Evolution
Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2011 6:20 am
Takua flew upwards, feeling the wind from the missed attack beneath him. Felt it, and wondered. How, exactly had he gotten here? What had gone wrong, so many years ago? He'd been...well, not miserable at school. Sure, he had few friends. Not all of them tremendously awesome, but some of them. His family situation could be better; if he wanted to be totally blunt about it then it sucked at times. A lot of the time, really. But, still. He had been normal, or at least as normal as a gamer who had been good enough to win tournaments and get a fair amount of money. Lonely, sure, but good at what he did. That had been...how many years ago? A bit over one? Maybe two years, now? At least before he had joined the Eventide Crescendo in their quest to stop the Highers.
Which wasn't even where things had gone wrong. That made him giggle a little, in some part of his brain that wasn't fighting for its life as another spell exploded around his body. Sure, the Eventide Crescendo was directly responsible for putting him in the situation that he was in now. Or, at least, it was by association with them that that was the case. He could directly point to the Eventide Crescendo as the point at which playing this game, The World, stopped being a game. That was the point where he realized that he was in a fight for his life. A fight that was bigger than just him, or some person on the PC across the room that wanted to kill him for fame or money. He relished that for a time...and then understood what a quietly shallow feeling that way. Fighting for a cause could make you feel good. It could also make you dead. Or break you, and leave you alive. Or do what it had done, and trapped him within this world while his body lay on a hospital bed, comatose, with who knew how many family and friends worried about him. Centrus for sure. Lugiablaster, probably. Everyone else...well, maybe. His parents would worry, at least to some degree.
So where did it all start? When did it all go wrong? Did it start when he entered The World, when he was first exposed to this wonderful game that held more secrets than anyone knew? Did it start when he shot and killed someone who had stalked him in self defense, even though the man was patently insane? Or when he himself had quietly gone nuts, and started hallucinating? Or when he much more loudly went nuts, nearly a year later, and went full fledged Schizophrenic? When he became trapped in this world by one of the Elites, Xenobia?
When did he stop caring about his life?
Sure, he wanted to live. Sure, he wanted to get out of here, get medication and help and whatever else he could get. And be normal, or as normal as he could be. But...he'd displayed a startling lack of any sense of self-preservation since realizing that he was Schizo. Since he was insane. But was he insane? Could he really say that he was out and out crazy?
He hallucinated, but knew it. He had delusions, and fought them with everything that he had when he realized that they were there. If he didn't realize them...well, that was just problematic. He had to rely on others to point them out, if he didn't realize them himself. Was he crazy? Yes...and no. He was crazy, his reality was different than others. But he wasn't, because he could recognize that different and work to find that perspective, that reality, that he had lost.
Was he influenced by his classes for Psychology? Did he think that, because he was insane, he was worth less than other people around them? Was that why he fought so hard both to prove himself, to himself and others, that he could still fight and be worth something? Was that why he worked so hard to make sure that he took the hits, despite being a fragile Wavemaster, so that others might not die? It made sense, curse it. But he also fought with a savage insanity, because he was never sure if he was missing something, or if his hallucinations were actually real.
Did he think that he was less than the people around him?
Was he already betraying the pact, the agreement, that he had made with Sekai, Kira, December, and now one other?
He spun, landing down a PhaRue Rom as he dodged another spell that tried to smack him out of the sky. Part of him was disgusted. Part of him had known that already, and continued on. Ondine was just annoyed that it was taking him so long to figure all of this out.
When had it all gone wrong?
--------------
Takua walked through the Bazaar, listening to the loud clamor of humans, beasts, and other things around him. This sector in Yamiyo was incredibly busy as always, and he could never quite tell exactly what all was here. Which was annoying, when he felt that his very life and livelihood depended on being able to know what was around him at all times. And right now, with the confusion roiling in his gut, he didn't know. Couldn't pay attention to those heightened senses that Twilight had given him, because he had to take notice of what was going on inside of him.
He'd asked Sekai and Kira to give him a few before giving them a few minutes without him. Given what he'd just done to Sekai, or at least gotten her into, he figured that it was the most that he could do. The pain had finally subsided from Doomkeeper's scythe, and he knew that, at the very least, the little Archer's lover would want a few minutes with her. So he'd walked out of the hideout that they'd been using when he felt confident enough to walk. Enough to think where he didn't need to tell people that he was doing alright, or worse, that he actually had to tell them that, no, nothing was alright.
He sighed, shifting a little to the right to avoid getting run over by a running Heavy Axe, and continued walking. So he were here in the Bazaar, wondering what he was even doing here. It's not like he was here to buy anything (with what?) or had to talk to anyone. And since that was exactly what one did here, except to gamble (and he didn't think anyone would enjoy his Twilight Ability if he found a game of cards) he just wandered around. Once he passed someone who was selling candy, just for the taste. Nostolgia. Buying a soda, he reflected that the man had excellent taste. Plus, here in The World, he didn't have to worry about piddling little things like cavities that were in the real world.
“Of course, that's just what you needed. More caffeine.”
Finding someone who was looking at his soda, he measured how much was left in it. Still half. So he grinned back at the woman who sounded like she was over to the right. “Hey, it's not like the caffeine can effect me here, and besides, what'll it do, keep me up late at night? I don't even know if it is night right now or not.”
She snorted, and what felt like a small smack on the head from a very feminine illusion. “Oh yes, right. Can't affect you. Just like all of that vodka that you drank the other night, hmm?”
