STORY: Loll turns to face Sweet. “Sweet. I met this man.” She gestures to Tux. “He is ridiculous.”
STORY: “But he is a good man, and this child obviously knows nothing. He needs his father.”
STORY: Erwin, from the corner, “Hey!”
STORY: Loll continues, ignoring him. “I believe you can help Millie. And I will be here to help you when you return.”
SWEET: “Okay.”
SWEET: Sweet’s smile returns like it never went away.
SWEET: “Okay, dear.”
SWEET: His smile is up like a shield and his expression gives nothing more away.
STORY: “Now.”
STORY: “Who can make a hole in your spines?”
SWEET: After the People declared him dead to them for the heresy of a conscience, Sweet wandered the Outer Rim for awhile, working, but never again killing. Good with his hands if clumsy on his feet, there was always a job in an engine room or as a gunny. But the Ark called to him. And that’s where he met The Group. The Group of Suppressives and Genocide Survivors (the acronym in Varroan is apparently incongruously hilarious). The Group helped him come to terms with what he’d done, and the loss of The People to him. He tries not to evangelize too much, but he’s good passing it on and paying it forward.
—
STORY: You’re coming out of the docking bay and entering the main section of the station. It’s small for a space station, one large ring roughly 500 meters in diameter, 30 meters tall with a balcony section above the promenade. Small shops, electronics bays, and the occasional food stand line the main drag, and fancier restaurants, bars, and private rooms for tapping in to the virtual space occupy most of the balcony. Apartments are below decks, usually accessible by nondescript doors between the shops that lead down a set of dark stairs. The station is busy, full of aliens of every species and size, chatting, bargaining, occasionally getting into scuffles. Smells from the food stands rush your nostrils and immediately make you unhappy about how long you’ve been eating protein paste and the occasional cooked meal from Loll.
STORY: Every 20 meters or so along the promenade is an entry to the center section, a large open space with a ring of stadium seating and a stage in the center. It is here that the virtual sports and gaming events are held and broadcasted, and when not in use this space is locked to the public.
STORY: What do you do?
MILLICENT: Millie is scoping out all the tech as they walk. “So, Captain. Tux was your old friend. Where should we start?”
ALEJO: Alejo heads over to a bar with some poker tables, sits down at the table and gets dealt in. He loses the first couple of rounds, without thinking much about it, trying without much luck to start up a conversation with the two aliens on either side of him. After about 20 minutes, an alien who looks remarkably human except for her solid black eyes and unnaturally slender, long limbs, strides up behind Alejo and puts a hand on his shoulder. She wears a tight black t-shirt and cargo pants filled with various tools and gadgets. She also has a work belt slung around her tiny waste, which she wears like a holster. She’s got frizzy, vibrant red hair and a distinct Annie Oakley vibe.
ALEJO: “Soto,” she says flatly.
ALEJO: “Marta,” Alejo says flatly back. Then he breaks out into a huge smile. “What the hell!” He jumps up and gives her a hug, which is decidedly not how Alejo tends to react to even close friends.
SWEET: Sweet’s also at the table, playing silently, but well.
ALEJO: They were on a crew back on Nath when Alejo was 15. Marta left to work for the Families. They haven’t seen each other since.
SWEET: “Gonna lose the big blind, bud.”
ALEJO: Alejo nods. “I’m out.” He folds.
SWEET: Sweet shrugs, plays some more hands, playing like they don’t know each other.
SWEET: Keeping an eye on how it’s all going.
STORY: Marta cocks her head to the side, looking him over. “You look good.”
ALEJO: “You too.” He looks her up and down.
MILLICENT: Millie is at the table too, playing the exact statistics, a fun bit of math she enjoys doing in her head.
MILLICENT: She looks a little weird, smiling even when she loses.
STORY: She points to Alejo’s chest. “Drink?”
ALEJO: “Gods yes.” He grabs his jacket, which is on the back of his chair.
