>>659246
Yeah, straight up admit to it.

"Heard yelling. Wanted to know what was going on. Is it normal for Vivian and Victor to have arguments?"

>>659263
>staged for our benefit

We've already seen these people trying to put on a show with the you're-not-really-an-escaped-slave thing. A certain amount of paranoia is healthy, but I don't think they're subtle enough for that, particularly with no apparent way to know when Limoe would wake up.

My morning wall stretches. The wardens had us assume the position before and after we went to the mines, to check for contraband. You could get pretty stiff from doing that without stretches.

>>659246
Victor asked me to come see him as I wake up, so here I am, but it looks like he's currently occupied.

Also, compliment her glistening, strong, statuesque body.

1/4 Lemo 2015/08/04(Tue)22:39 No. 660371 ID: c0fe75
File 143875316937.png - (162.84KB , 700x700 , 1-52a.png )

"Oh!" I exclaim, somewhat startled. "Uh, I was just doing, err, wall stretches. Back at the camp they'd line us up every morning for contraband inspections, and you get pretty stiff doing that without stretching."
She gives me a skeptical look and starts to say something, but I cut her off. "And Victor wanted me to stop by his room, but uh, I think he's in there with Vivian." I hook a thumb at the door. "Sounds like they're fighting. Do they do that a lot?"
Rosalka rolls her eyes, making a 'psshhh' noise. "Yeah, They really get into it sometimes." She shrugs. "Siblings, y'know?"

I'm reminded of when my brothers and I would fight as kids, before we went to the camp, but... that was fun. Not angry.

"Yeah, I guess," I reply. "And uh, nice muscles."
Rosalka grins, flexing an arm and kissing it. "Impressive, huh? Been workin' hard on these guns. They ain't just fer looks though! You oughta check out my act when we get to Adiba."
"Your act?"
"Y'know, a show. I lift a buncha heavy shit and toss it around 'n stuff and the audience goes 'ooh' and 'aah' at it. Not real popular with other vassals, though. Guess it's kinda like if you tried to impress yer minin' buddies by jugglin' some quartz." She chuckles. "Actually, you could prolly make a good livin' doin' that on tour with us. Just sayin'."
"I guess, but... wouldn't that draw attention to me?"
"Point," she says, turning to face the door. "Anyway, lemme help you out here."

2/4 Lemo 2015/08/04(Tue)22:40 No. 660372 ID: c0fe75
File 143875322193.png - (203.75KB , 700x700 , 1-52b.png )

I jump when she suddenly pounds on the door so hard that the walls themselves seem to shake; I'm surprised the door can withstand that kind of punishment. The muffled voices in the room go silent.

"'Ey, Vic!" Rosalka barks. "Quit makin' out with yer sister and get out here! New guy's waitin' on ya!"

With that, she winks at me and stomps off down the hall, past the staircase. She enters Ola's room and starts loudly telling her to get up.

3/4 Lemo 2015/08/04(Tue)22:41 No. 660373 ID: c0fe75
File 143875326890.png - (231.98KB , 700x700 , 1-52c.png )

A moment later, the door slides open. Victor looks down at me through stoic eyes, showing no hint of having just been in a heated argument.

"Ah, Lemo. Good afternoon. Shall we get started? We're behind schedule as it is," he says dryly. I guess I slept later than I thought.
He heads into the next room over, not waiting for a response, and looks back at me as he enters. "Oh, and would you fetch one of your pieces of charged quartz, please?"

4/4 Lemo 2015/08/04(Tue)22:42 No. 660374 ID: c0fe75
File 143875331772.png - (248.05KB , 700x700 , 1-52d.png )

I tell him okay and quickly head back to my room to get the quartz. Ola waves at me sleepily from her bedroom door as I walk by, flagging me down.

"Hey, Lemo... can we talk for a sec? In private?" She asks, in a hushed voice.
"Uh, okay," I reply, unsure about what she needs to tell me. "But can it wait for a little while? I'm in the middle of helping Victor, and I think he's already kinda impatient since I slept too late."
"Not to be rude, but right now would be better... it's about the--" She cuts herself off and glances uneasily down the hallway. "It's important."

