synopsychic | (no subject)

[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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Before...? Huh. That would make a mess of things, all right. There's only so many times that "I'm not actually your best friend, I just really look like him" will be plausible.

Someone said afterward she got told about the network flat out, and that wasn't even the worst of it. [Though to be fair, from what Lupa said afterward, his overlay getting the whole story probably saved the investigators a world of trouble. Still.]

I really don't think a third stop in Nova Venezia, or anywhere else in that world considering the fire sent a lot of people scattering, would end very well. Hopefully we won't have to find out.

Tell me you're joking.

[He doesn't sound very hopeful. A little, maybe, but not very.]

Did everyone go crazy, or did we just stop telling the new kids to keep their mouths shut about all the magic bullshit, and try to blend in?

I wish I was. If anyone had tried anything like that in Melasurei, I would have assumed they were drunk and cut them off accordingly.

I think a few people missed the 'don't talk about it' memo, and in one case spilling the beans turned out to be the least bad choice, from what I heard later. But... what with the pants thing, I can't rule out crazy.

If that was the least among bad options, I'm not sure I want to know what the others were.

I don't think it would have been pretty. In any case, Nova Venezia set a bar for that kind of a jaunt.

So how did the locals manage to break into Liminal Space that time?

...Okay, to be fair, they didn't then. But half the city was on fire by the time the Trumps decided they'd had enough.

Ah. So you're using it as a benchmark for general disaster, not "how did they even manage to touch that".

Exactly. The Grid was kind of a mess and Purgatory was an outright failure, but even those weren't as bad, in the balance.

The spirits in charge of this disaster must have grown a heart, then. The last time I remember failing outright was Belljar, and...well, it sounds like you're already familiar with the fallout from that.

I'm wondering if they distinguish between two kinds. It was pretty clear from Liminal Space being a malevolent traffic jam that they weren't happy about what happened, but it was a failure by circumstance, not forfeit.

They might. But the only way to test that theory is a really bad idea.

Yeah, I won't be forfeiting anything any time soon.

Smart decision. Maybe not the easiest one to stick to, but smart.

Definitely not. But there's no point in giving up. That just gets nothing done.

I think that was the point. They didn't want accomplish something, they just wanted it to be over.

[There's something like a verbal shrug in his voice.]

I didn't agree - obviously, or I wouldn't be here - but I can't really fault them for it.