![[BtS-72-1.png]] Not too long after [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] began fielding questions, [[Gideon Roi|Gideon]] spun his chair around in such a way that nobody could see him, allowing him to turn invisible using his cloak. It was abundantly clear from his glare at [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] before he turned around that he was frustrated by this, and from the looks of things he had a plan. I noticed that [[Wilborin|Wil]] had taken [[Arkai]] outside before coming back in without him, so clearly I wasn't the only one worried. Nobody was talking about the situation in the Telepathic Bond however, so I decided to break that silence by telling everyone to under no circumstances interact with me. About 15 minutes after [[Gideon Roi|Gideon]] turned around [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] abruptly stopped taking questions, apologizing and claiming he was needed elsewhere. As someone who has gotten a random sending from [[Lady Irorika Galvira|Irorika]], I full well understood what had just happened, figuring that Gideon had just arrived and explained the situation to her. With the seminar abruptly over, there was a lot of commotion in the crowd. I didn't notice it, but [[Nhox Cropslown|Nhox]] apparently used this commotion as cover to turn into a rat and scurry off. I only knew this from the fact that her comment of "You stupid fucking idiot" was high pitched voice in the Telepathic Bond. [[Badda]] left the room before turning invisible behind a curtain and flying back to [[The Horizon Project#The Sthira|the Sthira]], reasonably worried for their safety. [[Gideon Roi|Gideon]] began to give some orders over the Telepathic Bond, directly from [[Lady Irorika Galvira|Irorika]]. She told everyone to come back immediately, however after a bit of explanation she allowed [[Wilborin|Wil]] and [[Kitsuki Nagahashi|I]] to stay for the time being. Of course my explanation was that I was out on a date, which I will note that [[Badda]] congratulated me on. Amidst all of this mental discussion I was still sitting there with [[Erris Solé|Erris]], talking about the events that had just unfolded as we were preparing to leave. Knowing that I wouldn't be able to hide my more intimate knowledge of the situation, I explained to her that I work in intelligence and occasionally work on hunts. Technically this is the truth, however her assumptions very quickly lead her to come to the conclusion that I work for the [[Corinau]] government. I also told her that while I did know where they came from, I wasn't aware of the ancient civilisation aspect. I then offered to take her for lunch to continue talking about it, as I had been recommended a place by someone I recently went on a hunt with. She agreed, beginning to follow, engrossed in the conversation enough such that she wasn't paying very close attention to where we were going. When we arrived at Oratrice Cardinale, [[Erris Solé|Erris]] looked a little surprised that this is where I was taking her. She made a remark about how well intelligence work must pay given that I was treating her to this, but honestly it is of no concern to me. I enjoy what I do to make this money, and I like showing people a good time with what I can provide. Before I get into the contents of the discussion, I will note that [[Erris Solé|Erris]] seemed to be familiar with this level of extravagance. It does not seem to be a place she would visit often, but I take it that she has been to similar places before. While lunch was extremely good, the conversation over it was far more important. We spoke at length about the situation at hand, talking over the many different scenarios. [[Erris Solé|Erris]] explained that at first she was filled with disbelief, but as the talk progressed there was just too much evidence backing [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]]'s statements for it to be disregarded as a prank. While at first she didn't really indicate how she personally felt about the situation, she did play devil's advocate for much of the conversation. Her main point is that clearly [[The Horizon Project|the fleet]] has kept some secrets from the people of [[Corinau]], what's to say there isn't any more. Hell, what's to say that they haven't completely deceived everyone in the government. This standpoint made for a fantastic conversation, over the course of which she slowly became more comfortable with the situation. There is still a healthy amount of concern remaining, which is to be expected given the circumstances. Nothing that should be insurmountable in the future, however even then it was clear it might be a while before I had any free time again. As for [[Wilborin|Wil]]'s side of things, he stuck around with the main crowds, listening in and participating in bits of discussion. The majority of people were filled with shock and surprise at both the fact that their folk tales are based on reality, and that the purgatory has been crossed by actual people. Much like with [[Erris Solé|Erris]], there is a substantial amount of distrust in the fleet, mainly focused on the worry that there may be more left of the [[Mithral Empire|hydra]]. [[Wilborin|Wil]] also picked up that the majority of