<> <> <> <> (What was the prophecy retcon?) (Kevin doesn't know about the Walphin prophecy, I don't tihnk) (To be fair I don't either but I think that was the snag we ended on last time.) (Damn, I knew I forgot something in the logs. Yes, Kevin only knows about the sleythin "prophecy") (The Walphin prophecy is the ACTUAL prophecy you decoded.) (What IS the Walphin prophecy? One born from a dragon clutching the light and the dark, yadda yadda?) (The "closing of doors" one.) (What log is it in so I can look it up.) ( http://chamelaeon.com/rpg/atc3/logs/atc3-04-03-04.txt , I believe.) (Okay. Background info! Thank you.) * Tomas tears his non-existant glasses off dramatically, "What do you mean the sleythin prophecy is just a superstition?" * Hestia leans back in her chair. "How could it not be? Humans bringing about the end of the universe blah mumbo jumbo blah? Hard to take seriously. I think they just want a convenient excuse not to share their stellar data with humans." (Lexi apparently disagrees! Strongly!) * Zeke has been quiet for a bit. It's useful to be quiet when you are comming comrades in the ship! It's not a retcon shut up. * Kyle chuckles. "They're probably scared we'll hurt ourselves." <> "Exactly. Sleythin are about as psychic as the eggs I ate for breakfast this morning. Their prophecy doesn't even fit what we know about general precognitive abilities." * Zeke tries to suitcomm, ~ Amadeus and Lexi, this is Zeke. The inside of the igloo does not contain a significant direct threat. ~ Big green bastards. I mean individually they're not bad, but collectively I kind of want to slap them. (Hestia Richter, xenophobe.) (They're not even greeeeeen!) (Some of them are, that is sufficient.) * Tomas shrugs, "Doesn't mean they couldn't have done it with tech." * Hestia glances at Kevin. "Good question. While you've been down here shattering reality have you figured out how to make a computer spit out lottery numbers?" (I totally commed successfully! Amadeus and Lexi, come in!) * Lexi shrugs and heads out and down to this igloo thing! * Amadeus does as well. "Guess we'll have to find out for ourselves what's going on down there." (Okay. Now I am seeing him saying "Sort of," then showing them into a room with Roch and Xavier holding hands, and Xavier's hand on a dot matrix printer.) ("IT'S NOT WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE. WE"RE PREDICTING THE FUTURE.") "No. Depending on whom you ask, that's either the relief of a century or horribly disappointing. I fall into the latter camp." Unpredictability makes like exciting. Within certain boundaries. (Sonnuva. I thought Tia was talking to Z.) (Stop that, Cham.) (No.) * Hestia smiles too sweetly. "For example, not knowing what's on a planet, exciting. Not knowing what some massive corporate entity that seems to know everything is going to do with its knowledge of you while they manipulate you from the shadows, not exciting." * Tomas nods in agreement with Tia and scowls at Kevin. * Lexi enters the room and looks around. "Well... that was an interesting welcome. Who's this?" She turns to Kyle. <> "Dunno's writing revisionist retro-fi about you. CEC has its eyes on you, not in the least because you have the heir apparent jetting around with you." <> * Tomas brakes his scowl at Kevin, "That's Kyle." (To ask the question that is. Not because she doesn't know who Kyle is) * Amadeus steps in after Lexi, wiping his glasses on his shirt. "And who keeps a toaster as a guard bot?" * Lexi shakes her head. "Not him! The other guy!" (Kevin. The ATC guy's name is Kevin.) * Tomas eyes Tia then Zeke, "That's Zeke." <> If you're finished being difficult, Tomas, I think Lexi's asking about him. * Amadeus nods to Kevin and puts his glasses back on. * Lexi narrows her eyes. "Masy... stop trying to be funny. It's not working." * Zeke sits up in his chair. Poor chair. "His name is Kevin Corey." He's from ATC, Lexi. Take a deep breath and imagine the look on your father's face. He is the leader and public relations component of this research facility. oh. That's Kevin. He's with ATC. <> "I can try to look more evil if it would help." I think you're fitting that pretty well, honestly. * Tomas comes to and resumes his scowl at Kevin. * Lexi shrugs. "Whatev. So have you been hiring us?" "Only twice." * Hestia crosses her arms over her chest. "Among other people, yes. They sent us to two of the less deadly places we've been to." * Zeke adds, "They also are using a significantly experimental technology to directly predict what is on other planets." * Amadeus rolls his eyes. "Well, ATC *is* the savior of humanity. It'd be awful press if people found out they sent chain jumpers to their deaths deliberately." Experimental technology? They're collapsing dimensions or something like that. Pleasantly terrifying. Stuff that'll blow your miiiiiind. * Amadeus claims one of the empty chairs as his own. And sits on