What their Eyes See: Optional Ongoing

[voidtreckermods]

By day eight the Voidtreckers have made a good deal of progress in all their tasks but there is still a lot to do to help the people of the city.

It is around mid morning when there is a message on their comms. For those that want to help it is easy to either find Anan herself or ask for netpoints and scanners to be brought to them by Chiff.

Illusions have gotten worse, uncertainty and fear are rising across all tiers and the situation is becoming more chaotic by the day. Indeed especially on the first and second tiers it seems that the voidtreckers themselves are being targeted, with creatures stalking them and attacks on their minds to make them believe that what they are seeing is real.

Same inside the Spectura system, the vines seem to almost be on the offensive against the voidtreckers though things are getting better outside the game system as more of the vicitms are freed and wake up.

Almost opposite to the situation on the lowest tier, which is getting more chaotic by the day. Anger is bubbling over, people are frightened and in a place like this the only real way to express that fear is through anger.

There has been a lot of progress but there is still a lot of work to do, especially as many of the voidtreckers have started to realise, this all seems a little too familiar.

Comments

Anan

[voidtreckernpcs]

For those who go looking for her will find her and Chiff up on the roof as promised. They have a small area set up, out of sight from the ground and difficult to spot unless they are specifically looking for someone.

She looks like she fits right in here, Chiff skittering around as she tapped on a small portable computer, a small frown on her face.

Any approach was greeted with beeping from Chiff and a wary look from Anan as she looks them over, though she will relax once it is clear they are not security from this tier.

[10billionpercent]

“Hi.” Senku greeted Chiff as he was beeped at, and although he had the opportunity to meet Anan the night of the sixth, it wasn’t really the best time to ask every single question that he had.

An opportunity to find her again, in that case, was incredibly welcome.

“I’m willing to help you.” Senku opened with, because he certainly wasn’t going to ask for her help and not offer something in exchange. “But can you spare some time to help me answer some questions? Anything you can’t, it’s fine, I’ll make a note of it and leave it with you, if you’re willing.” He was trying to be polite on his end.

Today he was actually dressed like a local scientist - easier for infiltration - and he smiled at her, tugging at the labcoat. “I’m actually a scientist at home too.”

[flatteries]

As soon as Inigo hears the message, he knows he has to free up a bit of time to go see Anan and Chiff. He's busier now the monster ('monster'?) attacks seem to be ramping up, but it'd feel weird to not go to at least say hi, especially when he has no idea if he'll easily get the chance to do so again.

So eventually Inigo finds his way up to the highest tier, managing to find Anan. He may not exactly have some here with ideas, but still.. He smiles a little as he approaches.

"Anan, hi." It's a teensy bit awkward, since at least last time he had Roland and Tidus to act as a buffer, and now he has to handle this social interaction by himself, and by Naga, don't be awkward, Inigo, she's a girl but don't get awkward!! "Are you alright? No one bothered you yet..?"

No one from this world, he means. A lot of people here in tier one look.. well, pretty stiff.

The smile is a little less awkward as his gaze falls on the thing skittering around. "Hi there to you too, little buddy."

Re: Anan

[4starlowclasshero]

Sorry, Anan. Once Goku hears of her, he'll decide to poke in see what he can do to help. And doing that means dropping in with his Instant Transmission, appearing in a blink.

"Hey!" Goku said, waving at the woman as he arrived. "So, what do we need to do?"

[yondu]

Yondu takes a little longer than some, probably, both because of the level he was on and the fact that he wanted someone to be on spectator duty while he was off dealing with this. He's suspicious but that's more of a natural state of being for him rather than anything she's actually done to deserve it. A few good folks on the train have only chipped away at the inclination by millimeters.

"Howdy," he announces himself in his usual folksy way when he gets there, dropping his pack beside of him and opening it up so he can put whatever he needs to into it.

"I'm here for some of them netpoints an' a few scanners. Most of our folks have been fightin' digital. Not a lot of us up an' about so the netpoints are gonna be the more useful of the two. Wouldn't be surprised if our two hackers came up."

Come to think of it, Jou and A-Qing could probably knock it out of the park with a couple of scanners.

Re: Anan

[motherofresistance]

Thankfully, Leia was looking for someone, and thus it didn't take her too long to locate their contact. "Anan, I presume?", she said as she approached, hoping that her voice would be recognizable. "I'm Leia Organa, from the Voidtrecker. We spoke on the comm, but it's good to meet you and... Chiff, wasn't it?... in person."

