@scott.summers

[evenslimmer]

Regarding the giant monster invasion a few weeks back, if that's the kind of thing you're interested in: there's a few more leads shaken loose from casing the tent (thanks to Rey and Loki, who did some quality sneaking around) and chasing down the people involved.

There's three major corporations involved in analysis and investigation. They're working on site (in the tent) through subsidiaries to handle clean-up and sample collection. I've done what digging I could on the job to figure out who's doing what based on what we saw there, and so far it seems to shake out like this.

1) Pulsar: dealing largely with what seems to me like defense research, focusing on developing some kind of chemical response. Laboratory research futzing with chemical reactions and responses in the tissues to different reagents. They don't seem to have moved past the stage of trying to figure out which chemicals would be effective or have identified specific weaknesses endemic to any aspect of the monster's biology.

2) Vyonation: protein sequence and structure analysis. They're trying to link them to any known evolutionary processes or mutations caused by radiation. I don't know yet if they've turned up anything, but that might be because they just haven't turned up anything. I'm given to understand from previous experience that this kind of research takes a significant amount of time.

I do want to point out that this is different from Kylo's analysis earlier. This isn't the same as sequencing genetic markers or identifying zootoxin similarities from venom samples.

3) Giles Bell: direction unclear. Unsure if that's because they haven't fully decided what to focus on yet, if they intend to go multiple directions, or if whatever they're actually doing is being kept under wraps. They're toying with a lot of stuff right now.

Some of these leads seem more promising than others, in terms of getting to the bottom of 1) how they got here, 2) what they really are, and 3) who's responsible (if anyone). I can't get actual access to the data servers, or even the samples without blowing my cover and landing myself in hot water, but it's all in the early stages at the moment. I'm going to try to keep my ear to the ground for what's coming along quickest, what's most promising, et cetera.

Comments

@clarke.griffin

[strove]

Do you believe that any of this research could be a facade because these corporations are actually responsible for the creatures themselves?

[Just going to go to the heart of the matter.

Clarke's assumption is "no," though the Giles Bell outcome tells her that it might be different.

As it is, hello, Scott. We haven't seen each other in a while. Time to see how this goes.]

[evenslimmer]

[ Well, they weren't going to be able to avoid each other forever. ]

From the evidence thus far? There's nothing that indicates that at the moment. But if it existed, it would be way above my current pay grade and in places that I can't access at this time.

From past experience? Sure, could be. The right hand doesn't need to know everything the left hand gets up to in its spare time. I don't imagine that the labyrinths of corporate structure and function have become less complicated since the 21st century. If you were going to engineer something like that, you'd need a fortune in R&D, and the sort of space and resources that'd be easier to access within a well-financed institutional framework. If you made a really big mess of it, you'd probably want to be on the short list for cleaning it up, too. Or have some hand in influencing the investigation.

[strove]

[Forthcoming. Good.]

One of the things I discussed with Kylo Ren was how they would manage to do this, transport it to just outside of the city, and then let it go wild.

The thing I keep getting stuck on is the how. How would they do that? How would they transfer all of that out of the city? Would all hands really not be on deck?

[evenslimmer]

Like how it would be accomplished from a strictly technological perspective, or broadly what the possible mechanisms would be for moving that much matter?

@eugenides.attolis

[kleptocratic]

[ Hold on. ]

What giant monster invasion?

[strove]

Technological and economical?

I guess mechanisms, too.

@rey.nolo

[forcevisions]

I feel like if any were, it'd be GIles Bell.

@loki.odinson

[selfimage]

As in, someone would notice.

@kylo.ren

[warfares]

It sounds as though they might be anticipating further attacks.

[ going off the information about Pulsar, anyway. ]

"Toying with a lot of stuff" sounds decidedly ominous no matter what way you cut it.

[strove]

This world's government seems to have a finger on the pulse of a lot of things. I don't know that for sure, but I remember that everything got deleted after the monster attack.

I'd be surprised if they couldn't trace this.

[strove]

We might want to look into where their resources are going before we draw any hasty conclusions.

I can see why you got there, but as I've said before, this is something I think we can trace.

[forcevisions]

I wasn't drawing hasty conclusions. I said "if any." That's just a place to start looking.

[strove]

How did Scott come across this information?

[forcevisions]

We went looking in the tent. All the companies working in it traced back to these three. He already explained it. What else are you looking for?

[evenslimmer]

Nobody pays attention to the guy who fixes the sink you clogged with biological waste.

[strove]

So you're their janitor.

[Let's be real: Clarke can't tell the difference because of the way things were on the Ark.

Also, maybe Bellamy should've tried this route again. Idle thoughts.]

Clever. Also, not the kind of guy they'd secure their experiments around. I assume.

[strove]

Sorry, I was looking for how he got the exact details of the experiments themselves. This stuff usually takes machines, and given how rare they were for my people, I doubt they'd be sitting in the center of the city.

[That's at least part of why Becca wanted to hook up ALIE 2.0 to the Ark itself.]

[forcevisions]

Something with his job. It's how he got us into the tent too.

[strove]

They'd have a janitor out there?

[forcevisions]

Someone has to clean up.

[evenslimmer]

I could crunch the numbers if you want. But I think it's more illustrative for me to say: if in fact it originates here, on this planet and in this time, and its mechanism of arrival was transportation between two points in space, it seems more feasible to me for that to be accomplished by magic than by technology. It's just absurdly cost and resource inefficient to move anything that large that way. Not when you could just put it in a container and dump it out there.

You could do it with magic. I don't know if there's practicing magic-users here who originated here.

I've considered the possibility that it didn't come from here, in this time and place. Or, alternatively, that there's a remote site out there to conduct research and build/grow homebrew transgenic monsters. Which would mean that they weren't moved so much as...released.

[strove]

So, considering our situation.

What are the odds that someone shows up and recognizes that thing?

[evenslimmer]

Not a janitor. A plumber. Like the maintenance guy?

[ Nobody expects the maintenance guy of being smart enough to be a spy. ]

They don't think about it, no. Either they just keep working and talking while I'm in the room, or they'll leave me alone in there for awhile as they come and go about their business.

[strove]

For our sakes, see if Giles Bell keeps on this track. But from my experience with more scientifically inclined types, they don't tend to mask what they're doing if they think someone won't understand.

[On the flip side, that's why she has to get Raven to slow the fuck down half the time.]

[evenslimmer]

The exact one that showed, or a thing like it? Because I've heard of things like it before, and seen similar, but I hadn't seen that specific building-crushing monster.