tinpotdicktator | deerington; INBOX

[Ruby isn't exactly sure how she feels about this. Her trust was strained between both James and Bill, but Ironwood was definitely the lesser of two evils here as far as she can tell. Plus testing the water to see just how their arrangement worked wasn't a bad idea.]

So I've learned, and got a nice knuckle sandwich high in iron to prove it.

Next time I see him, I'll give it a shot. Thanks for that.

Yeah... He was advertising on the network. Apparently he knows brain surgery for humans and birds.

I'd look into someone else but I don't know any other doctors around at the moment.

Yeah. They're both pretty darn dependable from my experience. If something needs to be built go to them.

[Oh no.]

Yeah-I mean

I wouldn't text on anyone elses phone. That'd just be rude, you know?

He wants to play us against each other. Hopefully your recovery has been well. I did try to go easy on you.

Even better if you can see if you can make him come to you. Will he come when you call, if you need a code deciphered? Or can he solve it whenever he chooses? The message doesn't matter. It's if we can control his behavior.

[ He doesn't KNOW. But it seemed like it was magic, and magic has rules, doesn't it? But so widely out of what he does know that he needs more information. He has things he wants to test, and he'll use Ruby to test them. And with relatively little risk, he thinks.]

Unfortunately, neither do I, and I would not trust the Townspeople with it. Especially not now.

Noted. Good to know.

Of course not. You wouldn't lie to me either.

Edited 2021-02-20 22:40 (UTC)

I could be in worse shape.
The whole eye thing is a lot worse than any bumps and bruises you gave me.
I appreciate that you held back.

[The amount of information and control he's after is a little worrying there, but it's important considering what they just went through. It's something she's willing to dip her toes into but she might be careful with how much information she passes back to Ironwood. At least until some trust is built back between them.]

That's a good idea. I'm... Going to try and use this message to find out how much control he still has over me before I get in too deep. If it was a one time deal on both ends then there's not much I can do. But if it's still ongoing than I'll plenty of time to experiment.

Yeah. They were rude on a good day, now that they're rude and glitchy they aren't going anywhere near my noggin'.

[Oh. That hits her in the gut. She's not sure if someone has told him about what's going on at home or whether this is just about that text.

But either way that stings and she's not exactly sure how to respond to it.]

No... I wouldn't. At least not here.

[Which is also a lie.]

Let me know how it goes with Bill. I don't want to be caught off guard by him again.

[ And he can drop the conversation about him going easy on her, he's made his point. ]

You have more experience with them than me, how unexpected or unusual is their current behaviour?

[ There it is again, the specifity. ]

Not here?

I'll do just that. I need to figure out just out just how deep into this I am anyways. Knowledge is power here.

[She's pretty happy to drop that here herself.]

I want to say completely unexpected but that wouldn't be true.
There were other kinds of town people around before. The Betty's, they disappeared a few months ago when Mother Superior started trying to break through the layers.
So it's kind of more of the same of that.
The towns people have acted weird before but this more like that then anything else they've done before.
Like before they'd just pretend to be nice or fit into whatever setting the dream was making instead of just breaking like they are.

[Yuuuup. This is not exactly the conversation she was hoping to have.]

What do you remember from back home?
Or... What have people around here told you about what's happening?

Which means that the situation is escalating, one way or another. It's as if they're programs or androids, and they're no longer running properly. But it sounds as though that's a result of the larger problem, rather than them being hacked, for lack of a better word.

I've been told some things. I know the situation gets far worse. I know she's coming.

[ That she's asking that question is unnerving, and successfully distracts him from the original intent of that line of questioning.

There's a pause, clear that he's typing something else, but he's unsure what exactly he should reveal. If he tells her that he knows he arrests her, will that ruin his attempts to regain her trust? Qrow could tell her thst he told him at any time.

But there's perhaps another truth he could tell instead. ]

I thought that if Bill Cipher's plan succeeded, I could make things turn out differently. Time between worlds seems to be flexible, after all.

