TO: EVERYONE | avengers, assemble!

[falcony]

[ this comes through clear and is broadcast to everyone, though by this point sam is very aware that a good amount of people won't catch it. he tries, anyway, knowing some responses may be off or delayed or corrupted from a select few people, but he's not going to limit this.

he has enough information at this point. something is wrong, and it's not faction-focused. they need to act, and they need to act now. ]

THIS IS A CALL FOR ALL SUMMONED CURRENTLY NOT MIA
IN CASE IT HASN'T MADE IT TO YOU YET- SOMETHING'S HAPPENED
A GOOD PORTION OF SUMMONED AND LOCALS ALIKE HAVE GONE MISSING
AND IT WASN'T THEIR CHOICE
I'VE GOT REPORTS FROM THE FREE CITIES, SOLVUNN, AND THORNE ALIKE
AND FROM MY EXPERIENCE, WHEN THIS SORT OF STUFF HAPPENS, YOU HAVE TO ACT FAST

SO I'M SETTING UP A SEARCH AND REPORT SYSTEM FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS TO HELP
IF YOU'RE WORRIED ABOUT YOUR SAFETY OR THIS ISN'T YOUR JAM, FINE
BUT IF YOU WANT TO HELP, HERE'S WHAT WE KNOW:

- ANYONE MISSING HAS CORRUPTED ACCESS TO WHATEVER NETWORK THIS IS, AS WELL AS THE HORIZON

- THEY'VE BEEN TAKEN BY FORCE ACROSS ALL FACTIONS

- WE DON'T KNOW WHERE THEY ENDED UP, BUT AT LEAST SOME OF THEM ARE CONCIOUS ENOUGH TO REACH OUT

-THEY’VE ENDED UP TOGETHER


PLANS RIGHT NOW INCLUDE:

HORIZON PATROLS TO SEE IF WE CAN CHECK ANYONE WHO CAN MAKE IT IN, NO MATTER HOW SHORT
>> I'M GOING TO BE SETTING UP A HOME BASE AT MY PLACE IN THE HORIZON.
>> A LOT OF Y'ALL HAVE BEEN THERE BEFORE
>> SHOW THE WAY FOR NEWBIES,
>> IF YOU STILL NEED HELP, I CAN DIRECT
>> ITS A PLACE TO DROP INFO OR JUST CHECK IN
>> WE’LL HAVE SHIFTS
>> HILDA AND PETRA ARE TAKING THE LEAD HERE

INVESTIGATION INTO KIDNAPPING SITES
>> ONLY GO IN GROUPS
>> AND I SWEAR TO GOD— BE CAREFUL
>> WE DONT KNOW WHAT WERE UP AGAINST

INFORMATION COORDINATION ACROSS FACTIONS
>> YOU MIGHT GET CONTACTED BY SOMEONE NAMED NATASHA
>> SHE'S HELPING ME OUT
>> DONT PISS HER OFF— IM WARNING YOU

REACHING OUT TO LOCAL AUTHORITIES / OFFICIALS TO SEE WHAT THEY KNOW AND WHAT THEY CAN OFFER
>> IM GONNA BE TALKING TO THE PM OF CADENS,
>> BUT PEOPLE IN SOLVUNN AND THORNE WILL NEED TO SHARE WHAT THEY LEARN


IF YOU HAVE ANY INFO ON ANY OF THIS, NOW IS THE TIME TO SPEAK UP
IF YOU WANT TO HELP, REACH OUT TO ME
IF YOU WANT TO ASK AFTER A FRIEND, WE’LL SEE WHAT WE CAN DO
THE ONLY WAY WE'RE GOING TO GET THIS FIGURED OUT IS TOGETHER

[ in other words….

AVENGERS, ASSEMBLE

and no, sorry nat, he’s not saying it aloud. ]

Comments

[princessvegas]

[ It's just as quickly that the door swings open at Julie's phantom hand; she's in the living room, pacing. She is visibly distressed, even more so than the situation calls for. When Sam enters the room, she darts to him, eyes wide and her hands trembling slightly. ]

Sam, it's not -- it's not like any of the other times. It's not... it doesn't know what's going on, it's so mad and scared and hurt.

[ She can't sort her thoughts out, still somewhat drowning in the Singularity's all-encompassing emotions. ]

[falcony]

[ as soon as the door is open, sam is stepping inside towards her, meeting somewhere in the middle. he's immediately reaching for her hands, noticing they're trembling, but his expression is serious. ]

It? Julie, what's mad and scared? Hey- [ he's going to squeeze her hands gently, more calming than anything, as he walks them back in towards the living room. ] Take a breath, I'm here. What's happening?

