Stardust Idols: Another Side

You decide to play it safe, this thing is acting like it has some form of leverage over you, but quite frankly, there's still the chance that it doesn't actually have one, and you don't exactly want to give your accuser a noose to hang you with here. "I should be asking you the same thing, you know of my reputation, and what happens to those who cross me, but instead of striking me while I slept, you chose to bide your time, and reveal yourself. What did you hope to gain Spider?"

An awkward moment passes as the spider simply stares up at you, while the sound of its gears gently turning reverberates throughout the room. You briefly consider escaping once more while the beast is distracted, only for the spider to emit that slight crackling sound from before, as it starts to speak. "You appear to be confused Butcher, I am not here to sate your curiosity, you are here to sate mine. Why have you come here? What is it that you seek?."

You resist the urge to let out a little groan as the Spider repeats itself, and decide to feed it a little information. "Your「Aspirant」has something I require, that they are not willing to hand over freely. I am here to take it regardless." The spider lets out another crackling noise, before it replies with, "Ah, her identity I assume. Do not bother to deny it, I have seen her mask already."

It slowly crawls over to the left side of the room, still keeping its face trained in your direction as it begins to climb onto the bathroom wall. "Tell me Butcher, did you wish to become the perfect assassin, or did you just hate yourself enough to try and wish it all away?". It stops to stare at you, expecting an answer, without knowing that you had none to offer. You don't remember much about yourself, as far as you know, your life started when you crawled out of a trashcan a couple of years ago. Based on how your life has gone so far, you sometimes wonder if that was a mistake.

Thankfully, the spider moves on to another subject long before you could utter a non response. "Don't answer that, I'd rather know why you willingly chose to impersonate my Aspirant, if you're assuming their identity for the reason I think you are." You let out a little sigh as the Spider rambles on, before interjecting with, "And that reason is?" It stops in place as it hears your reply, and it turns its body to face directly at you once more. "Do I need to spell it out for you? There's nothing else that stands out about her, at least not to another「Aspirant」."

It takes a bit before you could think of a response, leaning in as you say, "Enlighten me." It stares at you for another moment, before it lets out another odd crackling sound. "To infiltrate the ranks of the「Red Dawn」of course, why else would you want to be boring old Joanna Corça?." You slowly turn to face the spider, as it continues on to say, "But while I'm a big fan of your work, I just can't let you get in our way Butcher, I just can't."

And with that said, you can't really help but.
[] Laugh: Because you are quite frankly, screwed, if this thing even has an ounce of actual loyalty to the Red Dawn, you have to shut it up right now if you want to actually get anywhere.

[] Frantically cover your ass: This thing thinks that it has you all figured out, but in all honesty it's never too late to weave a fantastical tale about how completely wrong it is, maybe it'll buy it?.

[] Try to make a deal: Hey, there's got to be a reason for why it hasn't tried to kill you yet, and it's probably not because it enjoys tormenting local assassins.

Cutting your losses here and now wouldn't work. You've already spent the better part of two weeks getting to know the school girl, and there's no real guarantee that you'd get a chance to take down the other two any time soon if you left, especially if this thing is actually loyal to the Red Dawn. Quite frankly, you were likely going to be screwed no matter what here, it was just a matter of when, how, who, and by what. Of course none of this was new to you, you're a private detective after all, one who sometimes deals with the occult at that, your life is nothing but trying to make the best of a bad situation.

With all of that in mind, you take a step forward, and boldly state, "And I can't let you get in my way either." There's a slight pause, as you swallow the slight lump in your throat, "But it sounds like neither of us has to." The spider's face gently tilts to the left, as it slowly turns its entire body to better face you, "And what makes you think that?." It takes step after step backwards, climbing up the bathroom wall as you make your indecent proposal. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but you're not a big fan of the Red Dawn either, aren't you?."

The spider emits another loud crackling sound, before it replies with a simple, "Go on," which is a little encouraging. "And in a sense, we both want Joanna to work her way up their ranks don't we?" you suggest, as you try to read the spider's inscrutable body language. "Of course," it quickly states, in its tinny, hard to read voice. "But it's not going so well is it? She signed up to go on patrol, thinking that it was the fastest way to prove her worth to the top Brass, but Portland's got too many「Aspirants」on the streets already, and Joanna's not exactly the cream of the crop is she?."

