(no subject)

[hot_mess_express]

Who: You
When: Day 52, morning
Where: Anywhere

[Of course there's still the flowers that, when stepped on, enhance or dull a sense, and there are still some chocolates in the lounge if you missed them or want more.

But this morning dawns with an infestation of bats.

That is, tiny tiny clockwork bats that get in your hair and coffee and make tiny tiny clockwork bat screeches.

Should you encounter a clockwork bat, and they're pretty hard to dodge, the next person you talk to will... Well, see one of your memories.

Otherwise it seems like a pretty typical morning, and the bats will be gone by afternoon.]

Comments

[overworker]

[It seems to realize it's outmatched and hops off to find someone else to torment.]

Jeez. Thanks for your help. They're pretty persistent.

[The memory that Inaba sees is one from another world. It takes place in the midst of a trial-- 15 podiums, but some of them are already empty-- to determine the person responsible for a particular bombing. It's intense and more than a little dramatic as they stumble their way onto the truth.]

[dereban]

It's no--

[ . . . ]

--prob. . .lem?

[ this sure is familiar, even if she's certain it isn't her memory ]

[overworker]

Is... everything okay? It didn't hurt you did it?

[She didn't think it was trying to attack but maybe they'd irritated it, trying to shoo it away.]

[dereban]

I. . . think I saw a memory of yours? Seems to be a trial.

[ spoken as if she's used to it ]

[overworker]

[Towa blinks, realizing that the memory she mentions could in fact be one of hers. It was just... rather unexpected.]

Oh... that... it's possible. It's been a while, but-- back when I was on the Eventide, we went through several murder trials.

[dereban]

Oh, you too?

[ spoken flatly, with a sigh ]

[overworker]

[Towa sighs, and then it sinks in fully.]

Wait-- really?! Don't tell me... you also encountered something like that?!

[dereban]

. . .Unfortunately, yeah, I dealt with a bunch of that a while back.

[overworker]

I never really thought I'd meet someone here who went through something similar. It's... probably not a great thing to have in common, but--

[dereban]

It really, really isn't but. . . at least we can talk about how terrible it is.

[overworker]

Heheh... I can't argue with that.

For us, we traveled to several different places on a train like this. There were fifteen of us total in the beginning.

[dereban]

Fifteen?

That's pretty small. . .

[overworker]

Oh? How large was your group?

[dereban]

The first time was twice that, and. . . the second time was about twenty-five?

[overworker]

I see... In one of the towns we visited, there were signs that our group might not have been the first, but unfortunately I don't know anything about who those people were.

[dereban]

Huh.

Well, it might not be us, since our stuff is supposed to be. . . classified? Ish? Unless there were specific signs that pointed to us, specifically.

[overworker]

Classified... huh? Well, we never found anything about who exactly they were, but it seemed like it was designed to be a small group like our own. So it's probably still different...

[dereban]

Yeah.

[ The Foundation being mostly a secret is important, even if they might be in another world where it's irrelevant. ]

Guess it's just something that happens a lot in various world? Not that I'm surprised.

[overworker]

I don't like that thought but... it seems that it's more than just a slight possibility.

[dereban]

I'm not going to say that I necessarily like it, either -- but that doesn't mean that I'll pretend that things like that don't happen.