un: ut malum pluvia | audio

[somebadnews]

[ Five is at the dining car, drinking coffee and writing on various napkins, as he's inclined to do when a time anomaly fucks with his ability to relax for more than a day. There's no denying he has more energy than he has in a long time — which means he's generally been harassing the staff, who have called him 'young man' one too many times and keep refusing to add whiskey to his coffee. He hasn't ended that war yet; they'll regret forcing him to get regular sleep.

Frustrated after he's crossed out yet another equation, he finally does something he rarely does: addresses the network. ]

I couldn't care less about a wedding, but there's obviously more going on here besides stealing dreams and sealing away powers to keep the train running smoothly. [ And no, he isn't letting that slide either. ] I spoke to the conductor, and didn't get a damn thing out of him. He's obsessed with the wellbeing of the train and wasn't concerned about Prassenze going missing that first night, which I can only assume he doesn't remember happening.

[ If he'd known that day would be effectively erased, he could have taken advantage. He's been going over his conversation with the conductor more times than he cares to count, and he's decided that he went far too easy on him. ]

He mentioned that we have 'old-issue' tickets, along with most of the wedding party, meaning at least a few of them are frequent travelers who have renewed their tickets over a long period of time. No bodies are missing from the train, because apparently they can track us, by our dreams or otherwise. There were no acts of violence, nothing came through the open window, and there's nothing that would explain why the bride keeps changing forms or what caused a time loop that only we could perceive. [ Which doesn't make sense. That's not how time loops work. ] Logic would say that she's the one behind the anomaly, but enough people were against the wedding that there could be other suspects who are lying about not remembering the first two weddings.

[ He's one cup of coffee away from taking his paranoia too far, but in his opinion they're not taking this seriously enough. They should be grateful that he's at least opening it up to theories. ]

Who here has been in a time loop before, show of hands? Who knows that messing with time is dangerous? Even something as innocent as rewinding a wedding. [ He would know. ] We survived an apocalypse. I don't have to tell you that our odds were not in our favor. Let's keep that streak going, and stop the next one before it gets that close, shall we?

Comments

un: Black Prince; text

[blackscales]

[ Okay he's been trying to stay out of this but: ]

You cannot possibly imagine why, in a situation where she is trying to get married, and the friends of her intended dislike her, in a place where dream magic can change things a bride may keep changing forms?

[ No potential ideas? None at all? You cannot explain things? ]

un: ut malum pluvia | text

[somebadnews]

[ Squinting at his text. Five is Perfectly Fine at analyzing relationships and understanding how people interact, thanks very much. ]

Your theory is that she's changing herself to try to win their favor, I'm gathering? Did she run out of ideas by the third night?

[blackscales]

Potentially ran out of whatever dream trinkets she was using. Or she was talked out of it. Or forced out of it. There's plenty of options.

text | un: yiling laozu

[weifinder]

Time is moving forward, it's memory being manipulated. The day isn't resetting, for what that's worth, reality is being altered so that they don't know the wedding already occurred.

Prassenze is using dream boxes, but someone else is helping supply her.

un: ut malum pluvia | text

[somebadnews]

[ He seems to have confirmed that, and Five has to debate if manipulating reality is better or worse. And he's not any more fond of memories being altered. It still means they need to track her down and make sure she can't do it again. ]

Any idea why we're the only ones immune?

Re: un: ut malum pluvia | text

[weifinder]

Theories, but I suggest asking our resident witches for their thoughts first.

text ★ un: cocked tale

[pathologise]

a time loop???

( someone has not been paying attention to any of the wedding shenanigans. she didn't go, she got drunk in the bar )

text | un: ut malum pluvia

[somebadnews]

An imperfect one, but more or less. You didn't notice that the same wedding went on for three days?

[pathologise]

nope
why the same wedding?

text >> un: stormborn

[thebrideoffire]

How IA it possibly time is being manipulated by magic? Is there a source of this magic or do you think it's a spell?

text | un: ut malum pluvia

[somebadnews]

I didn't get far trying to blame it on the train, but I wouldn't discount anything. Considering the bride is the most likely suspect, I lean towards her casting a spell.

