Christmas Cake Quest

[x]Reply to Matt

 

[x] Reply to Roommate

 

[x] Reply to Roommate.

 

Matt's Message: "Hey, wanna hang out again this weekend? What kind of place would work though, we kinda still don't know each other?"
Jeanne's Message: "have u found anthing out yet?im dying liek lirtealy FREEKINg out PLeas txt me back ASPA!!!"
Roommate's Message: "hey roommate do you still know that guy who resells cars? its not for me or anything dont worry or nothing but i do need to know soonish oh yeah also i got your book from college finished ill give it back when we next meet"

You make note to check what places you like and what places you find socially acceptable to meet people and look (desperately) for overlap before you table answering Matt for the moment. You roll your eyes at Jeanne's message and (completely) ignore it for the time being. Finally, you read Roommate's message and look over at Anton (stealthily). One of his side jobs used to be flipping cars for quick money. You ask him if he still does that. No. He stopped when he found out he needed a license or something to do that at the scale he was working at. So it was all under the table. Anton is probably the biggest criminal you've ever met. Second biggest. Second biggest. He asks you why you're suddenly such a NARC about it. You tell him it's for a friend not a fed (probably). He narrows his eyes and says he can still fix cars for a fee, cash only. You text back Roommate that you'll talk more about the details but the guy is still around and he still does the work. You sound sketch as fuck.

When work is over you have some time to make some decisions.

You should...
[] Call Matt.
[] Call Roommate.
[] Talk to Anton.
[] Become a serial stalker for a friend.

 

[x] stalker

 

[X] Become a serial stalker for a friend.

 

Keeping with the sketch as fuck theme you quickly flip through your mental notes and try to remember what Jeanne's other half does and looks like and just generally who he is. Nate was Jeanne's 3rd and 5th college boyfriend. Jeanne was Nate's 1st and 2nd college girlfriend (and just girlfriend girlfriend.) Nate is a math guy, basically he's tall, skinny, autistic, and actually pretty good looking. If you're just talking about appearances, the second he stands up straight he's basically a model. If you're just talking about appearances. If you're talking about his personality, you hate him. He's inconsiderate, messy, impossible to schedule around, impossible to eat dinner with, and to top it all off he always gets your name wrong. He works at a university as an adjunct professor a few blocks away so you take a look over there first.

It takes you a while to figure out where the math department is and it takes you a while to find out where his office is and it takes you a while to decide how you're going to approach this situation. Gameplan: You talk to the other professors like you're one of his TAs, you're young enough to pull that off (right?)

First, you run into a female professor (also adjunct) and start talking to her. She seems tired. Like really tired. Like she hasn't slept in about ten days. You start talking to her to get a feel for her place in the hierarchy and how much you can get out of her (like a pro.) She is named something you can't follow through her fatigued slurring and English accent (probably Indian.) She seems like she knows Nate somehow and you try to strike at that more. Ultimately, she tells you nothing too important other than that Nate seems to spend a lot of time at Office Hours without any TAs.

You tell her a fake name and keep looking around. After a lot of snooping you are able to piece together a few things. Nate doesn't have enough time to be having an affair if it's not here based on some of Jeanne's comments.

Next you should...
[] Find Nate.
[] Knock off for today and go home.
[] Knock off for today and meet up with someone else.

 

[X] Find Nate.

 

[x] Find Nate

 

You decide that you've come so far that it'd be a little pointless to just give it up here. You look around (surreptitiously). Eventually, you find your way to his office again after having walked (wandered) about so much. You take a look through the window, it's covered. Suspicious? You decide to first listen at the door or rather the wall since the cinder block walls are a better conductor of sound than a door. You hear something, it doesn't sound characteristic of an affair (that you know of). It's kinda like steps? It's like something's moving but not... vigorously. It's subtle. You consider just opening the door but there could be repercussions if you do. Taking the more diplomatic route, you head outside to the window, which is open with the blinds down when you find it. Hopefully, dropping eaves will be a tad easier here. You'd feel really awkward just sitting under this first floor window if you hadn't had a lines of low hedge and shrubbery encircling the building, keeping you out of view.