people referred to [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] as "it" rather than "him", an interesting stance given what the people had just seen. I will note that [[Erris Solé|Erris]] was in the majority, using "it" in our conversation over lunch. Oddly enough, at no point were the undead really mentioned, I guess they had already come to terms with that aspect, or it had been overshadowed by the main revelation. It was important throughout all of this to keep in mind that these have all been the thoughts and feelings of highly educated individuals. The way that the general public is going to react will likely be vastly different, which could pose a tremendous problem for us. To investigate that topic, [[Wilborin|Wil]] first went to get some clothes to make himself look more like a local. He then went around to look for the spread of any rumours surrounding the presentation, of which he found very little. Best he could tell the news isn't going to spread until tomorrow morning when the newspaper comes out with a story on it. I did think it might be possible to curb the spreading of the news with some unrelated rumour, but it would be very difficult. Once I had finished my lunch with [[Erris Solé|Erris]], I did ask [[Lady Irorika Galvira|Irorika]] if she was willing to let me try, however she was not interested and was adamant on both [[Wilborin|Wil]] and [[Kitsuki Nagahashi|I]] returning as soon as possible. Given that we were done with everything we had planned, we both returned to [[The Horizon Project#The Sthira|the ship]], ready to deal with the consequences of [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]]'s actions. Returning to [[The Horizon Project#The Sthira|the ship]] I found 8 fleet guards standing watch, having replaced the prior single [[Corinau|Corinian]] and single fleet guard arrangement, clearly security had been increased. I had done a good enough job at hiding my appearance that it took a moment for them to recognize who I was before allowing me onto the pier. I immediately went to our room, finding everyone except [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] there, waiting in the common room. [[Gideon Roi|Gideon]] took me to the side to inform me that he had set up a trap for [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] in his room which will cause a wine bottle to pour all over his face when he lies down for the night. A clever trap I will admit, but probably not the most constructive one. As for where [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] was, I heard later from a guard that he had spent about an hour getting reamed out by [[Claude Berezina|Claude]], [[Yvonne Augusto|Yvonne]], [[Sigmund]], [[Lady Irorika Galvira|Irorika]], and 5 diplomats for the amount of problems he has just caused them. He had ruined the work 3 diplomats who had been working on with the hopes of slowly informing the public of the situation. Now, the public are going to jump to conclusions, putting the entire fleet in danger. Thankfully the government had very early on been made aware of all the information that [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] had given the people, so at least this isn't coming as a surprise to the important people. After he had been thoroughly scolded, [[Lady Irorika Galvira|Irorika]] guided him out of the church to dismiss him back to the room. Before she could do so he attempted to hand her his weapons and bag, which [[Lady Irorika Galvira|Irorika]] declined. She responded that he is not dangerous, just incredibly stupid, which I think might have been more of a cut than she had intended. After this he made some sort of remark about not wanting to go back to the room, to which [[Lady Irorika Galvira|Irorika]] explained that is probably the exact reason he should go back. Given that this conversation apparently happened before [[Wilborin|Wil]] and [[Kitsuki Nagahashi|I]] returned, he obviously didn't go right back to the room. Now that I was in the silence of our room, I was finally able to think about what *I* thought about the entire situation. There was no doubt I was beyond livid, but what was the exact reason? After thinking for a while I came up with two primary reasons, the first of which being just how much he has fucked up things for us. He has potentially put a target on [[The Horizon Project|the fleet]], endangered the families of multiple [[Ex Nihilo|group]] members, shaken up my progress with [[Erris Solé|Erris]], and quite possibly heavily delayed, or possibly destroyed, the room upgrade [[Wilborin|Wil]] and [[Kitsuki Nagahashi|I]] had managed to convince people for. To that last point, the forms had already been signed off on, so I think there is still a decent chance we're able to salvage that, but delays are likely inevitable. The second, and more important reason for my anger, is that his actions show that he has clearly paid **no** attention to the mistakes I have made. When we were first brought onto [[The Horizon Project|the project]] I undoubtedly made mistakes, most notably endangering [[Lady Irorika Galvira|Irorika]] by telling [[Session 11 - Yes I Did The Math|Theri]] information I should not have. The secrecy regarding his situation was blatantly obvious, yet