STORY: Marta looks around the rest of the bar and does a little math of her own. “You wanna bring your guys with you?”
ALEJO: “Good eye. As always.”
STORY: “I’m still alive for a reason.”
ALEJO: Alejo tries to catch Sweet’s eye, giving him a signal to wrap it up when he’s ready and join them. They’ve done this sort of thing before, so Alejo’s pretty confident he’ll get the drift. Then he taps Millie on the shoulder. “Drink?”
SWEET: Sweet raises his finger to say “just a moment” as the river comes, then stands up and walks over to them. “I’m starting to believe that Tueller was wrong when he said that you should always chase inside straights.”
STORY: Marta raises her eyebrows.
STORY: “So I take it you’re not here to gamble.”
STORY: She walks over to an egg-shaped glass booth, ducking into the opening to sit at a small table inside and gesturing for the three of you to join her.
ALEJO: “Not in any conventional way, at least,” he says as he slides in across from her.
MILLICENT: Millie looks at the table, does some quick math, and congratulates the victor before the end of the hand.
MILLICENT: She heads over to the booth with the others.
ALEJO: “We’re looking for a friend. And we’re looking for some missing code for another friend.”
STORY: She nods slowly.
SWEET: Sweet just smiles and shrugs. “I also enjoy gambling.”
STORY: “Let me help you out, then…” She waits for a name.
SWEET: “Sweet.” He reaches out his hand to shake like someone who recently learned how to do so.
SWEET: “No family name, anymore.”
STORY: She takes it. Her grip is surprisingly strong. “Sweet. Don’t draw to inside straights – unless you should.”
STORY: “Marta.”
SWEET: “That’s good advice. I’ll definitely pass that on, Marta. Thanks!”
ALEJO: Alejo scoots over to let Millie sit when she arrives. “Doc, this is Marta.” He introduces them. “Marta, Doctor Millicent Breedlove.”
MILLICENT: “Pleased to meet you, Marta.”
MILLICENT: “I’m not much for poker, but any friend of Alejo’s…”
STORY: “Likewise, Doctor. So this friend you’re looking for… she have a name?”
ALEJO: “And yeah, we’re looking for a guy named Tux. Hard to miss. Smart. Pain in the ass. Thin as a rail. Kinda like you,” he adds as an after thought.
MILLICENT: “Tall, cute in a he’d be cute if he washed up sort of way.”
ALEJO: Alejo laughs at Millie’s description.
STORY: Marta laughs, too. “You have a male friend?”
STORY: “Must not be human.”
SWEET: Sweet’s ears perk forward. “You’re not typically friends with human males?”
STORY: Marta smiles. “Let me put it this way to you, Sweet: imagine this dish at fifteen, in the best shape of his life, fearless, and learning how to wield those eyes. Men don’t like that kind of competition.”
SWEET: “Oh. So he just needed to meet some confident men.”
STORY: “Soto here spent as much time getting out of scrapes with our ostensible allies as he did working jobs.”
ALEJO: Alejo shrugs. “Young and stupid.”
MILLICENT: “I am going to ply you with drinks for _days_ to get those stories.”
MILLICENT: “I have a feeling we’re going to be very good friends.”
STORY: Marta smiles to Millie. “Deal.”
MILLICENT: Millie beams
ALEJO: He raises his eyebrows at this.
STORY: “All right, I figure I owe you a favor. Tux sounds like a handle. yes?”
SWEET: “I think named after that outfit that Tueller favors for parties, right?”
ALEJO: Alejo nods. Then he looks around, as if looking for a listening device. He frowns slightly. “Clive Tusker,” he whispers. Then he looks at Millie and Sweet. “Never tell him that I told you that.”
ALEJO: “Ever.”
ALEJO: He adds with emphasis.
STORY: “Give me a few.”
STORY: Marta slips out, leaving her drink half finished.
SWEET: “I have some bad news about Clive.”
ALEJO: “Bad news?” Alejo looks at Sweet, puzzled.
SWEET: “Excuse me if I missed something, but isn’t…he dead?”
