The First of Many

[Dane Regan]

Crash this for a revival (or any other reason) if you want. Dane's heading off straight towards Tearen's thing though, so don't interract with him this time unless you're following me (just PM me first or something).

On another note: Clownpiece you traitor! You told Dane we'd meet back at the Nexus, but then go off partying at the beach with Cirno. If I don't get an apology, I will deck your face so hard it ends up at the Oververse.

Dane stretched, stumbling forwards out of the fountain into the familiar dull Nexus light. He'd died. How, his brain couldn't quite recall, but he assumed it was probably the lightning dude or alien dude who caused it. He also contemplated that he should probably start learning people's names.

Death wasn't so bad, in hindsight. At least assuming what happened to Dane could be called death, he was alive now after all. Even if some time had passed. That said, his lack of memory concerning the specific event was concerning. He didn't feel like there was a large gap, but he'd have liked to know if there was anything he could have done to prevent it (outside of obviously not entering the competition). Dane wanted to learn, to improve. Even if he was primarily self-taught, watching others fight was very useful once he'd reached the level of skill required to properly observe. On the topic of knowledge and learning, his last un-faded memory consisted of a mental battle with some strange alien-like creature. Rather than being faded like everything else, there was just a big gap regarding the actual contents of said battle. Dane had the instinct that there was knowledge involved, but he couldn't recall any of it. It was frustrating.

Looking around, he saw a few people mingling near the fountain, but no one of immediate interest. Seeing any of his opponents revive at the same time as him would have definitely been fun, to say the least. There was also no sign of Cepheya, but Dane thought he told her to meet him in Camelot. Or not. His mind was still a bit fuzzy so it was hard to recall. Clownpiece, however, did tell him to meet her here. So he figured he'd oblige with that request for now as he idly and aimlessly walked about. 

What to do... what to do...?

Wandering around was boring, and Dane didn't have a copy of his research notes to help pass the time. Those were all with Cepheya, but if he left to go find her then he ran the risk of missing Clownpiece. He wasn't sure how long people stayed dead for, but he presumed the time wasn't very fluid - at least while you had a will to continue. Although, Omni (assuming he was in control of, or at least devised, the recreation process) did seem the patient type. 

This was also further evidence to support Dane's hypothesis that everyone here was actually a clone. After all, his body, brain and entire being had likely been destroyed. Yet here he was. Maybe the foggy memory was even due to him being an imperfect copy, although when he initially came here that eventually wore off - so he doubted that. Omni probably had the power to create an exact (or near enough) replica of someone. 

Not that being a clone mattered to Dane. As far as he was concerned, the specific arrangement of atoms was him. It was like crossing out a number and rewriting it. In doing so, the number doesn't change. Fifty-seven would still be fifty-seven, just written in a different place. No properties of it would be changed. Both fifty-sevens would still be semiprimes, having three and nineteen as their pair of prime factors. And so on. Most people would probably assert that clones and duplicate numbers were different things, to which Dane would point to multiple copies of the same book. If a book is rewritten word for word, and the old copy destroyed, the story isn't going to suddenly change.

Potential identity crisis aside, Dane needed something to actually do. And he didn't feel like intruding in the spaces of the other groups. Eventually, Dane settled on the idea of experimenting with some technology. After maintaining focus for a few minutes, a near copy of one of the Dante's Abyss tablets appeared in Dane's hand - formed from the Omnilium. It frustrated him to no end that he didn't understand the mechanism. Generally, it seemed all you need to do to summon something was to understand its purpose, functions, and have an appearance. Although some inherent properties would always be present depending on how it looked. Simply wanting something to be metal would likely make it shine and reflect light even if you didn't specifically specify that, for example.

Omnilium was useful, strange, and interesting. Dane's hypothesis regarding it was that Omni controlled it in some way, and had a very expansive set of knowledge to use to assist in the creation of something as long as you knew what you wanted to do. Or maybe the Omnilium itself was intelligent in some way. At this point, Dane was mulling over a variety of thoughts while poking at the smooth screen of the device. Anything to kill time and be at least slightly productive.

