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What a Time (Warp)



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Thu Aug 13, 2020 1:57 pm
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soundofmind says...



Bo barely had time to register what was happening. As the smell of his fart filled the tiny, tiny little ship, there was a flash of light, and then they were falling. Crashing, on some unknown planet.

Bo pried his fingers off of the seat the wraith was sitting in and let out a high pitched screech as he reached for the door and leaped out of the now broken, steaming hot mess of a ship. He couldn’t really breathe, and every inch of him was trembling like the legs of a newborn lamb. It wasn’t his proudest moment, but he wasn’t really thinking about looking cool or whatever.

There was still a wraith with him. And yeah, they’d escaped, but Bo had gotten zero explanation as to why and in his experience, wraiths only ever wanted to suck the life out of him. Literally.

Bo stumbled to the ground and threw himself back to his feet before starting to walk away. He would run if the wraith pursued, but he was also wary of the... oasis-looking foreign planet they’d landed on. The last random planet he’d ended up on, he lost his only other eye.

He didn’t want that happening again. He needed to be cautious. He was in his normal body now. That meant no clones, no magic spells, and no do-overs.
Pants are an illusion. And so is death.






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Sat Aug 15, 2020 12:13 pm
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Mageheart says...



The moment that immediately followed the crash, the wraith wasn't sure what he wanted to do. He thought about explaining things. He thought about trying to offer words of comfort. He thought about trying to get out of the ship. But he didn't get to do any of that because his unforeseen passenger let out a screech right into his ear before leaping from the wreck.

By the time he finally heaved himself out of the ship - months spent working on it wasted - said passenger was already walking away from the ship. He hadn't started running yet, but that was probably just because the resident wraith had been still inside of the ship.

"Bo, wait," he said, standing beside the ship. "It's me."

Then he realized "me" didn't really help clarify anything, so he added what was probably a little more important: his name.

"Nova," he said.
mage

[ she/her, but in a boy kinda way ]

roleplaying is my platonic love language.

queer and here.





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Sun Aug 16, 2020 6:56 am
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soundofmind says...



Bo's knees locked and he came to a sudden, stuttered stop. His arms spun in the air for a second as he regained his balance and spun around, looking Nova up and down. He tried to make sense of it for a second. Nova. The guy who'd been sucked in before him. The guy who was some kind of shapeshifter.

It could have been Nova. Unless it was some wraith who killed Nova and just remembered his name so he could trick Bo. But Bo wasn't inclined to think that was happening. Because Nova also knew Bo's name.

Of course, none of that inner hesitation lasted very long. Relief flooded through him and he started laughing, almost crying on impulse.

He wasn't going to die via wraith. Not yet, anyways.

"Oh, thank god," he said through chuckles, his shoulders slumping.
Pants are an illusion. And so is death.






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Mon Aug 17, 2020 10:51 am
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Mageheart says...



"That's what I thought," Nova said, trying - and failing - to resist the urge to tear up. His mind kept flickering back to the body that he had seen. It seemed impossible that Bo was here in front of him now, but he undoubtedly was. "I-I can't believe you're actually here. That you're actually alive."
mage

[ she/her, but in a boy kinda way ]

roleplaying is my platonic love language.

queer and here.





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Mon Aug 17, 2020 11:14 am
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soundofmind says...



Bo tears out of his eye as he walked back over to Nova. It was Nova as a wraith, but still Nova. The guy he'd only just met, but it was just like every other crazy otherworldly experience had been. He made friends with strangers because they needed to get out of it together.

"Me too," he said. "I thought those wraiths would've gotten me for sure, if not for you. How long were you waiting for me?"
Pants are an illusion. And so is death.






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Mon Aug 17, 2020 11:18 am
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Mageheart says...



Bo didn't get it.

Bo didn't know why he was so startled over seeing him again. He didn't know anything about the body that looked just like him on the hive ship they had just come from - save for the body having two eyes instead of one.

He finally managed to somehow find his voice.

"I was here for a year," he whispered.
mage

[ she/her, but in a boy kinda way ]

roleplaying is my platonic love language.

queer and here.





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Mon Aug 17, 2020 11:21 am
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soundofmind says...



Bo froze, stopping right in front of Nova with his eye wide open, staring down at him.

"Wh-what?" he stuttered.
Pants are an illusion. And so is death.






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Wed Aug 19, 2020 11:51 am
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Mageheart says...



Nova let out a tiny, tiny sigh.

"I don't know a lot about how black holes work," he said, "and I doubt that a lot of people have gone through them..."

He glanced back in the direction of the wrecked ship.

