March 9: you know what they say about drinking and texting

[neveroutwrenched]

i have some questions. for you guys, the crew. us.

mostly about the ingress because i think its bullshit that no one has any idea how to fix it. or how it works. lots of worlds have technology like the ingress. on the greater cosmic scale, in the MULTIVERSE, it's not even all that rare

so

nowait

i mean, anyway. this is a different question. does anyone know why we haven't utilized
a) any of the ingresses (ingress...i?) on any of the planets weve landed on to get home
b) any of the people on those planet because you HAVE to assume someone knows how to work/repair/etcetc

why havent we scrutinized or been given an actual answer for anything that's happened on this ship? creepy skeleton monster? that KILLED PEOPLE. lying to us about caducus-primary. stealing from caducus-primary. dont get me started on the lack of actual consequence to that.

i know its different in everyone's worlds, but where I'm from, being in charge doesnt make you except from responsibility for your actions. or at least it's not supposed to. unless you have

a lot of money or are a celebrity or something

Comments

not here

[niffin]

[ this'll be outside his door in the morning. ]

[petrifiedshadow]

Is it really that common? I hadn't heard anything about that before from anyone on board.

I've been reviewing some of the old MID conversations, especially from the visit to Cadacus-Primary. It sounds like they didn't have any control over the Ingress on their planet either before it was destroyed. Is it possible there's more than just technology and engineering involved? Maybe there's some sort of enchantment involved, like animus-touched objects back on Pyrrhia. I guess you'd have to ask the captains if they've been asking for help. They may have been and we wouldn't know, but I think you might be right.

[ He may not want to admit it but Ratchet brought up a lot of good points, and Starflight had been wondering about the Ingress a lot himself. ]

[neveroutwrenched]

[Ratchet doesn't know what an 'animus-touched' object is but he doesn't really care. Technology, magic, some combination, made out of cotton candy, it doesn't matter.]

thats the point isn't it?

they DONT share with us what they know or don't know. unless you ask them direct, but even then its cryptic and halfassed

text;

[skelepun]

life's a lot easier when you don't ask questions.

[he's pretty sure that 'creepy skeleton monster that killed people' comment isn't about him but, well. it might as well be.]

i'll pour you a glass of the koolaid myself, pal.

[neveroutwrenched]

[Even on the best of days it could sometimes be hard to parse Sans' blacker humor, figure out where the joke ends and the nihilism begins. Today Ratchet has to stare at the MID screen for a full forty seconds before replying.]

no.

[coolskeletonnyehntyfive]

[For a moment Papyrus was stung and about to come to Sans's defense, then he realized who Ratchet was talking about.

Still, creepy skeleton monster? Rude.]

PALATINO DOESN'T KILL PEOPLE! HE HANGS OUT IN A ROOM BEHIND A LOCKED DOOR AND HE'S A GREAT LISTENER!

1/2

[neveroutwrenched]

[Who the hell was 'Palatino'?]

we have a dead captain who would disagree




if she wasn't dead.

TEXT

[tigermillionaire]

what's cadacus primary??
i don't think i was here for that :(
and i've only met the nice skeletons

i believe you but i bet we can work it out!!

[neveroutwrenched]

caducus primary is the planet we destroyed after we wrecked it after we broke all their rules and they asked us NICELY, to leave. our captains stole priceless statues from them and then refused to own up to it. theyre on the ship, theyre really nice.

we also had a different skeleton and he killed a captain. hes still on the ship too, locked in a room and we pretend hes not there.

because why would we worry about any of that?

[saveyourserpent]

I like the way you think. I've only just got here and haven't had much time to consider the state of things, as it were... However, I've been just massively curious and dying to figure it all out. Do all of these planets have these portals? Could you say that, perhaps, the technology as a whole is broken, and people just find themselves getting spit out into wherever? Just how much murder occurs around here?

[Gathering some info, no big deal.]

[neveroutwrenched]

its either broken or it never worked in the first place. either way they mass produced the damn things...every major populated planet weve been on has had one. usually broken.

i would say a medium amount of murder, and its been on the upclimb

[devilofohara]

[As Robin reads this, a small smile forms on her face. This guy is someone to keep an eye on - someone who doesn't just blindly accept everything the captains have told them. A potential ally.

