voice; un: eliasainsworth

[thornydisposition]

I believe I have some information that might be of use, or at least to consider.

[The voice is low and very even, having only the barest hint of a conversational cadence.]

My companion, Shuyi, and I managed to locate and capture Miz Poppy. We captured her and two of her Deemer companions, and as we began to take them back to Perdition's Rest, she had some very interesting things to say.

She reaffirmed that there was no way to safely separate a Taraxa from its host without the destruction of the latter. What is more troubling, however, was that she insisted that hers and her compatriots' mission of destruction was something which the TIMELINE.EXE asked of them.

Before we could deliver her back here, one of the other captured Deemers sacrificed himself so that she may escape in the confusion.

It is not my intention to offer this information in order to incite mass confusion or doubt, as it is quite possible she was lying. But I do not think we can completely discount that she might be telling the truth—or that she and her fellows are somehow deluded enough to believe that they are. It is, as I originally said, something to at the very least keep in mind.

Comments

AUDIO. UN: LOKI

[selfimage]

[ REMEMBER LOKI.

luckily this is more serious. ]

The program only calculates, at least, from its standpoint. I suppose it would depend on who interprets that calculation. But, really, this is just all hypothetical for the time being. We don't know enough about our own Timeline.exe and its origins to say.

still video... not that he realizes

[competing]

[ don't worry, loki, his memory ain't failing him this time. but luckily for them both, there's a lot more important stuff to discuss here than the weirdness of their last encounter. suffice to say, lance is glad the other man has chosen the audio route...

sadly, he assumes his device switches automatically in response. which explains his somewhat petulant pouting. ]

"Our own"? You mean there's more than one of these things??

[selfimage]

[ look at that face. really, you think that he did something awful. ]

Where do you think our missions come from? ALASTAIR has those dedicated to it, but even they don't know the origin. The program calculates outcomes, pinpoints sore spots, and gives us objectives.

[competing]

[ ya straight up deceived him, son! with your face!

and also gave him conflicting feelings okay he is too simple for this. ]

Hold up — you mean to tell me this entire organization is built around something they know nothing about?

[ he glances around wildly, palms out and empty as if waiting for someone else, everyone else, to hear what he's hearing. ]

Is no one else kinda worried about that?!

[selfimage]

[ sorry about shattering your gender expectations, but he's totally not. ]

What they know varies, more depending on the employee, but no one seems to quite have all the details. The who and how of it, anyway.

It's the calculations that they trust to ensure the survival of the multiverse.

[competing]

[ there are worse things to shatter, ig... ]

That's still betting a lot of money on a horse whose papers you haven't even seen... [ now he's scrubbing at his face, trying to digest this all.

maybe it'll be easier if he just focuses on the more pressing thing— ]

Is there really no way to save those people? I mean... there's magic and science and all this stuff floating around here. There's gotta be something, right?

[selfimage]

[ tbf, it was gentle....ish. ]

There was no way to save the goddesses of Nalawi. [ luckily Lance can't see him, as he noticeably flinches. that's still something that sits in the back of his mind: perhaps one day, he'll be next. ] Not for lack of trying.

Perhaps there is, but if we ignore the elephant in the room, our mission assigned to us, there could be worse consequences for it.

Much like playing a game of dominoes.

[competing]

[ lance never had the patience for dominoes. ]

What use is a planet if there's no one around to live in it?

[ that's not right. that's not what saving is supposed to be like.

isn't it? ]

...what happened to the goddesses?

[selfimage]

Audentes killed them. [ it comes out more easily than it should, despite Loki's personal opinion on it. ] They were making demands of energy that would slowly turn the world to ruin.

Or it was predicted, by Timeline.exe.

[competing]

[ even if lance had been aware his image was still being captured, there's no way he would have been able to keep such an expression at bay. the shock of it, the... the cruelty of it.. ]

What? [ his voice now a whisper, almost exasperated. ] Just like that?