"But I've heard that they can manipulate how time flows, so it must have done that with us. I-I couldn't find you at first, but I knew you came through. I ended up staying with a village on the planet I ended up with. They got captured by a species called the wraith - who can take away your life force - so I slipped onto the ship they were on."

He looked back at Bo. The memories were flashing through his mind now. They were so fresh. He couldn't help but compared the body he saw laying in the tube to the living Bo in front of him now.

"I thought you were dead," he said. "I saw a tube on the ship that had your body in it. And I know you barely know me, but I spent a year looking for you and have known the you from my reality for years. I...I was...."

He let out a quiet sigh and gave Bo a tiny smile.

"...I'm just happy you're alive," he finally said.
mage

[ she/her, but in a boy kinda way ]

roleplaying is my platonic love language.

queer and here.





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Thu Aug 20, 2020 12:05 pm
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soundofmind says...



Bo stared down at Nova, still trying to process the reality that Nova had been stuck on a wraith ship, alone, for a year. What Nova told him next didn't make Bo feel any better.

He felt a pit in his stomach, twisting and turning. The way Nova described everything told Bo that Nova was experiencing everything in this world for the first time. Wraiths were new. The village was new. Nova had traversed a new world, a new planet, a new universe all on his own and had to figure everything out as it happened.

Bo's heart twinged with empathy, until he froze again.

Nova... he'd... he'd seen... Bo's clone.

Not only had they been brought to another world, but they had to have been brought back in time. At least, time as it was for Bo. When Bo had been in his clone body and on the wraith ship, he and Kartiel had been enemies. Now they were friends. So much had changed since then.

Wait. Kartiel.

Bo patted his pockets, searching for his phone before it clicked. It didn't matter if he had a phone. It wasn't like he'd get service in another universe.

Bo looked back down at Nova and met his eyes with a weak smile.

"I'm glad I'm alive too," he said, still trying to figure out how to explain to Nova what he'd seen before. He didn't really want to get into the details.

"The uh - the me you saw with the two eyes. That was a clone of me. That wasn't the real me. And like, my soul wasn't in that body. I don't think anyone was in that body. Just to like, reassure you. I didn't die."
Pants are an illusion. And so is death.






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Thu Aug 20, 2020 12:32 pm
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Mageheart says...



Nova stared.

Cloning wasn't exactly a foreign concept to him, but everything else that Bo was talking about - his soul and no one being in the body - didn't make any sense to him. He knew the idea of souls, but it wasn't like souls were a tangible thing you could easily visualize.

There was an ominous rumble of thunder in the distance.

Nova looked up.

He had been so grateful that Bo was alive that he hadn't even checked the sky above. Now that the thunder had drawn his attention to it, he saw just how bad the weather was outside - the skies were pitch black.

And it was starting to rain.

"We need to find shelter," he said. "And then I need a longer explanation about your-"

There was another rumble of thunder.

"-clone."
mage

[ she/her, but in a boy kinda way ]

roleplaying is my platonic love language.

queer and here.





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Fri Aug 21, 2020 8:48 am
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soundofmind says...



Bo looked up at the sky, nodding in agreement. They needed to find shelter. He just hoped they could find some on this foreign planet and not run into any trouble on the way there.

He wasn't looking forward to explaining more of the story, but it was inevitable.

"Okay, come on. Let's go," he said, turning to run towards a grove of trees.
Pants are an illusion. And so is death.






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Fri Aug 21, 2020 12:25 pm
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Mageheart says...



They left the wreck.

It didn't take long for them to find a form of shelter. There was a cave system near where they had landed. It looked like it hadn't been touched in centuries. As they stepped inside of the cave, the thunderstorm became more than just thunder - rain started pouring down outside the entrance in bucketfuls.
mage

[ she/her, but in a boy kinda way ]

roleplaying is my platonic love language.

queer and here.





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Sat Aug 22, 2020 8:33 am
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soundofmind says...



Bo had to duck his head a little to get in. The caves didn't look like they were carved with the intention of fitting people over 6feet tall - not that most caves were carved by anything other than nature, anyway.

The caves were dark, cool, and dusty, but they were deep, so Bo and Nova were able to go in far enough that they wouldn't have to worry about the shower outside spraying them when the wind blew in their direction.

Bo found a corner to sit, leaning on the curved rock wall with a sigh.

He supposed they got lucky. This planet seemed at least a little similar to earth. For one, it had an atmosphere with air he could breathe, and it had semi-recognizable types of plants and geography. It still felt wildly foreign, with things feeling just a little bit off, but it lacked the ominous feeling of danger lurking in the shadows. Unlike the last alien planet he'd been on, anyways.


He brushed his fingers along the smooth rock wall behind him, listening to the heavy downpour echo and fill the cave with white noise.

