etrayamemes | TDM 007

Entry tags:

!tdm

TDM 007

content warnings for this TDM include: violence, potential death, body horror, physical transformation, loss of senses, loss of autonomy

⏵ arrival⏴

Arrival does not happen as Aurora usually plans for it. New characters are introduced to the AI, then informed of a mission that they are required to participate in before they can return to their home base of Etraya. A world called Aphaia is falling apart, and while there is nothing they can do to resolve this broken world, they can participate in the Gamerunner's Stratagem.

Their mission is simple: step through the glowing purple portal that Aurora creates once they've had time to listen to her, and survive until a similar portal reopens in front of them, allowing them to return to Etraya. The Gamerunner's Stratagem is something they have been working on building for quite some time. She informs all newcomers that they will not be present on this world that long: their exit will appear to them exactly when it's meant to, allowing them to meet the others who have been recruited to save their worlds. She provides each and every arrival with an earpiece, allowing them to communicate with the other Etrayans. Aurora suggests taking a bag full of supplies along with them, which she will fill with a few generic items as well as any specific items they may need: synthetic blood for vampires, protein bars for those who may burn through calories faster, medication for anyone who requires it.

⏵ aphaia ⏴

Aphaia is a neon-lit, chaotic planet. Cameras are everywhere, every action and inaction is judged by the 'audience'. Towering holograms advertise upcoming events while flashing leader boards track the most "popular" players. Contestants are thrown into challenges, many of which are games of skill, survival, and deception all to keep the viewers entertained. Not participating is an option! However, avoiding playing along and not putting on a show will quickly cause participants' score to go down, and scores that reach zero? Well.

Unfortunately, there are only so many resources left on Aphaia. Their wildlife has died off, their planet is falling apart, and most others in this galaxy were either destroyed from the inside out, or warring planets trying to gain control of remaining resources destroyed them to avoid others getting involved. Their natural resources are depleted, and only those who manage to keep their scores up are given the luxury of having any supplies. As soon as one steps foot on Aphaia, as soon as they breathe, they intake nanotechnology which tracks their oxygen consumption, their food, everything they do or need. As soon as their scores reach zero?

They disappear. There one moment, and completely gone the next. Their communicators go offline, and while everything they were carrying will be left behind, no one will be able to find them. They are simply--gone, erased from existence.

This is a death and counts as a death as outlined in the game FAQ! Please keep this in mind.

"Points" that go towards their total score will be assigned to contestants from the moment they drop down on planet. This will be visible using the HUD on their earpiece, and will be randomized at the beginning. For the sake of the TDM, we ask that no one be assigned Paragon initially, but you're free to use other ranks!

The possible rankings are:

100: PARAGON
99-80: LUMINARY
79-70: CHAMPION
69-50: CONTENDER
49-30: UNDERLING
30-0: SHADE

Ranks may change daily, or even hourly depending on the kind of situation one has found themselves in. Are they having a very public break up in which it comes out that they wronged their ex? They may go from a Champion to a Shade before they can even blink. Did they save a defenseless reporter from the big bad villain of the week? They may find themselves quickly elevated up to Luminary and given all the benefits that comes with being upper class. The world is their oyster, they only need to figure out how they'd like to utilize it!

Aphaia is broken up into four districts.

The Colosseum is a dynamic battle arena where combatants fight for entertainment, with shifting environments controlled by the audience. Victories earn points, while losses depend on performance.

The Symposium is a lavish social hub for top contestants, where alliances and betrayals are made under the audience’s watchful eye.

The Agora is the public center of Aphaia, where contestants engage with the audience through polls, interviews, and challenges to maintain popularity. It also houses the contestants in high-rise apartments.

And Backalleys provide hidden spaces with intentional blind spots for secret dealings, though the Gamerunner is always aware of what happens there.

⏵ st★rlight soirée ⏴

Something special is happening in the Colosseum. Lights flicker as the arena shifts, rearranging itself into a grand, glittering ballroom - if a ballroom had stadium seating, paparazzi drones, and an ever-changing floor plan designed to disorient those within it. Silver chandeliers pulse with artificial starlight, their glow refracted through the crystalline floors. Music swells, but it sounds - unnatural. It thrums through your veins, setting your blood alight with the urge to dance.

Why is the ballroom designed as if intentionally put together to throw off one's balance? Well, it's time for the Panopticon Prom, of course!

