(BACKDATED) DAY 36

[decommission]

[ Hello, friends - have a polite knock on your mental doors. ]

( Sam and me did some more digging on Ngozi trying to work out her angle in all of this. Pretty sure we can rule her out as a secret H+H1 fanatic - whatever's making her act extra shifty seems like it started around the first bombing at the warehouse.

That's about when Ven started acting awfully cagey too. ) [ But they couldn't get past his security to find out what he was hiding thanks to the second bombing.

A pause. ]

( Anyway - I've got the holo-things and articles on a screen out in the living room if you wanna take a poke at them. )

(( OOC: More detailed info is here! ))

Comments

[adamance]

[After reviewing the information, she reaches out again, and there's a clear sense that she's puzzled by what she's found.]

( We have viewed H+H1 as the opposition to our cause, but could it be that we've approached things from the wrong angle? Could they instead be encouraged by Ven Diagrams? )

[If the Enemy were smart, they would go for a more powerful organization rather than a weaker one. In the end, it all ends up with the same ideal: androids being controlled and not allowed to progress.]

[decommission]

( Hard to say, maybe. H+H1 hasn't been claiming responsibility for any attacks, and if Ven's all about the bottom line, seems like he doesn't have much to gain and a lot to lose if the personhood movement for androids catches on with how much his workforce leans on synth workers. But he was pretty gung ho about finding the culprit at first. Same with Ngozi. )

[ All that's clear is that the two of them are covering up something - whether that something is their involvement by association or an outside force leaning on them, they don't have enough pieces of the puzzle to figure that out yet. ]

[adamance]

( It would seem odd for him to appear disinterested. Appearances are important while circumstances arise, but it seems that Ven especially has not been pushed about the matter.

If the Enemy has influenced this world, we could assume it came by way of threat. )

[decommission]

( Hadn't thought of that. ) [ That Ven might've been faking it the whole time. ]

( I think we oughta take another crack at Ven if we can figure out how to get around his security. ) [ It was bad luck last time, but security's got to be even more tight lately. ]

[adamance]

( I have a plan. Our focus should be on Ven and not his systems.

If anything, we should begin to rely on our other talents. We've wasted a great deal of time. I've asked Nirad to begin to trail him to find means to access him more privately. )

[deployed]

( Maybe they were given a reason to be cagey. )

[ The coinciding timing of the bombing with the wariness, that seems worth considering as far as Bellamy's concerned. ]

( They both could have received threats that made them reconsider their positions. )

[decommission]

( You think they're both being blackmailed? )

[deployed]

( I think it's possible. We don't know how far the reach is of some of these anti-synth organizations are. )

[ But it's not unlikely. ]

( Might be easier for someone to lean on people already established in their positions than assassinate them and take their chances with someone new. )

[decommission]

[ He mulls that over for a moment. ]

( Do you think it's weird that those organizations haven't been taking any credit for the attacks? )

[shiro2hero]

(Ven?)

(Sorry, I'm still fairly new here. I've heard about the bombing. And something about the head of security?)

[decommission]

( Hi - ) [ sorry for the short introductions, give him a sec - ]

( Ahtaliah Ven's company is Ven Diagrams, they're one of the big producers of all that personal tech Opians got. One of his warehouses was bombed about a month ago. He put out a reward for any information about the culprits, but then took it down and never mentioned the reward again. Half of us went to break into his headquarters to find out what he might've found that he didn't want to share. They had to leave in a hurry - that was when the second bombing happened.

Ngozi's the Public Security Commissioner for the city. Back at the vigil for the Regal Street Bombing Sam Alexander picked up with his power that she was holding something back about the investigation. )

[shiro2hero]

(And... now you think the commissioner isn't connected to this H+H1 anymore? What did he pick up, do you know?)

(Do we think the bombings had anything to do with the original break-in?)

sorry for all this info dumping sjkgb

[decommission]

( Sam figured that she wasn't being completely straight whenever she mentioned that they didn't know who the bombers were, but he couldn't tell if it was because she was lying or something else about the way she was wording it throwing off his powers. He was pretty sure she wasn't being honest about working hard to catch the guys, though.

Don't think so. The target at Regal Street looked like it was supposed to be Kun-Kun, this Bout It Out player that's been forced into the pro-synth spotlight. )

[headinjuries]

( I'm kind of amazed at how much lying there wasn't. )

[ He'd been expecting the worst when Steve asked for his help. But a surprising amount of that footage was...perfectly fine.

No complaints here! ]

[decommission]

( It's kinda strange, but at least that's one theory crossed off the list.

How's your head doing? )

[ For Sam's sake he's not too sorry that they didn't uncover a treasure trove of inconsistencies. ]

[headinjuries]

( Pretty good, for now. Kinda tempted to stay in, keep the news off, and savor it for a while. )

[decommission]

( Sounds like a plan. I was gonna make more of those funny pancakes later, if you get hungry. )

[ He's one of the people that makes sure the fridge is relatively full.

Having money is gr8 ]

private

[sizeofyourbaggage]

[ Sam definitely wants to take a poke at them - he hunts through, and some of it is stuff he'd known from the failed break in attempt, but there's a ton of new stuff, too, and it takes him a little bit to sort through it. When he reaches out to respond to Steve, he does so privately. ]

( Hey, Steve, do you mind if I get your thoughts on some of this? )

[decommission]

[ After so much open conversation from the rest of the floor, Sam's private communication gets a brief flicker of surprise. ]

( Sure - what're you looking at? )

[sizeofyourbaggage]

[ There's a flicker of something vaguely apologetic in return, but he keeps it private. Sam's just a little bit paranoid these days, and he doesn't want to voice anything to the Nest at large. ]

( It's not just the information, it's - this mission in general, I guess. You've been at it longer than me, what's your opinion of all this? )

[decommission]

[ The connection hums, his thoughts somber. ]

( Haven't seen hide or hair of the Enemy we're supposed to be after. Until the bombing at Regal Street I wasn't so sure we had much business messing around with the future of someone else's world.

Still not sure about that. )

[ Tension threads into his words. ]

[greentech]

( Huh. That's interesting stuff. What exactly do we do with all of it, though? )

[decommission]

( Not sure yet, but I think we've got enough reasons to try again at digging up whatever Ven found. )

[greentech]

( That's probably doable. What exactly was Ven digging into? Do we have an idea of where to start? )

[decommission]

( You can probably find some articles in the news archives about a warehouse bombing from a couple of weeks back. The place was owned by Ven's company, he put out a reward for any information on the culprits then pulled it kinda quietly, never mentioned it again and no new info came out after that.

Some of us tried infiltrating his headquarters, but security clocked them before they got anything. )