21:23 <Crion> It's February 4th, nigh 21:23 <Crion> It's February 4th, sometime after sunset, and the bowels of the great tunnels beneath UMBC stretch out before you. 21:24 <Crion> First, of course, is the question of whether you want to raise that ramp behind you, however. There is a corresponding panel down here, without the lock. It's a bit shabbier. 21:26 <Crion> But after that...man, there's a lot of pipes. These are supposed to be service tunnels, but they're wider and have more side branches than maybe you were expecting; doors leading to shunt rooms, lights low but mostly stable overhead, the sound of rhythmic, gear-turned yawning and banging somewhere down below. 21:26 <VoxPVoxD> Raising it makes our B&E less conspicuous, but leaves us without an obvious escape route... Stewart's glad he doesn't have to make that decision. 21:32 <dammitwho> We're changelings, we always have an obvious escape route. 21:32 <dammitwho> Just not always a safe one. 21:34 <banana> Melanie makes little creaky 'hmm' noises. "It probably doesn't matter what we do with the ramp now that we're down here. There wasn't anyone roaming the building, and we also aren't likely to be, um, physically sprinting in this direction." 21:35 <dammitwho> Maggie nods. "Dealer's choice, then." 21:36 <banana> "Which is... who?" 21:43 <VoxPVoxD> Someone, invisibly, hits the switch to raise the ramp back up. 21:43 <trenchfoot> Nels: "...I'll just hit the button this time." Melanie made it weird when she ordered the lift down. 21:43 <trenchfoot> ...Or Stewart will. 21:43 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Whew. Okay, let's go." Embarassing! 21:43 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Whew. Okay, let's go." Embarassing! 21:44 <CBN> Tony takes a quick glance over his shoulder. No one knows they're there, but he doesn't know know that, all the time. 21:46 <banana> Melanie's going to send people a couple of messages to check whether phones are working down here and to remind people to put their phones on silent if they haven't. Does any of this... arbitrary large machinery seem out of place, or is it just in the background? 21:47 <Crion> Phone service seems to work fine. Really well, in fact. Full bars! 21:48 <banana> <Excellent.> 21:48 <Crion> There's no machinery in and of itself in the tunnel; just lots of pipes running to and fro in an orderly if complicated fashion. There certainly sounds like there's other machinery up ahead, and it's unclear its nature, but there aren't like, gears jutting out of the walls or anything. 21:49 <VoxPVoxD> ...what about wifi? 21:50 <Crion> There's an unsecured network, "default". 21:51 <VoxPVoxD> Text goes out: <stay off the wifi. probably didn't need saying but> 21:54 <dammitwho> It takes Maggie a few seconds, but she remembers how to turn off the 'wi-fi' on her phone. What does 'wi-fi' stand for anyway? Wireless fidelity? 21:55 <trenchfoot> Wireless fireless. 21:57 <Crion> First, the obvious: you're standing at the end of what was originally an escape tunnel for campus administration in long-ago ecstatically-feared race riots that never occurred, which have since been repurposed into tunnels for servicing and ease of movement for facilities staff. No conception of that intuitively leads to the installation of such machinery of the sort making the noises you're 21:57 <Crion> hearing right now -- which you did not hear while on the ramp. 21:57 <Crion> That said, you're pretty sure you haven't accidentally stepped into the Hedge or anything. 21:58 <Crion> That's got a tangible feel to it; this has a different, more solid, more 'real' one. 21:59 <banana> Melanie: "Isn't there too much noise? What are they doing down here, canning tuna?" 22:00 <Crion> This space certainly is wide enough to move stuff around underground -- high ceiling, wide lanes. The motley can walk five abreast down here pretty comfortably. This isn't quite "we found a secret oversized research lab under a police station" from one of Stewart's video games, but it's closer to that than a service tunnel in Tony's estimation, or an escape route in Nels's. So many pipes... 22:01 <VoxPVoxD> <the machine people have an affinity for artifice - physical infrastructure. the ones I saw were attached to the apex oil terminal> 22:02 <banana> <What was attached? Not the people themselves right> 22:02 <banana> What am I doing, Stewart can hear us if we just speak out loud... 22:05 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart would always rather type than talk if given the choice. <not physically no. but if the guy here got disconnected from the big machine it might be like when you put a hot rock in a terrarium for your pet lizard. or like count dracula needing dirt from his homeland or w.e> 22:05 <trenchfoot> Nels: "This seems... too big for an escape route? Does anyone know if they've expanded these since they were built? Setting aside the machinery that has no business being down here." 22:06 <Crion> The good, or at least expected, news is that the tunnel does seem oriented in the direction shown on the maps, towards the administrative center of campus south of the library, rather than shooting off some place else. 22:07 <VoxPVoxD> Then at least we can keep moving forward while we study and strategize. 