starhuevalley | Action

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Action

[It’s morning. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and there are two new arrivals around town who seem convinced that something very suspicious is going on here. Dressed in what can only be described as tactical gear, they’re clearly some kind of military, and appear to be acting accordingly. In a situation like this, the best course of action is obviously to fall back on instinct in an attempt to get to the bottom of whatever this is supposed to be. For these two, that means proceeding with caution.

Clearly there’s nothing questionable about two men carrying big guns through farms and fields, speaking to each other quietly as if to keep from being overheard. Keeping together, never straying far from the other, or lingering too long in a single area. Not at all questionable, or scary, or yeah no what are these two idiots doing.

They’re doing recon, of course! And they’re fairly thorough about it, methodically searching, poking around, overturning anything that looks questionable and possibly pointing guns at it. Was that thing yours? Sorry, it’s being inspected now. Do you live in this house? No problem, they’re just going to check around back. See or experience anything strange during your stay? No? Are you sure?

Or maybe you just come across them while going about your business. They’re obviously friendly with each other, even if they’re regarding everything else with some degree of wariness. It seems like a great idea to approach, if only to ask what the heck they think they’re doing.]

(ooc: It’s a two for one deal with Jack

strikecommand and Gabriel

passedover. We’ll both be replying to all threads unless otherwise requested.)

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...Hmm.

[His expression relaxes into the usual resting bitch face, though there's still suspicion in his eyes. These guys could be doing recon for some unknown force... or they could just be falling into familiar habits. Mal's no stranger to that himself. It's why he feels himself bristle ever-so-slightly at being asked questions, but he actually cools himself down pretty quickly. Answering this one's harmless enough.]

It's been a month now, in my case. I'm betting most people you find around here will say the same thing. Let me guess... you came in on one of those buses too?

[How they react to that one will help him decide if he should be super suspicious or just the regular level.]

[Despite the fact that the two of them are walking around with guns out like they own the place, the last thing Jack really wants to do is cross someone. This kid's face has 'displeased' written all over it, and Jack is quick to pick up on it.]

A little while ago.

[Gabriel is a more recent arrival, but he thinks that's beside the point. He zeroes in on Mallory's use of most people.]

Are there any locals?

[~~Excuse you but real kids have more emotional maturity than this guy.~~

Oh, good. Looks like this won't be too big an issue. Mallory's not afraid of getting into a fight, but he is reluctant to cause trouble for Kyousuke to have to deal with later. God knows he's done enough of that in his lifetime.]

A couple... From what I can tell it's a couple of families in town and a few loners in cottages here and there. Anyone not in charge of a farm. Outsiders like us outnumber them by the dozens and they're already a little on edge without strangers waving guns around.

[He stares flatly. Hint, hint. But just for a show of good faith, he puts his hand in his pocket - sheathing his own weapon, if you will. Not that the symbolism really translates for people who don't already know he's a boxer but whatever, man.]

This a new development for the locals?

[Sounded like it. Which meant this wasn't a normal thing to happen around the place.

Gabriel, for the moment, bit back some smartass reply he could and would have made about the 'waving of guns' around comment. Shotguns rested where they hung at the back of his belts. Easy to draw right back out despite their large size.]

Fell back on military training for situations like this.

[Oh look, he managed it.]

[Jack fixes Gabriel with a look. All of this sounds suspicious and none of it sounds sustainable. It's only a matter of time before the locals get fed up with whatever's going on here. The only question is if the transplants will get fed up first. Of course they'd fallen back on their military training--idyllic as this town is, it's only natural they'd be suspicious.

Mallory seems a little suspicious too, which Jack can appreciate. Suspicious is the sensible thing to be.]

Seems to me like this is an untenable situation.

[Waving guns around, having them, it's all the same to Mallory. He's out here dealing with complaints from nervous locals either way, and he personally won't be satisfied as long as the weapons exist at all. (What, does he expect these guys to just eat them weapons? Be reasonable, Mal.)

