Arnold's curse

[jayphailey]

Arnold's curse

Coran can see it. Long ago, much longer than he remembers, Arnold tried to make a cross-time machine.

There is a diety of dimensions and time travel. Arnold's device amounted to an attack on this being.

So the being cast "Fuck you" on Arnold. He is unstuck in time and space. He travels through dimensions unwillingly and randomly.

The machine is spiritually within Arnold - not physically but magically and metaphorically. (In a Star Trek setting he has a quantum instability field infusing his body - A talented temporal engineer might be able to try and drain the field.)

Arnold must elect to sacrifice himself - not only to die, but to erase himself - he never was, all the people he's met and helped now never meet him. His memory is erased from all timelines. To withdraw the machine and destroy it for good.

This is a wall of probability and illusion. As Arnold approaches the decision point it'll look like he has to utterly sacrifice himself.

Once he makes this decision and destroys the machine, he'll revert to normal. The Diety of cross time travel cannot erase him like that. it would break things.

But Arnold does not and cannot know this until after he reaches the point of decision.

In a rubber sci fi setting like Trek, a temporal Engineer who manages to try some technological fix will trigger the decision point - Arnold is faced with his device and the choice to erase himself and destroy the machine or not.

He's gotten there 4 times so far, but has always bailed out at the last moment because his friends needed him or else they'd be in serious trouble.

The uncertainty and dimensional instability effect infusing him alters his memories - it also means that he does not exist in so far as any dimensional anchoring magic or technology is concerned.

If you dimension locked a room - Arnold would be forced out of it and he'd forget it was there. Or he'd turn into an immaterial phantom until he left the area of effect.

He can memorize spells to transport across dimensions, but his spells never work entirely as intended.

Dimensional anchor type spells just fade from his awareness.

Arnold is stuck at the age he was when he activated the machine, permanently. If killed, he wakes up from a nightmare in a timeline where it was close, but somehow he escaped. He heals slowly but thoroughly.

All these effects will disappear once he breaks the curse.

Oh, and no Earth will feel right. The differences will become more and more annoying until he is forced to move on. He doesn't get "Close enough" until he breaks the curse.

[Innkeeper]

This god is a Greek level SOB.

[jayphailey]

This god is a Greek level SOB.

(Points at "Big Red Reset")

Time travel is a bad idea

[Innkeeper]

This god is a Greek level SOB.

(Points at "Big Red Reset")

Time travel is a bad idea

Proportionality. The curse is greater than the crime if you will. A simple divine appearance and "Hey that is a really bad idea" would have been better.

But some gods. The Greeks are the best known example