22:11 <CBN> Tony: "It's not a service tunnel I've ever seen, so it's gotta be some kind of expansion. Now I guess the question is, did it get expanded a normal way, or...you know. Weird wizard bullshit expansion. Cults and all." 22:11 <Crion> The tunnel continues like this for a time. It's immaculate -- no one's left any tools lying about anywhere -- and there are still doors leading off the main line every fifty feet or so. These are unlabelled, and most of them have no visible means of actually opening them; no knobs, hinges, keypads, none of that. The sound of clanking is getting louder. 22:12 <trenchfoot> Nels is... concerned. Not concerned enough to stop, but Concerned. 22:13 <trenchfoot> She will gesture to the sealed doors in an "are you guys seeing this" kind of way/ 22:13 <VoxPVoxD> Very Source Engine. 22:13 <dammitwho> Maggie pushes gently on one of the doors to see if they just swing open or something. 22:13 <CBN> Tony: "Huh. I hate this." 22:14 <Crion> They do not. 22:14 <Crion> They seem like just...indented wall. 22:19 <dammitwho> She shrugs, and continues on then. 22:23 <Crion> Eventually, probably four hundred feet from the tunnel entrance -- so that would put you what, under the freshman dorms? Maybe beneath the eastern part of the quad -- you hit a great sealed door. Looks like the kind of thing you'd find in an industrial conduit. Or a bomb shelter. 22:24 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Huh." 22:29 <dammitwho> Is there a big metal wheel we can turn to open the vault door or something? 22:30 <trenchfoot> Also, any sort of text on it? 22:30 <Crion> There is no text, but there is a big ol' lever off to the side with two lights. One's red, one's green. Red one is lit up right now. 22:31 <banana> Melanie: "Well.. we're in the right place. This is too expensive to be a flourish by the Dean's office." 22:31 <VoxPVoxD> We don't even have to solve some kind of environmental puzzle? Very suspicious. 22:32 <banana> To Stewart: <Draculas don't need that, or Lister would spend his holidays in Louisiana> 22:32 <VoxPVoxD> < :) > 22:33 <dammitwho> Maggie grabs ahold of the lever, then looks to the others: "Any reason I shouldn't pull this?" 22:33 <Crion> "Yes," says the man in the hardhat, looking up from his cliphoard where he sits sideways on the saddle of a tiny hauler cart with no trailing cargo attached, like he -- and it -- have been there all along. "Please don't touch that. You're gonna want to let me get that for you. Thanks. Just have to clear up some ground rules, first." 22:34 <banana> <Huh> 22:34 <banana> <Is that like an emoji made of punctuation? 22:34 <banana> > 22:34 <trenchfoot> Um. 22:35 <banana> Oh, shit. Melanie almost drops her phone as she steps forward to get in front of this guy. 22:35 <Crion> The man in the hardhat: "So I can see four of you, and I'm guessing number five is here too, he's just shy. That's fine. Name's Hanley Gunnarson, I'm...well, call me the foreman." 22:36 <dammitwho> Maggie jumps! 22:36 <CBN> Tony furrows his brow. He what...? 22:37 <banana> "...............Good evening Mr. Gunnarson. Um, you expected five people?" 22:38 <Crion> He waves the clipboard. "Your group's got two leaders and you're texting the kid what got involved over at Apex Oil. My interest here is not to repeat in any way, shape, or form what happened at Apex Oil." 22:39 <Crion> "So yeah, I suspect he's around here somewhere." 22:39 <banana> Melanie's trying to get a look at what the hell is written on that thing. 22:42 <Crion> Gunnarson trivially notices Melanie's attempt to read the clipboard, but he seems more slightly annoyed by the perceived immaturity, not alarmed, and doesn't particularly move to hide it. Whatever's being written on there, it's not in English. Doesn't even use the same alphabet. 22:46 <Crion> Melanie can tell it looks a lot like ancient Sumerian cuneiform...but that it absolutely is not. 22:46 <banana> What the fuck. Well, if we've got two leaders, they should speak up. 22:47 <banana> In lieu of which she'd better continue this rather awkward conversation... "Alright.. I'm sure nobody wants that. Is there something you do want?" 22:47 <Crion> "Anyway, so." He pats the hardhats sitting on the back of his little hauler. "When you're inside the Infrastructure, hardhats at all times. Do not touch anything. Do not take pictures of anything. Feel free to ooh and aah all you want, but no experiments. I'd say keep your mouth shut about what you see in there, but after doing some digging, I get the feeling you're not only impossible to 22:47 <Crion> keep out of some place you want to be, but not particularly inclined to go talking about it to people." 22:47 <Crion> "So this is the compromise." 22:48 <CBN> Tony: "Can we keep the hardhats when we leave?" Steve would love one. Probably. 22:49 <Crion> “Hanley Gunnarson” -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6SV-5rm2Ig I would stand in line for this. There's always room in life for this. 22:49 <Crion> Gunnarson: "Yeah, sure. They're just hardhats." 