backdated to the end of the tournament/after the illuminated do their thing

[hakodate]

Seems like now might be a good time to get ourselves on the same page.

[To put it lightly. They've had days to wander around, get acclimated, listen to the gossip...and now between everyone wrapping things up to return to their places after the tournament, and the infodump so thoughtfully provided by the local mage-types, the real work begins.]

People are packing up to head home. That leaves us with a lot of possible leads to follow. I know at least a couple of us were thinking of following Jaeger back to Flamegard; Verreuil was talking about following the guy in yellow.

Westgard's hiring knights, and from the way people were talking when the notice went up, it sounds like the offer is unusually generous. Might be a good way to get in the loop on that; it's sounding more and more to me like the throne is why we're here. Keeping an eye on the nobles is probably in our best interest.

And I doubt that's everything worth looking into, obviously - that's just the shit I've already heard about. Anyone got anything to add? We're gonna have to divide and conquer here, but it helps if we know what we're dividing to begin with.

[And after a moment, he adds -]

All of mine from back home, consider reporting in here an order, not a courtesy. [Because goddamn he's got too many of you to keep track of, throw him a bone here.]

Comments

[gangstering]

[Actually, Kuzuryuu has to admit that this guy is pretty thorough and on top of things. It's impressive. And frankly, helpful. This is his first jaunt so he has no idea what the hell he's supposed to be doing except trying to fit in and get by.]

After that story they were telling, sounds like it. Also sounds like you've done this before.

[hakodate]

Longer than most of us, far as I can tell.

[The whole Moebius problem makes it difficult to tell, of course - but while Hijikata knows Joscelin and Remy have been at it for a few jaunts more than he has, and he thinks Souji might have one or two on him, even among the veterans he's fairly sure he's one of the longer runners.]

There's no guarantee that the first big problem to get stuck in our faces is the goal, but even if it's not, pursuing it usually gets us closer to the real one.

This your first one? [He's tried to keep track of the new faces, but to be fair, there've been a lot more of them lately than he's used to seeing.]

[inexecution]

Making sure everyone behaves~?

[Sorry, Hijikata. His isn't here, so you get the teasing instead. Although he wouldn't want to be in your position, himself.]

I'm going to sign on with Westguard. If nothing else, it seems like what he's offering is out of the ordinary, which could make it important.

[And fighting bandits was a good distraction. He needed one of those.]

[hakodate]

Someone has to. [And Joscelin's a little distracted this go-round.]

If he's offering that kind of fast track promotion, he's got to be getting a little desperate.

[And even if part of him a little unsure - because he's used to thinking of Soujis of all stripes as needing a babysitter - well. This is the kind of job where Souji would be expected to be hitting a little too hard, unlike the trouble it might cause in a tournament, and Hijikata was hoping they'd be able to get at least one of the old guard veterans on each of the major leads. So it's better for it to work out this way.

Probably.]

Keep us informed.

[senseandcecilbility]

[Kevin will tentatively approach this guy, since Mister Hajikata has pointed him in his direction. Maybe he can learn new undercover investigator techniques. After all, the closest he has ever come to that sort of thing was pretending to be a butler and taking care of a child. After ten years playing the same role, one kind of gets a little too used to it.

Besides, the child is adorable.]

My apologies, sir. Am I right to assume you are Mister Okita? If so, we might be heading in the same direction. And er...offering our services to the same gentleman.

[fuckingibuki]

Yeah, yeah, I'm still here.

[And then a pause because, wow, this is weird.]

...Am I doing this right?

[hakodate]

You could be doing things a lot more wrong. [Like the guy who screamed when Hijikata tried to give him a mental handshake.]

Thought about where you're going, Ibuki?

[senseandcecilbility]

I too plan to offer my services to Baron Westguard. Truly, I-I cannot do much, but I might be able to learn. And I am somewhat used to watch over aristocrats.

[Besides, the Baron has good money. And even horses.]

[hakodate]

If you're used to dealing with aristocrats, you're already ahead of some of us.

[Hijikata's mostly just used to biting his tongue and reminding himself that he can't tell them to stop being dumbasses.]

[protect_and_serve]

The Illuminated are headed south, from what I've heard. If anyone else would accompany me, I have four horses. They should all go to Travelers, one way or another.

[hakodate]

There's gotta be someone else who was thinking of following them.

[He'd really rather everyone had backup.

And given the circumstances, Joscelin perhaps a little more so than usual.]

[notinthecards]

I've found some people to follow as well. And not to outdo Verreuil, but I have half a dozen horses. Anyone coming with me can take one - otherwise, there are four of them for anyone on the south road, and two for any on the north road.

[weaponxx]

I assume we will not be giving them back.

[hakodate]

How characteristically vague.

