@cassian.andor

[evasives]

[ someone's been dwelling on the aerie but, like, not in a traumatic way. cracks proverbial knuckles. ]

I had a conversation with Johann Grey, shortly before the gods were freed in the Aerie. My impression is that he had little to do with the Aerie's creation as a universe, and the version of him we saw in there was a position placed upon him by the god that also put us there in the first place. It is something to consider when we examine the roles placed upon all of us, how much of that might be a god’s perspective. He suspected it was largely the work of at least two of them and all but confirmed Gold’s involvement - which given the glowing eyed nature of the kestrel powers, makes sense.

I have caught up and see that James Henries is responsible for the death of the Blue god, but Grey had a friend in the Gold one in the Aerie. He claimed Gold was responsible for the Aerie, as well as the fact that we seem to have woken him up in the first place.

It was the recent expedition in May to Antarctica that woke up the Gold god. It would further explain the surge of golden eyed monsters that followed that earthquake and how they sought us out as Displaced. Ball's followers believe the gods are asleep, that previous god-touched individuals were left with the responsibility of keeping the world safe. We see signs of this throughout the history of this planet, with the hieroglyphics in New Cairo and the murals in New Oslo (my understanding of this world's timeline dates the art of these two societies at thousands of years apart). We, the Displaced, are the first evidence of the god-touch the cultists have seen in a long while. I realize this is old news for some of us, but we are constantly welcoming new numbers, so bear with it.

For those who were not able to reach under the volary, six of the gods were in bird cages, looking like wisps of color. The Gold one freely fluttered around Grey much like a bird. Blue is dead and we have pieces of him in us, Gold is awake, which means there are still five of them out there, presumably still asleep. Johann Grey was searching for a god in Antarctica, and we know he wanted to use Spinetail to wake Blue up. We can theorize he may be looking for the rest.

I do not trust Grey. But I do not believe he is an active threat to us. We do not seem to be his targets in the grand scheme so much as occasional collateral. I hope we can understand the difference, as I am not saying he is not dangerous, but his motivations seem more chaotically selfish than outright evil. He is aware of who we are and used Cassius to predict our continuous arrival in the Marianas Trench, and we know he worked with Henries, as well as Riverstone on Project Spinetail. They were first introduced in 2273 by an ancestor of Meredith Ling, the current CEO. A UN backed facility in New Omsk was used in a cover up for the Spinetail earthquake’s epicenter, which suggests UN involvement as well, but given how tightly Riverstone works with the UN, this is not a surprise. What concerns me more is what Riverstone or the UN might want with a god.

And Grey may still have Judas. He is not a safe man, and tracking him down still presents danger, even if his goals lie elsewhere.

Comments

@quentin.coldwater

[filloryfanatic]

If other people are looking for the gods, we really should be doing the same thing. Which, I mean, you know I'm already all over, but just stating it here anyways.

@margo.hanson

[gossipkinesis]

Maybe you should stay away from any and all gods...

@thor.odinson

[ofmyth]

aye. if we found one in antarctica, then it may be that we'll find others in other parts of the world.

we ought to be more proactive in this

@loki.odinson

[selfimage]

And yet you've already seemed to have forgotten gold god, us possibly waking the fellow up and the golden eyed monsters connection mentioned above.
Do not be reckless with this.

@cassian.andor

[evasives]

Gold was looking for us. Maybe the rest will end up following suit too.

There is still a lot about them we do not know.

@goro.akechi

[impede]

Rather than make a separate post with my own commentary, I can largely concur with Cassian here. I do have a few points I'd like to make.

Johann believes that whoever's after the gods would do it with or without his input. Personally, I believe it's unlikely that they'd be successful without him.

Putting him down would save a lot of grief, even if he isn't our enemy.

If the gods are capable of controlling us like that, overwriting who we are, who's to say this piece of a god isn't doing the same every day? Do you want to be a puppet on someone's strings?

Rather than seek out the gods, we should find a way to diminish their influence, and put what's awakened back to sleep.

screams i didn't see the notif for this

[evasives]

I have no affection for gods in concept or reality, even if it is true they exist and they are clearly quite powerful. But I think if Blue were controlling us, we would be a much more cohesive and unified unit in attaining any goals.

It might be more prudent to confirm why they went to sleep in the first place.

@jyn.erso

[realists]

For the record, we didn't actually DO anything in Antarctica to wake anything up, we were just there.

@cassian.andor

[evasives]

As an addendum, the earthquake was a surprise. There were no environmental signs until it happened.

@john.murphy

[reproached]

ok am i the only one here who's worried that if we go looking for the gods we'll just lead the bad guys right to them?

@loki.odinson

[selfimage]

For once, we're in agreement.

