video; - backdated to the 30th

[ursoreckless]

[ when the feed turns on, it first shows a rather uninteresting tile wall and a couple of expensive hair care products. the screen jiggles a little, and then a slightly damp Shou is in view, wearing a pair of worn gym pants and his hair wrapped up in a towel. he sets the phone down at the proper height and sighed, leaning back against what was most likely the side of a tub. ]

It's taken me a little bit of thinking to get the whole mess in order, but guess everyone needs to know what was said during that Secretary meeting thing. I'd almost expect it to be talked about sooner... but guess we're just trying to understand it. I know there was a little weirdness going on; they had that really nice alien guy there and he's got a smile that can charm a cat outta it's skin.

[ he frowns and takes the towel off, rubbing his hair a little and then places the towel to the side. ] We've been asking all sorts of questions about why we are here and what caused Wise Snakes and stuff to rise up and all we got were more theories. The aliens had no idea what they were for, but said that they are the thousands of Souls, of some kind of essence of animals that collectively just wants to survive. They've got no idea what causes us, save that we're also composed of one Soul per Numbered and that when the giant colony of Souls - or whatever the fuck they are - started stirring, it caused our Souls to start getting whacked and wanna return to how it was before.

Anyways, they don't know much about them outside that there's about a dozen of them, and they are gonna wake up and they won't stop unless they get killed. They also said something about how Tiny had a lot of information that we and they are lacking and they woulda like to speak to him outside the fact that we've gone killed him.

L and Saretha were there as well. We can probably all answer any questions about it, though gotta say they seemed a little clueless too. At least, they were good at seeming; I'm still not sure if we can trust all of this but that's just me. Oh and there's a new alien with them. A woman by the name Young and she's pretty certain about trusting that dick in charge of the military presence here.

Comments

[originaloddcouple]

Well, her name is Young, right?

Maybe that means she's from a new generation!

Full of brand new ideas that could bring things toward the right direction!

[ursoreckless]

Her name's Young, but she wasn't that young. She looked a about the same age as Benwick.

[originaloddcouple]

Really?

Well, did she at least seem trustworthy?

[ursoreckless]

Not exactly. I had a feeling there was something they were skirting around.

[dead_black_eyes]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who didn't know what to make of it all immediately.

Thank you for making everyone aware, Sho; I'll absolutely help clarify matters if you need some assistance, but honestly... the meeting almost raised more questions than it answered, didn't it?

[purestambition]

It did, at that.

Tell me, either of you - I want to know something.

What do you think about the two aliens. Benwick and Young.

When you look at them, what comes to mind?

[ursoreckless]

...I've been honest about my other having been a mob boss, right? He went from street rat to head of his own little clan, and while they weren't a major power being foreign and stuff, he still ran a whole District. He was considered trustworthy.

Anyways, there was this guy he had to deal with, head of the Triad and pretty much THE power of the whole stinking city. He had to defer to that guy on things even though it would hurt his District because of that power. Benwick sorta reminds me of that head of the Triad. He was also pretty charismatic, and was able to smooch with the powers over seas, and had a power beyond what my other could call upon. I sorta feel that around him.

Young... eh, I was thinking she's more of a mouth piece than anything.

[purestambition]

We're pretty much in agreement, replacing the Triad with corporate CEOs.

[A beat.] Not that I think there's a terrible lot of difference.

Either way, it strikes me that Benwick didn't add a whole lot to the proceedings, did he? Except a...

[She frowns to herself.] ...comforting presence.

[dead_black_eyes]

[He seems initially somewhat reluctant to answer. When he does, he provides one that is much shorter than Sho's, but very difficult for him to admit. He prides himself on not being vulnerable to these sorts of things.]

I take Young essentially at face-value, but Benwick... seemed to know and understand me when I looked at him. Like a friend would. The harder I tried to overthink it the more it seemed like he could protect me from everything I've ever tried to run from. Remembering aches... as weak as it makes me sound, I would not mind feeling that way again.

[purestambition]

[Saretha pursues her lips.]

I first met Benwick in person back in June, after we had the incident with the runaway hot rod. At that point, I was trusting of almost no one here. I still saw everything laid out before me as a potential "resource..."

I met him with a determination that I wouldn't have the wool pulled over my eyes, and when I did... I trusted him completely and utterly.

[An eyebrow twitches a bit there.

It took her awhile to trust anyone. It happened, from Amy to Rakka to Robyn to Lazarus, but...

Was Benwick the one she trusted first? Does that even make any sense?]

Seeing him there, after knowing he acted behind the backs of the Austrian and German authorities, trespassing upon the orbital tower... But not really offering anything to that discussion...

There's something, isn't there? That we're not putting a finger on?

[He brain is screaming for her to say it, but something is keeping that locked away and it's driving her sort of crazy.]

[ursoreckless]

It did. I got the feeling that they brought that one guy with them just so we would be more relaxed than we should.

[dead_black_eyes]

You picked up on that too, then. I found myself focusing as little as possible on him and directing my attention toward Young; ironically, it actually makes me very uneasy to feel that someone is my friend too quickly.

[ursoreckless]

His first appearance triggered a kind of bad memory from my other. It's not something I can just brush off either.

Voice

[icy_heavens]

[There's a lot in there to absorb, and it's going to take him a bit to get everything aligned in his head. But as much as there is to absorb, there's pretty much just as much to speculate about. That's not encouraging.]

So they don't know what wakes them up, then.

Voice

[ursoreckless]

That's what they said. I dunno if we should trust them on that point.

Did we save anything from Tiny's base or did that stuff get shipped to the feds?

Voice

[icy_heavens]

I don't know what might've happened to that stuff. I hauled ass from the base to Wise Snake after it woke up, and then I spent the next couple days in the hospital. [Fun times. Except not.]

audio

[jasminebloominginshadow]

So those monsters are... like us, only they're bunched up all together? Are we hurting the souls of people with past lives when we fight them?!

audio

[ursoreckless]

Dunno. They kept on saying that they were animal souls, that they have no reasoning save as an animal and so on... but it doesn't sound good that way either.

Re: audio

[jasminebloominginshadow]

Wait... what do you mean by "save"...?

What are we being saved from? I don't get it...

/crashes in late

[evowhisperer]

Thank you for the update. I have a few questions:

-Did they say what was causing the giant colony of Souls to stir?
-You probably talked about whether or not it would be possible to prevent any more Wise-Snake-like beings from awakening. Did they say anything about this?
-When did Young arrive?

What were your impressions of the meeting overall? It sounds as though nearly everyone was out of their depth from the start, including the aliens.

pfft there is no late only zull

[ursoreckless]

nope
nope
no clue they didn't say

i think they're hiding something and trying to make us not realize it
also think that there's something fishy with the way they kept the SoD in the background
and something's just off about the military sherman ass

zuuuuul

[evowhisperer]

That's more predictable than it should be, at this point.

'Fishy'? 'Off'? How do you mean?

[Voice]

[gobybessie]

A giant colony of Souls, huh ...? I'd like to call it insane, but considering everything that's probably jumping the gun. Who knows.

[Voice]

[ursoreckless]

I wouldn't call insane... more like headache inducing blabbering.

[Voice]

[gobybessie]

That works too.

I wonder. Would that mean there's some kind of afterlife? Or between-life, I suppose.