Epiphany

Rewind has Knowledge (Physical Sciences) +10 and Knowledge (Technology) +12 to throw at analyzing the Z-Space incursion. Are either of those appropriate skills for understanding what's going on and/or using the scanner or at least reading the scanner data?

The Dreamer's revelation about being from...Earth-S-Omega-One, was it? Amazing. "If you crossed the dimensions, you crossed through Z-Space," Rewind commented at the end of the other woman's explanation. The sudden appearance of a man wearing a trench coat in the doorway briefly distracted her, until she went back to following the conversation. Rex's arrival preempted everything else, though. Especially once he mentioned Z-Space. Rewind was broadly familiar with much of the building, having worked here for the last decade. The situation going on in the room is...well, she wished she could say it was novel or unique but candidly a lot of novel and unique things happen here. Still, the minor alterations to the room suggested a dimensional distortion. Possibly temporal, depending on how much turnover this room had. Of course, once the researcher mentioned Z-Space radiation, that settled the question. ...Mostly. "Let me take a look at these readings," Rewind said, her eyes locked on the scanner in the hands of the African-American woman. Mentally, she 'switched gears', opening up the memory cabinet in her head and pulling out the voluminous tomes of accumulated experience when it came to academic matters. "I wouldn't suggest anyone touching it until we know a little more," she said to the rest of her team. "With a Z-Space breech identified, we should have personnel bringing in specialized containment devices. It's not uncommon, unfortunately, that a breech may require sealing at both ends. Meaning someone or several someones may have to go in there to shut the effect down. Give me a minute, let me see what I can find." She spoke with the brisk efficiency of someone who literally studies Z-Space for a living.

Average Mornings Tick. Tock. Tick Tock. Thirty-four steps to the elevators. Tick. Tock. Tick Tock. Despite the steady routine of an average work day, elevators were maddeningly, delightfully unpredictable. Today, they opened after seventeen seconds of waiting. Naisha glanced at her smartwatch, unnecessarily checking the time to recalculate her expected time of arrival. And instead, she found a text message she hadn't noticed. Hey, can you bring in bagels? Naisha blinked at the unexpected request, then narrowed her eyes as she considered the source. William Jeffries, one of her colleagues at Atom, Inc. He headed up some independent research in Lab 27 on studying cosmic radiation as a potential wireless power grid. Interesting application and promising research. But the man was...ugh. Her elevator stopped suddenly. Ugh. Another tenant, understandably wanting to use the same elevator, but adding another twenty-seven seconds of delay. Not that it was a bad thing. Naisha smiled suddenly, and quick eye contact with the blonde getting in made it easy to disguise as a friendly gesture. "Hi there," the rather attractive woman said. "Are you new? I don't think I've seen you around." "Oh, I suppose a little new," Naisha said, seeing no use in mentioning she'd lived in this building for seven years now. "You?" "Just a few months," the blonde admitted. Her body language seemed diagnostic. So Naisha switched gears mentally, her mind like a container vessel and sometimes as slow to maneuver as she stopped thinking about the thirty seven experimental tests she'd hoped to do today and instead started thinking about what she'd learned about human behavior in the loop. Yes, the young woman's posture, positioning, skin response, eye contact and facial expressions all joined together in a consistent image that Naisha had seen a million times before. The blonde was new and was hoping to make friends. No obvious tells that she was an actor, either. "In Freedom City or just here in Midtown?" Naisha asked, clarifying. "Freedom City," the blonde said, again her tone of voice making it sound more like an admission than a simple statement. "Big change," Naisha said, keeping her tone conversational as she noticed her phone vibrate with another text message. Whoops, wrong contact, sorry! "Bad news?" Naisha glanced up and realized she'd displayed her irritation at the newest message reflexively. "Sort of. I mean...kind of the opposite?" She chuckled self-consciously as the doors opened in the lobby. "A coworker just randomly texted me to get bagels, then followed up by saying he hadn't meant to text me." "Oh, that...happens, doesn't it?" the blonde said, looking a bit confused. "That's the opposite of bad news?" Naisha shrugged her shoulders. "For better or worse, I'm a bit of a creature of habit. I make routines that I have to go out of my way to break. The thing is, I don't like routines. I like surprises. I just...have to remind myself that I do." The other woman stared. "Is that weird? Maybe that sounds weird." Naisha chuckled again, actually feeling self-conscious now instead of just putting on the act for the sake of reflexively manipulating the social encounter. "I like surprises too. I'm May, by the way. May Winters." "Naisha Sidhu." Both of them straightened the way their purses lay on their shoulders, at the same time, in almost exactly the same way. Social mirroring, to build intimacy? Or just a coincidence? "Well, I hope to see you around, May Winters. If nothing else, I can show you where to get the best coffee in Freedom City." "I'd like that!" As Naisha left the conversation behind, heading out the lobby doors to begin her walk to the Goodman building, she shook her head at herself. A meetcute. What were the odds. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Her mind subconsciously tracked and calculated how long it took for her to leave the building, and refined estimates on how long it'd take for her to reach work and then her lab. But all the while, Naisha found herself smiling. A work day, like any other. But the random elements were delightful chaos, text messages and attractive blondes not part of her daily experience. What a strange world this Earth could be.

Mundality - March / April Vignette 204 entry - Nothing to Do

Rewind The arrival of Specimen was certainly welcome, judging by Rewind's smile. She looked over his visible abnormalities with interest but only briefly. "Rex isn't here yet so we'll count you as on time, this time." She winked playfully. After listening to his explanation of his background, Naisha's face looked interested. "That's quite a synopsis, thank you for sharing it with us." She gave him an appraising look before saying. "Although if you wanted to actually satisfy my curiosity, I'd have to look at your charts. I'm a bit of a scientist myself, you see. Either way, it's admirable you decided to join the Atom Academy. And we're happy to have you. I'm Naisha Sidhu but you can call me Rewind in the field. You've met Devon. That's the Dreamer and that's Madame Raven." When Devon's alien device went off, Naisha stared with open curiosity and fascination as it sent out that holographic light. "I wouldn't mind seeing what data it managed to collect," she admitted to Devon. "But I'm not sure it's up for providing it, or at least providing it in a way I can read and understand..." She looked around the room once more, taking in each of the heroes assembled. "We've got quite a team already, don't we. I'm excited to see what we can accomplish, working together!"

Rewind grinned obligingly when Devon gestured to his snazzy uniform. "I can't say I mind the dress code either," she added while he took a drink of tea. The rest of his explanation seemingly met with her approval and she looked impressed, pleased. "I've often been curious what's up there, in space. Aliens and all. One thing I never could learn much about. Maybe we'll both find answers up among the stars someday." When Dreamer created coffee for her, Rewind looked absolutely delighted. She listened to the other girl's comments about the nature of her powers while taking an experimental sip, followed by a few small swallows. Ahhhh, coffee. "Interesting implications," she said at last, after considering those answers. "And good to know about, thank you for sharing it." After Dreamer told them about her reasons for joining, Rewind grinned again. "The Atom Family does help people. I'm sure you'll have many chances to help others here." Madame Raven's own explanation caused Rewind to momentarily freeze. "I see. I know a little something about temporal and quantum theory. Maybe sometime we can chat a little more? I'd love to hear what you're willing to tell me about how it happened. And why you decided to join the Atom Academy instead of...well, I assume you have other options, we're flattered to have you!" As the group discussion rounded back to her, Rewind's smile became more visibly forced. "As for me, yes. The Atom Family helps people. They helped me. They saved me, actually. I don't know everyone's backgrounds but there's a theoretical concept scientists refer to as Z-Space. It's the...medium, between which all universes lie. Crossing from one dimension to another means crossing through Z-Space whether you know it or not." "In my case, I'm from a broken day. It's a fragmented reality, a stray realm drifting through the endless reaches of Z-Space. The Atom Family discovered it. They found me and rescued me out of it." She put a little more effort into pretending to smile again. "Basically, I'm from a Groundhog's Day timeloop. Ever since I came to the real Earth, though, I've wanted to make a difference in people's lives. The Atom Academy is a way to do that, in a way that my skills and powers are better suited for than just...you know, only trading punches with a street gang or something." Rewind let out a tense breath and said "So I guess the obvious question's still left. Have you all met Rex Atom? Anyone know why we're meeting up here in Lab 55?"

