Something was dusty.
Alina, face-down in her pillow, body sprawled over bedclothes, was not entirely sure what, but something definitely felt like dust.
She moved her head and looked drearily into the daylight speckled across the carpet.
"This room..."
Something about it bothered her.
Maybe it was the cold, twisting knife of returning to find a missing Marionette still wedged into her gut.
Had she been taken?
"Unlikely" had been her conclusion. She probably just woke up and left. Alina still felt the mild guilty pangs of her memories of lost puppets, but she figured she would reimburse the girl next time they met.
She had other things to do. Benches and fountains came to mind.
But first, of course, she had to deal with this cold sweat she'd woken up with.
Pinching the folds in her dampened pyjamas, she offhandedly pondered what kind of dream she'd been having.
All she remembered was whispering and pale, misty hands.
------------
Alina suspected that might well have been the first shower that had tangibly refreshed her.
Stretching the last of her tension away, she actually felt energised.
She was really and truly in a good place.
Despite everything, she was actually happy.
How surreal. But knowing that a person could find happiness even without knowing of it in the midst of so grim a situation was enough to simply cheer her up even more.
She'd be fine without breakfast, she decided, just a snack was okay.
------------
Sex ante meridiem.
Meridiem.
Sex post meridiem.
At three distinct times of day, the only religion she knew of with a Bell rang it.
It was stupid. It was unfounded. But it seemed to fit and it was the only thing she could think of, so she was sticking with it.
Clocks were a pain, but if it worked for now, it'd work until that world came by again.
"Still… it'd be nice if we didn't have a timer..." she muttered, offhandedly kicking a mote of gravel.
________
After departing with Yohan, Onyx had immediately headed back to his dorm to sleep. Only, as he laid down he was assaulted by an unrest that kept him awake for most of the night. So many questions were circulating through his head - Empress? Trials? It all sounded like the results of a bad fever dream. Maybe he was actually in the hospital and all of this was just him being delusional.
If only.
Eventually, he fell asleep and almost as quickly woke up back up to find the sun peeking through his blinds. With a curse, Onyx rolled out of bed and went about his morning routine. He needed to wake up, get himself together and try and find the others. Stepping out onto the street, Onyx took a deep breath, a slight apprehension taking hold of him. The thought of actually searching for them intimidated him.
Strange.
------------
Hands in his pockets, Onyx strolled down the streets, a curiosity overtaking him as he began to think about random things. 'Was Jesus an Empress? Maybe he went through the same shit. Boy, I bet that was awkward.' Onyx mused as he watched people make way to whatever religious events they were partaking in.
'He probably was. Makes sense, in retrospect.' Onyx decided, clasping his hands behind his head. 'If I was Yohan, I'd probably be avoiding anything religious because I'm a gambler. If I was Alina, I'd probably be in some library being smart and shit.'
"Or maybe I'm just a stupid piece of shit." Onyx blurted out when he spotted Alina, legitimately surprised when he saw the girl. Jogging to catch up to her, he quickly came up beside her.
"Marionette says 'Hi'." He said, immediately feeling anxious when he realized that her power was still affecting him. How long did it last, exactly? "Ugh, fuck her. Anyway, uh… How's it going?"
"Onyx!" Alina exclaimed. She wasn't used to this whole 'friends' thing, but she was extremely glad to see him. "I'm sorry! I forgot to say what bench it was! I found someone who could help probably us though."
She shook her head.
"No, more importantly, how are you doing? I haven't seen you since I did that stupid thing with the ghosts. Did you get out alive?"
"Uh…" Onyx was caught off guard, honestly. He was so used to Alina being so calm and subdued that he didn't think she even had the ability to be excited. Boy was he wrong. "I'm… I'm alright. I guess. I made it out. Well, uh, this sort of goes back to Marionette in a way." He blurted out before explaining the events that transpired the night before, repeating everything Marionette told him.
"... Which is something I also find very weird, because I'm a dude so how the hell do they expect me to be a goddamn Empress?" He ranted before taking a deep breath and exhaling. "Your thoughts on any of this bullshit?"
She frowned thoughtfully. "I'm not sure. It does make sense, but if Marionette's an enemy now, can we trust everything she says? I assume she's just playing with us, but still… I guess it's the best thing we have to go off for now. Dominate, huh…?"
She shuffled a foot on the ground.
"That's way too strong," she shook her head. "Our best bet is to just not try to fight her at all, honestly. See who lives longer if we can lure her into hazards and stuff if we have no other choice, but I'd rather not run into her."
