"Ranboo is in, and Niki is planning on leaving the city. I am not sure what you want to do about that."

"Alright. --Sam's in as well. He's going to talk to the rest of the Badlands."

"That's good. You're planning to let Niki leave?"

"...Yes? I mean, it's not like I can stop her. Or, like, I could trap her or kill her, I guess, but that's kind of a dick thing to do, and it's not like it would...help...?"

"I just wanted to check. Another cultural difference."

"Oh, okay. Makes sense."

"It makes sense on your end. Death is --usually-- low stakes enough that 'if you do not comply, we will kill you' is... Not much of a threat."

"I mean, canon lives exist, but yeah, I'm picking up what you're putting down."

"Even so--we're still able to have this conversation. That would not be the case where I am from.

...I imagine we will be able to manage with one less person, especially as she is not planning to side with Dream."

Nod. "She's, um, no offense, she's not one of our best fighters anyway? I don't think she'll make much of a difference."

"It's probably for the best, then, that she's leaving."

Shrug. "I mean, people will miss her? But I guess she'll still be around, so."

"I would not expect her to go into hiding, anyway."

"Yeah. ...I should probably set up the meeting with Dream. Or maybe I should wait until he's--not with Tommy? But we shouldn't wait until he does something."

"Tommy said Dream was there a fair amount of the time. It may be difficult to find a point where he isn't with Tommy."

"Fair enough. I'll, uh, message him, I guess." He pauses and then takes out a stone button with the name "Dream" scrawled on it in messy handwriting. It rings for a bit and then: "Hello? --This is about Jingyan, we need to talk. Yeah, tomorrow works fine. Great. Yeah, that works. ...Yeah. Thank you, Dream. Mmhm. It was, it was nice talking to you. Goodbye."

He drops it on the floor as soon as the call is over. "Meeting's tomorrow at the Holy Land. He's bringing Tommy."

"--I have no idea if that is a good or bad thing."

"Yeah. It's... definitely a thing. He's right, though, we shouldn't be doing it without him."

"We should not, no-- but I am concerned he might try to threaten Tommy. There is a lot we would do for 'Tommy not being dead.'"

"Yeah. Then again, it isn't like he can't threaten Tommy anyway, just with an extra, what, five minutes of travel?"

"--This is true."

Sigh. "I'm gonna be real with you, Jingyan, I don't like this. But I don't see what alternatives we have."

"I am sorry about that."

"Hey, it's not your fault."

"... The events leading to my death could have been handled better."