Walkabout investigators, late week 3

[leftbehindagain]

We have a slight problem, guys. You know that dragon-hunt meeting at the beginning of the week?

The dragon organised it. I've bumped into the kid who knows that actual person a couple times, and she said she spotted the difference right away. It's probably too late to do much with that information, but I'm almost certain it tried to focus people on the Magicians' Quarter on purpose.

I'd bet it's anywhere but there, and I bet it won't be there much in the next few weeks.

Comments

[fridgeninja]

We used to think walkabouts were the way Trumps got rid of people they didn't want around, but that we before we got sent in groups that came back on time and remembered what they'd been doing clearly.

... I was on a walkabout on my own for about a year, before I came back.

[leftbehindagain]

They're shaking things up.

And the pattern so far is some degree of failure. Purgatory was a failure, and we didn't fail Nova Venezia but we sure made a damn mess of working together. [There's a subtle yet important distinction between the two that Souji will probably catch; Naoki knows exactly who failed Purgatory, and won't blame the group as a whole for it.]

I don't know if that'll hold going forward, but that's what we've got now. Do you remember much of your solo one, or not?

[fridgeninja]

Nothing that makes sense. A door, up somewhere very high. A maze with a dirt floor and a girl with red eyes. Television antennas.

[leftbehindagain]

Well, given the circumstances, I can't say the antennas are completely out of place.

Still, though, they're clearly up to something different now. If it's not as a result of failing in some capacity, I wonder why they're changing things.

[fridgeninja]

They have talked about this like a game, from what I've heard. Maybe we're on a different part of the board, now?

Like the shortcuts in Candyland.

[leftbehindagain]

Could be. I wish we could figure out what the objective of the game is - my best theory so far is that they want us to fix things in these places.

Granted, they're not human, and their definition of 'fix' is... not always any of ours, but it tallies with what we've got to work with.

[fridgeninja]

I'm still not sure how crashing a spaceship fixed anything... but more often than not, you're probably right.

[leftbehindagain]

Crashing a spaceship?

[fridgeninja]

It was a long time ago.

[leftbehindagain]

So was the first tangle with Nova Venezia. God only knows what's going to come back to haunt us next.

[fridgeninja]

...

That's true.

There are plenty of things that could.

[leftbehindagain]

Isn't that what this is technically doing?

[fridgeninja]

Much worse than this.

[leftbehindagain]

I'm aware. I've heard a bit about Moebius.

[fridgeninja]

I'd rather not find out what's waiting for us back there.

[leftbehindagain]

I can't imagine anyone would want to.