ᴏᴏ3 ( ᴠɪᴅᴇᴏ ) | ʙᴏʏ, ɪɴᴛᴇʀʀᴜᴘᴛᴇᴅ.

[insubordination]

[ roy is seated in a secluded area of the temple that many may recognize as maes and barabas’ office. he has a notebook in front of him that a great deal of stuff seems to be written in, but roy himself doesn’t have a pen in hand. those paying careful attention may recognize that the writing in the notebook is, indeed, roy’s handwriting, but it’s certainly not legible.

anyway. roy looks a bit tired, but in relatively good spirits, despite what he suffered on the horologium. he’s been relatively quiet, since coming back to the temple -- focused on recovering, catching up with his closer circle of friends and family, and preparing himself for what he had to do next, which is, incidentally, address the circle.

And so, roy clears his throat. ]



We have a handful of new arrivals . . . welcome to the Circle. To those who don’t know me, my name is Brigadier General Roy Mustang. Roy is sufficient.

[ some people like using the titles, and some people don’t. It doesn’t really make a difference to him -- but that being said, roy certainly does speak in an authoritative tone, for as tired as he looks. some things don’t change. ]

I wanted to bring your attention to what we’ve experienced as a group in the past. A world jump is likely coming soon, and the more prepared we are, the higher likelihood we have to avoid another Akvos, or another version of the Horologium. To that extent --

[There’s not really a noise to announce Maes’s arrival. Just one minute there is empty space behind Roy and the next it’s being occupied by a man in glasses.]

Roy! There you are, I --

[He notices that Roy is speaking to the watch or The Circle and leans in over his friend’s shoulder. Personal space and Maes apparently aren’t acquainted, at least where Roy is concerned.]

Oh, hey, you’re talking to everyone else. Perfect. Let me borrow this for a second.

[Maes plucks up the watch. Roy is no longer visible, but you can definitely hear a “hey, give me that!” protest from the side. ]

Hi everyone. Technically I’m a Brigadier General, but feel free to just refer to me as Maes Hughes. I’m sure Roy already started in on the welcoming address, but I have some important information too -- concerning everyone really. I managed to get some details out of Astoria about our next world. After the past few times, well, one of the biggest issues we’ve had is not knowing a lot about where we’re going and how to prepare. Now I know there are mixed feelings about her, but the last time I asked her for information about a world it did prove to be accurate...so I think we can at least trust this much.

[As he speaks on trusting Astoria, he does glance in the direction Roy was. It’s pretty clear Maes has his own skepticism about the woman that has grown substantially from his months of being here. Now isn’t the time to dwell on that though. He clears his throat.]]

I didn’t get a name, but she called it a city, with taverns and everything. It’s populated by various types of people...different species and magic will be present. It sounded like we’d be going to a place with a lot of avenues to pursue. Astoria seems to want us to help the people there...though she couldn’t really give me specifics as to how. It sounds like it won’t be just fighting though, not this time.

[Maes pauses. Is he done? He knows that wasn’t very helpful and, especially for the new folks, it might not mean a lot. He looks like he’s about to give the watch back to Roy, but quickly pulls it back. Oh, right, the other things.]

If that doesn’t mean much to you, don’t worry. This room that Roy and I are in happens to be a library of sorts that Barb and I have been working on to keep all of the information from different people and worlds. We made it with the idea that those of you who are new might want to come read up on previous places. We’d appreciate any information you may have to add in the future.

All that I ask if that you please don’t touch the picture I’ve pinned to the wall of my precious daughter Elysia!

[The picture in question seems to magically appear in Maes’s hand, though it’s hard to tell if that was slight of hand or his teleporting again. The picture shows a girl, no older than three with twin pigtails sticking on top of her head. She sits proudly on a small tricycle, beaming at the camera. His voice changes from serious to a more gushing tone. Has he...has he forgotten the point of this?]

I know she’s just too cute~ But you’re free to look all you want I know she cheers ---

All right, enough, give me that --

[ and the watch is soon wrested out of maes’ hands, to show a very exasperated roy, frustrated (but clearly not enough to be actually upset, given he allowed maes to prattle on for that long). ]

The point of this is to offer ourselves as resources to the newer members, and to continue supporting one another to the best of our ability. Sharing with one another puts us on an even-playing field, and I intend to continue asking that of you, regardless of what happens on other worlds. Many of us have survived good worlds, and bad. Successes, and failures. This is our opportunity to attempt to plan for what comes next, because we likely have little time before our next jump.

