Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The Canopy Kingdom: Where a place of bustling communities, thriving commerce, beautiful sights, a varied, thriving culture, and a melting pot of various peoples stood also a land with a bloody past and present alike. From its many previous wars to its modern inner conflicts and most notoriously paying host to the Skull Heart, the Canopy Kingdom was hardly the most ideal of places to travel if one were seeking a quiet and safe life. The city of New Meridian was perhaps the epicenter and leading area in these regards, a bright and beautiful city of many peoples, but crimes and deaths ran rampant here in the dark spots of this metropolis. 

However, one young-ish man, just finished with his plane ride, was already fully aware of the risks New Meridian posed and ventured to this place regardless. He sighed out of a mix of worry and anticipation, already having a gut-deep feeling that his somewhat flighty adventure was just going to pay off. 

The man let out a little hum as he pulled out a map from his suitcase, stretching his tired legs and throwing his arms upward before near-crashing onto the bench. The wood creaked for a half-second before splintering apart and breaking completely, sending the man’s bum crashing painfully onto the ground. 

“... Ow.” he muttered, tempted to curse. “Could’a sworn I was super-scrawny, should’a looked at that bench before sitting…” He quickly noted the many pairs of eyes on him as he rose. Flushed with embarrassment, he made a little show of dusting himself off, saying with a slightly raised voice, “Nothin’ to see here! Just some clumsy dude making a fool of ‘imself!” 

Most everyone moved on after that, and he put one hand on his luggage as he opened up his map a second time. “Lessee here… Left a couple blocks from here, walk a mile, catch the trolley there… There’s the apartments, yep. When’s that trolley, though, hmm…”  

The man eventually and reluctantly decided to play the trolley time by ear, figuring that the sooner he got to the station the better. Wheeling his luggage along, he resumed his journey toward his destination, a bit thankful at the opportunity to use his sleepy yet energy-filled legs a bit. 

The man took a bit longer than was strictly necessary to get to his first stop, slowing down often to take in the sights and people along the way. Humans, Ferals, Dagonians, even the occasional Gigan in spite of the war just a few years earlier all navigated the streets, and the man could only imagine how the myriad signs lit up at night. 

He made it to the station a short while later and plopped down on a bench (a metal one this time, he looked first this time) and opened up his map to triple-check he had the right building. After that his eyes wandered over to a convenient trolley timetable placed on a post right next to the tracks, which let him know the next one would arrive in about eight minutes. The man sighed a little and leaned back against the hard metal of the bench, content with getting comfortable while he waited. 

A couple minutes after his wait started, the man found himself having some company. A young Dagonian sat herself down next to the man, and he couldn’t help but quickly scan her over. Short, with glowing magenta irises and a light-and-dark-blue coloration. A large, vibrant fin with a yellow underside was tied up behind the girl’s head in an imitation of a ponytail, and the large scales on her head looked remarkably similar to actual hair when viewed as a whole. She was carrying a little dark pink purse as well -- 

“‘Zit uncomfortable?” The man only realized he was the one who spoke after the words left his mouth. 

The young woman looked up at him, a brow quirked. “Hm?” 

The man instantly regretted bringing up such an out-of-nowhere question to a complete stranger, but went on anyway, unable to help his sudden curiosity. “The ponytail. Puttin’ up your fin like that. There ain’t many Dagonians where I’m from, so ‘course I’m curious--” 

The man finally stopped himself by physically putting his hand over his mouth . Once he was sure the thing would stop running, he put his hand down and sighed, about to apologize before the girl answered, “No, it doesn’t, mister. I wouldn’t be doing it if it did, would I?” 

“... Yeah. Yeah, that’s. Pretty obvious...” A sigh. “ Sorry for bringin’ up such a weird question, we don’t even know each other...” 

The girl merely hummed as a response, focus shifting toward the timetable to read over it before grabbing a magazine out of her purse. The man sighed and struggled to resist the urge to look down at what she was reading, knowing that he’d already made things awkward enough. To distract from said urge, he pulled out his map again to review the sights and a few places of interest he’d try to visit the following day. 

‘Let’s face it, I’m probably getting up real late tomorrow. So... This one restaurant in Little Innsmouth looks like a good place for an early lunch . Not too far from my place , either. Then … I think the casinos would be a good place to get the scoops I’m lookin’ for. Considerin’ this city, though ... Hmm.’ 

After half a minute to think on that, he next decided that a decent substitute location in case the place seemed as dangerous as he thought would be a few of the churches and cathedrals around the city. ‘Some sightseeing and getting myself more familiar with this place would do me good. Kinda curious about whether this place worships only the Trinity, too .’ Speaking of which, the Grand Cathedral near the center of downtown New Meridian looked to be a potential hub for worship. ‘Could ask around there for religious questions at some point,’ the man idly catalogued.  

