middleofsomewhere | What their Eyes See: Start

What their Eyes See: Start

"Good Morning Voidtreckers, today is day five of the month of Llama." The voice echoes through the train as passengers wake up in their beds. Not long afterwards their SCA’s glow with the colour of the void and a holographic image will appear.

Preperation and Arrival

As usual they have a couple of hours before arrival to ready themselves for the mission ahead. As promised the dressing carriage is open for them to find suitable clothing. Trench coats, a lot of leather, a lot of black with neon colours thrown in here and there. There is a lot of choice in a variety of sizes so everyone is bound to find something to fit. Hopefully something they like, though some passengers may be more comfortable with the fashion choices than others.

A couple of hours after the announcement of the mission the voice speaks again. "Shortly arriving in system #93426194992. Arriving in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one." The train shakes as it leaves the void, colours fading to be replaced to a grey thick smog outside the windows.

The train bumps slightly as it hits rails, snaking its way towards the city before entering a tunnel. A few moments and they come to a stop, the doors open onto a platform. Stepping out into the station the first thing to hit them is noise, it sounds like there are ten different advertisements blaring, someone or something is playing loud music. There's a lot of flashing signs, screens with advertisements, bright lights that change colour for no real apparant reason. Heavy on the senses as they make their way to the gates.

They will find that their SCAs allow them through the barriers and into the wider train station, which is somehow even louder. It is busy as well, people hurrying from place to place. There are signs declaring this to be Tier Three, Home of Manufacturing. as well as signs pointing the way to lifts, to take them to other tiers.

Tier One

Mapping

For those travelling up to tier one the first thing they will notice when they leave the lift is, it is a lot quieter up here. Peaceful even, there are people around, all looking official and busy. None will pay the Voidtreckers any mind unless they are acting particularly suspicious.

The air feels better here, probably because the whole tier is encased with a dome that they will be able to see as they enter, coming from a lift near the edge of the tier. The buildings are all harsh dark metal, almost uniform in design. The streets are clean and there has been an attempt at greenery with some shrubs and simple plants.

The buildings all need to be accessed using their SCA's. Their SCA maps show them where the buildings are but give no information about them, nor do they have maps of inside. Once the voidtreckers enter they will find that their maps fill in as they explore.

There are plenty of different buildings, offices, labs and meeting rooms. There are also a lot of security staff and anyone acting too suspiciously will be approached and questioned. Hopefully they have a plan, blend in or sneak around.

Flickers

Sometimes though that is a little harder, they might enter a room to find themselves on their old street, in a world they have visited before on the train or somewhere else that is decidedly not here. These illusions get more common as time goes on and people will begin seeing the illusions of others or find the two scenes merging together.

Voidtreckers who are immune to illusions will not see these strange visions and those who are particularly strong willed will be able to fight them off. Once people know they are illusions they can focus through them to see reality even if it is overlaid with what their minds want to see. It will take a lot of concentration to stay focused and get an accurate map.

Tier Two

A Mystery

The lift here brings them out into a glass covered corridor. Outside the glass the air is thick with smog but the filtration systems means that the air seems fine inside, especially with their SCA's helping out. Outside the tunnels they will be able to see the lights of hovercars zipping around and the silhouettes of buildings. Office blocks and large houses make up this sector. Large billboards blare out advertisements at all hours, neon lights shining through the smog.

The atmosphere of the sector is one of fear, people hurry about their business, keeping an wary eye on their surroundings. The newcomers won't get too much scrutiny but people are likely to be very wary if approached or questioned.

But they will talk once they guage them to not be a threat. Murders. Six people dead, from inside their own houses. Locked doors, security systems, all for nothing. Is it a serial killer? But the reports suggested an animal attack? From what animals?

Getting access to the houses will take some negotiating or breaking and entering. The bodies themselves have been cleared by law enforcement, caution tape still up to keep out any nosy public.

The rooms the bodies were found in were all rooms that used holograms as decoration and the voidtreckers will realise when they enter them that these holograms seem a lot more realistic than some of the others they might have seen in their stay in the sector so far.

Creatures

As they talk to people, or overhear gossip they will hear more about animal attacks. Someone swears they saw a lion prowling the streets. A hovercar crashed and the driver swore they had been attacked by an eagle. Neither of those creatures live in the city. Neither of those creatures exist on this world anymore.

