No-one knows what caused the initial problem with Yggdrasil, the World Tree. All that is known is that at some point in the multiverse's "past", Yggdrasil was damaged. In order to stablize the various universes, the gods (or Admins) put them into a "safe-mode" of sorts, where time is looped during an important portion of the universes time-line.
Originally, seven universes were started looping by the Admins: Ranma 1/2, Harry Potter, Naruto, Bleach, Evangelion, Sailor Moon, and Slayers. Other universes followed afterwards.
And now, long after the event known as 'The Crash', and long after The Doctor's own Awakening, it's Wakfu's universe that's entering the Infinite Time Loops.
Gods, dragons eggs, zap portals, and time loops... welcome to the World of Twelve.
1.01
The Crusty Gobball was a well known inn.
Located in Emelka, a small village in northen Amakna, it was renowned across the entire country for several reasons.
The place was cosy, the atmosphere warm, the staff friendlier than a drunk Pandawa, and the 'blanquette' was to die for.
Alibert, the owner, was an Enutrof and former adventurer. In his prime, he'd roamed the country with his good friend Ruel Stroud, looking for a treasure that would give a sense to his life. It had been a pointless search, he'd never found anything… until he'd stopped searching. He'd just taken the decision to hung his shovel, when he found the most precious treasure he could have hoped to find. That day, Alibert adopted a young orphan, and his life began anew.
The boy, Yugo, grew up in Emelka for twelve years without suspecting than his 'papoune' wasn't his real father. That shocking discovery came along powers over portals never seen before in the World Of Twelve, rabid Polters and Treechnid assaulting the village, and a crazy Xelor named Nox looking for the dragon Grougaloragran.
That day was the weirdest ever lived by the young boy… at the time. In fact, it only got worst from then on.
Yugo, on a quest to find his true family, began a journey around Amakna. He was aided in this endeavor by Az, his Tofu, and a number of friends.
First came Ruel Stroud, his adoptive father's best friend. The old Enutrof was greedy, and prone to rambling, but his heart was in the good place and he was skilled with a shovel.
Sir Percedal of Sadlygrove or Dally for his friends, was a Iop. He was thus an idiotic moron with an obsession for battle. He was also a Knight of the Order of the Guardians of Shushus, which made it his job to contain Rubilax, his demonic blade. His first failure had placed him in Yugo's debt when the boy freed him from the Shushu's possession, and he joined the group as repayment.
Amalia Sheran Sharm was a Sadida princess with a thing for dolls. She also had access to devastating plant magic, and was the textbook definition of a tomboy. Her thirst for adventure had led her to fight the Polters and Treechnids, while her desire to stay the hell away from the palace had made her join Yugo, dragging her poor bodyguard with her.
Evangelyne was a bow wielding Cra, assigned to the princess' protection. She had followed her charge out of duty at first, and out of companionship later, even if Amalia was driving her up the wall on a regular basis.
Those colorful individuals became the core of what would later be known as The Brotherhood of the Tofu. Together, they faced numerous threats ranking from angry plucked raven dudes, to ugly hugging princesses, evil Boufbowl teams, and ultimately saved the world from rampaging Shushus.
In the wake of the crazy Xelor seeing his plot fail miserably, Yugo had also discovered his true origin as an Eliatrope, born from a Dofus and coming from outer space. He had then reunited with Adamaï – his dragon brother – and the survivors of his species, with whom he stopping Qilby, a mad Eliatrope responsible for his people's misery and bent on destroying the World Of Twelve.
At long last, Yugo returned to his friends and family, his mind at peace.
He had his adoptive father, his brother, and a couple of new brothers to look after. The world was saved, he was happy, and he could now enjoy his life at its fullest…
The loops kicked in.
Yugo Awoke to a steaming pot of 'Special Alibert' blanquette and three kids – two years younger than he remembered them to be – asking him to play an Arena… again.
The new Anchor promptly fainted.
Yugo's swoon lasted at most twelve seconds.
His brain would have gladly left his body in a comatose state for longer, given the sheer weirdness of the situation, but the young Eliatrope regained consciousness anyway. He didn't really have a choice, with the three kids panicking and his father madly checking his body in search of an injury.
"Yugo, stay with me son."
The Eliatrope opened his weary eyes and asserted his situation. If his sense of sight was to be trusted, then his hallucination hadn't been an hallucination at all. That was… annoying.
He really felt like cursing right now.
"Are you hurt? Where does it hurt? Is it here? What about here? Or maybe –"
Damn, his father was almost unstoppable by anything short of a flame-spitting Grougal when he was like this.
But as much as he loved his father, Yugo didn't have the time to bear with his overprotectiveness. Unless his memories were faulty, he was on the day when it had all begun, almost two years in the past. He had time-traveled, somehow, and he had to figure out the how and why of it.
The boy groaned, rubbed his hurting head – and ears, those kids were loud – and tried to appease his father.
"I'm… fine."
Great, he could tell that his voice was off, which meant that his adoptive father had definitely heard it too.
"Yugo..."
Yep, it hadn't worked, he looked even more worried now.
"I'm fine papoune… really. I just felt… well, dizzy. The fumes from the blanquette must have got to my head."
The Enutrof looked skeptical, but his son's weak smile managed to flip his 'papa-bear' switch to off. He smiled back, visibly more relaxed.
"Don't scare me like that anymore, ok?"
"I won't."
Lying like this wasn't enjoyable in the slightest, but he had no choice. With the two upcoming years, his father would have many occasions to be scared for him, and with perfectly good reasons. But to tell him such a thing would be useless, as it would only scare him further.
For a split second, Yugo hated himself.
"Good." said Alibert. "Now, you need fresh air. Go play with your friends, I'll handle the blanquette."
His 'friends' got overexcited.
Yugo fought hard to repress a sigh.
"Yes, papoune."
Emelka was truly a nice village.
The inn was great, the bakery made many drool with its pleasing fragrances, and the giant tree casted a reassuring shadow on the entire town. Except that there was no giant tree yet, since Nox's mechanical bug hadn't been flattened by Ruel.
Yugo was running facts around his head, while his supposed 'friends' were running around town, on an imaginary adventure.
Unlike them, he wasn't a helpless kid anymore, he was the king of the Eliatropes, and he would solve this new mystery.
Time-travel was supposedly impossible, but Nox had done it before, if on a smaller scale. However, the Xelor couldn't possibly be responsible. Two hundred years of studies had merely allowed him a twenty minutes jump, he couldn't have made such a breakthrough in under a year, all the more so since he no longer had the Eliacube.
Qilby… Qilby could have done it. The traitor had the memories of every single of his past lives, he had mastered the cube. Sure, he was powerless and sealed in the White Dimension, but he could have created this time jump as a failsafe.
It had been a bad move.
Yugo had triggered it. And if he hadn't created a portal yet, he could still see the wakfu around him, see it flow right through his body… He had retained his abilities, all of them.
He would do it again, and this time, he would do it better. Nox would be reasoned out of his mad gamble, or be stopped as soon as possible. The madman would just be left to rot in his endless prison.
Checkmate, Qilby.
