Talking to informants isn't quite shorthand, it's part of the job. As far as "undermining Lola's detective instincts" goes, no - what we learned from the informant is the guard haven't spotted any patterns, while Lola immediately spots a rough perimeter, and epicenter. Looks to me like Lola figured out in minutes what the guard overlooked for months. Under distracting circumstances. Lola's detecting instincts are pretty good, I'd say.
Her observe and act instincts may be off - getting distracted from the mission by a horny aen'fa? Something terrible will now happen. Lola's party has welders. Just noting.
How long did it take you, Simon, to get to, "if we had a visualist, we'd already be in disguise?"
Food is always a fun way to explore culture. Hell, food (and spices) drove a hell of a lot of history in our real world. Example - potatoes - in brief, Spanish observed the food in Peru in the 1500's. It was transplanted to Europe by Spanish and English. By the late 1700s Ireland's main food staple was potato - while the rest of the continent adopted the spud around the 1770s, when the 'Little Ice Age' was causing other crops like rutabega and turnips to fail (meaning the transplanted potato helped prevent famine). Then, of course, the potato failed in Ireland causing mass deaths and migration for which the Irish population only recovered from in the last couple of years. One food item, lot of impact.
Also see Marco Polo and the East India Company.
Figured I'd digress into food so you wouldn't be stuck with "Can't talk - SPOILERS!"
And yes - food is a great world detail even when it's just doing it's normal job. Once you factor in how food types travel it becomes even more fascinating, as with your example.
Talking to informants isn't quite shorthand, it's part of the job. As far as "undermining Lola's detective instincts" goes, no - what we learned from the informant is the guard haven't spotted any patterns, while Lola immediately spots a rough perimeter, and epicenter. Looks to me like Lola figured out in minutes what the guard overlooked for months. Under distracting circumstances. Lola's detecting instincts are pretty good, I'd say.
Her observe and act instincts may be off - getting distracted from the mission by a horny aen'fa? Something terrible will now happen. Lola's party has welders. Just noting.
How long did it take you, Simon, to get to, "if we had a visualist, we'd already be in disguise?"
Food is always a fun way to explore culture. Hell, food (and spices) drove a hell of a lot of history in our real world. Example - potatoes - in brief, Spanish observed the food in Peru in the 1500's. It was transplanted to Europe by Spanish and English. By the late 1700s Ireland's main food staple was potato - while the rest of the continent adopted the spud around the 1770s, when the 'Little Ice Age' was causing other crops like rutabega and turnips to fail (meaning the transplanted potato helped prevent famine). Then, of course, the potato failed in Ireland causing mass deaths and migration for which the Irish population only recovered from in the last couple of years. One food item, lot of impact.
Also see Marco Polo and the East India Company.
Figured I'd digress into food so you wouldn't be stuck with "Can't talk - SPOILERS!"
Excellent, glad that came across as intended.
And yes - food is a great world detail even when it's just doing it's normal job. Once you factor in how food types travel it becomes even more fascinating, as with your example.
Looking forward to chatting next week!