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[Yuri_Prime]

   Deep within the Gunsmoke Complex, a figure sits on a well kept chair, sipping warm tea from a cup of fine china. The figure has the distinctive silouette of Yuri, Soviet Esper and Head of House Octagon. Surrounding him are plaques and pictures, of places and times long gone and distant.

   As always, in a dim corner lay the future of the Esper project, a cylinder within which the Octagon is conducting an experiment most foul and corrupt, but one that he will accomplish, for he already knows the result. Sitting on his shoulder, half-asleep, is a felinoid creature who can best be described as "A living hand-painting".

   “Yes, Esper…” Yuri comments to the creature, motioning to a black-and-white photograph of a young child, barely eight. The child is standing at attention, and waving behind him is a gray flag, with a hammer and a sickle, crossed, in one corner. “That was me, as a youth in one of the Esper Camps.”

   The felinoid perks up at the mention of its name, but just as immediately perks back to normal when it determines that it was not being called by name. “It was started to identify paranormal capabilities in children and encourage their growth, rather then ignore or prohibit them. Rather then encouraging children that what they were seeing wasn’t real, children of the Esper project were informed that the good of the Soviet Union can often hinge on a hunch, or a vision, and that any such episodes were to be reported.”

   Yuri moves to another section of the room, with a certificate written in Cyrillic, which Yuri reads to her, “Certificate of Loyalty to the Soviet Union. I received this when I was 10, two years after indoctrination into the Esper Program. 1917, the year the workforce united. I thought I heard stray thoughts in the minds of others, and if I thought about it hard enough, I could tell what people really were thinking…”

   Yuri’s childhood… thoughts of a small wooden home, more of a glorified shack if nothing else. A small child, perhaps ten years, sits at a table to eat. His mother, a beautiful woman with long black hair and bright eyes, and his father, a strong man built from years of labor. Outside, it is snowing, as it usually was. The coal stove gave some warmth, and now with Comrade Lenin unifying the workforces, father would never be out of work again.

   Mamma and Poppa were arguing about something else, they were always arguing. Though this time it was different. The argument seemed to fade into the background, the sounds were muted, distant… In that moment, the child learned how Mamma made ends meet. He learned how she always managed to makes ends meet while Pappa, a devout Bolshevik, struggled to earn enough to make any means.

   Yuri sets his tea down, “Mother’s thoughts were of great rewards, and greater opportunities… with the Provisional Government”

   Esper, quiet up until now, gives a soft *mrow* and nudges Yuri’s chin with her forehead, to which Yuri replies by skritching said forehead, “No tears, Esper.” and moves to the next picture, one of a pale, sickly gentleman and a now older Yuri, perhaps around his mid-teens. “Comrade Lenin. He was a father to the fatherless. He fell deathly ill, and asked that a few of the aspired Espers, including myself, be there for his last orders prior to his retirement. He asked us to continue the project, and to always be strong.”

   Yuri’s glance slides across a series of blueprints, “When we first tested the Dominator, we chose to test it on our own people, so as to not raise the eye of the world’s nations. A small town by the name of Rostov, picked because of its size and relative isolation. The first test killed twenty three people, their minds simply detonated. The political officers on duty commended the work, but since that wasn’t the function of the device… I told them that it was a failed test. The device wouldn’t be ready for another two years, though at least by that point, the Dominator stopped killing its targets.”

   Esper hovers off of Yuri’s shoulder, hovering back towards the photo of Lenin, and paws at it with an inquisitive mrowl. “Saddly, no. Lenin passed from illness a year too soon to see it work. He wanted me there at his bedside for his last moments. He felt that by watching a man die, it would ease the burden later in life. I would become accustomed to death.” Yuri just nods, putting a gloved hand on the case holding the myriad of medals and awards…Esper gives a concerned *mrow* to which Yuri merely replies, “That and more, dear child. That and more.”