But the Voidtreckers will quickly learn there is something to these rumours, especially as dark falls, the feeling they are being hunted. A paw tread, a tail disappearing around a corner. As days go on they may get attacked by a bear, a tiger or perhaps a creature from their own world, one that should not exist here at all...

Tier Three

A Crisis

Leaving the station brings them into crowded streets, air thick with smog, Up above them is the floor of the plate above, set with bright lights to offset the lack of natural light getting through. Billboards and screens blare advertisements, traders yell their wares. Life is fast and swirls around them as they step out into the streets.

Here also there is an air of worry. The talk is all of Spectura, kids unconcious after playing video games, hospital overflowing. Spectura's fault, there are calls for accountability, claims of sabotage. No person gives the same story and it becomes clear that most people don't know what has happened but almost everyone knows someone who has been affected. Fear, blame, tensions are high.

But life must go on, the factories never stop, people can't not work and with so many people unconscious people have to pick up the slack. The whole sector feels at breaking point.

If they try and buy Spectura systems they will not be stopped though they will need to sign a waiver, to take on all responsibility for what might happen to them if they go into the system.

Spectura

There are a whole range of games to look through, though the two most popular ones where the majority of players can be found are an open-world farming MMO called AgriTopia VI Ultimate, with bright landscapes and calming diegetic music, and Aegis Force, a tournament team shooter with short battle scenarios and smaller maps.

Those entering the system will fall unconscious in the real world and as they enter the problem will be pretty obvious straight away. Red vines, covering everything, tangling trees, creeping up buildings, coming straight for them to attack.

Anyone who gets overwhelmed by them will be stuck, unable to move or progress. It is possible to fight them off and for those voidtreckers who have faced the vines before they will find their soothing powers will work here as well.

People are tangled throughout many different games and once they are freed will need some help to find the next save point or exit. They need to help plant the final hundred potatoes, or team up to take down the level boss or solve the next puzzle, keep the vines away and free as many people as they can.

Tier Four

A Way In

As they leave the lifts they will find this tier is dark, dim lighting barely penetrating the smog. Homes are makeshift and all on top of each other. The streets are crowded, loud and people don't stop to chat. It is incredibly claustrophobic, with large support columns, exposed wires and large pipes running alongside and over the 'roads'.

Here there are plenty of stores selling anything and everything, certainly not above board. Credits are sometimes accepted but more often store keepers will prefer to trade in barters, food is popular. Anything that isn't nutri slime or the even worse unbranded basic version.

Bars and other seedy establishments are open all hours, neon signs beckoning. It is here that they will find the entry points to the fighting rings.

People don't talk about it openly but you look big enough, mean enough or dramatic enough then it will be slipped into conversation. Have you heard? Winners get a dream come true.

The fights are a mix of one on one and group fights. All terms are negotiated before hand with an overseer and fights are to the yield. The crowd wants a show and so dramatics are encouraged.

What was that?

The rumours about people going berserk are spoken in whispers. No one really knows what has gone on. A few fights have gotten out of control, a couple of fighters broke down after fights, at least one has quit for good. Most spoken about is The Crimson Fist. The best fighter in the ring who two days prior just left. Left the city with no protective gear, no word to anyone. No one knows what happened to them.

As the voidtreckers get further into their fights they will begin to realise something strange is going on. That opponent you are facing? They now look like your worst enemy, or perhaps your best friend, your lover. Sometimes you're no longer in the city but in a place of fond memories or your worst nightmares. Fights can very quickly go south when your opponent believes you their greatest foe.

Advancing the ranks now seems like it might be more difficult than first it appeared.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

This may be the one time they don't have miscommunication in any of their silence gestures. Inigo follows immediately, not having to think about it. If this is one of the creatures the mission description was warning about, then of course they have to go take care of it before whatever is out there can hurt anyone.

But then he glances around the corner and he sees it.

A figure that initially looks like a human as they can see it from the back, yet at the same time there's something distinctively off about it. It's just a little too tall for any human, its arms just a little too out of proportion with the rest of its body. Its body discoloured into an odd dark shade, almost purplish gray, and when it turns and its face is visible, said face is nothing more than a patchwork, practically a mask, with two red glowing eyes.

