Chain 060: Gargoyles

Chain 060: Gargoyles
Location: Avalon
Age: 22
Identity: Drop-In, Human
Drawbacks: [+200] Friendly Enemies

[Free]      Tech-Adapting
[100/1200]  Machinist
[300/1200]  Technosorcery
[600/1200]  Mad Biologist
[1200/1200] Immortality Bound Demona

Avalon's a pretty neat place. Walking around and talking to the locals here makes for a good way to kill a little bit of time. Of course, the problem with that is that no one mentioned to me that the local flow of time wasn't the same as it was in the outside world, so I was killing a lot more time than I'd realized, but it was fairly neat to interact with the locals. It certainly threw a monkeywrench into certain other plans, though not enough of one to completely derail everything, just enough to save a couple lives. For instance, there's a certain Magus that would have perished from the strain of channelling magic, but providing a focus to him as a gift was a thing that aided him quite well.

Other things that worked out surprisingly well: grabbing Demona and Macbeth and dragging them into the warehouse, where time passed at the normal rate instead of the accelerated one, and having a talk about the implications of immortality with them... and my nature as an outsider to the local scheme of things. And then going over options.

>"Why are you even offering to help us?"
"Eh, if I ended up in this world, there's probably a reason. That's not always the case, but it probably is. I figure I can stir things up a bit, have some fun-"
>"You're no better than Puck."
"Puck's actually an interesting fellow, but I've yet to meet him. No, if I wanted to, I could take over this world in a day or annihilate it in a moment, but this world doesn't have anything that I truly WANT, so why would I concern myself with it? I've spent thirty thousand years travelling between worlds, maybe being here I can impart a bit of wisdom to some people."
>"People. That's the problem. You're violent brutes, fighting each other, destroying anything that is different from them-"
"Sister, I'll point something out to you. I've seen dozens of worlds where there ARE no humans, and everyone's still fighting each other. Life is a constant struggle, whether against the elements, predators, prey, themselves... some species are more prone to violence, but life without violence is a luxury. And besides that, I'm about as human as you are."
>"And what is that supposed to mean?"
"I'll show you. Go ahead and hit me in the face."
>"What."
"Seriously. You'll understand afterward."
>And then Demona swung and my head imploded like a paper-mache pumpkin. I continued talking as the nanites regrew my head - in the shape of a jack-o-lantern, on a whim. Ceph nanites work quick - regeneration abilities and shapeshifting introduces new worlds of creativity.
"I figured that would be a little more entertaining than making my skin have the density of iron and breaking your fist. As I said, as human as you - meaning I wear the form, but little else. Integrating magic has been an interesting chore, the Eye of Set serves effectively as my heart, but... ah, permanently anchoring my soul, THAT has been a chore."
>"Just who ARE you?"
"My friends call me Crux," I told the gargoyle. "And I do believe I can break that curse that binds you and give you a life extension anyway. Ten thousand years, you think? Maybe twenty?"

It's hilarious that Demona took point on the interrogation, while Macbeth was content to sit back and study my responses. The wisdom that comes with a long life - I appreciated seeing it, even as obvious as it was that Demona constantly lived in the moment. And after reaffirming to them that I could very probably shield them from the negative effects of breaking the curse that bound them while they were outside of the world's magics, we went through with it - and then I gave them nanite treatments that would slow their aging and serve to heal them rapidly. When we stepped back into the world, it seemed to have taken, too. And when Demona stabbed herself in the hand to test it, Macbeth was rather amazed not to feel anything.

I, on the other hand, didn't mention the momentary sensation in my hand. It wouldn't matter in ten years, after all. And when Demona cheekily called me a genie and asked whether she could use her second wish to be rich, I used the ring of Elru to manifest a particularly large pile of gold coins, then wished her luck. (I have no idea how she was able to fly with that big a sack of coins, either, but it worked well for her.)

In any event, apparently the Weird Sisters did not like me pulling dirty tricks with their magic, and as such I had to contend with them, so it was best to leave Avalon altogether. And of course because of them, more of Oberon's Children began harassing me at times (with Puck being a lucky exception, and entertaining to boot). And of course, it's impossible to appear in the world and avoid David Xanatos, but I decided to play it straight with him - he was the third person in this world to learn of my nature. Oh, and of the fact that in addition to both the magical AND mundane threats, there was apparently also an alien invasion due to happen in about two centuries.

I took pride in managing to wipe the self-satisfied smirk off of his face. And then I opened a portal to the warehouse in the ceiling and let a metric ton of tech fall into the room, and told him that he'd look better in a Starfleet uniform, so he'd better get to work if he ever wants to be captain.

On the plus side, it got Xanatos into politics beyond playing silly games with the Illuminati; give the man a goal and he'd move heaven and earth to achieve it. He didn't run for president, but he did end up as the head of the United Earth government. Perhaps his giving the Illuminati something to be afraid of helped motivate them, too.

Oh, and there was some silly nonsense about Quarrymen, but the police laughed at their absurd claims. When they turned out to be true, they arrested them, because attempted murder is attempted murder (or at least aggravated animal cruelty). And then threw them in prison. And then their leader was found hung in his jail cell with his bedsheet. Tragic suicide, really.

(Spoilers: I used some precognition toward the end to get an idea as to whether I made enough of a difference. Turns out that two centuries down the line, the space-spawn made contact with a human colony at Tau Ceti. It went surprisingly badly for them. And then it went a lot worse as humanity beat the crap out of them.)