putting together puzzle pieces [late week 3]

[finalizes]

[Laughs speaks up on the network very abruptly and sharply.]

What does everyone here know about Yakumo's overlay Edward?

[After moment, he adds: I have nothing definite yet, but as I said earlier, Phillip saw someone who looked like me try to post a batch of letters that looked like the letters of complaint sent to newspapers from various different people.

Edward's merlin sometimes looks like a nightjar, and humans have no sense of scent to speak of.

A guy [and he's lifestreaming the scent that will be recognizable as that of Utsusemimaru to anyone who can scent people as he says that] told me that Edward can imitate other people's writing.

So. What do we know about him?

[He might be overly suspicious because Edward now didn't just insult his poor toad baby, his pet tried to eat Saffron. But that's besides the point clearly.]

Comments

[finalizes]

It's not because of something they did to him?

[Because that's probably why Edward doesn't like him. Could that guy really be petty enough to hate someone so much without having been personally affected?]

[highsteaks]

I've had him for a couple years. And then over the winter when we kept seeing stuff from the past and future, I learned how to bring him here.

[whydoyoushine]

Both, I think.

Complicated dorkiness.

[whydoyoushine]

Eh, nothing really impressive. It's not like I'm worried about the threat of fisticuffs.

Really, I'm surprised he hasn't challenged me to some kind of gentlemen's duel. Pistols at ten paces, stuff like that.

[finalizes]

When he was angry at me he just went to a higher up and made them tell Tachibana's overlay to tell me off.

[The chance of fisticuffs is probably low here.]

[whydoyoushine]

Yeah, he's a lot of hot air. Likes rules and regulations a little too much.

[Considering that Zedward has been deliberately trying to push a few buttons, Zed is hopeful that things might get more exciting.]

[razorblade_empress]

Apparently not, or at least not that he'll admit.

[finalizes]

[Well, that's inconvenient.]

[finalizes]

Though he then later also tried to get me in trouble for something illegal he did. [At least he thinks that it's illegal? The way the humans act about it?] Maybe because of that.

[razorblade_empress]

True.

If he is disguising himself, I wonder if that includes his scent.

[razorblade_empress]

[It certainly is.]

Of course, he also doesn't talk about himself at all in general. He's good at talking a lot and not saying very much in all those words.

[razorblade_empress]

Maybe. Although that raises more questions about their goal for all of this.

[finalizes]

If he uses the same technique that he uses for his bird, then he either doesn't care to disguise the scent, or he cannot.

[finalizes]

Do you think he lies outright, or does he just omit the truth?

[razorblade_empress]

He probably does at least a bit of both, but with all the deflection he does I'd guess he favors omitting the truth.

[razorblade_empress]

So that's one point in our favor, at least.

[For those of them who can take advantage of it, anyway.]

Wonder why he's disguising his bird.

[finalizes]

...Humans sometimes make certain animals illegal?

[He has no idea, but he knows that that is a thing. Are merlins illegal?]

...Or forbid some people to keep them as pets.

[finalizes]

So it's not even like we can take at face value what little information he supplies.

[razorblade_empress]

I don't think they make the animal illegal so much as transport of it in or out of a specific country or whatever. That tends to happen a lot to animals that'd be considered "exotic." Could be that his bird's one of those species.

[razorblade_empress]

Probably not. I mean, he's probably not lying about most of the trivia he spouts, but that's part of his camouflage - drown 'em in endless useless facts and maybe they won't notice he's hiding things.

[Which isn't to say that even some of those "facts" can't be complete bullshit, but still.]

[finalizes]

Is there anything that we know about him with certainty?

[finalizes]

It's a merlin.

Is he showing her a memory of it?

[razorblade_empress]

Looks like some kind of falcon, or related to one. I think in at least some countries you'd need special permission to have a bird like that as a pet.

[razorblade_empress]

Besides the morning queen worship? A lot of superficialities. He has mentioned "late nights" here and there, but gave the usual deflections when asked.

[Yukino wonders if checking out the Queen's portrait might not be a thing they should do.]

He also seems to know this school like the back of his hand - I've never seen him get lost once.

yes!

[finalizes]

So he might not have that permission and thus be hiding it... but would he not need one for a nightjar?

[The memory of the nightjar seems disjointed - it won't be as obvious for someone who doesn't normally scent that well, but the impression of scent and appearance being disjointed is emotionally attached to the sight. This time, the bird is sitting on Edward's hand and isn't just a generic memory of a bird. A small ID bracelet with a tiny clipped on nametag is attached to it. Bird, man and nametag are all clearly visible in the memory.]