gluttoning | MISTER STEAKS AND FANDANDANNY

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.

...That matches what she told me that night. Swallow said he gave you and her a talk of some kind, and that that was why Zelkova probably couldn't find any of you. She was pretty vague about the details, though.

[So he knows about that much, anyway.]

Yes, well, that brings us to the part where Hien told us that if I had PKed her, I would have killed her for real, as in real life, not just in the game.

[ That would be that talk he had with them, yep. ]

Real life?

[Uhhh...]

Would it have turned her into a vegetable or something?

Perhaps. What kind of death Hien meant, I do not know. It might merely be brain death or it may be an aneurysm, which would kill you outright.

[ Do they really want to find out, though? ]

What I do know is he threatened us quite heavily if we told anyone else.

Threatened?

[Ew?]

That's kind of important for other people to know of that bug happens again. Maybe he didn't want to induce a panic?

Mmhm.

[ Threatened and Amon isn't sure he wants to see what CCCorp can actually do to him, soooo. ]

Or he wanted to give his corporate masters time to cover up. It could easily be both, though. Regardless, if we two are to work together, I need you to know to get somewhere safe if you ever run into that bug.

Mn...

Guild membership could help with that now, right?

[It's not guaranteed to be 100% safe, but at least it limits contact to a few individuals.]

If not that, then just staying somewhere with PVP disabled, like Mac Anu.

If the guild has PVP disabled, yes, it could. As such, I would not suggest sheltering within Telophoroi without me present.

[ As he can shut PVP off in a heartbeat. ]

So either that or Mac Anu will be safe. I must say, you are taking this more calmly than I expected, Mr. Blake.

Lily warned me something like this might happen. Days before Swallow had her log out problem.

[So Amon can have some context of how long Barrett's been involved, anyway.]

I'd rather stay calm now and avoid more panic later. I already had my time to get angry over what happened to Swallow. It doesn't help me to repeat it.

Really? So you must have met Lily weeks ago...

[ Interesting. ]

Ah, well, I'm glad to hear he was looking out for you. You are right, though. Getting angry over it again won't change anything.

Mn. There was that big glitch that happened in Mac Anu a few weeks ago, where a lot of players equipped each other like weapons. Lily talked to me after that stopped, when we all got a new title.

Morgan and Levi both told me that the administrators were shutting other players down about the title messages, telling them not to interact with that account or they'd get suspended. But I never got a message like that.

Edited 2023-09-01 20:39 (UTC)

Interesting...

[ Very interesting. ]

I only got an invite to Lily's garden around the end of last week. From what he told me, he is very particular about who he contacts. He must have liked you quite a lot to hide his message to you from the admins.

You think so, huh.

[Good thing this is over phone so Amon can't see his reaction.]

He was really shy at first. Kind of like he didn't know what he was supposed to do. I just try to keep him company when I can, and listen to what he's concerned about in Fragment.

I think he's right when he says that there's something else going on here. I have family playing this game that I want to keep safe.

I just wish I knew what we could do about it right now, other than wait.

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