(no subject)

[loyalrebel]

[There's something a bit rough and tired to Malik's mental voice, even as he speaks with crisp efficiency.]

The Defenders and Miners are wrong, and you do not have all you should. I do not know what everyone has been told but hopefully this information will not be too late to help.

The Automata do not seek to destroy the grid or infect the rest of the network. They are trying to stop the Cryptos from escaping and have been trying to do so since the beginning.

Nothing anyone has told you of them is likely true.

[He pauses before continuing again.]

What you need to know is this.

There is a covert team of automata who are trying to preserve the grid. They are under the directive of a... I am not sure that pair is the right word? The Users they are following the directive of are some sort of creature and two who were once one.

[He doesn't know anything of Trumps or tarot, being from the middle ages is difficult sometimes when having to deal in symbology.]

I will not argue over the fact that they are dangerous. The desperate acting against overwhelming numbers tend to be.

I can answer what I know of, and offer what conclusions I have come to.

One of which is that the Cryptos are far more of a danger than I think anyone realizes.

...I will also need a sword once I return to the grid if any have one to lend.

Comments

[Video]

[neverfeltthatway]

[Armin's surprised when he starts to hear Malik's message, but he'd already been composing his own, after learning what he could in a few private conversations, and finding out what's been going on in the rest of the factions. He begins a visual broadcast right after Malik ends his, so that it's all but a single message. Armin takes a deep breath before beginning, obviously a little nervous - but he grows more confident as he continues to talk, sounding almost as if he's giving a military report.]

I was one of the automata too, and I've found out a bit more. From what I've been able to piece together from my experience and what Hijikata was able to tell me, the automata - who have members in every faction - are working for the Lovers. The Grid is the site of a conflict between the Trumps long ago - a conflict the Lovers and their partner won, at the time. ROSE - another Trump, the Magician, and the reason why I'm back here now - brought us all here, somehow without the knowledge of the other Trumps, trying to reverse something that happened here last time. Something about what the Lovers and their partner did to a being called "Ix", or that's what she seemed to say. I think he may be another of the Trumps, and I think he may be somewhere on the grid - possibly in the J1 corner, given where ROSE has been searching.

What the automata faction wants is to destroy the ports and seal the Grid forever, trapping the cryptos here. They have no care for the network outside the Grid, like everyone else seems to think. I think... I think they are planning on trying to drop the tower on the ports, destroying both, and they're hoping to use the rebels to do so - although most of us seemed to genuinely be in favor of the rebel cause as well, and chose this plan because it would benefit both factions.

But I don't know if this will truly preserve the Grid or not - they want this because their user, the Lovers, wants this. Presumably ROSE is after something else and wants the automata to fail, and there are probably at least two other Trumps involved - whoever the Lovers' partner is, and this "Ix" I think ROSE is looking for.

...as far as I can tell, we're in a battle between the Trumps, and I'm not sure who's on the right side. I'm not sure there is a right side. Every faction is just trying to do what they think is right.

But I think we need to be very careful in deciding what we're going to do. Consciously deciding to work against the wishes of a particular Trump may have consequences - and with all the factions, it would be too easy to start working against each other - as it seems the Trumps might want, fighting between themselves and claiming us like they are.

Lets make sure that doesn't happen.

[purseownerisme]

ROSE is looking for where the 'true' Crypto area is...weither to release her friend or not, I can't say.

And if they're using the factions for this reason...we're all in danger.

[foreveralawn]

So the Trumps are f-fighting and we're stuck in the middle... Wonderful.

[amadine]

So we're looking at one side that wants to release the gods alone know what, and another side that wants to turn this entire godsforsaken shithole into an enormous prison.

That certainly sounds like two terrible options to me.

[volving]

Do... you know what the Cryptos... could do if they... won?

[ 'won' isn't quite the word she was going for, but it works well enough.

