Some Important Follow-Up

[photonicfighter]

Excuse me. If everyone who went to Santa Carlita has a moment?

[Dakki pauses briefly to give people a chance to pay attention. That's how this is done, right?]

I've followed up with Tachibana, and it turns out that he put a tracking device on something that belonged to me. It's gone now, but apparently, the agents are now on the lookout for interdimensional aliens, not just ones from other planets.

I should have been more cautious. I'm sorry. Could the other agents confirm if they've planted anything, too, before I go and get everyone shaking themselves down for bugs?

...and that said, now that we're all back to ourselves, I'm very curious... did the 'aliens' pose any actual threat? What was that all even about? I'm not impressed with a government whose first reaction to extraterrestrial life is to panic and try to lock it up. That can't be the entire story, can it?

Comments

[rustyhonesty]

I probably woke their interest as well. Running around in my vampire form in shadows. At least one walked into said shadows. Ugh...

[Maybe he didn't do so well investigating this one after all? Whoops. That's a punch back.]

[theflyingone]

Did you kill him?

[rustyhonesty]

No. I didn't even hurt anyone. Most I did was disarming and distracting them.

[theflyingone]

[ It probably says something about Altaïr that this was his first question. ]

Zaknafein's killing was too hasty and had already drawn suspicion to us. It limited what we could do. While killing the guard would not have made a difference in their suspicions against us, I am glad you didn't. The guards can still allow for the possibility that only Zaknafein was hostile, and the rest of us did not mean harm.

[rustyhonesty]

[Oh, good. He was worried that the general opinion would have been dead men don't talk.]

It's not in me to kill someone just like that, so that was never an option. I just made my escape as soon as possible.

[theflyingone]

[ Usually, it most definitely would be. But not in this case. ]

And if circumstances were a little different? Would you kill to protect our secret?

[rustyhonesty]

[There's a very long silence.]

I couldn't. I don't... want to kill anyone anymore.

[Let's try to change the subject back to the matter at hand.]

Oh and I guess I should add that I did shoot at someone, but only to destroy their communicator near their ear. That might seem like I was trying to harm him even if they suffered no injuries.

[theflyingone]

Shooting guns is too loud and dangerous, but even the city guards carry them. Unless he was hurt, I would not worry.

Escaping was the wise choice. If you will not kill, you must stay away from places where guards are prepared to kill. This time, it was good not to, but it will not always be like this.

[rustyhonesty]

In other words, stay out of the way when the going gets rough, huh? Since I'd be useless and harm whatever we're trying to achieve.

[Thank god for not livestreaming, otherwise his voice would give away he's not very fine with this. Standing down, not being able to help when he clearly has the abilities to fight.]

[theflyingone]

Unless you wish to face the possible choice to kill or not. Or the consequences of endangering the Travelers because you allowed an enemy to live to compromise us. Your pride or your morals will not protect those here who cannot fight.

If you believe not fighting makes you useless or that you cannot help anywhere but the heat of battle... I have since learned that there is more to life than just the blade.

[rustyhonesty]

... it's not about pride. Morals, yeah, but pride has shit to do with this. And I do see your point, but I can't stomach how willing anyone would be to just kill anyone.

I'm a soldier, so of course that's how I tend to think. I just wasn't trained to kill humans, but monsters. And I very well know that there are other ways to help, but I'm... I'm already too tainted by the battlefields to step out of them.

[theflyingone]

Not anyone. Only those who endanger us, when there is no other option. I have spent the last two years trying to find more ways to do things without killing. Perhaps you could help with that. However, if you cannot control when you step in or out of a deadly fight where others' safety is threatened, you will always face this choice.

[ Honestly, despite the danger he thinks Jean might pose in certain situations, he's secretly glad that he's dealing with this rather than recklessness, and someone who is trying to articulate it. ]

[rustyhonesty]

I phrased that wrong. I should have said any killing, no matter how necessary. There just... has to be a way around situations like that. I know that just makes me naive, but that's how I feel.

But if there is something I can do to help with that I want to contribute... and if we're faced with monsters, I can deal with those.

[theflyingone]

People become creative when they are trying their best to avoid something, and we can use more creativity here. [ The sigh in his network message can almost be "heard." ] And it is true, we have had no shortage of monsters on Jaunts.

[rustyhonesty]

Creativity isn't always my strongest point, but I will give it thought, at least.

[photonicfighter]

I've said it elsewhere, but I was hoping that anything strange that we did during the breakout would just be understood to be us doing... alien things.

It's entirely possible they just think we're all interdimensional ninjas now. That's better than... vampires?

[rustyhonesty]

At this point, I'm not sure which option is the best one out there. Though I can strongly suspect the fact that I was a vampire wasn't shown, so I'm fine with being an interdimensional ninja.

[photonicfighter]

Going by the time that I was a 13 year old girl from a world a little bit like that last one, ninjas are much cooler than vampires. Is that helpful?

[rustyhonesty]

Haha. Sort of. And I think ninjas in a world like that would be more logical, aliens or no aliens.

... though I think they might have tossed logic out of the window for a lot of things.

[photonicfighter]

They're probably having to go back and revise what exactly 'normal' is, now. What other strange things did we do while breaking out, anyway? After getting Ken and Yakumo on their way, I portaled myself out.

[rustyhonesty]

I'm not sure. I left pretty much once I was discovered, just in case...

[photonicfighter]

Ah. That's probably for the best. The fewer of us they managed to make contact with afterwards, the better.

[rustyhonesty]

Yeah. I didn't have problems with them after leaving the base either... the rest of the jaunt went very smoothly.