So his train of thought continued, brainstorming additional places to visit and acquire information from. Before he knew it, the soft hiss of the trolley engine entered his ears, and he and the girl next to him quickly rose and boarded. Seeing as he didn’t have a pass, the man presented a few coins to the trolley engineer, who nodded after a swift count and allowed him to sit. Or, rather, that’s what the man would do were it not for the fact that there was only one seat left and the girl from earlier still hadn’t gotten herself one. 

The two awkwardly shared a glance before the man gestured for her to sit, which she did with a small nod of gratitude. A few seconds after the man got a grip on one of the handles hanging from the bars, there was a gentle sway, and the trolley was off. 

The man couldn’t help but notice the girl got off only twenty minutes later, at the Little Innsmouth restaurant he was thinking about earlier. The man let out a soft “huh” as the girl exited, holding her purse close as she walked off toward her… ‘Work place ? Home ? Maybe both ?’ The man’s thoughts quickly got back on the track of tomorrow’s plans, a bit weirded out by his own semi-fixation on this teen he’d just not-so-smoothly met and didn’t even know the name of. 

Nearly half an hour later, the man arrived at the station closest to his destination. He got off with a little hop to skip the last singular stair down before getting out his map once again to confirm his next directions. 

‘Right from here, then just keep walkin’ straight...’

Though it was the opposite of a long walk from there, the man couldn’t help but feel a bit of paranoia set in. New Meridian was well-known for its immense quantity of criminals, and he was by himself, and there were a rather large number of dark alleyways… Et cetera. 

Luckily, aside from the feeling of being watched by a lot of potentially unseemly people, the man encountered no trouble. He breathed a sigh of relief as he pushed the somewhat fancy yet simultaneously dirty and uncared-for glass door open. 

The man looked around, curious about how different the place he’d be staying looked in-person compared to the previews he’d seen online. The smoothed granite walls have evidently not been polished in a while, but the wooden floor, a deep brown in shade, at least appeared cared for. A mix of candles and electric lights gave the place an odd, not necessarily seamless blend of new and old. There was a stairwell beside the counter and a hall to the left, a bathroom on the opposite side, and a hall likely leading to the ground floor living rooms. In sum it was a bit on the dingy side, but not unbearably so. 

Seeing no one behind the counter at the entrance, the man rang the service bell. There was a grumble from the room behind the counter, a grumpy  and elderly looking Gigan squeezing out of the room and into the lobby soon after. “Checking in?” he asked gruffly, adjusting his glasses to look down at the man. “‘S real late, interrupted m’ reading.”

“Ah, sorry, man. Plane had a few difficulties, ’m tired too. Anyways, I’m here for the room booked for “Gordan Mason?” The first name has an “a” by the way, ‘s odd, I know.” 

The Gigan hummed as he waited for the rather decrepit-looking computer he just turned on to boot up, taking a little while to access the apartments' page or what-have-you and verify Gordan’s status at this location. 

“ID?” 

Gordan pulled out his wallet and opened it, grabbing the appropriate card and handing it over. The Gigan checked it out for a second and looked at the man’s face, as well as the computer monitor, then asked, “Can’t see your eyes with those glasses. Take ‘em off.” 

Gordan responded with a bit of apprehension, going, “Ah, sure,” before slowly taking them off, looking the Gigan in the eyes after that. The attendant couldn’t help but quirk a brow at the man’s hesitation before looking down at the ID again and handing it back. He then pulled out a key and set it down on the counter. 

“Room 306,” was all he said, pointing toward the stairs before lumbering into the back room, presumably to resume his reading. 

‘Hrmm, doing that always makes me nervous...’ the man internally remarked about letting people see his eyes, looking down the hall for a fact check. ‘001, 002... Probably the fourth floor, then.’ 

By the time Gordan managed to lug his belongings up to his floor, he felt just a bit exhausted. The combination of the longer-than-necessary walking and the somewhat exerting task of hauling his weighty luggage up four flights of stairs all not too long immediately after a lengthy and sleepless plane ride had taxed both his mind and body. 

Gordan slid the key in and unlocked the door, closing it behind him. He began scanning the room as he did so, pushing the extendable handle of his suitcase down into its slot with a huff. The height of his room and the subsequent view partially made up for the imminent and large amounts of legwork he’d have to do to get up and down the floors every day; neon lights glimmered in the downtown area nearby, and below and immediately in front were the culturally prominent Dagonian styles of buildings and advertisements. The ocean, only half-visible at this distance, reflected the moonlight beautifully. 