   “Once the Dominator was functional, we pressed on, learning about the incidents overseas by our spies. July 12, 1925…” Yuri taps a newspaper clipping in a well preserved frame, “…Lightning Strike destroys American ammo depot. Coincidence? No, Esper. The Allies were testing their prototype Weather Control station. A failure, but not their worst. That wouldn’t happen until around almost ten years later, where their failure would be nothing less then catastrophic. Droughts consumed their mid-western states, and the soil turned to dust. It would take the intervention of this man…” he taps another photograph, “…Comrade Albert Einstein, to correct the device and return the weather patterns to normal.”

   Esper’s eyes were wide with doubt, its mind simultaneously filled with fears that man would build such things to control nature so haphazardly, and curiosity as to what happened afterwards.

   “It escalated, quickly. Stalin was a powerful leader, exactly what the Soviet people needed. Several times enemy nations raided our research centers for details of our V-3 Rocket system, our atomic readiness tests, our atomic weapons program…All that fell when Stalin’s dream died. Stalin drove the Soviet war-machine ever eastern, rolling up Germany, France, and his eye was fixed on all of Europe, when it was all silenced… He was killed by American insurgents, and swiftly replaced by their own controllable puppet, Sergei Romanov.” Yuri motions to a portrait of a portly man, not plump, just slightly overweight. “He was easy to control, easy to persuade. With a few choice suggestions he was soon following in Stalin’s dream. Rolling over Poland, sweeping through Germany, and with a joint invasion in the Americas, there was no one ready to immediately resist…”

   Yuri runs his hand over a photo of a city. Brickwork buildings, streetcars, a massive bridge, a huge clock tower…

   “London was beautiful… once. ”

   Soviet military personnel gathered along the observation post, the first true application of the most horrible weapon ever devised was to be tested this day. The bombers headed out in a distractionary formation, allowing the new V3 a clear path to London. The bombers, massive helium-filled armored blimps, were slow and ponderous, but could take more punishment then a tank. Slowly they lumbered, drawing the anti-aircraft fire away from the target sight, and in a streak the V3 launched. It sped across the English Channel like Apollo...

   The citizenry of London knew the drill well: When the Air Raid sirens whine, find yourself a bunker and wait for the All Clear. Mothers and daughters, sons and fathers, often separated at the time of the siren, would be reunited afterwards, and then talk of their time in the shelter with strangers. A little girl looked up at her "Shelter Partner" and started to cry. The woman put her hands on the little girl's shoulders and smiled. "It's okay, little one. It'll all be over soon..."

   The missile turned, then fell from the heavens like Icarus, and then there was white...

   Yuri skritches under Esper’s chin, “Innocence can only be tainted, never returned… there were no heroes in this war, only victims, and neither side saw this, they were only concerned with victory. Sciences pushed harder, and morals took a side step as nationalism stepped forward. The number of civilian casualties was unimportant so long as a military victory was achieved.”

   Yuri’s hand strays to the picture again, “The ash covered the land for miles, and when the dust settled, London was gone. ‘Sunrise at Midnight’, that was what I called the sight… Once the invasion of America began, her allies needed to be destroyed as well. England, France, Germany, all of them our enemies. Research pushed, resources strained, and through it all, our one chance of true victory was in the hands of the Allies themselves.”

   Esper’s head cocked to the side, to which Yuri motioned to a specific set of blueprints, and a tiny scale model. Esper hovered over by the model, softly pawing at it while giving a curious mrow. Yuri explained, “During the first Great War, the Allies had a device known as a Chronosphere, though in its hasty construction it was flawed… imperfect to say the least. The device could transport physical matter through time and space, allowing for instantaneous troop deployment, but the effect was only truly stable on inorganic matter, or organic matter housed within the same, say … troop transports. That, and the effect was limited. Comrade Einstein’s corollary to temporal stability demanded that the objects return to their original time and space in seven and a half minutes. Though, the true terror of the Chronosphere’s usage…”

   Images of history flash in, thoughts of a tornado of blues and whites, a storm of screams and memories. Bolts of lightning arcing through the air, and rather then electrocuting those that they struck, the bolts erased their targets from history. Entire lineages erased as a tear in time and space roamed across the battlefield, and then, just as suddenly as it appeared, it was gone, though due to its nature, very rarely was it even remembered that it ever occurred. Theories existed that the ‘Chronostorm’ was finished prior to beginning, but the results were obvious…