A roar of thunder shook throughout the sky, almost deafening. Bo cringed and waited a second for his ears to recover from the rumbling ringing in them.

"This isn't my first time on an alien planet," he said, turning to Nova. He had to project a little more than usual, to feel heard over the storm.

"About four years ago, I was abducted by this powerful uh, I guess we can call him an alien god. Like, he would call himself a god, and he has pretty godlike powers, but he's not god in the way that a lot of people on earth think of gods. Like, I wouldn't call him a deity, because he's you know, got flaws and all the stuff like regular people. If that makes sense."

He paused, shifting his position so he was sitting with one leg propped up and the other stretched out as he leaned back on the wall. He propped up on arm on his knee.

"He captured me and a few other people from different worlds and universes for some like, social experiment. His name is Kartiel, and he was working under this really bad guy who was using Kartiel to do some of his dirty work because he had some leverage on him. Personal stuff."

"Anyways, Kartiel brought me and this group of people to a place called Atlantis, and then another alien planet, and the whole thing with clones is that he actually didn't bring all us in our original bodies. Kartiel is the god of souls, so he actually was able to take our souls out of our original bodies and put them in clone versions of ourselves. When he did that our original bodies were back in our homes, basically comatose, but not dead. A lot happened during that uh, experiment, but in the end, Kartiel actually kind of helped us all get back home. He tried to play it off as the experiment just like, being over or more trouble than it was worth, but he really did just want us to get home. So he sent our souls back to our original bodies and we all woke up at home, okay. We could still remember everything of course, but yeah. That's the gist of it."

He paused, trying to think if he missed anything important.

"Oh. And uh. Kartiel and I are friends now. We helped take down the dude who was basically keeping him as like, a slave." He really didn't feel like saying his name. It didn't matter, in the end. "So yeah. Funny how that all worked out, but it's chill now."
Pants are an illusion. And so is death.






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Sat Aug 22, 2020 10:49 am
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Mageheart says...



Bo's story was a strange one, but Nova felt like he was finally getting a grasp on it by the time that he finished speaking. He knew that this Bo was far more capable of taking care of himself than the younger Bo he knew much better. He didn't even know this Bo for all that long in comparison.

But he still couldn't help but feel a little worried when Bo described being kidnapped and forced to take part in a social experiment. He'd have to make sure the Bo he knew didn't get involved in anything like that - even though he wasn't really sure how.

Before he could internally debate that even more - or even get a decent response in to what Bo had said - he suddenly realized how dark it had gotten outside. He could barely see in the cave. Wraiths, unfortunately, weren't any better at seeing in the dark then regular humans were.

There was a flash of lightning and the rumble of thunder from right outside.

In the brief light, he caught a glimpse of a man standing in the entrance way to the cave. But that was impossible. Because Bo was right next to him right now, and had two eyes-

Understanding dawned on him.

That was the clone Bo. The one that wasn't supposed to do anything right now because Bo's soul was nestled in his actual body.

Nova stared into the darkness.

The clone body, though Nova couldn't see it, stared back.

By the time that another flash of lightning happened, Nova had given a startled yelp and clung to the actual Bo in his surprise and terror. In the same amount of time, the clone had whipped out a wraith stunner rifle that Nova had been too preoccupied to notice earlier - and was pointing it right at him.

...Even though the clone's hands were shaking a little, and he really looked unsteady when he went to take a step forwards.
mage

[ she/her, but in a boy kinda way ]

roleplaying is my platonic love language.

queer and here.





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Sat Aug 22, 2020 11:42 am
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soundofmind says...



Well, this was a sudden turn of events.

Bo let out a little squeak as Nova sprung on him and clung to him like he was hanging on for dear life. He wished his arms were free, instead of being pinned down to his sides, but he wasn't about to push Nova off.

He was also distracted by the shadow of his former, two-eyed clone self pointing a gun at him and Nova.

For a solid moment, Bo just stared.

The sheer strangeness of looking into the eyes of a duplicate of himself (with his scars removed) was deeply unsettling. It could not even remotely be compared to looking in a mirror. It felt more like an out-of-body experience, but he had no agency over the clone looking at him at the moment. Someone else had to be inside them.

Unless, somehow, it was his past self, and they'd gone way back in time, or in a different version of a different timeline, but all of that felt like too much to make sense of at the moment.

"Woah. Uh. Hold on, wait a minute," he said. "Don't shoot. We're not going to hurt you."

Something twisted in his stomach. He was talking to himself, except he wasn't.

"You can share the cave with us. You need to get out of the rain too."
Pants are an illusion. And so is death.









[as a roleplayer is feeling sad about torturing her characters] GrandWild: "You're a writer, dear. Embrace it."
— GrandWild