it... after glancing at it for booby traps. Wait, what? How? * Zeke holds up a hand. "Sampling alternate universes. One could liken it to a quantum mechanical method... but that is not my area of knowledge." Still sounds like universe-tweaking dangerous stupidity to me. "Zeke has it right. It's strictly read-only." That- seriously? * Lexi nods. "Well I appreciate you not actively trying to kill us." * Zeke tilts his holohead. "It is quite ambitious, yes. It does not match what I know of technology." * Zeke turns to Kevin. "Kevin is also not a believer in the truths of the Tone." * Amadeus sits up. "Strictly read only! And that's supposed to make it all right? I might not be a physicist, but how is it that this is the first time I've ever heard of it?" Because they're doing it in an igloo under Ganymede, Amadeus. A haunted igloo. Hey, I'm a little rusty on my quantum theory, but... isn't it possible you're changing the state of it just by observing it? Which, you know. If I were going to fuck with reality, I'd do it in an igloo under Ganymede. Why not? "It... doesn't work quite like that, Kyle." * Amadeus turns to Tia. "Obviously- oh, hell..." He looks to Kevin. "You people actually *are* slowing down scientific progress for people overall, aren't you? Actually sampling data from alternate universes is miles ahead of anything ANYONE out there can do." * Kyle leans back in his seat. Amadeus is getting all angry. This is gonna get funny to watch. <> "It is. And a few years ago I'd have agreed with you. But since I took over the facility, we've moved mostly into research that nobody wants to do, since it's either too dangerous or expensive." I cannot believe you just said that with a straight face. "Well, people think this research is too insane to try, let's sink a lab of corporate-funded scientists into a moon of Jupiter and let them have at!" * Zeke looks to Hestia. "It seems only slightly more odd than chainjumping." I don't think we've attempted to toy with the universe yet, Suit Boy. Which people are willing to do outside of corps. * Zeke frowns. "There is... a certain level of risk that most corporations are not willing to pursue, even with safe investments. That is why Red NYC exists." That aside, if it's really that dangerous and expensive, why are you doing it? Don't you have an obligation to, I don't know, humanity as a whole, not to mention all of the other intelligent species out there to not destroy the fabric of the universe? It's an issue of scale. "I'm not sure how we're making the jump from 'dangerous research' to 'destroying the fabric of the universe', but I'll tell you that the universe is quite safe." Not according to the sleythin. "The research here is because they *didn't* give us the star data, not because they did." Right, well. You've all but said you know WE have it, so you clearly put the full weight of ATC against attempting to get a copy. (Ronnie: "Please?" Egg: "No." Ronnie: "God damnit. >_<") (XD) (Kat could steal it.) (Preeeeeetty much.) (Nobody would ever know.) (She knows the place!) (I think after ATCG Kat became a florist.) (Ronnie obviously didn't offer the egg an autograph.) (Seems unlikely.) (And delivers singing telegrams dressed like Katy Perry from the California Gurls video.) (You do realize I managed not to watch that despite all the linking, right?) (Only instead of whipped cream she attaches handguns to her tits and wobbles them back and forth firing at will.) (So this guy knows more stuff.) * Hestia leans back in her chair again. "You'd go a long way to making me hate you marginally less if you happen to know who the other shadow bidders were." "Bidder B is definitely Dunno." Where'd they send us? And who sent us with the schmuck? "Most of the places you've been to." (We already know the Dunno information!) Yeah... the Supernova and the Orchid, there's another hot button issue. * Lexi nods to Kyle. "Yes. It would be nice to know who IS trying to actively kill us." <> "We don't know who sent you with Mr. Jackson, unfortunately." Hmmm. I wonder if they've tried to off the people on the Supernova. That'd either point to them as culprits, or give us a chance to find out. But for that matter, why pick us? The Orchid and the Supernova are big known names, even if the big known name of the Orchid is that they're self-important pseudo-ethnic jerkwad.s * Amadeus flicks his eyes, in the headputer kind of way, as he fumes. I mean, our first ship looked like someone had assembled it from a garage kit. Doesn't seem like a good investment. (They probably have a device to detect plot, as well.) "A good set of initial skills, a totally corporation-free background, excepting Tomas and Lexi's tenuous connections, and probably a little bit of luck of the draw." So you're avoiding using corporate jumpers. Any reason? Other than not wanting the populace to know how you're skimming the galactic cream? Why can't ATC just