Kahli stood there in the void, unsure of where exactly she was going to end up - or, it is better to say, she was unsure of when it was that she was going to end up. She was trying to decide what timeline to choose out of three absolute stinkers.

Okay, maybe they weren't that bad, but really they weren't that good either. Her third timeline, the timeline that Kahli was usually holding out hope for as the ideal timeline, ended with her dying. Of course Kahli could always try to twist this timeline, but at the same time, twisting timelines depended on using meditation in order to pull in and change past aspects of time. Kahli was already pretty rusty at meditation and the added pressure of having to save her own life through use of it was not something that she needed in the present moment, that was to be certain.

Kahli had a thought. Was there even a present moment for her to be needing or not needing things in, as she stared into the void within her nested time [checkpoint]?

There absolutely had to be, hadn't there? After all, she was presently staring into the void, now wasn't she? Was there a void to stare into?

Yes, Kahli decided. It was harder to make this surmization herself at the, cough, present moment than it usually had been to think of such things while in a [checkpoint]. In the past, Kahli had essentially always been accompanied by some other entity.

For the longest time, said entity was that malevolent jellyfish that ended up being something called a consumer, but more recently she'd been spending her time [checkpoints] with Froufrou. Both of these were, she decided, prefereable to being in a [checkpoint] alone. Even though the jellyfish had literally wanted to destroy her by absorbing her, sometimes staring at the void made Kahli feel like ire, hatred, or otherwise wanting to somehow end someone was better than indifference, in an odd way.

Regardless, she didn't have time to keep up with all this bizarre introspection. Not literally - literally, Kahli had more than all the time that ever existed. However, what Kahli didn't have was the mental energy and indeed the ability to maintain her sanity while thinking such things. Oh, how badly she could use a chance just to clear her mind, to clear her mind and rest...

Wait a second. Kahli was here in the endless void. She'd looked at all her timelines. She was here by herself, and despite her Necklace of Wokefulness she was feeling quite overbearingly exhausted, no doubt due to the weight of the decision looming overhead. But if she could move around in this nested [checkpoint] and if she had an infinite amount of time with which to make her decision...

Kahli at least had to try it. Why wouldn't it work?

And so it was that Kahli stopped trying to look at her timelines and decide what to do. If it was so hard for Kahli to know what kind of action to take, maybe she ought to just wait a bit before deciding. Give herself a bit of a break, maybe a little shut eye? Why not?

Kahli laid down and stretched out as much as possible. Why not? There wasn't like there was a finite amount of space.

It was interesting, laying down in an endless void. It didn't necessarily feel like Kahli was laying on anything, but she wasn't exactly laying on nothing, either. It was what she would've imagined laying on a cloud would've been like - not the figurative marketing phrase, either. Kahli figured this was like literally laying on a cloud, with all its benefits and all its drawbacks.

Regardless, she was finding it pretty easy to get semi-comfortable. Before Kahli knew it, she was fading away in consciousness, and indeed, she soon found herself submerged in a dreary slumber.

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Waking up in the void was strange. Kahli woke up a few times before she really woke up, but each time, the endless pitch black nothingness of the void beckoned her into sleeping more and more. Kahli truly had no idea how long she ended up sleeping, but she felt that really it was irrelevant. Irrelevant? Well, irrelevant in a way. The time she'd spent sleeping had been irrelevant in a negative way, that is to say, its negative effects were essentially null because she was frozen in a timeless void, however, its positive effects were definitely there. Kahli realized that, despite her [enchanted] necklace from G'athoong, she had actually still been kind of tired before - there was absolutely none of that now. She felt refreshed and ready to take on this challenge.

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She was also, inconveniently enough, more than a little hungry and despite the necklace still craved a cup or two of coffee, but all that would truly have to wait for Kahli. She'd have to get to it and choose herself a timeline.

So the third timeline was, as far as Kahli considered it, a total wash. After all, there was really no hope in her putting her life on the line when there were timelines wherein she could survive. With that, she assessed her two remaining choices.

