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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"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.

If Tidus just had asked him to eat with him, it might not have worked.

But talking about the mission is a lot more effective. At least it still gives Inigo the feeling of being productive, even though he's just sitting here. Inigo even actually grabs some of the leftovers off the plate, considering he is at least aware he might as well eat if the food is right in front of him and he's not going anywhere anyway.

"I am."

Yes, there's totally no answer to any of the break stuff. Breaks are for chumps!

"I can't easily destroy them, but I can at least hold them off until someone arrives to fully take care of them. At least it should keep anyone in this city from getting hurt."

Can't believe this is working one day he will throttle Inigo...

"Are you getting them in the eyes? Working with another Trecker?"

Basic questions, but he doesn't know entirely the set-up or how dealing with them has with going. Or how Inigo will usually choose to work if left to his own devices. Hopefully not stupid enough to choose to go solo considering all the people here, but.

...Tidus doesn't really trust that to be the case.

He nods.

"I've been asking people who have light-based powers for help in getting rid of them. There's only so much you can do by shining your SCA into all the individual monsters' eyes one by one.." See, Inigo may be the kind of guy who'd take the weight off the entire world upon his own shoulders if he could, but he's at least not totally stupid.

.. well, and it kind of helps that there's people throwing help at him from all directions right now even if he wouldn't ask for it..

"Besides, I've been with Gerome this entire time. He doesn't have his weapon, so it wouldn't feel right to leave him alone. .. Although I suppose it would feel wrong to leave him alone even if he did have his axe and wyvern from back home."

"It helps if you get multiples to swing it to stun them." And in example, Tidus lifts his hand with his SCA on it, waving it around (thankfully, with the light off). Inigo might already know that tactic, but it doesn't help to share. It has been for them in Red.

But perhaps more importantly, and a thought that doesn't take him long to think about. "Can he use a sword? He can borrow mine. I'm using my magic more, and we've got some other things in Red I can get."

Steel pipes, but it was about as good as a sword with these things.

"I'll let him borrow it if he ca give me it back. Or you. It's a copy of the sword someone gave me back in Spira."

Which he shares with the twitch of a smile on his lips. Maybe he really likes that sword, okay. Even just a copy of the real thing.

"Tidus.."

Inigo may have been acting mostly casual while discussing how things are going here, but his voice takes on a surprising emotional edge as he says the other's name now. At first just because he's surprised, but there's a little more to it than that. Inigo can't be sure if he's just reading too much into it - he always worries about that with Tidus, that maybe he's just a little too emotional compared to the other - but he feels like this is kind of a big deal. He wouldn't let anyone borrow his sword unless he was absolutely sure he could trust them. He can't be sure if the same counts to Tidus, but there's the way Tidus smiles.. It can't just be some throwaway sword. And yet he still offers.

It makes Inigo stare for a moment before quickly shoving some more food into his mouth to try and hide the emotion. And failing miserably, since his cheeks start to colour slightly when he speaks up again.

"That's.. really sweet of you. You should keep it though in case you might need it. I don't think Gerome is very good with swords anyway - since he's more used to axes and other weapons similar to those, the weight balance might throw him off." He's telling the truth, rather than making up an excuse like he so often does about all sorts of things. "Thank you though for offering. Really."

Inigo starts so softly, so touched, even from saying his name. It makes Tidus realise how sentimental he was getting, not that he was trying to hide it. But then suddenly, he feels silly, or at least embarrassed--like he shouldn't be getting all weird now about a sword, even if his feelings regarding it are the same.

It colours how Tidus responds, especially with the following sincerity. Lightly scoffing, shaking his head. There's no need for all that. Not from Inigo.

"Well, if you're sure... we've got some metal pipes that might work better. I can see about dropping one over? I don't have any with me," he say with a sheepish dip of his brow. "But there's nothing in the city he can borrow?"

