I found him in the contact list and made the call.

“Speaker phone?” Grue suggested.

Does Taylor trust you enough for that? Do you trust Taylor enough to let her talk to Coil without speaker?

I nodded, selected the option and hit the button.

As the first ring sounded out, my swarm sense alerted me to the bound woman breaking free of the silk strands, as if it was effortless.

Interesting. I guess she figured it was in her best interests to stay down.

I don’t think it’s Spitfire anymore. Spitfire would probably get out by making the silk shrivel, which would also kill the bugs. Whoever this is, she’s getting out through strength. Was I right that it’s Victoria? Although then we’d probably hear something about her state. Maybe it’s Alexandria?

Had she been playing possum after all, hoping we would get close?

Maybe.

I looked at Tattletale, trying to see if had any inkling that this supposed member of the Nine was free.

Yeah, no, she kinda needs something to go off.

Nothing.  Tattletale turned to me and grinned.

“No trouble incoming?”  I asked, as the phone rang again.

None at all.

She shook her head.  “All good.”

Was her power not working as well as she’d thought?  I couldn’t even recollect what it was, but she’d said she would keep an eye out… and there was something alarming occurring this very moment.

To be fair, she said she’d keep an eye out for the woman following them.

“She’s out of my range,” I said.  “Tattletale?”

“I’ll keep an eye out!”  She grinned.

A third eye!

Traitor.  I could almost hear the accusation.

I’d lied.  The woman was still in my range.

Ooh. Testing how much Lisa’s power can be trusted, are we?

“Is there service?”  Grue asked.  I must have looked confused, because he clarified by saying, “The phone.”

“The bugophone towers are out of my range.”

“But these are satellite phones.”

“The bugellites are also way out of my range.”

I pulled my phone out of the space between my breasts and the armor at my front and checked the display.

“Yeah,” I said.  Why does that bug me?

Maybe because whatever reason there was for the service being out in the first place probably shouldn’t have changed without you leaving the mist?

Something’s fucky about the phones.

“Call Coil,” Tattletale reminded me.  “We need to know where Cherish is.”

Maybe it’s also because a part of her still remembers that she doesn’t want to trust Coil.

We’d come close to fighting just now.

“You’re awfully quiet,” Tattletale said.

“Leave her be,” Grue told her, his voice low.

At least if they talk, Taylor might be able to get her mind off some of these things. But maybe it really does need to be on those things for now.

What was I supposed to do?  I didn’t trust myself to handle this alone, not with the speed at which this general unease was building up.

Except you can’t trust anyone to help you.

But I wasn’t sure I trusted them either.  Something about the argument, it felt off.  Wrong.

Yeah, I’ll say!

The argument weighed on me, as did the things Grue had said, the judgements.  Had I been wrong?  Were we risking letting one of the Nine get away, to murder others?

I don’t think so.

In any case, the way the others, especially Brian, behaved would be unacceptable even if they were right about the victim being one of the Nine. He was downright nasty and emotionally manipulative back there.

Was I arguing because I was still clinging to old ideals, or because the miasma was making me divisive?

Old ideals. I don’t think that scene would’ve gone all that much differently if Taylor had been unaffected by the miasma’s (narratively) secondary effects.

Even if the miasma was to blame, I hated the idea of failing the others yet again.

Just don’t mentally talk yourself into going back and shooting the girl here, or something.

Not that I think you would.

This situation was fucking with my head.  I still felt like I was in the middle of a fight, that heart pounding mode where I was ready for bullets or laser blasts to start flying, for me or a friend to be in mortal danger, where a split second response meant the difference between life or death.

I think this is because of both the overall situation and the miasma’s direct effects.

Except there was no danger here.  The only people nearby were the woman we were leaving behind, Grue and Tattletale.

Relatively no danger.

I glanced at Tattletale as we ran.  Could I trust them?  They had been in the miasma for a little longer than I had, and I was already experiencing what I could only label as paranoia.

“Can I trust them? After all, I’m paranoid.”

With only a difference of minutes, Legend had been thrust into a paranoid state where he was taking a reckless, offensive course of action, eliminating everyone from the battlefield, regardless of whether they might be friend or enemy.  How much was it affecting these two?

Again she seems to remember who Legend is. It could be a deduction based on the memories from just before the miasma set in, but she seemed to be going back and forth on whether she did or did not know Legend’s name earlier, making it look more like either an error or a writing convenience for the sake of the audience.

How would it influence their actions?

Well, for one thing it’s making Brian an asshole.

More to the point, what was my best course of action here?  If I worked on the assumption that I could trust them, would they drag me into a situation that was just as bad as what we’d gone through with the bound woman?  Or if I didn’t trust them, if I allowed myself to become suspicious and take countermeasures, would that be a slippery slope that led to me trying to kill them, in fear for my own life?

Yikes. Just, yikes.

I’m still loving this whole situation, by the way. It’s wonderfully painful.

“Let me know when she’s not in your range anymore,” Tattletale said to me.  “I’ll try to use my power to make sure she isn’t following us.”

Sounds reasonable.

What doesn’t sound reasonable would be for the girl to follow them unless she thinks a gun wouldn’t take her out. She’s been listening to this discussion of whether or not to kill her and should know that getting caught a second time would be very bad for her survival chances.

I nodded.

She hugged my arm, “You’re stubborn, but we’re still friends, right?”

Maybe I should’ve read this bit last session. We’re winding down from the intensity of the Scene. Though I’m guessing Taylor isn’t going to be quite as keen on immediately forgetting what happened just now.

I nodded again.  I felt like I was back in school, in a situation where I couldn’t say anything without saying the wrong thing.  Strange, to recall being around the bullies rather than in the company of my team.

Yeeah, this ain’t how it’s supposed to be.