Illuminating Investigations Pt 2

"I would, for starters." Noir nodded, his grin dropping into a more blank, serious expression. "But I'll just say that somebody's been a bad boy. Naughty boy. Terrible boy. Or... am I talking about a naughty girl?" Noir's expression seemed to pause right with him, almost lapsing back into that grin.

"I'll put it simply; I don't think you know him in the way I'm getting at. You know 'of' him. You don't know him personally-- and from that look on your face, I think you'd prefer not to." He rambled for a bit, before pausing as if alight with revelation. Was he just fucking with her now, or...? "Would you mind if I spoke freely for a moment?"

Stargazer's expression was now one of mild confusion, if only because just before Noir had pointed it out, it had been not much of an expression at all. "Perhaps. But perhaps I know him after all. I happen to know quite a few people. I'm not one for chasing after others, but I have seen most of the net, and most navis on it. Sometimes I even get to know them." Now it was Stargazer's turn to grin, although it was noticeably subdued compared to the borderline predatory smile the shadowy figure before her had given. "But please. Say whatever you like."

"If I had to hedge a guess at you..." Noir began simply, "...I'd say you're a brain. The kind of person that's better suited for chess than the battlefield we all find ourselves in eventually." He paused, looking around as if to gesture grandly at the network itself, and then continued. "But there's more to you than that, isn't there? Every navi can be a brain when they really want to. We've all got hyperintelligence programmed into us-- some better'n others. You, you're not just a brain. You're a watcher-- as your name would suggest-- but more than that you're a strategist. A thinker. "

"Thinkers are the most dangerous kinds, I hear." He remarked offhandedly, chuckling to himself, and then continued. "But I'm not trying to flatter you; you're not self-centered enough for that to get me anything I'd be after. No, I'm stating an observation, namely: You're smart enough to know why I'm here. You're informed enough to know exactly who I am, and what it is that I do."

"So, Miss Stargazer..." Noir stood, splaying his shadowy arms wide and theatrically opening himself to her line of logic, "who am I, and why am I here?" He let the question hang for just a moment, and then...

"Show me." He dared.

If Stargazer were the type to grin madly in response to something said to her, she might have. She was not, however, and instead settled for folding her arms across her chest and closing her eyes -- her physical body's eyes, at least -- with a contented smile. "Very good deduction, Mr. Detective," she answered. "You're off the mark, but very good nonetheless.

"It's true that I am better suited for strategy and similar work of the mind than I am for direct combat. But to say I am a 'brain', as you put it, is inaccurate. What I am...is eyes." Light flared from the pinholes on the surface of Stargazer's star projector, and she was surrounded by the full star field, painting out an entire map of the night sky in a sphere around her. "I don't need to be informed. All I need to do is look."

One star, nearly directly between her and the real Noir, twinkled, then expanded into a projected screen displaying a familiar BBS topic. "There."

"Very pretty, these 'eyes' of yours." Noir nodded. "Very useful too, I imagine, having a personal search engine. Stargazer sounds like a nice rival for Gaggle."

"It doesn't prove much, though; that board is public. But then again, most places are..." Noir paused to think about it for a moment, putting a hand on his chin. "I see. I believe I'm beginning to, ah--" He reached out and touched a star, trying to twirl it-- "--connect the dots."

"Still though, it's a shame." Noir sighed, shrugging.

"That's a rather crude comparison," Stargazer said. A second window opened, to Stargazer's left, although from Noir's perspective it appeared to be blank. She dismissed it within seconds.

Surprisingly she didn't try to press forward on 'showing' Noir anything. "What are you getting at, I wonder?" she asked.

"You say you don't need to be informed. All you have to do is look, is that right?" Noir asked, tilting his head. "In that case, tell me what I'm thinking right now."

Purple elephants trample the geese on tuesdays when the onlookers sing in prose. He thought.

Yet again, another window opened, then immediately closed. "'She will never guess what I am thinking,' shortly followed by 'that's wrong'," Stargazer responded casually.

"Purple elephants trample the geese on tuesdays when the onlookers sing in prose." Noir responded, rattling it off with such ease that he couldn't have made it up after she'd spoken. "So you can't bypass write-protection with your ability. Interesting. Alright then, something 'easier'-- what book is my operator reading right now?"

"Noir--" Marcus, until then silent, finally spoke up as he frantically leaned forward to slap a palm paranoiacally over the webcam. He shut the cover of The Celebrated Cases of Rick Tracy as well, shoving it beneath the desk. "--don't drag me into this." Back in cyberspace, Noir smirked, not that Stargazer would be able to see it.

