synopsychic | Open to All Investigators (Backdated to AFTER the attack)

Entry tags:

Open to All Investigators (Backdated to AFTER the attack)

Everyone, I hope you guys are doing alright after that massive attack...hopefully we won't have to do one for awhile but knowing our luck, I don't count on it. I do however have some things I would like to either tell you and ask you at the same time.

The first thing: I found one of the Trumps. She's a blue haired program who is the biggest workaholic I have ever met and I've taken on at least three or four part time jobs back home. She's also looking for something as well...

For those who have been around the Cryptos or Green Team, has any of them mention a 'center' like a hub maybe? It's not much but it's all I got.

One more thing: be careful when speaking to the Trump. She can claim up to five of us. Not only that...

[Her voice tightens.]

These jaunts...what we do to help others...they're games to them. If 'round' means anything...there's a lot more things we stumbled on.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

That's interesting... but even marking people is a recent addition. Maybe their 'game' is escalating.

It has to be if they're actually talking to us now.. [ She can't really recall any other instance that's happened before. ]

Or did that ever happen before I joined the group..?

Not that I can remember.

[Ah, that pesky memory wipe... who knew what they'd erased?]

Although... do you remember what happened after Boston? With the voices when Liminal Space froze? That must have been them as well...

Yes, I thought the same.. [ About the voices, that is. ] Then that was the first time we heard them, even if they weren't talking to us directly.

[ It didn't sound that way back then, at least. Chizuru remembers thinking it was more as if they accidentally listened in on the Trumps more than anything. ]

Still-- it's a good thing if they talk to us now, right? That way they can finally point us in the right direction rather than us having to wander around, being unsure of what to do. [ Then again, this is Chizuru. She's only focusing on the positive part of all this.. ]

It might be. But that assumes that what we're doing is really for anyone's good but their own.

[Which, you know. Expecting controlling forces to be anything other than self-serving was... well. It was definitely a 'best case' scenario, rather than an obvious truth.]

If there's a reason to all of this beyond just the Trumps, the help could be good. But otherwise it might just be a case of not performing up to their standards.

Not performing up to their standards..?

[ Sorry, Souji. Chizuru is just a little bit too naive and good to be able to immediately jump to that conclusion, so she didn't even think of it that way yet, judging by her tone of voice as she asks. ]

We're here to do a job for them, presumably.

[Because if 'solving' Jaunts wasn't a job, then it was essentially making rats run through mazes for someone's amusement, and that wasn't a scenario he wanted to dwell on.]

They might be intervening because we're not doing it well enough. We've certainly had some close calls.

[Or whatever you wanted to call Harrogate, aside from 'best forgotten.']

.. Hmm, that's true.. [ She's totally thinking of Harrogate as well - if not just since it was such a personal disaster for her too. It's why she turns quiet in thoughtfulness for a moment before she goes on. ]

Although you'd think they would have figured that a little earlier-- um, that we can't really do these Jaunts well if they don't tell us what it is we need to do, that is..

I imagine they don't want us to know too much about what they're up to. It's easier to control people if you keep them in the dark.

[A tactic he happened to be very well acquainted with.]

But they're risking it now. So either we're doing very badly, or this is more important than usual.

[Or there was some other factor at play they just hadn't worked out yet.]

She said..

[ Chizuru still isn't sure about throwing it into the group, considering how ready people seem to tear apart the Trumps and she actually does like Psyche since she's been kind enough, but she at least trusts Souji enough to pass this much on. ]

She said that we had to get out of here.. that it was dangerous. Maybe that's why she talked to Toshizou and me..

That doesn't seem like a choice we have.

[If they could just... quit Jaunts, a whole lot of suffering could have been avoided, after all.]

Even if those of us who remember evacuated to Liminal Space, that leaves everyone who doesn't stranded here.

[...unless they went and systematically killed them so they did remember, but he's not going to bring up that particular option.]

And we can't leave anyone behind.

[ Chizuru sure isn't going to bring up that option either. Hell, she isn't even considering it to begin with - everything they're discussing now is already enough to make her worried. ]

Can't we maybe convince them somehow..? There's got to be some way we can get it through to them that things are dangerous. Otherwise it seems like we're resigning ourselves to getting hurt..

