{ Private Notes | Mask or Menace }
Aug. 3rd, 2015 10:13 am![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
superpositionLocal date: 2015/08/04
Location: alternate Earth, United States, Cape Canaveral military base - Army? Air Force? does it matter
Attached: pamphlet, dossier
Activity: (arrival) | Newt & Gottlieb | Capt. Aisha Ananke | (the first couple weeks)
Transported to an alternate Earth w/o my consent. USmil has teleport tech - recovered from Atlantic Ocean, not developed independently. (Extraterrestrial?) Were in a big hurry to get me away from it, had to leave or be tased.
Secondary porter leading outdoors. Seems they've reverse-engineered the tech to a degree.
Received copy of a dossier on myself, professionally made pamphlet (insufficiently) detailing situation. All new arrivals receive both. NOTE: Military claims Porter is sentient, has no control over it of course. "imPorts" have been arriving since 1986.
Nanites: don't remember receiving them, definitely didn't agree to it. Ostensibly for "protection." Strong hunch they're actually for monitoring. (Look into this.)
PRIORITY 1: FIND MODEUS. May still be in lab but still no luck pinning down coords.
☆ Drs. Hermann Gottlieb & Newt Geizsler - some portal experience? could be useful, follow up.
☆ Capt. Aisha Ananke - imPort liaison. left voicemail @ 00:45
Staying in govt housing. No security, but I can fix that.
... Gød, how long have I been up? This is ridiculous.
Local date: 2015/08/05
Location: De Chima, VA
Activity: George O'Malley | Newt & Gottlieb
The Drs. G. checked in. Newt agreed to help me find lab space & parts for a 'porter of our own, so, progress.
Still not entirely sure what to make of those two. They actually seem to know what they're doing, but they constantly snap back and forth between best friends and arguing like an old married couple (as someone pointed out). Newt's clearly some flavor of manic, whereas Gottlieb's stable enough for two people. Maybe that psychic link of theirs means we'll be able to take the average of them, though.
(Jaegers - giant combat robots, neural interface.
Kaiju - giant monsters, toxic blood. related to Newt's?)
....... Not that that's any of my business, but it's interesting.
Follow up maybe: Starktech, Starrware (imPort-owned tech companies).
Starrware does environmental R&D, could be worth checking out. (Contact: Karen Starr)
Capt. Ananke called back. No sign of Modeus yet. Probably best for this world if he didn't make it in, but that's not without its own problems. What if he finds his way to another one? Or, Gød forbid, back home? I'd feel a lot better knowing where he is, at the very least, but getting him back in his cage would be ideal. At least that way his genius can be put to good use.
Local date: 2015/08/08
Attached: FAQ (Kate Bishop), Notes (Thomas), re: the "City"
Activity: Newt & Gottlieb | Mirrornet post
A lot of info to sift through. First, wrt the Porter:
- Not independently sentient, but possessed/controlled by an entity known as Lachesis.
- What is Lachesis? Greek myth: Fate that measures the thread of life. But what is she really? Alien? Otherdimensional?
- Lachesis and some imPorts originate on yet another Earth ("Earth-α"), which was destroyed by her "sister," Atropos. Survivors were rescued by the third "sister," Clotho.
- Incredibly powerful reality warper - created several new countries on Earth-α, complete with entire histories. (If that's accurate, it's not at all farfetched for her to be the one granting people superpowers.)
- ... which would mean superpowers aren't granted by some sort of Porter-generated radiation. But then what about the imPorts prior to Lachesis' arrival (15/01/2014)? Did they not get powers? What was the selection process for who to kidnap back then?
- Not uncommon for imPorts to be "Ported out", temporarily or permanently, despite us having no access to the Porter. (It can act remotely? Capability of the Porter itself, or purely Lachesis?) Of these, some return later; of these, some regain memories of their visit, some don't. I say regain because supposedly no one remembers their experiences here while in their home dimensions. (Why not?? Lachesis again, or something else? What's the point of erasing them?)
- Voluntary return home used to be possible, isn't now.
- Lachesis of Earth-α described as chatty, capricious prankster. Lachesis of this Earth ("Earth-β") as silent, uninvolved. That's a pretty radical change in personality all of a sudden. Is her silence voluntary? How do we actually know she's in there?
