[Guess who's back from wandering off randomly to shoot fire at abandoned buildings? Also, guess who's sick? Also, guess who isn't going to the hospital? The answer to all three is this girl.]

The other day, I had some mildly bad things to say about United Earth's lack of appreciation for a fair fight. Learning now that they wage war using plagues, I may have been too fast to judge their character.

[Painful, hacking cough.]

I'm convinced now. I'll do anything that is in my power to help the Initiative fight them.

voice;

[Haruto hasn't been on the network much, recently, but he can't keep silent today, of all days.]

Has anyone ever heard of National Doughnut Day? It came up in the library, but I've never heard of it. And I'm very fond of doughnuts.

Speaking of, I've been going to one bakery, near the Transport apartments. Is there anywhere else to try?

( and action for roommates, cut for length )

[Ibin's sitting on his bed, recently showered and changed into fresh clothes. He looks incredibly tired, but manages a quick, perfunctory smile.]

Um. Hello, Exsilium. I never did introduce myself when I first got here. My name is Ibin Cenna; where I'm from, they call me the Devil's Fruit Doctor, because I ate the Medi-medi Fruit. [For anyone who's seen him preen and show off, the small shrug he gives now is a far cry from all that.] If you want to know what that means, I can show you sometime. But that's not really what I mean to talk about now.

( He really doesn't know if he has a point to get to or not, but honestly-- he doesn't. )

[ Aurican doesn't look any different, even though he has undergo a thousand years of change. He is still larger now (he might have some difficulty in fitting inside doors now), his horns seem a little longer, scales still shining, but his wings have undergo the greatest growth.

His wings are now large enough for him to fly. ]

Does anyone learn how to fly? Is there anyone I can learn from?

[ she's put this off for almost a month now. what with looking out for madoka, keeping an eye on oriko mikuni, examining the surrounding areas and moving in with three other magical girls... there simply hasn't been time for something as frivolous as this. nonetheless, it's something that needs to happen at some point, and thus she has holed herself up in her room with her tablet at the ready.

today is the day homura akemi finally contacts the network.

when the feed comes on, a young woman with long black hair can be seen. some of you may already know her, for any number of reasons; her cool, formal demeanor is in effect as always, even if it's significantly less icy than it's been over the past few weeks. ]

My name is Homura Akemi. I arrived here a little over one month ago, and I've been working on settling in ever since. [ her words have a certain practiced, muted tone to them, as does the slight bow she gives the camera. ] It's nice to meet you all.

[ she closes her eyes, takes a breath, exhales- when she finally opens her eyes again, she resumes speaking in that controlled way of hers. ]

If the network is reliable, I've been to this place several times already. As such, some of you have likely met me before. I'd be very interested in meeting with anyone I once knew.

[ a slight pause, another breath, and then- ]

Thank you for your time.

[ and with that, she unceremoniously reaches out and closes the feed. ]

[Guess who's been sleeping for the last 24 hours since the crash. Ricasthix looks bleary and irritable.]

The network hasn't been this chaotic since the bombing runs, and your shouting is starting to give me a headache. Just what is going on out there? Some kind of accident at the Hold?

[Private to Sonic, unrelated to all of that.]

Incidentally, I tried actually tracing the results of our incident with the monk and the shaved ham. It may put a damper on the mirth of the situation.

Curious?

I have been attempting to scry cities within United Earth's territory, but their cities and strongholds are simply too far away to reach with the components I have available to me now. A reflecting pool can barely reach across the channel to the south. A mirror can make it a bit further, but all I see is still ruins and wastes. To actually reach United Earth territory, I would need a crystal ball. Ideally it would be about 3 feet across, and made of very high quality glass. I wouldn't consider it possible for such a thing to be made to sufficient quality for the distances I have in mind, but with the machines we have here, I think it could be done.

Since I have never learned glassblowing myself, I turn to my fellow transports. If anyone things they could do it, it would greatly help our cause to be able to spy on United Earth by magic, which I highly doubt they have defenses against. Not to mention that a chance to see what life under our enemies is like directly might help firm the resolve of some of you who have had difficulty deciding whether United Earth or Exsilium is more worthy of your enmity.

