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[Lily appears on the Network for the first time in... weeks, really. Beyond a couple of text posts here and there, she's still been largely... shut down. As it stands, she looks more than a little worn out. Lack of sleep isn't as severe as it was a couple weeks ago, but things have still clearly taken a certain toll on her.

All the same, she smiles weakly at the camera. She's in her and Winter's room at the hotel provided to them in Germany.]

Hello, everyone. I've been... quiet for a little while, and I'm sorry about that. I can't say I've been in nearly as bad a spot as other people, but... [She bites her lip.] I guess I need to still work on dealing with certain kinds of things better, myself.

[She shakes her head.] But that's not what I'm here about.

Some weeks ago, Numbered were permitted by the German and Austrian authorities to investigate the large tower that appeared. Winter, myself, and several others made our way through it and eventually... well, found out we can go higher in it, and to space. You might already know about that, but...

We weren't the only ones there. Winter and I encountered two of the aliens - Geoff Benwick and Badri Barkley. But what we saw was them arguing, heatedly. In a language neither of us have ever heard or could understand.

Winter was recording it via Network access at the time, although there's no sound. Barkley in particular was acting strangely, once they noticed our presence - making a supposed "joke" about blowing the place up with us in it, which was what prompted us to transform. Instinct, I guess. And he brazenly admitted they got in their uninvited, having "lots of was of getting into places without permission."

Benwick was much more even tempered, but it was... very, very strange. Informing the authorities out here, they're tightening security, and have told us to keep an eye out for them. If they do anything else particularly strange, we should notify authorities, probably on both continents.

They also want information on them, whatever we might have. I can't... say this is a bad idea, especially knowing how dangerous Barkley could potentially be, for a group of people who said they came with no real weapons.

[Though perhaps not technically untrue - Badri is not inherently a weapon. Right?]

Also sort of bothersome... they had a bunch of Happy Meals. A lot. This isn't so strange, but... there were bags from all over Europe. I noticed that when were there, and going back over Winter's footage and doing some searching, it looks like there were ones in German, French, Italian, Swedish, Spanish, Greek, Finnish, Polish, and Hungarian.

They've been going all over the place, and if this is the first we're realizing this... That bothers me more than a little bit.

Still... this is just what we ran into. Be careful, and if you see anything else amiss... Tell someone.

[OOC - Apologies this is so late after the actual event, although they did not actually come across the aliens until late into that post as it was, plus some necessary fact checking with the mods! Luckily, a little mental trauma kept some folks grounded for a bit, so that... works for the most part. :D; ]

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Lately, it's had me asking something that seems like it'd be a stupidly simple sort of question, but.

Who do I trust, and why?

[None of this is sitting well. He's on edge as it is, what with not having left Locke despite the threats and the retaliations, and this doesn't help. He knows who he trusts. He knows why he trusts most of them, when he thinks about it.

[Key word: most. He's trusted the aliens for no apparent reason, right from the start. An edge of unease creeps into his voice.] And it's just . . . all of us. Since when did all of us ever agree on anything?

Right, and we can't even do that now! With the mafia, with how to deal with... anything.

That's not a commentary on us or anything, that's just... human nature. But... when they- or even just, when Benwick speaks, I believe it.

Which is suspicious on its own, because why would we all believe it right away? Some people are that trusting, but others aren't. [He's not. After all they'd gone through with Tiny, there's no logical reason he'd automatically believe anyone associated with it. Being suspicious would have made perfect sense. But he's never given it serious thought until now.]

How many people have still had trouble trusting the FBI, or any sort of authorities otherwise?

[She makes a disgruntled sound, grimacing on her end.] And yet even as I'm saying that...

[His word still sounds good in her head? That's stupid, right?]

Hell knows I didn't trust the feds right after we'd had so much trouble with the cops, and I'm still not completely there. [Part of him is still waiting for the other shoe to drop, even if things with the FBI seem to be going fine.] But right after we had alien problems, I still had no problem with what these guys said.

[A short, uncomfortable pause, here. He hates to say it, but:] ... We've been up against mental influences before.

...we have, at that. All of this, it's connected somehow. We get pulses from seeing the aliens, from ... [shudder] Vermini, from Proud's snakes, the transporter...

Something clearly has all of that tied together, so... it's not much of a stretch to think this could be similar to what's happened before...

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