#4181

Again with this exiting. If I didn't know any better, I'd suspect that Lord English wanted these dangerous Players out of his neck of the woods as soon as humanly possible.

UU: yoU are one of them! :U UU: and yoUr yoUng ancestor is another, thoUgh she is "presently" stationed in B1.

Wait, is Umbra saying that Jade qualifies as a post-Scratch Player? She is travelling to this session as we speak, but I didn't expect her to join the game on an official basis.

Are pre-Scratch Players really allowed to just... slot themselves into the new session, if they're able to find it? That doesn't sound right - according to Scratch, the typical fate of a Scratched Player is absolute oblivion. There's something very weird going on, here.

GT: So you are still in contention that i will meet our elders as youths? UU: oh yes! ^u^ GT: Ah ha! Then i WILL be traveling through time. I knew it. GT: Or… they will be. Whichever it is. GT: Which is it, btw? UU: caUsal spoilers, sir english!

Hm.

UU is clearly omitting a lot - but for now, I'll give her the benefit of the doubt. After all, giving Jake too much information would risk dooming the timeline, a dilemma that Rose struggled with before.

GT: I never got to know my grandma very well and it always seemed like she led an amazing and adventurous life. GT: Then this seemed to be proven true in my correspondence with her. So im really looking forward to it. UU: so trUe. id pay a hefty ransom to get to know my forebears. GT: I remember you mentioned your race doesnt really jive with ours familially speaking? UU: correct. i never knew those who one woUld identify as my parental eqUivalents. U_U UU: it is in the way my race propagates. oUr ancestors precede Us by millenia.

Alright, so Umbra lives in a world where trolls still reproduce via the Mother Grub. That doesn't really narrow down where she comes from, but every little helps.

GT: Miss alien i think we are like birds of a feather you and i. GT: When do i get to learn your name by the way? UU: hm trUthfUlly? UU: it may be for the best that yoU never know it. UU: it coUld stir Up some things best left in their present eqUilibriUm.

This, however, has completely stumped me.

What could possibly make Umbra's name so dangerous to know? The only theory I have is that it's an intimidating name we're already familiar with, such as Doc Scratch or Lord English - but neither of them really fit.

If nothing else, Umbra is a girl, and something tells me Lord English isn't genderfluid. (Not that I wouldn't be thrilled to be wrong.)

GT: What are we even trying to accomplish here? What is even the rootin tootin POINT of this game? […] UU: yoUr objective today is to pave the way for the arrival of gods.

It's starting to sound like all the pre-Scratch Players will be slotted into the new session. I'm not sure why that would be required, though - the troll session certainly didn't integrate the Ancestors as Players.

Jade does have all the pre-Scratch Lands, though, as well as the Battlefield.

UU: hello there, darling. ~3u GT: Ahoy madame! UU: i dont relish troUbling yoU with more arm twisting. UU: im sUre for all ive done so far yoUve had a jolly good workoUt already :u UU: bUt yoU will be ready to deliver the package today, yes?

So Umbra was the arm-twister.

She's the reason that Jack ascended, way back in Act 4. I have to assume she's aware of the ramifications of what she's done, which means she wanted Perfect Jack to happen - or at the very least, she allowed it to happen, as a side-effect of her true goal.

GT: Theres the matter of the rabbits armaments. GT: I dont imagine hell do a lot of friggin good in helping grandfather crocker from kicking the old bucket without them. GT: Did you not say youd supply these? UU: i did indeed say so! UU: and have already done. […] UU: in yoUr fUtUre. UU: i relayed the information enabling yoU to create the powerfUl weaponry yoUrself.

Curiouser and curiouser.

Those weapons have all been seen before, and we already know the gun was supplied by Eridan, in a conversation with pre-Scratch Jade. If Umbra has managed to get her hands on its code, she must have had some contact with the Jade we know.

...well, I guess she doesn't necessarily have to talk to Jade. She could just have captcharoided a ghost image of the gun, if she knew where to look.

GT: So much to do before shuttling this goddamn thing into the past. […] GT: That is what im doing right? Giving it to my grandma when she was a kid growing up on the same island i did? UU: that is somewhat close to the trUth, and i can see how yoU woUld draw that conclUsion. UU: bUt theres more to it yoU dont Understand yet! yoU will sort it all oUt in time. […] UU: it woUldnt hUrt yoU mUch to know the trUth, i imagine. UU: its jUst the trUth is a wee bit complicated.

Explaining the Scratch to Jake would be a pretty tall order - but at the same time, it seems like Umbra is hiding a lot of information from the Players she's talking to. She clearly knows more than they do, so why won't she lay her cards on the table?

UU: imagine two Universes, A and B. UU: now imagine there are two instances of each Universe, A1 and A2 and B1 and B2. UU: the first instance of each is like a test rUn, that does not qUite sUcceed. UU: the second instance thoUgh will meet all of its pUrposes!

I don't know if I'd call A2 a 'success', to be honest. I'm pretty sure that's Karkat's session, and Karkat's session was a bit of a disaster.