>>5222007>>5222050>>5222053"Let's start with James Baxter here - I want to know how he hacked into the mainframe." You say decisively.
"Hehehe, you'll be having a James-to-James interaction, handsome." Petunia giggles at the thought.
Frank shrugs, but slowly because he's holding the crystals. "Well alright, here goes. System, reactivate data crystal 'James Baxter'."
The corresponding crystal glows with glyphs, and a life-sized hologram of James' - wait, Baxter's disembodied head materializes, as lifelike as a horse fellow looks like. You've realized you've never seen nor heard something like him before.
At first, the hologram blinks once, then twice - and then it screams. "MILLIE! MILLIE! WHERE IS SHE?!" The simulated Baxter demands to know, genuine simulated concern and fear on his face.
"Whoa there, easy, boy." You calm down the engram. "You're an engram, and Millie is too. She's safe in that other crystal there."
"An engram? Ah, damn. I'm dead, am I?" Dejection written across his face. "You've activated me for a reason, then?"
"Yes, I'm curious about you, and your supposed hacking of the Eternal Empire's mainframe. So let's start with how you two ended up here, shall we?" You inquire.
"Huh... that's fine, I guess." Baxter's face relaxes. "Our reality was being consumed by something called a Singularity - or rather, it -intersected- with ours, and destabilized our reality. Time loops, anomalies, the works. We've found a way to go to another reality before ours was too decoherent..."
"Let me guess, you landed in the Eternal Empire's." Petunia chirps from behind you.
"Yep. We were able to stay undetected while we gather information about that reality - but it seems the Eternal Empire got to us. Then we were sent here." Baxter nodded in rememberance. "I don't know how we perished."
"Turns out Gongalla's not the only reality with, well, reality problems, who knew?" Petunia observes.
"It's not just my original reality and yours... from what I've gathered during my deep dives into the mainframe, the Singularity hit the Eternal Empire as well." Baxter says, dead serious. "It's gotten so bad that before we were captured, I've read on a top secret file that the Eternal Empress herself has been transported to Gongalla."
The news hits you like a truck. Not just you, it stunned everyone in the room.
The Eternal Empress, abandoning the core reality of the Eternal Empire? Then what would happen to the other, conquered realities when they realized the capital's out of commission? What would happen to Libertad, then? Your heart beats faster as you realize the answer is Revolution.
> THREAD 8, END> THANK YOU FOR PLAYING> FINAL THREAD WILL RESUME IN MID-MAY> I HOPE YOU WILL BE THERE TO WITNESS> THE FINAL FATE OF GONGALLA> SEE YOU AT THE END OF THE WORLD, REVOLUTIONARY 