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[Empiricist]

Shef
"<Mister Willems, is this a good time?>"

[Strider03]

"Good enough. If I have to go, I'll call back later, but I should be fine. All the duels are over for now I believe."

[Empiricist]

Shef
"<I have the preliminary results of our investigation. All signs suggest your fate has been altered.>"
Altered?
"<Imagine if you would, your fate as a path that branches endlessly, some branches more likely, some less. Typically if one were to manipulate your fate they would seek to sway the probabilities, steer your fate so to speak. What has happened here however is that something has perturbed your fate, forced you upon a highly unlikely path such that the expected trajectories diverge completely from what one would expect.>"
"<As it lacks any continuous component I am afraid to say that it is impossible to dispel. Similarly, it is a not a matter that can be detected casually. I found it only because I searched for it specifically per your concerns.>"
"<To pluck a maze of infinite probability, to change the very trajectory of one's fate through a single perturbation isolated in time. I trust that it should be apparent enough that such is no easy feat. It would be no exaggeration to say such techniques exist only at the pinnacle of fate manipulation.>"
Great. Premium secret fate manipulation.
"<The scrying signature does not match anything within our records. I am extending our investigation through correspondence with other parties. However, if you may excuse my pride, though that same art has condemned me to this sordid state, we are its experts. If we know not of the signature, the chance anyone else is slim, to state it lightly. In light of this, it is highly likely that this was caused not by a spell but rather a Godforged Regalia.>"
Great. Great. Just pile on the good news.
"<Based on the decay rate of the residuals and what I could gather of your circumstances, I believe it was applied no more than two years ago. Scrying has also yielded the visage of an implement that is perhaps related to this, it would appear to be a bow sculpted from a still-leafened branch with a string comprised of water threading an arrow that bears the form of a sewing needle.>"

[Strider03]

<"Well that's concerning. I've seen the implement you described, briefly. Didn't think I was attacked by the one with it though. . . " So something had probably been applied to him extremely quickly, and without notice as he was abandoning that warehouse. As if that situation hadn't been unnerving enough.

"This. . . effect, does it seem like something that could be applied within a few minutes? And. . . I suppose I ought to ask, how fixed is all this, my actions and events surrounding me?"

[Empiricist]

Shef
"<Such would not be impossible.>"
"<As for its influence. I-it it...>"
Silence. Silence for quite a while. Possibilities rush through your head.
"<*ahem* *deep exhale* _{M-Mister Willems} a-are you simply the product of your birth? O-of couse not... these alterations, they are at most a partial rebirth. A change in circumstances that alter the paths laid before you. B-but we still have agency, e-even if it sometimes feels like it is futile. E-even if seems predetermined. T-the future is always uncertain and w-we can still choose our paths.>"
Uh. Is that directed to you, or just to herself?
_{"<W-was my delivery to standard?>"
"<Well, iunno what this is about, but you sounded comforting. Took a while to get there though.>"}

[Strider03]

Shef chuckled nervously. "Sure.But I'm not looking for reassurance. What I need to know is twofold. One, would there be any purpose in pursuing the source, or will it only be found when it wants to, and secondly, how much of this affects the behavior of others. I.e. does it merely change the situation and correspondingly, people's response, or might it affect even their internal decisions directly?" He needed to be able to combat this. He couldn't afford to waffle over whether he personally had free will. That didn't really matter, Shef told himself.

[Empiricist]

Shef
"<*ahem* My apologies, please disregard that outburst.>"
"<It would not be assuredly futile. In theory they may make it difficult to pursue them, but even if such were the case with the bow as a lead I could counteract such attempts.>"
"<Our magic cannot sway will. It may bias circumstances toward your meeting persons of a certain criteria. Perhaps it could even help you create a certain impression. But it cannot infringe upon will. Be it ours or others.>"

[Strider03]

"Outburst? Anyway, good. If you're willing to help me out in hunting this person, I'd be quite grateful and willing to pay. But, for the sake of discretion, who else have you told? I heard a voice there." It sounded like Evi, but, one could never be sure over the phone. That would be okay, probably. But if too many people heard about this, finding the source would be substantially more difficult.

[Chevaleresse]

". . . have you seen a seagull? Especially those seagulls? Noriko had few qualms about pests of that magnitude suddenly disappearing. "But if there is another way, then yeah, we can try that first. We still need to get them out of there somehow, though. I suppose I could just blow them away, but, uhh. . . She rubbed the back of her head. "Usually if I'm controlling wind at that magnitude it doesn't really happen safely, to put it lightly."

[Empiricist]

Shef
"<I remain the only one who knows the whole truth of the matter. In researching the mechanism I did not disclose your identity.>"
"<...You um, heard that? That would be _{Miss Stephanidis. She doesn't know it's you.}>"

[Strider03]

Shef cocked an eyebrow. Why would Evi be there?

