#withourtraces

Lights dimmed around the bar in the Broken Butterfly, the spindly old nosferatu that tended it wiped down three short glasses for those Daud and the two he'd gathered at a booth in the back corner, far away from the crowd and the guest musicians that were tuning and preparing for a live set.

An exchange of silvery dulcet coins ensured a bottle of whiskey from the top shelf for the three of them to share. Daud owed Billie for taking the last of hers, and Thomas he wanted to repay for loyalty through the years. Thiabeaux uncorked the bottle and left them to their meeting.

"These are strange times," Daud muses, "You've only just arrived, but I don't think it's coincidental. We should take time to figure out where in relation we were pulled from, and then I can tell you what's happened here- what I've noticed, and what I may need of you."

"But first," he says, pouring even amounts of amber whiskey into Billie's glass, Thomas' glass, and then his own, "I need to confirm we're from the same realities, bear with me."

There were choices he had made that he'd only confided in either one of them, and he'd been witness to an alternate reality in dreams when he'd arrived, and not long after, a living representation from that dark possibility emerged here in the form of Corvo Attano.

"Billie," he starts, "Tell me what happened that night you brought the Overseers to the hideout. And tell me what the final fate of the Outsider was."

He knew already that this was his Billie- but he needed to make certain. And Thomas-

A quiet bar in Fibonacci was better company then the butterfly after that whole ordeal. She wasn’t there for the attack, but she’d heard everything about it by now. Derek Simmons made quite a name for himself, storming in there and demanding Ada’s money, and then poisoning the HVAC system on his way out.

She couldn’t wait to sink her blade into his neck.- But they had to wait. It’s too soon to go back.

Until then, she’ll stay at her apartment, begrudgingly. Rather, she had a better idea, and now that Thomas was here- She’d invite him along… After a few drinks here, of course.

She slowly sips her whiskey, eyeing him for a moment- There’s a tension in the air that she can’t quite parse, unsure of just what her double and him talked about, but she knew for a fact she didnt want to be separated from him for one moment longer.

Not again! She had seen Toge leave, so she had thought it was fine to just pop out of her room really fast to grab something. Currently wrapped in a towel, bare everything, trying to find the shopping bag she had left in the common area.

It is all fine and dandy as she turns down the hallway to head back to her room. To find a masked figure.

She shrieks. The words failed to form into anything coherent as she tried to retreat the way she had come. Backing around the corner after nearly giving herself a heart attack.

"I figured. Should we just wait here? I think separating again is the worst thing we could do in this place. Best to move as a unit." She narrowed her eyes as she glanced at the nearest door.

Something was wrong- she could feel it. Daud was a force unto himself, but even he had limits. There's no remedies in this world they could just stockpile and drink as they pleased, so whatever magicks he or Thomas used were finite without proper rest...

The Broken Butterfly closed early- had to close early. The intrusion by Simmons and his Porter lackeys, as well as fumigating the club with a toxin meant to disable Ada, had pressed upon Daud a renewed sense of urgency.

Find Ada. Find Billie. Cahara, Enki, Balduran- and several others that had vanished in the night.

Hunnigan had found them a lead, and Helena had confirmed it: the 'Inn' mentioned in the announcements had to do with an island off of the coast... accessible only by a single bus route and boat ride.

And with the bus route only servicing travelers once a day, at dawn? There was no time to rest.

He took Thomas with him, leaving the others to debrief and come up with a plan regarding their own Ada- because as much as Daud appreciated the favor, the fact of the matter was that she was in more danger presently from Simmons than his own Ada.

And his own Ada? Was in a different situation entirely.

It was too early for him to decide between being worried for her, or grateful that she wasn't present at the Butterfly when Simmons came calling.

Daud is prone to extreme acts of violence when the people he considers 'his' are in danger. The most violent acts he's done are tied between two events.

The first, was when he was first Marked by the Outsider, receiving powers in a fit of despair and desperation as Thomas was taken by the Labor officer and guards in the whalehouse for thievery and was going to be thrown into the meat grinder. Daud immediately used the powers to get Thomas away from the machines, pulled one of the guards in the meat grinder instead, killed several more, then caused an explosion on a ship and freeing a keelhauled whale before escaping the whalehouse.

The second was the last year of his life, when a Billie from a future time had come back to try to dissuade him from going on his path to kill the Outsider, and insisted that she handle the trap that was laid for him. During the encounter she got disarmed, and dropped her weapon, the Twin Blade Knife. Daud saw this and took the Knife, in spite of Billie warning him not to touch it, and slaughtered each of the League of Protectors there before he succumbed to the Knife's debilitating qualities. It's this act that ultimately leads to a slow and drawn out death.

He'll be dropped for you!