>>660374
Well... okay.

>>660374
Well, if it's important, I guess you can take a minute. Vic apparently has ample motive to pursue this even if you annoy him a little.

(Your excuse, if he pushes, is you're really not used to telling anyone "no").

Get out of the hallway to listen to what she has to say.

Go with Ola.

If Victor later asks you where you've been, tell him you got lost (it's your first day in a new place, so it's not impossible!)

1/2 Lemo 2015/08/06(Thu)20:47 No. 660762 ID: c0fe75
File 143891925436.png - (258.45KB , 700x700 , 1-53a.png )

"Well... if it's important, then okay." I figure Victor won't mind too much if I take a couple of extra minutes. And there's something unsettling about Ola's demeanor, anyway.

Ola quietly waves me inside, sliding the door shut behind me as I enter. She grabs the encoded K-084 book, flipping through it until she finds a certain page, towards the end. She holds it up to me, pointing to the right-hand page.

"What's different about this, to you?" She asks.

I look at it and squint my eyes in concentration for a few moments, but it all looks like the same unreadable gobbledygook to me.

"Beats me," I admit, shrugging. "I dunno how to read this stuff."
"You don't have to, to see it. Look at this page." She points to the left-hand page. "The characters look like this throughout the book. They're printed. Now look at the other page." She then points to the right-hand page.
I look a little closer, and I think maybe I see it. "So... the characters look like someone wrote them by hand?"
"Right--so someone added this page."
"Okay... so maybe there some extra notes they added?"
"But added by who? It's in a different cipher from the rest--the crazy part is which cipher it is. I saw it a lot back at the Manor... it's used pretty much exclusively by the Fauteux family." She pauses, then adds, "Well, and me. But they don't know that. I picked it up from helping their kids pass secret notes to each other."
"The Fauteux family?" I ask.
"They're one of the lesser noble families in Argenty. Aristocrats. I was, well, one of their house slaves for maybe a decade or so. Or, as they put it, the help."

This is surprising, to say the least. "So you're saying that note was written by someone who used to own you?"
"Sorta. My guess is it was their daughter, Janine... I guess you could say she owned me, but the last time I saw her was when she was sent off to some academy."
A vague sense of familiarity strikes me, but I don't know why. "I'm not sure how to take this, Ola."
"Me neither, honestly." She shrugs. "It gets weirder: I deciphered it last night."

Ola fishes a sheet of paper out from between some of the back pages of the book, and hands it to me. "Here, give it a read. Maybe it'll make more sense to you, than it did to me."

2/2 Lemo 2015/08/06(Thu)20:48 No. 660763 ID: c0fe75
File 143891929166.png - (328.61KB , 700x700 , 1-53b.png )

The deciphered note is written in hasty scribbles, but it's not too tough to read. I guess Ola was trying to get this all written down in a hurry.

Got word from D, went ahead and reissued route orders @ BKMTN, so asset should already be on the way. D says they need to calibrate w/ MX, don't ask me why, so plan on waiting a few days for asset to recover--prob will not be lucid at first. W estimates MP response to be near-immediate on this one so be on your toes, but W will allocate 1xMX for OPSEC. Get it done ASAP though, MP fire teams will prob come quick once they know what's up.

N wants proof of OSP involvement so I took this lab rpt. If it looks familiar that's cuz you wrote it. They want it planted on asset ASAP, make sure he holds on to it. Dunno why but my guess is they plan on asset getting caught in TMK or something. If I'm right you better make yourself scarce ASAP once he's on his way cuz once TMK deciphers this thing all hell's gonna break loose.

And stay safe OK? Miss you.

-J

After reading it, I look up at Ola confusedly.

Ola locks eyes with me and places her hands on my shoulders. "Listen. Vic's a little, uh, obsessed with that Remy guy. Not saying I blame him, but... something weird like this is sure to get his attention, since you got it from Remy. Maybe that's not a bad thing, I dunno, but I wouldn't feel right giving him this behind your back."
"Err yeah, thanks, I appreciate it," I croak, feeling the slightest bit intimidated.

