outer_divide | Video: Late Wednesday

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Video: Late Wednesday

[The video turns on to a very bedraggled, dusty Thero with a torn tunic and several nasty bruises, scowling and pressing buttons with an expression that makes it clear he might as well be poking a dead rat for all he approves of this little device. Eventually, he decides to accept that it's working. His expression lightens some, all the way to formality with an overlay of confusion.]

Third damn time... Ahem. This is L- This is Thero i Procepios. Most of you don't know me, but I've been given to understand this is an open-ended means of communication. As well as a monitored one, so I'll be brief. In the wake of the sky practically falling in the moment I... arrived and my lack of a stomach for battles, I've met very few of you, and I wouldn't blame anyone for distrusting me. However, when it comes to recovery, I may be able to make myself useful. I've been hesitant to explore even now that things seem to be quiet. I'm unfamiliar with this kind of combat and I suspect I'd only get in the way or get myself killed if things were to resurge, but if someone can direct me, I'm entirely willing to venture out again. I have some basic training as a healer, but I'd be best suited to removal of rubble or even assisting with reconstruction. And, frankly, if anything specific, especially anything odd, needs doing, there's every likelihood I could find a way to assist.

[Is that a good way to suggest magical help without outright saying it? He's never had to try that before. Close enough. For another minute he struggles with the device, scowling, until it finally shuts off.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Mutant. Next stage of evolution, or whatever. Comes down to really somebody with a power. Like this.

[Todd snaps his tongue out, catching a fly out of the air near the door. He tries to look proud of it-- usually he is, but next to all that stuff he feels decidedly "behind" in terms of coolness, right now.]

I can jump an' stick to walls, too. It's pretty cool stuff.

[More words he has no context for. Maybe just ignore that bit for now, come back later. He does seem to be close to making another ally, and that's worth playing along for a bit.]

Seems... practical.

[Considering the circles Thero runs in? This one would be a godsend. And while he could probably figure out some kind of spell to mimic the climbing and sticking, and probably the tongue, too, this is far more straighforward.]

There are compatriots of mine who'd be quite interested in the potential...

Yeah?

[Todd looks skeptical. Nobody really wants to hang with him, do they? Really? Everybody else thinks he's kind of a wimp, but hey, if somebody does want to, he's not about to say no. Well, not before finding out more, anyway.]

Who's that? And how come? Cuz I can climb things?

[Watcher business is a deep secret at home, but no one here seems to have heard of Skala or the Oreska, let alone have any interest in their proceedings. Besides, he doesn't have to elaborate too much to begin with, does he? Espionage seems to be a universal constant.]

No one here, or at least I've seen no evidence of any of them. But going over walls and in windows and chased by the armed and enraged seems to get them nearly killed about twice a month. On the occasion I had to loan Seregil my body, I certainly got it back battered and bruised.

[That's a weird story even for a wizard, but it does seem pertinent.]

Oh, uh. Well, that's kinda normal for the Brotherhood, too, with all the trouble we got from the goodie-goods and stuff.

[Which is even kind of true. They do tend to get themselves into a lot of scrapes. In all fairness, though, he adds:]

Ain't never been stuck in nobody's else's body, though. That's just weird, yo.

Yes, very, but he was in the tower for treason at the time, and we needed to operate without attracting suspicion or getting him in trouble we couldn't get him out of, as jailbreaks tend to do.

[Not the best solution to his mind, but it had worked, to whatever degree it had needed to.]

But, I should note, the thing about the Watchers is we are the... goody-goods. We just operate outside of official channels. A few burglaries and stolen documents in pursuit of the greater good.

Oh. Okay.

[Todd wasn't quite sure how to take that. He looked at Thero sidelong for a moment. Well, really, Mystique and Magneto had their own "greater good", didn't they? They just weren't all stupid about it, like the X-men. No, they were just mean about it, but at least they let him get away with having a little fun.]

So what's your "greater good", then?

Ostensibly? Generally the good of Skala, but seeing as I can't find any sign that the country even exists in this reality... But when I'm not answering to a member of the royal family? Stopping assassinations and solving diplomatic quagmires isn't really as important as preventing the ride of necromantic gods.

[Shiver. That was unpleasant.]

And alchemical abominations. And soul vampires.

[Yeah, you've lost him. Todd returns that speech with a blank look. He recognized soul vampires, maybe, sorta, kind, but even then, he's not sure what it means. The rest was all kind of gibberish.]

Alchemi-what?

Eh, alchemy. It's magic done by means of physical substances, and I suppose it could be done to good purpose. I've worked on distilling potions some myself. This one had a friend of mine kidnapped and used his blood to create a... decidedly odd little creature with healing abilities. The creature was perfectly innocent and magically fascinating, but the means didn't justify the ends.