The Panopticon Prom isn't just an adventure in dancing and impressing your most recent crush. It's a test of endurance, cunning, grace, and charm. The floor beneath your feet moves as if it has a mind of it's own, shifting to the beat like a living creature all of it's own. It tilts, undulates, even vanishing in sections to keep dancers on edge. After all, it's difficult to keep up one's pace if they're falling through a hole in the floor to the foam pit below.

Drones zip through the air, catching every stumble, every misstep, and every attempt to throw off others on the dance floor. This is a competition, after all; and what fun is a dance battle without having the freedom to thwart someone else on their road to victory?

The rules are simple:

You must dance with a partner. This can be an ally, an enemy, or someone you intend on using as a stepping stone to victory. It matters not, as long as you have one hand (or limb) on them at all times.
The longer you last, the better your chances. Endurance is the name of the game, meaning one must pace themselves on the dance floor. While epic twirls and impressive moves will garner more attention, it may also hurt your chances in the long run.
You may sabotage others by throwing them off balance, but keep in mind: everything is televised, and it won't stay secret for long.
The arena adapts to the chaos. Expect sudden obstacles, environmental shifts, and sudden changes in the music's tempo. Gravity may shift, walls may close in, but participants can't let that stop them - they must continue to dance, if they wish to win.

The audience is watching. Who will make the final cut and become Prom King and Queen? Everyone is vying for the titles: it doesn't matter what rank you started at when you joined the Panopticon Prom. Whoever wins becomes a Paragon until their points drop. There aren't many opportunities to sail through the rankings, but this is a sure way to do it. As long as they can keep up.

⏵ casino royale ⏴

Out in the Agora, another popular quarterly event is being set up! The Casino Royale has been destroyed countless times, but it seems as if the Gamerunner just can't let it go - every time it gets knocked down, it gets rebuilt.

There is one rule. One must take a turn at the revolving wheel just inside the door as their entry fee, and whatever the wheel lands on, they must maintain until they exit the building for the night. Sometimes, this is easier: an effect they have no control over and cannot undo even if they wanted to. Sometimes, this is more difficult: an assigned task they must complete. Failure to abide by the wheel once means receiving a penalty. Twice? Certain death if caught by any employee.

The wheel's effects are as follows:

1	You must speak entirely in rhyme.	2	Your body has become unnaturally delicate. The smallest injury hurts like a fatal wound.
3	You must avoid stepping into any sources of light. Doing so causes massive burns to appear on any area of your skin where light has touched.	4	You have been transformed into an animal! You can still think as you had before, but you cannot speak or communicate easily.
5	You have been cursed with supernatural strength, but cannot control it.	6	Time doesn't flow normally for you anymore. Each mistake you make makes you visibly younger, slowly erasing your experiences, skills, or even memories.
7	You can no longer form your own words, but only repeat what others have said to you.	8	You cannot meet another person's gaze.
9	You can no longer turn around, physically or metaphorically. If you try to return where you came from, you'll find that the pathway no longer exists.	10	You are given a specific letter that you must avoid using out loud entirely. "A"? Better hope you know enough words without one.
11	Every time you speak, your words come true - but never in the way you intended. Trying to control this is futile; the monkey's paw curls with every new sentence.	12	Within the casino, you lose the ability to feel anything. No pain, no pleasure, no warmth, and no cold. At first it may feel like a blessing - until you realize you cannot feel hunger, or tell if you're injured.
13	Regardless of if you've drunken anything, you still act inebriated. The effect only gets worse the longer you stay.	14	No one can see you. You are invisible, even if you are still able to reach out and touch or converse with those around you.
15	Any special ability you have is gone. You are reduced down to what an average human being is capable of - regardless of if you are human.	16	Violent impulses become impossible to ignore. You are rage incarnate, and you will be heard.
17	Every time you make a decision - to walk into an area, to start a conversation, anything, a small thread pulls loose from your clothing or your skin. Keep making choices, and you may become entirely undone.	18	You may speak freely, but for every syllable you say, your ability to hear slowly fades. You may want to watch your word count - too many, and you may not be able to hear at all.
19	Perhaps you arrived with a friend, or beside a stranger. It matters not: whoever came in either just before or just after you, you feel a powerful urge to protect them to the point of aggression.	20	Love is in the air - at least it is for you. Every time you meet someone's gaze, you feel the need to try and make them fall in love with you, through whatever means necessary.