MILLICENT: Millie puts her hand on Alejo’s. “Are you alright?”
ALEJO: Alejo looks down. “Yeah, probably he is. I mean . . . ” he trails off. “I’m just hoping here. Not very professional of me, I know. But, if she can find out something, maybe that’ll lead us to Erwin.”
ALEJO: He looks up and gives Millie a weak smile, grateful for the sympathy.
MILLICENT: Millie nods. “Sure. A dead man’s switch doesn’t necessarily have to be tied to a death. It’s just a name.”
ALEJO: Alejo sighs.
ALEJO: “Maybe. But I don’t think he’d part with that ship unless it was . . . dire.”
ALEJO: “He fucking loved that ship.” He says this wistful and quiet.
STORY: Marta finishes using a console opposite your table and comes back, dipping her head into the opening of the egg-pod-thing. “Says there was a Tux on the Takami leaderboards, doing pretty well for himself. No scores for a week, though.”
STORY: “Hey look, I gotta get back – I’m on a half hour break from my game. Good seeing you, kid. Come by later if you want a roll.”
STORY: She slaps a card down on the table with her room number.
STORY: Winks at Alejo, then departs.
ALEJO: “Either of you know anything about Takami?”
SWEET: “Kind of.”
SWEET: “It’s…not really my thing. It’s a battle royale type tournament game.”
SWEET: “Spine tap VR fighting bullshit.”
SWEET: “Had enough of that in my real life. Seems like falling off the wagon for me.”
MILLICENT: “Does that sound like Tux’s kind of thing?”
ALEJO: Alejo frowns. “Not really.”
SWEET: “Supposed to be safe, but dying all the time in VR-space can fuck people up, shockingly.”
SWEET: “And everyone but the winner dies in every game, on every map.”
MILLICENT: “Yes, strange, that.”
ALEJO: “Yeah, I’d imagine. I hate that VR shit.” He looks back at Millie. “He’s more of a lover than a fighter.”
SWEET: “VR space doesn’t seem all that different from the Dream Space, though.”
SWEET: “You guys died in that, right?”
SWEET: “Some of you talk more than others about it.”
ALEJO: Alejo looks up, realizing that’s true. “Huh. Good point.”
ALEJO: “So . . . ” He shakes his head. “As good a time as any to tell you both something, before we go further.”
MILLICENT: “Oh?”
STORY: Loll, for the record, is standing at the entrance to this bar, looking for enemies.
STORY: She never minds standing guard.
ALEJO: He stretches his neck, uncomfortable. “In the Weave, I met whatever, whoever, was controlling things. Or at least she or it said she was.”
ALEJO: “Anyway, it didn’t want to let Tux go. I talked it into letting him go, but only in exchange for promising to keep him in check. The thing said that he was asking too many questions about our experience, about what was really going on. It said that if he continued on that path, it could endanger . . . well, I guess our universe or something.” He grimaces. “It sounds bonkers. Probably is. But the thing seemed earnest.”
ALEJO: “Anyway, it only released Tux on my promise to put a bullet in his head if he pressed further.” He takes a long, deep breath.
MILLICENT: Millie frowns a big frown
MILLICENT: “You promised what?”
SWEET: Sweet gives Alejo a disapproving look.
ALEJO: “I did what I needed to get him out.” He says this unconvincingly.
ALEJO: “So, yeah. There’s that.”
MILLICENT: “Do. Do you think he might have crossed the. Weave Thing’s line?”
MILLICENT: “You know what? Can we go with Weaver?”
ALEJO: “Tux never met a line that he didn’t jump way the fuck over.”
MILLICENT: “Ah. Yes, I thought I recognized that in him.”
ALEJO: “Kindred spirit.” Alejo gives her another weak smile.
ALEJO: “So, I figure if he’s not dead already, I might have to shoot him. If he is dead, we probably also need to figure out how badly he’s screwed up whatever the . . . Weaver warned me about.”
