synopsychic | [The Day After the Gala] The Hunt Concluded

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[The Day After the Gala] The Hunt Concluded

We found the person doing all the sabotaging. It looks like it was that guy who was in charge of the Teikoku school, Takuya, with the son. We've got a few letters and poems and shit from him-- he's very dramatic.

[Which, from the sound of it, annoys him. Stupid dramatic children with their dumb stories and poems and lyrical explanation letters.]

There's an actual confession included, in case anyone doubted my ability to pick up the man's scent on his things.

Does anybody who isn't me want to find the right people to give these to? I really don't want to end up with everyone asking me questions. My living statue story might not hold up.

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W-what? Takuya? He's the one that's been doing that?!

[But Takuya's actually Tachibana and Tachibana... wouldn't... probably wouldn't....]

Yeah, Takuya. Something to do with protecting his son, it's some political shit with his brother. He quit his job at the school over this whole thing, looks like.

Quit his... so he could protect his son? Because with this brother? Aah, geez, okay, I'm going to slow down... what exactly's going on!?

[He is probably going to have to accept that yes, Takuya did actually do something bad..... but he doesn't really want to.]

I don't know how much you don't know. There were these sabotages in the performances, things going wrong caused by this one person. Takuya, or Tachibana, was doing them to try and make his school win, so he could protect his son. Or get his son into the school, or something. Looks like he's giving up on that, though, if he's bringing all this out.

I know about the sabotages! So it was all for his son...?

[That seems a lot easier for him to accept. He still seems pretty confused.]

I.. I'm going to need to talk to him when this is all done...

I think a lot of people probably are. Though mostly I just want an explanation. Why do you want to talk to him?

He's a friend of mine! I mean... Tachibana's a friend of mine. He's Tachibana's overlay. It's.... it's all pretty out of character for him.

I know who he is. I don't know how out of character it might be. He does give me the impression he'd do a lot of things, good or not, if he cared enough about it.

He'd.... wait, what's that supposed to mean?

[He sounds rather offended on Tachibana's behalf.]

What do you think it means? If he cared about something enough, he'd do whatever it took to make sure that something happened. In this case, he cares about his son.

[He sounds a little baffled by the offense.]

There's nothing wrong with that. It's not like he killed anybody in this thing. I think only one person wound up even getting a little hurt, and that was on accident.

We... might have a problem.

[Piñara plays a memory over the network. It's the middle of the night, and she's where the Teikoku School's Mecha fish are, you can hear, very faintly in the distance when she and Fenrir concentrate, the sounds of one of the engines as she gazes up into the dark sky. Only four of the five fish are currently parked. There's a sense of curiosity and mild suspicion, but nothing more.]

Evidently our suspect has deemed fit to 'Get out of Dodge' as you people say. Now that I know it's one of these fish, I feel silly for not realising it was a getaway attempt sooner.

I didn't realise that was the sound of the engines - they are different where I'm from.

That was most likely him, long gone by now, though, perhaps one of Teikoku's could track him down?

Edited (rewording!) 2018-04-10 22:44 (UTC)

[Stone has just found the (empty) room those fish were stored in, and there's the sound like a growl over the network.]

Of course he ran. I thought sticking around here would be stupid, so of course he left.

[He sighs.]

All right, well. I don't think I'll be able to track the metal fish through the air. I need scent marks on the ground, the wind changes too quickly. So it'll have to be someone else, unless he flew somewhere nearby with it instead of just starting for home.

The evidence you found - I think I know a couple of girls I could give it to. They'd probably take it straight to the headmaster, if that's what we wanted?

[She's not actually too sure what to do with the info.]

I wouldn't go as far to say as they trust me, but I've certainly got some rapport. I don't know if someone from Teikoku would want to come with me, as I've heard that the school board wanted to ban the school the offender came from.

I haven't heard that from any actual staff, just kids. But the kids would be the ones who believe it, I guess, so you're probably right.

I know him, so I could track him anywhere.

I won't be able to handle a flying fish though, so someone else will have to do that.

Does anyone know if he took the child with him?

Sounds like we have the same limitations.

[Disappointing, but not surprising.]

I can't think he went through all this trouble to protect the kid, and then leave him here. Besides, I haven't seen or smelled the kid around since yesterday, that I can remember.

I don't need his scent to track him. [So there's that.]

