A Crack in the Mask

Defining Boundaries

Ben frowns as he types the name into his notes before he looks back up, "Are the two close? Deez and T I mean..."

"You could, unfortunately, say that." Jay moves to a chair closer to Ben.

"Why unfortunately?"

"Because it was both the best and worst thing to happen, those two finally meeting." Jay chuckles lightly, "I used to always know where Deez was until those two got to be friends."

Carlos snorts, "You really did hate that game."

"At least she wasn't always hiding out in the catacombs after that," Evie adds defensively.

"Of course it didn't bother you two." Jay rolls his eyes, "You didn't have to hunt them down every other week."

"Did you ever successfully hunt them down?" Carlos asks with a small smile.

"Ugh." Jay shakes his head, "Fuck you too, man."

"I found them twice." Evie grins widely.

"How?" Jay turns to look at her in shock.

"With guides." Evie reluctantly admits.

"Why didn't I think about that." Jay hangs his head. "Wait, you went to the temple alone?" He turns back to glare at her.

"We're in Auradon now Jay," Evie staunchly reminds him, "let's just leave that part of the past in the past."

Ben chuckles lightly.

Jay growls lowly, "So we are." He admits as if it caused him pain.

"Anyways, Deez and T were very close. They even made up their own code to write to each other." Carlos volunteers, "And they taught Gil how to read together. Which was impressive, no one figured out he had dyslexia until they did." He bites his lip, eyes darting to a sleeping Mal. "Which, I'm glad they did. He used to think he was stupid. And he's so not."

Ben nods. This was even more fascinating than just reading the letters. To hear it from the Core's point of view. Raw and unedited. "I've never gotten the impression that Gil was slow from her letters."

Jay grins, "Of course you wouldn't, Deez probably knows Gil better than he knows himself. Gil thought he was slow, she never did."

"Not being able to read doesn't make you slow though, it just makes you ignorant. I mean T couldn't read when we first met either." Carlos points out, "It's part of how I put together he was Frollo's. He told me it wasn't his place to know how to read."

Ben lifts his brow. Interesting. Usually when someone said that it was about females. Still, as an avid reader himself, it made his stomach twist at the thought.

Jay grimaces. "Frollo," He says the name like a curse, "Was the reason T was so secretive I think. He told me and Harry once that he wasn't supposed to leave his room. Fuck no one even knew that old scary-ass bastard had a kid."

Ben frowns before he clicks through a few tabs. No, no record of any Frollo having a child. Not that the records were all that reliable. He sighs as he looks up the name, "Any idea why Frollo was on the isle?"

"He claimed he was a hero that moved to the isle to save people and spread the word of his god or some shit." Jay sucks his teeth, "Not that most of us believed him. He was too creepy to be a hero. Yensid never gave off those vibes."

Evie frowns as she looks up, "Even Deez was scared of him."

Carlos nods.

That was concerning. Ben narrows his eyes as he looks over the article about the man, frowning when he gets to the end. That wasn't a long article. He clicks on several more tabs. His eyes scanning as he found next to nearly nothing on the man beside the fact that at one point he'd been an archdeacon. Weird. Weird and concerning. "Hey Carlos, you're learning how to hack right?"