VastAsynchronicity

Super nervous about this chapter. This battlecruiser of a narrative is starting to bank and turn into the plot.

“Good evening— I’m Daniel Bay and this is CNN six o'clock news.

“Our top story tonight— an American citizen was kidnapped after suffering a tragic medical emergency during a return trip from Revellion. High-ranking Urgan national officials have stated that this was not a malfunction of the portal between the two worlds, but rather some sort of underlying medical condition that the woman suffered from, possibly sustained while exploring the dungeons the country is known for.”

“We go live now to Colorado where special correspondent Kaitlin Aimes is on the scene: Kaitlin?”

“—Thanks, Dan. I’m standing in the small suburb of Coal Creek Canyon, Colorado, site of the permanent portal travel gate between the worlds of Revellion and Earth. Behind me you can see that the US Government has already mobilized forces to bring this woman home.”

“Janice Holston, age twenty-one, is a young winner of the Revellion lottery who was on her very first trip Revside when disaster stuck. While we still don’t have many details on what occurred, early eyewitness reports claim that some sort of monster was responsible for her abduction.”

“Standing with me Sgt. La’Shaun Brown; Brown is leading the retrieval team to Revellion in hopes of recovery. Sgt. Brown?”

“—Thank you, Kaitlin. This team got our orders and mobilizin’ get this woman out. She a American citizen, her family deserve see her come home. Whether that alive or funeral for family— we ain’t just gon’leave her there. We gon’do everything in our power see her come home.”

“—Passionate words from a true American Patriot. Our thoughts and prayers are with both Janice and her family in Billings, Montana.

Back to you, Dan.” 

____________

An encouraging hand was gently massaging my throat. I swallowed the liquid dribbling into the back of my mouth reflexively.

I sat up and coughed, sputtering and choking and gasping. I pounded my chest with my hands as I took great gulping breaths, wheezing.

My— my chest. 

I looked down at my shirt. It was a tee that said “SUBLIME”… before it was ripped apart and covered in blood and the dregs of a familiar pearlescent potion. Now it was basically rags.

Smashing, another crop top; except this one hadn’t been until my ribcage exploded for the second time and turned it into one. I looked down further and—

Yep. My jeans were absolutely soaked through with blood and pulpy fleshy bits. That probably wasn’t coming out in a cold water wash.

I was sitting in a meadow. The grass was almost a foot tall except for the flattened area where I’d been laying. The mimic was standing next to me.

“What.” I said.

I felt its attention focus in on me, insistent. It radiated smug vindication and disapproval.

“Yeah.” I said, sighing and leaning back.

I guess I should have been more upset. I wasn’t home. Portaling back had obviously gone way wrong, and the mimic had bailed me out of dying. Again.

… Wait.

“Holy shit.” I said. “Did you break out and drag me out here?”

It stared at me. 

“You did.” I realized, my stomach dropping at how bad this was as I said it. “You busted out like the fuckin’ kool-aid man and dragged my dying ass off like a damsel.” 

I let that sit with me for a minute. 

“Shit, they’re never gonna let me come back to Revellion again.”

I wondered how much trouble I was in. Probably a lot. Probably a whole fucking lot.

“I need to get back.” I said, more talking to myself than the chest next to me. “See how much I just fucked up my ticket over here.”

I tried not to think too hard about why portaling had gone wrong in the first place. The implications of that were… bad enough that I was actively avoiding them.

The mimic sat there, radiating disagreement. It shifted towards me.

“Not, like, back home.” I clarified. “Back to town. I wanna see just how much shit I got myself into. You know, from bringing you out of the dungeon with me.”

It relaxed marginally, watching me. Which had implications too….

“... You knew.” I said after a moment, running through how it acted earlier in the storage unit. “Holy shit. You weren’t pouting, you were trying to keep me from going through.”

It relaxed more, rocking back on its chonky feet. The disapproval vanished.

“... fuck.” I said. “What the fuck happened to me to—”

But I stopped, because I already knew.

“Holy fuck.” I breathed. “Holy fuck.”

My mind tried to follow that to its logical conclusion again and I shut it down immediately, pushing the thoughts away. I couldn’t deal with that right now. Not yet.

I looked around me. The meadow I was in was beautiful, edged by foothills that rolled and rose and fell in the distance. Revellion was a beautiful world.

I just didn’t want to be here permanently.

I stood up, grimacing as I looked down at my blood-covered clothes. The sun hung low in the sky, stretching my shadow long in front of me.

Changing didn’t take long, though I wasn’t thrilled to be in dead lady’s crop top again. I was lucky that I had kept my Revside boots on; this outfit wouldn’t have worked with a pair of converse.

“Which way is town?” I asked the mimic when I finished. 

It turned to the right.

“Okay.” I said. “Okay. Time to see how much shit I’m in.”


The walk back to Hooham was pretty. Quiet. The sunset turned the sky pink and red on my left.

I’d cajoled the mimic into a coin pouch again. It was hanging at my side innocently, looking normal for a Revellionan.  Which is what I currently looked like; both the guy on the bridge and the barboy in town had mistaken me for a native, so as long as I didn’t open my big stupid mouth I was safe.

It took the better part of an hour to get back in sight of Hooham. That chest must’ve booked it with my dying ass. By the time I got there the sun had dipped past the horizon and twilight was swiftly falling.

I paused a good way back from the town walls, using a dilapidated old barn for cover. Given how much trouble I had to be in I didn’t want to get too close in case they had a description of me.

I didn’t need to get any closer, though. What I saw from here was plenty.

Soldiers. American soldiers, in full tactical gear and carrying weapons. They were exiting the town’s wall gate and congregating in the fields outside.

I ducked back further into the shadows of the barn, a cold sweat breaking out all over me.

“Oh fucking motherfuck, I am in trouble.” I murmured. “Holy fucking shit. They sent the military after me!”