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[Corruption.

It hits like a stone in the throat. No, no it can't be that, can it? Really? But he and Ryan have been talking all kinds of things out. Lance said that's the only way you can deal with it.

His stomach sinks. Breathe, Min-Gi. Breathe. Type what you saw. Mako will know.]

I saw his eyes turn into static. And I can see something awful taking over his aura. Like a creeping sickness.

[ This is the first Mako's heard anything about auras, but that... sounds an awful lot like corruption to him. A creeping sickness, coming up slow and steady until it's all you are. His own stomach knots up tight. Wu can definitely hear the echoes of his worry. ]

Could be corruption. Could be a this-month thing. You're going to want to be on the safe side. Check with Lysithea, see if she has any more of those anti-corruption cookies. I know he can be weird about food but you have to stop it before it gets too far. Believe me. It's not pretty.

Lysithea. Got it.

[Who the hell is Lysithea.]

Lance told me the only thing you can do is try to talk out whatever the big issue is. Is that a real thing or was he messing with me? I've been trying but getting Ryan to talk isn't always easy.

It can help, but sometimes that's not enough. When I was pretty far gone, talking did help eventually. I still don't understand why, but my running theory is that corruption happens when you bottle things up. Don't deal with them, let it fester and bother you until it takes over.

Sometimes, those things are too hard to talk about, so talking doesn't actually help.

That tracks.

But I don't know what I'm supposed to do about it if he won't talk. I'll try the cookies, maybe that will get him to eat. Thanks Mako.

[Like it will all be fine. It feels so far from fine. It feels completely out of control and every second he can't fix it is another second Ryan is suffering.

But that's not Mako's problem. He's given a helpful suggestion, what more is there to say?]

[ That should be it, but...

Mako can't just leave it like this, unhelpful, unsolved. ]

Min.

[ He's proving his own future point by taking so long to type this out, by typing and erasing and typing again. Those three dots jump up and disappear about ten times before Mako's next message finally comes through. ]

Did I tell you I was dangerously deep into corruption at one point? That's what I mean by far gone.

Edited 2022-03-25 02:02 (UTC)

I don't know how much worse it could have gotten, but it was bad. It's still hard to talk about, and it happened months ago. This stuff isn't.

It feels bad. It felt like I failed. Like I should have been smart enough and strong enough not to let it happen. I'd warned other people about it, and then it snuck up on me before I realized it and then I was in our kitchen at three in the morning trying to make some stupid sauce I barely remembered anyway because I couldn't think straight.

This isn't some easy, quick thing to solve. Alright? It takes more than one person. Wu couldn't fix it alone.

[Min-Gi sits with this for a while. That's a lot of personal information and it's pretty telling. He's grateful for Mako's transparency, and, after reading it a few times, he thinks he gets the real message.

If Ryan is corrupting, then Min-Gi can't help him, alone. The way out of this, the lesson if you will, is not to isolate.

Which is something Ryan would likely happily do right now, and something Min-Gi has done to himself in the past as well. It will take more than just him to help Ryan get himself out of this mess.

Because really, the only person who can fix this is Ryan. But Min-Gi and Mako and Wu and Shiro and everyone else can support him.]

I'm sorry you had to go through that. I'm really glad you got out the other side.

If this is what's going on with Ryan then there's still time to help him, right? So maybe we could do that as a team?

It was only thanks to Wu, and my brother, and... a lot of other people. If there's one thing Sleepers are good at, it's banding together.

There's definitely still time to help him. Just because you're not playing doesn't mean you aren't welcome here. Bring him over for dinner. Doesn't matter how weird he's being.

Neither of you are alone. Got that?

That means a lot. Thank you.

Thank you for always going out of your way to help me. I owe you a lot.

I'll ask him if he's up for it but I think he'd be up for it. From what I understand he can't see anyone's face so dinner might be weird but it would be good for him to be with his friends. I just want to make sure he feels safe.

That's what people do here. If you really think you owe me, help me convince Wu it's a good idea to raise door prices.

Anyway, there's almost no place safer than the Raccoon Room. Wu disguised most of the antlers, but we have a lot.

[ Ignoring that for anyone who wasn't in the dream that last phrase is a) nonsense, and b) a complete nonsequitur. Mako forgets. ]

[Yeah uh dude that literally makes absolutely zero sense. Min has to sit with it for a moment.]

Is that like a weapon or something?

And how much is the door fee anyway?

It's complicated. Antlers had some weird power back in the dream to keep you safe, and they still work like that here. If you ever find one, keep it, mount it in your house.

One shiny rock. Should be three at least.

I will keep that in mind. Explains some of the decorating I've seen. I thought people were just really into hunting.

How big is the one shiny rock? Is there a size guide? Is it a gem or just tumbled? If you roll a rock around enough it will get shiny just because. Feels like forged currency.

That's the problem. There's no way to standardize it and people don't necessarily have to give us a rock. We'll take feathers or alcohol. That conversion chart I made doesn't cover enough.

No, this can be standardized. I was going to study finance before everything with Ryan happened. Maybe I can help.

[Not that he ever actually did but. That kind of like credibility, right?]

We should make a spreadsheet for what you accept and what the guidelines of those items have to be. If an item doesn't have enough attributes for what you think is acceptable then it's no good in your place.

But you have to find a balance for the best value proposition so people still come and don't feel like they're being ripped off.

For example, alcohol.
1) How much is acceptable as entry in your opinion? 100ml? 500ml? 1L?
1.a) How does a patron give this amount? Do they pour some out for you or does it have to be in a sealed container?
2) What types are accepted?
3) Are you accepting alcohol in order to sell it at the bar?
3.a) Does it have to be a well known brand or can it be home brewed?
3.b) If it's home brewed what safety measures have been put in place to ensure that it is safe to resell to the public?

[ Min you are speaking his language. Mako stares at this extremely detailed text for a solid 15 minutes of pure silence, wondering at it—is this the kind of thing he'd have been able to learn in school? Is this what a finance education does, gives you the ability to ask these kinds of questions in such a neat and orderly way?

He's never... wanted something so much in his life, suddenly, as to know more. ]

Do you want to talk about this more when you bring Ryan over? This is useful. Really useful.

[Mako is taking forever to reply. Crap, did he mess up here? Did he over step? Mako is super smart he probably has all this laid out and it's not at all what he meant. He's probably laughing and trying to find a nice way to say no, I've already got that, that isn't what I meant Min-Gi you're such a dufus!! This is so embarrassing, why did he say anything? He didn't even end up going to college! He didn't study finance, he just did some research and wrote a few essays, why did he even suggest he knew anything?! Dumb dumb dumb why are you so stupid dude--

Ping! 1 New Message!

Oh. Mako does reply. And it's.. huh. Yeah. Okay. False alarm then? Unless now it looks like he's some kind of expert and he really has to know something now. But also he took accounting and economics in high school, handled their finances on the road, and he did offer to help so.. maybe he can do this?]

Is it? I mean, yeah if that made any sense.

[Sound hopeful. Maybe take a page out of Ryan's book. Be brave here the way he was learning to be brave back home.]

We'll figure it out together :)

I appreciate it. That's the only way to get anything done around here.

Let us know when you two want to come over. Any night but performance nights are good.

How's tomorrow?

[Ryan seems to be getting worse and worse so sooner is better than later.]

Works for us. Bring any old vegetables you have lying around. Wu got a firepot.

[ Hot-pot, is what that means. Thanks, Avatar world. ]

[Fire.. hm. Yeah. He will. Just. Wait and see what that means tomorrow.]

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