001 - [VIDEO] | UN: HAMMERTIME

[forgeabettertomorrow]

[There's a number of false starts here. The video blipping on to a green eye then cutting out. Then snapping back on to a shock of blue hair.]

How the hell does this thing wo—

[Nope, it's out again.]

[One more time now. The picture is askew and there's a tall, blue-haired man tapping the lens of the camera, tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth. Some of you may recognize him from the training grounds at the Red Spring. He was the one going around asking people to hurt him. You know. Like a crazy person.]

Okay, is it working? Screw it.

So, this thing is some sort of communicator, right? Well, for those of you who can see this, the name's Darin Altway, Master Blacksmith, at your service.

Now, I know we're all here for ~magical~ reasons and whatnot, but if this world is anything like mine, then you guys are gonna need top notch gear to prevent you from.

Y'know.

Dying.

And that's where I come in! Like I said, I'm a Master Blacksmith, and I'm here to offer up my services! I might not have a forge set up, but that doesn't mean I can't perform general maintenance, and if anyone can point me to some resources, I can start stockpiling!

Comments

[thepattern]

Exactly that. There are infinite-- as you said, limitless-- shadows, with any possible number of differences between them. There's a shadow of Anmaral out there where you have red hair, not blue. There's a shadow where you're a carpenter instead of a blacksmith. There's a shadow of Anmaral where everything is exactly the same, but you were never born. Any possibility you can think of, there's a place where it exists.

[ What he doesn't go on to explain is that he and his family have the ability to control, manipulate, and traverse those limitless possibilities. ]

[forgeabettertomorrow]

...That's...kind of a hard pill to swallow. But I think I get it.

So...just because this Avalon is different from some of the others you know, it doesn't necessarily make it sinister in anyway...

...Except for the fact that it seems to be the only world that's not perma-frozen. Not that can even be independently verified...

[He's back to writing notes in his notebook again. Darin might be impulsive and sometimes downright goofy, but he always tries to at least have a fundamental understanding of things. Not understanding something renders his perspective lacking...and being able to see multiple facets to any given situation is just his nature.]

Sorry...I didn't mean to zonk out there. It's just...a lot to take in. There's so many questions here and not nearly enough answers.

[thepattern]

It's nothing you have to apologize for.

[ Corwin can't help but think fondly of Ganelon's reaction when he had first ridden him out of the true Avalon, so long ago. And then his continued reaction when he and Corwin followed the black road through shadow.

...But of course, that wasn't really Ganelon. Corwin's expression hitches as he spares a thought to his departed father, a man who he only felt he began to know just before the end of his life. ]

Anyway, as I was saying, most people spend their whole lives only aware of the shadow-- the world they're living in. It's rarer to be aware of the multiverse, let alone to traverse it.