bewrightback | Day 2 Private Conversation: Phoenix and Trucy

[ It's enough to get Trucy to pull a disappearing act shortly thereafter, anyway. Those she's good at, and people are pretty busy as is - she's already wandered off to chat with someone once that day, and so a second time isn't that hard to handle.

First Trucy unlocks her door so they can talk inside, although she pretty much waits curiously for Phoenix to say something. He has to have some sort of plan or idea, right? ]

There you are. [He smiles lightly, and he puts his hands in his pockets as he walks through the open door.]

It will be easier to talk about this behind closed doors, don't you think?

A little bit. Pearls and I kinda chatted earlier, but we didn't get any further than splitting our votes on non-Dahlia people.

[ She sees zero reason to conceal this from Phoenix. ]

Since...it's even harder this time than last time.

It really is. [It's a mix of people he cares about deeply, people he cares about a good amount, and people either of the former categories care about deeply. And then there's Ray.

He sits along the edge of the bed and pats the space nearby as he sits in more contemplative thought.]

You've been doing some investigation into those Dahlia votes.

Yeah. It's important to know who keeps doing it, especially when I seriously doubt she's a "bad badger".

[ Trucy sits on the bed as well, crossing her arms and frowning.

It's not like she's against Dahlia going down, or anything, but...

...well, still. ]

So you do doubt that... [None of the clues have pointed towards her at all, it's true.]

I honestly don't know what to think either way about Dahlia. But... I do know who seems to be behind these votes.

Daddy, do you think you'd still be alive if she had the means to kill you?

[ JUST...ASKING. ]

Or Pearls, or Maya, or Miss Mia. That's...why I find it pretty unlikely. Besides, she was poisoned as an example back on the first day, remember? Would she have allowed that to happen if she were actually a part of this?

[ Because Dahlia strikes her as remarkably self interested... ]

...But, who's behind it?

Well... Those are all valid points. [He rubs at his head.] If being a friend of the bad badger means she has that much control over the situation, than I do doubt that she could be one.

But as for the person behind it? This is a secret, but... [He glances around, as if expecting the walls to have eyes.] It seems to be Mr. Armando.

That...explains one of the votes, I guess. But why does he keep voting for her?

[ ????? ]

From what I've seen... Mr. Armando is man who can never let go of a grudge. Or... almost never. He kind of let go of the grudge that he had against me. But that was only until he hounded me in every case I took on for part of a year.

But his anger against Dahlia Hawthorne is particularly bad. After all... she poisoned him once, years ago. The world believed him to be dead, and he only survived with the help of that mask he wears on his head. And even though he lived... He holds himself responsible for Mia having b-been killed while he was away.

That's why he approached me on the first day and tried to get me to vote for her. He doesn't seem to care if she's a bad badger or not... just that she's a threat to anyone with the Fey name.

...I don't really agree. I think the biggest threat to Pearls and the others right now is...well, we can assume the "bad badgers" were behind Myriam, can't we? The Proto Badger would've bragged if he'd done it, I bet. We can keep an eye on Dahlia. We can't keep an eye on people we've yet to identify.

[ CAN'T HE SAVE TRYING TO GET DAHLIA OFFED FOR AFTER THEY FIGURE THIS ALL OUT...? ]

If we assume things are going to follow this same pattern, at least one of us will be killed by these "bad badgers" every night after the vote until we get all three. If we waste a day voting Dahlia Hawthorne to death, that's sacrificing another person just for the sake of that, isn't it?

[ She's...clearly been giving this a lot of thought. Or trying to, at least. ]

[He actually smiles a little sadly at that.]

That's a lot like what I said to him. Of course, at the time, we didn't know a lot of what we know now, and a big part of my reasoning was because I thought that Kristoph Gavin was the bigger threat. I was set on voting for him... I knew how low he could sink if he was the bad badger. Dahlia doesn't really feel like a threat anymore, after all these years... Now that we know who she is. She doesn't have the advantages she had years ago, as long as she's not a friend of the bad badger.

Of course, I ended up only choosing Kristoph in the first vote... once it became clear that Mr. Palaeno would be punished the same as him, I knew it wasn't the right way to go. You believe in that guy, after all. [She's not a lawyer, but he values her belief in others all the same.]

I do. And...I really did think that the other team was more suspicious. Mr. Gavin's...you know I don't think he's a good guy, and I agree he's a dangerous person.

[ He killed her other father. He tried to frame Phoenix. Trucy knows he's a bad guy. ]

But I don't think he's a "bad badger". We...can deal with him when we get out of here in one piece, you know? If I can...put that aside for the moment and focus on the task at hand, other people have to try, too.

Edited (icon) 2015-03-05 04:01 (UTC)

[He nods.]

I agree with that now. I don't think that Kristoph really is a bad badger... and maybe he might even be helpful to us in some ways, before it all ends. [He wouldn't have any piece of mind if he hadn't; after all, if Kristoph really was a bad badger, then by sparing him, Phoenix had indirectly helped to enable Miriam's death. That loss was enough of a blow as it is.]

Other people have to try?

People keep voting for Dahlia, right? Like I said, I don't think she's a bad badger. And while I'm capable of not just voting for the guy who killed my father and framed my dad for murder, why can't the people who keep voting for Dahlia understand that we need to find the bad badgers?

[ She's...not sure how she can explain it any better. ]

If it's a pattern, we'll lose an innocent person every night until all three of the badger teams are...are dealt with. Assuming we were right last time, and assuming we get it right the next two times, that's three innocent people - three teams, if teams go...go together - that are already guaranteed to perish.

If we waste a vote on someone who isn't a bad badger, we condemn an extra innocent. Just to kill someone who's already dead.

[ It could be Pearls. It could be Phoenix. They could end up being the ones in those two nights they won't be able to do a single thing.

