CONTACT | Call me, maybe

[intercalaryninja]

WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, HAZYREFLECTION FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 011.04.151.01 *** HAZYREFLECTION has joined 011.04.151.01 <HAZYREFLECTION> Only contact me if it is necessary. <HAZYREFLECTION> Report to me immediately if it's regarding Reira-dono. <HAZYREFLECTION> I will be checking this nightly when possible.

Comments

[intercalaryninja]

We did indeed. [It certainly is possible. Fortunately (unfortunately?) they have no means to check.]

I tried to search for the text referenced. Unfortunately, there are no records of those people or that literature on the peninsula. The writings likely perished in Hafetsal, whether in the fire or the Fog collapsing the city on their writers.

[Tsukikage sighs. He remembers the time warp event and seeing the final moments of the people in Hafetsal- the ones that summoned the Fog. He remembers her rage before she crushed everyone, including him.]

It feels like we're at a standstill. Progress keeps getting knocked back by some unknown force. It's infuriating.

[justbeingknife]

Yeah. You'd think with all the supernatural bullshit around here, it'd be a little easier to get where we wanna go.

[ And look, Majima had places to go, hooligans to beat up! He couldn't stay on this godforsaken continent forever. ]

'course, that doesn't mean I'm gonna give up. Don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I'm stubborn to a fault.

[intercalaryninja]

[Wars to fight. Dimensions to save. Tsukikage was on a schedule as well. And he was plenty stubborn in his own right.]

You have mentioned that. [Tsukikage smiles affectionately at his friend.] Then can I count on you to help me when the time comes? I'm looking into something at the Monster's Pearl. If old rumours turn out to be something, I may want your help.

[justbeingknife]

[ Majima nodded. ]

Not exactly the most hospitable of vacation spots, huh? Of course. You need help, lemme know anytime.

Have ya already given it a visit?

[intercalaryninja]

Briefly. I have to say, the fear-inducing effects of the Pearl makes it difficult to do anything. It's a curious matter. Like I said, I'll let you know if something comes up.

[justbeingknife]

That's an understatement.

[ Majima wasn't a stranger to dangerous situations, but being incapacitated with fear was an alien experience for him. ]

So what else happened at Hafsetal? How'd ya even end up down there?

[intercalaryninja]

[Tsukikage takes out the period-appropriate photos he had taken during the Fellowship's last visit there. Besides the book of rituals and the shattered pot that's there, there are photos of the burned library, an unblocked room with a fireplace and a photo of a number of bottles.]

We got there using a path from the tunnels under Vandare. We also dug up another tunnel out of the rubble straight into a blocked off sewer. You can visit there freely, though there's not much to look at.

Besides the investigation, not much. The only 'event' that happened was with those bottles. Someone found it in a cabinet. When you sniffed it, you became feral and attacked people. It was transmitted through a bite. However, we managed to deal with the situation appropriately.

[justbeingknife]

[ Majima looked over the old photos with curiosity. Yep. Spooky, just like he'd suspected! ]

I might pay it a visit next time I'm in the area -- but if you've already gone over it with a fine-toothed comb, I trust your professional opinion.

Ya even got someone to record photo evidence, huh? Before he disappeared, Rin told me that ya had the Hijikata Toshizō keepin' accounts.

[intercalaryninja]

Yes. I thought it was good to keep photos. [He bought a camera specifically for that reason. He was told it was unnecessary at the time but now he's glad he did.]

Oh yes, I do have those. I haven't pulled those out in some time. Shall I get them?

[justbeingknife]

Oh, so they went to you... makes sense.

[ After all, someone would have had to pick things up after the man had disappeared. ]

Sure, if it ain't too much trouble. I remember thinkin' it was nuts how much happened in the space of a couple years.

[intercalaryninja]

[Tsukikage bows and he moves so quickly out of the room, it's almost like he disappeared. The ninja scuttles down to his room in the spider pit and begins to carefully open the box with the book.

It will be some time before Tsukikage returns with it, carefully nestled in his arms. However, he'll happily hand it over to Majima.]

Four years worth of information. The last entry was three years ago. I always wanted to try summarise it all but it's hard to find hours in the day to do so.

[justbeingknife]

Understandable, considerin' the circumstances.

[ He flipped through some of the pages -- it had been a while! ]

Say, there used to be another set of monster hunters, weren't there? Not the poachers, those Bloody Bones fellas.

[intercalaryninja]

Yes, the Bloody Bones. They were quite intent on killing us all... they were quite skilled monster hunters. Their monster-hunting weapons were quite impressive, especially for Ryslig standards.

[Tsukikage absent-mindedly rubs one of his legs. He remembers being tortured by those guys. Not fun.]

[justbeingknife]

But they're gone now. Like the poachers, right?

[ There were so many things he knew only a smidgen about, having not been there himself. ]

Was it that dust-up in Vandare?

[intercalaryninja]

Yes... that sounds about right. I may be mistaken though. If it's not in that journal, I'll cross reference that with my diary. It was just a long time ago. I only arrived at the tail end of that nonsense.

[justbeingknife]

[ He sighed. ]

I've always wondered about it. I know Vandare's split down the middle now, and that they probably had some hand in it. But people seem pretty reluctant to talk about what happened -- maybe for good reason.

[ Whatever it had been, clearly the divisions still remained. ]

[intercalaryninja]

I'll look into it for you, if it helps.

For now, there's a lot to work through. Feel free to borrow all the books, if you like. I trust you with these. Maybe you can find something I've missed.

[justbeingknife]

[ Majima nodded. ]

Thanks... there's somethin' else I've been meaning to bring up, too, though. Remember a year or two ago, back when we first got sent to Felfri?

[intercalaryninja]

Yes, I remember that. That was... strange. This was the instance where Reira-dono set up going to that world, yes? Or was it the other time?

[He forgets. Honestly, things have been hectic and he hasn't thought about Felfri in a good, long while.]

[justbeingknife]

It was the time Marco set up that portal. I was one of the monsters that went through it, and I do believe he's been looking for an alternate power source for his contraption ever since.

So long story short, I went looking for a lead.

[intercalaryninja]

Ah. Yes. That's right. I do remember that.

[It's hard to keep track of the timeline. He really needed a proper manual for all this.]

What did you find?

[justbeingknife]

An old structure. Pretty much forgotten, of course, but from the pieces of old tales I've been able to put together, it's supposed to hold some big secret.

Specifically, they talk about a vessel that holds 'drops of the sun'. I believe this thing's a kind of magical battery -- maybe even the kind that could help speed along work on that portal machine.

[intercalaryninja]

Drops of the sun... Sounds vague enough to either be a solar battery or a Sun god relic. How interesting.

If it has that much power, how was it forgotten? Did your tales say who made or owned it?

[justbeingknife]

[ He sighed. ]

It's all pretty fragmentary. Some old family used to be in charge of it and its keep... long gone now, as far as I've been able to research.

Granted, solar batteries in my time weren't exactly high-powered. But there's gotta be some reason they built this place to store the thing, right?

[intercalaryninja]

They're not that high-powered either in my time either. But it sounds like something impressive, yes.

If you give me the name of the family, I'll keep an eye out for it in the midst of my own research.