19 February 2021 @ 06:46 pm
Fellow Displaced, while there's certainly quite a lot to divert attentions to, allow me to offer some reprieve.
In my infamy, I've decided to publish a series of novels under a new surname. There's something in there for everyone, of course. If you like what you see, please support my endeavors! R&R, as they say.
Ah, yes- all appropriate warnings for mature content, blah bah blah. Read at work at your own risk.
King of the Scoundrels by Trixie Mistil
Summary:
Marius is torn between three lovers: One rich, one famous and the other dangerous. The biggest catch? They'll do anything for him. Overtaken by the politics of the upper echelon, Marius must maneuver to to keep himself safe while navigating the burning hunger within him. To sate his dangerous desires, he must dig to find the truth behind wicked facades.[
there's a link to a free copy of the first erotic novel in the series. while it's kinda trashy, it's also fairly well-written, poetic at times, drama intense, and unapologetically sexy. there's even some surprising romance thrown in. whoever ends up reading it will find that it ends in a cliff-hanger.
the next one is under a pay lock. ]
17 February 2021 @ 09:41 pm
Hopefully the new arrivals have found the network; even though you can only comment anonymously until your IDs are created, you can still participate in conversation or, if you prefer, just observe it for now.
There are also a few resources that can help you in passing the time and let you get a better sense of the situation here, if you haven't already been given them already. The welcome guide has the basics, and the information compendium goes into more of what we know on particular topics. If you have any questions, whether related to the documents or anything else, I'll do my best to answer.[And for those not stuck in the safehouse, there's a different problem--]As for everyone else, some of you have likely noticed we're being followed. Presumably it's the UN's new task force, and considering that the UN seems intent on blaming Displaced for what happened with the Aerie, this is something we should probably be concerned about.
However, because the UN has been particularly focused on recruiting former Shrikes, we at least have some idea of who might be involved with it. There were a few Shrikes amongst the Displaced, and each of us might know the names and/or faces of native citizens who could potentially be on the task force. Additionally, anyone else who experienced the Aerie--Cardinals or Rooks, Quarry participants, and so on--may also know of more.
If we make a coordinated effort to identify whoever is following us--as long as it's possible to do so safely--we can take away some of the power that the task force has, at least in respect to being able to operate unnoticed. However, if we're going to go about this, it needs to be done carefully; we don't need to drawing extra attention, and if we can avoid letting on that we're aware of being followed then even better. If anyone has any particular experience in doing this, suggestions, concerns, or anything else, please feel free to share.
08 February 2021 @ 11:33 am
Got some short term and long term work for anyone trying to make an extra dime, so long as the paperwork goes through.
Starting next week sometime I'm gonna need hands renovating a fixer-upper. Yanking plants out of the plumbing, patching up flooring & walls, hauling appliances, installing fixtures. Crap like that. Looking at about 2-3 weeks of work.
After that I'm in the market for a couple decent cooks & bartenders.
If you're a musician and you need a gig, send me some proof you don't suck. No hipster acoustic covers of hey ya. No pop.
Except Taylor Swift. T-swizzle gets a pass.
29 January 2021 @ 04:02 pm
[Okay so he sucks at staying away from the network, but this is important, hopefully not even slightly controversial, and short.]With all the talk of training powers in dreams, how the Aerie is (or was) connected to this reality, and so on, I was wondering something. Has anyone who had powers in the Aerie tried using them here?[There is definitely no reason he's asking this question other than curiosity. Absolutely none.]
29 January 2021 @ 09:46 am
Hi everyone. So with potential talk about traveling more, we might want to consider whether it will be worthwhile to create more gates with the places we go to. In order to do that we need relics. We do currently have enough (gates need four) to jump around, I know several of us have them, but it is possible that there are more in the ruins that people didn't pick up when we opened the first gates. It's sort of a 'the more the merrier' in case of emergency with them.
