[ dick gets up with a sigh and follows to the bathroom for domestic scene #3? there's one every thread so far. he's not gonna complain about not having to do it himself, tbh, it's kind of awkward to do one handed. ]
I couldn't sleep, so I went out to try to unlock some rooms. I bumped into Aizawa on the way. I tried to pick the lock on the door next to the employee break room using a needle I'd nabbed from the kitchen, and when that didn't work, I tried to weaken the hinges with a blowtorch. From the kitchen.
[ he grins a bit, unrepentant, before moving on; ]
We kicked down the door once the hinges were weak enough. Aizawa tried removing it entirely when we walked in, but it flew back into position as soon as we both stepped in. Nearly slammed into him on the way back. We couldn't open it again until about... what, ten, twenty minutes ago? [ that was. fun. ]
[Closes Eyes. It's fine, they can continue being the functional trio out of everyone here. Into the bathroom they go and Junpei's going to sit on the edge of the tub, looking at Dick's hand and then the faucet before turning it on? Sure. That sounds right. The bottle of booze is set on the edge within reach. Rinse first and then disinfect, right? That's how it works? Sit down.
It also gives Escha time to continue getting ready if she wants, but he figures it keeps all of them in the same space. He'll ask for the towel as needed, but once Dick starts talking he's busy checking the water temperature and nodding along.]
And you didn't think to knock and ask politely? [Another joke because that worked for him and that ended poorly. This, however, ended even more poorly so maybe not.] Nice thinking though. Surprised Aizawa was up that early...[A glance at Escha.] Have you met him?
[He'll also leave room for follow-up questions because. Sheesh.]
[ Are they functional, when one of them just got hurt Like That?? And all Escha is doing is silently fussing and fretting? (There's no way she can focus on getting ready right now... That can be... Later, after this is resolved.)
She mumbles a quiet, "That works?" about the blowtorch thing, because she's not really sure how to break into places, so, neat! Good to know! Then nods to Junpei. ]
I met him briefly, but we're not close. [ Which is a wild thing to say because how close are any of them, it's week ZERO?? But okay. ]
Turns out we've got the superhero thing in common, even if we're from two vastly different worlds. Funny how that works, right?
[ does junpei even know he's a superhero. does. escha. moving on!!! ]
The light switch worked fine when I turned it on. Inside there was a breaker box [ wait, shit, right-- ]-- that's, uh, that's a thing that controls electricity-- in there, as well as one light bulb, a bunch of machines that didn't seem operational and a bunch of wires connecting everything. The bulb was flickering, and I... it took me a bit to realize it was in an SOS pattern in code.
[ morse code, but. you get it. escha doesn't know it and he's tired. he looks at junpei as he works and wonders if he should be, like? telling him what to do? do you need directions honey. but instead he clenches his jaw a bit and moves on: ]
We noticed those last, but... there were scratch marks at near the bottom of the door. Human scratch marks. There was some blood in them too. I think the two might've been related.
[Listen I'm p sure DC exists in the ZE verse if Back to the Future does but we're ignoring that. Junpei can see the superhero costume and assume, it's fine. He doesn't seem too surprised to hear there's yet another superhero around either. Instead, he's staring at Dick's hand and then the water. Uh. Yeah. He's not super sure on this because he doesn't do actual first aid, but he can kind of guess. He's cleaned out enough of his own injuries, and he pulls Dick's hand to the water to begin rinsing it out while he listens. Maybe he should have let someone else do this. Probably. ]
Morse, you mean. [Not hard to guess given his own experiences.] It's a code made up of dots and dashes so people can send messages with light or sound. SOS is the easiest one to write, so it's used a lot in times of distress...[Oh. He was explaining this for Escha, but his brain catches up about then.]
...so what, you think someone was being held prisoner down there and tried to call for help? [Haha yikes! This also does nothing to explain how Dick got burned.]
[ Escha knows he's a superhero, she just doesn't really have a solid grasp on what that means.
The only medical information Escha knows is: which ingredients go into synthesizing medicine. She doesn't have those ingredients - let alone the tools. How are there no first aid kits in a hotel? Isn't that... Strange? Like, almost stranger than all the decor?