If only the room itself had the visual splendor to match the view it provided! There was no small amount of dust, the dark blue paint was beginning to show signs of chipping off in the corners, and the quantity of space there was to move around in wasn’t the largest. Still, it had its own miniature kitchen area off to the side as well as a bathroom all its own, as opposed to a communal kitchen or bathroom, so Gordan decided not to complain too much. 

Talking a couple layers of clothes off, the man settled into the bed, not bothering to completely change out of his clothes or undress entirely. It was a decent one, the mattress and pillows not too hard but not exactly plush either. With a deep sigh, he tightened up the blankets around his person, glancing at his unpacked stuff for a few moments and internally debating before deciding he’d just get to it tomorrow morning. 

‘Too tired... Gonna be tired after everything tomorrow as well, though.’

“Hummm…”

‘I signed up for this, though. Almost literally. So I’d better get used to this and get to sleep it is already past midnight and you will be busy.’

Gordan was out like a light not too long after that train of thought abruptly shifted tracks and ended.

Chapter Text

The morning sun shining in their face was what woke them up. Blearily and sluggishly, they rolled over and glanced at the clock, which was thankfully already plugged in and properly timed last night. 

    “Ten...” they mumbled, not actually thinking much at all about that time for several moments in their drowsiness. They let out an open-mouthed groan as they slowly propped themself up, rubbing at their eyes in the process. They trudged over to the bathroom and popped open the cap of their toothpaste, situated on the sink rather than in their suitcase, and got started on their somewhat new morning routine. 

    They only really noticed they were a they when bright teal, double-pupiled eyes and a complexion lighter than it was yesterday stared back in the mirror. At once the two consciousnesses separated, one conflicted on whether to feel amused or indignant and the other vaguely dismissive to hide her embarrassment. Gordon’s eyes swiftly changed to a normal blue and his skin shifted to its usual, dark coloration. 

    ‘ You could’a asked me for control ...’ The man glanced down at his tooth paste, only just now realizing something. ‘ Wait, I didn’t even get started on getting my stuff out . Wasn’t exactly that messy when we got here, either . Did the friggin’ dust bother ya that much ?’ 

    A not-so-imaginary huff before, ‘Not so much that as it is the fact that you are an exceptionally messy person, so I spared us both the hassle and did it after you went to sleep.’ 

    ‘ Heh, yeah, alright, I know how much you hate messes, and you were already waking up a little as I got off the plane... And you went to sleep yourself shortly after your little sesh’ . Explains how we woke up like that again . Gotcha, gotcha . Ya caused a bit of embarrassment for me, by the by, couldn’t stop running my mouth and asked this really awkward question to this random teenaged girl .’ 

    ‘ Ah, my apologies, you know how my urges tend to get uncontrollable when I’m not fully conscious. I’d hazard a guess that your little debacle will be at least slightly funny in retrospect, however .’ 

    A tiny grumble as the man scrub-scrub-scrubbed, brush-brush-brushed. 

‘... And ?’

‘ Oh , ah, thanks . For cleaning up and organizing in advance .’ 

Mason got a hum in response as the other consciousness in his brain tuned herself out of his as he spat out a glob of toothpaste, physical actions almost forgotten about during his internal conversation. 

Gordan finished up the rest of his morning routine and double-checked himself in the mirror afterwards, rubbing at his slowly developing chin stubble. ‘ To shave or not to shave ... Nah , ‘ s already late enough . Prolly almost 10:30 by now . Skin’s as brown as it oughta be , eyes’re the normal blue ... Right then , time to roll out .’ 

He pulled on a pair of dark blue jeans, a bold teal t-shirt and a large airy vest in a shade between the two, slipping a few other... let’s say tools beneath the vest’s front and sleeves. ‘ It’s gonna be real humid soon, but I ain’t going out into New-friggin’- Meridian unprepared .’ 

Gordan grabbed a small stack of papers, blank and important both, as well as a few pencils and stuffed them into a suitcase. Next he placed his phone and wallet into separate pockets underneath his vest. He then put on his custom-tailored pair of glasses, thick on the outer lenses to the point where most wouldn’t be able to clearly see his eyes unless they were right in his face. The man then opened the door and exited his room, locking the door behind him and heading down the stairs. This had to be done slowly, as Gordan had to familiarize himself with the “walking tempo” of the stairs and also because the steps themselves were rather narrow, going up a large amount of vertical distance relative to the stairwell’s horizontal length. Gordan himself was also painfully aware of how clumsy and/or unlucky he was, which additionally fueled his cautious decision. 

Mason fortunately managed to reach the bottom without breaking a leg, waving hello to the person behind the counter -- this time a middle-aged Feral woman -- before leaving to really begin his first day in New Meridian. 