Clicking on some icons, Dane found a 'Dataverse' app that seemed to link to a variety of news and message boards as well as some other sites and possible places of information. It didn't take too long for him to find a replay of his last fight along with some other DA statistics. Fifteenth place out of thirty-three. That was pretty good. Especially considering he'd only been in the Omniverse for two weeks. Even if he was a bit of a coward (or self-preserving). Generally though, even after seeing his death on camera, which felt strange but not much so, he didn't think there was a lot more he could do. Not in a four-way fight where one person had a dragon and another could just fly and solely attack him from the air. His stealth abilities he practised prior came in very useful though. His general conclusion was that he actually lost outside of the fights. If he didn't join the first battle, he would have probably survived until the end and achieved a better place on the score boards. Cirno and Clownpiece were OK but too impulsive. Although Clownpiece was probably the better of the two, he thought.

He shrugged, no use dwelling on the past. Really, his best bet to win next year was to develop some more diverse combat abilities. Such as ranged potential. He did know how to use a bow, so it may have been worth getting one some time. Entertaining the thought, he started scrolling through some recent posts.

A Digital Invitation to all Denizens, read the title of one post. It seemed to be written by the same guy who won the fight Dane was in, so he figured it was probably worth attending. The dude had a large resume and seemed to have been in the Omniverse for a while, at least a while longer than Dane. Also, interestingly, Clownpiece died sometime before him, which probably meant she didn't actually stay to wait for him or was still dead. Most likely the former, but with the later, he had no idea if she'd come back anytime soon. It was likely, given Clownpiece's liveliness, she simply got bored of even forgot. With that in mind, Dane set off towards Tearen Wover's location - the Tangled Green - while continuing to read through the message.

[Clownpiece]

“Alright...” Clownpiece’s voice, soft and silent, rang out dully across the featureless Nexus. Her purple eyes scanned the endless white below as she floated along vaguely towards the fountain. A few people dotted the blank expanse here and there, all minding their own business, but as far as she could tell, none of them were Dane. With a frown and a grumpy sigh, she continued on, silently cursing her own forgetfulness. If only she’d remembered, then she wouldn’t have to waste her time floating about and trying to make out all the vague shapes milling about.

The fountain slowly shifted into place directly below her, and now positioned dead-center in the nexus, the hell fairy floated to a halt. She spun in the air, taking in all the forms and figures heading their own separate ways. An unhappy hum rose up out of her throat. Far too many of them were too far for her to see unaided. She’d need a telescope or something. The child slowly lowered to the ground, planting herself gently on the stone of the fountain, and began to concentrate. Rainbow coalescence danced and shimmered between her hands, flowing into shape beautifully, and eventually forming the tool she needed.

With a happy giggle, she rose into the air once again, now with a large brass spyglass in hand. She held it up to her right eye as she ascended, and finally got a clear look at all the unknown silhouettes. Over nearish a metal-looking gate, she could see some white-clad soldiers, the same that Cirno froze when they first appeared. Wandering around in the middle of the vast unknown was a man clad in leather armor, making his way towards the foresty place she’d been in earlier. And right over in the other vast unknown was...

Clownpiece paused, staring blankly through the lens as she slowly processed it, and quickly shifted the scope back towards the man. It was hard to tell with his back turned, but that was definitely Dane. She lowered the spyglass from her eye, a radiant grin crossing her face. The telescope dissolved back into omnilium, allowing her to reabsorb it, and the star-spangled girl took off, hoping she’d catch him before she reached the gate.

[Dane Regan]

Relevant Dataverse link: http://omniverse-rpg.com/showthread.php?tid=8736

Dane scanned the announcement quickly, before starting to read in more detail. The Tearen guy seemed a bit pretentious, but Dane didn't really care about stuff like that. If he learned something from it, then why should he care? Anyway, his reasoning was that Tearen's attitude was probably not unfounded - he was probably pretty knowledgeable and intelligent but those tenants wouldn't always be agreeable. At the end of the day, regardless of any rules or laws Dane was supposed to abide by, he'd still do what he thought was best. It was only when breaking one of them had consequences because he broke the rule (and not because of the actual action that broke it) that his general actions would be influenced. And in the case of what Tearen seemed to ask or value: psychologically Dane probably wouldn't end up as his star pupil. Yes all minds were priceless, but some were undoubtedly more than others. Like infinities. Every mathematical infinity is infinite. But some are still larger than others. Such as the cardinality of the set of real numbers compared to the number of integers.

