(OPEN) probably the least secret secret meeting, all things considered

[elswhisperer]

WHO: Setsuna F. Seiei (elswhisperer) & you!
WHAT: The code word log!
WHERE: City Hall Park
WHEN: July 12
WARNINGS: N/A


[ Over the course of the past few days, you may have noticed simple, nondescript flyers posted here and there across the city. All handwritten, they list a location (a particular statue in the City Park) along with a time and date (3:00 PM, July 12). Below that, an extremely brief message:

For establishing safe communications.

- moment.

On the day of, you'll find a young man in a red scarf waiting by the named statue. He has with him sheets of blank paper, pens, and pencils. ]

My name is Setsuna F. Seiei. 'Moment' from the network. The purpose of this meeting is creating a way to safely disseminate information to each other all at once. If one of us found an exit, or determined the identity of our captors, we'd be jeopardizing ourselves by revealing it openly over the network. At the same time, the network is our most efficient method of communication. We need to make the most of all the tools at our disposal.

We can accomplish that with the use of code language. One that's not complicated; that anyone could remember and pass along. What that code is and what we want to communicate with it is something one person can't determine for themselves. That's why I wanted us all to meet.

Without cooperation, we're not gonna get anywhere.

[ ooc: just a couple things! go ahead and mingle/threadhop as you like (especially bc i may not be the fastest tagger rn), and if setsuna has already mentioned to your character that he's been working on something, feel free to assume he left some kind of vague message about checking flyers over the inboxes or smth. ]

Comments

[strongroots]

[ Who the fuck shakes hands, who does he look like, a dad?

Robby hadn't forgotten about their agreed meeting. But this whole gathering, the growing agitation of how utterly out of his depth he feels, even the dumbass theories he's coming up in his head that he hates--Robby isn't thinking about it consistently. He gives a look once or twice for orange hair, but in trying to follow the different conversations and points and wondering what he even believes--

Once he sees the orange hair (and the rest of the guy accompanying it), Robby blinks, a frown matched by the pinch of his brows, and then it clicks a second later, or so he hopes. You know, that another tall, orange-haired Japanese guy didn't happen to show up in town.

(And congrats, he does hover over Robby and his 5'08 height.)

He lets him speak first, and doesn't take out the hands he's now got shoved in his pockets. But he'll give a nod at the name, breathes out as he answers. ]

Yeah, that's me. Kurosaki--I got it right?

[ Might be saying it wrong, might be saying it right. You be the judge. ]

[zangetsu]

（ one corner of his mouth quirks up faintly, half a smile. of all the things he expected an american would ask him, inquiring as to whether or not they got his name right was pretty far down on the list.

(look, national stereotypes exist everywhere, as it happens.)

but it's enough that his tone's just the slightest bit less gruff when he responds: ）

Yeah.

（ that settled, he shifts until he's leaning up against the wall, shoulders flush against it. it's not like mortar and brick really provides a safe barrier in case someone feels like sneaking up on them, but it makes the human part of his brain happier, anyway. ）

I just got in. I miss anything?

[strongroots]

[ Cool, that was a lucky shot. It's only thanks to karate his mouth has gotten any use to Japanese words, and that's still from an American perspective. He'll remember that, look over to the other people gathered as Kurosaki gets comfortable. ]

They wanna make code words 'case anything goes to shit. Hide them around, ideas about what's happening to us. Some talk about those questions we got on the phones when we came to on the train.

[ And plenty more, but that's what pops up first. Except, ah-- a beat. ]

Someone made a way of posting anonymously. To each other.

[ That last part wasn't stated, he thinks, but it's what Robby's guessing. He's not here with much faith about such a trick working on the undefinable them behind their situation. ]

[zangetsu]

I'm pretty sure if anyone in the room has their phone on them it's a moot point.

（ the human technology might not have been there in 2003 — but the shinigami tech sure was. he thinks about his soul badge, that transmitted his every move and word back to soul society for almost two years, and lifts one shoulder in a shrug. ）

We can't really trust anything we find here, either. Or even the walls. If you're gonna go to the trouble of kidnapping a hundred people to a weird made-up town, you're gonna have everything bugged to start.

[strongroots]

I ditched the phone I got the first day, and another was there the next morning.