It takes some serious self-control not to comment that, where she comes from that's exactly what being in charge means.]

The first mate said that the captains don't know how the Ingress works and they're too scared to try and fix it after what happened on Caducus-Primary.

What happened there?

[neveroutwrenched]

their ingress broke.

[a gross over-simplification.]

imploded basically, and dragged the whole planet in with it. it was mostly our fault but i feel like it's worth noting you probably shouldn't have technology laying around that you're too scared of to try and fix

assuming its broken and not just the worst design anyone's ever come up with.

[imahologram]

You raise important questions. I don't have the answers, but I'd like to help you find them, if you're interested in looking.

[neveroutwrenched]

well i wouldn'tve made this post if i wasn't interested, would i?

[vengeance_driven]

From what I heard, this ship is pretty special. And has dangerous things locked away. But since I'm not good with anything like the Ingress, I hope you find answers, friend. When you're sober.

Hey, by the way, remember those last guys that would make blood ooze from our eyeballs when we questioned them? That were never accountable for anything ever? Remember those? The ones that destroyed planets intentionally and took away people's powers until they were much better at killing?

Believe it or not, I'm actually glad we catch shit at all. Not a lot of shit? But some.

Try to get a look at the Ingress when you can. A better look. When I asked if Tali could, they didn't seem opposed. She was just afraid to after you know what happened to her.

[neveroutwrenched]

[Niko’s response is sobering. Somewhat anyway.]

hard to forget.

[Impossible, really.]

i can look, but its not really my thing. I mean I will look at it, regardless. but I know there are people with more theoretical know-how. back home this kind of thing is advanced – WAY advanced. almost no one knows how it works. but some people do.

the multiverse kidnappings seems to have a knack for the best and brightest...we just need to figure out who can figure it out

I don’t blame tali.
she didn’t deserve that.

[None of them did; but Tali? Tali really didn’t, as far as you could rank these things.]

[backsassin]

Easy answer?

The Ingresses aren’t broken. They’re working exactly as they should.

I mean, I came out of the Ingress on Cadacus Primary. And then other people from the same galaxy came out of the one on Ceta. If the Ingress on the ship is “broken,” then so is every single one we’ve encountered so far. More likely they’re doing what they were built to do: bringing in new crew.

[Put simply, the captains are pirates. Interdimensional pirates, but pirates nonetheless.] I guess the need for more hands just happens to outweigh the drawbacks of throwing together a varied mixture of civilians, soldiers, planet-smashing monsters, children, and dead people.

[neveroutwrenched]

who builds a ONE way door? I mean I guess you could be right. About them existing just to bring people here or...wherever. It just seems like a bad plan no matter how you slice it. what if you bring someone through you don't WANT

[Bad idea or not…it’s not the most insane theory Ratchet’s heard. Every Ingress did seem to work in this exact way. Maybe looking at them as ‘broken’ was a mistake on their part, a product of assuming a function they didn’t actually fill.]

[stompadour]

I think we all know this isn't a well-run ship, but we don't have a lot of options.

[neveroutwrenched]

right so were just supposed to sit around an NOT complain about it??

[Jasper, please.]

text; private

[forwardmomentum]

You're not the only one with these questions. I've done my fair share of drilling the captains, or at least trying to, and hunting for answers -- so far the biggest endeavor got me nearly frozen to death, but at least we learned something -- but the more I learn, the less I think the captains are being cagey in an attempt to keep what they know from us, and the more I think it's to keep what they don't know from us.

I'm as paranoid as the next skeptic, but the more I learn, the less I believe they're lying or much less helpless than the rest of us. Not a very heartening thought, I know, but if you ask me, I think the truth of it is that they don't know much more than we do. I thought they were keeping us in the dark from day one, but the more I find out, the more it seems like they're in the dark with us and trying desperately to keep us from figuring that out. That's th ebig secret. Call me an optimist, but my career back home depends awfully heavily on my ability to see through other people's bullshit, so either they're very, very good liars and I'm not nearly as good at my job as I think I am, or they don't know shit at all.