You were less sure about this than you'd like, you've never actually managed to catch Joanna in the act, but even if she did go up against an absolute monster last night, she still couldn't put up much of a fight against you. "I'll have you know that she did very well last night, for a high school student," the spider said, putting up a weak defense for Joanna's worth, allowing you to relax just a little, when you moved on to say, "And is that good enough? For what you need her to become?." The spider slowly shakes its head at you, "Perhaps not at the moment, but she will be, we have nothing but time after all."

Well then, it seems that no one has told the rank and file about the coming war, that's good, you can use this. "Ah, but that's the thing, what if I told you that time is the one thing you don't have?" it takes another step back, its head tilting to the side once more as it retorts with, "And why should I believe you?." You let out a little sigh, before you softly say, "Oh come on now, your「Aspirant」must have heard about it by now, the Battle of United Goods on Parkrose, where almost a dozen of her fellow associates reported being under attack by「Unknown Aspirants」' before they all went down?." The spider raises its head, just enough to line the closed 'eye sockets' on its porcelain mask with your eyes, before it replies with, "We have, a drunk colleague of Joanna's told us all about in that dreadful party they held after her initiation. We both assumed that she was telling another one of her tall tales at the time."

You take a brief moment to wordlessly thank a complete stranger's crippling alcoholism, before you slowly shake your shoulders, "I'm afraid not, a little birdie told me all about it last week, even though she didn't need to," The spider lets out another crackling sound, before it finally replies with, "And what sort of bird told you this?" You let out another sigh, you didn't really want to say this but, "A regal one."

The spider very suddenly stops moving after it hears your response, emitting a loud whirring and crackling sound for far too long. It starts to speak as soon as you take a step towards it, "You are telling me that the「Queen」of Oregon herself, told you this? That she knows which group of「Aspirants」attacked 「Red Dawn」?" You shift forwards and back, "No, I am telling you that you don't have time, because I can bet that the「Red Dawn」already knows, and that it won't be long until they can prove it." It twitches a little at first, the sound of whirring gears growing louder as it says, "You are telling me th-," you don't let it finish, quickly interjecting with, "That there will be a war, one that your little soldier won't be ready for, if she even wants to stay in the game once war breaks out."

The fact that the spider very suddenly went silent after you finished speaking was almost more worrying than the noisome racket from before. "Ah, you drive a hard bargain Butcher, but I already know what you are going to say next. I am well aware of what you have to offer, your experience in the field, your truly remarkable ability to worm your way into the ranks of any organization, and how well all of this would serve my interests during the coming struggle." You could almost frown at the spider's response, you didn't quite like where this was going. "But I'm afraid that your reputation precedes you Butcher. You are a callous murderer, an assassin with no loyalty to their master. Tell me, Butcher, what is stopping you from cutting me down once you get the chance, just as you did with your Mistress Pausa?."

You resist the urge to grumble at his response, this damned thing knew too much about you yes, but it also knew too little. It was going to be a hard sell still, but thankfully enough you still had an ace up your sleeve.

[] Set the Story Straight: What the spider doesn't know is that the one who hired you to dismantle her cult was Pausa herself. Of course you can't exactly summon her here just yet to serve as a character witness, but conversing with someone on the other side takes a lot less effort than bringing them over, especially since you still have that gift with you.

[] Writ in Blood: There's another thing you can invoke, one that it should be deeply familiar with. You could suggest that the two of you sign a contract, much like one a「Well Wisher」would sign. It might balk at first, especially since it sees you as a bit of a rule breaker, but it won't once you tell it who will enforce it.

[] Expose Weaknesses: Actually, does it really have as much of a choice as it thinks it does. It doesn't seem to know why Joanna hasn't woken up yet, only that you intend to disguise yourself as her, and you still haven't pointed out how badly telling the「Red Dawn」about you might go. After all, they probably won't think all that highly of their new recruit after you tell them how easy it was for someone to replace her.

[] Write In