As I suspected, due to political situation, gov't objects to imPorts leaving the US w/o official permission. I, meanwhile, object to being walled into the States. I know they say "when in Rome," but the Romans put up with Nero so I can't say I entirely trust their judgment.
MIRRORNET: imPort-created secure network that runs on the same platform/interface as the gov't-provided one. Seems to check out, no obvious vulnerabilities I could find, + better options for custom encryption.
imPort community is actually a lot more forthcoming with information than I'd anticipated. Might be a good time to throw my hat in the ring. Here's hoping I don't have to bribe them with cheesy ASCII art.
Addendum: Response from Karen Starr re: lab space. Meeting tomorrow 10AM at [location] to discuss. (Note: buy a tie)
Local date: 2015/08/09
Activity: Karen Starr | Mako
Success! Karen's offered some space at Starrware. I can start setting up tomorrow.
Action items:
- SCRAP - need bulk supplier ASAP! work with Karen on this?
- standalone power supply
☆ Mako Mori - Jaeger mechanic, same world of origin as N&G. Technokinetic(?) Very professional, seems like a bright young lady. I thought Newt had told her about the project, but she connected the dots on her own.
☆ Have confirmed project to: Newt, Gottlieb, Mako, Kate Bishop, Kasumi, Cisco Ramon, Karen Starr
Local date: 2015/08/10
Activity: Lucifer | Alduin
Began moving equipment over to Starrware. Fortunately, I haven't made too much yet. It's still mostly computers and misc. scraps.
WATCH:
Church of the Morningstar. Satanist cult, advertises on TV, leader calls himself Lucifer. Really subtle there. Probably trying to obfuscate his true plans through sheer audacity. Unfortunately, nothing there that I can act on.
Alduin the World Eater. Claims to be an immortal god-dragon or something, but made mortal. Could be dangerous, or just a nuisance.
Local date: 2015/08/11
Activity: Max
Registration. The central question facing new imPorts - whether to continue receiving government benefits, or strike out on their own.
Key Differences:
- Registered: stipend (reasonable for local cost of living), health care, free housing, assigned employment, recognition of existing degrees/licenses, voting rights. Have not been conscripted to military service yet, but it's clear gov't expects you to say yes if they do call you up. New imPorts default to this status (free sample to convince you to buy in?)
- Unsettled: vigilantism is illegal, can't use intercity Porters, lose benefits (not fully enforced?). Nanites still present, so this is more than likely just a formality, and/or an invitation to monitor us more closely. Nobody likes a conscientious objector.
- Both: can't leave country without permission, definitely can't visit China or Soviet bloc.
With all that in mind, it's no decision at all. I will not see my technology weaponized again, and I will not tacitly support a government that would consider using child soldiers. Unsettled it is.
I can probably stretch the cash I have to the end of the month. That ought to be enough time to get the project put together, anyway. Thank Gød for beans and rice.
Local date: 2015/08/13
Activity: Starktech (Owen, Stark)
Starktech's having a job fair, dropped in to see what all the hype was about. Stark's well-known and highly recommended among imPorts, and an Earth-α veteran. Unfortunately, also kind of a prat. Said it wasn't possible, something about the laws of physics being imperceptibly different, which is nonsense, incidentally. A poor workman blames his tools. So - won't be getting any support from Starktech. But no loss there, I wasn't banking on it anyway.
☆ Reed Richards - inventor of teleportals in Stark's world. Apparently he was around at some point (α? β?), but I can't find anything else on him - if he was here, he was 'ported out some time ago. Shame. I'm sure he'd have been more receptive.
Local date: 2015/08/16
Attached: 15/08/2015 De Chima University Security footage
Before attack: Hiro Hamada | Cisco Ramon | Baymax | Garrus Vakarian | Mako, George, Midnighter
After attack: Gogo Tomago | "Plutonian," "Modeus," Hazel | Thomas | Mako ("Bette") | Hulkling | Newt & Gottlieb | Peggy Carter
CHEMICAL ATTACK at this month's swearing-in. The agent's unlike anything I've ever dealt with before. Incredibly powerful hallucinogen, distributed as a gas. The whole event collapsed into chaos within minutes. I 'ported out as many victims as I could, but... it wasn't enough. Of course it wasn't enough.
