After that spat of yours, I'm not sure any of us should let you go.
[No one is doing a very good job of stopping Sinclair from doing anything lately, though. He may not have always embraced it, but it does seem as if he has always been relentlessly stubborn. Even now, the subject is shifting, so she shifts with it and lets it go, forehead lined.]
He said you'd called him blunt. [It hadn't been that long ago; it's hard to say, now, how much was Winter, when she barely knew him.]
We're similar that way, I told him: We don't know how to be around people. I might as well use that to our advantage if someone needs to.
[Remembering that conversation with Winter in the dog park, it's hard not to think about the ebb and flow of hope and pessimism between them both; that they felt weak, but that he thought his intention to still keep others afloat was somehow selfish. Then all isn't lost after all.
Miharu worries at her lower lip, clutching tightly to her upper arm. She catches that pause in Emil's voice, drawing her attention back from the board to glance over at him.]
What a joke. [She grimaces. To approach this with as clear a head as possible, she can't get caught up in feeling sorry for them, but it's insulting]
It has to be something like that... he can only use what he has access to, right? That would include the information the players themselves brought.
The one who "aids the wave"... [It seems like that one should be easier to investigate than some of the others, testing Sinclair's theory and what the they already know.] Have you heard anything?
No. [Sinclair shakes his head] For some people, it seems like the changes in personality are from the lack of defining memories, so we can't use that as the only basis.
[Actually, no. They can]
...but when it comes to someone who 'aids' the wave, there's only one person who has been even more dedicated to Lily than Barrett--Tarvos had been.
[When he says that, it stirs the usual sick feeling within her. She doesn't feel she's as different as others might be, and that's...difficult to reconcile with what feelings and memories remain. Thinking of how she isolated herself at the beginning of the game, at least, she wonders if the person who came into it would go to the lengths she has now for others.]
The one who threw that grenade onto the forums to watch it explode after the meeting, right? It seemed like he enjoyed the uproar.
[Memories and feelings shape them all; maybe Sinclair would have been more anxious, maybe less. He would read through his diary every night and try to make links. He's not fundamentally different from the boy who wrote on those pages, he thinks. But there are aching gaps where it hurts]
Fandaniel. I ran into him the other day when he was trying to send out friend requests. He's very protective of Lily. He was furious when I called him 'Cubia'.
[Speaking of, they need to decide on what name they should use in these discussions - now that Misteaks was no longer aligned with Cubia, maybe Lily should be taken away as a name?]
[There's so little to go off of now that it feels like everything about her is a copy of a copy. To say nothing about the weird stagger of space in which there is nothing. Static idling in a void for days or weeks.
They could be NPCs, couldn't they?]
Before you get any ideas...you've already been stabbed once. I think any information we get shouldn't be obtained from straightforward questioning.
[She holds her fist to her chin, frowning in thought.]
I'm hesitant to send anyone into that situation... We know the phases can confuse people.
[The last thing they need is someone unwillingly aiding the Wave anymore than they already have...Miharu suspects they've let plenty of things slip through the cracks.]
[Sinclair nods, his brow furrowing. It feels like they're all working overtime to keep the boat from sinking into watery depths, breaking themselves against harsh rocks]
I agree. In the end, their names are just that...we haven't been able to use them for much except this...
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[Sinclair frowns, touching his chin as he studies the board]
I...don't think W--Gorre will let me into his tower. [And they all had seen it now, the rising structure in a forlorn broken town]
He'll be feeding on anything he can learn from us.
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[No one is doing a very good job of stopping Sinclair from doing anything lately, though. He may not have always embraced it, but it does seem as if he has always been relentlessly stubborn. Even now, the subject is shifting, so she shifts with it and lets it go, forehead lined.]
He said you'd called him blunt. [It hadn't been that long ago; it's hard to say, now, how much was Winter, when she barely knew him.]
We're similar that way, I told him: We don't know how to be around people. I might as well use that to our advantage if someone needs to.
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Mm...I don't want to be injured like that again. I don't think Hien will take it easy on me the second time.
[He had never seen Hien so angry before. But he seemed to be keenly aware of what Winter had become. Why didn't he try killing him then?]
It's refreshing. You're both blunt without using it as a pretext to be...cruel.
[Oh.
That's why Michel was chosen. Cubia's sense of humor...hah.]
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Miharu worries at her lower lip, clutching tightly to her upper arm. She catches that pause in Emil's voice, drawing her attention back from the board to glance over at him.]
What is it?
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[Mithrun-Macha, Barrett-Tarvos, Michel-Gorre ]
It might not mean much in the end, but if the choices are deliberate, could Lily be using the data taken from the player too?
[ As a counter balance for the program to consume, something like that..
Not all hope is lost yet, but it sure is wearying]
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It has to be something like that... he can only use what he has access to, right? That would include the information the players themselves brought.
The one who "aids the wave"... [It seems like that one should be easier to investigate than some of the others, testing Sinclair's theory and what the they already know.] Have you heard anything?
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[Actually, no. They can]
...but when it comes to someone who 'aids' the wave, there's only one person who has been even more dedicated to Lily than Barrett--Tarvos had been.
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The one who threw that grenade onto the forums to watch it explode after the meeting, right? It seemed like he enjoyed the uproar.
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Fandaniel. I ran into him the other day when he was trying to send out friend requests. He's very protective of Lily. He was furious when I called him 'Cubia'.
[Speaking of, they need to decide on what name they should use in these discussions - now that Misteaks was no longer aligned with Cubia, maybe Lily should be taken away as a name?]
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Miharu looks like she has a headache, too, as she tries to process this.]
It's all he knows, so it's all he's going to accept as the truth. If we antagonize him and he's "aiding" the wave, it might accelerate things.
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...yeah. But that might also mean he's the closest to knowing everything Cubia is planning.
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They could be NPCs, couldn't they?]
Before you get any ideas...you've already been stabbed once. I think any information we get shouldn't be obtained from straightforward questioning.
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So...we should pretend we're interested in Lily?
[Yeah, that is a good point. But it will have to be someone who hasn't been as outspoken as Sinclair about things]
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I'm hesitant to send anyone into that situation... We know the phases can confuse people.
[The last thing they need is someone unwillingly aiding the Wave anymore than they already have...Miharu suspects they've let plenty of things slip through the cracks.]
Did anyone know him well before?
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I think Justy knows him, but I don't really know for sure. I'd ask Hani but...
[He doesn't want to put Hani in that position]
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[Most of them are already testing their limits... maybe she should be thankful, that she's in the shape that she is.]
Let's try and learn as much as we can before we get his name. I worry he may have been more willing than some of the others.
[Much to do ... they're stopping up holes in the lifeboat, here.]
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I agree. In the end, their names are just that...we haven't been able to use them for much except this...