(no subject)

Who: Everyone
When: July 1 and onward. See this post for info.
Where: Kauto + Chioni + Ingress Complex
Warnings: Potential violence. Please label warn-worthy content in your subject headers.

There's a burst of light in the sky when the Ingress breaks, a final flare followed by a shuddering that only those in the facility can feel. A flurry of panicked activity in the complex follows, ushering new arrivals to where they need to go in a hurry, with little time to give them the needed information, much less answer questions. The lights remain on, but dimmer now, life functions still operating but little else. On Kauto and Chioni below, the sky fades into an early twilight, followed by night, and day does not come again.

nerds save the world

Before the end of the day, all TABs receive an emergency broadcast notification outlining the situation. The speaker, a lead Savriite Ingress technician, does not invite panic but nor does he mince words. The Ingress is broken; their best efforts have failed to restore it. The time has come to turn to anyone who can help: scientists, engineers, those who have worked with advanced technology on any world. Formal qualifications don't matter when it could be the end of everything.

"Help us. Before it is too late."

Those who come will have the run of the complex and full access to the Ingress, as well as whatever tools are available and as much coffee as they can drink. People are encouraged to work in groups and share ideas, and a small number of young and nervous technical assistants will be on hand.

the land below

As Thisavrou is denied light and warmth, the weather becomes brisk and descends into bitter cold. Chioni is evacuated due to the effects on the already-harsh weather cycles there, although a skeleton crew of scientists remain behind. On Kauto, the arboreal Region Three and pastoral Region Two suffer the most from the temperatures and the snow that eventually begins to fall. Many crops are frozen over, and refugee citizens are driven from their homes to the Regions One and Five, where stored energy will keep dwellings warm. Save for those who choose to leave the underwater facilities, Region Four remains largely unchanged, but there are unverified accounts of strange aquatic animal behavior near the surface.

Overcrowding, limited supplies and a pervasive fear presents the opportunity for both heroism and foul deeds. Many come together to share resources, supplies and fellowship in what could be the end of worlds, while others take what they can from the unwilling or exploit the desperate. Sentient evacuees are followed by fauna from Region Three and unsettled lands beyond, in search of warmth or food or merely confused by the change in habitat. Some are unthreatening herbivores, while tanglesnakes and clownbees are more troublesome. Others are poisonous hunters, while still others are small, but dangerous when faced as a pack.

Just when all seems lost, light returns to the sky. The Ingress begins to function once more.

the coming days

As the temperatures rise, many demand answers, but most turn to the rebuilding of their lives first. Damage has been done that isn't so easily fixed, and even in the least-affected areas, remnants of the crisis show in the lack of fresh food, in the increased signs of criminal activity. Those who can help others through their own efforts of by organizing assistance are needed, but those with impure intentions are more likely to go unnoticed.

Eavesdropping on the streets may reveal a desire for vengeance. "Those intruders from last week. They're responsible for this, aren't they? What's being done?" But don't listen too closely, or a suspicious eye may be turned on you. "Aren't you one of the refugees from the Midway Hub? You should return to where you came from! All the trouble began when your people showed up!"

Life goes on. But life does not go on unchanged.

[quick ooc note: the Region 4 search & retrieval mission/RNG fight will be posted in a separate log.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

If throwing rocks at windows counts as sabotage, then yes.

[He crosses his arms and looks at Jack with his head tilted, some of his old humor working its way back into his expression.]

I suppose you want to know why I did it.

I'm guessing you're speaking figuratively.

[Because he's finding it hard to picture Lavellan outside the Ingress complex, throwing rocks at windows. 76 folds his arms, appraising. It's hard to discern exactly what he's feeling about all this behind the mask, but at the very least he doesn't seem angry.]

You must've had a reason, right?

[Benefit. Of the doubt.]

[Lavellan's jaw clenches. His voice sounds light, but his expression really isn't.]

I did it because I am a short-sighted, self-absorbed idiot who doesn't think of others before I act, or indeed think at all. And because of that, people starved. And froze. And died.

[Maybe his voice isn't so light after all. With every word he gets more distraught, until he's nearly shouting at himself by the end.

Then he sags and runs his hands over his face, breathing hard. When he speaks again his voice is quiet; muffled.]

I'm sorry about the farm.

Uh...

[That's clearly not what he meant, and Jack is obviously caught off-guard by an answer like this. Something is wrong here, but he's not sure what kinds of questions he should be asking. For all of the self-loathing he harbors, he certainly has no idea what to do about anyone else's.