Info: the relics started out seeming normal and then a few days later glowing. They glow when a Displaced holds them, so we will eventually figure out which ones work. Any of us can hold them, it's not like they bind themselves to one of us. The relics were able to help during the monster attack by keeping the mind control/monster turning from happening. So they're helpful outside of the gates, but the gates are the main purpose.
Anyway, I was thinking of going on a quick expedition back to the four locations of the ruins and searching to see if there are more relics we can scoop up. If there are people here who want to come see them for the first time and see if a relic reacts to them, they're welcome to. I'm not sure if there's a one-relic one-person rule, I know that I picked up a bunch of relics and only one of them worked, so take that with a grain of salt. I was thinking maybe in a few days? So people can think about it and our newcomers to be a part of it if they want. We can start with Mt. Everest and then go over to New Oslo, New Cairo, and New Rio de Janeiro.
PS (I know I know shut up Q): Those of us who already have relics might want to make sure it is known to close friends that if they are sent back, their relic should be brought to Red Wings so they may be used by us in the future! I inherited my extra ones that way. I am also happy to show people how to use the gates themselves during this and how to close them. Okay I'm stopping now! Sound out in the comments.
Edited to add: I'm going to scout first to see if the yellow-eyed creatures are down there, because I don't want to put anyone at risk. I'll update if it seems questionable.[ooc: relevant links! The journey to the four locations, the aftermath log, the ooc aftermath, and plot engagement comment!]
28 January 2021 @ 10:22 pm
[ 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.
21 January 2021 @ 06:38 pm
Hi, everyone. It looks like it's time I said something.
To be clear, I've never really thought of myself as much of a "leader type." It's why I tend to remain in the background: doing the general upkeep for this branch of Morningstar, handling the logistics of your arrival, and leaving it at that. To be clear, I don't mind chatting with all of you, but that's neither here nor there.
For the sake of being thorough, my name is El. I'm one of the few remaining AI in this world and the founder of Morningstar, though you're some of the only people who know my true "identity," so to speak. While we now know how you Displaced came to be in this world, for a long time that was a mystery, and the man responsible didn't bother to come forward with an explanation until recently. We were clueless about how and why you came to be here, but you happened to be dumped into our laps and so Gaby and I decided to take you in and oversee your integration into our world.
The protocol for processing you has always been the same. I need a few days to fabricate identities for you that are specific yet vague enough to make it seem as if you've always been a resident of this world, rather than a "tourist," so to speak. Forging that documentation and then attaching it to your neural implant is something that takes a bit of time. Yes, even for me. If there's anything about this process you want to better understand, feel free to ask. But please understand, an ID here is more than just a piece of plastic with some basic information on it.
A question has come up of whether or not this is "fair." I see it as a precaution to ensure that none of you end up in trouble that we can't bail you out of — a necessary if frustrating processing period. Even if you were all to take caution when going out into this world without identities or full implants, there are too many variables to account for; too many ways in which things could go wrong. I am, at the end of the day, a security bot, and the idea of letting you out into the world while so vulnerable would make me break into hives, if I had skin.
A certain James Henries has been able to bail people out in the past, but I'm not convinced we can rely on him. If you would all rather put your first steps into this world under his purview, you could certainly talk to him about that, assuming he can be contacted. He would likely be able to provide nicer accommodations than our safehouse, if that's your main concern. Additionally, he is the one responsible for giving new arrivals a drug that compels them to listen to orders, likely because he had similar concerns about what would happen after he let you loose. If that's a point of contention, I would discuss it with him.
As for Gaby, she's going to remain on leave. Actual leave, this time. Much like the rest of you, the time in the Aerie has taken its toll on her, and she's not in a position to manage such a wide and varied group as you right now. If any of you are willing to take on some of her duties in the meantime, feel free to let me know.
