to all;

[righteously]

Okay, look. We need to talk.

What the hell is going on around here? That whole 'make the summoned run around like trained jackasses' thing? Not kosher.

Before I say anything else, I'll be the first to admit, I didn't let the bug loose. It was a bad call, somebody got hurt, and I'm sorry. I really am. If I could go back knowing what it did, I'd have let it out in a heartbeat.

But that's the thing, isn't it? I mean, seriously. Let's break this whole thing down.

Those douchebags running the Free Cities (or Thorne, or Solvunn) drag us in from wherever we were, without asking, against our will.

A highly reclusive nation decides to let us come hang out for a Disney vacation in their deeply secretive community as a gesture of good faith.

At a time when Summoned from all three factions coincidentally happen to be hanging out in the same reclusive ass place, something mysterious and terrible happens. I don't know about the rest of you, but I, for one, am shocked it didn't go as planned.

Instead of sending guards, the Free Cities sends us freaking couriers with the most useless note in the history of the goddamn planet telling us to release a device we know nothing about, without telling us what it does, just that we need to be real friggin sketchy about it.

When not everybody obeys without question like good little soldiers, one of our own gets hurt, and they shake the shame finger at us like it's our own fault? Are you kidding me?

First of all, if they can send couriers they can send their own friggin guards to handle crap like this. Or, hell, have the damn couriers release the things, they have hands, they could've prepped the packages their own damn selves instead of foisting it off onto the people who didn't even ask to be here in the first place.

Second of all, even if they COULDN'T, how about they slap in a goddamn paragraph or two on what the thing is? If everything's all hunky dory, and all that little bitch does is provide a protective shield, who CARES if a note that was gonna SELF-DESTRUCT ANYWAY gets read over somebody's shoulder?

This whole thing reeks of grooming us to start following orders without full intel. Surely nothing will come of that. Except, oh wait, Libertas just got friggin' bombed. The continent's going to war, and we're getting played.

And here's the other thing: I'm pretty sure Free Cities kids weren't the only ones running around doing sketchy crap during the happy fun werewolf party. Thorne, Solvunn, you two wanna weigh in here? Bueller? Anyone?

( threadjacking is highly encouraged, so long as whoever you're jumping in with is cool with it! hit me at paingravy if you need me! )

Comments

ota

[sorser]

Was the attack only contained to Libertas?
Would be great if everyone in the Free Cities checked in for a headcount.

[WORRED. STRESSED. This happened all too quickly to account for, and now war's all but a foregone conclusion.]

If we’re getting played by an outside party, then we’re going to need some hard evidence to prove it. The queen’s not exactly in a reasonable mood right now.

[nadine_he_loves]

It was confined to Libertas

Cadens is under a curfew but it doesn't apply to us.

[sorser]

[A moment to scroll through the rest of these messages flitting around, frowning on his end.]

It might not apply, but it looks like your hands are tied while the military swoops in first.

[nadine_he_loves]

Yeah, they're keeping the roads to Libertas closed to only military and government personal. But that's pretty much the same thing - the government IS the military. They aren't even letting trained relief professionals go.

[sorser]

They're probably trying to keep things organized and insular. I can't imagine they'd shun outside help for much longer.

How are the people in Cadens doing?

(mind-)encrypted, still visible to all summoned

[industries]

ts@Abraxas-Proxy:~$ open reply
ts@Abraxas-Proxy:~$ gpg -c -encrypt strange.msg
> Strange
> what's going on over there?

[sorser]

One of the queen’s favored assistant mages died in the attack. She’s furious about it, and she’s all but convinced that it’s the work of the Free Cities at play here.

Like I said, not exactly working with a rationale. She gave us front row seats to the destruction to drive that point home.

[industries]

> Jesus.
> Does she has evidence Marlo was behind the assassination or
> is this blitzkrieg on civilians even more paper-thin than it looks?

[sorser]

The only "evidence" is the device that was found on Yennefer. It was damaged, so no one could pinpoint exactly where it came from, but it was composed of some kind of crystal and metal. I don't have more details than that, though I want to see if I can get a closer look to examine it.

Still, that was enough to shift the blame over to Marlo and the Free Cities. She's pissed, and she needs a target.

