[Audio]

[neverfeltthatway]

[For once, Armin sends only his voice and not his image over the network - something anyone paying attention might note is unusual, if not without precedent.]

Hello, everyone. I... I have the list of Travelers who disappeared this jaunt. Meaning they've probably either gone home, or they're stuck in a dungeon somewhere and they'll turn up again later.

It may not be a complete list, but... it's the closest I could get. [He takes a deep breath.] Here goes: Giovanni, Kain, Ravit, Ace, Shuu, Quinn, Ruvik, Souji - er, Souji Okita, that is - Tsurumaru, Annabel, and Ky.

I'm sorry.

Comments

[backwordscompatible]

Aside from the apparent perpetual insomnia my creepier self seemed to be suffering from?

...actually, yeah. It wasn't so bad for me.

[In fact, it was probably the easiest Jaunt recovery yet. Which she hated to admit, after seeing what it had done to some of her close people.]

[neverfeltthatway]

Well, I'm glad to hear that.

...your other self was creepy?

[leftbehindagain]

I don't know for sure if it would work like that, or if they'd want to use it on themselves. But... well, four of them are gone, and if part of what they're doing is fishing for replacements, who better to look to than us? [It's crossed his mind before, around the time they found out about the 'dead Trumps' thing to begin with.]

I just don't like the fact that there was a nuclear-equivalent device that close to civilians.

[neverfeltthatway]

[Armin lets out a frustrated sigh.] We know so little about what they want. My instinct is that, with this competition between them, they're not looking for others to fill the ranks. But it's just that - instinct. No basis in fact.

[Armin didn't like that any more than Naoki did - but they're past that now, and as such, barely worth thinking about. Or at least, not on the level of their current problems. So Armin doesn't respond to that part, only giving it a spare stray thought before moving on.]

[leftbehindagain]

[Naoki shrugs.] I don't think it's a war. If it were, they wouldn't care so much about finding people who suit them.

[...Well, okay, ROSE kinda... chose poorly, for the most part, and from what Naoki knows her marking Armin was more out of necessity than anything. But he trusts Sun's word over hers any day.]

We don't know what they want, but that means we can't rule out the possibility they want replacements, or the chance they don't.

[upcard]

[...oh.

Souji-- Ace, Tsurumaru, Ky. She bites her lip, and the thought escapes her almost subconsciously--]

That's...that's so many...

[neverfeltthatway]

I don't necessarily think it's a war. Or at least, not a war as we understand it. But there's no question there's some form of competition.

[Whether ROSE chose poorly depends on what she chose them for.]

That's what I meant. I don't think they want replacements, but we don't know anything. [Instinct isn't even nearly enough reason to rule something out, or even offer it less scrutiny.]

[neverfeltthatway]

...I'm sorry, Mai. I know some of them were your friends.

[Then again, everyone is Mai's friend, so that's not saying much.]

[leftbehindagain]

Well, yes. It would've been difficult to get through the Grid and not see that. [And of course people were worried about outright war after the Devil showed up.]

We'll find out sooner or later. That or Naoto'll figure it out three jaunts before they even want to insinuate it.

[backwordscompatible]

[That was putting it mildly.]

She dressed in all black, sometimes in fur, changed her clothes everytime nobody was looking, and smiled way too much.

I still get shivers thinking about it, and I was her. Sort of.

[neverfeltthatway]

I understand, I think. It's not quite the same, but I think you feel about her about the same way I feel about the time I was a mob heir in Brooklyn in the 1920s.

[Back in the good old days.]

[backwordscompatible]

...wasn't that the Jaunt where you said you met your girlfriend?

[It had been a while since they'd had that conversation, but it did sound vaguely familiar.]

[neverfeltthatway]

[A bit of an embarrassed smile creeps into his voice.] She was the heir to the other mob family - the one nearly at war with mine.

We ran away together.

[backwordscompatible]

So you two pulled a Romeo and Juliet. ...or was it West Side Story?

[Same story, really. Only one had a lot more singing and dancing.]

Either way, I can't say I had the same experience. Exactly.

One dance doesn't really count for anything.

[neverfeltthatway]

[Armin just nods. They don't know enough to draw any more reasonable conclusions - what else is there to say?]

[neverfeltthatway]

I've heard people mention Romeo and Juliet before, but I don't know the story - and nobody's explained what they're talking about in any detail.

[Both the amused and embarrassed tones are accentuated a bit when he responds.]

I didn't really mean that part, though. Just... he went to bars and parties, laughed at throwing himself into danger, smiled a lot - at friends and enemies - and cared a lot more than I do about his appearance.

[Physically and otherwise.]

It sounded sort of similar.

[backwordscompatible]

It's an old story written several hundred years ago by a guy named Shakespeare.

The short version is that there was a guy and a girl from two families that hated each other, fell in love at first site, eloped, and then ended up dying because they're actually both a couple of idiots.

[Thank you, Freshman English class.]

...obviously, you and Sansa had a better outcome.

[neverfeltthatway]

All right, that does sound similar. He was popular, Shakespeare? A lot of people seemed to know him.

Right - thankfully for us, of the two of us, I'm the only one who's an idiot.

[He says it completely straight, such that it might take someone a few moments to realize Armin, for once, just told a joke.

Of course, part of that might be to hide the fact that they both literally have died since then, even if it wasn't related to their roles in that jaunt - and even if it didn't stick.]

[backwordscompatible]

[Maybe a few moments, in her case.]

You're not an idiot, Armin.

[upcard]

[He's not wrong.]

...Mm, it's...I'm just worried about them... I know that it's not always--that sometimes they end up in bad places...

[neverfeltthatway]

[Now he just sounds embarrassed. That... didn't really go over like he'd intended.]

It... it was s-supposed to be a joke...

[neverfeltthatway]

Well, if they do, then we'll rescue them.

[Unless that bad place ends up being their home, then there's probably nothing they can do. And Armin's not so sure everyone gets rescued, either, but... it's Mai. He wants her to be able to believe it, at least, even if he can't. He says it matter of factly, though, not letting any of his uncertainty seep in.]

[fridgeninja]

Well... a little.

[backwordscompatible]

...oh.

Sorry. With you, it's kind of hard to tell.

[neverfeltthatway]

S-sorry. I guess it wasn't really funny...