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[helpdesk_hero]

This is David Alleyne, I'm not available at the moment.
Please leave your name, contact information, and what this is regarding after the beep.

Comments

[helpdesk_hero]

Only in that a number of people immediately started reaching out to me.

I'll have to try and key you into my lab. Anything in there can't be where the guild can get to it.

[doctopoda]

Oh. Yes, I can see that being strange.

[Forgetting the usual alternate-Otto problems - it'd be very unsettling to meet a version of himself, one more like him than Jumpsuit Otto, who had never married.]

[portolan]

I have my bike and an enchanted bag that can fit the contents of a utility closet without jostling them.

[ He sends the first part, then composes and deletes the second part a few times. He feels like he's crossing some unspoken boundary, but he also knows he needs to say something. ]

When you can sneak away, I can meet you at your apartment or at mine, but I think we should make sure we have a plan, in person, before anything has a chance to go sideways.

[helpdesk_hero]

I basically owe his son my life. And his young clone. And him for teaching me. It's all a mess. You're easier to balance since I didn't know Doc Oc personally.

[helpdesk_hero]

There is that.

I should make sure that you have the exit stone from Ikol-Loki. It could get you out of a bad situation. In an emergency it leads to Little Love. As for my apartment... I guess I haven't used the token today, and it feels active still, so I should do it now. I'll take a few pictures of my hotel room, just in case it shuts down when I get back to Excelsior. So you could help me get back to it if it needs to happen.

[doctopoda]

Oh, I see.
Did he recognize you?

[helpdesk_hero]

No, it seems I don't exist in his world?

[doctopoda]

[Yikes!!!]

That must have been rough.

You could still exist there, and he just hasn't met you yet.

[helpdesk_hero]

Entirely possible. But he's buttoned up damn tight.

[doctopoda]

Give it time. I'm sure he'll come around to you.

[helpdesk_hero]

I doubt that. It's not his style.

[doctopoda]

What, getting to know you?

[helpdesk_hero]

Coming around to people.

[doctopoda]

He doesn't know you, that's all. It could still get better.

[helpdesk_hero]

I won't hold my breath. Unlike him, I can't do it long.

[doctopoda]

I'm sorry.

[That sucks! And kinda makes Otto take an instant dislike to the guy tbh!]

[helpdesk_hero]

Don't apologize. I've learned to adapt to people who aren't quite my people.

[doctopoda]

Still.

[It has to be hard! Otto's hardly really dealt with that - there's been different Peters, to be sure, but at the end of the day he's spent a lot more time with them now than he ever did with his own world's version.]

[portolan]

Is it small enough I can get it set? That may be a good way to keep it at hand.

Whatever you need -- I don't mind making a late night trip.

[ He's done worse, and he's rested enough he's confident he can get them all the way there on his bike if he needs to. ]

[helpdesk_hero]

Yes, it's probably small enough for that. It's a stone. My own will lead to the same point. Maybe as a necklace under your shirt?

Alright, give it another hour, then slip into the guild housing building. I'll go immediately back to my room.

[helpdesk_hero]

[Not everyone is friendly like they are. It's okay too.]

He's a very prickly man.

[portolan]

I'll look into it. See you in a bit, love.

He kills the hour, disguising his bike as a regular motorcycle that sends glances away, and then sneaks into the building illusioned as a maintenance worker.

[helpdesk_hero]

Indeed.

[It takes David some time to get back, to arrange his hotel room for teleporation back. Then he activates the charm and arrives back at his apartment. His roommate doesn't seem to be around so he's quick at starting to get the vital things together, ready to wait until Balthier arrives.]

[portolan]

Balthier reaches David's apartment and uses his key to slip inside before dropping his illusion. He doesn't know how much will have changed with the Guild, and it isn't like he hasn't been here a million times, but anything to keep it less clear where David is going if they're watching the hall surveillance doesn't hurt.

"I'm going to set this up, then tell me what to start loading," Balthier says, unshouldering a beat up looking backpack, one of the more interesting things to come through the shop lately. When he opens it, it expands into a functioning door with an external footprint that runs about a foot deep, but allows anyone using it to walk into a decent-sized utility closet.

[helpdesk_hero]

"Come this way," David says with a look that is more weary than happy. The thing was that he wanted to be there with Balthier, to take the moment to feel better. Instead he knows they might not have much time.

"Most of everything is stable," he said as he led toward his room. Through there he'll get to the lab. "I don't know that I can take the guild being like this."

He's told Balthier enough of the persecution that he can knows he might need to do something else. Find another answer.

"Excelsior may not be safe for me soon."