[Open Broadcast]

[protect_and_serve]

Who: Everyone on the telepathic network (which is everyone)
When: Just after the new arrivals show up.
What: Joscelin attempting to get things organized.

[There’s a lot of chatter going on, literally making it hard to hear yourself think, between veterans gossipping and speculating what the new wave of Travelers means, and accidental broadcasts by panicked new arrivals, until one hard-edged thought cuts through it all.]

Enough.

You all need to stop this before we drive ourselves insane.

Anyone with experience on the Network, I want a few organized broadcasts offering help and information to newcomers. We don’t call them Fools.

If you’re new, stay calm. No-one can overhear you unless you’re projecting. Try to divide yourselves as evenly as you can between the people giving you answers. That much is instinctive, you won’t have trouble as long as you can imagine it.

Anyone who’s been here longer and wants to speculate? Don’t do it publicly. Find your own little corners, or keep it off the network.

New telepaths. You’ll need to find someone more experienced more than anyone else does.

And everyone be ready for a new Jaunt.

Comments

[rekkaning]

[That throws her a little, and she wonders if that means that the group is already conflicted so as to have multiple "leaders," or if it just means that Rekka should figure it out for herself. The latter isn't bad advice.]

As long as we're working together... I'm Rekka.

Are we all from different worlds? What world are you from?

[blackhand]

...what? [Drill sergeant? What is a drill sergeant, he doesn't have them in his time and if he ran across one in his jaunts before Moebius, he sure doesn't remember it.]

[protect_and_serve]

That's half the problem.

The other is the danger we'll find home, but lose ourselves.

[abetterway]

I'll do my best to aid you in that, then.

[moredakka]

Well - you know - someone who makes sure we don't die and put us to do all the dirty work because we're rookies?

[moredakka]

[Rather than words, Sio'd mind sends out what is effectively ?????????? (Along with the vague impression that she is going to hate the answer isn't she.)]

[protect_and_serve]

Desperate people do things they wouldn't dream of. But if you fall into the trap of letting that excuse anything you do... by the time you're home, you won't recognize yourself any more.

[blackhand]

Who knows? [It's a flat and dull retort, one that he really doesn't bother putting the snark into, because at the end of the day, no one really does know.]

They never did like showing their faces.

[To him, he remains on the fence about who the Trumps are. He's not one for politics, or doing the right or wrong thing. He's about challenging himself, and being the best there is. That view has taken a beating on both sides, but he's stubbornly stuck to it, because it's a reminder of home, and nothing else remains the same here.]

[blackhand]

If there's someone like that, they'll be assigned once the Jaunt starts. Usually newcomers are paired with veterans.

[superieure]

If you get it to the right people, quite a bit.

[There's eccentrics, and the underworld, but she's sure Remy knows more than her about that. She's just being deliberately contrary.]

We're not animals learning the cha-cha. There's an office here, mark my words, I'll find it.

[And with that, she flips her hair and stalks off. One could almost see the smoke blowing from her ears.]

[moredakka]

[Oh yeah that doesn't sound terrifying and ominous at all.]

Do you - uhm, do we get desperate a lot?

[superieure]

[An empath.. with a programming matrix instead of a mutation?]

It would be - what you're describing is known to be a different ability, though not outside a telepath's realm of influence. The others say our power's been taken and divided up between all of us, so we can hear each other.

[Bitter. She wouldn't have shared even when asked.]

[protect_and_serve]

We've been kidnapped and strung up like marionettes. Yes.

[rozpetac]

Huh. Okay.

So that's going to be a Thing I suppose. What else do I need to know so I don't wind up dead.

[rozpetac]

Fair enough.

So what's going here? We're just waiting until they need us again? No thought as to what we might need in order to actually be useful to them?

[thezerothlaw]

I don't see how that should be possible. It would seem to me that it would be simpler to grant the ability to those who don't have it rather than redistribute an intangible sensory skill.

[That's just logical.]

[detectivewonder]

That's how they operate.

[rozpetac]

That's an interesting choice they made. Either they don't know sentients at all or they do know and this is always a test to see how we'll react, what we'll do.

[detectivewonder]

Or it's counterintelligence. Damage control. We know the telepathic network can be hacked; and some Travelers can manipulate Liminal Space. If we knew anything about who was doing this to us...

[superieure]

[Where she is, she nods in agreement.]

[Faintly wry:] I never said their actions made sense, or that the theory was confirmed. Either way - you no longer have full access to your gift?

[protect_and_serve]

Listen to more experienced Travelers on the Jaunt, and you'll be as fine as any of us. Keeping you alive is... our job. First and foremost, that's what we do.

[thezerothlaw]

[Gift. What a strange, but accurate, way to put it.]

That is correct. I am not aware of minds as I was. To be fair, I do not believe I was capable of this sort of communication, but I never had opportunity to try with someone also... gifted in this way.

[eyes_on_fire]

Is that so? [Another long drag, slowly released, before he cuts the other a sidelong glance.]

What's the longest run? Because long run or not, I've yet to hear a reason for me to waste effort towards their cause during these little ventures.

[superieure]

All the telepaths I've met are capable of conversing with a non-telepath, and for the reverse to occur they need only think loudly in my general direction. Why is it you couldn't?

[thezerothlaw]

Perhaps the best way to describe it is to say that it was a skill of listening. Though it was possible for friend Giskard to influence others with his abilities, it was a matter of adjusting when they felt rather than sending a thought to them. Perhaps, had we time to experiment, we may have learned how to communicate in this way, but he only passed the programming matrix to me when he was commencing the cascading positronic failure that led to his permanent deactivation. There was no time.