synopsychic | (no subject)

When you speak of that Song, do you also mean the beast in the Professor's vision?

Probably. I talked to Kanji - well, his overlay anyway - and he agreed that for something to be this loud and not directly on top of us already, it'd have to be either a pretty substantial chorus or one really, really big something. With that vision to work with, I'm leaning 'one really, really big something.'

He shares the first thought I had when I heard the Song. The size and illness of the leviathan supports this theory.

[ private, Psychic Protection I ]

Claudia, may I speak to you in person about something? It will not take long.

One big source is both easier and more difficult to deal with than several. There's only one target, but actually taking it down is probably gonna be hellacious.

[Private, double protected]

Sure thing. Where do you want to meet up?

We do not even know if killing it is wise.

[ Private, Psychic Protection I. Her filter is significantly more impressive than his... ]

Let us take a walk on the beach, near the Cornu.

The alternative might be letting it leave to terrorise someone else. We do need to figure out what the Song is doing first, but that's probably where the Grid skills will come in handy.

[Private, double protected] [(Hey, once she thought of it in terms of firewalls, it came pretty easily.)]

Sure. I should be up for a walk for a while.

[ Really, he just wants to meet her in what is roughly Investigator "territory," and then walk away from the gathering place of their ship to an empty bit of beach. He arrives wearing most of his clothes except for his hood and sleeveless overtunic, which he had suspected were out of date. With a bit of sailcloth wound about his head to keep the sun from burning his scalp under his newly grown hair, he looks more like someone who has been at sea for some time. His weapons are ever present. ]

Safety and peace, Claudia. Come, I do not want to be overheard.

[Ah, Crusades Dudes and their paranoia. Not that it isn't justified, but still.

Claudia may be investifishing, but she still feels better with some kind of top coverage; she's getting a good taste of why Helena still prefers corsets to bras, if nothing else, since they're not too bad if you don't tie them to the point of ridiculousness. As far as the short walk goes, she's at least got some practice with the totem-dismissal end of things now, though she can't quite hide a grimace of pain and she's quick to settle back into the water once they get to where they're going.]

So what's up?

[ As with other sea people with breasts this Jaunt, he is doing his very best not to stare. He really only sees this much of a woman in private quarters. He casts a look across the water, frowning. He'd hoped Claudia could keep her legs longer than that. He doesn't fancy being eavesdropped on by other merfolk, hence the walk that carefully avoided both the waterline and the treeline. Keeping his eyes on the waves, he murmurs, lips barely moving: ]

I am afraid if I announce this to everyone, I will cause a panic. Perhaps I should do so anyway; people must know. There has been a death. I found one of the missing people buried on the beach. He was stabbed in the neck and weighed down with two metal spheres.

[She probably could, but what if she needs it later? Also it really fucking hurts.]

Ah, balls. I mean, hoping the missing people would turn up alive again was probably too much to ask either way, but still. Describe 'em?

[ He's not about to force Claudia to seriously leg it in a non-emergency situation. ]

A man, a sailor. He looked like one of the Pulao's. Tall, strong-jawed. He had a gun and a sword. If you wish to see the body, I can lead you to it. You would want to stay swimming, it is a longer walk.

[ He's not sure if her area of expertise brought her into contact with corpses, but the offer is there. ]

...Well, that's not any of the immediate home-face suspects, at least. [Unless it's Pete.] I think I should see it, though, yeah.

[The main corpse she's encountered on the job was 47 years dead at the time, but she can handle this.]

It is on the south side of the island.

[ It is more of an effort walking than swimming, so he's not above jogging to keep up with her if need be. Presently they come to a previously disturbed patch of damp sand, seagulls circling above. He grabs a piece of driftwood and scrapes off the top layer of sand he'd thrown back onto the body to deter the gulls. The man and the two cannonballs weighing him down slowly emerges. ]

[Claudia pales somewhat when the corpse's face becomes visible, but that's less because she's faced with a corpse and more because she's helped identify this body once before. At least he's rather less than 47 years dead this time?]

Poor bastard, you can't catch a break in any universe, can you? [She sighs.] Dead ringer for someone who used to work for the same place as us, back home, so he's almost certainly with Helena's crew.

