villainy commenced [[1x1 w/ the-nug-king & hexspecs!]]

[the-nug-king]

"We don't need to go there. The five of us going down to Thriller will be suspicious anyway, just call them! I'll call them."

Cazenar started pulling out his phone, but Aurion grabbed his arm. "Not without incentive! I'm only helping if I get your minion for a week! Or something better!"

"Ugh, fine. Lazarus, your Aurion's minion for a week. Now let me call Three!"

(ehh i mean Caz and Aurion are still busy being the Worst))

[grey matter]

"Wait, seriously- oh, yeah, seriously, okay, uh- well..." It was only a week. He... Wasn't disposable, because he'd be back after that week. And he and Cazenar were... Yeah, still friends enough, probably. And... He was the coolest minion, according to Cazenar. This would just be another chance to show off said coolness! "Good to know, I guess! Effective now or effective... Tomorrow? When exactly is this week? And we are defining "week" as 7 days of 24 hours each, Academy time, right?"

"What else is a week supposed to be?"

"...Depends." Lazarus shrugged. "I guess we're... Experimenting with a different dynamic, this week!"

"I'm not taking scientific notes on this. I'm not even sure how much of this I'm processing correctly."

[the-nug-king]

"7 days of 24 hours each, Academy time, starting tomorrow morning," said Aurion.

Cazenar, meanwhile, was trying to call Three, and having no success.

"They're not answering!" he said, texting them urgently.

"That's one of the perils of relying on technology," Aurion told him. "Which you'd know if you were a proper fantasy villain."

"It's one of the perils of me talking to Three! Someone they like try calling them!"

[grey matter]

"I think Three likes me well enough. As your... minion until tomorrow and then returning to being your minion in a week, I will do it!" Lazarus got his phone out from his scarf, dialed Three's number, and then waited for an answer.

[the-nug-king]

After a few moments, Three answered. "Morgan is asleep," they hissed. "What does Cazenar want?"

Cazenar grabbed the phone from Lazarus. "Three! Hey! It's me, Cazenar, the greatest and most handsome and etc! And I, uh, kind of have prohibited items, and the Academy's doing a random search, and I need you to tell DarkBoard to cover for me, and when I say me, I actually mean me and Lazarus and Aurion and, uh, Aurion's minion and Aurion's minion's dust clone. Sooo, if you don't want all your friends to get expelled or eaten by space slugs, tell DarkBoard to keep everyone away from Aurion's room in this search, okay?"

There was silence on the other end.

[grey matter]

Lucas audibly sighed, but it'd be rude to interrupt a call, and he didn't know if he had the energy for this, so he stayed quiet.

"Uh- Cazenar made me hold his stuff. So that's why I'm involved in this. And- minion, obviously," Lazarus said, getting closer to his phone. "Sorry we're calling you while Morgan's asleep."

[the-nug-king]

Three sighed. "Of course. You know, I'm a little busy myself. There are several people in the Academy who... do not approve of Morgan's presence here. Which I'm afraid has to be my top priority at the moment. As for the rest of you... Cazenar, I hope you're aware that I can't simply tell DarkBoard what to do. I can ask them for favours but I'd appreciate it if you didn't simply assume I can or will instruct them to stop doing their job, and go against the Academy's instructions."

Cazenar rolled his eyes. "Yeah, because keeping Gk's goons away from Aurion's room is going to be such a big deal! Why would anyone suspect him anyway? He's the biggest teacher's pet in the world!"

Aurion spluttered. "I am loyal to the Academy!"

"Where's Gk even get her authority anyway, without the Head here? Because I kind of feel like DarkBoard has the most authority here and they are very willing to do you favours. So I kind of feel like you're just betraying all your friends here." Cazenar looked around at everyone. "Hey! Three doesn't care if any of you die!"

[grey matter]

Lucas sighed again. He was tired and tired of this. This was a disaster. "...Can I just make a void and go back to bed? I can make it... I dunno, connect to somewhere else and seal it for some period of time... probably."

"Eesh, um... Well, I'm sure we can worm our way out of this somehow... Probably. Hopefully. Maybe... Lucas, maybe just... wait, should I even say this with DarkBoard listening? Should I pantomime? Ugh... This is hard and I don't like that it's this hard. Three, are you... I don't want to ask more things of you but at the same time, we might all die and- I'm running out of good words for this. Stuff is starting to... do the thingy! Haha... Everything feels a little too real now and I don't like it."

"LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE: I WILL GET TO LEARN OF DEATH!"

"Okay, let's- let's not jump to that, we won't die, we- we... We can't die, we just can't..." Lazarus shook his head. "I live at least into my third year, in which I get Sudden Accent Syndrome! I at least survive this, and I don't like the idea of me being the only survivor out of all of us! It distresses me!"

[the-nug-king]

Three sighed. "I am not going to let any of you die. Even if I might wish to let Cazenar at least die right now. I apologise, I am... quite tired tonight. I will speak to DarkBoard and make sure Aurion's room is not searched. I suggest none of you leave it until morning." Three hung up.

"Uh, success?" said Cazenar. "And our minions are staying the night, so that's... nice?"

[grey matter]

"I'm getting Three a 'saved my life probably' gift sometime," Lazarus said, relieved by the fact that nobody was dying tonight... out of this group, at least.

"...I'll one-up you on that," Lucas replied.

"I'd like to see you try!"

"WELL. GUESS I'M NOT DYING."

"...So," Lazarus asked. "Are we... going to... sleep or something or are we pulling an all-nighter because we're all in here?"

"I want sleep. But I guess I could handle an all-nighter... Anf I'm taking this." Lucas grabbed his lab coat from Lazarus and put it on. He unpocketed a few of those ultra-caffeinated coffee beans and waited for an actual answer on the plan. He didn't want to sabotage his sleep if it was possible.