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[lifetothefullest]

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[wittingly]

[ If this were an early 2000's movie, music would start playing in the background around the time Occam's Razor comes up. There would be a whole taking off the glasses and undoing the ponytail moment, except... you know, the reverse of that. It's a testament to just how unflappable his permanent chill is that his expression stays at vaguely amused but mainly interested throughout most of the monologue.

Things to bring up later: wait, you were married?

Things that distract him again immediately: the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.

Focus, Fowler.

Really quick mental replay of it all, and while he has several Thoughts and Opinions, none of them are an answer to that leading question at the end. ]

Where would you hide, Professor Drake?

[ Dutifully, as though scripted. ]

[lifetothefullest]

[...Nate. Lance isn't drunk enough not to be able to follow this, but he is drunk enough--and has been for like the past 24 hours straight--that it takes more processing time than usual, and so his head's kind of spinning by the end of that.

But it does fit, at least what he's piecing together, even if he'd prefer to consider each step of this connection a bit more carefully. But he can do that later, glancing at Ian again as he asks the obvious question, and Lance turns his attention back toward Nate as well to wait for the answer.]

[nonscriptum]

That is a wonderful question, Ian, thank you so much for asking. If I could just direct your attention over here, I would like to show you the answer.

[ Clearly relishing the opportunity to share his theory Nate strides across the room, past the little coffee table and chairs. With the entirety of his right arm he gestures to the window, from which the wide, swollen and pale expanse of the moon can be seen. The lunar colony, UNC1, is just visible on its pitted surface.

Wearing an expression that can only be described as slightly manic and flirting with the idea of being unhinged, Nate turns his grin upon them and says: ]

Right there.

[wittingly]

[ The stupid praise brings a sideways smile to his face, clearly entertained as all hell — to the point that it's grappling with his otherwise earnest curiosity. The theory tracks, it absolutely makes sense even if it isn't currently provable. Ian follows the logic sequences all the way up until Nate gestures grandly at— ]

The moon.

[ He states it without inflection, deliberately tonelessly, almost like he wants to make sure he didn't mishear something Nate didn't actually say out loud.

It may just be a product of his 21st century brain having a hard time immediately digesting it as a viable possibility, you'll have to forgive him Nate. ]

You think there's a secret knowledge archive... on the moon.

[ Somebody pause the Cranberries. ]

[lifetothefullest]

[Lance watches Nate move with purpose toward the window, wondering what he's getting at, but then--

The moon. Huh.

...Oh. The moon.

Lance sits up straight suddenly, pieces clicking together, not just Nate's theory but some of his own as well; he won't mention them just yet, but he's suddenly very interested.]

Space tourism exists, but it's limited. I'm pretty sure the colonies have had problems recently, at least on Mars, and there's information in the documents about redirecting funding from projects on Pluto toward Spinetail instead.

[So space--whether the moon specifically or not, though it's a perfectly reasonable place--makes perfect sense to be connected to this whole mystery. And even without that, the logic tracks; if you could hide information on the moon, why wouldn't you?]

[nonscriptum]

Space tourism is limited, and- [ Nate snaps his fingers, pointing at Lance in recognition. ] Exactly that, with the funding. But. But-

[ He finally sits again, moving to the empty space he'd previously vacated, flipping open his journal again. Maybe it would be easier to type everything in the future equivalent of Apple Notes, but having it in front of him, tangible, somehow makes it that much more understandable to him. ]

The thing about Lunar is that it's not just an off-Earth colony. Even the most basic resources all say the same thing: it's remote, it's mostly private, it's occupied by terraformers working on colonization and the extremely, ridiculously rich.

[ Nate explains, mostly to Ian, because the look on his face is Skeptical with a capital S. ]

It's a work in progress prepping for future development. Close enough to home to keep tabs on people, just far enough away to maintain some distance for plausible deniability.

[wittingly]

[ Jesus, it takes him a second to wrap his head around the fact that this is a viable possibility. A likely one, even, and he goes through the acceptance stage visibly in the form of scrubbing a hand over his face. ]

The magic immortal knowledge-hoarding mega-rich super-villain is hiding on a moon base.

