2 ¤ Banker's Post

[deadlybanker]

[Video]

[It is a very solemn Giovanni who addresses everyone today. Maybe it’s due to the cold which, admittedly was a problem that even an extra wrap could not quite solve, but more likely it was due to the book on Renaissance history that was sitting open faced on his lap. He had finally found the time to read the book he had traded Cat (a.k.a. Arya Stark) for and the manuscript held a grim glimpse into the future. ]

We are brought here, told that changing the past is the way to correct the future but I find myself wondering if that is true. Has anything that has been done really been for the best? Those who were native in Exsilium before our arrival have been nearly entirely wiped from history. Instead of correcting the troubles with these ‘nuclear bombs’ we have only plunged the planet into a deep cold. Now we are told we must do more of these missions to gather supplies and correct these new problems. Does it ever end?

I wonder how many of you agree with this. Is changing the past in this manner something you feel is right?

[His voice took on an even softer tone as he thought back on what he had read. ]

What would you do if you had future knowledge of a terrible event? Would you journey to the past to stop it from happening or would you be too concerned it might cause something even worse to occur?

Comments

[phaseshifted]

[There's a topic she finds herself compelled to respond to.]

If there wasn't a way to fight it in the here and now, I'd see what came from that event, both good and bad, and consider how widespread the effects would be from changing things that significantly. If they can be contained, then by all means, the event should be taken care of...It's a situation that requires a lot of thought and care before you commit to your decision.

[deadlybanker]

If it were an event that could be fought now there would be little problem, but what if this event happened decades ago? For every one else it would be a historic fact something they even learned about in schools, but for others it is their very near future... or at least it was until they were brought here.

[He is talking in riddles and not making much sense. He knows this. ]

[voice]

[unholy_rebirth]

[Thereth likes thoughtful solemn conversations!]

I have been thinking about time travel often lately...actually, I have used it before to rectify situations. [That's something you don't hear everyday, amirite?]

But, now that I think of it...we were always correcting the meddling of others in the timestream. Not doing it ourselves.

[voice]

[deadlybanker]

[Good thing, because Giovanni is having a moment of that! ]

I suppose some would say we might be correcting the meddling of United Earth. I was told they started traveling through time first and the Initiative only followed to stop them.

[No, not many have claimed that! It makes him something of an expert. ]

I know there are no easy answers but how did you know your actions, when you traveled through time, would help correct the timeline instead of causing more trouble?

[badnewsboy]

[leaning forward toward the camera, his arms folded. his fiendish looking eyebrows quirk just a bit.]

You believe the future and the past are different? Haven't you seen that Midgardian moving film where they go back to the future to fix the past? There was a theme song! It was the power of love!

[deadlybanker]

A moving film? I am afraid I do not know what that is.

[That would be a 'no'. ^^ ]

How can the past and future be the same though? They forced apart by distance, are they not?

[transuniversal]

It requires neither money nor fame.

[Yeah let's do this thing, buddy.]

[transuniversal]

I have been part of a mission to the future to stop a terrible event from happening. As we knew it would already break everything if we did nothing, there was no harm in the trying.

[deadlybanker]

You were successful and your mission set the future back onto the right course. If it could be said there is a 'right' course for history.

What would you do then if you knew a dictator, some one who would harm many people, had come to power in the past? What if you were given the chance to correct that?

voice;

[getoffmyearth]

Having had someone come back to do exactly that, I am pretty much banking on an inevitable disaster and or permanent damage to the fabric of reality again. But I also have to admit we have a distinctly limited amount of options for at least obtaining supplies available right now.

voice;

[deadlybanker]

[That was a cheery forecast. ]

We are ill equipped for this kind of weather, but if gathering things from the past can permanently damage reality...

[What ever that really meant.]

Should we even be doing it? It has even been suggested by one that we could set up farms or small serfdom in the past to supply us here. I can not help but see this as a terrible idea.

voice;

[crab]

You can't change the future by altering the past. That's not the way time works, numbskull.

voice;

[deadlybanker]

[Oh good way to start. Insult the man! :P]

Then what have we been doing here? Why is the island now a frozen wasteland when before it was something else entirely?

video;

[jailbreaks]

I've never really agreed with it. Doesn't seem right.

[He's pretty glad he's not the only one who feels off about all this.]

video;

[deadlybanker]

[Finally! A voice of wisdom in the wilderness!]

I knew there had to be others who felt as I did on the matter, but I can see very well how some would be tempted by it. The ability to alter terrible events for the betterment of all is a very appealing idea.

Audio

[maddeninghatter]

We're being required to do missions? That's news to me. As far as I can tell, we're free to do as we like. No mandatory training, no mandatory missions since the old city went boom.

[ This is something he has been puzzling over for quite some time. ]

We might even be free... to go home.

Audio

[deadlybanker]

I never said 'required', I said we were being told to gather supplies from the past. And while you are correct that the Initiative itself no longer exists in a form to force anyone to do anything...