She shrugged. "Let's think about it closer to the time. More importantly," she smirked wryly, "is it too much to ask for a guy to go shopping with me really quick?"
"I can't believe she made me run around naked." Onyx muttered under his breath, still somewhat embarrassed over the whole ordeal. Who even does that? What about the whole 'great power, great responsibility' thing? Sure, he would never adhere to such boring logic, but he expected other people not to abuse their powers. "Shopping?" Did this classify as a date? Was Alina really that desperate? Had he finally lucked out?
"Uh, sure." He shrugged. He needed to be casual - he couldn't show Alina his desperation. Maybe, if he played his cards right, he could even partake in some…
'Handholding…' He thought in reverence, as if it was the greatest thing that could ever happen. "Where we going?" Onyx inquired with a raised brow, legitimately curious as to what Alina intended on buying.
"Well, it's a little unorthodox," she said, "but I need something to stab with, bluntly. Or not so bluntly, as the case may be."
She smirked a little at her own joke.
"I don't want to trouble you, but then I also don't intend to let you get lost on your own again after that little episode. Know anywhere decent?"
"Oh." Onyx remarked, genuinely surprised. It made sense, now that he thought about it. "Uh…" Could he really take Alina to the blacksmith club? Yeah, he could probably get away with it once without raising any questions, but a second time? If Alina wanted an actual weapon…
"Well, uh… There's… Y'know." He shrugged, feeling quite uneasy about saying the word's 'Dropout District'. "But, I guess it depends on how stabby you're trying to get? Could try one of the industrial clubs. Or, uh, maybe a novelty shop? They may have like antique knives or something."
"Oh, that's an idea," she said. "They decorate walls with swords in the Yu, right? Who knows, we might be able to find something genuine if we look hard enough. This month's stipends should be enough to cover that easily. The only thing to worry about is getting ripped off, but if I still know what I'm doing, that shouldn't be an issue."
"I highly doubt they'll have anything extremely fake. It'd make those uppity-collectors super pissed if they weren't genuine. Though, I guess we'll see once we get there." Onyx chirped, genuinely excited to go to an antique store. Why? He didn't know. Maybe because in his head he had convinced himself it was pretty much a date even if it obviously wasn't. "Not gonna lie, I've never been to one. An antique place that wasn't all about clocks, I mean. My dad usually tries to keep my away from expensive stuff that isn't clock-related because he's afraid I'll lose my interest in horology." He rambled, wanting something to talk about as they began walking.
"That's what I'm here for, by the way. Horology. Probably one of the most boring things, but it's pretty neat. Fixing stuff, y'know? There's just something satisfying about when you finally get all the gears to click and work together." He rubbed the back of his neck. "What about you? I know Yohan has his water… Stuff. What're you here for?"
Alina thought about clocks for a moment or two as he explained. True, it would have been satisfying to try that, but awfully monotonous to just put cogs together all day. She probably could have lived that way once.
"I'm here because of my parents," she said, a simple statement that offered neither passion nor dread. "They work as administrative staff. Higher-ups, you know? I was born in Ringrange, so I've never been anywhere else. I don't have any special talents or interests besides analysing things. Even that's not what it was a few days ago, but I think it must have been some kind of sickness of the mind anyway. I did have a small job going where I'd predict how markets are going, values of certain materials and stock and stuff. I don't think I can do that anymore now that the analysis is reduced to voices in the back of my head. The best I have now are trustworthy hunches. Conclusions that I can't see the reasoning for."
"So, is it like… I talked to Yohan last night, and he mentioned something about kind of losing himself. It only happened to me once, the first time I died on the other side. Is it the same for you?" He inquired, curious to see if his suspicion was correct. If it was, then it meant 'changing' every time you died or gaining a new ability if you 'won'. "Also, can you do… Anything weird? Like, Yohan can teleport and I can… Stop stuff. Like, freeze stuff in time I guess? Anything like that for you?"
"Ha. I wish. That slot machine seems to have eaten my money. I've died twice and gotten nothing out of it. That's why I'm so keen to be able to kill things," she explained. "It's not just me. I saw a gold eye on Alice, the clockwork girl, but she didn't even know what I was talking about when I mentioned powers. Yohan's Translocate isn't as strong as I expected, though. While that spirit thing possessed me I came up with a loophole without even trying. Too bad it was listening in, I guess. These powers are beyond humanity for sure, but they're certainly not in the realm of God."
