Quoted By:
<span class="mu-r">TAKE IT—</span>
You cease to exist. You are in one moment livid, ripe, bulging with promise, and in the next you are gone and whiteness replaces you. This is not true. There is whiteness, and inside it a bare hollow skeleton where you were. But it is only for an instant, anyways, before Lucky pulls the torch away and you are back, and your hand is gripped onto Arledge's, and you let go and look down. Your mouth tastes like metal.
>[-3 ID: 7/13 ID]
A foot-wide circle around Lucky's torch is bleached searingly white, and further out everything but Lucky is faded. The firelight gleams against his scalp and teeth. "I think that's enough of that, Ms. Fawkins. Mr. Graves."
The stuff isn't gone, but it has sulked back to your gut. Arledge is sweat-soaked and disoriented-looking. Gil is hovering anxiously behind Lucky. You can't see Annie from this angle. Nothing else has changed. "Yeah," you say with difficulty.
"Well then. I propose we take stock of the situation, yes? This does not look much like a facility."
You look out into the blackness and take a deep breath. "It was destroyed."
"I <span class="mu-i">see.</span> Did the detainee appraise you of this? Because it seems like important information, Ms. Fawkins. Extremely important. Given that it means the <span class="mu-i">door</span> is also likely destroyed."
You hadn't really thought about that. You guess you should've. But you also suspect Lucky doesn't work much in manses. "I really doubt it."
"On what grounds?"
"It's too important," you say.
Lucky scoff-laughs and maybe would've said something cutting had Gil not piped up. "I-I-I, um, yeah. That— that checks out. I-I-I think probably anything of any significance would've..."
"On what <span class="mu-i">grounds,</span> Mr.—" You get some satisfaction out of Lucky's futile grasp for a last name. "On what grounds whatsover? That's backwards logic. If an explosion of some description 'destroyed' this facility, one can either assume it was accidental, meaning the damage would be centered on the accident but for our purposes random, or purposeful, meaning it would be centered on something <span class="mu-i">very</span> significant. If you'd like to explain some <span class="mu-i">pattern</span> that'd inexplicably preserve—"
"You're trying to rationalize it. You can't... this stuff doesn't work on normal logic, okay? I-I-I-I've been in a hell of a lot of these, and I'm telling you it doesn't." Gil's hands are jammed into his pockets. "I-I-If you look for something, you don't just... not find it. I-if we're looking for some door, I guess, then there's a door, even if it got... exploded."
Lucky looks over his shoulder at you. "Yeah," you say. "What he said."
(2/3)
