Roleplay Mafia Minigame ❧ NIGHT SIX

Sayaka resisted the urge to take a step back from Carlos' overwhelming exuberance. He had a mad look on his face—or maybe that was just his unique way of  showing pleased excitement. Sayaka couldn't tell. At least the others in the group ascribed to some sense of normalcy—even Amethyst and Amumu, with all of their eccentricism. But Carlos and Cecil... Sayaka just couldn't quite get a read on them. They looked normal. Human, even, and they probably were, but they were... odd. Like two storyboard cut-outs with a dartboard's personality. The thought made her spine shiver.

Whatever their origin—if origin mattered in the town of cross-world refugees—both Cecil and, most importantly, Carlos struck Sayaka as the only reliable, neutral parties that she could accost for help and assistance.

Then again, I tried that once or twice before and didn't get very far... but Carlos seems to respond favorably to mentions of science. Maybe that was the key.

She looked at Carlos.

“Yes, I agree,” said Sayaka. “You are a scientist. But I don't know all that much about science. I only had passing grades in school. So I don't fully understand—science, I mean. But I want to. Can you tell me more? More about your science? What does it do? How do you do it? Can you do it for others at all? Oh, and science,” she concluded, hoping that she had held his attention.

Carlos bit his lip in excitement, took a deep breath, and told himself that he was going to calm down and explain his livelihood in a clear and organized manner so that everyone, even the less scientifically-inclined residents of Traverse Town, could understand.

And then he un-bit his lip and did exactly not that.

“Okay. Okay. So. Science. You heard all the things I said earlier, right? About how science is the unravelling of the unknown into the known and yet more unknown, and then I made that metaphor with the thread and the fabric of collective understanding, right? Well all of that still applies. But the definition of science, according to Webster’s Dictionary, is, quote, ‘I don’t know but I’m trying to find out, okay?’ end quote. So now you have that.

“Okay but, ‘Carlos, what do scientists actually do?’ you might be asking, and I can tell you that too! Scientists do plenty of things! For example, I am a scientist, and currently I am standing, and I am breathing, and also I am talking to you. Also, I--”

---

(( I’m going to give Sayaka a chance to cut him off so that she can steer him in the right direction or this will never get anywhere. ))

Sayaka shook her head to clear the forming dizziness and placed her hands on Carlos' shoulders, catching him in a straight-eyed stare.

“Carlos,” she said, “Can you do science for me? You know, like the hand-wavy, super special science you did earlier? About the buses and evil-detection and... and... the omelets?”

Caught off-guard by the sudden interruption, Carlos blinked, paused, and then blinked again. “You know, it’s pretty forward of you to ask me to do science for you when we have just met and also my boyfriend is standing right there.”

Sayaka scowled and pointed over her shoulder with her thumb.

“And my girlfriend is back there. I'm not asking for much, it's only s—” she bit her tongue and closed an eye in a half-wink, half-grimace. “We could trade? I could let you look at my sword or something. I can make it do all sorts of sciency things.”

She hefted the sword up and flicked her wrist, making the sword disappear, and then reached into the clinging folds of her cloak to draw the sword out once more, the curved steel shimmering in the fading starlight.

“Science for science? Please?”

“Er,” Carlos cleared his throat and looked awkwardly off to one side. “I’m not really sure Cecil would be okay with me looking at other people’s swords for reasons scientific or otherwise--” he cut himself off when he heard the silver ring of metal. Sounding more relieved than not, he revised his statement. “Oh. Oh, you meant an actual weapon. Um. Hmm. Well… what… does it do?”

“Doesn't that take away the fun of sciencing if I just tell you what it does?” Sayaka asked, her cheeks more than a little red. “The sword is very precious to me. I... I've only really let Kyouko hold it, so you should be gentle with it.”

Sayaka followed Carlos' gaze off to the side, then to Kyouko, radiant and austere with her blazing crown of red hair. She and the others were still occupied with their discussion in the center of the square. Luke appeared to have arrived at some point during Sayaka's conversation with Carlos.

She looked back at Carlos and tilted her head.

“Can you do science for me? I mean,” she said with the barest hint of suggestion in her voice, “it's basically doing science for Cecil, since the science will help find the feather, and Cecil wants the feather, too. So, really, you're helping him more than you're helping me,” she finished, but then added, “with the science,” for good measure.

So Carlos, having been promoted from Interloper status to Honorary Citizen of Night Vale, knew enough about blackmail to know that this felt a lot like blackmail. Not the kind where the Sheriff’s Secret Police left threatening messages on one’s doorstep in the form of molding sneakers and cartons of 2% orangemilk, but the emotional kind, which was just as bad, if slightly less fatal.

“I, uh--” he glanced briefly in Cecil’s direction, and then in Intern Wilbur’s, for guidance. Guidance was not forthcoming. It wasn’t even third coming. Carlos was fairly certain it would not be coming at all.

“I mean, I was going to spend today running an experiment to prove Cecil’s innocence. I even got all indignant and crossed my arms and said, ‘Cecil. I am going to prove your innocence. With science’ in that exact tone of voice. So… I mean, it’d look pretty bad if I went back on that, but… I… guess I could--I mean if your suggestion would help prove Cecil’s innocence anyway, then, you know what they say. Killing two birds with one stone is better than killing one stone with two birds but not as good as killing all the birds and all of the stones and then resurrecting them into a stone-bird undead army. That’s… that is what they say.”

Sayaka looked at Cecil, eyes narrowed and brows furrowed. Sayaka had her Kyouko, just as Carlos had his Cecil. She knew all too well the lengths to which Carlos would go to help and protect Cecil, for they were the very same limits she had pushed in her quest to aid Kyouko, to find the feather and return the pair of them back home. Everyone gathered here had that purpose, that unifying goal: Obtaining the feather and its magic. While it was not altogether clear what exact fortune the feather might bestow, Sayaka felt in her heart that it could and would erase all pain and suffering. It was a better version of herself in that regard.