This ship didn't belong to them before -- frankly, I'm not sure it belongs to any of us at this point -- and I don't think they know half its secrets. Captain Thán told me they didn't know it was here until it got loose, and for right now, I'm buying it. The return policy is pretty flexible on that one. Ditto for whatever happened on Caducus Primary before, ditto for...damn near everything we've been given no explanation for. Proving a negative is always a folly, but we just don't know enough, and at this point, I don't think the captains do, either. I don't think we're going to find half the answers we need from the captains, or even on on this ship -- not yet, anyway. I think whatever's going on with the Ingress is a much, much bigger concern than just our crew, and there's no way to tell what anyone else in this universe is doing about it, although so far it seems like the answer is "fuck all". But very little is ever as it seems, in my experience, and I don't think we've even begun to peel back the layers.

If you want my opinion: we've got a serious case of the one-eyed leading the blind, and I think if we're not careful, we're going to start leading each other in circles. I doubt this ship has all the answers we need, but there's an awful lot we don't know and the Moira is at least a place to start. All those locked rooms, for instance. I don't think the captains even know what's in most of them, but I intend to find out. I made a few...operational errors with the morgue, but I learn quickly from my mistakes.

Do you have any experience running reconnaissance, Ratchet?

Text, Private 1/2

[neveroutwrenched]

im not reading that.

[peridork]

I have to assume that Ingress technology predates the current civilizations here, and was somehow found by this universe's inhabitants, because that's the only logical explanation I can think of to explain why no one seems to know how it really works.

[neveroutwrenched]

right yeah. that actually sounds likely, but it doesn't help US.

and it doesn't mean that there aren't people here who could figure it out, right?

text

[a_shadow]

Last time I was here I applied for a transporter tech job so I'd have an excuse to go poking around the Ingress, but I never got that chance. I ended up leaving first. I do think it's the sort of technology I would be able to get a handle on if I had a chance to mess with it. Haven't really felt the undying need since I came back though.

[neveroutwrenched]

what changed?

voice

[straightouttacarbonite]

[Hello stranger, your ideas are good and you should feel good! At least that's Han's opinion. Even if half of that stuff is news to him.]

No one down there wants to talk about anything but killing those flying things. I asked. A bunch of them, anyway.

voice;

[neveroutwrenched]

Oh geez, the stupid whale thing.

[Ratchet thought the flying creatures were impressive, and the hunting of them largely seemed silly and indulgent, but he couldn't bring himself to care all that much. Not with everything else that was going on.]

Yeah it's, uh. I mean I admire their dedication...but if only that enthusiasm could be put to use somewhere a little closer to home, huh?

[averagemedium]

are you sure this is a good idea?

[He wants to give the captains the benefit of the doubt, he truly does. Even on the Neheda, Ryan had authority figures he was willing to put his trust in. But even so-- this feels like the kind of situation where someone should take the phone away before your friend drunk texts their boss.]

[neveroutwrenched]

terrible. terrible idea. its so bad but who cares?

we all have our weaknesses, rayan

ryan. and mine is having terrible ideas.

text; encrypted 1/2

[notglitching]

Import rate > export rate across known Ingresses.

New arrivals scanned on entry. Functions accounted for, MIDs locked on. Monitoring programs written into source code.

[And wow do they react badly to attempts at scrambling the data.]

System regulations minimal. Exception: derezz. Deleted individuals restored at nearest opportunity, offenders punished.

Conclusion: acquisition and retention of new imports required for administrative goals.
Departure, loss: unacceptable; Ingress functions prioritized to maximize gain.

2/2

[notglitching]

[.....aaaand, seeing what you did to Miles' secrecy there, Rinzler's just going to append a note.]

Request: retain encryptions on any following replies.