Trucy doesn't want to risk an extra night just to satisfy people's lust for revenge against Dahlia. ]

Maybe...maybe Mr. Armando and whoever are willing to do that, to risk it, but I'm not. There's already...too big a chance one of us will die in the next two nights. And that's if we're right every time.

[He taps at his chin in thought. Girl knows her math.]

You're right. There's no room for personal vendettas here... It's only going to make things worse. After what we saw this morning... I can't let something like that happen again.

Maybe some of us will have to talk about our intentions in voting... on finding the best way to reach the truth. But that all comes down to today's vote... and figuring out which of those suspects... is the bad badger.

...The thing is, we still don't know why people are bad badgers. And the people acting the most suspicious...

[ She doesn't even want to say it, because she doesn't really...believe it. But. ]

...It's Miss Mia and Mr. Armando. If I had to pick, I'd say Miss Mia.

[ Phoenix is the only one in the room, and if she can't at least admit to how she was reading the situation to her father, what's she going to do? ]

It'd only make sense if "magic" that changes how people think or act - like the interpol guy - is considered as an incentive. But...I don't think either Blackquill would be party to something like this without something like that, so we have to assume that something like that is possible.

It's Mia over Mr. Armando because Mr. Blackquill more or less asked you to vote for him instead of Miss Blackquill, by the way.

[ .........then she just sits there and quietly waits for him to refute her. ]

[That does hit him hard. And he slouches forward in his position as he thinks it over.]

T-Trucy... I don't know. I can't believe that. If Mia's a bad badger... then so is Maya. And that just can't be possible.

Blackquill did want to protect his sister, yeah... But that doesn't make this conclusive evidence.

Daddy, I don't think it's possible for any of them without making the impossible possible. Mr. Blackquill went to jail for years and years just to protect Athena - for a crime he didn't even commit. Miss Blackquill only did the things she did in order to...try to clear his name, right? And Pearls' cousins are...Pearls' cousins.

There isn't a single team in these three who would do anything of their own free will.

[ She thinks. ]

I'm not saying we should vote for them. [ She doesn't know if she can, and she's...waiting to be refuted, still. ] I'm just saying that you told me to tell you if I thought anyone was suspicious. And those two keep refusing to vote or consider voting. Neither was helpful in the last trial, and Miss Mia's biggest contribution was to suggest a seance - and then she voted for the losing team, and couldn't even give a real reason as to why. She kept arguing to kill Dahlia Hawthorne, instead of anyone else.

I think it's suspicious. I don't know what to do about it, though. But if it's them, we're probably going to lose.

I... I do appreciate you being honest, Trucy. I do. [He does feel so tense and torn right now, but he reaches for her hand to give it a quick squeeze.]

And I'm going to keep everything you tell me in mind. I don't know about some of those criteria. Mia's younger and less experienced then when I first met her... both of them can be expected to have some trouble in figuring out solutions in an unusual situation.

...But there's one contradiction that stands out. If the bad badger is Mia... or even Mr. Armando... then why is Dahlia still alive?

...So that they have someone to try to get us to kill during trials, who isn't a bad badger. And who most people would go along with killing.

[ It's the only explanation she can offer up, and the one she'd suggested earlier when she complained about not knowing who was voting for Dahlia. ]

The only way we can get bad badgers is by voting in trials, right? They need us to be wrong when we vote. Whoever they are. That's...probably why they killed Myriam. Because not a single person voted for her as guilty; she would never be of any use to them alive in trials.

So... if this is true... their personal vendettas aren't playing at into who they choose to kill. They're only using their grudge against Miss Hawthorne to try to get us all to vote for her as a scapegoat?

And some kind of 'magic' is making them feel this way. Because I think I know Mia and Mr. Armando well enough to know that if their minds aren't being altered or there isn't someone else in their way, they would choose to kill Miss Hawthorne right away.

If it's true. I think we have to assume that the "bad badgers" are for some reason more concerned with winning than anything else. If leaving alive a scapegoat helps, then...why not?

[ It doesn't have to be true. But Ray and Aura haven't done a single suspicious thing between them in Trucy's sight or hearing. ]

I...don't want it to be any of the three teams, Daddy. But Miss Mia wasn't even listening when I told her that if we just killed Dahlia in a vote, we'd be putting an extra person at risk. And Mr. Armando's weird behavior at least can be construed as "trying to protect Miss Mia". And the third team hasn't done anything weird I've seen.

I could be wrong. On all counts. That's just how things look to me, and I don't want them to look like that.

[He presses his hands together as he thinks that over.]

If it is one of them... I can still see it going either way. Mr. Armando was a mentor figure to Mia early on. She's from so early in her career that it must be easy for her to feel lost and confused and make mistakes. In that case, if Mr. Armando is the bad badger, he could be manipulating that to his own ends. [He shakes his head in frustration, though. It's exhausting just to think things like that. And then Phoenix presses a hand to his forehead.]

But... I understand your arguments, Trucy, and I'm going to take them all into account. As... as I make my own decisions.

Yeah. I said it already to Miss Mia, but...we owe it to everyone here to do this...as thoroughly as we can. There are still a lot of questions to be asked, and we still...don't really know who will be on trial. Last time only two of the teams were.

[ Though her opinions might only solidify after certain shenanigans at the trial. ]

We...can talk again nearer the vote, if you want, Daddy.

Yes... Let's all take some time to cool off, think things over more and ask more questions. We can figure out things for sure later.

Just give me another signal whenever you want to talk to me again!

[ and she will come. ]

Will do, Trucy. [He spares her a warm smile; as conflicted as he feels, he understands that she's trying her best in this horrible situation. He just gives a light tug at her hat before he heads out of the room.]

Day 2 Private Conversation: Phoenix and Trucy

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