[Second day of the storm]

[itsananimalthing]

I'd better not be the only one gettin' slammed with memories in time with the lightning. Anybody wanna maybe share what they're gettin'? I think we might be able to piece more of this together if it ain't just me tryin' to make sense of this shit.

[And there's a pause before he gives his own, for him to overcome the force of his secrecy habit. He's still learning this openness thing, guys.]

I know for sure I was fightin' Remy, on that airship. The Seventh Sky. Its name used to be the Zeitgeist, but nobody wants to talk about the fucking thing. Got somethin' earlier about that same ship dumpin' bodies off, maybe that's why.

Comments

[leftbehindagain]

This isn't a puzzle I have pieces to, but I can help try to make sense of everyone else's. It sounds like... there was some kind of attack, last time?

As for other things, those wanted posters. I find it interesting that Blitzkopf is represented by a proxy even on something where they'd want to show his face. And did that list of offenses sound... awfully benign, to anyone else? There were a few sketchy ones, to be sure, but overall it didn't sound anywhere near as serious as Phoenix's.

I don't know how the hell we're supposed to figure out who he even is, with that little to go on. But maybe we're supposed to let him get away.

handwaving she's back as an investigator by now, because she died pre-storm

[thornsofmalkav]

I think so too.

[leftbehindagain]

What makes you say so?

[It's curiosity, not an attempt to judge her. Also, he can't remember her voice from the initial headcount, and they got interesting information from people who died while infiltrating on the Grid, so he doesn't want to rule out that fresh perspective.]

[thornsofmalkav]

Because compared to some of the shit people here have pulled, that shit's positively benign. Wake me when he creates a brainwashed, unstoppable cyborg of inexplicably insect-themed death.

[brokers]

They do not sound remotely benign. He may be less prone to explosive theatrics than Phoenix, but that does not make him any less sinister.

[leftbehindagain]

Maybe not harmless, I'll grant you that. It still felt like they were trying to fluff up the list so it looked just as impressive as Phoenix's. [And he says that knowing, now, that Phoenix is someone he usually calls a friend... but right now, he'd gladly help Minako-san bring her in.]

He's also been so far under the radar I have to wonder if he's even here. We have no leads at all on this guy.

[brokers]

I don't think that's the case. Some of the charges appear minor when shorn of cultural context, certainly, but I do not doubt that some of the things we may look upon as grave offenses would appear just as minor to those who do not come from our worlds.

Anyone whose resume includes chemical warfare and illegal medical experimentation should not be underestimated - or presumed to be obvious. Manhunts such as these can take years.

[bypartisan]

It seems to me that whoever Blitzkopf is, he'd do well to play at being some unassuming recent arrival. We can probably eliminate anyone with a long history in Nova Venezia, but anyone who's arrived in the last year or so is probably fair game for suspicion.

... I think it bears commenting that Tatsumi's--or rather Tachibana's--master is both new to Nova Venezia and capable of intricate feats of engineering.

That said, I think that our priority ought to be Phoenix, the more dangerous of the two.

[leftbehindagain]

I was under the impression Kanji's from completely the wrong geographical area for that. [He's not... necessarily dismissing the idea. But it's hard to get Naoki to think ill of Kanji, even though, if there happened to be something to this theory, it'd hardly be his fault.] If we're pursuing that theory, though, has anyone met the master? Does anyone recognise him? Blitzkopf's most likely either one of our own or one of the people the Trumps drop into things sometimes. If no one can put another name to the face, it's probably not him.

Phoenix is definitely the bigger threat, though. How many explosions are we up to?

[itsananimalthing]

Don't write off the quiet ones, kid. Half the people on this city I think are some kinda spy or thief, especially the ones who're also Travelers. Don't think we oughta ignore the one that ain't being obvious.

[Says one of the most obvious people around, lately. Sigh.]

Not that I got much to help with. Nobody I got for a contact cares about this guy.

[brokers]

I was not overly involved in the fighting [having at the time been Infiltrating as an alchemist with no combat training whatsoever] but I remember some of it. A force of mechs - proxies - and hired killers and...

It's all incredibly fragmented, but we may be able to weave our scattered recollections into some sort of whole, if we pool the memories themselves.

[itsananimalthing]

That's the plan, yeah. I can't drop mine in whole like I could somethin' I was seeing, but maybe just describin' stuff will be enough to help.

I think I might remember a proxy or two, but most of it's focused on this fight with Remy. At least I'm pretty sure I wasn't after him, in particular. Like things got all muddled, and I thought he was somebody else at first.

'Course, even once I figured out I had the wrong guy, not like I stopped, either.

[brokers]

I can access your memories, if you permit it. I am, of course, willing to share my own.

[itsananimalthing]

[There's a very long pause before he answers. He likes her, he even trusts her to an extent, but letting her into his brain is another matter entirely. Finally, she gets:]

Can you get somewhere, where I can meet you in person, for this accessing?

[notinthecards]

You and me, seems like we never see eye to eye.

[itsananimalthing]

Sure does seem like it. Wonder how much of that is Trumps havin' a laugh at us.

[notinthecards]

Maybe. Or maybe it's something else we don't remember.

[itsananimalthing]

Could be. Though I've been gettin' a few memory bits here and there-- just not about that airship so much. Mostly about places around here, or about people. Might be, with the right spark, could get more back that they took from us.

[protect_and_serve]

Investigators. They were throwing Investigators overboard.

[itsananimalthing]

... well, shit. I know at least one infiltrator left over knows about us. Sabetha Captain-of-the-ship-we-fucked-over says there's people who "disappear" who're "more foreign" than just bein' from another continent. So, y'know. There's that.

[protect_and_serve]

... I went aboard that ship.

[itsananimalthing]

Yeah, I saw you. Did you manage to sneak around at all, or just hang out at that fight pit?

[bypartisan]

It's not memories--I wasn't Traveling when we were last here--but I do have some intelligence in that direction, thanks to my, ah, newfound friend and former abductor. Some friends of his in a foreign branch of his organization were attempting to provoke Prussia into war through various underhanded means. He didn't at all approve of the war part, but I am informed that many of the people who ended up dead along the way did thoroughly deserve it.

In any case, they haven't tried again since and I think we can rest assured that whatever's wanted of us now has very little to do with the Wolves' Children. Which is just as well, as I've been informed that any violence towards them would be "repaid in particularly vicious kind" and that is a quote.

[itsananimalthing]

So you think this war thing had somethin' to do with the airship?

If it's the Wolf Children we gotta get more info from, I got a couple ins, there.

[bypartisan]

In short, yes. From what I can gather, they were trying to provoke an international incident that would start the war, by whatever means possible. I don't know all their means. I suspect we stymied some of their efforts, which is why the Wolf had the little misapprehension about our intent regarding his particular Children that led to my kidnapping.

Be careful. You and Malik seem to have kept your covers somehow and I'd think we'd all rather they remain intact 'til the end of the Jaunt. I can use a few 'ins' of my own, at any rate. For whatever reason, the Wolf seems to have decided he likes me.