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[bluescreenwhitedragon]

"This is Intensity. Leave a message."

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[bluescreenwhitedragon]

[And wandering around under the guise of window shopping at the various boutiques.

Look!

If this wasn't a complete farce for an information trade it would almost be a -- gasp -- date]

That's just part of your charm, Maki-chan.

Did you have a good time chatting with your old friend from the circus?

[rollplayinghouse]

[Gasp.

Unfortunately Maki is too concerned about how he's acting and focused on doing her best at subterfuge to note any of the romance of walking around the city at night arm-in-arm.]

..."Old friend" is a little strong. It went downhill quickly, and she said she wouldn't even have agreed to talk to me if she'd really known me.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Oh?

Did she take issue with the types of questions you asked?

[rollplayinghouse]

She did, yeah. For a few reasons. And also called me too demanding for saying she needed to actually tell me something real if I was going to tell her anything.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

And did Maki-chan think she was too demanding?

[rollplayinghouse]

I think I was being very reasonable. But I knew I wasn't really her type of person.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

I see.

What about when you were talking to her on the phone?

[rollplayinghouse]

On the phone she seemed fine. I told her I didn't need help getting out but I was interested in making a deal, and she agreed that we could work together in figuring out what the Asshole was up to. She just wanted to talk somewhere in person.

And she did mention a couple of interesting things in person, at least. But as soon as I started asking what she wanted out of it or what she knew that was helpful to me, she got really evasive.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Asshole, huh? Quaint.

[Moving on toward the next window]

So what were the interesting things?

[rollplayinghouse]

...Apparently, his territory would crumble without him, because he doesn't have enough other supporters. His whole city is held up by just him. He's really powerful, and they say the Devil Himself hand-picked him.

[Her phrasing sounds very deliberate, like she's quoting as best she can.]

She also said this whole territory is just for show.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

The Devil... Interesting.

So there might actually be an Apex predator at the top of this food chain?

[rollplayinghouse]

That's what that implies. But even she phrased it like a rumor.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

What do you mean - phrased it like a rumor?

[rollplayinghouse]

I mean that she said it just like that. "They say Mr. Devil Himself picked him."

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Got it. The mysterious they.

[rollplayinghouse]

Right.

That's about it, though... When I asked what his goals were, she told me not to ask her to understand him. When I asked what her goals were, she got mad at me for asking her personal questions. When I told her she needed to tell me something for it to be an actual information exchange, she told me she didn't like my approach and if I didn't understand that her knowing a bunch about his history was useful I could leave. I told her that sounded very useful, actually, and she could tell me some of that... And she told me that her boss was working with him and she didn't want to risk breaking her non-disclosure agreement and getting on her bad side.

And then she kicked me out of her apartment.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Well she sounds like she was in a mood.

[rollplayinghouse]

Yeah, well. She did get a text about the whole... "down for maintenance" thing just as we were heading in, so maybe that was also part of it.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Yes, well it does seem like the rest of the party did get up to a proper dungeon crawling adventure.

[rollplayinghouse]

...Apparently. I heard about some of it from Man Eater, and from Requiem second-hand...

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

You ran into Man Eater? Is he okay?

[rollplayinghouse]

Oh... yeah. He actually showed up in the cell after you guys left. He came to Exael's.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Good.

[Quiet sigh of relief]

I heard he was trying to get back to the rest of the group.

[rollplayinghouse]

Well, I'm not sure how it happened, but I guess he got caught and tossed in with us... clearly there's some kind of... monitoring of interdimensional travel, or something.

[she's trying]

Even if it only works half the time.

[bluescreenwhitedragon]

Well then I will be appreciative for this one time it worked in our favor.