un: song | video;

[spoilers]

As long as we're sharing, I acquired some interesting incense.

( For a very brief moment, she looks vaguely troubled, but it passes quickly. )

It seemed to impart a memory, one belonging to a young woman. She was on a ship, it was storming, and she was having quite the argument.

If this woman is Cosette, she was far from being a little girl when she died. There could have been a wife, I suppose. In either case, they were hardly contending for family of the year.

Comments

[northerndragon]

The same story, then, in one way or another.

Might be that he can't find her because she doesn't want to be found. Might be that part doesn't trouble him, or enter his mind. Could you see anything else?

[spoilers]

I'd bet on the second. ( It's half muttered under her breath, audible enough but clearly not directed toward him.

More clearly, she says, ) I saw enough I have questions.

It could have been a decade ago. ( Keeping in mind, of course, trusting a time travellers judgement of linear time/ageing is always a gamble. ) I know storms. This one was angry, and the woman, whoever she was, refused to leave the deck.

( Does she admire that particular brand of stubbornness? Maybe a little. )

He wanted to come home. She felt she had a more important purpose, that he'd only even turned his attention back to his family for show. She didn't seem to think much of his work.

The ship was damaged. I'm unsure how badly.

[northerndragon]

This might seem strange to you, but was there a lighthouse? If there was a lighthouse, there's a chance they were close to home. That's the first time I encountered Matthias. Not him in truth, I suppose.

There was another place we encountered, with a lot of sunken ships. Might as easily have been there that you saw. I don't suppose it matters -- it is their fight that matters.

He was ambitious. He seemed to lack caution. He replaced a man in Ellethia who wouldn't do the things that he was willing to do. I don't think it was good for his family. Still, I thought his daughter died of some sickness.

[spoilers]

Well, that's what he's told us.

( And she clearly finds him an unreliable source, though she doesn't believe it's fully intentional. )

The storm was violent and the ship was damaged. It's possible the ship survived and she only fell ill later.

I couldn't see any lighthouse.

audio; un: a tentacute observation

[companionsgrasp]

Maybe he only wants to remember her as a little girl... I don't know. His information, his memories seem unreliable at best. I don't know him like the old hands of this group seem to though, so I don't know what he's like usually.

[He wishes he could get better reads on people here, but this world and the people in it were not always easy to see with his Companion's ability.]

But I get the feeling that no matter where we look the story will have that common theme: she doesn't want to be here. He's forcing her.

[And Benedict was unhappy about it.]

[spoilers]

Nor do I.

( She does, however, have some idea of what it looks - and feels - like to be missing large pieces of one's memory. And she'd say his memories are definitely compromised. )

I expect that was the case in life as much as it is now. But I think now, he may not even know what it is he wants anymore.

[companionsgrasp]

[He's glad they're thinking the same thing.]

That makes sense. Why would her opinion of him change if he's still just doing the same sort if things? Only now he's...worse, in a sense. Even more absent-minded. Forgetful? I don't know what's wrong with him exactly but there's definitely something to consider.

[spoilers]

It's his memories, sweetie. Can't you see it? He's lost or given them up until the gaps have gotten too big to work around.

[companionsgrasp]

Right. But what's causing it? Can it be fixed or not? And would it help or not.

[spoilers]

This place? Memories are currency here, or haven't you noticed? Anything that might remind them of what it's like to be alive.

Maybe, if his memories weren't sold or traded off. It isn't really my area.

( Instinct tells her, no, the damage is done. Her own fractured memory hadn't been extracted and bottled for market, though. Matthias's mind may not be beyond repair. )

But restoring his memory may not be in our best interests.

[companionsgrasp]

You really think he sold his own memories?

[It was not out of the realm of possibility of course, nothing ever truly was, but Benedict doubted a man like Matthias would freely give up something of his own. Wasn't that what his search was all about? Reclaiming that which he thought of an his own?

But desperate times call for desperate measures. Perhaps it had happened as such. He had no way of knowing for sure. Not now, not yet.]

Maybe not. We won't know anything for sure until we see it through.

In the meantime, I suppose we keep looking.

un: absterge

[downswing]

How severe the storm?

[spoilers]

Very. The ship was damaged. Impossible to know the extent, but a storm like that very well could have sunk it.

un: ut malum pluvia

[somebadnews]

[ That sounds like a likely story, but it's also a leap. Either she has something else that convinced her it could be Cosette, or there's more she's not saying about it. ]

Acquired how?

[spoilers]

( There's always plenty she isn't saying, which she knows he knows by now, but does that stop her from being cagey about it? No it does not. )

Would you believe I asked nicely?

[somebadnews]

[ She's really leaving him to jump to a lot of weird conclusions. ]

And you just happened to stumble on someone with a memory they wanted to show you.

[spoilers]

( He absolutely shouldn't read into the pause or the way she clears her throat before answering. )

I'm very good. And I wouldn't call it stumbling, dear.

( Don't call her out on her questionable investigative methods, Five. )

It was a bargain everyone was happy to accept.

[somebadnews]

[ Days when she sounds almost exactly like a Commission agent that he's thus far neglected to identify. If not for the part about a bargain. ]

Meaning what, you traded?

[spoilers]

Might've done.

( She supposes she could have tried stealing it, but she would have just been guessing. Who knows what she might have ended up with? )

[somebadnews]

[ Well, that sounds like a truly terrible idea. Getting those memories back won't come cheap. ]

I suppose you think it was worth it to know that the man who spends his time raising the dead wasn't the beloved father we all thought he was.

[spoilers]

( Had anyone actually thought that? Anyone? )

I thought it was worth it to find out more about her. Please, sweetie. I was careful.

( She thinks. At least, she's usually very good at keeping walls around what she wants walled off and letting people see only what she wants them to see. The trouble with giving up a memory is, well, you can't remember what it is you gave up. )

[somebadnews]

[ Kamala might sympathize with him, but even she seems to get how dangerous he is. As for River's brilliant memory-swapping plan being worth it, he'll at least allow for the possibility. ]

That might explain the rumor I heard about Matthias being sighted on a ship.

[spoilers]

( Until proven otherwise, she'll assume it was worth it. If nothing else, it's let her feel for the girl. )

Tell me more about this rumour?

[somebadnews]

[ How much of that story does he want to tell? Because it ends with getting sold to a gang and it's mildly embarrassing that was the best plan they could come up with. ]

I wouldn't call it a reputable source, but I was told by the people he ran out of business that he's either there or at the Whispering Houses.

un: widow, text

[redhourglass]

what was the argument about?

[spoilers]

His work. His expectations. It seemed he'd asked her to come home, but she felt she had something more important to do and that he'd likely only thought of her after being reminded by his colleagues that he had a family.