The Wall VI

[Recaiden]

The VIGIL library department would like to make its disapproval of the organization's former co-leader DC known. He has acted in a manner more fitting a holiday villain such as Lord Malice, and we call on the people of the Nexus to cast him out, and the employees of Evolution Industries to cut any ties with him.

[Darkcomet]

hahahahahahaha oh someone get me a pair of cybernetic lungs because the laughter is going to KILL me

you're actually taking the damn bait

where was this level of disapproval when magtok brainwashed inside civilians and tried to blow up evolution industries' riverside branch headquarters

where was it when a watchtower agent went rogue and unleashed a plague on that same city and i was the only one who refused to let her walk free

i didn't even get this when news of the nanite weapon broke

BEHOLD THE FACE OF HYPOCRISY, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, FOR ITS NAME IS VIGIL

BRAINWASHING, PLAGUES, AND UNILATERAL NANITE ASSASSINATION PLOTS ARE PERFECTLY OKAY

TAKING THEIR MONEY AND THEIR AIRSHIP AWAY BECAUSE I COULD NO LONGER SUPPORT THEM AND MAKING A POINT ABOUT IT IS COMIC VILLAINY

THIS IS WHAT THEY ARE

[Recaiden]

The library department can only comment on events it was present for. It does not attempt to represent VIGL as a whole.

Have a nice day.

[blackouttwo]

Heeey, everybody, normally I don’t post a lot, and I hate to leap in like this on behalf of a competitor in the arms market, let alone EI's CEO (YOUR LASERS ARE CRAP. CRAAAAAAAAAP.) but, uh, he has a point.

Think about it.

What has he actually done that someone else in your organization hasn't somehow trumped in terms of moral decay (hard to measure) or extreme measures (not so hard to measure) already? The worst he's done is deny you access to assets you probably would've misused (or neglected, as is probably already the case, I don't know, I wasn't there, but I think I'm in the ballpark considering all of this has entered the public sphere at all), after you guys took in Magtok, and as a result, got another financier. All things considered, wanting to completely sever ties with an organization that's demonstrated a general lack of...what're the words I'm looking for-

oh right

consistency and drive. Wanting to sever ties with an organization that claims to have this mandate, and then turns around to do precisely 'jack' and '****' with it (not that I agree with the idea of such an organization having such quote-unquote authority anyways, but that's my own personal biases talking) isn't really a bad thing.

Is he a jerk? Probably. Is he unrepentant about it? Absolutely. Is he wrong? I don't think so.

And this?

The library department can only comment on events it was present for. It does not attempt to represent VIGL as a whole.

Have a nice day.

This is a blatant cop-out. You can't play the 'department' game with an organization with a mandate for dealing with existential threats to the Nexus and its people. Hell, you can't play the department game period. This isn't some corporation with a hundred thousand people in ninety different branches and offices handling their own little bins full of paperwork and going to company picnics once a month, and even if it was, that's no excuse for a lack of communication between departments.

The organization’s members, regardless of department, represent the organization by default. Presumably there’s standards for recruitment, so any faction that actively recruits new members or takes in applicants who meet those standards should bear in mind that the membership automatically represents the group as a whole because they are part of that group AT ALL. Any of my employees would be held to the same standard and expected to keep to them because they’re working directly for me.

Even the hired help. Especially the hired help. If I've had to actively seek out assistance outside my own little circle, then it's because I felt that hired help would be good enough (or at least disciplined enough) to follow instructions and represent me in my endeavors for however long they're working for me.

Kindly stop playing internal politics because one guy was a meanie-head and had a point at the same time, and do your damn jobs.

[Earl of Purple]

?ti sah ,ylnecer dedne t'nsah dlrow ehT .era yeht kniht rehtar I

?ti sah ,tiaW

[Darkcomet]

how many apocalyptic events have you heard of recently

[blackouttwo]

I rather think they are. The world hasn't ended recently, has it?

Wait, has it?

A lack of apocalyptic events to cancel does not necessitate praise for people who are supposed to cancel such events.

They aren't heroes. Or at the least, they're lowering the bar and then playing the blame game the instant someone inside the group starts rocking the boat. This isn't exactly rocket science. The organization took in Magtok and then actively shut down an attempt to eliminate a dangerous individual who had a confirmed interest in causing widespread destruction and panic at one point in the past. It's ludicrous.