The Eliatrope pictured his foe's face, and smiled. His grin grew even bigger when Ruel Stroud appeared and entered the Crusty Gobball inn. When a possessed Dally followed suit, the boy was positively glowing.
"Hey guys, sorry but I've got to go, we have a Shushu on the loose. See you later."
Without further ado, he vanished in a swirling portal, leaving three extremely confused kids in his wake.
1.02
Yugo opened his eyes to a steaming blanquette, and let out a long string of curse words.
The nearby kids wondered when their friend had become so imaginative.
The Eliatrope was seeing this exact same blanquette for the seventh time now. Six times had he traveled through time. and he'd already seen too many tragedies, too many deaths… including his own.
If his first repeat had ended up in the same abrupt manner as his original life, the next ones had been much shorter, his last one even more so as it had come to an abrupt end when he'd tried to talk Nox out of his plan, choosing his words badly and receiving a fatal injury in retaliation.
It was clear now, the jump wasn't a failsafe, it was a trap. Qilby had managed to initiate a time loop, inescapable even through death, and Yugo would definitely end up just as crazy as the traitor if it continued any longer.
He had to make it stop… now. The Eliatrope opened a portal and jumped straight through it.
Reappearing by the village's entrance, he tracked down Dally's wakfu signature and blasted a ray at Rubilax as sonn as he entered his field of vision. The Shushu relinquished his control and the guardian was free again.
Without pausing, portals opened toward the forbidden forest and the Eliatrope disappeared in a blur. His path ended up moments later, in front of two startled travelers.
"Sorry Evangelyne, I'm borrowing Amalia."
Then he was gone, a Sadida princess under the arm. After a mad rush, he unceremoniously dropped her in front of the giant Treechnid.
His past-and-hopefully-future-friend got out of her stupor and opened her mouth, probably to direct one of her legendary angry rant at him. He didn't let her enough time to speak as he knelt before her.
"I apologize for this, princess Sheran Sharm, but I heard about your dream and I need your help. My name is Yugo of Emelka, and this is the Venerable Soft Oak. He's the one responsible for the Polters' attacks, though someone else is the cause of his ire. Please, appease him, so that I can deal with the real culprit."
She blinked a few times.. and ultimately nodded, silently moving towards the giant tree.
The Eliatrope almost sighed in relief.
He'd escape the divine punishment… well, he'd retarded it, which was good enough for now.
The only question left was 'how could he avoid a second beating from a vengeful Cra?'
It turned out that he couldn't.
Evangelyne had fired eight arrows of various elements before he could even muster a word, and only Amalia' express intervention had kept her from finishing him.
And now, the blonde was grilling him, as if his injuries weren't painful enough by themselves.
"Look, I understand that you had the means to stop the attacks and decided to act, but what I don't understand is why you kidnapped Amalia. What prevented you from explaining the situation beforehand?"
"I was in a hurry?" he tried, only eliciting a sigh from the Cra.
"What I don't understand –" said the Sadida "– is why you seem to know us, even though I'm sure that we've never seen you before in our entire lives."
Then, she raised a finger before carrying on with her analysis.
"And aside from Eva, my father's the only one who knows about my dream, so I'd really like to know where you could have heard about it. Are you having prophetic dreams too, Yugo of Emelka?"
The Eliatrope could only see two answers to that particular question.
He could lie, it would be easy. He'd done so before after all. But it hadn't worked then, so why would he bother?
"No Amalia, I don't have prophetic dreams. I just traveled back in time."
Three…
Two…
One…
"WHAAAAT?"
He winced.
They just had to train to be so perfectly synchronized, it was the only explanation.
Yugo adopted his most solemn tone and began to speak.
"Your name is Amalia Sheran Sharm, princess of the Sadida kingdom, daughter of King Oakheart, and sister to Prince Armand. And you –" he pointed to the Cra "– are Evangelyne, Amalia's bodyguard and sister to Cleome. The two of you traveled to this forest after a dream sent to you by Sadida, and I know this because it's something that you told me yourselves."
Their shocked expression were somewhat funny, but it wouldn't do to laugh now.
He focused and kept on talking.
"Nox, the man who angered the Great Oak and caused those attacks, is in possession of something known as the Eliacube. The cube is an artifact belonging to the Eliatropes, my people. The first time around, my brother and I accidentally freed Qilby, a traitor to my kind, from within its depths, and he trapped me in time. As I said before, I've lived through those events before. This is in fact my seventh repeat, and I want to retrieve the cube to confront the traitor and prevent an eighth one. Not dying would be nice too."
They winced, but he ignored it.
"I won't ask you to help me, that task is one I must do by myself. But when it will finally be over…"
Now was the perfect opportunity to use what Adamaï had dubbed the "Yugo Smile n°3".
"I wouldn't say no to a little adventuring, and I could really use some friends."
The girls' incredulous faces, slowly morphing into soft smiles, were answers by themselves.
Yugo Smile n°3, success.
Returning to Emelka had been easy. The girls had their domesticated Dragoturkeys, and Yugo had just zapped his way back in record time.
Explaining his situation to a confused Dally, a grumpy Ruel, and his worried father, had been slightly harder. Thankfully, he had enough proofs to corroborate his words.
He'd also refrained from mentioning too much, as to avoid unnecessary unease. Dally and Evangeline wouldn't have taken the news of a relationship that well, Ruel would have instantly refused the idea of him raising another Drheller, and his papoune would have freaked out at the sheer amount of dangerous situations he'd found himself into… or was about to find himself into.
It's partly because of this that, when the next part of his plan – which was extremely hazardous – unfolded, he did something he'd never thought he'd ever do.
He did a simple gesture toward his interlocutor… and time froze.
"Thank you."
Those simple words got a frown from the man facing him.
"This is my strongest spell, how can you beunaffected?"
"Your spells haven't worked on me in years, Nox."
"Years?"
His confusion was evident, and tainted with a faint trace of desire. The Xelor was facing an unknown phenomenon, and he wanted… no, needed to understand it.
"I'm willing to explain… if you promise not to harm my friends."
He needed that assurance. His plan was risky, he knew it, this exact same conversation having evolved into a blood bath the last time around. But while he could do with another death, the same wasn't true for his friends, and he never wanted to see them hurt ever again.
"I suppose I can do that, yes." shrugged the man.
Yugo pushed out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding.
"Now, tell me kid, who are you and what nefarious plan do you need my help for?"
"Why do you assume that I have a nefarious plan?"
The Xelor chuckled.
"Be serious kid, you lured me here by feeding residual energy from the dragon Grougaloragran to my noxines, and immediately asked me to stop time to keep our audience from this discussion. You can't have noble intentions."
Well, he was right, and wrong. His intentions weren't so noble, but the source of his wrath deserved it entirely, and his actions would probably save countless lives. Still, Yugo couldn't believe what he was about to do…
"You mean, like you? Well, going back to your family is noble enough, I guess."
He needed to get through to Nox. Those words, and the ones he was about to use, would definitely do the trick.