22:50 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Nice." 22:50 <Crion> Oddly enough, though...Stewart does feel a point of Glamour escape, and the foreman's eyes light up. 22:50 <VoxPVoxD> At the same moment, Stewart appears out of thin air to take one. 22:51 <Crion> Gunnarson's only reaction to both is, "Hey, kid. Thanks." Unclear whether that's about appearing, taking the hard hat, or the tip. Maybe all three. 22:51 <VoxPVoxD> No problem. "No problem. So is this your work site?" 22:52 <Crion> He sighs. "For now, yeah. Who knows for how much longer. Whole country is...deindustrializing." He flips the switch, and the door begins to rumble open as low sirens pulse and alarm lights swivel around. 22:55 <banana> Hope this thing fits over Melanie's head. "Thank you. Sorry if this isn't polite, but could we get into a little more detail about what's going on here?" 22:55 <banana> "Like, eschatologically it's- you represent someone, some thing, powerful.. but we're here for a reason, you might even know what it is, and you're letting us in because.. that's okay? You aren't actually aligned with- whoever?" 22:58 <Crion> When the door opens, the motley is looking out across a great chasm, crossed by a single metal latticework bridge which seems to be made entirely out of girders and chain-link. Beneath them, and from all the walls, extrude The Pipes. Thousands of them, all coming from somewhere, different sizes, different shapes, some belching flame intermittently, some strange gasses, some loud, cacophonic 22:58 <Crion> sounds, and some nothing at all. At intervals, great pistons slam down out of the darkness of the ceiling, covering some of The Pipes. There seems to be no real pattern. 22:58 <Crion> "RIGHT," says Gunnarson over the noise, "IN THE BACK OF YOUR HARDHAT YOU SHOULD FIND EAR PROTECTION, IN A SMALL SEALED PACKET." 22:58 <Crion> There are indeed ear plugs tucked in. 22:59 <trenchfoot> Well I don't much care for that at all. 22:59 <CBN> Tony obliges. Hat, ear plugs. Ow. 22:59 <trenchfoot> Nels does the same. 22:59 <Crion> To Melanie: "YEAH, CAN'T HELP YOU THERE. I JUST WORK HERE." 23:00 <dammitwho> Maggie hums cheerfully to herself (though she can barely hear it). Ah, now this is nice! 23:01 <banana> . . .Let's not create conflict where there isn't any. It's not like the Wyrd is involved in this. "Then thanks for the.. site inspection." 23:02 <Crion> Conversationally, as they walk: "YOU KNOW THEY DON'T EVEN GO ANYWHERE? WELL, MAYBE THEY DO, BUT YOU GO OUTSIDE AND DIG A HOLE TO DO SEWAGE LINE MAINTENANCE, YOU DON'T FIND ANY OF THIS." 23:02 <Crion> "MARVEL OF ENGINEERING." 23:04 <VoxPVoxD> The earplugs block out a lot of the noise, but some of it's so low-frequency the rest of his body, rather than his eardrums, are picking it up. "DID THE MACHINE BUILD THIS?" 23:04 <Crion> Gunnarson: "AYUP." 23:04 <banana> Melanie: "WHY?" 23:04 <VoxPVoxD> At least the noise makes it harder for Stewart's imagination to highlight all the potential points for a jump scare. 23:04 <Crion> "SOMEONE PUT IN A WORK ORDER." 23:10 <Crion> One of the nearby pipes starts blasting the Wilhelm Scream on loop until a piston smashes down atop it. 23:11 <VoxPVoxD> Jesus. 23:12 <banana> Melanie does not feel at home here. "WE'RE LOOKING FOR SOME PEOPLE," she screams calmly. 23:12 <Crion> He'll usher you pretty quickly across to the other side unless you wander to linger for some reason. 23:12 <trenchfoot> Nels whips her head around to look at it, startled, and keeps looking for a bit after it stops. 23:12 <trenchfoot> Then hustle to catch up. 23:13 <Crion> Gunnarson: "YEP, WAS TOLD ABOUT THAT. THEY'RE UP AHEAD." 23:17 <Crion> At the end, he'll make sure everyone's out before sealing an identical door. It's safe to take off the PPE now. 23:19 <banana> How's phone GPS doing with our location? Melanie's worried about whether they're still in the campus tunnels per se. 23:20 <CBN> Tony takes his hardhat off and holds it at his side. "GREAT." Looks around, realizes he can take out the ear plugs too. "Great." 23:21 <Crion> The phone was suspiciously reliable up until you walked into the Pipes room. You stopped moving then, and started moving again after stepping out. 23:22 <trenchfoot> Weird. 23:22 <Crion> Gunnarson: "So yeah, that's what we're managing down here. Probably gonna put together a plan to wind it down sooner rather than later, but only once we understand what's going on in there. Sorry, talking shop. Let me go get the Father; he'll take it from here." 23:22 <VoxPVoxD> Cooool. "Cool, thanks." 23:23 <Crion> Still writing on his clipboard, Gunnarson steps into one of those alcoves with the fake doors, and is gone. 23:23 <dammitwho> Maggie: "This has been a lot easier than I was worried it would be so far." 23:23 <banana> "If they don't understand it, who does?" 23:26 <Crion> A moment later, from another alcove further down the tunnel, Father Thorpe steps out. 23:26 <Crion> It occurs that all the clanging has stopped -- or is at least no longer audible. 