"Seems Ozzy's back on a short leash." Jazz informed an already dejected looking Iz at the bar. "I'm guessing that Theta sent you packing faster than you could even finish making your pitch like she usually does?"
"This was worse than usual." His sullen friend admitted as his eyes focused on a nearby candle. "There must already be more of Zory's anchor on the move than usual."
"How many are we talking?" Jazz inquired without any actual sign of worry being echoed on his face as he sipped on the special tea he'd added mint leaves to. "If they're keeping you in the dark, they have a reason for that, you know."
"This is different." Iz acknowledged broadly while trying to decide what was even worth narrowing down. "Everyone I've reached out to has said absolutely ridiculous things to make it clear that for some reason, no one but Vitale is willing to lift a finger right now… Most of them are pretending they don't care what happens to her and I know there's no way that's true. I even popped in on Zenny, Jazz… Something's wrong."
"Rewind." His sounding board scoffed at the mention of Zenny after the avid denials reaching out to him was even necessary. "Did you or did you not swear on your honor that you had no idea where the real Zenny was?"
"I told Zor the truth, technically. "Iz elaborated with a less proud explanation than Jazz typically expected whenever he had worked a loophole against the queen of loopholes. "I do not usually know where he is at any given moment, but he is somewhat predictable regarding places he likes to go… If I hit enough projections to enough of those places at once, he's usually bound to show himself sooner or later just to get me to stop… It's like knocking on every door in the back of his mind at once until the banging finally annoys him enough he will at least answer long enough to tell me to go away."
Zenny was known to be even more uptight about Zory's safety than Ozzy was. Him giving Iz the cold shoulder didn't make any sense when his concerns were valid.
"He really gave you the boot too?" Jazz asked slowly.
Jazz wasn't aiming to make this feel like an interrogation but he also couldn't figure out how to stop making it feel like he was pulling teeth tonight either.
"Worse, actually." Iz exclaimed with a furious sort of grunt. "The kingpin of the Zbi born anchors refused to even dignify anything I had to say with an actual response at all."
Jazz swallowed hard in response to that development. "I really didn't peg him for the type to be petty enough to resort to the classic silent treatment."
"Wait for it." Iz shook his head as his eyes finally met Jazz's with a pained sort of anger glossing them over. "The Zimiirians are apparently content to let her die if that's how this shakes out… The Zarovans claimed it's too far outside of their domain for them to be of any use in this fight without her approval… As if that wasn't bad enough-? The Zerenians already haven't been accepting my star-calls for months and didn't bother to break that glorious streak tonight either… Absolutely no one I've pestered for a little counterpart action has been acting like themselves at all today besides Vitale."
Jazz cleared his throat uncomfortably before trying to address the elephant in the room. "It sort of sounds like he pulled strings in advance to beat you to the punch then."
Iz scoffed at the insinuation Vitale would commandeer the situation. "You really think he would blackball me like that?"
"If he had reason to believe he had to, yeah." Jazz added with a nervous sort of gulp of his drink nearly going down the wrong pipe. "Once that moron has his reasons locked in, he doesn't care how anyone else feels about his rationale."
"And what reasons could he possibly have?" Iz blinked in a display of growing irritation at what that could mean.
"Don't shoot the messenger, Zunny." Jazz prefaced himself as he surrendered in defeat for trying to keep the peace for as long as he could. "I'm just not sure his trust is a two-way street with you, just like it's not with Ozzy… Whenever push comes to shove with Zory, the only one Vitale seems to actually trust to help protect her in real time without excessive manipulation however Vitale thinks it should be done-? Is your brother."