Rewind Devon's remarks on caffeine addiction made Rewind realize she didn't have one with her. She fished around in the back of the room for a coffee maker while the others continued talking. To Devon, she smiled a bit and said "I also don't really do the secret identity thing. I'd rather be called Rewind out in public only to reduce the risk of someone stalking me in my condo or something. But I'm only willing to do a minimal amount of effort to avoid it. If you call me Naisha in the field by accident," she shrugged. "Doesn't much matter to me." The Encyclopedia Eternita looked interesting, though, and she made a point of peering over at it when he brought it up. "I wouldn't mind taking a look at that sometime, under controlled conditions and in a way you're comfortable with." Returning to her coffee-making efforts, her eyes opened wide when she spotted Dreamer apparently creating tea from thin air. "So...do you take requests?" she asked. "I would adore a coffee right now." Actually hearing how the Dreamer's power worked was fascinating and Rewind listened intently. "There are a million useful applications of that power," she said, after watching the demonstration end. "Are your creations permanent? Do they fade away after a certain period of time or a certain distance away from you? You've created wood, does it burn like other wood does if lit on fire independently from your powers? I'm curious if you can reproduce chemical properties." At Madame Raven's mention of secrecy, Rewind nodded once, then quirked a smile. "If you can imagine six impossible things before breakfast, I suppose I can imagine a believable reason you'd want to hide your identity on behalf of someone else. Either way, Madame Raven, I look forward to working with you and getting to know you better." She even offered a hand to shake, before then thinking to do so with the others who'd come together. "Now that we've all met," she then said to the general group assembled so far. "Why the Atom Academy? I'd like to know what brought each of you to want to join this particular team instead of the many others at large."

Rewind: The Interview Rewind wiped the sweat from her face as she patted the surface of the Toyota Camry she'd just 'uncrushed'. Less than an hour ago, a gang now alleged to be Power-House customers had torn up a city block in a rampage just contained minutes ago by dozens of heroes who'd jumped in to put an end to the danger. She'd arrived too late to help but, unlike some, her powers remained just as useful after the fact as during. Of course, the blue morphic molecule bodysuit that marked her as a member of the Atom Academy also made her a target. Not of a supervillain in this case but of the press. When she turned to look for the next broken thing, she found herself face to face with what was obviously a print reporter, judging by their notepad, recorder and the utter lack of a camera crew. "Why, hello there!" she said, bright and cheerful in a way that was both superficially audio-friendly for the recording and in-personally fake. "Hi there, Karen Chambers with the Daily Herald. Would you mind answering a few questions for our readers?" "I wasn't in the fight, you know," Rewind said. "But you're here in the aftermath, aren't you? Helping out? I make it my business to know about all kinds of heroes and you're just the kind the Daily Herald's interested in!" Inwardly groaning, Rewind kept her fake smile on and tried to look a little more authentically interested in answering questions. Showing interest in others was a classic trick for getting people to talk and not safeguard what they say, one she could do as well as any journalist. So she patted her hands on her bodysuit to brush off the dust of debris, well aware that the morphic molecule fabric would repel surface contaminants. "Ask your questions then. You and your readers can call me Rewind, that's my public use name." "Well, alright!" Karen looked genuinely enthused. "Where are you from?" Rewind covered her immediate reaction by turning to the right and rewinding a broken concrete curb back into the old but intact structure it'd been half an hour ago. "Freedom City. I've been here for as long as I've been on this Earth." The good natured cheer would hopefully hide that particular evasion. "Oh, you're not from...overseas or somewhere?" Incredulously, Rewind looked back at the reporter only to see her looking curious and completely unaware of how that question might read to someone who wasn't a white blonde woman. "Almost everyone in Freedom City's descended from people who came here from overseas," she said, trying to exercise some patience with Karen. "Me too. I don't have a green card, if that's what you're asking." "Uh, no. No, that's fine." Finally some recognition on the reporter's face that she could have been more diplomatic. "How would you describe yourself to our readers?" "Just another American, trying to help out," Rewind said. Then, thinking better of it, she smiled. "I'm a little shorter than most women. I'm college aged but already have my education. My parents are from the state of Punjab over in India. I don't advertise my real name but I also don't have much to hide either, so I don't wear a mask. That way, other boys and girls growing up who look like me can see a superhero doing good who looks like them." "How nice," Karen said, sounding like the words were an act of patience instead of niceness on her part. "You're very well-spoken, by the way. In the press, we find people with all kinds of distinguishing speech characteristics or recurring mannerisms. Which is fine, we applaud diversity, don't we! I can't help but notice how easy you are to understand." "Comes from English being my first language," Rewind said, grinding her teeth. "Being born here, and all." "Wonderful. What's your motivation for being a hero, would you say?" "Second chances." Karen raised both eyebrows. "I beg your pardon?" Rewind pointedly gestured at a broken street lamp and rewound it, the crumpled metal undeforming right before their eyes. "I like giving people second chances. When someone's been hurt, when something's been broken, I can fix it. I like fixing things. I like seeing the looks on people's faces when pain is gone." Her smile this time was genuine. "Nothing complicated. I just like helping people." The reporter made a few more notes in her notepad, then grinned. "Just what we like to hear. What would you say are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?" With a sigh, Rewind put one hand on her hip and gave the rote answer she'd come up with in the past. "Greatest strengths? I can fix people and things. My powers aren't destructive, they're constructive. Or reconstructive as the case may be. I'm also pretty well educated. I speak a dozen languages. I have a lot of training thanks to the Atom Academy that I can use to help my team and the good people of Freedom City." "As for weaknesses," she shrugged. "Compared to other superheroes, I don't have a lot of offense. I work best on a team for that reason." "Democracy in action!" Karen said cheerfully. Rewind blinked at the non sequitur. "What do you love? Is there anything in particular you hate?" "Uh, I'm a big fan of Dunkin Donuts coffee. Love it. I have a partner I've been with for a few years, they're a source of tremendous strength and support for me. And I love Freedom City, the amazing opportunities here and how great the community is for a city this big." "As for hate..." She shrugged. "I hate boredom. Doing the same things over and over again, not a fan." "I can relate to that!" And for once, Karen's feigned cheerfulness actually sounded feigned enough for Rewind to feel a pang of sympathy for the woman having to conduct interview after interview for her newspaper, every day. "A disaster like the one we see today. How does it affect you personally? How do you keep your mental and emotional state balanced?" "By remembering that people matter and helping them is worth any price or inconvenience," Rewind answered calmly. "I don't take much personally. I know what it's like to have a bad day. And a day like today's as bad as it gets for some, especially those who live and work right where this happened. I take time to myself when I need it but mostly I don't need much to keep myself mentally and emotionally balanced. Some great people helped me out in the past. Paying it forward's the least I can do." Karen nodded and took down a few notes. While she did, Rewind saw a broken porch and tried to wind it back. But even shifting it 5 hours into the past, her limit for the moment, it remained broken. She raised an eyebrow and nodded once, a bit dispirited. Not a result of this battle then. Just the result of someone unable to fix what time or trouble had broken in the past. "What would you say you fear the most?" Rewind blinked at the question, then turned back to face the reporter. "Fear the most? Oh, the usual. I'm not especially fond of heights. I can get a bit awkward in front of a crowd, you know how it is. Mostly, I fear being too late to a disaster to help." Ha, one truth and two lies but the reporter just took it all down, unable to notice the difference. "Do you have a particular ambition?" "To build a future where there's no more poverty, crime, suffering, where every human being on this planet can live in peace." A classic pageant answer but one Rewind had practiced so much, it had the ring of utter sincerity to it. Reinforced by the fact that it was actually, literally true. "Ah, I see," Karen said, in a tone that suggested she didn't. "I imagine the state of the world is something you feel strongly about then? What do you see as your place in it? Rewind started walking slowly, letting the