[If it wants to reply at all. But seeing as Rinzler comes from a system where being in charge absolutely makes you above reproach, he'd really rather not be outed for any kind of open trouble-stirring. :c Admins are scary business.]

text

[whatdidisay]

( this... smells like a pr disaster. right, damn. he hates his job. )

I'm gonna assume that everyone's covered most of this message, which just leaves me with one question:

So unless you're going to advocate for a mutiny, which -- where I come from -- is a capital offense, how do you think someone should go about fixing this? Stirring up shit isn't any better if you don't have a solution, you're just causing trouble none of us need.

( he is not going to flirt with a form of treason just because some cat-thing gets upset about the fact they've got authority figures he didn't pick. )

[neveroutwrenched]

youre not allowed to ask questions unless you personally have all the answers?

thats stupid, how do you get anything done with that methodology? sit around and wait for the right person with the right solution? don't you ever talk about things?

[breakin_ur_lore]

I haven't been on board for very long. Do many planets have ingresses?

We have something similar back home, but it's magical in nature. I don't think it's made the same way this one is.

[...]

I've heard someone mention cadacus-primary before. What happened?

[...................]

Creepy skeleton monster?

[neveroutwrenched]

most planets, it seems. weird coincidence, huh?

we had something like it where im from too, but people there had the good sense to know its dangerous technology you just leave LYING around

[Not strictly true, but very close to it.]

take caducus primary for instance...when things got ugly, their ingress (pretty much everything was made of glass there btw) was damaged and basically imploded and pulled that entire planet out of existence

or moved it elsewhere but even if that was the case it wasn't in one piece.

[Caducus Primary was one of the main reasons Ratchet didn't buy the theory that the Ingress was one-way only. Accident or not, that one had obviously been capable of opening both ways.]

you don't want to know about the skeleton monster, trust me.

text

[diamondslap]

As one of the ship's arbitration officers, I have a solution to your problem, darling.
Take a step outside.
The ship.
Into space.

Re: text

[neveroutwrenched]

who the hell are you

text;

[foggybear]

[ This is... This is a lot. This is a heavy post, and Foggy reads it a few more times. He could say a lot of things--but mostly what bothers him about it and whoever's posting it is that they're right.

There's a lot he doesn't really want to put in words, not on the network, but that's probably because for all of his joking about the NSA, he actually is a little paranoid. Hell's Kitchen and Fisk will make you think twice before you leave a trail doubting someone that's powerful. ]

It's the same in my world. Trust me. This place is a dystopian Wonderland, and not the good kind.

Are you okay?

[neveroutwrenched]

but for some reason getting people to admit that around here's like pulling teeth

[And maybe it is better that way. He'd been having this argument since the Neheda...maybe keeping your head down and your eyes up was the best way to get through this in one piece. Maybe it was the easier way. The happier way.]

oh yeah, im fine. i just like to get wasted and shit post the network every tuesday, okay? we all have hobbies.

text;

[hatesimprovising]

These feel like kind of dangerous questions to be asking.

...But they're fair. I mean, I don't know anything about Caducus-Primary or what happened there, but I know I'd appreciate some answers about that skeleton thing. ...The bad one, not the crew member ones.

As for the Ingress(es)... Maybe they're all sort of connected? Like, if one's broken, they're all broken? And that's why we're headed somewhere to get it/them fixed? And for all we really know, maybe no one on any of these planets knows anything about how they work either? That's questionable, but I can't really think of any other reason things haven't been a lot simpler.

text;

[neveroutwrenched]

i think youre on to something as far as one being broken = the rest follow

but if thats the case, i dont know why we should believe them that we're going somewhere where one isnt broken. or that anyone there knows how to fix the problem when no one else has yet

its a lot of leaps of faith

not really here;

[whoami]

[ Sam isn't replying to this at all, though he's come back to periodically check this post. As one of the MID techs he can look at parts of the network quietly.And he's using that option to come back here. Both to make sure that there isn't something new that he has somehow missed...and to make sure that someone looked in on Ratchet after his bender. ]

text;

[heart_breaking]

Your a lot more talkative on the network than in person. have you tried using other ingresses?

[neveroutwrenched]

have YOU?


i mean no. we haven't really been able to get near them, ok. all the planets weve been to have had a lot of distractions