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vatheon2013-04-28 05:19 pm
thalassino) wrote in vatheon2013-04-28 05:19 pm
a clandestine meeting; Backdated to Friday 26th of April
[It has been a bit of a wait, the kind of wait that feels days longer than it is in reality, but Friday evening has arrived at last. It is a rather busy night, all in all.
First off, at quarter to ten while people are still gathering in the storage building, an explosion shatters the peace on the other side of the island. That scenic light house? Gone. The culprit? Unknown. Luckily, with how big the island is, the explosion is hardly noticeable in the village. There's a momentary shaking of the ground and smoke on the horizon, but beyond that little happens.
Station Master does not seem to notice or care about the short shaking of the ground, instead continuing to welcome people inside the building, occasionally making sure that nobody brought along their SFC. Inside the building is rather plain. Most of the items inside of it have been moved and put in other storage buildings. Some crates remain, mostly stacked along the walls, giving a seat to those that want or need it.
There are a couple things that stand out. The first are four tall devices in each corner of the room, glowing faintly. If anyone tries to come close to them and touch them, they are shied away by Station Master along with a promise that he will explain the devices once everybody is present. The other is a woman sitting on one of the crates. Some might recognize her as the one who had been cast in the role of the Cleric during one of the previous curses. For now, she does not engage anyone, simply sitting there silently, her fingers tracing over the mark on her wrist.
Once 10 pm rolls around (with a few extra minutes bumper time in case of stragglers), Station Master makes his way to the center of the room where he can easily be viewed and heard by all of those present.]
Good evening. I'm very pleased to see so many of you here. As you all know I've been contacting you recently over a possible way to fix the barrier below. Tonight I'll be giving you all the relevant information I know, and I'll try and answer as many of your questions as possible, so please do not hesitate to ask them. However, I want to underline that nobody will be forced to help. In fact, if my explanation does not convince you on why it is so important to act, you may all walk away from here tonight and continue on your own ways.
First, I want to explain the devices in the corner as I promised. These four devices are currently creating a barrier over this building making it impossible for us to be monitored while we are in here. I'm certain that most of you have come to this conclusion already, but your captors are monitoring your every move and your every conversation over your SFCs, which is why I asked you to leave them outside today.
In essence, while we are in here, you can talk freely. Nothing you say will become known to them, unless you repeat it outside. Anything planned within these walls would come as a complete surprise to them. If you agree to help me out today, I will let you have this building and the barrier technology inside. I can even try to set up similar ones in other locations or teach you to do so, however I must caution you that at best only a few of these barriers should be made. While a single blank spot will not be detected by your captors, if too many of them are created, they will likely catch on and investigate.
Now, first I would like to introduce someone to you.
[Here he motions to the woman sitting silently.]
This is C. Up until recently she was part of the group you have come to refer to as the Natives. Though she was not brought here from another realm like yourself, she was kept captive because she was judged to be a danger to the Vatheon experiment. Her memory had been taken from her and she was kept docile as all natives are. Recently she has started to slowly come to and regain some of her memories. These last few days she has been helping me put together a possible way for restoring the barrier below. It seems that the reason the barrier was failing to begin with and the reason why her memory has been starting to return to her have the same cause. Namely the fact that the coral has been starting to become desynchronized.
As you all know, you have been marked. These marks were supposed to act as a connection to the coral allowing it to cast these so called curses on you, but also to draw your energy in return. And this energy was instrumental in keeping the barrier strong. However the problem is that the coral is not a static entity. While it is not alive per se, it is also not unchanging. Over the last few years it has slowly been changing, whereas your marks have remained the same. This was a variable overlooked by the scientists. By now it appears that the marks you carry and the coral are so out of sync that it can no longer drain enough power from you to properly project the barrier that has been keeping the underwater city safe and protected. The connection has been muddled with too much white noise, so to speak.
Yet this is also the reason why C has been regaining her consciousness. Similar to yourself, the natives also carry marks, though for a different purpose than yourselves. Rather than being used to drain energy, they are being used to suppress them. With the link between the marks and the coral becoming this desynchronized, it seems C's connection no longer fully functions, giving her back part of her memories. There is a chance that in time more natives will become disconnected from the coral and will return to their true selves.
Together C and I have been creating a technique to change the marks which will hopefully bring them back in alignment again with the coral and restore the bubble. It is not all that needs to happen, but by doing this, we can solve 80% of the problem, we believe.
Now, I know this is a lot to take in. And I am not completely done yet. For now, I'll allow you to talk about this, and to ask both C and myself questions. We'll try to answer them as best as we can.
[ooc: Okay, you guys. Here it is. This is the post. We apologize again for getting this up so late. what we'll do is this. This post is pretty much a big free for all discussion post. Don't hesitate to jump in anywhere or at any time. This is happening in one room so it is easy to overhear other people talking and such.
