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

[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 to stephen+peter

[carmesi]

[she locks this mental connection to the two of them, because she doesn't want everyone to know she can just up and read minds—]

We were rallied up by Winifred and Rowan, members of the Council in Solvunn. This was before the attack to Libertas, but they talked about the incident in Nocwich. They said they weren't involved with the attacks and that they wish to provide aid.

I found no sign of deception in their minds.

They have a sense of pride, like they are above war and conflict. They consider it to be petty. With their intents on revitalizing their Old Gods' shrines, I am not all too surprised.

There is something else at play here.

private to stephen+peter

[sorser]

Well, that settles that. If you didn't sense any deceit, then it simply isn't there.

[He trusts Wanda's powers enough for that.]

private to stephen+peter

[carmesi]

It still leaves the question of who, if not the factions we know of, could have done this. Who is taking advantage of the changes from our being here to achieve whatever it is they're trying to achieve?

Seems foolish for Nocwich to want to do something like this so blatantly when they first open their doors after a long time.

private to stephen+peter

[sorser]

I agree. I don't think Nocwich had anything to do with it. I think someone saw an opportunity and took advantage of it, and Nocwich had the dubious honor of playing host to all factions at once.

private to stephen+peter

[carmesi]

Didn't something similar happen at the Peace Summit closing ceremony?
I don't think I've encountered something similar happening when we haven't been able to come together.

private to stephen+peter

[sorser]

That's right, the explosion there, too. Everyone started pointing fingers at each other. We just barely missed lighting the powder keg on that day.

So here's the question: if someone's trying to fling everyone into war, then for what purpose? To distract us from something else?

private to stephen+peter

[carmesi]

[here's a scary thought (but she is somewhat biased, considering what she's lived through).]

What never fails to result from war?

Lost lives.

private to stephen+peter

[sorser]

[...that is a scary thought. But it isn't out of the realm of possibility. Not for Stephen, who knows what some darker magic requires to work -- if that's where her thoughts have wandered, too.]

So, what then? A mass sacrifice to fuel... fill in the blank. A ritual?

private to stephen+peter

[carmesi]

What else?

Except there isn't a lot to go on right now.

private to stephen+peter

[sorser]

No. Not yet.

But guess who spent weeks setting up a system to help Thorne better monitor magical fluctuations from the Singularity?

[This guy, and Yennefer and Thancred. Stephen will never forget how sore he was after so long on horseback.]

If there's a spell, ritual, or anything in the works that needs this many lost lives to fuel it, then there's no way it wouldn't ping on the radar even a little bit.

private to stephen+peter

[carmesi]

Unless your system doesn't catch on to these fluctuations.
But it could be many other things. Revenge? Getting back at the factions?

[piqure]

[ first of all, look at you two working together!! he's honestly so proud and relieved. ]

So if there's other reasons, like revenge — then we should also need to be looking into the history of this place, right?

We know there's the three main factions. Now we know there's Nocwich.

Hey Wanda, the whole Old God shrine thing — they're not asking for any sacrifices there are they?

[no, he doesn't know about the whole ass arm situation. ]

privated eternally to stephen and peter cuz uh,

[carmesi]

We should probably try and look into the history of all factions, but especially Thorne and The Free Cities. They seem the target for this war.

I've never actually seen a map of this place, actually.

[anywaY]

The shrines do react to human blood.

private to stephen+peter

[sorser]

Maybe it can't. But it wouldn't hurt to check.
Revenge for what?
Not that I expect you to answer that. I know we're all working with nothing, here.

Either way, my gut feeling is that this all revolves around the Singularity in some way. It has to. This world hinges too much on it for the monolith not to be a deciding factor.

private to stephen+peter can i ever write short neat tags

[piqure]

[ wait you can make these things private?? ]

Okay, okay hold on

A mass sacrifice?? For who? Those Old Gods?

No, wait, do you think it could be like a version of what Thanos was doing?

[ he's absolutely not panicking about that thought alone, but its immediately where his mind goes. ]

And I'm still kind of stuck on the fact that — we're all technically not supposed to be here, right? With the Singularity? You have this really powerful thing pulling people in from a whole bunch of universes, right??

Obviously, we're involved in the big plan with whatever and whoever is trying to instigate something. War, sacrifice, both — we're playing a part, whether in preventing or helping them, without really knowing how we're doing it. We're the key here, but none of us have all the facts and i don't know about you guys but i always feel like i'm sprinting trying to catch up.

Or maybe this is completely wrong. I just — doesn't it feel like we're staring at something obvious and completely missing it? Just me??

private to stephen+peter

[carmesi]

I've only ever heard Solvunn being invested in the Old Gods. Unless there's another group praying to them. Otherwise, Winifred and Rowan being truthful leads me to believe this isn't something they're scheming toward at a large scale.

[sure, they do their own sacrificial shit, but— that's contained to solvunn.]

Not just you.

We might have just thought it was as simple as just two major issues without being familiar with the thousands of years of history. It's not that they aren't telling us things, it's that what would you even say that counts as a proper run down of facts?

private to stephen+wanda

[piqure]

okay, that's fair, that makes sense!

Well... okay yeah that's a fair point but
A slightly better orientation would have been cool, especially because
I'll be honest
Political subjects weren't like my best grades

I think I just want to know if my choices are going to hurt more than help. I know a lot of people probably feel that way.

Okay, so — I think once Mr Stark gets stuff ready and we figure out how to help Libertas, I'll go to the University and see what else I can find out. Maybe I can talk to the profs. I'll share my notes!

privated between 🪞 & 🕷 & 🪄

[carmesi]

It can't hurt to look around and see what is there.
Just... keep your thoughts and words to a minimum. Okay, Peter?

[she says that with love.]

private to stephen+peter hush they're great

[sorser]

[A version of what Thanos was doing. Already, a headache pulses behind his eyes.]

No. I'm starting to get a similar feeling.
You think this "obvious" thing is the war, right? All his conflict and loss of life, for some greater purpose we can't see?

Assume that's correct. Then every faction is getting played without knowing it. Which means that whoever is out there has a pulse on all three of them; that's a lot for just one single person to handle. They must have help. They must have assistance embedded within faction lines.

private to stephen+wanda

[piqure]

I think the 'obvious' thing might actually be a 'non-obvious' thing too, though. War, conflict, getting the factions to fight against each other — this feels obvious in a way that it's the result but yeah, like you said — its the greater purpose part we can't see. who is really benefitting from having the factions try and fight each other?

[ that's how it always goes, right? whenever anyone has a greater purpose, it's everyone else getting hurt. ]

So...okay, cool, so we're going to assume there's a spy situation in every faction.

Man, not to be like this, but i wish i had my phone and some nanotech. i bet we'd be able to learn some things if we could get those into some offices.

privated between 🪞 & 🕷 & 🪄

[carmesi]

If we are running on the assumption of spies, then...

This conversation doesn't leave us three. We don't know for a fact that our mental connection isn't also something that can be monitored, but if we don't throw this past the three of us here, then we can minimize the chances that our exact words spread.

private whoopsie

[piqure]

Right though??! I feel like this is such a classic fantasy-movie move that it's weird to actually see it happening

Ok, I'll try to focus on that, and will let you know if I find out anything else. Mr Stark wants to do recon on Libertas too.

You'll be careful too, right?

private

[sorser]

As careful as I can be. Keep me updated on Libertas when you can, too. Can't imagine they'll take any of this sitting down.