video; un: fiona

[cachemoney]

[Fiona is a little out of breath, like she just hustled very quickly away from somewhere. Which she did, but that's neither here nor there. The background behind her is some innocuous wood panelling; she's in a house.]

Okay. So. Crunch time. Things are getting nuts out there, if you didn't notice. We are gonna wind up super screwed if we don't hop to figuring out what the hell to do.

[She holds up a vial. It has some alien writing on it, as well as a familiar symbol on the label.]

We found this inside the hospital. A shit-ton of them, actually. So who wants to find out what Zymandis asshole is responsible for this mess and beat an antidote out of them?



[ ooc. PS, maya, hanzo, and mccree might show up in your threads. feel free to threadjack as well! ]

Comments

[ex_adept136]

[Never fear, Team Mom is here]

Zymandis was behind the conflict in our last mission, too. Apparently they have a very different approach to the timeline than ALASTAIR does.

[feytality]

[she had a long day, pls feed her]

Like what? What's their deal?

[ex_adept136]

[He's always up for cooking, it can be done]

The short version is that they're extremists. The longer version is that while we try to make corrections and adjustments, Zymandis would sooner destroy perceived problems, regardless of how many lives are sacrificed in he process. We saw their efforts in Perdition's Rest, prior to this.

[feytality]

....That's awful. How can they fix timelines if they're dooming people to die..? Isn't the whole point of this to save people?

[holy shit is Maya being serious]

[ex_adept136]

You'd think so, but it seems they believe those sacrifices to be necessary. Whether it's a matter of them deeming it more efficient or something else, I couldn't say...but I agree it's awful.

[And quite frankly wrong, but he hates any option that takes lives that might be spared]

[feytality]

No.... that's now how it's supposed to work at all. Can't we knock some sense into those guys...? That's just wrong!

[this shounen agrees]

[ex_adept136]

I suspect we're a smaller outfit than they are, but at some point we'll surely have to confront them directly. If we end up grappling with them at every turn, we can't do as much good as we might otherwise.

[He doesn't know whether they can be reasoned with, but stopping them ought to be on the To Do list]

Besides which, while they keep us busy in one place, they might do damage elsewhere.

[feytality]

Have you guys run into them before...? Like, in person?

[Is there really a rival time travel group killing people to fix timelines...]

So you think this was a distraction for us...?

[ex_adept136]

Yes, during our last mission, we had our first run-in with them.

[There sure is. It gets even worse knowing that it's their group who's the splinter organization and not the other way around]

And I'm starting to suspect as much. It seems Urahara was thinking the same thing, perhaps for a while now, and I trust his judgment.

[feytality]

What were they like?

[don't mind her, all of these plot deets are horrifying her more and more]

They were willing to do all of these to these people just to get us here..?

[ex_adept136]

It's a possibility. We don't know their motives for using such a slow-acting method compared to last time.

[And it's that variance that concerns him most]

The operatives we met last time were Taraxa. They're a species of worm-like creatures who inhabit a host body and overtake their functions. While we were able to save some of the people they were controlling, those that recovered lost their memory.

[feytality]

Still, that's awful.... these people don't deserve to suffer like this, just for them to settle a score...

[Zymandis is bad dudes]

Are they okay?

[ex_adept136]

If that's what this is, I agree with you. Regardless of their motives though, I've always found them to be entirely too ruthless.

[Too much killing]

I've heard no further word on those who were saved, unfortunately. I think we only ever got updates on the squidges.

[feytality]

No kidding. Fixing timelines is supposed to be about saving people.

[...Ah.]

Where are they now? And... what's a squidge?

[ex_adept136]

I'd imagine they're with the rest of their people... The Qorral left the last world we'd been dispatched to, since they weren't ever going to stay there indefinitely.

And squidges are creatures that look almost like they're toddlers made of bubbles in their infancy. They adapt according to their experiences, from what I've seen, and when they reach maturity they grow rather large and change considerably from their initial state.

[There's no masking the fondness. He loves squidges]

Before Perdition's Rest, we had a mission in Zeta-12 to look after them and help them reach that mature state.

[feytality]

...Oh. That sounds.... different.

[But cute?? Come to think of it, Maya remembers seeing some odd creatures in Oska]

So... there's no way of us checking on them...?

[ex_adept136]

We could try asking the squad back in Oska if they have any updates on the Qorral. It's possible they've kept tabs.

[And he'd like to think they would, but it's hard to assume in an organization like ALASTAIR]

As for the squidges, some time afterward we got an update on how the individual ones we'd raised were doing. And there are even some young ones at the park in Oska.

[feytality]

R... Right! Let's do that.

Come to think of it... I did see some little guys there. Those are squidges? Are they gonna be okay without us there to check on them?

[ex_adept136]

If they were in the park, that ought to be them. We're not the only squad who spends their downtime in Oska, I think they all do and we just generally don't have overlap, so it should be okay.

[feytality]

Oh.... so everyone goes there? I didn't know that.

[ex_adept136]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's the base for all of ALASTAIR. Of course, we're often pretty under-informed, so I could be wrong.

[feytality]

Can we contact the other teams?

[ex_adept136]

We can get in touch with Kittypaw, our "big sister" team. I'm not sure about others though.

[feytality]

Kittypaw? That's the name of the team? [sorry about the million questions, Haise]

...You know, no one told me any of this stuff before then. Shouldn't have this been included in the welcome packet?

[ex_adept136]

Yes, that's right. If it's anything like our team, they probably chose it by popular vote.

[It seems that team is considerably smaller though...]

Maybe we ought to come up with a primer for new recruits, when we're in Oska next. It does seem like there's information people could make good use of that doesn't get covered when we're recruited.