   “The Allies had perfected the Chronosphere for the purposes of troop transport, and their single most effective infantry unit would be spawned by the usage of the Chronosphere, the Chrono-Legionnaire. To counter this, we unloaded our nuclear payloads at civilized areas while using the Psychic Dominator to herd civilians into the area. We altered the very genetic structure of our own conscripts, turned human beings into sub-degenerate creatures…”

   Yuri turns to look away from the wall, away from the memories… “We were monsters. We were racing for control of the present, while the Allies had plans to use a perfected Chronosphere to travel to the past to stop the war before it ever happened. We couldn’t allow that! I gathered a strike force of the most elite conscripts and specialist troops and went to storm Einstein’s laboratory in Philadelphia. Our Desolator troops poisoned the land, their gamma cannons obliterating the facility’s elite guard, our Apocalypse tanks demoralized and destroyed any armor opposition, while our Terror Drones made suitable replacements for attack dogs, sniffing out the remaining population of the facility to ensure its complete occupation.”

   Esper sat, her head tilted slightly, though Yuri continued, “We fought our way deep into the facility, encountering troops that were being shunted in from past, present, and future tenses, and we finally made it into the heart… Einstein’s Chrono-Chamber…”

   Another memory, of a chamber vast and massive, like a hollowed out mountain, with white walls and mirrors everywhere. Set in the exact center of the chamber was a sphere that looked like it was made of rectangular jig-saw pieces, around which on a ring were other, far smaller spheres of similar composition. The entire complex hummed with a soft, mechanical tone, and was illuminated by the very spheres themselves. Conscripts rush into the scene, automatic rifles blazing away, muzzle flashes lighting up the room. Tesla troopers, commandos wearing man-portable electric coils, lumber in, their thick insulation suits spark as small arms fire richochets off the suit.

   Outside the complex, fully away from the firefight, was a contingent of Tesla Commandos, and Yuri himself. The Esper, now almost worthy of the title of “Prime”, stared deep into the mountain, penetrating rock, stone, flesh, and ideal. He concentrated for a moment, and then spoke five simple words…”We fight to the last.”

   A steady hum begins, the gauntlet of the Tesla Suit begins to glow, and an arc of lightning streaks from the gauntlet, striking an American GI.

   The GI’s name was Martin Williams, he was married and had three children, a son and two daughters, waiting for him at home. In a flash, his entire life passed before him… graduation, falling in love, sneaking out late at night, enlisting, training… all the careers and tours of duty…

   Utterly and completely gone.

   The arc electrocuted the GI within a heartbeat, the direct AC current leaving a charred corpse and the smell of ozone in the air. The hounds were reluctant to act due to the pungent smell of the result, but soon their barking and screaming conscripts echoed in the chamber.


   The flash of lightning, the clap of thunder, the brilliant dazzle of a muzzle, the bark, the blast, the stench. The allied forces were broken, their line of defense faltering.

   “Sir!” called out a marine to his superior, “They’ve broken through, we have to withdraw!” Though, the marine’s eyes grew wide as his superior unholstered his sidearm, and in a practiced motion put a bullet directly in the marine’s brainpan.

   “We fight to the last…”

   It was over in five minutes, but ages passed in that time. Once the area was secure, the all clear was given and the remaining troops descended…

   “We used a series of hijacked passcodes to activate the device, and agreed to send one person back, the one person who had the knowledge of how the Dominators worked, of how to construct the Puppet Master System, of how to counter every move the Allies would make.” Yuri pauses…”They sent me. I entered the chrono-chamber, ready to make good on the promise I made to a dying man, a promise to make the Soviet Union strong. As the chamber started to activate, spheres charged with chronotelemtronic particles hummed as they sailed past, spinning and circling at breathtaking speeds, whirring and spinning, to dizzying speeds…

   The middle-aged Esper stood on the threshold of infinity, the literal crossroads of all times, all places. Then in a barrage of force, Allied forces stormed the chamber. Gunfire blazed, bullets flew, and just as soon as it was taken, the Chrono-chamber was retaken, by the Americans. The soldiers did not know how to halt the process, for indeed it could not be stopped. The sphere had already gathered too many chrono-particles. They hacked the system, and tried to set conflicting coordinates, then one by one they stopped, turned, and tried to open fire on their compatriots. Realizing exactly who was in the chamber, the Americans all lunged for the console, setting any destination they could in the shortest amount of time…

   Sixty Five Million BC, in the region that would eventually be Manhattan.

