maskormenace | 001

Entry tags:

001 | Video

[The camera clicks to show a close-up of a nice shot of leather crotch, which quickly whips upwards to show a white crescent insignia on top of a gray upside down triangle. Look, he hasn't exactly needed to frame himself for a glorified skype conversation before, all right? The Authority would usually just headmail each other.

After a moment more of fidgeting, showing off some various shots of the strangers black trench coat, the camera finally makes its way up to his cowled face--a very, very unhappy cowled face.]

Look, you can all just skip the multiverse pep talk. Until yesterday I lived in the goddamn Bleed between realities, and me and four alternate versions of myself play poker every other Thursday. I'm familiar with the concept.

What I want is how exactly they brought us here. An Earth alternate too stupid to get itself out of the cold war shouldn't have the technology to snatch people from other dimensions.

[Especially without the Authority knowing about it. But he decides to keep that little piece of information to himself, because it's none of their fucking business.]

I tried asking the woman that brought me here, but she was too busy trying to explain to me what a gee golly great place America was. Give me answers and maybe I won't find trying this thing a major waste of my time.

[Goes to hang up, but stops at the last second, and adds:] Speaking of, don't tell me any of you actually bought that bullshit. There's no such thing as a free lunch, kids.

[And with that, he turns the feed off.]

Threaded | Flat

"They." You assumed a "they"? Try more of a "she."

They won't let anyone near the Porter, apparently.

[there's a soft slant to her eyebrows that makes it clear what Lapis thinks of that. way to be even more blatantly suspicious, government.]

It wouldn't surprise me if humans hadn't built it, honestly. Everything else I've seen here makes it look way too advanced for them.

Sooooooooooo, who won most often?

[Hal wonders if one of those alternate versions was Batman. That grumpy personality and aesthetic is far too familiar.]

Well yeah, it's not a free lunch. They want us to sign up.

Nice suit.

[Is ??????? an emotion because Clark is feeling it. It's not just the suit, or the mannerisms. Even if Hal hadn’t pointed it out they look so similar it’s so obvious it’s as if it were done on purpose.

But there’s… something else tugging at the back of his mind. Like he’s forgetting something- something important. And considering he has eidetic memory that’s not a feeling he’s used to. So he does what he always does when something makes him uncomfortable: he ignores it.]

They don’t have the technology. Technically they don’t, anyway. They used to be able to control the porter but they haven’t been able to since it got infected by Lachesis.

Have you been told about her?

[ Have a begoggled, half-frustrated blond, who is struggling to not be amused at the old dude. Anyone that can't manage the comm is an old dude. ]

I don't know if it's their tech. Some of the imPorts have been in another wrong corner of the multiverse before here.

[ Which is incredibly annoying, because, after five years there, here should have never happened. Life sucks. Might as well find out all the bad news upon arrival. ]

And nobody said it was a free lunch. They expect us to be their nukes and their front lines if a war happens. In the meantime, they want us to police each other. So you'll be singing for your supper.

By the way, pro tip: this is the Network, not a hook-up site. Deliver all packages to Tinder, Grindr, and Tony Stark. Thanks bro.

I think I'm still two steps back there. [ Wrapping her head around the alternate earths and other dimensions and all that good nature. She only just realizes the truth of his statement. ]

I hadn't got to how these guys were able to do this, yet. It's a pretty good question, though.

No -- No I don't think anyone buys that, but I think they got the tech by accident.

It's the only answer I can come up with. Why else would they keep bringing people like you?

[There's a calm, composed air about Crane, and he speaks in that cold, clinical tone that makes someone want to punch him in the face.]

Well. Maybe you should seek answers, rather than wait for them to fall into your lap. Addressing this network is akin to shaking rotten apples loose from the tree, methinks. The best fruit is at the government, wouldn't you say?

[ "An Earth alternate too stupid to get itself out of the cold war shouldn't have the technology to snatch people from other dimensions." Why is no one else laughing at that? Because Hank is. It's so true but then here they are. ]

None of it's free, that's for damn sure. But you gotta pay the piper in the end whether you Register or not, so might as well make out with what little benefits you can, even if you don't buy any of it. All you can buy is the cold war never left, and time travel's real but useless to us. [ What is the good of knowing his bro from the future? Seriously? ] Like Quantum Leap, except without the leaping back. Just said fuck it and blended it all together.

..."Bleed between realities" sounds even messier, though, so I'm sure you're just dandy.

Well, to be fair, I don't think the technology is originally theirs.

[P.S. your daughter hates this kid.]

[He'll hit this Network address on Friday, after the chaos of War had died down, and just before Famine hit full throttle.

He needed a bit to recover, after all -- being Pestilence wasn't a Pacific cruise.]

It's a bit authoritarian, isn't it? [Beat.] The black trench coat.

Edited 2015-06-06 02:53 (UTC)

[ This is a hideously, disgustingly cheerful young lady. She says, chipper: ]

Actually, we offer a free lunch to new imPorts at the cafe where I work.

One could argue that an Earth still in the Cold War should have blown itself up years ago, but here we are.

Either way, I believe someone's already said it, but the Porter doesn't seem to be under their control.

I'm curious. What kind answer would convince you that this wasn't a major waste of your time?

[ He's not really sure there are adequate answers to be had about anything here, but it seems like a relevant question to ask a man who plays poker with his alternate selves. (Reed would do that, Matt thinks, but he doesn't sound like a Reed.) ]

[ how hard is it to point the camera at your face? kanaya just shakes her head, but once it finally focuses, it's a face she's seen before, though not anyone she really knew. whether she can tell him that just yet or not, she's still determining.

there are more important things to say at the moment, important distinctions others haven't made. ]

You've got it wrong, actually. They don't have the technology.

The technology has them.

Threaded | Flat

VOICE.

video;

video

video;

Some time after midnight; from bat symbol

video; ID reads Clark Kent

no subject