//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5: Introductions & Conversations (The Funny Kind) (Edited) 
// Story: From Repair to Despair 
// by A Man Undercover 
//------------------------------//

As they enter the house, and the Stooges close the door behind them, the girls standing by and waiting for the three “supposed” repairmen to follow them, Curly takes notice of something very peculiar on the walls. Each wall near the front door has multiple clocks, each of different shape, size, model, and color.

“Say, what’s the idea of all the clocks?” he asks.

“These? Oh, well, I collect them to see what time it is in various countries,” Sunset explains.

“Yeah! And so far, each clock here tells the time of only ten different countries,” Pinkie adds.

“What time is it?” Curly asks.

As if to answer his question, Pinkie shushes everyone to be silent as she faces a very peculiar looking clock with a statue of a native man on top (the clock from 1943’s Spook Louder).

“It’s about to be 1 o’clock in Russia,” Pinkie whispers.

When the clock strikes one, the clock makes the most unusual noise to signal the time.

“YO! HO! HO! HO! HO!” The statue’s mouth slowly moves up and down.

It weirds out Moe and Larry, and Curly for a bit, but his expression changes to a happy smile because he likes the sound.

“Hey, let’s come back at 12 o’clock and hear the whole song!” he jubilantly says.

“Shut up.” Moe says.

“Would you mind coming into the living room?” Sunset asks.

“Oh, we don’t mind, Kid,” Moe tells her. “Go ahead, lead the way.”

With that, Sunset is the first to break away from the group of eleven, leading the way into the living room, with everyone else following behind and making sure not to crowd their way through the doorway. The only exception is Curly, because he won’t stop checking out Sunset’s clocks. His wandering eyes stop on a clock that is right in front of him on the right wall.

“Oh, what country are you from?”

Right when he’s finishing his sentence however, the clock suddenly pops out a wooden cuckoo bird, terrifying Curly into nearly screaming. He braves up and barks at the bird, like he’s trying to intimidate a foe into backing down. But, instead of going back into the clock, the cuckoo bird spins on its branch in a clockwise manner, and barks back at Curly, jumping up and down a little as it does. Terrified by the bird now more than ever, Curly runs into the living room to catch up with the others.

When he arrives in the living room, he clings to Moe. Not wanting Curly to cling to him, Moe slaps him on the forehead, causing him to let go.

What’s happening before the girls makes them raise their eyebrows, especially Sunset’s. She shrugs it off after thinking that it isn’t anything important, and motions with her hand for the Stooges to sit down on the sofa.

The boys look behind them to find the sofa and sit down.

“At your service, Babe. What’s cookin’?” Moe says to Sunset.

“I’m glad that the three of you arrived safely. I have a very big problem upstairs,” she tells them.

“Oh, well no worries, Miss. Even if we’re down, we always come back up,” Moe assures.

“Yeah, even if it’s with an elevator,” Larry adds.

“Or an escalator,” Curly also adds.

As if they can’t help themselves, Larry and Curly laugh at the jokes each of them just made. For a second, Moe is also chuckling because of the jokes, smiling as he does so, as well as pinching Larry and Curly on each of their cheeks. But, his expression suddenly changes to one of irritation. He slaps Curly and Larry on each of the cheeks he pinches, before turning his attention back to the girls with a smile.

Pinkie giggles some more.

“Hehe. My partners, always clowning,” Moe tells them. “Sorry about that.”

“Oh no, that’s perfectly alright. There’s no harm done,” Sunset assures him.

“Yeah, besides those jokes were really funny. And what would the world be like without some clowning here and there?” Pinkie says while giggling.

“You mean like what you do all the time, Pinkie?” Rainbow Dash says with a roll of her eyes.

“Abso-toola-lutely.”

The way Pinkie says ‘absolutely’ makes Curly ‘nyuck’ laugh in response.

“Now there’s a kid with a sense of humor,” he says.

“Yay,” Moe agrees, “Anyways, kids. I don’t think we properly introduced ourselves. I’m Moe.”

“I’m Larry,” Larry greets them.

“I’m Curly,” Curly also greets, before making his trademark sound with his hands and fingers.

The girls and dog giggle after seeing that.

“It’s nice to meet you three,” Sunset says, “My name’s Sunset. Sunset Shimmer.”

“I’m Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight greets.

