agogelogs | DO BETTER,

WHO? Everybody! Including fourth wall visitors.
WHAT? HRHR and swap shenanigans, among other things.
WHEN? 12 XII, Year 6 of Sanaliel's reign.
ANYTHING ELSE? Please warn for anything besides physical violence and move to a personal journal if it's beyond PG-13.

BE MORE, DO MORE;

check your blood pressure

READ THE LEMURIA INFOPAGE.

STRANGE THINGS ARE AFOOT

You've been in Lemuria a little while now, trying to fit in, assimilate, and survive. But on the dawn of the twelfth day of the twelfth month of Lemuria's third and final season, something strange happens.

You wake, but it's as though your mind isn't your own. Or maybe you stayed up all night and felt the change, in the AM hours before it's so late it becomes early. A mental stirring, a feeling that only gets worse as it goes on, no matter what you tried to do and how you tried to halt it. Whatever the case, you're in its sway: Lemuria has become a hive mind.

Your memories are no longer private. Your powers are no longer your own. The barrier between you and everyone else is gone as easy as thinking. In a flash, just looking at someone allows you to instantly understand their thoughts, or encourages their memories to suddenly become your memories, too. It's instantaneous, like the memory has always been there, like it truly happened for you. Once upon a time, it was tangible.

It isn't a perfect science, however. While the intention is there, what exactly you experience is fuzzier. Your scouts will eventually chalk up the inconsistency of the experience (why do some hold up better against it than others?) to individuality and the BCEs, but who knows, really.

IS ANYBODY OUT THERE?

Stranger still, when you venture out to see the rest of the city, the city is calm and silent, like a perfectly preserved relic or a dream. The average citizen is dead asleep, in their beds or in the streets, whether they collapsed walking, riding a hoverbike, or driving a vehicle.

There are accidents, eerily still besides smoke curling from the wreck, with no paramedics on the scene. When someone dies, they die as unaware as everyone around them.

Besides you, of course.

For anyone who dies, their memories remain out of reach; otherwise, you might very well see the past of any Lemurian citizen you pass. Even if their hopes and misfortunes don't survive with them for the night, they might survive with someone else.

In the midst of the sleeping city, you can try and help those in need. They won't wake up and you'll probably never get a thank you, but bandaging wounds sure would be nice of you.

A CITIZEN'S ADDRESS

Not long after the sun rises, a post goes up on the network:

@ASHOLE | @ALL

something got seriously fucked up holy shit
were doing our best to figure it out but honestly? it seems like some kind of technomagical intercurrent based on hypothetical thaumaturgic mnemomancy
uhhh in laymans terms somebodys fucking with memories but you knew that right?
the thing is theres somnomantic undercurrents as well
only thing i can figure for why were still awake and theyre not is because of the bces
they havent been invented yet, but theyre designed to protect us from things like the sleeping shit
so we arent being affected exactly the same way as the lemurians, either
but thats got its own problems because uh
you know how were undercover spies in a volatile period of time and shit
well we aint the only ones
the regency-to-be has guys hanging around here and they got bces too
vega's already run into a couple

be fucking careful
and for the love of GOD dont go to the bolthole
youll lead them right to us

ill update with better intel as i get it
i have some theories but i wanna run a few tests

I WANNA ROCK AND ROLL ALL NIGHT

So despite all the sleeping people and the horroresque quiet, you're not alone.

Walking around in broad daylight is a dead giveaway to Regency spies that you have a BCE. And they will attack. They're dressed as civilians and seem better prepared for the situation, lurking in the shadows and staying out of sight. Some of them may tail you for a very long time before waiting for the right moment to make a move. Some may leap out as soon as you reveal yourself. Each fights with their own style and aim to kill.

They're equipped largely with blasters similar to yours and they don't, for once, have power nullifies. They do have superhuman strength, speed, senses, and healing, so watch out.

Some may engage in conversation, but it's largely of the trashtalk variety. It's not impossible to have a genuine talk with one or two (feel free to NPC them as you like and ask if you need any specific information on something they would or wouldn't say, but really, it's up to you), but it is unlikely. They are consummate fighters.