He'd be willing to write it off as Lavellan's particular brand of flippancy, but the way he becomes legitimately distraught has Jack unsure of how to proceed.]

The farm is fine.

[Not completely fine, but it will be okay. It's part of the reason why Jack didn't evacuate.]

[At least his breathing is starting to even out. When he pulls his hands away from his face, his expression is drawn, but mostly normal.]

I'm glad to hear it. Maybe not everything was devastated after all.

[And...]

And everyone? [They did have a lot of mutual acquaintances.] Ana? How did they all fare?

It was fine, Lavellan.

[Jack can't say that for sure, but he and Ana are okay, and the farm is mostly okay, and it seems like he should be offering reassurance. Still, it's hard not to come off as somewhat stern, given the apparent seriousness of the situation.]

Everyone is fine. What's gotten into you?

[He imagines that breaking the Ingress has gotten into him, probably, but there are still too few details.]

Is it that hard to believe that I regret this?

[Is that the kind of person he'd been before? Did everybody know that but him?]

I don't even know what you did.

['Broke the Ingress' is not very specific, and there are too many holes in this story for 76 to just swallow it without further questioning. There's no motive. No reason for him to do something like this, and Jack isn't even sure what happened, exactly.]

Why were you going after the Ingress?

[It's a bit disingenuous to chastise him about that, specifically, because of course Jack has thoughts about what's really going on behind the scenes, and would certainly take a shot at the Ingress for a variety of reasons, but none of this quite adds up yet.]

[This, at least, he knows how to answer. They'd had him confirm it multiple times, over and over. He knows exactly why he went after the Ingress. The real reason.

It comes out almost as a recitation.]

I did it for attention. I told myself I was doing it so--they would take me to Shepard. But I did it because I was desperate to be a hero. I wanted to be noticed.

[He spreads his hands sardonically.]

Well done, me.

[Jack is expecting a more sensible answer--even if 'sensible' in his book is 'uncovered a grand conspiracy and decided the Ingress needed to be destroyed'. He's got no idea what to do about this kind of self-loathing, to say nothing of what may or may not have happened to bring it on. There is, however, one thing in the self-flagellation that gets his attention, and he's quick to jump on it.]

You were going after Shepard?

[It only furthers his suspicion that something is wrong about mediation. Another puzzle piece slotting into place, even if nothing makes much sense yet.]

Did you find her?

No.

[He actually sounds annoyed that Jack is asking that. Nice job on the self-loathing combo breaker.]

Don't you get it? What I thought I was doing wasn't... it wasn't true. It was never about Shepard, it was about making myself feel important. That's what they saw, and that's what they helped me to see.

[Something of a predictable outcome, given what he knows of how the Savrii operate, but no less frustrating. He feels increasingly like they're speaking two separate languages--Jack all business, while Lavellan seems caught up in some kind of strange soul-searching. The latter is not actually something Jack cares about, but if it's going to impede his search for what really went on, well.

He'll have to muddle through it somehow.]

So, what, did they sit you down in counseling? What is mediation, exactly?

Yes, essentially.

[He's not sure how to explain it, since it was an unfamiliar concept to him from the start. But if Jack already knows what counseling is, then maybe this will be easier.]

They told me where I went wrong and gave me a different path. I don't understand why everyone seems to think that's such a bad thing.

[Any kind of direction where he doesn't cause this kind of destruction again is unequivocally a better one, right???]

I don't want to know what they told you. I want to know what they did.

[This is a stark contrast to Shepard, and it's disparate enough for Jack to think that something funny is going on. There's something to be said for his use of a phrase a different path, without saying just what that path is, but he's willing to bet it's not so straightforward.

If Lavellan wants to continue this self-loathing schtick, he can do it on his own time. Jack wants the facts.]

Talk to you one-on-one? Exercises? Group therapy? Stick a tinfoil hat on you, or something?

[He's aware that makes him sound perhaps a little overly-paranoid--but if there was technology involved in any of this, he thinks it might be important to know about.]

[Lavellan shoots Jack a funny look. Stick a what on him?]

I don't know about that last one, but the rest of it, yes. They gave me lessons on...

[He smirks humorlessly.] Well, you know. I'm backwards compared to everything here. They taught me a little of everything, so I could understand how, ah, modern society works. It was lessons and meditation and...

[He trails off. Sorry, Jack, did you think you got a break from the self-loathing?]