He's sitting on his own stupid, snide little remark about forces being trained for multidimensional farming. For the best. That won't get anybody anywhere. Really, the fact that he's found people as skeptical as he is is kind of refreshing. It can be like a bonding experience.]

On the bright side, there isn't any actual hostility from the townsfolk that I've seen. As long as some idiot doesn't show up and give them reason to turn on us, looks like they're just fine with having labourers come in and grow their produce for them.

[What if that's the truth behind this place? All this just to help that dingy little local mart compete with the corporate superstore across town? That sounds so stupid that he wouldn't even be surprised at this point.

But another thought comes to mind, and he angles his head just slightly.]

I'm more concerned about that woman who supposedly set this all up. Margie? No, Marjorie. You guys get the welcoming spiel?

[Gabriel sure as hell didn't need the shotguns to be dangerous, but sometimes you couldn't just hit or beat something with another thing. Or snap a neck but that wasn't here or there. Honestly? He'd rather not shoot something if he didn't have to, but he'd rather have the shotguns than not.

Did glance at Jack at the look that was fixed on him, shoulders shrugging a bit. It was all suspect, yeah. So very, very suspect.

Looked back towards Mallory after that silent exchange.]

Not a great position to be in, honestly. No matter if it looks like they're just fine with tat arrangement.

[Too much 'at a whim' for him.]

Got off the bus a while ago, and I don't trust any sort of spiels without getting something more solid to support what's said.

[Who let them in here.]

[He considers mentioning that timelines and gods and all that crap aren't so fake after all - between everything he saw in the supernatural resort town of Koriko and having his very own double here, he can't really deny that reality. But these two don't have a reason to take his word for it, and anyway, all the technicalities are way beyond his own understanding. So. Forget that noise.

He glances aside, brow furrowing for a second.]

Aah, what she probably didn't mention is she's got all kinds of personal info.

[He's trying to keep his voice flat and matter-of-fact. But it's hard to keep entirely detached from such a sore subject.]

[That gets Jack's attention, of course. He's getting used to the fact that a lot of things about him are public knowledge, but of course that doesn't apply in a place like this, unless this Marjorie person wholesale lifted the intelligence from his version of Earth.

Suffice to say, this raises a great deal of red flags.]

What, like dossiers?

[Definitely setting off multiple red flags, and not at all missing how the statement was said. Matter of fact or not, did't seem like the guy liked the information himself.

Understandable, really.]

A lot of personal info on either of us really shouldn't be able to be gotten.

[A firm statement that implied enough without giving too much away.

War heroes was public knowledge, Jack's position was public knowledge. Gabriel's? Not so much, and was meant to be kept that way. Of course his mind went there and every other road that connected with it.]

There's a lot about this place that shouldn't 'be.'

[FINALLY, someone who hates it just as much as he does. It still baffles him how anyone could have considered it cute or charming.

...On the other hand, people with secrets to keep are exactly why Mallory's worried about it. Of course there's plenty about his own life he'd rather not bring to light, but nothing that can be used as blackmail anymore. Nothing to force him to betray a friend's trust or to murder somebody. Nothing that could ever make him let someone like that bitch Enoshima walk free.

As for these guys? Who knows. But it's not like he can backtrack now.]

...I don't know how much she has. What I have seen in her possession has all been weird, useless crap - favourite foods, dislikes, nothing too personal, but nothing she should know already. She was really careless about leaving it out in plain view, too.

Cal me paranoid, but it seems a little too convenient if you ask me. Like she wants to come off as just some well-intentioned idiot. [Not that he'll complain if that turns out to be the truth.]

Yeah, I'm starting to get that feeling.

[Jack might be the face of an international peacekeeping organization now, but there's still a part of him that finds it hard to shake the war they've fought. He supposes that some part of him will remain paranoid for a long time.]

Where did she leave it?

[If she was careless, they might be able to get their hands on it.]

Coming off as harmless is usually the best way to get people to lower their defenses.

