Video [Not-Temba Information Sharing]

[doubled_speed]

[Good evening Temba! Tommy's back from another day in Not-Temba and on this video looking tired but thoughtful.]

Hey, sorry to bug people, but hoping I could get someone who was on the Adventure to Save the Agrii who might have gone to Not-Temba to tell me I'm crazy. Just...

I spent a lot of time in the greenhouse cataloging food and there was this one plant in particular that was SUPER bothering me. Because I knew I'd eaten some of it before, but not here. Couldn't remember what or why for the longest time. It was this stalk, not unlike a really tall piece of celery or something, and when I bit into it, the stuff tasted like buttered corn. Finally figured out where I'd had it before.

Not just that either. I think there might be Boar-bunnies in the forest. Don't quote me on it, but after you spend time hauling one back to a village to trade for meat, you sorta get a LONG look at those hooves.

Those two things put together means something very specific to me. Guys, someone tell me I'm just imagining things? Or don't and explain it. Because the two things are something I only encountered in one place before: the Graq homeworld. And the Agrii CLEARLY didn't know the Graq and it seemed like the reverse was true. So how am I running into that shit here?

[Not that he likes the idea of the reverse. If he's going mad, if he's gotten that family quirk going on, he's going to have a whole other mess of issues. And that is its own form of stress. But if what he saw was real, he has no ideas and that's freaking him out.]

I guess, what the FUCK is going on here?

Comments

video;

[kyley_b]

DUDE! Cayde was telling me the SAME SHIT! Like, not the food, but... the clothes, the architecture. He recognised it. You're not imagining shit, babe, there's something weird going on.

[doubled_speed]

The clothes? Architecture? Dude, the Graq lived in trees. They didn't really HAVE architecture.

[But he was worried that Cayde mentioned it. Fuck.]

[kyley_b]

The clothes all have two arms, not four. And he said the way stuff looked like it was made, it was like... made from their spit and shit? I dunno, he can explain it better, I didn't have my notebook at the time, I was looking for rakes and pants.

But the point remains the same: it seems very likely that the other city is related to these other aliens you guys have already met, somehow. And the likelihood of this being related to outside forces beyond the Agrii is SUPER high.

[doubled_speed]

Two arms. Wow, as someone who has been given an Agrii christmas sweater, and been hugged by Agrii, that is DEFINITELY wrong. Definitely four arms there.

Spit? Wait, you mean the stone. Shit, they DID do that, didn't they. Their spit made the rock soft for them and they shaped it, and then it got hard again. It was also MASSIVE HALLUCINATION CENTRAL. I don't recommend it. But fuck. This sorta sells the evil puppeteers thing seeing as they used the Graq last time too. Almost got us to kill them by accident. I almost died.

Pants? Dude, you've got pants. I know. Too many pants.

[kyley_b]

Yeah! Exactly!

Okay, I didn't hallucinate in the Target or anything, but I believe you. And yeah, exactly! We also have like, this theory about there being big time gaps and stuff and why maybe that explains some stuff not, uh, working properly... I'm not gonna go into it not in person.

I wanted cute ones, alright? Jeez.

[doubled_speed]

Not the rock stuff. If you get spit on by them it's hallucinations.

Time gaps? Why time gaps?

Cute? Why cute?

ALL THESE QUESTIONS.

[kyley_b]

Ohhh, okay. Sorry, I wasn't there.

Well. It's weird that if this place has always been on this planet that the Agrii wouldn't have previously know about the Graq, right?

Because! What, I can't want to have nice pants?! [Huff.]

[tempredmental]

Wait... are you saying that the Graq have been here, too?

[doubled_speed]

I don't know. Seems like their food has. And apparently Cayde mentioned them to Kyle over the stone work

[tempredmental]

That's so weird...

[Keith frowned in thought for a second.]

The two cities are pretty far apart. We never did find out from the Agrii if they've been around their entire world. Or if this is their actual home. When Jonathan connected with those Graq, did he ever find out if their homeworld was their original homeworld?

[Keith's heard about people losing their homes before... Alteans, Galra... it's started galactic wars back home, after all.]

[doubled_speed]

I mean, it always felt like the Agrii thought this was home.

[Tommy pauses.]

Who the fuck is Jonathan?

[tempredmental]

You know... Jonathan... that guy who can like... mind meld with people and get information?