reporter from the Daily Herald trail after her. She was hitting the limits of her range for repair and there was a particular broken wall she wanted to try fixing. "There's a lot of positive in the world, to be honest," she said. "I want to see more of it. It's part of why I help the way that I do. Politics doesn't seem to have answers to fixing the world's problems so I'm hoping that science can get it done. And in the meantime, my place is to hold things together until they do." "Interesting answer." Karen smiled once more. "I'm sorry about before, you know. If I implied you didn't belong here or anything. I'm sure a young woman like yourself must have experienced your share of prejudice. Do you have any troubles with it? Is it ever hard to get along with others?" Rewind smirked as she rewound the collapsed wall back into place. "Sure. Any girl with brown skin knows what it's like. Of course, some minority groups in America have it harder, or easier. I can't speak for their experience. All I can do is try to approach people as people, not labels. I've worked with people from all kinds of backgrounds, racially, economically, and geographically. We're all just people in the end, working towards a world that's better for all of us." The reporter seemed to like that answer just enough to make Rewind privately question if her answer was actually a good answer... "That's wonderful. You did say you were born in America. Is our country where your loyalties lie? What would you say you're loyal to, do you think?" Rewind blinked, then chuckled as she remembered the Daily Herald's reputation. "The United States is the only homeland I've ever known," she said truthfully. "I'm proud to do my part as a citizen and as a superhero on its behalf. I'm also grateful to the Atom Family, whose pioneering example inspired me as a child to seek solutions in discovery and science. It's my honor to work with them as part of the Atom Academy. Beyond that, my loyalties are to God as well as to science, both offering a positive hope for the future." Unsurprisingly, Karen loved that last answer and scribbled furiously. "And we're glad you do. I imagine your partner's glad too! How do they feel about you in the hero life?" Wow, that got personal. So Rewind simply maintained her press-friendly face and said "They're very proud of the work we do." "And your family? Good relationship there, I assume? They must be proud to have a daughter serving the public." Rewind sighed despite herself, then wiped more sweat from her forehead. It was a warm day and rewinding took a certain amount of energy and work to do. "My family's fine. They loved and supported me growing up. They always told me they'd be proud of me no matter what I did, as long as it helped people." "How do you think they'd describe you? Would it be any different from how other superheroes or friends or the people close to you might describe you? "Hmmm." Rewind thought about that question. It wasn't one she received often and she didn't have a rote response ready for it. So she just went for it. "Most people who know me well describe me as 'motivated!' and 'hard-working!' and 'so focused!' which are all different ways of telling me I need to relax and loosen up a bit." She smiled as if sharing a joke with the reporter, whose answering smile responded. "Maybe I do. What can I say? I was raised with a work ethic. The way to get ahead in this country's by doing your utmost, am I right?" "We at the Daily Herald sure think so!" Karen quickly jotted down more notes and Rewind took advantage of the break in eye contact to nod to herself, satisfied this was going as well as it could. "You're a role model for today's young women. Do you ever think of yourself as a role model?" Rewind thought then, not of the heroing work she did, but of the youths that Naisha Sidhu got in touch with through Mensa. Those she'd tutored and educated in how they might best use their bright minds and gifts for the advancement of science and a better world for all humanity. The memory brightened and warmed her. Then she shook her head and said "It's not a motivation for me, no. But it's a responsibility, yes. I'm very conscious that what I say or do can reflect not only upon myself but upon the Atom Family, other superheroes and potentially on other Punjabi Americans." "That's very understandable." Karen tilted her head to the side slightly. "Punjabi. Does that make you Muslim or Sikh?" "I was raised Sikhi," Rewind said, pleasantly surprised that Karen knew even that much of her community. "Good people, good religious tradition, good values that make them the best neighbors and citizens you could ask for." "You were raised Sikhi, you said." Karen shifted, eyes intent. "Do you follow a different religious tradition now? Would you describe yourself as a spiritual person?" "Oh, I'm absolutely a spiritual person," Rewind said, lying through her teeth. Then she switched to the truth. "As a young teenager, I had my own religious experience when visiting a friend's church, though. That's how I came to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and why I'm a Lutheran today." True. At least, that'd been her history. Before Friday, December 21st, 2012. Inside the temporal loop, she'd tried every religion imaginable and even spent uncountable years as the most nihilistic atheist imaginable. Now...what was she, religiously? Spiritually? Just going through the motions? Her inward existential crisis was thankfully interrupted when a beaming Karen asked "Remind me, you said you're part of the Atom Academy? How'd that happen? Why them and not another team, or going it alone?" Grateful for the change of subject, Rewind said "I am, yes. Since 2020. I had a prior relationship with the Atom Family so it made it easy to sign on when they opened the Academy formally. Oh, I'm not opposed to partnering with another team on a case-by-case basis. That's what I'm doing here right now! But the Atomy Family have always been pioneers and explorers and that's what I hope to do too." Karen made a note and looked satisfied. "Almost done, I promise. May I ask, how do you feel about the place of metahumans and aliens on Earth?" "They're just people too," Rewind said, both hands on her hips as she considered the question. "The same capacity for good and evil. Just a greater capability in acting on it. It's a reason I support the superhero community and governments who work to ensure people aren't using superhuman or alien abilities to advantage themselves at the expense of others." Just the talking point a conservative newspaper wanted. Not that Rewind was entirely unsympathetic. She'd been conservative for a while too. She'd been everything, at one time or another, within the loop. "Last question. If you could give one piece of advice to the teenage girl you once were, what would it be?" Rewind stared blankly. Where to begin. Where to ******* begin. Finally, to avoid dragging this interview on any longer, she threw out a trite, trivial answer. "One piece of advice?" she repeated. "The rewards of public service outweigh the risks that come with being a superhero. I used to let fear hold me back. Now that I'm grown up, I'd say to that earlier version of myself...don't be so scared. I can say with confidence; helping people is worth it. It's always worth it." The reporter finished writing up her notes and beamed. "This has been such a nice interview! Thank you, Rewind, for taking the time to answer our reader's questions for you. And thank you for being of service to our community and Freedom City!" "Any time, Karen," Rewind said, entirely untruthful as she turned back to look for more damage to repair.

Rewind Another woman strolled into Laboratory 55, her attention focused on a tablet. She'd navigated the path here with practiced ease and when she glanced up from the technical paper she'd been reading, the first thing she noticed was not the other people in the room. It was that whoever used the holographic projector last hadn't reset the settings. She walked by the other three, a frown on her face, looking squarely at the controls. A few switches and button taps later, she looked satisfied and turned her attention to the other people in the room. Rewind, of course, had been part of the Atom Academy since it had started up four years ago. But she'd worked here for much longer, going back almost 12 years now. She was a Punjabi American, wearing the 'traditional' morphic molecule bodysuit favored by the Atom Family. Hers was blue like most of the others, with black accents. "Well, this is a nice turnout so far," she remarked as she looked at each of the arrivals. Unlike the other two women, she didn't wear a mask to conceal her identity. It made it easy to see her turn on the charm as she beamed with good cheer and friendliness. "I'm glad there's so much interest already. Part of what makes the Atom legacy so appealing is their interest in discovery and what they can mean for humanity. We have a much better chance at finding something new or unknown as a team." Her accent is distinctly American, specifically the Midwest. Glancing around, she added "I'm Naisha Sidhu. I go by Rewind when in the field, for anyone who doesn't know me. I can..." and she dropped her tablet as she spoke, causing it to bounce, clatter and generally draw a cringe from anyone who'd ever dropped a personal device. Rewind reflexively frowned at the lack of spectacular breakage, then shrugged and resumed her smile. "Rewind things," she said, finishing her sentence as the tablet abruptly retraced its descent, reversing right back up into her waiting hand. "I'll have to think of a splashier demonstration sometime. Atom hardware's just too durable to show off with."

