First thing first, Mariette, Ronin and Miko will all be feeling happy feelings seeing Ruby here, briefly. Because wish that makes them friends.

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When they spoke about the impossibility of moving everyone in Penrose to a specific location, Ronin suddenly laughed a little.

[color=55B7AA]‘If it’s about the room all the inhabitants of the town would take up… Couldn’t we have, like, MDP shrink the people in the town so we can hide them somewhere small safely? I bet she has the power to do that, if she puts her mind to it,’[/color] Ronin said with a smirk.

[color=DC9495]‘Dear sister, how comfortable do you think the inhabitants of Penrose would be with suddenly being shrunk and stuffed away in an otherwise small area?’[/color] Miko asked, with a raised eyebrow.

[color=55B7AA]‘Hey, they’d at least be safe, wouldn’t they?’[/color] Ronin chuckled.

Lily gave the paper over to Miko, who inspected it closely, and Ronin leaned over as well to inspect it. Now, these characters weren’t really intended to be that big into anime, but hey, this Japanese obsession Ronin apparently had must have come from somewhere. And if Ronin watched it, so did Miko.

[color=55B7AA]‘Heeeey, that town name…’[/color] Ronin said.

[color=DC9495]‘That’s from Bleach, isn’t it? And…’[/color] Miko said, and then her eyes widened a bit. [color=DC9495]‘In that show, they put a false version of the town on top of the real town, and then inside that version of the town they were able to fight freely without injuring anybody. Is that… what whoever sent this paper intended to suggest?’[/color] Miko asked.

[color=55B7AA]‘Er, in that case, why not just write that?’[/color] Ronin asked.

[color=DC9495]‘Perhaps… oh,’[/color] Miko winced a little. [color=DC9495]‘So potential eavesdroppers wouldn’t understand the reference, and we could plan it without them knowing? Which I maybe messed up by speaking it out loud? I’m sorry,’[/color] Miko bowed in apology. Ronin chuckled.

[color=55B7AA]‘Well, good thing we’re in the anti-eaves-dropper field, then! So, guys? Is that something we could do? Overcity Shifting already exists, so… That’s got to be similar!’[/color]

[color=DC9495]‘Still… is that something that is actually in our power to do?’[/color] Miko asked, looking towards the others.

On a different point. At the time Chloe summoned the skeleton and called it Sakura, Ronin tensed up. She had to mentally tell herself that had to be a coincidence, because there’s no way that big skeleton was actually Sakura. Just a coincidence Chloe picked that name. Yeah. Miko noticed the plight and put a supporting hand on her shoulder, though Ronin just winced on that, too.

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So, Mariette wasn’t super-confident in the anti-scrying measures, but guess it was the best they had. Just to make sure that their enemies weren’t somehow scrying through her portal, Mariette stood up and walked through her portal to actually join the meeting proper, closing the portal behind her. Now, she also knew who Nefer was already, but could she be truly sure nobody present was working for their enemy? … No, not really. But this was also the biggest audience of confirmed allies she could possibly have.

[color=077ae6]‘… I’m here. If it’s a matter of traveling, I got my own means. If you want to move all the inhabitants of Penrose somewhere, or trigger something from afar to make them move, I can help,’[/color]

[color=077ae6]‘Allow me to share my intelligence. Though, if the Mint has truly infiltrated Wonderland to the degree Chloe is claiming, they’ll already know,’[/color] Mariette said. [color=077ae6]‘I went to Wonderland twice, first to scout, then because I was invited by the Queen of Wonderland herself. What I can confirm is that there’s a magical spell on Wonderland, and its inhabitants act as if they live in a children’s fairy tale… and that spell starts to afflict someone who has gone to that dimension. I didn’t stay long enough to find out, but it could be that someone who lives there long enough become like them, a slave to their queen,’[/color] Mariette shared.

[color=077ae6]‘If you’d like to go there, I can take you. I would advise bringing some form of magical protection, however.’[/color] That sorted that out.

[color=077ae6]‘And… I can confirm that the Queen of Wonderland has a second goal. That goal is… me,’[/color] Mariette shared, a bit awkward about it. [color=077ae6]‘She believes I am Alice, her daughter. Which… I don’t know if I believe, but it does make it likely I will see her again.’[/color]

[color=077ae6]‘I looked into it. Turns out, there’s been multiple Alices in the past, each one mistaken for the Queen’s Alice, who I believe once existed but died. Each of these Alices looked kind of like me, so I assume I have at the very least a passing resemblance of the real Alice. And every single one of those Alices… died shortly after in tragic, unrelated events that were not due to the actions of the Queen. Looking at the circumstances, it’s like they just coincidentally died shortly after the Queen decided they were Alice. So, um. Yeah,’[/color] Mariette said, leaving the obvious bit about the danger she herself might potentially be in unspoken.

[color=077ae6]‘Regardless, she might welcome me coming back to her. Maybe I could achieve something. Maybe,’[/color] Mariette shrugged, Bunny in her arms.

Just offering the options, if the rest decided on something else. The Mint deal thing wasn’t up to Mariette, after all.