I think you're on the right track here. This all started to get worse after Mother Superior said she was breaking through layers to get to the core of Deerington. So I imagine as she's been doing it pieces have been falling away.

[There's a pause as she looks over his next words. It was incredibly vague and didn't really give her the answer she was looking for. But that meant she might have to give a little more. On the bright side he was off her back about the text.]

It does yeah. We're not all in the best of shape back there.

...And well... There was something about the lamp that I wasn't completely honest about. Because we were worried when we first arrived in Atlas. We didn't know if we could trust you.

And... I'd like to find a way to rebuild that here. On both ends.

[She's not sure if that's saying too much, but it was putting about as many cards on the table as she was willing to for this conversation.] I've been home once since I first arrived here, and I was in your shoes being a few steps behind everyone else. You get used to it.

Yeah, I think we were all hoping for a bit more from Bill, shame that it didn't work out that way.

Edited 2021-02-26 21:33 (UTC)

Something has to be done about Mother Superior.

The Lamp?

[ That's not what he expected. The lamp had been relegated to a non-issue in his mind, and of all the things he expected this conversation to lead to it wasn't that.

That they weren't sure if they could trust him is also unsettling, though far less of a surprise at this point. ]

What didn't you tell me about the Lamp?

[ Sorry Ruby, your reassurances are taking a backseat to that. ]

Edited 2021-03-01 17:51 (UTC)

And we will do something. As soon as we figure out how.

[Their first night in Mantle had Atlas had been more than a little frantic. The curfew and soldiers had left a bad taste in their mouths, and it had followed Ruby all the way up to Ironwood's office. She had been sure at the time that waiting to tell him everything had been the right choice, right up until he laid everything out on the table for them. It had made everything hazy and she wasn't so sure it was the right call, right up until the night when everything went wrong.

Now she was confident she had made the right choice but... She can't help but feel like she might have escalated it.]

It still has a question left. We didn't tell you at the time.

You know back at home when I'm from and now you know here too.

[ He doesn't actually know what to do with this information. It definitely brings him down, that sick feeling of betrayal starting to worm its way through his stomach. Now, now what is he supposed to do? If the lamp still has a question, then - but here, now there wasn't anything he really wanted to ask it.

Deerington did a great job of revealing truth you didn't want to know, and he's at a loss for truth he did want to know. Not when Salem wasn't here. And he is reluctant to be too hasty with trying to plan for home here, given what happened with Bill.

But it didn't do one thing. It did help him understand a little bit about why he had chosen - why he will choose to arrest Ruby. Because they weren't all on the same page, were they? He had begun to accept that, but this really drove it home. ]

I see.

[ He doesn't say "thank you for telling me". ]

Why didn't you tell me?

[Ruby can't help but feel a similar twist in her gut. This is where things started to go wrong the last time around, but this time she at least had the added benefit that Atlas and Mantle weren't crumbling around them. Hopefully the circumstances would provide some sort of help.]

Coming into Atlas and seeing the state of Mantle. We were afraid. We didn't know if we could trust you or not. After what happened with Professor Lionheart, we wanted to be careful.

It was always our intention to tell you and we do tell you.

But... I'm sorry it took us as long as it did.

[ His anger flares up - he can't help it. They didn't trust him - after all he did? And why does Mantle matter so much? Everyone always blaming Mantle on him.

Lionheart gives him pause. His immediate reaction is offense and if this wasn't over text he would he might snap something but instead he takes a breath.

No, after Leo - he's not sure he would trust him either. But he won't forget this either. ]

I hope I've proven I'm not like Lionheart.

Thank you for coming forward about this.

deerington; INBOX

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I THOUGHT I HAD RESPONDED TO THIS BUT IT TURNS OUT IT WAS ON MY HIATUS LIST SORRY

DON'T WORRY! I'M SURE I HAVE SOME SITTING HERE IN MY INBOX SOMEWHERE FOR YOU TOO

and then i did it again