With a thousand lies and a good disguise, hit ‘em right between the eyes [post t5]

[chiseler]

[Even if Luke's never said so, he's a fairly perspective person. You have to be if you want to survive where they're from and even moreso in a place like this. Due to this, he's not too surprised that Arumat's taken Kazuma's betrayal harder than most. He doesn't know how close they are or anything, but he can imagine it's a lot the way he felt when Lavi hit betray. That weird feeling where you don't know how to channel how blindsided you are.

So with one last night as a valued player, Luke's wandering around the halls to seek out the space-elf friend toting a bottle of wine in hand that he's confiscated from the trial room again. Dorian had a great tradition going. Even if Arumat won't partake it seems better to have some kind of offering when he shows up at the guy's room.

He even has the audacity to knock on the door to his room with the bottle, waiting patiently.]

Hey, Arumat. Open up. [Luke is apparently not taking no for an answer either.]

Comments

[chiseler]

Personally, I think it does and it doesn't. [He says, taking a dramatic pause for another drink.] It doesn't since people are dead, but it does in helping us put together the whole puzzle and maybe start figuring out how to read the rest of the people on the ship and what may push them over the edge.

[thanatosincarnate]

Hrm.

{ Reading people is easier in battle for him-- something subtle like deception is harder for him for all his own attempt at observations. }

That's true. Insightful, Luke.

{ He almost says something, but thinks better of it when he gives a light hiccup -- the latter of which happening because he may have finished up his glass already. But he's just pouring another. }

[chiseler]

[He's watching Arumat closely even if he's not quite so fast with his own glass. Apparently this happened to be a good choice for the both of them.]

Why is everyone so surprised that I'm actually pretty smart? [Probably because he says stupid shit like that.] That's how things worked back where I'm from. You could sort of tell who would be easy to sway based on their behavior. And this whole thing is an experiment, right? Alice is pushing us. Why not push from another direction?

[thanatosincarnate]

I wonder why.

{ He just takes another drink... remembering when he met with Frankenstein earlier to do the same. Arumat may be aiming for another chance to get drunk at some point during this conversation, but he does have good enough tolerance it'd take awhile. It was a, uh, "good choice" indeed. }

Hmm... she must find that interesting as well for data collection reasons, but at least if we do it that way we're not sitting around with our thumbs up our asses, and surprised at whoever decides to murder next.

[chiseler]

The downside to that--[Yeah he's straight-up ignoring Arumat's sarcastic answer about his brilliance and focusing on the real question]--is then we might end up all being completely paranoid of each other, start a giant witch hunt and start killing each other based on speculation and wrong readings. That's the only flaw with that plan. So...unless we can guarantee we know how we're all supposed to normally act...[A shrug.]

Alice has to have data on all of us right? Where do you think she keeps it?

[thanatosincarnate]

{ That gets him to stop drinking for a moment, but he seems to stare off, thinking for a second, before he downs a gulp from the glass again. }

We'll have to be careful then, as always.

{ ... }

That stupid AI probably stores the data somewhere within her own computer database, very much out of our reach. Seeing as its unobtainable right now, it'd be useless to try to think about it much or retrieving it for that matter.

[chiseler]

You always give up that easily? [He sounds more baffled than amused this time, unsure how to proceed.] Just because it's unobtainable right now doesn't mean it'll always be like that. And when she lets down her guard enough, I wanna be there. Just in case.

[Luke stop sounding paranoid, gods.] But I'll let you know what I find.

[thanatosincarnate]

No.

{ He'll grunt, irritated.

Arumat is a conflicting combination of pessimistic, cynical, slightly optimistic, and fatalistic so it's hard. }

...

Just be careful { There's a slight shift in his tone, but it only lasts for a fraction of a second. )-- then again, despite everything I'm sure you'll do fine. That said, I'll entrust that task to you. If I figure out anything else on my end, I'll come on by. Discreetly.

[chiseler]

Have I ever really struck you as someone who's not careful? [Don't push your luck, Luke.] I'm not worried about it. What I am worried about is the possibility of there being another person like Kazuma on this ship.