{VOICE OTA}

[rootandbranch]

[Today you feel a few strange pulses in your signets before you hear anything over Qri's network. It's fairly pleasant, exactly as the signet communications tend to be, and fortunately doesn't at all resemble the strange fluctuations that plagued everyone back on days 103-105. It's more like someone poking at the network to be sure it's stable and not going to do any more of that before they speak. They seem to conclude it's safe after all.]

Hello? Oh, hi-- hi, everybody. It's Geir. If you don't know me, I'm the dragon.

[He's very matter of fact about it. He's the dragon. You're probably aware, his tone seems to say.]

Listen, I don't actually care if you know me, you should just help me and Nines out! He knows all kinds of technology things, so I asked him what we could find out about the Hub with them. But the question is really, what does everyone want to find out? There's been a lot of weird to chew on!

Chew...on? [9S echoes this thought quizzically, for an instant quite distracted. But right, right, the matter at hand—] Er, anyway, like Geir said we’re lacking data on our surroundings. And to know what we’re dealing with, gathering more would be best, so I was thinking I can probably scrape enough parts together to build a pod for that job, once we know what kind of information it should collect. I mean, unless we want everything...

[Geir's tone is still bright and interested. he loves hearing about this, even if part of him is still skeptical.]

Nines isn't even the only person who knows how to build... robots. I know a bunch of you build stuff. Who wants to help?

[9S clears his throat, quietly tacking a little disclaimer on:]

...Not that pods should be mistaken for machines or anything.

[When your kind’s fought machines for millennia certain lines get drawn. Thin, confusing grey lines. (Geir doesn’t know what to say to that, so he just lets it stand.)]


((both 9S and Geir may reply to your toplevels, and also feel free to jump each other! this is the start of a player plot to get a little more technology on the island. ♥ more details here!))

Comments

[antemeridian]

I briefly entertained the thought that it was because the abilities given us had repercussions of some sort. Ones they didn't want us knowing about.

[ It wasn't a stretch of the imagination, after all, but. ]

That was when I arrived, and it has been over a month since. As far as I can tell, no one has ever reported any adverse effects.

[deem]

Lack of control might be one of them. Something that wasn't truly a part of us could be difficult to wield, and if it has the capacity to develop...there's the chance it could go beyond what someone can handle.

[The problem with such modifications is surely the lack of predictability.

So he thinks, as someone who has most certainly altered himself in ways he did understand]

[antemeridian]

[ Her lips purse, thoughtfully. ]

That's very true. [ Dangerously so, especially with those of them who possessed no previous experience with magic at all. ] Outside of the... group training sessions, though, has any acknowledgment of these risks been made? Or steps taken to mitigate them?

[deem]

No, I don't think so.

[And here he still has to find someone powerful enough to easily immobilize or destroy him, if he ever becomes a liability, so he's no better.

So he thinks]

But it'd be beneficial.

[antemeridian]

[ Removal of the signets causes paralysis, but not more than that from what his experience with it sounded like. Does destroying them cause the same, or- something worse? ]

... It sounds as if everyone has a common weakness in the signets that we were implanted with upon coming here.

[ 'Perhaps it was meant for more purposes than one.' ]

[deem]

I'd agree with that. Doesn't seem like we're trusted, exactly, when that's done to us from the start.

[9S isn't inclined to mince words about it]

[antemeridian]

Do you think that it was meant to be a failsafe, then? In the case of someone losing control?

[ Jay's mentioned that Genette thought Qri could possibly be clairvoyant. Qri has so far been laissez-faire in regards to their handling; either the risk of anyone being unable to handle their abilities is a non-factor, or she already has safeguards in place.

That, or their system is even more flawed than thought. ]

[deem]

It does strike me as a very effective way to control us, one way or the other.

[Even if it's simply to impose a sense of dominion over them. Knowing nothing of Qri but their circumstances and that incident that made people lose consciousness, 9S wouldn't put it past her.

He's seen enough in his short life to doubt those with power]