crushed_pearls

Crabb just points at Erin, "What she said," which she absolutely considers further defence of this not being her idea. "I gotta fill Skulduggery in on a few things, never did get to go talk to him about the sketch not looking the same to everyone else either. Christ, I didn't expect all this from just— climbin' into an elevator shaft!"

She sinks even further in her chair. She's so tired.

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"Insisted." He makes that one word into a pointed barb. The image of her Erin wrapped around Crabb that way is going to keep him awake tonight. He can already tell.

"Skulduggery should naturally be told. He may know some of it already if he's spoken with Ava. She's on my list as well, as you might imagine. Valdis as well since she was privy to the first half of this discussion. She seems to be a severe woman at times but smart enough to know who not to tell." He's partially talking this out to himself as much as them. As soon as more people become involved, there will always be a risk of this spreading. Skulduggery may tell Darcy and she may tell countless others. Ava may choose to tell Maximilien as well but that's less risky in Number 6's opinion. The omnic hates magic and anything to do with it.

"What, if anything, do you plan to tell Johnny?" As a close confidant to Crabb, he has to assume she might go to him for advice on this. Though, given recent events and the general state Johnny has been in lately, Number 6 has some concerns about that.

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"God, I dunno, I don't like not keeping him aware of what's going on, he knows I went climbing in the elevator shaft and messed with some stuff and have been stayin' with Erin but..."

Well she didn't immediately go to him advice for similar reasons to what Smith is thinking about. He's already had a lot going on and she doesn't exactly want to give him more reasons to freak out, about her or the ship.

"Ugh. No offence to any of you lot but it's times like this I really miss Ferrier."

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"But he is currently in a state of crisis," Number 6 finishes for her. "I'm tempted to avoid telling him any more about it until we have a better idea of what it means but you know his penchant for seeing more than the average man. What will he think if he learns we deliberately kept it from him?" She would know better than he about that particular conundrum.

He sits back with an airy chuckle that's more weariness than humor. "None taken. I am more accustomed to working on my own. Conservation of information was easier that way."

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"Not sure he'd take it so well, y'know how he is about not bein' seen as weak or like he's not as capable as the rest of us at dealing with this crap. And he's gonna notice how long I'm staying with Erin, this weren't meant to be a permanent situation."

She scrubs a hand over her face again. "He's League, and more importantly than even that he's a dear bloody friend, I don't feel right leavin' him totally in the dark. Especially if this might mean danger."

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"Yes, I do know. So, I'll leave it to you to tell him and we will assume that his husbands will be made aware as well." He is reasonably certain they can be trusted not to spread it further.

"Miss Crabb, can you detail to me exactly what Miss Friday said before she... left. At what point did she become most distressed?"

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Crabb nods, without removing the hand from her face, taking just a moment to process everything she's going to have to do over the next little while before she forces herself to sit up more again.

"I was sorta— tryna dodge around telling her exactly what happened to my phone, didn't want her realising I'd been poking around. But these things don't break easy. So I kept havin' to... give her a bit more, and she started getting freaked out right about when I said it was 'cause I took a picture of something. Voice went up a whole couple octaves and then when I said symbols she just—"

Crabb gestures vaguely, wildly.

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"I suppose that does tell us something." He will spare Crabb the torture of him pointing out, out loud, how clumsy of a maneuver that was to try and keep the details from Friday. But the look on his face is saying it.

"The symbols are somehow vital to the operations of this ship. If they weren't, I doubt she would have reacted that way. I do wonder about their placement. Why the shaft?"

(Erin, don't you dare.)

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She shrinks back a bit in her chair—look, she knows, alright, she just had no idea how to handle that conversation without risking Friday being a whole different kind of upset than she ended up.

"We had uh. Well when Ava, Valdis an' me were talkin' it over we realised the sigils as I described 'em had to be on the wall that backs onto the crew cabins. Which uh."

They don't know much about the crew cabins for sure.

But there's some guesses, to be made.

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"I haven't asked her directly, but I'd wager that is one place Ava is not capable of phasing into, either." Though, now he has half a mind to test that theory. If Ava is game for it.

"It would be too much to hope that the reason is as simple as that is where Friday resides and she is upset by the potential breach of privacy, I suppose." No. It wouldn't be that. It must be connected to the ghosts.

"All right. Do we have any hope that the Captain could be of any use in enlightening us?" He says that flatly because... well the answer is almost certainly no but the question has to be asked.

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"I'm gonna hazard a no. I ain't talked to the man myself, and I'm even less eager to do so after this, but even if he were inclined to answer I ain't even sure if he'd know. Friday seems to do so much around here, y'know? I dunno."