“Howdy, partners. Name’s Applejack.” Applejack greets.

“I’m Fluttershy.” Fluttershy greets.

“I’m Pinkie Pie.” Pinkie greets.

“Name’s Rainbow Dash.” Rainbow says.

“And I’m Rarity,” Rarity says, “And might I say that it’s a pleasure to meet such strong fellows like you, Darlings.”

After saying that, Rarity flutters her eyes at the Three Stooges while offering them a charming smile.

The display causes the Stooges to notice her beauty right away, and they whistle because of it. His ladies wolf-side turning on, Curly barks because of how attractive he finds Rarity, something that Moe thinks is a little too much.

“Hey, Great Dane,” he says to Curly.

Catching Curly’s attention, who has very little thought at the moment, Moe puts his own elbow on Curly’s stomach, and uses his balled up fist to double-punch Curly’s stomach. Curly grunts with pain and looks at Moe with another peeved look.

When Spike sees this, he giggles because he can tell why Curly has barked like that.  “A ladies’ wolf, huh?” he questions.

“Yeah, when it comes to pretty lookin’ girls, he-“ but Moe cuts himself short when he and his friends realize something: the dog can talk!

The Stooges look at one another with freaked out looks to see if they’re the only ones who just noticed that, and slowly turn their attention back to Spike.

“Hi,” Spike says to the Stooges.

Immediately, the Stooges scream in fright, clinging, grabbing, and scrambling onto each other as they do.

“It’s okay! Woah! Woah! It’s okay!” Twilight shouts, causing the Stooges to quiet down, “This is just my dog, Spike. He won’t hurt you.”

At Twilight’s assurance, the Stooges calm down. They fully sit themselves onto the couch like they have been before.

“I’ve seen iron-head over here bark like a dog, but for a dog to talk like a person?” Moe says with confusion.

“Are either of you girls playing a game around here with this?” Larry asks.

Spike and the others chuckle because of that.

“Nope. I can talk as plain as a parrot,” Spike says to the Stooges.

Understanding now that Spike can talk and is also a really nice dog, Curly smiles with relaxation.

“Hmmm *nyuck* *nyuck*, you must have had first-rate speech classes,” he comments.

“Well, I wouldn’t say that. How I gained the ability to speak like you guys was through some...uh, magical means,” Spike replies.

“What do ya mean?” Moe asks.

Not knowing how to explain it, Spike looks towards the other girls for help on the subject.

Sunset and the other girls look to one another, wondering if they should give an explanation to them or not. They smile and give each other a nod, thinking that they can be trusted. Twilight chooses to be the first to tell them.

“Well, what Spike is saying is that, around the time he and I first came to Canterlot High...he was enchanted by magic from another world.” she explains, “In fact, all seven of us have magic, which is contained inside of the pendants that we wear around our necks.”

To help the Stooges see what they’re talking about, the girls hold out the pendants.

The Stooges lean closer to what they’re being shown, and though they can see the pendants, they still cannot understand what they’re being told. The word ‘magic’ definitely rings a bell for them, although...

“Aw, come on. That sort of stuff only exists in fairy tales,” Larry says in disbelief.

“He’s right,” Moe agrees. “The only kind of magic  around is the kind that comes from a prestidigitator.”

“Say, I object to that,” Curly says.

“Why?” Moe and Larry ask.

“How can magic be performed only by people who press refrigerators?” Curly asks in return.

Larry and Moe give Curly a look of irritation, and it makes Moe want to punch him right in the nose. But, before he could take action...

They suddenly feel their own feet being lifted off the ground.

They look down and realize that they and the couch are being lifted up into the air by something. Something that is definitely strong, that’s for sure.

To their surprise, Applejack is holding them and the sofa in the air with just the palm of one hand, smiling as she does. She notices them watching her right away.

“This convince ya any?” she asks them.

“Man, you must’ve had quite a workout to get that strong,” Larry could only say.

“I’ll take that as a ‘no’ then,” Applejack says, knowing that they obviously aren’t convinced.

Slowly and gently, she puts the Stooges and the sofa back down on the ground, with the Stooges still looking mystified by how strong she is.

