synopsychic | (no subject)

[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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It seems like it, yeah. [He nods at the idea.] It's not much of a plan, but it'll do for now.

We do what we can, right?

[He simply nods, distracted.] For the more immediate concerns, we need to figure out what the cryptos want, beyond simply finding their user - and why the Lovers wants to trap them here.

Maybe their User programed them to be a potential threat to the Lovers?

[Armin frowns.] But what can be a threat to one of the Trumps?

...I don't think we're going to get anywhere by guessing.

You're right, but where can we even start to investigate?

I guess we need people talking to the cryptos, if they're willing to share anything - unlikely. Barring that, we might need people to follow and spy on the cryptos.

As for myself... I'm going to find ROSE and talk to her again.

The Cryptos are pretty hard to keep track of. Seems like they're either always on the move or putting up as many defenses as possible to keep outsiders out.

Are you sure talking to ROSE again is a good idea?

That will make it more difficult - but we need to figure them out somehow.

...no. But given what we might learn from it, it's a risk I have to take. [No matter that he's terrified of ROSE. Tactically speaking, that doesn't matter. He's a soldier, and he'll do what he has to.]

How about I go talk to her? She doesn't have anything against me as far as I can tell.

[Armin shakes his head.]

She only had something against me because I - my infiltrator self - attacked her. And I think she was mostly reacting to what was happening. Now that she's marked me... she should consider me as at least nominally on her side, if the experiences others who've been marked are anything to go by.

[He also hopes he may be able to leverage at least a semblance of cooperation for an answer or two, since she's marked him but given him no reason to follow her. But he doesn't want to talk about that on the network, for fear she may be listening.]

...And beyond that, we shouldn't risk anyone else becoming marked.