kenod

I plan to become the boogeyman. More seriously, I'm personally interesting in joining a more guild-central plot, but that will depend on what the guilds themselves want to do. Otherwise, I'll probably join in with whatever criminal enterprise will be organized.

KanMien smiled. "Good enough," she said, and walked towards her, releasing the bonds that were keeping her in place. As she waited for the woman to stand up she called Kumiko. "Change of plans," she spoke into the phone. "They're hunting a target I, or well, the DA, has been looking for for a while, so we'll be working together for a bit. Can you come to where I am?" She paused for a bit, waiting for Kumiko to answer. "No, don't tell anyone, we can solve this by ourselves, and getting approval for sending larger amounts of people takes time, we'll do this as the DoCI." Turning off the phone she turned to the woman. "Let's go deal with this," she said.

Vita shrugged. "Just walk into an alley, and say out loud that you need to speak to someone because you want to join. Using a specific name tends to be best. For Acquisitions I suggest Matthieu, he's the department head, and the one who goes over that kind of thing. Just keep in mind that once you do go into the alleys there won't be any chance to back out, so think everything through carefully before going in." She looked at her for a bit, thinking. "I wouldn't mind introducing you myself, it would be safer for you." And might get me a bonus, she added in her mind. "I won't be able to do so for now though, given that I currently need to oversee our operations here."

@Grey Knight @Arcc1002 @Darth Woodrack

Anyone taking bets on how quickly it will be destroyed? You're not allowed to cheat and destroy the place yourself.

@Arcc1002

Vita thought for a bit, trying to remember if there were any regulations regarding this. While doing so she suddenly noticed she was playing with her knife. Quickly she put it away again in her sleeve, trying to hide her embarrassment. "Um, I don't think so?" She said, sounding slightly uncertain. "You'll probably be required to put the DA above your current guild, but as long as their interests don't fundamentally conflict with ours I don't think it's an issue? It might be hard to gain access to the more classified parts of our knowledge though." "As for the price..." She thought a bit longer. "I guess it depends on what you do. If you work in the DoCI or acquisitions I guess you just need to make yourself useful, and you can look into it in your spare time, and you manage to catch the eye of a higher-up they might decide to help you. If you join research you're probably required to research it yourself, but you'll have access to the knowledge and equipment necessary for it, and you might be able to find other people researching the topic that way as well." She sighed. "I guess that's kind of the rule for achieving your goals in the DA in general, make yourself useful or use the resources available to achieve the goal yourself, though the second option means you're useful as well, just in a different way, so I guess both are kind of the same?"

Hmm, depending on where Ark's thread is I'd personally like to see if we can wrap that one up before the change, but if we do that it can't last for too much longer, or we'll be holding up everything else, which will cause trouble. We might also want to discuss a few side-plots for Era 5 too, so we have something to start off with. As for plots, maybe we could have a smaller-scale guild conflict? The drops in general guild power should allow for a sub-plot focusing on it without the conflict destroying the entire city, instead having it more in the background, with small-scale clashes, perhaps also with the guilds hiring mercenaries/muscle because they don't have much in the way of soldiers, which would also give an excuse for characters who aren't officially involved with the reductions in guild power to get involved. Also, as a question for the guild leaders, would it be possible to have characters switch guilds for the duration of this? I have a couple characters who'd work quite well in different guilds while this is going on.

I nod back, tense, wondering when something is going to happen.

I walk into the room with the feast, walking towards my seat. My rope is wrapped around my arm so I can use it as a shield if someone breaks the truce, and I have the sword-ring on my finger. Silently I sit down at my spot, looking at who else is still alive and has decided to show up.

"Um..." Vita thought about the question for a bit. "I know someone in Bio-science I can refer you to, but they specialize in purely physical causes, not in anything Investure related, and they likely won't have access to the knowledge to try the more complicated Investure-based remedies." She shrugged. "There are probably some around, there are always people in the alleys with any expertise you need, but finding them will be difficult. My suggestion would be to try and find someone related to R&D. I might be able to arrange a meeting, if you wish, but I will require more knowledge about the situation in order to convince people it is interesting, and this might mean the duration of your stay will not be up to you." She thought for a bit longer, opening and closing her knife out of habit. "I think your best options would be to either see if there are DA members amongst the ACE team who work in R&D, and see if they know someone, or to actually join the DA and do the research yourself, or use the opportunity to find someone who knows what you want to know."

