start local and branch wider if we need to.

@Memory

<Snipped quote by Valiance>

What are we looking for, exactly?

@Meta

Signs of someone having been here. So I need you both to be incredibly careful, because such signs could include traps, or means of observation.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Valiance>

Wow... And you want to scout the whole planet?

@Memory

Not unreasonable, unless doing that is reasonable to you. I imagine that anything we might be interested in should be made apparent with a more limited search.

Myriad Reality

<Snipped quote by Valiance>

You haven’t been back at all since that day?

@Memory

Maelstrom did what he did, and when all was said and done, there was nothing to come back to. And neither of us had any desire to come back ever again, since this is where it all ended.