middleofsomewhere | Onward: Purple

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Onward: Purple

Rescue Efforts

Progress has been good, with many of the trapped citizens now rescued and parts of the city put to rights. There are only a couple of pockets of trapped people remaining, where it is proving difficult structurally to clear the tunnels. Even so, spirits are high; it’s believed they’ll be able to do so with the Voidtreckers’ assistance.

Work is still done in shifts and continues through the night. Voidtreckers are encouraged to rest after their shifts, and stagger themselves. It’s likely that there’s a mix of people awake and asleep as the sun rises on the third day.

Dawn Attack

Not long after dawn many of the Terran phones begin ringing with notifications and alarms, and there is a general wave of panic that spreads through the adult Terran. Followed by a rush of activity, as those asleep are quickly shaken awake to get ready.

It won’t take long, they’re told. There has been an attack. Not here, but in another segment of the city. Unknown forces, monstrosities of some kind coming down the service tunnels. Forces are holding them off but they need backup. Transport is quickly arranged and any Voidtreckers who wish to go and help can do so.

Transport is a train, one that is sourced incredibly quickly and filled with combat-ready Terran civilians. Not all go, since people are still needed to finish the rescue efforts and prepare for any attack in this sector.

Those that do go will find a battle raging between Terran and monsters. It may be that shortly after the Voidtreckers and their Terran friends turn up they will be joined by some more adventurous members of Orange Team who followed the monsters down the tunnels.

Days of Fighting

Throughout the next few days (G7-G11), fights spring up around the city. Though the first fight was against monsters from the lab, it seems others have found ways of getting into the tunnel system. The Terran are practical and quickly set up systems of transport for quick response. They don’t have much in the way of lights; their own decorative lights are soft, which will drive the creatures back from illuminated areas but be unable to destroy them.

They will happily accept as much help as the Voidtreckers can give. The fighting is lessened as the day goes on, as no new monsters enter the tunnels, but sunset brings fresh recruits.

For those who cannot or do not wish to fight there is plenty that needs doing. Centres are set up for the injured. Fighters need food and water. There are still collapsed tunnels that need repaired and cleaned up. The final trapped citizens need to be brought to safety. Children need to be watched and kept out of danger.

A Rumour

Talking of children, as the days go by the Terran teenagers get more and more agitated. A few times they can be seen trying to approach exhausted and stressed adults, mobile phones in their hands as they try and explain something.

They are quickly dismissed. If asked about it the teenagers will tell literally anyone who listens that they think the monsters are going after The Dweller. They will distractedly explain that it is some lifeform within the planet that ‘those Gry’ worship as a god.

‘Those Gry’ are their primary source of information, in fact, and most of their evidence seems to be coming from dream interpretation forums. Probably why they aren’t getting taken seriously by their stressed parents.

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Inigo does get a look for that, a scrunch of the nose to go with his sour lemon expression. Why you gotta be cruel, bro?? But Tidus has his food, and he's going to continue to munch away at it because there's a burger that is now being long forgotten on the floor elsewhere...didn't even stand a chance.

"It's done now," he dismisses the concern easy. "What's been going on over here anyway? I know those things started coming down. And there's something 'bout some dweller?"

Hypocrite. Don't think he's going to forget this moment, Tidus. The next time you try to get him into a bed, he's going to remember, bro! He'll know what to say, homie! You can't control him now, dude!

Although he at least drops the opportunity to say anything about it in favour of answering Tidus' question. Said answer starts with a shrug.

"Those monsters are around here too, yes. Although they seem to have been able to make safe zones like these where the people who can't fight can hide and the injured can rest." And where Tidus can eat, apparently. "I'm not quite sure about the whole dweller thing.. I think I heard some of the younger Terrans mention them. They're also the ones who have all of this insect-free food. Supposedly it's some sort of special lifeform in this world? They very much speak of it as a singular being."

Bless the youngsters who are hip and get the avocado equivalent of food in this city.

Tidus ponders on Inigo's answer, though there isn't really much to think about. Some weird dwelling thing, and a hundred and too-many orbs that turned into attacking fiends once they met with darkness. It makes him chew slower for a while, until it doesn't, somewhere as his thoughts concludes this shared info with one big shrug.

"Don't know what any of that's got to do with the stuff 'bove ground." Meh. "Unless this is some kind of... a big bad being trying to take us all out just because."