Finally, there may be something I've missed. I don't always process emotions or desires in the same way as humans. Ask what you want, but know this: my only real goal here is to keep you safe. If you decide as a group that you no longer need or want that protection, you're free to discuss it amongst yourselves and let me know. I won't be taking any action unless you all come to some kind of consensus, so there's no need to worry about being left out in the cold.
17 January 2021 @ 09:25 pm
The hospitals are severely understaffed at the moment. Anyone who can lend a hand, with or without medical training, meet me.[ attached: location ping to a hospital. ]My medical training was decades old even before I woke up in the future. More up to date knowledge would be good, but I can put people to work saving lives regardless.
29 December 2020 @ 12:28 pm
I don't have a horse in this race, but y'all expressed an interest in speaking with James Henries. On that account, Jason Todd stayed up on the moon to speak with him some and this is what he uncovered.
For organization's sake, I've arranged things according to topic. Forgive me, I ain't possessed of the soul of brevity.
( oblig infodump cut - not done icly. )
And for anyone of a mind to pester Jason for more, I would advise you don't. He's stuck his neck out enough for the lot of us, y'all can leave him be.
If there's any mistakes, they're mine alone. Feel free to correct me any which way. Any additional information would be welcome as well. Better to coordinate than not.
17 December 2020 @ 03:56 pm
Alright kids, listen up. Here's what we're doing.
Plan A - Lance, you look into shipping artifacts to a volunteer displaced on the moon. Anxiety Potter has 2, Drake has 1, we need a fourth. Chime in if you got one. If it seems secure and viable, do it. The hipster and his girlfriend can draft up the Ikea instructions.
Plan B - If shipping isn't viable, Stark, you already volunteered for a shuttle party. Be on deck to pick up the goods and hop on board for the return trip. If you get punted off we go to plan C.
Plan C - Jimmy's willing to throw his Bezos money at us to charter a private trip once society's functional again. It's a safety net option, but it kind of depends on the human race not collectively freaking out after the whole Second Life fiasco. It also means everybody's gonna have to slow their roll for a few weeks. Boo hoo.
Plans D, E, and F are stupid. Everybody knows who we are, nobody's strolling through TSA after a threat level red. Nobody's stealing an entire freaking space ship without getting caught, don't ruin Hanukkah in July for the rest of us. We build our own rocket and we're gonna get the future air force scrambling F-15s in about six seconds.
If none of that works, we'll circle back to the dumb ones.
Everybody shut up and leave each other alone. Opinions are like assholes. Nobody cares and toilet paper doesn't exist anymore. If you're not here to volunteer or talk logistics, don't talk. Nobody's stopping you from planning your own birthday party mooncation. Hell, first one there wins a prize.
If you have feedback, put it in the suggestion box in my office. Schedule all appointments through my secretary. Please don't make Jimothy a thing. I'm too old to live like that.
EDIT: If you got a specific reason you wanna get to the moon or questions for Jimmy, head on over here. Run it by Jason. He'll see what he can do. Maybe save us a trip.
17 December 2020 @ 12:11 am
[
Don't mind him, just ignoring the trauma of their recent sojourn to another world and another life by giving himself a project that can realize the stuff he was talking about weeks ago- ]
a little while before we got interdimensionally kidnapped (again) i'd started thinking of ways to get to the moon to kick down henries' door, because i assumed that the only place a rich immortal nutcase would decide to live is there.
now that we've got confirmation and i don't have to sound like a crazy person, that's exactly what i want to accomplish. i've theorized with some people that there might be a gate on the moon. if so, probably needs some kind of activation. if not, well. i think there's some evidence we've made them before, but somebody can correct me if i'm wrong.
either way it requires getting there, so there's some options
1) legal: extremely high shuttle fare, huge pain, potentially registers us in a system via ticketing and security feeds
2) less legal: stow away on shuttles, run the risk of discovery, need to understand access points and means of egress
3) questionably legal: build our own shuttle, attract unwanted attention doing so, there's probably a log somewhere of registered shuttles which would mean fake credentials
4) definitely illegal: steal a shuttle, earn bad press, possible arrest?
what i'm looking for is people who want to see this through and don't mind the distinct possibility of getting their hands dirty. hit me up if you're interested.
