video | un: plushiesidequest (in which she talks about an NPC visitor)

[reincarnesiac]

( Oh look! It's that same person who melted a radio tower about two weeks ago? Alex waves to the camera, flashes a smile, then sits down on a plush chair in her apartment and leans forward, planting her elbows on her knees. )

Hey, everyone. I know more of you look at stuff here than comment, but think about doing some commenting this time, you know?

( She breathes in, then out in a sigh. )

So I sent out that signal a few weeks ago. I heard back this morning from a guy outside the barrier that goes by Scylla. He confirmed the multiverse is unraveling. He wasn't happy about it.

( Her hands lay over each other, one holding the other at her wrist. )

He also confirmed this pocket dimension of Echo's we're in has a lot of bubble cities trying to solve the problem through point based reality television style game-show setups. But Echo isn't the only one working to try and save the concept of existence. There are other people out there with other ideas. Scylla didn't know if any of them show any more promise than Echo's way, because no one's had confirmed results or failures based on attempts.

( She opens her hands, staring at the camera. )

He said he'll help us figure out how to close the tear after it's open, because that's when he can get in here. Shout out to Aurora for her work keeping us safe until Echo demands otherwise.

( Sitting back, she frowns at the camera. )

I can sum up what else we talked about if people ask, but this seemed important to get out first. He said I probably won't see him for a bit when he arrives, but anyone who does run into him, he's a guy... fairly handsome? Taller than I am, shorter than Gorgug. Paler than me too. Reddish-brown hair with waves that he wears neatly cut but not close shaven. He was scruffy. Had one of those friendly faces you know likes to tease people until he was getting more serious. I don't know, ( she sighs ) it's been a surreal morning.

Comments

Voice

[shadowsincryo]

I see. So he confirmed that worlds are indeed dying. And he couldn’t say why because either didn’t know, or?

[reincarnesiac]

My guess is didn't know, but it also wasn't a long conversation. I won't even say just trust him — he's got his own goals, his own person he's hunting answers down for — but the dying worlds? That's not the part that felt uncertain.

( She sighs again. )

Sorry, but I am not the smartest person in the room, and I know it. So I'm telling you gut instincts, this stuff is real.

text | un: bahamut

[oblige]

Had this Scylla any way to prove the veracity of his claims?

[reincarnesiac]

Can you disprove any of his claims? That's the problem. We can't do either. But this is the first time that I know of any outside voice saying, yeah, those things Aurora told you that Echo says are true? Are true. While also disagreeing with Echo.

The guy really did not care for Echo, it was pretty obvious.

voice; un: Odin

[odinpusrex]

He has confirmed little beyond that which was already verified—should one believe aught that escaped his lips.

[Well, save for Echo not acting alone, but that too could be inferred by being here long enough, by his measure.

Barnabas has experienced Moorecroft, and there is of course Solmara as well, so other bubble cities are known to him. Aphaia presented them with one such planet—universe, perhaps—that was in active decay. Its last fibers barely holding on as the world ran on gleeful and violent chaos to welcome their inevitable end...]

Have you reason to trust him?

[reincarnesiac]

Maybe for the folks here longer. Been kind of hard to know when you're newer, yeah?

( She's not arguing, considering she sighs again after saying this. The other city known, but the numbers was a question; no one told her about they dying world. )

His goals. The ones he was up front about. Echo has someone he loves in one of the bubble cities. That was believable, the way he talked about them. He wants answers much like we do, only he's not coming from inside one of these places. He's starting on the outside, wanting to know what's in here.

text | un: tsundoku

[welcome_summer]

Scylla? Like the rock and a hard place monster from mythology Scylla?

I guess it... still fits the naming theme....

[reincarnesiac]

What mythology? What naming scheme?

un: Accelerator; text

[levelshift]

Did this asshole have any more information on who else is trying to save existence beyond Echo? How the hell does he know there's more of them out there?

[reincarnesiac]

I didn't get much chance to press on that point, or what specifically he is, or what he belongs to. My hope is him showing up here in person means one of us here can ask and get that information, because you're talking about what was maybe ten minutes of conversation at most? Then he was gone.

voice; un: champion

[twin_blade]

I'm on team this-sounds-fishy-as-hell.

How does this guy manage to hop Echo's worlds when no one else can? We can't know if any of what he said is true.

And if he gets in here, how do we know he's not dangerous? Shouting out into the void and trusting the one who speaks back sounds like a mistake.

[reincarnesiac]

Same way we can't know he isn't telling the truth, or that he isn't helpful, not only dangerous. Besides, part of the point in what he was saying to me was the fact he's not here because of Echo's bubble worlds. He was checking in after he caught my call because he thought it was a distress cry. From a failing city.

un: ltsetsu | video

[backtostart]

[ Has Alex ever seen Setsu's apartment? Now she has! Or at least the plain, undecorated walls and cabinets of the kitchen that can be seen behind Setsu. ]

Your signal actually reached someone? I guess it really wasn't for nothing, then... [ They actually sound relieved at that—and then they're back to being serious. ] That said, please don't attempt that on your own again.

