shellphones | Seeking Interested Parties

Type: Video
Sender ID: forgeabettertomorrow | (Darin Altway)
To: Public
Subject: Darin and Zelda have an IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT to make
Warnings: N/A

[As the video blips on, Darin walks onto screen from the left. He looks…anxious? Excited? Definitely more energized than usual. He leans forward, the top of the frame cutting off his head so you have a close-up of his torso and not much else.]

Did I do this thing right, Sunshine? I kinda wanna frame this up right.

[ The video feed wobbles a little, the camera going out of focus. Zelda's voice is audible from somewhere off screen. ]

Almost! Don't forget to activate this setting here.

[ The video feed wobbles again, the camera coming back into focus. ]

Alright. Alright, let’s do this.

…Oh holy crap, we’re already recording.

[Darin immediately stiffens as he realizes that he is, in fact, broadcasting.]

Damn piece of— whatever, just go. Okay! Hey everyone! So, I wanted to put this out there publicly because…Zelda and I have some exciting news.

[Darin takes a step back and reaches towards Zelda to take her hand with a wide, excited grin on his face.]

So…I’ve been working on a…on a project. An experiment, really. About the rifts that brought us all here.

[If you were waiting with bated breath for a certain matrimonial announcement, sorry, this isn’t gonna be that. It’s gonna be BETTER. It’s gonna be about SCIENCE.]

I…I’ve made no real secret of the fact that I want to figure the rifts out for…obvious, personal reasons. So, over the last couple of months, I designed something.

[Darin reaches off screen and returns holding what looks like a wireframe cube with a spherical chamber suspended in the center by eight converging rods anchored to the cube’s points.]

This. I call it the Beacon Box. I figured that the Rifts were too…potentially volatile to be controlled but hey, like any other force of nature, you don’t try and tame it, right? You learn to navigate it. I won’t…bore you with the science of it but the short version is I imbued it with an essence of me and my world with the help of the Leviathans and had it cast into the rift. I wasn’t expecting much but…

[Darin excitedly looks at Zelda.]

But we got some data. Zelda got some readings that we’re still parsing but…well, I’ll let her tell you.

[ Zelda, grinning just as excitedly as Darin, gives a little wave to the camera with one hand. In the other, she's holding the Purah Pad. ]

It took a little bit of doing, but I was able to program the Purah Pad to receive periodic transmissions from the Beacon Box while it traversed the Rifts. I believe a number of us have conducted research on the Rifts before, myself included, and a prevailing theory I came across was that the Rifts are related to the Leviathans-- possibly even created by them. So I expected that the energy signature of the Rifts would resemble that of the Leviathans.

[ And here, her grin gets wider. She looks like she's almost vibrating as she clutches the Purah Pad with both hands. ]

But that is not the case at all! Now, these remain preliminary readings, but the energy signature detected from the Rifts differs significantly from that of the Leviathans. Nor do they match any other signatures I've recorded in this world. The Rifts are far, far more powerful.

But that's not all! We recorded a few sudden influxes of energy-- "spikes," if you will-- the timing of which seem to align with the arrival of a few new riftfarers. I believe these spikes are indicative of people-- or even objects-- passing through the rifts. I posit that the same spikes occur with departures as well, although these are rather more difficult to verify.

Now, I've been examining the data produced by these spikes to see if I can't find any patterns or measurable specificity-- things which might help us determine when a passage through the Rifts will occur, or if any of these readings might indicate the world to which they are connecting-- a "world signature." As of now, I've not found any, but employing additional Beacon Boxes will expand the data pool significantly and allow for a much more thorough study of it.

[Darin chimes in now, tossing the Beacon Box back and forth in his hands like a kid waiting his turn to give a presentation.]

I know…it doesn’t sound like much. But it’s a start and this is where I want some help. Creating a Beacon Box requires…well…it requires you to give up something of deep, personal value. Something that can tether you to your world and can, in turn, call out to it. But…if I’m right?

If I’m right, people we’ve lost might be able to find their way back. And the people who want to go home? They might be able to do just that. But like Zelda said, we need more data. If you want to be a part of the project, please reach out to me or Zelda. I’ll be offering the construction of these boxes for free for anyone interested and if there’s anyone out there with even a passing interest in…dimensional space and time rifts? I’d love to work with you.

[At this point, Darin turns to Zelda, grinning from ear to ear. Unable to contain his excitement anymore, he sweeps her up into a giant bear hug, twirling her off screen to cries of “I did it!”]

(OOC NOTE: This is the start of the EXTREMELY LONG RUNNING BEACON BOX PLOT. ALL ARE WELCOME TO PARTICIPATE. I'll draft up an OOC write-up later but the short version is that Darin is looking for ways to navigate the rifts. If you have any questions, please feel free to DM me here, hit me up at Bitterbearface n Discord, or ping me on plurk at bitterbearface For the purposes of this post, please place in the subject line if you'd like to speak with DARIN or ZELDA specifically. If you have no preference, leave it blank!)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Two points in distance, but what about time?