Maybe it's not surprising after the video Junpei saw. Escha nods slowly, staying pretty quiet. She feels bad that they have to slow down and explain things to her all the time. ]
[ dick lets the manhandling happen, though there's a slight grimace at the feeling of the water of, y'know, freshly peeled burns. ow. though he can't help but point out at junpei's hesitation-- ]
You know I could do this myself, right? [ it's light, though, since he gets the urge to do something. He sobers up a bit at Escha's question, though. ] No, we didn't find anyone... but we did find further proof someone was in that room, tucked away beneath some cables.
[ he uses his free hand to go through his pouches and take out a notebook-- please don't ask how it fit im using the power of comic book logic. it looks water damaged, but dick confidently manages to open it one handed to a page-- ]
The writing's bled through and unintelligible on the other pages, or the pages are stuck together, but there was this.
[ In the upper corner, there's V=F, and then some text that reads
DFKL IG QGGT FI DOU OX IDS SJSP TXGROXB OI UOBDI NS IDSKS. OI'P F KSUOXLSK: LGX'I IKAPI FXJGXS. PGKKJ UJ VKOSXL. ]
Pretty obvious cipher, and they were nice enough to put the key to decipher it in the corner. [ he pauses before dutifully reciting; ] "Hard to look at him in the eyes knowing it might be there. It's a reminder: don't trust anyone. Sorry my friend."
[He jumps a little at being called out, practically dropping Dick's wrist but not quite.] Ah, sorry. [It's also probably the only sign that he's unnerved. It's the same kind of urge to do something, but he continues a little less hesitantly.
Especially since like. Demons? Hewwo? Satan? He's listening to those words and yeah he's not questioning how Dick fit a notebook in there but the cipher's interesting in and of itself. That...isn't great.]
...you two remember what the audio recording said to me, Beck and Higekiri? "Using my friend's...it's okay, it says, come lay with me." [This is a wild-ass conclusion, but.] The people on camera looked like us, but obviously it wasn't. They didn't have real faces, and now we have this whole "knowing it might be there." What do you think that means?
[It's not really a question. He knows what he thinks, but he wants to know if they've reached a similar conclusion.]
[ Escha is just impressed that he figured out the whole message. If it were her, she would have had to sit down and solve it, not casually do that in the middle of an escape room, or in the middle of returning from one! Jeez! ]
It either... Copies the appearance of other people, or... Possesses them? Maybe?
[ It's like every time they find evidence it can go multiple ways. ]
[ don't be too impressed escha he's been suffering escape rooms his entire life. gotham super villains are dumb.
now that he's free to take care of his own booboo and he's rinsed it off, he turns off the sink and grabs the bottle of whiskey junpei set aside. he opens it deftly-- then takes a swig and makes a face-- before pouring some over the burn. technically like soap might've worked but who wants an infection in hell dungeon. it's fine.
there's a definite unhappy sound from dick as he nearly slams the bottle back down, looking a little green. you know what doesn't help lowkey nausea? pain. he's bracing himself on the sink with both hands, which. surely. helps.
anyway he did all that while listening to both of them talk, so that done, he recites dutifully in answer to junpei's question: ]
Clones, doppelgangers, shapeshifters, or some form of body or mind control. Possession, brain washing-- [ a beat and he sighs ] You get the idea. Going by our current secondhand accounts, main possibility seems to be leaning towards possession. If that's not the conclusion someone else wants us to come to.
[ the possibility is always there that they're being fucked with! isn't that fun. ]
All that aside... There was a breaker box in the room. It's what controls the electricity in this place-- though considering this is a subsidiary electrical room, I can't say if those were for everything. There was a lock on it, and once we'd done a thorough search of the place and couldn't find the key, I tried to pry it open-- it'd started rattling on its own, so it seemed pretty obvious it was the only solution. The needle fit in between the door and the actual breaker box, so... And I, I know I wasn't touching any circuitry, but the thing gave me a shock and short-circuited the entire power, apparently. Got myself this nice little souvenir out of it.
[ he. raises his icky hand. dick, after all that, pauses. ]
Can one of you get my other shirt from the closet? We don't have real bandages, so I'll have to make do. Can't leave it exposed to air.