If you are not willing to make such a thing out of the goodwill of your heart, I would consider myself in your debt, willing to return a similar favor at some point in the future. A dragon's favor is not a boon to turn aside lightly. Or if you'd rather, I suppose I could be talked into...

[He's hesitant to even suggest it, but desperate times call for desperate measures.]

...paying you directly.

[He makes a face as if getting a foul taste out of his mouth.]

But before getting into such extreme measures, I would know if any of you thinks a three foot wide, flawless, perfectly spherical ball of glass is within your skill to make.

Greetings,

I have seen the poisoned earth and the strange trees beyond this city's borders; I did not recognise half of the roots scavanged from there abouts. And no doubt the quality of produce from seeds sewn out there would surely be questionable at best. As such, I would know what means Exsilium has for the growth of plants.

Though I imagine that a poison brew would simple enough to make from what currently exists, there must be some means of harvest provided for use by apothecary?


[ About ten minutes later, the post is updated with a second (unrelated?) query: ]


And if anyone knows the best means of cooking lamb, I would be most grateful for assistance.

[ So here's Bucky, with his pale face and dark hair, treating this thing like it's a walkie-talkie and not a laptop. ]

Awhile back— it must've been months ago— someone told me the UE was mixing up people's minds. Erasing them. Filling them up with lies and propaganda.

The person who told me that is gone, now. A lot of people are gone now. So I wanna know if anyone else had intel on this.

[ He pauses, and presses his lips together. He looks like he's gonna say something for a while, before he says it. ]

Yeah, if you need to know, I want to stop 'em. [ He smiles when he says that last bit, white as something out of the reels. ]

[His first post is voice.]

Say, to all you magic-users! I'm curious. How did you learn your art? I suppose this applies to anyone with an "unnatural" ability as well.

[The second is a text post under his name, posted an hour after the above.]

I have a puzzle for you, Exsilium. But that's not fun enough, is it? Let's make it a game! I'll pay the first three people who solve it 10✥... no, up to 50✥! The first one gets a special prize! Isn't that exciting? (⌒▽⌒)☆

[Attached to this post is this diagram.]

Now, here is the situation! There are three houses. Each house needs electricity, gas, and water. The goal is to connect the houses to their utilities by drawing lines. It's easy, right? Very easy!

But there's a catch! None of the lines can intersect. But even with the handicap, it's a simple puzzle. I'm sure you can all crack it in no time!

Respond with your answers. Be sure to lock them, so there won't be any cheating~ 1✥ will buy you a hint.

I look forward to rewarding the winner!!

Being human for that long was...let's go with "a learning experience."

However everything seems to have been returned to normal, and no lasting harm has been done. Being able to fly again puts me in a good enough that I think I shall share with you now the results of some research I have been working on for a while now with Crucible. Behold!

[The dragon gestured dramatically, finishing a ritual he had stopped just short of completion before starting the video. The camera panned up to show the ever present rainclouds.

For a minute, it wasn't clear what was happening, just the normal gray skies. Eventually, however, it became clear that the clouds were brightening. Both in the video AND in real life outside of your window. After another few minutes, Exsilium was treated so something that it hadn't seen in a long time: Natural sunlight. Clouds all over the city are starting to break up, drenching exsilium in the watery sunlight of late winter that was till brighter than anything they normally got. The wet earth glinted, and eventually started lightly steaming as it heated up.]

Naturally it won't last forever, an hour or two on the outside, but it is a nice change from the normal gloom, isn't it? For appropriate compensation, I might be convinced to repeat this trick again in the future on request.

I'm assuming everyone has figured out what is going on by now, but then I realize now that when I agreed to aid the Initiative in their battle, I was making an assumption that they had enough competence to could keep the single greatest weapon they have working. This was clearly a rather unfortunate error on my part. This is Ricasthix the dragon, the red one, speaking from the body of a young lady who I am told goes by the name of Rue.

Initiative, I am not going to make any more assumptions about your competence, so I hope you are listening to this. I am a forty foot long, nine hundred pound dragon in the body of a four foot tall, ninety pound human. My skills are not geared towards this situation, but you none the less expect me to plot and execute an elaborate art heist in this state? With this and the previous incident that shuffled around everyone's ages, you are going to run out of the grudging trust and respect you have so far received from most of the rest of us. Do not use the time machine again unless you are sure it works properly, or you can expect to see resistance cells starting to pop up again. The leaders of United Earth will laugh while we tear ourselves apart fighting in the streets.