...oh. Right. He'd kind of forgotten about that for a moment. And he knew that it showed, even for a moment, and he could feel her grin. That sort of grin that always made him wince and wonder what was coming his way this time. “Uhh...alright, you've got a point. But it's soda, what can-”
And then he got it. Oh shit, now he knew what she was about to say or do, and now he wanted to beat her to the punch. Of course, he didn't. Damn her for being able to know what he was thinking and doing. “But Tak-Tak, think about how I'm going to feel in a few minutes.” And he felt his heart stop at the thought of Ondine feeling more energetic than she usually was. In fact, he was feeling more than a little woozy at the thought. Great. He hefted the bottle up to where he would be able to see it, if he could see. Maybe he shouldn't have any more of this...
But all of that was a pleasant distraction from what was bothering him. What was he doing here, in the bowels of Yamiyo? He could be free! Out! Away from the Elites and the server of hackers that followed them. Back to the regular servers...where he would be hounded by the Cobalt Knights and administrators, who would remember his character because of the Eventide Crescendo. And who would, as surely as the Elites would, try to gut his body in seconds. And when death came to this body, it would follow just as surely in the real world, where his body lay next to a machine that kept tabs on his coma.
Did his parents worry about him? Were Ian and Alex still okay? Had Todd finally figured out that he couldn't play The World to save his life? He hadn't seen Centrus or Lugiablaster recently...Ian...not since he'd gone back into Juka to deal with the dungeon, the dungeon that had nearly claimed all of their lives. He shivered as the memory of that godforsaken place, and he could feel even Ondine's mood dampen. Given that when he first became aware of her, it made sense that she might...hate that place. A lot. To be fair, he knew, she had good reason to hate it with every fiber of her being. For that matter, so did he.
His inventory still held the armor of Gan. Something to keep himself from being killed in a single hit by the Higher of Juka. Was Gyl still alright? Xenobia had said that he was far more adept at staying away from the rest of him...perhaps he was okay. Maybe he could send a flashmail to him...see if he couldn't get in contact with the hacker that he had never seen. Were Nemera and Sidhe alright? Zan? He hadn't seen the Heavy Blade since a brief encounter in the Wasteland, and had vanished just as surely once again. The other two...he didn't know that he'd ever see them again. After that explosion of green light and Dread Code (it was DC, wasn't it?) he hadn't...too confident that they were alive. But he could check. And maybe this time, the response from Gyl wouldn't be a trap by the Elites.
But what if it was? It could be. For that matter, was all mail that flowed out of Yamiyo tracked? But he didn't know of any way that you could use it to track where anyone was at any one time...and even if you could, he was walking through the bazaar, lost in a sea of characters that swam in this maze of buildings, stalls, open fields, tables and what seemed like a morass of sound. He could be safe...and could listen for any sound of his name, no? It was worth a shot. He owed them all.
He felt, rather than saw, the shrug in her tone of voice. “Long enough. We don't know how long we were unconscious since Xenobia nailed us, and time seems to be slipping away from us. It's not as though we can see the sun doing its march and set in this place. For all we know, it's been several months. At the very least, a few weeks now? Maybe? Seems like it, anyhow.”
And then he felt her scamper away from him...which was an interesting sensation, since she couldn't. Stupid fscking...hallucination and alternate personality. Right. Okay, so he wasn't terribly sane, but he knew that, so at least he had a bit of a leg up on all of the rest. He grinned slightly, cracking his eyes open just to see if he could, well, see. No such luck, just more blankness, and he shut his eyes again.
He knew that people kept watching him, but that was because of the way that he could watch them. They could feel his Twilight reaching out and stealing their sight. He wanted to laugh. The best voyeur there ever could be, but he rather doubted that he even wanted to watch anyone having sex right now. Or in The World at all. And the only couple that he knew about...well, he was in a pact with them, being caught peeping would likely get him killed by Kira, if Sekai didn't die from embarrassment first. Fortunately, since he had no urge to get it off by watching two other people do so, they were rather free from that sort of thing.
That sort of thought just made him wonder what they were doing now, and grinned lightly. Kira was probably getting ready to beat the shit out of him when he came back. He knew that he deserved it...kind of. Mostly because he had dragged Sekai into it as well, but also simply because it was a stupid thing that he had done and he knew it. He just needed something now to help out. Mostly because he felt like he was still abusing their hospitality, as it were, and he needed to do...something. He was inconveniencing them, was what it felt like. So what could he do to lessen that inconvenience and make himself more valuable? Give them more of a reason to want him around. Well, other than Kira's probable desire to keep him out of trouble.
Although, he grinned with the thought, she had more than enough of that on her hands with Sekai.
According to everyone else, today was particularly busy in the Bazaar. Or at least, it seemed to be more busy than when he had first been here. Wandering through the market the size of a root town was interesting, but so far workable. Plus, there was a lot to see here. Like the entire square that had been turned into what looked like a hacked weapons demonstration, with various abilities that were stored in the weapons themselves annihilating the targeting dummies up and down the area that was a good sized football field. Plus, he realized as he watched, the dummies regenerated.
Given what he had heard about the Merc sector, he was just glad that this wasn't taking place there. If it had, there might have been a few more...well, okay. A lot more dead bodies lying around, because someone would have taken the opportunity to turn the weapons on someone else, or another group would have seized a chance to find a weakness with unfamiliar weapons. Which was why all of the sellers had grouped up here, instead. At least, there were a lot of men and women off to the side watching in wildly different uniforms, although here and there they matched up. Must be the different groups, come to see what weapons they can get for...the army itself or the commander? Probably the commander, the Wavemaster mused, or else the army would swiftly go bankrupt. At least, he assumed that the weapons were expensive.