23:27 <CBN> Tony mutters to the group: "So this is like a Scooby Doo, right? Those are definitely the same guy in different rubber masks or something, they have to be. And we're gonna do the door running thing if this goes south." 23:28 <trenchfoot> That's both a relief, auditorily, and also sort of concerning, in that... shouldn't that stuff still be, um...? 23:28 <Crion> "That's a rather insulting way of putting it," says Thorpe from a good fifty feet away like he heard Tony perfectly. "Not entirely wrong, however." 23:28 <CBN> Tony: "This is classic evil land developer and meddling kids stuff!" He says decisively. 23:28 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Good evening, Father." 23:28 <Crion> He sighs. "I could have just ducked behind that crate over there and stood up again, but that's simply demeaning." 23:29 <Crion> "Good evening. I think the five of you have the better of me." 23:30 <banana> Melanie gestures to herself with, inevitably, a hat. "Melanie Lucas." 23:30 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Heya! Maggie Bakehead." 23:31 <CBN> Tony: "Tony Bowen. How're ya?" 23:31 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Nels Foulke." 23:31 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart Reader: "Stewart." 23:33 <Crion> He nods. "I was previously known as Siphoner in the Rain, but you may now call me Scramasax." 23:33 <Crion> *The Siphoner 23:35 <Crion> He pauses. "Generally we don't give out our names like this, but generally we don't run into people who crippled the Baltimore Infrastruture and assisted in a Fall on the same night." 23:35 <banana> Does anyone have a best-foot-forward version of why we're officially here for this oddly-named teleporting world-machine clone guy thing? 23:35 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Scramasax, like the old-timey sword?" 23:36 <Crion> "The same." 23:36 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "We got asked to look into some missing persons, who seem to have fallen in you. What can you tell us about the Church of Sun's Cinders?" 23:37 <Crion> Father Thorpe: "The name could use some work." 23:37 <Crion> Overhead, a PA crackles to life. A much younger voice: "Hey. I didn't name it either." 23:38 <Crion> Father Thorpe: "Ah! One of our young friends joins us. Perhaps you understand their skittishness." 23:39 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah, definitely. We just want to understand it better. Should we be skittish too? Should you be skittish of us? Things like that." 23:39 <banana> Melanie: "Maybe we shouldn't. An endless tunnel studded with alcoves and potentially actuated surveillance.. it's like a comfortable antechamber to you guys, I think? Neutral territory?" 23:40 <Crion> Father Thorpe: "Everyone, in my opinion, should maintain a safe level of operational security and distance. Given that we're dealing with...I'm sorry, what is the polite way to refer to you?" 23:41 <Crion> The implication here is 'your kind' instead of 'you,' but that's a rude thing to say. 23:41 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "We're from the Freehold. You can call us Freeholders." 23:42 <banana> There aren't any polite ways though. That's our thing. 23:42 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Or 'changelings', I guess. I don't think there's a reason for us to be cagey about that kind of stuff?" 23:43 <Crion> "...Yes. Given that we're dealing with Freeholders with your particular abilities and talents, this -- a place for frank, honest conversation that can turn into a killbox at a moment's notice -- is the best option for both sides. Obviously we cannot simply lock our doors and run away forever." 23:44 <Crion> Father Thorpe, this time to the voice from the PA: "Anyhow! They're unarmed, they've come in good faith, and they're preceded by good works. As far as I'm concerned, they're cleared. What say you?" 23:44 <Crion> Kid on the PA: "...Gimme me a moment." 23:47 <Crion> After a moment: "Okay, yeah. Let's get them outta the hall at least, there's some commotion at the central plant. Apparently you guys busted a camera?" 23:47 <banana> Melanie: "Sorry." 23:47 <Crion> Father Thorpe, placidly: "You're only in trouble if you get caught." 23:48 <banana> "In retrospect pretty useless, but we weren't expecting you guys to be quite so good at.. surveillance?" If that's what this is. 23:48 <VoxPVoxD> "As long as you're not on the hook for replacing it." 23:49 <Crion> He leads you all down a couple alcoves -- and to one that has a door that's finally real. One gets the impression it might not have been before Scramasax decided to make some changes down here. 23:51 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Neat!" 23:52 <Crion> On the other side is a badass teen hacker command center, like from the movies. They're plugged in all over campus, on big screens that have aesthetic scanlines. There's a couple server racks with cool blue lights, and a big industrial fan slowly turning behind a grate overhead, backlit by a powerful lamp. They're pulling down data from all of the taps, maan. There's couches in the corner. 