gluttoning | MISTER STEAKS AND FANDANDANNY

[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.

I'm not sure he's used to humans who aren't cruel or out to get rid of him in some way. I would be shy, too, if that were the case for me. Avoidant. Worried about rejection.

[ Amon saw a lot of himself in Lily but what does Barrett see in him? He gave him his sister's name. Surely he can't see his lost sister in him, can he? ]

But in that same vein, pushing him to act faster for our sake will only upset him, maybe even make things worse. So, yes, I fear all we can do is wait. I... told him I would put a picnic together for him the next time I visit.

Would you like to join us for that?

[:)]

...Yeah. I think that would be nice. I've been trying what I can to make sure he isn't too lonely. But I only have had so much time to spare. I'm happy he's finding friends. [A beat, an exhale, his voice slightly disapproving.] I just hope you don't feel you have to hurt him like that again.

Did he tell you who else has access to his garden right now, beside me?

Edited 2023-09-01 22:31 (UTC)

Then I'll pack for three.

[ Ah, but listen to this baby college student disapproving of him, gosh. ]

You were a little too quick on the draw with your fist, actually. We had already worked it out during our first meeting.

[ Lily was punished and very mildly for what he put Amon through, but he'd been more interested in what Lily offered than he was in holding a grudge. ]

Though yes, he did. He mentioned your brother.

He was still bleeding all over his arms when I went to see him and said you hadn't apologized. You get why I wasn't happy about that, right?

[Is he being a little overprotective? Eh. But to say he had been alarmed when he got into the garden that day was an understatement.]

Mn. Levi should be talking to him again soon. He wasn't exactly happy to hear what you did, either. But if you guys did actually work it out, then I trust Lily to calm him down.

[ There's a pause. He's quiet for a time, wondering, and then, ]

Considering all I did was dig my nails into one of his hands, to hear he was "bleeding all over his arms" feels like an exaggeration on your part.

[ And Levi wasn't happy to hear it. Of course not, he probably wasn't happy to hear Amon — or Fandaniel, as far as Leviathan knows — was involved at all. Levi was going to be a problem. He already knew it. ]

Hm. Please realize that when I told you to keep what we've discussed private, that includes not telling him, too.

It's not. But you can think that if you like. Lily wasn't concerned about it and said he considered it a gift from you.

All I told him was that he can't let anyone just come up and hurt him like that again. I want to believe you when you say he can defend himself. I just worry. If someone gets invited in that actually wanted to do more than what you did, I don't want him allowing that again.

[So, yknow. Lily isn't mad, so he shouldn't be quite so mad. But it's the principle of the thing when your local game cryptid doesn't seem to know how to keep himself safe.]

...Yeah. I'm aware. I'm not about to send Levi into an anxious spiral.

A gift of pain, is it? [ That's cute. ] It is a very human experience, after all. I can see how he would look at it that way.

[ Morbid though it might be, they've all experienced pain, physical pain, emotional, mental, in some way. A skinned knee, a broken heart, a mental breakdown, any variety of things, but Lily never has. It hadn't been Amon's intent to teach him pain but it would appear that's what he did, anyway.

Ah, but he won't carry on arguing about it. Barrett wants to protect Lily, so let him. ]

I do mean it, though. If he wants to defend himself, he can. His garden is fully under his control, isn't it?

I don't know. He can summon items, and I know he doesn't want to leave that space right now. If you're right and he's responsible for all the armor, he can make brand new things and send them to other people. And he told me that our specialty armor was made directly from our memories.

So he has a lot of power. I'm not worried about that much. I just don't know if he knows what to do with it sometimes, or why he uses it the way he does.

[Which, for him, isn't much to be concerned about as an overall. He needs to have a chat with Lily about the armor... but so long as Lily was prioritizing his own safety, Barrett doesn't mind them trying to reach out to players and make, what he thinks, is just genuine attempts at connection gone wrong.]

Do you think he would have stopped you if you went any further?

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