The clock tower’s shadow cools the square into a pocket of calm. Mercedes eases back from the alley mouth, and the group drifts to the edge of a fountain where the city’s noise stays politely far away.
Porsche Machina
You can glare at me all you want, Merc. I brought you answers, not trouble.
Mercedes Machina
The cloth is stitched by hand, and the seam is meant to be hidden.
Sakura Matou
It feels like someone wanted you to notice it, but not too quickly.
Evan Liecht
That is either thoughtful or manipulative. Sometimes those are the same thing.
Porsche Machina
Your mother trusted very few people. If she trusted someone near that orphanage, I wanted you to know before you chased ghosts in the dark.
Porsche folds her arms, but her shoulders loosen a little. Sakura stays tucked close behind Mercedes, watching the adults with careful, quiet eyes.
Porsche Machina
Come on, Merc. Ask me what you actually want to know, and I will answer straight.
“I ask Porshe why she should help me, angrily reminding her that she never cared about me to begin with.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Charm, rolled +2)
Mercedes Machina
Then tell me why I should believe you now, because you were never there when it mattered.
The words land cleanly across the fountain mist. Porsche’s folded arms loosen, and her expression slips from guarded to wounded before she can hide it.
Porsche Machina
Because I was there when it was dangerous, and that does not make up for the rest. I know.
Porsche Machina
I did not raise you, Merc. I know what that cost you. I am not asking you to forgive me.
Porsche Machina
I am asking you to let me be useful for once, instead of standing on the wrong side of every door.
She reaches into her coat and turns the hidden seam of the cloth outward, revealing a neat market mark stitched inside, along with a second thread route that points toward a stall lane by the waterfront.
Sakura Matou
She is trying to help, even if she is terrible at saying it.
Evan Liecht
That’s a start. And for the record, the mark is recent. Someone handled this today.
Porsche Machina
If you want the truth, I can walk you there. If you want me to leave, say so now.
“I let Porsche guide me there”
SUCCESS (Good Agility, rolled +2)