The casino is alive with the hum of conversation, the clink of glasses, and the steady whirl of the roulette wheels. Golden chandeliers cast a warm glow over velvet-lined tables, where fortunes are made and lost with the flick of a wrist. But something feels. . . off.

The dealers never blink. The cards never seem random. And the house always wins - always. Maybe it's just paranoia, or maybe this casino is something more than just a den of chance. Tonight, you're not here just to play; you're here on a mission.

You've arrived dressed to kill, blending into the sea of bodies filling the casino's floors. But you're not here to win points or boost your social standing - you're here to win intel. Somewhere in this casino is a single flash drive containing information on just how Aphaia maintains their system. The only problem? The House knows someone is coming for it. After all, they're well-aware of the game: whoever retrieves the flash drive will obtain information on how to flip the script, to change the rules of the game to fit their wants and needs, rather than following the current Gamerunner. After all, this is the Gamerunner's Stratagem that Aurora has sent them out on! Many apply for 'employment' within the Casino Royale in hopes of getting insider information on where the flash drive is hidden and what it looks like. However, it seems that even the employees have no clue where it has been hidden.

⏵ NOTES ⏴

This is an extension of our Aphaia Mission! We have included enough information in this post that catching up to current in game logs isn't necessary to play with it, but you are welcome to use any part of the Aphaia setting in your prompts as you'd like. Current players are also welcome to bring the events from this TDM into their in-game threads.

This mission can happen outside of time as needed! Incoming characters will find themselves introduced to Aphaia as they arrive. Current characters may find Aurora calling on them to visit Aphaia after the current mission for the Gamerunner's Stratagem.

Characters already in game are welcome to post to the TDM, too! Please mark them as current characters in your header. Threads can be kept as game canon as long as both characters get into the game!

Please direct all questions relating to this log to our mod queries comment! All other questions can be directed to our FAQ.

⏵FULL NAVIGATION⏴

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ The answer's not immediately forthcoming, aside from a sharp gasp when ribs knit back together before the effects of a flail chest can take shape. Jay heard the question and dimly understood it, but a healing factor doesn't mean invulnerability or immunity to pain. He needs at least ten seconds of lying here screaming ow ow ow shit ow internally before he feels like doing anything.

To his credit, Jay sits up about fifteen seconds after he hit the ground. It's clear that there's still something wrong , because one wing and an arm are still at odd angles, but they're slowly straightening out. ]

I'm okay. Something hit me.

[ He looks up to see what, but there's nothing there. Jay flinches and touches his jaw gingerly as something pops back into place. Next time, he's crashing feet first. ]

( By the time he gets there, the winged mutant is already sitting up as if it were nothing more than a bit of a tumble. Steps slow — arms swinging at his sides and he stands there, staring with those blue eyes of his in surprise. He's seen Wolverine heal before — is capable of bouncing back from things himself, just. He didn't think he'd be running into someone else like that.

Into another mutant. )

That... yeah. Sorry. Everything was just... too loud.

( The mindless chatter of everyone here. )

Looks like you took it like a champ though.

[ Funny how it looks that way, when he's still biting the inside of his cheek hard to try and focus on that pain instead. Sometimes it helps - truth be told, he hasn't really gotten as banged up as Mr. Logan does so regularly, so Jay hasn't worked out how to cope with it.

At least it's brief. Everything sorts itself out, and all he's down is a few feathers. ]

Loud?

[ Sorry, already lost him there. Again, Jay looks around, this time skies and ground. He's looking for Sam's redheaded friend - Terry - but he doesn't see her. ]

Somebody like Siryn around? And... yeah, I do that sometimes.

[ He has huge red wings, he can't hide what he is. ]

( The feathers lost catch his attention there on the ground. Glancing back up then, he puffs out a sigh, blowing a few of his white strands away from his face as he does. )

More like everyone won't shut up with their thoughts and thus, loud.

( He usually has pretty good control over that, but. Sometimes it just gets a little overwhelming unexpectedly, especially when he's caught off guard or distracted. Honestly, some days he feels like his powers have a mind of their own when they just act up.

Looking back to him though, he raises a brow some. )

You end up eating dirt a lot?