Didn't Reno say something about a planet just up and deciding 'screw you'? Like that, except whatever this dweller thing was.

"Well, I think the monsters are heading down towards that being. Those came from above ground, right?"

That's what he's managed to piece together from the information he's heard over the SCAs and the things he's heard some of the Terrans whisper to each other about. Inigo might not be the brightest guy, but he's at least capable of processing information like this.

"Although I'm not sure what kind of problem they've got with it to do so in the first place."

"Yeah, same here," Tidus sighs, taking a moment to not stick more food into his mouth at his own line of conversation. If only to come to the conclusion:

"Whatever's going on, it's probably stupid. It doesn't even sound like that thing underground's been doing anything worth going after it for in the first place."

And he takes another bite with that. What else can be smart about this entire situation? Nothing, it's annoying.

Something about this feels oddly familiar. Almost weirdly homely in a sense, even. Inigo may be used to fighting, but that doesn't mean he likes having to do it. Just sitting here with a friend who is currently stuffing his face with food and is whining about the things they have to do on this mission as if it's just some random casual thing.. It's nice. Inigo feels himself relaxing a bit, even smiling in the face of Tidus' sighing and complaining.

"Maybe it's since you tried to play Blitzball with those orbs. You made them angry!"

Inigo knows that's probably not the case, but come on. Him hanging out with Tidus right now feels so normal that he can't help but poke fun at the other. Especially since he already gave the other food, he ought to get something like this in return!

"Wha?" Tidus's face flattens into a look of utter disapproval and offence. "I tried that once! And it didn't work! What's that got to do with anything?"

Inigo it's stupid you're being stupid and Tidus is going to call you out! And even go on with it, since- "And that's not even the worse anyone tried! We stuck sand in them, fried 'em, electrocuted--we even stuck darkness in! Those made them do something weird. Nothing that mattered though."

Huff. He hates these things. They won't stay down and he won't put up with it! Except he has to, but at least he can grumble to make himself feel better.

"That sounds an aaawful lot like what someone who's trying to avoid blame would say!"

Tidus, surely you aren't that grumpy that you can't even appreciate a joke? It's obvious that Inigo isn't even being serious, he's using his teasing tone and all! Not to mention there's a wide grin on his face as he says it.

"Come on, you didn't come all the way over here just to stuff yourself and be grumpy at me, right? Where's that smile?" Be careful, because Inigo is moving his hands over to Tidus' face now.. He's going to tug those cheeks into a smile if he isn't stopped!

Tidus isn't serious either, his part played up to match the accusations being shot his way--why would he think that Inigo was really being serious about calling out blitzball as the reason behind all this? (Then again...!)

So Inigo continues to get the moody child look, turning suspicious and his head leaning back some when those hands come his way, surely up to no good.

"What do you think you're doin'?" Handsy! And if he wants to be that- "I'll smile if you give me a shoulder rub."

Now there's a reason to smile!

Aw, man! Now his hands are grabbing and pitching at nothing but air.. If only Tidus' reflexes were slightly less good! This is why Inigo shouldn't mess with people who are used to playing sports...

"And that sounds suspiciously like you're trying to manipulate me into giving you a shoulder rub."

Inigo squints. But despite saying that, there's hardly even as much as a pause before he continues:

"But.. you know. If that would make you feel better, then I will."

"Really?" There's a blink, a look of surprise, examining Inigo for a few seconds before he already has Tidus shaking up his shoulders as if in preparation, straightening his back, and even a sneak preview of a cheerful grin.

"Alright then, come on! Lemme see what you got!"

His body is waiting, Inigo!

"Fine! Prepare to be impressed!" Maybe Inigo is hyping this up a little too much. It's not like he's a professional at this sort of thing, after all.. But it just wouldn't be Inigo if he didn't try to sprinkle in some dramatics at this dumbest of moments.

He moves to kneel behind where Tidus is sitting. The temptation is so big to just give him a surprise hard squeeze in the shoulders to startle him.. But Inigo is going to be good and not act on that. Surely Tidus has been working hard out there too. The pranks can wait until they're back on the train and not dealing with any monsters, at least.

