An Unhappy Announcement. [End of Week 3, start of Week 4]

[summerorange]

Everyone, I...I have an update on what was going on with Jules.

[There's a pause, as if she's steeling herself.]

He...he was attacked by someone named Matthew, though Jules thinks that he may have been in the mindset of his counterpart, Masshuu. That person, I presume is the one who was trying to hurt Jules with fire. There was another person who saved him before I could reach the area, but...

[A heavy silence for a few moments.]

Neither survived. I don't know who rescued him but...I am sorry to anyone who might've known either of those two men. Had I been there sooner...

[The implications are left hanging in the silent air on the Network.]


((OOC: Feel free to use this as a general fallout reaction to the mentioned incident.))

Comments

[leftbehindagain]

--Wait, what? When was this?

[summerorange]

Just a few minutes ago. It...it was why Jules was shrieking on the Network again.

[leftbehindagain]

Hell of a time for me to be out of it. [Guess who was off in Overlay Land himself and missed all the shouting.]

Do you know if anything happened to them afterward?

[failgoyle]

I mean, I'm reasonably sure he was Masshuu, I just...just...don't know if he went back to being Matthew when he died, and I can't find Matthew anywhere...

[summerorange]

And their bodies were gone by the time I arrived there.

...did you...did you get any glimps at whoever tried to save you?

[failgoyle]

He was just a stabby guy...

[loyalrebel]

What happened.

I was an overlay myself.

[failgoyle]

Masshuu came at me with fire and was gonna kill me, and then stabby guy came out of nowhere and tried to tell Masshuu to step down and stabbed Masshuu through the freaking hand, but Masshuu pulled the knife out and tried to slice me with it, and when that didn't work, then there was so much fire, and stabby guy got Masshuu, but Masshuu got stabby guy...

[solvethepuzzle]

Thank you, this is much more coherent than he was. [Good job on sympathy, Near.]

[failgoyle]

You try staying calm when someone's trying to set you on fire and slice your throat!

[solvethepuzzle]

By the time I encountered you, no one was attempting to slice your throat. [Sure, Jules had still been a bit on fire, but honestly. There is a clear implication that Near thinks he should have at least been shrieking less by that point.]

[summerorange]

...you're welcome...

[Yeah, not very comforting there.]

[itsananimalthing]

This is why I told people not to fuckin' kill anybody in liminal space. It's happened before and it wasn't pretty. Don't ask for details, I don't fuckin' got 'em right now. I know who it was and how it happened, but not the "not pretty" part.

Good news is, they'll be back. But it'll take a while, like a week.

[summerorange]

It happened before? Do you...know when it happened?

[itsananimalthing]

Before Moebius. Maybe three years ago, now, maybe a little more. Anybody who was stupid enough to interface the computers in the media room will remember feeling it-- anybody who got the scrubbed up download from me will remember the name and details. Gal who went by Blink, stepped out of a portal into liminal space, got a throwing knife in the chest.

[forcechanic]

Matthew wouldn't... but... Masshu.

What does it even mean, here?

[summerorange]

I don't know, miss. All I know is that this Matthew didn't seem to be his normal self.

[forcechanic]

He's been the Sun Guard version for a while. The version who preferred talking to dead people over living.

[loyalrebel]

Was there anything left at the scene besides Jules?

[summerorange]

I'm afraid not. All I found were burn marks and a few blood drops...which I presume weren't Jules's...

[hazardlight]

Like, 'actually physically dead' neither survived? Shit.

I mean, sounds like it probably ain't gonna stick, but that's not a question I really needed answered.

[A pause.]

Where'd it happen?

[summerorange]

So it would seem...

And it happened at that room with all those computer monitors. Someone had warned everyone to not go there because it was from a horror-type world called Moebius.

[awitchdidit]

If this had happened on a Jaunt, they'd have been back by now...

...I assume whatever's going on is the "something bad" to which veterans keep referring.

[brokers]

If you had been there sooner, we might have had three dead instead of two.

It is not your fault that Jules was attacked, or that the person who was in a position to respond did so with lethal force. Dwelling on might-have-beens will not change what happened, it will only make you miserable.

Unless the Arcana intend to punish them both for ignoring warnings about killing one another, they will return in time.

[naturaltwohands]

[Drizzt knows Matthew. And he knows that he will be back, if the truth holds. But he is still sad for him and the unnamed man, and truthfully, he could only assume that an Infiltration was involved. He did not seem like a man to harm others.]

You cannot be everywhere, as I have learned in the hardest of ways--you are not to blame. Thank you for letting us know.