Whose Round Is It Anyway?

[reallymean]

[Early in the day - well before her own abduction - Allura's voice comes across the network, the pattern of her thought-speech quick, but oddly lacking inflection.]

Given recent events, I think it's time we work out just which of our patrons is hosting this Jaunt, and whether or not we can allow their preferences to dictate how we go about freeing those who've been captured.

Does anyone have any insight into which of the Arcana are playing this round?

Or into the security measures we're likely to see at the detainment facility?

Comments

[professorwolf]

Hmm, Judgment has aspects of truth, too, but I would have expected more light from Judgment. Sun, too, for that matter. That's the problem with using broad definitions of the tarot cards... a lot of them have overlap. So that's three potentials, though. All of which I'd rather have winning a Jaunt than Moon, to be honest, though Justice is a bit iffy.

Armin is talking about aliens. Where did that come from? If this Area 54 is looking specifically for aliens... that could be a lead. I might be able to to sniff out anyone who smells non-human, perhaps, if they do in fact exist here.

[reallymean]

Honestly? I don't have the faintest clue where he got that idea. But if it's true, it's definitely disconcerting.

[And not only because she actually is one.]

If you can detect someone's species, that would be helpful, at least if we can assume any candidates are going to either be Travelers or Familiar Faces.

[professorwolf]

Not necessarily detect, but if they don't smell like a human, it's a fair chance they're not. It depends on if whatever they might be is hidden by some sort of technology, like a hologram, or shape-shifted away, and if it's shape-shifted, if it's magical or biological. If it's magical, I could perhaps counter it. Otherwise, I might not even notice.

I'll head back into the festival in the morning and have a sniff around. I didn't notice anything today, but then, I wasn't looking, and the number of people all crammed into one space is... well, it's a bit overwhelming. It might be better if most of them are sleeping in, and I poke around while it's quieter.

[reallymean]

It would have to be fairly advanced shapeshifting to change someone's scent, I'd expect. My people have some talents in that direction, but nothing quite so... precise.

[professorwolf]

Oh? May I ask what your abilities are like? I'm a shapeshifter myself, but only into one or two other forms, at least by nature. I've picked up a few since Traveling, but that isn't quite the same thing.

[reallymean]

We're mostly limited to cosmetic changes - we use the skill to blend in with native populations of the planets we visit, to make it easier to find common ground. We can change our size to an extent, but there are...consequences to pushing that too far.

[professorwolf]

By the way you say that, I am guessing the consequences are quite dire. I can understand that-- my own shapechanging abilities aren't without their costs, either. The ones gifted to us by the Arcana, though, often don't seem to have any.

[reallymean]

I expect seem is the operative word. All power comes with a cost, even if that cost is simply forgetting in time what it means to be without power.

But dire might be overstating things - we can change our size, but we can't change our mass, or completely rewrite our anatomical composition.