(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.]

[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]

( 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. ]

[decommission]

( You think they're both being blackmailed? )

[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. )

[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. )

[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?)

[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. ]

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. )

[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. )

[decommission]

( Nirad's working alone? )

[adamance]

( Just to survey and report back. Less people will mean less attention drawn to us. )

[decommission]

( Makes sense.

Got a plan for what we should do if we can corner him? )

[ Steve has been literally cornering people he's been trying to interrogate.

It's been about as successful as you'd expect. ]

[adamance]

( Give him no room to dodge our questions. If things are adding up this way, we can't allow room for error. )

[But also make sure whoever is cornering him isn't likely to fly off the handle if it does turn out he did the bombings or is behind the bombings—so you know.

Not Ren.]

[vocalis]

Don't worry, he won't be alone.

[ Maybe Steve wasn't worried, but... Aoba was. ]

[decommission]

( You're going with him? )

[ If it's tailing from afar he's not too worried. ]

[decommission]

( He's gonna have security at his fingertips - or in his head through an implant even if we can get him alone. ) [ Faram kept threatening that public security would show up in a second if Steve tried anything funny, and he wasn't a guy with a mountains of money at his disposal who probably plans for this sort of thing. ]

[vocalis]

Yes. In case he's caught, I can cover our tracks.

[ He doesn't think they'll be stalking too closely, but he figured it would be better to have an escape planned. ]

[decommission]

[ Huh.

With interest: ] ( How? )

[vocalis]

Um, well... first I'd try to use the job I'm under cover with here.

[ He doesn't elaborate. It's kind of embarrassing. But if they're caught in a public place, maybe he can use his being an escort as an excuse. A couple innocently looking for somewhere private in place they don't know they're not supposed to be...

Aoba has to snap himself back out of it before getting too lost in that scenario. ]

But I can also control people with my voice... and I can destroy parts of another person's mind, like memories.

[ Somehow discussing this is much less concerning to him than the first plan. ]

IT'S OKAY, HE ASKED

[shiro2hero]

(Maybe someone was threatening her to keep her quiet about their identities. For whatever reason. I'm just throwing things out here -- I haven't been here long enough to say anything for certain.)

(Forced into?)

[decommission]

[ AND YET it's deeply concerning to the person on the other end of this link. The connection hums, agitated. ]

( Destroy permanently? )

[decommission]

( Honestly, we haven't made all that much progress in a month. We could use fresh eyes looking at all of this.

He made some pro-synth comments and the media latched onto it. After that a hacker leaked a bunch of stuff about him giving money to Mind Life under a false name.

That's why the rest of us went to the match at Regal Street - we were trying to talk with him and get in with Mind Life. )

[vocalis]

Y... yes.

[ That's usually what destroy means, especially in the context of minds. Brain damage is irreversible. Aoba doesn't like thinking of it this way, but that's ultimately what his powers are.

Destructive. ]