Fluttering.

The faint fluttering of wings woke Dane from his thoughts. Reactively, he spun around, pivoting off his front foot to come face to face with Clownpiece. Outside of the recording he hadn't seen her fly before, but there was no way her wings should have been able to support her weight - not that she was actually that heavy (Dane had first-hand experience from carrying her) - but wings the size of hers shouldn't have been able to generate the needed lift. He guessed it was simply a passive form of core magic, similar to Cepheya. 

Her breaths were heavy, laboured. She must have realised she missed him and sped up. He couldn't blame her for not wanting to wait here, especially given her childlike mentality. 

"There you are. I was beginning to think you weren't coming." Dane raised an eyebrow at her while shrugging slightly in his armour, the swords on his belt shuffled along with the shield on his back.

[Clownpiece]

Clownpiece stared almost blankly at Dane, his words slowly sinking into her tired brain. Her chest heaved with every deep breath, and her whole body ached. It felt like she’d just sprinted a mile to get here, and she probably just about had.

“I’m...” she panted, dropping into a deep bow and staring at the blank nexus floor, “...Sorry! I forgot... about our promise...”

“It is what it is,” he said rather placidly, and the fairy rose from her bow to look the larger man in the eyes. “What did you run off to do, anyway?”

“I er...” she averted her gaze guiltily, “Got dragged off to the beach by Cirno.”

“So, you left me here,” he saw right through her deflection. “To go to the beach?”

“Yeah,” she responded quietly, her gaze stuck firmly to the ground. A set of knuckles rapped lightly against the hell fairy’s head, her silly hat doing nothing to soften the weak blow. “Ow...” she complained, hand shooting up to her head as she looked back up. “Hey!”

“Don’t forget your promises,” he said, turning away from her and back to the gate in the distance. The swordsman started forward once again, and Clownpiece hurried to keep up, her steps muffled by the nexus’ oppressive air. “Well, whatever. Did you at least have fun?”

“Yeah!” the infernal child cheered, waving her torch high above her head. “Cirno and I played some pranks!”

“Not too bad, I hope,” he cast a sidelong glance at her.

“Nope! Let’s see here...” she dropped her torch back to her side. “Oh!” She dug into her pocket with her free hand. “I scared a guy so good he gave me this!” The small fairy presented her new phone to Dane.

“Er....”  he stopped, and stared at the cheery fae. “You didn’t mug him, did you?”

“No!” she answered indignantly. “He said like ‘that power of yours interests me’ or something similarly ominous, and had one of his lackeys give it to me.”

“I see...” He started forward again.

“I also drove a bunch of people to madness,” she continued. “You know what they say, ‘Fires and fights are the flowers of Edo.’ If that beach were Edo, it would have been a beautiful flower garden.”

“Fires?”

“Yup! Some guy set up a kissing booth or something, so I burned it down.” The moment those words left her mouth, another light punch rocked her head. “Ow...”

“Don’t set fire to people’s things,” he said sternly, hand looming ominously over her head.

“Why nooooot?” Once again, she was back to rubbing her head.

“You wouldn’t like it if I burned your things, would you?”

“Not really...”

“And there you have it.” The two walked along in silence for a few moments, before Dane broke it once again. “Well, whatever. It doesn’t really matter anymore, what’s done is done. So anyway, I'm heading to a crash course of fancy combat stuff and something about hell demon things. Wanna come with?"

“Hell demon things?” she tilted her head quizzically. “Sounds fun! Might tag along just to hear about that! Where’d you hear about it anyway?”

“You should be able to find it yourself on your phone,” he said. “It’s called ‘A Digital Invitation To All Denizens.’”

“Got it.” She pulled her phone out and began browsing. It only took her a few seconds to find the relevant portion, and she gave it a quick read over. Her eyes slowly narrowed with each sentence she digested. The words were all there, she knew what all of them meant, but the way they were all arranged.... With a heavy sigh, she dropped her hand to her side. “I think it’s too advanced for me...”

