-29- [voice]

[firebornfidelis]

There seem to have been a lot of disappearances lately.

[This statement is obvious enough, given all the "Missing" posters that have been seen around lately.]

Has anyone else noticed a feeling of being watched? I dismissed it at first, but in the last day or so it's felt... worse. More focused.

[And if nothing else she is very good at sensing

Comments

[video]

[moarnomsplz]

I have felt it, too.

[And Ax has certainly noticed that humans have been talking about the disappearances, both the ones on the network and the others.]

What pur, purpose could it serve here?

[video]

[firebornfidelis]

I couldn't say. Though the question does concern me, what anyone could need with this many people.

[video]

[moarnomsplz]

[The question has occurred to Ax, too, and while he has discarded the idea of there being Yeerks in Anatole, this does not mean that there could not be something like them.]

I... eye, I. Would like to rule out the possibility, tee, of brainwashing-ing. If that can be done. And if it cannot be ruled out, it is better to know as soo, soo-nuh as we can.

[video]

[firebornfidelis]

Brainwashing?

[She hadn't even thought of that one.]

How much do you know about it? Are there signs we can look for to rule it out?

[Assuming someone comes back for them to look at.]

[video]

[moarnomsplz]

The enn, en-ih-mee I know is not here.

At least, I hope that they are not, because they can imm, impersonate, nay-tuh, anyone perfectly. But their goals would not make sense in this world.

I apologize, ji, ji-zuh. [He ducks his head. It has come to be his human equivalent of scuffing one of his front hooves.] I have fought them long enough, nuff, that I may see them even where they are not.

But if we had to look for them, presenting-ing them with myself or my brother in our usual forms would. What is the human phrase? Blow their covering-ing.

[video]

[firebornfidelis]

[All of this is pretty concerning. An enemy that can impersonate anyone is particularly bad... and a little familiar.]

... Your usual forms?

[video | private]

[moarnomsplz]

[Perhaps belatedly, he makes the switch to private.]

I am told I look like a deer crossed with a scor, scorpion, only blue. Bloo.

[video | private]

[firebornfidelis]

I see.

[That's... quite an image.]

Are you a shape-shifter, then?

[video | private]

[moarnomsplz]

More or less, but it is tek, technology that gives me the ability, lit-tee.

Is your world one of the ones with magic, jick?

[video | private]

[firebornfidelis]

I see.

No, there is no magic where I come from. But I have seen a shape-shifter. He took his power from the science of alchemy and the Philosopher's stone.

[video | private]

[moarnomsplz]

I do not know what al, al-chem-ee is. But I have found that the rules I know do not tend to apply, ligh, here.

[video | private]

[firebornfidelis]

Alchemy is a science by which one thing can be turned into another, providing that the basic components of both things are the same. It does have a set of rules, but I've seen a lot of things here that don't follow those rules either.

[video | private]

[moarnomsplz]

Do you mean that it is rearranged, range-duh, on an atomic level? How is this ack, accomplished? It sounds, sound-zuh, somewhat like morphing-ing, but I cannot change the state of in, in-an-ih-mit objects.

[video | private]

[firebornfidelis]

Yes. I'm not an alchemist myself so I don't know the specifics, but it does involve rearranging elements. Though they general don't perform it on themselves and there are certain combinations that can't be undone when the human body is involved. Transmuting humans is also against the law.

[video | private]

[moarnomsplz]

So it is like the other side of morphing-ing. How very interesting.

We do not have laws, so to speak, spee-kuh, but there are generally, lee, understood guidelines. Such as not acquiring, kwi-yer-ing a sentient species without permission.