As you listen in again you have a better... uh, it's not a vantage point if you're listening right? It's a... it's a... whatever it's called, you have acoustical advantage here that you lacked before and it tells you. That there are two people in the room. Well, at least two who are talking. One is clearly Nate, score on not fucking up which window to listen at. The other is someone you don't recognize (duh). From the timbre of their voice you assume it's a younger girl, like a student probably. You try to remember if you heard anything about what classes he taught by name. No such luck. The conversation is less than fragmented to you over even the light ambient noise of the campus at dusk and you're not even sure of the tone. You frown to yourself, this isn't helping a thing and more importantly it's still something that would upset Jeanne even more if it's all you tell her as inane as that is. You're gonna have to do something to crack this case open eventually.

You should...
[] Try to look inside.
[] Go back to the door and enter.
[] Call it a day.

 

[X] Try to look inside.

 

[x] Go back to the door and enter.

 

[x] Try to look inside

 

[x] Go back to the door and enter.

 

1

2

You don't have the time and mental energy left to actually walk all the way around and give them a chance to arrange themselves when you knock on the door. That ain't your life. You take a deep breath and gather your courage before turning around and creeping up the wall like some kind of caterpillar. Slowly. Slowly. Slow. L. Y. You're face to face with the blinds now and you can't see shit captain. Your fingers creep up to the blinds like some other kind of caterpillar, or maybe a spider? Yeah, a spider. Your spider hand gently brushes against the blinds, finding its footing (fingering? (ew?)) before quietly drawing a single slat down the cord so you can only just barely see into the room when you lean in.

You can see Nate facing towards your right and a girl facing towards your left. She's way too pretty for him. Not that you think anyone isn't. Nate is such a piece of shit. They're not touching or anything, they're at a respectable distance. Oh hey, you can even hear them now, too. That's great. She's telling him he needs to come clean (juicy). He's telling her to please be reasonable. She's telling him that what's unreasonable is keeping it a secret. He's telling her it's his personal problem. She's telling him that it's about to be everyone else's problem. He's warning her not to tell. She's saying she won't need to tell, it'll get out on its own. You're utterly confused. She storms out of the room at this point.

Nate looks stressed (score). He glances over your way and starts walking towards the window, presumably to close it.

You should...
[] Say hi.
[] Run away.
[] Hide.

 

[x] hide

 

[X] Hide.

 

You dive headfirst into the bushes, clumsily. Hiding is a thing you find yourself doing a load more often than you used to. Like good golly galoshes in gumshoes doing grape gushing and guffawing goodly. This and your wheelhouse are in different states completely. Oh right, hiding. You continue not moving since all that movement was in your thoughts. You hope to god your ass isn't showing out the end of the bush. You hear a window sliding closed. You're pretty sure you have nothing to worry about now. You also think you hear him mumbling about potheads. Oh god, he heard you but didn't recognize that you were listening in on him. This is the greatest thing ever. You are safe. While you sit there, contemplating your life decisions a voice does call out in your general direction, you recognize it in a less pleasant way that you'd wish and a more pleasant way that if it were Nate. You crawl through the bushes and emerge facing the girl that was talking to Nate. She's looking down at you more than literally right now, you can just tell. Her expression is a little confused.

She asks you what you're doing there, on the ground, like an idiot. You tell her you're looking for your dignity, it fell into a sarcasm. She laughs at your horrible joke and helps you to your feet. It's nice knowing some strangers are not totally out to get you. While you're at it you grab your purse. Other recent experiences have taught you important lessons to living your life as a piece of degenerate scum. She's talking again. She's asking you again. Damn, you can't even deflect a simple question. You consider running away. You consider it, but you know she looks more athletic than you (not hard). You tell her you were just chilling out here since you just got off work. It's sorta kinda maybe true in someone's world. Are you a TA? She asks you. Yes. Yes, you are.

She asks whose. You tell her the name of that adjunct prof you met earlier. She frowns and says she doesn't like her. You say it's just business. She tells you that she thought she saw someone outside the window while she was talking to Nate. You tell her that you were probably that person, not that you'd noticed there were people in the building, you totally just wanted to get away from it all. Yeah. She doesn't look suspicious or anything, but you know, she's acting like she's a little suspicious of you. You ask her if she's suspicious. She is. You ask why? She can't tell you. You don't ask anymore. There's an awkward silence. It's better than the awkward nonsilence you just went through at least.

You should...
[] Pretend you have something to do.
[] Ask her about herself.
[] Walk away silently.

 

[X] Ask her about herself.

 

Sure, why not XD