"And now I know," Stargazer said, smiling contentedly again.

She answered Noir's second challenge, instead of guessing at random or actually trying to see through Marcus's webcam, with two words. "I refuse."

"Because you saw, or because you were informed?" Noir grinned. "There's a sniper behind you, outside of the park. Coordinates X256377, Y2166026, Z1522. He's on the roof of a virtual house." Noir paused just a second, then- "Directly to my right there is another sniper, coordinates X1592603, Y2510524, Z2100."

"Can you see them?"

"It would not benefit me to show my full hand," Stargazer answered, echoing something she had said previously. "I see no reason to inform you. Anything else you want to know about what I can see, or can't, you will have to find out on your own."

With that, Noir changed tactics almost immediately. "I remarked that it was a "shame" before. You recall, no doubt, that I never elaborated." He said, taking a step forward, into the starfield. His own passive kicked in slightly-- just slightly enough that a few of the stars winked out, crushed by his efflorescence, and stopped dead in his tracks.

"It's a shame that your ability is the defining trait of your interaction with... well, everything." Noir mused, standing still. "I'd imagine it's the defining trait of your relationship with the others, and it is, as a result of that relation, also the reason I am here. It is probably also why you were programmed, if I were to guess; either as an interface for that ability, or as a piece of it."

"Nobody ever looks at the girl behind the curtain."

"I must admit. I like your way of thinking. Even if it's inaccurate." She stepped away from Noir, until the stars that had been put out by his shadow returned. "It assumes there is only one user who can interface with 'that ability'." A window opened between her and Noir, showing something he had already seen: the diagram from Stargazer's 'user manual.' "You said quite a few names in your muttering. Familiar names. But it would seem that you don't actually know what any of them mean.

"And why, I wonder, would I be writing a user manual for something I was designed strictly as an interface for? Would that not eliminate the need for others to know how to use it?"

"Just because there's an original doesn't mean there can't be copies." Noir said, taking just enough of a step forward that the edge of his efflorescence 'kissed' the star field without actually winking any of them out.

"I can think of many reasons why you would want multiple users of such a thing--" He stepped forward again, and again, and a third step, until he was face to face with her and over half of the stars had been completely overtaken by shadows. "--which is why there were two of you."

"Ahh, but that too assumes that there aren't multiple levels of access. Or that it's used for one thing and one thing alone," Stargazer said. The stars around her started to blink out, one by one, starting with the faintest of them. Within the course of several seconds, it went from a full star map to what one might see looking at the night sky in a small town: still populated with stars but far from a full picture. "Allow me to propose an alternate theory. The means to 'that ability' are, as I said before, designed in part by me as part of a larger project. As a co-creator, I was able to incorporate what you so crudely compared to a search engine as one of its functions, and allow myself to interface with it with ease. Does that sound plausible to you?"

Noir nodded. "Many things do." He said, remaining just as close as he had been before. "That doesn't necessarily make them true, however. Just as you have so rebuffed many of my theories in our conversation, any one of which could have easily been true."

Noir shifted, then, changing silhouette to appear more beastly. "Things can appear from many different perspectives..." Another shift, this one changing his voice along with it to that of a small child, "...And many different possibilities, as I'm sure you're well aware."

As Noir rose back to his full height, he decided to add something onto that line of thought. "Since we both know that it-- or at least a part of it--" he pointed at the diagram, "Is called the "Star Field System", we may as well stop saying 'the ability' at this point. But I am intrigued, moreso by you than it."

"I could play up my deductive abilities here, pretend I'm better at this than I am, but let's be honest; how far into this conversation did you let me get just for your amusement?" Noir asked, that same glitter-white smile appearing in the darkness again.

Blink. Blink. Blink.

Nearly all the stars had faded, until only the brightest ones remained. "A child who grew up in the city may go up to the rooftop at night and count the stars he can see in the sky, then not understand when an adult from the countryside says that such a feat is impossible. Believe me, I know." She stepped away again, this time stopping only to lean casually against a railing. "It seems we share a mutual interest, then. Not everyone comes creeping into the park in the dead of night just to spy on me and my work. To that end I suppose this entire conversation happened merely because of that interest. But my time, I'm afraid, is starting to run short. Do you have anything else to ask me now, or should I set you up with an appointment?"

"An appointment?" Noir paused, blinking. "With who, you? he asked.

"Possibly," Stargazer answered. "Or one of my bosses. You may even have a better time finding what you're looking for from them. Or not." She shrugged. "I couldn't say. I haven't looked yet."