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The Curious Case of Diligence University

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[X]... talk to him about it later.
[X]Let Basil leave.
[X]Knock first.

Reminder guys, we're talking about doctoring school security footage. We don't want Basil involved.
But an excuse to talk to him later is good, since it lets him talk about our blackouts(which we shouldn't just ignore).

And for barging in you guys remember we're dealing with a nutter who thinks Abort To Combat is a good solution to "you're in my way"
 
It's a tie, guys! Maybe a tiebreaker vote would be in order?
 
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    • [X]... talk to him about it later.
    [X]Let Basil leave.
    [X]Knock first.

    .

    "You can go if you want," you say, barely managing to stifle a disgusted look at the smell of drugs. Later, you remind yourself. You'll interrogate him later. For now, you'll have to focus on the issue at hand. You can't hack cameras by yourself!

    Annoyingly, Basil doesn't leave. "Shouldn't you have someone with you, though? I haven't talked to Sinnar much, but... well, he seems kind of... off. Like he'd slit your throat if you made him angry."

    "I get that feeling," you say vaguely. The memory of your battle is playing in your mind. "Though he seems more the type to shoot you than stab you."

    "Right. Stabbing." The magician is looking distinctly uncomfortable. "Yeah, so maybe it's a bad idea to go alone?"

    Knowing what you do about Althorn, it probably is. But you get the feeling it's an even worse idea to bring Basil along. Magic's always made technology go haywire in the books- who's to say it won't do the same here? Plus, the more people are involved in a plan, the more likely it is to fall apart. It'll be easier to find three people all going to a single suspicious place than two.

    "I'll be fine." You brush aside his worries as forcefully as you can manage. "I just need to talk to him about the club meeting, is all. Nothing much else. Besides, if he snaps and tries to kill me or whatever, I'll just stab him back! No big deal."

    The silence that follows is less than comfortable.

    "Or, you know, I could scream. Really loudly. There are other people in this hall." You shrug, the nonchalance in it only a little bit forced. "If you can hear ticking from inside a room, you can definitely hear a girl screaming."

    "But-"

    "The longer you stay out here," you snap, "the bigger the chance that someone discovers your apparent drug habit. Just go, Houdini. It's better for everyone if you do."

    Basil says something that sounds vaguely like "meep!" and bolts back to his dorm. You sigh in relief. You had a feeling bringing up someone else's illegal acts would cover up your own.

    You raise your hand to the door and knock three times. Every knock is loud, set to a volume that you know for sure will get past all but the most noise-cancelling of headphones. If Althorn's humming, there's a distinct chance he could be using a pair. Better safe than sorry.

    On the other side, someone yelps, and you hear the sound of someone tripping. The cursing continues, louder now than before, and there's the noisy beep of something being turned off before presumably Althorn scampers to the door and opens it. "Hi! Hey, would you happen to have any... bandages..."

    You glance downwards to see a fresh, bleeding cut on Althorn's foot. It's oddly serrated, worryingly close to a tendon, and bleeding profusely enough that you worry about how deep it is. Your clubmate doesn't seem to register your stare, instead continuing on his tangent. "Oh, hey, Blackfields. What are you doing here? This is the boy's dorm, you know."

    "Wash the wound with soap and water," you say in lieu of a greeting. "Then we can talk."

    "No, it's fine. Aya does this a lot." And then, as if he's said something genius, the boy's face lights up. "Have you met Aya? She's my roomba! I saw these people going on about taping a knife to one and letting it loose, but that was kind of boring, so instead I added a miniature chainsaw. You know, like Aya from Mad Father! Oh, I should introduce you!"

    "... No thank you. I don't think I want to meet Aya." You've seen those kinds of injuries on a lot of people. It's never turned out all too well when they didn't get prompt medical care. "Maybe we should stop by the nurse after the job's done."

    "What job?" Althorn asks, suddenly looking a lot more suspicious. "What did you come here for?"

    You take a deep breath, trying to keep your tone neutral as you speak. You suspect it doesn't work. "I need you to come to the guards' office with me."

    .

    [ ]Act like it's a game.

    [ ]Be completely serious about it.

    [ ]Be vague about what you want to do.

    [ ]This is a stupid idea.
    . . [ ]You should leave the cameras be.
    . . [ ]You should ask Annie instead.
    . . [ ]You can do it yourself.
     
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    • 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.
     
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    • [x]Remove only the relevant record, at the risk of the twilight guard finding you.
     
    [X]Remove all the files from that general time of day, with lower risks of both being noticed and being found.
     
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    • [X]Remove all the files from that general time of day, with lower risks of both being noticed and being found.

    .

    "Let's do both," you compromise, your voice barely calm and more than a little irritated even to your own ears. "Delete everything from that hour and leave everything else be. And really, idiot, if you go around hurting yourself like that, it makes things worse for everyone. The doctors, the people who have to get you to the doctors, and you."