There's no doubt what it is, and it makes Inigo's stomach turn. Not necessarily because of the being itself, but because of the implications. A Risen. Here. Why here? Is Grima invading here too? Do people turn into Risen where they die here? It's like he has a flash already of this place destroyed, of people dying, of every person he cares about on the train turning into one of them--

It's only when he notices how uneven his breathing is that Inigo realises he was halfway to a panic attack. Thankfully the Risen doesn't seem to have spotted them yet, but Inigo looks frozen where he's standing.

A person? That's what Tidus thinks he sees, stops as soon as he does; off as the proportions are, his mind puzzled, but for only briefly.

"Hey! Uhh, hello? You doing okay there?"

--because Tidus doesn't think the same as Inigo, his brain going in a completely different direction in what off should mean. They don't look like any of the species of people they've seen around, but does that mean they aren't from this city? And they look closer to human than a being that would've caused that roar they heard before, that brought them down this way in the first place.

He takes a few steps in the direction of the individual, turning to look at Inigo, his friend's name coming off his lips. But he sees the frozen state that missed him for a moment there and blinks at him, lifting a hand to his shoulder. His back to the Risen, not paying attention to them.

"Hey, what's wrong? Inigo?"

If Inigo wasn't so busy panicking, he would have stopped Tidus. But he was much too caught up in his own mind to even realise what Tidus was doing - like he was in an entirely different place for a moment, outside of his own body.

But now he is returning to his own body, and the first thing he notices is Tidus calling out to him.

.. Tidus calling out to him with his back towards the Risen. And the Risen, obviously having spotted him, stepping closer, reaching out--

Inigo feels his heart freeze up. It's like everything freezes, like he can't even move as he watches the monstrous Risen grab Tidus with one hand, lifting him like he's just a doll with strength no regular human should possess, and then throwing the teen off towards the side, against a wall before letting him drop off to the ground.

"Tidus!" Inigo screams, seeming to finally refind the ability to form words with his mouth. There's something desperate in the tone. Please let the other be okay. Please. Please. If he has to watch even one more person get hurt by these things--

He summons his sword to his hand, taking a few steps backwards between him and the creature, but he can't keep his full concentration on it. Instead Inigo keeps watching Tidus, trying to see whether or not the other is getting up again.

Shock doesn't sit too differently from confusion, to puzzlement, the last look that Tidus has to control he makes when he feels a touch behind him, and the rest - the rest happens too quickly. Lifted up into the air, the surprise out of his throat. And then there's air, and then there's pain, the hard wall meeting his body with a force he hasn't felt in a while, nerves not knowing all the places to set off signals of everything being wrong first.

He hits that wall like a ragdoll, falling much the same. But there's a groan, a consciousness that has to suffer what's happened than a kinder blackout, and Tidus knows better than to linger on the ground with his aches, to think about any of them. So Inigo will see Tidus starting to rise, if with a struggle at first, a body still in shock as to what's happened, but a head eventually twisting, searching, finding Inigo--

"Jumblie! Blind it!"

--and his brain thinks without thinking, in hopefully what will be a smart course of action, for once.

Inigo isn't in much of a position to do a whole lot just yet. He's still just staring, even as the Risen is starting to move towards him. Fear has taken over at suddenly being forced back into the sort of battle he wasn't prepared for, especially at seeing someone important to him getting thrown through the air like that.

There's a bit of relief when Tidus moves, at least, when Inigo can see the other starting to get up, but he still isn't truly sure if Tidus is okay--

But it's alright. Because Inigo doesn't have to move or think for Jumblie to hear Tidus's call. She pops right up out of Inigo's chest, using the force she pops up with as a jumping board to jump higher up, starting to shine as brightly as the sun while she's up in the air like that.

It's just about the only thing that could overpower the light from all the billboards, shining directly into the Risen's eyes and seeming to confuse the creature.

Bless Jumblie for giving them even seconds to work with. Tidus pulls out his sword from his arms, directing it to come out in such a way that it pushes up against the concrete, helping Tidus to raise himself if just a half a second quicker onto his feet. His brain hurrying for ideas, a call out to Inigo to snap him back to his senses, to get out of trouble--

"Inigo!" --but he's not just relying on that, an ache and unsteadiness in his feet, but Tidus ignores everything as the surge of a spell rises through his body, running straight for the foe that had just thrown him without a hassle, swinging out his blade with force. A mass of energy swirls around the human-beast, a stun set into its being that'll give him a few seconds. Seconds that Tidus uses with a stumble to grab Inigo's shoulder, pushing the both of them backwards.