[ See, now this is what Robby's thinking. The whole code idea troubles him, if not the sentiment behind it, plus: ]

There's too many of us to keep track of secret codes, people get screwed with if they get killed or kill someone? [ At least he's becoming slightly numb to that subject. Like an event he can detach all meaning from. Maybe. ] My idea is we have something tracking us inside, bullshit it sounds. But food appears in front of us in a blink, the thing you said about the fog?

I'm with the experiment theory.

[ Some might say magic is involved....not this guy!!! ]

[zangetsu]

（ yeah. maybe. or the town's a decoy, like the fake karakura soul society built to try and fool aizen. which would mean they're less experiment and more bait. ）

We might. （ why does he sound so entirely unbothered by it, though. ） Without knowing how they even get us here... like this place looks pretty American to me, but there are people here from hundreds of years ago, hundreds of years from now. A bunch of different worlds. Some not even from Earth. That kind of power is pretty unfathomable.

[strongroots]

[ ... ] Are we sure that's all true? [ He knows Kurosaki brought up about the powers thing before, but-- ] How can that even happen? You said you've seen no one do anything, and doesn't it make more sense people just think this crap?

[ Sorry, Kurosaki, Robby is showing his colours: of being a basic ass human. He just sounds confused as he says it, with still some of that underlying stress of their situation.

It makes no sense. ]

[zangetsu]

Sure, people could be brainwashed or lying.

（ but the thing is... why would they lie? it's hard enough getting one person to keep a bullshit story straight, but so many of them? and it would have to be many of them. ）

I don't know. I'm not going to spend a lot of time dwelling on it. Kinda above my paygrade.

[strongroots]

[ Robby doesn't particularly want to push it, either. He doesn't know what to think, though he's not one inclined to just think people have powers or are from future or past.

So he falls a little silent briefly, letting the subject slide. Asking eventually: ] So what is your paygrade? Investigating, testing limits? People were talking about the kiosk and trying to get it to tell something.

[zangetsu]

I just graduated highschool, so...

（ a bit of a helpless shrug. paygrade: Just A Normal Guy. ）

I mean, the kiosk was put here and is probably controlled by the same people that kidnapped us and put us on a train. I'm not sure trusting it is really the viable option here.

[strongroots]

'Grats, [ he manages to slip in when the shrug's given. But as for the actual answer: ]

Dunno if it's about trusting, and more about playing their game. What we know so far? Anything is. [ Playing to what they want. ]

But they might like the effort.

[zangetsu]

（ well. ）

Fair point.

（ he hates how it makes him think of yhwach. that helplessness, coming against someone who knew everything you'd ever been, or done — and everything you ever could or would or might do. how monstrous it had been.

so, is this a 'the only correct move is not to play' situation? or —

he sighs, and rubs his fingers along the bridge of his nose like he's trying to preemptively stave off the mother of all headaches. ）

But we're here, so no matter what — we have to keep moving forward. If they don't like it they can come down here and tell us themselves.

（ at which point he will fight them.

— of course, there's always the chance that any one among them could be the person (or persons) in question to begin with. but that requires a level of paranoia and mistrust he just doesn't have the energy to maintain, not after tsukishima. ）

[strongroots]

[ He breathes. Truthfully, he wonders what moving forward means in this context: digging around, or waiting to see what happens (make them come down here; but both options could result in that action). It probably doesn't matter; some people will try finding answers, others won't be pulled into the same action.

But he does know some of what this guy's willing to do. They agreed to do it together, after all. ]

Well, I'll still bump around some tunnels. [ Hm. ] If you try marking somethin'--smashing windows, writing on the walls -- does anything happen to it?

[ Everything is fairly clean. No one's just smashed up the shops for fun? ]

sorry for all these delays, province is on Fire :(

[zangetsu]

（ hahaha, robbie is asking the juvenile delinquent the right (wrong?) questions. ichigo stares at him a moment, and then reaches up to scratch idly at his cheekbone as if in thought. ）

Uh. Yeah. It goes back to normal within twenty-four hours, far as I can tell.

holy heck, no worries!! please take care :(

[strongroots]

[ ...not to call a guy out, but: ]

'Far as you can tell'?

[ oh yeah, buddy?? ]