But he kept himself at a safe distance, walking around it...trying to get an impression of the gossip that was going on here. A lot of talk about the Anid sector, a lot of rumors about what had gone on. Nothing yet approaching the truth...which was good. At least, not amongst most of the people. He supposed that a fair portion of the ones that he heard who had been talking about the truth were actually hallucinations, simply because he didn't like their stares at him as he passed by. Seemed entirely too paranoia inducing to be true. So he didn't think it was.
Even if he really wanted to believe it was.
But each sniff brought in the smells of thousands of people, reeking of blood, leftover elemental haze, sweat, fear, anger, some strange traces of happiness, and the individual smells of all of those people. Plus, all of the hacker attempts at perfume or cologne, some of which were likely hacks as well, or at least, provided tangible benefits. As for him...he'd just as well rather find a nice Juk field and take a bath. He'd have said Rue, but he didn't think that he'd survive past ice block...although, he reflected, he could always just Vak Rom when he was done in order to heat back up. And since he'd been stuck in a dungeon (a literal one) after having been comatosed, and then dragged across the Wasteland, then to a doctor's office, stuck in the hideout, and then running hither and thither until getting wasted by the Elite of Darkness. So he might be forgiven for thinking that he A: Reeked and B: Needed a shower. Or a bath.
...well fuck it. Maybe the Ruem sector had something, or the Bazaar. Although he'd really put money on Rue first, Bazaar second. So perhaps it was time to make a trek to see if there was any sort of place he could wash himself up at. Besides, that would take some time up, and he wanted to give Sekai and Kira a good long while before he drifted back and found them. Plus...maybe it was just his enhanced sense of smell, but most of the freedom fighters reeked. And although he might not say that to them (or at least Kira and Sekai) he might enhance their senses...give them a taste of what they might smell like to gently hint...
He chuckled. Gently hint, right. With any luck, one of them would punch him in the face for that, especially if they got insulted over that. Plus, they just might not care. It wasn't like they could smell it all the time. Nah, that was just his luck. On the other hand...he supposed that when he got his sight back, he could see exactly how enhanced that was. Sure, and then he could actually look into a mirror to have to see his face every day, instead of seeing it in the eyes of everyone he looked through. On the other hand, he was getting a bit better at slipping in without getting stares from everyone he met. And generally better at simply walking through the sight of others.
Which was why he felt confident enough to use the two Ruem wings on his back to throw him into the sky, beating against the air until he was at a height so that people could still see him from the street, but he wouldn't go headlong into a building. It also helped that there were enough people here who could fly on their own to give him some chance of seeing himself in the air. Still, it was freaky as fucking hell to fly around like this without being in combat, and having the advantage of having multiple people close to the ground who could see where he was.
It also nearly took him out of the sky when a flashmail pinged in his inbox. He'd been so focused on the idea that he wouldn't get a response that he hadn't expected any at all. Shaking his head as he got back to the same altitude as before, he opened it. Expecting to see something from one of the rest of the Freedom Fighters. And felt his heart stop a moment later when he saw the sender.
The Wavemaster felt tears sting his eyes slowly, swelling up underneath before finally escaping from their prison, sliding down his face to scatter to the ground and the people below. He was alive. They were all alive. He choked back a sob at the last lines, simply staring at the flashmail. Nemera and Sidhe were alive...somewhere. Somewhere that Gyl had called the Borderlands. Wherever that was, whatever that meant. It was in code for a reason, he knew, so the Borderlands had to be something that only the three of them knew about, or what it was. Which really meant that nobody else could find them. And so, slowly, he put a close to that chapter. Until the three of them came back from the Borderlands, they couldn't finish the fight against the Highers. But they still had the Incarnation of Gan, so perhaps...perhaps it didn't matter that much. So long as the Highers never found them, or could get their hands on the Incarnation in some way.
But that didn't stop him from crying.
It took a while for the tears to stop. By that time, he'd reached the Ruem sector and found a bath house, Life's Relief, right along the main drag. Although the name made him wince, the people walking inside of it did seem to go into rooms with showers and hey there that's not the men's room. Disconnecting that line of sight with absurd swiftness, Takua waited until he was fairly sure that his face was no longer flaring up with higher red than anything he'd ever seen Sekai do. Well, to be fair, he couldn't see his own face, but he could feel it burning.
So he made his way into the building, glancing at the freshly washed woman behind the counter through the eyes of another person. Should he open his own, or keep stealing from their own? For that matter, where were...ah, against the wall right there. Watching him. That made it easy, even if he didn't want to think of what a beefy Heavy Blade who stood seven feet tall could do to him. Especially here in Yamiyo. He'd probably already made the two alert simply by stealing their vision...well, nothing he could do about that. The walls were tall, and cascades of water came from seemingly nowhere to drape slowly down the wooden paneling. A little moat ringed the room...and Mr. Bouncer seemed to ignore it totally. He was in the waterfall itself, and didn't give a shit.
Takua shrugged, moving forward and thankful that his gaze never wavered. He opened his mouth to speak...and felt himself abruptly shouldered out of the controlling spot by Ondine. Who used the opportunity to speak in that schoolgirlish, somewhat-innocent-but-totally-sadistic giggle. “Hey! First time here. What do'I do?” And the only thing the Wavemaster wanted to do was die. Right there, right now, aneurism, any second now...
-------
'You really didn't have to do that, you know.'
'Sure I did! It's been a while since I had to have fun. Besides, you're always going on about doom and gloom, so I decided to make you some friends!'