   640 BC, in the region that would eventually be Peru.

   1480 AD, in Australia’s outback.

   2175 AD, in the Principality of New Kansas.

   The console began to flicker, and sparks flew from each terminal. There was a hollow scream, and the lights died. In several minutes, the power would return, and the entire facility was gone. No bodies, no stench, nothing…

   Esper floated up, spun around a point a bit, then landed with a soft thump, to which Yuri nodded with a chuckle, “To a point, yes. I found myself here, in this place. The Nexus. I was met by Cassie McCullen, and was introduced to the House of Octagon, and the rest, well, is history.”

   Yuri turns and looks away for a moment’s time, Esper floats up, lands on Yuri’s shoulder, and nuzzles his cheek. “You are right, perhaps, “ The soviet says, “For there is much work that needs to be done, and we shall do it…”   Yuri puts his gloved hand on the glass tube housing the developing proto-sentience of Esper. The green nutrient fluid thins slightly, showing the still-developing form of the felinoid creature that exactly resembles the animated sentience that rests upon Yuri’s shoulder. Limbs that are half formed twitch, bone that has half set moves, eyes that are half-formed focus, but a mind that is razor sharp reacts.

   The creature on Yuri’s shoulder mrows, it's voice speaks through the ether as a voice of the mind and soul, its voice a childish female voice of wonder and awe, of sorrows and pains, of experience and naivety…

   “…Together.”

[Jon Stone]

As Yuri wanders the lab he feels a prickling in the back of his mind.  Static coming in over a telopathic link.  Just as Yuri finishes his trip down memory lane the static fades and the voice of Jon Stone can be heard in the back you Yuri's head.  "Hmmm, you'll have to excuse me for barging in like this Yuri, i never quit managed to get establishing the link right during my conditioning on Titan, almost cost me too.  But thats not important right now.  I couldn' help but catch little snips of what u were thinking about before i managed to get the link fully connected.  I know the day u talk of, it was in the history books we were taught from as children, I warned Enstien about it when i found myself on your Earth.  We tried everything we could to speed up the time table.  We tried reducing the cronotometric particle containment feild but that cause the time stream in about a 5 mile radius of the facility to skip and stutter slightly.  We tried building the perfected Chronosphere on top of the existing imperfect one, but there were to many differences in how the manipulation of Chronotemetric particles was carried out to make it work.  Hell we even tried to replace some of the metal components with plastic to  cut production time, but the parts were too vunerable."

Images of Jon and Enstiens' attempts at haste slowly pass between the minds of Jon Stone and Yuri.

"It was useless though.  We ended up wasting more time on failed plans than we would have just building the thing right the first time.  This was the undoing of the Allies on the Earth i saw.  The Chronoshpere was just barely active when the word reached us about the Soviets final push on the base.  there was no more time for tests, no time to wonder if what we had built would work as wel as we liked.  I personally volunteered to test the machine.  I had spent months calculating the location of my Earth on the interdemensional map of the multi-verse, or hell i thought i had calculated it.  The problem with Theoretical Dementional Mapping is there is no such thing, we had to make it up as we went.  The thunderous roar of the Armegedon Tank and the screams of dying G.I.s could be heard throughout the facility.  We began the what would be the first and final use of the perfect Chronosphere.  Enstien began activating the monsterous machine and i quickly entered my destination into the nav. computer.  I entered the Chronoshpere as Enstien flipped the last few levers and began the final count down.  No sooner had the word eight left his mouth than the Soviets busted through the door the Chronochamber, shooting Einstien dead instantly and damaging the nav. computer.  It was like the world moved in slow motion.  The door exploded inward, followed by a hail of gun fire.  Conscripts poored into the room shooting anything and everything that wasn't theirs.  Lead ripped through Einstien as he stood staring as all his hard work was destroyed.  As he fell he turned ever so slightly towards me, our eyes caught for a breif moment while the light of life still burned in them.  They screamed at me in agony, a never ending wail of despare as all was lost of the Allies.  but there was no time to help, nothing i could have done except die.  I hit the final button and in a blink i was transported through space and time.  My body torn apart a thousand times over, each time my soul being pulled out through a fine metal screan.  I fell into infinite pieces, each particle of me wanting to to a different time and place all at once.  The pain seemed last forever untill finaly i found myself whole again back here in the Nexus.  I can never forget my time on Earth becuase it was my fault things went so horribly wrong.  If i had never tried to help the Chronosphere's construction time would have been greatly reduced and mabey the allies would have had a chance.  We were so busy worrying about how to build it fast we never thought it may be faster to just do it right the first time.  I managed to bring back with me the blue prints for the Chronosphere, but they're incomplete, a piece was lost while i was coming here, some of the information was erased somehow."

