public + private

[thornsofmalkav]

Hey, guys? I just came back from this weirdass other place. I'm pretty sure it was like that Tree Hotel that Minako went to back in Newport. I couldn't access the Network or anything. It looked like this:

[And Thorne will stream her memory of looking over the room:

The room is small, intimate. There is no sign of a way in or out. Ping-pong balls crunch underfoot, and empty giftboxes, meticulously wrapped and ribboned, are lined up against one wall, while a humming wall of server blades are racked on the opposite wall. A high-backed, gilt chair with red velvet cushions faces an ornate, full-length mirror, and beside the chair is a mug of steaming hot chocolate on a tiny side table, steaming invitingly from beneath a layer of fifteen half-melted marshmallows.

The stream ends.]

So yeah. That was a thing. Also, uh, I Interfaced with the servers there and they had this to say:

Active Liminal Layers: 4.0
Online Travelers: 84
Online Guests: 1
Offline Travelers: 485

So. Uh. I'm guessing that 'offline' Travelers are the ones in dungeons, but wow. That's a lot of us in dungeons.

[Private to Helena and Naoki:]

Hey. So, uh, I'm asking you two because Helena's a scientist and a woman and Naoki has a lot of alchemy bullshit going on and I'm hoping by now that he's heard from, like, Kanji or something what happened in my dungeon.

Anyway. Uh. I don't suppose you could help me when it comes to birth control? I'd rather not end up having to go back to vampire every other day in lieu of a morning after pill.

Sorry, Naoki. But, like, you're chemistry guy now and I figure it'd be a change from having to counteract whatever heavy metal poisoning we might have been exposed to on a Jaunt.

Comments

[leftbehindagain]

The familiar faces?

Based on some of what Minako-san uncovered in Newport, I'm beginning to wonder if we haven't been thinking about them completely backwards. If that's the case, they wouldn't be part of that number.

[thornsofmalkav]

Huh. What do you mean?

[Color her super curious.]

[leftbehindagain]

She Interfaced both of them to see what she could find out.

The scan came back with them as really the rightful rulers of Britain.

[thornsofmalkav]

... holy shit.

[leftbehindagain]

I know, right?

So what if we have it backwards? What if they're not the same person infiltrating a lot, but a lot of different people who happen to look the same and fill similar roles? Something about them can be used to keep an eye on us, somehow, but I don't think a regular infiltrator would have scanned like that, especially with all the 'possessing spirits' fuss in Newport.

It'd also go a long way toward explaining how Perry and Mina were in both Questing Country and the bunker the walkabout folks were stuck in.

[willyousee]

....They were also among those in Dolorosa.

[leftbehindagain]

Yeah, I think I talked to Mina in Misericordia.

The more interesting part for this theory would be if they turned up in Sarmatia at the same time as that one. On the other hand, she was a baroness there and the queen in Newport, which backs up the 'similar roles' part.

...Naoto's overlay's boss in Newport was one of them, come to think of it. And she aid when they got paranoid enough to start scanning each other he came back clean.

[thornsofmalkav]

I figured they were both just ex-Champions that still could go to Questing Country and did... but that makes even more sense, really.

So basically, Familiar Faces are from Inaba. Like, not actually from Inaba, but same principal. A lot of alternate universe counterparts, is what I'm saying.

[leftbehindagain]

That is still a possibility, but in some ways it's simpler if it's separate people.

.........Not entirely. That'd be if we kept going to slight variations on the same place.

[thornsofmalkav]

Yeah, I know. Not really the same thing. It's not even the difference between my world and Melissa's. It's bigger. Maybe more like Ambrose's and Elphaba's Ozes... but no, it's a wider range than even that.

I just wanted to make a joke about you Inaba kids, that's all.