(no subject)

[leftbehindagain]

[As much as Naoki's wanted to say some of this since... well, since halfway through the mess in Misericordia, he decided to hold off and gather his thoughts first. As bad as that was for him and Kanji, it was worse for other people, and from what he's gathered the other jaunt wasn't exactly a picnic either. And then there was the party, and making that many drinks is more attention-consuming than you might think - and, well, no point in dumping that on people in the same moment as Armin-san's list of the departed. But he doesn't want this to wait until after the next jaunt.

It may not make a whole lot of sense to the new people, but hey, they can get explanations along the way.]

Okay. Now that we've all had a little time to decompress, I have a couple things I want to get on the table.

We need to start pooling information about where we've been, considering how often lately it's turned out to be where at least some of us are going. I know there's not much to be done about Moebius or anything that came before it, but... if we'd had more than half-panicked half-information halfway through everything in Misericordia, we might've been able to save some of our group a world of hurt. I'm not looking to cast blame for what's already happened, I'm looking to improve our chances going forward. [Alcuin and Ambrose tried, and it's not their fault things happened as they did.]

Whenever we can be prepared, there's no reason we shouldn't be. I'm sure some of us have been keeping private records, but we need something everyone can get to. If we can keep a log of the basics of these places - the nuts and bolts, maybe a note of what Trumps showed up if any - it'll help keep us out of a little trouble, anyway. I don't know the best way to do something like this, but I think we need at least one physical copy, since not everyone can work backwards on the network. Probably multiple copies of it, to cover for split groups and infiltrating and all that. A computer that people could Interface the information from might work, but that runs into the same storage issues, not to mention needing a computer for it in the first place.

Helena-san's trying to write up Purgatory as a story. We settled on trying that one because I know the most about it of anything I've been here for but she hadn't. Depending on how well that goes, she'll probably want to talk to people about some of the others, and either way I think we'll have a starting point.

If anyone's willing to help, donate notes, offer a place to keep everything, whatever - I'll take any help I can get with this thing. It's a resource we need, especially if the split-group situation keeps happening.

Another thing that came up in Misericordia before everything went to hell was the idea of trying to run a Sift on a familiar face. This one I'm mostly leaving to everyone who kept Sift - I bet the parameters would be tricky, from what Naoto's said about it before, but establishing a good set would give everyone a chance to try it, next time we run into one of them. All I can really offer on that end is my Assistance, if I'm there and myself when the chance comes.

Comments

[leftbehindagain]

I don't know. What's the last thing you were here for?

[pseudologist]

The last thing I remember was a city frozen in time. I'm still not sure if it was Liminal Space, or if shit just got even weirder than it usually does.

[howexciting]

It has been... a long time, Varric. More than a year for us. If you would like I will happily explain what happened in person.

[pseudologist]

Well, shit. I'd appreciate the news. Which corner of this madhouse are you staying in?

[howexciting]

In my workshop. Simply follow the pointing hands in Liminal Space; they will lead you right to it.

[pseudologist]

Heh. And here I was thinking those were just another part of the general weirdness.

Psychic -> Action?

[howexciting]

No, those were carefully crafted, I can assure you.

I will meet you in the main area of my workshop, then.

Action

[pseudologist]

[Even with helpful hands to point the way, it's a while before Varric arrives on the workshop's doorstep - having re-emerged into Liminal Space well downstream, as it were, makes for a not-inconsiderable treck along the moving walkways.

He pauses just inside the door, and utters a low whistle of appreciation.]

Very impressive.

[leftbehindagain]

...Well, Leonardo-sensei has a better idea of the time scale than I do. All I could have said is that doesn't sound familiar and I've been through five of these things.

[pseudologist]

My condolences, kid. That's, what, nine or ten months? Assuming the length of these things hasn't skewed wildly.

[leftbehindagain]

Something like that. It hasn't been completely terrible, at least.

[pseudologist]

It's all fun and games until someone decides to break out the torture.

[leftbehindagain]

Or until half of everything's on fire, which has been happening distressingly often lately.

[pseudologist]

See, that part? That just sounds like Tuesday.

[Which is probably why Varric himself sounds inexpressibly weary.]

[leftbehindagain]

That doesn't necessarily make it any more fun.

[pseudologist]

After a while, you just stop noticing.

[That? That is a blatant lie.]

[leftbehindagain]

If I ever stop noticing fires, that'll be a major step back from when I got here.

[pseudologist]

No one ever said all change was an improvement. One day, you look back an realize a swarm of demons has become normal.

[No you don't.]

[leftbehindagain]

Somehow I really, really doubt it.

[pseudologist]

Out of curiousity, does this crap still surprise you?

[leftbehindagain]

Not exactly? But I had a pretty high weird threshold coming in. This isn't even my first otherworldly space.

[pseudologist]

Mine either. And unless the population dynamics have changed a lot while I've been gone, dealing with weird shit is probably one of the criteria for entry.

But the principle's the same. You get used to it. After a while, you start noticing when something hasn't caught fire in the last 48 hours.

[leftbehindagain]

Yes, but there's not knowing and then there's not caring. If I end up not caring about the fires, there's a problem.

Last two in a row I was on caught fire, arguably Purgatory already was, and the Grid had its fair share of explosions.

[pseudologist]

Well, that's not a promising pattern.

[leftbehindagain]

To be fair, I don't think the other side had a fire problem this time - the Trumps have taken to splitting the group, two of the last three. [Naoki's not liking the pattern he's seeing there, considering it was once after a failure and once after a total hash at working as a group. He'd even considered saying something about that now, too, but in the end... now's not the time.]

But no, it really isn't.