Toby blinked, startled at being singled out. What kind of game was it to be put, seemingly randomly, on the spot for an answer when anyone's guess would have been as good as his own? [color=#cce6ff][b]"Um,"[/b][/color]  he managed as his tongue jammed itself to the roof of his mouth in an apparent act of defiance. Perhaps Montana had noticed his reluctance to speak. The Cursed really were cruel. 

Unlike his tongue, however, Toby's feet moved. Without so much as a conscious thought, he readjusted his footing to keep Spire out of potential line of fire, almost in sync with Montana's shift. Despite his mental scramble to make words go, he stepped on instinct, not suspecting for an instant that Montana was testing his caution.

He glanced only briefly at one of the paper dry corpses.
[color=#cce6ff][b]
"Not sure,"[/b][/color]  he mumbled.[color=#cce6ff][b] "It--c------c----------"
[/b][/color] 

Toby's left shoulder rose to his ear as he tried to force the word out, a tic that tended to surface in situations like these: the 'talking to people who weren't Spire' situations.

Spire, who was watching Toby closely, was about to rescue him with a glib conversational redirection, but Toby managed to let spill the next few syllables:[color=#cce6ff][b] "---could have been years--with the weather so d--d--d-- with the weather so not-wet. Hard to know for sure. Unless...I d--don't think those Eru uniforms have been in circulation for a while. So, um." [/b][/color] He cleared his throat and managed a weak smile.[color=#cce6ff][b] "My incredibly scientific c--conclusion is, 'a really, really long time.'"[/b][/color] 

He finished with a faint air of triumph at having played the game and reached the finish, in spite of being held up somewhere at the crossroads of block-stutter and nerves.

Spire's hands had returned to his pockets, back to the handles of the knives in the lining. If Montana intended to probe Toby like a lab specimen rather than share with the class how he'd ended up a Jack in the Box, Spire would grow bored quickly. Bored, and annoyed. Montana was only worth keeping around as long as he was more interesting alive than bleeding. But one other thing had sparked his attention.

[Color=#efe9e8][b]"It's one thing to forget your age and another not to be interested in what decade it is. Sounds like you've been around for a while," [/b][/color] Spire chuckled.

Long enough to have seen the factions founded? Long enough to have seen the human war? Long enough to remember before the Cursed overran the earth?

[Color=#efe9e8][b]"I'm guessing you've seen a lot."
[/b][/color] 

Toby, too, would have been fascinated by this possibility, had he not suddenly noted a spike in his internal radar. His gaze became glazed for a moment as he focused on the shift. That not quite a feeling, not quite a sound, not quite a thought pinging of his ability told him the psychic he had wanted to avoid was on the move, and headed in their general direction.

[color=#cce6ff][b] "Hey, um, we might have company soon,"[/b][/color]  he mumbled. He didnt like to speculate what might happen if the mind manipulator got close enough to prod around in their heads.