[ Muttered more to himself than either of them, and it's followed by a nice long drink of too-much-tequila-D'Ian. He's still clicking through a swallow when the next round of incredulity strikes him. ]

You know, I remember when aliens were, like, the weirdest fucking thing ever. But--

[ Dr. Evil Moon Base is taking the cake. ]

My question is-- if all he's hiding from is just, like, people... why not, I don't know, dye his hair and get a little facial reconstruction instead of moving to the fucking moon? I mean, I know he didn't, I'm not trying to debunk that part so much as... it just seems like an awful lot of uprooting your life to get off the planet for something you could fix way more easily. There'd have to be more to it, right? Unless he's just a huge... moonthusiast.

[lifetothefullest]

Because it isn't about being practical, at least not entirely.

[Lance offers the explanation in response to Ian's questions, though he's half distracted now; he's thinking about what Nate said and also scanning through the information he's compiled from the network, so his gaze is fixed at that distinctive distance that indicates he's using the implant.]

It's about doing something because he can, and because other people can't. We don't know for sure how similar or different Johann and Henries are, but from what I know about Johann, practicality--and working with the potential of consequences--aren't issues he's concerned with if they would come before doing whatever it is he wants to do. Hiding on the moon wouldn't just be about keeping information or himself safe, but about being somewhere no one else could even get to.

[So, basically, the same explanation as for everything else related to magic immortal knowledge-hoarding mega-rich super-villains: because they have egos.]

[nonscriptum]

[ Ian makes a valid point about the fact that it seems unnecessarily roundabout to go to the moon just to hide a face and whatever else Henries has percolating in his plans. But being surreptitious isn't the strategy, it's being so outrageous as to be easily dismissed - or to Lance's suggestion, being so outrageous as to hide in plain sight.

Nate glances back to the window, seeing half the moon just beneath the lintel, and squints a little before looking back to both of them. ]

Changing your hair and growing a beard probably loses its novelty after the first twenty years. If you'd lived that long, wouldn't you think you'd have developed a little flair for the dramatic?

[wittingly]

Nope.

[ Declared confidently, while carding his fingers through his hair — mostly, until they get stuck about halfway through because that's just how curly hair works sometimes. The point is he committed to his hair and beard decisions like twenty years ago and he's pretty content without bedazzling it or moving to the goddamn moon.

But anyway. ]

I guess the next question is... what do we even do with that theory? How do we prove it without going--

[ Vague gesture. To the moon. ]

And if it turns out you're right, then what?

[lifetothefullest]

He probably already had it, and the time just made it worse.

[Johann certainly seemed like the type from what Lance saw, and although he's still hesitant to conflate Johann and Henries too much, he thinks it's probably safe enough to presume they're similar for now. Especially if they've been working together for so long, or if--and it's a distinct possibility--there is no Henries anymore, and it's just Johann posing as him when convenient.

As for Ian's question--]

We could just go to the moon. It would take some planning and resources, but I bet we could manage it.

[But that said--]

However, I'm not sure that it would be necessary to go that route. It's possible we have a method available to us that isn't an option for the general public.

[Might as well throw his own theories into the mix here, while they're on the subject.]

[nonscriptum]

[ Nate nods along thoughtfully, because honestly, he hadn't gotten to the part where he should think about space travel as difficult. They're already in another world, and while he doesn't have a chit to call in with Morningstar he could always ask Gaby her thoughts on facilitating that kind of trip without having to pay a literal arm and a leg.

One ankle hooked up over his opposite knee, fingers drumming his thigh in nervous energy, Nate searches the empty air in front of him for a moment as what Lance says clicks.

A slow smile creeps across his face, the distinctive air of you sly dog making itself known when he eyes him. Accusatory, but only in the nicest of ways: ]

...you think there's a gate.

[wittingly]

Like a gate--

⧼ It comes out almost in tandem with Nate, just a little off-sync but close enough that he has to glance over faintly amused.

He's not so sure about space travel being feasible for them the normal way, at least not any time soon. From what he understands it's ridiculously expensive, and while he makes a decent salary it isn't take a weeks-long vacation to space decent. It would probably be a two-person minimum because going solo is stupid, and the financial logistics...

A gate would solve it in a fucking instant. ⧽

I wasn't here when they discovered them. Don't you have to... I don't know, go there first to turn it on or something? If not, if you just think and go... I mean, we could test the theory pretty easily.

