clockwork_doc | [Nexus/Self-Cest] There's Been A Malfunction. . . .

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[Nexus/Self-Cest] There's Been A Malfunction. . . .

*beep* "Damn."

*beep* "Damn!"

*beep* "DAMN DAMN!"

Doc glares at his PINpoint, staring at the error message on the screen. "Why are you giving me an error about returning to Chicago?" he demands of it. "I've gone there after LOLs plenty of times! I even gave this one some time to wear off! What's going on here?!"

The PINpoint, naturally, doesn't answer. Doc stares at it angrily for a moment. Then, slowly, his expression turns to -- almost fright. "Great Scott, am I stuck here?"

He'd thought being trapped in an alternate Chicago was bad. Being stuck in the multiversal Nexus, however. . .that's a whole different kettle of fish.

(OOC: In essence, this is just a write-up of why Doc and Victor are now just Nexusites, as I've left their original game. I've been meaning to do this for a while, so. . . .)

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Doc rubs his back sympathetically. "This universe is a far more complicated place than it first appears. I should know." He tilts his head, frowning a bit. "I have to ask, though -- didn't you notice anything was wrong? That it was unseasonably warm, at least?"

"L-like I said, I've b-been spending a l-lot of time in the N-Nexus," Victor says, now blushing again from embarrassment. "And I honestly d-didn't notice a-at first. The days s-seemed a bit l-longer than usual, but I thought t-that was because of m-my insomnia. Afterward, y-yes, I thought it was w-warmer than it should b-be, but -- I wasn't g-going to complain." He sighs. "I really a-am a ninny."

Doc frowns at him. "You're not a ninny," he says firmly. "How the hell were you supposed to know what happened?" Then his face takes on a thoughtful look. "The days felt longer, though? Hmmm. . . . Your last entry on the journals was on July 23rd. Did the effect start after that?"

"You needn't spare my feelings, I should have noticed something u-unusual about the w-weather, at least," Victor protests.

He frowns, thinking. "Yes, I believe it did. About a day or two after I wrote the entry. Of course, that was d-during the period I w-was having all those n-nightmares, so. . . ."

Doc nods. "Appears to be some sort of time dilation effect," he says, half to himself. "I wonder if that's what happened to everyone else -- one day, they woke up in a universe without any other people and discovered the days were stretching longer than they used to. Strange -- then again, everything about these Rifts are strange."

Victor nods, then sighs deeply. "I'm very s-sorry this isn't a r-real portal into C-Chicago," he apologizes. "If I'd k-known. . . ."

"Don't apologize, Victor, this isn't your fault," Doc tells him soothingly. "Like I said before, you couldn't be expected to know what happened to you. Even those who come back aren't quite sure." He glares down at his PINpoint. "If this thing was working properly, I could try getting both of us back to the proper reality. Come on. . . ." He tries fiddling with it again, trying to force a dimension shift, only to get a by-now-all-too-familiar *beep*. "Great Scott, what's wrong with this thing?" He arches an eyebrow, then looks at Victor. "All right, better explain before I do this -- I had powers before I came through the Rift. Do you remember me telling you I was abducted and made half-mechanical?"

"I still feel bad," Victor murmurs.

He blinks, then nods a bit hesitantly. "Yes, I do remember. You said you were kidnapped by -- some sort of doctor?"

Doc nods, recalling their time together on Marty and Victor's joint birthday. "Right, well, I didn't give you all the details. The 'doctor' wasn't actually human. He was a Faery -- Great Scott, that never sounds right -- who stole me away to Arcadia. He had me build things for him in addition to being operated on. As a result, I gained a lot of the realm's natural magic -- I used to be able to fix any machine with just pocket lint, build whatever I wanted out of mere scraps -- hell, I could manipulate metal itself. But when I went through the Rift, I lost most of that magic -- probably in exchange for the weather control. I do, however, have a few weakened 'spells' at my command. One of them is something that'll make any device run perfectly for a few hours. I'm going to try it on my PINpoint. I just wanted you to know what I'm doing."

Victor stares at Doc as the scientist explains things, jaw hanging open slightly. "My God," he murmurs. "It -- it all sounds like something out of a penny dreadful, but -- I suppose the proof is right in front of my eyes." Doc's elbows steam right then, as if in emphasis. "I'm so sorry for you. I know I've said that before, but -- that was horrible, what happened to you."

He nods. "Experiment away. I hope it works."

"It was," Doc says quietly. "Thank you. I'm glad you didn't -- freak out or anything when you saw me."

Doc nods back, then starts fiddling with his PINpoint, going through the options and generally poking at the workings. Then he presses one hand over the other and concentrates hard. "Come on, come on. . . ."

After a moment, he feels a hot tingle go through his hand and into the PINpoint. "Success!"

Victor gives him a small smile. "You're welcome. And -- considering at the time I'd spent nearly six months in an alternate, future Chicago, discovered I could leave my body, and -- er -- resurrected the dead shortly before arriving, it would have been unseemly of me."

He watches with interest as Doc does his fiddling, smiling more brightly as the scientist announces success. "Wonderful!"

