text; anonymous; English

[hackingyoursensors]

When I arrived here, I assumed the barrier had been meant to keep us in and that the Emperor controlled it. By now, I think it's obvious that that's not the case. The barrier is meant to keep things out. When Tu Vishan dove underwater, the barrier stayed up and held back the jingashi. But they broke through and, judging by the kedans' reactions, that had never happened before. In fact, I asked around. It hasn't ever happened before, not until lately.

Point two: a satellite falls out of the sky, breaks through the barrier, and lands on Tu Vishan. First of all, this suggest that there is-- or was-- some kind of long-distance communication technology. It also suggests that the barrier is weakening even more. Before, it took the stress of thousands of jingashi to weaken the barrier. Now all it takes is debris. Big debris, sure, but decidedly less stress than the jingashi.

As for the Emperor, it's possible she's contributing power to maintain the barrier, but it doesn't originate from her. Tu Vishan is the one maintaining it.

I know everyone's concerned about what's coming, but we can't let that distract us completely from the big picture. My point is that we need to slow down and rethink what we think we know. Since the barrier is our first line of defense against any outside invasion, let's start there. What do we know, what do we think we know, and how can that help us?


[The text has been helpfully translated into French, Chinese, Spanish, Italian, German, and Japanese.]

Comments

text | anon | additional translations whee

[cowled]

[Appended is the message repeated in a variety of other languages, feel free to pretend yours is here if it hasn't already been mentioned as long as it's Earth or DC-based and Batman has a reasonable purpose for knowing it.

He's not being helpful, he's just being efficient.]

text;

[iguanasolution]

I am new here but I can help testing out how high and low the barrier gets, and to try to find any holes on the barrier or something like that. Would that help?

text; Supercrypted; Anonymous location

[andaway]

[Mamasupes is so proud of you sonny, so proud.]

You raise a valid point but investigating the barrier isn't going to be an easy thing. We aren't even sure of its power source, only have vague idea of it.

Maybe we should focus on trying to find out more about that?

audio

[sophos]

[Texting. Ain't nobody got time for that.] If the turtle's increasingly getting sick - possibly even dying - it's not really surprising that the barrier is getting worse alongside it.

It probably won't get better unless Tu Vishan does, too.

text

[bindsthedead]

Do you think it's connected to Tu Vishan's illness? Or something else?

text | anon | as private as she can make it

[una_persson]

I think the barrier may be a defence against a particular entity. And I'm pretty sure that we're not the first to have faced it.

If the barrier is weakening because of Tu Vishan's illness, it's worth figuring out if the illness is caused by something else—or by this entity.

If the latter, we should be very worried indeed.

Voice - As private as he can manage

[excessivehubris]

This is a very pertinent and concern point you raise. May I ask what other supporting evidence you are using for this conclusion?

[There is no challenge in his tone, he is merely trying to come up to speed as quickly as possible in a short amount of time.]

text;

[fatedchaos]

Communication with who, exactly?

text, English

[alpha_squad_leader]

Are we so sure it's one or the other and not both? It would be reasonable to assume that whatever would want to keep us in the barrier would also want to keep other things out for a few reasons.

And even if the Emperor isn't maintaining the barrier, she could be altering it.

anon text

[sophos]

[ANONYMOUSLY POSTED FROM RANDOM CAFE AW YES. But she might as well drop it somewhere, even if she's already replied as herself about an hour earlier. Text is hard but she pushes!!]

ARSHEPHELIOS was a system of orbital defense platforms. The name is portmanteau of something, unknown - though given the meaning of 'Helios,' it's possible to infer something from that. It was designed as weaponry above communication, the development of technology for the sake of it.

voice.

[traitre]

[ not a little drily-- ]

Given the considerate effort to translate this into various and extremely foreign languages, I imagine this must be important-- whatever it says.

[video]

[backinakidflash]

What's a jingashi?

[Video] Because he can't be bothered typing.

[tactile_telekinesis]

Uh, no DUH it's coming from the turtle. That makes way more sense than having the Emperor do it.

Let me just correct you on something. You said that it's to keep things out, right? So why do we black out and lose our powers when we get close to the actual barrier? Why haven't we been able to cross over it? If it's to keep things out, surely things in should be able to get out. It's not much protection if we don't want to be in this place and are held like prisoners.

Also, this stuff has been happening since we arrived.

text; anon

[candystriped]

Slow down? Has there been some frantic rush for progress the rest of us aren't aware of?

audio // encrypted 60%

[lostundercover]

I don't know who you are and I don't know what you're lookin' for, but if you need help fixing it, you let me know.

video »

[necromania]

If your theory about the barrier is correct and it's only getting weaker, why should we slow down? Shouldn't we be more worried about preparing our second line of defense?

text;

[urbanmagic]

Honestly going in blind here as a newbie, so I'm pretty sure the conclusions I'm making are things you've already guessed for.

If the barrier's weakened that much, [Or at least, from what she's gathering there.] figuring out the source of the sickness might be priority. That satellite that broke through might have been deliberately brought here to test the barrier. Wouldn't be the first case of sabotage in the book.

text | french

[chiot]

ey i think you're right!!!!!!
we should ask all of the peoples that have superpowers
and they will make a super barrier