Half an hour later, a much more freshly washed but thoroughly embarrassed Wavemaster walked out of the bath house. Both the bouncer and the secretary (still looking freshly washed, what the fuck?) had looked a little off-put for a second, but let him through into the male side of the bath after a rather concerned minute of wondering where the hell to put someone who sounded like a girl. And looked like a guy. Since he doubted they wanted anyone from the woman's side accusing him of peeping or worse, they had stuffed him into the one his body matched. And had proceeded to have one of the worst hours of his life as Ondine hadn't let him back in control. Since he now doubted that any of the men in that bath house who had heard him would ever want to see him again, he was rather thankful for the large size of Yamiyo. Especially because they might just kill him if they found him again.
'I don't think that friends is the right word. I think enemies, or just people who want to rip my face off, works much better.'
'Now now, that's just your social inexperience showing through! Trust me. When I'm done, I'll have half of the people in Yamiyo wanting to be your friend!'
'...you have one of the strangest definitions of friendship that I have ever known.'
'You just don't get people, and you don't get my charm, and that's all there is too it. And just because you-'
Takua concentrated very hard on not listening to the rest of that statement as he walked away, his face turning redder and redder as he did so. God dammit. Weren't alternate personalities because of trauma? Didn't they have something to do with something that had happened before? If so, where the fucking hell had Ondine come from, and why was she so obsessed with having sex? No, wait, he really didn't want to know that.
But something that he'd heard inside of the building had intrigued him. And concerned him, if he was to be honest. Two men had been talking somewhere nearby, he couldn't quite pinpoint where they were when they had been talking about this. He'd only just barely heard them, but they were talking about a rare AI dealer that had gotten a fresh shipment of AI's in from the normal servers. And they'd been saying that there were a few in particular who didn't know their place after they'd been captured. Which made him think of a certain snow leopard who most certainly would not take kindly to being taken from her home and dragged into Yamiyo. But no, she wouldn't have been captured. This was just a way to pass the time and see the variety of AI in The World, and maybe see if he could free one or two of them.
Ondine just snorted in derision.
So he walked back to the Bazaar, past the huge throng of people that seemed to be everywhere and anywhere in Yamiyo. How many thousands of people were in here? A hundred thousand? Maybe closer to a million? Fucking hell. Way too many people who could all be out of kill him if they just recognized who he was. Or if the Elites put out anything like the post office wanted posters. Ah well, those were all depressing thoughts for another time and place.
For now, nobody stopped and killed him. Which didn't stop him from flinching when he thought he heard something or someone who was about him. Or all of the glances from people that noticed his presence in their eyes. They might not have known how, but they knew that he was watching them. Or something. He hadn't really figured it out yet, he was still working on the kinks of insinuating himself into the senses of people around him. Another thought for another time, perhaps when he had a few hours he could work on practicing the stealth necessary. But then he was through the passageway into the Bazaar. Taking a left a few football lengths into the sector, he started to flip through the eyes of everyone around, looking for this dealer. And rather abruptly ran right into an advertisement on a building off to the left. A couple wrong turns and about five minutes later, he finally found the place.
Come to think of it, he might have figured it out by spotting the monstrous, apartment-building sized mouse that was in the center of the square where he had set up shop. The man, Amaraki by the sign, owned quite the chunk of real estate here. Then again, with how many AI he had packed into the square, perhaps that was a good thing. Certainly, there was barely enough room between some of them to prevent one from mauling the other. Human AI, animal AI, one even looked like an intelligent tree. All of the shackled in some way to the ground, to posts, to chains...or simply imprisoned within bars of force. He wondered if those somehow rated the lethality and power of some of these AI, given that some of those bars of force were for smaller animals than the titanic mouse.
There had to be hundreds of AI here. And he was looking for one. One very special AI that he felt personally responsible for. He sighed...and clasped his hands together. One in his left, one in his right. He owed her...for a lot. He sighed, and started walking forward into the center of the field. Eyesight flickering from person to person, drawing stares. Nothing, nothing, nothing more than AI that looked interesting but weren't the one that he wanted. He reached the center, having just walked past a panther with claws of black night and eyes that burned with fire. He turned to his right...and stared. Barely daring to breathe, he sent a pulse of energy through the Kiss.
The snow leopard was in the middle of trying to maul someone who had walked too close while examining her, and getting wrenched back by a handler, maybe even the owner. The large Heavy Axe was on the ground, ice dripping from every wound, and Vesica's eyes burned blue white. The handler had a hand on the chain that connected to the glowing collar around her throat, something that dripped blood as it dug into her neck. He handled the chain one handed, with a finesse that spoke of a class like a Twin Blade instead of one of the Heavies...maybe a Fist Fighter. But a simple yank was enough to haul her off of the body. And chain the steel links to the ground with a spike that started growing the moment it hit the ground, enveloping the chain before stapling itself down.
An answering glow flared from her eyes, and she glanced up. With a score of onlookers, Takua could see the shock stamped onto her face for a half second before it vanished in a snarl of pain. And as the Heavy Axe got to his feet, the Wavemaster walked forward. Yeah, not gonna happen. Vesica would not go home with some other human who didn't know her, some fucker who wouldn't get her real value. Not someone who didn't need her. And if the Heavy Axe did try, it'd be over Takua's dead body. Given what he'd done to Garaa, he didn't think that this fucking pissant would walk away unscathed, which, unfortunately, Garaa had. Also unfortunately, they were supposed to be significantly more in the way of quiet and low key while everything went to hell. Which meant a more diplomatic approach.
So much for his good day.