Her expression softens considerably as she releases my shoulders. "Anyway, so uh, what's your take on it? If you don't mind my asking? Real weird stuff, right?"

MX=mlurx.
TMK=Temahktem.
I wonder what they mean by "calibrate"?

Anyway, tell them you think Vic is right about Remy not being on the level(man, the story with his "flashback" was even a lie! That's some meta shit right there). On the other hand, maybe this report SHOULD get out into the public eye. She translated the rest of it, right? It's bad stuff, isn't it?

Man, Ola's a mega cutie.

>1xMX for OPSEC
One mlurx for operational security. That and the bit about MP teams showing up real quick make me think this is a recent note. Pretty sure they're discussing the op that got you there. (Feel free to share your opinion aloud, she did ask).

@BKMTN At (black?) mountain? Could be where the mine was, though I don't think we ever heard it named (and it's not marked on any of the maps we saw).

TMK is temahktem.

I'm not sure if Remy read this, or if he was the intended recipient. By his account, he was surprised to see the mlurx, and I don't see what get gets by lying about things he could just not have volunteered to me. But then how'd he get it?

>so plan on waiting a few days for asset to recover--prob will not be lucid at first.
Okay, yes, the 'asset' is you. I wonder why the want you to get caught in temahktem, or the journal to be decoded there?

Um, wait, where are we now?

>>643617
I'd suggest showing her this note and seeing if the cypher is the same, except that note is from Remy's memory / story, and I don't think you have a hard copy.

>regular scheduled paranoia check
Everything we're reading Ola wrote, and we're trusting that she translated / decoded it accurately, and isn't just feeding us a narrative she wants to.

>>660763
You were meant to cause an all-out declaration of war upon the country you just escaped.

>>660763
Huh. This is weird no matter how we take it. If Remy was supposed to plant this on you for you to take into Temahktem, why did he wait to give it to you until AFTER you were supposed to bail? On the other hand, if he was telling the truth, he got it from the back of an MP truck, which makes this message completely nonsensical.
But it doesn't really make sense for the message to be falsified by Ola, either, there's too many details that she'd have no way of knowing.

So I see four possibilities, all of them fairly unlikely:
-The MP you encountered weren't actually MP, and the whole scene was staged to get you the book without suspecting its contents and send you on your way to Temahktem;
-Ola and the rest of this group are part of a group that opposes Dawn, and are trying to cast suspicion on Remy;
-Remy was supposed to plant the book, nearly forgot, and salvaged it at the last second; or
-The book was confiscated by the MPs during a prior attempt at this mission, and this was Dawn's way of salvaging it.

Either way, someone is not who they seem, and it's going to be important that we figure out who.

>>660819
>Remy gave it to us after Lemo was supposed to go off on his own
...that... that is a good point. It doesn't make sense that Remy was supposed to give it to Lemo so that he could essentially deliver it. Not unless Remy wanted to deliver it himself, but once he got injured he decided it was too much to handle.

>>660819
>The MP you encountered weren't actually MP, and the whole scene was staged to get you the book without suspecting its contents and send you on your way to Temahktem;

That would be consistent with Remy's decision to stay behind and deliberately be captured by the same guys who had beaten him half to death before their field leader's leg got set on fire, which you'd think would piss them off even more.

>>660894
He didn't choose to be captured, he was in a truck ready to drive off.

>>660895
Oh really?

>>650258
>Prolly my best chance is to get caught anyway.

And then there's the bit where more MPs, maybe the REAL MPs, showed up and started shooting at checkpoint guards instead of asking questions or putting out the fire.

Remy said Bertrand had a knife in his boots. We got a pretty good look at Bertrand's boots, did you see a knife? Maybe Remy just had a pack of fake blood, a standard theatrical prop.

>>660921
...could be. If that's the case, Lemo set someone on fire that maybe didn't deserve it. Depends on what we find out, I guess.

>>660923
Under this theory, "Betrand" pretended to be a sadistic milpol, in front of a former slave with a gun, who was fleeing from the milpol, as part of an elaborate scheme to rob the actual milpol and incite a war. Tangentially responsible for Limoe's freedom or not, he surely must have known and accepted that getting shot was a possibility.