train a group of jumpers? "To be honest there aren't that many independent chainjumpers OUT there. It's expensive, and getting the ship refitted and buying the drive is hard to do. Mr. Charles pulled off a tiny miracle when he managed it." <> "ATC isn't avoiding corporate chainjumpers - they have their own team - but in the general case we care more ..... (more) ... about mineral rights and potential terraforming locations than we do immediately habitable locations. It's kind of weird, but it's orders from the top. So, our team finds the minerals, and the insane people under my management monitor the other insane people who are hiring you to go do insane things for truly ludicrous amounts of money." Not shocking. Development's long-term money. Real estate is boring. * Amadeus nods. He looks like he's getting a headache. "The thing I know that you probably care the most about is who sent you to the Duekti planets." * Hestia moves her head from side to side a bit, making a 'go on' swirling motion with her hand. If they were also aware of the Duekti's existance beforehand, it brings up numerous questions as to their expectations. "Are you at all familiar with the city of Twilight?" Who isn't. Why? Enough to know I'd never want to go there. * Kyle drums his fingers on the table. * Zeke says nothing. (Everyone's at least heard of TC!) * Tomas nods. 'course. "After the Brain Flu, there've been people working hard to revamp its image - attracting startups, rehabilitating people, et cetera. The people who sent you to the Duekti planets are a small company named ErichTech, based out of there." * Hestia raises an eyebrow. I've never heard of them. Doesn't everything we've seen here sort of suggest that's not plausible? Very unlikely, if they were aware. "Which is why we double and triple checked. That's where we traced the bidding to." * Hestia pinches the bridge of her nose. "Well, I mean, maybe they paid the same bribe we did somehow. That's not outside the realm of possibility." My question is where would they get the money. Or how they'd find that specific system. I mean, you've see that data, it's immense. * Amadeus nods. * Kyle nods. Did they contract anyone else or any other jobs? * Zeke glances to Hestia. "The most likely reason if they picked it specifically was the danger." And that is... not difficult to identify. So? There's plenty of dangerous systems in the star charts. Why that one? "Hard to say. They made multiple bids, but none since they won your contract." * Zeke shakes his holohead at Hestia. "I do not know." (How does the bidding process work? Do contractors bid and whoever wins pays and picks the next destination?) (That's what Preston told you, yes.) (So, to recap a little, you have the IDs of every bidder but D.) (A is helpful, B is weird, C is a cypher, and D is a mystery jerk.) (A is ATC, B is Dunno, C is ErichTech, and D is [redacted]?) (Yup.) So here's the ten million credit question. * Hestia leans forward over the table. "Why tell us any of this? What do you *want*?" "Well, you're here. Which I couldn't really have stopped, if you wanted in badly enough. And you'd probably have shot me if I didn't talk, correct?" "Or at least beaten me." Nowhere fatal. I have heard dead bodies are a hinderance. * Hestia slowly turns and gives Zeke another one of those looks that she's been giving him a lot of in the past two days before turning back to Kevin. Actually... I would have probably lifted you into the air and beat you up while restraining you in mid-air... And also have tossed that weird ass toaster at you. But close enough. (Suddenly Zeke is Captain Carrot. It's weird.) <> "I get paid enough to deal with a vault full of mad scientists, but I don't get paid enough to deal with a gunshot wound." (... what?) (Explaining would take too long.) (Kind of joke you either have to get on the first go, or not.) "Besides, I'm curious about the Duekti situation myself." Are you proposing anything, then? <> "Would you trust me if I did?" To some degree, you expect us to. Otherwise this discussion is pointless. Trust underlies all information transfers. Probably not, but it does sound like you're leading up to something. "I trust you, and I'm telling you what I know, because I hope you trust me. I don't really have an option otherwise, since I got the word from above to tell you what I know, but I would have anyhow." "The only thing I'm supposed to get from you is a promise to listen when you get a phone call from ATC. You don't have to agree, just listen." I think you're owning up because we caught you. You trying to tell me we'd be having this discussion if we'd never have caught wind of your manipulating chainjumpers? "I can't say. To some extent you're correct, but I can't tell you what would have come down from the top in time." * Zeke tilts his head. "Is ATC so often directly... micromanaged?" Maybe only when secretly advanced technology