"How do you –"
"Know about it? Because you told me yourself. Because while you're trying to go back, I'm trying to stay put. I'm stuck in a time loop, Nox, and I've seen it before. I've seen you try, and I've seen you fail."
The Xelor's entire body started trembling at those words.
Yugo couldn't tell if the man was shocked at the prospect of a time loop, felling murderous after having his dream destroyed by a kid, or a combination of both.
"My name is Yugo, and I'm an Eliatrope. The Eliacube was made by Chibi, my people's greatest scientist, but it was never intended as a time travel device. No matter how much wakfu you feed it with, you'll never get more than a twenty minutes jump." he let it sunk for a moment. His next words were but a whisper. "I'm sorry, Nox, but your quest is a fool's errand."
The Eliatrope stayed perfectly still when the man stopped shaking and grabbed the clock hand that had just materialized in mid-air.
"What proofs do you have?" he hissed, his voice low and dripping with poison. "Why should I trust any word coming from you?"
"Because I can lead you to the man who, I believe, is the source of that voice in your head."
The man's mask glared even harder, but the clock hand didn't move.
Yugo took it as an invitation to keep talking.
"The Eliacube works as a prison for a traitor to my kind. Like me, Qilby is one of the six firstborns. We were the first Eliatropes created by the goddess at the dawn of time, and while we aren't immortal, our wakfu returns to our Dofus upon death, so that we can be born again. But Qilby is a special case. While we're forgetting our past lives, he remembers them all. It drove him crazy, and he sold us to our enemies. I defeated him myself, loosing my life in the process, and he was exiled in a dimension of endless whiteness within the cube for all eternity. He got even madder in there, but even missing an arm and with his mind in shambles, he still had thousands of years of knowledge and experiences, and wanted nothing more than to be set free. I think that he found a way to affect the cube and, through it, you."
"So this Qilby… tricked me?"
"It's only a theory, but that's the conclusion my brother and I reached. It's not surprising though, when you know that he tricked us too and came this close to destroying the World of Twelve. We managed to stop him, but that's when he… got me."
"Those time loops… he's responsible too?"
The Eliatrope nodded.
"So you want the cube."
"I need the damn cube, I don't want it. The only thing I want right now is to get out of this nightmare where I can't even die properly."
Yugo unconsciously began to clench his hands, a wrathful spark invading his eyes. His voice even lost its warmth, becoming colder and louder with each word.
"I want to live my life with my friends and my family. I want to reunite with my people. I want those loops to end, before they become my own White Dimension, and I end up MADDER THAN QILBY EVER WAS."
The Eliatrope's yells reverberated around for a moment, diminishing to whispers before a heavy silence fell on the out-of-time scene.
"Sorry." finally managed the boy, his breath short and his hands slowly ceasing to shake. "That was uncalled for."
"There's no need to apologize." solemnly said the Xelor. "I understand."
"Th… Thank you for –"
"Don't." interrupted the man. "I may understand, but I don't trust you."
His clock hand drawing closer made that point even clearer.
"Me neither Nox, you killed my friends and gutted me not two hours ago."
Well, it had gone fairly smoothly up until now – bar the little breakdown and the sharp hand brushing against his jugular –, but here came the hardest part. This was the main reason as to why Yugo had asked for a time stop.
"It doesn't mean that we can't get past it and work together. You provide the cube, I provide Qilby, and we get answers out of him. I get to end this, you get to put your family's memories to rest. And if, somehow, he can make you return to them… I'll help you make your dream into a reality."
On the list of things he'd never thought he'd do or say, this pact with the devil was at least in the top ten.
The man seemed to ponder his thoughts for what felt like an eternity.
Slowly, surely, he lowered his clock hand.
"This is… acceptable."
The Xelor and the Eliatrope shook hands.
It had now made it into the top three.
Yugo watched Nox teleport away, on his way to retrieve the cube. Their deal was made, and he was that much closer to ending this nightmare.
"YUGO!"
Right, he 'd momentarily forgotten about them.
With the Xelor away, time had resumed at a normal pace, and he would have to explain why his former enemy was now – if only temporarily – an ally, preferably without revealing the true extend of this partnership.
He couldn't wait to be out of this mess, he truly hated the lies and half-truths.
The White Dimension.
No matter where Qilby looked, he couldn't see a thing. The lack of light wasn't the problem here, the lack of anything but light was. The dimension was a blank slate where space was distorted unto itself, creating an endless void, and the blinding light made it truly impossible to rest. Time itself was wrecked, making seconds look like centuries. He wasn't even sure how much time he'd spent in this whiteness, but he'd long since understood that dying wasn't an option either. The prisoner could only suffer in his loneliness.
"HellooOooo." suddenly singsonged a voice.
Qilby hallowed himself a smile. His sister's voice was frequent in the whiteness, she helped to keep his awake nightmares away.
He came face to face with a man wrapped in bandages.
That… wasn't Shinonome.
He'd been fooled by the sweet tone, but had missed the sadistic undertone entirely.
"W… who are you? How did you enter this dimension?"
He couldn't even recognized himself, his own voice sounding strange to his ears. He hadn't spoken a word in… forever.
"The exact same voice." whispered the man, before continuing in a harsher tone. "You may call me Nox. As for how I got here, I simply came with one of our mutual acquaintances." he explained, designating a point behind him.
Qilby turned to see this 'acquaintance'.
His last fragile piece of sanity threatened to disappear.
"Yu… Yugo?"
"Hello, Qilby."
The traitor felt his anger rise at the sight of his foe and past-king in front of him. He'd been the one who'd put him in here, the one who had submitted him to this nightmare…And he had just used his name.
"Tell me, since you know your subject when it comes to time travel and the Eliacube, how much wakfu would we need to have Nox do a two hundred years trip to the past?"
The prisoner didn't even hear his jailor's word, there was only one thing on his mind.
Yugo knew his name.
"You… remember me."
"Oooh, I remember all right, you made sure of that. Now answer the question."
"You're young again… so you had to die… but you have your memories..."
"Answer the question before I lose patience and rip your remaining arm from your body." growled this Nox character.
"He would totally do it, you know."
"It makes no sense." said the Eliatrope, completely ignoring his kind-of-brother and the bandaged man. Even his wrath toward his people had dimmed by now, confusion taking its place.
"We're losing time. Here, let me handle it."
Qilby was broken out of his musing when he was suddenly pinned to the ground by a clock hand going through his robes.
"Did you know, Eliatrope –" said Nox, taking hold of his arm. "– that an adult body contains precisely two hundred and six bones… well, most do anyway."
A loud cracking noise echoed.
Qilby knew pain.
"That makes one. One hundred and seventy five to go."
Yugo desperately wanted to yell.
Nox was way past yelling.
Qilby… ok, he was yelling.
The traitor had begun to speak after the sixth bone turned to smithereens, but his words hadn't really satisfied the Xelor. Nox had become more creative, but the answers had stayed the same. After reaching the ribs, he'd finally had to resign himself. A two hundred year leap in time was impossible to achieve, he couldn't rejoin with his family.
Something had broken in him, tears had flowed down his face, and Qilby's muffled sobs had instantly morph into full-out shouts of pain.
