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xp_logsBackdated. Hope, Quentin, and Arthur look for a pattern after compiling all of statements taken from other mansion psionics. Some cases don’t come together.
The wall was covered in faces.
All of the psis in the mansion were represented on the tacked up expanse of butcher paper — loosely grouped by power similarly or impact. Each had a printed image stolen from the official mansion journals, but there were also little stick figure sketches accompanying a set of notes on power fluctuations and disruptions. Lines criss crossed similarities and connections, but all in all it was a bunch of . . .
"Nothing. Just chaos." Arthur said this with a studied, hopeful expression, like at any moment some connection would pop out of the woodwork to tie this all together. He gestured at the left hand side of the tableau that plotted out a calendar of events. "December 18th is the earliest happening, which is when Amanda said she got a vision of my memories. Next would be Artie on the same night Hope popped in."
There was, of course, another major event around that time. He didn't say it.
Arthur cocked his head at all of it. "What's your take?"
"Excalibur didn't return from any mission around that time, did they?" Quentin pondered. He half-leaned/half-sat on the conference room table, to-go coffee cup in hand, though this casual demeanor belied the anxiety and frustration within. "Brought back another contamination like the springtime power swap?"
Hope swiveled her chair so she faced her laptop and quickly pulled up the database the various teams shared. "Nothing that I can see and nothing else significant seems to be noted for early December. At least nothing that was uploaded to the team database. It might be worth verifying with them though, just to be sure. Arthur, have you checked with Amanda and the others of the magical crew if they have detected anything magically significant?"
"Can confirm there weren't any ward issues," Arthur said with a shrug. "So, that's a positive. No demons, according to Illyana. Marie-Ange hasn't doodled anything all that screenworthy either. So nothing on the wizard, hell, or ominous art side." He tapped a foot impatiently. "Twelve psis affected, but those not hit don't really connect."
Arthur's attention snapped over to Quentin. "Can we be 100% sure it isn't Radha?” She was their most recent adversary, afterall. “I'd take 80%, even."
Quentin's first impulse was to affirm Arthur that it was literally impossible for Radha to have broken free of Quentin's imprisonment and somehow found a way to haunt the mansion's psis. He had built his trap perfectly, there was no escape. How could anyone even consider that he could have messed it up?
But Arthur had demanded Quentin to never feed him bullshit under any circumstance, so instead he sighed and shook his head. "Can't be absolutely sure, no. I mean, it should be impossible for her to get loose, but even if she did, fucking up some of the most powerful psychics ever should also be beyond her. If anyone, it could be the Shadow King, but you'd gotta talk to Haller and Frost about that."
"Haller had mentioned Parker Matthews and how the Shadow King can hide," Arthur said as his eyes moved over to the dark haired man's place on the board. "David suggested making a backup plan, and Jean wants to go on the offensive. Likely a safe move, but . . . I don’t see a motive. A why."
"Distraction or creating confusion for one," Hope offered, swiveling again as she studied the pics of the various mansion psis. "A kind of preliminary assault is another option. Take out the mansion psis with Mr. Haller, Dr. Grey, Ms. Frost and Q, along with some of the others, and you take out a significant portion of those who can counter a psychic assault. Plus some other options that we would have open to us."
"No one's been taken out," Arthur said as the wheels spun behind his eyes. "This feels sloppily written for a master plan? Think about the victims, instead — no one has been really stopped from living their day to day. Powers haven't failed when we need them. Sure, Haller has been more vulnerable after his coma, sure, but Dr. Grey has only had one episode, and not when it would have hurt her. Emma only felt like she was being pranked. The Cuckoo sisters and Beatrice weren't touched."
"Who says they are done? Though I have to admit that it all seems rather random." Hope narrowed her eyes. "What else do we have . . . a random natural phenomena that affects psis? Though they are often connected to the astral plane . . . "
The blond man cocked his head to the side, reangling his gaze, as he leaned back onto his heels. "Is everything 'psi' connected to this astral plane?"