Which wasn't even where things had gone wrong. That made him giggle a little, in some part of his brain that wasn't fighting for its life as another spell exploded around his body. Sure, the Eventide Crescendo was directly responsible for putting him in the situation that he was in now. Or, at least, it was by association with them that that was the case. He could directly point to the Eventide Crescendo as the point at which playing this game, The World, stopped being a game. That was the point where he realized that he was in a fight for his life. A fight that was bigger than just him, or some person on the PC across the room that wanted to kill him for fame or money. He relished that for a time...and then understood what a quietly shallow feeling that way. Fighting for a cause could make you feel good. It could also make you dead. Or break you, and leave you alive. Or do what it had done, and trapped him within this world while his body lay on a hospital bed, comatose, with who knew how many family and friends worried about him. Centrus for sure. Lugiablaster, probably. Everyone else...well, maybe. His parents would worry, at least to some degree.
So where did it all start? When did it all go wrong? Did it start when he entered The World, when he was first exposed to this wonderful game that held more secrets than anyone knew? Did it start when he shot and killed someone who had stalked him in self defense, even though the man was patently insane? Or when he himself had quietly gone nuts, and started hallucinating? Or when he much more loudly went nuts, nearly a year later, and went full fledged Schizophrenic? When he became trapped in this world by one of the Elites, Xenobia?
When did he stop caring about his life?
Sure, he wanted to live. Sure, he wanted to get out of here, get medication and help and whatever else he could get. And be normal, or as normal as he could be. But...he'd displayed a startling lack of any sense of self-preservation since realizing that he was Schizo. Since he was insane. But was he insane? Could he really say that he was out and out crazy?
He hallucinated, but knew it. He had delusions, and fought them with everything that he had when he realized that they were there. If he didn't realize them...well, that was just problematic. He had to rely on others to point them out, if he didn't realize them himself. Was he crazy? Yes...and no. He was crazy, his reality was different than others. But he wasn't, because he could recognize that different and work to find that perspective, that reality, that he had lost.
Was he influenced by his classes for Psychology? Did he think that, because he was insane, he was worth less than other people around them? Was that why he fought so hard both to prove himself, to himself and others, that he could still fight and be worth something? Was that why he worked so hard to make sure that he took the hits, despite being a fragile Wavemaster, so that others might not die? It made sense, curse it. But he also fought with a savage insanity, because he was never sure if he was missing something, or if his hallucinations were actually real.
Did he think that he was less than the people around him?
Was he already betraying the pact, the agreement, that he had made with Sekai, Kira, December, and now one other?
He spun, landing down a PhaRue Rom as he dodged another spell that tried to smack him out of the sky. Part of him was disgusted. Part of him had known that already, and continued on. Ondine was just annoyed that it was taking him so long to figure all of this out.
When had it all gone wrong?
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Takua walked through the Bazaar, listening to the loud clamor of humans, beasts, and other things around him. This sector in Yamiyo was incredibly busy as always, and he could never quite tell exactly what all was here. Which was annoying, when he felt that his very life and livelihood depended on being able to know what was around him at all times. And right now, with the confusion roiling in his gut, he didn't know. Couldn't pay attention to those heightened senses that Twilight had given him, because he had to take notice of what was going on inside of him.
He'd asked Sekai and Kira to give him a few before giving them a few minutes without him. Given what he'd just done to Sekai, or at least gotten her into, he figured that it was the most that he could do. The pain had finally subsided from Doomkeeper's scythe, and he knew that, at the very least, the little Archer's lover would want a few minutes with her. So he'd walked out of the hideout that they'd been using when he felt confident enough to walk. Enough to think where he didn't need to tell people that he was doing alright, or worse, that he actually had to tell them that, no, nothing was alright.
He sighed, shifting a little to the right to avoid getting run over by a running Heavy Axe, and continued walking. So he were here in the Bazaar, wondering what he was even doing here. It's not like he was here to buy anything (with what?) or had to talk to anyone. And since that was exactly what one did here, except to gamble (and he didn't think anyone would enjoy his Twilight Ability if he found a game of cards) he just wandered around. Once he passed someone who was selling candy, just for the taste. Nostolgia. Buying a soda, he reflected that the man had excellent taste. Plus, here in The World, he didn't have to worry about piddling little things like cavities that were in the real world.
“Of course, that's just what you needed. More caffeine.”
Finding someone who was looking at his soda, he measured how much was left in it. Still half. So he grinned back at the woman who sounded like she was over to the right. “Hey, it's not like the caffeine can effect me here, and besides, what'll it do, keep me up late at night? I don't even know if it is night right now or not.”
She snorted, and what felt like a small smack on the head from a very feminine illusion. “Oh yes, right. Can't affect you. Just like all of that vodka that you drank the other night, hmm?”
...oh. Right. He'd kind of forgotten about that for a moment. And he knew that it showed, even for a moment, and he could feel her grin. That sort of grin that always made him wince and wonder what was coming his way this time. “Uhh...alright, you've got a point. But it's soda, what can-”
And then he got it. Oh shit, now he knew what she was about to say or do, and now he wanted to beat her to the punch. Of course, he didn't. Damn her for being able to know what he was thinking and doing. “But Tak-Tak, think about how I'm going to feel in a few minutes.” And he felt his heart stop at the thought of Ondine feeling more energetic than she usually was. In fact, he was feeling more than a little woozy at the thought. Great. He hefted the bottle up to where he would be able to see it, if he could see. Maybe he shouldn't have any more of this...
But all of that was a pleasant distraction from what was bothering him. What was he doing here, in the bowels of Yamiyo? He could be free! Out! Away from the Elites and the server of hackers that followed them. Back to the regular servers...where he would be hounded by the Cobalt Knights and administrators, who would remember his character because of the Eventide Crescendo. And who would, as surely as the Elites would, try to gut his body in seconds. And when death came to this body, it would follow just as surely in the real world, where his body lay next to a machine that kept tabs on his coma.