he did not consult any of us before deciding to tell a lecture hall of 500 people! While yes, I was relatively secretive about [[Erris Solé|Erris]], our relationship has not been particularly concrete, and was completely irrelevant to the rest of [[Ex Nihilo|the group]]. When [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] finally returned to the room, [[Gideon Roi|Gideon]] and [[Kitsuki Nagahashi|I]] made sure he understood just how we felt. Just our stares were enough to make our feelings clear as a brief glint of fear was visible on his face, but I wasn't going to just leave it without some stern words: > You are a fucking fool. I know you are well aware of how much you screwed up things for the fleet. I'm more pissed at how much you have personally screwed up your closest allies' plans. You will get no sympathy from me ever again. His retort of "Well I didn't know about your plans" showed just how *arrogant* he is, and I made sure he knew that. No apology, just a shitty retort before locking himself in his room after all he had done. After another couple hours [[Lady Irorika Galvira|Irorika]] came by to give us some information about what is to come, alongside some rules and suggestions. The new rules and suggestions are as follows: Rules: - Until further notice, [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]], [[Badda]], and [[Nhox Cropslown|Nhox]] may not enter [[Corinau City|the city]]. - [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] must stay under a disguise at all times when he is not inside a building. - For those that still can enter the city, we *must* provide clear reason and intent to [[Lady Irorika Galvira|Irorika]] before doing so. - Any plans that we may have must also be run past [[Lady Irorika Galvira|Irorika]] before any work is done. Suggestions: - Avoid going into the city at all costs. - Be careful not to be seen on the ship to avoid possible connections being drawn. As for fleet updates, everyone has been switched to high alert and been told to enhance security due to a "potential security threat", with no mentions of why, or [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]]'s involvement. Only [[The Horizon Project#The Sthira|the Sthira]] is going to remain attached to the docks, the rest of the ships will stay in the area out of the way. We are to help with the logistics of this, primarily carrying things around on [[The Horizon Project#Bountiful Winds|the Bountiful Winds]] since it was the messiest of the bunch and needed a lot of work to become independent again. Additionally public visitations have ended both ways, although that was absolutely to be expected. With that all said, [[Lady Irorika Galvira|Irorika]] was finished and moved to leave. I considered asking a few questions, but decided that it would be best if I just left it for later. [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] was also immediately looking to run off and hide, but before he could do so I took a Sending spell from him in order to inform [[Erris Solé|Erris]] that I wouldn't be around much in the coming days. --- Gozran 8th, 2431AS Today was just as we expected, mainly focusing on carrying stuff back and forth between [[The Horizon Project#The Sthira|the Sthira]] and [[The Horizon Project#Bountiful Winds|the Bountiful Winds]]. I didn't see [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] the entire day, increasing my frustration as clearly he wasn't planning on helping with the problem he had created. As the day progressed a small crowd of people watching [[The Horizon Project|the fleet]] did end up forming, though everything remained calm throughout the day. Halfway through the day each of us were approached by an officer on behalf of [[Lady Irorika Galvira|Irorika]]. We were asked if we had anything we were working on in the city, and if there was anything to write it down and hand it to [[Lady Irorika Galvira|Irorika]] by the end of the day. I do not believe anyone else had anything to write down, however I had plenty. I left her the following message: > [!Letter to Irorika] > Yes, I did have things that I was working on. > > We were waiting on a potential job from the city's Librarian. They were contacting older friends to check if anyone needed help. > > We were waiting on a potential job for another hunt from the butcher. They were about to have a new batch of commissions that we were going to have an option to get one of those contracts. > > I was working on a personal relationship with a high level student at the [[Corinau City#Corinau College of Engineering|college of engineering]]. This task was purely for personal gains. --- Gozran 9th, 2431AS Thankfully some of my concerns were quelled this morning as we were given the rewards from our hunt with [[Athanar Cirian|Athanar]]. Shortly afterwards I received a message from [[Lady Irorika Galvira|Irorika]] in the Linked Letter: > [!Linked Letter] > If this is the librarian from Capital Library, go and check in with them because they're too valuable a contact to miss out on because of this. Otherwise, unfortunately you have to pause the rest of your plans for the time being. With a good reason to go into [[Corinau City|the city]], I decided that I would also use