[Recaiden]

An organization with such a mandate could do whatever it wanted.

We are not such an organization.

Unrelatedly, the Library department will play whatever games it sees fit.

[blackouttwo]

An organization with such a mandate could do whatever it wanted.

We are not such an organization.

Unrelatedly, the Library department will play whatever games it sees fit.

VIGIL's ENTIRE STATED PURPOSE is to deal with such threats. I'd say that constitutes a mandate. So, yes, you ARE such an organization. And by all means, play your department game, but the problem with that is that you're basically saying 'we in VIGIL's library think that the people of the Nexus and Evolution Industries should take steps to shun DC despite the fact that we're only stating OUR opinion and don't speak for VIGIL as a whole, even though we're with VIGIL so logically we would speak for VIGIL if we had an opinion that we wanted made public in the first place.'

Nice to know you people are consistent.

[Recaiden]

You seem to think you know a lot about how VIGIL runs.
And what an 'opinion' is.
And what a 'mandate' is.
You are mistaken on all counts.

Have a nice day.

[blackouttwo]

You seem to think you know a lot about how VIGIL runs.
And what an 'opinion' is.
And what a 'mandate' is.
You are mistaken on all counts.

Have a nice day.

Well, let's see what your average off-the-shelf dictionary has to say. 'Mandate - an official order or commission to do something.' Considering there's only so much that's going to be considered official anywhere in the Nexus, I'd say that VIGIL matches the profile fairly well. They have a organization, base of operations, hierarchy, and they're generally left alone by local authorities, tacitly implying that the group is officially recognized.

tl;dr it's a mandate.

Your opinion seems to be 'I can say whatever I want, because...reasons? It's not going to reflect badly on the group I'm a member of at all.' This opinion would be false, because the membership of a group is a reflection of the group itself. Presumably people join these things for a reason. That's a thing, you know, reasons for stuff to happen.

Usually because the organization's goals are in line with ideals or beliefs they hold, sometimes it's for the perks, sometimes out of sense of obligation to the organization for some other reason that's personal...y'know, everyone's got their reasons, but for the most part, they tend to coincide fairly well, or else factional infighting, defection, desertion, and splinter factions start to become a thing over time.

Take note, because I'm not seeing that in any kind of widespread manner. One guy who happened to be influential turned around, walked away, and took his stuff with him when he left because he didn't like what the organization was doing. Then your 'department' called him, a quote-unquote, 'holiday villain.' Your exact words, Library Man.

Look, I really don't care about VIGIL's hiring practices or this whole mess with EI's CEO (as I've stated, we're competitors) deciding he wants his toys back. But when an organization has taken actions that don't coincide with its mandate, and then either denied it, defended it, or neglected to comment, it makes me stop taking you seriously. VIGIL has a very specific goal you've outlined, publicly, and there's nothing wrong with that goal. Then you go out of your way to point out this one guy who left is apparently a mustache-twirling bad guy, because he...didn't like how the group was operating in alleged pursuit of that goal (and quite a bit of it sounds bad, to be perfectly frank) and decided his assets weren't going to support it any further.

DC took his stuff back and left, as a result of you guys having actively done things, as an organization, that directly contradict your stated goals as an organization. Do you NOT see the problem here? This is stuff that's public knowledge. People outside of VIGIL know you people have taken certain courses of action that don’t coincide with your stated public goals. Everyone knows this. I will say it again: EVERYONE knows this. A former co-leader has gone out of his way to reveal this information. This isn’t even me having an opinion on the matter. It is a fact revealed by information leaks from a former member of VIGIL who left because these courses of action don't coincide with your group's mandate. DC has been very forthcoming with such details in a public forum.

You just keep pointing and saying 'nuh-uh DC's totally a bad guy, look, he took our stuff.' You’re not even trying to debate the point in any meaningful way. Why should I take it seriously when you make ridiculous claims and calls to action like this, and then defend it when it gets questioned with ‘well we can do whatever, we don’t represent the whole organization' when you do represent the group because you're a member?

It's kind of ridiculous.

[Recaiden]

Too long.
Didn't read.

Have a nice day.

[blackouttwo]

The nicest.

[Arkhosia]

In the grand scheme those events are kinda irrelevant. We've created a new org and discarded HALO and WATCH, which were the ones present then. From my understanding of those events, it seems we had a disturbing habit of not caring much of the actions of our members and only really acting when we are needed. We are worryingly passive, and that is what VIGIL in all likelihood shall change.