>>660921
The additional MPs showed up because the ones there called for backup, and opened fire because the border guards had guns trained on their men. >>649734

Remy trying to get medical aid from the guys whose commander just shivved him is a bit odd, though, but then his options were pretty limited at that point.

Although I just thought of a possibility 5:
-The "Remy" you saw in the truck was actually a lookalike (imperfect, thus the paleness) there only to give you the book.
Unlikely, but so is everything at this point.

All signs point to the intended recipient of that message NOT being Remy. IF the entire point of getting Lemo out was to plant this lab report on him for later capture, then failing to give it to him before preparing him to run the checkpoint would have been a total failure of the entire operation.

But then why did the MilPol who were chasing Lemo have it? Did they have their OWN plans to use Lemo as a plant? Could be that there was a third party meant to receive Lemo from Remy, who the MilPol had captured earlier, but that would probably be past the border and outside MilPol's jurisdiction.

>>661525
...or maybe they tried to cross the border too, and got captured?

1/4 Lemo 2015/08/15(Sat)00:52 No. 662509 ID: c0fe75
File 143962515097.png - (274.17KB , 700x700 , 1-54a.png )

>Anyway, tell them you think Vic is right about Remy not being on the level
"Uh, I think Vic might be right about Remy," I say, staring at the paper in my hand. I look up at Ola, tapping my clawtip at the page for emphasis. "If this is for real, then he wasn't being completely honest with me... And it sounds like he was setting me up to be captured, since I think I'm the 'asset'."
"Wait, what makes you think that?" Ola cocks her head to the side slightly, in apparent surprise.

I briefly fill Ola in on what's happened to me over the past week or so--at least what I remember of it, filling in the gaps with what Remy told me. I hesitate to tell her what Remy said about the mlurx, but I figure I have to, if I'm going to explain why the letter doesn't mesh with what he told me.

"So," she says incredulously, "You're saying Remy found you with a mlurx?"
I shrug defeatedly. "Well, that's what he told me at least, so now I wonder if it's even true. But there must be something to it... seems like 'MX' might stand for 'mlurx'."
"I dunno if I can believe it either," Ola admits. "I mean, those things are crazy dangerous, and you almost never see 'em north of the equator anyway. I wonder what this 'calibration' thing is, then, if you're right."
"The only thing I know is that I don't like the sound of it."
"No kidding."

>I wonder why the want you to get caught in temahktem, or the journal to be decoded there?
>Um, wait, where are we now?
>You were meant to cause an all-out declaration of war upon the country you just escaped.
"Do you think TMK means Temahktem?"
Ola shrugs, slinging her head around to move a stray lock of hair out of her eye. "Maybe. Sure sounds like it's supposed to be a place, y'know?"
"It says 'all hell will break loose' if I were caught there with the book, so... maybe there's something in it that would make Temahktem declare war against Argenty." I freeze when the image of the map Remy gave me pops into my mind. "Hey, wait, where are we right now?"
"Well, uh," she replies, rubbing her arm uncomfortably. "I'd guess we're right in the middle of Temahktem at this point in the trip. But they'll leave us alone so long as we don't set foot on their land. Say, if the book is what would start the war, why'd they need you to deliver it? It'd be a lot easier for them to send a Nolor. Anyone else'd prolly just get lynched."
"I... don't know. Would they really murder someone for not being a Nolor?" The idea scares me; were they trying to get me killed?
"Yeah, they think we're evil or somethin'. Like mortal-enemy-of-all-Nolor evil." She hops onto the bed beside me and stretches out on her back, folding her arms behind her head. "S'why we never make any stops on our way through."
I swivel in place so that I'm facing her, sitting cross-legged. "Shouldn't we be afraid they'll attack the boat? You seem pretty sure they won't."
"Imperial edict," she says nonchalantly. "No one's allowed to stop traffic on major waterways. Well, except for the Imperial Guard, but they've never given us trouble."

>She translated the rest of it, right? It's bad stuff, isn't it?
"You didn't manage to get anything else out of the book, did you?" I ask.
Ola shakes her head. "Nope, just the letter. I can still decode the rest, but decrypting it afterwards's a different story, 'cause I dunno what cipher it uses. Maybe it can be broken, but that's more Vic's kinda thing."