There will be one separate thread for C answering questions and two for Station Master. With Station Master one will be for asking him questions directly and one will be summarizing the questions that have already been asked of him and answered. This is mostly to keep everybody from having to crawl through all the discussions. Please read up on what has already been asked via these bigger subthreads as much as possible so we can avoid having to answer the same question over and over. You are free to ask him any question you want, even if it's unrelated to this current plot. He will answer at his discretion. I know this might end up being a bit of a messy post, so once most of it has been threaded out, we'll put up an ooc post summarizing the proceedings.
Of course, characters are allowed to make their own threads to discuss among each other! We ask just one thing of you. If you character has a direct question to either Station Master or C that you want us to answer please mark 'NPC QUESTION' in your comment title. We'll be trying to keep up as much as possible, but this way we can quickly see where we are needed and where people just wanna discuss things among themselves for a little bit.]
First off, at quarter to ten while people are still gathering in the storage building, an explosion shatters the peace on the other side of the island. That scenic light house? Gone. The culprit? Unknown. Luckily, with how big the island is, the explosion is hardly noticeable in the village. There's a momentary shaking of the ground and smoke on the horizon, but beyond that little happens.
Station Master does not seem to notice or care about the short shaking of the ground, instead continuing to welcome people inside the building, occasionally making sure that nobody brought along their SFC. Inside the building is rather plain. Most of the items inside of it have been moved and put in other storage buildings. Some crates remain, mostly stacked along the walls, giving a seat to those that want or need it.
There are a couple things that stand out. The first are four tall devices in each corner of the room, glowing faintly. If anyone tries to come close to them and touch them, they are shied away by Station Master along with a promise that he will explain the devices once everybody is present. The other is a woman sitting on one of the crates. Some might recognize her as the one who had been cast in the role of the Cleric during one of the previous curses. For now, she does not engage anyone, simply sitting there silently, her fingers tracing over the mark on her wrist.
Once 10 pm rolls around (with a few extra minutes bumper time in case of stragglers), Station Master makes his way to the center of the room where he can easily be viewed and heard by all of those present.]
Good evening. I'm very pleased to see so many of you here. As you all know I've been contacting you recently over a possible way to fix the barrier below. Tonight I'll be giving you all the relevant information I know, and I'll try and answer as many of your questions as possible, so please do not hesitate to ask them. However, I want to underline that nobody will be forced to help. In fact, if my explanation does not convince you on why it is so important to act, you may all walk away from here tonight and continue on your own ways.
First, I want to explain the devices in the corner as I promised. These four devices are currently creating a barrier over this building making it impossible for us to be monitored while we are in here. I'm certain that most of you have come to this conclusion already, but your captors are monitoring your every move and your every conversation over your SFCs, which is why I asked you to leave them outside today.
In essence, while we are in here, you can talk freely. Nothing you say will become known to them, unless you repeat it outside. Anything planned within these walls would come as a complete surprise to them. If you agree to help me out today, I will let you have this building and the barrier technology inside. I can even try to set up similar ones in other locations or teach you to do so, however I must caution you that at best only a few of these barriers should be made. While a single blank spot will not be detected by your captors, if too many of them are created, they will likely catch on and investigate.
Now, first I would like to introduce someone to you.
[Here he motions to the woman sitting silently.]
This is C. Up until recently she was part of the group you have come to refer to as the Natives. Though she was not brought here from another realm like yourself, she was kept captive because she was judged to be a danger to the Vatheon experiment. Her memory had been taken from her and she was kept docile as all natives are. Recently she has started to slowly come to and regain some of her memories. These last few days she has been helping me put together a possible way for restoring the barrier below. It seems that the reason the barrier was failing to begin with and the reason why her memory has been starting to return to her have the same cause. Namely the fact that the coral has been starting to become desynchronized.
As you all know, you have been marked. These marks were supposed to act as a connection to the coral allowing it to cast these so called curses on you, but also to draw your energy in return. And this energy was instrumental in keeping the barrier strong. However the problem is that the coral is not a static entity. While it is not alive per se, it is also not unchanging. Over the last few years it has slowly been changing, whereas your marks have remained the same. This was a variable overlooked by the scientists. By now it appears that the marks you carry and the coral are so out of sync that it can no longer drain enough power from you to properly project the barrier that has been keeping the underwater city safe and protected. The connection has been muddled with too much white noise, so to speak.
Yet this is also the reason why C has been regaining her consciousness. Similar to yourself, the natives also carry marks, though for a different purpose than yourselves. Rather than being used to drain energy, they are being used to suppress them. With the link between the marks and the coral becoming this desynchronized, it seems C's connection no longer fully functions, giving her back part of her memories. There is a chance that in time more natives will become disconnected from the coral and will return to their true selves.
Together C and I have been creating a technique to change the marks which will hopefully bring them back in alignment again with the coral and restore the bubble. It is not all that needs to happen, but by doing this, we can solve 80% of the problem, we believe.
Now, I know this is a lot to take in. And I am not completely done yet. For now, I'll allow you to talk about this, and to ask both C and myself questions. We'll try to answer them as best as we can.