Did his parents worry about him? Were Ian and Alex still okay? Had Todd finally figured out that he couldn't play The World to save his life? He hadn't seen Centrus or Lugiablaster recently...Ian...not since he'd gone back into Juka to deal with the dungeon, the dungeon that had nearly claimed all of their lives. He shivered as the memory of that godforsaken place, and he could feel even Ondine's mood dampen. Given that when he first became aware of her, it made sense that she might...hate that place. A lot. To be fair, he knew, she had good reason to hate it with every fiber of her being. For that matter, so did he.
His inventory still held the armor of Gan. Something to keep himself from being killed in a single hit by the Higher of Juka. Was Gyl still alright? Xenobia had said that he was far more adept at staying away from the rest of him...perhaps he was okay. Maybe he could send a flashmail to him...see if he couldn't get in contact with the hacker that he had never seen. Were Nemera and Sidhe alright? Zan? He hadn't seen the Heavy Blade since a brief encounter in the Wasteland, and had vanished just as surely once again. The other two...he didn't know that he'd ever see them again. After that explosion of green light and Dread Code (it was DC, wasn't it?) he hadn't...too confident that they were alive. But he could check. And maybe this time, the response from Gyl wouldn't be a trap by the Elites.
But what if it was? It could be. For that matter, was all mail that flowed out of Yamiyo tracked? But he didn't know of any way that you could use it to track where anyone was at any one time...and even if you could, he was walking through the bazaar, lost in a sea of characters that swam in this maze of buildings, stalls, open fields, tables and what seemed like a morass of sound. He could be safe...and could listen for any sound of his name, no? It was worth a shot. He owed them all.
He honestly didn't expect an answer at all. Maybe Gyl...if he was lucky. Nemera and Sidhe...if they were able to send a flashmail at all. Again, not expecting any miracles. Just hoping desperately for one. But while he was walking, he started talking to Ondine again. “So, how long do you think it's been since we got stuck in here?”To: Gyl, Nemera, Sidhe
From: Takua
Subject: Are you alive?
It's been a while. I'm alive (obviously). In Yamiyo, unfortunately, along with Baron, Sekai, and Talal. And the rest of the freedom fighters. If any of you are alive or able to respond, would love to hear from you. Still remember the Eventide Crescendo, still have the Shell. Lemme know how any of you are doing.
Takua
He felt, rather than saw, the shrug in her tone of voice. “Long enough. We don't know how long we were unconscious since Xenobia nailed us, and time seems to be slipping away from us. It's not as though we can see the sun doing its march and set in this place. For all we know, it's been several months. At the very least, a few weeks now? Maybe? Seems like it, anyhow.”
And then he felt her scamper away from him...which was an interesting sensation, since she couldn't. Stupid fscking...hallucination and alternate personality. Right. Okay, so he wasn't terribly sane, but he knew that, so at least he had a bit of a leg up on all of the rest. He grinned slightly, cracking his eyes open just to see if he could, well, see. No such luck, just more blankness, and he shut his eyes again.
He knew that people kept watching him, but that was because of the way that he could watch them. They could feel his Twilight reaching out and stealing their sight. He wanted to laugh. The best voyeur there ever could be, but he rather doubted that he even wanted to watch anyone having sex right now. Or in The World at all. And the only couple that he knew about...well, he was in a pact with them, being caught peeping would likely get him killed by Kira, if Sekai didn't die from embarrassment first. Fortunately, since he had no urge to get it off by watching two other people do so, they were rather free from that sort of thing.
That sort of thought just made him wonder what they were doing now, and grinned lightly. Kira was probably getting ready to beat the shit out of him when he came back. He knew that he deserved it...kind of. Mostly because he had dragged Sekai into it as well, but also simply because it was a stupid thing that he had done and he knew it. He just needed something now to help out. Mostly because he felt like he was still abusing their hospitality, as it were, and he needed to do...something. He was inconveniencing them, was what it felt like. So what could he do to lessen that inconvenience and make himself more valuable? Give them more of a reason to want him around. Well, other than Kira's probable desire to keep him out of trouble.
Although, he grinned with the thought, she had more than enough of that on her hands with Sekai.
According to everyone else, today was particularly busy in the Bazaar. Or at least, it seemed to be more busy than when he had first been here. Wandering through the market the size of a root town was interesting, but so far workable. Plus, there was a lot to see here. Like the entire square that had been turned into what looked like a hacked weapons demonstration, with various abilities that were stored in the weapons themselves annihilating the targeting dummies up and down the area that was a good sized football field. Plus, he realized as he watched, the dummies regenerated.
Given what he had heard about the Merc sector, he was just glad that this wasn't taking place there. If it had, there might have been a few more...well, okay. A lot more dead bodies lying around, because someone would have taken the opportunity to turn the weapons on someone else, or another group would have seized a chance to find a weakness with unfamiliar weapons. Which was why all of the sellers had grouped up here, instead. At least, there were a lot of men and women off to the side watching in wildly different uniforms, although here and there they matched up. Must be the different groups, come to see what weapons they can get for...the army itself or the commander? Probably the commander, the Wavemaster mused, or else the army would swiftly go bankrupt. At least, he assumed that the weapons were expensive.
But he kept himself at a safe distance, walking around it...trying to get an impression of the gossip that was going on here. A lot of talk about the Anid sector, a lot of rumors about what had gone on. Nothing yet approaching the truth...which was good. At least, not amongst most of the people. He supposed that a fair portion of the ones that he heard who had been talking about the truth were actually hallucinations, simply because he didn't like their stares at him as he passed by. Seemed entirely too paranoia inducing to be true. So he didn't think it was.