Did I leave any part of that unclear in any way?

[He seems almost apologetic for clogging the network, but the cause is, he considers, rather serious enough.]

I'm looking for someone who looks like me.  Kind of like me.  

His name's Drift. I've heard he's here. 

[He's been looking, but he hasn't found him yet. And that only compounds Wing's worry.]

I fear he may need fuel. If so, I am hoping someone will help take some of mine.  

Say, if you're an alien, I have a question for you. What was your world like? Do you miss it? Please tell me about it if you feel like it. Did you get to fly a space ship? Was that fun? What kind of fun things did you do? Are humans weird? What's the weirdest thing about them? Do you like humans? Did you ever meet humans when you were an alien?

[Okay, that's a bunch of questions. But she doesn't self-correct.]

Also, does anyone here know how to do magic? And if you do, is it magic you can teach to anybody? I think it would be pretty neat to know how to do some magic, and it could come in handy sometime. If you do please let me know.

[ Oh hey look, it's Drift. And it appears he's finally given up the gun on the whole trying to pretend he's not a giant awkward robot. He sucks at this whole secret thing. So have a giant robot. ]

So hi there. Uhm. Right. So I'm Drift. And I've got just a few questions.

First is that uh. I'm becoming abundantly aware that I'll probably need to find a better way to fit in here for obvious reasons. I do have something called a "Holoform" which allows me to project a solid holomatter representation of a human. But I'm really. Not a human. So there's that.

I guess what I'm asking is for some help in how humans or organics are really supposed to act.

Second, I'm looking for work. It doesn't actually have to be paid work, but anything I can do to help. My skills lie in.

Uh. Lifting heavy objects, chopping things and... well I'm pretty decent in a fight. So you know. Sparring or training self defense? Anything anyone can think of that they need help with. Please don't hesitate to ask.

[ He's a little desperate to make himself useful. ]

[ Several hours after Erza's post goes out to the public, another is made, this one from Lucy's device. Only it's not Lucy that's making the post, but a blue eyed, pink haired girl dressed in a French maid uniform. ]

I am in need of assistance. Lucy-sama has been attacked - I do not know who attacked her, regrettably. However, I found her a short distance from the training facility, unconscious and, drained of much of her blood. It would seem she had been there for several hours prior.

[ And she really should have checked on Lucy sooner, but Lucy's spent hours Because yeah, she's moving pretty quickly with the unconscious Lucy in her arms. Normally she'd have contacted Erza or Natsu first, but the safety and health of her summoner was more important. She (or someone else) could tell them later. For now she would take Lucy to the clinic where someone can help her. ]

[ Action at the clinic or Video over the network ok~ (with Virgo or Lucy when she wakes up). Follow up to this ]

A question to you all that has been weighing on my mind for some time.

We've already inadvertently changed history to our own detriment before. What happens if we accidentally change history so that one who invented our time machine was never born. If there was no one from the present to open the time portal back up, would we just get trapped in the past?

Do any of you know how to build a time machine from scratch? I do have some hope of eventually returning to my homeworld, and being stuck in the seventh century would make that significantly more difficult.

[+1 to the late-to-the-event party but THAT'S OKAY this blonde teenaged militarily-dressed lady doesn't have much to say, but it is undoubtedly important. In fact, how this important factoid seems to have slipped by everyone's minds seems to utterly boggle her.]

I'll make this quick since I wouldn't want anyone to waste my time.

[Yes all this... time-travel business was jarring and important but this is unacceptable. She crosses her arms.]

Why are there so many dragons here?

[Lookin' totally normal, here. Or as normal as a dragon can ever look.]

I understand many of you are confused, mainly due to the recent...difficulties. Fortunately for you, I believe I have a grasp on the situation in the large scale, if perhaps not all the tiny details. If any of you find yourself bereft of years of experience or in a place you generally do not recognize, I would refer you to Ms. Pexies admirable guide for the confused. If you have more specific questions, I will make an attempt here to answer them.