[There you go, Dick. Junpei seems satisfied enough to let Dick take care of his own hand because he's not sure where to go from there, but there's a sigh when he hears the answers from both of them.
He's also getting up to go get said-shirt, speaking a little louder so they can hear.]
Exactly. Possession's our big contender right now, but if that's what we're going to be up against...that's not gonna end well for anybody. Everything started reacting weird in our room, too, when we started going on the right path. [He returns with the shirt.]
So. The next question is...either of you have any suggestions on how to make sure we aren't caught off-guard with this? Or have either of you had experience with this?
I've definitely never dealt with anything like this.
If it is possession, how much do you think... Whatever it is... Knows about us? Should we make code-words that it wouldn't know so that we can check that we're ourselves? Like - "say something only Junpei would know." That kind of thing?
[ dick takes the shirt with a grateful nod and he's gonna just. take out a fucking? knife? from his pockets? to cut a bit of the shirt with his left hand? it's fine he's doing construction over there, don't mind him, he has to rip it smaller in places so he can wrap it around his fingers and the rest of his hand equally.
it's a good thing pain isn't real??? moving on ]
I've dealt with multiple variations of possession and mind control. Depending on what it is, it's possible whatever might control us could have access to our memories. It's a good fail-safe, but not infallible. Until we know how it operates, creating counter measures will be... difficult.
[ sure, let's go with that. anyway-- ]
The good news is, the breaker box was labelled. That's how I knew what the room we were in was called. By process of elimination, the other two locked rooms on that floor are a grand ballroom and a... well, a gift shop. There was something called a panthouse, too-- with an a? It's gotta be higher up in the hotel.
[He doesn't seem too shocked, so cut away. Junpei's going to go sit on the edge of the tub again, bringing a knee to his chest to rest his chin on it.]
That's a problem in multiple universes, so we can't rule it out here either. [Mind control bad. Mind hacking also bad.] We'll have to see if anyone else gets a room open and what they find out about our demon hosts.
[That said...he grins suddenly at the news about the rooms.] Nice job. Panthouse seems to fit the theme of this place, but...could be where our captors are hiding. And maybe the gift shop is where they're keeping our stuff that's missing. All your gear, Escha's bombs...that kind of stuff.
Do you really think they're just... Behind a locked door, like that?
I really hope we can get into all those other rooms, soon. For our stuff, mostly. I feel like I can already guess what sort of thing is in the gift shop, and I don't know that I want it...
[ let's all just casually talk while dick wraps up his own hand one handed after making makeshift bandages. sure. he goes for the whole of it instead of just three fingers because i'm not about that aesthetic. idc that it's a lot more tedious??? ]
Sitting cozy above us and watching us is a pretty classic bad guy move, but I don't know. [ he tilts his head in thought ] You seriously think they'd put our stuff in the gift shop for free nabbing? We've been breaking into these pretty steadily so far. It's ... a bit too easy.
[ anyway, to. completely. finish his report-- ]
The door unlocked on its own when the power came back on. That's about all that happened in there. No haunting, no vision, nothing. Even after spending a few hours in the dark.
[Well you judged his first aid? He's just letting this happen.]
I'm still not convinced they aren't among us. That's pretty classic, too. [Bitter? Nah.] I do think it's possible, because I never said we'd be able to nab them for free. It's a gift shop. That means we'd have to pay for it somehow. And if there's no money...
[...well. You know. Fuck to pay, etc.] Makes you wonder what the difference is, why we got ghosts and you got burns. Maybe there isn't an answer.
[And a glance to Escha.] What do you think? [About. All of that. Especially since she's the one making a map.]
[ Escha is just overwhelmed - and not a medic! He seems like he's more competent than she is, even one handed... u_u Anyway she seems a little confused at Junpei's unfinished thought, there. It doesn't occur to her that sex could be payment?? Hm? How do we get money, Junpei??
Oh well. Mostly her thoughts are on: ] Wait, you think the person who set this up could be one of us? [ Escha come on, this is a basic. ]
Trading sex for favors and items? Who's gonna be keeping track so they can receive that payment?