Even if he really wanted to believe it was.
But each sniff brought in the smells of thousands of people, reeking of blood, leftover elemental haze, sweat, fear, anger, some strange traces of happiness, and the individual smells of all of those people. Plus, all of the hacker attempts at perfume or cologne, some of which were likely hacks as well, or at least, provided tangible benefits. As for him...he'd just as well rather find a nice Juk field and take a bath. He'd have said Rue, but he didn't think that he'd survive past ice block...although, he reflected, he could always just Vak Rom when he was done in order to heat back up. And since he'd been stuck in a dungeon (a literal one) after having been comatosed, and then dragged across the Wasteland, then to a doctor's office, stuck in the hideout, and then running hither and thither until getting wasted by the Elite of Darkness. So he might be forgiven for thinking that he A: Reeked and B: Needed a shower. Or a bath.
...well fuck it. Maybe the Ruem sector had something, or the Bazaar. Although he'd really put money on Rue first, Bazaar second. So perhaps it was time to make a trek to see if there was any sort of place he could wash himself up at. Besides, that would take some time up, and he wanted to give Sekai and Kira a good long while before he drifted back and found them. Plus...maybe it was just his enhanced sense of smell, but most of the freedom fighters reeked. And although he might not say that to them (or at least Kira and Sekai) he might enhance their senses...give them a taste of what they might smell like to gently hint...
He chuckled. Gently hint, right. With any luck, one of them would punch him in the face for that, especially if they got insulted over that. Plus, they just might not care. It wasn't like they could smell it all the time. Nah, that was just his luck. On the other hand...he supposed that when he got his sight back, he could see exactly how enhanced that was. Sure, and then he could actually look into a mirror to have to see his face every day, instead of seeing it in the eyes of everyone he looked through. On the other hand, he was getting a bit better at slipping in without getting stares from everyone he met. And generally better at simply walking through the sight of others.
Which was why he felt confident enough to use the two Ruem wings on his back to throw him into the sky, beating against the air until he was at a height so that people could still see him from the street, but he wouldn't go headlong into a building. It also helped that there were enough people here who could fly on their own to give him some chance of seeing himself in the air. Still, it was freaky as fucking hell to fly around like this without being in combat, and having the advantage of having multiple people close to the ground who could see where he was.
It also nearly took him out of the sky when a flashmail pinged in his inbox. He'd been so focused on the idea that he wouldn't get a response that he hadn't expected any at all. Shaking his head as he got back to the same altitude as before, he opened it. Expecting to see something from one of the rest of the Freedom Fighters. And felt his heart stop a moment later when he saw the sender.
To: Takua
From: Gyl
Subject: RE: Are you alive?
Fight the free fight, but do not contact me again. Nemera and Sidhe are beyond you now at the edge of The World, in the Borderlands. Beyond even me - for the time being. When I'm gone, a thousand eyes will watch this account, so heed my advise, Takua, and let this be the last time you reach out for us. Where we'll be you cannot follow, but know that our lives were better for knowing you. All of you.
Gyl
The Wavemaster felt tears sting his eyes slowly, swelling up underneath before finally escaping from their prison, sliding down his face to scatter to the ground and the people below. He was alive. They were all alive. He choked back a sob at the last lines, simply staring at the flashmail. Nemera and Sidhe were alive...somewhere. Somewhere that Gyl had called the Borderlands. Wherever that was, whatever that meant. It was in code for a reason, he knew, so the Borderlands had to be something that only the three of them knew about, or what it was. Which really meant that nobody else could find them. And so, slowly, he put a close to that chapter. Until the three of them came back from the Borderlands, they couldn't finish the fight against the Highers. But they still had the Incarnation of Gan, so perhaps...perhaps it didn't matter that much. So long as the Highers never found them, or could get their hands on the Incarnation in some way.
But that didn't stop him from crying.
It took a while for the tears to stop. By that time, he'd reached the Ruem sector and found a bath house, Life's Relief, right along the main drag. Although the name made him wince, the people walking inside of it did seem to go into rooms with showers and hey there that's not the men's room. Disconnecting that line of sight with absurd swiftness, Takua waited until he was fairly sure that his face was no longer flaring up with higher red than anything he'd ever seen Sekai do. Well, to be fair, he couldn't see his own face, but he could feel it burning.
So he made his way into the building, glancing at the freshly washed woman behind the counter through the eyes of another person. Should he open his own, or keep stealing from their own? For that matter, where were...ah, against the wall right there. Watching him. That made it easy, even if he didn't want to think of what a beefy Heavy Blade who stood seven feet tall could do to him. Especially here in Yamiyo. He'd probably already made the two alert simply by stealing their vision...well, nothing he could do about that. The walls were tall, and cascades of water came from seemingly nowhere to drape slowly down the wooden paneling. A little moat ringed the room...and Mr. Bouncer seemed to ignore it totally. He was in the waterfall itself, and didn't give a shit.
Takua shrugged, moving forward and thankful that his gaze never wavered. He opened his mouth to speak...and felt himself abruptly shouldered out of the controlling spot by Ondine. Who used the opportunity to speak in that schoolgirlish, somewhat-innocent-but-totally-sadistic giggle. “Hey! First time here. What do'I do?” And the only thing the Wavemaster wanted to do was die. Right there, right now, aneurism, any second now...
-------
'You really didn't have to do that, you know.'
'Sure I did! It's been a while since I had to have fun. Besides, you're always going on about doom and gloom, so I decided to make you some friends!'