There's a pause. Part of that needs further explanation. "I'm sorry, did you just say 'resurrected the dead?'" Doc repeats, eyes widening.

Victor winces a little. Right, he didn't think he'd told Doc about that. "It's -- actually, perhaps it's not complicated to someone who's gone through what you have. I actually came through the Rift on the night of my w-wedding rehearsal. I'd been doing h-horribly with my v-vows, and the p-pastor banished me until I l-learned them. I was p-practicing in the w-woods, and I'd f-finally said them r-right when I put the r-ring on what I thought was just a s-stick shaped like a hand." He takes a deep breath. "It was, in actuality, a h-hand. This dead b-bride apparently t-thought I was proposing to h-her, and rose up to accept. I p-panicked and ran for it. The Rift t-took me just as I r-reached the bridge for home."

"Great Scott," Doc whispers. "That must have been terrifying." He grimaces. "And I'm sorry you've been separated from your fiancee. That must be a terrible loss."

"It was," Victor says, rather deadpan. "And, er, not as much as you t-think. Miss Everglot was a l-lovely girl, but -- I'd only met her that day. It was an arranged m-marriage." He lowers his head. "I hate to say this, but it's h-hard to miss someone you d-don't know."

"Oh." Doc reaches over again to pat Victor's shoulder. "Well, I'm still sorry about what happened to you."

He turns his attention back to the PINpoint. "All right, let's try this again!" He sets up a transport back to Chicago, presses the button --

*beep* "Oh come on!" Doc punches a few buttons. "Why can't I get back?!" He shakes his head. "That does it, time for a different measure. Wait here." He storms out of the room and back into the Nexus. "Marty, do you know if there's any Place-Me-Quick machines around?"

"Thank you," Victor says with a nod.

Victor nods again, looking a little frustrated himself now by the PINpoint's refusal to work. He waits patiently on the bed as Doc storms out.

Marty blinks at the sudden reappearance of his friend and said friend's angry question. "Uh -- yeah, there's one over that way," he says. "Something up?"

"Yes -- Victor's part of Chicago is currently in a time-delayed mini Rift," Doc mostly non-explains. "This happens to people sometimes, they get caught in little pockets of reality and can't get out again unless the Rift opens up to let them out. I've worked the Blessing of Perfection on my PINpoint, but it's still not working! I'm going to get the coordinates right from the machine. I'll be back later." He storms off to the machine, feeds in five dollars, and sticks his hand in. Moments later, he gets his slip of paper. He carefully punches in the code he receives, then sets the PINpoint to take him there. "Now, let's see what happens," he says, hitting the button.

Moments later, he reappears --

in Victor's bedroom. Doc's initial "WTF?!" expression is slowly replaced by an "Oh, SHIT" one.

Marty is a little confused by Doc's explanation, but decides to wait on asking for clarification. The guy's obviously upset. Best to let him try and finish his experiment.

Victor is more than a little startled when Doc suddenly reappears inside his bedroom. He yelps and falls off the bed. "Doc? What -- did you mean to do that?"

"No," Doc says quietly, suddenly feeling rather sad. "I went to one of those Place-Me-Quick machines. They give the origin universe code of whatever they scan." He looks down at the scrap of paper. "The origin code it gave me was for this universe." And now that he thinks about it, it was disturbingly quiet in the hotel the day before he visited the Nexus and got turned invisible. . . .

He slowly sits on the bed as the realization hits him full force. "I'm like you. I got sucked into this invisible Rift. And now my PINpoint apparently doesn't recognize me as belonging to regular Chicago. And I have no idea how to fix it."

Victor stares at Doc with wide eyes. "Oh no," he whispers. "You mean -- we're stuck in this little pocket of -- of time and space?" he whispers. "Forever?"

"We just might be," Doc says, letting out a deep sigh. "Great Scott, I never thought. . . ." He leans heavily on one hand. He never really liked Chicago -- he lived through enough disasters to become rather cynical about the town. But it was the closest thing he had to home for about a year and a half. And while he lost a couple of his closest friends, he still had pals there -- Gladys, JD, Dan. . . . The only consolation is that he hasn't lost Farley, who knows about the Nexus. "I don't know what I'm going to do." He looks over at Victor. "Have -- have you seen anyone around here?"

Oh man. Victor joins Doc in letting out a deep sigh. He had less time to get attached to Chicago, but it was his home too, for a while. And he has people he'll miss as well -- Piper, Elizabeth, and Babel, mostly. They were the closest things to friends he had in the new universe, besides Doc. At least he's still here.

He shakes his head. "I'm sorry, no," he admits. "Though I haven't gone beyond the confines of the Gauche, so. . . ." It's hope? Of a sort?

Doc shakes his own head. "No. If there's no one at the Gauche, I think the odds are good there's no one in the rest of this particular pocket of subspace either. It's just you and me." He looks away, toward the wall, steam hissing out his back. "I suppose I could go back to the hotel, if it exists." Though he doesn't relish having to live in a totally empty building. Even if it means finally giving up his basement room once and for all.

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