[ Jay crosses his arms, and luckily, the broken one's set nicely so he can. Whoever you are, he's not going to take that question lightly. For once, objections are going before concerns. ]

No, 'cause I don't get something shot at me mid-flight a lot. It broke my wing. You try flying with only one, and we'll see how you do.

[ He doesn't need this guy's flying critique, thank you so much, but maybe there's a reason why he's being short. ]

You're a telepath? [ Who else complains about loud thoughts? ] Man. This place must be bleak.

Hey, you’re the one who said you take it like a champ sometimes.

( Which he figures means either falling from the sky or healing himself up. He can’t really imagine what it’s like to have wings and need those for flight. The question regarding his being a telepath, however, gets him to look away from the feathers again and back to his companion here. )

You’d think it’d be a lot quieter, too.

( Given how it’s falling apart and all — not brimming with life. )

I wasn’t able to keep the voices out so you got beaned by… a rock, looks like. ( As he casually glances over to everything that had been spinning and floating around him. ) Like I said… sorry about that.

Yeah, but what did you expect me to say? I'm fine now, so I wasn't exactly going to argue with you.

[ He gets up and dusts himself off a bit, shaking some gravel out of his hair. Then he absentmindedly starts picking up the feathers and pocketing them.

Aphaia's mess, but they're his feathers. It'd be like leaving nail clippings lying around.

Jay does keep looking back over at the telekinetic, just in case he loses control again. He doesn't recognize him, but the guy doesn't look that old. Maybe he needs more practice. Hitting someone in motion's tough, but accidentally? He's got the worst luck in the world. ]

You accidentally hit people with rocks a lot? I'm only asking 'cause I'm still in range.

[ No accusation or derision in his voice, he only wants to know if he should be on his toes. ]

Am I too loud?

No.

( The answer is soft but genuine, a sigh spilling from his lips. )

I don’t hear anything right now. ( Thankfully. ) Sometimes it can be too much when I do.

( Telepath problems, but. Eyeing the other, he tilts his head some. )

You don’t sound freaked out, so I’m guessing you’re used to being around someone like me.

[ Good, he's not in Jay's head. Jay isn't freaked out by it, but he prefers to have his own thoughts and space. He would be embarrassed if Nate was getting a play-by-play of Jay's head, including this, but Ms. Frost broadcasts announcements and admonishiments in students heads all the time. ]

The school I go to - the school I went to - had a lot of telepaths, including the headmistress, the founder, three girls in my grade... telekinetics too.

[ And those two things sometimes go together - makes more sense than him having geokinesis, anyway. ]

I'm Jay Guthrie. I can try to sound more freaked out if that'd make you feel more at home, but I don't think that'd help with the loud thoughts and flying rocks.

( Not unless he feels the need to be, please hold. ;) )

I don't really have a home. But the world I'm currently on outside of this I guess is close enough.

( His world is gone. Destroyed. Everyone and everyone he ever knew with it. He still has a hard time processing that at times, but. More than anything, he's just trying to find some semblance of normal wherever he can, though it seems to be a big ask considering everything that keeps happening. But with the world he's landed himself in outside of this one — the people he's come to meet despite the common thread being so many wanting to use him for their own reasons and those he doesn't even know... he can't let them be destroyed like his own world was.

The name though has him tilt his head some and he stares to him as a means to look for something more, searching for... a name. A title. He didn't know many mutants back home — hadn't had the chance to given everything, but the ones he had been told of... the ones he had come across in the short time and the battles he had while there... )

Icarus?

If we make it back to Etraya, there's room at Xavier's. There's got to be a hundred rooms, but I've never counted.

[ Possibly more, if they counted all the below-ground levels. He's assuming he's talking to a mutant, never heard of a telepath who wasn't, so it's not like there'd be a problem letting him stay.

The name catches him offguard, and Jay takes the time to really look at him. He's the same age or thereabouts. If he knows the name Icarus, he'd have to know Jay from school... No, Jay'd know somebody with hair like that. It's too eye-catching, and Julian would've challenge him to some stupid psi-measuring contest the second he saw him. ]

... is this a time thing? Did you get to the school after I - after I died?

[ Nope, that's still not getting easier to say, and Jay's discomposed himself just by asking, but he wants to make it okay to say if that's the answer as to why the guy knows that Jay Guthrie is Icarus. ]

( Ignoring the whole mention of Xavier. This... can't be.

