[Open Broadcast: Liminal Space, Post-Ace of Spades]

[casabianca]

[It's taken him a while to work up to doing this. Years of training and self-censorship have made the very idea of admitting who and what he is to someone who doesn't already know absolutely intolerable. At best this thing he intends to do is treason. At worst it could get someone killed. Not here, back home, but as he is here... his failing to intervene could also get someone killed.]

It became obvious to me over the course of our most recent... outing that most of you have no experience with the sort of work we've been volunteered to do. I don't think it's too forward to say that we could all benefit from better coordination and a bit of training.

[In the few seconds of hesitation that follow, it isn't hard to imagine the twist of deep, painful guilt that roils in his gut. The tone of his mental voice is so carefully distant, so close to wearied that the implications are there for those willing to look.]

I have some experience with... professional travelling. If anyone would like some advice on how to blend in and communicate with one another a bit less obviously in a... in a foreign setting...

[Another silence, and if he were speaking aloud, the silence might be filled by an uncomfortable, resigned sigh.]

...don't hesitate to ask.

((ooc: Peter here is offering to coach people in the art of espionage. I'll try to have a writeup on the subject up and available as soon as possible for anyone who expresses interest.))

Comments

[casabianca]

Quite frankly willing doesn't have much to do with it. I don't particularly care to see anyone hurt because I didn't say anything when I could've.

[Under other circumstances it might be different. It's not his business to care, not when the secrets he gathers and protects are on the line, and his life with them. That's just part of the business. Only... it seems as though this is going to be his business now.]

I'll teach you what I can.

[neverfeltthatway]

Of course. [Armin doesn't want to see anyone hurt either. It makes him curious where Peter might have learned this sort of thing, but he refrains from asking - that's not his business, unless he chooses to talk about it.]

How would you like to start?

[casabianca]

By asking you what you noticed people doing wrong last time, that seems as good a place as any.

[And the best possible way to gauge where exactly they stand, in relation to one another.]

[neverfeltthatway]

All right. There's... quite a lot of it, isn't there.

I guess first of all is the story that they were from Kansas. First of all, none of them seemed to know anything about Kansas, so they didn't convincingly fit in. And such a large group, all from the same place, asking all the wrong questions but unexpectedly dangerous... Everyone stood out even more, because it was obvious they were up to something, but, after the initial lie, nobody would trust any explanation they heard from them. So their cover story did the worst thing possible - it made them conspicuous and untrustworthy. No self-respecting mobster would give information to someone so unpredictable or indiscreet.

[He pauses there for a moment, uncertain but thoughtful.]