Pulling out his map once again, Gordan scanned over the areas he mentally catalogued as interesting yesterday. ‘ To check out the casinos or not ... Hummm . I’ll think about that over lunch . Speaking of , that restaurant, how long do I gotta ride that tram for ...’ 

As it turned out, the dark-skinned man hadn’t been paying enough attention last night to know that his destination was well past the midpoint of his previous trolley ride, and that it would likely be faster to simply walk there. Luckily for Mason, he decided that a nice morning jaunt would be a good way to further wake himself up after his shower, and would additionally be a good opportunity to get a lay of the land and enjoy the near-cloudless weather. 

‘ Would also be a good opportunity to get mugged , but we’re all prepped for that , ain’t we ?’ 

Rather than any sort of worded response, Gordan got a sensation of confidence and assurance, and perhaps a tingle of pride, flowing through him, feelings that weren’t really his . With a hum the man double-checked the map for his route and began his trek. 

    Gordan was thankful that he didn’t encounter any shenanigans on his short trip, in spite of how unlikely that would have been given its short distance and time span, to say nothing of it being broad daylight out. He still made sure to look around periodically and check his pockets for his belongings every now and then, however, as well as making a call or two to schedule some appointments for later that day. 

Soon enough Mason opened the door to the restaurant, now thoroughly physically awake after his morning jaunt. The dark-haired man immediately noted the presence of the Dagonian girl from last night, who was evidently waitressing at the moment. ‘ Guess I was at least half-right ,’ he remarked, sitting down at a booth near the entrance, perfectly willing to wait for a bit to draw her attention considering how busy she looked at the moment. She was rushing between tables, going to and from the back rooms and behind the counter to prep the food the more elderly Dagonian, clearly working here as well, wasn’t serving up himself. She also appeared to be the only one serving the customers besides the other Dagonian, who appeared to be dealing primarily with the customers at the bar counter and doing a lot of the actual cooking. He appeared quite good at his job, cutting up food with practiced speed and grace and stirring up the flames underneath the pots and pans that an open flame warranted with just the right kinds of manipulation. While the one behind the counter didn’t appear particularly weary, the younger Dagonian was evidently quite tired, bags under her eyes and a certain noticeable slouch that indicated exhaustion. 

With little to do but sit and wait, and also not wanting to appear suspect by staring at the employees for too long, Gordan popped open his suitcase and once again double-checked that he brought everything he needed for today. 

‘ Money to buy everything I need , papers and pencils , and ’ n inconspicuous lack of anything of real value -- aside from the money ‘n’ couple documents -- on both the outside and in …  Good to go .’ 

Closing the thing, Mason took to scanning around the place, curious about the customer base. The man guessed that around fifty percent of the people being served were Dagonian -- hardly a surprise, considering the location and apparent employee spread -- with a hodge-podge of human and Ferals and a singular, small-or-young-looking Gigan to fill in the rest of that percentage. Gordan counted thirty-two customers across the dozen and a half desks plus the bar, himself included. Not of his own volition, the man’s nose took a small whiff, and he was suddenly a bit overwhelmed at all the sensations that hit him, his nose having gone unnaturally sensitive for a few seconds. 

‘ ... There’s something else, here . Something off.’ 

‘ Yeah ? You make it sound unusual that there’d be more people back there chopping up some food. Blood’s not exactly that rare in a restaurant that serves fresh food, y’know .’ 

‘ That’s not it, Gordan . I can’t get the smell of blood out of these nostrils of yours, even after I disenhanced them .’ Indeed, now that he had noticed it, the smell of blood just wouldn’t leave his senses. ‘ If I could smell it so quickly and that fact that it’s persisting? Plus it’s fresh , concerningly so, I’d say from late last night at the latest . And abnormally large in quantity , I’m almost surprised no one else has apparently noticed it. ’ Indeed, all the other customers appeared to be chatting amongst themselves or doing what-have-you like nothing was wrong, even the couple Ferals in the room. ‘ I additionally don’t think the proprietors of this establishment kill live mammals here for the food, this is evidently first and foremost a fish-centric catering restaurant, and the smell isn’t the right musk to be aquatic, Dagonian or no... And the scent of soap is oddly thick on those two Dagonian employees . There are a lot of suspicious possibilities here . I’d suggest you investigate, but of course be ca --’ 

The man’s brow quirked up early on in that thought train, but before his “head roomie” could finish up and let Gordan ask questions, a small “ahem” brought him back to reality. 