Yugo had had to force him down immediately, as he'd wanted his own question answered. He'd himself been sorely unsatisfied when Qilby had just laughed bitterly and called him a fool. If he couldn't power a two hundred year time jump, he most certainly couldn't create a stable time loop. The traitor had then mocked him, saying that his 'king' had probably angered the goddess Eliatrope… that he deserved every second of his own curse for what he'd done to him.
Yugo had stayed silent, looked the other way and let Nox do his thing.
And so, Qilby was yelling.
Well, more like trying to. He appeared to have some difficulty speaking… or breathing, really.
The time traveler honestly didn't care. As long as the scum stayed alive, there would be no returning to his Dofus and it meant no freshly resurrected crazy baby Eliatrope with a god complex after his head.
Another crushing sound was heard, followed by a choking noise and ultimately, silence.
The Xelor released a small snicker and joined his partner in crime. He looked tired, almost dead on his feet, but his steady breath and calm posture truly showed how much weight had just left his shoulders.
"So, you're done?" asked the Eliatrope, ready to tap into the Eliacube's vast powers to open the portal.
"Yes, that is good enough. It will take a few months to heal." replied Nox, voice slightly hoarse.
"I thought you would have been harsher." admitted Yugo, somewhat perplex.
The man smiled.
"That would be in real time. Our friend is up to five centuries of pain, six if I miscalculated the dilatation field on the dimension."
Despite the graveness and horror of that statement, Yugo smiled back. That surely was more like him.
The passage to The World of Twelve opened and the two visitors left the dimension, leaving a corpse-like Qilby behind them.
Yugo's grim mood wasn't helped by the sudden blanquette he opened his eyes to.
Another repeat… at least, he hadn't died this time.
The Eliatrope rubbed his temples, trying to shield away from the annoying mouthy kids and their annoying Arena.
He was so out of it that, if he did play, he would end up either killing someone, running away from civilization, or both.
So he amicably told them that he was busy, and tried to enjoy the silence…
No, he couldn't, he had too much to think about.
He had spent the rest of his last repeat in some kind of foggy daze created by conflicting feelings.
He was angry at himself for letting someone be tortured, even more so since he'd verified Qilby's claim with Grougaloragran, Phaeris and Balthazar. The three dragons had all confirmed the man's words, he truly couldn't be responsible for the loops.
Yugo knew that he shouldn't have allowed Nox to do those things… but his rational mind also kept on telling him that the traitor had deserved it anyway after his betrayal and what he'd done to his friends, while his slightly less rational mind was extremely pleased at the guy's misery.
He felt sick.
But it was over now. Those things were stuck in a past-future of sort, and they would never happen again…
So why did he kept thinking about them?
Why couldn't those memories just leave him alone?
Why couldn't he just forget?
He wanted to forget.
No, he needed to forget!
He HAD to –
"Yugo, my little piwi… are you okay?"
The Eliatrope threw himself at his startled father… and wept.
1.03
Yugo didn't know what to think of this new repeat.
He'd opened his eyes to the same steaming blanquette – which he'd taken a licking to insulting every time – helped an idiotic Iop get rid of Rubilax's influence, and prevented his father from being turned into a tree. Then he'd traveled to the Forbidden Forest with Ruel and Percedal, met Evangelyne and Amalia, and stopped the Polters' attacks. When Nox had later attacked, the Eliotrope had blurred a speech he now had down to a science thanks to the repeats, and the Xelor had teleported away. At this point, he was either gone for good – Yugo wasn't even mentioning the time loop anymore, but his speech was just that good – or would meet them in approximately a week with a change of heart and ask to join the Brotherhood to find a new reason to live – which had only happened twice, but Yugo had truly liked it.
In other words, the Eliatrope had saved the day like he usually did, and everything had worked out pretty well so far… except for one tiny little detail that just kept nagging him.
WHY WAS HE A GIRL?
"Come on now, Missy. We have to find you a new family." said the old Enutrof, gently patting his little charge's head. The Cra and the Sadida were giving her reassuring smiles, while the Iop was just drooling and ogling her cleavage, where Az had hidden earlier.
The Eliatrope felt like banging his… her head against the Zap Portal. If she did it with enough conviction, she may be able to open her eyes to a blanquette.
And this time, she wouldn't even complain.
1.04
When Yugo had opened his eyes to the thin and delicate hands of Yagea, his female self, he'd been quite puzzled.
Still, he'd managed, even if it had taken some getting used to – mainly regarding the group's new dynamic – and some ungetting used to – mostly regarding old masculine habits, like blushing deep red and turning around whenever he saw a feminine's body… mostly Amalia's.
But this…
This just couldn't be real.
He couldn't possibly be in a carriage, writs bounded and feet bare, with three other seated individuals, and armed guards treating him like a prisoner. The impossible carriage couldn't possibly be traveling through high snowy mountains either.
He was supposed to insult a blanquette… where was his blanquette?
Not around, that was for sure. He knew his geography of the World of Twelve pretty well, and he'd never heard of a world called Nirn, a continent called Tamriel, or a country called Skyrim. Yes, that was the name of the place he was currently in, his memories were foggy but he still knew that much.
Except that he wasn't supposed to have any memories about a place he'd never been too or even heard about before.
And his body… well, he was male, which was good, but he was definitely not a kid, nor an Eliatrope anymore. He had scales, and a tail.
Argonian that was what he was now.
Not for long apparently, the chopping block awaited him… and he couldn't create any portal.
This just couldn't be real.
"Are you a relative of one of the Riften dock workers, Argonian?" asked the guard, eying his listing.
"No, I'm… I'm not an Argonian." hastily replied Yugo.
That got him a few raised eyebrows.
"Well, that is one good imitation then." joked the man.
"No, you don't understand. I'm not supposed to be here."
"Hm… he's right Captain. He's not on the list."
"Forget the list. The lizard goes to the block."
"By your orders, Captain. Follow the Captain, prisoner."
"You're making a mistake. I'm an Eliatrope from the World of Twelve and –"
The woman backhanded him. He felt to the ground, head spinning, and things went black.
Yugo was shaken awake by a gauntleted hand. He felt the cold metal on his scales, and cursed silently at the fact that he still had scales.
"You slept long enough, Argonian. Your turn has come."
His turn…
The misplaced time-traveler felt the wood again his neck, and he knew. He opened his eyes to a pile of cooling bodies.
And severed heads.
And hovering over him, was a masked executioner with a raising bloodied axe.
Yugo closed his eyes. This nightmare would at least have been quick.
"ROOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAR!"
What?
"What in Oblivion is that? Sentry?"
"On the tower."
Yugo decided to take a peek. What he saw was… disturbing.
"Who's that?"
A man was standing on the tower in front of him. He was dressed in a ridiculous outfit of conflicting orange and purple, and was making faces, waving his arms around and screaming like a lunatic.
"ROOOAAAR! Fear me, mortals! I am the end of happiness, the bringer of death, the… wait, Scaly, is that you?"
The man had fixed his gaze on the Argonian, and his eyes had began to shine… literally. There were twinkling like crazy, and the creepiest smile Yugo had ever seen – and that was saying something, since he'd fought Qilby – began to bloom on his face.