[pragmaticcollaborator]

[True to his word, Ray came up to meet Anan, if a bit slow due to the need to not get caught. He doesn’t really trust her, not right out of the gate, but he came anyways.]

I’m here. I assume you’re Anan?

Re: Anan

[so_dark_a_road]

As soon as Curufin is finished talking to Anan on the comm, he hustles off to the north lab building, takes the lift, and exits at the roof level. "Anan? Hi, it's me, Curufin."

[blitzcheer]

"Thanks for coming."

It's not what he means to say approaching her and Chiff, a hi or hey usually a way of introducing your presence. But it comes out before Tidus has time to think, to even consider how dumb that is, maybe. When Anan as the one who sent out the signal that brought them here, that it's not exactly what he means.

But if any Chiffs want to come and give him some company as he comes to a pause, Tidus won't ignore the droid. "Well, I guess I mean - thanks for believing us. For reaching out."

But especially the part about believing them.

[subcircuits]

Devero's arrival is preceded by one Sir Beepers; he's sent the companion drone up to scout. Sir Beepers, however, is a pet first and an intel unit as a far distant second, so as soon as it spots Chiff its attention is riveted. It beeps right back, approaching with an electronic trill and its front tarsals outstretched.

Following Sir Beepers is another drone, smaller and far less remarkable in appearance. In fact, this one could be an intel unit but for its size. It has a low profile and dark, matte finish, but it's big, about the size of a hockey puck floating through the air. Still, it might be easy to miss with Beepers causing a ruckus in its excitement over having found what it perceives to be another companion drone like itself.

What is impossible to miss is the hardlight hologram that spawns into life around the drone. While the other prototypes in this project can project only featureless humanoid figures, barely modified from the basic Helpmate template, Devero's indulged in a touch of vanity for his unit: the hologram looks like him, if translucent and a monochrome purple.

"Anan?" It also sounds like him, though the voice issues from the middle of the figure where the drone projector is concealed, and not the head. "I'm Devero, we met on Erda?"

[adregem]

"Hey."

He approaches Anan when he knows there is privacy. It's not going to last, Roland knows this, but he'll shoot for it while the opportunity is there. While he has a connection to someone who knows more.

His footsteps don't make it any less certain that he is here for a particular purpose, heavy in stride. Roland stops by the edge of her table, and he uncrosses his arms. Though the dip in his brow means business, Anan is free to note that it's more worried and eager to talk than it is distrustful. After his talk with Senku, he has no choice but to concede. They had no other option available, and she had given no indication of being untrustworthy as his worse instincts led him to believe. The fact that she makes herself so known to them is proof enough; that she's staying to help fix a problem they had to solve together.

But more than Kamakan, Roland is here for a bit deeper than one world.

"Sorry to bother the work. I promise I'll make it quick." He says. "Can I talk to you about a few things? Not about what's happening on this world, but...I don't know. Maybe they're connected."

Re: Anan

[nutkrusher]

Cassie lands softly on the roof after leaping it in one jump. Flying has its perks, even if she's had to cool it in this kind of a public space.

Chiff still takes notice nonetheless. She lifts her hands apologetically. Behind her, a floating drone of her own buzzes around, affixing its gaze firmly on its mechanical counterpart.

"You're Anan, right? I was wondering if you needed any bodies to do the work for you in Tier 4. Shit's megafucked down there."

Demyx | OTA | Orange/Tier 1

[melodiouspacifist]

Demyx had been mostly lucky.

He hadn’t seen too many illusions, and that was fine, it wasn’t like he wanted to. He’d also done some sleuthing outside of the buildings to an admittedly dead end. He was sorely tempted to go join another team, whatever the goal was here, it might be beyond his understanding.

However, the call for help to swindle people out of access codes, through stealth or persuasion, well, he had some experience there, so he stayed.

The few illusions he’d seen were places he’d visited, nothing too bothersome really, but when he stepped foot in the absent director’s office, the building faded away. Carpeting was replaced with cobblestone and what he saw ahead of him was not a desk, but a fountain.

There was a gentle breeze coming through the square, a host of purple buildings surrounding the square – apartments – he knew that. His brow furrowed. How did he know that? Where was he?

A whisper on the wind. “____ your help is needed. Grab ____ and come _____.”