[Dr. Steed]

A blur of resequencing photons occurs, rendering the image of Eriska Steed.

"For it is not written - wheresoever there shall be a time-traveller, there shall be all time-travellers," she says with uncharacteristic somberness. "And their offspring," she smiles at the feline Esper.

"Father was involved in something very similar, Yuri," she says. "The war was going to be lost. Project: Statistical Probabilities reported a likely death-toll of 900 billion Federation citizens and five generations of enslavement by the Dominion. Section 31 - the covert-operations branch of Starfleet - took this projection and went to war against it.

"The short version is... Father and his colleague, Dr. Beckett, constructed a time-machine with the hope of going back to stop the Dominion War before it happened. Dr. Beckett was deleted from the timeline, and Father was thrown into the Nexus."

She sighs, with an odd wistful air. "Mucking about with time is inherently dangerous... but it can work for the good. *We're* here now... to continue the work others began. And... I think they knew that."

She walks over to near where Yuri sits and finds an empty table-space. She reaches behind her back, in that "pulling out a hammer" way that Toons have, and brings out a gold plaque. As she looks at it, she recites:

"Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in the old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal-temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

The plaque is large - about the size of a sheet of typing-paper turned sideways - and is badly damaged. The surface is carbon-scored, punctured back-to-front, and the metal itself is warped. The surface is, however, legible. It reads:

"I think he'd want you to have this," she says to Yuri. She places the plaque on the table.

(OOC: It's not a Manifest Object. The plaque is real - a Null Item, I suppose, though there's no Item Card for it - and she pulled it out of a Portable Hole.)

[CassieMcCullin]

"Those are very interesting words. For some reason, they're familiar to me..." Cassie is standing in the doorway, in loose-fitting clothing that doesn't really conceal her stomach. The mechanical arms have been detached.

"I feel we should take those words to heart. As individuals, we all have our personal projects. But as a House, we have nothing. Before each of you arrived, Octagon had a few projects. I don't think any of them are appropriate anymore, but that doesn't mean we can't start something new. Something lasting, not just for us but future Avatars." Her hand rests on her belly, while she leans against the doorframe. "I have two things in mind, and if you're willing to try, I think with this group we could do it. This is the most stable batch of Octagon I've seen in a long time."

[Frigemall]

The comunicator in Yuri's lab begins to beep, "Yuri this is Cardinal Frig'emall, is this a good time?"

[Jon Stone]

Yuri feels the mental link between him and Jon break.

Outside Gunsmoke a brilliant light shines for a second and then fades leaving Jon standing there.  He walks to the door, inside, and down to Yuri's lab.

"What did u have in mind cassie?  I had a few ideas myself."

[Yuri_Prime]

Esper gives a cheerful *mrow* at Eriska when addressed. Yuri looks from Eriska to Cassie, to his communicator, then back. Esper gives his cheek a nuzzle, which breaks him from his reverie. He accepts the plaque with both hands, gazing up it, looking at words that were not to be written for hundreds of years from the moment the war ended. It gives it a sense of finality... Time travel used to win a war, time travel used to end it...