So when Inigo puts his hands on Tidus' shoulders, it's surprisingly gentle at first. And sure, it's obvious that Inigo doesn't do this often. It doesn't exactly feel like a professional massage or anything. But for what it's worth, Inigo does seem to have a knack for having just the right pressure - not too strong that it hurts, but also not too weak - as he rubs Tidus' shoulders.

"How's that, huh? I bet that right now the only thing you can think is, 'wow, I can't believe I have such an amazing friend as Inigo! I am completely moved to tears by his generosity and spirit!'"

Of course Inigo is going to go in all talk, that's how he is, but Tidus is still taken by Inigo's agreement to it in the first place. Really? Hey, he wants to know what this is going to be like, and he can always tell Inigo if he sucks at it without shame (but with thanks anyway).

But actually--he doesn't. Yeah, he's no professional, but he knows to start off slow, warming his skin and muscles to his touch first before any squeezes, and it's nice. It's familiar, a kind of level of skill he's known and been treated to plenty of times before, and Tidus is perhaps surprisingly quiet, his attention now not so much on filling his stomach as he is on the pressure and attention granted him.

He'll even ignore Inigo's usual exaggeration by giving it just a scoff.

"You used to do this with the people back home too?"

Tidus knows how to relax his shoulders beyond the knots already there; a particular area on his right side if Inigo should squeeze it a certain way getting a small low hiss out of him. Be careful, bro.

"Not really--"

It's then that he hits the exact area that makes Tidus hiss, and it does say something about Inigo's character that rather than exploiting it or trying to squeeze extra hard, he instead stops and freezes up for a moment before quickly moving onto a different area, wanting to avoid that one now out of a mix of slight guilt and embarrassment.

And of course he quickly talks on too to cover it up.

"But there is a first time for everything, isn't there? And I suppose you've worked hard enough to earn it. And will hopefully properly appreciate my efforts here."

What speaks more to Inigo's character for Tidus is that he's doing this at all. It's nothing he did back home, so why do it now? A false exchange that was obviously a joke, but here Inigo is doing it, if with his usual jokes of self-grandeur thrown in. It makes Tidus curious, until he remembers that day in the luggage car, and maybe-- ah.

"Thanks," Tidus says, sincerely, though he feels a little silly for himself; not really Inigo would go out of his way to do this as some recompense. "I'll do it back then, after. It doesn't beat a real massage, but." Beggars can't be choosers. Unless. "You didn't happen to sweet talk about masseurs, did you?"

Inigo's movement on Tidus' shoulders starts going slower, until it stops. Not in a way that he's done with the whole shoulder rub necessarily, since his hands are still very much there - they're just not moving.

Mostly because Inigo seems confused. It may be hard to see his face while he's behind Tidus like this, but the confusion is obvious in his tone.

"You.. say that word as if it's a job..?"

Listen, medieval job prospects were limited, okay. No professional shoulder rubbers!

"Yeah?"

Tidus answers, figuring he knows what he's responding to, but then he pauses and wonder if he actually does. Masseurs, right? He can't recall anything else he's said, and so he questions with a slight uncertainty that's more curious:

"You don't know what a masseur is? A massager? Gets under the skin, relieves knots?"

Ringing any better bells?

"I-.." He starts, then stops. "I hope you don't mean that 'under the skin' part literally..?"

Inigo may be an idiot, but he's pretty sure that's meant in some metaphorical way. Surely. Because someone literally getting under your skin doesn't sound comfortable at all! No, thanks, he'd pass on that!

But he definitely sounds like he's trying to click all these pieces into place in his mind as he's talking.

"You mean there are people who do this sort of thing professionally enough to have a title?"

Inigo may not be an idiot, but the question nonetheless earns the incredulous look it deserves, whether or not it can be seen, and Tidus can't even make fun of that. Because he can tell Inigo is being serious, and.

Really? Really?

"Yeah...?" That's a yeah to the job title, not to the skin thing. Tidus gets that there's a world/planet/multi-something something difference here, but maybe he's still put off by the under the skin question. "There's all kinds of jobs, you know? And massages are good if you're active. Your muscles get tight and they help, you get a massage before a big game!"

A massage was a...massage! What else was there to say? But Tidus thinks, and--

"You wanna see if they have massage parlours here?"

you know...maybe...even in the middle of all this?