ALEJO: He also says this unconvincingly.
MILLICENT: “Uh huh.”
MILLICENT: “Well, look.”
MILLICENT: “We’re out of the Weave now. How confident are you that the Weaver can hold you to your word?”
ALEJO: He shrugs. “She,” he pauses and looks at Millie for a long moment, like he’s recalling something, but not something about the conversation itself, “she, ah, said that things get messy when a ‘clean up’ is required. So, yeah, she implied that she had reach into our world.”
ALEJO: “I tried to learn more, but she threatened to keep me if she told me more.”
MILLICENT: Millie hmmms to herself.
MILLICENT: “Did you keep this from us until right now because you knew I’d spend the trip here researching the Weave and try to find a way around having to kill Tux?”
SWEET: Sweet has reverted to his unreadable Mora face, just flicking his eyes back and forth between Millie and Alejo.
ALEJO: He swallows hard. “Getting Tux and Teka out . . . I thought that was the priority.” He bites at his tongue. “Yeah that. And I knew you’d start asking the same sorts of questions that Tux was asking. Your curiosity . . . it’s sexy as hell but also it’s gonna get us all dead.”
SWEET: Softly, “Weird time to flirt, bud.”
ALEJO: “Old habits.”
ALEJO: “Also. It’s true.”
SWEET: Sweet says something gutteral in Mora that the translator doesn’t translate.
MILLICENT: “I’m going to take a lap of the casino. I’m going to use that time to decide whether to freak out.” Millie stands. “Gentlemen.” And starts walking briskly.
SWEET: Sweet catches Tchololl’s eye and gestures to her to follow Millie.
STORY: She does, though she leaves you some room, Millie.
ALEJO: “So. Takami.”
SWEET: “Not me. No slaughter for me, not virtually, not ever.”
SWEET: “You don’t give synthetic drugs to an addict, ever.”
ALEJO: “I’d never ask. But you think you can walk me through it enough for me to go in?”
ALEJO: He looks around for the bartender, considering ordering another drink. Then he thinks better of it and pours a glass of water from the jug on the table.
SWEET: “It’s an action synthcast. You’re not going to be able to talk your way through it, or search your way through it. It’s a digital abattoir, not a place to flirt your way to your friend. Who, if he was in it, wouldn’t _look_ like him anyway.”
SWEET: Sweet is as animated and uncomfortable as you’ve ever seen him.
ALEJO: “You alright, friend?” He focuses on Sweet.
SWEET: Sweet is quiet. And then shrugs, which, not being a Mora gesture, is something you know he had to do consciously.
SWEET: “I don’t want to plug you into the murdergame if I can possibly avoid it.”
SWEET: “Want to emphasize that this is something I know _of_, not something I can coach you on.”
ALEJO: Alejo nods. Not pressing. “Fair enough.” He smiles. “You’re maybe the kindest soul I’ve ever encountered. I appreciate it, Sweet. I really do.”
ALEJO: He looks around to see if Millie has made her lap, obviously anxious.
STORY: Millie, you’re walking down the promenade at some speed, staring at your feet as you think hard. You look up just in time to see a large Aect walking just as quickly towards you and dash out of the way at the last moment. Unfortunately, this leads you directly into the path of a human teenager carrying a large metal bucket.
STORY: You bump into him relatively lightly, but he reels back trying to avoid you and splashes some water on himself and the ground. “Watch it, ey?”
STORY: He struggles under the weight of the bucket as he looks angrily at you.
MILLICENT: “Oh. Oh! I’m very sorry. I was fuming. Can I help you, ah, carry that somewhere?”
STORY: “No, I’m fine, sorry,” he mumbles and steps to continue towards the stairs up to the balcony. He puts his weight on one foot and it immediately slips in the puddle and goes out from under him. You see the water arc up and descend towards his falling body in slow motion, the metal bucket cracking him in the head as he lands and the water douses you both.
STORY: Loll rushes over as he puts a hand to his forehead. “Fuck!”
