บท 99: Goodnight Bot
Realizing that free lunch is imminent, Miss Masher is up and on her way out of the door in surprisingly short order. Miss Chievous had actually managed to beat her there, thanks to the couch she was on being notably closer to the door.
Not having much else to tidy up, Miss Calculated heads back over and shuts off Willy's tablet, putting it into the bag with the other electronics paraphernalia that belongs to Lucas and Jonathan.
"Shall we?" Miss Calculated raises a brow while asking this, offering the bag of their recently purchased possessions back over to Lucas. Once he takes it, she starts heading out the door which Miss Masher is still holding open.
At first, Lucas just nods in response, but seeing how all three women are apparently rarin' to go, he chuckles and stands up.
"Guess yer all hungrier than ya wanna admit, eh? So, now that the confusion is over, whatcha guys want, anyway?" Lucas snorts out a bit more laughter after asking, heading over to stand by the door, but waiting for the others to go out first.
"SEAFOOD! I want to eat my weight in lobster!" Miss Chievous has no qualms about yelling out her lifegoals from out in the hallway, it's not like there's anyone besides their group around here anyway.
Jonathan starts openly laughing after her declaration, similarly getting up and walking over to stand by Lucas near the door, waiting for Willy to lead the way.
"I don't th-think any restaurant will have enough in s-stock." After making a subtle jab at Miss Chievous's weight, Jonathan finally heads out the door behind Willy, who is proudly carrying his mouthful of chew toys.
Miss Calculated starts chuckling right away, but it takes Miss Chievous a few seconds to process that he was intentionally trying to insult her. Miming as if she's about to smack him, he doesn't even flinch, just laughing directly at her.
'I'm really starting to enjoy their constant need to harass each other, hah.'
[I dare say they're enjoying it just as much as you are.]
Lucas and Miss Masher fall into a brief staring contest by the door. Miss Masher is still holding the door open while Lucas is standing with his arms crossed within the room, with the plastic bag hanging off his left wrist. Eventually, Lucas decides he doesn't care enough to insist so he finally leaves before her.
[...It seems they're not the only two doing so, either.]
'Hey! It's nothing alike!'
Miss Masher makes a self-satisfied snort when she finally leaves the room after Lucas, letting the door slowly swing shut behind her.
[...Tell that to her.]
'...'
Once they're all congregated in the hallway, Miss Calculated pauses for a moment to glance at everyone else.
"Well, if you haven't any particular opinions one way or another, I can think of a place that should be suitable that is on the way to… Our destination. It's nothing outrageous, but should at least be enough to make Chi happy." While Miss Calculated is saying this, she adjusts her glasses while looking directly at Lucas, clearly specifically asking him for his stance on the matter.
"Yeah, sure. As long as it's nothing crazy, I'm sure whatever you pick 'll be fine." Lucas shrugs while answering, clearly unconcerned. Miss Calculated nods once then continues leading the party back to the front lobby.
Once they're all finally trickling into the front lobby, there's a brief snort from out of sight, over from James' enclosed service desk.
"I was starting to think you guys just left me here all on my lonesome for the day." With a trace of humor in his voice, James lightly scolds the tardy Miss Calculated and crew.
"Yes yes, I know, that took a while. However, I do have good news for you, James. As we have further business to attend to, let's close up early for the day. If anyone has any complaints about it, you can send them to me." As Miss Calculated is speaking, James stands up in a hurry, promptly abandoning whatever show he was watching on his tablet to come out of his cubicle.
"Hey, for real? Why didn't you text me sooner or something!? Someone might have tried coming in before we started gettin' everything shut down! Go on, go on, hurry up." As James is actively being the most animate he has ever been in Lucas's presence, a closed sign has already floated over and mounted itself on the inside of the glass front door. There's an audible click as the door locks itself, preventing any would-be entrants from interfering with this surprise-shortened shift.
'Oh, oh, he's already starting!'