She sits up suddenly and hops onto the floor. "Anyway, I gotta get freshened up and get some chores done. Rosalka already bitched at me for sleepin' in too late. And besides, you don't wanna keep Vic waiting any longer... it's best if you don't make him suspicious."
"Yeah, good point. And thanks for letting me know about all this." Best for who, I wonder to myself, but I decide not to say anything else.
"No prob."

2/4 Lemo 2015/08/15(Sat)00:53 No. 662511 ID: c0fe75
File 143962517952.png - (123.78KB , 700x700 , 1-54b.png )

I leave and head back to my room to fetch the quartz. My head's swarming with questions now, leaving my mind groping for answers, where there are none.

>Everything we're reading Ola wrote, and we're trusting that she translated / decoded it accurately, and isn't just feeding us a narrative she wants to.
I only just met Ola... she seems nice, but can I really trust her? For all I know, she changed things, or left something out... but why would she do that? I guess I don't really have a choice other than to just assume she's been honest--for now, at least.

>Maybe this report SHOULD get out into the public eye.
If it'd hurt Argenty, then yeah, maybe that wouldn't be a bad thing... but the fact that I was apparently set up to be the one to deliver it--that gives me doubts. I think I should wait until I know exactly what's in there, before I make a decision about it.

>I'd suggest showing her this note and seeing if the cypher is the same, except that note is from Remy's memory / story, and I don't think you have a hard copy.
Hey, wait, that's right! Remy said he received an encrypted note telling him where to find me... so why would he need another that explains the whole thing? Maybe it was a lie on his part, but it doesn't make sense that he'd go into so much detail about it when he could've just said he was contacted about me, if he was trying to lie.

>If Remy was supposed to plant this on you for you to take into Temahktem, why did he wait to give it to you until AFTER you were supposed to bail? On the other hand, if he was telling the truth, he got it from the back of an MP truck, which makes this message completely nonsensical.
>All signs point to the intended recipient of that message NOT being Remy.
Why would Remy wait to give me the book? It was at the last possible moment, and he would've missed the opportunity if I'd decided not to check that Milpol vehicle out. Maybe he really did find the book in the back--but then why is the letter even there? Was it meant for someone else, and if so, then who?

>Either way, someone is not who they seem, and it's going to be important that we figure out who.
None of this adds up--it feels like something important is missing, something which would tie all of it together and make it make sense. But without it I'm stuck wondering... is someone not who they seem? And who: Remy, Ola, Vivian, Victor... maybe even all of them? The only thing I know for sure is that I need to be careful not to trust anyone entirely; and I need to stay quiet about it, at least until I get a better idea of what's going on. The sheer uncertainty of it all starts making me feel dizzy, so I decide to push it to the back of my mind for the moment.

3/4 Lemo 2015/08/15(Sat)00:53 No. 662512 ID: c0fe75
File 143962522403.png - (227.07KB , 700x700 , 1-54c.png )

Heading back to Victor's room, I see that his door is open, so I knock as I walk in. Inside, I find Victor staring at a map of the Empire on his wall, with a bunch of thumbtacks in it, mostly clustered around Calderon and Argenty.

"Ah, finally," he says smoothly, not taking his eyes off the map. "I was beginning to think you'd gotten lost, somehow." He points a finger to a rubber mat on his desk. "Place it there, please."

I set the quartz on its side, atop the rubber mat; alongside it are the dead, smoky quartz from last night, and a small black box with a needle gauge on it.

Victor turns around, fishes a notepad and pen from a drawer, and looks intently into my eyes. "Now, what is it like, touching charged quartz? Any unique sensations, visuals, scents, tastes? Pain, vertigo, nausea?"
I think for a second before answering. "Uh not really... maybe it feels a little tingly sometimes, I dunno."
He scribbles something on the pad, and wordlessly exchanges it for the black box. He detaches two wands from the box's underside, which are connected to the it by short cables.