Rewind in Nothing to Do "Is that a hoodie?" Naisha rolled her eyes as she left airport security behind and passed through the thick crowd mobbing the new arrivals. She promptly wrapped her arms around her best friend, getting an "Ooof!" in response. Only then did she flick her hood back and shake her hair out, where it'd laid thick and heavy and increasingly hot on her neck over the past few hours. "How hot is it here, anyway?" Naisha asked, craning her neck around as the noonday sun beat down the sidewalk. "It's Florida, love," Marcie said, as if that answered everything. The blonde Australian ex-barista was now looking decidedly Mom-chic in her classic blue cover up topped with a Florida State Seminoles baseball cap. "Only difference between this and parts of Brisbane are that it's autumn there and spring here, hey?" The two women left the terminal, since Naisha hadn't checked her bag and didn't need to collect it. Parking was trivially close. Naisha frowned a little, as she craned her neck around. "I didn't realize what a small airport this was." "It's what happens when you fly into Gainesville. The good news is, we're only 40 minutes from home." Marcie opened the car door for her and Naisha slid into the still-slightly-cool interior with relief. She'd tugged off the hoodie entirely by the time her best friend got in from the other side. Then she settled back into the car seat, doing her best not to be a terrible passenger. The miles sped by quickly, as the two caught up on inconsequential matters like what airplane travel was like these days, how much traffic was usually on this road, what kind of weather to expect for the next week and so on. Naisha could teach classes on how to fill any amount of time with small talk, and she found it trival to keep the conversation light. It helped. Because within minutes of leaving Gainesville, she found them out in the rurals. Thankfully, it wasn't a one-to-one match with Ohio's rurals. For one thing, there seemed to be sidewalks for huge swaths of the trip despite absolutely nothing in walking distance. There was also a completely pointless divider between the lanes of traffic made up of tree-planted grass greenspace. Even the trees looked a bit different, and certainly the housing styles varied. As they drew near Trenton, State 26 turned into a two-lane road with no sidewalks. But still it lacked the enormous cornfields, irrigation ditches and miles of unobstructed view. There were a lot of trees in this part of Flordia and, if it made for shorter lines of sight, it also helped it feel different. It didn't quite last. A couple of miles outside of Trenton, the farmland began. Naisha sighed and thought about ALEX. The sentient AI that ran Atomic Tower's Nucleus and provided all kinds of support for the Atom Academy, ALEX was always approachable. And inhuman. So when Naisha thought about talking with the machine intelligence, in her favorite lab at Atom, Inc., it added a layer of remove from these kinds of reminders. "Nice place," she remarked reflexively as she glanced out the window, taking in what sights there were to see of the small town. It was a bit smaller than Millscroft and vastly different in layout. No Main Street with every place worth visiting being a five minute walk away. This was a town meant for people with cars, driving everywhere. The place managed to be both old and not vintage at the same time. By the time Marcie turned off on SE 2nd Street, Naisha had managed to relax again. When her best friend told her to close her eyes for a minute, she obediently did so, only to open them again as their car pulled up on a house on SW 5th Avenue. It wasn't much to look at, just an old brick home, but Naisha smiled to see it. This place didn't look anything like Ohio. Marcie hopped out and Naisha followed her. Retrieving her carry on from the backseat, she followed her best friend up a brick paved walkway to an actual honest-to-God screen door. Naisha had spent so much time living in Freedom City over the past decade, she couldn't immediately recall the last time she'd seen one much less opened one to walk in. After squaring away her carry on in the guest room she'd been given, Naisha joined Marcie out on the back deck. She found a simple patio strewn with kids toys, with a circular glass table and three patio chairs. Atop the table were two plates, each bearing a slice of key lime pie. Raising an eyebrow at Marcie, who was already settled into one of the chairs and sipping an iced coffee, Naisha shrugged and claimed the chair nearest the other plate. "Isn't this a bit of a stereotype?" she asked, amused and a bit pleasantly surprised at the pie. "Nah. Stereotype would be me serving you a nice steak pie for lunch." "You're right, that would be the stereotype," Naisha said with a grin. "Of course, around here, you'd probably have to make it yourself." The two women sat in the patio chairs, enjoying a surprisingly refreshing cool breeze that helped knock back the warmth of a Florida spring. Around her, she could hear the ambient hiss of that wind stirring the leaves of the many, many trees in the area. There was a timeless quality to it. One eerily reminiscent of Millscroft, where Naisha had been trapped for uncountable years inside of a single broken day. But the smells of flowers and pollen in the air were different. The sounds of the local birds weren't the precisely timed bird calls she'd heard all over Millscroft, Ohio. And the taste of key lime pie in her mouth wasn't a flavor she'd had a million times over. Inch by inch, the tension of Freedom City left her. The pressure of personal perfection. The constant vigilance any woman of color needed to have when out in public, in crowded conditions on city streets. Even the feeling of 'There's somewhere I have to be right now!' began to fade. Most of all, this was somewhere new. There was nothing she loved more than new. After a few minutes of silence, Naisha sighed and pushed back her now empty plate before taking up the iced coffee her best friend had made for her. "So, now what?" "Whatever you like," Marcie answered, not bothering to look, seemingly content to just stare off into the expanse of woodland surrounding her home. "I mean, what do you do here all day?" "Get up. Get the kids up. Send the husband off to work. Get the kids off to school. Clean. Drink a tallie. Head over to the school to help with the cafeteria and recess until it's time for the kids to come home. Take them to their extracurriculars. Realize I missed lunch and snack on something while they're at their practice. Plan dinner. Bring the kids home. Make dinner. Nag them all about their homework. Kiss the husband when he comes home. Have dinner as a family. Snuggle the husband and fall asleep on his shoulder. Get woken up so we can all watch She-Ra on Netflix, which everyone is into for some reason. Send everyone off to bed. Have a bath. Have a husband. Have a bed, hey?" Naisha blinked at the recitation, then glanced around at the obviously absent husband and kids. Marcie waved a hand in the direction of the house. "Oh yeah, they're off visiting his parents for the weekend so you and I can have some girl time." "Huh." She sipped her iced coffee, stretched slightly in her chair and let out a sigh. "I feel like I should be doing something right now." "You are, love." Marcie sipped her iced coffee in seeming solidarity. "Thanks." "You ready to talk about it?" "I'm not sure I'm cut out for this superhero life." Marcie whistled. "Guess you're ready to talk about it." "Yesterday, on the way to work, I passed by a car accident." Naisha stared into the slowly swaying trees as she spoke. "They were cleaning the street. Pedestrian, hit and killed. About an hour before I was there. I thought about going to the hospital they took him to." The blonde Australian barista-turned-American rural mom stretched out in her patio chair. Then she yawned despite the coffee and turned onto her side so she could more easily face Naisha, who was pointedly not looking at her. Slowly swaying trees filled Naisha's field of vision. "What kind of a hero doesn't save a life?" she said softly, her words almost inaudible underneath the rustle of a million leaves in the spring afternoon's wind. "Mate, he was dead already." "I could have Rewound him." "We've been over this, yeah?" Marcie poked her friend in the arm. "Soon as people know what you can do, all of it, you'll never be free. Cities will be shipping their recent deceased your way, all day, every day. To say nothing of the people who have a heart attack or a massive stroke, or who almost die in car accidents." Naisha realized she'd started sweating, and rolled the chilled surface of her iced coffee across her forehead. "I could...try. Try Rewinding that many people. Maybe I could." "Right. And you'd burn yourself out, each and every day, because no one can keep up with everything that happens in one city much less everywhere else. You've got to let this go, love." Marcie reached out again, but rubbed her friend's arm instead of poking it. "Nothing you've said is new. We've had this talk a dozen times in a dozen years, yeah? That power of yours will make you a slave. And after all you've been through, the last thing you deserve is to chain yourself up to an unending responsibility. If you want to make a difference, be Rewind. Save lives in the moment, like everyone else. You'll be saving your own life that way too." This time, Naisha didn't cry. But it was only because the number of times she'd had this very conversation with Marcie before now numbered in the double digits. And if there's one thing Naisha couldn't stand, it was repetition. "Kids come home tomorrow night?" she asked instead. Marcie grinned. "And the husband. Miss them, do you?" "You have great kids, Marcie. And a great husband. What's not to miss?" "Errands, chores, discipline, homework, nagging, yah yah yah," Marcie said, punctuating each word with a spinning finger, as if these things were a loop themselves. "Fancy some League later?" "Okay." Naisha thought about getting up and obliging her friend now. But Marcie showed no sign of hurry or inclination to get up herself, instead rolling back to face the forested backyard. Both women sipped from their iced coffees at the same time. There was something to be said for staying in a small town with nothing to do.

