Time Stand Still
| Time Stand Still | |
|---|---|
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| Dates run: | November 3-14, 2020 |
| Run By: | Sam and Frito |
| Read the logs: | Time Stand Still |
Time stand still
Freeze this moment a little bit longer
Make each sensation a little bit stronger
Things get a little Weird around the mansion when a group shows up claiming to be from the future of an alternate dimension.
Contents
Cast
Topaz, Amanda Sefton, Marie-Ange Colbert, Doug Ramsey, Emma Frost, Jean Grey
Kevin Sydney, Betsy Braddock, Sooraya Qadir, Logan, Artie Maddicks, Clarice Ferguson, John Allerdyce, Angelo Espinosa, Maya Lincoln-Lopez.
Alternate Universe Cast: Topaz, Talia Sefton (Nocturne), Franklin Richards (Tattletale), Nate Barton (Ronin), Shogo Lee (Sentinel/White Rabbit), Shakti (Topaz), Ruby & Garnet (N/A), Ellie Colbert-Ramsey Wilson (Sombra)
Timing
Plot Summary
Topaz is approached by someone pretending to be Amanda, who tries to take her from the therapy retreat Gus Grimm sent her to. The witch drops the illusion when Topaz fights back, revealing an older, angrier, slightly crazy version of herself. the alt!Topaz drains Topaz and runs, leaving Topaz dazed.
The next day, an odd group of mutants arrives at the gates of the mansion, telling Sooraya they’re from the future and they’re there to stop something bad. While they’re waiting for someone in charge to appear, one of the strangers reveals she looks a lot like Kurt and calls Amanda “auntie”. Doug and Emma question half the group while Jean and Topaz do the same and it appears they’re telling the truth, that they’re there to stop Topaz from their future from destroying the mansion. Doug discovers one of the newcomers is his and Marie-Ange’s daughter, by way of Wade, a strange conversation between Marie-Ange, Doug and Ellie follows. Amanda’s ‘niece’ stops her to apologise for the earlier scene and reveals her name is Talia and she’s the daughter of Kurt and Wanda.
The group has various interactions with the alternate versions of their friends and family over the next few days while plans are made to take care of the other Topaz. Topaz, know her alternate self's motive is to steal her magic and get back to her own timeline, so she suggests using herself as bait. They decide to use Kevin disguised as Topaz instead.
They lure alternate Topaz into Avalon, where they corner her and bring her down, allowing Amanda to kill her. The magic people send the time traveling group home a few days later, much to everyone's relief - although some people do admit it was fun to see them.
Alt. Timeline
In July 2018, the Destines blackmail Topaz into surrendering herself to protect the mansion. Three people are killed in the rescue process — Domino, Clea, and Illyana. Marie-Ange doesn’t lose her eye, Doug doesn’t end up with a blood curse, Grace Destine still dies, and Adam Destine gets away. Ty and Stephen still escape with Topaz.
After a month, Topaz leaves the mansion, unable to live with guilt and with a renewed, burning desire for revenge. She finds Taboo and agrees to work with him again, only until Adam is dead. They achieve their goal in November 2018, and Taboo goes mad, deciding to take over the Dark path of the Way. He starts by messing with London, forcing Amanda to step in and kill him while Topaz watches. Before Amanda can stop Topaz, she runs away again. Amanda has Doug track Topaz, and they find out she’s living in India under her birth name, Kiah Saini. After a few months she disappears off the map completely, taking all her money out of her bank account and closing it down, ditching her phone and cutting off all forms of communication.
Life goes on. Over the years, rumors begin spreading about someone making deals with both sides of the Way, and people associated with either side dying — first lower people, almost nobodies, and then slowly the killer works their way up, even killing a few of the Ancient One’s people. The mansion magic crew has tried to avoid the Way as much as possible, but magic users being killed makes their radar, and they try to look into it.
In 2030, a young Indian, mutant girl named Shakti is left on the mansion doorstep with nothing but the clothes on her back and a note clutched in her hand which reads: Just take care of her —T She reveals that she’s lived with Topaz and acted as her magic battery for a year before Topaz has a crisis of conscience and snuck Shakti into the US, leaving her at the mansion for safety.
In 2033, Topaz returns to the mansion, having finally come up with a plan — to travel back in time and stop the Destines from killing her mother, therefore canceling out every single bad thing that followed. She’s found a spell, but it requires a lot of energy, namely from the people you’re trying to get back to. As Topaz has no way to access Alice’s life energy, she goes for the next best thing — her former friends and family at the mansion. She can latch onto them and follow their energy back to the time she needs, she reasons.
Wanting to make sure she has enough energy to accomplish her goals, she pulls off the life forces of many of the mansionites, ultimately killing most of the mansion. It’s a quick and brutal process — no one suffers, or is fast enough to stop Topaz. Amanda confronts her, and Topaz simply says “I’m going to fix everything” before completing the spell and disappearing. Amanda realizes Topaz’ plan, and is forced to make a terrible decision. If Topaz messes with the past, she’ll very likely break time, and no one wants to find out what happens after that. Her niece, Talia, Shakti, and little Franklin Richards volunteer to go back in time to stop Topaz. With a tentative plan in mind, they go to London, and Amanda sacrifices herself, along with half the city , to send the group back in time, as well possibly pulling some more people from various points in the timeline to send them all back. Franklin has been equipped with the means to send them back, and psionically transmitted instructions to give everyone when they land.
The good news? They end up in 2020, the same year Topaz landed in. The bad news? It is NOT their timeline.
Related Links
None.
External Links
Trivia and Meta
Trivia
While socked by Frito, Franklin Richards was partially ghost-written by Typechip (Frito's and Twiller's child who also happens to be six)
Shakti was an entirely self-indulgent character for Sam, who wanted a physical representation of how far evil!Topaz was willing to go to get what she wanted
Meta
This plot was originally conceived in 2018 during a (possibly alcohol-influenced) discussion about Topaz and morals. It took two years to follow through on due to a combination of Real Life and figuring out all the alternate universe and time travel shenanigans.
Ninety-nine percent of the log titles are from three different Rush albums, all of which include the song Time Stand Still. This was Frito's idea.
The time traveling gang was mostly based on Marvel/MCU characters (Ruby/Garnet being the only exception. They were blatantly stolen from Steven Universe, although Ruby Summers is Marvel canon). The characters were chosen based on how funny it would be to have them, how useful they would be, and how painful they would be to the XP-verse characters.
"Will this hurt?"
"Probably."
"Excellent, let's do it." - Summarized planning session
The time traveling gang was socked by: Frito (Franklin Richards), Sam (Talia Sefton), Cai (Ellie Colbert-Ramsey-Wilson), Rei (Nate Barton), Shai (Shakti), Chris (Shogo), and Twiller (Ruby & Garnet)