Hopefully in doing this I can cut down on the network clogging from dozens of baffled time travelers before actually important information gets lost.

[Filtered from Kanaya]

OKAY, SO. WHAT KIND OF CRAP MAKES AN ACCEPTABLE GIFT FOR HUMAN TWELFTH PERIGEE? IS IT ANY KIND OF CLOTHING ITEM OR ONLY COLD WEATHER ITEMS, OR IS THERE ANY RULE FOR WHAT YOU GIVE BACK BASED ON WHAT YOU WERE GIVEN?

ALSO, WHAT IS THE DEADLINE ON THIS THING. WHEN EXACTLY DOES THE HUMAN GIFTGIVING HOLIDAY END?

If you'll indulge a moment of curiosity, in my reading I have come across references to "New Year's Resolutions." As we seem to be coming upon the end of the year, I'm curious what kind of things you find worth assigning a resolution to do.

[Adam clicks on the voice. He sighs slightly. When he speaks, you can tell he just really doesn't know what to think.]

I'm sorry in advance.

[You hear the tell-tale signs of a cd being inserted in a boombox. After a while, this song starts to play. All three minutes and nineteen seconds of it. When the song finishes, Adam speaks again, sounding slightly bemused as well as confused as all hell.]

So yes. Crystal, that's S Club 7. I'm fairly certain that listening to music like that is considered torture in some places.

Does anybody want this bloody cd? If not, I'm throwing it in the trash.

I have always believed that knowledge can only help us. We are fighting a battle in a history we do not know, and as a result have been buffeted by fate, happenstance, and the whims of the Initiative or United Earth. If we are to be successful in this war, whoever we are fighting, we must know what has come before.

To that end, does anyone know where one would go to get access to this world's history? Perhaps an archive or dedicated library? I have some research to do, and the public library's records seem spotty at best and insufficient for my needs.

Out of curiosity, do we know what our last jaunt through time accomplished? In theory these tasks in the past are supposed to be changing the present, are they not? Yet everything seems more or less the same as far as I can tell. Still this crummy island versus the rest of the world.

I don't mind helping in this fight, but if our tasks are as pointless as they seem, I shall grow weary of them quickly.

Whoa, hey uh... Is this thing on?

[Eddie's face fills the screen for a moment before he pulls the device back, giving the viewer a clear shot of the word "SUCCORIA" on his t-shirt, as well as a badge that reads "Ironheade" in bold white letters against a black background, and above it is a sword pointing down into a pattern of rocks similar to Stonehenge. The badge itself is dangling from a lanyard, and is intertwined with a rather large fang dangling from a black cord draped around Eddie's neck.]

Right, cool. So they brought me up to speed on the kinda shit you guys have been dealing with. The good news? I'm throwing my hat in the ring with you guys. Name's Eddie, Eddie Riggs. I'm a roadie. If you're wondering what the bad news is, well, the bad news is they didn't bring the rest of the army with me, but don't you guys worry about that!

Trust me, we'll have this under control in no time, we just need some good music, scrap metal, and some willing hands to help me work on some projects once I got my shit in order over here.

So what do you say, guys? How about we give this rebellion a bit more Rock?

[While he waits for people to chime in, he's going to alternate between reading his tour book, tuning his guitar, and looking over the edges of his battle axe.]

It seems that not many of us were badly hurt by the attack, so that is good.

The question is, what are we doing to retaliate? We must make this United Earth frightened enough of us to never even THINK of daring to attack us so again. And if we cannot, we need to do more of this time travel nonsense until we can. Strike while the iron is hot, as I believe the saying goes.

[The face of Ricasthix's human form appears behind intermittent video snow. He's smudged with dust and ash, and generally looking pale and unhealthy.]

Io damn these United Earth bastards an-.............-the deepest of the nine hells. It galls -..................-treat before their endless herd, but here I am stuck in this rat nest of tunnels wit-......................-ound it why won't this damned thing work right!?

.........-t short then. I require a healer. Quickly, by choice.

[Video]

I have seen some impressive things since arriving here, I will admit. This video device alone is amazing in how it changes my research, and these weapons are definitely clever.