[ and, after roy says that, he turns to maes, exasperated: ]

Do you always need to be the center of attention, or do you have an actual medical condition that forces you to --

[ and then the feed ends. ]

(OOC: If you are interested in looking at what we have in the office and want to read or, even better, contribute. Check it out here! Also, feel free to threadjack in this post! )

Comments

[Voice]

[moneytwin]

[tired as she's been, there's evident humour in Vex's voice when she replies to the message.]

Oh, should we be introducing ourselves with full titles and everything? I wasn't aware that was required here. Seems a bit like showing off.

[tone softens a touch] Your daughter is absolutely adorable by the way, Maes.

[Voice]

[dadandgone]

[He's not replying to the titles comment. That's clearly unimportant.]

Thank you! If nothing else I have her pictures here with me, along with some of my wife. Roy doesn't appreciate them at all. I'd be happy to show them off sometime to you though, I have plenty more, I just keep one in the office because I go there to work a lot.

( voice )

[insubordination]

Don't encourage him.

[ in exasperation. ]

And I don't care if people use it or not, but some people are more comfortable with them. [ mostly people in the military who need some sense of direction in their lives, but. you know. ] Feel free to use yours at any point, if you've got one.

[Video]

[clickclickbloom]

[Okay now that she is done gushing over the small child.]

Oh, hi! I'm one of those new people you mentioned.

I'm Ruby. I'm a Huntress where I'm from, which is basically a professional Helper-Outer. ...But with a little more monster fighting involved.

I guess what I'm saying here is if we need to help people where ever we're going then I'll do whatever I can.

So yeah, looking forward to working with you!

[Video]

[insubordination]

[ . . . interesting. a huntress. the word sounds familiar . . . ]

Do you know Yang Xiao Long?

[ curiously enough . . . ]

I believe she's one of those, as well. A huntress.

video

[shootstyles]

She told you?

What did you ask? Did she seem certain?

[He's still that curious kid from last post but... markedly less enthusiastic.]

video

[dadandgone]

[Oh hey it's that kid who helped in find other merpeople on Akvos. Maes holds up a hand to greet him and dives directly into addressing the question.]

I sort of accosted her and asked...but yeah, she gave me some heads up. More so than the last time at least.

[He looks thoughtful for a moment, rubbing at his beard, trying to recall the exact line of questioning.]

I brought up the fact that she kept sending us to these places with barely a leg to stand on. I asked why she couldn't give us more information to start with so we could better accomplish this whole mission she has for us. She admitted she couldn't see everything, but I witnessed her eyes getting all 'glowy' while she told me the tidbits I mentioned earlier.

[He sighs.]

It's frustrating, because it's decent information, but there's still a lot of specifics lacking. There's no way of knowing if she's revealing all she saw or not...at least not until we go.

video | locked.

[insubordination]

How are you holding up?

[ completely skipping over your question, kid, sorry. ]

[voice]

[mollymocked]

[WITH THE MOST RELIEF EVER] Oh thank gods, that sounds like where I come from....

[voice]

[insubordination]

That so?

[ roy sounds curious, at the very least. ]

Cities with taverns or pubs sound fairly par for the course; what's your world like that makes it different?

video

[rougerebelle]

[A young woman appears on the screen. She appears to be sitting at the fighting ring. Her hair is pulled up and she looks like she was probably working up a sweat. She's leaning against the wall, the corner of her red coat and hat hanging on the wall behind her. She looks very interested in this information dump.]

A library? Here?

[She sounds surprised. She hadn't come across THAT yet, but it wasn't like she'd checked ALL of the temple's rooms. There were a lot after all.]

I guess I missed it...but good to know.

[She'll certainly be checking it out very soon. However, there's more.]

So, what kind of information are you wanting from us newcomers exactly? You said it was to prepare, but if that's all the information we have then how much can we really prepare for?

[There's a pause and then she decides to ask.]

Also, was it just me, or did that guy just appear out of nowhere? Is that one of the powers Astoria can grant?

video

[insubordination]

Maes' particular superpower is to be a general annoyance, but Astoria expanded upon it by allowing him the ability to teleport.

