@tony.stark & @rey.solo

[voicelog]

@tony.stark
hey, tony here.

rey and i just left the meeting with riverstone. long story short: they want test subjects if we want answers to who they suspect is bringing all of us here. they aren't willing to budge on this. what a shocker.

why are they so interested in us? apparently, they want to know how we were able to disrupt the simulation back in may. given judas is still a credible threat, they're claiming to utilize what information they gain from the tests to potentially create a preventative measure against similar attacks in the future as well as help us learn more about our biology.

@rey.solo
they also have their own reasons to be interested in the people who brought us here. riverstone suspects that the people who have been dropping us off and the person who prevented my arrested when i changed my name are one in the same.

according to them, this person — not a group, a person — may have been involved in the marianas trench incident that riverstone believes we’re also connected to. apparently, good riverstone scientists were killed during that experiment. I know some of the displaced have already speculated that the marianas trench may be connected to us. riverstone agrees.

this person was never punished for their role in the experiment, and they’ve been operating extrajudicially. they seem to want to punish this person for the people they got killed. in other words, i think they’re on our side. really.

@tony.stark
if you think that sounds too good to be true, there's more.

they've agreed to a NDA which will be included in the consent forms for volunteers. i've looked it over. it's airtight, but i just want to take a moment to point out that this is one of the largest corporate entities in this world. they have both the power and the means to do whatever the fuck they want with the data they collect without us ever knowing. so with that said, they're going to be conducting interviews to see what kind of tests we feel are appropriate. i strongly advise against any that will require a sample of our DNA or any that will be performed under general anesthesia.

full access to the data gathered will be given to the participants and relevant riverstone personnel. they've also agreed to let us have representatives present for the procedures.

@rey.solo
and they’ve shown no interest in sharing the data they gather with other parties. it seems to me like they’ve got their own fathier in this race.

we should think about what these tests might turn up about some of our collective powers. i know a number of us have been trying and failing to learn more about our dreams, about the empathy bond, and about the objects in our chests. it might be tempting to use the resources that riverstone is offering to get some of the answers we’ve been looking for.

if anyone is considering consenting to tests about these, i do think we should talk about it because these are powers that all of us share.

@tony.stark

i don’t trust them and i won’t be participating in any of the tests, but i realize that there are differing opinions among us. for whatever it’s worth, i’m going to stay here to make sure that they won’t try and pull anything funny during the procedures.

for the ones who are interested in volunteering and want extra legal security, i hear @ian.fowler is cooking something up.

Comments

@bellamy.blake

[jettisons]

I can't believe this is even still on the table.

@thor.odinson

[ofmyth]

for some, the promise of answers will outweigh the risks. we should not demean those among us who decide to take up this offer

[jettisons]

They have a right to make their own choices, but not when it endangers the rest of us.

[ofmyth]

sooner or later the corporations and people in this world are going to take more of an interest in us than they have before, and there is no guarantee that they will do so as courteously as riverstone have

riverstone might have taken any one of us captive and forced these tests without our consent

[jettisons]

You see courteous, I see trap.

[ofmyth]

a clumsy trap, when we now collectively know of where they are and what they intend

[jettisons]

Listen. We've laid this out a million ways in the last post. I've dealt with crap like this before. What I care about is keeping us safe.

[ofmyth]

so we will imprison those among us who intend to accept riverstone's offer?

[jettisons]

That's not what I'm saying.

[ofmyth]

is it not?

how else will you keep them from making decisions that endanger the rest of us?

[jettisons]

I was hoping 'talk it through' would work. Apparently not.

[ofmyth]

'talk it through' rarely works with humans, in my experience

but that does not answer what you will now do to keep us safe

[forcevisions]

Thank you.
I mean it.

[ofmyth]

i know what it is to be desperate to find answers no matter the risk

i will not be the one to say that those who seek answers should not have some chance of finding them

[forcevisions]

I've missed having you around.

@john.murphy

[reproached]

can't you

[jettisons]

Guess I was being too optimistic.

[reproached]

so riverstone thinks we're connected to someone who killed their people and for some reason everyone here doesn't think we're going to pay the price for that

am i getting this right

[jettisons]

Sounds like it. Even if they're not willing to hurt us directly, I'm still not getting any proof that we can stop them from doing whatever the hell they want with that data once they're done running their tests.

[reproached]

i mean

they're obviously just going to hold us hostage since we're important to this mystery guy for whatever reason

i can't be the only one who sees that

right

[jettisons]

They've got a million reasons to hold onto us. Even if they let us go, I don't see a way for us to watch every second of every test to make sure they're not sneaking something in, and we don't know what they'll actually use the data for. Free or not, they could screw us over and we won't know until it's too late.

[What's stopping them from telling Rey and the others whatever they want to hear and then reneging on it? A piece of paper? It feels like a joke.]

[reproached]

why are they talking like all this makes riverstone MORE likely to help us

isn't this just a list of extra reasons we're screwed

[jettisons]

That's what it looks like to me. Maybe they're used to good luck.

[reproached]

must be nice

[jettisons]

Yeah.

[And even if they aren't used to good luck, maybe some of them just don't understand how bad something like this can get, and how quickly. Bellamy has no other explanation for it.]

Looks like everyone's sick of hearing it.