She needs more information. ]

[turbedon]

Should've known. Trumps picking out specific Travelers couldn't have just been on a whim. What if all of them are against each other in some way?

This Jaunt is a mess. [Mental SIGH.]

[Video]

[wantedittobeagame]

They're using the rebels to--?!

[Yeah, guess who really didn't want to hear this. Fuck his life sideways man.]

Naoto and the rest of us are just about ready to go after the bomb in that tower. There's no way she's going to back down from it -- trust me, I know her well enough as she normally is.

Naoki, you hearing this too?

[abweichend]

...Welcome back.

[After all that, it still ended up this way... But while Levi isn't completely ignorant to the set of circumstances that must have cause Armin to revert to his real self like this and part of him wants to address it further, the rational, harder side wins out as is typical- this isn't the time for personal shit.]

So these worlds are just the stages for their pissing contests. That's what this boils down to. Their fate only matters so far as it advances a given Trumps' agenda.

[That's... Well, it's fucking aggravating, is what it is. Levi'd been wondering if this whole 'they send us here to help' thing was crap- not that even this will stop him from continuing to try and see to it that his presence does more good than harm- and this more or less confirms that his cynicism had been more than warranted.

It's about as comforting as usual.]

OTA

[leftbehindagain]

[Naoki takes in both messages, and it's a while before he marshals a response.]

...Well, shit.

Lovers' partner, based on some information Naoto got and passed on to me, is almost certainly Devil. And I'm willing to bet they're in C8, but I'm not about to poke my head in there to find out.

Ix is probably this SAGE the Cryptos are looking for. I'd been wondering if SAGE was Magician, but if that's ROSE - of course that was ROSE, Priority 1, I feel stupid now - he can't be... wait. Ix. IX. Nine. SAGE is Ix is Hermit.

So that leaves us with some questions. What did Hermit do that was so bad the others felt the need to lock him up? Why's ROSE risking so much to get him back, especially since she has to have upset the others by doing this? [And then, quieter:] Kanji, what did you get yourself into?

We're still going to get rid of that damn bomb. I think we can all agree letting it go off isn't what we're here to do. Naoto's still undecided on dropping the tower. How much of this should I even try to tell her?

Re: OTA

[loyalrebel]

I do not think the bomb could be moved. If you are all trying to get in to the partition I can give you a map of the inside, and suggest you go on through the bridges between it and the games if possible.

...can you explain what those names mean, and why the numbers matter?

[neverfeltthatway]

ROSE... she seemed to have really strong feelings about what the others did to Ix. I don't know why they did what they did... but her response seemed a lot more human than I had expected. I think she really cares about him - about the Hermit. [He can't help the small voice in his head that immediately says 'we can use that'.]

There may well be automata among the group going to defuse the bomb - I probably can't say for sure, since my other self insisted we know as few of each other as possible, so we couldn't give each other away - but I can assure you the automata want to get rid of it as much as anybody else.

As for what to tell Naoto - I'm really not sure. I don't know if she'd listen to all you might have to say, given how much you couldn't tell her, about us and about how you got the information. And... without the context we have, programs acting on this information could be even more dangerous for all of us, if they don't fully understand the situation.

I think... we need to decide what we think before talking about influencing anyone else.

[prolificarse]

The Lovers, the Hermit, and the Magus I know...but what is the Devil?

[Things that exist in the Imperium: tarot, or a form of it.

Things that don't exist anywhere on Thedas: strictly Christian-derived symbolism.]

[prolificarse]

If I might ask, how did you come by this information, and what makes you believe that it describes the truth of the matter, and not just the story that's most convenient to one side of the conflict?

[loyalrebel]

I know because I was given the knowledge first hand.

It is a piece of the truth, Dorian. Nobody ever knows everything.

[inexecution]

I'm starting to think we ought to just let them fight this out on their own.

[Because its one thing to ask them to fix a problem, and quite another to force them to be the rope in a big game of tug-of-war. And he's not feeling charitable anymore.]

