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[magneticfields]

You've reached Erik. I'm busy, go bother Apollo.

Comments

[magneticfields]

My kind tend not to fare well when the mob gets frightened.

[ And he's not going to bother with specifying what he means by "kind" because there's several demographics he fits into where that's true. ]

I don't know. I'm going to share this publicly on the network. Perhaps others have also discovered information like this. Or could offer insight on how to defend ourselves.

If nothing else, I think it proves the concept of a Security Force to be utterly useless. We all have to be able to defend ourselves against a threat like this.

[solarcharged]

Definitely. I hear what you're saying about station-wide panic but the sooner this is out there, the sooner we can pool resources to defending ourselves from it. And somebody out there might actually have an answer that explains what we're seeing in this video. Because I sure as hell don't have a clue.

[magneticfields]

[ Everything he says is true. Aggravatingly so. ]

I suppose one more thing on the "terrifying things" pile won't make that much of a difference.

As for what we're seeing in the video. I've seen something like what happened to the older man before, but it's not what I'm familiar with. The man I knew would send people partway through walls and kill them. He was still alive, somehow. Until the telekinetic attack.

[ Or ferrokinetic attack. But better not to introduce that possibility. ]

[solarcharged]

Nasty way to die. That guy sounds like an asshole.

[magneticfields]

He was. But he is also no longer a problem.

Although if anybody large and blue with a deep, sonorous sort of voice who is given to speeches about how he wants to remake the world into a better one shows up, let me know.

[solarcharged]

[ wait wait wait WHAT ]

Large and blue? Tell me more.

[ Because wow THAT SOUNDS FAMILIAR ]

[magneticfields]

He went by the name Apocalypse but also claimed to have been known as Elohim, Pushan, and Ra over the years. One of his favorite tricks was turning people into sand.

A real asshole.

[solarcharged]

[ Okay, sand is new. And Regis would never take any other name; he was too proud, too vainglorious. Apollo lets himself relax a fraction as he types his reply: ]

Why are the blue people always assholes? Sounds like it's an interdimensional thing.

[magneticfields]

They aren't all assholes.

[ Hank and Raven are... ok maybe they're assholes, but in different ways. They never tried to take over the world at least. ]

The worst people I've known have all been perfectly normal looking.

[solarcharged]

Yes, good point, well made.

Going back to the video though: what the fuck are we meant to do to defend ourselves from something like that happening?

[magneticfields]

I don't know. We can start by not leaving tools lying around, I suppose. Though I'm not sure if that would stop something capable of so much.

[solarcharged]

No. It feels a bit pointless, really. How the hell do we defend ourselves from something we know nothing about?

[magneticfields]

At this point we can try to find out more about it. This video was designed to frighten us. And it was probably given to me in an attempt to further that goal. It is in our best interest not to succumb to that fear.

[solarcharged]

I think people would have a lot less to fear if they knew how to fight back.

But you're right. We need to know more.

[magneticfields]

I think what I ought to do is make some kind of record where we can all keep track of what is happening. With any luck if we share information, we'll be able to draw some conclusions that could be helpful.

[solarcharged]

I think I saw a few people mention something like that on the network. It's a good idea.

I guess I'd just feel a whole lot better if there was something I could punch.

[magneticfields]

I'll make you a dummy.

[solarcharged]

Don't say that, I'll hold you to it.

[magneticfields]

I'll surprise you with it when you least expect it. And when you punch it before you realize what it is it will be like a double surprise.

[solarcharged]

You're a man of many talents, Henryk. But you have no idea how hard I punch.

[magneticfields]

[ Now it's a puzzle to solve. ]

I wonder if we could construct something you could use as a punching bag. Do you have any figures for the amount of force you can exert on something?

[solarcharged]

Not really. But I threw London Bridge in the Thames once, and I think I'm running at about a quarter of that power right now. Does that help?

[magneticfields]

If you could estimate how fast it moved after you threw it, I could start making calculations.

[solarcharged]

Oh, God. I don't think I can do that. It was a while ago and there were quite a few things going on at the time...

[magneticfields]

That's a variable I would need to start work on it. The mass, the velocity, the distance traveled, or the force of impact itself. I need figures for least three of those variables, or at least an estimate, before I can start work on something like this.

[ If he wore glasses, he would adjust them. ]