Fuck. Wait, shit. No! Oh mighty Theseosus, please solemnly forgive my mentally verbal transgressions. Kahli struggled internally at the realization she'd just been thrust into a certainly precarious decision. See, she had the opportunity here to gain a [class], the [class] of [Time Manipulator], and to learn how to use it from the Supreme Time Protector! But, at the very same time, she had a serious dilemma. The first two timelines, scenarios one and two, spelled out doom for the very same Supreme Time Protector that was supposed to teach her the [class]! Would Kahli even get her [class] if the Supreme Time Protector died? Then again, what good was the opportunity to get a [class] if Kahli herself died?

It seemed like a terrible choice to have to make, especially considering that essentially succeeding at either goal regarding these timelines required Kahli to twist a timeline using meditation in order to properly evade the issue. Sure, if she played her cards right, then technically she could twist any of the three timelines into one that would work well for her current situation and goals - namely, that would both keep her alive and at the same time would allow Kahli to get the [class] of [Time Manipulator]. However, Kahli really didn't know how to meditate very well, and she didn't have the benefit of Froufrou being there to join her meditation session and do all the heavy lifting for her. So, with that, what Kahli would really have to do is choose a timeline with the minimal amount of twisting she'd have to do - because she wasn't sure she'd be able to adequately twist a timeline at all at this point, and if she did, it needed to be something she could visualize effortlessly.

With that, Kahli had to indeed rule out the third timeline once and for all. Regardless of the idea of guaranteeing herself the option of ensuring that the Supreme Time Protector stayed alive, Kahli was certain that she wanted to be alive herself, and ensuring that meant that she needed to rule out the timeline that would surely kill her. The two remaining timelines were simple, and indeed almost seemed the same to Kahli. In one, she argued with the Supreme Time Protector - well, okay, maybe what had really happened was that the Supreme Time Protector argued at her about things unrelated to what she'd been saying like some sort of total megalomaniac, but regardless it was the same difference - and in the other, she argued with Froufrou, and the Supreme Time Protector argued with themselves.

Well, there was another similarity. The Supreme Time Protector actually got in an altercation with themself in both timelines. That is to say that it was pretty much guaranteed that either timeline Kahli chose, the Supreme Time Protector would end up summoning up multiple versions of themself through a rift in time and then getting in a bit of a spat. So, what was the key difference between the two timelines, when indeed there was so much of them that was so painfully similar that in Kahli's mind's eye they almost completely blurred together - almost as if it was a function or effect of nested timelines?

And then, Kahli realized at once her answer. Well, technically maybe all of these thoughts had been at once to an outside observer since she was in a timeless void, but Kahli was just thinking in terms of relative time, as in, time relative to herself, or in other words local time - time where she was, versus time where others were. And relatively, or locally, or at least to say from Kahli's perspective she managed to in a bit of a mentally meandering fashion find her way to the realization that she had to choose the first timeline.

Why?

Because the singular plapable difference she could truly identify between the two options was, in the end, not all that noteworthy in the slightest - and yet, at the same time, it made all the difference in the world. It was on this realization that Kahli also wondered, if only for a moment, whether in this nested timeline her options had simply reversed themselves, with the ideal timeline coming first instead of third, and the timeline where she died coming third instead of first.

The difference from the first and the second, however, was that in the first timeline, Kahli spent time talking to Froufrou. And she needed Froufrou on her side more than anything. Froufrou was [paired] with her, they shared systems. Kahli didn't want to lose Froufrou's good favor or trust and respect because of excitement over a [class], and if the Supreme Time Protector was going to die anyway, then they weren't worth stressing over. Froufrou was going to live in both timelines. Her opinion was ultimately more important.

So, now Kahli faced her final challenge.

How was she going to twist the first timeline in order to keep Froufrou's good graces, but also get herself a fancy new [class]?