Hmmmmm. It's harder to tell, like this, if she's tabbed out. Zam's layer isn't on, but if he uses the End to get to spawn it'd be basically instant. He drops her a totem instead and then backs away to let her pick it up. Totems are cheap, information is valuable. (If she knew what to look for, it'd be visible that he's using stacked totems, but without knowledge of how this works, it's not any weirder than the pork chops.)

"Anyone else you know from Cheliax who I might know? Anything you're willing to tell me about how you got here? C'mon, I'm being nice." Water bucket: once again in hand. He doesn't actually want to leave her here, all it takes is one second of not watching and Zam could be here with water, so he'd really prefer she cooperate. And they might be on a timer now, if Zam's already on his way. He could put her in a bedrock or barrier box, maybe, but they're at world height, he'd have no way of breaking it if he wanted her out other than getting Ash to do it. Which is an even worse idea than all of his other ideas today. At least Xenia doesn't know what he can or can't do. "You want out, I want to let you out. Give me something to work with here."

Spoke drops a... golden doll..? on the ground, then backs away from it. Xènia... also edges away from it, that seems to be the recommended procedure. (Glances up, to check she's not under the lip of the box.)

Well he might have heard of Alicia, if she actually was a fairy she is not naming Alicia to this thing. If he's still a devil maybe he'd've heard of... the Queen? But he isn't acting like he's heard of Cheliax at all.

"I - I don't - " she's been instructed to believe that he's 'being nice' now, she should try to sound less scared "I don't - know who you might know, s-Spoke, I, I, I don't know where I am" mmmoderate success.

Is she stupid. Spoke gave her a totem. Does she want to die.

Well, if he picks it up again it won't stack, and he doesn't actually have a spare inventory slot, so it'll just stay on the ground.

"And how did you get here?" He sounds pretty clearly disbelieving. Someone had to whitelist her. Someone had to give her the IP. If she asks where she is again he can give the spiel but right now he's pretty focused on getting her to stop blatantly lying. If he had a way to get her to be less scared, maybe--but he's already tried giving her food, giving her a totem, giving her space, and he's already said he won't let her out of the prison without some information.

(She does eventually twig that 'drop things on the ground' could be the recommended procedure for giving things to unimportant people, but 'weird doll' is even more ominous than 'food' on that front and he hasn't even ordered her to pick it up, and, also, that would involve very briefly getting slightly closer to SpokeIsHere.)

Hard swallow, abortive shrug. What even is her honest answer, she died and her soul belonged here, probably? Shouldn't they be expecting that?? —they were lying about Hell being well organised, or this is somewhere else—does he really not know, it doesn't feel like a pretence but, how would she even get closer to an answer, there's no point asking...

She should say something, keep talking, every second dripping past under the open sky is—something—probably nothing even if—maybe she should just ask, what's a delicate way of saying 'do you actually not know'... no, "I'm surprised you don't know" is worse, just—

"Do - you actually not know?" she asks, and immediately regrets everything about the sound of her voice.

"I mean, I'm pretty sure it was either Parrot or Vitalasy, but it'd definitely be nice to know for sure." Is she trying to figure out if he has console access, to check who whitelisted her? It's not conclusive either way, he could be playing dumb, but if he were playing dumb he would've done that from the beginning instead of bluffing that he knew more than he did. Fuck, he's making all sorts of mistakes in this conversation. In his defense, it has not at all gone the way he would have predicted. "It'd be really nice if you told me."

There was a third name in this conversation and she remembers what it was, which was... Ashwag? Why is that not on the list. Did she act any differently about an Ashwag? Surely not. Should she ask... hahaha no.

She should ask something else though, he didn't hurt her for asking a question and she wants—she wants him to go way - he won't—so - keep talking, if the things here can fly then the longer she stays under the open sky the more chance she has of... well, probably not better options, but. Something.

She waves at the golden doll thingy. "What is that?"

(Ashswag isn't on the list because Spoke mostly trusts Ashswag--he'll fuck around if he thinks it'll be funny, but Spoke's pretty sure Ash isn't working against him. He can't say the same for Parrot or Vitalasy.)

"Totem. They're good for not dying. Unless you want to die, I guess. I'll give you a second one if you want me to demonstrate."

Oh, it's that thing she was supposed to be bribed with. Is that the kind of "if you want me to demonstrate" where she's supposed to say yes or no, those can get you punished either way. So far she has seen him want to play at killing her and give her objects or at least drop them near her, so by analogy she's leaning yes...

 "If you like."

She’s really not giving him much to work with here. 

He drops another totem. 

...is she supposed to pick it up, it's her best guess but he's not really giving her the answer here. Uh. Er. What if touching it does something to her what if accepting his bargain does something to her what if he gets mad at her for asking too many questions—

She edges closer to the totems and then when she's close enough there suddenly isn't another decision to pick them up.

Does she pick up the pork chops too, and if so, which one is she holding?

Two pork chops (stacked), two totems (not), holding one of the latter.

Okay, cool.

He steps forward, punches her once, and then steps back again. 

Xenia has reached the goal [Postmortal]

It feels exactly like dying, right up until the part where she dies. She's - scooped out and jittering with something—with shock, at the light and the noise and the pain so total it's almost absent—no, there's more than that, too—

Of the three ways she's not-entirely-perished in the last ...hour..? she prefers this one but that's a low bar. She's knocked back and stumbles back and doesn't, actually, scream; the doll in her hand has spun out of it and shattered and she does not take hold of the other one right away.

Green and gold sparks fly everywhere before dying out. “Like that. —I won’t hit you again if you hold the second one.” Even if it’d be really funny. Well, okay, maybe he will. But not right away, not when she seemed genuinely upset. Then again, she might just be a good actor; he’s given away a lot in this conversation, and she’s given away basically nothing. She might just be killing time for Zam to show up. “You were surprised I didn’t know how you got here. Are you gonna tell me any more, or…? Because I can let you out right now if you cooperate. I don’t want to be doing this either.” Mostly true, if only because he’s not sure how much longer he has. Water bucket out again; he waves it a little for emphasis.