Quoted By:
Okay. This conversation is no longer for proper young ladies. Or ladies at all. (Pat and Madrigal are women, but... no, definitely not ladies.) You clear your throat. "Ahem. I shall be leaving."
Madrigal laughs. At you. "I fucking bet. Have a good one, Charlotte. But seriously, you <span class="mu-i">can't</span> claim that Lester is any better of a—"
You hasten out.
-
"Oh! Hi!" Gil startles as you draw up to him. "I-I guess it went okay?"
"Yup. They didn't figure it out." You squint down at his side. "A cigarette?"
"Um, yeah. Sorry." Gil lifts his lit cigarette to his mouth. "I-If I go too long without a smoke, I get all... um, it doesn't matter."
But it's on fire, you don't say. "Okay. I don't care. I mean, it kind of reeks, but... Richard smokes all the time too, so."
"Teddy does too," Gil volunteers. You give him a look. "Sorry. Um. What's the plan?"
"Ellery."
"...The melting one?"
"That's him. He might know some things about, um, some things. Also, we need to break into his manse."
"Like last time?" Gil's eyes have gone wide. "Because last time, uh, Richard helped a whole lot... I-I don't know if I can do it myself."
"We'll figure something out!" You almost pat his shoulder, then remember proper decorum, and pat the air instead. "But for now, we shall embark!"
-
You do. You don't need to go very far. Fake Ellery is seated on an upturned crate outside his tent, whittling.
When you draw up, he sets the knife in his lap. "Uh, hey, Lottie. How's it going? It's been a while. ...Are you here to ask more questions? Because I've already told you everything I know, basically, so I don't think there's... oh, you're Gil, right? With the new body? Hey!"
"Hey," Gil says after a beat, and turns his head to take a drag on his cigarette (ostensibly). You weigh up the differing levels of enthusiasm in Fake Ellery's 'hey's. "I'm not here to ask you questions about Madrigal, stupid. I already solved all of that with my detective skills. I just have some other stuff I want to talk about."
"Uh, okay," Fake Ellery says, and rests a hand over the knife. "You know there's nothing to 'solve'? We just broke up? What other stuff did you want to talk about, exactly?"
(Choices next.)