23:52 <Crion> Missing student Rhonda Barkeley is sitting on one of them, sipping a beer, looking too casual, and poorly concealing the AR pattern rifle she's stuffed under some pillows just in case. 23:52 <Crion> Sitting next to the PA microphone is Michael Row. 23:53 <banana> gahaha 23:53 <dammitwho> Maggie nudges Stewart like, hey! Look! It's that stuff you like! 23:53 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Nice setup." 23:55 <Crion> Row: "Mmmm. You the guy who breached the website?" 23:55 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I guess so." 23:56 <VoxPVoxD> "Sorry, we thought maybe you were some kind of kidnapper death cult." 23:56 <banana> Melanie sighs. "You know like eighty percent of our job is done just seeing that you guys are, basically, here - wherever that is - on purpose - whyever that is." 23:56 <CBN> Tony: "Honestly if you aren't that makes me feel a little bad about the whole spying and breaking cameras and stuff thing." 23:56 <Crion> Row: "Yeah, well. National can get a little intense. It's only the future of the world that's on the line, is all." 23:57 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Care to elaborate?" 23:57 <trenchfoot> Not actually putting off the kidnapper death cult idea, there. 23:57 <Crion> Rhonda: "Climate change." 23:58 <Crion> Thorpe: "One of the more pedestrian apocalypses." 23:59 <Crion> Michael: "Still a real one. Still not anyone doing anything about it. You find out, like, the world is run by vampires and wizards and, no offense, whatever the fuck you guys are, and you think, damn, well, someone's actually got that under control, right?" 23:59 <banana> Really? No, wait. That really is a big problem. But... really? 00:00 <banana> Melanie tries not to start laughing. 00:00 <Crion> Bitter laugh: "Nope! No one up there gives a shit either! Everyone thought the most important part of the Pentagram Papers was the Obama and TF:V shit, but no, you take a look in there and they're all just gaming out the aftermath too." 00:01 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart snorts. "One thing you learn pretty fast on this side of the fence is that nobody's calling the shots above city level. I spend some time with other climate groups and people in them like to say that all politics is local. They don't know the half of it." 00:01 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Yeah, if *we* run anything nobody's told me about it." 00:01 <Crion> Unless any of you are heavy into online hunter chatter, it's not clear what Michael is referring to. 00:02 <trenchfoot> Nels: "The... you've lost me." 00:03 <banana> The details escape Melanie too, but the basic idea comes through. "Wowww. Ha. Yeah we don't run shit! We're uh.. we're people who had our own personal apocalypses already basically. Survivors of alien abduction, or something like that. We're here because some students were reported missing... that's it. Missing people and hints of the supernatural." 00:04 <CBN> Tony: "Dude we don't even run our own house." 00:04 <banana> "It's not totally clear to me why you're hiding from your families and so on? But if that helps to save the planet.. great, actually?" 00:06 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Yes, we're here because we have a concern about supernatural kidnappings. But if you haven't been, um, supernaturally kidnapped... well, go with God I guess. If you still buy weed I can give you my number." 00:07 <dammitwho> She adds: "Anything more esoteric than marijuana is gift economy, though." 00:07 <Crion> Rhonda: "Oh. Well if you're gonna stay out of our way, that's great!" 00:08 <CBN> Tony: "Can we help?" 00:08 <Crion> Michael: "You guys just go around looking for missing kids from the paper? Like superheroes?" 00:08 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Oh shit, the Pentagram Papers!" 00:08 <Crion> His tone is a bit skeptical. And a bit amused. 00:08 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Not all of them, but this had extenuating circumstances that led us to believe it might be, well. People like us." 00:09 <CBN> Tony: "Well, missing people can turn out to be like, uhh. Us, sometimes. And so far our batting average pretty good for it being that." 00:09 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Good lord, no. Superheroes draw attention." 00:09 <trenchfoot> Actually, wait. What's a superhero? 00:09 <Crion> To Stewart: "Yeah, all that shit is real. Except maybe the Obama stuff. Jury's still out on that guy." 00:09 <CBN> Tony: "Thank God this isn't more wizard bullshit though, with weird eggs and shit. If it's just pipes and underground bunkers and crap, you guys are already the least stressful thing we've had happen to us in like six months." 00:10 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "So... you guys are feds?" 00:10 <Crion> Michael makes a face: "Oh, fuck no." 00:10 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart relaxes a little. 