maskormenace | THE MAJORITY REPORT: JULY 10TH, 2018

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THE MAJORITY REPORT: JULY 10TH, 2018

THE MAJORITY REPORT: JULY 10TH, 2018July 2, 2018 had been a rough, brutal day. Native tensions have since cooled down, but they are not like they had been before.

POD-DON THE INTERRUPTION
As heard on all podcasting platforms and discussed on Bwitter:
Nothing like spine-chilling spooks to keep you cool in the summer heat! Hosted by Jughead Jones and Tate Langdon, The Overlook Podcast serves up a delicious feast of facts and frights, digging deep into some of the more gruesome murders, hauntings and conspiracies. Subscribe now and make sure you don't miss the upcoming field trip special!

TAAKO TUESDAY
As sold on Eyetunes, streamed on Fartify, BlueTube, various media outlets:
Today saw the mysterious drop of a self-titled album, Taako, released post-portem by the import's producer with little advertising, but to a great splash on streaming services at midnight this morning.

When asked for comment, Taako's producer, Woden, was quoted saying that the music was certain to entice even those who weren't fans of him originally. Styled as an Island Techno, the reviews are coming in to say that the music is as hypnotic as the tunes are catchy, and Taako's voice combined with the familiar autotune of his producer certainly brings a splash of uniqueness to Jimmy Eat Buffet's Boatdrinks -- and the original Date with Death certainly made us all wishing that we had another album to look forward to in the future.

CRUSHING ON U, K2
As seen on BlueTube and niche fetish websites:
In the newest episode of “I Crush Everything,” K-2SO is featuring a special guest-- Count Dooku himself! However, this isn’t just a simple guest visit, as the main item on K-2’s ‘crushing’ pedestal is… a very distinguished looking antique tea kettle. K-2 stands nearby, hand carefully placed over the kettle lid, and then exerts enough pressure to crush and crumble to teapot slowly. He looks over to Dooku as he does so.

Dooku, standing nearby, can seemingly only look on in wide-eyed horror, hands clenched impotently at his sides as he watches and cries out “No! My priceless and most precious tea kettle! Please, you must not do this!”

WHEN TROUBLE DESCENDS, THEY RISE
As seen in national news, featured in major sites, papers, and television channels:
A new chapter in government-funded imPort superheroes has begun in Maurtia Falls, as the Rogue imPort Suppression Enforcement (RISE) has officially been disbanded and replaced with a new experimental pilot project: AEGIS FORCE. Sponsored by Maurtia Falls Ambassador Padme Amidala and led by Jacob Taylor, aka The Protector, Aegis promises to keep the peace in Maurtia Falls and beyond.

When asked for comment, Ambassador Amidala said "While the presence of Imports here in this world may frequently cause chaos, we hope to continue to prove that we can also provide aid and protection against the chaos. Aegis will act with accountability and honor, and is here to provide a shield against danger for everyone." Meanwhile, Jacob Taylor stated that "People deserve safety and justice, and that's what Aegis is going to bring them. We'll hold the line against the crap that keeps breaking out in the Porter cities, and show the world that imPorts are here to do good."

Aegis is based in the fortified Helix Station in Maurtia Falls, but has also revealed an orbital outpost above the Earth constructed with government assistance and subject to international inspection: PANOPLY STATION, an observation point against threats from space. Panoply is being advertised as a small installation armed only with sensors, but some are skeptical. Political scientist Dr. Glenn Bowden remarked that "this is yet another example of the troubling trend toward imPort militarization we've seen of late. I find it curious that they have developed such an obsession with extending their power into space. What are they so fearful of? An invasion from Mars?"

ARG!!!
As seen around Rumblr:
A new and exciting Alternate Reality Game has been popping up on Rumblr! Random bots will Direct Message user accounts with the image of a glitchy smiling woman -- she seems to be colored red, and she has long fangs. The words ART OOPS appear for five seconds before the A, R, P, and S fade away. And then the screen somehow goes dark for 25 seconds. How fun!

CODE SWITCH
The Homeland Security Advisory System has moved from SWEET SUMMER MILD to DOTH PROTEST TOO MUCH. Everyone calm down.

WANT TO SUBMIT TO THE MAJORITY REPORT?
The Majority Report comes out the 10th and 20th of every month. You may find details and submit here. The cut-off time is 12:01 AM PST on the 9th and the 19th for the corresponding dates.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

No coverage about how there was a robot attack on Project Alke during the protests. Typical. We really need to get better at putting our message out there. On that note, if anyone has questions about Aegis Force or the Mars project, feel free to hit me up.

By the way, am I the only one who noticed that ART OOPS rearranges to ATROPOS? And the last letters remaining in that thing are O-T-O?

[OOC note: Aegis Force signups have been postponed a bit due to the age plot, but anyone interested can follow or friend

aegisforce in the meantime!]