That's basically all she has to base that assessment on and she doesn't sound sure of it, still doesn't trust her reads when it comes to people, but.

"Considerin' the other stuff that's happened lately I ain't totally convinced the crew cabins ain't got something to do with the ghosts. Especially as the reason I went for the elevator shaft in the first place was 'cause of something whoever was possessing Friday said about her fixing something in there, right before she got possessed."

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"I suppose someone still ought to tell him his assistant has left her post, shall we say? Regardless of if he will care." Number 6 doesn't have any hope for that, either.

"And there is Jenny as well..." He isn't volunteering as a messenger for that.

"I think we must assume the two are related. This is... hm." He pauses to really think about his next words.

"If damage to those symbols was how the ghosts were able to pass through and possess those of us the first time then--I do not like suggesting this, but--I think we may need to be cautious of Friday if and when she revives."

He finally turns to Erin, "Have you any thoughts to contribute? Of us three, you know the most about magic and spirits."

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Erin sets her tea down with a deep breath. She's hardly at her ease. "Skulduggery and I did talk about what might happen if some of the wilder passengers found something like this. I think he ought to be the first person informed; maybe he can diagnose the problem, even fix it, and if not he's got the best shot of talking the man himself around. But generally it's not as simple as just drawing the lines again. Honoria, love, you might need to grab the foodies - Max Maximum, Dedue, maybe Darcy. They're our best shot at identifying the mix by flavor."

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"I did tell him about the sigils smudgin' when we talked the first time, and I said I'd show him what I'd sketched, so yeah, I gotta do that, but I ain't sure about him bein' able to fix it. And it sounded like Friday's not the biggest fan of dealing with him half the time, either."

He may not have a face but she could feel the vibe off the 'she loves when I come knocking', alright.

"I really ain't sure I wanna be the one spreading this to people I don't know well, either. Skulduggery's one thing, we talk shop often enough, but..." God. She's already made such a mess of this.

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"You want to feed the residue to even more passengers?" Number 6 asks incredulously.

"I agree that Skulduggery should be the next to be informed. And, I would task him with telling the Captain. It is the best chance of it being taken at all seriously." He will leave it in Skulduggery's hands who else he personally informs.

"I will inform Ava if you wish, but I think it will have to be you who informs Valdis. She does not know me. Unless you would like to volunteer, Erin?"

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"I can inform Valdis but c'mon Peter, I'm not completely insane. The idea was Crabb would describe the flavor as best she can, there's no need to go licking the shaft any further."

(PETERS!)

What - OH GOD DAMN IT -

Erin turns deep red. "...Pun. Not. Intended."

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"Erin," Crabb half-groans half-squeaks, covering her face again. Even if it wasn't intentional, she's dying over here. "I can't even describe it past herbal, resinous and bitter. I can't describe anything about them well, can't even describe the bleedin' symbols themselves, it's like there's some. Block on me doing it. Guh."

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Number 6 just... glares at her. Is she just that incapable of making it through a conversation without bringing up something lewd? He'll let Crabb's groan of objection speak for both of them.

"Is that possible? Could there truly be something interfering that way?" Yes. He is doggedly going to stick to business.

"Do you have a sample of the residue? Someone might be able to identify it by smell or sight."

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"Memetic attacks -" Erin pauses. "Wow I just went right for the fucking witch-speak huh - it's not unknown to me for someone's perceptions to be changed by magic, or even their beliefs or emotions. For that matter it's not unknown for it to just happen, fevers and brain swelling can do the same, which, side note love, see a fuckin' doctor please."

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"Christ, it'll just be that magic stuff. I'm physically bleedin' fine, okay! I still ain't taken a tumble since October, if I was gonna get done in by head trauma it'd have happened already."

Because you know, that's how that works.

"I do have a sample and we talked about who we'd show it to, but one of the options is aligned with the wrong people and the other's César and, well, see discussion about dragging Johnny in."

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"I'm afraid I side with Erin on this. Ms. Crabb, you should let Doctor Watson look you over. We've already determined Johnny's being informed so we should use both he and Cesar now that's decided."

He considers and then adds, "Erin, you mentioned that young man Max Maximum as well. Why?"

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"Culinary school dropout for extenuating circumstances," Erin explains. "He's got the know-how to identify herbs and spices, or he ought to, and he can turn into a dog these days for better accura -"

Audible pause.

"...Ylva might also be helpful, she'd know the magical associations of various plants too, or at least some of them from her own paradigm. If nothing else plants themselves are her business."

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"God now I am getting a headache," she isn't used to this many logistics, okay, she's a while off having to organise an entire league of people herself at home. "The sample's a smear on a handkerchief, for the record. It ain't that much."

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