Dixième

[never_any_doubt]

Comments

[Action]

[white_pretear]

[Himeno is just as angry, and was waiting for him. She knew he was angry with her, but she wasn't just going to sit and listen to him.]

Oh, I'm sorry. Did I screw up your little plan to suck up to Grady. How can you even think that would work. It doesn't matter what you do to or for him. He's still going to treat us like garbage and do whatever he feel like to hurt us! We're not safe here. That's just the truth, no matter who's good side you try to get on!

[Action]

[never_any_doubt]

Eet is still better to attempt to stay on his good side and combat him in private, subtle ways, razher zhan just willfully antagonizing him!

[Action]

[white_pretear]

If you think he even has a good side to stay on, then you're nuts!

[godisachild]

So your great plan is to work with the people who've kidnapped us.

You really think they wouldn't do something to screw with us just for fun as much as they would out of anger?

[never_any_doubt]

I never said eet was a great plan, nor did I intimate zhat we were to work with zhem blindly. Perhaps I should have been more clear so zhat simpletons like you could understand.

What I am advocating is presenting ourselves as a willing, obedient town -- and working against zhem quietly. No selfless acts of defiance. No grand gestures in zhe town square. Nozhing rash.

[Filter]

[godisachild]

Working with them at all is giving them too much. Especially since it won't get us anything. They're going to punish us regardless of whether we cooperate or not.

Yeah, alright, I can deal with that. But here's the thing: they're still not going to believe we're an obedient little town. They already know we aren't. So honestly, the grand gestures, while they could make things worse? Aren't going to do it by much.

[Filter]

[never_any_doubt]

Hm. Perhaps you are right. Perhaps not. At zhis stage, things seem fairly benign. I am willing to give zhem zhe benefit of zhe doubt. If zhere is a major change in policy, perhaps I shall revise my assessment.

[Oh, Spy. If only you knew who was going to be walking around the town tomorrow morning.]

[filtered]

[bogusmagicker]

The greater the number of appearances he makes, the more information that may be gathered. Given his deteriorating mental state, he may no longer be of use once three or four days have passed.

In the meantime, aiding Grady would be a waste of a thus far unique opportunity unlike any offered in the previous year and a half. A simple denial of knowledge appears to be enough to deter Grady at the moment. If his aggression increases significantly, this may change, at which point a decision to aid him in his search may become more logical.

Until then, the fugitive must not be captured until the opportunity has been capitalized upon. It is a balance that must be maintained carefully. If performed correctly, the results could be of unparalleled importance.

[filtered]

[never_any_doubt]

So eet only makes sense to shuffle him through our houses and acquire what tidbits we can, always keeping one step ahead of Grady, until he is no longer of use -- and zhen we hand him over, like good leetle townspeople.

You and I are in agreement, I believe. All we must do is deter Grady with a denial of knowledge -- but a promise to aid him should zhe opportunity arise. Zhat could effectively keep him happy, far more zhan just a brusque refusal.

[filtered]

[bogusmagicker]

Precisely.

[Yuki has her own thoughts on when he should be handed over, but Spy is entirely correct for logic's sake.]

However, he is likely to be disbelieving of any offers of help. There may come a time when a helpful action must be taken.

I am presently inclined to risk the punishment for the data, however.

[buildstherobots]

I'm not afraid of them anymore. They've droned me and killed me and it's always over after a day or two. Whatever.

[never_any_doubt]

A day or two wasted is not to be taken lightly in a place like zhis.

Filtered

[the_bloody_road]

How does helping them help us? It sounds like all it'll accomplish is to keep them from punishing us, maybe, and they already mess around with us on a regular basis regardless. There's pragmatic, and then there's pointless.

I can't believe that we'll get more out of helping the mayor than we could out of finding out more about this guy who's running rings around them. Especially when it sounds like all we'd get for helping is maintaining the status quo, which is bad enough already.

[Dias, of course, currently has Sergei in his house and has no plans to make that obvious to Spy or anyone else.]

Filtered

[never_any_doubt]

I was not suggesting zhat we waste zhis opportunity to learn as much from Smirnov as possible; I was merely saying zhat zhere will inevitably come a time when eet will be in zhe best interests of everyone to hand him over razher zhan trying to wring any more intel out of him. From what I have heard he is raving and incoherent; I suspect zhat it will become very clear when his knowledge has been exhausted.

Filtered

[the_bloody_road]

That doesn't actually answer the question of what benefit there would be in turning him over, whether he's still got useful information or not. We don't even know what we'd be helping the people in charge do, but I'd bet it's nothing that helps us. They don't exactly have a history of making our lives better in any way. The consequences of working with them could be a lot worse than working against them - and there may not be a way to know for sure, if you can think of any time when we've come off better by the people running things around here, I'd love to hear it.

Seems like trying to appease them so they won't punish us is just the coward's way out...one you can't even guarantee will work.