Having fun isn't hard, when you've got a library card!

[loveandwillpower]

So look, going up is where you find the good stuff, so when Minako sees a hint of something different on the staircase, some pale flutter in the darkness, it's time to reach for the stars! Having an alibi doesn't seem to matter that much, anyway, and all the people she wants to protect are - okay either fine or she can't find them.

She can worry later, finding things is important, if she runs into anyone along the way-

Then she literally does just that. In her defense Ulaz is quiet. Not in her defense is that he's probably wearing a sweater with tinsel on it, but look it's dark and she's fast.

"Oof!"

Comments

[insurgeont]

...That has nothing to do with how he looks.

[loveandwillpower]

Look closely, he's got the steely glint of determination in his eye.

[insurgeont]

[ Minako please it's a hunk of plastic. ]

This is not helping us solve the puzzles.

[ NO FUN ALLOWED ]

[loveandwillpower]

It could be a clue.

[ Siiiigh, fine, she'll put it down. And start fidgeting the platter around in case it's got some engravings or whatever on the bottom. ]

The real thing's pretty gross, anyway.

[insurgeont]

[ ...wait what ]

...The real thing?

[ How many alien men do you know??? Should he be feeling insulted right now????? ]

[loveandwillpower]

Yeah, the face huggers! They latch on and shoot eggs into you.

[ How's that for female orgasm huh? ]

[insurgeont]

This is not an actual creature humans have encountered, is it?

[loveandwillpower]

Encountered and survived??

[insurgeont]

[ ...

Ugh no he's done with this conversation, he's going back to the riddles.

...Of course, now that she's brought up parasitic egg-laying, this limerick does kind of sound like it could be about that, doesn't it? Slightly begrudgingly, he waves her over to it. ]

Is it like this?

[loveandwillpower]

[ Ulaz has held out pretty well for someone who's been only recently inoculated to Minako ]

Yeah, when they hatch they burst out through the chest.

Super. Gross!

[ She's definitely too happy about describing that to have actually seen it happen to a real person. ]

[insurgeont]

[ I mean, Ulaz has probably met people who would be into that, to be fair?

He gestures to the fire. ]

Try it.

[ #yolo ]

[loveandwillpower]

[ ...Yeah ok Minako is better equipped to consign Alien-Man to the flames. Farewell, brave man with brave dreams. ]

[pandatreasure]

[Instead of burning this one to ash, the fire horrifically melts this one, and then burns it to ash before the fire goes out. The screeeeheheheheeeeee sounds especially upsetting this time.]

[insurgeont]

[ Is that... supposed to happen...? It's probably fine??? It's probably fine. ]

That leaves only this one. Win, rearrange, angered, stolen.

[loveandwillpower]

[ Alien-Man's powers are great ]

Maybe it's a to-do list.

First, we've gotta win.

[insurgeont]

We can't win until we complete the puzzle.

[loveandwillpower]

Reverse to-do list. Finally, we've gotta win.

[insurgeont]

Is that where the rearranging comes into it?

[loveandwillpower]

Yeah, although we've already had to unscramble that baseball...

[insurgeont]

The list itself might be scrambled? ...It would make sense for "stolen" to come before "angered"...

[ One is the logical result of the other happening, after all. ]

[loveandwillpower]

Scrambled...

[ It's rare for her to come back to the same thought once she's in a position to whip right past it. ]

I've never stolen anything despite my free-spirit ways, how about you? You've got the whole sneaky ninja thing - it's fine as long as it's for the sake of good, or at least for the sake of something that's not evil!

[insurgeont]

Mostly I have stolen information. That is a more difficult crime to track.

[loveandwillpower]

So you're a spy? Like James Bond?

[insurgeont]

I do not know who that is.

[loveandwillpower]

You've got spaceships, you've got to have cinema, right?