Brainstorm With Me

September 20, 2015:

Rowan comes to talk to Babs and puzzles things through

Clocktower - Gotham

Characters

NPCs: None.

Mentions:

Plot:

Mood Music: None.


Fade In…

Rowan has been to see the Atlantean Loremasters. Who are, let us be clear, a stodgy bunch of irritating, hidebound men. Who do know a lot about a lot it must be admitted. So he's talked to them… and he's come back. To talk to Babs because if anyone can help maybe it's a fresh perspective and there's no one he trusts more than Babs.

The roof door opens. Rowan hasn't bothered coming up from the street this time. He must be tired, or in a hurry.


Babs in her monitoring room, she's seen Rowans avatar approach the Tower "Hello Rowan" she speaks through the communicator "I'll be in the kitchenette, top floor. To what do I owe the pleasure of a visit?". An unannounced visit is always welcome, and if it's business and he's in a hurry, she can start the discussion, now.


Rowan climbs down the ladder… he doesn't seem to be in any hurry per se, but he definitely didn't want to do the elevator today. "Hello Babs." He comes over to give her a tight hug. "I just… needed to talk. Needed some perspective ,if you don't mind. I don't know if any of it will make any sense but…"


Returning the hug, Babs looks up with a smile. "Of course, Rowan." With the water boiling, it doesn't take long to have the tea steeped and ready to drink. Handing a mug over, she indicates to the small lounge area and heads in that direction "Sometimes the other person doesn't need to understand, it's the act of talking it out that helps." Stopping her chair, so he can take a place of the couch, she regards him. "What's on your mind?"


"The Lord of the Deep. The oldest records in Atlantis are actually stories kept by generations of atlantean lorekeepers. A lot of it is just… stories of how bad it was the last time the beast was around." Rowan sighs. "I was hoping for something we could use to figure out how to beat it."


"You're going to tell me stories, Rowan?" Babs sounds a little amused but sobers quickly "We can try certainly. Look for the commonalities in the stories, map them through. Distill fantasy from possibility for the Atlanteans." Sipping her tea, she considers "I would love to try."


"There's no time to tell you stories. I sat there for hours listening to the Loremasters. I just need to… talk it out." Rowan sighs again and drums his fingers on the table thinking. "Okay. There's eight or nine very, very long sagas about the people who wound up defeating it the first time. They're legendary figures. There's a lot made about a prophesy of the Lord's defeat. The stories say they 'sealed it away in a cave' but from the size of the thing that has to be some kind of myth or metaphor."


Babs listens intently, watching the Blue Warrior. He's focussed and with good reason - this threat is big … or Big, with a capital B. "So there's a prophesy that says they sealed the Lord away in a cave?" Babs clarifies. "If so, and the word cave is a metaphor… could it be something less physical? Like, maybe they took something /from/ the Lord that they sealed away to trap it." She thinks. "I believe you said it's based out of The Mariana Trench? Is it possible that was the 'cave' and somehow it's broken the seals?" She's throwing things out there… but she can be silent if he just wants to talk.


"It makes sense. It doesn't seem to need to move from where it is. The Blue don't have anything so far." Rowan continues to think… "The stories also mentioned 'The armies of…'" He pauses, considering his words. "Hell, is probably the best translation. Not actual hell, mind. But… the armies of some other place that is terrible. The Lord of the Deep came from there with his armies, but his armies couldn't withstand the water. So he had to give them new forms to serve him." He thinks… "So… a foriegn conqueror perhaps. It's also said that the Lord said when he was first defeated that he would return…"


Considering that, Babs looks to Rowan. "Hell? Looking at that loosely, what if it's another dimension? Not quite like yours… but similar. Some hells are represented as somewhere hot and fiery. Whilst others cold and icy…" Babs has done some reading there … and there are many different types of hell. "So it might have come through a dimensional rift, from a place where there was no water… Foreign conqueror works in that context. And they all say they'll return - but he likely let something behind to free him…" All conjecture, of course.


"Okay… so let's say you're an ancient, unfathomable alien warlord…" Rowan posits. "You invade a place, lose for some reason and get forced back to where you came from. What's your next move?" Wars are rarely so tidy as to simply be over when they're over and only the fact that this one was a long time ago prevents them from picking up on the clues that would have left behind. So they make them up.


