Metempsychosis Log Community

"Brought you some tea."

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So focused on his work that he started a little at Persephone's words.

"Oh, thank you, dear."

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"You're welcome." She sets it down

"I got an e-mail from Lyssie. I can't reply."

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He takes it, having a small sip before putting it down again.

"What did she say?"

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"The police confirmed that the people who showed up at the store were all in some isolated conspiracy-theory group that all got forwarded a link to the whole tabloid segment about, y'know, "Is a California Girl Giving Birth to the Anti-Christ?" But they couldn't trace who forwarded them the link.

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"Hmm," Hades writes this in his notes. "Not surprising. Is Lyssie all right?"

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"She seemed it. Just worried. Said she'd looked in on my mom, too, and she was also fine but worried."

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"Wait..if she managed to email you..does this mean time is passing normally back home?"

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"Yeah." Persephone bit her lip. "Yeah, she and mom have actually noticed our disappearing this time. And the system won't let me write back."

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"Bloody hell..the others will have to be informed if they don't know already."

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"Informed of what?" Ariadne asked, poking her head in. "Sorry if I'm intruding. I just happened to be walking by and overheard..."

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"Not intruding at all. Come in, Ariadne," Hades assured. "Persephone received an email from back home. It seems time is not frozen as it usually is after we are taken."

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"Well... damn. This better not mean I have to go job-hunting once we get out of here," she sighed.

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"Here's hoping. Um... tea? It's organic."

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"Oh. Sure, thanks. What kind is it?"

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"Just English Breakfast."

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"Oh, okay. Thanks."

Ariadne glanced over Hades' shoulder.
"What do you have there?"

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He hands Ariadne his notes. "Events that transpired in the past weeks and possible connections to Osmond and Warren. I'm willing to bet one or both are involved in what happened."

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Athena was just passing by the study when she heard the names 'Osmond' and 'Warren'. Redirecting, she poked her head inside the room.

"Who are you talking about?"

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Hades turns to the doorway, and smiles when he sees who it is. "Hello, Niece, come in. Mimi Osmond and Roger Warren, they've been the most outspoken critics of our existence since we were first exposed to the world. Osmond is the head of a Christian Fundamentalist group, not officially designated that, but it seems to be the case. Warren is a prominent figure in the United States government administration and has been denying we have civil rights nearly from the start."

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She walked into the room, definitely interested in what she was hearing. "Osmond runs the Foundation for Christian Families, right?"

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"And the clock is ticking."

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Ariadne shook her head.
"I don't think we can directly indict them for what happened, but the attacks were definitely carried out under their suggestions."

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"The man who shot at Triton was a member of the FCF," she added. "And the NRA, but mostly that's because he's the quintessential ex-military loner type that become gun nuts because they're mentally bent. Speaking generally, of course."

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"That's not usually enough to file a legal injunction on or anything."

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"Agreed, any formal accusations would be pointless at this juncture." He rubs his chin. When Ariadne gives him the notes back, he rites the FCF and NRA on the list. "Two grassroots organizations..I imagine Osmond may be a more likely instigator in that case."

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"Well, we're not getting out of here without some kind of a plan for dealing with these people," Ariadne pointed out. "A nice start would be if we could somehow change the message they're sending out to their fan clubs."

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"That's doable actually."

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"I don't know a lot about public relations."

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Hades took another sip of his tea and turned to Athena. "You have an idea?"

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Ariadne actually felt the thought click into place.
"Wait, I think I know where you're going with this," she said. "You have hacker skills, right? You could probably break into their emails and homepages without breaking a sweat."

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She nodded. "You tell me what you want their digital information to say, I can make it happen."

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"And it only helps our cause that Athena joined us after the exposing. They'll have no idea we could a computer expert among our number."

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"Breaking into their systems won't be enough, though. Whatever we change it to say has to ring true. Undetectably true. The more obvious it is, the less time we buy for ourselves," Ariadne pointed out.

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"I'm not getting it. If we can only make them say things it makes sense for them to say, how are we going to get anywhere?"

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"You change it in small ways. I'll have to read their other postings and emails to get the flow of how they're typed. But I can add small tweaks over time. If it's subtle enough, not even the heads of the organization will realize they didn't put it in there themselves."

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"How would you find the proper network?"

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"It's not hard to do, especially if you can track and copy the ISP addresses," Ariadne assured him. Glancing to Persephone, she added, "It's really more about matching the style, less so the content. Word choice, cadence, things like that. If we can mimic that, we should be able to sell it. It won't be a permanent fix. Someone's eventually bound to catch on that the messages are being manipulated. But it should buy us some time."

Ariadne snapped her fingers as something occurred to her.
"And how very lucky for us that we happen to have a very gifted mimic among us."

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