As for the person who contacted you, I don't know what to make of him... According to Aurora, this pocket dimension should be difficult to locate unless someone's been inside it once before, so that leaves two strong possibilities for his origin. [ Plus infinite weaker possibilities. ] But his motives for wanting to enter aren't entirely clear. If he plans to help close the vent, how long does he plan on being here?

[reincarnesiac]

( Look at how................... well, like Setsu all that is. Alex would have more concerns if she didn't know people who did exactly that. Personalization means a certain level of relaxing. Alex has already tipped into it, but she's a person who needs to have her space reflect herself to relax. It's part of why she sleeps so poorly at hotels. )

I know, color me surprised. I don't know if he'd been in this pocket dimension for a while, or if he goes in and out. I only had so much time to talk to him. As far as staying... I also don't know. Aurora didn't seem concerned about him tipping any count off since he's not a mission participant when I talked to her earlier? Plus she showed me how to spell his name.

( Make of that what they would. )

Side question, Setsu. Are you up for hanging with me and Kaeya to see stupid videos but also possibly talk less dumb things ahead of next week? I'm catching him up on what reality television can look like, considering it's kind of what we're living now.

Video | un: CliveRosfield

[herofhopeless]

[Alex he is CONCERNED. Please stop doing dangerous stuff without someone with you.]

Alex...

[He sighs.]

I read through some of the comments already, so I'm not going to harp on you about whether we can trust this person or not, but if it is possible to communicate with him without tearing open a hole that can do serious damage to our entire community, why are we not exercising caution and doing that?

[reincarnesiac]

( She pauses for a moment, then goes: oh. )

Sorry, I know Aurora called it something else. The venting? Vents are apparently built in which makes other questions worth asking but, in this case, that's the tear. The one being deliberately opened. Stuck open. Left that way. That thing.

So you know, the thing Aurora is doing to us in less than a week on Echo's orders.

un: Wolfman | Video

[will_chase_balls]

If there are other entities trying their own methods, does that mean it's possible that there's a way without destroying any worlds?

[reincarnesiac]

( She shrugs, visible on camera for the moment. )

Maybe. Maybe the way to solve the numbers problem is merging realities together, somehow. I don't know what kind of possibilities there are, but it doesn't have to only be like this.

[ un: SleepNear // text ]

[quibblingfunctionary]

You are an idiot, albeit a gutsy one.

Did you not think to use your device to take a picture of the man? Perhaps visit with a sketch artist so we can recognize that which is not one of us?

[reincarnesiac]

Probably a few who agree.

There wasn't anything to photograph, is the problem. But do you know a sketch artist here? That's something I'm happy to do.

@jaycetalis | audio

[hexcope]

Really hate to be agreeing with Barnabas here, of all people...

We're going to be defenseless when this guy comes in, you know.

[reincarnesiac]

You're forewarned. It's a lot more than being surprised when a stranger is around operating on his own rules, and not under Aurora's constraints, you know?

( She sighs, rubbing at her forehead unseen. She matches audio to audio, so at least he's not staring at anything in particular. )

Look, you know how radio signals work, right? The fact he picked up on mine meant he was either close enough to already do that, or he was in the improbably correct place to get it, 'cause it's not exactly multidirectional once in space. The fact he told me he's looking for information on the kind of bubble city we're in means there's a good chance he didn't 'just' get my signal, either, when we're not the only bubble city around here. We did probably 'just' become the most 'interesting' one, but we're also getting irradiated on orders. No one does well with weird space rays. And the tear, the vent vulnerability was going to start existing on Echo's orders on the eighteenth no matter what.

Now we know he's coming. Seems a bit better than the surprise if it'd happened even without any one of us knowing first.

video | un: skullwing

[crimsonsphere]

Great. I love getting second sources for the thing we all want to be a hoax.

[arrrrrgh but okay.]

Did he say what those other ideas are? Were they more or less inane than what Echo does to us?

[reincarnesiac]

Our conversation was too short, and I don't know that he has concrete information on what they're doing, only that other people are acting.

video | un: punkrock99

[krtaps]

Oh my god we were right?! It IS a big stupid reality show!

[reincarnesiac]

( Alex smiles, seeing Julie on camera such as it is, then sighs with a touch more of an exaggerated air than she's been using. )

Yeah. We're on a really big, stupid reality show. Sucks to be right sometimes, you know?

video ⚡ un: Thor

[asgardianlegend]

[That's a face he hasn't seen for a moment. And, honestly, the information she's providing is good to go with what he's gotten from Loki and a few others that he's interacted with around Etraya, but Thor hasn't really sought anyone out.

Aside from Loki and Wade.]

This is pretty fortuitous. Perhaps a bit too much. Do you think this Scylla can be trusted?

[reincarnesiac]

( She smiles, glad to see Thor. Familiar faces here just always feel a treat, especially after the unfamiliar one this morning. )

Trusted? Depends what degree you mean. Trusted that he told some truth though? Yeah. Trusted about reality being messed up and coming undone across universes? Yeah. Trusted not to mess with us in some way, intentionally or otherwise?

( There she just shrugs. )