"Mostly," Quentin affirmed. "You got mutants like Marie-Ange who pull matter directly from the astral plane, and telepaths and Hope who can traverse and manipulate it. But I don't know if, like, Maddicks does. That was not something I paid attention to when I was stuck with his powers."
He sipped his coffee, mulling over the back and forth between Arthur and Hope. "Could be that whoever or whatever is orchestrating this is purposefully being chaotic to misdirect us. Though that's not the Shadow King's style. Radha's, maybe, so more points in her favor, but again, assuming she's even capable of that."
"Everything is connected to the astral plane. The lowest levels are like a reflection of this world." Hope slowly thought out loud, considering the observations she was able to make there. "So every psi is connected to the plane, even if their abilities do not really use it directly . . . thus providing an access for whatever the plan might be . . ."
"What's the possibility it's those fucking mind bugs again? The ones that caught us all in our sleep a few years ago?" Another question for Haller and Frost, as they had been central to the clean-up, though Quentin was loath to foist this on them again. Why did they always have to be the ones to resolve these psychic messes?
"It could be." Hope allowed as she examined the possibility from all sides. "It is not the first thing that would come to mind, but at this point all incidents with the astral plane are fair game . . . in my opinion at least. It could be worth a quick review of all things we have related to astral incidents, but I am also hesitant to completely focus on it as a cause."
"Why not?" Arthur shrugged. "Seems like we could use a change in perspective. Can we just pop over to the astral plane and see what's happening there?"
"It is not that simple . . . " Hope shook her head. ". . . the astral plane is not something you can figure out like one of our investigations. While there are a lot of commonalities, every psi also perceives and works with it in their own unique way. I was there yesterday and nothing seemed out of sorts for me, but without knowing what you are looking for it can be like looking for a needle in a haystack."
Arthur's searching eyes didn't leave the board. "Jean wants our list so she can scan people. What could that give us that we don't have?"
"I can think of several possibilities and some might make figuring out things a whole lot easier. I just do not wish to speculate before knowing more." Hope replied after a moment's consideration. "I will go check with Dr. Grey, see what her plans are and how we might join our efforts."
“That’s our next step then,” the blond man said with a frown. “We know we’re missing something. That's what we look for to find that needle.”
The wall was covered in faces.
All of the psis in the mansion were represented on the tacked up expanse of butcher paper — loosely grouped by power similarly or impact. Each had a printed image stolen from the official mansion journals, but there were also little stick figure sketches accompanying a set of notes on power fluctuations and disruptions. Lines criss crossed similarities and connections, but all in all it was a bunch of . . .
"Nothing. Just chaos." Arthur said this with a studied, hopeful expression, like at any moment some connection would pop out of the woodwork to tie this all together. He gestured at the left hand side of the tableau that plotted out a calendar of events. "December 18th is the earliest happening, which is when Amanda said she got a vision of my memories. Next would be Artie on the same night Hope popped in."
There was, of course, another major event around that time. He didn't say it.
Arthur cocked his head at all of it. "What's your take?"
"Excalibur didn't return from any mission around that time, did they?" Quentin pondered. He half-leaned/half-sat on the conference room table, to-go coffee cup in hand, though this casual demeanor belied the anxiety and frustration within. "Brought back another contamination like the springtime power swap?"
Hope swiveled her chair so she faced her laptop and quickly pulled up the database the various teams shared. "Nothing that I can see and nothing else significant seems to be noted for early December. At least nothing that was uploaded to the team database. It might be worth verifying with them though, just to be sure. Arthur, have you checked with Amanda and the others of the magical crew if they have detected anything magically significant?"
"Can confirm there weren't any ward issues," Arthur said with a shrug. "So, that's a positive. No demons, according to Illyana. Marie-Ange hasn't doodled anything all that screenworthy either. So nothing on the wizard, hell, or ominous art side." He tapped a foot impatiently. "Twelve psis affected, but those not hit don't really connect."
Arthur's attention snapped over to Quentin. "Can we be 100% sure it isn't Radha?” She was their most recent adversary, afterall. “I'd take 80%, even."
