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Noon Day
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The bird creature races towards the orb and, for all you can tell, is screaming... something at it, and shaking it violently. You can't make out anything they're screaming about but you get the impression they think the orb is to blame for all the sound disappearing. Possibly. That or they just wanted to break the thing for causing them so much grief already. You're not sure.
You realise you don't have much time. You need to make sure you don't let the orb be broken--
"Ahem."
You turn behind you and see the Aspirant.
"Clever, but, well, let's have a quick chat about multiverse theory." The Aspirant rests on its many tendrils. "See, you could, in fact, prevent my ascension into glory in this timeline. It could work! You probably still even have time to do it, it looks like this iteration of what will become me is actually more just angry in general than angry at the orb specifically. But it's just exactly that. An iteration. Excuse me a moment."
The Aspirant takes a sip from a teacup you didn't see before. "Ahhh. Needed that. Anyway. Unfortunately, preventing my ascension here will not prevent my ascension everywhere, or everywhen, I guess. For better and for worse, I'm an immutable fact now. So are you, in a way, just in a very different way to me. Every branch without a you gets pruned, after all. You've been seeing glimpses, haven't you? Or something is feeding you glimpses. Well, I'm much the same, but my relationship with my patron is a bit different."
Another sip. "Either way, I experience time a little bit... different to you now. You're the warp, I'm the weft. ...you have no idea what that means, do you, you nudist. Honestly, the Filter's the only thing preventing everyone from being subjected to your bits all the time. No, I'm not elaborating on the Filter, the more attention I put on it the likelier it is to start breaking. It's doing its job. Don't worry about it. Really."
The Aspirant hurls the teacup behind them and it shatters into dozens of pieces. "Anyway. You're left with two choices, because this branch doesn't really help either of us out. Either you stay stuck timeshifted behind the rest of the horizon, or you leave this branch. Well, I could also kill you, but honestly I'm just not feeling that right now. Run along and go back to your own timeline, or something. I must be leaving."
The Aspirant turns and somehow walks through reality, their component parts shrinking into nothing as they do so.
[ BRANCH:> HOLD ]
[ Multiple branches held. You may select a branch for an action to apply to. ]
[ You may also nominate a default branch for actions to apply to if non-specified. ]
[ Entering a branch via DISPLACE will usurp narrative control entirely. ]
[ For example, branch 2-ε can no longer act on suggestions, as it is now under the control of branch 2-θ-δ. ]
[ You only need to supply the dominant branch. ]
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