[The one bright spot in all of this in his opinion. ]

There are still other transports fully willing to exploit those of the past just to support us here.

I do wonder if returning home at this point is an option.

[It was in fact that very thought that prompted his post in the first place. Though, he wondered if a future dictator in his time might be killed now that he knew what that man would end up becoming. Still, amounts to the same thing. He would have to go back to his home in order to accomplish that.]

Have you heard of any who have tried it?

[clansman]

[ a deep, deep silence. ]

Nah.

[deadlybanker]

A very succinct response, but I posed several questions. Is that answer the same for all of them?

video;

[lucency]

[ she takes a breath, opting not to answer the first question, because it isn't fair. it isn't fair that some have to die, but it is a war, and that's the sacrifice. that doesn't mean she's comfortable with it, but if it means saving the homes of the people she loves, potentially... ]

I'd stop it. There are always risks, but - if there's a chance to save the ones I love, I owe it to them to take it.

video;

[deadlybanker]

[War yes, but having people just disappear as if they never existed at all...? He had seen the terrible things war had done to people but some how not even being given the chance to exist seemed worse. ]

You are one of the few who responded that feels this way.
Worded as you have put it, then I would take the risk as well. I would not like to see anything happen to my loved ones.

But, it would be irresponsible not to at least consider what might happen if the past changed. If only there was a way to be more certain about it.

[have_hat_will_travel]

This is true... But consider this.

It's not just the natives of this world now. It's one of ours - and more at risk.

Consider that we have not been able to mount a consistent offensive against them directly - nor could we, for there are so few of us against so many of them.

[deadlybanker]

No, we could never attack them directly, but we could try more subtle attacks here in this time. I suppose I do not see the need to travel to other ages and involve so many others.

[Or at least this is a point he is struggling with right now. ]

Audio;

[of_the_lake]

Does such a question plague you, sir?

Audio;

[deadlybanker]

I have many questions and that is one of them, si. I think I know your answer already but how would you approach this situation?

video

[inafadingcrown]

[This is something that she has given a great deal of thought over her long life. Given her particular gifts, how could she not? She answers slowly and carefully, her hands folded in front of her.]

Foreknowledge is a perilous tool, even for the very wise. I have always thought the Initiative's methods...reckless, at best. I fear that they meddle with a power that they do not truly understand.

video

[deadlybanker]

[Giovanni hadn't lived anywhere near as long as her but he too had run across things from his own time and the time travel elements now that made him as cautious of it. ]

Agreed, but what could be done about it? There are others who believe there are risks but see that time travel machine as the only way to win this war.

[Audio]

[strategic_guile]

Before coming here, I'd probably jump on the chance to change a horrible future. Now, I'm not so sure.

[Audio]

[deadlybanker]

I wonder if I would have. It is very tempting to take a chance like that when offered, but if it changes everything that comes after I do wonder if it helps or harms.

voice, private; (pretend this isn't five days late sssh)

[alittlesweptup]

It's never for the better. Not morally. Fixing things in the past is just a matter of giving us all nearer odds in the present. It's dirty work.

[They've wiped out cultures, nations, destroyed, re-written history on a whim more than by design. Killing people by omission is still killing them and anyone who pretends otherwise is fooling themselves.]

But people here like to think they're above the baser things in life.

voice, private; (time means nothing with a time machine around)

[deadlybanker]

They just do not understand the situation as we do. If it could be explained to them, pointed out where the thinking is in error, maybe they would settle on a different course. We should have no need of pillaging history.

/slides in late

[givetheslip]

Excellent questions. I only wish we had answers.

[It may be possible to answer her other questions, though, and her voice grows softer as she considers.]

I'm honestly not sure what I would do. There are things in my past I wish hadn't happened, but they're just that—the past. Imagining I could change them has always seemed pointless.

[But in a place like this, she supposes it isn't.]

Stylish arrival

[deadlybanker]

This event I mentioned is not in my past. For me, if I had not been brought here, it would be the future.

It means...

[Such a thing to admit. A difficult, painful breath was taken to ready himself.
Maybe it was fitting to confess to her, a lady named Maria, who was not too unlike his own wife in her level of spunk.]

I failed at something very important.

[Both at home and in this new world so much of what he had attempted to accomplish had ended in defeat. ]

video

[onen]

They have already changed the past by stealing us all from it. I do not see why we should not be allowed a chance to make a difference to something that matters to those who are important to us.

I have already been told of some of the hardships my people will face in the years to come. I would not hold myself back to stop them.

video

[deadlybanker]

Well said. I had not thought of it in quite that way before. They have already changed the past so how do we know our actions would not be correcting their mistakes?

[This answer is really going to give him a TON to think about! Maybe he failed to kill Borgia in the end simply because he had been pulled away and was therefore unable to track him down again! That really made a great deal of sense to him. The Assassins would never have let him gain power any other way.
So this was thought, entirely unaware that it happened because he and his family were hanged for treason...]

I am sorry to hear your people face trouble. What have you been told will happen to them? Maybe we could find a way to help.