[princessvegas]

[ She inhales deeply, trying to make her heart stop racing. Normally, she doesn't have this much difficulty keeping the Singularity's feelings separate from her own. There's a lot of overlap of the two right now, though, and she's not entirely sure whether she's unintentionally feeding off it all.

Letting Sam walk her back, she closes her eyes for a moment before opening them and trying again. Her speech is somewhat stilted, in the sense that the Singularity's thoughts (for lack of a better word) are not easily translated into human language. ]

The Singularity. I went to it, in the Horizon. This whole thing, it doesn't... it know what's happening. I don't think this is magical, 'least not in the way some of the other things were. It asked where they are, like it can't feel 'em right. When I said I don't know, I was gonna ask it the same question, it got so mad. Not at me, just... mad. And there's like, some kinda loneliness. A new loneliness.

[ She pauses, swallows hard. ] Sam, I think whoever did this is breakin' their connection with the Singularity, somehow. Whether they mean to or not. It can still sorta feel 'em, but... Sam, if their connections break, they're gone. Out of Abraxas.

[falcony]

[ he can tell that she's trying, that whatever it is that is important that she needs to talk to him about not only takes effort and focus, but it doesn't come easy to her. which isn't to say that julie has ever made it out to be easy, but she's always had a seamless kind of connection. something that sam hasn't understood, entirely, but he knows is her's.

now it feels like she has to fight it, like she has to somehow keep from being overwhelmed, and he feels himself frown - worried, as he always is, about what it is she's able to do and how there isn't much he can do to help with it.

so he listens, because that's all he can do. and what he hears...well, at first sam thinks good, because if this isn't something to do with the singularity (because truthfully, when julie tells him anything about the singularity, he believes it. trusts it implicitly. there's nothing she needs to prove) then it's something to do with people, and people he can handle. people are something that can be handled.

but then she mentions a new loneliness and breaking their connection and his stomach drops. he comes to the conclusion the same moment she says it aloud. ]

We won't let that happen. [ the assurance comes quick, but there is honest belief behind the words. ] If whatever happened isn't magical, then it's just people, and that's fightable. We'll find them, and we'll get them back before any of that happens. [ because he has to focus on what he can do, on what is doable. actions are the only thing that will help any of them, now, and sam's going to take that and run with it.

he squeezes her hands again before pulling her close and kissing her forehead. ] And thank you. It might not feel like it, but this is good. You did good, because this we can work with.

[princessvegas]

[ She nods, sniffling. The Singularity's pain lingers within her, sharper than her own -- Julie only has a relationship with a handful of the missing. The Singularity is connected to them all. ] I'm gonna go back. I told it I'd come back, in case it can get anythin' that might help us. Maybe it can show me somehow. [ Not that she knows how that might look, or even if it will be able to assist. All she could tell was that it was straining, reaching out for them.

Her voice lowers slightly, and so does her gaze. ] I told it... I told it to focus on Geralt. To find him for me. Maybe it'll be easier to focus on just one connection 'stead of a bunch.

[ With a sharp inhale, she rolls her eyes to the sky for a moment, then clears her throat. ] Are Wanda and Stephen Strange okay, do you know? They're safe to tell, they both know. About me. And they've got clout, in Thorne and Solvunn. [ So if the message comes from them, from Sam... important people, as well as the other Summoned, will listen. She trusts the three of them to cover for her, keep her secret safe. ]

[falcony]

[ he presses his lips together, holding back the question she can probably read across his face - is that really safe? does it hurt you? because whether or not he asks it, he knows she'll follow up with it anyway. ]

No, that's a good idea. Having one target might help- they're all being kept together, last we checked. [ he wants to ask, and she can probably see just how much he wants to ask, but he doesn't. instead, a kind of seriousness settles over him as he nods. ]

They're okay- I've heard from both of them, neither have been taken. But okay- okay. Do you want me to tell them? Or do you want to talk to them? They're both good people. [ they both will keep this safe - he's agreeing with her assessment here, but can also tell she's a bit frayed, understandably panicked, and he's trying to get a pulse on what will help her most. ]

We'll get the word out. You'll be safe.

[princessvegas]

[ She sees that look, and the truth is that she has no clue if it's safe. It was only two weeks ago that Wanda locked some part of the Singularity (maybe?) into Julie's brain so that she wouldn't waste away, but it's a stopgap measure. It couldn't be extracted, but it could be silenced, at least for now. And now Julie is flinging herself straight back into the unknown by doing this.