<"Really now. So she entered the room after you said my name, and you're certain of that? Up to you if you want to say, but. . . why is she there?>" Maybe some fancy rich person's party? Rather odd though.

[Empiricist]

Shef
"<Yes. I believe so? I, may have raised my voice during my outburst just then.. She is assisting me in keeping up appearances.>"

[Strider03]

Shef was certain that he did not want to rely on a vague belief that this conversation had not been overheard. <"Well. Be careful about that. This should remain between the two of us, due to the danger posed by someone with these abilities."> He stopped, hesitating about whether to pry. But then again, he didn't believe he'd ever made the impression of a particularly polite person.

<"Are you alright? With regards to what you're calling an outburst."> Shef honestly would have ignored it as she seemed to want, if she'd not brought so much attention to it. But she had, and he didn't.

[Empiricist]

Okay, so... good and bad things.

Good thing, the mark probably wouldn't be as on guard around another dude and to be honest with how her life has gone recently relying on anime tropes for success might as well be normal.

Okay, so, uh, try to herd the two of them together?"

she'd look around to try to locate some kind of landmark or otherwise something to orient based on, likely somewhere roughly in the region of the middle of the two or toward the mark. after all, herding the lovestruck girl would be... easier. Probably.

Sakurako
Finding a landmark is easy enough. The Tree of Treachery, Broken Promises and the Endless Torment of Eternal Damnation ain't exactly hard to miss and the boy is standing under it. Just need to coax Charlotte into action, something best left for your lovely comrades. She's their classmate after all. Soon enough she gets a move on.

Great, now for the approach. Remigio's currently standing, a shame, were he sitting she could ask if he would me sharing the table, one thing leads to another and bam! Contrived romantic comedy plot. Or maybe a whole load of nothing. But by then it's probably not your problem. But nope, the boy's standing and Charlotte probably has neither the reason or courage to go for a direct approach. Hmm... well there's a coupla panes of glass nearby with members of staff carting drinks in and out... if one of you were to give one of them a little bump throw one on the other it should make for a decent meet-cute. Well, maybe not a decent one, but a generic one at least? Best bump Charlotte in that case, wouldn't want Remigio's head up her skirt, which yeah, you could totally see that happening all things considered. Might need to ask what she's wearing under that illusion, he might feel something off like you did with Shef and then-

"WHIT DID YE SAY TAE ME YE TIN KIN? SAY IT AGAIN! AH DARE YE! AH DOUBLE PUMPIN' DARE YE!"

Here comes trouble. You're not sure how that man is drunk already but he's fucking plastered and he's decided to pick a fight with one of Jacqui's minions. The thing looks like the bloody Shrike, if the Shrike simultaneously did steroids and contracted type II diabetes from its cheeseburger addiction. It takes the tirade surprisingly well at first, either not capable of understanding what is being said, or unable to summon enough fucks to give about it.

And then he shoves it.

You're not sure what on God's green earth made him even want to shove the bastard lovechild of a porcupine and a prolapse woodchipper but he somehow manages to shove it in just the right place to send it staggering back without cutting himself in half a dozen different places in the process. Okay now it's angry, dim blades of forsaken judgement unfurling behind it like a particularly murderous peacock.

The brawl has yet to start, but very damned will if you guys don't step in. And it couldn't have happened in a worse place either - they're right next to Remigio who is very quickly getting the fuck away from that shitshow.

[ragnarok97071]

WELP.

This looked like it was going to be an absolute travesty, and now it'd gotten infinitely worse somehow.

Resolving herself to what may well end up being significant amounts of pain if this doesn't calm down quickly - as she reasoned that she'd be the only one that *could* reasonably try to contain whatever the hell that thing was, since even if it was some kind of fusion of a blender and a car accident she'd at least probably be able to heal at least, even if any contact with the thing would probably still suck if it came down to it. That said... yeah, best get over there as quick as she can, which... yeah given there's a good amount of distance between herself and the two and the fact that quite a few people were between them and actively moving away from what would likely shortly be a murder scene that would be a bit of a tough place to get through... Luckily part of keijo practice was learning some forms of acrobatics and the like, and if there was one thing she could do it was move fast. Just... had to be careful not to go too fast and make it impossible for her to actually talk properly.

Ideally, she gets a short running start, clocks up, and jumps, twisting in midair to try to land between the razor-thing and the man who had just physically assaulted it, the presence of the thing leaving maybe a little more restrained rage behind her eyes as she tries to get him to back off.

"Sir, you're drunk, please calm down and step away."

Hopefully she could either get him to back down or at least divert him away from actively attacking the fucking warform. She was at least passably sure she wouldn't kill him if he came at her, which was more than she could say about it.

that said, she had an eye on that thing, too, make sure it didn't engage either... she really hoped it didn't, she didn't want to have to fight the thing, it'd really suck.