Then, Rainbow Dash gets an idea of how they can prove it to them. In the blink of an eye, she runs out of the living room with a rainbow trailing behind her. Upon seeing this, Moe blinks a few times to see if he isn’t imagining anything; Larry waves his hand at where Rainbow has been before to see if she really is gone; and Curly rubs his eyes for a bit to see if he isn’t hallucinating.

And then, Rainbow Dash returns to the exact spot, so fast, that it’s like she hasn’t left the room, with only one difference...

In her hand is a chocolate chip cookie bigger than a human hand.

When the Stooges see the cookie, they become awestruck, and lean closer to what Rainbow is holding like they want to be sure it’s real.

“Cookie?” Rainbow asks with a smirk.

“Oh. Thank you,” Curly says, before gently taking the cookie from Rainbow. He *nyuck* chuckles as he takes a look at the cookie, before trying to take a bite of it.

“Hey,” Moe says, getting Curly’s attention, “give it back.”

Bothered by Moe’s order, but not wanting to get any slapstick treatment if he keeps holding it, Curly starts to give the cookie back to Rainbow right away. But, before he can even stretch his arm all the way out, Moe takes the cookie out of Curly’s hand.

“You would,” Moe says with a look of annoyance.

Then, Moe breaks the cookie into three big pieces. He gives the left piece to Larry, the right piece to Curly, and keeps the middle piece. They then eat their pieces of the cookie, relishing the taste of it.

“Mighty fine running you did there, Kid,” Moe talks with his mouth full, then swallows. “Tell me, what’s the name & phone number of the person who trained you to run that fast?”

“You’re kidding right?” Rainbow says, “I just ran faster than a speeding bullet, and you still don’t believe it’s because of magic?”

The Stooges shrug their shoulders, the gesture saying that while they don’t think it’s magic, they’re amazed to the point of where they don’t know what to make of it.

Then, Twilight comes up with an idea of her own. One that’s sure to convince the boys.

With a close of her eyes, and a grasp of her pendant, her hands glow purple, and an aura of the same color surrounds the Stooges. Then, she levitates the Stooges off the ground and into the air, making them float around.

When the Stooges see what’s going on, they’re immediately surprised. Also a little scared because of being off the ground, screaming as they’re floating. It doesn’t take long for the Stooges to get used to it though, because the experience makes them feel like astronauts in outer space.

“So, what do you think?” Twilight asks after opening her eyes, “Convinced?”

“Convinced?” Moe replies, “Kids, you’ve got yourselves a group of new believers.”

“I’ll say,” Larry replies.

“We got no strings on us,” Curly says.

“But, how do we get down from here?” Larry asks, “All this floating around is starting to-“

But he can barely finish his sentence, because he burps and starts to feel nauseous to the point of throwing up.

“Oh! Of course,” Twilight says, “Hang on.”

With another grasp of her pendant, Twilight makes the aura around the Stooges disappear. Of course, she forgot to put them back down first, and so, the Stooges fall on the couch and...

*BONK*

They bonk their heads against each other.

Twilight gasps, “Oh my goodness! I’m so sorry! Are you boys alright?!”

“Not to worry, Kid,” Moe assures, while still rubbing his head, “there’s no harm done.”

Once the pain subsides, the Stooges stop rubbing their heads. Their full attention goes to the girls and Spike.

“Before we proceed with anything else, I think we’d like to ask you some questions,” Sunset says to the Stooges.

“Certainly, what is it?” Curly asks.

“First, would you mind if we see your credentials?”

At that sudden question, Moe, Larry, and Curly suddenly gain looks of confusion, having no idea what she’s asking of them.

“Credentials?” Moe asks.

“Yes, your credentials,” Sunset replies.

However, it doesn’t take long for them to figure out exactly what it is that Sunset wants to see.

“Well, to tell ya the truth, we’ve never used any before. Don’t really know how to either,” Moe says.

“Yeah, we prefer using dollar bills and coins than those things,” Larry comments.

“I got one though,” Curly reaches into his pocket and pulls out what he’s looking for: a credit card, “I got this one from Walmart to shop at the store itself, course I’m not sure why I got it anymore since I don’t even know how to use it.”

Moe and Larry give Curly looks of shock, because they have had no idea that he has been carrying a Walmart credit card. Moe’s look of course changes from one of shock to one of being peeved.

“How much money did you pay for that card?” Moe asks him.

“Twenty-five dollars,” Curly says matter-of-factly.

“And where did you get the money?”