“Sir? Your order? Have you even looked at the menu ??” the girl from last night pressed, noting the folded up menu still leaning against the wall while not appearing to care that he was a familiar face. Now that she was closer, Mason could further tell just how tired the young Dagonian was, bags under her eyes more than a little pronounced and a leaned over posture that wasn’t there the previous night. More importantly and in the immediate present, however... 

‘ Brushing all that weird stuff aside for sec’ : Shit , how did I forget to read the friggin’ menu!?’ 

Respecting her evident want to not bring up their awkward conversation last night, as well as her pressing business at that moment, Mason replied after getting over his shock: “Ah, sorry, I haven’t. Had some stuff to think about, got a bit carried away. Gimme a couple minutes, miss...?” 

She tapped the tag on her light orange apron instead of verbally responding, eyes just about half-lidded from a combination of tiredness and irritation. “Minette, gotcha. Sorry about that, again ... How’s about you just go on, you’re clearly busy and I ain’t gonna hold’ja up.” 

With another polite nod, Minette walked to another desk to take care of some other customers. Grabbing the menu and popping it open with a sigh, Gordan started skimming through the surprisingly varied selection of foods and drinks, thinking on his partner’s words as he settled on what to have for his early lunch. The blue-eyed man soon decided on the generic yet classic double-pancake-plus-bacon-and-eggs combo, feeling hungry after having not eaten much the previous night, and picked a local specialty, a mix of tonic water and flavored fish oil extract, as the accompanying drink. With that settled, he picked up his earlier internal conversation. 

‘ You were gonna tell me to be careful . Was that the end a’ that ?’ 

‘ Yes . And I will make sure you end up being cautious instead of your usual bullheaded self .’ 

He let out a little snort externally. ‘ Alright , alright . Do what you want !’ 

‘ Hmmm .’ 

Gordan had to wait a couple more minutes before Minette came back to his table. “Your order, Mister?” 

“Yeah. The double pancakes and a bacon ‘n’ egg order with that, as well as a bit a’ your special brew. Oh, and are you only serving maple syrup with the pancakes?” 

“‘Fraid so.” 

The man politely held back his disappointment at not getting to order his favorite pancake syrup, that being the blueberry flavor. “Ah, alright. That’ll do it then.”

The girl took a few seconds to write that down before looking back at Mason. “Sure about that?” 

“Yep.”

Minette nodded. “‘Kay. It’ll be a little while, though; we’re pretty swamped, in case ya hadn’t noticed.”

“Yeah, take your time, I’m not in any rush today. Still got lots up here t’ distract myself with, y’know?” he said, poking his head to accentuate his little jape. 

The young Dagonian let out a polite chuckle as she headed over to her next table, her work not appearing to have let up in the slightest since Mason entered. The tables just kept filling up after people left, it seemed. 

‘ Really do have a lot to think about , though . Like where I’m gonna pick up my microwave, fridge ‘n’ food-slash-drinks. ..’ 

It was indeed a little while that he waited, considering how basic his order was. A little over half an hour passed and Gordan’s food was done, as were most of his plans to pick up necessities, the majority of the information for which he got from his somewhat dated-looking phone rather than his map. 

A thank-you to Minette later and the dark-haired man dug in, only really feeling how severe his hunger was as the scent of his favorite -- 

‘ You have such shallow tastes !’ 

‘ Hey, shove it!’

-- breakfast food wafted into his nose, fresh and independent of any sort of sensual enhancements. He dug in pretty quickly after pouring the provided syrup onto the pancakes and chopping the things up ahead of time, the same happening to the eggs. 

With no one to make conversation with, at least not physically, Gordon finished his meal quickly, feeling a slight sort of numbness in his mouth as he did so. Already knowing what the deal there was, the man let his friend partake in the taste sensations, in spite of her earlier joke of distaste. There was a little pulse of gratitude in return. 

A bit of a problem emerged when his drink ran dry. He barely even realized how quickly he downed the stuff as he ate, finding the taste unexpectedly pleasant and needing to help lubricate his throat a bit as he ate his somewhat sticky meal. Noting how busy Minette was and how much more tired she was than her fellow employee, Mason figured he’d approach the counter and just ask the elderly Dagonian for another bottle, considering how close he was to the case where they were held. 

It took a minute for the slouched fish-man to notice Gordan waiting by the counter. “Hello, yes? What would you like?” His accent was clearly foreign, though he brushed the fact aside, finding it insignificant as he was a foreigner himself. He read the Dagonian’s name tag, registering “Yu-Wan” as this man’s name. 

“I just ran out of my drink, your special fish oil tonic? I just need another bottle, please.”  

“Ah, very well, sir.” 

As Yu-Wan ambled over to the case, Gordan quickly consulted with his partner. ‘I think we should ask something generic, really confirm something is here to begin with. Say I heard something loud last night and I'm curious? Screams?'