[Keith had seen him do it to one of the Graq and, honestly, it was nothing like the sci-fi shows he remembered, and it was kind of scary, but whatever.]

He communicated with the Graq back on the ship, got them to stop attacking us in the plant room.

[doubled_speed]

... Do you mean Jon? Older guy, glasses, creepy aura? Jon?

[And now Tommy needed to find Jon and ask SO MANY THINGS.]

[ezra_of_lothal]

Wait, I feel like I'm missing a step. I'm following that none of the new area really feels like it matches the Agrii.

But all I remember hearing about the Graq was something about them being set up to look like they were attacking the Agrii fleet, but it turned out they were lost and confused?

Did some of you get to visit their ships, too?

[doubled_speed]

Yep, three or four steps. So. Graq ended up on ships they didn't understand. They weren't attacking at all, they were confused and lost. Some of us took them home to their own planet.

So their ships weren't exactly a real thing. But their planet was, and some stuff here fits that planet.

[ezra_of_lothal]

Ok. Got it.

And now we've got a possible Graq city that might have been long distance neighbors with the Agrii in Temba. If they were both on the planet at the same time. It's kind of hard to tell.

Although the train system existing at all makes it pretty clear that at some point whoever lived in Temba was friendly with whoever lived here.

[doubled_speed]

Well, the Graq didn't live in cities at all, they lived in villages. Stone structures fused into the tops of trees with their spit. So I'm inherently questioning this shit.

And thus absolutely questioning if people were friendly between here and there. Because Graq weren't bright, Ezra. So why would they have a hangar?

[ezra_of_lothal]

Well, I was mostly thinking infrastructure usually requires some kind of cooperation to get built. Although I guess a third party building it is an option, too.

As is giving...whoever lived here ships.

[doubled_speed]

I don't know if it's first party or third party or whatever. What I do know is that this feels weird.

[Tommy shrugs.]

Who said they were given the ships? Like, have you SEEN the Flygood? That's clearly something the Agrii set up for us.

video; un: bewitched

[seeingscarlet]

The confusion was real. If they had any contact before, they must have both forgotten. Or maybe it was through trading with someone else?

[doubled_speed]

I don't know. I mean... The more I talk to people, the more it seems like we're really coming to this Graq idea. Like, boar-bunnies.

So far we're sans proper Graq sightings, of course. Thank fuck. I don't need spit on again. That was fucking hell.

[seeingscarlet]

You know more about plants than anyone else here. If you think it is the same, it probably is.

Just be careful? Something doesn't feel right about this.

[doubled_speed]

You're not wrong. A lot feels wrong. Except for the bubble-olives Kyle and I found. That stuff is good.

[His fingers flash through his hair as he sighs over this.]

I never asked. How... how bad was it to live with the powers that be that controlled the Drift Fleet hanging over your heads?

[Because this? This was weird shit that called back to everything on the Agrii ship, and he remembered how she had reacted to that singing planet star thing and he knew that had to do with the Atroma. Everyone seemed to be trying to avoid the name, but they also seemed to suspect these Atroma as a problem here too, so he wanted to ask someone who had experienced that stuff.]

[seeingscarlet]

Bubble olives? That sounds...interesting.

[Unconsciously mirroring him, Wanda sighs softly and looks away.]

It is not the first time I've lived like that, but Strucker wasn't interested in entertainment. It was...everything was just for their amusement. They made Vision phase for a week once. And someone sent terrible writing about Sansa and all of her friends.

I am glad I got to meet some of the people there, and that Vision and I found a home but...I thought we were free.

[You can't convince her they're not involved somehow. That message left when the core was taken had Atroma written all over it.]

[doubled_speed]

Yeah, they're like bubble gum that tastes like smoothies. I've brought a fully fruiting tree back. It's been a SERIOUS bit of work. But I can bring you some if you wanna try it. Warning, you may giggle. Seems to induce giddiness.

[Something he'd enjoyed.]

Stay phased for a week? That's horrid! Jonas said phasing wasn't fun to stay in for long periods. Granted we had to learn to telegraph that because I could get stuck partially in him. Which is something else entirely.

[His fingers run through his hair again and he shakes it off.]

Not going to deny some of what I've experienced here is nice. Great. Makes me smile. But shit. If those fuckers were the ones to hurt Billy, they deserve horrible, horrible things.