ALEX - Retrieval request, archival interview of Atom Academy entrance candidate #5 Introduction Who are you? Sum yourself up in one sentence. I give people second chances. Do you have any nicknames, street names, titles, or nom de plume? I plan to go by Rewind as part of the Atom Academy. I wanted to pick Second Chances but Rex talked me out of it. Growing up, my NPCs called me Nai Nai. Loved it as a kid, hated it as a teen, loved it and hated it since. I had a bunch of fake identities at one time or another but nothing here. Street names? That takes time and I always had the wrong kind of time for that. You can call me Naisha, thanks for asking. What is your full birth name? Naisha Kaur Sidhu is what my NPCs call me. Have to be born to have a birth name, though. Where do you live? The Goodman Building, over in Midtown in Freedom City. How old are you? What year were you born (if applicable)? (Sigh) Legally, I was born in 1993. Physically, I'm 20. I've always been 20. I'll always be 20. I was never born. I will never die. These are meaningful questions for everyone who isn't me. Physical Traits What is your gender? If not applicable, please explain. Female How would you describe your heritage? My NPCs come from Punjab, like every other Sikh family in the US. That's a state in India, by the way, not a country. I was 'born' in the US, though. I suppose you could put 'South Asian' down. How tall are you? 5'6". What is your body type? College student. Not skinny. Not curvy. Not enough exercise. Walk into a Dunkin' Donuts or a Starbucks at 9am, you'll see at least two girls who look exactly like me. Do you have any particular weaknesses, such as allergies or physical disabilities? I'm more allergic than the mean on 52 substances on Earth. My right knee and my left elbow are about 2% less capable than their counterpart. I could go on but it only gets more boring from here. How do you carry yourself? Are you graceful, or heavy on your feet? Can you be stealthy, do you walk with confidence? 1 Corinthians 9:22. All things to all people. As Reset, I roll with confidence and grace. When I'm pretending I'm like everyone else, I usually go a little smaller, like I'm trying not to take up space and don't want to bump or bother anyone. When it's just me, I walk and move efficiently and precisely. Describe your skin, eye, and hair color. Brown, brown and brown. Unexciting, right? I look like any Desi. Could be worse. I'm not white so I'll never be able to blend or pass as well as the white girls but there's a lot you can do with makeup, dye, beauty marks and a good disguise kit. How do you wear your hair, if applicable? I wake up with bed head every day. I can make it pliable enough to do anything within 10 minutes but only because if my secret time-tested process. As Reset, I wear a braid. At work, an updo or a ponytail. I leave it down the rest of the time. I never curl unless it's for a purpose. Do you consider yourself attractive? Do others? Eh. Eh. I can turn heads when I make an effort. Do you have any scars, tattoos, piercings, or birthmarks? I have a small scar on my left knee and a smaller scar on my neck, just above my hairline back there. No idea where they came from. Ears are pierced, thank God. Can you imagine? Do you resemble anyone famous? Nope. Do you have a dominant hand? Not anymore. What kind of clothing do you wear? As Reset, I have a costume. At work, I like a nice blouse and slacks or a cute skirt. Anywhere else, t-shirt and jeans unless I need to dress up to accomplish something. Do you wear makeup? When I need to, sure. Which is basically daily for work or as Reset. What is your vocal range? Is your voice distinctive in some way? I'm a lyric coloratura soprano, and I peak out at G6. I could peak higher but that takes practice and who has time for that? Don't look at me like that, I know what I said. Probably the most distinctive quality of my voice is how American I usually sound. Hey, comes from spending a million years here, imagine! Do you have any distinctive habits, nervous tics, or mannerisms? Where did they come from, and what causes them? Do other people notice and remark on these habits? Do they annoy you or other people? I don't. That's what people notice, even if they don't consciously know why they notice. I spent 17 years learning to play amazing poker. Trust me, all the tics and little funny things people do wore off. If you see affect from me, assume it's intentional and probably for your comfort. History Where do you come from? My history says I'm American. Lived my life in Millscroft, Ohio, where my NPCs ran Naan and Brew. Like I said before, they come from the state of Punjab over in India, but I was born here. Have you made any major moves, or do you live in your hometown? Grade school, middle school, high school all in Millscroft. All in the same house. In the same neighborhood, where five houses within line of sight belonged to other Punjabi families. Do you feel loyal to your country of citizenship? Do you consider yourself patriotic? How do you feel about the government of your country? Uh. I guess? I've given literally no thought to being an American. It's what I am. But getting worked up about patriotism and loyalty is like getting worked up about your skin color. It's just what it is. The government's another matter. I wrote the equivalent of a doctoral dissertation once on comparing American and Indian democracy. I definitely think elected officials could be doing a better job. I think it's not going to happen until enough people demand it. How do you feel about the place you come from? What, Millscroft? I never want to see the place ever again. I don't want to see anything even resembling Millscroft again. If I never hear the name Millscroft again, that would be a blessing. ...I mean, it's not their fault. I'm sure it's a perfectly fine town to anyone who didn't spend a subjective eternity trapped inside of it. Where is your home town? What was/is it like? Ohio. It was...honestly, I can't give you an unbiased answer. Every year, they throw the Fireman's Festival which runs for three days. They shoot off fireworks to celebrate the local heroes. I used to clean the Gables, which is this nice old Victorian B&B, run by a retired couple, Chris and Abigail Pope. Two blocks south of there's Main Street. It's got Mabel's Family Restaurant, O'Malley's Pub, Glen's Barbershop, a beauty salon named Peachy Keen, you get the idea. All American, wholesome. Until you've had too much and you discover you can never leave. Growing up, were most of the people you knew similar to you, or were you somehow a minority? How did that affect you? Oh sweet Jesus, have you run into a lot of Punjabi families in small Midwestern towns? Yeah, most of the NPCs didn't look like me. Didn't really matter too much, though. They were cool about it, if my memories can be trusted. Is there something you've always been really good at or really bad at? How has that affected your life? I was really into art growing up. I took lessons from a few local artists and won a fair prize three times running. Then I went to college to study art and discovered everyone's better at it than me. The kick is, after spending eternity in a temporal loop, I can paint better than just about anyone...but without a repeating day, I have too many other things I'd rather do with my time. Crazy how things turn out, eh? Were there any traumatic experiences in your early years (death of a family member, abandonment, orphaned at an early age)? Not a damn thing. Both parents are alive, siblings are the same. Like I said, I grew up somewhere wholesome. I have to be honest, to me it feels like it was so long ago. You'd have to ask the real Naisha Sidhu what she's got, because I've got nothing. Briefly describe a defining moment in your childhood and how it influenced your life. I was ten years old. I did all the stuff my parents taught me to do. I got up early and meditated on the name of God. I took part in the Akhand Path, sang Kirtan, all of that. But there was this girl at school who invited me to visit her church. Sikhs are big on religious tolerance, even learning about other faiths, so I went. And something...clicked. When everyone else bowed their head for prayer, the pastor gave this long-winded speech of a prayer but it was like...you know, enthusiastic. Heartfelt. And it resonated. Something in me heard it and felt it differently. I found God that day, in that church, and it wasn't the God I grew up understanding. It means something that, after so much time lost to that loop, I can still remember that moment even now. I still remember what that faith felt like. Wish I still had it. What stupid things did you do when you were younger? Okay, so like, you know One Direction's "One Thing" song? My girlfriends and I did a video of us doing choreography to their song. You can find it on Youtube. I'm pretty sure my embarrassment that it exists took about 90% of my time in torment to die. Where did you go to school? How much school did you have, and did you enjoy it? Ohio State U, go Buckeyes! Anyway, I made it two years before the loop got me. I think I enjoyed it? Honestly, I have 73 college degrees, it all blurs together, but I feel like it was a pretty good fit. Except that everyone else in the Art Program was way better than me and that sucked. ...How childish all these little concerns seem now. Do you have any mementos of your childhood? What are they, and why did you keep them? If you have none, why not? I...don't. Because Naisha Sidhu has them. You know, the version of me who actually lives in this world. Even if I wanted to get something from home, it would mean going back home. And I...I can't. I just, I can't. I can't ever. When did you decide to become a hero? Why? Did anyone influence you one way or another in the decision? Oh, well that's easy. Because the Atom Family gave me my Second Chance. I meant what I said earlier, way at the top. Giving people a second chance is what I do. I like making people happy. That look on their face, the way it reaches the eyes. This might surprise you but happy people are the only thing that never gets old, no matter how many times you see them. ...I guess I could have gone into comedy too, but I'm not funny. I've tried, I'm not. What I can do seems to be unique, though, so I might as well use it to accomplish some good in this world. Oh, influence? The Atom Family. Their sense of curiosity and discovery. The Academy they built is founded on those two virtues. Their adventures have allowed them to help all kinds of people who needed it. I want to be part of that. I want to feel a bit of that myself. Is the reason you give people for becoming a hero different than your real reason? If so, why? Hah. My public answer's pretty much the same as the real reason. It just leaves out a lot of the motivational details. 