touchscreens | [Video]

[Irene appears on the terminal screen, looking a little bit tired. Her trademark smile is in place soon enough, though.]

Hello, everyone.

It's come to my attention that a number of you are concerned because of the disappearances that have been going on lately. I'm here today to reassure you - everyone who disappeared is safe. They're been sent back to their worlds for the time being.

The reason is that a number of people started showing signs of extremely fast energy drain - quick enough that they would have died within a couple of hours if left unattended. We returned them all for their own safety.

Right now, we're working on trying to figure out why only some people have been affected by this rapid drain. We hope to have more information for you soon.

Also, thank you all for your help in re-opening the Third District. For those of you that may have been wondering, opening the district was the cause of the power outages early in the month; for that reason, we're going to hold off on opening any other districts for the time being, until we're sure that the power levels are sufficient.

That's all for right now. Keep in good health, everyone.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yeah? Why not? We could find out where she is and, you know, get some answers.

[Because he is not above threatening women. ]

[BECAUSE, DEADLOCK.]

You get more bees with honey. We need to be patient and try to work covertly.

I understand where you're coming from, but that has the serious potential to backfire dramatically.

Covertly. Like hiding.

[Sadly that is the kind of logic that works on him. ]

What? What are they gonna do to me? Send me home?

[Please.]

Maybe. Maybe not.

Like you said, they're hiding information. All we know for sure is that we can become seriously ill if we don't have constant physical contact with others. What if the illness isn't caused by just the lack of contact?

There's too much we don't know. We need more information before even attempting such a risky maneuver.

Maybe.

[He's just chucking that 'maybe not' out the window. Whooosh.]

Only one way to find out, isn't there? Better someone who knows there's risk.

[Dr Human don't you know the only way to get information is by punching it out of someone?]

[BAD. BAD DECEPTICON. NO.]

But we don't know what those risks are. You can't just go in fast and hard, you need a plan. A good plan.

... Not that anyone should try the violent way, anyway.

[You going to whack him with a rolled up newspaper?]

All right, fine. So what's a 'good' plan?

[Since you somehow seem to think his is not. But kidnapping is a classic!]

Why the frag not?

[Violence has solved all of Deadlock's problems thus far.]

[Maybe.]

I don't know yet. We need more information, about this world, the natives, the illness, their power source. Everything. That's where we start. Not threats.

Because violence leads to more violence and that leads to very bad things.

I don't threaten.

[As in, he just does bad stuff.]

Violence is the only way to get people to listen to you sometimes.

[But have a huffy sigh. ]

Fine. You got a better idea?

[She definitely wanted to say something, but Holiday refrained from it. He was going with her for now.]

Patience. We sit back and we learn what we can through polite conversation. Immediately showing them that we're a possible threat is a bad idea for several reasons... including ruining the element of surprise later on if we do have to resort to violence. Which we won't.

[He's going to shoot her a look. She does realize that patience is like....the exact opposite of what he does, right?]

So, just sit around and let them use us, learn more about us, too? Cause it probably works both ways.

Yes, but at least we're not getting involved with a fight that we can't win.

We should try to earn their trust.

Who says we can't win?

[Deadlock's ego. You have just run into it.]

[And wow he needed that laugh.]

Right. Trust. Why the hell should they trust me? Or any of us?

They have something that can make us sick if we don't touch each other. Who's to say they don't have something worse than that? Something possibly weaponized?

Exactly. We need to give them reasons to trust us. These things take time.

And how are we gonna know if they do unless someone fraggin' tries something?

[Logic!]

Look. I went on their stupid mission. That's enough. I even got dragged to that stupid festival.

[Look at all the fun he had. :| ]

That's not the kind of experimenting we need to do in this situation.

... Wait, what mission?

What am I supposed to do? Just sit around and play nice?

[Probably a bad idea because he has no idea how to do that.]

You know. The whole 'get the generators' going thing.

_{Fraggin' Wing talked me into it}

Yes. For now.

[Actually, Holiday didn't know about this mission...]

What generators? What did they power exactly?

[Better yet, what did the whole physical contact thing power?]

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