gluttoning | MISTER STEAKS AND FANDANDANNY

Oh, yes, I am aware of why. We spoke about it... and I have agreed to help.

[ While he has his own reasons why, he won't share them. That's for him and Lily to know, provided Lily hasn't gone over that with Misteaks as well. He takes a moment to check to see if his nose is still bleeding but it's trailed off, leaving him with streaks of smeared blood under his nose and down his chin but not much more fresh blood. ]

I barely did anything to him, so I feel you may be overreacting a tad, don't you? Goodness, it isn't as though he can't defend himself...

Mn. [That relaxes him a tiny bit.] I figured you did, with how Lily talked about you. He's been kind of wary given what the administrative staff keep doing when he shows up.

Call it blood for blood. He doesn't get why people hurting him should be a bad thing. I didn't think you should be allowed to just get away with that, regardless of your reasons. And I have access out here, where he doesn't.

He thinks you're lonely and wants to help you. So I'm not about to ask you to back off. Just keep your claws to yourself.

And I suppose you've taken it upon yourself to explain it to him, hmm? He seems very impressionable, after all.

[ Although whether that'll convince Fandaniel to keep his claws sheathed or not is questionable. Misteaks matters less in the scheme of threats. He could PK him, certainly, but what else? ]

He should be wary, though. The administrators will see him as a bug to be wiped from the system, you see. They would kill him given the chance and I would prefer that not happen. I can only imagine you feel the same way, considering... the name you gave him?

Someone has to. He's not going to last very long if he can't even stand up to people he wants to call his friends.

[One of his hands drums his fingers against his crossed arm, his face going stone cold at the jab.]

...Yeah. I don't want him gone, either.

I think he's aware of the stakes. He's told me from the start that he doesn't trust them, and he's been getting warnings about the changes the admins keep making.

There's also something else out there that might not even involve the admins. I think it might be one of the Shadowed Ones. Or Lily's father.

[ That's right, he's onto you and your obsession with the loss of your sister, Misteaks, and... he cannot blame you. Fandaniel is also there. They are both there, at the same level, so, yeah. ]

The Shadowed Ones. From the poems and lyrics that have been translated? I thought them to be only bits of lore from the developers but Lily's father? Does someone like Lily even have one?

Edited 2023-08-30 05:09 (UTC)

Mn. There's multiples of them under their father, including Lily. He called him the Progenitor, someone who's a part of Fragment itself, who tried to delete Lily and scrap him in the first place. He's not one of the admins as far as I know.

He tends to lock up when I ask about it too directly, though. Lily wasn't exactly liked... but he doesn't seem to remember a lot about his father's identity anymore, outside what I just told you.

He's insistent that that's his problem, though. Not ours. I just wonder how much it's tied together.

[Not that it matters much. He's made up his mind on what he thinks is most important here.]

Did he tell you anything about what he believes the administrators are up to?

So, the Shadowed Ones are the Progenitor's minions. Curious that we haven't run into them yet...

[ Very curious indeed. The snippets of information are one thing, but if they're as real as Lily is, where are they? He purses his lips into a thin little frown, brow furrowing. ]

What the administrators are up to? That depends. He mentioned the corporation pulling copies of our minds and how they are trying to trap us here, within Fragment. The minds are understandable but once they have the copies, why try to keep the originals?

Copies...

[There's an open confusion to Misteaks' expression, as though that particular point is hitting as a surprise.]

Why they'd choose us to trap is something I can't really figure out in the first place. If Lily's right, and they just want people to control, eventually there's gonna be backlash if something starts happening to us, right? Not that Hien seems all that interested in what someone suing CCCorp might do.

Maybe... making copies means they're trying to find a way around that?

[ Fandaniel has a lot to say on the matter of what the technology running Fragment could possibly do and yet, speaking it all hear, especially certain warnings, gives him pause. ]

Likely because none of us have the money or influence to survive suing CCCorp. Misteaks... [ Fandaniel rises to stand from where he'd been seated on the edge of the bed and offers him a hand, to shake. ] My name is Amon Isai. Can we speak outside of the game? A phone call or a video chat, perhaps, but not with anything CCCorp may have had access to while installing your system.

...Mr. Isai.

[He regards that hand with brief hesitation, before returning the grip, a firm shake and a serious air about how he looks back towards Fandaniel.]

Barrett Blake.

I get it. Phone would be best. I don't have a lot of time for video calls right now because of what I do at the university. But I could make something work if you gave me a little time.