However, I've noticed a distinct lack of treasure. There's no gold coins, no jewels, no grimoires of ancient lore or magic, no hidden stashes of magic armor. At least none that I've found.

How am I supposed to build a proper horde if all the money I can find is these little slips of paper or pieces of...I guess it's called "plastic." There's no sense of weight to it at all!

[Action]

Ricasthix has chosen his new lair's location very carefully and has tried to be sneaky about it. However dragons are not without their weaknesses. First of all, it is hard to be sneaky when you're forty feet long and get around mostly by flying. Secondly, a dragon's greatest flaw is underestimating non-dragons. Any other transports that are fast enough on their feet, or just generally clever enough, can probably track his movements back to a cave on a small mountain/large hill a few miles beyond the city limits.

Who wants to explore a dragon's lair?

[Nick's looking much cleaner and neater than he had in his last entry, but he doesn't look to be in any better of a mood, and the bottle of scotch on the table next to him is half-empty]

How the fuck can there not be any casinos in this place? Or 'houses of ill-repute.' Given that we're supposed to be, like, a thousand years in the future, this place is pretty damn disappointing.

I have yet to see one flying care anywhere. There's also no robot butlers, no hot robot chicks, no weird-looking alien kids who like reese's pieces... there aren't even any 'damn, dirty apes.' And instead of living on some cool space station on Mars, we're stuck in Assholeshire, England, digging through post-apolocyptic rubble. There isn't even a god-damned McDonald's.

[He suddenly leans forward, his face taking up the entire screen.]

So if whoever's in charge happens to be watching this, I've got just one thing to say:

I want a fucking refund.

[The video flicks on, revealing a light blue visor that was currently taking up most of the screen's display. Something that lasted for about, oh, two seconds before the feed was flicking on and off a couple of times. Almost like the user was making sure he had the right button and was, in fact, broadcasting to... whomever else was able to receive this.]

... [Tap, tap of his finger directly on the screen, before the stranger would finally pull away to a reasonable distance. Revealing both the upper part of his armor, and the city around him.] This working?

Good. [An inhale, bracing himself.] I need information.

Has there been any other soldiers here with armor like mine? Tend to call themselves Helljumpers, Freelancer or Spartans. Last ones are usually big. [Lifting his hand way above his head to emphasis this, before casually letting it fall back down.] Also would appreciate any further advice or information about this place.

Thank you. [And with that, the transmission cuts off.]

We have found the— [ A pause, and quieter, to the side: "What is the word?" A heavy sigh from further off, which sounds kinda like Loki. "It is vandal." ] —Vandals! Who ruined things. We found them, even though Roslyn would not help.

I have named them stump for hands, because stump means not to have a hand. [ she sounds so pleased with her own cleverness. ]

If anyone needs to find and punish someone, then you should ask Loki. He is very good at it.

[ And in the back again, from Loki: ] But not without a price.

Is there anything good about the Initiative?

All I've heard about is what they've done to people here, not to mention their bringing us here in the first place. [ She exhales sharply. ] And making us fight for them is horrible when they treat all of us horribly.

As for these weapons... how are they supposed to grow with us? I thought it took a lifetime of training to be able to master something like that, to have a weapon actually grow with you.

[She keeps it short, mostly because there's really only one important question she has for the moment.]

Where is the library?

And if there is not a library, who has books and would like to share and perhaps trade them?

[She'll ask more if and when anyone answers, and depending on how they answer. If there is anything she's learned in her life, it's that knowledge can be deemed dangerous by people, and there was no way of knowing which those people were.]

[video. The screen is initially filled entirely with a giant yellow, reptillian eyeball surrounded by brownish red scales. It backs off to reveal the head of what is unmistakably a dragon. You even catch a thin wisp of smoke emerging from one nostril.]

What a useful toy this is. I just wish it was a little bigger.

A minor matter that I can address later. Know that you have the honor of meeting the dragon Ricasthix. I have decided that your cause is a noble one, and will offer you with what aid that I can in the coming battle against this oppressive reign.

[Action.]

Ricasthix flew over the city, memorizing the layout and eying the people. Specifically, he was looking for a suitably out of the way place to set up his new lair. That he might have caused alarm in the populace was a low worry. He wasn't planning on eating anyone, so they might as well start getting used to him.