Edited 2018-07-10 17:26 (UTC)

Well, I wouldn't be surprised about the OTO being behind this, but is it possible they're just mentioning Atropos to get our attention?

If they wanted our attention, they could have just used their own name. I think there's a connection here that someone is trying to warn us about.

Do you think the OTO is warning us about Atropos... or someone else telling us the OTO is working for her?

Honestly, it might be both. Someone inside the organization who doesn't like how far they've gone, and how much danger they're putting Earth in. That's my theory, at least.

Although if they are serving Atropos- and if it's involved, they're serving it, no matter what they tell themselves otherwise-

We'd better hope enough of them understand that they've made a mistake.

Enough for what? If anyone in there was capable of stopping this bullshit, they probably would have done it already without trying to warn us.

I think this is another thing we're going to have to deal with ourselves. Just when everyone's against arming the Mars mission, too.

I find it more disturbing that there's very little coverage of the protests at all. Anyone have recs for better news aggregator apps?

What's Project Alke? Or Atropos, for that matter?

Some people I know use Kark, but when it comes to imPort-related news, the Majority Report is as good as it gets.

Project Alke is the reason for the protests, supposedly. There's a hostile space station in orbit around Mars that tried to destroy Heropa earlier this year. A bunch of us have been getting together to build a spacecraft capable of going out there to do something about it.

Atropos is a long story, and I don't have all of the facts. Supposedly she's some kind of death goddess that destroyed another world that had imPorts in it.

So there have been other worlds where this has happened. Sorry I'm still just trying to put all of this information together.

Where's Mars?

[Hoo boy, he's one of Those imPorts from a different Solar System and/or a pre-astronomy world.]

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in this Solar System, and the closest one to Earth. You can see it in the night sky sometimes: a red dot. There's no life there, but it looks like the bad guys have managed to set up an outpost with some serious weaponry.

[ It's also entirely possible that it is the same solar system, they just never had Greco-Roman mythology so they gave it a totally different Latin name. Or it isn't, who knows! ]

So, far enough away that it isn't easy for us to reach, but close enough that they can still reach us. Are these opponents originally from Earth, or have I stumbled into a sci-fi story?

Nah, they're from Earth. I mean, this is definitely a sci-if story, with the teleporters and spaceships and everything. But there are no aliens native to this universe that anybody's been able to find.

The OTO are just a bunch of rich assholes with enough tech to cause serious problems for everyone else. Like building killer satellites and space stations.

Great. So instead of returning to one war, I wound up in another.

So all of this is so you guys can meet them on the same level. How long has this been going on?

The OTO has been launching attacks for almost two years now. But the space station is new. We found out about them a few months ago.

It's not really a war. Not one that you can see most of the time, at least. But it's real, and it's serious.

Not in the conventional sense, perhaps. But a group who have gone to this much effort to kill or conquer for that long, it certainly still sounds like a war to me.

Do they have any kind of reason for doing this, or is it just that they can?

We're still not sure about their reasons. I get the sense that some of them are in it for different reasons. Money and power, sure. Scientific research seems to be a big priority too. And they seem to resent imPorts for a lot of different reasons. They might think they're protecting humanity from us.

Ken Kaneki had a different theory: that they're trying to provoke us into advancing and creating new technology to fight them. It makes as much sense as anything else we've got.

To introduce that technology into the world, or so they could take advantage of those advances themselves?

Either way, it seems like the only common cause we can be sure of is that they're targeting us, and aren't afraid of the collateral damage it could cause to anyone one else nearby. That's not easy to negotiate with. Have there been any communications with their members?

Knowing them, probably both: they'll share it by selling it, and get even richer off the profits.

We tried talking to them a while ago. It didn't go too well. I'll send you the file so you can see for yourself:

[And he sends along the IC equivalent of this.]

[ Going through the communications, he can really see why. That sure is a lot of posturing. How else where they supposed to respond but with nonsense? Think about this diplomatically. ]

What's interesting here is the they really only responded genuinely to Ambassador Galla. What other responses of substance they gave were just as teasing as the memes.

Not because Galla was the only one taking them seriously, there were many genuine messages they dismissed out of hand. Zoe Hange may have been close, but they didn't seem to take her very seriously. The response to Ambassador Amidala proves they aren't concerned with collateral damage. But they considered Galla "smarter" and "worthy" of their attention. The way they see us probably has some reflection on how they see themselves.

Maybe it was her pragmatism. It's hard to call.

Doesn't make sense to me either. Padme's message was plenty serious too, but they weren't impressed. It shows that whatever Galla had that they liked, it wasn't just the Ambassador position.

To me, it looks like Ambassador Amidala was attempting to appeal to their better nature. And, as they admitted to her in response, they don't have one.

Yeah. No surprise there. They've never had any hesitation about targeting entire cities. Galla took a different angle- maybe they liked what they heard.

