So it's time to level up… and I have all the time in the world.  I load up on JP via the Extra JP feat, and go through the level up routine.  Cool, 7th level Psionic powers now, which matches what I can squeeze out with spells. I rest up for eight hours my time.

That gives me a lot of time to think, of course. Things like 'if I have a time clone do this I could have anything I could make, instantly' - which is just about anything. Constructs are an issue, as it’s unclear if I'd inherit the "creator" status from my time clone… but I can just do those directly, like I did for my first Dedicated Wight. Ugh. So boring.  Although the "per day" limit on crafting might trip me up. Hmm. I'll have to test at some point. When I get time moving again, I should probably download a bunch of books, movies, and offline games onto my phone. Maybe see if I can get a chunk of the internet archive project on a giant MicroSD or something… or at least the archives of a few dozen webcomics.

At least it's a nice view of the ocean. Lots of water, staying perfectly still.  Oh, and a me.  With a wet front, and white droplets … falling… and…

Oh Me! Abyss!

Yes, my time clones produce milk too. And they have been slavishly following orders, so those white drops falling from them are putting milk straight into the ocean. And that has probably been going on, hundreds of times over, since shortly after I set them loose to build my island. I should be able to stop it - just have my time clones shift into something that doesn't produce milk, like dragons, or just have them take scheduled milk breaks like I do - but milk in the environment is known to create monsters. And it's been happening for a while. Yay.

Well, I can't do anything about it until the clock starts ticking again.

Until then… SOOOO BORED….

Eventually, I figure I've had enough restful calm, and re-prepare the spells where I need to do so. I only add the new Psionic powers I have available, though: Properly updating my buffs to take full advantage of my new caster level also requires I use minions to boost my caster level, and when I'm effectively alone, that doesn't work. So I'll need to re-buff later.  

And as long as I'm off the clock anyway… I should probably do something about Iran.  Maybe deliver their own bomb to them?  Nah… the average citizen doesn't deserve to be nuked. Hmm… what to do… definitely need to do something…

Travel time is going to be annoying… Survival and Knowledge (Geography) will get me there, but I don't go nearly fast enough while flying, and I can't look up a picture of the capital on my phone right now… ah, Arcane Eye. I can place one anywhere I can see, and I can then teleport to it, dismiss it, and get the next… yeah…

I look up into the sky, and place an Arcane Eye sensor high enough that it's looking down at the Earth like a globe.

...the view is breathtaking. I take some time to enjoy it.

Eventually, though, I Greater Teleport to the same spot, and dismiss the Arcane Eye. I use the globe and Knowledge (Geography) to get my bearings, and repeat a few times, eventually landing myself in the capital of Iran.

It's weird. It's dead silent, but I can see a busy city all around me.  Nothing is moving, of course, but a city should always be making SOME noise. And this one isn't. Or rather, it is, but I'm between ticks, so I can't hear it. Still, very weird.

So what should I do with these folks? They theoretically shouldn't have nukes at all, and yet they threw one at me. I wonder how they pulled that off? But I suppose it's not like anyone can truly monitor an entire nation… OK, I could maybe pull it off by spawning enough time clones… but that would probably be a bad idea. Well… I probably have enough evidence that they struck first for the world stage… I suppose I could capture their capital … sure, that will do. Of course, time is a problem. I can't affect anyone if I'm between ticks. I can affect myself… and my time clones are complete copies of me, so they'd be … in my timestream. Hmm. So I need to have a way out of this first. I mean, going forward it's easy enough to handle, now that I know this is a problem: I just use Conditional Favor on Lesser Time Stop with something like "Don't clap" to generate an exit condition. For now, though… it's an arbitrary non-magical effect that can’t be affected by things that specifically affect spells, so I can't just dispel it, I need something that affects arbitrary effects.

Let's… put that aside for now. Focusing on a problem too much can sometimes block the solution. In the meantime… I think I'll set up some chaos for when the clock starts moving again.

I go through the city, and systemically block every exterior door, window, and intersection with Wall of Force. It takes quite some time … or no time at all, depending on your perspective … but I get a good picture of how the city works and where everything is.

I also drop Persistent Image spells with each one, with an obviously-transparent image of me, reciting a short script in Arabic, Mandarin(Chinese), Hindi, Spanish, French, and English over and over: "Due to a recent and unprovoked attack upon the sovereign nation of Arcana by Iran, at the order of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, we are taking thus city as reparations for this country's act of war. Everyone is under house arrest until further notice; you may not leave your current locations."

There. Now there's sound, as my spells keep ticking. But I still need to get out of this… eventually. Meanwhile… I think I'll explore some of those official-looking buildings…

I go through a bunch of museums, a lot of bureaucratic offices, some pretty nice but very old palaces, a jail, a harem… the girls were wearing far more than movies have led me to believe, oh well… but after several days of subjective time (including taking time out regularly to milk myself… by hand… so it wasn't all bad), I eventually do find the military status room where they're monitoring the fiasco that was the invasion of my island. There's a bunch of military guys looking at a tactical screen showing the distinct lack of their units, some really slack jaws at just what happened to their forces… and one really old, well dressed guy without a uniform, with glasses and a white beard, his wrinkled hand on a big red button.

Right. I used time. I'm six seconds BEFORE the bomb in the drone actually exploded. Well… it won't go off this time around, I made sure of that.  Still…

I take some time to demolish all of the human interfaces in the room. I Disintegrate all the keyboards, mice, joysticks, microphones, cameras, levers, and buttons. I leave the actual screens and speakers running, but cut key wires for anything that looks like a touchscreen. I also block off the exits with Wall of Iron spells - I want them visible right now.

Of course, that won’t do much until I'm back in the normal timestream. They're not going to react to suddenly being rats trapped in a cage until time starts flowing again. If I'm not here they'll be able to use any cell phones or handheld radios to call for help… which means if I can't clean up my own mess, I am never going to be able to see the looks on their faces when they realize just how badly they've lost. I also won't be able to mete out any punishments for the kind of garbage they support. Right now? I have all the justification I need, but I can't do anything. I really wish I…

Wish. Right.

I look at my Mythic Ring. I haven't used a Wish since… since I raised Jessica, I think. And it has that "Remove Injuries and Afflictions" clause, that does not care what caused it, or what it is. And as I'm at 13th level now, I can copy the 3/day Wish off the CR 13 Pasha. Must be granted to nongenies… but I'm not a Genie. And that would let me refill the wishes via Heroic Fortune, so it wouldn't matter if they were wasted and there was a more efficient way for me to do it. Which is, you know, the main reason I haven't been using my daily Wishes: I've always had cheaper ways to do what I want.

Huh.

Very well then… I use an Attuned Mysticism Enable Function on myself to pick up ten more Job Points for Freelancer, and use those to to get the Pasha's 3/day Wish.  One of which I grant to myself, to remove the affliction I accidentally gave myself.

And the clocks tick again.