And it could benefit everyone.

Yet someone, or someones, seemed intent to bar any of them from seeking this feather. The assault against Kyouko had been no coincidence; it would weaken not only the group's chances, but also Sayaka's fleeting tether to this world. Whatever Carlos had rambled about undead stone-birds, he was right on one thing: removing Kyouko would do that much and more to Sayaka, too. Two birds. One stone.

“I will be honest with you, Carlos,” she said. “I do not have much of a plan. My understanding of science is rather limited. I think if we were to try and work together, we could both save Cecil, Kyouko, and everyone else here that is innocent.”

She looked down at her sword, then back up at Carlos.

“I can promise you that I will fight to keep Cecil safe, as long as Kyouko is not harmed in the process. She... Her and I have a lot of science together, Carlos,” Sayaka said. “I hope you understand.”

Wilbur strolled up to the pair, purring between his small, measured steps. Sayaka reached down to pet him, but he jumped and bounded off into a wall. Sayaka sighed.

“Carlos, you are the expert scientist here. I think it might be good to figure out if anyone here can attack anyone else—so we can keep Cecil and Kyouko away from them—but you know science better than I do. What type of science would you do?”

“Okay, hold on,” Carlos interjected, in a moment of rare clarity. “So you just went through all that with the sword innuendo and the trying to persuade me by saying the word ‘science’ over and over again--which, by the way, is actually very effective--but what I mean to say is that after all that effort to get me to agree with your plan… you don’t actually have a plan.”

“Then help me come up with something!" Sayaka said with bristling indignation. "I gave you my suggestion! Damn it, Carlos, I'm a paladin, not a scientist!”

“Okay! Okay,” Carlos replied, palms forward in a placating gesture that was more defensive than not. “I’ll… think about it. About the experiment, I mean, not about whether or not I will do an experiment because I am always doing experiments, that is, after all, part of what it means to be a scientist.”

He crossed his arms once more and looked upwards in thought at the sky (still mostly void, still partially stars, but more partial, with less stars, than before).

“It’ll take some time for me to figure out an experiment and even more time to actually run it but, well, considering time isn’t real…” He shrugged, then. “And you know, maybe none of this is real. This conversation. This place. You. Me. But that’s a different experiment altogether, I think. For now, I’ll… I'll come up with something, probably. Everything is some level of ‘probably,’ nothing is a promise; it is most likely that we exist and will survive to talk again... so. I'll let you know when I have something."

Kyouko looked at her new mummy friend ('Weird, friends are usually harder to make.'), cocking her head to the side as if analysing him. She still couldn't trust him completely, but he was proving to be...not annoying.

Wow, Kyouko Sakura was making friends and getting along with others. Sayaka would be proud.

It would have been a great moment, if it weren't for the topic they were discussing over. She had plenty of time to think about it while she was up in the roof, but getting to hear their insights was interesting as well. It didn't seem like Sayaka wanted to talk about it though, which was understandable. Instead, she was..interviewing that science fanatic, who at first looked excited, then switched to then flustered, then more flustered ('I wonder what they're talking about.'), then even more--

'What were they talking about?'

They appeared to be having a very active discussion and Kyouko could have sworn that Sayaka had gestered towards her for a second. Kyouko took a mental note to ask about it later. For now, she wanted to focus on staying alive for another night. Surely they wouldn't attack her twice, knowing that she had some defense.

Soren had a point in that she had no real value to them, so it must have been someone who either hated her existence, or enjoyed killing. She was kind of flashy and looked like a red bullseye for anyone interested. Thinking about all of this made her head hurt. She needed a distraction. Naturally, her solution was to take out a packet of green tea pocky and start eating.

"Uhh....Luke, was it? Where were you again the night I was, ya know, attacked? So far everyone had some excuse except for you." she asked, mouth half full of pocky.

Before he had a chance to answer though, Kyouko's ears caught something. Something that echoed through her head a couple of times before she snapped back to reality. Did she hear right? No that was Sayaka's voice for sure. Even from afar, Kyouko could pick up things when it really mattered.

"She... Her and I have a lot of science together, Carlos.”

Kyouko almost choked and started gagging. 'WHAT?'

"Her and I have a lot of science together, Carlos.”

"Her and I have a lot of science together...”

"...a lot of science together."

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Dear mental diary : I think Sayaka has finally come to her senses and realized how truly precious I am to her. It was about time that she noticed how amazing and sugoi I am! I must know the full contents of her conversation with that nerd. Who knows what else she's said about me that I missed! Maybe the nerd is tape recording their conversation too, he works for the radio after all. I must get a hold of that tape, if it exists. Finding out what Sayaka said and meant is now top priority together with staying alive and keeping Sayaka safe.

panpanpandy wrote:(( i'm not actually sure what to do given that amethyst freaked out and since i was at work things continued like nothing happened... and i slept and things continued... and???? ))

(( i'm sorry i don't know what to do ))

((Amumu tl save the day (or at least try to)!))

As she stared at Kyouko, seemingly dumbfounded at what to do as the redhead ignored her, Amethyst heard heard a familiar, soft shuffling of feet.

"It's okay," Amumu said. "This way it's easier for you to keep your promise. The one not to hurt anyone...a lot. Right?" He looked down at something in his hands. "Besides," he held his hands up, showing a plastic whistle, "she's actually nice. Friendly." He looked to Kyouko, then back to Amethyst. "I think that's why we should help Ms. Coco. Find who tried to hurt her. Err...well, hurt her when she couldn't fight back. Not like you."