Victor touches the wands to the dead quartz first; the gauge doesn't respond at all. "As expected," he mumbles to himself, scribbling something on the pad for a moment. Then he does the same with the active quartz, being careful to not touch his skin to it, and the gauge's needle jumps to life, wiggling energetically towards the high end of its range.
"Mmhm, a good baseline," he murmurs, and sets the wands on the desk, reaching for the notepad. As he's jotting down another note, the wands roll off of the desk, clattering to the floor. I grab the wands and hand them to him.

"Thank you," he says distractedly. Suddenly, he does a double take, eyeing the gauge again, before looking down at my hands. "Hmm. Would you please clasp your hands together, Lemo?" He asks as he diverts his gaze back to my eyes.

4/4 Lemo 2015/08/15(Sat)00:54 No. 662513 ID: c0fe75
File 143962526912.png - (144.17KB , 700x700 , 1-54d.png )

I do as he asks and lace my fingers together, although I'm confused about why he wants me to do it. I look up at him expectantly, and he touches the wands to my hands. Immediately the needle comes alive again, but this time wiggles near the very bottom end.

"Intriguing!" There's a hint of excitement in his voice as he attacks the notepad yet again. "Did you see what the meter was doing? What do you make of this?" The way he asks it leaves me unsure as to whether he actually wants an answer from me, but he doesn't say anything further.

ah that explains it, you can handle charged quartz because your body is charged already. so the quartz wont discharge into you.

>>662511
If it would have been easier to send a Nolor, then they DID send one. From the story Remy gave us, it sounded like Mlurx have some way of reading minds, so maybe they can alter minds too. If so, they could have used a Mlurx to brainwash someone into being sent down with the codebook, they got captured, but Remy just coincidentally got his hands on the book when things went south at the checkpoint. The plans went awry because they tried to do two things at once.
...or maye Remy was the asset... the Mlurx grabbed his head, didn't it?

>>662513
If charged quartz makes the needle wiggle near the hgih end, and you make it wiggle near the low end... you're slightly charged.

if he starts trying to audit you run a mile

Your regained memories... The OSP was using giant, charged quartz crystals on you and your brothers at the time, that might actually be a connection for why you are able to handle the quartz.

>Say, if the book is what would start the war, why'd they need you to deliver it?
I'm guessing because your presence in some way authenticates what the book says. That you're evidence that supports the words. (Like, say, that Argenty has a secret operation with weird horn things who can touch quartz mining a ton of it for a military buildup).

>I think I should wait until I know exactly what's in there, before I make a decision about it.
Agreed. We can choose to expose it later- we can't choose to unexpose it if we don't like that outcome.

>but it doesn't make sense that he'd go into so much detail about it
Yeah, the best lies are the simplest. Too many extra details makes them easier to find holes in.

>Did you see what the meter was doing? What do you make of this?
Dead quartz and air didn't make the needle do anything. Charged quartz made the needle move a lot. I make it move a little. So... I'm a little like charged quartz? Or the needle only moves if the wands touch something 'alive'. What does the needle do if they touch you?

I can't be that much like quartz, though. It doesn't hurt people to touch me.

1/2 Lemo 2015/08/16(Sun)13:28 No. 663019 ID: c0fe75
File 143975692890.png - (138.79KB , 700x700 , 1-55a.png )

"I... guess it means I'm a little charged... kinda like quartz?" I reply tentatively, still a little unsure of the implications. "So... I guess it doesn't discharge into me? Or, uh, maybe something that happened when I was back in captivity caused it..." I decide not to elaborate about the uh, giant quartz torture machine OSP used on me; I get a hunch that I should keep that to myself.
Victor nods excitedly. "Yes, that's what I suspected as well! This device is a quartz milliammeter; it measures current flowing through quartz circuits. Clearly, there is some minor current flowing through your body, as a result of some heretofore-unexplained process!" He seems barely able to contain his sudden giddiness. "And that process is the most exciting part! I should like to begin studying in-depth immediately."

He pulls open a side drawer of his desk, and starts digging through its contents, eventually unearthing a small, white box.