"Inigo, talk to me!"

Or do something, anything!

The sudden push is the first thing that seems to even remotely snap Inigo out of it. It's like a bit more clarity returns to his eyes as he looks at Tidus from so up close, realising the other really is right there with him, rather than crumbled up into a heap on the ground.

"Tidus.." He's still not getting far beyond the other's name though, but he's trying, he really is. Especially when Jumblie falls back down, hopping onto Tidus's shoulder, letting out a concerned 'hig hig!' over Inigo's state, sensing the turmoil in his heart. "Tidus, it's-- it's a Risen--!"

It's a sentence Inigo can't even fully finish. Tidus bought them a bit of time, between Jumblie's help and his own stun spell, but the Risen is slowly starting to snap out of it.

But this time Inigo doesn't just stand there, frozen. When the Risen starts to swing its large fists again, he manages to actually dodge backwards.

One side of Tidus still feels exactly like it got slammed into a wall, but his vision is less fuzzy than it was, and he moves back at the fist that comes. Hoping in the next moment that Jumblie will cling on tight where she's found herself as he shoves himself towards the creature again, the Risen, magic surging back through his blade for the same spell, freezing it again in place.

And all he needs to know is that it's not native, it's not something that needs to be here, that Inigo fears it, for the growl that snaps out of Tidus's throat and he shoves the hook end of his blade straight into the skull of the monster, hoping to penetrate through it and then use the grab he has to swing the sword and topple its catch to the ground. If it's an enemy, then it's going down, Inigo's dread taking away his restraints, forcing Tidus to ignore the spike of pain in his upper shoulder so he doesn't stop or flinch.

Thankfully there's no need to worry about Jumblie. The moment she feels Tidus moving, she's already tightly holding on to his shoulder, making sure she doesn't just fly off and fall. (Although higgledies might actually end up enjoying that sort of thing anyway.)

No, if there's anything here that can spook Jumblie, it's the Risen itself. But that problem seems to resolve itself neatly, because it seems to have no way to defend itself from Tidus's attack, as stunned as it is - perhaps even more stunned than before, since it's the second time in a row, even having been blinded before.

And before Inigo can even do a thing, Tidus has already forced the Risen down on the ground.

It's not moving, considering that blade that went straight through its skull.

Inigo doesn't trust it though. Even though it's obviously done for, he stares at the creature on the ground, as if it could upright itself and keep on fighting any moment now. (If anything is a Risen speciality, it's that - fighting until they no longer can.

But this one can't anymore.)

Not that he looks anymore relieved when a moment passes and it doesn't move. Inigo still looks terrifed, his brain still whirring with questions. Are there more of them here? Is that their real mission here - do they have to prevent a Risen plague from spreading in this city?

Inigo could get lost in those thoughts all over again, but some chitter from Jumblie makes his gaze instead snap in her direction--

And therefore in Tidus's direction, making Inigo's brain return down to Earth with the realisation of just how the other got swung around a moment ago.

Ignoring the huge body on the ground, he quickly steps over towards Tidus, concern in his eyes. With a glow there's already a potion in his hand from his band.

"Are you-- Are you okay? Here, drink this, or.. or do you need something stronger? Do you need to sit down?" Inigo's questions are only barely coherent. It's just a long nervous ramble at this point, out of fear for their current situation, out of worry for Tidus's current state.

His hands are shaking.

It takes a few shakes to really get his blade out of the Risen, Tidus already as back as he can get himself, and then retreating the rest of the way, eyes always focused on the corpse slumped on the ground, not trusting that it won't get right back up, himself.

But there's nothing, nothing but the shaking figure of Inigo entering his view, the small vial he holds and the concern drenched in his fear. Tidus makes his brotherhood disappear, knowing he can make it reappear, putting his hands onto Inigo's shoulders and walking backwards.

"Don't worry, here, come over here- we'll see if it gets up and if it doesn't, we'll get out of here. I'll be fine, take it easy."

