mental link; after everything goes down on the evening of :038

[adamance]

[As it becomes apparent that it's time to move on—to shift forward in what feels like an endless pilgrimage, one in which none of the Hosts will gain any "true" enlightenment, as they will never see this culture as anything more than a means to an end. (At least, that's as far as Lexa sees it. Perhaps it's disrespectful. Perhaps she would bristle at it herself if it were about her culture. But then, no one is calling these people primitive and uncivilized like she's heard about her people in the past.)

Not that any of this will be spoken. This mission will go on, but it's a mission that can come to an end. That is something within their reach.

Which is why she opens up a mental communication to all the Hosts.]

( We must discuss, as a whole, how we hope to proceed moving forward. Before we pack up our things, I would prefer that we have some plan in place for how we act next. It'll prevent any further need to take on actions individually as we will be acting for each other. With the knowledge of each other's future actions.

That is not to say that I recommend against actions. But we can't act in contradiction to one another. Out of impatience for each other. We all hope to be done with this mission as soon as possible.

We have confirmed the presence of the Enemy. How do we hope to proceed? How will we ensure that the Descendants do not claim control of this power?

Furthermore, I implore you all to consider why it is the Enemy would act to prevent peace talks that could secure them the Nectar. And why it is that they need the Nectar. We are only fighting one battle here.

I won't lead this discussion. But we must have this discussion. We work well under time constraints. Let's have an idea of how we hope to proceed before we continue our journey. )

[That's her way of setting a time constraint, all in hopes that people will discuss what they will have to do. It's no longer about Keya (as far as she's concerned), but about their greater mission.]

[ooc: please please please treat this as an IC discussion post where people can threadjack and discuss whatever! i figured it would be a good idea to facilitate discussion here!]

Comments

[wrackful]

( Yeah, let's talk about proceeding against someone when we still don't know if it's them. That always works out. )

[Dry and derisive as usual, but there's something grating harsh under the surface. A nerve, cut raw and exposed.]

[adamance]

( I don't understand the point of being contrary here, Murphy. )

[As in: are you arguing with me for the sake of arguing?]

[aluminumandash]

[ His voice is mild, drawled, but with an undercurrent of irritation. ] ( I think it'd be prudent to establish just what it is we know before rushing headlong into strategy, wouldn't you agree? )

[adamance]

( What we know is that someone else was murdered this evening when we once again felt that feeling of dread. Given the time related and the location of it, we might need to consider finding whose blood that is.

As it is, it sounds as if you're opposed to discussing strategy. Why is that? )

[There's a hint of a challenge to her tone. Lexa was trying to foster discussion, after all.]

[aluminumandash]

[ Rust's mental presence flickers in and out—poor reception, his thoughts straying elsewhere. That same slow drawl: ] ( Might be you need your hearing checked.

It was you who knew the aunt, right? Mind telling me something about that? )

[adamance]

( We all met her when she came here to ask for assistance in finding her niece's murderer. )

[Her view is her opinion. There are many people who were party to that experience.]

( Unless there was someone more familiar with her. )

[In that case: no, it wasn't Lexa.]

[aluminumandash]

( My mistake. )

[ He thought it'd been this voice addressing Casiria as though she knew something of the woman's relationship with her niece, prodding her about her allegiances.

Maybe not. ] ( Be useful to have an idea of her character, seeing how she's still out for blood. )

[shri]

( I met her.

During the funeral rights of Levellan. It was Keya's life he saved in his death. A burden she took seriously it seemed to me. I felt not lie in her to the best of my knowledge and experience with others. She wanted only to be one with us in that moment to do what she could to ease our pain. )

[ Lakshmi's tone is faintly approving in the same moment she assesses. That, to her, is the trueness of nobility. ]

( She had some other grievances of course. Little as I was able to tease out from her. )

[aluminumandash]

( You liked her. ) [ A soft-tipped accusation, the tug of an almost-there smile. ]

( Do tell. )

[wrackful]

( The point is the clothes don't answer anything. They're clothes. We don't know who was wearing them, we don't even know if it's Keya's blood. )

[aluminumandash]

( Nothing distinctive about them, just blood-soaked clothes? )

[wrackful]

[A stirring, sensation like something being gathered, but before it resolves-- dropped.]

( I don't know. They were like what the Descendants wear. )

[Implied: he doesn't think that's confirmation, either.]

[adamance]

( You're leaving out two critical components.

The blood is fresh. You of all people should know the difference between caked blood that's settled and fresh. ) [It's a little slice of the knife with the implication, but they need to get to the heart of that matter.]

( And the tracker led us there. The clothes are not a coincidence. They were the heart of what we found. )

[wrackful]

( I'm missing them because they don't change what I'm saying. )

[Blunt, flat. Yeah, he knows the difference, of all people. Which is why he doesn't want to think about how fresh the blood was. How screwed up that was.]

( We don't know whose blood it is, and we don't know who was wearing them. The tracker found them shoved under a bed, but we don't know who put them there. )

[A beat, but impatience drives him on. The real extent they could be dealing with.]

( We're not the only ones sneaking around here. ) [They know it's happening politically. And they know it's happening with this bigger, Nest vs Enemy war.] ( Someone else could've gone in there, same as we did. )

[deployed]

[ The sensation sparks something in the back of Bellamy's mind. He doesn't stifle it. The memory of being on deck at the garstall hunt, watching one of the Descendants on deck in the clothes Murphy's thinking of. ]

( I recognize them. I saw some of them wearing something like that during the hunt. )

[wrackful]

[It's more of an immediate response and from a closer quarter than he was expecting, and there's a beat of surprise for that before he just digests the answer.]

( Let me guess: not the Admiral. )

[aluminumandash]

( Good catch. ) [ Rust's attention snaps to Bellamy, and he lunges instinctively for the memory—as though it's something fragile that's about to fall. Pulls back at the last second. ]

( Around what time? Beginning of the hunt? End? ) [ Where was the sun in the sky? ]

toddles over here

[incinerates]

Politics are all about proxies and fall guys. Even the opposition's AGENT is a stand-in for the real villains here.

They're reasonable questions. [ Paranoid, but reasonable. And then: ] Bellamy thinks the blood is the Descendant's.

[adamance]

( It's not a Descendant. It's a matter of determining which Descendant. )

[incinerates]

[ Picky. Here, he'll clarify: ]

We'll start with "the one who last wore the clothes". You know, in case he's a fall guy.

[adamance]

[Picky because I lacked information whoops.]

( Regardless of who it is, we know that the Enemy lies with the Descendants. )

[shiro2hero]

(... maybe we could confirm it's her blood, if we had a sample of it anywhere. Knowing the abilities of some of our team -- people like Elena might be able to tell that kind of thing.)

[wrackful]

( So we get the scrap we took to her. )

[He doesn't ask how she'd know. Right now, he doesn't want to know.]

[shiro2hero]

(The scrap and a sample from Sam's clothing -- from what he was wearing that night.)

(If we make the connection, how do we reveal we found out? We can't just say "hey, this blood tastes the same".)

[wrackful]

( Reveal to who, the aunt? )

[A little incredulous. He's surprised it's even a question, had taken it as read from the start of this plan that it was an in-house conclusion alone.]

( We can't. Even if it's Keya's blood, what are we going to tell her? Everyone else was dealing with the fire, but we decided to break into her envoy's space, their leader's private quarters, and just happened to find some bloody clothes that we don't even know belong to him. Great way to keep our cover. )