12 November 2020 @ 05:57 pm
@lance.sweets
Hello everyone. We have some information we’ve been putting together, and with the recent reveal about Riverstone’s suspicions it seemed like it was important to bring it up as soon as possible.
@jack.miller
We’ve confirmed this information to the best of our ability by sharing memories with each other, and wouldn’t be sharing it with everyone if we weren’t pretty convinced we were onto something.
@lance.sweets
There are portions of this which we know for sure, but others are speculation and we’ll make everything as clear as possible. [And that said--]This started because I was looking into James Henries, since he’s a public figure and so a basic public search was an easy place to start. Unsurprisingly I didn’t come up with anything new from that, just the same information about the fact that he was a CEO of Giles Bell and that he died in 2303 at the age of 68, but that’s suspicious in itself; why was there so little information about the CEO of a massive corporation?
A scandal would probably be the simplest answer, and there happens to be a piece of interesting information that one of the Displaced received and which is contained in the message compilation. It mentions that, along with various other questionable choices, Henries was using Giles Bell’s resources to research cloning technology. @jyn.erso had mentioned to me that Johann Grey had clones, and so I wondered if there might be a connection there.
@jack.miller
There definitely has to be some kind of connection, as I can confirm that James Henries and Johann Grey look identical. Whether this means they’re actually the same person, I wouldn’t be so quick to assume, but they both seem to be making use of cloning technology in some way. When I interacted with Grey in-person, he implied that he met Cassius all the way back during the Xelkoven War. At the time I didn’t know what to make of it, especially given how he came across as so generally unhinged, but with all of these revelations I’m now wondering if he was being completely literal.
@lance.sweets
Cassius told @robert.plant that Johann was over 400 years old, which aligns with this information; the Xelkov war started in 2095 and it’s 2512 now, so if Johann is 400+ then he could have been around during the war. As far as Henries goes, the timing is a little strange; he was 68 in 2303, so born about 2235, and was CEO at some point in the middle of that. The main noteworthy thing that coincides with this timing is the banning of human cloning, and so Henries’ use of Giles Bell to that end makes sense; if he and Johann were running out of clones due to the ban, they would need a way to make more.
@jack.miller
My guess is that for one reason or another, both of them were making use of these duplicated bodies, and Grey was doing so in order to extend his lifespan. The nitty-gritty of how that’s even biologically possible I’m not as clear on, but I’m not sure how else he could have survived this long.
@lance.sweets
So in summary, what we know for sure is that James Henries and Johann Grey are physically identical, Johann is hundreds of years old and has clones, and Henries was briefly CEO of Giles Bell and used that position to work on cloning technology. Everything else is speculation, but it fits logically together.
Additional questions about this would be:
Does Riverstone know about this, considering their questions about Johann and their speculation of Henries’ involvement in our situation?
How did Henries become CEO? This was a job he supposedly got because of family.
How does cloning work in regard to maintaining some sort of individual personality? Is it possible to shift memories and experiences from one clone to another?
@jack.miller
Cloning isn’t something that exists back in my world, but if anyone has their own experiences from back home to contribute here, it might help fill in some of these blanks.
@lance.sweets
That goes for any other information from your time here, like things that might not have seemed important at the time, or which might fit together with--or even disprove--this. Whatever you know about any of this could be incredibly useful.
11 November 2020 @ 02:30 pm
Hey, all.
Brought to you by my going home a spell and returning here just about a decade later by my reckoning — what amenities would you say you miss most from home?
Now, for my part. I ain't a man of violence, but if I ever meet the fella or dame that outlawed smoking here I'd sure give them a stern piece of my mind.
For the newcomers, pleasure to meet y'all. If you're still in the process of getting settled, I'm happy to swing by to help get you situated.
