Carl regains consciousness in Orren's office after Astrid has him and Donut brought there. Carl is still suffering from lingering debuffs, while Donut has recovered enough to drink a fancy nonalcoholic beverage and casually explain that Carl was unconscious for forty-five minutes. When Carl asks about the two changelings, Orren says they were merely ejected from the club and spared worse consequences because one of them claimed responsibility for the trouble.

Orren then says he is leaving his in-game post when the sixth floor collapses and will not return until the start of the ninth floor, assuming the faction wars phase still happens. Carl presses Orren for the point of the meeting, and Orren explains that liaisons are often chosen partly because they disagree with their own governments. According to Orren, some liaisons genuinely try to protect the game's intended function, while others interpret the rules in extreme or dangerous ways.

Because Orren cannot speak openly, Donut realizes he is trying to warn them that not every liaison is trustworthy. Orren confirms only as much as the rules permit, comparing liaisons to sheriffs in the wild west: some are good, some are bad, and some go too far while believing they are doing their job. This warning matters to Carl because it suggests the dangers around him are not limited to obvious enemies inside the crawl; people with institutional power may also be manipulating events.

Orren then turns to a second matter. He explains that crawl-related court cases have effectively been frozen while authorities assess the stability of the current AI during the coming floor change, which means Carl's attorney cannot contact him through normal channels. Orren says an exception has been arranged, and Quasar appears in the room in a cloud of smoke. Quasar is accompanied by a woman wearing a Donut shirt and a bizarre tentacled creature attached to her head, and both newcomers immediately burst into tears when they see Donut.