[Listen, there's another element to this that he lacks experience and perspective on Garrus and you're from the space future.]

Mm, only in the most… loose sense.

FTL - faster than light - travel, kind of bends the rules a little. Propelling a ship faster than light travels means you shave off hours, months, of flight time. The relays cut it down by centuries in some cases.

So… they sort of skip time, you could technically say. But as for literal time travel, no. It’s not possible as far as I know. No one’s really researched or seriously tried.

[And the best scientist he knew was a bio-science guy. And also dead.]

[Darin rubs his chin thoughtfully.]

I'm not looking to travel backwards in time, specifically.

[He's not sure how much he should say. Zelda's technically from a point in her kingdom's distant past and she wants to get back to her proper time. Theoretically, if the rifts could be traversed, he'd wind up in Zelda's distant past with her.]

...It's hard to explain. But people can arrive here from different points in time from the same universe, right? Part of what I want to find out is a way to log those points as access points. But, based on my reading and understanding, if space is represented by an X, Y, and Z axis, time kinda runs through the whole of it concurrently. The same point in time exists across all spatial vectors.

[Garrus, you would be forgiven if you are wondering where Darin suddenly found his brain.]

Right, right. The relays don't actually do anything with time. They just shorten distance - you can still connect any two points in space, but it has to be physical. Not timelines, even though they're technically opening a space-time rail... One connects to another, and only that other, so you've got branching paths all across the galaxy -

[There is a sudden pause.]

... Did you just start talking about vectors? Is the captain handing you cue cards?

What? No? She's pouring over data and talking to other interested parties, why?

[He doesn't wait for an answer.]

Wait, hold on. You're implying that FTL travel through these points in space just kinda skips large distances. It's like teleportation.

But okay, here's what's throwing me. Time still exists in both perceptible and non-perceptible spaces, right? Meaning, in order to make it to your proper destination, you'd need to calculate exactly where and when Point B is. Neither can be fixed.

So...how?

[Well, Garrus?]

When did you start learning about spacial vectors, let alone talking about them?

[Augh, he needs Joker here for this. Or any other pilot who better understands the ins and outs of the relays. He knows they work. He... wait. Maybe he can get Tali to weigh in. She'd been practically glued to the SR1's drive core, after all.]

[He types a quick message to her.]

I guess you could say it is. But there's mass calculations involved - if you're off with your estimations, something's going to go wrong with the jump.

That's what the relays do. We don't know how, exactly. I think - closest I can explain it is like opening a tunnel between the two relays. All you have to do is go through. The relays themselves are what make that determination. One primary relay is always going to link to its partner, no matter what.

I'm going to try and get Tali to weigh in here. She knows more about ship drive cores and FTL than I do.

[Darin's taken out one of his notebooks and begins to jot down his thoughts.]

So the relays take care of the calculations. They're always synced to a partner...

That would mean they're anchored to a fixed set of spatial and chronological coordinates. Or, at the very least, they've factored in movement between the two. Like...teleportation gateways...

[Scribble scribble. Sorry Garrus, but your first question didn't even register. Amazingly, Darin is piecing this together.]

Then...if we take this world as the hub, we'd need to establish fixed 'anchor points' with the others. But then there's the matter of time.

...I wonder if the spike in energy can be traced back to the world's time period. Like if two people arrive here from different points in a universe's timeline, can that give us dual access points?

Definitely worth looking into...

Edited 2026-01-20 07:06 (UTC)

It would have to, wouldn't it? If it's spiking when people show up, that's... that should be when it's drawing the energy from, right?

But then you'd have to have the arrival happen in order to get the access points. Otherwise you're just picking random pluses from the rifts and hoping for the best.

Using this world as a central hub is probably a good plan. Like it's the center of a web of connections.

[Pause.]

Are you going to answer me any time soon? About vectors?

Depends. We'd need more data for conclusive evidence. As for using this world as a hub, I've always wondered what made this world so special. What drew people here in the first place?

[Darin blinks, as if he's coming back to the conversation.]

...What about vectors? We're done talking about vectors.

We'll have to use somewhere. This place is probably the most stable point we're going to find. And if that's what we do - we might need to take precautions to keep it that way.

As for what pulled us here, hell if I know. You'd have to talk to someone who understands magic.

[SIGH...]

You were talking about them to start with. Where did you learn about them?

Still, I'd want to be careful. Opening this world up as a hub isn't something we can just decide.

I'd want to bring this to the Armadas. A full proposal if this starts to get traction.

[Darin is sounding more and more like something else that isn't a blacksmith.]

What do you mean, where did I learn about them? Did you think all of the books in my house were for lunch?

I read, Garrus. I don't chew on books that don't have pictures.

Do we have a choice? We're here... we're experimenting from here. We don't have another convenient world to use.

You really think we can trust the Armadas with something like this?

[Because he doesn't. Clearly.]

Actually, I thought you were using them as decorations. Or paperweights.

Really? You don't say.

Seeking Interested Parties | VIDEO

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