(no subject)

[bypartisan]

[Is it possibly for a mental voice to sound giddy? Because there's a distinct giddy tinge to By's thoughts, for all that his words come out with his normal, lazy, lightly Russian-accented drawl.]

Byerly Vorrutyer here. We're on Earth, pre-spaceflight, although someone who isn't me will need to get a better read on the actual date and location. Linguistically, it's a hodgepodge. I can hear archaic Russian, a whole host of Asiatic and Romance languages, and something else I can't quite place.

If you can "hear" this, check in. We need to know who we've got to work with.

Comments

[hakodate]

[The mention of the propellers seems to touch something off, and Hijikata's finally able to place what's been nagging him about that balloon since he saw it in the distance.]

...sleeker.

It looks clunkier now. It shouldn't.

[neverfeltthatway]

And the... the gondola? It should be made of brass.

[Armin sighs, rubbing his eyes.]

Everyone who's been here since before Moebius seems to be feeling off, as near as I can tell.

[hakodate]

The only people I haven't heard it from are the ones I haven't heard anything from, yet.

[And those, he suspects may be infiltrating anyway.]

I'd say the past is here to bite us in the ass, then.

[neverfeltthatway]

Not that there's many of us left anyway.

So. We've been here before. [He takes another deep breath, trying to take it calmly, at face value. He only mostly succeeds.] Probably around two, two and a half years ago.

...Think there's any way to access our memories? [He's not asking lightly. He hasn't heard it thrown around much before - mostly because anybody who remembers a little of Moebius knows they don't want to remember any more. But it has never been this relevant, before.]

[hakodate]

...

[He knows damned well that Armin's not the kind of person to ask something like that lightly, so -]

You don't need me to tell you that could get dangerous.

[Because of course it could. And of course they both know it. But the potential for what it could tell them...when they're in a place like this a second time, it could save them from making fatal mistakes or it could help them find the pattern to why they're here again in the first place, or...a lot of things.]

...I've mostly worked on manipulating Liminal Space. You'd probably have a better idea of whether it's possible than I would.

[Armin's learned more about the psychic network, he knows.]

[Private]

[neverfeltthatway]

...That's why I'm asking you.

[Because he doesn't want to put anybody at risk that he doesn't have to. But Hijikata's not a civilian, and Armin has to depend on somebody.]

I can do a lot with the psychic network - but I've never tried anything like this. I'm not sure I'd know where to start. Most of what I can do has to do with other people on the network, not myself...

[Armin's eyes widen, then narrow as a thought occurs to him - but he's a little uncertain; he can't help but be hesitant to share it, even with Hijikata.]

[Private]

[hakodate]

I'm not sure if anyone's tried anything like this...but I'm not sure there's ever been a time when it could be more important than now, either.

[Private]

[neverfeltthatway]

[Armin bites his lip - but this is too important. Hijikata will understand. He hopes.]

I... might know where to start with accessing someone else's memories. I've done it before.

[Private]

[hakodate]

[It's a tall order. It's something he wouldn't think of letting most people try, and -

- he understands.]

It's a pretty depressing place to go fishing around, I should warn you.

[Private]

[neverfeltthatway]

[Armin wears a small smile, relieved at Hijikata's response.]

I can deal with depressing. I'm more worried about walking into this blind.

[There's a brief pause.] I could try it from here, but this would probably work better with closer physical proximity.

[Private]

[hakodate]

You want to go back to Liminal Space for this, or find somewhere around here?

[Private]

[neverfeltthatway]

I... I'm not sure.

[He spend a moment reinforcing his psychic barriers even more than usual for a private conversation. He doesn't know if it'll do any good, but he has to try.]

We definitely don't want to be interrupted, and liminal space would seem to be ideal for that - but here, the Trumps are probably less likely to see what we're doing, and less likely to be able to interfere.

[Private]

[hakodate]

I'm not sure if they care enough to interfere, but I also wouldn't bet too far on it.

[Private]

[neverfeltthatway]

As far as I know, nobody's tried to directly circumvent our memory loss this way. If it was the Trumps that caused it in the first place, they had a reason, and I don't want to take any chances when there's no precedent for how they might respond - especially when both of our minds may be more vulnerable to attack. [He doesn't know that they will be, but it's definitely a concern of his.] I think getting a private room at a hotel would probably be the best option here.

Wh-what do you think?

[Private]

[hakodate]

Well, it's more that I'm not sure they care because I'm not sure if the memory loss was intentional or just a side effect that they don't care about one way or another.

But like I said, I'm also not going to put all my money on that being right. A hotel sounds like a safer bet.

[Private]

[neverfeltthatway]

Have you seen any places that might work? I have some money from when we arrived - from what I've gathered of how much it's worth, a night or two shouldn't be a problem.

[Private]

[hakodate]

There's a hotel not too far east of where the smaller balloons are berthed. Didn't look so seedy it made my skin crawl, but it didn't look like anything extravagant, either.

[Private]

[neverfeltthatway]

That should do. If it was fancy, it could have attracted too much attention anyway.

I'll meet you there in half an hour?

[Private]

[hakodate]

Too much attention, too much money. Middle of the road's the way to go on this one, I think.

I'll see you there.