    "It's all fine," Althorn protests, but he walks at the pace you set anyway, falling into step with a relenting sigh. "And you know you're going the wrong way, right?"

    You pause, trying to figure out where you are right now, and head down the other hallway. "I.... don't actually know where the office is."

    "That's fine. I can lead the way!" After a moment of thought, he shakes his head. "Slowly, obviously. Trust me on this."

    "I'm taking the chainsaw off your roomba," you mutter to yourself, quiet enough that he doesn't seem to hear. Louder, you continue. "Okay. Go ahead. And hold on to the railing when we go down the stairs. Damn this school for not having an elevator."

    "And risk students getting stuck and having to call maintenance? Nah, stairs would be the best bet. Even with how stupid it is, considering we have five floors."

    You think of the movies you've watched, where there were hidden elevators and dumbwaiters and thousands upon thousands of teleporters in a high-tech school. You should do something about the lack of elevator. Maybe a secret one? You could make it a club or something.

    What are you doing? You're a genetic engineer. You can't make elevators. You'll have to drag probably Annie into it. And you don't know if she'd say yes.

    Althorn leads you through a winding series of halls, pausing at every fork in the road and yet not bothering to check past any corners for guards. You wonder if he's memorized the guards' schedule somehow, stalked them and watched them until he knew them like the back of his own hand. It's a slightly scary thought. But... helpful, maybe? If he could hack cameras, was there a chance he could figure out where you went in the blackouts?

    There's no time to ask. All too soon, you're at an unmarked door with a small, screened window, one which Althorn peeks through before nodding. He pushes it open without much problem, entering at the same deliberate pace that you set for him, and you follow him without hesitation.

    I'm in, something laughs in your head, something that sounds a lot more like James Bond than you think it wants to.

    The room looks just like a standard security office right out out of the movies. There's a beat-up old laptop on the table, displaying a security feed that's surprisingly brightly coloured in defiance of said movies, and you approach it curiously. It's showing the Science Club's club area, where Lucian's holed up in the corner, working in only some dim gas light while welding something together. Something that looks to be a part of something huge. A... helmet, maybe? Some kind of head?

    "What the hell?" Althorn bends down, scanning their work in awe. "What is that? It looks massive! Like- like some kind of giant mecha!"

    "Sinnar," you cut in meaningfully, "we still have to delete the file."

    "Oh, right! Oops." Your companion slips the flash drive out of his pocket, plugging it into the laptop. It is with obvious hesitance that he minimizes the security feed and starts searching for files.

    Outside, you think you hear... something walking. Someone making rounds, your mind supplies, and it's a little irritating that there's not enough evidence to doubt it. A guard? But Althorn said the guard would be late.

    .

    [ ]Tell Althorn about it.

    [ ]Investigate alone.

    [ ]Leave it be.

    [ ]Write-in.
     
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    • [x]Investigate alone.

    .

    You turn silently, taking in your companion hard at work. Althorn is starting to be drawn in, searching through a collection of files you can't really make heads or tails of. You don't want to distract him, not when it's so important to keep this out of the staff's hands.

    You can do this alone.

    You head as nonchalantly as you can to the door, keeping your footsteps as quiet as you can. "Hey, Sinnar, I'm heading out for a bit, okay? Don't wait up."

    There's a moment of silence before he really registers what you said. He responds pretty quickly when he catches up, though. "What do you think you're doing?" Althorn demands sharply. "You're going to get us caught!"

    "I need to make sure of something." You wave off his concerns quickly. "Just keep going, okay? I think someone's out there. Gotta deflect and distract."

    You're not really sure what's showing on his face right now. You're pretty good at reading body language- or at least you'd like to think that- and even with the calm look on his face, you can see the way the muscles in his shoulders tense and how his automatic smile stiffens. It's not entirely panic, you think, it's some mix of worry and caution and hesitation.

    Why, you wonder, would he be so scared?

    "... Be careful. I don't know who's out there." Just in case, he pulls the laptop from the desk, hiding just out of sight of the open door. "I'll work quick. Just don't get into too much unfamiliar territory, 'kay? Then we'll both be just fine."

    "I won't mess this up. Good luck with that, though." And with that final statement, you open the door and step outside.

    There are definitely footsteps, you note, coming from the hallway to the left of you. You make your way to the right side of the hall. You could pretend to be doing rounds of your own or something. Or say that you're looking for your tentacle. Because that? That is an excuse anyone who's ever seen you will believe. Wriggles is kind of hard to forget.

    You walk forward and meet the eyes of the person turning the corner.

    You're not sure what you're expecting. But to be perfectly honest, it wasn't this.

    Michel Hallow blinks down at you, confusion flashing in his eyes before he smooths his expression back down into pleasant surprise. "Oh! Sophia, right? It's nice to see you again."

    "Mr. Hallow! Same here!" You shove your hands into your pyjama pockets. So scratch the tentacle plan, then. He's too smart to believe it. "You look really nice in pyjamas."