[ He is at first worried it was a mistake bringing her here, but then she explains. It is indeed shocking to see a familiar face (lowercase) on a Jaunt. He's not sure what "dead ringer" means exactly, but he gathers he looks like someone she and Helena knew. ]

I thought there was no pattern to Infiltrations, that we just became whatever person resonated with us.

['Knew' is a loose term for it, but she and Helena both definitely know who the original was.]

Maybe not a pattern as such, but if the people in the background of an overlay's life aren't other Travelers, they usually have some kind of relevant uncanny resemblance. Other than January and Nova Venezia, there's been some kind of direct stand-in for Joshua every time I've infiltrated.

That is even more of an unlikely stretch, finding people who fit not only the Traveler, but also the Traveler's friends and family...

[ He awkwardly remembers January City, where he and Malik had been her siblings instead. At least it is easier for Altaïr to disassociate, as he is an only child, and clearly remembers what Claudia told him she did to rescue her brother back home. ]

I have not disturbed the body, but if there is anything you wish to take a closer look at, I can help.

[ He predates modern antibiotics and many vaccines, so he's been wary of poking around in earnest at an unfamiliar corpse. ]

[Then he can probably guess the common link between January and Nova Venezia as outliers in Claudia's infiltrating experience. Granted, in space and frickin' Doki he wasn't actually around in person, and in Ninjaville he was a ghost, but.]

Where's the stab wound? That's probably the best place to start.

[ He brushes more sand away from the area of the sailor's head. ]

Back of the neck, very precise. As I am sure you remember, I am qualified enough to say that it was done with some skill.

Almost certainly Akuryu work - Chiyo never dealt with them directly, but of the Bando factions, one of them's the most likely to knife someone like this. Which means whoever did it almost certainly came in on Helena's boat.

She's not gonna be very happy about this.

[ He allows Claudia not to ask if it was him. Without knowing a time of death, he cannot give a proper alibi. He'd allowed himself to be seen by others in his time on the island, but sometimes he'd gone off to explore alone. ]

Yes, she will find out eventually. The other missing people... did not fare well either. You will not find them on the island. Their trails lead into the sea. Do not waste time looking or asking someone to look for the trails on land. You will not find those either.

[ He stares cagily at a smooth, blank stretch of sand several feet away. The certainty of his claims is bound to raise questions, but this is a very serious situation. It is too late for the dead, but it is not too late to find whoever did this. ]

[Well, yes, but as far as she knows, he's had no reason to interact with the Pulao crew at all, and Altair's not the sort to knife someone for the lolz.]

...You know that makes my next question how you found anything.

[ His reasons for murder are not always immediately apparent. Indeed, many confused the Assassins' true reasons for killing people. Once, he nearly had the entirety of both the Saracen and Crusader armies pitted against him for this. Half the time, the Assassins even encouraged false rumors to help shroud themselves. ]

Yes. I can hardly pass it off as intuition. But neither can I hide what happened from the rest of the Investigators. It is a matter of safety.

One body does not prove much, but I know the other victims were dragged across the sand. They clearly show that being near the water is not wise. The water is the killer's favored method of disposal. Even the shifting sands mean that I, too, will lose the trails.

[ The beach was perfectly smooth, of course. It almost seems as if he is making wild claims that contradict anything modern science or a good tracking dog might pick up. He fixes her with a beady look. ]

You must warn everyone not to go near the water or be alone, but I would rather you not mention me. Make up a story if you must. How I found the trails is one of my closely-guarded secrets.

...If the other victims had something completely different happen to them, we might be dealing with more than one killer here. And considering the terrifying mermaid disease ends in 'someone gets eaten' half the time, it might even be more than two. I'd expect whoever did this to get rid of the bodies in the same way, if they hit more than once.

[She may not be an expert on this stuff, but she knows a thing or two. granted, Naoto'd be better at it.]

Far as 'it's not safe to be near the water' goes, that's easy for you to say.

Perhaps it would be easier if you could see the trails as I do. The attacks happened on land. Then, bleeding, they went or were dragged into the sea. If something from the sea wanted to kill indiscriminately, the sea people would be the ones mysteriously missing. But all the victims were human. Other than avoiding Stricken, I think you are just a little safer than anyone walking on the beach.

I also gather that it is difficult for most sea people to walk on land, much less successfully attack and subdue several humans. Eren's Infiltrator is the only one I've seen display such agility. Otherwise, as far as fishing for humans goes, a long-range spear and rope might suffice, but that is a stretch...