[ the frequenter ]

[sacredashes]

[When Asch appears on the Plane, he's surprised. He loses his balance and staggers, then manages to catch himself. It takes him a moment but then he looks around and realizes he's still in the Machine.

His face pales.]

No. Not this place again. Damn it, I thought I was free!

[But no one ever escapes the Machine. He reaches up to his forearm, where he's still carrying a scarlet favor from a princess he couldn't remember.

Oh, but he remembers now. And he's pissed. He stalks over to the welcome kiosk. He doesn't need a welcome. Instead, he kicks it hard enough that it almost tips over.]

Comments

[sacredashes]

Don't appeal to the Machine, she said. It's not a god, and you have as much a chance of getting what you want as being completely erased from existence.

[He shrugs.]

But it does have something built in against paradoxes. So there's that, I suppose.

[grip_on_reality]

[Menzies considers that advice. truth be told, it doesn't strike her as that sage, if only because she's never considered attempting to appeal to the Machine itself--only the people who run it. but if anything, it's interesting to learn that the Machine might have independent abilities of its own]

All right, I can see where that might come in useful. Too bad some of the people who run things 'round 'ere don't seem much better.

[but that next comment catches her attention. in fact, she actually looks surprised. intently, she asks:] Wait, you mean paradoxes can't 'appen here? You're sure about that?

[sacredashes]

[He shrugs. He doesn't disagree, but it was good info, for his purposes.]

That's what she said. Specifically, it was in a conversation about possibly erasing myself from existence by messing with my own past. It probably has limitations.

[grip_on_reality]

[with the example he just gave, Menzies can't imagine what sort of limitations he could even mean. she frowns, thinking through the unexpected information] Wait, let me get this straight. You actually changed your own past because of this place? And...the universe didn't end, or anything else earth-shattering?

[it's a very comforting thought for her, really--though it does make her wonder why she'd gone to so much trouble with so many Doctors to try to hide the fact that she already knew them. but at least this means that if she continues to meet Doctors here, she's unlikely to cause any universe-ending paradoxes because of it]