is involved. "You're sitting in a supersecret insanely high tech lab located on Ganymede under an igloo, where toasters walk and horrors untold lurk beneath your feet, and you think the boss is going to let us just do what we want? That's what she did with Marcus, and look how that turned..." <> "... sorry." * Kyle whistles. * Hestia raises an eyebrow. * Kyle even makes some cricket sounds. In my dream world, your boss has a little listening device and tiny electroshock controller, and that pause was you being punished. Please don't shatter that illusion, I kind of like it. "No, that will come later, I guarantee." Sounds like a dream job. Yeah, well, I might take it over my current job, "Professional Shadowy Manipulateé." "I like it, but the psych evals say I'm not entirely stable. Part of why I got the job, actually." (Man, I wonder what ATC's PR and brand management offices are like sometimes.) * Amadeus mutters, "I can see how that would work." (Let's not think about that too hard.) (What do you mean?) * Zeke tilts his head, then makes an odd smile. "An interesting statement, Mister Corey." (The people in charge of managing the company's public identity?) (I imagine it's just a legion of killer robots at this point.) (Oh. Those people. They are probably shoggoths.) * Hestia stands up. "Right, well, this has been fascinating. Thanks for showing us the strings, Gepetto." (Yes, because you didn't see those when you figured out you were FOR HIRE.) (It is snarky dialogue shut up) (Or under surveillance by entirely different corporations!) (*attaches Cham to the Robot UNicorn Attack butterfly, then lets go*) (Nooooooooooo) "You're welcome." I assume this igloo is going to melt into the snow after we leave? "I can't comment on that." Of course you can't. * Lexi scratches her head. "I have just one more question. How do you know all this? And should we worry that the other bidders also have all this information? And for that matter why didn't P-Dawg know any of this?" * Lexi tilts her head. "I guess that was three." Is P-dog Preston? I suppose Lexi can answer that but feel free to take a crack if you know the answer, Captain Corporate. "I'm assuming it is." * Lexi looks at Tia in disbelief. "Duh..." "He doesn't know any more than he gave you. We know a lot more because of some ... unique capabilities we have, but we also know a lot because we were listening in on Dunno. So what Dunno knows, I would expect others to know." Pleasant. Surveillance makes the world go round. No sense being bitter because theirs is better than ours. So... is it reasonable to think that Dunno knows who bidder D is? "Probably not." I think we can find out. * Lexi sighs. "So are these T-City jerks the ones who outed the Duekti fiasco to the media?" "... honestly I can't tell you about that, Lexi." * Lexi shrugs. "Can't seems unlikely. I'll buy that you won't, though." <> * Lexi looks at Tia. "So what's our next move?" * Zeke's back arm grabs his suitcase as he stands. "Thank you for alerting me to that situation, Mister Corey." * Lexi nods. "Yeah. Thanks for the info, K-Corp." And then she turns around and gives a wave. "Ciao!" And heads back out towards the ship. <> <> (I think the "contacts" list on Lexi's phone... if ever stolen would do no one any good, because they wouldn't be able to decipher who the hell people are.) (It is likely.) (hi) (sorry I went to get a popsicle) * Zeke is back on the ship! Where they can safely discuss their next move. * Hestia throws herself down on the couch, looking like she regrets having blown through all that wine already. (Good reason for AFK!) * Amadeus has a headache. Clearly, a giant headache. * Amadeus is also flopped in a chair or something. * Kyle flops into a chair. "So." * Zeke states, once they are all there, "That was odd. If the information is accurate, and we can confirm it, this new corporation is very suspicious." <> * Hestia pulls up a nice big display in the lounge and looks for public info on ErichTech. < tag.>> ...wow. * Lexi nods and sits down. "Well... I have some contacts in TC. Do you want me to call them up? We could er... go to the source so to speak." She seems, very oddly, kind of sad for just a moment before perking up again. * Kyle whistles. "That might be a good idea." * Hestia starts doing less... legal digging. Help me, hidden internet. * Amadeus keeps his head in his hands. "Did I just hear Lexi come up with a good idea?" (Hm. I can get you more info there but it'll have to wait until I get back to my machine.) (Seems like we're going after them instead of Hacksy McHacker.) (A direction's good, we can pick up next week with that.) (If that's okay with everyone. We packed quite a bit into 2.5 hours.) (Sure.) (transcribing oh my god) (Yeah. It's fine.) Well... why don't we get back to Mars and think it over. Not much we can do orbiting Jupiter. (Where the internet isn't slow!) (Internet here: glacial) <>