Quentin's first impulse was to affirm Arthur that it was literally impossible for Radha to have broken free of Quentin's imprisonment and somehow found a way to haunt the mansion's psis. He had built his trap perfectly, there was no escape. How could anyone even consider that he could have messed it up?
But Arthur had demanded Quentin to never feed him bullshit under any circumstance, so instead he sighed and shook his head. "Can't be absolutely sure, no. I mean, it should be impossible for her to get loose, but even if she did, fucking up some of the most powerful psychics ever should also be beyond her. If anyone, it could be the Shadow King, but you'd gotta talk to Haller and Frost about that."
"Haller had mentioned Parker Matthews and how the Shadow King can hide," Arthur said as his eyes moved over to the dark haired man's place on the board. "David suggested making a backup plan, and Jean wants to go on the offensive. Likely a safe move, but . . . I don’t see a motive. A why."
"Distraction or creating confusion for one," Hope offered, swiveling again as she studied the pics of the various mansion psis. "A kind of preliminary assault is another option. Take out the mansion psis with Mr. Haller, Dr. Grey, Ms. Frost and Q, along with some of the others, and you take out a significant portion of those who can counter a psychic assault. Plus some other options that we would have open to us."
"No one's been taken out," Arthur said as the wheels spun behind his eyes. "This feels sloppily written for a master plan? Think about the victims, instead — no one has been really stopped from living their day to day. Powers haven't failed when we need them. Sure, Haller has been more vulnerable after his coma, sure, but Dr. Grey has only had one episode, and not when it would have hurt her. Emma only felt like she was being pranked. The Cuckoo sisters and Beatrice weren't touched."
"Who says they are done? Though I have to admit that it all seems rather random." Hope narrowed her eyes. "What else do we have . . . a random natural phenomena that affects psis? Though they are often connected to the astral plane . . . "
The blond man cocked his head to the side, reangling his gaze, as he leaned back onto his heels. "Is everything 'psi' connected to this astral plane?"
"Mostly," Quentin affirmed. "You got mutants like Marie-Ange who pull matter directly from the astral plane, and telepaths and Hope who can traverse and manipulate it. But I don't know if, like, Maddicks does. That was not something I paid attention to when I was stuck with his powers."
He sipped his coffee, mulling over the back and forth between Arthur and Hope. "Could be that whoever or whatever is orchestrating this is purposefully being chaotic to misdirect us. Though that's not the Shadow King's style. Radha's, maybe, so more points in her favor, but again, assuming she's even capable of that."
"Everything is connected to the astral plane. The lowest levels are like a reflection of this world." Hope slowly thought out loud, considering the observations she was able to make there. "So every psi is connected to the plane, even if their abilities do not really use it directly . . . thus providing an access for whatever the plan might be . . ."
"What's the possibility it's those fucking mind bugs again? The ones that caught us all in our sleep a few years ago?" Another question for Haller and Frost, as they had been central to the clean-up, though Quentin was loath to foist this on them again. Why did they always have to be the ones to resolve these psychic messes?
"It could be." Hope allowed as she examined the possibility from all sides. "It is not the first thing that would come to mind, but at this point all incidents with the astral plane are fair game . . . in my opinion at least. It could be worth a quick review of all things we have related to astral incidents, but I am also hesitant to completely focus on it as a cause."
"Why not?" Arthur shrugged. "Seems like we could use a change in perspective. Can we just pop over to the astral plane and see what's happening there?"
"It is not that simple . . . " Hope shook her head. ". . . the astral plane is not something you can figure out like one of our investigations. While there are a lot of commonalities, every psi also perceives and works with it in their own unique way. I was there yesterday and nothing seemed out of sorts for me, but without knowing what you are looking for it can be like looking for a needle in a haystack."
Arthur's searching eyes didn't leave the board. "Jean wants our list so she can scan people. What could that give us that we don't have?"
"I can think of several possibilities and some might make figuring out things a whole lot easier. I just do not wish to speculate before knowing more." Hope replied after a moment's consideration. "I will go check with Dr. Grey, see what her plans are and how we might join our efforts."
“That’s our next step then,” the blond man said with a frown. “We know we’re missing something. That's what we look for to find that needle.”
