eachdraidh | 3rd Circuit, Video [UNSEELIE LOCKED]

[Loki and Hiro have taken a small room in Diasbaile, mostly barren save for the wooden cabinets that seem to blend into the background. Loki would have done this himself, but there was insistence on Hiro's part of aiding in the delivery of the very, very bad news. The focus is on the two of them, and Loki speaks first.]

Hello.

This is a message of the emergency broadcast system. As you can see, our sirens are down for the moment, but I assure you that the news is none less dire.

[Loki's voice drops to something uncharacteristically serious.]

Ah, yes. So—listen up, Unseelie.

[Hiro's sitting almost a little too close to Loki, face more ashen than anyone in their court has ever seen. It's a reality they have to face and while he'd been hoping Loki would find some more information in his research, they're running out of time.]

Some of you had a vision at the beginning of August. A dream about fire and machines with shards for eyes. I didn't have the vision myself, Loki did…but we can both confirm these are real. These things are being created now and they are coming. Monsters that run on shards and blood. But there are some things you guys don't know yet.

[When Hiro stops, Loki barely glances down before he picks up without missing a beat, as if he's giving him a moment to collect himself. Loki looks perturbed at the recollection of the golems, but not nearly as pale as Hiro.]

Our dear friends the dwarves have crafted mechanical monsters, forged from melted metal and living shards. These mecha-beasts are brought to live with blood magic and runes. Not your basic run-of-the-mill runes, not even my fancy-smancy "stay out of my room" runes, but hundreds of them in intricate designs—sorcery that's very possibly lost to antiquity—all working together to bring them to life.

And if that isn't nightmare material, these large, metal machinations have keen senses when it comes to shardbearers, even those that find means of hiding themselves, if you get my drift.

There are hundreds, even thousands of them, with no exaggeration.

[The longer they stay on camera, the more Hiro finds himself shrinking into his sweater. Loki delivering the brunt of the bad news helps, but dredging up the memories is more than mildly horrifying. There's one key factor though that they've neglected to mention.]

We don't know when they're coming, but judging by the amount of time between the last vision and its turnaround to coming true, it's soon. Really, really soon. We don't know when they're coming and we don't know the full extent of what they can do or why they're being unleashed.

[A pause.] Ideas. We need ideas on how we can combat these things and how to keep everybody safe. Start using your brains and focus on what's really important here.

[The important thing, he thinks, is that this war? It's much, much bigger now than just Seelie vs. Unseelie. It's now about just staying alive.]

I would suggest highly against approaching them… [Loki glances at Hiro.] …As I’m certain we’ll offend them somehow.

[Considering the fact that there are other things…he can agree with that.] …right. Defense ideas then. Lay 'em out. [A beat. And then:] Privately, if you would. Doesn't matter if they're coming for all of us…this is still a war.

[And he sure does know that there are certain devices generated by a certain witch that can see this broadcast. He had agreed that the Seelie should know what's coming. Doesn't mean they should be privy to everything else, too.]

Not exactly how I pictured life in a giant robot series, hm?

[Though that’s meant more for Hiro. They have some questions to answer, and Hiro needs a little bit of a perk up.]

[Hiro at least gives a small grin in response, but says nothing else. Definitely Q&A time.]

[ooc: As a note! Most threads will be answered by Hiro, but he may call on Loki for assistance. Additionally, Hiro is aware Hermione's compasses can see posts on both networks so those with compasses are capable of seeing this post. They just won't be able to see the threads in this post. Have fun guys o/]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

We need to get all the natives out of the way. They're coming after us, right? All the shardbearers. The shardbearers who can't defend themselves need to scatter as far as possible, make themselves much smaller targets rather than have it be some sort of massacre.

[ Johnny pauses. ]

I can create a distraction if you need to buy time. These assholes can't go airborne, but I can. Who else is making plans?

[Johnny he's just. Going to cut through all of that for one quick minute.]

You can fly again? Sweet. [Focus, Hiro.]

