"Okay. Edie's and my bus is usually late, and Anna-Sophia comes home with us more afternoons than not, so we can wait with you if you want."

"Are you trying to chaperone them to prevent Vegas?"

"Somehow I feel as though that would fail to have the desired effect."

"No comment."

Lucky approaches.

"Oh look, it's the Bad Idea Face."

"Anna-Sophia asked if I was trying to play chaperone, I said I suspected that wouldn't work out how I wanted it, and Merry said no comment."

"Your suspicions are entirely correct."

"They frequently are," Edie says, walking up. "What's she being suspicious of?"

"That if she tries to act as a chaperone between you and Merry it's going to end in Vegas."

"Aww, but what if I want to humor her?"

"As a general rule, if you don't want Merry to do something, making the thing more difficult is exactly the wrong response."

"I mean, sure, I don't think she is trying to chaperone us, I'm just saying, Vegas is by nature a two-person exercise."

"I didn't mean 'going to end in Vegas' like 'definitely, for sure, he'll abduct you if necessary', just like, 'this raises the odds of the thing you don't want to happen happening'."

"I didn't think he was going to abduct me, I was wondering how hard he'd try to persuade me."

"My brother is a very persuasive person."

"You make it sound like I con girls into marrying me on the regular and I have five other wives in the basement Bluebeard-style."

"I think this is the second time you've decided that the correct nefarious assumption is that you're keeping people locked up, is there anything I should know?"

"I have a morbid imagination?"

"I guess the sample size isn't large enough for me to conclude you've got a suspiciously specific morbid imagination," she allows, "yet."

"You can change what things I morbidly imagine by feeding me differently aimed prompts!"

She considers this.

"Once a month at 9:12 sharp five seemingly random students all throw up and need to be sent home; it occurs on a different day each month; the students have no obvious connections; discuss."

"Weirdly specific serial poisoner?"

"I'd argue but I made that up off the top of my head and it literally doesn't have a right answer so."

He giggles.

"Although given the prompt I wouldn't call your answer especially morbid."