It was bigger than just the swearing-in. The news is saying the fireworks display that night was rigged with the same agent, so about 20 city blocks were affected. I've been reviewing the footage. I knew it was bad, but it's even worse than I thought. It's horrific. People attacking their families without provocation, gruesomely mutilating themselves and others, imPorts losing control of their powers or worse... Officially they're putting the death toll at 75 or so, but many more were injured. And that's not even counting the psychological damage.
I was at the epicenter when it started. I wish I could say I wasn't affected, but in all honesty I still got off relatively easy. No major injuries, and somehow I managed not to cause any, either. Still feeling some aftereffects. Headache, sleeplessness, some palpitations, etc. I'm lucky it's not worse. Imagine if it'd been mustard gas.
What I saw was... a waking nightmare. My memory of the night isn't totally coherent, but maybe that's for the best. Lots of things I wish I'd never seen in the first place. In hindsight, though, it did remind me of some problems I'd been neglecting. So thank you for that, mysterious perpetrator, may you die in a fire.
Action items:
- Find out who did this.
- Find Modeus. Was hoping not to resort to AI after what happened last time, but that may be the most expedient option at this point. Just have to remember to secure them better.
- Improve shielding against network-based incursion/leakage.
- Precautions in case of Tony. (Nanites may have power null functionality, can I exploit that?)
☆ Mitchell Hundred - imPort Ambassador for De Chima. Seems like a better line to gov't. Still a bit low-tier, but it's a start.
Local date: 2015/08/17
Attached: Batman & Armstrong
Activity: Dorian Gray | Batman
Someone knew. Someone knew an attack was coming and did nothing.
I don't even know where to start with this. Of course I'm furious. And it's not as if I have room to talk about "too much redemption." But this isn't like Tony, this is more like Modeus. This is a person known to be present, criminally insane, and probably planning a damn attack. If I could confirm Modeus was here, of course I'd tell someone. (Who? Tell everyone, and he'd just go to ground.)
No. I can't just... I can't just rationalize everything here. It's unacceptable. End of story. To say we're all just ticking time bombs, that's unfair. Lots of otherwise innocuous things can explode under the right conditions. But some people are, and that can't just be ignored.
Local date: 2015/08/19
Activity: Gottlieb | Newt | Green Lantern | Power Girl
☆☆☆ DR JONATHAN CRANE, AKA SCARECROW: Prime suspect in the gassing.
(The list of people who knew about him in advance is getting longer. This Green Lantern knew his MO well enough to think it was obvious. Which raises the question of why he didn't do anything sooner, either, but that can wait.)
Active super-teams:
- RISE: imPort-run paramilitary security team. Run by "the Major General." (Actual rank? Codename?) Mitch Hundred recommends them, but I'm not sure about that paramilitary aspect.
- Justice League: Don't know anything but the name. Green Lantern affiliated with them. Might be where I can do the most good at the moment, but we'll see.
Local date: 2015/08/21
Activity: Scarecrow
Scarecrow finally surfaced on the network. To gloat, naturally. Didn't give any clues to his location, but he didn't need to. It turns out that the Satanists are harboring him, because of course they are. Which formally eliminates the option of going after him without backup, not that it was much of an option to begin with.
Local date: 2015/08/23
Attached: FAQ
Kate Bishop's been 'ported out. Will Graham mirrored her FAQ.
Local date: 2015/08/26
Activity: Max & Shadow
Some kind of wild griffin appeared out of nowhere in downtown De Chima this afternoon. When I went to investigate, though, it attacked. A couple of other imPorts were around as well, helped neutralize the threat. We were able to take it down without killing it, fortunately. No clue where it came from.
- Shadow: Bipedal cat person. Power: shadowmelding. Aptly named, at least. Ferocious melee fighter.
- Max: Human, 12-ish. Must have powers, but I didn't see him use them. Told him to go home, but he didn't. Miraculously, managed not to get himself killed.
EDIT 08/29: Someone called Puck is claiming responsibility. Says it was to let us get the pent-up aggression out of our systems. Keep an eye on this one, he's trouble.