"I thank you, Eriska. I have heard nothing but stories about your father, and I long for the day when I can shake his hand, and tell him stories. Of what has happened, of what could be, and most importantly... What a fine avatar his daughter has become." Yuri rises and finds a blank spot on his wall, amidst the medals and proclaimations, he hands the plaque up as best the metal's warp will allow.

He then addresses his communictor, "Comrade Frig'em'all, for a friend, there is always time." He smirks, apparently that term will always weasel its way into a conversation.

Then he looks over at Jon and Cassie, and nods, "Doctor Stone... Comrade Cassie... I trust the term is coming along well?" Yuri motions to the swollen stomach. "Perhaps, during less hectic times, if you wish to monitor the child's development I will be more then happy to assist, but at the more immediate, you are correct. As individuals, we have our own projects, though as you said, *Octagon* has nothing of a lasting legacy, nothing for future avatars to gaze upon and wonder, nothing to benefit. Something that, cycles down the line, Avatars will gather at it and say "Thank the Progenitors for Octagon" or something of that accord..."

Yuri smirks, his gloved hand unconsciously patting the portrait of Lenin, "Though, it sounds as though you may already have something in mind?"

[CassieMcCullin]

"All is going well, thank you, Yuri." Cassie pauses "I am unsure of what any of you know of the past history of Octagon. There have been many names to come and go... Rumble, Vector, Ronnie Creed, Grey, Kerrigan, 0xdeadbeef, Rook, J.L., Prometheus, EM Talon, even Lucas Jamison... All of these people, the ones come and gone and the ones forgotten, and the ones before there was an Octagon, have contributed to this. Many cycles ago, there existed something called the Nexus Computer."

Cassie motions for the Octagons to follow her to the rarely-used elevator, and steps in. (OOC: I'm assuming everyone follows. If not, well, she continues as long as at least one person does.) "I am unsure of the exact form it took. I know that many like us used it to do what Fleming does now - gather information. But there was more to it. Vector tried to probe it deeper, and paid the ultimate price for his failure." Cassie plugs herself into the jack on the panel for sub-basement 5, and the elevator decends. "When I met with Rumble, he told me it had been destroyed. Naturally, there is only one course of action for those like ourselves."

The elevator opens to a dark room, cramped, cold, and filled with the heart of Gunsmoke - Straylight. The machinery is of all types - from steam technology to the Star Trek universe. Through it all, faintly glowing circuits seem to form the shape of mystical symbols (OOC: for anyone who is familiar with them, they're varying voodoo veves.)

"We must rebuild the Nexus computer."

She motions the Octagons further in. "I can duplicate the functions of the old computer that we knew, but it doesn't use the same method. The old computer was a part of the Nexus itself - a manifestation of it, if you will. We have the technology: what we need is a way to link it to the fabric of the Nexus."

She pauses again and lets the Octagons look around. "There are other focal points in the Nexus, things that seem able to tap into that fabric. The Standing Circuit, Bonehenge, and Stonehenge. Three of the genres represented. As you know, the Circuit alone can be used to create entire new realities like our Red State. If we could find all six, and link them through Straylight... We may succeed in recreating the Nexus Computer. Even if we do not succeed at that, imagine what we could create."

[Jon Stone]

Jons face brightens the more Cassie talks, when she finally done speeking Jon'll speek,"Cassie, this is exactly what i was looking to talk to you about earlier.  I also believe we could use Godolympus as the toonic focal point.  But how do u intend on tying them all into Straylight, and not only in a machanical way but also in letting their various owner and or protectors allow u to do this.  If the Amber Code has it's say i doubt very much they'd want us do any form of tampering from standind circut.  Then again we could always trie recreating the computer in Red State like we tried with the Zany/Quantum experiment."

[Frigemall]

He then addresses his communictor, "Comrade Frig'em'all, for a friend, there is always time." He smirks, apparently that term will always weasel its way into a conversation.

I was hoping to come and talk to you about a proposition made to me by Socket. I will await the teleport sequence if you are able.