The only Icarus he knew of had been one of Apocalypse's men of the Elite Mutant Force. Where he, himself, had once been imprisoned. He stares to him — everything flooding back. His escape, Forge, Cyclops and Jean, Sinister, Magneto, Apocalypse himself... the breeding pens and the camps. For a moment, he threatens to lose control of himself, left eye flashing a bright gold and a ripple of telekinetic energy spilling off him.

He reels it back in — the glow of his eye dimming and he stares to Jay there, brows furrowed. )

It's a you're one of Apocalypse's goons and I'm doing everything in my power to not punch you across time and space for what you did.

[ Jay does take flight at the eye-glow. He doesn't go far, just a few feet off the ground and back because, um, that's a reaction and he'd rather not be in the path of it again.

And then the accusation isn't what he thought it was going to be at all. Nothing about being a traitor who got a bunch of his friends killed because he was an idiot, no, something straight outta left field. It's so wrong that he'd laugh if it was a deadly serious accusation coupled with either a deliberate show of powers or a temporary loss of control. ]

Apocalypse? What are you talking about? I'm not anybody's goon, and there's no way I'd work with Apocalypse, are you crazy? Everybody knows what he did to Angel. I was a student on the New Mutants squad, and before that, I was on the Hellions squad. That's it.

( Nate stays where he is on the ground. If he wants, he could easily join him up there, but. For the moment, he stays grounded, fists clenched at his sides, staring up to him with bright blue eyes. )

Where I'm from you're part of the EMF and do whatever else it is Apocalypse wants.

( Nails gently cut into his palms but... he remembers Forge and his words — even recalls the things Sinister had said to him recently about control and how he lacks it. More than that, he reminds himself of different worlds— he's from one himself. With different worlds come different people and he has to remind himself this isn't the same Icarus as from his world, it's just a kneejerk reaction to certain traumas he still carries with him.

It's why he stays where he is and stares up to Jay there in the air. )

[ Really flying away's probably a bad idea, because the guy could drop him again with a thought, and Jay doesn't want to go through that again if he can avoid it. If they could work this out with words instead of rocks, that'd be... hang on just a second. ]

Is that why you hit me with a rock?

[ Sure looks that way from where he's flying. The guy's body language is furious, fists balled up so tight like he's still got half a mind to punch Jay through all of space and time. Jay's not coming down, but he doesn't know if he could win a flight race against a telekinetic.

I told you: I don't know Apocalypse, and I've never heard of the EMF. I don't know who you are, for that matter. You want to find a bible so I can swear to it?

( If he took off, he could easily catch him — stop him mid-air with his mind even, but. He still recalls Forge's words alongside Sinister's and... there's other versions of people. He knows this. Cable is another version of him, never mind Scott and Jean being alternate versions of his parents he never knew. But just the sheer thought of being around someone who had anything to do with Apocalypse and those pens— those camps...

He stares to him still. Doesn't say a word. Until he does then... but it's within Jay's mind. )

You can't win against me.

( Especially not in a race. )

But you don't look like him. ( A beat. ) The Icarus from my world.

[ Why are half the mutants their age so furious half the time? Some of them - Jay gets why they're mad. Maybe they've told him, maybe someone else has, maybe it's blatantly, unfortunately obvious why they'd be mad at the world, but it's not fair that they're all stuck with so much baggage -

Jay tenses when he hears Nate in his head. It's one thing if it's the Three-in-One linking everybody because the Blob is attacking the school. It's another when some kid he doesn't know just invites himself in.

Because I'm not him. Maybe I am somewhere else. Maybe you're in the Brotherhood. Maybe you're in a boyband. I'm not going to hold you responsible for that.

He tries to not think so quiet, so it comes across, but heck if he knows what thinking loud should feel like. Probably won't matter anyway, the telepath's already there. ]

Go on. You're in my head. Just check and see if I've ever even seen Apocalypse outside of a simulation. I haven't. When you're done seeing if I'm lying, you let me know.

( Well, if he's inviting him to...

Nate goes and does just that — searches Jay's mind for any trace of Apocalypse or anything related to the tyrant.

He keeps it as simple as he can. Doesn't inflict any sort of pain on him while he quickly scans for what he's looking for. True to the other mutant's word, he doesn't find anything related to Apocalypse and he likes to think he'd be able to pick up on Jay trying to hide that if there were.

