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[bluescreenwhitedragon]

"This is Intensity. Leave a message."

Comments

[rollplayinghouse]

Not about those parts, maybe. But what seems more likely...? That she's actually an ancient and powerful angel-or-demon who helped Pythia come to power, who ran the game just as a personal favor and was honest and helpful with us? Or something more like... she's just a recruiter from Pythia's faction, directed to talk to us and spin whatever narrative Pythia wants us to hear, and under a gag order that stops her from revealing anything actually useful?

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Then there is still value in trying to understand why that is the narrative they want to spin, isn't there?

[rollplayinghouse]

Yes. And why she couldn't say whatever she couldn't say. That's why I brought it up.

...I don't know how much we can figure out from just this much information, though.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Probably not much.

But each piece of information is just one part of the puzzle. And the more pieces we collect, the more chance we have of catching them in a lie.

[rollplayinghouse]

...Yeah. I guess that's true. At least, assuming that people share enough of the pieces.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Don't underestimate my network.

We should be more concerned with whether people are asking the right questions.

[rollplayinghouse]

Mm.

It was really hard to figure out what to ask her, in the moment. I kept thinking... she definitely wouldn't openly reveal secrets in the middle of a game. And even if she's trying to feed us some false narrative, she'd want to keep up the appearance of being reluctant to share information, too. So I didn't want to ask anything too directly. But then... everything is really vague, and could mean like five different things...

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

But of course. That's the characteristic of a good liar.

Which is also why we need good liars on our side.

[rollplayinghouse]

...Well, you have C for that, right?

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

C is one of them, yes.

Is that a problem?

[rollplayinghouse]

No, that's fine.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

I know that information gathering is not your forte.

You'll probably feel more useful once we have actionable things that we can do.

[rollplayinghouse]

[...]

I'm fine at information gathering in some situations. All my memories are basically murder investigations, you know. I'm just not good at lying. Or... delicately questioning.

And what exactly are "actionable things"? I don't want to be the person who just waits around until there's a bunch of demons to kill.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

I was thinking more reconnaissance.

You have good spatial awareness and could probably get into a lot of places unnoticed. If there was something worth breaking into around here anyway.

[rollplayinghouse]

...Do you really think there's anything we can do around here "unnoticed"?

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Yes. I do.

Or at least things we can do our friends upstairs won't think twice about.

[rollplayinghouse]

...Well, that I believe. That was part of my plan, initially. To be someone they didn't think to worry about doing anything important... until it was too late.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Has your plan changed since then?

[rollplayinghouse]

Part of the plan was not talking about the plan at all and doing it by myself, to make completely sure it was off the radar. But that didn't really work out, since then I didn't get told anything about what was going on, and I do need some information to figure out an approach.

...And either way, now I'm probably too involved with you to be totally ignored.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

You had the notes. Same as everyone else. Was that not enough to make your own decisions?

[rollplayinghouse]

...It clearly wasn't. I mean, look at what happened when we were going gray.

A was in contact with Exael, and talked to other people who were, and so he knew that it was her who'd told them it was a result of not playing our roles properly. When they announced it to everyone on Dissonance, they didn't say where it came from, so I thought that was just a theory and no one actually knew what was going on.

And of course, Joker knew Anubis had summoned a demon. So he got his and Nine Nine's help when he tried to summon Asmodeus. I didn't even know that was a thing you could do.

I don't know what I would have done if I'd known all of that. But there were definitely plenty of things I couldn't even consider.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Maybe you would have drunk dialed Exael.

That's what I did!

[rollplayinghouse]

Maybe.

[flat, not amused.]

And then there was C, telling people about graduation and then about Exael messing with the protection game based on who he felt like telling. I did hear about that, but I could just as easily not have. You don't think that could possibly be useful information to make some kind of plan?

[sighs, trying to release some of her annoyance]

...Look, just don't act like everything important is freely available. It's fine that you all keep some information on a need-to-know basis. That's reasonable. But it means I can't make a plan no one knows about, because if no one knows I'm making a plan, apparently no one thinks I "need to know."

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

It's a matter of give and take, Maki. Why would I give you anything if you're not going to give me anything in return?

Am I supposed to just trust you'll do the right thing?

[rollplayinghouse]

...No.

That's why I told you my plan changed.