Demyx tilted his head back, looking around at the sky, it was ominously covered in dark clouds that said it was not a rain storm approaching and in the distance he could barely make out a castle. He needed to go. He needed to leave wherever this was.

No. His subconscious screamed at him, and he stopped mid-step. He didn’t want to leave...did he? No...he belonged here…

Where was he?

Demyx walked forward and sat on the ground in front of the fountain, lost in contemplation, his gaze distant as he tried to make sense of this landscape.

[rieper]

47 saw Demyx go into the office and kept an eye out as he finished up a task a little down the hallway from there. By the time he came back around to the doorway Demyx had gone through he was beginning to wonder what the hold-up was. He frowned slightly as he spotted Demyx sitting, lost, just on the inside of the office space.

He moved closer to reach out and touch Demyx, hoping to jolt him out of whatever illusion he might be seeing. They were getting worse recently, he knew that much.

Instead, however, as he entered the office space as well, 47 was met by a most unusual sight. He paused just shy of reaching Demyx and stared at the world before him. It was nothing like he knew from his own world nor all that similar to anything he'd seen while on the Voidtrecker Express.

He looked down from the menacing sky, eyes tracking over the buildings, fountain, and finally settled on Demyx where he sat. "What is this place?"

Nozomi | Team Purple/Tier 2 | OTA

[cureofmanyworlds]

Netpoints

Finding the perfect place for Netpoint placement seems easy enough. Having transformed into Cure Dream yet leaving the trenchcoat on, Nozomi'll be seen moving to various buildings and laying the Netpoints where she thinks would fit in.

Of course, with more murders happening, trying to get into buildings is starting to get harder and harder, Nozomi trying to squeeze into various open windows and trying her best to open doors and other windows without catching someone's attention.

Care to give her a hand?

Monster Attack Type A

"NGH! STOP IT!"

Nozomi used a bit of her magic to push away the gathering of monsters that had started to ambush her. They were creatures all native to Valkuntha, yet it seemed that they were more threatening in numbers. Skeletons, white elementals and gargoyles - not much by themselves, but threatening in groups.

Of course, it's just getting thinning the herd that might be the difficult part as she's just one person against a small army of claws, swords and ice magic.

Wanna give her a hand there?

Monster Attack Type B (CW: Possible Nudity?)

"RIBBIT! RIBBIT!"

If you're passing by, you might see a frog hopping around, being chased by an ugly plant-like beast. It seemed that whoever faced this creature might have been turned into a frog?

And there might be a chance that the encounter might lead to finding a set of clothes - it seemed that Nozomi's around here somewhere without her clothes?

Or maybe it's the frog?

Wildcard

(OoC: Hit me up with others!)

Monster Attack A

[crimsonsnow]

Jade's been down with Red Team all this time, but with all the recent changes, decided he wanted to check in on his own team, just to see how things were being handled. Certainly, he could have just kept his attention on the comms, but. Well. People lie. He had to see it for himself.

Anyway, he's not surprised to cross paths with a fellow voidtrecker under attack, but it wasn't what he'd been hoping to do, exactly. Ah well.

He could redirect ice magic in his sleep, if he wanted to, so that's not much of a problem. Frankly neither is much else, for the moment, after he raises a wall of ice between them and monsters.

"Are you alright?" he asks, mostly to be polite; and then, more importantly: "Can you fight? ...should we even fight these, or would it be better to run?"

Leia | OTA | Tiers 1 and 2

[motherofresistance]

Tier 1- A taste of home

Leia figured that tier one would be her best bet at collecting useful security codes, so she was putting her newly acquired scanner to good use before heading back down to tier two. Unfortunately, this was hindered by the illusions she kept running into, and the fact that she could tell that they were illusions didn't mean that they didn't make navigation a bit difficult. The hallways of the Imperial Senate didn't spark much more than mild interest, but the interior and grounds of the Alderaan royal palace were... difficult not to focus on. It was all disjointed, different parts appearing at different times, regardless of where they would normally have been, but each one carried its own memories with it.

Tier 2- Back on the hunt

Was it a measure of her life that her first thought upon hearing the growling behind her as she worked to install a net point was irritation at being interrupted rather than fear of danger? Probably. But that didn't make turning to see the crouched mass of illusory teeth, claws, and quills that was the illusion of a nexu any more unwelcome. And she somehow doubted that this one would be quite as vulnerable to impact damage as the real thing.