00:11 <Crion> Rhonda: "Point about the papers is, the government isn't doing anything either. So we have to." 00:12 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "That makes sense. You're working campuses for recruits, then?" 00:12 <VoxPVoxD> Like Feds do, Stewart doesn't say. 00:14 <Crion> Michael: "That we are. I knew Rhonda from school, she hooked us up with Jina." He pauses here. "The recruiters from National were going to help us expand the operation, but I don't think they understood how soon or how dramatically." He glances over at Thorpe. 00:15 <Crion> Thorpe: "Their methods were blunt and they were easy to agitate and compromise. Frankly, the cult shit should be left to rich perverts and the actual intelligence agencies. Freedom fighters need personal connections and deep convictions, not sex trafficker-style hierarchies." 00:16 <Crion> Michael: "I don't think they're all that bad." 00:16 <Crion> Thorpe shrugs. "You know my thoughts about maintaining affiliation; we don't need to go over it again in front of the guests." 00:16 <banana> Melanie: "Is guerilla warfare really an effective way to combat industrial resource consumption?" The World Machine's(?) people(?) being involved in this is still pretty suspicious. 00:17 <Crion> Michael, bluntly: "No. Would you like me to go speak at Davos about it?" 00:18 <Crion> "Industrial sabotage isn't great but mitigation's all we've got, when political change has been wholly foreclosed upon by, and I have to stress this again, both figurative and literal fucking vampires." 00:18 <Crion> Thorpe: "That...and some targets are more high-value than others." 00:20 <banana> Melanie: "You're right about the political change, and it might come off as hypocrisy to comment when we don't have the... scope to get involved in what you're doing, ourselves, but the thing about the status quo being made of conspiracies that don't even understand each other on a physical, species-relationship level is that any kind of agitation which has a supernatural flavour will 00:20 <banana> get you noticed, fast." 00:21 <CBN> Tony: "On the other hand, just not doing shit because it might get you noticed isn't really something we've ever done." 00:21 <Crion> Rhonda, flat affect: "Please note that we're not trying to recruit you." 00:21 <CBN> Tony, to Rhonda, while gesturing at Melanie: "Well, I'm on board with what you're selling. No offense to Mel but she just does that sometimes." 00:22 <Crion> Thorpe: "Perhaps we should be, Rhonda. Their stealthy affectations aside, these are the folks who took out Apex Oil." 00:22 <Crion> Michael: "What?" 00:22 <Crion> Rhonda: "Holy shit!" 00:22 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Nnnnno we aren't." 00:23 <banana> Melanie pokes Tony, but gently. 00:23 <VoxPVoxD> "In fact, my job was basically to make sure vampires didn't try to kill the kids who took out Apex Oil." 00:23 <Crion> Thorpe shrugs. "Being involved is being involved." 00:23 <VoxPVoxD> "Who are long since gone, with their ex-Angel friend." 00:23 <Crion> Rhonda: "Holy shit that's so cool!" 00:24 <Crion> Michael: "Well, whoever took it out managed to do it without dumping a massive carbon footprint into the sky or the bay, so kudos either way." 00:25 <banana> It's not that we're not capable of massive property destruction at a moment's notice, but not everything about massive property destruction is per se good. 00:25 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Anyway, uh, like the others said, we're not here to shut you down, we just wanted to make sure none of you were being held against your will, brainwashed, or taken to other planes of reality to be toys for story monsters." 00:25 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Especially not the last one." 00:25 <VoxPVoxD> "What do you guys use for secure communications? I'd like to exchange contact information, in case we can maybe be of use to each other in the future." 00:27 <Crion> Michael: "We use Signal, which is only as secure as each node of communication -- the feds hack your phone instead of bothering with the encryption, mundane or otherwise. Father Thorpe has our black box set up securely, so we're good on our end." 00:27 <banana> "Bet he does." 00:28 <banana> These guys don't even have a way to recognise that 'Thorpe' is not a human being, do they? How much do they know? 00:29 <banana> "I mean, in light of the physical security down here, which is really effective. You wouldn't be able to get across that pipe zone without violating all kinds of OSHA." 00:29 <CBN> Tony: "Who else in Weird Baltimore do you guys know yet? Do you know any of the wizards, or the guy that talks to ghosts? Some of them might be useful. It depends on how many police stations you wanna blow up though." 00:29 <CBN> Tony: "Which, I want to stress, we did not do but was kind of adjacent to our fault. Sort of." 00:29 <Crion> Michael: "You guys did the--?!" 00:30 <banana> Zero! Zero is the right number of- actually, maybe better check with the Young Street on that. Could be that some police stations have it coming. 00:30 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Not *us*. We're mostly just, in the room when stuff happens." 