Patchwork Universe

Dr James Kirby · Good Joined: 02 Jul 2004 Posts: 214 Location: Empire City

Kirby could tell the man wasn't following him. He tried to take it down a level. He drew the map, as he knew it on the floor with a stick.

"Each of these squares is a place I've visited. This is Empire here, this is some English countryside. This is a strange city I've never seen before. Here is the rose garden we're in now."

"There doesn't appear to be anything here, here or here" he continued, indicating the areas north and east of Empire, and north of Aldersley. "If I understand you correctly, there's nothing here either?" He indicated north of the rose garden. Yaroslav nodded. "I believe the mists may well be solid here because there is nothing at all beyond them, not even empty space."

"I'm afraid I don't know much about the mists. I don't think they're mists as you and I understand them. They aren't damp, for instance. Rather, I think they're what happens when two places that shouldn't be next to each other are placed next to each other."

"As to who placed our homes in this arrangement - I really couldn't say, though I'm eager to find out. Whoever they are, they must be very powerful indeed."

"So, where would your home be? Here? Or Here?" Kirby indicated the regions west and south of the Rose Garden.

Yaroslav · Posted: Sun Jul 25, 2004 3:17 pm Post subject:

Yaroslav could barely understand what the stranger was talking about. Discontinuity? Linked regions? On the other hand, unless Dr James Kirby was, for some reason, trying to deceive him, the stranger may be in the same predicament as Yaroslav.

“Yes, I noticed the walls of mist”, he replied, “Who made them? And to what purpose?”. Then remembering the northern side of the Rose Garden, “Why is some mist appears to be solid?”

Yaroslav · Posted: Sun Jul 25, 2004 3:47 pm Post subject:

OOC: Timeslip again. Dr James Kirby's post (3.15pm) should appear after mine(3.17pm) so this post is replying to his last one

Yaroslav understood the second explanation a little better and almost instinctively felt it was somewhat close to the truth. However he was not happy with the information he got. He stared straight into Dr James Kirby’s eyes in shock.

“Are you telling me that someone took patches of land and rearranged them? This is crazy?! Who could possibly have such a power?”

He glanced sideways, as if expecting those responsible to come out of the bushes on his right.

Dr James Kirby · Good Joined: 02 Jul 2004 Posts: 214 Location: Empire City

"That, my friend, is precisely what I intend to find out. There are people who rely on me in my world, and I need to be able to get more than two miles away from the Kirby Building in order to help them."

"Perhaps we should attempt to find some others who have been trapped here like us. If there are no domains in this direction, then perhaps we are on the edge of the map, so to speak. If so, perhaps that means we have been added most lately, and more established areas lie in the opposite direction."

Dr James Kirby · Good Joined: 02 Jul 2004 Posts: 214 Location: Empire City

"I assumed so, that these regions would be occupied. The countryside region was, and the city I saw was full of activity. I've not seen anyone but you in this garden, though, so perhaps they're not all inhabited."

"It seems to me as if we're at least looking for the same people, so perhaps we could travel together a while?"

Kirby motioned towards the rover.

Yaroslav · Posted: Sun Jul 25, 2004 4:20 pm Post subject:

Yaroslav was boiling inside. After all, the effort he made to get away from all the pointless, annoying human beings and found his own paradise, with no a single soul for tens of miles around, it seems that the borders moved again and people would be swarming all over the forest in no time.

“There are others? Are you telling me there are more people around? What are….”

He didn’t finish the phrase. Instead he spat on the ground and clenched his fists. “I am going to find them” he said with grim determination “I will find whoever did this. And I will get some answers out of them.”

Yaroslav · Posted: Sun Jul 25, 2004 11:33 pm Post subject:

Yaroslav thought about the proposal. He still did not trust the stranger. But James Kirby was right, it seems like they were both looking for the same people. Unless he was lying, of course, and just trying to lure Yaroslav somewhere…

He sighed. Clearly he has three choices, to go with Kirby, to continue exploring on his own or to return to the forest. But he couldn’t yet return to the forest, not without a rough idea of what had changed in the world around him. He would not be able to protect the forest and himself without knowing the enemy. And it seems that he could get a bit more information out of Kirby. Also, if he went with Kirby, he would be able to direct him away from the forest. The fewer people knew of its location the better. But he had to be on his guard, just, in case, Kirby was one of ‘them’.

“I will come with you, for the moment”, he declared. “But how does your wagon work? And why is it making that purring noise?”

Yaroslav · Posted: Sun Jul 25, 2004 11:38 pm Post subject:

OOC: And again the forum gets confused. My post timed 4.20pm should go before Kirby's at 4.17pm

Dr James Kirby · Good Joined: 02 Jul 2004 Posts: 214 Location: Empire City

Kirby paused. How to explain over 1000 years of science in a nutshell.

"The noise you hear is the rover's engine. You are familiar with windmills, yes? The engine works on a similar principle. There is a very hot substance inside the engine, which boils water to make steam. The steam pushes the sails of the turbine around, which turns the wheels of the rover."

Kirby paused. Every fibre of his being railed against giving such an inaccurate and incomplete explaination.

"Of course, it's not water, but another liquid, which drives the turbine. But the principle is the same."

He decided not to get into the who question of radioactivity with the man.

"In any case, you can think of it as a carriage that does not require a horse. If what I suspect is true, then you come from a period of history over a thousand years earlier than mine. Much of my equipment is the product of the science of those years."

Kirby got in, then opened the Rover's passenger door.

Yaroslav · Posted: Mon Jul 26, 2004 1:04 pm Post subject:

It would be a gross exaggeration to suggest that such an explanation satisfied Yaroslav. Purring windmills in that box in front of the wagon? In fact, he immediately became suspicious that Kirby was simply unwilling to disclose the way his machine operated. Also, Yaroslav was quite unable to comprehend the idea of people coming together from different time periods. He just assumed that Kirby was using such a description as some sort of a metaphor for their current predicament.

Nevertheless, asking more questions would waste time and make him look stupid. Yaroslav climbed in through the open door and looked at Kirby, while trying to block out the urge to touch and ask questions about all those strange objects that he saw inside the rover.

“So, you said that you came from the east and found nothing that could shed a light on this there?”, he asked. “Then I’d suggest we turn south”

Dr James Kirby · Good Joined: 02 Jul 2004 Posts: 214 Location: Empire City

"South it is then" said Kirby, checking the dash mounted compass.

Hmmm. South. thought Kirby. I wonder if magnetic field strength and direction are constant across these discontinuities?

"Hold on one moment, I'd like to set up some equipment."

Kirby got out, and opened a door in the side of the rover. He got out a large aluminium suitcase. He opened this, and removed a number of electrical devices, which he connected together with cables. He placed these on a shelf inside the rover. One of the devices was a wire tape recorder, which he switched on.

He packed up, and returned to the rover. He plugged another recorder into the dashboard, near the compass.

"There, that should give me some readings."

That done, he powered up the rover and headed south.

After some manuevering through the roses, the rover passed through the mists to the south.

[OOC: On to Jones': More countryside]