‘ Go for it , though again you ought to be careful .’ 

The dark-skinned man’s head subconsciously inclined a few degrees in assent, and when Yu-Wan placed the bottle on the counter for Gordan to grab, the latter posed a question, voice a little quieter than average and tone delicately light-hearted. “Hey-uh, really quick? You wouldn’t happen to be aware of anything weird that went on last night?”

Though Yu-Wan had a pretty good poker face, Gordan and his partner alike noticed how he stiffened up a little. “What makes you ask that?” the Dagonian asked back, tone deceptively calm and volume also lowered a notch or two. 

“Oh, I just heard some loud racket on the way to apartment hotel last night. Almost sounded like screaming?” Yu-Wan stiffened up a second time, but before he could respond, the man continued, “And’m not a cop or some criminal or anything like that. I’m... a journalist, or investigator. You could say I’m researching New Meridian’s many mysteries, and this seems just a titch mysterious to me! So, any info you could provide would be appreciated. Ah, I’m Gordan Mason, by the way, and can I just say you have a very fine establishment here? You’re getting a lot of business, I see.” The human made a very intentional show of looking around the room as he finished speaking. 

The elderly Dagonian was still clearly on the defensive, though his posture softened a little at Gordan’s confession and apparent wonder. “Ah... Yes, we have indeed. Business has been booming now that the summer proper is nearly here. A lot of families are celebrating graduations and such a little early... And, ah, no, I’m afraid I have no idea what you’re talking about. I didn’t hear a thing out of the ordinary last night.” 

‘ Hmph , right,’ both consciousness muttered internally, eyes shifting for just a moment beneath the glasses. Gordan decided not to press the issue, wanting to avoid suspicion. 

“Alright then, if you say so. Sorry ‘bout the hassle, I’ll be sure to tip your waitress extra.” 

Yu-Wan merely hummed, already squinted eyes scrunched up even tighter as the other man picked up the offered bottle and headed back to his table. 

Mason popped open the cap and took a swig as soon as he re-seated himself, finishing up the rest of his food as he again consulted with the one renting his head-space. 

‘ So clearly he knows something went down and is being cagey about it . Minette’ll probably be the same way . What do we do ?’ 

‘... A stake-out, perhaps ? If something happened last night , one or both of them may need to get out and take care of some business relating to that while keeping a low profile, while the deed is still fresh . The sooner we do this, the better, and our opportunity to investigate may expire outright if we wait for too long .’ 

‘ Tonight, then .’ 

‘ Hmm .’ 

‘ It’s a date, then .’ 

‘You had better bring some steak for me for this stake-out, then. This will probably be a long night and I will need some stimulation aside from your usual bodily senses,’ his partner said, only half-joking. 

‘ All business , huh ? Don’chu worry, you’ll get your steak ,’ he finished, both with this conversation and his food just a few minutes later. The joint amusement at their rapport had Gordan chuckling a little externally, after which Gordan waited idly for Minette and his check. 

The lass appeared to be pretty efficient with her time on the job, bringing a check out a few minutes later without asking Mason, to which the man responded, “Nice guess on that timing!” 

Minette’s expression barely changed, aside from a narrowing of her eyes. “Uh-huh.”

‘ Shoot , Yu-Wan probably told her about my questions, should’a paid more attention while I ate ...’ the blue-eyed man assumed.

‘ It would be best not to stick around .’ 

As Mason took out some bills and coins, he said, after a second of hesitation, “Ah, by the way... Us meeting last night? Complete coincidence, I swear. Just got home from the plane ride here and was one my way to my apartment, which is a little way’s from here. That was it.” 

Minette just narrowed her eyes further, counting the bills and coins, after which she said, in a professional and perhaps clipped tone: “Thank you for your gracious tip, sir, and have a good rest of your day.” She pocketed the money and retrieved the dishes and bottles on the table, walking away with a bit more haste than usual, which was saying something considering how much her job was currently pressing her to book it around the place.  

‘ Nice job making things awkward again . That probably didn’t even lower her suspicion of us; hell, I think the fact that you brought it up in the first place like you were trying to justify yourself made you seem more suspicious ,’ his partner promptly bit, irritated at Mason’s potential mistake. 

‘ Oh, shush. I had to at least try, and she looks way too young to be getting involved in ... well, I think murder is a somewhat safe assumption to make at this point. Which would be positively, absolutely messed up if she did the deed. Prolly shouldn’t be getting involved with murder period, but, well... ’ 

‘ I get your point, yes ,’ the other conscious huffed. ‘ Mine still stands, however, and again we probably shouldn’t be wasting any more time here than we have to .’ 