Most of what he sees doesn't really catch his interest, but. Then he sees a familiar face there — two actually including Domino — in a particular memory and, after looking at it for a moment longer, he slips out of the other's mind, staring to him there still on the ground. )

How do you know Cable?

[ Hardly an invitation when Nate had already sashayed on into his brain, but Jay's not catatonic and the guy doesn't seem any more mad. Jay must have passed whatever test that was, because he's never met Apocalypse like he said, only to walk into a loaded question about Cable. Great.

Jay squares his shoulders and stares right back at him. ]

I know Cable because my brother knows Cable. Sam was on his old X-Force team, and I met them all when they came to the farm. If Cable did something terrible in your world, I'm sorry. I can't force my world to match yours, and it sounds like I don't want to.

Cable wasn't a thing in my world.

( He's... pretty sure anyways. )

I met him in the world I fell into before ending up here.

( Arms coming to fold in front of his chest, he regards the other mutant for a moment longer, unsure of how much he wants to say, if anything at all, before he glances away. )

He's annoying but he's not anyone I'd consider a threat personally.

The world you fell into...?

[ You can't just say things like that with giving more detail. Jay fell into Etraya, and then essentially got shoved through a portal here to Aphaia.

Well, more likely drug through the portal by Julian, but it's essentially the same thing. ]

You had something like this happen before you were here? And it wasn't Etraya?

[ Oh, right. The point. ]

I don't know if he's annoying or not. He's a middle-aged time-traveling X-Man who always seems to be in the middle of a mess. I was a kid who was mad that his brother wasn't coming home to stay.

( It's at this point, what with Jay being in the air and all, Nate gently lifts himself up into it as well, arms still folded there in front of his chest as he does. He eyes him. Not with suspicion or confusion. But almost... curiously.

Well. Maybe just a touch of suspicion, but. He feels that way towards almost everyone as of late. )

The world I'm from, Apocalypse has enslaved mankind and mutants either side with him or are hunted like traitors to their kind. I ended up somewhere else before ending up here. Another world but one where Apocalypse wasn't a tyrant in power.

[ He thought Jay was involved with that? Jay'd be insulted, but it's the kind of story that sounds just real enough. Just on the verge of a plausible nightmare worst case scenario that he could see how certain people would want it to happen. They'd point to people like Stryker and say he was proof that it's all that humans should be. ]

I don't know how I'd ever do that. My mom's human. Half my siblings might be human, we don't know yet. They're too little and it doesn't matter anyway - family's family. My girlfriend - she died because I was a mutant. I wouldn't - I don't know how I could be a part of that and live with myself.

[ He wouldn't be able to, that's how. ]

I don't hate humans. I don't call them any of the derogatory names. I just want everyone to have the same chance to live.

You all don't exactly give me much in the way of reasons to trust you.

( It's more in regards to Jay's surprise of how he'd linked him to that name — how the thought that this could be another version similar enough had quickly entered his mind when learning who the other mutant was. )

That's also not why you got hit with a rock. I told you. It was an accident.

( If he were really trying to hurt him, he'd do more than just telekinetically toss a rock at his head. )

How'm I supposed to give you the perfect reason why you can trust me if I don't know who you are? I know you're a mutant, if the telekinesis wasn't enough of a reason, you know that Jay Guthrie goes by Icarus, when I've never been an X-Man officially. Nobody outside the school knows that. You know enough to dig Cable outta my head, but he's not a thing in your world. So why even mentioned it if you don't know who Cable is?

[ Seriously, this is enough to drive anybody up a wall. When Jay realized that Laura was way too young and spoke a lot more Spanish that he realized, he didn't kick up a fuss about it. ]

You might as well ask me if I know who Captain Britain or Forge are. Sure, I do, but I've never met them. You want reasons to trust me? How about you hit me with a rock, accidentally, but I didn't try anything to get back at you and I flat out told you to go digging around in my head to see for yourself. You know a lot of people that tell you nah, go ahead and dig for gold in their heads? I don't think you do, and I don't need to read minds to know most people like their privacy. I trust you, and I've got no reason to.

[ He's out of arguments, but there's a nagging sense of I can't just leave him here to get in trouble. ]

If you can find it in you to trust me for the next ten minutes, we can go find Ms. Grey or Julian, and you can find out what's going on from one of them. Personally, I'm hoping for Ms. Grey. You and Julian'll get along like gas and a lit match.

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