[nonscriptum]

[ A funny little dual conclusion, for which Ian earns a flash of a smile. A gate would solve most of their problems and probably raise a few others, but now that he's thinking about it Nate has to wonder whether they need to activate the thing from its factory settings at all. ]

It might not need to be turned on.

[ He points out, sitting up a little straighter. It occurs to him that the goon-hiring entity had a purpose for hiring the goons in the first place, beyond wanting the Displaced to be relatively safe in their endeavor - kidnapping part not included. ]

The person who hired a mercenary escort for us wanted us to find and activate those gates here on Earth. They were ensuring our success. Assuming that person is Henries - which it's gotta be - then he had a reason for doing so. Maybe he wants us to find him. I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that any gate on the moon is ready to go, probably in some kind of private, secure biome.

[lifetothefullest]

[Lance pulls his attention back to the room and away from the network, sending them both an attachment, though he'll explain that in a moment. First, he nods, glancing between Ian and Nate.]

I wouldn't be surprised if he wants us to find him. Johann too, presumably; Cassius sent us a lot of information referencing both. What I just sent you is a compilation of his messages, which include some we didn't have before; 019 is particularly interesting for the mention of searching for 'bridges', from someone who's related to Ball.

[Who, of course, sent the Displaced looking for the gates to begin with.]

Attachment 001 is also noteworthy, for Jovavich's contact with Johann regarding her search for something on two of Jupiter's moons. Johann seems to know she won't find whatever it is, maybe because he already knows where the gates are.

[And he's already mentioned the Pluto thing.]

[wittingly]

⧼ His eyes go a little bit distant once the attachment goes through. An elbow hits the couch arm and his fingers come to settle absently on his lips, that lost and distracted countenance of a guy intently reading.

Suddenly wishing maybe he had a little less tequila so he was firing on a few more cylinders right now. ⧽

So, moon gate. Pluto gate.

⧼ It feels like looking at a spider web from the wrong angle, just shy of two dimensional. Seeing strands and knowing they connect but without being able to make out the full pattern in complete detail from an aerial view.

A little distractedly, and spoken with the side of his finger still resting on his mouth: ⧽

Why shift from pluto to the trench? Because Ball found the gate for him and he didn't need to spend any more time on it? Because he couldn't get to it without... whatever was down there? Or because something in the trench was suddenly time sensitive?

⧼ Which is a tangent deviating from Nate's original moon theory topic, sorry man, that's what drunk brain does to him.

Another prime example-- ⧽

Maybe he found fuckin' Cthulhu down there and it spooked him all the way to the moon.

[nonscriptum]

No...no, he needed the gates still, probably had tabs on several of them at the time, through Ball. Possibly more, since they knew where we were going.

[ He went over this with Ellie before, a little, tossing ideas back and forth like a particularly robust game of squash. Nate skims the material in Lance's attachment and wonders whether the reason behind pulling out of space real estate was because Henries realized he couldn't use the gates in their then-existing forms. He required the unwitting assistance of the Displaced to turn them all on, for whatever mysterious purpose. ]

Two groups of us volunteered. Two groups were conscripted and marched. Four gates were activated around the same time, which let us travel between them. That was deliberate, there had to be four groups.

[ There was a reason for it, some very specific mechanism, like hitting four panels in a puzzle at the same time to open a door. ]

In Shambhala there was this enormous tree at the center of the city, and all the legends talked about a sapphire that was studded in the middle of the trunk. It was supposedly this great source of power. When we got there, it was just a massive chunk of blue resin. All the "power" was just...tree sap that spread through every root and vine, the instant it was compromised with a flame, the whole city collapsed. It held it together.

[ With nothing to bind it, a once-great civilization was shattered and reduced to rubble. The source was gone. ]

Shifting from looking for a gate on Pluto to looking in the trench was more like...I don't know, it feels like moving away from treating the surface symptoms and going to the source. Maybe the gates wouldn't work without it?

[lifetothefullest]

[Lance is mostly following; when they're talking about subjects he has pieces to the amount of alcohol he's had isn't much of a problem, but he's much less clear on the gates opening and how it was done and the details of how the expeditions went. But he's got enough of what Nate's saying to ask--]

How many gates are there? There's the four that were turned on, one on Everest, one in New Rio, one here in new Amsterdam, and one in New Cairo, but there are more than that in total, right? One in New Beijing, one in New Magellan, at least.

