video.

[rebuildyourruins]

Who: Thor and you
Broadcast: fleetwide
Action: on the Blue Fish if you want him
When: today

[Thor has obviously stuck his communicator on the desk in his room, because the video opens with him in profile, sitting on his bed. For a few moments all he does is toss a small rubber ball out of the frame, then catch it when it rebounds off the opposite wall with a thud back towards him. He does this a couple of times before he speaks.]

When I arrived in the Fleet, I was told a lot of things and given several warnings. All of them with good purpose. What I remember most though is being told not to try and take out the augment. More than one person told me this.

[A sidelong glance at the communicator, before he throws the ball into the wall again. Thud. Catch.]

No one said why exactly, other than the obvious part where it's stuck in our heads. Still, I would ask what exactly we know about these augments. What's been tried to get them out, what happens when you do? And have they been known to do anything else besides give us information about our ship roles.

If I had heard more about it earlier, I probably wouldn't have-- [Hold that thought: Thor misses the next rebound on the ball and it smacks him in the head, making him jump and drop out of frame for a moment.] --shit.

[Okay, he’s back up, with the offending ball tossed away into a corner. He rubs at his face before continuing, faintly annoyed. Everything is out to spite him today.]

Anyway. If you know something about them, I'd like to hear it. Or even if you have an opinion on them. Those are good too.

[One day he'll make a network post when he's in a cheerful mood. Maybe.]

Comments

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[postocular]

Nothing good about them. I think they have some sort of defense mechanism to keep us from removing them.

[ There's a hesitant pause before Carl looks at the camera again. ]

A friend of mine tried to remove hers quite a while ago. She lost a lot of blood. Almost died. She might have if she'd managed to get it out.

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[rebuildyourruins]

That part I know of. A sort of terrible feeling that you get if you try it.

[He knows from experience. Poorly judged experience.]

Sounds unpleasant. That's the trouble with them being so deeply embedded. How was she trying to do it?

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[mucked]

Odd. [ look, this is gonna be a very helpful interjection... ] I would have expected better reflexes.

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[rebuildyourruins]

[Wow, Peggy. Thor just raises his eyebrows and says without a hint of irony:]

It's the quality of the ball that caused it.

[It's absolutely not, but that's the story he's going with.]

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[reconstitution]

[ Buckle up, chuckles, this is not going to be a fun conversation. He has Opinions. ]

Those fucking things cause more trouble than the planets do.

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[rebuildyourruins]

[At least they're opinions Thor can relate to. Sounds like Bucky has a bigger axe to grind though.]

Just by their nature, or do you mean something more specific?

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[outstandingbalance]

Messing with them can end up with a lot of pain. Even meddling with them to get a better idea what's going off can end up hurting.

[Seriously.]

Could end up in a glitch, and we're better off with fewer of those.

[A pause, then.]

This might not be the best conversation for the network, though.

video

[rebuildyourruins]

I have gotten that impression, yes.

[Part of the problem with not having been told about that pain in the beginning is that he wasn't deterred from messing with it when his frustration got high enough. Now he knows better.]

Maybe not. [A small smile.] If you'd rather talk in person though, I'd be happy to.

Video

[searingedgelord]

[Velvet appears to be pretty bored by this broadcast, but she makes a point to respond, so maybe this is just always how she looks.]

The augments alter our minds and sometimes our bodies. Isn't it just common sense not to try to take it out unless you know exactly what you're doing?

Video

[rebuildyourruins]

[For his part, Thor is unperturbed by the directness of the question.]

Yes, it is. It is still worth knowing more about them in case an opportunity arises to do something about it.

video;

[noprophecies]

You missed.

[as always she's a helper. A little more seriously]

I don't know much about them, only what I have been told as well. But I am not foolish enough to try and remove it. [pointedly]

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[rebuildyourruins]

Yes, thank you, Tempest.

[He noticed!!]

That seems wise. [He will in fact say that despite nearly admitting he gave it a shot himself.] Still, we ought to know as much as possible in case we have a real chance of getting rid of them later.

