[Video for Everybody!]

[0perator]

[See Alia.

See Alia glaring at what looks like a former tablet computer that has clearly been combined with some kind of frankensteinian holographic interface.

See Alia glaring into the communication device.]

All right. What have you people all gotten into now?

Who's feeling weird, when did it start, and what the frag were you nuts doing before it kicked off?

I'd rather not catch your crazy...

Comments

[raceme]

Nothing's wrong with us. in fact I feel amazing as ever, if no more. [Looks like someone found some green crystals, joy.]

[0perator]

You, sir, are a damn liar or very, very unobservant.

[Eyeroll of doom. Doom.]

[raceme]

Why would I lie about this, Alia? Are you really doubting ME? [Come tell him that to his face, lady.]

[0perator]

Uh-huh. And the last time you felt that damn amazing you faceplanted for days after. Color me skeptical.

[You are intimidating as a wet noodle, son.]

[raceme]

I did not! [He thinks.]

[He can be really intimidating if he wants. Really. Except not.]

[nobody_number_8]

[When Axel comes on, he's seen from a somewhat odd angle; it's pretty clear the communicator is just propped up on something and that he's not actually holding it.]

I wasn't doing anything other than taking a walk. Then when I get back, I suddenly can't touch anything except the ground! I just pass right through stuff.

[Which would explain why he's not holding the communicator.]

I actually walked through Knockout's leg by accident not too long ago. That was so weird, you would not believe...

[0perator]

Can you give me a rough path for that walk? See anything out of the ordinary while you were doing it? How long ago was this?

[She makes some notations, calls up a holographic map so that it'll show on the video feed too, better for Axel to correct it if she needs to.]

[nobody_number_8]

Around Megatronus' territory and... a few hours ago now, I think. Wanted to expand the range of places I can teleport to, so I figured that I'd start around there. Started at one corner, then walked to the temple, hit the Arena and the abandoned police station before angling up to the other corner and walking back roughly along the border to get back to where I'd started, then turned and went back to the Hub. I didn't notice anything weird had happened until I walked in, tried to sit down in a chair, and fell right through.

Only thing out of the ordinary I saw was a little bit of energon; saw it glowing in a little crevice in a rock and went over to see what it was. I didn't touch it or anything; I'm not a rock collector, and I've heard energon can be explosive if you don't handle it right. What was weird about it though, was that it was red; usually if you see any energon crystals they're kind of blueish-white.

[0perator]

[She sketches his route on the holographic display as he describes it, switching the color to red after a moment. Weird energon, huh? Now that wasn't suspicious at all.]

Where exactly did you see it? And did I get the route right?

[mccrane]

Can you give me a situation report?

[McCrane may have been on one of his long patrols again.]

[0perator]

I don't have a lot of data, obviously.

[Scowwwwwwwwwl]

Network chatter is full of people either behaving strangely or reporting strange conditions. I'm trying to track down more information, see if there's any kind of coherent cause.

[mccrane]

...not again. [Seriously, when will he get a break?]

Are there any new landmarks or monsters that are attacking?

[0perator]

Best I can tell, this has something to do with unusual crystals. I'm trying to get more specifics out of people, but apparently everyone has a crap memory or something.

[Video]

[leap_before_look]

Heh! Crazy? I figured it was pretty normal around here!

[Video]

[0perator]

There's crazy and then there's unusual kinds of crazy. This strikes me as the latter.

[Video]

[leap_before_look]

Well, I guess that makes sense. There does seem to be a lot of variations of crazy.

[Video]

[0perator]

That's because sane people are all alike.

[heartdive]

I didn't do anything!

[ says this followed by a sneezing fit! ]

[0perator]

You might not have done anything specific. What were you doing just before you got sick?

[heartdive]

...Work?

[ yeap. sorry. he really has already forgotten about the brown energon. didn't seem important at the time, you know? ]

[0perator]

.. What route did you take to get to work?

[Whatever it was might have some kind of delay or incubation period.. and if it was an environmental hazard, hopefully tracking everyone's movement would help track it down.]

[calibrates_big_guns]

Glad to see I'm not the only one wondering this ...

[0perator]

Somebody has to ask the obvious questions, right?

[calibrates_big_guns]

Something like that. I don't suppose the answer's seeming as obvious to you though? No one seems to remember a damn thing about how this all started.

[0perator]

Crystals. All I got so far.