'I want world peace' sounds like a trite sound bite. But I'm not kidding when I said I find meaning in helping others. I've tried literally everything else, at one time or another. I'll spare you the details. But giving people their second chance for happiness, the way the Atoms did for me...yeah, that's the real reason I do this. Do you have any deep, dark secrets in the past that may come back to haunt you? You'll have to go to Friday, December 21st, 2012 to find out. But no, I don't expect anything I've ever said or done to come back to haunt me from there. Nothing in there means anything. Nothing. Do you represent yourself as being different from who you really are? Why? Of course I do. I have to. People wouldn't understand me. You wouldn't understand me, not really. You can't. You can't even imagine. Because I couldn't imagine either. The first year was hard. I was a different woman after the first ten. I started finding hope again around year 50. I lost it by 70. Found something new by 90 and that carried me into the second century. And it all went downhill after that. Oh, I had moments of equilibrium now and then but nothing lasts forever. Except me. I did. I do. I still do. I always will. So yes, I pretend to be a nice, cheerful and ever-so-helpful researcher who fights crime. I pretend to be normal. It's the only way I know to keep all of you from running away from me, screaming in terror. If you do have these secrets, what do you fear would happen if the truth became known? How far would you go to protect those secrets? Oh, the average person would just make a weird face and walk away quickly. I'm not going to topple the nations of the world. I might kill a few philosophers and scientists, though. Maybe a few more religious people. Basically, anyone who has a belief on the innate goodness or badness of human nature is going to have their world rocked if they discover that they're all, all of them, completely wrong about what human nature is. But I'm not, like, going to kill someone. I don't need to. I just don't talk about it. No one thinks to ask and the few that do accept the lies I give them, and everyone wins. Do you have any sort of criminal record? If so, is it public knowledge? Every crime I've ever committed has never been recorded. It also never lasted longer than about 19 hours so... Family What are your biological parents' names? Kamaljot and Manwinder, but I call them Baapu Ji and Bibi Ji like a good Punjabi girl. Let's get something out of the way right now, though. They're NPCs. Everyone in Friday, December 21st, 2012 is an NPC. They run the same script and don't know any better. They can't know better. Believe me, I've tried. And you know what? The real world has the real Kamaljot and Manwinder. So what does that make mine? Were you raised by them? If not, please explain and describe who raised you. As far as I remember, I was raised by them. Assuming my memories aren't as fake as everything else in Friday, December 21st, 2012. What was their standing in the community? What did/do they do for a living? Oh, people love Baapu Ji and Bibi Ji. Millscroft is small enough, everyone knows everyone even if they aren't in a temporal loop. They run Naan and Brew, it's exactly what it sounds like. For such a conservative town, almost no one has a problem with the Sikhs who live there. Where are your parents now? Still in Millscroft. Here or in Friday, December 21st, 2012. Did your family stay in one area or move around a lot? They came to the States about 5 years before I was born. How did you get along with their parents? How do you get along with them now (if applicable). ...Fine. They love me. My NPCs will always love me. It doesn't matter how I get along with them. They'll forget whatever I do or say tomorrow anyway. How do your parents view you now, or how would they? The same as they always have. I'm their middle child, the quiet one. I can do no wrong. Bibi Ji occasionally has a hard time that I became a Christian, but that's mostly because I stopped going to the Gurdwara with them. Baapu Ji gets it. That's the nice thing about Sikh parents, though. The principles of Sikhi include making an honest living, daily meditating or praying to God as you understand Him, and caring for the poor. Sikhs aren't perfect or free from prejudice anymore than anyone else is. But to them, a Christian who does what a Sikh does is as good as a Sikh. So yes, they think I'm a little strange but the 20-year-old me they know did honest work, prayed and gave 10% of my income so...I'm still the daughter they remember raising me to be. Do you have any siblings? If so how many and what are their names? Describe your relationship with them. I have two. An older brother, Upinder, and a younger sister named Navneet. Upinder's the serious one. He got a business degree, went into finance and is about to become the head of his department. Navneet's useless. I mean, she's sweet and nice and very pretty. And that's it. She's got no talents or ambitions of any kind, beyond chasing boys and hoping to marry one someday. Ugh. What was your birth order in the family? Middle kid. Upinder's four years older, Navneet's five years younger. I think they planned to stop with me but Navneet was a surprise and the one they spoiled. Where are your siblings now (if applicable)? Do they have families of their own? What do they do? They're exactly where they will always be in Friday, December 21st, 2012. NPCs. In the real world? Upinder's a CFO for one of those technology startups. He's got two kids, both boys. Navneet hooked an IT guy and is a happy housewife just like she always dreamed. She's pregnant with her second kid right now actually. Never met them. I can't ever meet any of them. I know more than I should know already. Do you stay in touch with them or have you become estranged? Oh, I'm sure they have a great relationship with the real Naisha. One more reason I can't ever talk to them. Can you imagine? If you can, just don't tell me. I try to think about the possibilities as little as possible. Do you love or hate one member of the family in particular? When I was actually 20, I loved my Baapu Ji the most and couldn't stand little Navneet. Now, I love them all. I know everything about them, you see. A million days in Friday, December 21st, 2012, waking up in that house every morning, knowing I could ask them anything or say anything or do anything and the consequences would all be gone in 19 hours... There's nothing I don't know about them. It helps me love them. Once you really know someone, you can't help but love them. Is any member of the family special to you in any way (perhaps, as a confidant, mentor, or arch-rival)? They're all special. All of them. Are there any black (or white) sheep in the family (including you)? If so, please explain. Eh, I guess kind of me? I'm the quiet one. The introverted artist. The one who went Christian on them. Do you have a notorious or celebrated ancestor? If so, please explain, including how it has affected your life. Every family tree has some notoriety in it and I know mine back centuries at this point. Nothing special. Certainly nothing that changed things for me when I was growing up. Do you have a partner and children currently? If so, please describe them. TBD If you do not have a partner or children, do you want them someday? How firm are you in your opinion on this, and what might change your mind? When I was in Friday, December 21st, 2012, obviously kids were an impossibility. I think, in the memories I have from before the temporal loop, I wanted them someday. After I got to the real world, though... It's complicated, you know? I mean that literally, in the medical sense. To have natural children, I'd have to have an egg extracted from my ovaries. Then I'd have to store it in a Quantum Certainty Field, and the power could never fail. I've worked out a theoretical paper on- Never mind. Natural kids are complicated. Adopted kids? Maybe not. I have a lot to give to some needy kids out there, I think. To do it, though, I'd need a more open heart. Because I'm going to outlive them probably and I need to be ready for that. What type of person would be your ideal mate? Someone who isn't afraid of my baggage. Someone as different from my background as possible. Maybe an alien. Maybe someone from another time, as long as they're not a time controller who might shatter my existence with a wave of the hand. You know who I'd be into? Someone with nothing in common with a small Midwestern town from 2012. So every conversation's new. Every topic, a different perspective. Every tidbit of personal history shared, an undiscovered country. Relationships Do you have any close friends? If so, please describe them, and how you came to be close to them. I'm done talking about Millscroft and Friday, December 21st, 2012 for now. So, my best friend's this Australian girl named Marcie. She was this barista at the local Dunkin' Donuts. Makes the best coffee. We hit it off in the early days, when I was new to the Goodman Building and still pulling myself together. We even went roommates for a year. She got a union job at the port, though, and met someone and married them and now they live down in Florida by his parents raising their kid. We still Zoom a couple of times a month, though, and play League of Legends together about as often. Do you have a best friend? If so, how did they become your best friend? How close are you to your best friend? I mean, that's basically what I just said above. I do have other close friends, though. I'm pretty tight with a lot of folks at Atomic, Inc. I've got a few girlfriends at Faith Lutheran Church, where I go on Sundays when I can. If you were to go missing, who would worry about you? Tyla, the Urcadian. Have you lost any loves? If so, how did it happen, and what did you do? Depending on how you define a relationship, one could argue I've had hundreds of boyfriends and girlfriends. None of them remember the relationship, though. I love them all. Loved them all, maybe. Because they're in my past, now that I've escaped Friday, December 21st, 2012. I hope they have happy lives. Do you have any bitter enemies? If so, please describe them and their history with you. The only thing I'm bitter about is 11 years in the past at this point. Life's too long to be bitter with people. I've thwarted a few schemes here and there, but mostly my power's not the kind to make enemies. I did have one rap-themed supervillain named Diss In Ta Ghetta or something. Absolutely lost his mind when he used his annihilating beam on people or places and I just rewound the effects. But when it was clear he wasn't going to let the grudge go, I just let him shoot me while the other heroes on the scene jumped on him. He got shipped off to prison satisfied he'd beaten me and has no idea I'm still around, last I checked. If you have enemies, how do you think they might attempt to work against you in the future? Hah. Hahahahahaha! Hah! Between you and me, since this is all confidential, the only smart way they have of dealing with me is to lock me up or something. Otherwise, what are they going to do? Blow up what I rewound, from what they blew up the first time? Trust me, for the average bad guy, it just loses the fun after the second or third time around. ...They have no idea how unfun recursion can get. ...Anyway, the biggest danger I'm in is being with the Atom Academy, and the biggest danger they're in is from dimensional marauders or something. What is the worst thing someone has done to you? If someone created Friday, December 21st, 2012, you can guess my answer. Otherwise...I've had a thousand terrible things happen to me at one point or another. Basically all of them self-inflicted. Actually having a 'worst thing' to put on a list means hanging on to way too much baggage and I don't do that anymore. Where