[ just to get that out of the way first . . . but: ]

Knowing what each of us is capable of allows us to know who to rely on, when something inevitably goes wrong. It puts us in contact with one another, and forces us to work as a team. It's an imperfect science, but I want to continue attempting to organize before each world, so each of us knows what we're capable of, and who we can rely on in a crisis.

[video]

[starseedling]

[Oh wow, these watch things have video calls? It's just like his tablet! Only... smaller. Way smaller.

It looks like Steven is out by the lake somewhere.]

Hi, I'm Steven! This sounds like it'll be a tough job, but I'm here to help!

What is Akvos and the Horologium?

[video]

[dadandgone]

Hello, Steven. [That was another thing he should have brought up with Astoria. Her need to bring children. That's not his fault though, so he'll stay focused on the matter at hand. He knows that's something that irritates Roy though.]

Horologium was the place we just returned from, right before you all arrived and the festival in fact. It was a very large space craft meant to transport people across the galaxy I suppose. They had sent out a distress beacon that Astoria somehow received and she sent us there to help. When we got there though the crew was already gone and the ship was a wreck. We spent most of our time there just trying to figure out what happened...

[He hesitates, not sure if he should elaborate from there. He doesn't want to scare Steven, but at the same time everyone involved in the Circle deserves to know what happened. Perhaps he'll wait to see if Steven asks for more.]

Before that was Akvos. It was a world completely underwater. Unfortunately on that world our large group was split upon arrival and it took us awhile to find each other. We had to figure out this plague that was infecting their crops, but also deal with some poor diplomatic relations between the former King and the current ruling Queen.

It was...very messy. I'm still not entirely sure what led to the destruction, but Akvos is...well it's no longer there.

[He adjusts his glasses, peering at the screen.] It looks like you're at the lake. You could try speaking with some of the Akvosians yourself. Some of them were brought back with us.

Video

[pureawesome]

[Lift was going for indifference, or maybe vague suspicion. But mostly she looks like she's failed to hide her surprise and confusion at the network. This is way different than spanreed.]

What if I can't read?

Video

[insubordination]

We can read it for you, if you're interested, or find a way to transcript it into a voice message for you to listen to at your own leisure.

[ roy pauses, though. ]

Which, to be fair, we should have done to begin with. We've never received that question before, but I'm sure Maes and Barabas can arrange that fairly easily.

[video]

[traumaplate]

[Klan's overall impression on the other end of the feed is somewhat casual, but there's a hardy look about her, and the neck of something that might be a spaceship uniform of some kind, not entirely unlike what was on the Horologium, is visible at the bottom of the frame.

As is the fact that she's leaning against the roof of a building. Ten feet isn't nearly enough to dwarf a single-storey building, but it sure is enough to get an arm up on it.]

Oh, are we doing ranks? Captain Klan Klang, at your service. [She offers a somewhat informal salute.] If Akvos and the Horologium were previous world jumps, as a newcomer I'd want to know what went wrong so I know the kind of thing we should be avoiding when we're out there in the next one.

[video]

[insubordination]

[ roy doesn't seem too phased by the height; he's met all kinds, in the circle, and klan is hardly the first quasi-giant. that being said, he does glance twice at the video. ]

It's easier to weed out the fellow military members when you use ranks. It's nice to meet you, Captain Klang.

[ and roy offers his own informal salute, in return. ]

The Horologium was a ship that housed some type of beast on board. It killed a number of us; we were revived, when we returned here. But as far as I know, the monster is dead, and it can be cataloged as a success. Akvos, on the other hand, crumbled into non-existence, after a rip in space and time was opened in the world by one of the individuals struggling for control of the capital, there. The world is no longer in existence.

[ he pauses, there. ]

It's hard to pin down, what we can and cannot do, to avoid failure and success. But Maes and Barabas have done a good job at cataloging our worlds thusfar. You can read up on them in their office.

video

[sturmhond]

[ Saints, these gentlemen seem like characters. Nikolai smiles as he watches them. Obviously they've been here for a while. He's deciding how exactly to get the information he needs out of them, when the mention of a library is made, and all of a sudden he brightens.

That will be perfect. ]

Hello, gentlemen! [ Here's his smiling face, bright hazel eyes and blond hair. He looks keen. ] I should be very interested to explore your library. You're quite right, of course, it's best to know what we'll be getting ourselves into.

I'd be interested in hearing your personal account of the other worlds you've visited, as well, if you didn't mind speaking of it.