[Another nasty incident, that. Though there's some relief in just being able to talk about such things without fear that they'll get back to unfriendly ears.]

But still. The more interesting sort of Watcher duties fall in that area, and I suspect those are experiences that'd do me more good than my ability to break up treasonous noble cabals.

[Todd still isn't sure he got half of that, but whatever. He's feeling alone enough to let it slide. The guy's pretty cool, so far, anyway.]

Well. I guess long's you don't lecture me or yell at me or nothin', whatever, bro. Not like I got anybody else here.

[Can't be worse than Mystique or Summers.]

I'll keep any future anecdotes to simpler subjects.

[He's being fairly good, but for a slight eyebrow raise. Has to make due with what he's got, and the kid's far from being as irritating as Seregil in a mood, or that Walker character.]

My understanding is that we're meant to fix whatever's wrong here, principally the forces from under those domes and their practice of gleefully oppressing everyone outside, and then we can go home. I'm inclined to taking a proactive approach. You?

You think?

[That explanation actually hasn't occurred to Todd. Then again, not much usually does, not without some prompting. He's not naturally very creative, after all. Now that Thero's mentioned it, though, he frowns and thinks a little, himself.]

Huh. Suppose that's as good a reason as any. What kinda thing we supposed to fix? That dome thing?

It's how it was explained to me, though testing that is probably high on the to-do list. I don't think the dome itself is so much the trouble, more what it represents. A cordoning off of peoples, so to speak, with those inside the dome exerting power over those outside. I only know the little I was told by another of the transplants I met on the way out of that ship.

[So he lectures a little. It's just the way he talks.]

Oh. Well, it's still more'n anybody's told me, so... whatever.

[Todd looks a little uncomfortable with the whole thing. He's not very self-motivated, at all, and he's not really sure just what to do with this new knowledge-- much less a new ally who apparently isn't gonna yell at him. Just be kind of stuck-up and hard to understand.]

So what're you gonna do about it?

What I do with all the problems I don't want and never asked for. Find out what's causing it and make that stop happening. Not something I can do alone, though. If I attempt, say, a physical infiltration, I usually wind up, say, with a poisoned needle in my neck. It's not my line.

[Ugh. No luck ever.]

[Aaaand there would be the catch, right there. He doesn't want to be some guy's fall-boy! Looking alarmed, he exclaims,]

Hey, hey, I ain't gonna go gettin' no poison needles, neither, man!

I wouldn't wish those on anyone, I assure you. Ugh. I was just trying to illustrate the kind of thing that happens if I try for that line of work. Hopefully trapped locks are less common here, but no one's asking you to subject yourself to them if there are. But being able to go straight up a wall continues to strike me as a useful skill.

Well. All right. I guess.

[He's a little mollified. A little! Todd hunkers down into his usual crouch, now, and asks the big question.]

So what're you gonna do, then, an' have me do? Or d'you even know yet?

I'm used to having a network that spans a continent, and a continent that follows the rules of magic and technology I understand. But for all I'm at sea, the usual approach seems applicable. Gather as much information as possible, determine exactly who's responsible for what in any and all factions, and take action only then. Generally by isolating and eliminating the problems.

[Admittedly, that's very proactive for Watcher business, but he has no royal family to apply to, no Oreska elders, no council.]

So, for the time being, mainly gathering information.

And what'm I supposed to do for that? Hang around under windows?

[Which he can totally do. It'd just be really boring.]

That dome thingy is pretty sealed off. And there's, like, soldiers'n stuff all patrolling it. Not gonna find out much there.

If there weren't a way to do it, we presumably wouldn't be here. And hanging around under windows, while useful, is a bit undirected. I'd mainly suggest keeping an ear to the ground until we find out more.

[Sigh.]

Realistically, until I find out more. There's no one else to take magical risks. Undirected sightings are a terrible headache, too.

Okay.

[Which is pretty much all Todd's been doing. That, and being lazy. So not much change there.]

Guess you know how ta find me when you wanna, huh?

[And vice versa, but Todd's not really used to being the proactive one in a working relationship.]

That's a good point. This will do for everyday purposes, but I don't like this mode of communication. Partly because it's monitored.

[Mostly because it makes him feel dumb.]

[Thero fishes what looks like a stick with a blue stripe painted on from his pocket, mutters a few words under his breath, and hands it over.]

In an emergency, you can break this and it'll convey a short message to me. Just a few sentences and it will cut off. Or if you're in immediate danger, just snap it, and I'll know where you are.

Huh.

[Todd takes the stick, and turns it this way and that curiously. Hey, at least it's kind of nice of the guy to want to help if he's in trouble. Or something.]

Thanks. I'll do that, I guess. You can talk long-distance with that wizard-stuff, then?

[If the phones are being monitored, that's really pretty handy.]

Video: Late Wednesday

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