text;; The way forward

[personalityquarks]

[A few hours after everyone returns, just as the storm is really setting in outside, a message is posted to the network.]

Sorry for our absence, everyone. There was something of a crisis while you were gone, and we've been discussing how to deal with it.

Ultimately, since you're the ones we're going to be relying on, we're putting the decision in your hands. Here's the situation -

We have three more siblings - Muon, Tau, and Neutrino - who live at another research station called Lodestone. Rather than studying how to close and stabilize Fissures, they were studying why they happen in the first place. Lodestone is in the middle of the city-Fissure to the west, across the lake from the forest. Roughly a day ago, we got a fairly garbled distress call from Lodestone, and here's what we've managed to get out of it.

About a week ago, Neutrino left the Station to explore another relatively nearby Fissure, in the mountains just past the city - and almost immediately dropped out of contact. At about the same time, a Fissure appeared directly over Lodestone - a sub-Fissure, if you would, within the total area of the city Fissure. This is the first time anything like that has happened, and it's been messing with their communications - at least, that's why we think the message is so muddy.

So both the missing Neutrino - who we've tried contacting ourselves with no results - and Mu and Tau are in need of rescue. The question we're putting to you guys is which first.

On the one hand, Mu and Tau are relatively safely holed up in their Station. On the other, that Fissure's effects are relatively known and it's pretty well explored - we even have a map of the city prior to the Fissure that we can give you. There's also a lot of things there that can probably help us, because part of the Fissure's effects are that time loops for the environment inside it every morning at dawn, restoring the city to the state it was in at the previous dawn for the last hundred years or so. (This is a good thing because at night it's. kind of on fire.)

Meanwhile, we know next to nothing about the Fissure Neutrino left to explore except where it is, and we can't get in contact with Lodestone again for any more information right now. (Not that we've stopped trying.) It's a complete unknown and could be incredibly dangerous - another mess like the forest or worse. If Trino's smart - and they usually have a pretty good head on their shoulders - they can probably hole up somewhere and go into a sort of standby mode to not drain their power systems too quickly. Going to Lodestone first would give us more information to work with and prepare for an expedition there.

So we're leaving it up to you guys, because getting stabilizers and equipment together for the journey will take the same amount of time either way. This isn't a "panic and go now" kind of situation, but...

Well. They're our siblings.

If you have any other questions, you can go ahead and ask them here, and talk among yourselves. Apologies again for our absence, especially from Strange who passes along hopes that there weren't too many injuries for Jetshard and Angela to deal with. We'll be back around tomorrow for anyone who wishes to introduce themselves in person. I'm sure our new arrivals have plenty of concerns, and we'll be happy to answer any questions you might have.

Comments

[letsplayer]

have you heard from the brosises at all since everything went to shit

[personalityquarks]

Since the distress call? No.

Otherwise, we were generally sharing findings every few months, on a regular schedule. Nothing that we had need to be worried about, or so we thought.

[letsplayer]

[ She'd say you should maybe call them more often, but whatever. ]

...sounds ominous

i'd say we should maybe go after neutrino first but i'm hearing different opinions

text; un: purrsonafied

[beguiledcard]

I say we go after Mu and Tau first. Maybe they'd be able to give more solid info that could help in forming the rescue party for Neutrino.

[ He should be in bed, but................... ]

voice; un: morganathegreat

[meowna]

If you think Neutrino will be able to hold out for that long, then going after the others is probably the safer choice. We could use a base of operations closer to the trouble, and maybe even fix the communications issue to be able to get in touch with him before we have to go through a whole Fissure with a fine-toothed comb.

ariadne

[daughterofthemark]

Could we divide our number and go after both at once?

[personalityquarks]

That's what I said, but Up wouldn't listen to me. (╬ Ò ‸ Ó)

[daughterofthemark]

Surely there are enough of us that we could handle both tasks...

text: clearwater2000

[nojohnyouare]

The most dangerous one is my first thought. But if it's that dangerous, we might lose even more... A lot of us are injured.

I defer to the others. I don't know. But it seems like Lodestone first would help prepare for the next one. I don't want to lose everyone.

text: ravusnoxfleuret

[giltfoil]

The station would be the best choice. If it is a significant distance, then far better to have a staging ground for further expeditions. We do not want to be caught without a supply line.

text;; elevencrows

[founderinglight]

Ravus.

We have three Armigers and half a dozen others with various sorts of "inventory that lets me carry far more than I can carry."

While the concern for supply lines is appreciated, it's hardly an issue we need be concerned about.

Voice UN: BaiLin

[fistsofchange]

If your friend's in trouble, we should probably get them as soon as we can.

Voice; un: foxtales

[byanyother_name]

I would say the city first. On the chance that the unknown Fissure is anything on the level of the forest, it would be more convenient to be able to evacuate anyone that can't handle it to somewhere closer than here.