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[straightouttacarbonite]

People told me the same thing. If you figure out a way, I'm first in line behind you to get rid of it.

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[rebuildyourruins]

It's a common warning, and with good reason. These things have mechanisms in place to stop you from trying.

[Thor grins though, because it's always good to hear someone as adamant about it as he is.]

Of course. I wouldn't keep the knowledge to myself. It's just getting it that seems to be the problem.

Video

[dandyofawolf]

Considering the fact that my body should reject the augment, I would imagine that achieving a way to remove it without causing fatal harm would be challenging.

[He sighs a little bit. He'll also politely not comment on the lack of grace in catching that ball. Or rather, not catching it really.]

If you do learn anything new then I would be interested in hearing about it. If nothing else even some information can be better than none at all.

Video

[rebuildyourruins]

[It's appreciated, Biffy. Not that Thor has many qualms about addressing the ball fiasco if it comes up.]

Reject it? How do you mean?

Of course. I'm finding a lot of people have things to say on the matter, which is a start.

Voice

[whatisright]

In my world, I do not have a physical form. I suspect that the augment is part of the reason why I have a physical form here.

I have discovered that it also tampers with my powers. It seems that there is someone who can control when it does so, and they may have ulterior motives that we do not understand.

Voice

[rebuildyourruins]

[Thor hasn't encountered Justice in his new body, and it's been roughly two years and change for him since they spoke anyway. So there's no recognition here for now.]

It takes a great deal of power to do something like that. Something I would have thought beyond the reach of a piece of technology.

[Magic is a different matter, but Thor doesn't think these augments are magical in nature.]

Is that so? So your powers work on some occasions but not others?

Video

[alwayscomeback]

I saw someone try to remove theirs on the network once. It...wasn't pretty, they kinda collapsed and from what I've learned, doing that can give you crippling dread and pain. Given that Atroma can zap whatever they want into our heads, I guess that's not surprising.

...Your face okay? [You know. Because of the ball.]

Video

[rebuildyourruins]

[Thor might be gung-ho about this, but even he wouldn't broadcast something like that. He grimaces at the idea of it.]

Yeah... I know about the dread part. I don't know how they would keep it together well enough to broadcast an attempt.

[Right, the ball.]

It's fine. It's only rubber.

[padadin]

Not a conversation for the network. Iskaulit?

[rebuildyourruins]

If you like. I will be going there in half an hour myself.

video.

[veilstrike]

[ Hey, buddy. Leilani is settling down and making herself comfortable, and the awkward angle gives away her rather obvious lack of an arm. ]

... I'm afraid to ask what you did. [ And her eyebrow raises. ] Do you need a drink?

video.

[rebuildyourruins]

[You know, it's moments like this that put getting beaned in the face with a rubber ball into perspective. Thor stares at Leilani's video for a few seconds. She doesn't seem ... bothered by the change.]

I could say the same to you. You're missing an arm.

[crowkiller]

Thinking about removing it?

[He hasn't tried. Something tells him Atroma likes these things too much.]

Or should I ask how it went?

[rebuildyourruins]

I am thinking I don't know enough about it.

[He waves a hand.]

It went nowhere close enough to mention. That's why I thought I would ask about it instead.

[mikangirl]

It's been tried several times, by idiots and scientists alike. Here's an official report a previous passenger wrote.

[Nami's just gonna leave this here.]

[rebuildyourruins]

[It takes Thor about five minutes to reply, after opening up the link and scrutinising the post. Yikes.]

So I see. This is the sort of attempt I wanted to know about. I hadn't heard of any until now.

[Loki wasn't wrong in his statement that it required a bit more consideration than simply "get it out."]

This was quite some time ago. Do you know of anyone who's tried it since?

[passingthrough]

Nice catch. [Don't think she missed the part where he didn't finish what he was saying.]

I can tell you what happened when a group of us tried removing it if you want.

[rebuildyourruins]

Very funny.

[He's not exactly hiding that part, just moving on from it.]

I would like to hear about it, yes. Is this part of that report I was just shown?

[He did take note of Kitty's name in Leia's text report, helpfully given to him by Nami just now.]