[...You're that excited to see telekinesis in action?]
'Hells yeah! I've seen enough other powers in action, I bet he can do a bunch at once when he isn't being lazy!'
[...You're not wrong.]
While James is leaving the employee portion of the lobby, his tablet has floated out after him. Heading out into the main portion of the lobby, he's impatiently tapping his foot while waiting for the passing group to come out to the larger area as well.
First to reach the front lobby from the main group, Miss Calculated simply holds up her clipboard while looking at James with a raised eyebrow. Without giving any visible response to her gesture, he makes both it and her fountain pen float out of her hands over to her enclosed desk, settling down on the center of it.
A bit muffled from their distance, as well as the closed doors between them, there's the sound of distant light switches clicking off. As the group continues their progress to the front of the lobby, lights are systematically shutting off in their wake.
"G'night bots, see ya tomorrow." Taking a moment to bid farewell, James passingly looks through the various enclosures that are manned by service bots, each of which shut down in the order he looked at them in.
After Miss Masher, still last in marching order, exits the door separating the employee enclosures from the rest of the front lobby, the door quickly swings shut behind her. There's a rapid series of clicks as the multitude of locks on it all engage themselves nearly simultaneously.
'That's pretty damn useful. Does he just not need keys in general, or is it just because he knows these locks well enough?'
[While I can't say conclusively, I imagine it's a bit of both. Lockpicking must be significantly easier when you can both see what you're doing and don't actually need a physical pick to move the component parts. Short of having a unique design he hasn't seen anything similar to before, I doubt any inorganic lock poses any issue for him. But, as with most things, I imagine familiarity with the lock in question speeds things up considerably, as you just saw.]
'...It's a good thing he doesn't have Miss Chievous's personality.'
[Quite.]
'...Calc really wasn't kidding when she said we can just walk straight to the door. Not that I'm surprised, but it's still kinda funny.'
In the process of the group heading over towards the front doors, all of the remaining lights in the lobby continue shutting off as soon as they're a sufficiently polite distance away from anyone.
Pausing for a moment as he deigns to grab the floating tablet with his hands, James also glances at the check-in kiosk to shut it off as well. Heading over to stand next to the front door, he stares at everyone as if that would make them speed things up further.
Once Miss Calculated is finally at said door, it unlocks itself and swings open for her before she has a chance to reach out to touch it. She smiles slightly and leads the way out.
'...How come everyone else has way cooler powers than me? It's not fair.'
427 simply sighs, not bothering to answer.
-----
Lucas kills this chapter: 0
Lucas total kills: 7
Lucas deaths this chapter: 0
Lucas total deaths: 10
Lucas current GDV: 10.47 (+.01 net change)
Lucas's fame level: 3.5* (Beyond just local, viral meme tier)
Lucas's hero suspicion level: 2.5* (More than just passing suspicion for a few paranoid individuals)
Jonathan kills this chapter: 0
Jonathan total kills: 5
Jonathan deaths this chapter: 0
Jonathan total deaths: 2
Jonathan current GDV: 2.19
Jonathan's fame level: 2* (Mostly just local)
Jonathan's hero suspicion level: 1* (Only highly paranoid people)
Willy's fame level: 1* (anonymous meme fame, local fame as 'Xenoclast's dog')
Supervillain social circle size: 11
-----
Little character theater:
Jonathan, equally impressed with James' abilities: That really is pretty cool...
Willy, wondering if the restaurant that Miss Calculated thought of will be welcoming for him: ...Bark?
Lucas, nodding along with Jonathan: Right!? Way cooler than anything that… Ahem. Any common power, such that we have access to.
427, would have just sucked in a breath if he, you know, breathed: [You barely caught yourself there, goodness. Are you trying to see if I can somehow have a heart attack?]
Author, shaking their head while sighing softly: As if Willy doesn't have enough reasons to be suspicious already.
Mr. Quacks, imagining how fun it must be to be able to float around through the air: Quack!
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