Snippet #1218372

“Certainly, Miss Elois. That’s actually more my speed. The 8-Bit Phenomena. Hrm…that’s a tough one to answer, a long story indeed…” Finding it hard to explain in words, Demetri summoned up some of his odd magic to display a grid of some sort, littered with red, blue, orange, and yellow dots.

“That grid represents all of 8-Bit. The blips, as you could imagine, represent the people. See how little blue dots are left on there? At the beginning of the year, everyone in 8-Bit was blue. Now, there’s almost no blue left.” Demetri explained, with a bit of sarcasm thrown in by Xavier. “It shows how many people have had run-ins with the supernatural. Yellow to orange represents those with a bit of potential to ‘see’ the phenomena—like our chimera friend there. Red on the other hand, represents either the phenomena themselves, or you all, people with powers that is. Hints why there are so few of those there are so few of those.”

‘ Red on the other hand, represents the phenomena themselves…’ This part of the explanation stuck with Aemyle. If everyone in 8-Bit was blue at the beginning of the year then that would make her the first red blemish on Demetri’s little grid.

“You said things started changing at the beginning of the year?” Preston asked. Aemyle perked up a bit, hoping to hear the answer as well.“Why? What happened?”

Demetri bit his lip with a wince. “I still don’t know.” Disappointment caused Aemyle’s expression to droop. If he didn’t know, then how was she to learn? “December 31st, 2009. That was when I first arrived in your city…”

December 31st? She arrived only the next day- not even 24 hours later, as she appeared hear with the shouts of “Happy New Years!” in her ears.

“That explains all those weird places we’ve been. Limbo…and the Coliseum. Does that mean Alistair and Styx are…whatcha call em’, Gatekeepers, too?” Xavier inquired.

“Nah, they’re special. Anyone with a keen knowledge on the workings of the universe can open up a rift, but only us Gatekeepers can do so legally. Anyways. On that day, December 31st, I noticed that things in 8-Bit weren’t quite right. You’re ‘equilibrium’ was out of whack. You’re dimension was brushing up against other ones. This is really no biggie though, it happens all the time. Ever wonder why some people see ghosts? Or U.F.O’s and ‘aliens’? You can chalk all of those up to the dimension equilibrium.” So, was this ‘brushing up’ the cause of her transfer here? Everything she’d heard told her no. She was taken here by some force. It was as if that lightning had grabbed her…

Aemyle continued to think as Demetri rephrased the explanation for the others. Aemyle understood the concept now. 8-Bit’s dimension was out of balance, and Demetri did not know why. That unbalance caused the rifts…but could it suck a being from her home?

There was more explanation, and it turned towards the subject of their powers. Demetri suggested that the unbalance was not the cause of this, and that some outside force had given them these powers.

“You all, I’m talking Xavier, Aemyle, Preston, Charlotte, Jayx and Nym—have that little voice in the back of your head to thank. However…I have no idea who that voice could belong to.”

That voice? After Aemyle thought about it, she did think it logical that since she had those powers and that voice knew who she was, that it could have been what kidnapped her. Preston brought up the time stop from the previous night, wondering if it was linked to Demetri. Suddenly, Maverick realized something.

“Nah. It wasn’t me. But you managed to stir something in my head Preston. Those of you around last night, just as the time stopped in the district. Do any of you remember seeing another person walking through the crowd?”

Others voice their recognition of the man in question, and once they did, she also recalled that peculiar set of eyes. When she remembered them, she remembered the uncanny whistle that went with them. Might he be the owner of the voice?

“I do seem to recall a man with eyes of such description.” She made a mental note of how oddly unsure her voice suddenly sounded. It was probably just because she felt so odd about her current situation…Which brought up the question: Should she speak up now? The singer decided it would be better to speak up now, than to try to contain all of this mystery. It was not good for even a hardened Peregrinan body.

“…A-ah, Mr.Maverick…” She started, “Could one of the dimensional interferences have the capability to, say, take a person from one dimension to another, unannounced? Or would it have to be the work of this enigma with crimson eyes?”