[ Hopefully one at a time, without interrupting each other. But he'll take what he can get. ]

video

[insubordination]

[ a new person, and roy isn't surprised to hear the request. but once he receives it! ]

I've been a member of the Circle since the inception of the project, so I can tell you about all the worlds we've visited, thusfar.

[ that being said! ]

But can I have a name, first? Easier to have a conversation when we're on the same page.

video;

[gavemyblade]

Hello, Maes. Roy. My name is Krolia. It is good to see a desire to keep from repeating the missteps of the past. Even though much of the fault often lies at the top in circumstances like this.

[She says it in a measured tone that is not chiding nor bitter, but only stating the facts. ...She'll offer to share Keith's baby photo off the network and to Hughes alone. Later.]

I've heard how difficult it has been to obtain intel of any sort from Astoria in the past. [And Krolia's calm tone likely tells them nothing of how much of a poor taste it leaves in her mouth.] And thank you, Roy. I will be sure to take a look later.

[This is of course implying she has not done so already, to which it would likely surprise almost everyone who does know her. She's very thorough in her own searches when she has to.]

video;

[insubordination]

[ in roy's opinion, there really isn't anyone at the top, but that's a conversation for off the network. instead, he offers a hum of agreement, and instead takes in the new person. familiar features, from people from shiro's world . . . a new arrival, from that portion of the universe, maybe. ]

I would say she's more forthcoming with some than others. People who are kind to her get more information, whereas people who are difficult don't. Being polite tends to go quite some way, with her.

[ or, at least, that's what he's observed. ]

But she is constantly listening, and aware of her surroundings.

[ just to keep it in mind, for conversations in the future. ]

[Video]

[usedforcepalm]

[A girl who looks no more than ten or eleven years old replies, looking curious.

Seeing that one of the two men is a doting father is somewhat reassuring for Hanabi. If nothing else, it means he's probably patient with children.]

It's very nice of you help everyone out like this, sirs. Um...what's the difference between a General and a Brigadier General, though?

[Video]

[insubordination]

One is a higher rank than the other; a general is higher than a brigadier general.

[ an easy enough question to answer! ]

Both are called 'General' in terms of title, but the proper general is a higher rank.

;voice

[zaptime]

Wait, what do you mean a city with Taverns and People and!!! That sounds like a freaking video game! The entire thing is like a freaking video game!!!

voice;

[insubordination]

[ . . . wait -- ]

Tweek?

[ you're?? back?? and, at the risk of setting the nervous kid off: ]

Do you remember this place?

( locked to hughes. )

[wraithes]

[ interesting . . . and while she supposes she could talk to roy, she has zero interest in involving herself with roy when roy has already taken quite the interest in kaz. best to divide and conquer. and so : ]

Do you believe her?
Astoria.

( locked to hughes. )

[dadandgone]

Do I believe her on this world information? Yes. She wouldn't really have a reason to lie about it nor would she gain anything except more skepticism and doubt since we'll quickly be able to find out what the next world contains for ourselves.

Do I believe her overall? That sort of depends on what aspect of Astoria we're talking about...

[voice]

[hippocarnival]

That's not really a lot to go off, is it? Is it normal to go to a world and not know what it's like or... how we're supposed to help?

[voice]

[insubordination]

Tends to be the standard, more often than not. Astoria doesn't tend to give us a lot of detail before we're shipped across the universe.

[ he's not trying to be bitter about it, but it's hard to keep it out of his tone. ]

Knowing our general setting is frequently all we get.

video;

[summonere]

I will certainly be by to read your reports.

[ Knowledge is power ok. But really, most importantly: ]

What does failure entail in this scenario?

video;

[insubordination]

The only known failure we have experienced as a group has been the complete destruction of a world.

[ so. stakes are high, new person. ]

I'm planning on updating our ledger, with my own thoughts of Akvos, but -- the stakes are about as high as they can get.

[voice]

[trypanophobic]

...Thanks for the info.

[no introduction, no... nothing. at least in his initial approach, Killua is planning on being a fly on the wall, for the moment. he wouldn't respond at all, but... they did go through the trouble. he can't blame them for their silliness through the report.]

[voice]

[insubordination]

You're welcome.

[ roy will happily take credit for all the work maes just did in explaining it, tyvm. ]

video

[fairysong]

How old is she?

[Because this is what matters, Sheryl.]

video

[dadandgone]

She just turned three.