[Way too matter-of-factly and perhaps showing his own paranoia and suspicion over this entire thing. Sure, could be just fine if that was the truth, but half the time it wasn't.

Really was not about t trust this sort of thing easily.

More than one paranoid person here, maybe.]

Exactly.

[He offers an appreciative half-nod in Gabriel's direction. Good to know they're all on the same page. As a bonus, he doesn't have to wonder about whether or not these guys trust him at all. They probably all share the same wariness.]

She had them all over a table in that cafe by the bus station. Fell asleep right on them, or at least pretended to. Nobody's actually that stupid... [Actually... hm. Wait.] Nobody with the power to get us here in the first place, at least. [Better.]

That was a couple of weeks ago. Haven't been able to track her down since. [Well-timed meta happenings have only made his paranoia worse. FIGURES.]

[Oh good, Gabriel is making a friend. Jack might be very proud of him, honestly, watching the conversation with some amusement, despite the subject matter. He's quick to get serious again, however, as they reason through what's sure to become an incredibly in-depth conspiracy theory.]

She has to be around, right? I mean, the town's not that big.

[There were just way too many things that were all going to fall in to place and add up to one big conspiracy theory. Perfect, clearly.

There was going to be a conspiracy wall in Jack's farmhouse somewhere. Out of sight that not just anyone could walk in and see. Maybe.

Gabriel's scowl was definitely more than just resting with the more he heard, but at the very least it was at the situation. Being on the same page was, all the same, good.]

If she's more than what she's been putting on? Doubt we could say she's around, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't take a look around that cafe.

[The town's not that big, but the farmland... well. They can experience that hike for themselves, if they haven't already.]

She could be in town. Or she could have been the only one with access to a working bus.

[He's not sure what she'd have to gain by leaving entirely, but he's not going to rule out the possibility of her going back and forth between here and... wherever the hell.]

Don't let me stop you from finding out. ...But I am gonna have to if the sheriff's office gets any more calls about suspicious armed trespassers. [At least he sounds a lot less pissy about it than he did initially.]

Is that you who you work for? The sheriff's office?

[Jack is not at all intimidated by a local sheriff's office--he fact, he hopes they might be glad to have two military-trained individuals scoping out the perimeter. No, what has him a little on edge is the implication of said sheriff's office adopting transplants as law enforcement. Seems like it could be a recipe for disaster.]

Won't be 'waving' any guns around once actually closer to town.

[That was a recipe for disaster, but while out in fields further away from larger groups of people where it was mostly land? Yeah, no. Those were gonna remain at the ready.]

[He stares at Jack. He blinks very, very slowly. Like, three whole seconds kind of slow. And then:]

No. I just intercept their calls for shits and giggles.

[BUDDY. PLEASE.]

[Jack doesn't seem to find that very funny at all.]

Who's the sheriff?

[... That was a damned good question, wasn't it.]

A local, or no?

[... may as well add that on, right.]

What, you wanna to interrogate him, too? [It's not like there's any point in hiding the identity of someone whose position is known to most of the area by this point...] Then you'll want to look for man named Kyousuke Munakata.

[Adept ears will probably pick up the way his voice lifts at the name despite himself. Kyousuke's the only guy Mallory's happy to take orders from, because he's wise and ambitious and handsome and clever and exactly the kind of Hope this world needs, and-

--he knows better than to gush about all of that out loud. Especially to a couple of strangers.]

But you're right. He's from the same place as me. Nobody in that whole office is native to here.

I might.

[Jack is possibly joking. Possibly not, given the patrols he's been doing with Gabriel. Asking a few questions to the sheriff himself is exactly where this is going.]

[If it happens it happens and it may be more likely than not, really.

Still, it was definitely one thing for there not to be any locals in a sheriff's office.]

And people go along with that without trouble?

[Clear in his tone it was an honest question; usually people have some issue with things like that. Benefit of a doubt.]

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noooo my timing

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