TT: Hmm.
GG: Welp, let me have it!
TT: Have what?
GG: A hard time for botching up the pooch!
GG: I think I just locked the door with that muttonheaded stunt. And now that mirrored obelisk is good as gone.
TT: I wasn't going to say nothin'.
TT: Hell, I was asleep at the wheel too while you were busy fucking up, and I have an IQ of, hold on, robo-calculating...
TT: Robo-calculating...
TT: Robo-calculating...
TT: Robo-calculating...
GG: Oh brother.
TT: Robo-calculating...
TT: About 500 billion.
GG: That is really, really robo-smart.
TT: Don't get human-fresh with me, Crocker. I'm about to bring all five hundo-billy points of my stringent cyborg IQ to bear on your dumb problem. Check it out.
TT: I took note of the captcha code to the thing, and recorded a digital flashsnap of its appearance through my photographic silicone memory canals.
TT: Which is to say I looked at eight alphanumeric digits a couple minutes ago, and remembered them.
GG: Ok?
TT: So give the bunny the wallet. I'll have him run back to the house and make you a new obelisk with the same grist you just collected from it.
TT: He can stash it in the wallet and run it back to you, and then you can open the door. You shouldn't be waiting around too long, cause he's real spry.
TT: Which is exactly why you should wait here. You'll just slow him down.
GG: Alright, I think I can do that.
GG: What should I do in the meantime?
TT: Let me think about that.
TT: Robo-calculating...
GG: Oh stop it!
TT: K.
GG: None of our friends will answer me. What could they be up to?
GG: You must at least know what Dirk is doing.
TT: He's slicing up some drones.
GG: Some what?
TT: Big red robots. He'll be busy for a while.
TT: Roxy I'm not sure about, but there is a pretty high probability as governed by the immutable laws of mathematics that she is preoccupied similarly.
GG: She's fighting robots too, you mean?
TT: I don't know. Maybe.
TT: Dealing with them, in some way, perhaps.
TT: If so, it wouldn't be a coincidence.
GG: Why?
TT: I think the Condesce is attempting to force the issue now.
GG: What? What issue!
TT: It's likely that it's a coordinated assault. Sending drones both to here and Roxy's place.
TT: She's probably trying to get everyone else to stop dicking around and join the game already.
GG: Are you sure she's not just trying to kill them?
GG: It wouldn't be her first assassination attempt.
TT: Yeah, but come on. Dirk has been a sitting duck here for years. Roxy too.
TT: She could have wiped them out any time with a swarm much bigger than this one. Or just nuked them.
TT: Her "assassination attempt" on you was pretty weak too.
GG: But it nearly worked!
GG: I would be dead right now if not for the whims of GCat.
TT: Right.
TT: Like I trust the motives of that fucking thing.
GG: So, you're saying she's only pretending to hunt us?
TT: I believe she probably would genuinely like to kill us. She is a psycho after all.
TT: But it's also obvious to me she needs us to begin playing this game, for whatever fucked up purpose she has.
TT: She might even need us to win it too, for all I know.
TT: Her antagonism is all part of the dance.
GG: Then you're saying Dirk and Roxy aren't really in danger from the robots?
TT: Oh, I wouldn't say that. They're still pretty deadly and they shoot missiles and stuff.
GG: Augh! I just want to talk to my friends and see if they're ok.
GG: What about Jake?
TT: No idea what's going on with him right now.
TT: I'm sure when the time is right, the witch will keep pushing him along to join the game as well.
GG: Then I guess I'll just sit here and worry about everyone quietly until Seb gets back.
TT: What about your troll friend?
GG: What?
TT: The alien whose name you don't know.
TT: You could talk to her.
GG: Oh yeah!
GG: I forgot about her.
GG: But I suppose that's because she's always the one to contact me. I never get a response when I message her.
TT: Well, you could give her a try. Maybe things are different now.
TT: I could hack into her system to get her attention, if you think that would help.
GG: You can do that??
TT: Nah, just messin' with you.
TT: Later.
timaeusTestified [TT] ceased pestering gutsyGumshoe [GG]