He doesn't touch the potion, deciding he'll use his own magic, no reason to use anything else, though his body might think otherwise. But he keeps his hands on Inigo like a reassurance, more for the other guy, head turned on the figure on the ground. Seeing not just it, but where it is, what it is; to Inigo, and what does that mean? They came here because of animal attacks, reports of monsters. Was that it? Was that what they came for?

"Ryo said...a Beast attacked him... something from his world." Not something human-shaped. They were both there when Ryo told them about them, how they appeared like bears. "What's going on...?"

What was happening...?

His worries certainly don't diminish in the slightest, but Inigo does move along as he's pushed backwards, away from the corpse. His gaze alternates between the latter and Tidus's face, because his worries aren't just about the Risen. As long as Tidus isn't healed yet, he's still going to fuss over the other, especially as the realisation is slowly hitting Inigo that he could have tried to prevent what happened to Tidus if he had actually done anything, rather than just being rooted to the spot in fear.

He's trying to not blame himself too hard, since guilt might just be the last emotional stone necessary here to weigh him down enough to drown him in his emotions, but it's hard.

Everything feels hard right now, even with Tidus's hands on him as a reassurance that the other is still right there.

"I.. I don't know," he finally replies when Tidus asks that final question. At least the mention of Ryo's problem makes it feel a bit less like a Risen-specific problem, which is good, but still... Inigo can't help but worry. This feels so personal. "But we-- We have to be careful."

Inigo swallows hard.

"Risen-- they're people. That's what people turned into, back in Ylisse. When they died. If the city gets overrun with them, it will be just.. just like back home."

"Yeah, but... everyone's been talking about animal attacks. It's never been about people. That can't be the problem. I don't know what's going on, but..."

But what? They're looking at that body on the ground, neither of them trusting that it won't pop back up, but Tidus isn't sure what to make of it. Of any of this. It was supposed to be an animal, a monster, not--a human shaped one.

Except letting their uncertainties get out of hand won't help Inigo, so he looks back to his friend again, letting one hand lower some down his arm, the one with the ache in it.

"We'll figure it out," he promises, this time looking Inigo properly in the eye, nodding. "Alright? This isn't Ylisse. We won't let anything happen. There's something else going on."

"A-- Alright," he stammers, but he does seem to genuinely mean that agreement. He wants to try to believe in it, that this isn't the problem, even though it certainly feels like a huge problem to him right now.

Inigo moves a hand up to his face, rubbing it, like he's frantically trying to calm himself down. Panicking isn't going to do a thing here, even though it's hard to just stop it. But panicking is exactly the thing that caused Tidus to get into trouble in the first place just now, so Inigo knows he has to quit it. He has to be stronger than this.

(But he can't stop the thoughts. Is this isn't the main problem, then why is there a Risen here? Why, when it isn't even really a creature? What if somehow Grima appears next?)

He shakes his head, sucks in a breath, and looks at Tidus.

".. you should really heal up first." Maybe that will take away at least some of his panic. "I-- I'm sorry. If I hadn't stood there frozen like an idiot, you might not have gotten hurt."

There's a light scoff. "What, you worried about me getting thrown around? Used to happen all the time. It's a nice wake up move."

Because he can joke about it, downplay it, give it the same attitude he always has about fighting, the way he's gotten about approaching it. Don't try to think too hard about it, what your body is going through just to survive.

Tidus tips his head on one of Inigo's shoulders, an exhale released that relaxes his shoulders, a hand brought to his chest as he focuses on the spell while leaning some of his weight on Inigo. He doesn't have to, but it seems he's just decided to, as the spell works itself through his body, a soft glow coming from his hand.

"Just be ready next time. I don't want to see you getting hurt either - and you've got Jumblie to protect too," he adds on a lighter note. "Jumblie, you watch out for Inigo too, 'kay? You did good."

This time it's Jumblie who replies before Inigo does - perhaps since it's a tad more embarrassing for the latter than it is for the former. She happily hops from Tidus's to Inigo's shoulder, before ending up right on top of Tidus's head, doing a little weightless dance.

"Hig hiiig! Dear young traveler, thank you for looking out for him!"

.. Inigo can feel his cheeks heating up with multiple emotions at once in the moment. Definitely some embarrassment over Jumblie saying that, but also just plain old shame for letting things happen like this in the first place. He could have dealt with that Risen no problem back home, and here he just stood there, scared stiff.