[Yuri_Prime]

The Soviet nods, "Given the current state of the Nexal politic, the Amber Code may be hesitant to allow anyone to approach, let alone someone with the theoretical equivilant of a land-line. Bonehenge, I believe, is the easiest of the focal points to start with, considering the current state of affairs between ourselves and Lugosi. As for the remaining focal points, they must be researched, located, and accessed. I anticipate that the method of access will inevitably vary from one focal point to the next, from the macabre and sinister for Bonehenge to perhaps something whimsical and non-sensical for the toonic focal point. For that, perhaps we should consult either Commidant Lovious or..."

Yuri looks at the archaic radio communicator he carries as Cardinal Frig'em'all's voice rings out.

"Or the good Cardinal... His aspiration to construct the Vatician of the Immaculate Boom could be a good place to start research into a toonic focal point. I shall schedule a meeting, but not immediately. Whatever Socket wants to destroy can easily wait until our business here is concluded..."

Yuri picks up his communicator, an archaic hand-held radio of sorts, "Comrade Frig'em'all, I will need perhaps ten minutes."

He puts the radio down, but leaves it so that should Frig'em'all reply, he will hear it.

"The names mentioned are names that I have read of in the archives of Octagon. So that they will never be forgotten, we must strive to complete and repair the great machine..."

Yuri counts off, "There is Bonehenge, Stonehenge, and the Standing Circuit. The Amber Code may be adverse to allow us to simply connect to them, but I know that as of the last Council meeting Aiskon had plans to speak to the Amber Code in some attempt at a diplomatic mission, or a veiled fact finding expedition. I shall ask her what she knows about the Amber Code, and how best to deal with them. As for Stonehenge, I am on amicable terms with most, if not all, of the Nexus. I will be willing to volunteer to assemble any and all information concerning focal points, the location of possible focal points, and all that would be entailed... " he motions to Cassie, "Your knowledge of Nexal physics far outclasses my own, so any such methods of linking these sites to the machine would be in your hands, though I know that should it call for it, my services, and dare I say..." Yuri looks to Jon, then to Eriska, then back to Cassie, "The services of Octagon itself are at your disposal."

[Frigemall]

Yuri looks at the archaic radio communicator he carries as Cardinal Frig'em'all's voice rings out.

Yuri picks up his communicator, an archaic hand-held radio of sorts, "Comrade Frig'em'all, I will need perhaps ten minutes."

He puts the radio down, but leaves it so that should Frig'em'all reply, he will hear it.

OK, I will be standing by, Cardinal Frig'emall out.

[Dr. Steed]

Eriska looks oddly at home in the Datacenter From Hell, then goes agog at the idea of The Ultimate Computer ("kid at Christmas" reaction).

As the conversation goes forward, Eriska progressively looks more thoughtful.

"Lemme just make sure I'm up to speed here. Bonehenge, Stonehenge, and the Circuit - covering Goth, Fantasy, and Tech. Half of what we'd need - we're short Toon, Terran, and Supers. And of those we have, they're all World Echoes, right? Not Domains or Territories or something else?"

[Jon Stone]

"I don't know if those are all world echos actually," Jon says, "But at the last gathering Yuri, Cassie, Cardinal Frig'em All, and myself were discussing an alternate theory on how to build the nexus computer.  We could build a unified circut.  One gate for each avatar type.  Then we could even take things one step further and make sure to put the Unified Circut on a place that was a focal point for the energies by tracing the laylines of power in the nexus."

[Yuri_Prime]

"Then, fellow Octagon, our course of action lay before us. We should plot the site first, map out where we want this, shall we call it, Unified Circuit. We'll need a map of the portions of proper containing the three pre-existing sites. As for construction, we have a majority of what we already need right within the Houses. Octagon and Lugosi already account for roughly sixty percent of the requirements. All that is required is a representitive of the Terran genome, and a representitive of the Fantasy genome."

"We already have the location. Once the site is surveyed, and the construction begins... well, there's no telling what our creation will be capable of."

Yuri pulls out his pocket watch, and checks the time. He seems surprised by the time he sees, mutting to himself something about being marvelously ahead of schedule.