Maybe a runner for a private investigator? Or, depending on how gutsy she is, someone who burgled places for fun, a bit a like Lift, basically just seeing if you can get in.

Depends on if you want anything specific in the background. Was the informant thing there for a specific reason, or just for flavour?

I mean, it isn't the person doing it being caught, it's the police trying to present evidence gathered without a warrant, which any competent lawyer could find out about fairly quickly. Steel compounders are allowed, it's just that the number of weaknesses you'd need to have would put a lot of restrictions on the character, which might make them somewhat difficult to rp.

Nice to have you! If you haven't done so yet, I suggest checking out the character creation guides at the first page, including the Index, and the explanation of how the points system works for a character's Investure and skills. As an aside, I'm not sure how laws regarding this would work on Scandrial, but working for the police as an informant that uses illegal methods to obtain evidence (especially if it is to circumvent laws preventing the police from doing so) is considered highly illegal in the real world, and would lead to a lot of sanctions and lost cases (for the persecutors), since you're deliberately using someone to circumvent laws that prevent you from doing what you're hiring them to do.

KanMien blinked, and then frowned. She had seen the name Crow before, on the reports on the Den of Thieves, and a few months ago as well in the reports on PlasmaCore, though her actual relation to them wasn't fully known, though there was the fact that some Marines and one of their ships showed up during the opening stage of the incident. And even more recently, there had been reports of activity in the underworld of the city, certain aspects of which could be attributed to Crow, when she looked at it in a certain way." She thought about what to do. Normally she'd be expected to report this, but the person she had to report it to was gone, she had found out about this before going to the Woodwyrd, after all. Besides, she did have a fair bit of leeway in her actions. Finally she nodded. "Can you tell me what you're planning on doing with her?" She asked. "We might be able to offer help. After all, we have some interest in her as well." @Grey Knight

Aiwass stretched out and stood up as well. "I'll send that message to the mercenary after this is done," she said. She let out a short chuckle. "Don't want to give them warning, after all. Besides, with a bit of luck she's there. Seeing how she'll do would be fun."

"Umm," Shade just looked at Grace as she was doing what she was doing, feeling more confused by the minute, not even able to understand how she felt about it. Out of reflex she activated her abilities a bit more, the emotion dampening helping her deal with the confusion. " I'm an Epic," she said, answering her question. "My powers just let me make it harder or easier for people to notice me." A bit of extra information, trying to earn some trust. She was still hiding some of what she could do, trying to have at least some advantage if something happened. Still, she could at least tell that much. After all, Grace had already figured out the basics about her powers, so just confirming it wasn't an issue, and letting her know about a trick she didn't use anyway wouldn't hurt her. Besides, maybe it would get her to say something about her own abilities. @Arcc1002