    You're not actually entirely sure if those are pyjamas. That has got to be gold embroidering. And silk. But you're not going to say anything.

    "I'd like to say the same about you," Michel replies, not missing a single beat. You're pretty sure there's an insult somewhere there, but you can't really find it. "Please, Sophia, call me Michel. Now, what is a lady like you doing in a place like this? Or, more specifically, at a time like this."

    "Nothing much," you say vaguely. "Just walking."

    Just like you'd expected, he doesn't believe a word. Maybe you really will need to deflect and distract. Outright lies aren't really your forte.

    You're not really sure what to say, though. One slip-up and Althorn could be caught. Two students having a fight is normal, though usually not to this extent. Two students trying to hack and delete school files... well, that's an offence worthy of expulsion. And you don't like the idea of being expelled. You still have so much to do.

    You'll find a way to distract him.

    .

    [ ]Ask about what Lucian is doing in the club area.

    [ ]Ask what he's here doing at a time like this.

    [ ]Try talking about a possible experiment you'd like to conduct with him.

    [ ]Write-in.
     
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    [X]Try talking about a possible experiment you'd like to conduct with him.

    Engage Nerd Skill Blathering About Interest Area
     
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    • [X]Try talking about a possible experiment you'd like to conduct with him.

    .

    "Oh, right!" You try to look excited, looking up at him with a sparkle in your eyes. "You're a biologist too, right?" Your voice is a little louder than it should be. It has to be. Otherwise, well, you'd risk Althorn not knowing if you had led him away. And Althorn leaving the guards' office at the wrong time is going to be very, very bad for you. "Do you think we could make something together?"

    "Oh?" Interest lights up in Michel's eyes, and he smiles warmly at you. "Well, then, what would you like to make?"

    "I'm not really sure what you like," you start- and it's true, really, but you do need to figure out what he wants in an experiment to get the most interest in the correspondence. "What do you think would be good? Me, I really like trying to make mythological and fantasy stuff, so if we could work with that... I don't know, but I think it'd be cool!"

    At the very least, he's starting to look interested. You hope he isn't a better actor than you. "Well," Michel begins, "maybe we could try sirens? Those seem like very interesting creatures."

    "Oh, yeah! Sirens seem pretty great!" The idea is... sound. Good. "How would we make their song captivating, though? It's not like we have access to actual magic."

    "I was wondering if you could come up with something of that nature. Just to test our newest member, of course." From the pleasant smile on his face, you almost believe it. But something seems a little off. "Do you have any potential ideas, Sophia? Whatever it is, I'd be happy to refine it with you."
    Why sirens? And why would he think of them so quickly?
    "Well... maybe the trigger doesn't have to be the singing itself." You steeple your fingers, ideas whirling in your mind. To be honest, you don't think it's possible to make a song that does what siren songs do. So it's got to be something other than that. "Maybe the act of singing or speaking or something like that activates a gland or something in their throats?
    He has to want something with you. But what?
    "Perhaps... some kind of pheromone could be released?"

    "Oh, yeah! Something that makes whoever is nearby love the singer. Maybe dopamine and norepinephrine? Oh, and serotonin! Can't forget serotonin." So chemicals that stimulate the production of those chemicals, then. "And maybe some melatonin, just for a nice sleepy state. Though that'd probably cancel out the norepinephrine a bit more... No, the melatonin's the best bet. Adrenaline makes someone more likely to question you, which is bad if we want to mimic the whole dazed state thing that sirens tend to create."

    "A wonderful idea." Michel's smile is stretching a little too wide on his face. "If you like, I'd love to try that."
    What could he use a siren for?
    "Ah, but there's the whole thing where they need water. Kind of hard to do that in a school, you know." Which is a shame, really! You'd love to try making a siren! Maybe it could have some sort of false face or something, to appear more human? Oh, and it could have these huge, sharp teeth, and a wide tail and spiny fins, and- ! No, wait, you're getting ahead of yourself.

    "I could arrange for some sort of aquarium to be sent over," the club leader says nonchalantly, like he doesn't even care about the mind-boggling amount of money you'd need to do that. Just how rich is he?! "We could set it up in that unused lot near the club area. I believe I could... convince the teachers. It wouldn't take that much to have them turn a blind eye."

    "... That's insane."

    "Is it?" Michel looks- god you hope you're just misinterpreting his face- confused. Like even the idea of not being rich enough to buy an aquarium and bring it to school is unthinkable. "Well, if you don't like the idea, we could avoid using it."

    .

    [ ]Think of a different creature.
    . . [ ]Write-in.

    [ ]Go with this.

    [ ]On second thought, maybe this isn't a topic you should get into.



    [ ]Try and lead him away from the guard's office.

    [ ]Stay here.

    [ ]Write-in.
     
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    • [X]Go with this.
    -[X] You need protection too. Can't have it go drowning the creator or something.
    [X]Try and lead him away from the guard's office
     
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