Corvayne stared at Seru's phone with the Monk standing at her front porch, heard the doorbell, then sprang up from the table. “Seru, you need to stall him. Give us a minute!”

She stepped back. “No way! I mean, this guy KILLED all five of you, how would I even fight him?”

“I don't mean fight him! Just... talk to him. If he asks... I'm your trainer. Nyx, LBC, Wick, you hide. Go!”

Nyx gave Lady Blood Claw a kick in the foot then pulled her standing and awake.

Mister I looked around as the others scrambled to leave. “Shouldn't I hide?”

Corvayne shook his head. “I trust you to help us in this conversation, and I need your eyes on him.” He squeezed his storage ring as he spoke and started putting his stuff into it. He kept the boots of running on, since he might be able to get away with them. Ha! “Those three he might know. He doesn't know us... and you're a therapist. Try to get a read on him if he comes in. Seru, go before he knocks your door down!”

Her face was going white. Corvayne took a deep breath. Calm would help them.

The monk smiled. “Ah. A fellow monk at the door? How nice that we'll get a chance to talk. I'll have to do Seru's therapy session after breakfast, if you don't mind Seru? Corvayne, can you do the workout later?” Mister I unslung his pack and bow and handed it to Corvayne, before pausing and fishing a bag of monster jerky out of it to keep on his person.

Seru's mom peeked her head in from the kitchen. “Did you guys hear the doorbell?”

Seru stood up, looking between her mom and the door. “Y-yes!” Corvayne grabbed her arm before she could walk off.

He locked eyes with her and summoned confidence in her he didn't actually have. “Seru. You can do this.”

Her face hardened and she nodded.

After she left, Corvayne took a sip of coffee. Mister I frowned. “I hope Seru's mother finishes cooking before we get impaled.”

Corvayne nodded, keeping his hand rock steady despite part of him screaming to run away and hide. “Nothing worse then dying on an empty stomach.”

He heard Seru talking loudly as she came walking back.

Seru's voice was coming around the corner as she rushed ahead of someone. “So yeah! A guy threw my keys off a cliff.” Seru stepped into the room and topped off Nyx's discarded coffee and swung it up from the table to offer it to the monk who strode in a few moments after her. The bald man moved with a sort of inevitability of an avalanche. He didn't bother watching Seru, instead looking right to Corvayne. It was an effort to control his breathing and force himself not to tense up. Instead he met the Monk's steely gaze and nodded. No fear. No aggression. If the man had anything like Corvayne's warrior's sense, he'd know if someone was going to attack. Seru was not helping. She didn't get that the more you talk the worse your story sounds. Corvayne felt his stomach tensing. He was going to die again. The monk would think they were suspicious and use the staff and knock his head off, splattering his brains all over the breakfeast nook and-

“Morning.” Corvayne raised his cup, and took a sip, then forced himself to keep looking at the monk, taking in the clothes as if he wasn't expecting someone wearing prayer beads. He raised an eyebrow as if checking out the clothes, while his mind kept trying to push images of Hari dying and Mosh trying to run away. He forced himself to put his elbows on the table, and breath in and out like he was doing his spear motions. It almost instantly cleared his mind again.

“Coffee.” Seru held up the mug.

The man glared at her then looked down at the cup then back up, lips curled into a slight frown. “So very kind. Thank you.” The time monk still had his staff in hand, accepting the cup without bothering with the handle. “I'm glad to see that you made it back. There are dangerous animals loose at the park, and a few people are still missing.”

Seru nodded. “Can you describe the people? I may have seen them.” Corvayne hoped she kept asking the monk questions. It was a simple way to keep him off balance.

The monk shifted his tone. Corvayne was pretty sure he was parroting what a police officer had told him. “Going off the cars there, there were a few that didn't have an owner return to them. When we cleared the park there was a pickup truck that looked scavenged, a van who's occupant is a single man who's mother called him in missing yesterday, and a camper that was rented out to two college age women who cannot be contacted by phone. So, one unknown and three people.”

“Sorry, I saw a lot of guys but I didn't see a pair of girls.” Seru said. “Do you have photos? Maybe I'd be able to ID them.”

The monk shook his head. “I came here quickly because I had hoped to learn what happened to you. I see you have company... I would think you'd not arrange a meet up so soon after walking home... or I should ask, how did you get home if your car is still there?”

Seru blinked. “Oh. I called my mom for a ride. Hey! I've been rude, meet my therapist and personal doctor, Mister I, and Corvayne my trainer.” She scratched her neck, smiling lamely. “I invited them in for breakfast rather then just send them away.”