"Nice kitty...", Leia said as she slowly drew her borrowed blaster from its hidden pocket. She began edging away from where she'd been standing, hoping to get a bit more space and avoid the not-nexu backing her into a corner.

Tier 2- ID troubles- For Naja

Leia had seated herself on a bench in an open plaza to go over some of the information she'd collected, when she heard a small disturbance, glancing up to see what it was. A protesting young woman was being escorted somewhere by two security officers, and Leia was surprised to find that she recognized her; Najaran, the young woman with the talking cane who she'd met upon her arrival. What had she done to apparently get herself in trouble with security?

She got up and moved to intercept them. "Najaran?", she said as she approached them. "What happened?"

[cureofmanyworlds]

Nozomi had been wandering around, looking for other netpoints when she saw Leia getting cornered by the nexu. Not good!

“Hey!” She shouted, grabbing a rock and chucking it at the creature. “Pick on someone who can fight back!”

Romeo | Blue

[myblueskies]

Game Diving

Lots of people have woken up now and that's really good! Romeo is glad that they've managed to save so many people already but he knows there are other people who are still sleeping, still stuck in the games and tangled with vines.

So he continues jumping back in. Right now he's in a building game, big coloured blocks that could be used to make bridges, towers and staircases to travel from floating platform to floating platform.

This place like all the rest was overrun by vines and he was hopping from brick to brick soothing vines as he went.

"Can anyone hear me?" He hasn't found anyone yet but there are people playing this game, they are trapped somewhere and he's determined to find them.

Netpoints

Outside the games Romeo still isn't sitting idle. He rests when he's told to but he has the endless energy of a young boy and so once he hears there are more things they can do to help he is determined to do so.

He has some netpoints and is planning to place them around, the hospital would be a good start since that's where the people still sleeping are.

He spots a fellow Voidtrecker and approaches them, whispering to them. "I can make you invisible if you want!"

Netpoints

[yondu]

Stealthy child (or more like Yondu wasn't paying that much attention so even mild stealth would have taken him out) nearly makes the Centaurian crawl out of his skin at the surprised whisper, and he fumbles with what he's holding in the open toolbox.

Honestly he's been passing himself off as a repairman to get into places, wearing a jumpsuit (some form shlub worker clothing is a token of any society), doing his best to not be noticed despite being blue and red. And for the most part he's pretty good at being just noticeable enough that he eventually becomes forgettable.

But oh, right! Romeo did list that on his survey.

After his heart remembers how it's supposed to beat properly he finally responds reasonably. "Right, yeah. That take anything special or just somethin' you can do?"

Tidus ; 1 Orange, 2 Purple

[blitzcheer]

tier ONE; illusions

Tidus isn't trying to do this job with the netpoints alone. You might already be with him, strength in numbers, or at least making wandering a cramped, bustling city less of a boring experience. But that's not all there is to it, the alarm sounded on tier one's issues before they even arrived to the plant, and with the days since their arrival there, gradually...

"--Ah."

The scenery shifts, what was once a street crowded with sleek buildings reaching high tall and narrow fattening out, spiralled and water cascading down their sides; the rush of it attempting to crackle into life to their ears, of the same kind of distant chatter of city-life. The street has been changed to a walkway, where down below shows more buildings below; up above a starlit sky, and even a bridge of water that spans across a great distance.

Whether or not he's with another person, the sight of it stills Tidus. Heartache, that's what makes this tough, hands turning into clenched fists while he knows - with anger - this isn't real, but another part of him wanting to cling onto this a little longer, for that very reason. A dangerous way of unravelling what grip on sense he has, when this isn't all of his home; when there's so much more he'd like to see, keep imprinted in his mind.

tier TWO; fiends

The fighting is easier to wrangle with than the illusions when it comes. It's with Purple he returns to on tier two, and putting his blade to use. A sword not very cyberpunk, but with citizens rather staying inside than wandering the streets, it's not like he has to worry much about being normal in an abnormal situation.

"Oh, come on! One of you!?"