do your loyalties lie? In what order? Humanity. Tyla. The Atom Family. The Law. Other Heroes. It's in about that order. Coming back to this question, I thought about penciling God in there somewhere before I realized I'm still not convinced anything I actually do matters to Him, making loyalty a meaningless trait. Who or what do you trust the most? Why? Rebecca Black. No matter what happens, no matter how long I live or how careful I am, I'm going to hear that ******* song again. It's going to happen. It's more inevitable than Arnold. More certain than the cosmological model. More relentless than taxes. Goddamn Rebecca Black. Who or what do you despise? Why? Uhh, see above. I guess if trust is a positive thing, human kindness. Believe it or not, people can choose to do the good thing in remarkable circumstances. And even if variables mean they'll predictably make the wrong choices instead, it still means something when they do the right thing. It's especially gratifying to see the look on their face when they realize doing the right thing is also doing the right thing for them. What qualities do you admire most in other people? Are these qualities you possess? Faith. Hope. Innocence. Hell no. What qualities do you hate most in other people? Do you have any of those qualities? How easy it is for people to do the wrong thing. The most moral woman in the world will crumble if you just plug in the 'right' numbers and hit the right variable. No such thing as inviolable integrity. Hell yes. Do you have a secret identity? If so, who knows it? Do you hide it from people who are close to you? Why? I am a secret identity. But seriously, to the public I just go by Rewind. I only use Naisha around coworkers at Atom, Inc. Or around friends. I don't go out of my way to use my name but no, it's not a secret. The more time passes, the less likely anyone's going to connect a 20-year-old superhero in Freedom City to a 32-year-old Punjabi cook in Ohio. Do you work well on teams and in groups? Are you a leader or a follower? I do. I love teams. They bring out the best in people. Sociologically, evolutionarily, we're wired to be social animals. I know I am. I've been both. I do both, as the need arises. Rex Atom heads up the Atom Academy and he's perfectly fine as a leader and he wants it, and I'm good with that. If we ever need to split up, though, or if there's a void in direction, I can provide that direction. I don't think of myself as a natural leader, it's a skill like any other. But it's a skill that, like any other, I've practiced more extensively than you can imagine. Are you on a super team? If so, how do you get along with your comrades? Do you trust them, or do you have secrets from them? I'm joining up with the Atom Academy so yes. Eh, I'll get along fine. They're young. I mean, literally, half of them aren't even 20 yet. Our leader's not even 25. Thankfully, I've got Devon who's been around and Tyla to keep me balanced. Do I trust them? Sure I trust them. They know where I'm from. Hell, if something bad happens to me, and for some reason I don't return to the Goodman Building in time, they know to look for me in my broken day in case I'm trapped in another eternity of suffering. Heh, secrets? Here's a secret for you; If I intentionally made an effort to tell you about every possible thing I did in Friday, December 21st, 2012, you would be dead of old age before I got to the end. Are you a member of any church, fraternal organization, club, committee, political party, or other group? How much time do you spend on that? When I was a child, I went to the Gurdwana in the next town over like the good Sikhi girl my family raised me to be. I joined Redeemer Lutheran Church as a teenager. These days, I don't belong in either place. Barring schedule surprises, I participate in several Mensa Special Interest Groups, including Problem Solvers and the Gifted Children Study Group. The former in order to provide my lifetimes of knowledge as a resource to the world's brightest minds in order to solve problems facing the world. The latter in order to encourage gifted children and help them make the most of their talents as they grow and develop. Personality & Beliefs Who are your heroes? Velocity, Fleur and Patriot II Did you ever become disillusioned with former heroes or idols? If so, why and what were the circumstances? It's impossible for me to become more disillusioned than I already am. People are monsters and saints and the only path to sanity is making peace with that. Do you like being a hero? If so, what is the most rewarding part? If not, what makes you keep doing it? I do. It feels right. I like giving something back. I like seeing the look on the face of someone who just got hope back. Or that moment, when someone's face shifts from 'I've lost everything' to 'I haven't?' I can give that to people. Not always, not perfectly. But enough to know I made their day and sometimes their whole lifetimes better. I will never get tired of that feeling. I know because I still haven't. Is there anything that would make you give up hero work, or even switch sides? Give it up? Only if I decided my time could accomplish more good in another way. Or if I end up with a couple of kids and I'm the best choice to stay home with them. Switch sides? I've been on all sides. I know exactly what they have to offer. I'm good where I'm at. What are your short-term goals (what would you like to be doing within a year)? Same as I've been doing, I guess. Saving lives. Making a difference in lives. Deepening my relationship with Tyla. Conducting groundbreaking research. I'm open to surprises, though. What are your long-term goals (what would you like to be doing twenty years from now)? In the long term, I plan to build a device that can mimic the quantum entanglement my body shares with Z-Space. Mostly so I can zap people and make them all immortal, preferably by putting their bodies on a yearly loop so they can still have children. That's right, I'm going to make humanity immortal. Even goddamn Rebecca Black. What is your greatest fear? Why? What do you do when something triggers this fear? Easy. Being trapped. I have enough self-awareness to know how my brain works. I've read enough literature to understand how PTSD works, physiologically and psychologically. Of course, my body resets every day so, in theory, I shouldn't actually be vulnerable to clinical PTSD. But that doesn't mean I don't feel something a lot like it. If all that sounded like me ducking the question, it's because I was. I spent eternity in a time loop. The most frightening thing I've experienced in the last eleven years has been when I've died, not because death is especially scary or awful, but because it means I wake up there. It takes me 7 minutes and 34 seconds to escape my house and reach the Gables where the Atom Family left the Prime Space Recall Device. It's always been there for the last eleven years. And those 7 minutes and 34 seconds are still the most terrifying time of my life until the next time I die, because it's the only time when I don't absolutely for sure know I can get out again. Trauma being trauma, other things can trigger it sometimes. The fear. I know the physiological signs. The sweats. The trembles. The noise sensitivity. When I feel it coming on, I excuse myself to the bathroom and then I rewind myself back to the Goodman Building and I talk to you, ALEX. As we both know, we integrated a full counseling suite of software in 2013. We've tinkered with prompt-and-response over and over. On average, you can help me get myself under control in about seven minutes, with symptoms subsided enough not to resurge after about ten minutes. I don't know what I'd do without you, buddy. Besides see an actual counselor which, hahaha, that's never going to happen. Is there anything you would give your life for? Everything. My death is meaningless. Only the people in this world actually matter. How do you feel about money and material wealth? Do you desire it or disdain it? Are you miserly with what you have, or do you like to share? Is it mark of success, or a means to an end? When you've robbed as many banks or hacked as many private wealth organizations I have, you realize how meaningless money is on a personal level. I have no interest in it, except as a tool to accomplish specific objectives. And as a means to make my significant other smile with a surprise gift. How do you generally treat others? I treat my friends well. I treat strangers even better, especially if they're not going to remember me tomorrow. I try to treat kids best of all. Even bad guys get decency on my part. Are you a trusting person? Has your trust ever been abused? I know exactly what it takes to keep and break trust for most people. Trust is like faith; precious for those innocent enough to have it, and a tool for those who know better. Are you introverted (shy and withdrawn) or extroverted (outgoing)? Do you have a lot of self-confidence? My memories tell me I used to be introverted before the temporal loop. Now, I'm exactly what I need to be to accomplish my objectives. Self-confidence is what you call the belief that your experience of yourself is predictive. I don't have belief. I have knowledge. I know exactly what I can do and what I can't. How do you act around attractive, available members of your preferred sex? I'm in a relationship with Tyla. It's that simple. What are your most annoying habits? My tendency to forget to act like a normal human being around people I'm comfortable with. My friends, coworkers and teammates usually have enough experience with me by now to know enough of what I'm really like that it doesn't usually matter. I catch myself humming Friday at least once a day, even after all this time. Ear worm. Pre-loop me went to bed with wet hair and no thought to an eternity being stuck with permanent bedhead and a rumpled appearance the next day. I look like a trainwreck for the first 30 minutes of every day until I put my face on, and I suppose that's annoying if you're in a hurry and waiting for me. Do you feel contempt for any general category of people? Who are they, and why? Contempt is what people feel towards other people who won't act the way they assume or expect all humans to act. I know better. What is your favorite food? Do you prefer any particular type of food? Do you take the time to enjoy your food, or do you eat as fast as you can? I don't eat any of my favorite foods any more. I prefer food from somewhere new, no matter what or where that is. ...Eh, depends on the day. If I'm in the zone, I'm working and it's just fuel. Otherwise, I take my time and enjoy it. Life's too long not to. What is your favorite drink (alcoholic or otherwise)? Something I've never had. What is your favorite treat (dessert)? Something I've never had. Are there any specific foodstuffs that you find disgusting or refuse to eat? I avoid Punjabi dishes and American buffet style food wherever possible. What is your favorite color? Are there any colors you dislike? #DE3163. Not yet. What sort of music do you like? Is there any that you hate? Contemporary Christian praise music, as long as it's heartfelt. ...Do you really need to ask? If you have a favorite scent, what is it? Orchid Explosion by Fournier Do you have a favorite animal? Red Pandas. What is your most treasured possession? Why? TBD