‘Yeah, we got things to be doing, don’t we ?’

With that being said, Mason got up and headed out the door, pulling out his map to figure out where to go next for his investigations, which he had in fact neglected to do during his meal because of the rather pressing distractions that came up. 

‘ Downtown casinos or Maplecrest area ... We’ve gotta be home early and at least somewhat fresh for our stake-out, and we’re already caught up in a bit a’ risky business as is. So does Maplecrest sound good to you ?’

A silent assent and the man got to charting his route, pulling out his phone to look up specific areas, check train times and make some calls to give a few people -- school faculty, to be specific -- an estimate on when he’d be in Maplecrest. 

Unbeknownst to the man, bright magenta eyes followed Gordan’s path warily from one of the restaurant’s windows...

Chapter Text

It was almost one o’ clock when Gordan walked up to the nearest station, that one being in the line  “New Meridian Area Rapid Passenger Transit.” He had already looked up the timetables, and unlike the local tram from last night, the trains here had public and easily accessible GPS on it, as well as time estimates digitally displayed over the gates. The man had arrived just a little too late this time; in spite of all his jogging when he saw the times on his phone, he got there just as the train left his sight. 

    The man sighed, plopping down heavily on an unoccupied bench and making the mistake of not checking it. There was a tell-tale creaking noise and he gasped sharply, reacting near-instantly and bolting upright, legs working on automatic. Gordan glanced down at the bench with suspicion and slowly seated himself this time, only for nothing to happen, audible reaction included. It took two whole seconds for Gordan to relax, the bench thankfully not collapsing beneath his weight. 

    “Well, ‘least that one didn’t drop me,” he muttered, glancing up and noting the twenty-odd minutes he’d have to wait for the next train as his body came down from the sudden adrenaline rush. 

    ‘Actually, did you not want to get a train pass? I would say this works out quite nicely in that case,’ his partner reminded him, to which he responded, ‘Oh, thanks, completely forgot about that! Don’t wanna pay these rates two or three time a day, no sirree!’ 

    That being said, Mason ambled his way through the crowd of people and got into the thankfully short line for the service desk. A short while later he was next, and on his inquiry and payment was quickly printed out a card and was on his way back to his bench. This took up about half his wait time in total. There was a stranger there who wasn’t previously, who scooted over a little as the man approached. He said a quiet thanks and sat down next to them, waiting out the rest of the time for his train to arrive. 

    The train came along after ten more minutes, pulling to a stop with a loud, steamy hiss. The crowd ebbed and flowed as people entered and exited, the inward flux slower than the outward as people either swiped their passes over a small tablet held by the conductor or handed over a bit of cash. Gordan did the former with his new pass and had to wade through two train cars before finding an empty seat, not wanting to take the (somewhat paranoid) risk of standing up on a train line he was unfamiliar with. He decided he’d sit on the first couple rides and get a feel for how often and severe the swerves and bumps were. 

    The blue-eyed man again looked up at the scrolling digital time estimates, curious about how fast this train would ride across the dozen-or-so kilometers from the station near Little Innsmouth to Maplecrest. 

    ‘’bout half an hour, and this is one of the longer routes... For public transit, this thing is pretty fast. Guess it’s called “Rapid Transit” for a reason.’ 

    ‘ Obviously .’

    “Heh.” 

    Gordan’s wait was one spent looking out the window of the train, watching the sights as they sped along his peripheral. Moments like these, observing the vast forested mountains and bright blue ocean in the distance, as well as the sea of beautifully constructed buildings right nearby, were when a distinct calm took over both consciousnesses, occasionally resulting in a sort of melding. Unknown to the many people surrounding them, unnatural double-pupiled eyes took the place of normal blue ones, and dark brown skin was replaced with a middling, almost tanned tone. 

    From their perspective, all was peaceful. Life seemed simultaneously fast and slow. A tranquil, almost dozy sort of expression took over their face as the scenery rolled along. 

    Alas, this little peace couldn’t last forever. The train soon slowed down and crawled to a halt entirely, and realizing that this was their stop, they got up, stretching a bit and picking up the suitcase Gordan had placed on his -- now their -- lap. 

    Luckily for them, no one had paid attention enough to Gordan in particular to notice how their skin seemed a bit lighter than earlier, certainly a strange sort of change. Their eyes, a more obvious tell regardless of whether someone was keeping in mind a before-and-after, were luckily concealed beneath their glasses, so there were no worries for them in that department. Adjusting said glasses on their slightly more lean, less masculine face, they got up and patiently waited for everyone closest to the doors to exit, doing so after just a few moments of standing around. 