Then the guy ran down the wall, still screaming.
"Scaaaaaaly, I missed you."
"Shoot that thing!" ordered the Captain.
Arrows were fired… and turned into birds.
"Hey, that's not very nice." said the man, clearly an Imperial, weird echo gone from his voice. Now that he was closer, his white beard and hair were clearly visible, as were his slitted yellow eyes.
"Is that really a way to welcome a Prince?"
Yugo somehow heard the capital letter, and he began to fear for his life. If his weird memories were true, then that… thing, was way more dangerous than an axe to the head.
"Don't worry though, I understand perfectly and I won't hold it against you." beamed the creature. "You were expecting Alduin, and you're disappointed. But you've got to try and see it from my point of view. Ghosty isn't Awake this time around, and my good buddy Scaly over there… well, neither, or he would have stopped me by now. Lydia's Awake alright, but she threatened to shoot me with a customized Desert Eagle Mk XIX if I ever teleported in Breezhome again, and I rather like my head where it is, thank you. I could always use the front door, sure, but… meh. So here I was, alone for this loop, and I got bored… it happens, right? So I may have waited for the giant lizard to come out of his temporary retirement and dealt with him myself… sorry Scaly, I hijacked a third of your destiny. But hey, I replaced him, right?"
His words didn't registered in the Argonian's head… except for one.
"This… loop?" mustered weakly the confused boy.
The thing's attitude change briefly. He tensed, and his eyes sharpened for a second… then he was back to his goofy self and turned a huge smile toward his stunned audience while patting Yugo on the head.
"Anyway, the guy still has two third to do, so he can't really die here now, can he? Don't worry, he'll be home by midnight."
The spectators gasped as the Argonian's sight filled with purple.
Yugo had traveled by portals before. He was an Eliatrope after all, it was their thing.
But this portal was… he didn't truly know how to explain it, but it felt wrong… twisted. So much that, when the trip ended, he immediately doubled over and violently emptied his bowel.
"My, what a fragile young man. You should have that weak stomach checked, my friend. Lydia won't be happy if you keep vomiting on her floor."
"No, I won't." hissed a female voice that surely belonged to this 'Lydia'. "What did I tell you, Hero, about your teleportations?"
"Not to do any, unless it is a matter of life and death." answered mechanically the now dubbed Hero.
"And…?"
"And it is, of course. I certainly don't teleport random barfing Argonians around the country for fun, that is Sanguine's job."
"So… visiting looper?" asked Lydia, now sounding curious and slightly excited.
"I believe so, yes. Possibly a new one."
"Sweet, I never gave the talk before."
"Which one?" asked Hero, mirth in his voice.
"What are you… talking about?" weakly managed the Argonian, slowly raising from his prostrated position on the floor.
"Time has been repeating itself for you, right?" asked the Prince in an Imperial guise. "You can't explain it, but somehow, you keep awakening into your past. Your memory and skills remain intact, but the others simply forget. Then, weird things start to happen, like a switched gender or a different race, and you begin to wonder if the gods aren't after you. But when the next step comes, and you awake to an entirely different world than the one you're used to, you immediately think that you've finally lost your head… that you've got mad."
The Argonian opened his mouth, but no sound came out. After a handful of seconds, he nodded hesitantly.
"Then worry not my friend, you certainly haven't." beamed the man.
"You can trust him on that, he knows madness." said Lydia, that he could now see her properly. The brunette was pretty, and smiling warmly at him. "Don't trust him for anything else though." she then stage-whispered.
"Hey!"
The woman smirked at the frowning Hero.
"If I'm not crazy…" intervened Yugo "What's happening exactly?"
"A tree is broken." answered Hero.
"… what?"
"That's the short version, Lydia will handle the long one. I'm out of here."
"Wait, I don't have a –"
The Prince was swallowed by a swirling vortex.
"– spare guide." finished the woman with a growl. "I'm so kicking his sorry ass later."
After the Prince's departure, Lydia had quickly cleaned the mess on the floor. She'd also grabbed food and water, so that the Argonian – who'd introduced himself as Yugo of Emelka – could refresh himself. She was now seated in the front room, in a comfortable silence only disturbed by the gulping sounds made by her visitor.
"You can eat and listen at the same time, right?" she inquired.
He nodded, good. She clearly could have waited until he was finished to move unto her speech, but that would be easier.
"Well, the first things you need to know about the loops, is that they aren't your fault. It's not a form of divine punishment for something that happened in your home universe, nor anything of the sort. They are divine in origins, but they're more like a universal safety… kinda."
His scaly face shifted slightly and she saw relief in his eyes.
"Do you know what a computer is?"
He shook his head.
"Advanced technology then? Steam-powered engines, maybe?"
"Well, Sufokians have things like that in their submarines and Xelors make some pretty advanced things with clockworks." said Yugo, before stroking his chin, as if lost in thoughts. "There's also the Zinit."
"The what?"
"Zinit, an Eliatrope spaceship. But it's working on wakfu, so I don't know if it counts."
He didn't know what a computer was, but he had a freaking spaceship? Maybe he was from one of those magitech kind of loops.
"Well, picture the inner working of that ship. When you enter a command through… whatever it is you're using –"
"The Eliacube." provided the Argonian.
"Right. So, when you use this Eliacube and ask the ship to do something, it process your order, and apply it if it is implemented in his inner coding. That's what a computer is, a device that can acquire data, manipulate it, and give you a result, either through a screen or by triggering an action from some other device."
The Argonian nodded, and grabbed another pastry.
"Now, bear with me, because it gets complicated. Reality, all of it, is basically a computer. It is in the form of a divine tree, itself made out of an infinity of universes, each universe being like a branch. The tree's called Yggdrasil… and it's broken."
The new looper did an amazing spit-take.
"Something broke reality?"
"Not entirely, and we don't know precisely what did it, but yes."
"And the repeats..."
"The loops are a way for the Gods tending to Yggdrasil – we call them Administrators, or Admins, for short – to keep the system running while they fix reality."
The visitor stayed silent for a long time, and ultimately sighed.
"There's nothing I can do, right?"
"For Yggdrasil, no, not really. You can help your world though."
"How?" asked the Argonian.
"You're clearly the Anchor, it means that the loop's stability depends of you. Just try not to create bigger problems for the Admins by breaking your world's rules too much."
"What do you mean, breaking the rules?"
"Well, things like using out-of-loop abilities carelessly and making a mess of the local physic. You'll die stupidly, the loop will crash, and you'll loop in a place you don't want to loop into."
"Abilities?"
"Indeed. When you loop in other universes – that's a fused loop, and what you're living right now – you will sometime gain access to their local form of magic, energy, or whatever. The majority of them, including our spells and the Thu'um, will stay with you when you go back to your own branch."
The Argonian's eyes were sparkling now.
"I'll get new powers? That's awesome." he beamed.
Lydia chuckled at the young man's enthusiasm.
"Wait, are you an… Anchor too?" suddenly asked Yugo.
"No, that would be the Dragonborn, the man you're replacing."