Or maybe they just saw her as someone they could work on.

That's very possible. Whatever it was that got their attention, it must have been something that served their own interests.

Oops isn't a strong enough word, but I guess they had to get the anagram, right?

They sure like their codes. And here we are again, trying to figure out what it all means.

There's something else. Downloading this ARG could have been a way to spread a virus, or some kind of tracker. It wouldn't be the first time the Network has been compromised.

Sure. Could be that, could be some trickster having fun with the current events. Although I have to say, for a game, doesn't sound very fun. Only one way to find out for sure, right? I think I could find a spare comm laying around to test things out.

If you could test it, that would be great. I've got resources, but not a lot of tech expertise. Will you let me know what you find?

You got it, capitano.

Capitano, huh? Not my formal rank, but I think I like that.

🤔

[(Pretend that's one of the emojis the phone companies made of them, after the satellite mission)]

What is your rank, anyway?

Commander, now that Aegis is running.

[Tragically, Jacob does not appreciate the value of a good emoji, and has never used his.]

Comandante it is!

Commandante, huh? I think I like that.

do you think oto would be that obvious? it's supposed to be some weird video game, right?

It wouldn't be the first time they've slipped coded messages into the Majority Report. But it is the first time they've mentioned Atropos. That's probably a bad sign.

that's perfect. didn't know we were already at the end of our thread.

okay so. it's either a warning or bragging. which do we prefer?

I'd rather have a warning. That might at least mean the OTO is as scared of her as we should be. I'd prefer not to have to fight them both at once.

Do you know anything about Atropos? She's always just been a rumour from another world's apocalypse to me.

that's probably the best case scenario i guess.

i don't know about this world's atropos other than she might have eaten the previous world. just my own. i'm the son of the god hades and she's of his realm.

That's what I've heard from imPorts who were there. That she destroyed everything. Everyone.

So does that make you a god, too? I guess it's too much to hope for that the Atropos in this world would have to listen to you because of your family connections.

except one of her sisters, apparently.

demigod. half mortal which i guess is awkward. i can't promise that she'll listen. she's of my realm though, so i have to do something.

i just find it weird that the fates are interceding in the lives of mortals. not really ideal.

Right. Lachesis. Another damn mystery. It's definitely not ideal for anyone.

[Later, after this exchange:]

This might be a strange question. But have you ever heard of Atropos being linked to floods?

Edited (fonts!!) 2018-07-16 02:06 (UTC)

clotho too. i don't doubt for a moment she's still around despite what i've heard.

unless it's an implication of the 'flooding of the styx' then no. typically it was translated to imply a binding oath on the river styx with the moirai as technical witnesses to the deed. direct flood like what's mentioned in christian myth, i'm not sure.

There's a message embedded here about an ancient flood flowing again, and a pair of scissors. Maybe the OTO made some kind of promise to Atropos? But I'm just guessing at this point.

What can you tell me about Clotho? I've heard almost nothing about her.

in christian myth the ancient flood that cleansed the world from the great sin of the world. the vengeful god choose a single righteous man to build a boat and should he survive with his family, never strike down man kind with another flood.

plato once spoke of zeus's fury over mankind's constant warring and decided to punish man with a flood. prometheus heard of this plan and warned deucalion who build a giant boat.

the scissors makes sense. the moirai are three sisters: clotho, lachesis, and atropos. clotho spins the thread of life, lachesis weaves out the length of time, atropos cuts the thread and ends it. it's like this for all mortals, and they are considered the fates. plato assumed they're the daughters of ananke. my father says they're the daughters of nyx.

sabriel was saying that clotho was controlled by a group called vulcanus in the other world but-- that's about all i know.

[ It takes him a long time to send this text. typing so much is a pain and he has to walk away from it a few times before he finishes it. ]

Captain Ananke was a military officer at Cape Canaveral who used to liaison with imPorts.

[The plot keeps getting thicker and thicker. Jacob keeps typing, oblivious to Nico's discomfort.]

In both myths, the flood is a punishment for humanity. And it sounds like Clotho is the most generous of the three sisters. Maybe she'd be willing to help us.

why am i not surprised? so i've never met ananke,
but she was the goddess of necessity, compulsion and inevitability. if captain ananke is able to be contacted, there may be some connection there.

[ He can't do the typing any more. and Will hasn't showed him there's a voice to text option just yet. so he switches to voice to continue. ]

Sorry. Reading is kind of difficult for me. Clotho would be our best bet if she's alive. If Atropos is alive, and we know Lachesis is around some where, then Clotho cannot be too far behind -- at least that's my theory on it.

Sorry, I didn't know.

[Jacob just rolls with it.]

If Clotho is around, maybe she's in Nonah, or someplace close by. These cities are named like the Roman versions of the fates- or at least that's what I've heard.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

THE MAJORITY REPORT: JULY 10TH, 2018

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