"I'm confused, though," I say as he searches, "if I carry a charge like quartz does, then why doesn't it hurt other people to touch me?" Victor opens the box, producing a small scalpel, some gauze, and a bottle of rubbing alcohol from it; he rolls up his sleeve and wipes his arm down with the alcohol. "Hey, what are you doing with tha--" I interject, before being cut off.
"That is a good question, and one further investigation will explain, if we are fortunate!" He doesn't skip a beat as he suddenly jabs the scalpel into the top of his forearm, slicing out a small section of skin with it. "As for what I'm doing: recall that last night I said I would require a skin sample, and it turns out my suspicions then were correct. This sample, from my arm, will serve as a control, for comparison to yours. Now, please hold your arm out."
I start to object, when he reminds me: "Ah, and of course I didn't forget that, in return, I would remove that stud from your ear!" He deposits the sliver of skin into a small metal tray, and then cleans the scalpel with alcohol.

Hesitantly, I hold my arm out, and Victor rubs alcohol into my skin. I wince as he cuts a small section of flesh out of my arm, but surprisingly the pain isn't as bad as I expected.

"Now, it will take me some time to prepare these samples for testing, as well as samples of the two quartz chunks here," He says as he dresses my wound, and there's an ecstatic urgency in his voice. "You have been an incalculable aid to my research already--if not to modern science itself, considering how poorly understood charged quartz is, but to do this correctly I require solitude, so I must ask you to come back later." He gets a small clamp out of the drawer, and with the same surgical quickness, clips the stud off of my ear, discarding the pieces into a trash can in the corner. "There, the stud's out, so now our business is completed for the moment!"
"Wait," I protest as I rub my ear where the stud used to be, "what about you? What happens when you touch the milliammeter wands?" By the time I finish, he's always swiveled to face the desk again.
"What? Oh, nothing happens, I'll demonstrate it to you later!" He replies absently, reaching into one of the shallower drawers for a moment. He pulls out a small pamphlet and shoves it into my hands. "Here, here, take it. It's a copy of the ship's roster. Go see if someone else needs your help with something, for now I need to work alone!" He actually goes as far as to get up and physically shoo me out of the room, carelessly slamming the door once I'm out.

2/2 Lemo 2015/08/16(Sun)13:29 No. 663020 ID: c0fe75
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>I'm guessing because your presence in some way authenticates what the book says. That you're evidence that supports the words. (Like, say, that Argenty has a secret operation with weird horn things who can touch quartz mining a ton of it for a military buildup).
So maybe I'm... proof? But proof of what, Argenty mining quartz? It seems like it's already pretty widely used on the outside, so if that's all it is then they must be stockpiling enormous amounts of it. Or maybe it's something else--maybe something to do with the machine they used on my brothers and me? What was that thing even supposed to do? All I remember of it is excruciating, horrific pain.

>it sounded like Mlurx have some way of reading minds, so maybe they can alter minds too. If so, they could have used a Mlurx to brainwash someone into being sent down with the codebook, they got captured, but Remy just coincidentally got his hands on the book when things went south at the checkpoint. The plans went awry because they tried to do two things at once.
>...or maye Remy was the asset... the Mlurx grabbed his head, didn't it?
At this point I'm not even sure how much of what Remy told me was even true, but I don't see why he'd bring up mlurx if he didn't actually encounter them, let alone the whole head-grabbing thing... so could it be that it happened to him, too? And if I'm brainwashed... how can I even tell? I mean, I think I feel normal, but maybe that's part of the trick.

Ugh, this is giving me a headache.

Well, I'm back out in the hall now, anyway. I guess Ola wasn't kidding when she said Victor's kind of rude. I open up the pamphlet, and sure enough, it's a roster listing out each crew member and their responsibilities. On the other page is a map of the boat's layout, I guess to give an idea of where each person on the roster will be working. Maybe I should do what Victor said and see if someone could use some help. Or I could have a look around, in which case I should figure out whether to stay below deck or head up top.