[selfimage]

[ Loki gives him a moment and then answers. ]

For the lack of details, yes. Some were fueled by judgement, others by pragmatism. [ he huffs up a sigh and then lets out a breath. ] The outcome was the same, no matter how it was justified.

There were those that felt alternative methods could be put into motion, but none that were realized.

There was Anwick as well, where the mission ended in the subtle destruction of the world.

[competing]

Subtle?

[ he almost wants to laugh about it. ]

What'd you do, leave a virus?

[ perhaps he shouldn't be so crass. but more and more he cannot believe what he's hearing. and while it might have been easy enough to shrug them off as nothing more than lies or non-truths... as rocky as their previous interactions had been, he can't find reason why loki would lie about something like this. ]

[selfimage]

[ it certainly doesn't benefit him in any way, and besides, the information was available for confirmation once they returned to Oska. ]

We were assigned to protect some newly hatched dragons. They were the ones that destroyed the world, we just kept them safe.

ALASTAIR's intentions weren't made clear until after we delivered the desired result, of course.

[competing]

...I don't get it.

[ and to his credit, he really, really wants to. ]

How's destroying that planet supposed to help anybody?

[selfimage]

[ and this is what he likes about him. the answer is uncomplicated, where the situation is completely convoluted. ]

It was meant to meet its "natural end," so to speak.

Our missions are to ensure the survival of the multiverse. From what I understand, sometimes that includes saving, sometimes it doesn't. What and who is saved ... well ...

If we fail this mission, far more than the Deemers' lives will be at stake. Whatever that was calculated, I assume.

[competing]

...I don't get it.

[ maybe he should, maybe it's something really, really simple, and for some reason he just can't see it. ]

If these ALASTAIR guys can do all of this — shouldn't it be... I don't know... easier? Simpler?

[selfimage]

Not much is simple, especially not in terms of saving the basis of absolutely everything.

[competing]

[ "nothing" is simple... such a simple answer in and of itself. if lance weren't neckdeep in it, he'd probably find it kinda funny. ]

Didn't you say you did this kinda thing before? Saving multiverses and stuff? How'd you guys do it?

[selfimage]

[ well

that was the question, wasn't it? technically Loki had saved it from himself, with the help of the Young Avengers who didn't let him get away with his shit. it was a different situation.

I confessed doesn't make for a good answer, here. ]

That was a tad different, we had a multiversal parasite to contend with, not the gradual decline into entropy.

[competing]

[ it never really occurs to lance that the very people meant to save the multiverse can also be the people they're meant to save the multiverse from.

what kind of sick irony is that? ]

It's still saving, though. It's still the multivers. Maybe we can use your experiences as a point of reference. It's a lot better than what the rest of us seem to have.

[selfimage]

[ by the effing Norns, he wasn't going to get off of this, was he?

he almost pinches his nose even though he can see Lance, and Lance can't see him. ]

I did it with a whole lot of manipulating and trickery, while reality can be malleable when it comes to story and expectation ...

There are details we're missing, specifically those of intent.

[competing]

[ blargh loki's doing that thing where he's talking in circles around lance again, who prefers his serious stuff to be a little more straightforward, and so loki can probably see the boy scrunch up his own face in distaste. ]

Fine, so let's go get those answers. [ it can't be that hard, right? ] Who do we have to ask? I'll turn on the ol' Lance Charm (tm).

[selfimage]

[ every time they get serious, somehow his time with the Young Avengers gets thrown into it. he doesn't like diving into details. ]

ALASTAIR, I'd assume, but they've been conveniently hush-hush. Lloyd already knew of Zymandis' existence, and the organization lacks higher authority. I'd assume more seasoned members are the one with more experience, and thus more intel.

We're rookies, you see.

[competing]

Good. Underdogs always have the best luck in these stories.

[ it's a positivity that he has to, admittedly, dig a lot deeper for. where general optimism and confidence tends to roll off him in waves, this time around, considering the half-deck he's been given, he has to try a little harder...

but that's okay. he's used to that. ]

[selfimage]

[ be so glad that you can't see Loki's face rn ]

If you intend to write a tale out of this, I'd lose the trademark.