Since she's missing, we might do better searching for anyone who might have helped her.

audio | un: jinx

[hexgem]

You just... spoke to him? That's it?

un: ut malum pluvia | audio

[somebadnews]

[ He thinks he knows the answer, but he asks anyway. ]

As opposed to what?

un: absterge

[downswing]

( Then, clearly, Five knows of such time cycles. )

Temporal disruptions. How lengthy?

un: ut malum pluvia

[somebadnews]

[ Five knows everything always. At least he'll pretend to, when it comes to time. ]

A day. Although it seems to be so subtle that some people missed it.

un: cat's cradle; video

[wantshappiness]

Um. I don't have any experience with real time loops, but...isn't it possible the bride isn't doing it consciously?

That's probably more dangerous than if it were on purpose I guess...

[She mutters that last part to herself but it's audible to anyone listening.]

un: ut malum pluvia | audio

[somebadnews]

[ He heard that, and good for her for figuring out the worst-case scenario. ]

That would be the last thing we want, but yes. Another reason we need to find her to put a stop to any more wild fantasies about redoing her wedding night as someone else.

un: slothbaby | audio

[cosplayqueen]

There is so much to unpack here, buddy. [Long-suffering sigh!!!] So basically we're traveling with some kind of weird train cult. The rest... okay. Shapeshifting bride? Rewinding a day that someone is really invested in getting right kind of seems like a bride thing to do. I wonder if she's magic. Magic can do pretty much anything. Maybe we should ask Dr. Strange. Or! Maybe she has an ability that lets her change reality. She might not be great with it yet and didn't mean to do all this. It happens.

[Not that she would do know!!!] Could a redo one day really end the world? Asking for a friend... I'm the friend.

un: ut malum pluvia | audio

[somebadnews]

[ They aren't bad theories, but she's taking this far too casually. And sure, it might not be world-ending if this is about memory-altering instead of time actually being tampered with. His point still stands.

He knows she won't understand if he goes into detail, so he keeps it simple. ]

In general, you want to avoid creating paradoxes with time. We don't know what created the loop, but it doesn't take much to break things if you don't know what you're doing.

[traaaaaash]

Whoa, this has got you hot and bothered.

[ Eda wouldn't go that far, really. Granted, the one time they did mess with time at home, it did kind of lead to an almost-apocalypse, but that was more because one guy turned out to be a massive asshole. ]

Hmmm. So none of that is very illuminating, either. I mean, my guess is Prassenze is feeling insecure about herself and trying to impress her betrothed's friends, in which case she and Firo really need to talk things out.

[somebadnews]

[ People could stand to be more bothered. How many times does this need to happen before they start paying attention? ]

If you believe that she's shapeshifting and causing an entire day to repeat, I think we're a few steps beyond talking it out.

un : dappled peals of the parted seas (voice)

[beitangmoran]

If we are like any of the current bystanders, how would we even know if we've been in a timeloop?

un: ut malum pluvia | audio

[somebadnews]

If you can perceive it. Apparently most of the crew can only remember one wedding, while I've seen the same event play out three times. Different brides, same outcome.

It stopped after three, which means either something broke the loop or... we're dealing with another phenomenon that had everyone reenacting the event in the exact same way.

@jensenackles

[cholesterol]

I've been in a time loop, but I don't remember it. It was my brother at the center. Same guy trapped us in TV series. You need a lot of fire power to manipulate time.

( Has he time traveled before? Yes. Has he traveled universes before? Also yes. But these questions weren't asked. )

[somebadnews]

[ ...Unexpected response to a rhetorical question. Although he appreciates the healthy respect for how difficult it is to manipulate time. He's the best at it and even he fucks it up whenever he tries to move beyond a few minutes. ]

I'm going to need you to elaborate on that.