[ dick is out there casually bringing escha up to cursed speed without realizing it. he seems to have finished his colorful bandage massacre, and he turns it over to look and opens and closes his fist to test it out.
he winces. it WORKS... at least... anyway. ]
Them hiding in plain sight is a possibility, just like everything else in this place. Easier to manipulate a crowd when you're standing in the middle of it.
[ but he doesn't sound 100% convinced that's in place right now ]
[...fair point. He'll concede and drop the subject for now. He's also seeming to get he should just shut up and maybe not be so biased in his opinions of what's going on, so...he settles for biting his tongue for once. He's keeping his gaze on Dick's hand, face relaxing just a hair when he sees it's still workable.]
[ Hrm. She really hadn't thought about suspecting other people. But it means that telling other people stuff is?? Dangerous? Is that what the voice meant about people turning on each other? Isn't it just feeding into it if she gets suspicious of one of their many theories? Ugh.
Ugh.]
Well... I generally tell Logy everything. But I don't know who else we should tell. Shouldn't we just tell everyone?
[ Like, she doesn't want to keep secrets... But... ]
[ he nods at Escha ] At this point in time, I'm rather certain our unknown entity isn't into play. That countdown on the computer still says "SOON". If we are looking at possession, it's better for everyone to be prepared and aware of the possibility sooner than later, especially since we've all already gotten hints of it. Could be that we'll get an announcement similar in nature to the info we've got soon enough anyway. There's no point keeping things hidden just yet.
[ ... yet, ]
Let's just spread the information as much as we can and hope word of mouth reaches everyone for now.
[ he could make a pa announcement but he's. tired. ]
[...yet. They'll talk about keeping secrets later when it's bound to come up because somehow it always does.]
We'll see. Soon is pretty vague, so...maybe we should split up who we're telling. [i.e. this way Dick doesn't have to explain to literally everyone.] I'll bring it up to Carlos and Tamamo. Beck if you don't see her first. Maybe Zero. Escha can take Logy...who else do you think you can take?
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I couldn't sleep, so I went out to try to unlock some rooms. I bumped into Aizawa on the way. I tried to pick the lock on the door next to the employee break room using a needle I'd nabbed from the kitchen, and when that didn't work, I tried to weaken the hinges with a blowtorch. From the kitchen.
[ he grins a bit, unrepentant, before moving on; ]
We kicked down the door once the hinges were weak enough. Aizawa tried removing it entirely when we walked in, but it flew back into position as soon as we both stepped in. Nearly slammed into him on the way back. We couldn't open it again until about... what, ten, twenty minutes ago? [ that was. fun. ]
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It also gives Escha time to continue getting ready if she wants, but he figures it keeps all of them in the same space. He'll ask for the towel as needed, but once Dick starts talking he's busy checking the water temperature and nodding along.]
And you didn't think to knock and ask politely? [Another joke because that worked for him and that ended poorly. This, however, ended even more poorly so maybe not.] Nice thinking though. Surprised Aizawa was up that early...[A glance at Escha.] Have you met him?
[He'll also leave room for follow-up questions because. Sheesh.]
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She mumbles a quiet, "That works?" about the blowtorch thing, because she's not really sure how to break into places, so, neat! Good to know! Then nods to Junpei. ]
I met him briefly, but we're not close. [ Which is a wild thing to say because how close are any of them, it's week ZERO?? But okay. ]
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[ does junpei even know he's a superhero. does. escha. moving on!!! ]
The light switch worked fine when I turned it on. Inside there was a breaker box [ wait, shit, right-- ]-- that's, uh, that's a thing that controls electricity-- in there, as well as one light bulb, a bunch of machines that didn't seem operational and a bunch of wires connecting everything. The bulb was flickering, and I... it took me a bit to realize it was in an SOS pattern in code.
[ morse code, but. you get it. escha doesn't know it and he's tired. he looks at junpei as he works and wonders if he should be, like? telling him what to do? do you need directions honey. but instead he clenches his jaw a bit and moves on: ]
We noticed those last, but... there were scratch marks at near the bottom of the door. Human scratch marks. There was some blood in them too. I think the two might've been related.