03 November 2020 @ 06:53 pm
Alright folks, it only took fifty years but I put together a little somethin somethin to supplement Lance's compendium of relevant history. You might wanna read that first if you care about the bigger picture and not just the spooky scary skeletons at your back door.
It's a bestiary, aka a monster handbook. Should be everything we know lore-wise about the monsters along with a list of all the species we've run into so far. I know a few people here beat me out by eight months or something, so if I'm missing anything let me know.
I could also use some deets on the dreams from incident 2, so fill me in if you know about it.
Magical Monsters and Where to Shoot Them
I got some complaints from some non-21st century earth types the last time I talked about this, so my associate Castiel Angelofthelord McFlappywings Winchester provided some non-pop culture context for your viewing pleasure.
Whoever's in charge of the welcome pamphlet, maybe you wanna shove this in there too
If any of you assclowns edits something and ruins it I'll personally come to your apartment and put bouillon cubes in your shower head, then turn off edit rights
03 November 2020 @ 10:57 am
Hey everyone. Before we get started, yes, my name matches with @robert.plant. We're brothers. I wanted to get that out of the way.
I just saw the message about who we are, and there's the part about how our powers are explained by some as being from the grace of a god, if you will. We have no real way of proving that. Aside from the ruins, that is, at least from what I've dug up. But the ruins don't have any links through searches, right? If you run an image search, you come up empty. I'm guessing this is leading to some dead ends, so I wanted to posit some questions for us today.
The big one being: why? How often are things lost to history?
Well, for one thing: pretty often. There wasn't as much written record until the mid-medieval period, I'm talking around the 12th century. And then it took humanity in my world until the early 21st century to really start digitizing what already existed. That meant going into the Vatican in a lot of ways, as well as hitting monasteries throughout Europe. And those are the ones that managed to make it. A lot got destroyed in WWI and WWII.
That's with just two World Wars. This world has had three. So, that's factor number one. Three World Wars. Things got destroyed, even if there was a push within humanities to get things digitized.
So, the next question. How did these people in New Amsterdam start worshipping us if there's a whole lot of information lost to history? From what I've gathered, these people got their information from a figure. But he had to get his information from somewhere, right? There are records that tie into what they're saying, things that only ... we could access. Do I have that right?
What I'm getting as is: there might be a private record somewhere out there about us. Not digitized. Hell, maybe even purposely not digitized. Someone didn't want this out there.
Back home, my brother and I—we're a part of a secret society. Or what was once one. We're legacies, late to the game. But we came to find out we had a bunker full of information waiting for us. Lots of that could've helped us. And there were chapters around the world, too. Mainly in Europe, all to keep some things in check.
What I'm trying to say is—I wouldn't be surprised if there was something like that here, but we haven't figured out the right place to look. Maybe that goes without saying, but I wanted to put it out there.
And if you have experience with this stuff, too? Let us know. It could give us some hints on where to get started here.
Thanks.
02 November 2020 @ 11:43 am
For recent arrivals and anyone who missed it before, a few weeks ago I compiled what information I could find about our experienced here into a document. It needs to be updated with recent events, such as the offer from Riverstone, but should otherwise be mostly complete up to a short time ago. Like last time I posted this, if anyone has corrections or additional information, please let me know.
On a related note, I was wondering if anyone who's still here has met Johann Grey in person or otherwise seen him, and would be willing to share that memory with me. I just want to know what he looks like, not whatever experience you had with him (unless you want to go into that), so it could be as short of a memory as you'd like for it to be.
Similarly, I wanted to know if anyone met or saw images of the James Henries in Zerzura. I don't have any real reason to believe he isn't actually the same person, or at least versions of the same person, as the James Henries here, but it's still worth verifying.
For everyone who isn't particularly interested in or otherwise doesn't have input on the other things I mentioned, I have a different question. What's something that you wished that you knew when you first arrived here?
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