As well... While Mu and Tau may be safe in their research center for now, the fact that a Fissure opening within a Fissure has never happened before makes their situation inherently unpredictable. We have no guarantee that they'll remain safe.

text; luciferskylight

[burninglight]

neutrino sounds like he's in the greater danger based simply on the matter of unknown factors

however, establishing a base first is the more tactically sound option in case we require evacuation. so i would have to put my vote towards tau and muon first

text; un: jetshard

[dubiouslychthonic]

o)+ My vote wouLd be to secure Lodestone first.

o)+ I'm concerned for Neutrino, of course, but at this Point either mission's time frame is a matter of weeks or Perigees, not hours or days. The cruciaL crisis Point has ProbabLy aLready Passed - either they've found a PLace to hoLe uP or they haven't. Likewise, assuming the other two were abLe to hoLd out under the initiaL crisis, their situation is somewhat unLikeLy to get substantiaLLy worse over the course of a few weeks.

o)+ Finding a structure with a known Location is much, much simPLer than finding a singLe individuaL. If there's a good chance that cLearing the station wiLL be abLe to Provide resources or inteL that wiLL heLp us Locate Neutrino, I say we go for the station first.

text; sharpwings

[matchmakes]

I feel as though securing Lodestone may be the wisest course of action for the time being. While it's tempting to suggest dividing our forces to try to tackle both at once, that's also a division of resources--we don't know what would be waiting for us in the Fissure Neutrino went to.

More information wouldn't be a bad thing, and we could use the time to prepare.

[caduceusoncall]

Securing Lodestone would give us an idea of what we might be up against in our efforts to find your missing sibling. It may be wise to start there.

Either way, the group will need some time to recover after this last fissure. It will not do anyone any good to have injured personnel on the mission.

[honededge]

Why does everyone have to go to one fissure? Why not split our numbers, or send out some recon groups once we're at Lodestone?

[personalityquarks]

It's a matter of other resources, not just people.
Simply put, we've been sending out expeditions every time we have anywhere near enough stabilizers produced -
we don't have some huge excess of them. They take time and materials to make.

Additionally, there's the matter of transporting everyone still. While we've been building a solution to that,
it's not yet enough when balanced against the number of people we have, and it's easier to transport the whole group to one location.

As for recon, we have drones for that and there's no reason to put personnel at risk, but that too takes time. Decisions made now will decide where we're going to be doing recon in the immediate future.

voice; pvtlchurch

[motherfucking_ghost]

You guys are used to these fissure things, why can't you just go yourselves?

[Church, you were supposed to learn the lesson of 'save everyone in danger and stop focusing on your own people'.]

Best tactical option's to take the city first. It's more established and known, and can be used like a closer base of operations to go into the absolute unknown. No sense in flinging wildly into the dark when we can gather up supplies and tech in the city.

Mu...on and--Tau. [Those names sure are full of hesitation.] They can give us more information once we're there.

Anyway, so, who the fuck are you, what's happening, how do you stabilize these actual rips in the fabric of reality, what's the goal here, are you working on a way to send us home, how do you close the actual rips in the fabric of reality since that doesn't seem to be a thing that happens from the people I've asked, and what the actual fuck? I'm sure I'll have more questions later.

text; sorry church

[personalityquarks]

...Okay, so, the first thing you have to understand - we're noncombatants. None of us have ever fought anything before, I'm the only one who probably really could use my magic to fight, Fissures are full of monsters. You do the math.

(I mean, Strange and I are determined to come along anyway, buuuuuuuuuuuut we've been kind of fighting the others about it for the last day or so.)

The rest in order, I guess? I'm Charm, we're the androids who live here, our siblings are in trouble and we're asking for help, I could try to explain the stabilizers but it's a hell of a lot of magic jargon so let's summarize it by saying we have machines that neutralize the immediate effects by providing equal and opposite effects? The goal is making the whole thing stop happening, we're trying, we wish we knew, and I dunno, man, what's your deal? Chill.

[press_start]

hey hey.

Other than food and water, can you prepare things to help us defend ourselves? I want to help, but there's no armor or weapons around that I can use.

[personalityquarks]

Unfortunately, I'm afraid none of us are exactly sword-smiths. We're largely as limited in terms of we have at hand for such things as you are.

And we've never been much in the habit of collecting weapons. Books and other media and things directly relevant to our interests, yes, but none of us had any reason to develop skill at arms. Other than magic,
you'd do as well asking the other inhabitants.

Text UN: Pidonus

[have_hat_will_travel]

... I'm not sure my judgment should be the one that's trusted here, because most of my successes in life have come from blindly following orders.

But if Neutrino is at greater risk, going for them first would probably be the wise choice - especially since it sounds like the city might be exploitable even unstabilized, correct me if I'm wrong?

text un: Phi

[plentyfriendly]

If it's between two devils we don't know, and we'll have to deal with both of them, let's get the worst out of the way so we don't have to deal with it later.