"My next move?" Babs thinks on that "Well, let's also say that not all of his forces were forced back. Somehow, some remained behind. Hide them away, let them breed over time, you've got a natural army that may well worship him." Maybe she's watched too many sci-fi shows. "My next move would be to try and communicate with what's left of this side… and find another doorway back… Could he have found a backdoor, Rowan?"


"If he's really from… elsewhere, then yes. I suppose so." Rowan's own experience with dimensions suggest that there is generally more than one way to skin that cat. "Okay… so lets assume it had help from this side. We haven't seen anyone aid it except… monsters made from seacreatures and people. So if it has agents… well what would they be doing but for that we'd have to know what it wants. If it has agents though, how are they hiding… and communicating to it?"


"If I had agents and I wanted to return, I would be putting them in strategic positions." Maybe it's because of the way she works, too "Into government and commercial positions, places where they can influence things subtly… nothing obvious of course, but there'll be patterns we could trace." Setting her tea down on the coffee table, Babs thinks some more "But you've said he's been gone for a very long time. So… are the agents longlived? Or is a hereditary type position?" A small shrug "If the Atlanteans can, maybe there's a clue there." As to how they're communicating? "Communications could be a little more problematic. Telepathy? Maybe that looks a little like prayer? Or maybe some artifacts?"


"Perhaps they have some way we haven't figured out yet… or perhaps… if the Lord of the Deep is their god, then we're dealing with them doing what they think it wants." Which may or may not be correct. This is a lot of assumptions but they need to start looking somewhere. Rowan knows that they can look at the bottom of the Trench but that only gets them the enemy with no way beyond brute force to beat it that they're not even sure will work.

"Okay. So you're an oppressed minority then. You've just lost a war and your god has been outlawed. How do you hide while plotting your revenge?"


"In plain sight?" Babs is grasping at straws, so little is known of the Atlantean and Blue cultures. "For Surfacers, some persecuted religions allowed themselves to be subsumed into a more accepted religion - and then created sects, I guess you could call them." Something else occurs to her though "The sect may or may not be visible either. But to keep the secret for so long? I'd be looking for something in plain view." beat "Did you deal with anything like that from your time, Rowan?"


"Yes but a bit less… religious. The Overlords did sometimes capture and brainwash Blue. The… more simple, thuggish methods always got their operatives caught, so they eventually got quite good at creating sleeper agents." Rowan muses. "And yes, hidden in plain sight…" Religion at large isn't really a thing for Atlanteans. And Blue, well, he's not sure about these Blue. But groups of people who spend large amounts of time unsupervised in areas of the ocean where there's not much? Those exist.

Disturbingly, they tend to be in the military. "Well… that does give me some notion of where to start." He clearly looks like he doesn't like the answer that suggests.


"Sleeper agents. Well, yes. Once you know the group, I'd be looking for similar." That type of approach was known on the Surface "And where's that starting point, may I ask?" Babs isn't sure she likes the look. Picking her tea back up, she takes a sip. Falling silent, she waits patiently.


"The easiest way to have unsupervised access to the kinds of information and things that people who were aiding this thing would need… would be to have insiutated yourself into the ranks of our defenders." Rowan really doesn't like that notion, but if now he's going to have to look to see if there's any kind of pattern to the beast's strikes and if so, how that pattern corallates to military movements by the Blue and Atlanteans.


"Yes it is… " Babs winces as she agrees. That's not good in anyway. "But it's a way forward. You might want to look for common groups. In some military organisations on the Surface, there are 'orders'… groups of defenders who achieved something marvelous or heroic historically. As time progresses defenders with those traits are invited to join the 'order'." She's not sure if there is similar in those cultures.


"Not quite the same and I'd really have to see if the Blue military here is organized the way I remember it." Rowan murmurs. "But it could come in about a dozen ways and… even if it doesn't pan out it'll be good to know that's not the case." How it might be for Atlanteans Rowan has even less of clue. He'll have to see if Mera can investigate.


"Alright then." Babs isn't familiar with Blue or Atlantean military structure, it had just been a thought. "Is there anything I can do to help you, Rowan? I want to help." For him mostly, but also because it will help the world in general.


"Not on this… I have a place to start, but I'll need to go back and do it…" Which he's not going to do today. Rowan sighs. "I could use something to eat. Do you have time?"


"Of course I do." Babs smiles over. She understands he needs to head back soon, but maybe they can steal some time together. "Let's go…."

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