A phone, yes, but not yours.

[ He returns that firm shake with one of his own. ]

Mr. Blake, do you know what a burner phone is? A cheap cellphone, one of the throwaway ones. I will handle getting one that can make international calls, so you won't need to worry about that.

[Oh damn, he's serious about all this... it's like a spy movie. Except instead of being kind of interesting and with free popcorn, it's kind of intimidating and no free popcorn.]

...Yeah, I think so. Like the prepaid ones.

Do you think something's wrong with our regular phones?

You know you can pull logs from phone numbers just as easily as logs of our conversations in this game, yes?

[ Or no, apparently. ]

There are some things you're going to need to know and I cannot risk anyone else discovering it. If you cannot agree to keep what we discuss to yourself, however, then it would be better if we simply never speak of this again.

Mn. No, I guess I didn't. Tech isn't my thing.

You don't need to make it dramatic. [Maybe he just has two braincells and the one that isn't thinking about food is trying its best to keep up here.] As far as I'm concerned, unless you actually threaten to kill my family or something, it's not leaving this room. Or... whatever phone we use. Same idea.

Well, now you do know. We could certainly discuss matters in Lily's domain, though if there's anything you wish to say without Lily being aware...

[ There's a shrug. To be fair, if anyone ever got the inkling that they were up to something strange, it'd be a simple matter to figure out where they've been gating to for that.

But Fandaniel can, at the very least, try to minimize what gets logged. ]

I'll send you a number in about three days. You can use that to contact me.

[ And that should give Barrett enough time to get a throwaway. ]

[Without Lily being aware?

He squints a little, but thentopic moves on and he's perfectly fine with leaving that statement unanswered.]

...Yeah. Got it. Let me know a time, too. You said you're making it international, so I don't want to go calling you when you're sleeping or something if I can help it. [Like, he's online NOW, sure, but common courtesy and all that.]

Edited 2023-08-30 16:31 (UTC)

[ Sleep is for the weak, Barrett! Amon can do without or on very little, though he does offer a nod. ]

I'll do that. Here, let me show you to the door.

[ Although when he does, he won't leave the guild hall along with Barrett. He's on his own after this, at least until he inevitably gets that message in his inbox with a number and a time. After that, it's merely a waiting game. ]

[Barrett will message back within the day with his own number and a thumbs up emoji, nothing more.

Right on cue at the time Fandaniel has asked, he'll get a call from a California area code.]

Is now still a good time? [At the very least, it sounds like Barrett.]

[ He answers, as expected, though not without a yawn to enunciate his greeting. ]

Mm, yes, this is fine. [ And it sounds like Amon, too, albeit with an accent that's often absent in the game thanks to the auto-translation. ] Good evening, Mr. Blake.

Good evening. Or, uh. Morning.

[Barrett, meanwhile, sounds about as American as one could get. There's a slight breathiness to the back of his words as though he's been active, the sound of a simple breeze that shows that he's outside somewhere.]

Hope your nose is feeling a little better than before.

My nose? [ A pause. ] Ah, yes, that. You didn't actually break my nose, so I'm perfectly alright outside of the game.

[ A little sore but that passes. It's aaaall in the head. ]

Now, I want to cut right to why we needed to go to such an extent. I realize it seems strange but what I must warn you about must remain... extremely private. You won't like it but you must promise me you won't tell anyone else. If you do, you put more than just you and me in danger, but a completely innocent party as well.

[This still feels like a spy movie. But Amon sounds pretty damn serious.]

...Yeah. I understand. It stays between us.

I'm up in one of the state parks for a run, and I'm pretty far out. Nobody's gonna hear anything.

Good, good...

[ Those are pretty big, aren't they? So extra good. ]

Do you remember the situation with that Swallow girl? Who said she couldn't log out?

[A frustrated breath out his nose. Yes, he sure remembers.]

Hard not to remember that. You were the one who went out to attempt a player kill reset with her, right?

Hien implied she was lying about the whole thing when I spoke to him later.

Edited 2023-09-01 18:49 (UTC)

Of course, he would do that. Even CCCorp put out a statement claiming she was lying. The truth is that, yes, it did really happen, and yes, I was the one who went out to try and reset her with a PK.

[ But that isn't the worst part and this will be the part, the important part, that Amon is hoping Barrett will keep a secret. He's trusting you here, big guy! ]

Only Hien arrived to stop me and took myself and Swallow away into his little administrator dungeon.

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fast forwarding to 9/1

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