I don't know. It's usually pretty dangerous to have too much direct contact with Infiltrators. If you press them too hard, they start to realize we don't belong.

[And he was pretty sure the last thing they needed was to attract more attention.]

Is there anything else the Trump said that might help? Maybe she has a way to get us all out.

She said.. [ She goes quiet for another moment, trying to recall Psyche's words. It had all happened so quickly.. ]

She said that we should just wait. [ But just like Hijikata had said back there, waiting didn't feel right. Inaction just felt like it'd lead to the worst end result. ] It would all backfire soon on the one causing this, and that person would call an end to it.. that's what she said. But I'm not sure if it feels right to rely on that..

I'd have to agree. Doing nothing seems ill-advised, now that we're here. If someone is causing a problem, perhaps we should try and stop them ourselves, if only to get everyone out of here faster.

[Of course, that required knowing who was causing the problems in the first place. Other than, presumably, another Trump.]

[ Stop them themselves.. that sounds easier than it is, huh? It always does. ]

Souji-san.. do you think you could stop them? [ It's half-curious, but also half carries the tone into it that she isn't sure anyone could stop it by themselves. It already seems hard enough to believe they could defeat a big threat with all of them together - the few times that they managed it always felt like they barely got by. ]

I don't know for sure.

[They've never exactly been in this situation before.]

But they're not omnipotent. If they were, they wouldn't need us at all. The fact that they stay hidden may imply some weakness on their part. [And he's not exactly a normal human himself.]

Even so, they have to be strong..

[ Otherwise there's no way they could drag all of them here to begin with, right? Even the demons in her world weren't capable of that, and she's seen first hand just how strong Kazama can be. ]

It'd probably be too much for one person-- maybe even too much for most people here together.

They might be. Or they might simply be clever. You don't have to be strong, if you're smart enough.

[Or have the right resources, really.]

Maybe. It depends on what the one doing this wants to accomplish. If we don't have to face them directly, it might be possible.

I think they're trying to change this world.. [ Not that it isn't something they usually do - on a bigger or smaller scale - but.. ]

It seems the Trumps intervened in this world before, and the one who sent us here now is trying to undo that.. but there's no way of telling what the better option is that way, right? The world the way it is now, or the way they're trying to change it..

We don't know enough to judge... Do you believe the Trump you talked to? I know there's only so much we should trust any of them...

[Because they simply had no reference point. Who was right and who was wrong was so hard to decide when you didn't know what the argument was about.]

But trying to change a past outcome seems suspicious.

[Especially if they'd used Travelers the first time, too. Did that mean they were just going to be forced to do this forever, going back and repeating if someone didn't like what they'd done the first time around? Was that why some of them couldn't remember becoming Travelers in the first place?]

[ It seems suspicious to her too. It means that either of the results must be bad, for someone to try so hard to change things..

But Chizuru's already drawn the line on which Trump she trusts more than the others, if not just since she actually got to talk to said Trump. Then again, she's a little gullible and naive to begin with. ]

Psyche-chan.. I talked to her. Last Jaunt, and this Jaunt again, now we know for sure she's a Trump. She's never seemed like a bad person.

I felt the same way, when I talked to her.

[Her? It? A Trump who'd been masquerading as an AI, at the time, but one that had answered his question with a surprising amount of honesty. The only other time he'd spoken to a Trump, they'd been cryptic to the point of absurdity, and now, here was this one, offering a warning.]

That makes me inclined to take her warning seriously.

Souji-san.. I'm glad! [ Mostly since most people tend to not agree with her on these things. And while she knows it's more thanks to his own personal experience that he's saying it rather than just because she's saying it, it still makes her glad that he mostly agrees with her.

She sounds pretty relieved, anyway. ]

In that case, let's put at least some of our trust in her for now.. It might be good to have someone like that on our side.

That seems reasonable. Even if we're not being told the whole truth, it seems like a good idea to keep her warnings in mind.

(no subject)

tealeafs - 2015-06-17 18:57 (UTC) - Expand

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only