“I found it under the bed and-“ he stops midway, because he realizes that Moe knows more about that money than he thinks before screaming, “NYAAAAGH!!!”

And before anyone else can react, Moe cups his hand onto Curly’s nose, and uses his other hand to double bonk it, making Curly scream with pain.

“You Apple Head, that money was the money we made at our last job to pay the landlady!”

“But Moe, I didn’t-“

“Shut up!” Moe uses his two fingers to poke Curly in the eyes, making him yelp in pain.

“Here, you can have it,” Curly says, handing the card to Sunset.

She takes the card, although, when she and the others look at it, they find out that the Stooges have misunderstood.

“No, no, no. I’m not talking about credit cards,” Sunset says to them. “Credentials are the documents that show your backgrounds and experiences when it comes to a job.”

The Stooges understand now what Sunset wants from them.

“Oh. Well, sorry Sunset. But, we definitely don’t have any of those in our pockets at the moment.” Moe tells her.

The girls give the Stooges strange and blank looks.

“Ooookaaay. Well then, how much expertise do you have in technology?” Sunset asks.

“What do ya mean?” Larry asks.

“Well, Mr. Quick-Fix told us he was sending down some of the best experts of technology he has, so...how long have you been technology experts?”

Their expressions go from just being confused, to also being shocked and frightened.  Their expressions don’t last long enough for the girls to notice, lucky for them, but still.

“Technology experts?” Larry asks, to see if they heard correctly.

“Of course, Silly-Willy,” Pinkie says, “What’s the matter, are your ears stuffed up?”

“U-uh, no, no! My ears are fine.” Larry assures with a stutter.

“Yeah, mine are alright too.” Moe says.

“Mine three.” Curly says, “Although, I think I may have a little something in my ear. Hold on a sec.”

So with that, Curly uses his index finger to dig inside of his own ear, feeling for anything inside of it, much to the sudden disgust of everyone else in the room. When he finally feels something inside of his ear, he pulls his finger out to reveal...a very large ball of earwax.

He is shocked when he sees what he has dug out with his finger. The others meanwhile are not only shocked, but disgusted by the site of the ball of earwax.

“Look, I found a big one!” he comments.

“So you have.” Moe says, before grabbing Curly’s hand and pushing it to Curly’s forehead, the finger with the wax on it touching the part right between the eyes.

“Hmmmmm.” Curly says, annoyed by Moe and what he has done.

“Oh! Here, let me help you.” Rarity offers, grabbing a tissue and moving to Curly.

She stops in front of Curly behind the couch he’s sitting on. With ease, she uses the tissue to wipe the ball of earwax off of Curly’s head.

“Thanks.” Curly says to her with a smile.

“You’re welcome.” Rarity replies, smiling back at him and returning back to the others.

“You were asking if we’re technology experts, right?” Larry and the other Stooges look at each other nervously.

“Yes, of course.” Sunset confirms.

“Well, uh, we’ve had tons of experiences with technology.”

“Yeah, we’re especially pretty good with things like TVs and microwaves.” Moe tells them.

It isn’t a complete lie. They’re pretty good at using TVs and microwaves, but the fact is, they have no idea how to fix any of those things.

“That’s good,” Sunset commends, “and, can you fix them?”

“Fix ‘em? Why, certainly, we’re great at repairing,” Moe lies.

“Three of the best repairmen ever to do a repair!” Curly exclaims, also lying.

“Yeah, and this one time, we were able to fix an old and large bell at a Catholic church,” Larry lies.

At that very moment, the Stooges suddenly realize everything they just said, and look at one another with shock so brief the others don’t notice. Just like they have done before at the Quick Fix’s repair shop, they have lied about the whole thing! By saying the same lies too!

“Um, could you excuse us for a few minutes, kids?” Moe asks them.

“Oh, why...certainly, darlings.” Rarity quizzically raises her eyebrow.

“Thanks.” Curly tells them.

Suddenly, before any of the girls can ask what they need to be excused for, the Stooges run out the living room, past the clocks, and out the front door, where they make a break for the truck, opening the trunk and getting inside of it, the girls watching from the doorway as they do so.

“Hmmmm...that’s strange. Could they be leaving or something?” Rarity wonders.

“Ah don’t think so, Rarity,” Applejack comments, “Somethin’ ain’t right. Did any of ya’ll see how suspicious they looked?”