And he doesn't have to worry about fighting alone, though maybe Tidus doesn't know he has extra company than the fiend that's made its appearance. Or is it a machina, a machine that's appeared where it shouldn't be? Pick your flavour of what to fight against for a good ol' time.

tier TWO; rest

Breaks have to be taken sometimes. Really though, the mission is comparatively easy compared to some that they've had, but eyes will still grow tired, stomachs will still need to be dealt with. The ghost apartment accommodations found by Emporio and made available for those on the second tier are spacious, people don't need to linger too close together, but Tidus likes the open living room space on the lower floor, and using the sci-fi equivalent of a microwave to heat up one of Soldat's pies to stick on a plate.

"Hey," he'll greet anyone who happens to be around, a fork in his food, nodding their way. "Sticking around long, or you wanna take a night shift?"

Against those monsters not quite monsters, or placing netpoints or making scans.

WILDcard;

( for anything else, there's wildcard. if you would like to do a scanning job, got an idea of netpoint planting or anything in particular, want to do a comms chat, lmk or hit me with it!! i'm open for anything. )

[helborn]

The sand wolf growls, looking at Tidus like it's about to leap at him. Casper turns the corner, ending up at other side of the monster. ... He'd just been scouting this area, now this. He sighs and suddenly his baseball bat is in his hand.

"Do you recognize this thing?"

Senku Ishigami | Information Meeting

[10billionpercent]

Senku had invited people to come and meet, to discuss what kinds of things he'd learned from Anan.

To that end, he was waiting outside the apartment, leaning against the wall of the physical building casually. He knew that once he told people how to get in it wouldn't be a problem and they could congregate in the condo he and Gen had claimed.

He was relaxed, or at least looked it and he was just awaiting people patiently. Once they got inside, he'd get into all the things he was able to discover through talking with Anan.

[worthallthis]

Soldat shows up, because more intel is always useful, and because they're kind of worried about the connection with the previous two missions. They just nod at Senku, and wait for more people to arrive, eyes on their surroundings and a hand on their gun in case something decides to ambush this larger group of Voidtreckers.

Casper | Purple and Red

[helborn]

[Tier Two]

Casper has been doing his best to track the holograms responsible for the deaths of the people on Tier Two, but it's been difficult with the air quality so bad. He can track with very little to go on, but 'very little' becomes 'close to nothing' with sensory overload. He's been doing his best to keep an eye and an ear out, especially at night. If he can stop it from happening again...

[Beasts]

... But those things are roaming the streets now, and he has to help. He can mostly see through the illusions, but trickier ones need him to activate an ability and hope no one else is around to see the runes on his false leg light up underneath his pants. He tries to push away the illusions of mindless violent spirits that swipe at him - he's not sure if anyone else will be able to be hit by them, but he certainly can be.

[Rescue]

Or maybe he's just in time to help you. He's not using his flashier tricks, but he has a baseball bat and knows how to use it.

Kind of.

... He can hit really hard with it.

[Infiltration]

He can't do anything about electronic locks, but any small opening into a building that he can find is easy enough to exploit. Bob watches from above as Casper sneaks into where he can, completely silent. Sometimes he's himself, but sometimes when he's sneaking through it's as a near-shadow, entirely black with only the faintest of shading differences to mark his features.

The latter is probably more startling, as he can be found sneaking through the darkness while accidentally giving people the feeling of being followed.


[Tier Four]

[Questions]

Casper isn't really made for this kind of place. He's not gong to be in a fighting ring - that's just unfair. But he can take a punch, so he's asking around a little bit about what's going on with the fights. Anyone trying to intimidate him will find that he doesn't even react, and darts out of the way of any attack.

[Visions]

Casper is resistant to illusions. Some of them are getting strong enough to nearly break through, though. And one of those instances is when he spots a skinny guy with stringy, dirty hair darting down an alley.

All reason leaves his mind, and Casper runs after the guy. He knows it's an illusion, it has to be an illusion, and yet everything down to his blood is screaming vengeance. "Caspian!" His voice is a near roar as he pursues the confused and terrified man, seeing instead the cause of many of his problems. The gunshot, the smirk as he'd driven off... all of that ends ere.

The man doesn't know why Casper is chasing him, screaming for help. Hopefully whoever does can block a damn solid punch.


[Wildcard]

[???]

Visions

[shitcopper]

Ea-nasir has a small stand set up along the street, hawking wares to fighters and paranoid people and paranoid fighters. Her most popular ware so far have been crystals that absorb negative energy (they don't) and charms to help fight off illusions (they also don't.)

