[color=fdc68a]"Yep."[/color] Michael responded casually to Zino's question. Though he had a feeling it was less of a question and more of a confused statement. [color=fdc68a]"He might be a son of a bitch, but he's [i]our[/i] son of a bitch for now."[/color] He would've elaborated on his rationalisation for taking this creep along with them, but the psycho quickly soured the mood by piping up with his own nasty commentary. Michael could only scoff as he spoke. Zino made his disgust equally clear. [color=fdc68a]"You know I'm going to make absolutely sure you don't get what you want now that you've told me, right?"[/color] He told beaky boy. As nice as it might have been to guarantee his silence, he sincerely doubted the integrity of a promise offered by this asshole. Besides, if he wanted to be dragged around by Anni, that more than likely meant he felt there would be some gain in doing so, whether he thought it would be easy to escape from her, or to talk poison into her ear, or perhaps because he just had some creepy kiddy fetish. Whatever the reason, Michael Keahi was not going to give this guy what he wanted under any circumstances. On top of everything, there were two practical concerns; for one, he wasn't sure he could just hand this rope around, seeing as it seemed to project from his hand, vanishing when he consciously released it, and secondly, he wasn't sure Anni could actually drag this guy anywhere. She hadn't even put on her own mask, so she was just a normal young girl right now. 

Their resident hippy broke up the conversation with a request for food. He would've freely given it, but Zino took the initiative to pass it out for him. [color=fdc68a]"Grab whatever you want in future. I'm not really in charge of the food. Just the bagman."[/color] God only knew Ascot seemed to just take what he wanted whenever he felt like it. Apart from that, it didn't seem like they were in a position were they needed to ration their food just yet. These addled villagers may have been weird, but they were certainly generous. It also seemed like the man she looked at really did need a bite to eat. Taking a look himself, he recognised him as the other one that had tried to help in his last moments at the station. He was tempted to say something, but they all needed to get moving.

Once they were on the move, Ellard was prompted to tell them what he had promised. The story quickly proved to be as depressing as Michael expected it to be. As far as he could tell, this was all one big crime of passion. The villagers had acted out of fear, and the Magician had retaliated out of anger. It was hardly right for any of them to have acted the way they did, but it wasn't as simple as one or the other acting like monsters. Especially as they seemingly lived in a world where magical nonsense really did exist, it was hardly unreasonable to suspect people of using magic to fuck with one another. This was a muddy situation they were treading into, if everything was assumed to be true. 

Of course, the veracity of the story seemed to be coming under suspicion from what Michael could see. He heard that Kate woman voice her own concerns. It did beg the question as to how he suddenly came loose of the effects of whatever had happened. But who could be sure what was and wasn't for certain in this world? Could certain people break free of magical spells? Michael hated having to guess at every assumption. At least with the police, there would usually be cases that could be solved with Occam's Razor, and the ones that couldn't at least had a degree of conventional logic underlying them.

But the worst part was that Ascot was starting to sound like he wanted to jump the gun on this one. He seemed to have already made up his mind that the Magician was not only to blame, but that they should all take justice into their own hands and jump the guy when they had the chance. It was a wholeheartedly reckless plan, whether it was true that the Magician deserved it or not. Once Ascot made his way over to him and spoke of his plan, Michael decided this was the time to say something. [color=fdc68a]"Okay, no, we have to slow down here, kid."[/color] He began, expecting he would stay to hear him out. [color=fdc68a]"Look, I get it, the story pissed you off. I would be lying if I said it didn't piss me off a little bit too. But we don't know what we're dealing with here. You and me, we can make putty and energy ropes, but what can this guy do? He could flick his wrist and turn us into bloodstains on the wall."[/color] He then stood in closer, whispering to him. [i][color=fdc68a]"Do you really want to risk all our lives for a cause we aren't even sure of? Because we [u][b]do not know[/b][/u] what's going on here for sure. You know that, right?"[/color] [/i]Naturally, he didn't want Ellard to hear that half of everybody was doubting his story. Michael still wasn't sure what to think, but it certainly would help if the kid thought everybody was against him. The real problem was making sure that Ascot didn't commit to a reckless plan. Deep down, Michael was tempted to play cop here himself, but he knew that was a bad idea given the lack of basic understanding of what was going on.

[@Letter Bee] [@Scarescrow] [@jdh97] [@Mammon]