[evasives]

I did not claim otherwise. They probably already have plenty of resources looking into the gods, probably have for decades. And knowing what we do now about the Blue god's relationship to us puts another layer on the Riverstone tests. We may have already handed them a clue without realizing. These corporations know a lot already.

@loki.odinson

[selfimage]

Perhaps this Johann fellow isn't necessarily an active threat to us, but what of awakening the gods? That poses a different kind of threat.
I know an apocalypse when I see one. It's not necessarily a good look.

[evasives]

I never said he was not a threat. There are different ways to approach a danger, so, we alter our perspective based on new aspects of this man's motivations.

This planet is already dying. What if it is due to the reverse, of gods being away for too long?

[ in truth he has no opinions yet. gods are a weird area for him, he's still learning. ]

@lance.sweets

[lifetothefullest]

[He's so sick of color-coded glow-cloud gods at this point, why is this still his life.]

If the other gods are asleep, the symbolism of bird cages seems like an odd choice, especially if we presume one of the gods was the cause of the Aerie to begin with. I'm not saying they aren't asleep, but maybe they can't wake up without outside intervention as opposed to it being a choice. Was there any indication that the gold god did or didn't like that it was woken up? Aside from the Aerie itself, which could be interpreted several ways.

[He'll just let everyone else fight about whether or not to look for the gods for now, so might as well focus on this part instead.]

@robert.plant

[righteously]

oh I don't know
just spitballing here, but
maybe the immediate pissed off monster friggin apocalypse might be a little hint somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed

@cassian.andor

[evasives]

[ there is a very specific reason cassian hasn't said one way or the other what he thinks about finding the gods okok. ]

Gold was not awake until some of the Displaced were physically present in Antarctica. Proximity may be a factor.

I have been wondering if the Aerie was a warning. A potential outcome. Or a test to see what we might do. The gods in bird cages could translate into a lot of things, and it would be foolish to claim one as truth without further proof. But we know birds have been a motif since Henries.

Anything about what the gods might feel is more likely to come to us via the dreams or strange emotional connections as spoken about here.

@robert.plant

[righteously]

If it turns out we have to climactically captain planet this bitch in like 8 months I'm nuking myself into orbit.

[evasives]

[ wtf is captain planet. there is more than one planet, you can't captain all of them. ]

This planet already seems to be suffering climatic catastrophe even before we arrived.

@dick.grayson - i can read i swear i can

[dickism]

i'm still trying to catch up on everything that happened with you guys in the aerie, so thanks for this. it sounds like with all the variables everyone is mentioning with the gods, tracking down grey might be the safer of the two.
you said the kestrel powers made eyes glow, not chests, right? what about the other god-touched you found evidence of in those murals? was it their eyes or chests glowing?

@jyn.erso

[realists]

Chest, at least in New Oslo. When we opened the maze our own chests briefly were red and then orange (the predominant colors of the paintings) before fading back to blue.

[evasives]

If you need more details, I do not mind talking about it. I was not effected as badly others.

I imagine tracking Grey will present the same challenges as before, but I agree it should be some level of priority. He has ties and connections all over the world.

Jyn answered this already - there seemed to be some variety in other locations, where we opened the first four main Gates we use to travel. New Everest is the only one I have not seen, but I can vouch for Jyn in the others.

@laura.moon

[apathet]

So you're saying Grey knows we're walking alarm clocks, is tracking down gods to wake them up and doesn't have his man made god wake up machine anymore

[evasives]

No, Grey did not mention how exactly we managed to wake one up. But as we seem to be the new embodiment of the Blue god, we must have done something to trigger Gold's full awakening.

I am assuming he wants to track down the rest; he did not say so directly, but I do not believe it is a bad inference given his track record with Blue and Gold.

As for any kind of machinery in his possession, that is also unclear. Given he was unable to wake Gold himself, perhaps he has not been able to repeat Spinetail's tools.

@jack.miller

[personalwar]

[ This isn't a dump of information that Jack can just ignore, especially when so much of it has to do with Grey. But given his lingering sense of closeness to Cassian, it's difficult to know how to interact with it. Especially when he can't help but resent what feels like manufactured emotions.

Probably better to just keep it professional, and assume Cassian will do the same. ]

I don't know, I think orchestrating an EMP that killed hundreds of thousands of people puts him squarely in the evil category, but that's just me.

[evasives]

[ cassian is the master of ignoring regular emotions - ignoring the manufactured ones is just as easy! at least, that's what he's telling himself. given jack is immediately all business, it's certainly a natural instinct to do the same in return. that's how he operates in general, reflecting himself off whoever he is speaking to. ]

I never said he was not evil nor did not do evil things. Just that his motivations do not seem driven by intent to harm so much as driven by chaos. I think there is a difference, and it may help figure out patterns in his behavior, or ways to push back against his future actions.