Ommatidia » Mario

Mario

Brendan — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:00:08 +0000

Defusing a time bomb is tricky business even if the many-worlds interpretation doesn’t hold, and Mario isn’t helping.

“Have you ever done this before?” he asks, trying to get a better look.

“In simulations,” mutters Girard. Sweat accretes under his ears and armpits.

“Which wire do you think you should cut?”

“Ask me in thirty seconds,” says Girard, cutters poised.

Mario twists his watch and jumps forward. “Which wire do you think you should cut?” he asks again.

Girard lolls at him, skinless, his jaw across the room somewhere.

“Well?” says Girard when he returns.

“Not that one,” Mario says.

Mario

Brendan — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 15:00:35 +0000

Mario shimmers into being, shakes off the chronoference nausea and sticks his hand out, waiting for a newspaper to blow into it.

Eventually he opens his eyes. His hand remains empty.

“Goddamn collapse of print media!” he swears.

One of the guys sitting on a nearby cafe patio raises his eyebrow. “What’s the matter?” he asks. “Lose your job?”

“Not exactly,” mutters Mario. “Um. I don’t suppose you have the date?”

“1-20-2018,” says Mako.

“Wow!” says Mario. “Thanks!”

Mako grins. “Now how about you give me your digits?”

“Sure!” says Mario. “But they won’t work until you invent ansibles.”

Chronastromy HQ Officer Training: Final Exam

Brendan — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 12:00:07 +0000

Name	Mario L.
Student ID#	1445

Questions will be projected onto your HUD; answer below.

Alternative 1: Arrange war loan forgiveness in the early 1930s and allow Germany to overcome poverty on its own terms

Alternative 2: Deutschland Über Antidepressants

Alternative 3: Fix Mr. H up with some nice young Austrian boy and avoid all that frustration

Alternative 4: Get Princip arrested and avert WWI instead

Alternative 5: Track down the blighted philosophy professor who first came up with this little chestnut and impress upon him in childhood, very strongly, how box-brained the whole idea of time-traveling murder is

Jr. Time Engineer

Brendan — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 12:39:11 +0000

Date: 2019-09-22, 0839 UST

Chronastromy HQ is hiring! The leading presearch organization in this timestream needs talented, driven individuals to tackle the most exciting problems comprehensible by the mortal mind. Find yourself inventing a new verb tenses? Ever tried to kill a cat by observing it? Chronastromy Engineering is the place for you.

Qualifications:

BS in Temp Sci, Cosmogony or other related field (MS preferred)
2-4 subjective years TT experience
Demonstrated ability to respond quickly to changing situations
For example, show up before this posts and you’re hired

Compensation: DOE

yes — It’s OK to repost this message elsewhen

Rasmussen

Brendan — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 12:33:36 +0000

“Any way to break out of it?” frowns Rasmussen.

“It’d take more energy than has ever existed in this universe,” shrugs a Whitecoat. “Nothing new for us, but in this pocket it’s unpredictable. Could go möbius, maybe turn us all into c-squared…”

Rasmussen shakes his head. “Not worth it. Okay, run some edge-case sims and keep trying to drop substream messages to Mario–he’ll know where to look.”

“The sims will take a few hours.”

“Hours we’ve got,” says Rasmussen drily.

The Whitecoat smiles. “Well, we are in a timeloop.”

“Any way to break out of it?” frowns Rasmussen.