STORY: The water’s brackish.
STORY: Loll steps in and puts a hand on your shoulder. “Millie. Are you all right?”
MILLICENT: Millie shakes her off and moves toward the teen. “I’m fine, Loll.” to the teen. “Are you okay? Here, let me see?”
MILLICENT: Millie moves to move his hand to check out his head.
STORY: He lurches away from you as you reach down, Millie. “No!” And scrambles to a stand. “I’m fine.”
MILLICENT: Millie pulls her hands back and remembers her first year medical training. “I’m sorry, I promise I won’t try to touch you again. Please, just let me see if you’re hurt.”
STORY: He looks around. “I’m fine. Sorry about the mess.” He picks up his bucket by the handle and rushes away, flailing a bit as he slips a few more times on the water.
STORY: A security officer makes their way to you, one eyebrow raised. “You know what this amount of water does to computer equipment, miss?”
MILLICENT: “Better than most, I’d wager. What an odd question.”
STORY: They look unhappy with that response. “Are you going to clean it up?”
MILLICENT: “I wasn’t really planning on it. I’m going to go see if that child is well. He took a pretty hard hit to the head, which seems like the priority, over the water spill, right now. Do you agree?”
STORY: They cross their arms. “Fine. You, pinky. Clean this up.”
STORY: Loll looks dryly at you, Millie.
STORY: She goes off to find a towel and clean up.
STORY: Millie, what do?
MILLICENT: Millie goes back to the table with Sweet and Alejo
MILLICENT: “I’ve decided to delay freaking out, but I reserve the right to resume freaking out later. Now get up and come with me. I think I might have a lead on Tux’s kid.”
ALEJO: Alejo glances at Sweet quickly and then stands. “Lead the way.”
SWEET: “Where’d you lose Tchololl, Millie?”
MILLICENT: Millie hurries in the direction of the kid.
MILLICENT: “She is taking care of some important security business.”
STORY: You find the spill, and Loll on her knees cleaning it up, and the stairs nearby that he ascended.
SWEET: Sweet gets down and takes over for Loll.
MILLICENT: “I ran into a child carrying a bucket of brackish water. A child so socially inept he could only have been raised over the course of a year by a man.”
SWEET: “Keep an eye on them, please, dear.”
MILLICENT: “I literally ran into him and he spilled that water oh good why don’t we all mop it up.”
STORY: Loll nods and hands off the towel to you. “Thank you, Sweet.”
MILLICENT: “For fuck’s sake.” Millie keeps moving.
STORY: Loll follows the two of you.
ALEJO: Alejo follows as well, looking for any signs of where the kid went, like wet footprints.
STORY: Alejo, let’s have Assessment + Mettle!
ALEJO: /roll 2d6+2
STORY: ablair01 rolled 6 + 2 = 8
STORY: You find some wet footprints to follow! They lead up the stairs and down a few doors to a private tech suite. The door’s closed but the tracks clearly lead here.
SWEET: Sweet stands back up, and puts the wet towel into a recycler, before returning to the hunt
ALEJO: Alejo shrugs, looks at the others, and then tries the door.
STORY: Locked.
MILLICENT: What kind of lock? Manual? or computer?
STORY: Computer!
ALEJO: He knocks.
STORY: A small green LED lights up in the center of the door. “Hello?”
STORY: It’s the kid’s voice, Millie.
ALEJO: Alejo nods to Millie. “You’re up,” he mouths.
MILLICENT: “Hello. We ran into each other in the hall.”
STORY: Sweet catches up with you.
ALEJO: Alejo nods at him as he approaches.
STORY: You hear an “oh, shit” as if he is stepping away from the door for a moment. Then a pause. “W.. what do you want?”
MILLICENT: “I think you may be hurt. I’m a doctor and I’d like to take a moment to examine you, _without touching you_, because I am concerned.”
MILLICENT: Millie motions to everyone else to back away.
STORY: “No thank you, I’m fine. We’re all fine here, now, thank you.”