“I did,” Twilight answered, “When we started asking them all of those questions, they seemed to have gotten really nervous. It was as if they were hiding something.”

“I can’t help but think the same thing.” Sunset agrees, “I hope they’re actually being truthful.”



In the Van...

The Stooges are in the back of the vehicle, arguing and babbling at one another at the same time, so much that they aren’t allowing each other to say their piece individually. Finally though, each of them quiet down.

“You Jughead, what’s the idea of startin’ up the lies again?!” Moe says to Curly.

“Me?! You’re the one that started it,” Curly defends, “‘Great at repairing’ is what you said! Great at repairing!”

“Well, you could’ve told them afterwards that I was lying! But instead, you simply follow into it with that ‘Three of the best repairmen ever to do a repair’ gag again!” Moe points out. “What’s the idea of doing that?!”

“I don’t know.”

Moe turns his attention to Larry. “And what about you, Porcupine?”

“Me?! What did I do?!” Larry asks.

“Don’t give me that look, you know as well as I do that you didn’t tell them the whole truth about that church bell!”

“How can you even forget what happened to the priest?!” Curly asks.

“How should I know?! It isn’t my fault I forgot about that and told that part of the lie!” Larry says.

“Well, that isn’t even the worst part,” Moe points out. “Those girls outside were apparently expectin’ some other mugs to come to that house.”

“Yeah, and they think we’re some other mugs too.” Curly dumbly points out like he hasn’t heard the last part, much to Moe’s aggravation.

He holds out his fist, “Pick out two fingers.”

“One, two,” Curly says.

When the fingers are picked, Moe uses them to poke Curly in the eyes, causing Curly to yelp.

“What are we gonna do now?” Larry asks.

“I don’t know, Kid, I don’t know.” Moe answers, “But we’re in a really tough spot, so we gotta think of somethin’.”

“Well, those dames and dog out there sure were awfully nice. Shouldn’t we just tell ‘em the truth?” Curly suggests.

“Yeah, we could probably just-“ but Moe abruptly cuts himself off with a jolt, “What?! Are you insane, we can’t do that!”

“Why?” Curly and Larry ask at the same time.

“Well, ya want them to get mad at us or somethin’? Before we ever became repairmen, our would-be employers at other jobs often put on nice faces, but then threw us right out of the building after we would tell ‘em we’re nothin’ but a bunch of saps!” Moe exclaims.

“Oh yeah, right,” Larry and Curly say, remembering those other times.

“You have a point, Moe. Who’s to say they won’t do the same?” Larry says. “Besides that, they were offering us a job, weren’t they?”

“Why, soitenly.” Curly confirms.

“Right,” Moe checks his watch. “We’ve only got a few hours until six o’clock, which is when our work hours are done and we have to report back to our apartment. If we go back without having a job or money tonight, the landlady’ll make us sleep on the sidewalk.”

“What’s her problem anyway? We’re only eight months behind on the rent.”

When Curly says that, Larry and Moe slap him on the forehead.

“Okay, so, we’re all in agreement then that we’ll just have to keep up the act until the day is done, right?”

In response to that question, Curly and Larry dumbly smile and shake their heads ‘no’, much to Moe’s annoyance because apparently that means that they don’t want to keep this all quiet.

“Yes.” the two of them unexpectedly say, because it’s the exact opposite of their nodding.

Moe smiles at them, glad that despite their head-shaking they’ve agreed to keep up the act until quitting time. Although, because of the ‘no’ before saying ‘yes’...

*BONK*

He bonks their heads together.

When Curly and Larry recover, they look at Moe with looks of confusion.

“What’s that for?” Curly asks.

“Before you say ‘yes’, you’re supposed to nod your head up and down, like this.” Moe moves his head up and down.

“Well, what about the other nod we did?” Larry asks.

“Don’t you numbskulls know your head and body language? When you nod your head like this,” he shakes his head sideways, “That actually means ‘no’.”

“Ohhhhhhhh.” Larry and Curly say in understanding.

“Yeah.”



Outside the Van...

The Equestria Girls are standing out front, Sunset in the front doorway, Rainbow leaning back against the wall by the doorframe, and the others spread out throughout the front porch, wondering what could be going on with the repairmen in the damaged vehicle and why they ran inside it in the first place.