She met his gold eye briefly.
"More to the point, did you get anything besides that freezing power? You technically won the last round, right? Are there any kind of rewards for surviving?"
"I think it kind of… Advanced? Uh, I wasn't really aware of my power until after I 'won' or whatever. But, I sort of knew it had changed? Kind of like… Instinct. I've only tested it slightly, but I'm pretty sure I can affect more than one person now. I think there may be more, based on the crazy shit I saw, but I haven't really figured it out yet. I have an idea, but I don't want to just go around and potentially fuck someone's head up." He admitted. Onyx really didn't want to test his powers on random people - it seemed extremely rude, to him at least. And then he still felt bad about sandwich guy from the other night.
Alina seemed to consider this for a moment. "I want to try something. On three, try using it on me. You're comfortable with that, right?"
"Wait you want me to…" He was far from comfortable with using Alina as a test subject. It just seemed needlessly risky. "I mean, I could, but... " He rubbed his face. If she was willing, who was he to say no? She wasn't a coward, so he should just follow her example, right?
"Okay. Let me just... " He placed a hand on each of her shoulders to keep her steady. "It'd be bad if you fell and cracked your head, y'know?" He chuckled awkwardly, taking a deep breath as he prepared himself for what he was going to do.
"Let me know when you're ready."
"Alright. Three, two, one," she said, and then jumped as high as she could.
By the time she had 'one', Onyx had said 'Terminate'. He had been so focused on attempting Mindlock, he didn't even consider using his standard Terminate. How was this going go, he wondered? If it worked how he thought it would, she'd be rendered unconscious. Would he have to catch her? He'd probably have to, to keep her from hitting the ground.
Alina felt something attaching to her mind.
Wait, what? That's not what was meant to be happening.
Realising she'd underestimated Onyx's versatility by quite a bit, she pushed back. This didn't allow her test to work.
But even if she failed, she knew at least the first step had kind of worked.
He had been legitimately caught off guard when he felt the 'resistance'. Onyx didn't know what he had been expecting, but it wasn't this. Still, he wouldn't back down. He redoubled his focus, fully intent on 'Terminating' Alina's mind. He needed to practice, after all. If Alina was capable of giving him this much trouble, then he suspected it'd be even more difficult if it was anyone else. He didn't feel comfortable pressing too hard, though. If she kept resisting, he'd stop - not wanting to risk any potential mental damage.
It… was working.
That was a surprise.
Sure, okay.
She pushed back. Hard.
This hadn't been her intention when she had told him to Terminate her, and to be honest, she was kind of pissed.
She didn't notice, but she had gritted her teeth. This was not going to be easy, but it was going to be fun.
'Goddammit, Alina.' Onyx huffed out a rough breath, prepared to make one last push with Mind Lock before he called it quits. He was probably going to have a killer headache after this. Still, the very fact he was even having a mental battle told him everything he needed to know about the viability of Terminate. He was mostly curious to see if it would even be possible, and this pretty much confirmed it. Though, Alina's resistance made it difficult for him to even find out the end result.
Unless he somehow mentally beat her into submission. But, that was a bit too much for him.
"S-s...stop…"
Alina just about managed to force out words. "This… wasn't…!"
That pressure on her brain hurt more the more she pushed it back.
This wasn't what she was trying to do.
This had to stop. It had to stop now.
Did she really have to use that already?
Two seconds more. That was all she would allow.
After that, she was using force.
Okay this had to stop. He ended it and immediately staggered back, his head pounding as he doubled over and clutched his head.
"Oh. Fuck. That hurts. Oh god." He blinked as he knelt down, still holding his head. "Holy shit…!" He remarked, trying to blink the pain away.
"I didn't think it would actually work like that." Onyx admitted, glancing over to Alina. "Aw man, sorry about that. I really, really didn't think it'd work like that."
"It's… it's fine… It's my fault," she replied, clutching her right eye. That was too close. "I just wanted to check if it turned off gravity."
She blinked a little blood out of her eye, sighing.
"On the plus side, I definitely have a plan to take out Marionette now, believe it or not. It does involve punching girls, if you're into that."
She stood up straight, eager to keep up appearances before one or both of them got more humiliated.
"I'll explain on the way. Come on."
"Fuck her. I have no issue with smacking the shit out of her." Onyx remarked as he stood, still holding his head. "Lead the way."
"Yeah, see… It might not be her you're smacking the shit out of."