STORY: Another pause.
STORY: “How are you?”
STORY: You don’t see him wince, but you feel it in your bones.
MILLICENT: “Oh, wow.”
MILLICENT: “My name is Dr. Millicent Breedlove and I came to this station looking for a friend of mine. I’m very convinced that you’re the child of that friend. His name is Tux. And you remind me of him very strongly. Do you think we could talk for a moment?”
STORY: The light in the door goes out.
STORY: An unpleasant and booming voice comes from the stairway landing behind you. The security guard from earlier posts up, a bit out of breath from the climb. “There you are! Think we weren’t going to find you after that brazen water hazard was left behind? Come here, all of you, let’s talk about deck safety.”
STORY: Alejo looks at the others and sighs. “I’ll handle him, take care of the kid.”
STORY: He walks away, arms out to his sides nonthreateningly. “Officer! Let’s start over.”
STORY: The door slides open. A very wet teenager is standing on the other side, looking at you, confused.
STORY: “You know my dad?”
MILLICENT: “I did. I’d like to come in with some friends of your dad. This is Loll and Sweet.”
SWEET: Sweet waves when he’s introduced.
STORY: He hesitates, a hand on the door frame. “Do you… know how to wake him up?”
MILLICENT: “I’m a doctor, I promise to try.”
STORY: He steps aside and lets you into the small room.
SWEET: Sweet comes in, hanging back and looking for something to make himself useful with.
STORY: It’s dim, and smells like someone who hasn’t showered in a while. Inside, a tall, six-inch-wide robot extends some delicate arms towards the prone figure of Tux, lifting one of his arms and moving it in circles.
STORY: There’s a chair and an empty metal bucket next to it, a small table with three paperback books on it, and a small monitor in the wall that is currently off.
STORY: Tux lays with his eyes closed, unmoving. It’s not immediately clear whether he’s alive, but Millie, you see his chest rising and falling very slowly.
MILLICENT: “How long has he been asleep? Must have been quite some time since you’ve got him doing somnambulant physical therapy.”
STORY: “He plugged in three weeks ago.”
MILLICENT: Millie checks him out, making sure his vitals are good first, then that his set-up is good enough to keep him healthy for weeks at a time.
STORY: He’s alive, but comatose. He’s starting to get bed sores, and he looks thinner than usual.
SWEET: “Was he going into the arena?”
STORY: Erwin nods unhappily. “Said he had research to do.”
STORY: “He wasn’t supposed to be gone this long.”
STORY: “Should have been hours.”
SWEET: “Multiplayer, or solo grinding?”
STORY: “I don’t know what that means.”
MILLICENT: Millie checks his connections, sees if it’s all legit.
SWEET: “He got into Takami, right? Was he playing against other people? I’m not a gamer, but I thought that tournament play required you to be in the room with others to avoid cheaters and AI augmenters.”
STORY: Erwin shrugs. “I don’t know what he’s doing in there.”
STORY: “Dr. Breedlove, is he going to be okay?”
STORY: Millie, Tux has a small wire plugged in to the back of his neck, otherwise he seems fine, just a little undernourished and definitely very unconscious.
STORY: But vitals are fine, he’s alive.
MILLICENT: Millie looks up at him. “He’s fine, Erwin. He could probably use a good meal and a lot of exercise, but he’s alive. I’m going to take a look at his rig now. I need you to tell me if he’s booby-trapped it at all.”
MILLICENT: To herself, “Honestly, he could have used a good meal and a lot of exercise when I met him.”
STORY: Erwin blows air out of his mouth and shrugs.
STORY: “Why would I know that?”
MILLICENT: “You’ve seen him use it, right?”
STORY: “Sure. He plugs the thing into his head, lays down, I read for a few hours, he’s back.”
STORY: “Except this time.”
SWEET: Sweet is straightening and cleaning the place. Doing dishes, the like.
