Headcount

[turbedon]

[A far too cheerful sounding voice pipes up over the Network, the owner of it nowhere to be found in Liminal Space in a rather telling way.]

Ladies and gentlemen, this is your pilot speaking-

Everyone okay? Anyone gone missing after the last Jaunt?

... Any newcomers we need to get off the brainway asap? Because just arriving and then being run over would really not be astrous. At all.

Comments

[wholeheaded]

[ that and Ambrose is really bad at paying attention apparently. ]

Not helped by some folks vanishing on Jaunts. What were you up to this time?

[turbedon]

Who vanished? I was just lurking as usual.

[wholeheaded]

Infiltrating again? I'll guess Peregrine, if that's the case.

[turbedon]

Why's that?

[wholeheaded]

Blending in the multitudes, cuz there were a lot of them. I could... see them, most of them, even if they'd faded. Probably a leftover spirit-sensy thingy from H-- England.

[ the name of the place is still difficult, he avoids it if he can.]

...I was seeing a lot of ghosts, basically.

[turbedon]

Ghosts or ghosts? I mean, the Trumps have shown us dead people before...

[wholeheaded]

Ghosts, mostly, but there was one ghost, he wasn't a Peregrine though. A Sithen that became an Angel, I think. He... looked like the boy they'd made the innkeeper's son in Harrogate.

[ there. the name's out but it wasn't his son, it was Laing's and he must keep that distance, he has to. he can't. ]

I couldn't do anything to save him this time either.

[turbedon]

[He's silent for a long, long time, mulling over his choices before slowly responding:]

You know he's not real, right? Just like 'Ambrose Laing' wasn't real.

[wholeheaded]

[ oh, no, Laing was plenty real, as were Violet and AM/BRs and all the rest. everything they experienced and everything they did, Ambrose feels it reflected back to himself. ]

If that were true, people wouldn't start relationships - make families - based on what happens when they infiltrate. The grief is real, even if he is just... someone like Tobi. I still can't switch that off.

[turbedon]

He's... look, he's going to keep showing up, whether we like it or not. Or until the Trumps decide to get rid of him for good. Is this going to affect your ability to keep your head in the game?

[wholeheaded]

It hasn't yet. [ snapped, almost. impatient. ] Tobi was one of my Cousins in Dolorosa, this is... no worse than that. A-and if Dick turns out to be as perpetually doomed as he is then I'll figure out how to live with it. And if I can use a connection to him, knowing his behavior, then all the better. If anything this is an asset.

[turbedon]

... So he's either someone to feel guilty about or to just use?

[wholeheaded]

Can't it be both? [ no, no it cannot. ]

I miss the boy who they made the son I never had. As a Traveler, I can hope his information helps us. Should I choose between those?

[turbedon]

Sounds like manipulating for information, that's all I'm going to say.

[wholeheaded]

What else should I do? Ignore him?

[turbedon]

It might be better if you did...

[wholeheaded]

[ there's a pause of some length.]

I think I'll work on that. Thank you, Robin.