Anchor 1933.Ø — "The Filmstrip Loop"
They called this place Celluloid City — a grayscale world that never evolved past reel-to-reel film, noir lighting, and paranoid whispers in every alley.
Here, time didn't move forward.
It repeated.
Exactly.
Every day at 7:03 PM, a man named Detective Kael Voss walked into a jazz bar called The Black Needle, ordered a smoky drink called "The Fade," and was shot through the back by a woman with red gloves.
Then it all started over.
Over and over.
For 73 years.
---
Outside the Loop — Now
The real Kael Voss — our Kael — stood watching the scene unfold from behind a one-way chrono-veil, joined by Ghost Ronin and Myra.
"This Variant's been looping for decades," Ronin said. "He doesn't even know it anymore. The Loop's absorbed his memories."
Kael winced as he saw another version of himself — older, with slicked-back hair and a weary detective's stare — walk into The Black Needle.
"He's… stuck as a noir cliché," Kael muttered. "Is this punishment?"
"No," Myra said, eyes narrowed. "It's containment."
Kael turned. "The Weavers trapped him here?"
"He found something. A Frame that shouldn't exist. He tried to report it. So they sealed the Anchor and rewrote him as fiction."
The three stepped through the veil.
---
Inside the Loop — Celluloid City, 7:01 PM
Kael, now in color, walked into a black-and-white world. The sky above flickered like old film. Passersby repeated the same steps every few seconds. A man dropped his hat, caught it, dropped it again — on loop.
Kael grabbed Noir-Kael just before he entered the bar.
The Variant blinked. "Who the hell are you? You look—"
"I know. Long story. Listen, you're in a loop. You've been in one for decades. We're breaking it tonight."
"I… I don't remember…"
"Red gloves. Bar. Bullet. Every time."
Then, for the first time in decades, the detective hesitated before walking in.
The timeline glitched.
Thunder rolled — inside a clear sky.
Myra pointed up. "It's collapsing. He's waking up."
Suddenly, the woman in red gloves burst from the alley, gun raised.
Ghost Ronin stepped in, sword slashing through the bullet mid-air.
Kael-Voss grabbed his noir counterpart. "Trust me!"
"Do I have a choice?!"
"No."
He pulled him through a rift just as the Anchor shattered behind them — and the entire filmstrip world disintegrated into flickering reel frames and static.
---
Temporal Sanctuary 0.∞
The newly rescued Kael sat beside Aren, who looked at him with childlike wonder.
"You're not like the others," the detective murmured.
Kael smirked. "No one is. That's what they're afraid of."
Ghost Ronin looked over the growing crowd of rescued Variants.
"We've got four Kaels now," he said. "And more anchors to burn."
Kael nodded. "Then let's go find the next one."