STORY: It’s only a 40 square foot room – barely big enough for the chair Tux is reclined in and Erwin’s little station. It’s quite crowded with the five of you in there, and Loll steps out to keep guard and get some air.
MILLICENT: “Okay, I’m going to examine his rig.” Millie smiles at Erwin. “We’re going to get him out of there.”
MILLICENT: Millie examines!
STORY: Assessment + Interface please!
MILLICENT: /roll 2d6 + 2
STORY: josh rolled 10 + 2 = 12
STORY: You use the wall console to check out his setup, and yep, he’s currently playing Takami. He’s been logged in for just over 22 days.
STORY: You gain a data point about Takami!
STORY: You also determine that it would be dangerous to manually disconnect him, but if you can find him in the game it’s trivial to log him out.
MILLICENT: Millie hops up and starts pacing. “Okay, his identity matrix is tied to the his Takami avatar, which probably cuts nanoseconds off his reaction times, but it means I should be able to bypass the security layer and shunt him.” Millie stops walking. “If I can find him in the game. Goddammit.”
MILLICENT: “Sweet! How do I play Takami? _Where_ do I play Takami?”
SWEET: Sweet sighs.
SWEET: “A little elective surgery.”
MILLICENT: “But. I haven’t got any firmware.”
SWEET: “You need to get tapped into….I think humans call it the spine.”
MILLICENT: “I don’t DO firmware.”
SWEET: “Nanomites into the nervous system, with a port to allow you log in.”
SWEET: “You can’t do this wirelessly. You need to get Tapped to tap in.”
SWEET: “The latency, even with quantum encoding, would get you killed every time you logged in.”
MILLICENT: Millie stands still, clenching her fists.
SWEET: “Then you need a room or at least a booth.”
MILLICENT: “I.” She blinks tears away. “I don’t.” Blinks again. “_Fine_.”
SWEET: “All to go into the murderverse.”
MILLICENT: “I don’t like that name and I don’t like this.”
MILLICENT: “But I.” She looks at Erwin. “I _will_ do this, for Tux.”
MILLICENT: “Someone needs to stay here with Erwin and Tux. And I need someone to watch over me during the. _Little elective surgery_.”
SWEET: “I’ll stay.”
SWEET: “Taking care is what I do.”
SWEET: Sweet sounds disgusted to have to say this.
MILLICENT: To Sweet, “Wait, wait. I need you. You know this world, at least a little. I’m not going to ask you to take up arms, but I need your experience. And I need someone to watch my back in there, so Alejo’s going to have to be with us as well.” To Loll, “And I sort of doubt they have Maitri modeling for this tech.”
STORY: Loll nods. “I will watch these two.”
MILLICENT: “I need to get Tux alone and in a calm place for long enough to bypass the security layer and shunt his identity matrix.”
SWEET: Sweet closes his eyes. “This is. A lot to ask of me.”
MILLICENT: “I’m sorry, Sweet. I don’t need you to raise your hand to anyone, I just need us not to go in blind.”
SWEET: “You are overestimating my knowledge. But…”
SWEET: He trails off.
SWEET: “You are pouring a bar full of drinks for an alcoholic and asking him to pick his way through it by smell.”
SWEET: “That is…I am not good at analogies.”
STORY: Erwin looks confused. “What’s an alcoholic?”
SWEET: “Someone who wants to drink even though drinking destroys him.”
STORY: Erwin nods, not really understanding.
STORY: Loll turns to face Sweet. “Sweet. I met this man.” She gestures to Tux. “He is ridiculous.”
STORY: “But he is a good man, and this child obviously knows nothing. He needs his father.”
STORY: Erwin, from the corner, “Hey!”
STORY: Loll continues, ignoring him. “I believe you can help Millie. And I will be here to help you when you return.”
SWEET: “Okay.”
SWEET: Sweet’s smile returns like it never went away.
SWEET: “Okay, dear.”
SWEET: His smile is up like a shield and his expression gives nothing more away.
STORY: “Now.”
STORY: “Who can make a hole in your spines?”