00:30 <banana> "It sounds bad when you put it that way Stewart. And I know that's why you do it." 00:31 <CBN> Tony: "But related to that if you ever hear people talk about 'Seers' you should probably get your biggest guns or flee the country right then." 00:31 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "I just don't want to get a call for help expecting we're Rambo when we're closer to Forrest Gump." 00:31 <VoxPVoxD> "Then everybody loses." 00:32 <dammitwho> Maggie: "I don't know who either of those people are." 00:32 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Me neither." 00:32 <Crion> Michael: "Right. I mean, we're no slouches ourselves. And we've got Father Thorpe. So I don't think it'll come to that." 00:33 <CBN> Tony: "Movie people. Rambo is cool in one movie and then kinda dumb in the others. The other one acts like the Oriole except good things happen to him way too much." 00:33 <VoxPVoxD> "There we go, then. Here, I'll give you a number to reach us..." Stewart's most analog tendency is keeping pen and paper on hand always. 00:34 <trenchfoot> Nels: "I didn't actually meet the Oriole but his gift was adorable." 00:34 <Crion> Rhonda: "The who?" 00:36 <CBN> Tony: "Bird that exists in a different part of reality from where you can go, but we can. He's the best, please never do anything bad to Camden Yards, it would make him sad." 00:36 <Crion> Rhonda, blinking: "Oh." 00:36 <banana> Melanie: "He's like.. a physical demonstration of the decline of baseball, with painted-on feathers." 00:36 <trenchfoot> Nels: "Enough bad things happen there already anyway, I think." She pauses. "Is that why he's like that? Oh, hell." 00:38 <CBN> Tony: "Anyway he's great. And it looks like everything's cool here? With you guys? We're all cool, right?" 00:39 <Crion> Michael: "Uh. Yeah. I mean we're not planning on...the thing we're planning isn't really in the city anyway. So you shouldn't have to worry about that." 00:40 <banana> Please don't tell us what you're planning in case it's something we have to care about. 00:40 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Cool! Cool cool cool. Thanks for being straight up with us, I know this is not work that invites trust." 00:40 <banana> "Oh um just to make it clear.. Jina Torres also hasn't been kidnapped by supernatural forces, right? She's with you guys and the national church, for the same reasons?" 00:44 <Crion> Michael rolls his eyes and pulls out his phone, then puts it on the wireless charger/data transfer pad on top of the 'black box.' He taps a few buttons and puts it on speaker. When someone picks up: "It's me." 00:44 <Crion> Jina's voice: "Yeah." 00:44 <Crion> Michael: "They want to know if you're mind-controlled." 00:45 <Crion> Jina: "Tell them to fuck themselves, and blend better at parties." 00:45 <Crion> Michael: "Thanks." Ends the call. 00:45 <banana> We didn't ask whether you all were teens but okay. 00:46 <trenchfoot> We'd love to. Blend better at parties, that is, not the other one. 00:47 <Crion> Michael, to Stewart: "It's not. Frankly, I think it'd be best for everyone involved if we never saw each other again. Or only did so after the world was saved. But ha ha ha ha ha." 00:47 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Yeah..." 00:47 <Crion> Father Thorpe: "I can see them out." 00:47 <VoxPVoxD> "But we won't take up any more of your time. Thanks again." 00:47 <Crion> Rhonda: "Nice, uh, meeting you guys." 00:47 <Crion> Michael: "Yep." 00:47 <CBN> Tony: "Nice meeting you all!" 00:48 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Good luck with your thing." They're not going to want any drugs. Consarn it. 00:49 <VoxPVoxD> That could've gone worse! 00:49 <banana> Melanie wants to ask whether this guy's vision of 'saving' the world requires totally remaking it, and what that would mean for the people who're in it. Like the ones barely hanging on to the world as it is. She does manage to stop herself, give the unkidnapped students a weak smile and follow the inhuman guy with some sort of vast infrastructure powers who seems to want to blow a bunch 00:49 <banana> of it up. 00:49 <Crion> Thorpe will seal the door behind them and start leading the motley towards the administrative tunnels. They get progressively more normal as they walk. 00:50 <Crion> After a short pause, he says: "I don't especially owe you this explanation, but I'm going to give it because I think -- I hope -- it will make my life and my work easier moving forward." 00:51 <Crion> "The mysterious reason that I'm helping these overwhelmed -- only slightly overhwelmed, to their credit, but still overwhelmed -- teenagers is that they and I share a mutual interest. It's the infrastructure, you see. The Infrastruture." 00:51 <Crion> "I think the God Machine is invested in climate crisis." 00:51 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "That makes intuitive sense." 00:52 <Crion> "Did you know UMBC has a horrific carbon footprint? For no determinate scientific reason? Things just seem to pollute more here. It's horrific. It's what drew me here in the first place." 00:52 <Crion> "I did not make any sense...until I saw the Pipes." 00:53 <Crion> "The spew ground for an entire lattice of Infrastructure. A landfill of runoff primum slurry." 