video. UN: JAKKU

[forcevisions]

[ Everyone's camping. That's fun, isn't it? Well, before people get ahead of themselves, there's some more news that's waiting. Following Keith and Rey's conversation—and Keith being set right about their shared misconceptions thanks to some clarifications from ALASTAIR—they've finally regrouped enough for … this. If you've ever wondered how good Keith is at sharing information, it's probably along the lines of "not good."

So, this should be good, basically. (At least he has Rey to back him up.)

The two of them are sitting side by side on the outskirts of camp so that they can make their announcement undisturbed. Keith's sporting a warmer jacket and Rey was all but swallowed in the hood of her ALASTAIR uniform, which fit ill now in the light of the doubts that the holodisc shed on them.

After a beat of them … sitting there, Keith awkwardly clears his throat in what sounds like an ineffectual manner: ]

Uh, hey. We have something to tell you all today. [ A beat. Another beat. He glances toward Rey, as if he suddenly feels like she's the one who should talk.

While Rey clearly doesn’t appreciate the hand-off, her shoulders rustling as she composes herself, she can’t deny the responsibility. She directs her gaze towards him for a moment, wrestling with something, before she relents. ]

I made a mistake. [ It seems the simplest place to start when most of them had seen precisely what happened with the Reverend. ] We need to make sure that none of you repeat it. When I killed … [ She can’t muster that admission, not properly, not in this context. So she starts again. ] When the Reverend died, something came out of him. Some kind of parasite.

[ Right, he knows Rey's body language enough to realize where he should probably help. If if were anyone else, that might not be the case, but somehow, they've become friends. It's an odd thing for him, and when she finishes speaking, he preps himself. All right, he can do this. He can do this. ]

The parasite is called the Taraxa. I didn't get a chance to look at a holodisc I found until after the fighting war over, and um, I'm sorry for not coming forward sooner. We wanted to check back with ALASTAIR first. [ He pauses here, but briefly. ]

Anyway, the Taraxa are supposed to be a peaceful group now. They've worked with ALASTAIR via some temporary hosts as spies, but obviously, none of us would call the Deemers peaceful. Rey and I don't know what happened, or if these are some … special branch that decided to go rogue. I don't know. But I think we've got a bigger mess to deal with here than just the mines and mining. [ He offers Rey a brief glance. Keith can't even begin to guess what the Deemers are really doing. He can't. But between the fires and disappearances, he figures they can't just ignore this. ]

They’re also supposed to have hosts that they build instead of steal, but that’s obviously not the case. It’s possible but dangerous to communicate with them because they follow a hivemind they consider their Mother, which is red instead of ... [ Grimly, she raises the dessicated carcass of the beige slug she’d evinced from the Reverend’s corpse. It seemed an odd thing, now, to hold onto it like some kind of trophy, but she hadn’t been ready to let it go, as if holding onto the horror of what she had done. ] Though there’s no clear way to tell when you’re dealing with a Mother while she’s in a host, as far as I can tell.

Until we know more, travel in pairs, and try to avoid lethal force; the Deemers aren’t acting of their own free will.

Or … their hosts aren't, anyway. I guess it's really the same thing, huh? Most importantly, if you have a way of scanning people's brains, let us know. It wasn't clear in the file how to stop them exactly, but heat and salt seem like our best bets. Uh, death and decapitation work, too, but I think we're gonna try to avoid that from now on.

[ Sulky silence quieted Rey, on that note, and she ended the transmission abruptly. ]

[ ooc; if it isn't clear, Rey and Keith. ]

Comments

[secondnature]

Because they need more recruits? Why else do you think?

[It makes sense to him. There was just a fire! They're camping outside! Come on, Lance!]

[competing]

If that's the case, then they're the ones doing the infiltrating, which means they'd only send a handful of people at best. And that means our best bet of getting anywhere with your scanning plan is to do them all before anyone catches on, which means you need a way to do that that's both unsuspicious and covers a lot of ground in one go.

Plus, we shouldn't restrict it to just women, because what kind of hivemind sends their own queen out to do the dirty work?

[ you come on! ]

[secondnature]

We need to restrict it to women because the Mother likely took a female host! [He's irritated at this point. It's not Lance's fault he didn't get the Lloyd pep talk, but it's still like he doesn't trust Keith to know anything. He knows stuff.]

We have to single out the Mother first. That's our first goal. Everything else can follow, okay? Can you just trust that I know what I'm talking about for once?

[competing]

[ lance makes a brief, befuddled sound. ]

What's that got to do with anything?

[ for once, for once, lance isn't even trying to be insulting here. pointing out the flaws in a plan that's gonna affect them all is just good sense, as far as lance is concerned. he doesn't even think he's being particularly malicious here or anything. ]

I'm just saying it doesn't make sense for the leader to be out and about, since their very livelihood seems to depend on her, you know? So there's no point in looking for the Mother around here.

[secondnature]

Shiro's a leader and he spends a whole lot of time out and about.

[Okay, now Keith is being the contrary one.]

[competing]

[ omg keith u wanna go ]

Yeah, well, Shiro's an exception to practically every rule. [ duh. ]

[secondnature]

Well, yeah ... [Okay, he can't disagree with that. Shiro is The Best. Keith's the leader of his fanclub.]

But she is the special center of a weird slug alien race.

[competing]

[ wow shiro was his hero first..!!!1 ]

If she dies, don't the others die as well? Why would she risk her family like that?

[ "family." perhaps a sign of lance's own naivete, but when you call someone mother what do you expect out of him... ]

[secondnature]

Uh, no, not exactly. [How does he explain this?] Look, let me get my talk with Lloyd. I think that'll help.

[competing]

Alright, sure.

[ just when he thought things were starting to make sense... ]