Editing Genius The Transgression/Chapter Four:Special Rules and Systems (section)

=== Really Stupid Time Travel: ===

Messing about with yourself from a previous time travel jaunt is about the stupidest thing you can do without a death ray and a bottle of tequila. Whatever quantum coherence you naturally maintain is enough to keep you in existence while you're operating in the same time frame as a previous jaunt, but it doesn't feel good.

While in any past time frame you function much like a mane, and can go up in a puff of Havoc if not careful. In ordinary past or future time frames, this isn't a danger. However, when in a previously visited past time frame, the danger is there. Merely being in that time frame causes you to suffer from a severe Derangement as your memories get overwritten and scrambled. You must make a Havoc check (using your Inspiration as a dice pool) if you directly interact with your past echo in any way, or if your past echo sees or otherwise
clearly detects you.

This experience is worse than mere physical discomfort. Interacting with your previous time-traveling self is a hideously traumatic experience, as memories and ghost-thoughts tumble through your head, trying to sort themselves out. Even the maddest scientist knows not to interact with his previous time-traveling self, even if interacting with his younger self is perfectly fine.

----


<code>
Gabriel and Immanuel--Doctor Xenon and Professor Nebula, thirty years ago, though they're retired now, even if their metal suits are still in the basement--look out on the cityscape of Madrid, their adopted home. Gabriel has a bottle of beer in his hand. Immanuel cradles the love letters of Dr. Cadiz, which he never sent to Alice. (They are both dead now.) They watch a humanoid silhouette bound across the rooftops, black against the indigo sky.

"What's his name?" Gabriel asks.

"I think that's the Hunter for Nalexa," Immanuel says. "They have better names, now, don't you think? So evocative."

"I've heard of him."

"Mm?"

"Every time he stops a crime, he whispers to the perpetrator, 'For Lee-Chey,' and to the victim he saved, 'I'll make it better soon.'"

"Sounds crazy." Immanuel clutches the letters, old emotion striking him. "Who's Lee-Chey? A girl?"

"It took me a year to work it out," Gabriel says. "No. It's a timeline."

"Really?"

"Really. Lee-Chey is some city, or empire, currently in Asia Minor.

In some other timeline, obviously. The Hunter for Nalexa ('Nalexa' is another city, I think, or maybe a political party) wants to restore it."

"And he thinks fighting crime will do it?"

"I guess so." Gabriel sips his beer.

"They'll kill him if he tries to change the timeline," Immanuel says.

"I know," Gabriel says. "But until then..."

"Until then..."

They watch the figure as he traverses the rooftops of Madrid, black against the indigo sky.
</code>