CAP.................CAPTAIN, NAVIGATION, NEGOTIATION IZZY................FIRST MATE, MAINTENANCE, DEFENSE LETOURNEAU..........FIXER OLA.................COOKING, HOUSEKEEPING, SUPPLIES, LOOKOUT ROSALKA.............LOOKOUT, DEFENSE, SUPPLIES, movin heavy shit!! VICTOR..............MAINTENANCE, LAUNDRY, COOKING, HOUSEKEEPING VIVIAN..............NAVIGATION, PAYROLL, LAUNDRY, NEGOTIATION

Everybody has three or four different duties listed except Letourneau, which implies that "fixer" duty is something special, either extremely demanding or a broad catchall. Either way, Letourneau is a good first one to check on.

I'm not sure we should go above deck, if we don't know who might be watching the ship pass. Best not to tempt fate.

Looking around and/or finding someone to help wouldn't be unreasonable. You're not going to make any progress on these mysterious without more information, and you might as well keep busy and maybe earn a little good will.

look around and if you bump into someone ask if there's something you can do to help. I mean we're not really sure where anyone is anyways so might as well get use to the ship while we go looking for someone.

Let's stay belowdecks. Catch the view out a porthole to see what's around, though. Then, let's visit Letourneau.

1/2 Lemo 2015/08/26(Wed)22:16 No. 665252 ID: c0fe75
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Huh... "Letourneau". I don't think I met anyone with that name last night. I guess they stayed on the boat.

I decide it's best to stay below for the moment, since we're passing through hostile territory. Ola said nobody in Temahktem would stop us, but... if they think we're their mortal enemies, they might think capturing me might be worth breaking Imperial law, since I guess I'm pretty unique in the outside world. I'll have a look around, and see if I happen across Letourneau.

That only leaves one way for me to go, since the only exits I can see are the stairs leading above deck and the door to the galley. I enter the galley, and find that it's a small room, comparable in size to one of the bedrooms; most of the space is devoted to a U-shaped counter with a stove, sink, and oven fitted into it, and a single overhead cabinet. Glaring light streams in through a porthole above the sink, and while it's really bright, I think I can barely make out the riverbank rushing by in the distance.

2/2 Lemo 2015/08/26(Wed)22:17 No. 665253 ID: c0fe75
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An open doorway leads to a larger area, which seems to be a combination dining room and lounge. Vivian's there, standing with her back to me at the long dining table as she folds clothes.
"God damn, Rosalka..." she mutters to herself, "I dunno how you carry those things around all day without getting back cramps..." She shakes her head and keeps folding.

"Uh, hi Vivian," I say tentatively, trying not to startle her.
She glances back over her shoulder. "Oh, hey Lemo. What's up? Vic get done with you already?"
"Yeah, mostly," I reply. "He said he needs some time alone to study the sample he took." I gesture to the bandage on my arm.
"Heh, so he was serious about that, huh? Sometimes Vic thinks ahead of himself with stuff like that." She looks back down at the laundry as she resumes folding. "So whatcha up to now? Sorry if everyone's kinda busy, between rehearsals and chores we don't have much free time leading up to when we get to Adiba."
"Well uh, Vic needed some time to work alone, so he told me to see if anyone needed help," I glance at the roster in my hands for a moment. "Do you know where Letourneau is? I don't think I've met them yet."

Vivian freezes, digging her fingers into the shirt she's folding. "...How do you know about her?" There's an oddly confrontational tone in her speech, all of a sudden.

>"...How do you know about her?" There's an oddly confrontational tone in her speech, all of a sudden.
Hold up pamphlet. Her name is written in a list on this paper Vic gave me.

Sorry, was she supposed to be a secret or something? Although not a very good secret if they put her right in the roster...

My horn has psychic powers! That's what Vic was investigating. It allowed me to read this crew roster's mind!

Well it's on this pamphlet Vic gave me, it's got a little map of the boat, everyone's names and what they do. Says here she's a fixer, so I guess she fixes the boat? Maybe the tools or something and I figure I might as well say Hi to her, didn't really see her at all before.

Also, what does Rosalka carry all day that gives her back pains?

>>665258
Pfft. Let's joke this, why not.

>>665282
Lets not. Things are already a bit touchy and every one has a reason to be a little paranoid. Just tell her about the pamphlet the Vic gave you.

Gently massage her tail to calm her down.