Wowie, Battle of Heart and Mind was a doozy! (Rainbow Quartz 2.0 is best gem, change my mind.) If anyone wants the full episode- which I downloaded- feel free to ask! I'll find a way to get it over.
[x]Be completely serious about it.
.
"It's about what we did earlier," you clarify, not giving Althorn any time to interrupt you or refuse. You have to get out the whole argument first. "The thing in the hallway with the guns and breaking your wrist and all."
"I've had worse," he says nonchalantly, which you're pretty sure is problematic on at least seventy different levels. "No way am I ratting you out to the teachers."
"That's not what I'm worried about!" you snap, stomping a foot angrily. "I'm worried about the guards. God knows what they could do with that footage! There was a camera in the hallway, Sinnar, one that worked and probably recorded Wriggles trying to break your bones! Oh, and you trying to pull a gun on me. If the principal saw that, they could have us expelled! Hell, if even one guard saw that, we'd be watched forever!"
"... Wouldn't they just think it was students playing?" At this point, your companion looks like he's finally getting it. "Or... no. They wouldn't. Would they? No, they're not in on it..."
"In on what? Two students trying to kill each other?" You scoff. "We can't let them figure out what we did, Sinnar. We have to get that footage away from them."
"... Well. This is new." Althorn's face scrunches up in thought, and he sighs a few seconds after. "Boss isn't going to like this, is she? I'm missing a meeting for you, Blackfields. But nope, got to go. Alright, then. The guards' place? I think I know where that is."
"Oh, thank God," you sigh relievedly. "I had a feeling you would say no."
Who the hell is Boss? And, less importantly, should you be flattered or concerned that he's missing what sounds like a date for you?
"At this point, I really don't think they'd care. I mean, the Science Club's been like this for fuck knows how long. Students probably try to kill each other all the time." Your impromptu guide opens a drawer on his bedside table, pulling out a long roll of linen wrap, a bottle of rubbing alcohol, and a small flash drive that's painted with stripes of neon purple. "Hold my foot, will you? If we're walking, I should probably wrap this."
You kneel quickly, keeping his foot in place as he bandages the wound. It's deep enough to need stitches, which sends little throbs of irritation through your mind, but stitches would take too long and you can't risk being too late if you want to get the record in time. Althorn is a remarkably pain-tolerant boy, really- he doesn't flinch in the slightest when cleaning or applying pressure to the wound, and he works like he's wrapped thousands of wounds before. Still, just in case, you discreetly nudge Aya under the bed.
Finally, after what seems like hours but that you know from the tick of your watch was about five minutes, you're finished. You stand, carefully pulling Althorn up with you. "Okay, come on. We should make our way to the office slowly, since you're-"
"Come on. They change the guard every nine o'clock and three o'clock, and the twilight guard always gets here about ten minutes late. He'll be fired tomorrow, so today's really the only chance we have, isn't it?" Althorn sets off with a single-mindedness that you can almost admire, though it's matched with a speed that makes you want to knock him out and tie him to a bed until he takes the chainsaw off his roomba. And how does he even know that?! "If we just wreck all the files, we can be out in three minutes, easy. But if you want, I can hack it or something and delete only that part, even if it takes all the ten minutes. Which do you want to do?"
"Slow down!" you order him, grabbing him by the arm and forcing him to continue in a much more reasonable pace. "You're going to make it worse."
'I've had worse," he says again. "Seriously, though. Quick or quiet?"
.
[ ]Remove all the files from today, at the risk of your changes being noticed more easily by the next guard.
[ ]Remove only the relevant record, at the risk of the twilight guard finding you.
[ ]Remove all the files from that general time of day, with lower risks of both being noticed and being found.
[ ]Write-in.