They're trying to find the source of COST's boltholes around the city, and take out as many COST operatives as possible in the process. Why don't you return the favor?

Ooor maybe you lead them right to the bolthole. Somebody's always gotta be that guy.

I'M A BELIEVER

During all of this (and maybe despite it), there are missions. Their exact timing is up to you; while they take place around the hive mind overtaking Lemuria, they don't necessarily happen during it—barring, of course, the one where you save the day and bring down Fafnir.

You can use this event to your advantage or disadvantage, through gaining someone else's memories or knowledge, or adapting to a set of powers you haven't spent a lifetime honing. The Lemurian people are a silent wellspring of information; even the most oblivious has an intimate understanding of their home and outlying territories that COST can't replicate. And, well, an unconscious person is an easier target than a conscious one.

READ THE LEMURIA INFOPAGE.

NAV. NETWORK LOGS OOC MEMES PLURK

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Ashitaka had been no stranger to death, and the same was true for many if not most of them among COST's ranks, but what had happened to Little Xici had all the same haunted him. A harrowing marker for the depths of cruelty their enemy would stoop to, to go so far as to expunge someone from existence rather than curtail it before its natural conclusion. It had felt so profoundly wrong, and perhaps that was why it stuck with him - that, and how he hadn't managed to find any reason to stand against her, for she was just as much a slave to her circumstances as they were (though she was certainly more-so, given what the Empire was willing to do). She had had conviction and determination, and even when it was placed adversary to himself, he respected it.

So an opportunity to save her? It was an odd thought. Even after having threaded his way between the pathways of time on multiple occasions by this point, a part of Ashitaka still believes that what's done is done, especially when it had happened right in front of him. But if they had the chance, he would do it. And he was glad when the old soldier agreed to help.

Ashitaka does not want to murder this man either. It is not in his nature to feel such a thing appropriate. In his eyes, to save him from a future of serving such a terrible Empire was yet another good deed that they could do. But how was a different thing entirely. They would have to either find him a better alternative, or give him no choice but to find one, lest he incur a dire repercussion.

He glances towards 76 as he speaks up. Ashitaka's eyes are thoughtful.] You are right. [His gaze shifts once more toward the road, sifting through the people shuffling along it.] To what end? Do we intend to intimidate him into choosing another path?

We've got to get him alone either way.

[76 will kill him if it comes to that, but even though he doesn't have the same way with words that he used to, convincing is a better alternative to more blood on his hands. Eventually this man will become some kind of war criminal, but punishing him for it before it even happens leaves a bad taste in his mouth. He knows more than most that due process is not something they can always afford, but killing someone before they even do the thing that's worth killing them over smacks a little too much of the Regency. They're supposed to be better than this, even if they are at war.

He imagines there are eyes everywhere in Lemuria, so having a conversation in private is going to be their first order of business. Well, second, if he counts stalking the guy on his commute an order of business.

It sounds like Ashitaka is in agreement that they should play softball first, but all of that hinges entirely on how convincing they can be.]

Are you feeling persuasive?

[He is silent for a sober moment.] You are correct in that.

[Ashitaka would prefer not to have to kill him. What they sought to correct was the unfortunate death of someone which might have been avoided, and to fix that by murdering another seemed too much to him like attempting to put out a fire with a pail full of oil. But if it was necessary, he would do what he had to do. He would not tell himself that it was better or more proper morally; even after all of this time with COST he still believed that to rob a human being of their life was wrong, and he would carry the weight of what he had done for the rest of his life. He would simply shoulder it, and carry on.

He exhales, cool and slow, and looks to 76 with a levelness to his gaze.] It has never been my greatest strength, but I do not wish to be violent. [His eyes track back out to the building they had been monitoring; the distaste is evident on his expression, but he seems plenty convicted.] I will be doing everything I can to convince him, then.

[A glint fleets across his face, and he gives a small nod.]

There he is.

[Their quarry, which tolled the bell for what they would need to do.]

He seems to be following his usual path. [That had been his first worry, but it seemed their plan would have no faults in it from the beginning. Good.]

DO BETTER,

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