But she can't help but be distracted from her... mission... when Casper runs by, shouting for somebody. That voice has a lot of anger, hatred, vengeance? loaded up in it, and Ea-nasir can't help but think this is yet another illusion fun time.

Also, the guy shouting for help with intense fear and confusion might have been a clue.

Which is why when Casper catches up and throws that punch, it's Ea-nasir there to intercept. She's still a Servant, her stats can handle that, even if she's not a dedicated fighter-type Servant.

"Easy there, buddy. You sure you wanna be doing that?"

47 | Guesting on Orange Team

[rieper]

I. Continued Efforts and Illusions

47 has been doing his best to aid in the infiltration and mapping of the area. It had taken some convincing from his bonded, Lightning, to get him to abandon Red Team for once but he knew where his strengths lie. He could easily help down below with the fighting clubs--but he was probably the best infiltration specialist on the train and even getting into secure facilities like the one where Orange Team was working was completely easy and practically normal to him.

The team seemed to be making good progress here. That was good. He was still continuing the work here alongside them, changing from one set of clothes to another for infiltrating various buildings and secure areas. He coached anyone else along who wanted to come along with him--or worked on their stealth skills if they went without disguises. Good time to learn from the master if one wanted.

The illusions threw him off sometimes. Even he was fazed by suddenly finding himself on a beach in the tropics when he walked into a room. Or lost when the sight of an old testing facility threw off his step as he walked around a corner. He recovered quickly but it was obvious there were things popping into his field of view that were strange and impossible.

II. Networking and Scanning

At some point he got some netpoints and a scanner so he could help to set them out for their ally. The netpoints were easy to set up in random locations. He was an old pro at deftly placing forbidden items in discreet places where they wouldn't be noticed. He set these up all over the place.

The scanner wasn't much more hard for him. He could be seen, in disguise, greeting people with a handshake to give the scanner its chance to do its thing. It may have been odd to see him act so friendly to anyone that knew him around the train though. Sometimes he simply reached out to touch a person on their arm to gain their attention to ask a question or point out something. Anything to get his scanner close to their watch.

Ichiban Kasuga | Guesting on Red Team

[likeadragonfish]

I. Fighting Arenas

Someone had mentioned "fight clubs" while they were on the mission and Kasuga had headed straight down to the tier boasting such places. This was just like the arena in Sotenbori--and that kinda excited the ex-Yakuza. Only here there were more arenas than he could shake a stick at! It was a lot to take in, all told.

But Kasuga was nothing if not tenacious and he soon found himself easily slipping in and out of the crowds, asking questions about various goings-on, and getting familiar with the area overall. Then he got into the ring a few times.

Fighting was a big thing in his life. He was mostly a fist fighter but sometimes he would pick up random objects and use them in a fight, too. Anything from a traffic cone to a baseball bat. Whatever was allowed in the various rings here he went with it. He didn't care so long as it was within the rules, he would follow them.

He was definitely susceptible to the illusions. He saw everything from giant oozes and Demon Lords straight out of video games to a large, eastern style grey dragon that breathed fire. This, oddly enough, didn't seem to phase him. He did yell out to the 'dragon' as he finished off the opponent that appeared as one to him--something about being a dragon slayer or some such. A little strange but the crowd ate it right up.

The one thing that finally set him off though? Was the face of a man who had killed someone very precious to him. He flipped his lid, furious to see the man here somehow. That was the one time he had to be drug away from his opponent before he made a fatal mistake.

He'd thank the person for their hard efforts a little later once he'd calmed down.

II. Networking and Scanning

After that last bout where he went a little crazy, Kasuga found it best to stay out of the ring. The illusions were getting worse and people were getting really high strung. He didn't need to join in on that anymore.

So he found the new task of setting up netpoints and scanning watches to be a great new sidequest to take on. And yes, if talked about, he totally called them sidequests out loud as if he was playing a game. He was a bit unique like that.

Running around town doing random shit was right up his alley, too, to be honest. He was used to helping out strangers on the street, gathering up supplies for projects, and just about anything else he could manage in a day. He spent a lot of time walking around and finding good spots to place netpoints. Anywhere from nooks and crannies along sidewalks, down tight alleyways, and even some up on rooftops that he could reach.