I helped at the distributions centers a few times. Then they released me once the Ingress was fixed. They were... too kind to me, really.

[It's not the whole story, of course. But the rest doesn't seem like something that would be relevant to Jack. After all, the relentless nightmares and the inability to access his magic came from himself, didn't they? It had nothing to do with the mediation. Just his own guilty conscience punishing him. Just stress.]

[Okay, so maybe not a brain-scrambler, but Jack still isn't convinced of any of this, really. Clearly Lavellan has been compromised in some way, and Shepard certainly isn't going to share what happened anytime soon. It leaves Jack with little choice to just recognize that he's not going to get much further unless he changes his line of questioning.]

Modern society?

[Something about that doesn't quite sit right with him, for some reason.]

You mean their society.

[Lavellan's not dumb. He knows Jack is trying to find something suspicious in his story, and it just makes him defensive. The Savrii aren't trying to hurt them. That's the last thing they'd want to do.

He might be the only one who truly understands the miscommunication between the Ingress immigrants and the native Savrii. That makes it his duty to explain.

Like Jack's modern society would be any less alien to him, anyway.]

Yes, their society. The one we live in too now, Jack. Maybe all of us should try to learn about it rather than assuming everything they do has some hidden sinister purpose.

[Ha.]

Not by choice.

[Hell, he's not even sure who's supposed to be in charge of a place like this, and doesn't think much of them so far. It occurs to him that Lavellan doesn't know how the biohazard situation ended up, and given...whatever this is, Jack isn't sure he can trust him with that information.

He's a conspiracy theorist, sure, but he's pretty certain there's some grounds to this one. Arguing about it with Lavellan, however, isn't going to get him anywhere, not when he seems convinced.]

I'm not out to hurt anyone. You don't have to worry about that.

[Self-defense, however, or blowing open the conspiracy that he's sure is there, well. That might be another story.]

[Lavellan isn't entirely convinced. But one of the things the guides had stressed upon him is that everyone can be reasoned with. Everyone has a better side to appeal to. Either Jack is being genuine or he isn't, but if he isn't it's better for Lavellan not to press this right now. An argument about this wouldn't be productive.

So he nods.]

I'm glad. If there's anything you want to know about, I might be able to help you, or find you someone who can. They know that a lot of their society is strange to us and they're willing to help us understand.

[There's a lot to be said about the way Lavellan phrases that--something about it is unsettling. He's certainly seen no effort on the part of the Savrii to acknowledge that awareness, or help people understand, so again he finds himself wondering just what they said or did.

He wants to argue that he doesn't need help, but he's pretty sure that's just going to make it worse. Still, there's an opportunity to learn something, here. He just has to figure out how to phrase the question.]

What aren't we understanding?

[Jack is stubborn. Lavellan has to know that he's going to need some real convincing.]

What did they tell you about themselves?

[Now they are onto a reasonable topic. Lavellan is only too eager to help other people see what he does.]

There isn't any formal structure to their society. All the Savrii originally came from different cultures, so they self-govern based on cooperation and compromise. They believe anyone can be reasoned with and that violence is never the answer. That's why they don't have prisons. All they want to do is make peace, Jack.

That's--

[Ostensibly untrue, but Jack cuts himself off for a moment, deciding how he wants to phrase this. Lavellan wasn't on the Moira with them, he'd arrived directly on the planets, and in his current state Jack doubts he's going to believe what he'll say next. That's not, however, going to stop him from saying it--there's no other answer he can possibly give in response to the assertion that the Savrii are a nonviolent species.

He tries again, a little more carefully.]

The Midway Hub. Did anyone tell you what happened there?

The...

[Obviously, nobody did. He has no idea what that even is, except he's getting the sense from Jack's tone that whatever it is, he's not going to like it.]

No. Why? What... happened there?

Everyone on it was dead.

[Not the full details of the story, but Jack will elaborate if necessary. Right now he just wants to get his point across--if they told Lavellan that they think violence is never the answer, well. Jack knows firsthand that isn't at all true.]

It was the Savrii that did it.

[That... doesn't make any sense. For a moment it's like Lavellan's mind shuts down as he reels. The intermediaries hadn't mentioned anything like the Midway Hub, but from how Jack talks about it, it sounds like common knowledge.

There must be a mistake here. Somewhere. The Savrii wouldn't do that, he's sure. But he believes Jack wouldn't lie, either.]

How do you know?