00:53 <Crion> *It did 00:54 <CBN> Tony: "So it's just making things worse to...make things worse?" He pauses. "Man this is wizard shit after all." 00:55 <banana> "I mean, the administration is pretty denialist. I wouldn't be surprised if they run Blackboard on a wood-burning generator or something. Maybe throw peoples' papers in there?" 00:57 <Crion> Thorpe: "The God Machine has a process. It might even have, in some sense, goals. But they don't make sense to regular people and they certainly do not dovetail with human habitability on the planet, at least not a priori." 00:58 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "It's not clear who is running the pipes. Someone put in a work order, right - no sign of who. It invites us to anthropomorphize the Machine, when there's not a lot of reason to and a lot of reasons not to." 00:58 <VoxPVoxD> "Kind of like regular gods." 00:59 <Crion> Thorpe sighs and nods, then slips into an alcove. Hanley Gunnarson steps out. 01:00 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "Evening, Foreman." 01:02 <Crion> "Evening, kids." To Maggie: "Ma'am." They're going up now; the tunnel is inclining, narrowing, the ceiling is coming down, until they eventually reach a normal keycard swipe door, which Gunnarson swipes through without a problem. Two guys in work clothes sitting in a Facilities Management break room look up but Gunnarson just waves to them as he says, "And yeah, I can see how you'd get turned 01:02 <Crion> around down here but it's good you stopped before getting all the way into the tunnels. Let's get you back to the Commons..." 01:03 <Crion> Once outside, the foreman smiles and breathes deeply of the night air. "Ah. Don't get up here much. Trust you can all find your way back?" 01:03 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart nods. "Thanks again." 01:03 <dammitwho> Maggie nods. "You have a good evening, now." 01:03 <banana> Melanie points at and names some random building. "We can go from there." 01:04 <Crion> Gunnarson gives you the same wave he gave the guys on break and heads out. 01:05 <VoxPVoxD> After he's gone and they're heading back to the car: "Best of luck to those guys." 01:05 <banana> Melanie's a little worried. "I didn't pay enough attention when you detailed the.. God Machine. How big a deal is it, how legitimate is the name? What are angels?" 01:06 <trenchfoot> Nels: "That was not where I expected this to go, at all." 01:07 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "It's big enough. I'm not prepared to arbitrate its divinity. The angels are agents or servants or quasi-autonomous extensions of it. Through stress or paradoxes or whatever they can be made to break off from the core system." 01:07 <VoxPVoxD> "I don't know how scared we should be," he adds. 01:09 <banana> "It's just a bit hard to trust the motives of a.. fallen angel. Like, if you begin your existence as part of some world-shaping inhuman structure and then snap off, taking on more characteristics of your human.. form? Which was previously just a disguise? And then you start talking about how you need to oppose the machine, a priori, and that means... ecoterrorism probably?" 01:10 <banana> "I don't have an actual question." 01:10 <CBN> Tony: "They're fighting something horrible and unknowable and huge that they used to have to work for, one of them anyway, and are probably worried about it taking them back. Why's that any different from us?" 01:11 <dammitwho> Maggie: "Well, names are awfully important to us. To the wizards too. Probably less so for them?" 01:11 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "It'd be a bit hard to trust us for a lot of people, too. It is, in fact." 01:11 <CBN> Tony: "At least it only smells half like wizard shit." 01:11 <banana> To Tony: "You shouldn't trust us, either, if you aren't one of us." 01:12 <banana> "We have needs. Safety, concealment. Priorities without which we wouldn't survive but which can be at odds with.. typical political perspectives." 01:14 <CBN> Tony: "A couple of you left when the world was already this shitty, but when I got taken? Things weren't this bad, man. They weren't perfect, but the world was a whole helluva lot better than this. So when someone comes along and says hey, maybe we're going to fix some of it? They've got me in their corner if they want me." 01:14 <VoxPVoxD> Stewart: "The people who made the world like this thought they were fixing it too." 01:14 <VoxPVoxD> "As far as they're concerned, they were. And did." 01:15 <CBN> Tony: "Well yeah, but I'm not them, so why would I care what they thought?" 01:15 <banana> "You shouldn't, and you're not wrong, it's admirable, it's just..." 01:15 <VoxPVoxD> "Anyway I don't think the politics of it is super important. They aren't a threat to us, and they aren't evidence of a threat to us - at least not one we don't already know about." 01:16 <banana> "They're a threat to somebody though. Probably themselves and maybe some kind of factory or whatever at the same time. We have to report it and I hope it doesn't come to anything." 01:20 <VoxPVoxD> Well... we have to report it. What we hope is between us and God, -Machine or otherwise.