The monk gave her a sideways look then set his coffee down on the table and offered a hand across the table to Corvayne. “Argyle. Tripic Special Interests.” Corvayne smiled a little. Real solid handshake. Smile didn't touch his eyes. Corvayne felt like he was staring down a wolf.

Corvayne forced himself to smirk. “Nice to meet you. Looks like you work out. Good alpha handshake.”

Argyle chuckled once. “I suppose I pump a lot of iron. And the gentleman in the corner...?”

“Icariii. I'm a multi-lateral specalist for issues of body and soul, trained in both traditional and standard practices of medicine and mental health, as well as spiritual counciling. You look like a fellow man of faith... Are you a Gygaxian like Seru?”

Argyle shook his had as he finally sat, choosing a spot that gave him a commanding view of both doors and not fully resting his back in the seat. He set his staff down against the wall behind his chair, and sipped the coffee he had, holding a saucer in one hand, his cup in another, and never looking anywhere but at the other people in the room. He took another sip, while his eyes rested on Mister I. Corvayne couldn't tell if the delay on speaking was him being incredibly rude or if the murderous monk was just thinking about the question.

“Not Gygax.” Argyle said as he set his cup down. “I'm a little off the beaten path in terms of spiritual matters. I'm an animist if you need a category. I wanted to ask if Seru saw anyone or anything unusual.”

Seru sat down a little too quickly. “I was at Goblin's hill, which I usually take photos at, and I saw that someone built a staircase as like, an art project or something, so I climbed up to take a picture and some guy yelled at me and tried to grab my phone, my keys fell out while I was wrestling with him and he grabbed them and ran then tossed them off a small cliff. He was weird, like, sort of short? Long ears?”

The muder-monk leaned forward and spoke in a low, dangerously level voice, “Are you saying a goblin took your keys?”

“No! It was a guy. I mean, I don't know, he was weird. His skin was a sort of olive color, but he looked weird. His clothes looked weird.” Seru was getting a little flaky and perhaps speaking a little too fast, she reached for her own coffee and sipped.

“You lied somewhere in there.” Corvayne felt cold sweat forming on him as the man spoke, staring at Seru. Argyle continued.

Seru's mouth opened. She for a moment looked like she was going to cry. Her eyes darted to Corvayne. No! Don't look over here, focus on the guy who can kill everyone here in three seconds.

“It's true.”

The monk sighed, and stretched his fingers then made a fist and cracked it while otherwise appearing completely relaxed, leaning back and folding his legs. Shit. What if there was a power or spell that let him detect truth?

Seru's eyes went wide. “I... I... I stayed up too late last night. I got picked up this morning, you know? What are you trying to ask me? I mean, it was scary wrestling for my phone and I just wanted to get home and I didn't have reception.” Seru said, and while she was doing good weaving lies around true things that happened to her she was going to crack soon. He could see a drop of sweat rolling down the side of her neck. She looked to him and her eyes pleaded with him.

Corvayne frowned at her... she was dragging him into this. He buried the terror trying to claw it's way up his body and freeze him like a rabbit. Make the monk think she was seeing if HE was buying a lie. A spear moved forward. If this guy could detect lies, well, let's see how he does with a LOT of them.

Corvayne adjusted his shoulders and posture, trying to doubled down on his gym rat persona. It wasn't hard, he could just copy Fights-Like-A-Bull's tone and brand of bullshit. Deep voice, fake authority, be preachy, talk like you're selling something. “Seru...” He started low and deep, shaking his head. “Seru you trying to cover that you slipped? You know I'm not a judge. I don't judge you, but it hurts.”

He gestured around. “You see Seru, you did so good for a long time so it just hurts to catch you slipping. This is why you gotta cut anything that's not natural. I'm a trainer, I know when someone's hungover, sugar or otherwise. You were putting stuff in your body not on the power chart I gave you? Did you slip, maybe smoke something last night? Slip something in you that you shouldn't have, it's going to hurt the next day. It hurts your prime-ape mindset Seru. It hurts me too, when you got junk in your system and we can't push your workout to the next stage, keep you tight and trim. You sound distracted too. It's like I say, you need total mental commitment before we work out, and you probably just dropped your keys because you don't maintain your grip strength and clarity vit-b's. Awake, alert, and thinking about how to stay fit, That's how you maintain a gorilla grip.”

He made a squeezing fist, and heard Mister I snort, but he was in the character now, and everything he said right now was the most important thing in the world, as well as being both totally obvious and something only he could tell them. Seru had gone from looking terrified to embarrassed. Was she that serious about fitness?

