Confluence
Wade stepped forward, hoping for a nice, casual encounter. Or to casually edge behind them and stop them from dashing off right away.
"Hey... we were just about to close this place up. It's a bit of a mess right now."
"Yeah," Jax added, without pause. "Sorry for any inconvenience this might have caused, though if you have a complaint it would have been better to go through the proper channels--i.e. phone or email. Not through the kitchen."
"O-Oh, um, no worries!" Ash chirped, an ear flicking nervously as she put her hood down. The accessory seemed to take the place of her real ears. "To be honest, I followed someone here, thinking they were up to no good.. They looked a little suspicious.."
"Oh-h! Well..." Wade glanced restlessly at Jax, to see how he'd react. Considering Wade had been the sketchiest person to enter the alley recently... that could be him. Maybe. Krak.
Time for an improv bluff. "Wow, there are lots of sketchy people who go down alleyways. That could be anyone," Wade pointed out.
"Anyway," Jax picked up, "what did they look like? Why did they seem sketchy? Male, female? Inkopolis has been trying to reduce crime since its founding--I would be happy to help reporting whoever this odd individual may be if you don't feel confident enough to do it yourself."
"Oh, well, it was a male Inkling, that much I know.." Ash replied, scratching the back of her head. "A-And I saw him walk in through this door.. He looked back at me several times, and then left the door open.."
Wade quirked the edge of his mouth up and gave a noncommittal shrug.
"Uhm, that's not exactly much to go off of... Unless you're talking about one of us and simultaneously calling us suspicious."
Wade was actually wondering if he had left the door open, but for now, Jax had the right idea. Be helpful.
"Do you remember anything, anything else?" Jax repeated.
Ash seemed to think, before shaking her head. "Nothing other than that he was carrying a can of soda or something.."
Wade lowered his hat a little in response. "Pfft, seriously, I think that could be anyone."
Yup, that was him.
He'd start creeping behind the conversation in case things got sticky.
Wade side-eye'd Jax, slightly passive-aggressively, "'Cause I mean, there are just soooo many vending machines around. You know?"
"Yeah, he's right," Jax said, either ignoring the sentiment or missing it entirely. "We're going to need more to go off of."
Ash eyed Wade slightly at his response. "Actually.. Now that I look at you, he looked alot like you.." Not to mention he was acting guilty, in her mind, and trying to play it off as nothing.
Wade lowered his hat completely, pausing before huffing. "You know, I thought you might say that."
Part of him felt caught in a trap, the other saw that trying to edge away was doing no good. He was actually curious about this situation, too. If this girl could accuse, she could also answer questions.
"So, let’s say I am your 'sketchy character.'" Wade crossed his arms. "....What now?"
Jax eyed Ash, waiting for her response. He grinned slightly as he took a relaxed pose, putting his hands in his pockets.
Ash seemed to think a moment, crossing her arms and shifting her weight to one foot. "Well.." She said quietly, an ear flicking as she watched the two. "If you WERE my 'sketchy character'... I'd have a few questions for you... Like, why be so sneaky and secretive if you're just going into a cafe? Or, why leave the door open if you knew somebody was following you, considering you were being sneaky?"
Wade shrugged awkwardly.
"It was an impromptu, secret tea party. How else do you show up to those besides sketchy and fashionably late?"
He motioned towards Jax. "And despite this being RSVP only, apparently someone else was supposed to attend. So, the doors stayed unlocked."
Jax probably didn't find this lie very good. Wade could feel it. But on the outside, he continued to play along.
"It's embarrassing, but we do this all the time." His smile was oddly convincing, though to Wade, it was odd that it was there at all. Jax always seemed to be neutral.
"...An improptu tea party?" Ash asked, eyeing the two. "...And you're expecting someone else to come, but yet you're leaving? Please forgive me, but.. This has lie written all over it."
She sighed and shook her head, shrugging a bit. "Still though, as long as you guys aren't doing anything bad, I guess it doesn't matter if you're lying or not. ...By the way have you guys seen the people who've taken over the shops? I haven't gone in them in a while, because I have all the gear I need, but..." She frowned, "I've seen them in the windows. First Callie and Marie go missing.. Now the shop keepers at Booyah Base?"
She sighed, shaking her head again. "I call foul play. Big time."
Wade stiffened, his eyes shifting to the floor. "...Yeah, I have seen the stores."
The smirk he had started wearing after making such a botched, lighthearted lie drained away. The comment on Deepview was too open to be insincere. She didn't know what she was skirting on. Wade had to hint something.
"Hey, what's... your name?" He asked. Wade rubbed the back of his neck, unsure how to go about this. "...Do you go chasing everyone who you think looks suspicious? Because... you might want to... Not."
Jax said nothing, simply keeping his hands in his pockets, eying Ash.