"Dragonborn? Is that really a name?"
"No, it's his title. Our loop is slightly damaged, and if he eventually gains the name Ysmir after being acknowledged by the Greybeards, his base name keeps changing, along with his gender, and his race. One day he's a female Imperial called Henrietta, and the next he's a male Khajiit named D'zark. Same goes for our two other Anchors."
"I was a girl, once." suddenly said the Argonian, alarmed. "Does this mean that my loop is damaged?"
"If it only happened once, then probably not." answer Lydia. "It'll definitely happen again though, gender-bender is a fairly common Variant in the loops."
"Great."
Yugo was clearly unexcited at the idea of another experience as a girl.
Then his eyes widened and he jump out of his seat.
"Wait a minute. You said that you're not an Anchor… what exactly is an Anchor then? And what are you?"
"An Anchor is a looper selected by Yggdrasil to always be Awake. He also acts as a core for the loop he's currently in. If you're the only Anchor around, and you die, the entire loop will crash and you'll begin a new one. As for me, I am just a regular looper. I'm looping, but not as frequently as an Anchor. If I hadn't been Awake, the Lydia you would have met would have been what I was before, without the extra experiences and abilities."
"But… what makes a looper exactly?"
"Proximity and emotional connection to the Anchor, mostly."
"So, my friends will loop too." said Yugo, relief evident in his voice.
"They should, yes." answered Lydia.
"Should?" asked the Argonian, tensing.
Great, she'd made him freak out.
"It's… complicated." she began. "If you're unlucky, you may be in a case similar to ours. As I told you, this loop is damage, but it used to be much worse. The Dragonborn stayed alone for… quite some time. Then two sub-branches activated – it's even more complicated, don't ask – and he was joined by two other Anchors, namely the Nerevarine and the Hero of Kvatch that you've already met. I Awoke a few hundred loops later."
"A FEW HUNDRED?"
Okay, that was much worse.
"Please, calm down."
"I CAN'T DO THIS FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS!"
"I'm sorry, but you'll have to." she replied. "It's a strange fate, I know, but –"
"Strange? This isn't strange, THIS IS MADNESS."
"Sorry my friend, wrong universe." calmly said the Hero of Kvatch, emerging from a portal.
Startled by the sudden arrival, Yugo fell back in his chair. A small orb of greenish light hit him, and his anger was suddenly gone.
"You were eavesdropping to make your grand entrance?" asked Lydia, eyebrow raised.
"No, I'm just that lucky. And I'll have you know that if I had eavesdropped, I would have totally dressed as a Spartiate, so don't complain." answered the daedra.
"Thank Divines, we avoided that." smirked the huscarl. "Where were you by the way?"
"Convincing Herm to push Miraak in a pool of acid."
Lydia blinked.
And again.
"Why?" she finally managed.
"Our friend here was distressed enough. He didn't need that."
"That's… very kind of you, I suppose. You dealt with Harkon too?"
"Created a sun in his chapel." said the Anchor, his smile becoming disturbingly shark-like.
"Toasted vampire… I approve."
"I knew you would." he smirked, before turning to a still silent Argonian. "Now, let's deal with you my friend. You believe that the loops are madness… that you'll end up crazy?"
The visiting Anchor was too calm to answer, but he managed a small nod.
"Then I ask you, what's wrong with madness? It makes your brain work, stimulates your imagination – creativity and insanity are first cousins twice removed, after all. – and can even keep you alive sometimes. Hell, I survived my baseline by becoming madness. There's madness in every sudden impulse, in every fear and every hope… even in love." said the Prince.
Lydia could tell that those word had managed to shake the hexed Argonian, even if he was clearly not entirely convinced yet.
"I know that madness is mostly seen as a disorder, something that can turn even the most virtuous man into the most sinful criminal… and it definitely can." continued the man "But I'm not telling you to go into a frenzy and kill thousands. I'm telling you to focus your madness on who you are and who you want to be when your friends eventually start looping. Save people if that's your thing, and if it's not, then don't. Play sports or be a lazy ass, practice martial arts or become a ballet dancer, meditate if you need to, or hunt enormous monsters if that's what calms you. Raise a pet, redeem your enemies, or be inventive and raise your enemies. You can also study sciences, geography, languages, quantum physic, magic, try you hands at computer engineering or initiate a space program and launch yourself among the stars."
The Hero was now eye to eye with Yugo, and his face was dead serious.
"The loops are madness, all right, but they can't make you into something you're not, my friend. Only one person gets to choose who you become, and that is you. You have all the time in the world… do try not to loose any."
With a wave of the hand, the Oblivion-era Anchor released the calming spell he'd applied earlier, and vanished in another teleportation. His job here was done.
Lydia watched the silent Argonian with a small smile.
The Hero could be an ass, and he was prone to randomness, but he sure knew how to make a good speech. The debates he occasionally had with an ascended Martin Septim were definitely a good thing.
Then she remember that the bastard had yet again teleported around the house, and hadn't provided her with a spare guide.
Her smile vanished, and she cursed silently.
She would definitely shoot him… in the head… with holy bullets… explosive ones.
Yugo hadn't said a word in the last half an hour. He'd remained in his seat, glazed-over eyes looking into nothingness.
When he eventually broke out of his trance, he immediately turned to Lydia and bowed his head as low as possible.
"I'm sorry for my outburst, Lady Lydia." politely said the Argonian.
The huscarl was happy to hear genuine remorse in his voice.
"I'm no lady, Yugo. And it's okay, I shouldn't have broken the news to you like that." she replied in a sweet voice, clearly showing that his apologies were accepted.
"But still… you were only trying to help and… I lashed out on you…"
"You were scared, that's perfectly understandable. Even more so if your baseline is a bad one."
"Baseline, Hero used that word when he…" the Argonian coughed, ashamed of the dressing down he'd received. "What is it?"
"Eager to learn, aren't you?" smiled the Nord. "Well, baseline is how your life went the first time around, everything you did before your first loop. As Anchor you remember the true baseline, but don't forget that loopers can Awaken after a Variant. In which case, they will believe that Variant to be the baseline, and you'll have to fix that."
"Variants are loops with modifications, right? Like the one where I was a girl?"
"Exactly." confirmed Lydia. "But pretty much anything can come up. There's a list of the most commonly encountered in the guide, and you'll see that some of them are funny, some extremely weird, and others are just –" She winced, remembering a few of her own experiences. "– unpleasant."
Before her visitor could get worried, she resumed with her explanations.
"Anyway, since our dear Hero of Kvatch didn't stick around long enough to give you a guide –"
Lydia nonchalantly lifted her hand, and a book appeared in it.
"– I'll just have to give you mine."
It surprised Yugo quite nicely.
"How did you –"
"Subspace pocket, page seventeen through twenty-four." she replied, stuffing the book in his hands. "A little trick that allows loopers to store objects and keep them from one loop to the next. Extremely useful, when you can access it."
The Argonien raised a scaly eyebrow.
"The loops can get capricious sometimes, and lock your Pocket and out-of-loop abilities." she explained. "But you need to have a Pocket first, so why don't you take a peek at that book? When you'll at least have the first forty-two pages down, you should move to this."