“Fair enough.”

“You’ve gotta teach me what you learn though!” The hell fairy suddenly straightened back up. “You’re a good teacher!”

“Maybe.”

“Well anyway, good luck with your thing, I’m going to find Cirno again! See you later!” With almost no warning, the blonde child flung herself at Dane, almost knocking him right off his feet with a flying hug.

“Erm... Yeah, thanks,” the swordsman responded awkwardly, barely keeping his balance as the fairy tried her best to crush him.

“Oh! And here’s my number, keep in touch!” Without letting up, she held her communicator up to his face, making everything far more difficult than it needed to be.

[Dane Regan]

Dane blinked, staring at the blurry numbers on the moving screen. After trying to make them out for a short second, he quickly gave up and raised his own slowly while looking for the contacts list. "Sheesh, Clown. Hold it still for a second would ya."

"Oops." The fairy grinned sheepishly, obliging to Dane's request as he quickly input the information into his phone.

"Alright, now smile for the camera." Dane aimed his phone towards Clownpiece's face, intending to add a picture to the contact information. Usually, he wasn't very good with names and faces, although he doubted he'd forget this particular pyromaniac.

Clownpiece giggled, grinning as flames spiralled around her. "Heh heh heh."

Luckily for Dane, he was far enough away he only had to suffer from the uncomfortable heat. Deciding it was simpler to just take the picture without complaining about the situation, he brought the camera into focus and took a few snapshots. Unfortunately for him, the hell fairy seemed quite oblivious to the completion of his task. "...umm Clown. You can stop now." He clicked his fingers, sending a small but annoying spell ricocheting off her face.

Snap.

The fire faltered shortly after. "Hey! The fires of hell stop for no-"

Before things got too far out of hand, Dane quickly interrupted. "I got your contact sorted out Clown. Here's my number." Unlike the fairy, he held up his phone in an easier to read fashion. Her fingers began to flick over the buttons.

"Beep. Boop. Beep. Do-"

"Do you really have to make the sound effects...?"

"...yes."

Dane shook his head, laughing slightly. "So, did anything else happen since we last met?"

Clownpiece frowned in concentration after pushing the last button. "Uuuuummm... Oh! I learnt some new spells!"

Dane raised an eyebrow. Knowing he could easily end up regretting the answer to his question (or the probable demonstration that might follow), he asked anyway. "What kind of spells?"

Click.

"Hey. I wasn't ready yet. Take another picture instead."

"Nope. You snooze, you lose." The fire fairy laughed, showing Dane the photo of himself. His mouth was half open and he looked like he was about to sneeze. To say the least, it wasn't very flattering. "Oh, and I did a thing with your 'Ping' spell."

"Really? Huh, I didn't think you'd end up mastering anything that didn't produce fire. Usually, innate casters are fairly restricted with their knowledge set. Good job."

"I don't quite get what you said, but it means I'm awesome, right?"

"You're Awesome? But I thought you were Clownpiece." Dane grinned and shook his head lightly at her confused expression. "Yes, Clownpiece. You're very awesome."

In time with his compliment, multicoloured red, blue, and white stars flew from her torch up into the air, eventually fizzling out as the curved and spread. "And you better not forget it, Dane."

"Don't worry, I won't. Anyway, you brag all you want over the phone later. I've got an important seminar thing to go to, and I'm not sure how much longer it'll last." Starting to walk backwards, Dane began to wave to the fairy.

"Goodbye Dane, I'll see you again sometime!" Her wings fluttered much more than they needed to as she spoke, hovering in the air.

"Not if I see you first." He commented, grinning to himself as the fairy failed to initially comprehend his retort - a confused look was plastered on her face. She'd undoubtedly get it later. Maybe in a few minutes. Maybe in a few days. Or maybe not until the next time he used it. But the chances were, he wouldn't be there for it. That said, he could still imagine the (admittedly tame) outcome when she did.

And with that, he turned around and pushed on towards the gate, again looking over the new contact information on his phone and scrolling through the information for the 'god-mind' thing.

Sorry for the delay Clown. You can use this for another travel post if you want.