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[sophos]

[It's Annabeth! A little less tired than she's been the last few months, but somehow a little more fidgety.]

Everyone knows we're basically here to fight that creature, right? I call him Mally, since saying his name is still dangerous unless properly warded. [A beat.] Thus far he's been impossible to kill, but not to defeat or pushback.

[She runs a hand through her hair, apparently not realizing she's just tugged out a handful of strands from her ponytail.] What I want to know is - what we know about that. About all the other times he's been stopped in the past.

It seems kind of stupid to keep hoarding it, since we all have a stake in what happens. [Hahaha that's funny Annabeth, with what she's potentially sitting on. Mages more powerful than Eshai and sketchy allies, how do they work??] People have been sacrificed to stop him before - Emperor Eshai's sister among them, to extend the life of another turtle, Asti's sister Sinbrilee. Mally was trapped in someone's body and torn to pieces at least once, too. If we need to stop him permanently, we need to know what works and what doesn't.

[Tapping her fingers absently on the desk in front of her rn.] About a year ago, when the turtle dove underwater, the barrier was breached by reanimated corpses - jiangshi - and it's more than likely Mally was responsible. Eshai believed so herself. The creature primarily works through manipulation and subtleness, rather than flash and spotlights. He might be laying low as of late, but that doesn't necessarily mean he's doing nothing.

[Maybe she just wants as many people as possible to know whatever they can, because the more people who can be proactive, the less she has to do the same. And maybe she wants to compare to what Eva's told her, too, before deciding how to go about dealing with it.]

Comments

permavideo;

[mythically]

Thank you for the information.

_{( diana's sitting at her home console, chin rested on her folded hands. )}

When they trapped him, in someone's body--was that person also destroyed?

permavideo!

[sophos]

[She shrugs.] You get stuck here as long as I've been, you learn stuff. [Or you're just Annabeth Chase, and you learn stuff no matter where you are.]

To the best of my knowledge, the person was killed, yes.

[video]

[spideyfanone]

This is really handy, actually. Someone should just, like, make a cheat sheet for us as we come in or something.

So, uh, what actually is the thingy? Like... magic, science, mutation, being from beyond time too vast for our tiny brains to comprehend?

[He might not have a great track record, but he's tangled a bit with all that.]

[video]

[sophos]

There's been several attempts in the past, but they always seem to fall to the wayside, especially with people coming and going.

In the words of Asti himself, it's a creature "made of chaos and pain and deceit." I'd throw in Death itself, too, since he lives in the Death plane. It can travel transdimensionally, but it's after the turtles of this world most right now.

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[necrokinetic]

[ WELL LOOK WHO HASN'T DROPPED OFF THE FACE OF THE PLANET.

yeah, he's tempted to be a jerk and "check in", as she'd tried to drill into his head, but the talk about reanimated corpses does actually catch his attention and the whole big, bad evil deal. so he decides he'll hold off on it for now. ]

How much do you know? [ and might be hoarding, goes unsaid. ]

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[sophos]

[tbh a jerky check-in is still probably better than no check-in. But hey! He's actually responding!]

[...she makes a face though, because of course she picks up on the hoarding implication. But she's not going to address it so publicly.] A lot. [:'D] There's plenty to tell you, if you're willing to actually listen.

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[warrioreidlos]

[His face is serious as he listens to her list the information they have so far. It isn't much, but it is more than he had before.]

Thanks. If I knew anything more I'd share it with you, but...

[He lets that trail off, gesturing for a moment. He's too new, he hasn't got any info, is what the gesture seems to say. He considers the new things he has learned, few though they are, before releasing a frustrated breath of air, rubbing the back of his neck for a moment.]

Almost makes you wonder if we are even supposed to fight this thing in the first place.

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[sophos]

[She pretty much immediately pings him as being new, but she doesn't really care about that. It just means he's more behind than others might be, but where's the good in that?]

We're supposed to stop it, according to the late Emperor. The how is apparently left up to us to figure out. If it destroys this world, though, it can move onto others - our various own, for example.

[naismith]

Ah! So someone is capable of productive thought. [Miles appears entirely thrilled. Even on video he is visibly odd: four foot something, head slightly too large, and restless with energy, almost manic. He's definitely a character.]

Thank you, that was very informative. Everyone here is so damnably tight lipped on the coms. You'd think the thing was a ghost in the machine, as it were.

Anyway, manipulation and subtlety are my specialty. Call me Miles. Please continue that delightful outpouring of constructive facts, if you have any more. Perhaps what the precise relationship is between... Mally and the turtles? Whose body it was trapped in when torn to pieces? Things of that sort. [He's entirely serious about that request, too.]