"My name?" She blinked, "It's Ash. And no, I don't usually chase people around, unless I'm in a Battle... But with all the weird stuff happening lately, I couldn't help it this time. And I swear I saw an Octoling earlier in the crowd back at the Plaza!"
An octoling? And the strange things she was referring to must have meant the earthquake. Those two things might actually relate. Wade was starting to wonder if they should leave her like this, actively curious and looking for clues.
"Look, Ash," Wade began, "if you start trying to look into this stuff, there might be people that--" He bit his tongue and stopped himself. "...You're going to attract trouble if you aren't careful."
"What my ever-sketchy friend is trying to say is," Jax said, sighing, "can you learn to live without knowing what's going on around you? We can't. It's better if we could. But we can't. If you can, then you should."
"I'm too observant for that." Ash laughed, grinning a bit. "Not when we have things that need solving.. Like what the heck is going on lately. Yeah, I know I'd attract trouble to myself, especially now with all the weird things, but I'm trying to get a permit to carry my Octobrush around. Anyone tried to hurt me, they'd get a good smack to the face."
Wade blinked, looking over Ash thoughtfully. He tilted his head curiously, his hat no longer concealing his eyes. Wade opened his mouth to speak, but everything he wanted to say was... hypocritical.
"Ash, you--" He turned back to Jax, sort of at a loss for words. "What if...? I mean, she found her way here."
Jax looked thoughtful for a moment. Then finally said, "what would you do if I attacked you right here because I was part of a gigantic conspiracy? What if I had some way to kill you or permanently scar you for life and you'd just walked into a trap? Would you regret your actions?"
Jax fingered something in his pocket as he spoke, but looked Ash straight in the eyes.
"Depends." Ash replied, after a moment of thinking, one of the ear accessories flicking like a real fox ear. "At this moment? I might regret it, because, really, there's nothing that's been found out. No big discovery, nothing's helped anybody at the moment, by my being here. If it had helped someone, I probably wouldn't have regretted it."
"However, I doubt you WOULD hurt me." She smiled, "You two seem too nice. Besides, if you were gonna hurt me, you would have already, instead of just talking to me. I noticed he'd been casually inching around the side incase I ran."
Wade put his hands up in defeat. "Thanks for humoring me, I guess," Wade muttered. "I wouldn't hurt you. Fair. But that's not really what you should be worried about."
"Unlike Wade here," Jax said, slowly, "I'm not entirely convinced. I think your story is more sketchy than ours, if better laid out. Why should we trust you."
"A good question, but another good question is: Why shouldn't you trust me?" Ash replied, looking to Jax. "I mean, I've been nothing but honest with you guys. And hey, if I wanted to hurt y'all, there's a LOT of shards of glass here that I could have used. Sure, I woulda cut my hands, but if I wanted to hurt you guys, that wouldn't have mattered."
Wade shook his head. "He's right. You tailing us out of nowhere, specifically looking for trouble, bringing up the 'replacements'...?" Sounded like bait. But he wanted to trust this person because they were either oblivious and recklessly headed for a brainwash... or a trap meant to deceive.
Wade racked his mind for some sort of way to tell the difference, but instead, he came to another conclusion.
"If you're some kind of double crosser," he began, "you've already seen us. If you aren't, you're toast unless because, there was seriously nothing cautious about waiting by the door of a sketchy cafe, and you're probably going to do this again."
Wade looked to Jax. "What do we do?"
"This," Jax pulled out what he had in his pocket--a disruptor. While throwing it at Ash, Jax prepared another weapon from an inner pocket. A certified ink-knife. While Ash was stunned from the disruptor, he dodged behind her. Although she put up a decent fight, which is amazing considering her disrupted state, in the end, Jax got behind her with a knife.
“I don’t mean to splat you--after all, you’d just end up respawning somewhere else with a nasty scar.” The words were said without malice. They were simple and matter of fact. “No, what I need is cooperation. You may think I’m dangerous now, but I need to be. Others that stick their noses where they don’t belong end up losing a lot. Distrust any shadow. Beware everyone.”
He shrugged. “Honestly, I prepared this stuff in case Wade ended up being a trap. No offense, dude, but I’m still considering that possibility.”
Jax went on. “So, you will work with us and you will find the truth. If what you said is true, which I will be trying to discern as we go, then you should be getting what you want.”
Systematically, Jax checked all of Ash’s pockets until he found her shellphone. Even in this situation she was trying to fight back, but the disruptor only wore off when Jax had fallen back to a safe position.
“Work with us. We have a lead on the Squid Sisters, assuming it’s not a trap.” Putting his knife away and pulling out another disruptor from his pocket, Jax, finished with, “Also, you can’t get a permit for carrying an Octobrush. Shooter-type weapons are considered actual weapons while brushes and rollers are still considered simply dangerous sporting equip--wait. More important things are afoot. Follow me.”
