punchestumors

Day 4

[Leorio's a bit flushed from the temple run, but he's got a sly grin on his face as he gathers the old team together. They survived another day... he's happy about that, even with losing the jailer.]

Exciting news, guys - I found the spy detective! It's either Kaito or Kanade... and I just double checked, Wolfwood wasn't the magician, which means it's either Dororo or Alice. We're really on a roll now.

[and then he laughs like an idiot for a moment - he might actually survive this. If someone wants to start the actual discussion, that would be great]

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[Meryl seems unhappy, despite the good news.]

[Unhappier than usual]

So the spy detective is either Kaito or Kanade, and there were two spies in the last batch....

We need to narrow them both down. And find a way to communicate with everyone.

Oh, right... we can't keep pretending it's Ema's information, so what we tried last time won't work.

[he's not sure what to do yet, but he notices that scowl on her face.]

... Are you worried?

[if she is, he assumes it's about Wolfwood. He'd listen if she wanted to, but they could move on.]

What happens to that idiot if of no concern of me. [A little too sharp and specific there, Meryl!! I-It's not like she cares or anything!]

[(But yes, she is worried)]

And we can't compromise your position as the detective. We'll need a way to pass the information.... I doubt questioning our suspects directly will much more useful this time around.

[It didn't really do them any good with Dororo and Wolfwood, after all]

[Right on the money... Leorio shakes his open hands in a 'my bad' kinda way.]

Well, still, I'm sure he's fine. We saw what the lounge looks like, and anyway... people who watch these kinda shows will be looking forward to the reunion at the end, right?

[he has no idea they don't know what reality TV is.]

... Uh, well ... what do you think about receiving an "anonymous" note? Though there might be a better idea.

[one he just told Axel downthread, though it's not necessarily 'better.']

What exactly do you mean by that? The people who watch... what? Us? [She indeed has no idea what reality TV is, as he will now discover]

[She was listening to that (and she might be a little touched by it, shh), so she nods, some of the irritation dissipating]

I believe that may be our best move right now. An anonymous message will give us the opportunity to observe reactions without compromising anyone. Ms. Newman herself may be the one to prompt conversation. There's always the chance that it'll be discredited, but I believe it to be more worthwhile than any one of us trying to facilitate the conversation.

....Huh? I mean the audience. That mailbox head said this was all a reality show, that means there's ordinary people watching it on TV. [do they even have TV where you are from]

Well, if we're showing it to everyone, then it'll be more important to be on the same page with the vote. Are you thinking we just do the opposite of what Robin says?

[since she brought her up and all...]

I... I'm afraid I don't follow you, Mr. Paladiknight. [TV WHAT'S THAT]

....Possibly. We can use her to our advantage, if possible, as people tend to listen to her. [Meryl still finds her suspicious, but]

Oh! That's really good! Good job!

So what should we do now?

Well, come on, we gotta get out the spy detective before he can find me out! This time it really is a 50/50 chance, cause I checked em' against you.

[He thinks he was pretty clever for that... Greg was Ema's clear, so Leorio can technically use him twice, if he's got this correctly.]

Against me?

But how do we know which one?

Yeah - each person can be checked twice, so I can use ones I already know are clear as a test against ones I don't know about. If I wanted to, I could do that again to find out which one is the detective. But I think it would be better to just take a risk on the vote...

As for how we can figure it out, well... how'd Sugar find out it was Wolfwood? You and Axel did something, right?

We did? Oh, I'm not sure.

I thought we were going to vote for Dororo because Robin said he was more suspicious. But then everybody said we didn't know enough to vote. So I thought I just messed up getting people to believe me.

Oh, I thought I heard you tellin' him you'd go with his plan, or whatever.... since he was the one who thought of waiting for Sugar in the first place, I kinda just assumed.

But, wait, hey - you actually believe Robin still? [...He's an 8 year old, Leorio, of course he's not going to realize. A sigh, and then he explains.] That is, Robin... is probably a spy.

[He'd agreed to go with Axel's plan, he just didn't know why they'd decided to do it.]

Robin's a spy? But Ema trusted her...

I know... Ema told me that too, cause she told her her role and she didn't get kicked off by the spies. But - she was kicked out on the second day, so it's hard to say.

More importantly, Robin did something really suspicious last trial... bringing up Hibiki and Hisoka, that is. She didn't need to do that, you know? There's nothing to say they were spies either way, but your spies were real... A smart villager would have tried to help you narrow it down to one of those, instead of creating more options. But a spy would want to save the other spies, and a good way to do that is make everyone confused on who to vote. And now that we know we really did accuse a spy, it's a good bet that's what was really going on.