[sophos]

More than capable, actually. [If she's bothered by anything he says, or what he looks like, it doesn't show at all.] The creature can manipulate technology, too, so I can't say I blame some people for being concerned. But there's not really another way to spread information so widely, considering text doesn't translate like speech, and not everyone reads the same language.

[A sigh.] As for the turtles, Mally is basically after their life energy. The turtles are immensely powerful, and it's Asti's power that fuels the technology and abilities of everyone here in Keeliai. Before the turtle eggs were found and born, Asti was the last one alive. It's because of him that the late Emperor was able to create the barrier as it stands now.

anon text - cafe location;

[denyamenti]

And how long have you been sitting on these little pieces of information?

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[sophos]

[Squinting and glaring at the text. U WANNA TALK ABOUT SECRECY BRO.] Accuses the one sending me an anonymous text.

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[iguanasolution]

[He'd been meaning to talk to her in private about this ever since someone put the idea in his head, but if she's going to be open he might as well do it too. Trusting Annabeth's instincts since- basically since he met her, actually.]

What about the technology we got from the satellite crash? Could it be his own, and now we're giving him information simply by using it?

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[sophos]

[Honestly, on the flip side of things, Annabeth's been starting to think of Frank as, well, someone who could handle all the things she's not sure she wants to anymore.]

I've been wondering that myself. Eshai told me the satellites were launched roughly twelve hundred years ago. I don't think they're his, but if he can manipulate technology, it's entirely possible he caused them to crash in the first place and can use it, too. He's already made announcements over the consoles.

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[iwannabeadragon]

It might be stupid but that won't stop some people from doing it.

[When Hawke finishes thinking over the rest of the information he gives a dramatic sigh.]

Damn, the flashy villains are always so much easier to deal with. They practically beg for someone to kill them.

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[sophos]

Oh, I know that. [It's not necessarily stopping her entirely 8D] But it doesn't hurt to ask anyway.

[She makes a face though.] I'd say it depends more on what they can do, in the end. But dealing with something underhanded is more annoying initially.

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[cowled]

Annabeth.

[A slight nod, they may not speak often but it's difficult not to be wary of her intelligence. Of course, it also makes her a prime target to manipulate. So Bruce's smile is open, warm and perfectly, absolutely genuine. Of course.]

Do you have any speculation as to how he can post to the Network? Do you think maybe he's possessing one of the kedan to do it?

[Of course it's not his theory, but he wants to get her thinking in that sort of direction.]

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[sophos]

Wayne. [She doesn't feel like offering a 'Mister' before it, but it feels too weird just calling him Bruce. They are the best neighbors.]

No. The kedan don't have consoles, and they don't seem to use them, even in the cafes. And if he can manipulate technology, he wouldn't need to possess someone to speak over it anyway.

[Video]

[tony_redgrave]

I've been wondering the same thing. I'd also like to know when they plan on getting this show on the road, all this waiting around for the next bullshit to strike is driving me nuts.

[Video]

[sophos]

It's not like we can attack the thing directly. Pretty sure we'd all just end up dead.

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[una_persson]

I've got a copy of the information that Iorveth was compiling. I can get a copy to you as well, if you like.

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[sophos]

[She nods.] I remember most of what's been said, but an exact physical copy would be useful.

[fatedchaos]

[There's a long pause, even after Vanessa's turned on the feed to answer Annabeth before she sighs softly.] About the barrier breach and the jiangshi, Eshai told me before she died that she thought there had been a person who was responsible for it. Possibly. She didn't exactly have the evidence, but she thought it was likely.

[sophos]

[If she didn't have years of practice hiding her expressions with stuff like this, she'd have crinkled her face in concerned surprise over it. Because her first thoughts could be entirely overreacting, but something tells her they're not, and she's kind of afraid she knows exactly what Vanessa's going to say.]

[She'll play dumb for now, though, since it's a public feed.]

What? Really?

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[superoverachiever]

[Ava frowns at the screen while she thinks. She doesn't have much in the way of unique information, but she has a question.] When he was trapped in a body and torn apart, do we know why that didn't work? Because if we're gonna kill this thing, that seems like a pretty good place to start.

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[sophos]

I think it was only something recent - as in, he only started stirring from the last attempt just before we all started getting summoned here. That's why we're here, because he wasn't dead like they hoped. But I never did find out from Eshai what it was, exactly. It's possible Evandau would know. [More than likely, really.]