The Clown Truth [D10, EN]

[Frankie Reynes]

After the reunion TV thingie, it was maybe time to talk to Mustachio. So she found him by himself for a moment.

"Hey bruv, you wanna see something cool?"

[Camilo Batista]

In fact, Camilo had been waiting to pull Frankie off to the side and pick her incomprehensible brain for more information on his Frankie.

It still took him aback to see Frankie calling out to him after so many month apart. If not for the absence of her Sacred Paints, he would have have trouble separating the two... three... however many there might be.

"Sim. Yes, I would very much like to see."

[Frankie Reynes]

"Alright bruv, hold on and try not to throw up, yeah?" She put a hand on his shoulder, and then; whoosh; physics broke, and the universe wasn't the universe anymore; but a *different* one.

When everything stopped spinning; which for Frankie was instant but for Camilo might take a little while longer... he'd notice the sky was purple, and they were standing in front of a house in the middle of nowhere; nothing but yellow grass for miles around.

"Welcome to F.R.A.N.K.I.E headquarters, bruv; or well the beginning's of it, anyway."

A Frankie appeared in one of the windows, looking at the two of them before waving.

"Don't mind the Frankies. They're minding the place, yeah?"



[dimension travel with increased mass; hopefully enough for a passenger]

[Camilo Batista]

Camilo lurched on his feet when they appeared in this universe. The colors around him made him think maybe he'd been dosed somewhere along the way. Luckily, because of his past experiences, he wasn't too terribly disoriented.

He circled around, taking it in before looking to the salient building and it's curious inhabitants. Unable to resist, he asked, "Is my Frankie here? Or is she still back in her world?"

[Frankie Reynes]

"Nah bruv, I went to clown universe. Or well, one of them anyway, there's like a bunch yeah? Actually an infinite number yeah? Anyway, I went, and I asked if she wanted to join, but she had her cruiseship duties. Anyway, come in," she said, opening the door, "I got some footage and stuff. Sightseeing yeah?"

Inside, F.R.A.N.K.I.E HQ was a hive of activity. There were dozens of Frankies around, some that looked pretty much exactly as she did; others that different more dramatically in personal style. None of them had the sacred paints, though. And all of them seemed to be focused on one task or another.

Frankies were, as a general rule of thumb, not the brightest bulbs in the multiverse. But they seemed to making a go of trying to set up an organization that spanned multiple universes, and doing all sorts of analysis stuff on other universes; rows of monitors playing footage of other universes, Frankies sitting at desks going over reports, trying to learn more about the multiverse and its various threats: with of course one threat taking precedence.

One monitor showed a clownship, though. And clown frankie...

...except, it wasn't *his* clown frankie. Close enough to fool... well, frankie... but not Camilo.

[Camilo Batista]

The sheer volume of Frankieness going on around him was overwhelming. He had questions about so many Frankies being gathered and the effect of all that universal travel. That was still a bad thing right? Or just another of Xaos' tricks. Manipulations to get them to play whatever game he wanted.

Spotting the clownship, Camilo pushes over to get a closer look. But something was wrong. Her very distinct sacred paints were different, they were never different. Makeup might change from occasion to occasion, day to day, but the sacred paints were a part of them. The differences in the sacred paints would be like these Frankies suddenly speaking in a French accent.

He looked back to Frankie accusingly, "Who's that? That's not my Frankie. Where's my Frankie?"

[Frankie Reynes]

"What?" She frowned, and looked at the monitor, "What are you talking about? That's clown Frankie."

"Oui, mec," another Frankie piped up in a perfect French accent, "Ve verified it, non? Did we not?"

"Uhm... I mean..." Frankie replied, "...I mean, she's close enough yeah? The variance should be minimal."

[Camilo Batista]

Close enough? CLOSE ENOUGH?!

Camilo ripped his handheld out of his pocket and scrolled through until he found the picture of Frankie carrying him out of Dark Hearts. He shoved it in Frankie's face, "Look, she has a white star and a red diamond." He pointed to the monitor. "That is a white diamond and a red star."

Looking between the monitor and the Frankie's present, Camilo stood waiting for an explanation.

[Frankie Reynes]

"Uh.. bruv, okay, okay," She seemed a bit surprised by his reaction,* "There's just like, a lot of Frankies around, yeah? I mean, I'm sure she's out there somewhere yeah? We know the general worldline where the clown universes are coiled around, so it uh... I mean, we can really only get in the ballpark right now... don't have a way of accurately tracking that specific of a universe yet."

[Camilo Batista]

"But... but you said she was fine. You told me she was fine!" He reached over and grabbed the monitor showing the fake clown Frankie. Ripping it from its mount, Camilo flung it like a frisbee through the wall where it dug a small furrow into the yellow grass outside.

He sunk to the floor muttering, "I shouldn't have listened. Lies. You all tell nothing but lies." After his outburst, Camilo reached into his pocket, pulling out a little baggie of pills. He swallowed one dry and ground another in the palm of his hand, bringing it up to his nose and snorting it.

[Frankie Reynes]

"Bruv! You know how much work it'll be to replacce that? Like... five minutes!"

She seemed mostly just perplexed by his response. More so when he started popping and snorting pills.

"What the hell, bruv? What's gotten into you, yeah? I thought it was her! But why wouldn't she be fine yeah?"

[Camilo Batista]

These little pills were something Camilo had found in the Null Zone. They had been holding back these moments of rage for the last few months.

As the drugs kicked in, his pupils expanded, threatening to take over his sclera. His windows thrown open revealing depths of fathomless sadness mixed with chemically induced apathy.

He listened to little of what Frankie said, expecting platitudes or bold faced lies. Instead he heard bafflement and naivety.

In a subdued voice he answered, "Because it was shown to me. All the ways she would die and no ways she would survive." He froze a moment, "That's not true. I'm lying. If I'd kept her here... or back home, she would've been safe. But I couldn't do that to her. How long would that work? She would be no better than a prisoner. No?

A living prisoner. Or free but dead..."

[Frankie Reynes]

"Huh? Shown to you? Bruv, I don't know what you're talking about, bruv. I thought she just got poofed back to her own universe or something, yeah?"

She looked at some of the monitors for a moment.

"Okay so, she's dead then? I mean, with the way this multiverse stuff works; I think it's more like she's both dead *and* alive, yeah? In an infinite number of universes each. Like, how you could've died stepping out onto the road this morning by a passing bus, but you didn't, but you *did* die, because everything that *can* happen, *does* happen, or something yeah? At least, I *think* that's how it works. The universe constantly splitting off into new slightly different universes, and then those split off, and then those split off, and eventually things get really different, but in an infinite number of universes, you, her, you're all just the same person, only you decided to have something different for lunch yesterday or something like that."

"So there's no like, one *true* clown Frankie, yeah?"

Of course, she didn't really *know* that for sure. And maybe what he'd seen; all the possible ways she would die, none in which she would survive... maybe there genuinely was no way that any version of the Clown Frankie who had shown up in the simulator that day could survive; and any and all of the clown frankies left in the multiverse hadn't split off from that clown frankie, but instead from the ones before that happened.

But that was the sort of multiverse science that made her head explode, so she left that sort of thing for the science Frankies.