One New Notification!

[airlockedmods]

[About a day after Cece's message arrives, another small blip! cuts its way through whatever conversations the Airlocked! survivors might be having. But it isn't happening in the space limo this time - it's on the Temerity proper. Some of you are more acquainted with the computer system here, so you should know what that sound means.

You have new Spitter messages!]

Comments

[airlockedmods]

[Ask and ye shall receive.]

[cyan_maid]

...

[. . .]

What the fuck.

[Shit have we. Have we even been watching the goddamn stream what is this is this real are they fucking around is it actually hardlight WHAT'S GOING ON??????????????]

[scourgingstars]

What-?! That's not...that can't be possible.

[cyan_maid]

It's...

[Okay just. Push the chair back from the desk for a minute, breathe, close your eyes. Think. Think think think...]

We. We did have a theory about - about our dead, at least. Or, well, not so much a theory, but...the Doctor found copies of their brain scans here when we got out of the simulation and started exploring the ship. If...if the network can still access the brainscans of the dead...maybe...maybe they could wake them up on their own somehow? Corral them into whatever the fuck this is...o-or it's a trick, actors with hardlight projections, or-

[Could it even be real? Could it be true? Is it worth the risk to find out?]

[serrata]

It has to be someone wearing a hardlight! But-- isn't that such a huge risk? Having actors pretending to be "actors"?

[desperateprayer]

...Riliane... Had a servant who forced her to run. He was convincing enough that only those who knew him or her very, very personally realized he wasn't her.

[serrata]

[ FN-21... wait a second-- ]

That's-- Finn-kun! And the rest of them, they're from your game, aren't they?

[cyan_maid]

Y...Yes...! Lightning and Bolton...M-Max was...from Bolton and Jamie's...

[But how is it possible?!]

[serrata]

This... this is a trick. They have to know by now we're planning something even if they don't know what. They're trying to lure us back and keep us quiet.

[daughterofthemark]

[FUCK]

FN-2187--Sir Finn?!

[misanthropicprinciple]

[You know who hears that name and flaps in all hopeful and excited? Finn's sweet, orphaned pigeon. Coo? Coo? (Finn? Our Finn?)]

[daughterofthemark]

[Oh hey!]

Ah--oh, no, he is not here, I apologize--

[cyan_maid]

[Y'all said Cece had R2's bodies WHAT'S GOING ON]

[daughterofthemark]

[WE THOUGHT SHE DID]

[desperateprayer]

.......

[ Clarith is quiet for a long while, and then finally: ]

...It's a trap.

[ratherdoweddings]

But it's a chance we have to take. If they've got them, we need a plan.

[desperateprayer]

...We'll need to be careful. Of course we'd come running if they had our friends. It's... It's guaranteed we'd have to take the bait.

[ For once, Clarith is looking angry. You don't survive a genocidal war and not recognize a trap. ]

[refusedtoleave]

It's not a chance, it's a certainty. They know we're looking for them...

[cyan_maid]

...

[Jane grits her teeth, squeezes her eyes shut.]

Y...Yeah. Most likely. But. But I don't know if I care.

[desperateprayer]

...Be careful, Jane.

[misanthropicprinciple]

[Here's Junpei, finally, with some Incredible Bedhead.]

We have to go.

[That's his roommate, Clarith.]

Even the trap were baited with something we didn't care about so damn much, this is the first lead we have.

[kingshaming]

[Xander snarls as he reads this]

Light...

A trap, almost certainly. But one someone is going to pay dearly for having the audacity of even trying it.

[scourgingstars]

[oh, he likes you]

We can't rush in guns blazing, least of all if there's a chance this isn't a charade and it may actually be them. Given the network's tendency to raise the dead and replicate bodies, the possibility can not be ignored.

But whether it's a lie or not and despite the absolute certainty of being a trap, someone will absolutely meet consequences for setting it in motion.

[cyan_maid]

[Solidarity Daughter is here for you, Dad]

If you want to smuggle Siegfried in with you this time, I'll help.

Thx for not posting this phone

[refusedtoleave]

We don't even know who arranges all this. It could just be another person who doesn't know.