the time to purchase and deliver a gift. After selling off a random vial of Chaos Oil that we clearly had no intent to use, I went to find [[Lady Irorika Galvira|Irorika]] to talk about what I was going to do. I explained that [[Wilborin|Wil]] and [[Kitsuki Nagahashi|I]] are going to meet up at the library in roughly an hour. In that hour I wanted to go and give [[Erris Solé|Erris]] a gift, to which [[Lady Irorika Galvira|Irorika]] made sure it was in no way related to the fleet. Given that it was even coming from [[Corinau City]] itself, this was not a concern and I was given the go-ahead. As I left the docks to head into town I noticed that the crowd had grown even larger than before. They looked mostly neutral at the time, however a crowd that large could be a recipe for disaster. Dealing with that was in no way my job however, and in present circumstances it wasn't a good idea to go outside what I had been allowed to do. I made haste towards the staves shop, Secret Channel, where I purchased the Greater Staff of Conducting. They graciously packed it up in a nice wooden carrying case for me, which I immediately took to Colonel Jason's across the road. Thankfully it is almost always the same two people on shift there, so I asked them to hold the box for [[Erris Solé|Erris]]' group, giving them each a silver piece as payment for the service. I also left a note for [[Erris Solé|Erris]] in the box, explaining that I was going to be busy, but that we should meet up again after work dies down. I hope it wasn't too big of a gift, but now that I've got more money and don't truly want for much, I'm glad to help others and see their projects come through. I figure once we find a tattoo artist capable of doing the tattoo that [[Badda]] wants I'll help them get it. I may not fully understand why they want the powers of those terrible creatures, but I know it will make them happy. After I was done with the gift, I met [[Wilborin|Wil]] outside the library just as planned. We went in and up to the librarian who quickly recognized and welcomed us. He did note that it was just the two of us, to which I made an offhand remark about [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] and how he has gotten us into this mess. The librarian commented that he has seen people make this kind of mistake far too many times, and that it seems to be a mistake that academics make. They are far too focused on how people like them think that they don't pay attention to how the general population will think. That definitely seems to be the case here, so I guess it's good to know that he's not alone. With pleasantries exchanged we got down to brass tacks. Despite the situation with our lockdown, we still want to help the people of [[Corinau]]. He was a little surprised by our desire to still help, saying that it was a brave choice all things considered. He then went on to explain that he has good news, although it is a little complicated. There is a task that a group of professors at the university are interested in us doing, and he can arrange a meeting for us with them. So long as [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]] isn't present in the meeting things should go smoothly, as he fears [[Avrec Rishten|Avrec]]'s presence may make the situation too unpredictable. Given that I don't trust him enough to be in that meeting, I'm by no means opposed to this. As for the job, it is something about a magical item that they would like retrieved from an abandoned village a week's travel from the city. From what the librarian understands the village is hostile to life for some reason, so it definitely won't be an easy task and we will definitely need the entire [[Ex Nihilo|group]]. Information in hand I wrote out all the information about the task to [[Lady Irorika Galvira|Irorika]] on the Linked Letter. It didn't take very long for her to respond, giving us the go-ahead to setup the meeting and that we will work something out for making it work. The librarian was happy to hear that we were accepting the job, and that in a week from now we should come back and he will have the details for the meeting. He will mention that we are from [[The Horizon Project|the fleet]], something which he believes will interest them. With our task done, [[Wilborin|Wil]] and [[Kitsuki Nagahashi|I]] began to make our way back to [[The Horizon Project#The Sthira|the Sthira]], quietly talking as we took our time enjoying the limited freedom. We were surprised that things were going so well, but that would not stay the case. I stopped, the murmuring of the crowds around us suddenly drowned out by a deafening warning shout from the back of my mind as I looked at the fleet in the harbor in the far distance. For a moment I was confused by what my body had apparently sensed, a feeling that would last until we saw the bright flash and sudden plume of an explosion at the back of the bountiful winds, followed a second later by the shockwave as it blasted past us. The sounds of screaming rose around us as the blown up chunks of rock from the ship started landing in the waters around it, fading into the waters below. > [!Recap Note] >This session's title is a reference to the iconic Key & Peel skit, "YOU DONE FUCKED UP A-ARON".