Before a big game, Tidus says, and instantly Inigo understands. Ah. Right. This is more of that weird, weird obsession Tidus' world has with sports, isn't it? At least it makes him feel slightly better about not knowing what they are, since now Inigo is figuring it might be one of those things that's not common across many worlds, but more something specific to Tidus'.. And who can blame him for not knowing about sports when he was kind of busy surviving the apocalypse!

"You think they have them here?"

He sounds sceptical. Though not in the Tidus-you're-an-idiot kind of way, more the this-is-a-literal-underground-city-would-that-really-be-their-priority kind of way.

".. Wait. Scratch that. There's no time to go see that! I'm just here because I am feeding you, but I have to get back to work!" Did you really think he wasn't overworking himself here? Because.. you know. Surprise! He is totally attempting to overwork himself as usually!

"Huh?" Now Tidus tries to swing his head around to look at Inigo, the sudden shift in his priorities puzzling him more than the likelihood of a bug-like people having massage parlours (that's still up in the air. ...or in the ground).

"What are you talking about? Aren't you here to take a rest too? Sit down and eat yourself." As single-minded as Tidus was about food, he's pretty sure Inigo doesn't have a Tidus radar in him that just located the guy straight to him. So why else did he come over here? And Tidus is the only one who's been eating here (or was, until shoulder rubs).

"Nothing's gonna happen if you're gone for half an hour."

Listen, sometimes you have a ~~babysitter~~ friend houding you about how you need a break and you get sent to the break area and you're just looking for your chance to slip away and get back to the main action! Thanks but no thanks, Gerome! Especially since now he has to escape Tidus, which makes this whole deal considerably harder. Tidus is way too powerful for his own good.

"I've already eaten."

A very bold lie. Or, well, he has eaten, just not.. recently..? Does that still count. He's praying his stomach won't growl.

"Besides, they need all the help they can get around here. It's not as if we were sent here to just loaf around and do nothing."

"Resting isn't loafing, Inigo."

What is with this guy and with the very basic necessities of living a good and healthy life? Or just not putting an unnecessary strain on yourself, and that's a funny thing to hear guy use after sitting around to rub another guy's shoulders for a while. Which Tidus is fine with not continuing, and he picks up the containers that Inigo brought over for him and moves them aside, but in a way so he can turn, and bring it over with him.

Not he can actually look at Inigo proper, meeting him with a quizzical look.

"What's up? We don't have to go looking for a massage parlour if you don't want to, you know."

Is that why he's suddenly so fussy?

"What?"

Ironically enough it's the second thing Tidus says that manages to get that surprised reaction from him, not the first. The first thing is expected, but there's something about the way the second thing ends - the implication that he doesn't want to - that leaves Inigo wide-eyed for a moment.

Slowly the surprise melts into a smile. Then a laugh.

"It's not that I don't want to. I don't mind doing things with you, Tidus. I rather like it, actually." Insecurities about his attachment to physical affection and Tidus' discomfort with it aside, but look, one issue at a time! Besides, he's being honest about that!

"I just.." He starts, then hesitates. How much of the truth does he tell here? Does he tell any truth at all? Inigo feels like Tidus would most likely pick up on it if he tried to lie now. "I want to do the right thing as long as I'm here."

It's not really the core of the issue. It's more of a side issue that he doesn't mind bearing as much.

"It just wouldn't feel right to me if I wasn't helping the people around here. It's not even like I need that much rest. I can sleep tonight.".. Whenever tonight is. It's hard to tell underground. The past few days 'tonight' has pretty much been 'whenever Gerome drags him off to force him to sleep', really.

How does he even confront a guy like Inigo? It's difficult, strange: his intentions coming from a good place, but there's always something off about them, self-sacrificing to the core. There's no stopping because the problem hasn't stopped, and it makes the troubled look stick to Tidus's face.

'I can sleep tonight'. Because he won't rest until then, right? That's how Tidus hears it, and it worries him.

"Eat with me." For the scoffing down Tidus had been doing earlier, there's still food left from what Inigo gave him that he pushes forward. He doesn't know where to get more of this food himself, and he doesn't know if he wants to fuss over making Inigo get extra when he isn't even sure he'll convince him to eat here and now.

"There's a whole group of us down here, it's not gonna matter if you take a break or two. You should--everyone should. You can think about whatever you're gonna go back and do, but it's not wrong. I'll even come with you if you do. Are you dealing with the fiends?"

Look, let's get into plan talk. Is that distracting enough, will it work.

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