She'd already been back to the Singularity, of course, but it hadn't needed her so desperately before. Not like it does now, the way it clung to her and overwhelmed her.

But this is what she can do. This is all she can do. Between Geralt and the Singularity, Julie is willing to give herself up to get them both back. ]

You can tell 'em. [ She shakes her head a little. Julie strongly suspects a lecture from both if she's the one to explain, and that's not really what she's aiming for. ] Just... if I do get somethin' we can use... Sam, you know what'll happen if I'm found out. I won't hold nothin' back from y'all, but...

[ Her voice trails off. She's afraid. She can do what the natives have been trying to do for millennia -- communicate with it. Thorne has already killed people in their quest to get access, and that was just the Horizon. Cadens has experimented on people for no reason, apparently, let alone with the possibility of something so great. Julie is positive that if there's even a rumor she can do this, she'll die in a secret laboratory somewhere, just another human guinea pig.

And there are so many Summoned now who trust the natives too much, who don't know what it was like in the beginning. Even one of them running their yap puts her life on the line. She's not exactly someone who blends into a crowd. ]

[falcony]

[ you can tell 'em she says, and sam just nods. okay- that he can do. he trusts both wanda and stephen with his life, and (in a way that is somehow more important) he trusts them with julie's secret, too. and while he doesn't quite know the lengths that julie is willing to go to make this work, he will rely on the fact she knows he is a safe person to tell. to open up to. to work together with to get them back. ]

No, I know. No one else needs to know. You just tell me, or Stephen or Wanda, and we'll run with it. If anyone wants to know how we got the info, they'll have to come through us. Okay?

[ and sam is confident - protective, and perhaps a bit too certain, but there is no question where his priorities lie. he's going to do nearly everything to get the others back, but sacrificing julie isn't one of them. sacrificing any of them isn't one. ]

This stays here, or in the Horizon only. I'll be around, but you should always be able to track me down.

[princessvegas]

[ Julie nods too. She doesn't know how this is going to work, she doesn't know what continuing this all will do to her. It might break Wanda's spell, it might corrupt her brain. Maybe she won't get anything at all and it will be an enormous waste of her time.

But if it'll get them back... if it gets Geralt back, then that's all she cares about.

Abruptly, she throws her arms around Sam's neck and hugs him. ]

Thanks, Sam. Just... just stay safe.

[ She remembers being told, as a child, that it's always best to say good-bye like you might never see the person again. Tragedy could strike at any moment, so make sure people know you care about them. ]

[falcony]

[ it's abrupt, perhaps, but sam isn't caught off-guard by it in the slightest. if anything, julie throws her arms around his neck and he's waiting for it, squeezing her back - quick, and affirmative. confident. he knows what he's doing, even if he doesn't know everything.

there's a kind of finality in her words that catches in sam's chest, something he recognizes and can't quite bring himself to shrug off. it feels a bit like a goodbye, yes, but also a bit like something else. ]

Hey. [ he says, and he's smiling - whether or not she can see it. it's meant to be encouraging, a brave show that this will be easy, that he knows what to do and it'll get done.

except that julie's been in this place just as long as he has, and she knows there's only so much either of them can actually do. so, rather than giving her some kind of platitude, he says: ] I will if you will, alright?

[princessvegas]

[ She doesn't mean for it to sound fatalistic. She's just very shaken right now, between the Singularity's panic and her own. Anyone who's capable of kidnapping Geralt is not someone to be taken lightly. And nearly everyone she knows is already chomping at the bit to blindly pursue them.

With a sigh, she nods, holding onto him for another moment before she lets go. ]

I mean it. [ Looking up at him, she puts her hands on his shoulders. ] There's a difference between what I can do and what I know you'll do. Not just you, but like, half of these folks, I could take or leave. [ This is said with a degree of humor, but it's true. Julie does not care if people she barely knows by name get captured. She cares when it's her people. ] Either way, I won't be the one chasin' kidnappers. So stay safe.

[ That said, she releases him. ] I'll talk to you soon.

[falcony]

[ maybe not, but they're all a bit off-kilter. sam knows just as well as anyone how difficult it is to get geralt taken. considering the events and what happened the last time, sam has a bad feeling about the state of everyone, not just him. but the only thing they can do it find them, and that's where sam's focus is.

I mean it she says, hands up on his shoulders. ]

I know you do, but I also know you'll find your own way to help. So I'll promise to stay safe, but you gotta do the same for me.