New storyline: Jim enters the Laterworld (or, "How Jim Became An Interdimensional Traveller In The First Place")

Unending BE - episode 48126

The Laterworld... even among the Plural realities, this alt is peculiar in that it became plural somewhen along its timeline. Even its indigenous name testifies that civilization was up and awake when this happened. The inherent dangers of a world in which the laws of nature themselves change every time zone or so do not restrain alt-jumpers to seek for peculiar resources made possible by just this phenomenon; here, of course, the Enean Faction has a great advantage. The UNA's first contact with this peculiar plane is due to a realed at his first, freak-accident jump who later became famous as... 
                                        ENCYCLOPAEDIA UCHRONICA

Jim landed on soft ground. Unfortunately, the 6 meters fall is still a big enough of a thud to knock him down solid; fortunately, it takes a handful of minutes for him to wake up.

With a loud groan, he tried to get into a sitting position, just to find out that he sank a good ten centimeters into a thick mud when he landed. Thank goodness I fell face up Jim tries to say, but all that comes out of his mough is a ranting cough. Jim gets on his feet, not too fast for remaining awake but enough for his vision to blur for a moment, and loudly clears his throat.

On his left side is a three-storey building whose basement sinks right into the muddy road. The building itself is made of red bricks which still sport traces of a bright yellow paint -- a quick survey of the roof and the window frames tells him that the building is long abandoned. A strange detail strikes him -- the wood seems to be much more damaged than stone or brick. Jim turns again, to see that on the other side the wall at the roadside is but a meter tall. Jim climbs, and founds himself... in a Renaissance style square! Sure, it's tiny -- no more than seventy or eighty people could ever gather there -- but it definitely looks authentical. Three narrow streets lead away from it, and the buildings surrounding him have all the same look. A marble bridge, wide enough for two people to cross it side by side, crosses the muddy way Jim was lying in.

It's a channel! he realized. By now the sun is setting, and the dimming light makes the foul stench of the mud even worse. Jim walks to the bridge, careful of any noises. A broken steel pole stands on one of its sides; next to it, a sign. Jim looks at the pole and decides that some concussion broke it in two some time before. The metal is cheap, and it's beginning to stain, yet it's obviously much newer than the rest of this surreal cut of landscape.

Jim takes the sign, hoping that one side is still readable. It is. A round sticker, worn years before, has left a large greysh mark on the yellow paint and the corners show rust, but Jim can still make out the sign.

 PONTE DEGLI UCCELLI -- 1429. Restaurato 1994.
"Restaurato... I wonder if it means 'Restored?'" he asks the wind. It takes little for a learned boy such as Jim to figure out where he is -- the buildings, the channel, the sign in Italian... this has to be Venice.

Jim decides that all of his questions -- how he got here, what happened to the city, how much time has elapsed -- can wait: the sun is already behind the buildings, and although it's stil very warm he needs to find shelter for the upcoming night. With a sigh, he walks down one of the narrow alleys, as the wind whistles through the abandoned city, and the dograts begin to squeal at the falling sun.

  1. *More to come later (i'd like to make this an action/travel storyline with light BE when the laws of nature allow it, and when Jim finds a suitable companion)
Go back - Go to the parent episode.

Conrad Volkov

Tue Nov 16 15:11:17 1999