So bored!

Even the infinite scroll of the dark web couldn't keep Liam's attention.  He flit from one site to the next looking for something to entertain him.  He stopped on a viral video uploaded by a girl he knew in school, she was a few years younger than him, but that didn't matter, she was in one of his classes -- Sterling something.  She had a Russian last name but she looked more like she fit in with his family than her own.  Cute red head and freckles mixed among the dark haired Russian siblings.  That and he knew she was adopted.  He knew everyone's secrets at school.  There was a kid who lived down the street from school who sold illicit drugs -- he was one step away from being busted by the school.  Liam hadn't decided what to do about it yet.  Tell the kid or tell the school.  He didn't want to be either of those people so he did nothing.  Just kept the information to himself.

The video wasn't well made, but the edits worked well and was probably why it had gone viral.  Liam was pretty sure the dude in the video was her cousin though, so she made his show a big thing.  

And it went viral too with a video all of it's own -- except it was outside the club.  And then there was that edit.  The edit is what caught Liam's attention.  The ones and zeros scrolling across the screen pulled him in deeper and he replayed the video until he had captured all the digits.  Not that he needed it to know for certain -- that was the work of the Wicked Truth.  He'd found his rabbit hole to dive into.  The hacker was active now.  The edit hadn't happened too long ago.  Liam dove head first into the puzzle.  Where was he?  What was he going to do.

Liam Haart Marquis

Age: 16

Origin: Born in Moscow

Occupation: Student, White Hat Hacker for Paragon, Underground Hacker

Personality: Liam is smart as a whip. He has a short attention span because not much can keep his interest. He’s rebels but not in the public eye. He does so under his highly secret hacker name Thyme. He separates hisself in three lives — Liam the perfect smart son with a touch of ADHD, Catch a white hat hacker for Paragon (as in Catch-22), and Thyme his dark net self.

Description: Liam has his father’s looks, with the blond curls and gray eyes. He stood just a centimeter below his father and still had some growth left in him.

Supernatural Powers: Can be taught to channel

Biography:

Mother: Genevre Marquis - high fashion designer and CEO of Zalya Fashions.

Father: Ephraim Haart

Liam’s father wasn’t a secret, but in order to keep the predators away, Liam was given his mother’s maiden name. It made getting into trouble easier and having been through all the local private schools, Liam was now forced into the public education system where they couldn’t kick him out unless he got caught. And he didn’t get caught changing grades, stealing test answers or anything like that. But it was all so very boring.

His father was a powerful man and owned a profitable company. And Liam worked there after school — and during school to stay out of trouble. That was the condition in which his father let him work in the IT department as security against intrusions. He might also have tried to hack the system a time or two, but when he told his dad about the flaws, he got mad, but then he put Liam to work fixing them. And that’s how he got the job.

But that didn’t fill the challenge. Liam was looking for a after a while and he spent most of his free time poking around the dark web, learning from the hackers there. He had a particular fascination with Phaser.

The hacker was unique — faster than any he’d seen work, he always left a signature behind and then something happened and he disappeared. Rumos said the government took him. The borg died with him. But later a new hacker emerged following the same patterns, revealing truths whether they harmed or hurt the person in question, and he signed everything.

His fascination switched to The Wicked Truth, and he spent most of his waking time when not in school or working trying to find him.

[[This is an older thread in Arikan's timeline. It takes place prior to meeting up with Nythadri and Talin Sedai in Respite and Resolve. There were other characters in this but I only have the scenes with Arikan and Byron. They're the best ones anyway. *grin. I'll switch back and forth to show pov since that handsome hulk of flesh Byron isn't going to post it himself.

To set the stage. It's underground in the mountains of mist. Lythia has captured Arikan and left him in a hole and Byron is on his way to extract information about the shadow under the guise of a Questioner.]]

Visceral clips of a brutal fight spread across the internet.  Gore added for special affected made it all the more surreal.  That was the first edit.

A second video made the scene with the first fight -- same guy being bloodily beaten except this time he's winning and flinging the much larger fighter across the caged area with ease.

A third video reemerged from the depts of the internet when a connection was made.  A low watch count of a burlesque show of the insestual Egyptian love story between twin gods.  Comments connecting the three videos pulled it from the depths and the view count rose... "Was this the same man?"