They're coming after shardbearers. Katsa had the same idea that we need to get the defenseless ones out of the path and make it harder for them to become targets. We're talking to a lot of people, everybody seems to have ideas. Katsa wants to relocate people, Jack's talking about ice weapons, we have a couple of people researching other routes...the problem is that we don't know if any of those plans are gonna work.

[And you can see why that bums out him, bro.]

I don't even need to flame on this time to do it.

[ Johnny spares him a quick smile, but it quickly fades when he hears the rest of it, stomach knotting when he hears that Jack is talking of weapons -- of course the man would fight, he never expected anything different, but.

Still, he frowns, thinking hard. Jason's right, so many of them are scattered, so much so that it could be hard to bring plans together. He can sense it, too, the way Hiro's bummed out -- it's understandable. Still, he's not going to let this cow them, no matter how big and dangerous they seem to be. ]

Doesn't matter, Hiro. We work things out and give it our best shot anyway. There's got to be some way to take them down, we just haven't found it yet, and I'll help wherever I can. You got any ideas of your own, buddy?

You mean besides run really fast in the opposite direction? [The tone's dry, but it's obvious here that he is a little scared of what's coming. This is one of the only things in the Drabwurld he's encountered that he can't readily fight. It worries him.]

If they were just machines I could figure out how to disable them, but they're magic combined with blood combined with shards combined with machinery. I don't know how to disarm that. This isn't gonna be like the Dullahan where we can round them all up in one place and send them somewhere.

[And, because it's Johnny:] I don't know if it's really fair to send all of them after the Seelie either. [Especially if a.) they need Seelie shards for themselves and b.) he likes a couple of the Seelie, tyvm.] I'm having other people look into blood magic, too, to see if there's a way to disable what magic's already been done.

[ There's everything chilling about the way Hiro doesn't have an answer for this -- that it has him stumped. Hiro's never been one to preach retreat; and it's as if the sight of them had broken something in him.

He's quiet for a long moment. ] No. Seelie or not, they're all after us now. Who do you have looking into that? I've got someone who might help as well.

[He wouldn't necessarily be wrong about that, really. Seeing the monstrosities and dealing with a few other factors (learning about the elves' plans for the Shuck, learning just how much time the Unseelie have left thanks to a conversation with Jason) have left a few pieces of him broken but there's not much that can be done. Unseelie are relentless and ultimately he refuses to actually say "I give up." Doesn't mean he's not quietly debating it.]

I don't think we do yet, actually. [He forces a grin, trying to be a little playful in his mannerisms.] What do you say, Baron Storm? Should we put you on the job?

[ They can do this, Hiro. They must. There's no other way but to move forward, and Johnny will be there to help Hiro along whenever he needs it. He senses the boy's emotions, the way that smile doesn't seem as bright and genuine as it used to.

In so many ways he's protective and sorry that Hiro had to be dragged into a war like this; but to coddle him is to disrespect everything Hiro has worked for, everything he has clawed over for himself. ]

I'll see what I can do. But more importantly -- what if we let the void do the job? Their greatest feature is their greatest weakness, right? What if we lure them to where the void is and let that finish the job?

[Thank you, Johnny, for not coddling him. That would just be embarrassing seeing how he's focused on being a hero and figuring everything out. Especially when it comes to somebody like Johnny that he still admires. Regardless this war's taking a toll on all of them and knowing everything now and how the pieces line up...it's not great.

There's a good point though.]

Good plan in theory, possibly a bad plan in execution. The things are chasing after our shards. To lure them to the Void would be making our guys get too close to the thing and potentially sacrificing themselves. Unless we can think of a way to get them to keep moving without us being right in their path...[It's a good though.] We also don't know how fast the Void's moving in and how close it'll be whenever these things roll out.

[A beat.] Unless we send a group of our guys who can teleport out immediately...what do you think?

3rd Circuit, Video [UNSEELIE LOCKED]

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