He got Tidus hurt.

For a moment he says nothing, the sound of distant ads playing from some billboards filling the air while the healing spell does its work on Tidus.

It's only when he's sure that it has cured the worst aches that Inigo shifts so he's in front of Tidus, and then gently pulling the other over so he can lean against him from the front, rather than sideways.

Even if that ends up putting their faces rather close to each other. Or maybe that was the intention. Not to kiss or anything (~~or is it!!~~), but just because Inigo is an idiotic sap who has to share emotionally intimate little moments like this as closely as possible.

"You really were looking out for me," he says, softly. Now his shock has ebbed away a little, there's some more room in his brain to analyse what happened back there, for better or worse. The better part is him realising just how hard Tidus went on the Risen, the moment he learned Inigo was so shocked because of it.

There's still a bit of hurting shame in his expression when he looks at Tidus, but he also smiles. ".. guess I can add that to the list of things I owe you."

His body isn't that bad, all things considered. Aches and hard landings, but nothing more than what will leave him sore in the morning as opposed to dead. So he doesn't take too long with the magic, though it's always bizarre to heal himself and for his brain to acknowledge what's been done, fixed up, and not have his limbs still feel stiff after.

But it'll be easy to tell when Tidus is done, lifting his head and taking in a deep breath, to let himself settle. But then Inigo is moving him, or himself, and their faces are immediately close; Tidus blinking at it and unsure what to think, until he sees the smile on the other's face, ... an expression that he's seen plenty times before, but that makes him docile at the words that follow after.

(Where the lips that are speaking them might go--what Inigo might do, after everything that's happened between them.)

It makes it hard for him to speak immediately, rare as that might be; side glances taken, getting his brain and mouth both to work again.

"Who's keeping score?" ...sure, brain, go for the half-hearted jokes when he can't deliver them well. He rests a hand on Inigo's chest, tries instead for sincerity. "...I'll always look out for you - like I said I would, even back on Gyueran. I know you'll do the same."

So don't worry about it.

"You're not alone."

Isn't that just like Tidus? The two of them may gloat or act super petty at times when they're jokingly bickering, but when it comes down to this, he's always this generous. So selfless in the way he's looking out for Inigo today, in the way he's always looked out for Inigo, always carried him during his lowest moments.

"I know," he acknowledges, ".. but it's a nice reminder anyway."

Especially since it's a reminder Inigo can use, considering where his worst fears and anxieties often lie. But he is trying to be better, trying to actively remind himself. (Even if that isn't very hard to do right now, with Tidus so close by him. It's driving the fear of the Risen out of his mind slightly, if not just for the moment.)

His thoughts linger for a moment on the moment where it feels like Tidus helped him the most. Back on the marketplace in Irivar, lips on lips.

Should he kiss him now too? No -- it'd probably be too weird, right? Tidus would find it weird. It's not like they're..

So Inigo decides on conveying the same sentiment, but instead verbally, rather than with his lips. A smile more fond than even his usual ones, tender around the edges.

"I'm just really glad you're here with me."

Inigo's always so soft. No--that's not exactly true. He has edges as much as anyone else does, but this tenderness here, sweet and honest, is a being that's so him to Tidus, a state that he treasures to see without considering it. It warms him though at the same time, embarrassing, or is that because of...? No, no - he'd feel like this even if there weren't certain activities between them, his eyes averting, his smile pinching into his cheeks.

Get it together, man! C'mon!

"Well you're stuck with me for now!" He gives Inigo a friendly slap on the back of the shoulder, jovial and bright, always too weak to moment like these to turn to anything else. But while his hand is there, he rubs that spot he patted, a small gesture of comfort before stepping away. Straightening himself, ready.

"We should get going! Ah--wait, but that body--"

Tidus turns back to it, forgetting nearly all about it. Except--

"--eh?"

There's nothing there to see, the street occupied by no one else but them.

There's an absolutely unnecessary - considering Tidus didn't even hit him that hard - 'oof' in response at the friendly backslap, probably born out instinct more than anything around the other.

But before he can say anything else, Tidus sounds surprised.

And Inigo, in turn, follows the other's gaze.. only to spot the same thing.