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Morse, you mean. [Not hard to guess given his own experiences.] It's a code made up of dots and dashes so people can send messages with light or sound. SOS is the easiest one to write, so it's used a lot in times of distress...[Oh. He was explaining this for Escha, but his brain catches up about then.]
...so what, you think someone was being held prisoner down there and tried to call for help? [Haha yikes! This also does nothing to explain how Dick got burned.]
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The only medical information Escha knows is: which ingredients go into synthesizing medicine. She doesn't have those ingredients - let alone the tools. How are there no first aid kits in a hotel? Isn't that... Strange? Like, almost stranger than all the decor?
Maybe it's not surprising after the video Junpei saw. Escha nods slowly, staying pretty quiet. She feels bad that they have to slow down and explain things to her all the time. ]
But you didn't find anyone else, did you...?
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You know I could do this myself, right? [ it's light, though, since he gets the urge to do something. He sobers up a bit at Escha's question, though. ] No, we didn't find anyone... but we did find further proof someone was in that room, tucked away beneath some cables.
[ he uses his free hand to go through his pouches and take out a notebook-- please don't ask how it fit im using the power of comic book logic. it looks water damaged, but dick confidently manages to open it one handed to a page-- ]
The writing's bled through and unintelligible on the other pages, or the pages are stuck together, but there was this.
[ In the upper corner, there's V=F, and then some text that reads
DFKL IG QGGT FI DOU OX IDS SJSP TXGROXB OI UOBDI NS IDSKS. OI'P F KSUOXLSK: LGX'I IKAPI FXJGXS. PGKKJ UJ VKOSXL. ]
Pretty obvious cipher, and they were nice enough to put the key to decipher it in the corner. [ he pauses before dutifully reciting; ] "Hard to look at him in the eyes knowing it might be there. It's a reminder: don't trust anyone. Sorry my friend."
[ CHEERFUL, RIGHT? ]
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Especially since like. Demons? Hewwo? Satan? He's listening to those words and yeah he's not questioning how Dick fit a notebook in there but the cipher's interesting in and of itself. That...isn't great.]
...you two remember what the audio recording said to me, Beck and Higekiri? "Using my friend's...it's okay, it says, come lay with me." [This is a wild-ass conclusion, but.] The people on camera looked like us, but obviously it wasn't. They didn't have real faces, and now we have this whole "knowing it might be there." What do you think that means?
[It's not really a question. He knows what he thinks, but he wants to know if they've reached a similar conclusion.]
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It either... Copies the appearance of other people, or... Possesses them? Maybe?
[ It's like every time they find evidence it can go multiple ways. ]
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now that he's free to take care of his own booboo and he's rinsed it off, he turns off the sink and grabs the bottle of whiskey junpei set aside. he opens it deftly-- then takes a swig and makes a face-- before pouring some over the burn. technically like soap might've worked but who wants an infection in hell dungeon. it's fine.
there's a definite unhappy sound from dick as he nearly slams the bottle back down, looking a little green. you know what doesn't help lowkey nausea? pain. he's bracing himself on the sink with both hands, which. surely. helps.
anyway he did all that while listening to both of them talk, so that done, he recites dutifully in answer to junpei's question: ]
Clones, doppelgangers, shapeshifters, or some form of body or mind control. Possession, brain washing-- [ a beat and he sighs ] You get the idea. Going by our current secondhand accounts, main possibility seems to be leaning towards possession. If that's not the conclusion someone else wants us to come to.
[ the possibility is always there that they're being fucked with! isn't that fun. ]
All that aside... There was a breaker box in the room. It's what controls the electricity in this place-- though considering this is a subsidiary electrical room, I can't say if those were for everything. There was a lock on it, and once we'd done a thorough search of the place and couldn't find the key, I tried to pry it open-- it'd started rattling on its own, so it seemed pretty obvious it was the only solution. The needle fit in between the door and the actual breaker box, so... And I, I know I wasn't touching any circuitry, but the thing gave me a shock and short-circuited the entire power, apparently. Got myself this nice little souvenir out of it.
[ he. raises his icky hand. dick, after all that, pauses. ]
Can one of you get my other shirt from the closet? We don't have real bandages, so I'll have to make do. Can't leave it exposed to air.