[loyalrebel]

If that were something everyone could agree on once the threat of the bomb is ended it would be the most reasonable.

We are intruders in this world, despite what we are tricked in to believing.

[betrayedblade]

[There is a lot of information to be had during all this time as things are being said quickly through the mind. It makes it a bit overwhelming at first. But Giovanni still has one question; for Malik or any other former Automata, or even anyone else that has an opinion.]

But what makes you think the Cryptos are more dangerous than the rest? They are all uneasy and want to take over the Grid in one fashion or another. If the Cryptos only want to leave... why does that make them dangerous? What do they intend once they have met their goal? Is it worse than what any others want here? I think that would be important to know rather than accusing them of being dangerous for the simple reason than you were told they were.

[Look, he likes the Cryptos. This is a hard blow to take. But beyond that... his point still stands. He would stop them if it meant to preserve the greater good--he knows there's more out there beyond the Grid and that's what the Defenders are defending. But that didn't mean he agreed with the way the Defenders went about it even if it was a noble cause. Likewise, he could not simply condemn the Cryptos because they wanted to leave without knowing if their intent truly was malevolent once they got out. If it wasn't, he would maybe even help them.]

I admit I am less concerned with what either faction of the Trumps wants out of this than what the people here want. If I side with one Trump's goal it will not be because it's what they want--it will be because it benefits the people here, one way or another. That is always my goal.

You know that better than anyone, Malik, I should think.

[So tell him. Tell him everything you know so he can make an informed decision rather than running in blind with his own feelings torn in two. He does not want to divide the Travelers in any way, but if he decides to take a stand with one faction or another he will do so no matter what anyone else decides. So long as the reasons are there, and he feels they are right.]

[neverfeltthatway]

Do you know much about the Cryptos? I don't know if they're dangerous or not - actually, I know practically nothing about them. [And given his infiltrator persona was obsessed with finding out about the cryptos, that's actually saying a lot.] And that worries me - both how secretive they've been, and that if the Lovers would go to all this trouble to keep them in, there must be a reason.

I don't know if it's a reason we want to support or a reason we want to oppose, but whatever it is, it must be important - so we need to figure out what it is so we can decide what to do.

[loyalrebel]

I said that they are more dangerous than they are believed to be. I did not say they intended death upon the population.

[Its a distinct difference.]

I do not care for what any being claiming godhood wants, if it were possible I would give a feather for them.

I believe that it is not our place to interfere at all, but to allow what will happen to do so once the bomb is destroyed or altered. Yet we are seemingly being forced to choose, and until we have as much information on all the sides that should be our goal.

[volving]

[ Ugh, so much intense emotion caught Cass' attention and now she's actually listening to this stuff, she is... not certain she likes this. Words in her head that aren't hears. Voices. Even if it makes things easier, she really doesn't like it.

But this seems important. ]

So... the Automata are the... good guys? Not... the Cryptos?

[loyalrebel]

I am not sure either side is good, but the automata are not actually attempting to destroy everything only... close a door.

[canbebrave]

What do you need it for?

[loyalrebel]

The sword?

I expect to be involved in a fight at some point, I do not think I will find a warm reception from the Defenders.

[notinthecards]

Why don't you tell us who all is on that team, mon ami?

Just so we know who to help out.

[loyalrebel]

If I had them, I might consider it.

[You are not his friend, guy.]

I do not even know how many of us there were, only the goal and who our Users were.

I also have no guarantee any of you will not simply kill them or turn them in to the Defenders.

[flippedthecoin]

I care little for who is fighting for what cause and why one side would want to murder the other. I simply want to get out of here. I have no intention of being anyone's pawn in this sordid little game.

[Oh, he has a sword. But he certainly won't let anyone else even touch it.]

[loyalrebel]

You should get used to not having your way then, we are all pawns here.

Until we cross the board anyway, but I do not know if that would solve anything.