Do you enjoy "roughing it", or do you prefer your creature comforts? Comfort is an illusion. The sensation is discarded by any sane immortal after your first month of suicides. That said, a down comforter is nice. Is there a job or a task you would absolutely refuse to do? No. Do you consider yourself a spiritual person? If so, how do your beliefs affect your life? How important is it to you? I grew up meditating on Waheguru, Ik Onkar or the many other names of God. When I went to that Lutheran church in Millscroft as a kid, for the first time I experienced God as a person instead of simply the divine truth of the oneness of all things. The love of Jesus profoundly touched me and changed the girl I grew up being. That girl, Naisha Sidhu, is still a spiritual woman from what I see on Facebook. I'm not convinced whatever I am has any tether to the spiritual at all. I remember being an intensely religious girl growing up. I've practiced, devoutely and with utter sincerity, virtually every religion you've ever heard of and ten you haven't. I left religion behind, and found it again, and repeated this cycle at least a dozen times. Right now, I cling to the trappings of my old Lutheran life while basically approaching my new life through the lens of Sikh Dharma; religion's not something you believe, it's something you live. Was your faith influenced or molded by anyone special? Surprisingly no. I mean, I've met most of the world's religious leaders via phone or video conference and a couple in person...while I was inside the loop. They're mostly remarkable people. But no. My parents remain powerful examples of how faith can make people good people. And my church remains a powerful reminder of what it felt like to talk to God and hear Him answer back. I miss that intimacy. I wish there was a way to find it again. But there isn't because, believe me, I tried. If you belong to a religious organization, how often do you attend? Do you have a specific place of worship, or friends within the organization? How much do you agree with the beliefs of your organization? I attend Faith Lutheran Church, over in Midtown. It's a few blocks walk from the Atomic Tower, actually. I make it every Sunday I can. For the sake of the congregation, I pretend to just be Naisha Sidhu from Ohio working for Atom, Inc. I pretend I'm as real as they are and everyone's happier for it. Do I agree with their beliefs? I'd like to. I remember being a teenager who felt the presence of God in a church just like this one. I remember how meaningful that faith was to me. Do I agree with their beliefs? Eh. I go for the sake of who I was, not because I agree with everything they say. Could you kill? Have you killed? Yes. Yes. What circumstances led to you forming that conviction, or taking that action? Eternity. Facing the sheer abrasive repetition of forever. Are there circumstances under which you believe it is permissible to kill? What are they? I believe only God knows the heart and that sentient, loving, judicious God is the only one who can really decide if someone deserves death. Not being God, I don't kill people when it counts. How would you react to watching someone kill another person? Would your reaction be different if the killer was a friend or an enemy of yours? I wouldn't be reacting to watching, I'd be acting to stopping. If someone died at the hands of another, it would be despite me doing all I can to save them. Friend or stranger, doesn't matter. How would you react if something important was stolen from you? Possessions and wealth are meaningless. How would you react to public humiliation? The opinion of the public is meaningless. How would you react if a good friend or relative were purposely or accidentally killed? Has it happened to you? Hasn't actually happened to me, for which I'm thankful. If I could, I'd undo it. If I couldn't undo it, I'd make sure whoever or whatever caused their death never had a second chance to do it again. What do you consider to be the worst crime someone could commit and why? I'm not a legislator or a judge, and so my opinion shouldn't be considered as a prescription for the human race. The root of crime, and evil and suffering, comes from seeing someone else as the unknowable other. Someone, something that you don't need to understand, you just need to oppose them or stop them or take advantage of them or make money from them or get them to like you so they'll do things for you. So for me personally, the worst crime I can commit is to consciously decide someone's not worth knowing, not of value. Anything awful I might do to them flows from that. If your life were to end in 24 hours, what five things would you do in those remaining hours? It wouldn't be five things long. It'd be one thing. I would spend those 24 hours writing down every theory or avenue of research I've ever thought of that might be worth pursuing. I'm not a genius and the world's full of geniuses. But no one knows as much about as many different things as I do. My ability to synthesize across all disciplines is, to my experience, unique. If I'm not going to be around forever after all, then the least I can do is give humanity its best shot for the future. Career & Training Do you have any special training in your hero skills? If so, where and how did you get it? I do. My special training is experience. Mountains and mountains of painstakingly field-tested experience. I've read every book within a 100-mile radius of Millscroft, Ohio. I've read every single book digitally available through every library on earth. ...Well, mostly. I started skimming the romance section. Anyway, I've read a lot. I've created and conducted field tests and experiments a lot. I learned how to perform every specialized type of surgery there is and I know the pedological approaches for educating any child of any age of any culture or background. That's what I bring in terms of hero skills. Skill in a thousand things no one ever thinks about or knows that they're going to need, until they need it. Otherwise, the Atom Academy going to teach me everything I need to know about how to superhero. So will my teammates. Who taught you the most about your heroing abilities? What was your relationship with that person? TBD Do you have any particularly unusual skills? How did you acquire them? I can get exactly the right amount of peanut butter on a knife with a single stroke and perfectly spread it across a slice of bread in one pass. I can do a hundred slices in a row, each taking two seconds in between. I can do the same thing with five kinds of jam. I can do it with honey. You don't know the power of how bored you can get in a temporal loop. Do you do something besides hero work for a living? Have you ever done anything else, or do you plan to? I'm a researcher for Atom, Inc. I get a decent salary for basically being a lab assistant and a theoretical proof checker. I find it relaxing. I eventually plan to help the great minds of Earth to solve all of mankind's problems. What is your preferred combat style? Making someone experience the same second, over and over again. Have you ever received any awards or honors? Nothing you'd know about. What skill areas would you like most to improve in? Is there anything you can't do that you wish desperately you could? Giving a damn. Curing cancer would be nice. Believe it or not, never did nail that one down. How do you act around people who are more skilled than you in areas you'd like to improve? Are you jealous, or do you try and learn? Literally everything I know is because I (A) learned from someone smarter than me or (B) I just winged it until someone smarter than me corrected me. I adore learning from people better than me. Unless it's Paneer Tikka Masala. My family makes the best you've ever had. If you think you've met someone who can make it better, you're objectively wrong. Lifestyle & Hobbies What is a normal day for you? How do you feel when something interrupts this routine? I wake up in bed and spend my usual 20 minute regimen to get rid of epic bedhead and make myself presentable for the day. Breakfast. Think about working out but don't because, hey, literally nothing I do physically matters. I check in with my team's calendar at the Atom Academy. We do training exercises sometimes or plan expeditions. If I have downtime, I work at Atom, Inc. doing research. My day usually goes pretty quick. I don't mind interruptions to my routine because nothing that happens in my routine day is actually routine. Not compared to the actual routine of the broken day. Do you have any hobbies, or interests outside hero work? What are they, and where did you pick them up? I smash karaoke. I mean, I've done a million hobbies at one time or another. But karaoke is amazing and I need absolutely no excuse at all to go and do it. What do you do for fun? I've used up several lifetimes worth of fun. I'm good. I guess I can be bothered to hit a club up and go dancing or something. Do you have a costume? What does it look like? I do. Standard Atom Academy morphic molecule issue. How do you normally dress when not in costume? T-shirt and jeans. Sometimes a skirt if I feel like it. What do you wear to bed most nights? Not a damn thing. I lost my modesty wherever I lost my sanity back in Friday, December 21st, 2012. Besides, anything I'm wearing just vanishes with me when I Reset. Do you wear any special jewelry? What is it, and what does it look like? TBD Do you have a special place where you keep your valuables? Nope. What's your preferred means of local travel? How about long distance? Car, like a normal person. Plane, like a normal person. Especially if I'm driving/flying. Miscellaneous Have you ever made a will, or tried to make arrangements for your death? What provisions did you make? What would be the point? I can't ever die. If your features were to be destroyed beyond recognition, is there any other way of identifying your body? By watching it disappear at 1:36am CST. What would you like to be remembered for after your death? Ask the real Naisha Sidhu. I'm just an echo hoping to do some good before I outlast everyone and everything. Do you believe you pose a threat to the public? Why or why not? I mean, I could build a nuclear bomb? So I guess? But nah. I have no ill intent for the public, and my powers are uniquely suited for fixing the consequences of anything I didn't think through. What do you perceive as your greatest strength? No matter how long I live or how many times I die, I don't quit. What do you perceive as your greatest weakness? My imperishable, unsinkable nihilism. As a player, if you could, what advice would you give your character? Speak as if he/she were sitting right here in front of you. Use proper tone so they might heed your advice... "I'm sorry for giving you this backstory. The truth is, you're already on the right track. Thinking about others and doing good for them is of value, no matter what you get out of it. Also, God loves you."

Table Of Contents HellQ 20 Questions Origin Story Reputation ??? Profit

Awesome. I've added the Feature to my sheet above (and it from the Immunity power). Thanks for the tip!

Fascinating. If I save up the PP for it, can I upgrade that Feature 1 with 4 PP and turn it into Immunity 5 down the road? The latter is more my speed but there's no way I can afford it for the moment...