Local date: 2015/09/01
Activity: Abigail Hobbs | George O'Malley | Jeff Winger | Hisoka (09/02)
Status update
- Porter: Coming along nicely. Most of the hardware is in place already and checks out, so once I finish up the software it should be good to go for a test run. Still need to look into the time-travel aspect, but (somewhat ironically) I haven't had the time.
- Modeus: Still no sign one way or another. I threw together three copies of the AI after the swear-in - all they are is heads, so no worries there - but the one lead they've puzzled out so far came back empty. I'm beginning to accept the possibility that he's not actually here, but that's not something you breathe a sigh of relief about. Keep your enemies closer. Once the new Porter's up and running, I'll start tracking him down in earnest.
- Crane: Still hiding out with Lucifer, as far as I know. No news there yet.
Local date: 2015/09/04
Activity: Tetsuo
Encountered an imPort teen named Tetsuo at the scrapyard. Remarkably powerful telekinetic, but the ability causes him painful feedback. (Did he have this power back home, or receive it at the door?) Was self-medicating; not sure what with. I whipped up a resonator for him, which he said helped significantly. May be able to refine it with some tests - follow up later
Local date: 2015/09/06
Activity: Max
Found out what Max's power is: a magic baseball cap that opens portals. He can't do it just anywhere, they're in fixed locations, but as I learned today, one of them happens to lead directly into my lab space. It sounds like he's the only one with access to this particular portal network, but still... might have to see if there's another lab available. Moving all my equipment at this point would be a nightmare, though. And the boy seems harmless enough, apart from breaking my logic analyzer.
Local date: 2015/09/07
Activity: Jacob Taylor
Found out a bit more re: the local super-politics.
RISE (Rogue Import Suppression Enforcement) is officially gov't-sponsored, may be actual military and not merely para-.
Batman might be aligned with the Justice League; won't work with RISE due to fear of martial law (which, to be fair, is actually a justifiable concern around here). Said to be an effective vigilante, however.
Archangel I'd only peripherally heard of. Vigilante operation based in Maurtia Falls, led by Jacob Taylor but disbanded after his arrest.
☆ Future Foundation - nonprofit R&D group working with imPort science. Focus on medical applications.
Local date: 2015/09/08
Activity: Isaac Clarke | Kanaya Maryam
First, some background: the receptionist at Starrware is an imPort named Kanaya Maryam. She's not human, but a type of alien called a troll (heaven knows why) - although they're mostly humanoid in appearance, apart from their coloration and horns that could put your eye out. I've spoken with her once or twice on my way through the building. Charming young lady.
The other day, I was informed she had a government-issue power nullifier, and tonight she was kind enough to let me have a look at it. [result of that]
Local date: 2015/09/13
Activity: Newt & Hermann | Swear-In: Billy Kaplan, Alice Liddell
Swear-in was in Heropa this time. I thought it was the 19th, so didn't have a lot of time to make preparations, but the event went smoothly all the same. Had to take aside a young lady carrying around a bloodstained knife, but she was very cooperative, and other than that there weren't any issues.
Local date: 2015/09/14
Activity: Newt & Hermann (dinner)
The portal is complete! Hardware's ready, software's thoroughly debugged, everything's testing well... took a little longer than I expected, but not bad for starting virtually from scratch. Granted, I still had the new wavefunction and the home coordinates I put together in Gehnom, and that cut it down considerably. One of me was plenty this go-around, and thank Gød for that - don't know if I could stand my own company for that long again.
All that remains is to test it, but I don't anticipate any problems with that. Tomorrow I'll be going home. I mean, not permanently - I'm not about to abandon all the other stranded imPorts here - and I'm not entirely sure how long I'll have been gone, relatively speaking - but at least I'll be able to check in and see how things are going. I know Kaidan and Gil can more than handle themselves, but they won't have had an easy time of it, having to rebuild most of the world... Unless I've already beaten myself home, anyway, which is the plan.
Going to Newt & Hermann's for dinner tonight, and to hear a bit more about their world - I'm sure they'll be glad for the news, though.
