>>5151207Relishing the feeling of being back in your own ‘home’ as it were, the parlor’s window opens with a thought as you discreetly reach out to keep your right-hand woman in the loop.
“Em, how’re things?” You ask, waiting a moment or two before her voice is carried to you on the winds.
“All quiet on the western front.” She replies, the message interwoven with the sounds of nature just ‘outside’—a quirk of communicating through the Skinternet and into the small dust-mote of a Relic nested in Em’s ear. “What’s up?”
You’d like to say that you give her a swift, efficient summary of your findings…but you know better. After a solid ten minutes of elaborate recap, she heaves a breathy sigh.
“I think you know what I’m gonna vouch for.” She begins, much as you anticipated. “I can get down there and start cracking heads. We’ll have this done in less than a day, and that’s a promise.”
“I know…but I’d like to handle this discreetly.” You gently counter, and you can practically feel Em roll her eyes before you offer an explanation. “Settlements hang by threads. We may not know this Georgia girl’s aims, but if we start an inquisition then, yes, we could solve the issue in short order…but how long would it take to regain the faith of the people here?”
“…Fair point.” Your friend concedes. “’Keep an ear to the ground and a hand on my sword’, is what I’m hearing?”
“At least until whatever’s going on with Arcadia settles down and I can speak to Magnus personally about it.”
Em laughs.
“How long you figure that’s going to take? You know how artists are. Assholes, the lot of ‘em.”
“…Em, *you* were an artist.”
“I know what I’m about, son.” She replies, then shifts gears. “Hey, any word on how Yurei got clapped, yet?”
“No, sorry.” You wince as you massage your temples with one hand. “I’ve been so focused on the aftermath of the other thing, so-“
“No worries, girl.” Em interrupts dismissively. “Been some rumors going around she got beat by somebody named Shoe.”
“You mean Shu.”
“Shoe?”
“Shu.”
“That’s what I said.” Em says, irritably. “Wait, are you doing that Skinternet thing again where you can see how I’m spelling shit?”
“She’s not a boot. It’s S-H-U.” You inform your friend, she just laughs.
“*Anyway*, I’m going to go check in on the troops and then get some shuteye. Tap me if anything comes up, okay?”
The window gently shuts as the private connection goes still and you’re left, once again, with the lingering scent of tea and your own busied thoughts. Now that you’ve settled on a tentative course of action, you suppose there’s nothing stopping you from…
>>Finally doing some research on Shu.>>Checking in with Zee, and how she fared with those two.>>Looking up something else on the Skinternet you’re curious about (Write-In)>>Write-InCOME WHAT MAY, CARVE OUT JOY