She produced another tome, 'An Explorer's Guide to Skyrim: Looping Edition', and put it on the table.
"Hero dealt with the loop's main events, but you should still read about them. In the meantime, I'll go get a few things you'll need from Belethor's and Warmaiden's, we'll talk about what you want to do when I get back. Is that fine with you?"
"It is." said the visitor with a smile. "Thank you Lydia."
The huscarl simply smiled back.
"You're welcome."
As she left, the visiting Anchor diving into the book, Lydia was silently contemplating how his mindset had evolved.
He'd first gone from frightened at the potential danger that Hero and herself represented, to relieved after discovering that the loops weren't his fault, to curious as to their true meaning. He'd then be happy about his friends potentially looping and the hope of new abilities, before becoming equally angered at the prospect of doing this for Yggdrasil knows how long. When Hero had done his shrink and calmed him down, he'd felt ashamed, which had resulted in him acting all apologetic. And ultimately, after she'd assured him that his earlier reaction was perfectly acceptable and comprehensible, he'd been back to curious in a matter of seconds, before finishing on a thankful tone…
That looper was a kid, she was sure of it. Or at least, he'd been a kid in his baseline.
That was the only explanation as to how he could switch between moods so quickly… that or he was something akin to a certain Mad God, which was extremely doubtful as he would have reacted differently to the loops' own madness.
Well, she hadn't expected her first multiverse talk to be so bumpy, but it had worked out in the end. And even though it hurt her to admit it, it was mostly thanks to the Hero of Kvatch.
Maybe she wouldn't have to maim him too badly after all.
That book was fascinating… and disturbing.
The Eliatrope, currently an Argonian, had barely went over the epilogue and three proper chapters, but his head was already bursting with knowledge, and questions of which he was supposed to find the answers further down the book.
This guide to the loops was part-universal answer to every single question ever asked, and part headache… in fact, he had one already.
"Hey there." called Lydia as she entered the house.
She was back? So soon?
Either her shopping list was extremely small, or he had lost track of time.
Probably the second, since he had read a little over fifty pages.
"Still in the guide huh?" she remarked.
Yugo blushed slightly, and nodded.
"Yes, I got carried away."
"I did the same when my Anchor gave it to me. It's so well written – I blame Hermione Granger – that I didn't take the time to look our own branch's history. When he asked me two days later what I wanted to do about some vampire lord, I had no idea what he was talking about and he had to make me a summary." she admitted with a smile.
The Eliatrope nodded, as that thing was indeed well written.
"And now, I'll tell you what he told me when he finished his explanation. 'The book can wait for you, since it's now yours to take. But the loop isn't waiting, and neither am I, so stuff that thing in your satchel and focus.'"
"But… I don't have a –"
"Now you do." happily said the Nord, dropping a leather pouch on his laps.
The Eliatrope's eyes traveled from the bag to the looper, and he sighed.
"Let me guess… he told you that too?"
"Yup"
"Fine." gave in Yugo, putting the guide away. "Do I have to read the other book or can you make me a summary?"
The huscarl shrugged.
"Both options are available, which one do you prefer?"
"I wouldn't say no to a summary. And if I need a reminder, I can always read the book later."
"That's the spirit." approved Lydia. "Now, this loop is known around the multiverse as 'The Elder Scrolls' Branch. As I told you earlier, you're currently replacing the Dragonborn, Anchor of the Skyrim sub-branch, which makes you destined by the gods – mostly Akatosh – to face three major threats to this world: Alduin, the harbinger of the end of time, Harkon, a vampire lord, and Miraak, the first Dragonborn."
"But if I'm the one supposed to do this, how did Hero handled them?"
"Pretty easily, in fact. During his baseline, he was the Divine Crusader, another favorite of the Divines. Add to that that he mantled the Mad God, and it's no wonder that he can give the bird to such a tiny thing as a little destiny. Oh, and he's a looper, that's also a big advantage when it comes to utterly breaking prophecies."
"So… you could have done it too?"
"Not as easily at the moment." she admitted. "But when I'll have a few more loops behind me, and some new tricks to use, definitely."
At that, Yugo remembered about something he'd read in the guide and wanted precisions about.
"Hey, Lydia, I was wondering something about this 'formative loops' concept in chapter three. It says that it only apply to a few loopers, as it mostly depends on one's mindset, but –"
The Argonian's inquiry was interrupted by yet again another portal.
"Good news, I -"
The Hero's speech was equally interrupted by a loud bang.
The bullet that had just been shot at high velocity toward the Imperial's face was casually floating in his telekinetic grasp. He lowered his orange-glowing hand, letting the projectile drop soundly to the floor, and aimed a bored look at the huscarl.
"May I know why you shot me?" asked the man.
"You. Teleported. In. The. House." growled the Nord.
Yugo didn't know if he wanted to calm them down, or let them get it out of their system.
"I call the 'life or death situation' clause." provided the Hero. "May I speak now?"
"You may." answered Lydia, lowering her still smocking gun, though without removing her finger from the trigger.
The Oblivion-Era Anchor smiled serenely, and began anew.
"As I was trying to say before someone interrupted me, I'm just returning from the Throat of the World, where I informed old Naxy of Alduin's demise. I also –"
Another crack was heard, and this bullet hit its target… which dissolved into a kaleidoscope of butterflies. A perfectly healthy Hero of Kvatch appeared from behind a bookcase, calmly dusting his costume.
"That's not a life or death situation." barked Lydia.
"It was for me. The annoying lizard didn't want to believe me, and I had to… pound it into his thick skull."
"You fought him?"
"We may have traded a few blows, yes."
"Excuse me but… why is you left sleeve missing?" asked Yugo, his curiosity overwhelming his desire to stay out of whatever was happening.
Lydia fixed the missing piece of clothing, more precisely the ripped and burnt remnants hanging from the shoulder of what had once been a delicately embroidered bicolored suit.
She sighed.
"He got your arm, didn't he?"
"That dragon was really impolite. I'll never understand how Martin can like them." said the Hero in an irritated voice.
"Wait, there are dragons here?" interjected Yugo.
The Hero shot him a side-glance, before refocusing his yellow gaze on the Nord.
"You didn't even tell him that?"
She threw her arms into the air in exasperation.
"No, I didn't, because YOU KEEP INTERRUPTING ME."
"Fine, fine. Apologies accepted." said the Hero, dismissing the subject with a wave of his hand.
The huscarl holstered her gun, but it wasn't necessarily a good sign, as her entire arm was slowly turning into a hungry red inferno, flames escaping from it periodically.
"Care to repeat that?"
"Oh, I had forgotten about the fire-bending. It suits you, really." chirped the Hero.
Lydia's mood didn't changed, and the heat in the small abode continued to rise rapidly.
Yugo decided to step in.
"HEY, can you do that later, please? Maybe when you're not in a house held by exposed wooden beams?"
The fire extinguished immediately, but the intense starring was still on.
"That's an improvement, I suppose. Now, what was that about dragons? Aren't they supposed to be extinct here?"