Were they all taken up by the Terrans? Then again, he's yet to see what the Terrans are even using when he hasn't engaged with them for too long yet. It could be Gyueran all over again, scraping around for resources to make anything resembling a weapon.

The last question makes Inigo shake his head.

"The people here seem to.. have an odd sort of relationship to weapons. They keep glancing at my sword and giving it odd looks ever since I showed up here." Granted, it's not as if openly carrying a sword is exactly normal in a lot of places out there, but it's so normal where Inigo thinks from that he doesn't think twice about just letting it hang off his belt - besides, they weren't as weird about it in other places before this one either. "I haven't seen a single weapon in this entire city. And whenever one of them does try to fight off a monster, they seem to attempt to do so with only their bare hands."

He shrugs, shoving another bite of food into his mouth before speaking with his mouth half full.

"They're an odd sort of people for sure."

Yes, Inigo finds their aversion towards weapons way weirder than their love for bugs as food.

"It doesn't look like they have a lot of problems outside... I mean, all me and the other Reds have been dealing with are the orb fiends. There's nothing else we've been having to deal with."

It's strange that the Terrans have been risking themselves with the claws that the fiends have, but is it that peculiar? It makes him wonder, about the kind of world it is usually. There's so many worlds out there involved in war or some kind of destination, but...

"You think, maybe... they just don't see a lot of trouble? I heard these people and the other ones don't like each other much, but, it doesn't always have to mean a war, does it?" Unless it does. He's not up on the history lesson of this planet. "And if you don't have anything like fiends or monsters around, what use have you for weapons? Not that it helps them, right now."

".. oh."

Something about what Tidus is saying seems to genuinely surprise Inigo. He doesn't bother to hide it either - maybe since he doesn't think it's bad enough to have to hide, or maybe it comes so instinctive that it's too late to try and hide it by the time it's already showing up on his face. Either way, he can't help but stare at Tidus as the realisation that some worlds just.. don't have constant threats dawns upon him.

It's such a wild thing to him, considering he doesn't know any different than fighting for his life every day back home. And they didn't linger for long enough at the end of a mission in any given place for Inigo to realise some people might have lived without the constant threats of monsters or enemies hanging over their head.. Do some people really live like that? Sounds fake, man.

"You.. might be right, actually. I haven't seen any other monsters here, nor have I heard any talk of war.." The realisation hit him so hard that Inigo still sounds slightly out of it as he speaks.

"Gyueran was the same, right?" That water mission that they had, the island of farmers and few fighters, barely any weapons to speak of. "They had a random fiend come in now and then, but nothing like what was happening that called us in. Or it's something else," he grants with a small shrug. "But I'm not the best guy to ask how people usually get along."

Because this world--or this area, even--wasn't as small as Gyueran had been, separated from all but the Bui people, seemingly. He could be oblivious to a more obvious answer or reasoning, but he couldn't help that. Wasn't like he came from a world where people fighting each other was a constant, or the biggest worry around.

"But we can do with more than just weapons." He taps a finger against his knee--honestly, just moving on since, will a dead end in a line of conversation keep Inigo occupied? He's been eating, but that doesn't mean Tidus is against him staying put for a few minutes longer. "What about shielding? Our best weapons are the lights, so we need to keep people protected from the fiend's claws."

Did that make sense to Inigo? ...was it a good distraction from his need to throw himself into danger?!

Hah. It's very optimistic of Tidus to think that he could keep Inigo here forever! The guy is already slowly now stopping with eating, apparently deciding he's had enough for the moment.. And something about the mention of keeping people protected has him sit a bit more upright again, alert. Like he's only now realising that every moment he wastes sitting here could be a moment that one of the Terrans is left out there defenseless against a monster.

"Wait-- Sweet Naga, how long have I been sitting here already?" Maybe like literally ten minutes, Inigo, slow your roll! You act like it's been 2 years! "Sorry, Tidus, but I should really get back to defending those people, now you're mentioning it."

Onward: Purple

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