“I wonder what they‘re doing in there?” Fluttershy asks.

“Now that there’s a question that all of us are wonderin’, Sugarcube,” Applejack says.

Just then, the doors to the van open wide.

Moe, Larry, and Curly each step out of the van one at a time, and they scurry straight back to the girls. They come to a stop when they approach the steps to Sunset’s porch.

“Is everything alright?” Sunset asks them.

“Oh, nothing to worry about, Kid,” Moe assures her, “We just, uh-“

“Forgot to get the tools,” Larry interrupts, and shows everyone the tool bag.

When Moe sees the bag Larry has, his first course of action is to ask Larry where he got the tools from. However, he decides to hold his tongue and play along with it, so as not to give the girls a reason to be suspicious.

“What he said,” Moe lies, “We also just wanted to talk things over privately, and we are happy to tell ya that we will happily take whatever job you have for us.”

“Yeah, if it’s experts in technology you’re lookin’ for, you’ve got the right guys,” Curly lies, “Remember, your mother and my mother are both mothers.”

Once again feeling annoyed by Curly because of the witty punchline he has given, Moe stomps his foot onto Curly’s foot, making him yell because of the pain.

Curly gets peeved by what Moe has done and gives him a look to show it.

The girls and dog meanwhile can’t help but giggle and chuckle because of the scene, and their suspicions fade away for now.

“Well, then I’m glad that you three came,” Sunset says with a smile.

“So are we,” Twilight says, motioning to the others who nod in agreement.

The Stooges blink for a moment, almost finding it hard to believe that the girls have fallen for what they just told them.

“Mr. Quick-Fix never discussed with us how much he’d like for us to pay you all. But, how does, say...$125 an hour sound?”

The Stooges jump with a jolt at the sound of how much money Sunset is willing to pay them for the work.

“$125 an hour?” Moe asks.

“Why, yes,” Sunset says.

“Hey, Bunion-Head,” he says to Curly. “How much is that a minute?”

In response to Moe’s question, Curly all of a sudden gives off a blank look before making noises like a typewriter with his lips, moving them at a speed no one has thought possible. As his mouth makes the typing sound, his head slowly moves to the right, then jolts back to the left. The process repeats itself a couple more times, before finally, with one last ding...

He stops.

He puts a couple of his fingers to his lips, and uses them to pull something out before doing the same with the fingers of his other hand. A long and rectangular piece of paper, like from that of an old-fashioned calculator, gets pulled out of his mouth, until he rips it off of his lips like one would a receipt machine.

He looks at what the receipt and says, “Two dollars and eight cents.”

“Exactly what I was thinking,” Moe says, and pats Curly on the head. “Good work, Kid. You’re still usin’ the old noggin of yours.”

He turns back to face the girls and dog. “Ladies and Dog, you’ve got yourselves a deal on the payment.”

“What do you want us to do?” Larry asks.

“Well, partners. Follow us upstairs and we’ll show ya,” Applejack motions, being the first to walk in the house.

The other girls, as well as Spike, follow closely behind Applejack in the house.

And with that, the Stooges follow the girls and dog. But, instead of walking, they run to the doorway and try to get through it at the same time. They each get stuck in the doorway though, unable to get through.

“Spread out!” Moe orders.

So, they all back out of the doorway, and Moe becomes the first to run through the door.

Curly and Larry then try to run through the doorway, but the two of them once again get stuck. They back out of it again just to get free.

Both of them are about to run through it again, but they both see one another about to go through. Curly is the first to react a second time, being the one to run first, and with Larry following behind, each of them being able to make it through the door and closing it behind them.



Meanwhile...Back at Quick-Fix’s House and Electricity Fixer-Uppers Inc....

Mr. Quick-Fix is in the garage part of his shop, still knocked out from the ordeal with his three new employees.

He stirs in his sleep, at last being able to wake up. He also puts his hand to his head, because it feels like a ton of bricks have fallen on it.

“Ohhhh. Have I got a headache.” He groans.

He stands up from what must’ve been a few hours’ nap. His head feels hazy, and he’s unable to remember exactly what happened to have caused him to fall into unconsciousness. He does however remember that he keeps an ice pack inside of a refrigerator in his office, so he heads straight to his work station.

Little does he know what’s happening under his very nose. Especially concerning three certain men.