[So okay, that tracks with what Nate's saying about maybe those four needed to be activated in such a specific way, but that might just turn on all of them, not just those four. If so, that makes sense, maybe Henries and/or Johann were looking for which four needed to be activated, or maybe Nate's right about finding something specific in the Trench that was needed to power all of them.

And that brings up an idea--]

People keep talking about how the point of Spinetail was to bring a 'lifeform' into existence, or something like that. It's been kind of generally assumed that might be us, and maybe it is, but what if it really is to power the gates, like you said? But more specifically, what if the gates are the lifeforms themselves, like Door was in Hadriel?

[wittingly]

I miss whiteboards.

( A comment meant for nobody in particular, it just feels like it would be easier if he could map some of this out visually. Have some place tangible and with enough space to connect the dots.

Or maybe taking a fucking numerology class, because his math brain is mixing with his magic brain and it keeps trying to find symbolism where it might not even exist. )

I don't know about sentient, but I think the theory is that there's one tethered to every city. There are a hundred and four cities left in the world, which begs the question - do the cities exist where they are because of the gates, or do the gates exist where they are because of the cities?

( And then a beat later, like he's the biggest moron on the planet: )

I can make a fucking whiteboard, what's wrong with me, Jesus.

[nonscriptum]

[ As an extremely visual learner Nate would also appreciate a decent whiteboard, but he isn't lingering on the woes of living in an exclusively digital age with paper in his lap, thumbing the worn leather of the moleskine he carried across half the world he left behind.

It could be as simple as that: one gate for each major city, activated once the first four were activated, like some kind of ignition switch. Ian also brings up the point that's bothered Nate since his last recreational visit to the gates - they're huge, and imposing, but not entirely otherworldly. There are stylistic conventions that attach them to this place, to their cultural norms.

Or their cultural norms were inspired by the gates themselves. Which is the chicken, and which is the egg? ]

That would be...a lot of life forms.

[ Nate points out, whistling lowly. ]

But why do they have to be "awakened" in the first place? Are they asleep or just not present? Like they need to be summoned or something, John Dee style.

[lifetothefullest]

[Lance is also all about this whiteboard idea; he can handle all this digital-only stuff okay, but he'd much rather have something tactile, so he'll definitely keep this in mind.

But for now, he can only focus on one thing at a time, especially since he remembers he has a drink and begins sipping it again.]

Aren't there like, five billion humans around currently? A hundred is a small number when it comes to 'lifeforms'.

[He isn't super invested in this particular theory, but he does feel like he should point that out.

But as for the question--]

No idea. Even after everything I've been looking into, it still feels like a lot of this doesn't fit together or is very vague. Like we're missing something really important about how it actually works.

[Which is frustrating, to say the least.]

[wittingly]

( He's quiet for a second. Contemplative. The trip to the trench killed all but one of its members; if that's what brought them here... nothing good ever came from ritualistic sacrifice. He's assuming that's what happened, and it really feels that way.

His fingers tap his cup to the rhythm of the lyrics of a song rather than the beat itself. )

Wellp.

( Declared mildly and abruptly. )

Guess we're going to the moon or the Mariana trench. Either way we're building a suit.

[nonscriptum]

[ Nate, so caught up in the possibility of going to the moon and potentially getting to shake some information out of Henries, looks mildly confused for a split-second before it hits him. Pressure. No gravity. Lack of oxygen. ]

...wow, I am really glad you're here, because I hadn't even thought of that part.

[ Shocking no one. ]

Space can't be that much different from scuba diving, right?

[lifetothefullest]

[Okay, give Lance a moment to consider that response from Nate, then knock back the rest of his glass of mostly-tequila. Terrible mistake, he's going to feel that very soon, but for now it's the only real appropriate response.]

The pressure issues are completely opposite, and there's radiation in space.

[Not that Lance is that sort of scientist, but those are two major differences coming to mind.]

[wittingly]

That's the total opposite--

( He starts up at the same time as Lance, and falls off quickly with an emphatic gesture at him. That, exactly.

There's a slow incredulous shake to his head, and then he points at Nate with his cup. )

You are officially not allowed to be in charge of Operation Moonbase.