[ he may puke if he moves right now. ]
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He's also getting up to go get said-shirt, speaking a little louder so they can hear.]
Exactly. Possession's our big contender right now, but if that's what we're going to be up against...that's not gonna end well for anybody. Everything started reacting weird in our room, too, when we started going on the right path. [He returns with the shirt.]
So. The next question is...either of you have any suggestions on how to make sure we aren't caught off-guard with this? Or have either of you had experience with this?
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I've definitely never dealt with anything like this.
If it is possession, how much do you think... Whatever it is... Knows about us? Should we make code-words that it wouldn't know so that we can check that we're ourselves? Like - "say something only Junpei would know." That kind of thing?
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it's a good thing pain isn't real??? moving on ]
I've dealt with multiple variations of possession and mind control. Depending on what it is, it's possible whatever might control us could have access to our memories. It's a good fail-safe, but not infallible. Until we know how it operates, creating counter measures will be... difficult.
[ sure, let's go with that. anyway-- ]
The good news is, the breaker box was labelled. That's how I knew what the room we were in was called. By process of elimination, the other two locked rooms on that floor are a grand ballroom and a... well, a gift shop. There was something called a panthouse, too-- with an a? It's gotta be higher up in the hotel.
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That's a problem in multiple universes, so we can't rule it out here either. [Mind control bad. Mind hacking also bad.] We'll have to see if anyone else gets a room open and what they find out about our demon hosts.
[That said...he grins suddenly at the news about the rooms.] Nice job. Panthouse seems to fit the theme of this place, but...could be where our captors are hiding. And maybe the gift shop is where they're keeping our stuff that's missing. All your gear, Escha's bombs...that kind of stuff.
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Do you really think they're just... Behind a locked door, like that?
I really hope we can get into all those other rooms, soon. For our stuff, mostly. I feel like I can already guess what sort of thing is in the gift shop, and I don't know that I want it...
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Sitting cozy above us and watching us is a pretty classic bad guy move, but I don't know. [ he tilts his head in thought ] You seriously think they'd put our stuff in the gift shop for free nabbing? We've been breaking into these pretty steadily so far. It's ... a bit too easy.
[ anyway, to. completely. finish his report-- ]
The door unlocked on its own when the power came back on. That's about all that happened in there. No haunting, no vision, nothing. Even after spending a few hours in the dark.
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I'm still not convinced they aren't among us. That's pretty classic, too. [Bitter? Nah.] I do think it's possible, because I never said we'd be able to nab them for free. It's a gift shop. That means we'd have to pay for it somehow. And if there's no money...
[...well. You know. Fuck to pay, etc.] Makes you wonder what the difference is, why we got ghosts and you got burns. Maybe there isn't an answer.
[And a glance to Escha.] What do you think? [About. All of that. Especially since she's the one making a map.]
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Oh well. Mostly her thoughts are on: ] Wait, you think the person who set this up could be one of us? [ Escha come on, this is a basic. ]
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[ dick is out there casually bringing escha up to cursed speed without realizing it. he seems to have finished his colorful bandage massacre, and he turns it over to look and opens and closes his fist to test it out.
he winces. it WORKS... at least... anyway. ]
Them hiding in plain sight is a possibility, just like everything else in this place. Easier to manipulate a crowd when you're standing in the middle of it.
[ but he doesn't sound 100% convinced that's in place right now ]
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...so who are we telling next?
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Ugh.]
Well... I generally tell Logy everything. But I don't know who else we should tell. Shouldn't we just tell everyone?
[ Like, she doesn't want to keep secrets... But... ]
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[ ... yet, ]
Let's just spread the information as much as we can and hope word of mouth reaches everyone for now.
[ he could make a pa announcement but he's. tired. ]
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We'll see. Soon is pretty vague, so...maybe we should split up who we're telling. [i.e. this way Dick doesn't have to explain to literally everyone.] I'll bring it up to Carlos and Tamamo. Beck if you don't see her first. Maybe Zero. Escha can take Logy...who else do you think you can take?
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I think I'd like to tell Prompto, too.
[ He's sweet and she worries about him... And it's just easier to talk to friendly people like that. ]
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