He was friendly and amicable when it came time to discreetly scan people's watches. At first he seemed reluctant to scam people into letting this happen but with a little convincing he was turned onto the idea as being for the best and it would help everyone in the long run. That was enough to get him to accept it as okay. So he eagerly shook hands with people--not one to shy away despite the fact that this would have been highly unusual in his own hometown. Generally speaking, one asked to shake hands before attempting to initiate such physical contact with another person. Here though it seemed fairly normal so he went about it almost gleefully. Mimicking some big-wig silly American businessman with abandon. This, too, was almost like a game to him.

"Haha. This is kinda fun, don't ya think?" he asked the nearest Voidtrecker after a bit of paling around with a random native to get info and a scan.

III. It Gets Worse

The craziness down here on the lower tier kept getting worse though. As Kasuga made his way through crowds with high spirits and a friendly demeanor, the locals began to grow more and more agitated. Not that he blamed them. The illusions had rocked his world there for a moment, too. And even he saw one or two every now and again since then. But he was trying to keep the peace now instead of give in to the chaos and fight back.

Of course, the way Kasuga generally did things like this back home involved, well, fighting back. If a fight broke out between two people Kasuga found his way towards the outbreak and joined in. His fists were usually enough to do the speaking for him--he knocked several people flat on their tushes for getting out of control. And then he let his mouth do the talking.

He seemed oddly used to and good at this. Break up a fight by beating down all the opponents involved, and then talk them down into parting on friendly terms by convincing them they were being idiotic and disrespectful and that they should behave more civilly. It worked nine times out of ten. The other one percent left still grumbling but the fight was stopped short at least by Kasuga winning it.

Reno | Purple

[theturksway]

I. Investigation and Increasing Attacks

Reno had no qualms breaking into crime scene areas to investigate at the beginning of the mission. He wasn't necessarily subtle about it either. In his world, doing something like this wouldn't have received a bat of the eye. Mostly because people knew to stay out of the way of a Turk. They were both lawless and the law at the same time. What they did and said was final.

He met concerns from citizens and officials with the same brazen attitude when it occurred. His speech may have been informal but he was silver tongued enough to talk his way out of trouble and authoritative enough to get himself in good graces with officials, acting as though he was a higher up sent to help with investigating and brooking no argument from the lower class workers. Oddly enough, it worked. Maybe it was his demeanor that tracked or maybe it was the black suit he wore or maybe this world just had something like Turks of its own that he passed for without hitch. Whatever reason, he easily infiltrated the ongoing investigations.

Not that it did much to help figure things out. It only got stranger as they picked up on new information. The holographs in the crime scenes were stranger than usual. At first Reno couldn't figure it out--someone probably had to point it out to him. After all, in his world there were VR simulations that felt pretty real and he thought these were like those higher tier models from his old job's business. Then it clicked and he, too, was curious why they were different.

But what really kept him busy was the increasing number of creature attacks. He wasn't afraid of them. He knew how to handle himself just fine in a fight, even one from a monster. They wasn't uncommon in his line of work back home. Speaking of which, most of the creatures that attacked him were oddly reminiscent of creatures and monsters from the Planet. Anything from a Guard Hound that ShinRa used to breed, to a Hedgehog Pie from the Slums, to a Gagighandi, to a Coeurl.

"Careful! Those aren't easy foes to take down!" He warned anyone trying to help fend off one of the creatures that looked like monsters from his homeworld instead of some more mundane animal.

II. Networking and Scanning

Reno helped out with the networking and scanning projects as well when it popped up. There was no reason not to make their lives easier, and anyway the regular investigation tactics were getting them all but nowhere. He started off with netpoints, placing them outside and within easy access buildings and offices first. Then he moved on to harder to reach places. His networking with the local police force helped a lot in that regard, allowing him into places where civvies weren't allowed. But even he ran into trouble when he tried to get to a few more secure areas.

That didn't really phase him much. He would come back later, maybe with someone else to watch his back, and slip into buildings and offices with more security at night with a bit of stealth action. He was surprisingly good at "finding" and "acquiring" passcodes and keycards that were required for some places. Probably better not to ask how he got them.

While he was there, he scanned for additional data as well. Sneaking around wasn't necessarily his forte but it was clear he had some experience with it, too. He was good at navigating new spaces he'd never been to before as well, learning quickly and using knowledge of similar office spaces to know where to go without much dicking around.

Fending off monsters during these escapades was almost a given, too. "Man, what gives? Are these things being directed?" was a question that might come up at some point regarding how often they were attacked while attempting to get into offices for more planting and information gathering.