So basically, you didn't really mess up anything, Greg! Abstaining was always our backup plan, and it worked out just fine, so... if you ask me, I think you can keep doing just what you're doing. If Robin is a spy, and thinks we believe everything she tells us, it's actually kinda useful.

Oh...that's mean! Ema's wish was really important.

[That's really the part he feels bad about.]

I can keep tricking her if that's what you mean. What should I do?

Huh... did she tell you what it was? She must have trusted you guys a lot.

[for knowing them for two days... though Leorio's one to talk after four]

Well, you could just ask her again who she thinks is suspicious. Then we know to do the opposite.

She told me, at least. Because I didn't think it was fair for her to have to be in danger more when she really wanted to get a wish too. Is it supposed to be a secret?

I'll keep asking Robin just to see.

All right, great!

Well, there's nothing saying it has to be secret, but I still wouldn't tell my wish to just anyone! It's like birthday cake, if you say it out loud it won't come true. ...Though I guess we're gonna have to tell everyone at the end anyway, so it's not exactly the same. [Leorio chuckles a bit. Either way, his wish is pretty important to him too.]

[he raises his hand like a good little boy in class]

Ah, yeah, sorry, boss, I went ahead an' talked to her on my own when the entire discussion went oopsy-daisy. She was gunnin' for Wolfwood all by herself, though.

[the boss thing is said mostly teasingly, because he is the worst]

[He just snorts at that 'boss' line. Guess how many times Leorio has been called that in his life? (It's zero.)]

She was, huh? I really misjudged her.

[Though, not really since she still got booted out immediately. They didn't even get to invite her to any detective parties or say thanks. RIP Sugar Cream we hardly knew ye....]

Anyway, it works for me. And whaddya know, there might be something up with Kaito after all. Though I personally suspect Kanade more, unless they're both spies.

Do I get veto power since I've been right so far? [he waves himself off tho] Kidding. Anyway, I picked Kaito because he seemed like the kinda guy who'd be trouble if he was a spy, so I'm gonna stick to that. It's your pick in the end, though. More importantly, how d'you wanna get the word out this time around?

Good question. I don't want Greg and Wirt to do it this time, they've had too much time in the detective spotlight and any more could get dangerous for em'. But you're close to that too. Meryl could work, but she might seem kind of random...

[basically, he doesn't want to risk any of his team :I congrats guys he's already attached]

I was wondering if I should roll the dice and send a note to someone else that could be clear. If we got the spies narrowed down this much, it might actually work... I could try to spin it like I only found spies, and didn't have anyone to trust. I really want to hide our little team here, you know? If I did that, I was thinking Ivlis... he voted Wolfwood, and it looks like he'll vote whatever chance he gets, so he might go for it if he got a push.

[...But this is perhaps an unnecessary risk brought on by Leorio wanting to protect you guys!!! Feel free to tell him if he is being dumb]

[there's a bit of a pause as if axel's taking it all in, but honestly he's kind of going "bwuh" over leorio's attachment. especially since apparently it includes him???? hahaha, what even IS that. still, his plan isn't without merit, because it's true they've been skirting danger a lot]

It's not a bad plan, but if you wanna go that route, might as well send an anonymous message to everybody. [and then, because he knows it's coming:] Yeah, even the potential spies. That way, discussion's sure to get going, an' none of the spies-to-be'll know you're onto them. Plus it gives everybody a chance to be part of the naysayers an' skeptics crowd while still participating in an open discussion about it.

[...by everybody he mostly means leorio, because keeping him hidden is still number 1 priority. weh.]

[it's just how Leorio plays, man!! he's a team dad]

I guess that's true. My only worry with that is the spies'll take the opportunity to do the same thing later on. If it's just one person, I can give em' a password or something. ... Plus I kind of wanted to push the heat onto someone else. [the noblest doctective]

But maybe I could just say, "I'll never do another public message again" to prevent that. But we'd be back to square one afterwards...

[Leorio rubs his head. Detective work is hard.]

[did axel laugh at putting the heat on someone else? hell yeah he did. still!] That's true, but... The problem with sending it to one person is that there's no guarantee they'll believe it an' talk about it. Either way, there's a risk. ...'Sides, I dunno how likely it is the spies'll be smart enough to try an' fake a detective message. [axel that might be a bit harsh

[Leorio snorts.]

It's too early to underestimate em' yet, you know! Even if we already found most of em'...

[He's pretty pleased about that still.]

I'll underestimate 'em so long as I get to stick around. Plus if they wanted to fake detective messages, they could've done that already.

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Day 4

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