[piqure]

[this. is. bad. is it crazy that he misses the big blue alien? at leas there the enemy and goals were clear. ]

hi yeah, checking in for a headcount!!

the attack was contained. but that’s a lot of people there that need help and they’re not letting anyone not part of the military go there right now.

i want to try??

what evidence do you think we need?

[sorser]

[Oh thank god. Peter's all right.]

Hey kid. Glad to hear you're safe.

That's the million-dollar question. One of your delegates was attacked too, right? How'd that happen? Is there anything left to examine? If we can find a common denominator behind any of this, then maybe we can point fingers at an outside party and avoid anymore war crimes in the near future.

[piqure]

Yeah — you too, seriously. I was really worried.

And yes, he was. I don't know the exact details, nothing play-by-play, but I can try to see if there's things left over. There was some sort of magic explosion. I think he's recovering right now.

They were saying how if more of us helped, did what they asked, it would've gone better. Which I guess is true. We were given some sort of tech-magic beetles but the note was definitely a little unclear.

Don't you think its weird how every faction got some sort of heads-up though?

So it would make the most sense if it was someone on the outside, right? It just seems like a wild coincidence that each faction would be trying to get the other at the same time otherwise...

[sorser]

I think you've hit the nail on the head. Too many coincidences for it to have worked out that every faction just happened to want to attack each other on the same day, through means that would suspiciously point back to the enemy, at that.

If you can find anything leftover from the attack, let me know. I'll see if there are any clues I can squeeze out. In the meanwhile, I think the focus is going to be on Libertas' recovery. Don't let too much else fill your head for now, Peter. Help who you can.

private

[industries]

ts@Abraxas-Proxy:~$ open reply -private peter.msg
> Pete
> no one's going anywhere until Sam does some aerial recon.
> You want to help, ask the Rio duo if they need an extra pair of hands to prep supplies.

>:(

[piqure]

( but dad maybe he wants to go on a mission !!

the message comes back through as fast as it would in conversation, tumble of thoughts needing to go out, a sure tell of restlessness)

Okay but
There's a lot of hands prepping supplies right now, and I'm not saying that's not important but I can get that ready so fast and I'm just saying the air recon is going to take time — and also will sam even have back up?? but —

A whole place was bombed — that means people need help right now??
Everyone's worried about a war starting but that's big picture and politics — who watches out for the little guy?

[industries]

> Me.
> I'm watching out for the little guy,
> who is you.
> Unless you want to point out the convenient string of skyscrapers you'll be using to swing past the military blockade
> and the gallon of webfluid you're toting to get from here to there.

comes back a day later when people are thinking straight

[princessvegas]

Y'all need to be making plans to get out of the castle. Not just 'cause Reiner might strike y'all, but


the queen, she must know we're all talking to each other. It's only a matter of time before she decides she wants to know about what. Her interviews ain't pretty. I cleaned one up once.

[ushiri]

You've met the queen?

How much do the non-Summoned know about how Horizon and our communications operate?

[ Hello, again. ]

[princessvegas]

No, I've never met her.

I'm not sure anyone knows exactly how much THEY know, but we know they can't see the actual words. Doesn't mean won't no one go run their fat gobs about it.

[ushiri]

[ Fair enough. ]

You mentioned you're in the Free Cities, but do you know anything about the other cities in Thorne or their leaders? The queen is dragging more than just Castle Thorne into a war, and I'm curious as to how the rest of the kingdom might feel about it.

[ In terms of potential pushback to the queen, or even avenues of escape. ]

[sorser]

It might be a matter of time, you're right. But I need to take that risk for now. If there's anything I can learn from this end abut the truth, then I need to stay just long enough to allow for it. Maybe mitigate any future damage on the horizon.

[princessvegas]

Stephen, you don't know what she's capable of. What she's done for no reason at all, let alone because of an actual attack.

[carmesi]

Stephen.

Can you remind me what is the intent behind us being summoned as you know it?

[they've had this conversation before, months ago.]

[sorser]

Wanda.

[That feels like an age ago. And yet he recalls.]

To help this world. To stabilize its magic so ours doesn't suffer the consequences.

That's what I told you, back then.

[carmesi]

Do you still think this is the case?