[ooc: Okay, you guys. Here it is. This is the post. We apologize again for getting this up so late. what we'll do is this. This post is pretty much a big free for all discussion post. Don't hesitate to jump in anywhere or at any time. This is happening in one room so it is easy to overhear other people talking and such.
There will be one separate thread for C answering questions and two for Station Master. With Station Master one will be for asking him questions directly and one will be summarizing the questions that have already been asked of him and answered. This is mostly to keep everybody from having to crawl through all the discussions. Please read up on what has already been asked via these bigger subthreads as much as possible so we can avoid having to answer the same question over and over. You are free to ask him any question you want, even if it's unrelated to this current plot. He will answer at his discretion. I know this might end up being a bit of a messy post, so once most of it has been threaded out, we'll put up an ooc post summarizing the proceedings.
Of course, characters are allowed to make their own threads to discuss among each other! We ask just one thing of you. If you character has a direct question to either Station Master or C that you want us to answer please mark 'NPC QUESTION' in your comment title. We'll be trying to keep up as much as possible, but this way we can quickly see where we are needed and where people just wanna discuss things among themselves for a little bit.]
no subject
I prefer a very dedicated informant.
[But no, he is totally a spy.]
You're correct, the scientists are well aware you found those. I assume they thought you would never figure out enough information to truly harm them and that is why they let it go.
I cannot be certain how those papers ended up there, but I know that the island was not originally intended to be part of the project and that it in fact was the place from where they observed your actions. Doctor Alpha started the initiative for allowing you access to the surface without their permission and was punished for it. But seeing as they believed it might contribute positively to the results they were getting, they allowed it to be completed. I guess while moving everything into the hidden lab, some things were left behind on accident.
[He frowns a little.]
Unless there are more amongst their number that are trying to help you.
[Not that he would object to more help, but he never found anyone else. Would they have dodged his skills as well?]
no subject
[At least to trolls. He's onto you, dude.]
[He listens pretty intently to the rest, and raises an eyebrow at the mention of Alpha.]
That explains why he disappeared. Any idea why the nurse they got to replace him such a psychopath?
But about others trying to help, Carol tried to hint some stuff to me once. She's the first I got it from that the curses aren't the experiments themselves, and the confirmation that the fairies were used to monitor us. Do you know what's up with her, too?
no subject
[She goddamn outshone him. How rude.]
Her name, I believe, is Athena, but beyond that, I know nothing.
[And it bugs him.]
Carol's story is fairly simple. She's a student at one of our universities. She became part of the project through an internship. Most of the people involved in this project don't really know what goes on in here. She didn't. You could say she had the misfortune of being a bit too bright and curious for her own good. She noticed that something wasn't adding up and started to investigate. I don't think she ever really expected to find this.
[He motions with one hand for a moment.]
Trying to find out more answers she acted rashly and accidentally got herself locked inside the project. As that neutralized the threat she posed, senior project members were happy enough to leave her here. She's scared of ending up like C, ending up like all of the natives, I suppose, which is why she has been keeping her head down.
no subject
[Interesting. He crosses his arms. He wishes he knew more, too!]
Carol was pretty cagey, and I'm not anymore surprised now than I was then. Even if it was kind of a pain in the nook not getting clearer answers about it.
[What else, what else... He casts his gaze about the room, trying the think. It returns with an idea.]
So how does that elevator work? And no, I am not going to rush off to test it if you tell me. But if something goes wrong, someone's going to have to know how to operate the thing, and whispering the names of baked goods at it is obviously a load of musclebeast excrement.
no subject
Which is not an answer to dismiss you. I channel a small burst of sors into the start up mechanism of the elevator which allows to make it a single trip. Another security measure, you see. By giving you access to the surface but no means to control it, they continue to hold the upper hand.
[A small, almost modest shrug.]
Or so they assume.
no subject
So there's all of jack shit what I can do about it, then. I don't do magic, and apart from the intervention of a few curses and some potions a witch once gave me, I am as unmagical as you get. And not in the bureaucratic "magic is fake" stubborn douche way of Eridan; I mean as in special powers are not my natural deal, and it took a literal act of god to give me the one I have now.
[Thanks, Kabegami.]
Save the info and share it with someone who can help.
Next question: Do you have an actual name?
no subject
[What, technically you didn't ask him for it.]
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
Please kindly tell me your name before my bloodpusher bursts apart inside my chest from sheer frustration.
no subject
[It isn't. Really.]
I can give you the name under which I signed up on this project, but it is not my true name.
no subject
[What kind of idiot do you take him for? Otherwise humans have some really pathetic taste in names.]
Forget it. I'll call you Station Master, same as ever, because you obviously don't want to tell me.
no subject
[He is master of the... elevator station???]
no subject
How big is the range on those?
[He motions at the devices set up in the corners.]
Do we have to strictly be inside here, or would it be enough to stand right next to the building?
no subject