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]

Tch. That figures too. I probably should've expected as much. But that's... it pisses me off thinking about it.

[What he means is that it kind of frightens him. He's had his memories screwed with once back home and that is more than enough.]

Either way, he's got some answers about something. [Someone should interrogate the guy. Kuzuryuu's little yakuza brain is already got its gears turning.]

[hakodate]

I'll be very surprised if those five don't turn out to be important to this investigation. But they also seem pretty well-known around here, and they're packing magic that we don't know a lot about, so we're going to have to be smart about how we approach them.

[gangstering]

Yeah. I noticed that too. For the record, there's not supposed to be any such thing as magic.

[So there. Except, even Kuzuryuu realizes that he's not in Kansas anymore. And by Kansas he means the Jabberwock Islands which sucked anyway.] At least where I'm from. It's all fake.

I guess here it's real though. It has to be, after seeing what people can do here.

[Hmm.] Careful sounds like a good strategy. I suppose they'd notice if they were being followed around.

[hakodate]

Magic's not much of a thing where I'm from, but you get used to seeing shit that ought to be impossible after a few jaunts. [You can almost hear the mental head-shaking.] I'm from 1869. Getting dropped onto a space station was...it was something.

I'm not sure if their magic extends to helping them notice when they're being creeped on, but I'm not writing out any possibilities this early.

[gangstering]

Yeah. I'm getting used to getting used to things. [It's a statement made as wryly as possible, but he doesn't doubt that he'll adapt, because what choice does he have.]

1869? Wow. See that's nothing I'm used to yet either -- people from different times.

[Not that he's from space station times generally either.]

So there's a lot of questions and not a lot of answers yet. That sounds familiar. [Reminds him of the damn island which is not a pleasant comparison.] These jaunts ever wind up dangerous?

[hakodate]

All the time. Last time we stumbled into a gang war in the middle of Brooklyn. [A description that he's sure means less than nothing to some among their number, but at least a fair number seem to have a better idea of it than he did.]

Some of them aren't so bad, some of them get pretty nasty. But it's a good idea to stay sharp, even if the place doesn't seem too bad - sometimes things get turned around on you.

[gangstering]

[Kuzuryuu is quiet a moment before laughing.] See. Now that I would have known what to do with.

[Swords and sorcery and horses and gryphons? Out of his league and out of his area of expertise.]

Yeah, I'll definitely stay on my toes. I don't plan on getting myself locked in a dungeon or whatever the hell would happen in a place like this.

[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.

[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?

[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.

[gangstering]

[Kuzuryuu is about to introduce himself and have some manners, but instead he's interested in that.]

Right well, no metal arm. I'll keep that in mind. Could be an important detail.

[Though hold on a minute. He's not the world's best student, but even so he's taken history classes.] So you're both named after that historical figure, right?

[Give him a second. He'll realize that what this guy said about being from 1869 and how that doesn't work out at all.] I guess it probably gets confusing though.

[hakodate]

[Named after what now...]

Gets worse when you count the three Okita Soujis, but there's not much we can do about that.

[gangstering]

Oh.

[Yeah he's starting to wonder about several things just now.] But... you all are different people, right? Just the same names? Not clones or something like that.

[hakodate]

...different people, but enough similarities to make it creepy, I guess is the best way to put it.

[gangstering]

Sounds fun. And by fun I mean confusing and weird as hell.

[And then because let's just put this out here.] I think I've read about one version or another of you in history books. Just, so you know.

[hakodate]

If it's history, I'm guessing it's gonna be me and not the one with the metal arm.

[He's not - the most conversant in future anything, but the other Hijikata seems to be from one of the most advanced societies even among the rest of the travelers. Trying to picture someone from a future beyond that might make his head implode.]

[gangstering]

...yeah that sounds right. There was definitely no metal arm.

[Kuzuryuu definitely isn't from post-space-age, so it's a pretty safe bet.]

I guess if they can drag people from different worlds, why not from different times? And why not sort of famous people. ...do you have any idea why they do pick the people they do to drag into this mess? Whoever they are. The Trumps or whatever.

[hakodate]

We've never had anything confirmed. There have been some guesses here and here about the selection criteria, but anything specific is pretty easy to overturn, because there's usually at least one person it doesn't apply to. So the guesses are all pretty damned vague.

[gangstering]

Always an exception, huh? I guess it wouldn't be that easy to figure out anyway. But ah... I really am piling all the new guy questions on you, huh? It's really helpful though, hearing all this.

I'm not saying it makes sense, but at least it makes... something.

[He doesn't know. Almost sense. Non-nonsense.]

[hakodate]

Someone's gotta answer them, and sooner's better than later.