On the issue of DC: although I think he is tight to withdraw support, I feel that he should have told us first. The support he has withdrawn could have resulted in a severe cripple meant in a time in which such a thing is quite an issue. Marciano is on the move, and been on the warpath against Magtok. Malice, a past Magtok who is as evil as he used to be and nearly as capable, is active. These are two things that could seriously risk all of us, and DC goes and, without giving us time to prepare for, retracts his rather key funding and disables one of our best assets (which as far as he knew could actually have been flying with people on it and would have killed many if it was then!).
Again, I feel he has every right to do so, but how he did do is simply brash and perilously risky.

[Hattish Thing]

Of course there's no more apocalypses. It's just not worth the effort anymore.

Apocalypses are for dweebs anyway.

[Darkcomet]

Because you didn't already have multiple funding contingencies in such a scenario in the form of Magtok and Vulpan's resources.

Because the guy with a remote shutdown countermeasure in the power system of an airship, who installed it because he stole the thing depressingly easily in the first place and wanted to ensure no one else did, has no means of monitoring whether or not it's in use based on readings from the power system at all.

Because the alternative would be that I'm not a 'bloodthirsty savage holiday villain,' and my goal isn't actually to kill anyone, or to destroy anything.

And we can't have that.

Although the dissent against the idiot in gray is welcomed.

[Darkcomet]

wow

i never thought i would see the day someone actually managed to shut this thing up

least of all for this long

good job psycogs youre an inspiration to us all now send me something spaceworthy

cmon man this stuff is obviously advanced enough to do it as is whyre you holdin out on everybody

Major...

we dont have anything like that going on in secret do we

No, but that doesn't mean you need to feed the conspiracy theorists in a drunken stupor.

but watching them rant is fun

...admittedly true.

[Earl of Purple]

.syadiloh eht rof tfel seiceps etenimretedni fo laudividni sihT
.redlohecalp siht gnidaer yojne ,emit naem eht nI

Is stuck to the wall with festive gold sticky tape. It's written on the back of festive red wrapping paper decorated with green tree shapes.

[goto124]

The dead body of an imp is pinned to the wall with a dagger.

Next to the corpse, written in crimson blood, is:

'ARE WE DONE YET?'

[Hattish Thing]

The dead body of an imp is pinned to the wall with a dagger.

Next to the corpse, written in crimson blood, is:

'ARE WE DONE YET?'

.-.

Maybe? What?

[Zefir]

"Dead Imps on the wall? what's going on?"

[goto124]

Written in crayon:

The one from Trog's I think. It's over, if you're curious.

What's that drunk guy's name anyway?

[Cyber Punk]

Wanted
Dead, or (preferably) Alive

For the crimes of:
Eco-Terrorism, Gross Negligence, Attempted Murder,
Murder, Slavery, Kidnapping,
Disturbance of the Peace, and Public Elfiness

Elves recently returned to the Great Nexus Desert
So far seen wearing tan robes,
with floating psi-active crystals

Moderately dangerous.

Return to Rising Son Realty in Groudside for reward.

Beside the wanted poster, someone's written:

Let's talk payment and those elves are as good as dead.

On another corner, in big bold graffiti letters:

Come find me at Trog's if you need something dead. For a good reason, or you might catch a terminal case of broken fingers.

[goto124]

Below the poster, in magical glowing cursive:

^
|
|
|
Broken fingers? I took psionics for a reason.

[Cyber Punk]

Come find me at Trog's if you need something dead. For a good reason, or you might catch a terminal case of broken fingers.

A few words have been added to the post:

NO MAGIC USERS.

[Zefir]

"So only non magic users can hire you?"

[Cyber Punk]

(Slay it, slay the dragon!)
...Yes.

[Devixer]

Broken fingers aren't terminal, guy. Also congrats on excluding a good three quarters of the Nexus cause you're boring.

[Aric Kale]

(Slay it, slay the dragon!)
...Yes.

So ye got a wee problem with magic users, eh? Care tae explain why now?
A rune is carved underneath these words.

[Cyber Punk]

(Devixer: Yes, he hates magic like Durkon hates trees. Nothing a little character development can't fix )

Placed away from the rune:

<-----"Bad luck."