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

[hakodate]

Depends on the jaunt, depends on the person.

[hakodate]

As long as she knows what she might be getting into, it's her choice to make.

[He doubts he could order Sen off if he wanted to, and it's not like there's any rank structure to speak of among the travelers.

...and even if it means extra babysitting (though Sen seems smart enough to stay out of trouble, so he's not really expecting that), it'd be worth it for something that makes Chizuru happier.]

[hakodate]

Keeping things from exploding is in our best interest, for now. It's possible that will change, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

[But look, Sio -]

This is why we need to be careful about the cannons, though.

[hakodate]

You would've been ahead of a lot of people.

[Oh, the stories he could tell.]

Watch yourself, don't be afraid to ask the rest of us if you think you're in over your head somewhere. We don't agree on much, most of the time, but we're pretty okay about looking out for each other.

[hakodate]

I think we've got a day or two to get shit together, at least, but I'll track down Jaeger and see about his plans, since we're following him.

[hakodate]

Hope it stays that way.

[If shit can mess up on these things? It usually will.]

[souredsweet]

[that sure is 100% not reassuring...]

If not, I'll let everyone know. [if it seems like a big deal, anyway.] ...Do you know where the majority of us seem to be heading so far, by the way?

[moredakka]

R-right. Because if we only give one side cannons, then everyone else...

[But WAIT. There is totally a way to subvert this mature and sensible realisation.]

But... if only we had a cannon, then, we can scare everybody else into behaving!

[senseandcecilbility]

[Well, if a flailing angel-butler person is enough to occupy him...]

I...I believe I can learn.

[Pretending to be a non-combatant is an actual combat is always tricky. How does one not smite?]

[gangstering]

Well, here I'm as behind as I can get.

[Kuzuryuu is way too bitter about being stuck at the Renaissance Faire with no real idea.]

Thanks. I appreciate that. A lot. [He really does. He feels out of his league in all this. At least Souda is with him. That helps a lot.] By the way, you got a name?

[fatalstriker]

No idea what your idea of "modern warfare" is, but if we've got ones like that headed in, it may be a good idea to keep an eye on them. I don't think making more trouble is part of the objective here.

[says yuri, who has inadvertently made more trouble when he shouldn't have in the past. but his idea of trouble doesn't mean blowing up dragons with cannons. or blowing up anything with cannons, really.]

[gekisha]

I didn't know I was one of Hijikata-san's "chucklefucks." Should I be grateful or offended by that?

[snort. he's kind of amused hijikata even knows a word like that.]

[inexecution]

[It might be...]

Well, you may not have to.

[But Souji is definitely not the right person to teach how not to Smite. It's the only setting he has]

[hakodate]

Haven't really noticed a clear majority so far, but there's a lot of people I haven't heard from yet.

[hakodate]

[Oh, he's thought about that, too.]

It's on the last resort list. But we also don't want to stir up a panic if we don't have to, or unite everybody against us.

[hakodate]

Hijikata Toshizou.

[...well, that means he should probably get the confusing part out of the way too, huh.]

...there's another guy here with the same name. It's confusing, we know. I think he's infiltrating this time, so you might not run into him soon, but I'm the one with shorter hair and no metal arm.

[hakodate]

Not as modern as some people here, but plenty modern enough for a world like this, I'd say.

Sometimes more trouble is on the agenda, but I'd rather not jump straight to it.

[hakodate]

[He didn't have much to do in his downtime on Belljar Island aside from learn interesting new slang and get roped into selfies by his Souji, alas.]

If your Hijikata ever shows up, you can be one of his chucklefucks again, but I'm damned well not gonna sit around and watch you get yourself killed in the meantime.

[souredsweet]

[he nods, immediately feels stupid for nodding to a psychic message, and mentally redirects his attention because that shit's embarrassing.]

All right, thank you. I'll do my best to help whoever I can in the meantime, then.

[by which he means he'll dedicate his time to finding out where Chizuru is going... except then he's going to end up wandering in the opposite direction anyway whoops don't bang his sister while his back is turned]

[hakodate]

[too late]

[gekisha]

Even if he showed up, he may try to pass me off to you. [this is where he's sighing. and blatantly disregarding that last bit, even if it's a perfectly valid train of thought.] I really hope that doesn't happen... Two Hijikata-sans would be too much trouble.

[senseandcecilbility]

[Kevin will do his best!]

I can be a proper servant, though. I do that for a living.

[Certainly he doesn't have a lot of experience serving those medieval noble types, but he knows the Middle Ages. They were very special.]

[fatalstriker]

If it's the only way, it's the only way, though. [stated more as an agreement, rather than anything else.]

Especially if some good leads don't come in soon. We can only blindly wander around for so long.

[hakodate]

We confused people enough without lookalikes.

[Even having two Soujis who didn't look a thing alike was enough to throw some people off. And now...

He's got a headache already.]

[hakodate]

I think our best leads are going to come from elsewhere, but if nothing else, I'd like to find out whether Flamegard's disinterested in the politics or just playing the waiting game.