tushanshu | CONSOLE [video/action] Guess who's back, back, back from the

[Skulduggery's at the Hotel console, looking exactly the same as he did when he went missing a month ago. He's impeccably dressed in a suit, hat, scarf, and coat - and also happens to be a living skeleton, for those new to the turtle. 'Back from the dead' has new and interesting connotations where he's concerned.

It's April 1st. It's a little past dinnertime. Skulduggery takes a moment or two, once the video turns on, before he speaks. He sounds the same as ever, too - Irish, his voice as smooth as velvet.]

I promise, I don't do this on purpose.

[That's directed at... a lot of people, actually. Pepper. Solomon. Cain. Raine. Anton. Erskine. Honestly, anyone who's not so much relieved at his return than annoyed.]

It looks like I missed quite a bit. Someone died, someone didn't die, everyone's blaming everyone else, and now we have a person or persons unknown trying to assassinate every prominent kedan in the city. On top of that, I heard something about an earthquake and power outages. Does anyone know more than the barest details about any of this? And if they do, would they be willing to share it?

[He reaches out to end the feed, then pauses.]

Oh, and why is all the furniture on the ceiling?

[OOC: Feel free to approach Skulduggery in person at the console if you're in the Hotel!]

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[He doesn't know why the Dreaming would have slid him out of reality. He is, in all honesty, trying not to think about it. Searching to make sure he still has his soul gem is about the farthest he's gotten.]

I'll take whatever you can give me. The message said she was killed by someone wearing the symbol of the Snakes.

[Raine has a deep and abiding desire to know, though. For science.]

But you do recall knowing that something was wrong. Fascinating. Others who have vanished and come back haven't reported that. I wonder what the difference was...?

[Raine hesitates, then nods. If anyone will be able to read the lie in her, it's Skulduggery, but he will also understand.]

I was there shortly after, but... too late. It came close behind the revelation that Milyn had been doing some work with the cultists, up until about a year ago. I can only assume the two things are related, though I suppose it's possible someone used that as a cover for a more personal reason...?

[Speculation, though.]

It could be many different things. It could be a fundamental difference in the nature of my consciousness, or it could be that no one else felt like reporting it.

[He sounds vaguely dismissive. Not because he's not curious, but because it was eerie and he'd rather not have to think about it. Besides, other things are calling for his attention.

Things like Raine lying. It's admirably subtle - Skulduggery himself would have missed it if he didn't know Raine so well. She acted a very particular way when she was unable to save someone she believed she should have, and even filtered through the console screen, Skulduggery sees no hint of it. Now that's strange. Is Raine lying about the death, or about being there shortly afterward? And, more importantly, why?]

Some work with the cultists? [Skulduggery hasn't heard that.] What sort of work?

It might be. It's conceivable that the lack of an organic brain makes your consciousness somewhat more-- concentrated, I suppose.

[Raine considers, frowning briefly as she turns this idea over.]

However, there's no real useful way to test that. I'll have to inquire to others who have left and returned.

[If he has spotted she's lying, then Skulduggery has been both smart enough and considerate enough not to mention it. Good.]

...I'd rather elaborate in person, if you don't mind. It's... complicated.

[He sounds amused.] I'm glad there's no useful way to test that. The last time someone tried, they went on to destroy the world.

[Granted, those two events were only semi-related, but the point still stands. Skulduggery doesn't trust that Raine wouldn't take an unrecommended risk or two in the pursuit of knowledge. He likes that about her. It reminds him of him.]

Not at all. Where and when would you like to meet?

... I certainly wouldn't go that far.

[Caveat: if she knew that was what she was doing.]

Perhaps the Guild, in a few hours, if you wouldn't mind walking me home.

Excellent. I'll see you then.

[And, true to form, Skulduggery's waiting outside the Guild a few hours later. This time, he isn't even late. It's not as though there's much else he has to do, and Raine remains one of his more trustworthy sources of information.

... And a friend. That too.]

[Raine nods, and signs off for work and other such things. When she exits the Guild later in the evening, letting the great doors ease shut behind her, she orients on Skulduggery almost before she properly sees him.]

[His mana feels like none other, after all.]

[She stops in front of him, tilts her head back a little to smile up at him.]

It's good to see you again.

[Without much further ado, she gestures the way she usually walks back.]

You wanted to know about Milyn?

[Raine also girds herself to lie to his face, if necessary.]

It's good to see you too.

[There's a smile in his tone to match the permanent one on his skull.]

Yes. What sort of work was Milyn doing with the cultists? [Straight to business, but at least they're enjoying a short stroll together? That's the sort of thing friends do, isn't it?]

[She takes no offense from going straight to business, and in any case it's some kind of mark of esteem that Skulduggery even stops to say it's good to see her before attending to aforementioned business.]

[Friendship.]

Dust, and Lucid.

[She keeps her tone relatively quiet, rather than broadcast all this about them.]

She developed the former, and the base for the latter. In an attempt to reconnect the kedan with what was taken from them under Eshai's spell.

As recently as the January after we returned from the Dreaming, she was working with Daseng.

[Hey, as long as their friendship standards are the same.]

Ah. That would be cause for controversy, wouldn't it?

[Skulduggery remembers all too clearly what happened the last time Malicant's influence spread through the city. That Milyn developed Dust and helped develop Lucid... it's worrying, to say the least.]

Her intentions may have started out that way, but the kedan have been free of Eshai's spell for years now. Why was she still working with Daseng so recently?

[Suspicious skeleton is suspicious.]

[It works out.]

Quite.

[Raine shakes her head; how troubled she is shows evidently in her face.]

I wasn't able to obtain a satisfactory answer. And now...

[She trails off, and looks away.]

She didn't seem to see anything wrong with it, what she'd done. But it's also true that she helped us, and without her we wouldn't have been able to defeat Malicant.

CONSOLE [video/action] Guess who's back, back, back from the - wait.

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video --> action;

action!~

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