Vita tilted her head slightly at the question, thinking. So she either has memory loss or knows someone who does. She filed that particular though away for later reference, instead focusing on her question. "We might," she answered. "I do want to point out that the particular knowledge involved isn't my speciality, so please keep that in mind." She paused for a bit, thinking about the question. "First of all, the answer would depend on the cause," she continued after some deliberation. "There are quite a few forms and causes of memory loss after all, and something like this likely involves all three realms, and my knowledge of these particular interactions is somewhat limited. Of course, there's also the fact that there are different types of memory, such as Semantic and Episodic, the first dealing with factual knowledge, such as the knowledge that the DA uses Hemalurgy, or the Ghostbloods live in Oasis City. Episodic memory, on the other hand, contains your actual experiences, such as what you had for breakfast two days ago. This particular bit of information will be important later, by the way." She drank a little bit of water to prepare for the rest of the talk. "I'd say that purely physical memory loss from brain-trauma could likely be fixed using healing magic that focusses on the spiritual, like stormlight healing, though there might be a few complications there, since the general lack of guidance for this type of healing can make it unpredictable. This method would likely work because the physical damage generally won't affect the cognitive and spiritual aspects of a person, meaning that the memories would still be stored there. After all, the spiritweb transcends time, so even if the memories themselves aren't stored there the Connections could allow the healing magic to reform." "Of course," she continued, "If the damage isn't purely physical things will get a lot more complicated, and will depend a lot more on what exactly caused the memory loss. One positive here, however, is that a fair number of artificial methods for inducing memory loss seem to simply seal away the memories, instead of destroying them, though this isn't always a given. For example, the Returned on Nalthis seem to have an ability to recall their past to some degree, under certain circumstances. I believe a fair number of memory manipulation Epics are also capable of restoring memories, though I'm not sure if these are simply blocked or if the Epic steals them and later restores them based on what they themselves remember of the memory from when they erased it. Similarly, back when someone at Bioscience invented a drug to interfere with memories it also simply blocked them, though that was mostly because removing them tended to also target all other memories, and normally turned the test-subject into a vegetable." "Well, most forms of memory loss fall into these two categories," she said after drinking some more. "Of course, there's also trauma and alcohol-induced memory-loss, but you can argue that this isn't really losing the memory, instead the mind never gets the chance to transfer its short-term memories into long-term memory." "As for actually curing it..." Vita paused for a bit, thinking. "I already explained memory-loss induced through physical trauma, so I won't be going into that. For the other cause, it depends on if the memories are sealed or destroyed. The first one is theoretically reversible, but doing so could prove difficult. I suspect the Nightwatcher could do it. Some researchers at the DA who specialize in Cognitive and Spiritual manipulation might be able to as well, as might some memory-manipulation Epics. Of course, the actual technique, level of power and level of skill required would vary a lot depending on the origin of the block." "Destroyed memories, on the other hand would be much more difficult," she continued in a slightly regretful tone. "Most standard methods likely won't work. If it's because of Spiritual damage you might be able to fix the Spiritweb, but I've got no clue on how to do so. If the Spiritweb isn't damaged, the only idea I have that could theoretically work would be to manually trace back your Spiritweb, and find out your past that way, though I personally wouldn't be able to do so. Once you've done that you could read your memories like a book. You wouldn't have the experiences themselves, but you would know what actually happened. And, of course, if you don't mind the artificiality you could have a Forger use this knowledge to create artificial versions of the memories for you." She paused, looking at the woman. "The final advise I can offer you... I'd suggest finding out if there are still traces of the missing memory remaining. Something like faint impressions, or small fragments of memories, or sudden flashes. If that's the case the memory is likely only sealed, or at least still connected to the Spiritweb. Well, that's all I have, I hope it can be of some aid."

"Hmm?" Vita said, looking at her, wondering why she'd want to talk to her. It seemed she had some sort of investure, though she couldn't determine what. She held up her hand, signalling for her to wait for a second. Quickly she gave orders to some of the still remaining denizens, asking them to gather some of the Atium so that they had some initial samples to send back, as well as asking them to try and get a better estimate on how much atium there was, how difficult it was to get it, and what they'd need to get access to it. Two others she send to secure the tunnel that got them there, and to explore and secure some of the nearby tunnels connecting to this one. Finally she looked back at the woman. "You said you wanted to talk?" She asked, trying to sound polite and profesional. It couldn't hurt after all, better to be at good terms with the ACE team. "I have some time now. Do you prefer to talk here, or would you prefer to head back to your base-camp, or somewhere more private?" Not that the later case would actually be private, of course. She wasn't stupid enough to go somewhere alone with someone she just met without some other denizens being close enough to render aid. In this case a private talk simply meant she wouldn't be aware the denizens were keeping watch.

Shade stiffened, only just managing to avoid taking out her knife and stabbing the woman out of instinct as she started examining her. Even more worrying was the fact that she had been using her powers without even being aware of it, and the woman actually seemed to have some idea of what was happening, even if she didn't understand everything. "Ahem," she cleared her throat, trying to get the woman to stop. She looked at her. It didn't seem as if she was planning to attack her, so maybe it would be better to introduce herself? "Erm, I'm Shade," she said, sounding a bit nervous. "Could you tell me who you are?" @Arcc1002