[center][h3] [/h3][/center][h3][hr][color=#38547C]Keaton Plasse[/color][/h3][hr]
Keaton watched the video Freaky-D presented with some amount of surprise. The staff had a face to work with, and yet they still weren’t able to apprehend the culprit? Why did they think roping a crew of kids into the investigation would make a difference then? If anything, the Faceless’ answers revealed a whole host of absurd hunches they had, from thinking there was a Promise-ending disaster on the horizon to believing a band of mostly underage parahumans could do anything to help bring in a criminal who’d eluded the ship’s entire security force. Of the names they’d named, Archie and Natalie were hired muscle, and Lynn was a strange spread but still combat-based. Eli and Radvi were unknowns, and Keaton was useless without information—something the Faceless didn’t seem too concerned with providing her. The questions of ‘why them’ and ‘why now’ were answered by unsupported hunches, according to the Faceless, and although Keaton knew they were telling the truth, that fact only made things harder to understand. There were two concerning possibilities here: That these two were merely messengers and were operating on limited information, or that these two had been deceived so they could deliver a faulty story. Not allowing the people they believed to be key for saving The Promise from certain doom to talk to the person in charge wasn’t exactly great for facilitating friendly relations. Anonymity was as powerful as it was suspicious, and the ‘rules’ they mentioned only made the whole thing sound more foreboding. 

Perhaps Keaton was being paranoid. Perhaps the Faceless truly represented the staff when they said they wanted to help. Nothing about this scenario made anything better, and if she were to believe it when the opposite were true, she’d end up in a much worse situation than she was in now. Playing it on the safe side wasn’t the most efficient, but being wrong? Being wrong was much, much worse.

Following along the stream of possibilities, perhaps there was a reason why it was the Faceless who’d been sent to deliver the message instead of the person in charge. Keaton’s power would prevent them from lying, so sending an envoy who didn’t have all the facts would allow them to check her and manipulate the narrative if she wasn’t careful. As for why they’d chosen this group specifically, the Faceless had completely skirted the question. The whole ‘chosen ones’ gimmick they were selling was so ridiculous Keaton was almost tempted to rule it as true just because it’d be the worst story they could have went with if it weren’t. But, even if it were true, there was nothing to say that it was the whole story. Perhaps the group was chosen because of some precognitor the staff had employed, or perhaps it was because at least one of them had something on the staff. If the latter were true, however, it’d call into question why the Faceless had approached a group instead of just the one person. Was it to decrease suspicion so they could better sell their story? Or was it to nip all the possible buds they could and ensure that there was no way the threat could persist?

Whatever the case, Keaton wasn’t about to share any information she and Lynn had dug up. Too much was still up in the air for her to trust that they weren’t going to off her another day. Her power could tell her whether or not someone was lying about wanting to kill her, but that someone could change their mind too. Until the staff presented an airtight story that her power could verify, complete trust wasn’t on the table.

While she didn’t trust the staff, though, she could pretend to, at least to a reasonable extent. The Faceless were being honest, and while they hadn’t exactly made themselves vulnerable by revealing their power, they’d also told the truth about Cara. Caroline Fuller—hopefully she’d be more helpful than these two. Though Keaton hadn’t spent the most time talking to Cara, given the possibility of surveillance and censorship, she would definitely be checking the amount of control Caroline had over her faculties. That the staff didn’t have full control over her was thrilling since Caroline would be an invaluable ally when it came to getting information, but this all hinged on Caroline being trustworthy, and that was a problem for later.

The reasoning the Faceless gave for The Promise’s criminal population, on the other hand, was ridiculous. Rehabilitating a gang leader like Salamandra was a scandal in the making, if word ever got out, and there was no reason why the ‘party’ in charge couldn’t have just built another facility. That they’d chosen to combine the facilities just went to support the working theory that The Promise’s whole rehabilitation schtick was a cover-up for whatever else was going on. The note that the ‘party’ was more concerned about humans than parahumans was interesting, though Keaton had no way of verifying it’s true veracity without the party present. As for pursuing it further, well, Keaton was going to pass. The entire story smelled of lies, and even though Keaton couldn’t confirm anything with her power, she’d be damned if she trusted anything the Faceless had to say on the subject at face value.

Regarding the footage Freaky-D showed, there was little to ask. Radvi had known who the culprit was, had been possession of a jar of DNA for nearly a month now, and the woman, Arianna,  had managed to elude him the entire time. Eli was right to ask, but Keaton wasn’t expecting much from the cop. Whatever he’d done with the jar, it clearly hadn’t helped. On the other hand, that Archie was able to identify Arianna was interesting. Why had she approached him? To say hello? Keaton didn’t believe in coincidences, and that was a hell of a coincidence. 

“Arianna—do you know who she is? Are there files on her, who she is and why she’s here? And why has she been able to avoid detection for so long? What about the surveillance cameras?” Keaton asked, turning to the Faceless. “Surely there’s more information on her, if she’s been here for longer than we have? What does she want, and why? And is she working alone?”

[i]And is she really who we should be fighting against?[/i] Keaton wanted to ask. ‘The enemy of my enemy is my friend,’ or so the saying went, and from another angle, Arianna was a capable figure fighting against The Promise for reasons unknown. That the narrative the Faceless presented could be a front to get the group to solve their problems for them couldn’t be ignored, and in more ways than one, Arianna seemed like she’d have better answers to Keaton’s questions.