curriculum_fictae | [PSL] time travel, time travel

[ Martin had always known that Lukas would kill him in the end. If not along the way, then surely at the end, once he'd gotten what he wanted out of Martin, whatever that turned out to be. When the Lonely rose up to swallow him, he'd accepted his impending death with ... what?

What did he have left, really? Numbness, mostly. A hallucination of Jon in the Lonely, looking for him, but - but that was impossible, ridiculous. His mind playing cruel tricks. He settled himself down in the frigid surf, knees drawn up close to his chest, unshed tears frozen to his cheeks and lashes.

And then. A door. A door that shouldn't exist, that couldn't exist. That he shouldn't take at all. The Lonely was terrible, yes, but it was quiet, and it was peaceful. Martin was aligned enough with it by now to very nearly enjoy it, in a strange and terrible way. The Spiral would be infinitely worse than this quiet beach.

But ... it was hope, too. In a strange way. Hope enough that Martin found himself turning the door handle and stepping through, leaving the false comfort of the Lonely behind him.

The transition was unpleasant. Long. But Martin couldn't remember it after; he only remembered stumbling out through the door of a supply closet somewhere deep in the Archives, blinking up at the dim bulbs that pretended to be sufficient. What time was it? Had he escaped? Where were Lukas and Elias now?

And where was Jon? ]

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From:

secreteary

[the olive branch gets retracted, and Martin looks appropriately mollified.]

S-sorry.

[and so he begins fiddling with his chopsticks.]

...Did you ever give a statement? Y'know. Get help in general instead of...doing it yourself.

From:

kayakking

I...

[He settles a bit, propped up by a fist on his cheek.]

Did, - thought about it, that is- once or twice in Research, then talked myself out on 'conflict of interest' grounds and what if my access got restricted.

Then once we were in the Archives, well... you saw how Jon handled statement follow up.

From:

secreteary

That...is incredibly, terribly fair.

[sighing, he pushes his glasses up to rub at his eyes.]

Why him. [quickly pushing that aside:] Now what are you going to do? There's the Unknowing, but we have to take care of it in a way that you don't...end up like you did with Algric. [he winces a little; that wasn't as diplomatic as he'd liked to have put it, but] Can I help?

From:

kayakking

... That doesn't even feel real. Or the Unknowing.

[As such he... really hasn't thought about HOW to tackle it, much less how to survive it.]

I don't even know what the Unknowing is all about yet.

[But now that it has, he .. starts to turn it over.]

That should probably be where we start. You know the Library better than any of us. If there's anything hidden in there, you've got a better chance at it. Once we have enough to follow up on, we can divide it up to our strengths.

From:

secreteary

[honestly is Martin just a kicked puppy because he brightens so much. he gets to help!!!]

I can have a pile of potentially relevant files on your desk by the end of tomorrow?

From:

kayakking

Perfect.

[Tim, himself, is getting into it. A problem they can scratch at and get untangled their own way.]

While you do that, I'll sort through the statements still in the 'probable' section and see what I can come up with.

From:

secreteary

Maybe we could ask Jon to write down what...wh-what other me knows. For cross-referencing.

From:

kayakking

That's... a damn good idea.

For more than one reason.

From:

secreteary

[heh.]

Bit surprised Jon hasn't done something like that already.

From:

kayakking

...

Possibly.

Bets on which floorboard we'd have to pry up this time to find them?

From:

secreteary

[...oh yeah this is Jon they're talking about]

Or behind some wallpaper...

From:

kayakking

[... Snickers.]

Brick in a chimney.

From:

secreteary

Behind an air vent.

From:

kayakking

Buried in a rose garden.

From:

secreteary

Tattooed on someone's back?

From:

kayakking

[No hang on, he has to picture Jon's scrunched handwriting and sarcastic comments all over someone's back. And just laughs.]

Fuck. Who? You can't put that out there without a victim.

From:

secreteary

Yeah, you're right, I just thought of Golden Kamuy somehow...

From:

kayakking

[A beat.]

You know? Haven't gotten around to reading that one. So it goes Full Metal Alchemist there?

From:

secreteary

I didn't get very far, to be honest... But it does involve a treasure map tattooed across the backs of different people...

From:

kayakking

Huh... Maybe I should-

No, wait. Distracted. ... From the point that you'd be the only one he'd have a chance of convincing to sit still for that, and you have way more brains than that.

From:

secreteary

[a small laugh]

I certainly hope so. Otherwise he'd be trying to convince statement givers that it's "new policy", or something.

From:

kayakking

[Oh god.]

I can see it.

[He pitches his best Jonathan Sims, Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute, London.]

While we find your statement somewhat... less than credible, we now require a small donation to the Institute for our timeless service to the community as a whole.

First, do you have any allergies to - [He drops it with a laugh.] I don't know. An ink color.

From:

secreteary

[congrats Tim, you've got Martin full-belly laughing]

"Please consider it your civic duty to contribute to our research," or something like that.

[he pauses, then laughs AGAIN]

God, imagining Jon with those black gloves and a tattoo gun in hand is something else. One of those rare tattoo artists who doesn't have a single tattoo himself.

From:

kayakking

[Tim snickers at the mental image, Jon looking over the edge of a tattoo gun like some Death Note posing.]

Right? Like a bald barber or a skinny baker. Oh sure, they're there. But it's a bit of a second look, innit?

We'd be doing rescues left and right.