[He's not asking about the horses. He knows better. What he is going to ask, on the other hand -]

Who are you following?

[moredakka]

Hijikata-san...

[No, she still has no idea what she's on about, why do you ask? But no matter how well aware Sio is that she's still a noob and also terrible at investigating, there is one point about the going-ons that's exceedingly clear to her. The kind of clear that blows away all the usual shyness and awkward nonsense. And it's a scary point.]

If there isn't a queen, and there are all those barons, that means - that means there's to be a power struggle. And if we're joining different people, then that might be a problem, later

[hakodate]

It might. But that's the way these things go, sometimes - we just have to know when to cut our losses and drop the act.

[Though sometimes that works better than other times, to be sure.]

We put ourselves in the right position, we'll be able to see it coming. Maybe change the course of it - we're probably supposed to, even if we don't know how yet. Maybe we're supposed to make sure the right side wins, maybe we're supposed to delay it or nip it in the bud, but the only way we're going to find out is by chasing down every lead we've got.

[tealeafs]

I'll follow you wherever you think it's best to go.

[ Naturally. Especially after having been seperated from him during the last Jaunt, Chizuru is not exactly eager to leave his side this time around. Especially not since Hijikata has sensible ideas about what needs to be done here first, no doubt.

And to add on something a little more useful, or her thoughts about all of this, anyway-- ]

.. Um, after that story they told, I thought that maybe our goal here is to search for that queen that's apparently missing.. but that's a little strange at the same time, isn't it? If the people here who are familiar with the land haven't been able to find her all this time, then why would we be able to?

[hakodate]

Don't know if it's best, but I feel like Flamegard might be where I'm more useful, so it'll have to do.

[The Illuminants might require a more deft touch; there are better people for that. Westgard might work out for him, but knowing who's going to Flamegard...well, someone's going to need to do some babysitting, and it'd probably best be someone who won't die that easily.]

Could be they've just been looking at things for so long they're losing the big picture. Sometimes it takes an outside perspective to get what's being overlooked.

[Could be they're supposed to do something a little more unsavory. But he's long since learned that there's not a lot of sense in stressing over that possibility until there's more than idle speculation to support it.]

[canbebrave]

I will travel south as well. Is there anything that we wish to know in particular from the Illuminated? Should I get the chance, I plan to talk with as many as I can.

[hakodate]

I'd be curious to know what they're after - individually. That little show made it sound like they want to find the Queen, but there's a lot of room for a dissenting opinion in a group of five.

[fatalstriker]

Nobles being part of the problem... Well, can't say that sounds surprising.

[yuri, have experience with such a thing? it's definitely coming from a place of not-so-fond memories.]

Count me in for Flamegard, though. It may not be much of a lead, but sometimes, you gotta go out of the way and not be so tied up in the royals' business to get anywhere. [also, fighting dragons.]

[hakodate]

It's easier to cause trouble when you're not the one who's going to bleed for it.

[Remember that time the shogun was a cowardly piece of shit. Ah, memories.]

Sometimes the shit that doesn't look like leads turns out to be more important than it looks, though. These things have a way of doing that.

[gekisha]

An order? Man, you're even stricter than my Hijikata-san. I kind of feel bad for them! ["them" being all the hakus from the history universe. clearly, souji is just dealing with this entire situation in the best way possible.

by being totally useless, because he's still far out of his element and not sure how these investigations work.]

[hakodate]

If you walk into a war without being able to follow orders, you're not going to walk out of it.

[Not that most of them were able to walk out of it anyway...]

[souredsweet]

[KEEPIN AN EYE ON YOU, HIJIKATA, trying to gallop off into the jaws of danger with his sister good lord...

that said, he retains an air of amiability even now. he's sure not going to be the one to ruin this vaguely cooperative situation, though he's expecting Okita or Okita or Chizuru will probably break the news at some point.]

I agree that following those five might be one of the better courses of action. Of the people here, I think that they would require the biggest focus, too, if our problem really is the missing queen... The one in yellow in particular seems very dedicated to finding her. I was able to talk to him earlier for a little while.

[hakodate]

[Yeah because nothing says completely safe like making your sister drink the vampire koolaid, Hijikata is clearly the greater threat here.]

Get anything interesting out of him?

[blackhand]

More than likely I'm going to make a surprise visit with those "Illuminated," or whoever they call themselves.

[Joscelin may be organizing a group to go spy on people, but Garrett won't be a part of it- he does better on his own and this way he's sure he won't get caught.]

[hakodate]

Tell us what you hear, we won't start nagging about teamwork. You know the drill.

["The drill" mostly being that Hijikata has no problem letting loners work like loners, as long as they don't withhold stuff that might let everyone else get their asses kicked.]