synopsychic | (no subject)

[The mental voice drifting in over the network sounds more than a little stressed, as far as it's possible to tell from a psychic message.]

Yo. Can you hear me? If you can, this is Kanji here... and I think we've got a problem.

I don't just mean the whole 'bein' shoved around by guards' kind of problem. But I ain't seen a whole lot of familiar faces yet... and I think I know why. Been doin' some pokin' around - Champion thing, long story - and there's a whole load of people who ain't even in this world with us.

I don't mean Infiltrating. I mean they ain't here at all.

Dunno what you think, but if they're somewhere else... is this like that last time? When a bunch of folks never made it to Questing Country?

[There's a worried pause here. If this means what it might mean...]

Right. On what's going on... Sounds like this city's called Misericordia - did I get that right? Heard something about folks looking for a dragon... dunno how you'd hide a dragon, I figured they were kinda ...big and fiery and all that crap.

...But. I also heard someone say somethin' about Dolorosa? As in, gryphons and Color Magic Dolorosa?

I'm ... there?

...A-anyway. If anyone's out there, or anyone knows what's goin' on better than I do... 'cause seriously, I ain't got a clue... let us know, okay?

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

[Well, this is a first, and Naoki can't say he's not relieved... even as he takes in Kanji's bad news.]

Who're we missing?

I managed to find a map of the city. It's going to be tricky at best to get into most of it, looks like.

[Is that a mental sigh of relief there? It might be.]

It's - I knew you were here, but ... damn, good t' hear from you, man. Haven't managed to look for everyone I know yet, but ... [Pausing-] I know Naoto and Lupa ain't here, for a start.

[Yeah. He'll leave that a moment-] I'm still workin' my way through everyone, keep getting distracted and I don't want people askin' what I'm doing, but it's not looking good. And this is just goin' by people I know well enough to trace.

Hard to get around, too? Ugh. Shouldn't be surprised with these assholes on patrol. As if things weren't bad enough, huh...

Well, crap. I'm thinking the more people we can't find, the more likely it is they split us again. You're getting a different result if someone's infiltrating? [He's sure Kanji wouldn't specify if he hadn't, but it's worth asking.]

No kidding. The Defenders weren't this bad. Inaba's finest aren't this bad. At least the first guard who stopped me gave me something to work with by assuming he already knew why I was here.

Yeah. I think that's what I'm seein', anyway. Ain't exactly done this shit where it makes a difference before. Gonna keep tryin'.

An' he did? Guess it's somethin', if they ain't gonna try and ask us questions about that.

Edited 2015-11-07 23:58 (UTC)

He was all 'oh, here with the embassy, are you?' I'm not sure what the dragon has to do with anything either, or how a dragon can be this hard to find, but it gave me a cover story to run with.

I'm kind of thinking overnighting in Liminal Space might be the way to go again. The place they're expecting us to stay is seedier than Nova Venezia was, and Liminal might be a crapshoot, but at least it's free.

I'm thinking it's very much like that time, which... means we'll be reunited with the others eventually. Just be glad we're not all stuck in a hole in the ground again. Can you tell how many of us are here with your Champion thing?

[ it would be helpful to know who they can keep an eye out for. ]

But, ah, yes, the group we arrived with were from Dolorosa but this is a neighboring country-thing and I wish I'd been more interested in foreign affairs last time we were here. For folks who weren't there or haven't heard of it: magic, gryphons, dragons, other monsters, knights in shining armor, those are all a reality in this world. If you need more detailed help, my is Ambrose and I'm a thought away. I do know dragons here are definitely big ol' fire breathers, so... yeah, also confused about how one can be at all sneaky. If anyone hears anything, please share.

Speaking of sharing: let's work on pooling our resources. Who besides me can open a portal to Liminal Space in case we need to retreat?

[ because he's not going through that again. ]

Naoto's not here. Yosuke, either. Those are all I checked with before you sent this.

I've only done it once, but I think I remember how.

Yeah, I checked for Naoto, but it's good to know about Yosuke too. Thanks, man.

I'm... still having trouble gettin' exact numbers. I really need to know folks to find 'em at all, so if there's anyone I don't know who's out here, I ain't gonna pick 'em up. Still not good with this, so I might miss people... but I ain't gettin' a lot of Investigators, anyway. Could just be four or five of us. More folks're Infiltrating. Probably at least as many again, but it's harder to tell who's who and what's what with 'em. Ain't done this before with Infiltrators.

I'm findin' more folks who definitely aren't here than are. ...Looks like we really are the ones outta the loop. Damn.

And I'm alright with portals if we need 'em.

But, man. [There's a relieved mental sigh here.] Good to have someone here who knows what's going on.

Hey, Nova Venezia wasn't that - uh. Well... I guess I'm kinda biased. But yeah, if we can't find somewhere a bit better than what I'm seein', might not be a bad idea. Gonna have to explore a bit further.

You were in a better area pretty much the whole time, from what I know. [With the possible exception of when he broke his arm.]

Had a little time to do some poking myself, the more usual way. Yua and Adachi-san didn't answer anything, either. It's looking more like they split us again, so the next question's why.

And how do you already know about where we are, anyway?

I can do portals if we need them. I actually spent most of Nova Venezia overnighting in Liminal Space - wasn't very comfortable without the workshop, but it worked.

...Yeah, I'm still checkin', it ain't looking good. I'm up to at least half a dozen broken threads so far.

And... It's a long story. But I've mostly heard stuff about it from people who were here last time around.

[Is that a hint of a laugh?]

I ... kinda ran into some of 'em workin' on the magic they learned here ages ago. Before Melasurei, actually. Some of it looked useful, so I asked around... Heh.

I feel like that's too many at once to be another Belljar situation, especially since we somehow didn't fail the last one, not even by circumstance. [There's probably some kind of message in splitting the group again after another disaster of an investigation, though.]

...Oh, is that what all those notes in your room are about? I had no idea you picked yourself up a project.

Yeah. Something's screwy, but it ain't...

...Wait, you saw those?! But... You got it.

I saw them, but I didn't try to make heads or tails of them. You were never around to ask.

Heh. Yeah, fair enough. Lemme know if you want a look, and I'll give ya the run down - I've worked out a few little spells 'n shit like that, and I'm just starting on the more complex stuff.

'Worked out,' huh? Sounds like this is doing you good. It'll be something to talk about while we're here, at least, in between figuring out how someone loses a dragon.

Well... you ain't gonna lose one down the back of the couch...

[He pauses, gives a spot of a laugh.]

But yeah, it's been ... well, never thought I'd be doin' something like this. ....Eh, never thought I'd be doin' a lot of this crap, so I guess that doesn't really count.

Yeah, that would be a little tricky. Especially if there is fire involved.

It's not like you've ever minded learning something you're interested in, Kanji. This may not be your usual kind of project, but it sounds like you're enjoying it.

[Another thoughtful pause.

...Yeah. I am.

Then that's the important part, right?

Damn right. I'm gonna do this.

I really like the guards' coats.

Page 1 of 4