@laura.moon, feb 7th eve.

[apathet]

Cassius.
Doctor Grey.
Project Meadowlark facility.

I'm looking for all of them. What do we know?

Comments

[variate]

[ this reminds him distinctly of Shido, and the part he played in politics to wrap himself around certain corporations. he did it by favors, money, and sheer terror. Ren has to wonder if it's any different here. ]

The corporations are a byproduct, aren't they?
It's the people involved that would prove it.

[evasives]

The names would continue to prove overlap, yes.

Corruption is rampant, but it is people who make these choices not businesses.

[variate]

And people aren't untouchable.
They can be taken down.

[evasives]

Very much agreed.

The more pertinent question could be to figure out who might need to be taken down.

[variate]

[ this isn't the Metaverse, and he can't go traversing through someone's palace and steal their heart to deliver his own brand of justice. they had to be more careful. ]

It's hard not to believe that they don't already know what we're doing and that they might be manipulating it in some way. A lot of this seems deliberate.
Even now we don't have much autonomy. We're just acting on what we're given.

We need to figure out who, and a way to step ahead on the game board they've laid out.

[evasives]

What parts seem deliberate to you?

[ he doesn't disagree or agree, he's just curious. ]

Are you arguing that the things we find are given rather than dug up on our own?

[variate]

Some of them, yeah.
A lot of this came up because of Cassius--how can that not seem deliberate?
Everyone new is dropped off where we can find them.
Where Morningstar can find them.

[ he remembers Medjed, and how the Phantom Thieves were pushed in one direction. ]

How do we know we're not made to see things a certain way?

[evasives]

My investigations into the earthquakes is pre-Cassius.

We cannot know how much is someone else pulling the strings, which is why it is important to keep looking until we know for sure. We need to be aware of our biases while searching or it can cloud our judgement.

If I am not mistaken, Morningstar stumbled upon the first Displaced by accident, believing it to be a weapons transport. El tends to be the one who notifies us when others arrive. If we are being made to see things a certain way, then we must analyze harder.

[variate]

Even if it was, any addition by Cassius makes me wonder.

It was an accident at first from what I can tell, but suspicious after that.
You can't say that we're not entwine with Morningstar in a way, not now.

The question is that if it's only one someone pulling our strings, and not more.

[evasives]

There is still value in what comes from Cassius, as long as we are critical of the source - but that is true for any source. He has just never been a primary source for me.

I will not argue we are associated with Morningstar, despite it not being a full choice on either group's parts.

I do not think there is one single person behind everything. Even if there is an individual sitting on top, there are always orchestrations that require more hands. Individuals have ears that can be manipulated. Rival organisations, splintered ones. The corporations here are incestuous, I would not be surprised if any string pulling turns out to be the same.

[variate]

There's value in it.
It just means that he knows more than he's telling us. I'd like to know why. If it's just his network of finding things, or if there's something else. He knows more than El.

Everything else is moving at once.

[ he knows that well; it concerns him. ]

Were you in Zerzura?

[evasives]

He is being very picky and choosy with what he tells people, and I do think some of us do not recognize this.

Yes. I assume you were as well.

[variate]

What do you think about what happened?

[ because after this conversation, he feels confident on asking for Cassian's opinion. ]

[evasives]

[ very little bc what is a hiatus that month! ]

I do not know. I think it is on some level connected to the bigger picture, especially knowing some of the people from Zerzura are now here, but the fantasies made it difficult to dive in too deeply.

And you? What do you think about it?

[variate]

I don't know either.
I just know some of us had to die for it.

I want to know why.

[evasives]

For now it is another ongoing mystery.

Is Zerzura something you have been looking more deeply into alongside all these names?

[variate]

The names came out of looking into Zerzura.
It's been bothering me for a while.

[evasives]

And there other significant names you have found?

[variate]

No, but there are some similarities between the dream that people have been talking about and Zerzura.
Not names, but themes.

[evasives]

Like what? What stands out to you?

[variate]

[ this is the part that's hard to explain without knowing the cognitive realm. ]

The spear.
It's the link between Zerzura and the dreams.

[ it was, to his knowledge, the last thing he saw before he had died that day. ]

[evasives]

The spear did make its first appearance before any of us had an inkling for Zerzura, only to show up for real there. What makes you so sure it's the link between them, other than it existing in both?

Were you here for first case of the shared dreams?

[variate]

No. I heard about it from someone else, and that the birds perched on the spear in the dream were spinetails.

Spinetail. The spear.
Now there's a Spinetail in this world. Following the same logic, there should be a spear, too.