Half an hour later, a much more freshly washed but thoroughly embarrassed Wavemaster walked out of the bath house. Both the bouncer and the secretary (still looking freshly washed, what the fuck?) had looked a little off-put for a second, but let him through into the male side of the bath after a rather concerned minute of wondering where the hell to put someone who sounded like a girl. And looked like a guy. Since he doubted they wanted anyone from the woman's side accusing him of peeping or worse, they had stuffed him into the one his body matched. And had proceeded to have one of the worst hours of his life as Ondine hadn't let him back in control. Since he now doubted that any of the men in that bath house who had heard him would ever want to see him again, he was rather thankful for the large size of Yamiyo. Especially because they might just kill him if they found him again.
'I don't think that friends is the right word. I think enemies, or just people who want to rip my face off, works much better.'
'Now now, that's just your social inexperience showing through! Trust me. When I'm done, I'll have half of the people in Yamiyo wanting to be your friend!'
'...you have one of the strangest definitions of friendship that I have ever known.'
'You just don't get people, and you don't get my charm, and that's all there is too it. And just because you-'
Takua concentrated very hard on not listening to the rest of that statement as he walked away, his face turning redder and redder as he did so. God dammit. Weren't alternate personalities because of trauma? Didn't they have something to do with something that had happened before? If so, where the fucking hell had Ondine come from, and why was she so obsessed with having sex? No, wait, he really didn't want to know that.
But something that he'd heard inside of the building had intrigued him. And concerned him, if he was to be honest. Two men had been talking somewhere nearby, he couldn't quite pinpoint where they were when they had been talking about this. He'd only just barely heard them, but they were talking about a rare AI dealer that had gotten a fresh shipment of AI's in from the normal servers. And they'd been saying that there were a few in particular who didn't know their place after they'd been captured. Which made him think of a certain snow leopard who most certainly would not take kindly to being taken from her home and dragged into Yamiyo. But no, she wouldn't have been captured. This was just a way to pass the time and see the variety of AI in The World, and maybe see if he could free one or two of them.
Ondine just snorted in derision.
So he walked back to the Bazaar, past the huge throng of people that seemed to be everywhere and anywhere in Yamiyo. How many thousands of people were in here? A hundred thousand? Maybe closer to a million? Fucking hell. Way too many people who could all be out of kill him if they just recognized who he was. Or if the Elites put out anything like the post office wanted posters. Ah well, those were all depressing thoughts for another time and place.
For now, nobody stopped and killed him. Which didn't stop him from flinching when he thought he heard something or someone who was about him. Or all of the glances from people that noticed his presence in their eyes. They might not have known how, but they knew that he was watching them. Or something. He hadn't really figured it out yet, he was still working on the kinks of insinuating himself into the senses of people around him. Another thought for another time, perhaps when he had a few hours he could work on practicing the stealth necessary. But then he was through the passageway into the Bazaar. Taking a left a few football lengths into the sector, he started to flip through the eyes of everyone around, looking for this dealer. And rather abruptly ran right into an advertisement on a building off to the left. A couple wrong turns and about five minutes later, he finally found the place.
Come to think of it, he might have figured it out by spotting the monstrous, apartment-building sized mouse that was in the center of the square where he had set up shop. The man, Amaraki by the sign, owned quite the chunk of real estate here. Then again, with how many AI he had packed into the square, perhaps that was a good thing. Certainly, there was barely enough room between some of them to prevent one from mauling the other. Human AI, animal AI, one even looked like an intelligent tree. All of the shackled in some way to the ground, to posts, to chains...or simply imprisoned within bars of force. He wondered if those somehow rated the lethality and power of some of these AI, given that some of those bars of force were for smaller animals than the titanic mouse.
There had to be hundreds of AI here. And he was looking for one. One very special AI that he felt personally responsible for. He sighed...and clasped his hands together. One in his left, one in his right. He owed her...for a lot. He sighed, and started walking forward into the center of the field. Eyesight flickering from person to person, drawing stares. Nothing, nothing, nothing more than AI that looked interesting but weren't the one that he wanted. He reached the center, having just walked past a panther with claws of black night and eyes that burned with fire. He turned to his right...and stared. Barely daring to breathe, he sent a pulse of energy through the Kiss.
The snow leopard was in the middle of trying to maul someone who had walked too close while examining her, and getting wrenched back by a handler, maybe even the owner. The large Heavy Axe was on the ground, ice dripping from every wound, and Vesica's eyes burned blue white. The handler had a hand on the chain that connected to the glowing collar around her throat, something that dripped blood as it dug into her neck. He handled the chain one handed, with a finesse that spoke of a class like a Twin Blade instead of one of the Heavies...maybe a Fist Fighter. But a simple yank was enough to haul her off of the body. And chain the steel links to the ground with a spike that started growing the moment it hit the ground, enveloping the chain before stapling itself down.
An answering glow flared from her eyes, and she glanced up. With a score of onlookers, Takua could see the shock stamped onto her face for a half second before it vanished in a snarl of pain. And as the Heavy Axe got to his feet, the Wavemaster walked forward. Yeah, not gonna happen. Vesica would not go home with some other human who didn't know her, some fucker who wouldn't get her real value. Not someone who didn't need her. And if the Heavy Axe did try, it'd be over Takua's dead body. Given what he'd done to Garaa, he didn't think that this fucking pissant would walk away unscathed, which, unfortunately, Garaa had. Also unfortunately, they were supposed to be significantly more in the way of quiet and low key while everything went to hell. Which meant a more diplomatic approach.
So much for his good day.