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[indent][indent][indent][color=gray][sub][right][color=#87c735][b]Location:[/b][/color] Drox Fraternity House - The City-State of Thorinn, Aetheria[/right][/sub][/color]
[hr]The pipe smoke trailed as lazy ribbons a mere head's length from Alex, and he made a conscious effort to ignore both them and the odd team name Taasha had puffed out. She had been a hard woman to read, communicating entirely through her words rather than a face so calm and pale it was corpselike. 

As she spoke it ocurred to Alex just how appropriate for the job an unaffected demeanor like that was. Hostile breakdowns, investigations, words that felt at home wrapped around dark smoke all permeated the air with dread. It was the sort of talk you'd hear on the news or a gruesome television show, now accompanied by a pipe instead of a cigarette. Thinking on the events from a different perspective, the confusion and disorder seemed to be a breeding ground for situations like this. He refused to say it out loud, but it seemed like things were only going to escalate from here on. 

[color=#87c735]"Too much noise,"[/color] he grumbled. The collective outburst of wayfarers had established a ever present fog that no previous investigator had been able to cut through. The kind that he struggled with even before the phrase Pariah Online had become a regular part of his lexicon, now amplified. One on one interviews would probably be worthless in a situation like this. They'd need some way to cover more ground, make bigger connections. 

He let Seele gather the most useful of the papers before thumbing through and keeping a couple to himself. He focused on the initial insights, the kinds of thoughts investigators had jotted down before developing the tunnel vision that probably kept them from drawing any larger conclusions. Or at least, it was what he theorized. 

[color=#87c735]"Mmph,"[/color] he said, agreeing with Seele's compliments. [color=#87c735]"This is all good stuff. I think I'm getting some ideas already."[/color] He ventured a gaze into Taasha's eyes, only to be met with unmoving amber suns that drilled holes into his skull. He turned away reflexively. Baby steps. 

[color=#87c735]"Extra hands, perfect. I think I know how we can take this on."[/color]



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