The program billet for Kallisti showcased a new show -- The story of Hades and Persephone -- the name Nox scribbled across the billet with the other stage names.  

The connections were made and collage videos emerged.  The fights and the dance merging together to form horrific scenes of the uses of power.  Others edited music and pushed the beauty of the power.  It was a war of violence and beauty from both sides of the line.  Those for the channelers -- those against them.  

But the one thing it did was boost sales of online tickets for Kallisti opening Night!  

Nothing was the same after coming back from the tunnels.  Allan had a taste for battles before, it wasn't like they hadn't gone on missions before with Vellas.  But this was different.  There was never any real threat to his life before this fight.  Those things didn't care if we lived or died -- they prefered us dead if anything.  And Nox and his infinite wisdom had seen to all their precautions because he'd understood the monsters they fought.  He was arrogant and Allan wanted to hate him, but he didn't think hating him because he was good at his job was exactly the most logical thing to do.  But he at the Ascendancy's ear and that irked him most!

But he had to push all that aside and return to the day to day life of one of the nine.  The boring training.  The routine drills.  The patrols.  The one off missions here and there.  It all seemed very mundane after battling with others like him in an all out fight for his life.  There were other monsters in the world -- he wanted to hunt them -- kill them.  It almost drove him to pick up the bottle again.  It pained him to sit idle.

Allan took on anything and everything he could to keep his idle hands busy.  Including sneaking visits to the Ascendancy's chambers to read the book the Atharim had lost the day they attacked Nikolai Brandon.  It made Allan smile that he had something no others did -- access to this volume.  But that was another days reading -- today he was to meet a man -- a specially trained man and give him a tour of the place.  And to be of whatever service he could be.  He had become a glorified babysitter.  He hoped it was more to othat.  But he'd rather be doing things elsewhere.  But he waited for the man at the entrance to the underground facility.  Someone would show him the way here.

“I made it!” she sent a message to Evelyn once the private plane touched down. Colette had only visited Dominance VII a few times on holiday. The Moreaus loved to visit the islands in particular. Never had she visited so far east, nor would she have imagined having a reason to do so.

Moscow held her in awe. She’d practically been glued to the window the last hour. For a girl raised in New York City, she should not have been so impressed, and she did everything she could to remain aloof. But she watched the sprawling land roll beneath the plane like she’d never glimpsed anything before.

When Evelyn told her that her work was going to have to be carried out in Moscow, Colette could not have been more skeptical. After a week of Evelyn’s persuasion, Colette consented to the plan. In truth, she knew that if she found the efforts fruitless, it would be easy to simply return home. She was giving the CCD a chance as much she was here to shape a new type of society.

It would be the middle of the night for Evelyn, so Colette did not expect a quick response. She sent similar messages to her family. It had been an effort to convince her parents to let her go. She wouldn’t have completely disobeyed their wishes, but it was certainly preferable to have their blessing.

Colette climbed from the car into the Moscow evening air. The city block reminded her of 5th Avenue, but the street was sparkling clean in comparison. There were no homeless to be seen. Everyone looked impeccable, although for this time of day, she was unsurprised that they were primarily dressed for business. The second she exited the vehicle, men in valet uniforms approached to take the many pieces of luggage. After swiping each an appropriate tip, she took a moment to study the buildings themselves.

For a girl born and raised in Manhattan, she was rather taken aback. The skyline was marvelous, but the buildings were higher and more fantastical than anything in Manhattan. No new high rises had gone up in the last twenty years, and one project on Central Park South was altogether abandoned unfinished. It was breath-taking.

The building that she entered was a hotel as far as she understood. It was owned by someone that she had never heard of but was apparently trustworthy enough to send her toward. Her family estate had arranged for a long-term occupancy until she found something more suitable. For now, she was content to sweep inside and be swallowed up by the new adventure.

“Why are you using that crap one?” His companion, Jim, squinted and held his hand over his eyes to block out some of light as he looked over. They had come to port and while most were gallivanting about, Jim and Leon were too frugal, and preferred to spend as little money as they could. They took over a table a ways down the pier, but each busied themselves with their own things.