[Video]

[nodavinci]

[The camera's pointed away from Tony, showing a vacant lot filled with cracked piping and crumbling timbers, like a construction graveyard. On the edge of the screen, the fieldstone wall leading up to a brightly painted exhaust stack suggests he's somewhere in the industrial district - and those who've had occasion to visit his workshop might recognize the glasswork building across the street from where he'd set up.]

Is it just me, or was there a building here this morning?

[The answer here is 'yes, a thriving warehouse' - or, if not that morning, as recent as anyone's last visit to the area.]

Comments

[nodavinci]

Have you seen her recently? Maybe she was replaced by a pod person.

[He flips the communicator so that the display shows his face instead; beneath the air of humouring-the-kid skepticism he's drawn around him like a much more subdued version of his armour lies genuine concern.

This isn't the first time someone on this planet has changed without warning, though daffodils to roses is a far less significant change than enemies to allies, or hero to cold-blooded murderer.]

[infourbooks]

[Neville frowns. That's not a joke.]

I haven't. That's never happened to someone who's actually from here before...

[nodavinci]

It has, actually. More than once. The real question is why.

[infourbooks]

It has? What was happening then?

[nodavinci]

Nem's bodyguard deciding he'd look better with a few more holes in him, for one.

And then there was the time we came back and found the city moved 40 miles south. Take your pick.

[infourbooks]

That second one was because we broke time though.

[That's different from mind control. Obviously.]

[nodavinci]

Doesn't change the fact that it had the same effect on people's loyalties. Assuming your friend's wife isn't just fickle and there really is something weird going on with her, either someone introduced a traumatic daffodil incident to her history, or someone tampered with her preferences.

Or altered her husband's memory. Is their last name Connor?

[infourbooks]

No, it's not.

[Now that he's really processing it... there are the stories they all heard when they were small]

Terrible things happen to wizards who meddle with time.

[But doing it to take extra classes is okay JUST DON'T ASK]

[nodavinci]

Yeah, temporal paradox is a pretty constant threat in any hypothetical featuring time travel. Best case, you create infinite splinter timelines. Worst case, you erase yourself from existence.

Anyone messing with it would have to be desperate or crazy. Possibly both.

[infourbooks]

Worst case would be a lot more than just yourself wouldn't it?

[nodavinci]

Technically. But if you're not around to see it, it's not any worse on a personal scale.

[infourbooks]

Still, for the world as a whole...

[nodavinci]

Anyone who's willing to disappear people isn't someone who cares about the world as a whole. It's all personal for this guy. As long as he gets what he wants, the collateral damage doesn't matter.

[infourbooks]

Maybe those terrible things already happened and he's gone mad.

[nodavinci]

Cool motive. Doesn't excuse anything.

[infourbooks]

Well no.

[That should be obvious]