True. Hopefully having the kid to look after will stop him from doing something stupid. [It would thus be interesting to know if he really has him, or if he sent him off somewhere safe.]

[There's a pause.]

Then how would you track him?

I have a Gift that would let me.

It's a sense of direction - I know where I am in relation to my prey, instead of tracing their steps. It doesn't always work if the prey uses magic or similar means to hide themselves [which Takuya well might, considering this world and the circumstances] but it doesn't require scent or other senses.

Edited 2018-04-11 21:46 (UTC)

That's interesting. Useful, too. So what direction is Takuya in? I could probably fly you there if he isn't too far.

[There is a long pause as Laughs concentrates. And then concentrates some more.]

He is a long distance away. [Something like 2000-3000 miles and counting, but those numbers mean close to nothing to Laughs, and it's not that exact anyway - the only reason why he gets a sense of distance on top of direction is that the distance is so large.] I don't think the flying fish could take us there before the jaunt is over.

I am faster than the flying fish, but only if it's somewhere I can stop and rest once a day or so. Is it in the direction of his home? Can you tell?

It's...

[Okay, no.]

[SHIFTING ALL THE WAY UP IT IS]

...westwards, to where the sun goes down.

[...]

There is only water there, and then America.

So he's not going home to do something stupid. That's probably the important part-- he probably just wants to go live somewhere in peace. Let's just let him go. I can fly a long time, but I'd rather not try flying across an entire sea.

[He's seen a map of Earth in the library, since it's a common place to visit. Even the smaller ocean is a bit much for him to make across is one flight.]

Hopefully.

[There is no point in following, he agrees on that. But he's still not sure if Takuya will really not do something stupid.

At least Gen will be away from whatever was so bad for him.]

.....

DAMN IT .

[Well you got death to swear]

I WAS TALKING TO HIM. HE HAD A TWIN BROTHER I WAS SUSPICIOUS OF BUT THIS....

Apparently it's the brother that's behind it all, if the letters he left are right. Some mess with his son and the school and lots of people being stupid. You can read them if you want the whole story.

[So this is what a massive headache is. How does Vimes stand it.]

THANK YOU. THOUGH THE POEMS MIGHT NOT MEAN MUCH TO ME.

HE WAS TALKING ABOUT HIS BROTHER TO ME. HE CLAIMED HE HAD BECOME SICK RECENTLY AND THAT HE HATED HIM. HE ALSO SAID HE WOULD DO ANYTHING TO PROTECT HIS SON. ....I SUPPOSE THIS IS WHAT HE MEANT.

They don't mean much to me, either, so I wouldn't blame you. Maybe living in an art school makes people try to sound more flowery than normal people.

But yeah. This is what he meant.

THAT WOULD NOT BE SURPRISING.

UNFORTUNATE. WAS HE BEHIND THE FALLING CHANDELIER AS WELL?

Yeah. His scent was all over it. He actually laid out a whole hunt with different scents and shit for me to find. He apparently took me literally when I told him I'd "sniff out" the person behind the sabotages.

Which worked out, since that's exactly what I was planning to do.

THAT IS SOMETHING AT LEAST.

SO YOU CAN FIND PEOPLE BY SCENT?

I can, once I know what that person's smell it like. I'm pretty good at it.

I'm not the only one around here who does it, either.

DO YOU KNOW PHILLIP? HE'S GOING BY THE SAME NAME HERE BUT BELIEVES HE'S FROM HERE AND HIS 'SISTER', KELLY CANNOT FIND HIM.

I TOLD HER I'D KEEP LOOKING BUT THEY ARE BOTH TWO OF THE THREE CHILDREN THAT SEEM TO GET INTO A GREAT DEAL OF TROUBLE SO I AM RATHER CONCERNED.

I know his scent. I haven't seen him here except at a distance, but it isn't so different from his usual scent that he has in liminal that I can't track it.

I can try and find him now, though, if you need me to.

I WOULD APPRECIATE IT. HE MIGHT JUST BE OFF SOMEWHERE AVOIDING HIS SISTER. BUT HAVING MISSING PEOPLE AT A TIME LIKE THIS.....I DO NOT QUITE TRUST IT.

I'll see what I can do. I'm free now, since I'd been planning on talking to Takuya right now and he's not here anymore, so I'll go hunting.

THANK YOU.

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[The Day After the Gala] The Hunt Concluded

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