“I bet you splurged sugars too since our last session. I know what it's like, you wanna go out, have fun with your pals, eat something you shouldn't eat. Hey, maybe you have a drink? Then you are putting who knows what between your lips. You know what I mean. Fat, sugars, salts. I know, it sucks to have to give things up but no pains no gains. If you wanna get back to your target weight as steel not flab? You want to go out with a guy who's rock-hard? You need an alpha mind. If some guy in the woods did take your phone and was going for your keys, you going to be a lamb? A victim? Prey? I taught you how to do the six basic strikes. Like I say, BTW. Be. The. Wolf. Go for the throat next time Seru. Alpha mindset. Works every time, all the time.” He mimed punching and nodded after his own bullshit.

He could see side-eye that Argyle's eyes were narrowed. Corvayne just looked sternly at Seru.

“Corvayne you... I... I really don't want a lecture okay? I just wanna look good.” Seru snapped back at him, her balance seemed recovered, perhaps because she was getting actually annoyed at him.

He kept his voice firm. “You look good but you should be looking great. It's not enough to just get thin, we need you tone so you can keep your followers. That's my job. If you stop me from doing my job I-”

“I look GREAT.” Seru slammed her hands on the table. “I don't pay you to tear me down, Corvayne!”

“Enough.” The man's voice felt like it drained the air out of the dining room.

Corvayne then had Argyle's full attention. It was like when a dune stalker pack had tried to creep up on his camp. “She feels very strongly about you Corvayne. Core Vein? A heart? Or is it Corvine said wrong, as in a crow? Hmm. What a silly name to take.”

He turned and glared. It's only when death is right next to you that you live. Also, FUCK this guy for playing the name card. “Oh yeah? Well, you don't even look plaid at all to me, bro.”

Corvayne was pretty sure the monk was thinking about blowing their heads off with his steel rod. Corvayne looked him in the eye, raised an eyebrow, and sipped his coffee, pretending that the guy he was looking at wasn't clearly debating if he should kill everyone in the room and be done with whatever he came to Cascadia to do.

Suddenly the heavy feeling broke and the stern monk's eyes lit up a little bit as he laughed once. “Hah. Not even plaid. No no, as goofy a name as that is, I'm not that mad at my parents. After all... I could have been named tube or knee-high instead of Argyle.”

Corvayne laughed and waved his arm. “Hey bro, hey... If my folks, hah hah, hey, if my folks, if they named me one of those, heh? I'd sock them.”

Argyle sucked in his lips like he had eaten something sour, and he wordlessly turned to Seru. “It's not my job to slap your wrist for drug use, but the regular cops would so work on your... 'gorrila-grip mindset' before you go pick up your car. If there's any problems or you hallucinate any other halflings after your purse... call me.”

He produced a piece of paper smoothly and flicked it to slide across the table as he stood. “I cannot stay longer here, there's work to do.” Argyle looked between everyone seated. “It's been very interesting meeting you all. Corvayne, perhaps if I need a little work out I'll have Seru give me your number.”

Seru looked confused. “But I haven't given you my contact information. Are you sure about breakfast? Let me get my number for you, then we have eggs bacon and maybe some strawberry pancakes. Don't worry Corvayne, we have sugar free syrup and wheat.”

Mister I clapped and spoke with an odd cadance he'd never used before. “Oh no no, don't feel rushed! I've not had a discussion on the development of Animists on Tripic in years! What good fortune to find someone else who has wrestled with the philosophy of The Esoteric Host. There are some tricky points of the scripture that I always wanted someone to either confer with... or spar over!” He raised his voice in a heady little giggle at that last point.

Argyle smiled coldly as he took his staff and stood. “Sounds riveting but I've taken up far too much of your time already.” His tone making it clear that they had taken up too much of his time.

“Have a pleasant day. Thanks for the coffee. I'll see myself out.”

He strode out of the room. A few moments later Corvayne heard a helicopter start up, but looking out the window couldn't see the actual vehicle. The trees were whipping about as they would if one took off over the house. He realized, watching the trees whip around, his armpits were drenched in sweat. Thank goodness for black shirts.

He looked at everyone else, then voiced what he had been thinking the whole time. "How the heck did we get past that?"

Mister I shook his head. “He suspected Seru and you were hiding something, but your amusing deflection got him thinking it was a joint, rather then an extra-dimensional portal. Still, this means the next time he sees us, we will attract much, much more attention from him. I doubt we will simply exchange words.”

Seru slumped in her chair. “How do spies do it? That was like, ten minutes and I'm exhausted.

Corvayne smiled and took on his fake voice again. "Keep working out. Do reps. Build endurance."

His smile was wiped out when he heard a thump and jumped halfway out of his chair. Seru's mom bumped the door again with her elbow to open it all the way bring in a platter of eggs and bacon and pancakes.

“Breakfeast!” She said happily, looking around. “Why do you all look so pale?”