The body is gone. There's not even any sign left of it, or at least nothing that Inigo can spot at first sight. And it's not like it had been some small Risen. It couldn't just disappear.

"It didn't.. get up, right?" Of course that's Inigo's first fear. Even though it doesn't make sense, since there's no way that Risen would just have left them alone, nor is there any way the two of them could just have missed the sounds that'd make despite still standing relatively close to the body.

But even though it's irrational, what else is Inigo supposed to think when the body is suddenly gone? When getting up when you think you're done with them is exactly what Risen do all the time? "You didn't see anything either, right?"

There may be something desperate in Inigo's eyes as he looks at Tidus, some of the only barely surpressed fear bubbling up again.

"No way -- it woulda attacked me! Right? And you didn't hear anything - there's no way!"

No way that the thing just got up and walked off, not after how keen it was to grab and chuck him around like a blitzball. There's utter disbelief in his tone, but worn on his face too, as Tidus takes a few steps away from Inigo to try and look down one way of the right, then turning back and looking down the other way.

But there's nothing, no one. No thing, no nothing.

"Where did it...? What the?"

"But it's not like it could have disappeared.."

Risen don't do that. Inigo has never seen it happen, and he's seen fields absolutely full of Risen corpses. They don't just fade away, or turn into dust, or do anything else that would mean they wouldn't leave behind a corpse.

Inigo follows the few steps Tidus took, putting a hand against the side of the other's arm, like he's trying to find some calm in himself with the physical contact. He's determined to be at least somewhat more useful now, rather than flying directly into another panic.

"It appearing here was odd, and now its disappearance too.. What is going on in this city?"

Edited 2021-05-18 18:47 (UTC)

Tidus doesn't move away from the touch, still searching for some kind of answer where he stands, and - there is a thought, not concrete as it is, but it's there in what Inigo said. What they know about the murders in the houses, Tidus turning now to look at his friend.

"Isn't everyone saying the people that got killed were all done in their own houses? You can't get in without a key - their own kind of SCA. And some kind of storybook animals attacked them... no one here keeps animals. They're all used in food."

Except for the bugs.

"Is there a connection? I mean... why would we see a Risen? Why would Ryo think he saw something from his world too? I know it doesn't make sense, but... a risen wouldn't just sneak off 'cause we attacked it, right?"

Someone is attempting to use the shared braincell.

He shakes his head instantly. Even if he doesn't know the answers to much else, he does know this - knowledge that's ingrained in him so deeply that it practically resides in his bones.

"Risen don't just sneak off. Most of them are mindless. They will just keep attacking whatever is closest until they can't anymore." That's what makes the disappearance of this one only more odd. It's not like a Risen in any way, and that makes Inigo look concerned.

"But that.. was a real Risen. I mean, it acted exactly like one, and looked exactly like one. And it was able to hurt you." So it's not like it couldn't have been there. Tidus couldn't have gotten hurt because of nothing. "Still, that explains nothing! Risen are connected to Grima, and Grima is not here, so.."

They couldn't be either.

There's no logic in any of this: why the risen was there in the first place, where it went off to. How there could be a risen even temporarily, and Tidus has nothing else to offer Inigo than a mystery already plaguing them, that threatens to upset Inigo all the more with the answers they don't have.

He walks, nowhere to go, pacing. But he comes to a stop, a decision in his mind, the only one that's going to help them at this time.

"Look." He spreads out his hands. "Nothing about what's happening is making any sense, but we know what we saw, and you know a risen doesn't act like this one did. It's not here now, it's nowhere near here, and it couldn't have sneaked off! We're not gonna figure things out like this, so if it isn't here, we should talk to someone, tell them what happened. Worrying about it here isn't gonna help anyone!"

They can't get stuck on what they don't know - they have to keep moving forward, even if that forward isn't clear to them.

When Tidus says 'we should talk to someone', there's only one thing that pops into Inigo's head immediately.

"Should we tell Roland?"

Maybe it's a little ridiculous, like Inigo being a parody of himself. But at a moment like this, where he feels so incredibly unsure, like this entire mission has been thrown upside down compared to what his initial expectations of it were, of course the first thing Inigo is going to lean towards wanting to do is seeking comfort by confiding this to his dad, hearing that Roland thinks they should do.

He trusts the other's judgement, even if Roland is busy ridiculously LARPing this mission away.

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