OUTSIDE OF TIME.
TIME VARIANCE AUTHORITY
THE ARCHIVE OF MULTIVERSAL ARTIFACTS
A small room somewhere deep within the TVA--it employs the same 1950's Americana aesthetic as the rest of the organization: retro-futuristic, a primarily orange color palette, accented with golds and grays and sometimes green.
A young man sits behind a desk at the far end of this room. There is a single computer at his desk: an ugly, boxy white monitor and a keyboard to match. The man looks to be in his late twenties or early thirties--by Earth standards. He is classically handsome: olive skin, a strong face with a thin nose and full lips, stark black eyebrows and wavy, brown hair that teases the tops of his ears. He's donning the typical TVA garb for a person of his position--a pencil-pusher--beige suit and tie. He has a small, silver nametag on his lapel with his organization's logo and his name:
FINN
FINN, as we know him for now, looks incredibly bored. All is quiet. He stares at the blank screen of his old monitor. Behind him is a bookcase filled with tomes and almanacs of varying shapes and sizes. There is a door behind him as well, but it is closed. The lighting of the room is rather dim, but the area around Finn's immediate desk is brightest.
Finn sighs heavily. "So...bored," he mutters to no one in particular, or so we think. Because someone answers him in a familiar, female, southern drawl.
"Me too, Hun. Me too."
Finn notices that Miss Minutes--the TVA's artificial intelligence assistant--has appeared onscreen. Finn is a little weary of her popping in. There haven't been any issues since her reboot upstairs, but he's been told not to trust her entirely. He doesn't have long to think on whether or not she's here to empathize with him or spy on him because there comes a sudden commotion from the room's entrance across the way. The door flies open and one of the TVA's field agents--in full armor--marches in, holding a manilla envelope.
"Got another one for you," says the agent.
Finn perks up. "Finally," he says. He hasn't been able to log or archive a multiversal artifact in ages. For awhile, it was like he was getting Infinity Stones every hour, on the hour.
The agent places the envelope on the desk and nods to him. "How you doing?" he asks.
Finn is a little touched that he's being given the time of day. He's usually ignored. "Eh. Been worse," he says with a shrug.
The agent smiles. It's a handsome smile. "I hear that," he says. He pats the desk a few times with his gloved hand. He holsters his Time Stick. "You hear what happened back on Earth-1005?"
Finn nods. "Yeah, the unauthorized Time Ripper. Didn't that universe almost get...?" Finn drags a finger across his neck and sticks out his tongue.
"Yep. Close call," says the agent. "All because some a-hole wanted to do things his way. His name was Paradox, apparently."
Finn keeps his mouth shut. He doesn't entirely disagree--ever since Loki took the throne at the center of the multiverse and the TVA assumed new leadership, things have been far less...exciting.
"Anyway." The agent clears his throat. "I'll let you get to it. See you around. Don't be afraid to say hi the next time you see me."
"Oh." Finn blushes. "Sure." He watches his visitor leave, then he opens the envelope and pulls out-- "A feather?" he mutters and furrows his brow.
It looks like a quill. It's quite large and it has a stark shine to it--bright red and bold. He reads the accompanying label on the package he'd been given. Apparently it's been recovered from Earth-616. The Sacred Timeline.
Finn logs into his computer and types in the information from the item's accompanying documents. He plugs in his portable scanner, which awakens with a few loud, dial-up-like tones. He knocks on the glass of his screen. "Hey, Miss Minutes? You mind doing the honors?"
She reappears, but she doesn't look too happy about being bothered to do something.
"Ugh, fiiiiine," she drawls. She jumps out of the monitor and onto the scanner. It glows orange, and soon, the mysterious feather is bathed in soft light. "Analyzing," says Miss Minutes.
"What would be so important about a feather?" Finn wonders aloud. "How does something like this traverse the scope of a single universe?" He chuckles.
"I've learned to stop asking questions and just roll with things, Sugar."
Finn shrugs. "I suppose."
The moment drags on. The computer displays a little rotating circle--loading, loading, loading.
Finn frowns. "It normally doesn't take this long," he says.
"You blamin' me?" Miss Minutes asks.
"Not at all." Finn holds up his hands.
The moment continues to stretch out longer than usual.
Loading...
Loading...
And then, finally:
A noise that Finn's never heard before. It's sour and harsh and electronic. And, when he looks at his monitor, he's surprised to see:
ERROR 681-B. UNIDENTIFIED UNIVERSE ORIGIN POINT.
"Umm... Miss Minutes? What does this mean?"
The sentient clock jumps to his shoulder and reads the message alongside him. She looks confused too. "Huh," she says. "Let me check." She blinks out of existence and Finn is left alone with the mysterious feather a moment. He reaches out and touches it, and he thinks he hears, from somewhere far away, the faint sounds of laughter. He feels a gentle tickle on his palm and then, for the briefest of beats, he sees a flash of a scene--
Peter Parker--one of the Avengers from Earth 616--laughing.
The image is gone in an instant, but it leaves Finn feeling flustered and funny and a little--
Miss Minutes is back, and Finn instinctively positions himself in away that would hide the front of his trousers from view.
"So, I've got...news," she says.
"What kind of news?"
"It, uh, appears, that there is no trace of this artifact anywhere in the multiverse." She jumps onto his desk and faces him.
"What? How is that possible?"
Miss Minutes scratches her head. "It's not," she says. "Which makes me wonder how this particular item is somehow reflecting traces of energy outside of its own universe."
"Every universe in the multiverse is scannable, right?" asks Finn.
Miss Minutes glances up at him. "Sure is, Hun."
The two are quiet for a moment. Finn wants to touch the feather again--feel and hear what he'd just felt and heard only a moment ago...
"Maybe it's a glitch? A mistake."
Miss Minutes narrows her eyes. "I don't make mistakes."
"So, then, what do we do?"
"This is your post, Darlin'. Not mine. Read the handbook." She gestures over to the yellow book at the far end of his desk.
Finn groans. He's about to protest when Miss Minutes blinks out of his existence again. "Not the handbook," he mutters under his breath. He hangs his head dramatically. He's about to get to reading when a thought crosses his mind. He hesitates, then looks up at the wall adjacent to his desk, where one of the new TVA posters hangs.
The entire multiverse--now a great tree, allowed to grow wild and free, but still held together by the god with glorious purpose.
But what if...?
"No." Finn chuckles to himself. "It's crazy. No way. It's gotta be a mistake." He looks back at the error message on his monitor.
How can the universes in which this feather exists not be traceable.
The only explanation would be that they're simply not on record. But every universe was on record--past, present, future, apocalypses, creation stories...
Everything.
Finn grabs the feather again and inspects it. Its energy radiates warmth and joy and excitement. It...awakens something in him. Something he hasn't felt in all his time at the TVA...
Something that he can only liken to...
Arousal.
"We searched the tree," says Finn softly with a shrug, staring at the TVA poster one more time, "but maybe it's time we search the forest..."
FINN and the crimson feather will return.
