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With the laptop a dud, Witch and Winter decide to speak to Cookie one more time. She had made it clear to Witch she would be lingering around the funeral home before the viewing, and the Guardians had time to to get there ahead of time.
Much like before, the parking lot was empty except for a few cars. They had time before the viewing, and as promised Cookie was sitting outside the funeral home on her phone.
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YLF - Grim SightWitch nodded her head to the woman as she approached with Winter .
"Cookie" she murmured as a reminder on the name. As well as a note that the figure wasn't a sleeper to get around, but the goal for the trip.
As they got within speaking distance, Witch shifted the laptop bag slightly to allow herself to lift a hand in greeting. "Hello," she chimed.
You know. On the unlikely chance that Cookie had not seen two figures approaching across the empty lot.
"This is Winter. Winter, Cookie."
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Presence
Education
Occultation
Winter eyed the young woman up and down, his stern face like stone. She seemed harmless enough, but appearances were often deceiving in the secret world of mages.
"This is the tech expert you mentioned?" he asked Witch gruffly. His Obrimos heritage gave him an inherent distrust of technology and its powers over the digital realm despite his knowledge of Forces. But they needed help navigating this perplexing abyssal game if they were to solve the case.
"I'm Winter", he said, his gaze lingering on the girl trying to study her. "I'm helping her with this situation", he gestured toward Witch.
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"Hey." Cookie waves to the approaching duo. When Winter's eyes start wandering up and down she returns his stern gaze with one of similar granite. "Eyes are up here dude."
Her off hand rises up and two fingers point at her eyes. Whatever warmth might have greeted Witch is clearly dispelled by the wandering nature of Winter's appraisal.
"Is this the friend you went to go meet?"
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YLF - Grim SightWitch shook her head at both Winter and Cookie's question.
"No. She ended up not being much help." She first answered Cookie and then clarified for Winter "Cookie was assisting Liam with the initial idea of a digital guardian. She came from LA after him and is the one who gave me the laptop."
Hefting the laptop she looked at Cookie directly. The parking lot was empty now, but that wouldn't last. If Cookie wasn't able or willing to help, she and Winter needed to move on to a plan ... D?
"We were able to get into the laptop. It was relatively clean, but we did find a few things in High Speech. Unfortunately, I haven't got that training under my belt yet. Think you could maybe help? Our thoughts were to track down the cultists who stole the original computer and try and cut this off at the head."
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Presence
Education
Occultation
Winter frowned as the girl corrected his wandering gaze. He hadn't meant offense, he was just wary of unknown mages and their potential threats. But her cheeky retort earned a hint of grudging respect. At least she didn't seem like a pushover.
When Witch explained the situation, Winter folded his arms across his chest, considering. "That does complicate things."
His knowledge of coding and technology was limited, and they seemed to need this girl's expertise.
"If you can decipher these...mysteries...and trace the origin point, it could prove useful," he said to Cookie, though his gaze slid back to Witch. "But we should be cautious. A direct confrontation could be hazardous, people can be unhinged when you touch matters of their Faith".
His frown deepened, weathered face creasing. "Perhaps a bit of subterfuge is in order. We trace them covertly, determine their numbers and defenses."
Folding his arms, Winter glanced between the two women, brow raised.
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When Witch asked for help, Cookie simply smiled and extended a hand for the bag.
"I'll see what I can do."
As Witch explained her thinking and Winter chimed in she nodded in agreement.
"Liam was sent here to track the cultists, so if there was something important enough to record in high speech he was probably at least partially successful. Let me see what he found while you two formulate the battle plan."
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YLF - Grim SightWitch nodded, "Given the potency of the program, I'm all about being careful with our approach. We just have to make sure we aren't so careful that we end up just letting them grow and get stronger. They've already impacted two cities that we know of as is."
Handing over the laptop to Cookie, she settles to wait and see what Cookie can decipher for them.
"I am hesitant to set up a full battle plan before we know the first thing about what we are dealing with. Do you have skills with the subterfuge you mentioned?" she asked, looking to Winter . "I've done some social fast talking but it was ground level chit chat stuff. Not actual infiltration of a cult following the orders of a summoned abyssal entity."
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Presence
Education
Occultation
He shrugs, "Infiltration is unlikely, they're like a cult, they'll probably be able to spot who's in and who's not. What I'm talking about is following them, and try to spy their movements"
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Cookie accepts the laptop and begins to snoop much like Witch had before her. She listens as the conversation continues, but doesn't add anything yet. It doesn't take long for her eyes to go wide though.
"You downloaded the game?" Eyebrows are up and eyes are wide. Her mouth slightly agape before continuing. "You didn't play did you?"
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