Voice; un: naruhodo

[locumstudentesquire]

[Normally when Ryunosuke sends any kind of broadcast over the network, he does it with a sense of formality. He takes care to introduce himself, and he tries to choose his words carefully.

Right now, he just sounds tired, and faintly bewildered. The message is brief:]

So... Was anyone else aware that Emerton Haughtford was once-- or currently is--? The commander of this station...?

Genuine question. Because it is certainly news to me.

Comments

text; un: y.mikotoba

[softshoes]

[Thanks, earpiece, for being really sensitive on that thought-to-text!!]

He WHAT

[locumstudentesquire]

[At least it's text and not voice.]

According to Olivia...

[softshoes]

Sorry, Naruhodo! That was an accident!

Thinking back, it does make sense. Is it any wonder Degar and Viveca assured us he was trustworthy?

[locumstudentesquire]

That's quite alright. Goodness knows I've done it plenty of times myself...

And, yes, I suppose not.

[And then he switches to private:]

It does make me wonder though, what happened to make him step down? Given the mysterious absence of the previous crew back in our own time and all.

text; un: jtd

[doooooog]

[ Thanks, Ximilia powers that be, for bestowing upon Jake this gift. ]

he WHAT?

[locumstudentesquire]

Allegedly. Like I told Professor Mikotoba, I'm just repeating what Olivia told me.

[doooooog]

[ Don't expose Yujin's secret crush, don't expose Yujin's secret crush, don't expose Yujin's secret crush-- ]

well well well. everything seems to be in order then, buddy. :)

[softshoes]

[THANKS FOR THE DISCRETION BESTIE......]

[locumstudentesquire]

Jake???

[What does that even MEAN]

voice; un: clarke

[romancekiller]

Wait, seriously?

I think we only knew that he was previously on Ximilia but nothing beyond that as far as I know.

[locumstudentesquire]

[OK, well that's a relief.]

That was my understanding of the situation as well... Glad to hear I didn't simply miss such an important detail.

[romancekiller]

Yeah, me too— how did you hear about that though?

Audio; un: 苣屋

[dispassioned]

[He did not know this, however:]

Well, he kind of has that vibe, doesn’t he?

[locumstudentesquire]

[Skeptically:]

Perhaps? But that doesn't really mean much, I mean... Degar doesn't.

Um. No offense intended to him, of course.

[dispassioned]

You know, I've never spoken to him, so I wouldn't know.

[Maybe he should change that, but he’s the type to bide his time a little.]

Still, if it's true, it's interesting we ended up in this time--or a version of it--after visiting Emerton's home world, isn't it?

[locumstudentesquire]

[To be fair: he has also barely spoken to Degar, if at all. He just has an impression of someone who's a bit less... Towering? Than Emerton is.

Anyway, Chishiya makes a good point. He hadn't thought about it like that.]

It could be a coincidence... But it's a strange one indeed, if that is truly the case.

text ↪ un: うちは

[blackfire]

（ ... well, yes, but he's not going to admit how.

instead: ）

Do you feel his appointment is relevant to our current situation?

（ hard to ignore the timing, so his statement is genuine rather than an expression of skepticism. ）

[locumstudentesquire]

[Genuine though the question may be, this is text. And with his primary impression of Itachi being that the man is highly pragmatic and generally no-nonsense, there's a small part of Ryunosuke that is irrationally nervous that he's about to be scolded? You know, for distracting from the issue at hand by harping on irrelevant information, or something like that.

So his response takes a moment, carefully measured.]

Truthfully, I was mostly just surprised enough by the information that I felt an impulse to share, in the moment. I mean... Being a former member of the crew is one thing, but the commander...?

That said: I've been involved in cases where stranger, more irrelevant-seeming details turned out to be key in the end... So I wouldn't count anything out.

[blackfire]

The man possesses both leadership skills and deep compassion for his comrades. It is not unusual that such a role would fall to one such as that.

（ the previous crew was much smaller, after all, and given that they all shared a singular space very likely considerably closer knit. the natural dynamics of a group would come into play with little direct opposition. ）

I see.

This information came from Olivia, correct? Did she say anything else of note?

Here!nothere

[recklessenough]

[ Lockwood isn't going to say anything, because looking backwards has never done him a bit of good. But he has had the thought, more than once since returning, that he wished he'd fought harder for telling Emerton about his past back when they had the chance. ]

[locumstudentesquire]

[More and more it's starting to look like maybe reminding him is actually a bad thing, so. MAYBE IT'S GOOD ACTUALLY, THAT YOU DIDN'T, LOCKWOOD...]

[recklessenough]

[ That begs the question.

If I didn't remind him, and we're still in this situation then maybe we should have reminded him>

or

If reminding him is responsible for our current circumstances and I didn't remind him, then who did? ]

{ audio } un: joric

[drawsblood]

Yes. I touched a shard and I saw a memory of him being elected commander by the rest of the crew.

[ A pause. ]

Do you think that knowledge will help us get back?

[locumstudentesquire]

A shard vision...? So it's still fairly new information to you, then.

[He assumes.]

...I don't know if it will help or not. But given the situation we're in, I feel that it's better to share whatever scraps of information we can get. There's certainly no sense in withholding it.

Can you give us a bit more detail? About what you saw in your vision, that is.

[drawsblood]

I suppose it might be of use to someone.

[ He recalls all he can remember, though he doesn't bother detailing what certain people looked like and just states the location and what was said. ]

I saw the crew in the mess hall going over their next mission. Emerton was standing while the rest were seated at tables and he went through what they needed to do and assigned everyone tasks. He clearly knew what each person could do best and chose the tasks that were right for them. And then a woman spoke up and said he should be their leader because he'd led them on many missions so far and knew how to best use their skills. A man agreed with her; he said Emerton was already being a leader and Emerton was starting to protest that they couldn't just do that. Then Viveca spoke up and said they should vote. They all agreed it should be him and he looked humbled by their respect for him.