Local date: 2015/09/15
Activity: Portal failure
How could this have happened? HOW? I can't even begin - I checked everything. Everything! I ran the numbers a thousand times! How could it have failed?
Everything looked fine. All the connections were in their proper place, the gate booted up without incident, and then it simply... didn't connect. At first I thought it might be some kind of power issue, so I tried to pull in extra from the grid... which, of course, fried the gate and blew every breaker in the building. All right, mea culpa, should have known that wouldn't work. But I shouldn't have needed to try! I had more than enough power than it should have taken. I know the requirements like the back of my hand.
... Anyway. The gate's fried. Lucky it didn't catch fire, really. But I can have it up and running again within a week. This is a major setback, yes, but I'm not about to cut and run at the first sign of trouble. I'll do whatever it takes to get us home. All of us.
Local date: 2015/09/16
Activity: Batman
Crane's been captured. No idea how, but Batman apparently managed it single-handed. He's turned him over to RISE, but with the stipulation that he get a fair trial and not a summary execution. Which is more than that psychopath deserves, of course, but it spares the rest of us from carrying one out. Besides, thanks to our generous hosts, the death penalty would be meaningless.
I may have misjudged Batman initially. He's definitely effective, and he comes off as... principled. Might see if he's open to working together in future, if we have to. You know, as long as we're all trapped like rats anyway.
Local date: 2015/09/18
Activity: Superman | Max
WHO IS SUPERMAN?
Local date: 2015/09/19
He's the Plutonian. He may not know it - he didn't seem to recognize me - but it can't just be coincidence. Somehow, some fragment of Tony made it out. Someone found him, just like I'd hoped. He got his second chance.
But how much of him is actually in there? Did they truly get it right this time? It's imperative I find out. If his madness didn't follow him, wonderful. But if it did...
I hope it doesn't come to that. Gød, I hope it doesn't. But it could. I'd be foolish to ignore the possibility. And whether or not he takes that step, I need to be three steps ahead of him. I cannot let that happen here, whatever the cost. Never again.
Powers:
- Flight
- Bulletproof
- Enhanced strength & speed
- Enhanced senses (all?)
- Heat vision
- Arctic breath
- (Telepathy? Shapeshifting? Haven't seen them mentioned anywhere, but understandable if he's hiding those.)
No word on his limitations or weaknesses, except a passing mention of being solar-powered, if that's even true. Claims to be alien - at least that's consistent, but again, could be a red herring.
Temperament: Friendly, professional, compassionate - at least in front of the camera. That doesn't tell me much. He's quite open about whom he associates with, though, which makes tracking down said associates much simpler.
Associates:
- Power Girl (cousin). Don't know much about her. Related how, exactly? Blood, adoption? And how much power is involved?
- That boy who shares his logo. Wish I'd written down his name. I know he lives in De Chima, but who is he? Relative, sidekick, copycat, fan?
- Batman. A bit surprising, as their approaches are immensely different - playing to each other's strengths, I assume.
- Green Lantern. He, Batman, and Superman are all involved with the Justice League - if they're all from the same Earth, could be a team back there.
Notable activity:
- [Florida/Bulgaria bombing]
- [Was Unsettled until an incident involving Green Lantern]
- [Held by Crane for over a week]
Local date: 2015/09/20
Activity: Karen
Finally spoke to Karen about living expenses. I start Monday as an environmental engineer. Not sure how I feel about jumping into corporate life after all this time... Couldn't stand it the last time I tried, but I was a lot younger then.
It's surreal, starting up a quote-unquote "normal" life after everything that's happened. Granted, it's not as if I have much of a choice in the matter - I can't live on pennies indefinitely. I don't know. Maybe I'm just being immature about it. And maybe a break from "the biz" isn't such a bad thing. Who knows, perhaps I can make more of a difference here than I ever could on my own. It doesn't preclude me from stepping in for emergencies, either. And I'll be close to my own lab, so I can keep working on everything in there...
Right, that reminds me. To-do list. Order subject to change without notice.
- Repair portal.
- Double-check laws of physics, rule that out.
- Find source & mechanism of interference.
- Find workaround if poss.
- More about Superman.
- Duplicate power nullifier.
- Do something about govt's nanites.
- Look into time travel. (Any chronokinetics out there?)