"A few are still around." explained Lydia. "And Alduin was supposed to bring the others back to life."
"And Hero here stopped him, right. But who is this… Old Naxy?"
"Paarthurnax the Elder, master of the Greybeards and probably the strongest dragon around, now that Alduin's gone."
"He's also extremely stubborn." said the Hero. "He ignored my attempts when I tried to introduce myself, ate my arms, and I had to punched him in the ribs for him to listen to what I had to say."
"He ATE your arm?" exclaimed the Argonian.
The other man shrugged.
"Don't worry, its nothing I can't will back in place… though it was pestering."
"But how does that… right, Daedric Prince, nevermind."
"Why did you went there anyway?" asked Lydia, still glaring at the Imperial. "You didn't box a dragon around just to tell him about Alduin, right?"
"No, that is correct. I also informed him about the loops, and shared a few words regarding our little visitor here. He's ready to receive him to train his Dovah Sos."
Lydia's jaw dropped to the floor. She was apparently surprised that the man could have acted like he had.
Yugo was just… confused.
"Huh… what's a Dovah Sos exactly?"
"A gift from Akatosh, and what makes you a Dragonborn. The overgrown lizards would translate it as the 'dragonblood', but that is incorrect, as it actually refers to your dragon soul."
The Argonian's eyes bulged out quite comically, almost making the Hero snicker.
"MY WHAT?"
Okay, so he may have snickered now.
So, as a Dragonborn, he somehow had received the blessing of the god of time, Akatosh. This had turned his soul into that of a dragon, despite being nowhere close to them in biology.
That would allow him to use the art of the voice, the Tuh'um, to understand and speak Dovahzul, the dragon language. But in order to do that, he would have to…
"I REFUSE!" yelled the Argonian.
"You have a good voice, kid." remarked the Hero of Kvatch.
"I'm not killing any dragon. They are peaceful creatures and don't deserve to be hunted."
Those people were killing his brothers and sisters, and eating their souls. That was beyond barbaric.
"And you don't have to if you don't want to, Yugo." hurried to explain Lydia. "You can learn to use the Voice through meditation."
"It's less efficient though." added the Hero.
"Hush you." admonished the Nord. "And Yugo, remember that this is not your world. Dragons may be peaceful in your branch, but here, they are mostly savage beasts bent on killing everything that gets between their claws."
Right, different world. He'd momentarily forgotten about that. "You said mostly. Some of them are good, then?"
"A few, yes. Odahviing, Durnehviir, Paarthurnax which we already mentioned… and probably Sahrotaar, now that Miraak's gone."
"Only four? But you're talking about the entire species, right?"
The woman nodded.
"Then how can there be only four friendly dragons?"
"Because those four are exceptions. Dragons kill, that's how they are." said the Hero in a blase tone.
"But… why?"
"They are mostly-immortal creatures, don't care about the flow of time, and have more primal instincts and desires to dominate than anything in existence… including Daedric Princes." he explained. "That's how Tosh made the dragons, and that's why people like you usually dislike this loop."
"What do you mean by 'people like me'?"
"Given your reaction, you are somehow connected to dragons in your baseline, correct?"
"Yes, I'm an Eliatrope, we are a brother species to the dragons. My brother Adamaï's one, and we were born from the same Dofus… huh, that's a dragon egg."
"So you're… what, half-dragon or something? Well congratulations, because your soul now has another setting - and that one is one hundred percent dragon."
"It… changed my soul?" stammered the Argonian
"Well, yes… and no." said the daedra. "Your soul is unchanged, but if it was a dot before, it is now a line. As proud owner of a Dovah Sos, you gained a new… let's say, aspect. If it helps, you can picture it as a coin and it's two sides… wait, even better! Try to see it as a scale." said the Prince. With a wave of his hand, he conjured one from seemingly nowhere.
"One of the sides is Eliatrope –" here, he gestured to the pan on the left; after waiting a moment to let it sink in, he pointed to the pan on the right "– and one side Dragonborn."
Then he began to play with the device. "No matter what you do, it's constantly shifting, even if only slightly. One moment, you're your baseline half-dragon self –" the first pan was high in the air, while the other was hanging low "– and the next, you're getting slowly closer to a real dragon, if not in body, at least in mind." he explained, letting the scales return to an equilibrium, before forcing the first pan down.
"And since Tosh made dragons and Dragonborns on the same blueprint, whenever that aspect of your soul is winning, you will find yourself wanting to maim and dominate… pretty much everything." he concluded, canceling his conjuration.
Yugo blinked.
He had misheard that… right?
He wasn't really turning into a mad beast, right?
Right?
"It's not something that can be left unsupervised, especially since you're looping and will keep encountering new challenges. And challenges provoke the Dovah Sos. So it leaves you with two options." continued the Imperial. "You can keep calm by feeding on other dragons' souls."
"I'LL NEVER –"
"Yes, yes, we know, you're not our first dragon-lover. Then there's the most commonly used option two. You meet old Naxy and meditate the heck out of yourself to keep your Dovah side leashed and your instincts under control. And what a coincidence, I just ran into him and he's waiting for you… ain't that convenient?" he finished with a mad grin.
Master Arngeir, respected Greybeard, was interrupted in the middle of his breathing exercises.
It was strange, the villagers from Ivarstead had provided some supplies just the day before, and they weren't expecting any other visitors.
Curious, the old mage walked slowly to the monastery's doors, and push them open. What he saw behind caused him to raise a wrinkled eyebrow.
In front of him stood an Argonian wrapped up in thick fur clothing, his face lightened up by a magical candlelight floating by his head and twin dwemer daggers adorning his side.
"Welcome to High Hrothgar, pilgrim. I am Master Arngeir, leader of the Greybeards. How may I help you?"
The Argonian bowed deeply, and began to speak.
"Hello, honorable Master. My name is Yugo, and I am a dimensional traveler currently replacing your Last Dragonborn. As such, I am in need of a few advices regarding my Dovah Sos. Oh, and my friend Sheogorath already met with your leader, Paarthurnax, so he should be expecting me. May I come in, please?"
Yugo watched the man's eyes grow to ridiculous proportions, and he had to bite his lower lips to restrain a laugh.
Hero may be the Mad God, but he sure knew his stuff when it came to pranks. He also had excellent advices about alteration and illusion magics, and their applications, while Lydia could be one hell of a combat instructor… and a gossip queen with dirt on everyone.
The sneakily smirking Argonian followed the dumbfounded and still silent Greybeard in the monastery.
Even if he missed the World of Twelve, he'd come to like this loop, and he would enjoy every second of it.
1.01 - That seems like a pretty safe assumption, right? Personally, I even think that "Qilby did it." should be an all-purpose excuse.
1.02 - Allying himself with his first enemy to go after his second. It probably would have worked... if Qilby had truly been responsible. Sorry, little Eliatrope.
1.03 - Poor, poooor Yugo... well, Yagea.
1.04 - Welcome to the multiverse, Yugo. Also, thanks to Laxianne for female!Yugo's name, and thanks to TangleKat and dragonraptyr for their help on that loop.