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.]

[gangstering]

Really? Then, you at least have some idea about what the hell all this is. It's good someone does.

But yeah, my first. [But yeah, he may laugh just a little.] Pretty obvious, right?

[He's clueless, but at least he's at the point in his life where he can admit as much. That's a recent development.] So it's just a matter of going on until we stumble across what we're meant to stumble across? No clear hints? No office-wide memo?

[hakodate]

We try to keep everyone in the loop, but turnover's been worse than usual in the last jaunt or two. Lost a lot of veterans, got a lot of new people. Makes it a little harder to keep track and get everyone filled in.

[Especially given the personal distractions some of the new arrivals have presented for a few of them, though he's trying not to let that get him too hung up.]

We don't get clear hints, no. More like we have to make our own hints. But where there's smoke, there's usually fire, so a spectacle like this is generally a pretty clear sign of what we want to focus on. There was a lot of chatter about the missing Queen from what I was hearing, and then the wizards pretty much confirmed it for us - and they were all familiar. That's the other thing we usually want to keep an eye on, aside from any obvious problems we see as soon as we arrive somewhere - the people we know, who think they belong here, usually have some of the pieces of the puzzle.

[gangstering]

Yeah well, you're doing it now, right? I'm sure summing everything up like this has to be useful to people. Especially if they're as lost as I am.

[Super lost. He was not built for dungeons and dragons or whatever is going on here.]

That! I've heard about that, but I didn't really get a chance to meet too many people before we got dropped here, so I don't know who belongs here and who doesn't. So those guys... they're like us? Just, erm, brainwashed?

Sorry, by the way, for all the questions.

[hakodate]

...most of those five were, anyway. The blue one - I'll get to him in a minute.

We call them infiltrators, and yeah, that's about it. They think they've always lived here, everyone around them remembers them living here. They'll remember themselves once we finish up the investigation. Some of them are usually at the middle of whatever the investigation is, though, so they're usually good leads to figure out what we need to be doing.

The guy in blue - he's not one of us, but he's familiar. We've seen him in other worlds before, but never in Liminal Space. Don't ask me what it means, because we're not sure either. All we've got is wild guesses.

[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.

[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?

[gangstering]

So it just happens? [He does not want to be brainwashed, but that can wait for now since he's apparently off the hook for that one on this jaunt.]

This guy's been around, but not like the rest of us. Is he one of the jerks that kidnapped us into all this to begin with? What's that word that other guy used... Trumps?

[That's Kuzuryuu's first wild guess.]

[hakodate]

It just happens. No way to predict it, no way to avoid it. It's bullshit.

[Someone might still be a little annoyed about his last bout of infiltration.]

We don't know if he's a Trump. But it's a popular guess. [He sounds a little wry.]

[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.]

[fuckingibuki]

Thanks, that's really reassuring.

[Screw you, too, Hijikata. He made the effort to answer this when technically he's not even in the Shinsengumi or officially under your care so NYEH.

His plans for the future, on the other hand, are very much not concrete.]

Uh...well not to Westgard, that's for sure.

[Because Ibuki. And signing up to fight. Do you see the rather glaring discrepancy here.]

But wouldn't it make the most sense to follow the rainbow squad or anyone else with power to try and pick up more information? Because if it's anything like back home, then wouldn't people in the government have information that wouldn't get leaked to the public?

[Be proud, Hijikata, he's trying to be smart.]

[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.

[hakodate]

Right. The rainbow squad, and the barons. Those are the ones I'd put my money on as our best bets, but it's possible there's more to it than we think.

Flamegard, Westgard, and the guy in yellow all give us a shot at one of those. The former two, we've also got ready-made cover, since they were recruiting - following the rainbow squad might take a little more creativity, but Verreuil's done this a lot. [And hopefully won't be too lost in his manpain to forget how to do it right HE'S COUNTING ON YOU, JOSCELIN...]

Ideally, I think getting someone on the tail of the other barons would be a good bet, too, but they haven't given as obvious a way in, as far as I've seen.

[fuckingibuki]

That would be too easy, wouldn't it?

[Which means it's probably the source of the problem, or at least close to it. If something were easy to solve, then wouldn't these people have done it already on their own?

Still, there is another possibility...]

Maybe the Queen got kidnapped by the dragons.

[No, it's not a serious suggestion at all.]

I don't know. Where are you gonna go?

[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.]

[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.

[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.

[notinthecards]

Not unless someone takes them on the wrong road, no. Then they might not have so much choice.

[weaponxx]

Which roads are the wrong roads?

[notinthecards]

The white horses can't go north; and the big workhorses can't go south.

[weaponxx]

Understood.