    The combined consciousness didn’t bother opening up the map, parsing through one of their half’s recent memories to check where to go and who to talk to. Deciding that today was a nice day and considering the generous time estimate Gordan had given the school faculty for his/their arrival, they decided to hike to the Maplecrest area high school rather than call a taxi or some such. They didn’t often get to enjoy weather like this as themself , after all, and they intended to capitalize on this little opportunity while they could. 

    The school was the first of two destinations they had planned in Maplecrest, the other being the house of a certain despondent pair of parents after that. 

    Soon enough, they approached the school gates, noting a couple missing persons posters with some faces on them they already knew about as well as a conspicuously personless table and trio of chairs on the grass nearby as they rang an electronic bell. There was a light click as the front door unlocked. Opening it, they greeted the person behind the desk, telling the half-truth that they were Gordan Mason, here to ask a few students who had agreed to answer some questions. 

    Normally a stranger talking to school staff and asking to question some students would be somewhat suspicious in and of itself, and for that some exposition is warranted. While researching crimes and mysteries around New Meridian before his trip, Gordan found a rather lengthy list of missing names. Mason looked at a few of the more recent ones and noticed a disturbing trend towards children and young teenagers going missing every so often, particularly over the past couple months. Further research informed Gordan that most of the cases have seen next to no progress since their beginnings, though a few that had been solved were all apparently done not too long ago, simultaneously, and with many of the kids being returned home disturbingly mangled, many of them missing limbs or even parts of their faces . At the time he figured he would look into a few cases himself, not willing to just sit on his laurels while he was in the area, particularly as one pair of parents, the Ulysses, have effectively been crying for help and posting ads on several sites related to the ones Gordan had looked up this information on. Their daughter, Caroline “Carol” Ulysses, a Maplecrest high schooler, had been one of two of missing persons cases so far this year. 

    One of many curious facts Gordan had found was the fact that only one set of parents was worrying. The other pair of parents for the other most recent missing person? Dead, along with what was apparently their pet dog, from many, many bullet holes, perhaps an assassination. And their daughter, Filia Medici (and what an interesting family name to have that is)? Oddly missing from the scene and no longer turning up at school. Police and special unit investigations from the infamous Black Egret forces (the Medicis were involved, so some higher-ups had apparently pressed for their involvement) found her blood spread all over the room in the house where this took place, likely also from bullet holes. Her would-be corpse, however, was absent, and to add to the mystery there was a lack of a blood trail leaving the house. 

    To add to this strangeness, just a few days before all that happened, the Skullgirl came around the neighborhood and took to wiping out any and all Medicis or relatives thereof living in or around Maplecrest... All of them except Filia and her parents, who attested to being spared by the Skullgirl after a brief but violent confrontation for unknown reasons and after some miraculous defensive actions by their dog , of all things. Just one day after that incident is when the parents and the family’s dog were killed, evidently as they were preparing to leave, many suitcases filled with belongings and rooms stripped bare being found in the house, perhaps in an attempt to not try their luck with the Skullgirl a second time. As the only leads the investigation had to follow were the other Medicis, the currently missing Filia and the Skullgirl , there weren't exactly many places the crime-solvers could go for progress, and the lack of cameras around the area as these events happened didn’t exactly help matters. 

    And that was just one of the cases. About a month before the murders and disappearance happened, Carol Ulysses also vanished one afternoon without a trace, and her parents had and likely have no idea what happened to her. As far as the investigation personnel could tell, her parents do appear to care for Carol, both of them tearing up and all but begging the authorities and someone, anyone online to find their daughter, and a couple medical and background checks on the part of the police revealed no signs of abuse or particularly extreme familial stress. Once again the investigation was up against a brick wall, with seemingly no leads to follow. 

    As a result of both of these cases, the few staff that Gordan had contacted all but jumped at the chance for a college-graduate “investigative journalist” to probe around a bit and perhaps find the missing teenagers, of course with a chaperone around while “Gordan” asked questions. Carol’s parents had just about cried over the phone as Gordan called them about his want to check out their case, as they had been effectively left in the dark for a few months by this point. 

Gordan was pleasantly surprised to find that the school staff he had called actually did seem to care for these kids and wanted them found even a few months down the line, going so far as to deny any sort of monetary compensation that Gordan was offering for their time. 

    The students were another matter in that last respect. A couple of them had in fact asked for a bit of money because “Gordan” would be interrupting their classes, though the rest that the teachers pointed Gordan toward were Filia and/or Carol’s friends and also were perfectly willing to spare a bit of time and convenience to possibly have their friends found. 

    Well, also maybe to skip classes and do something exciting, as so many of the youth are wont to do. Hopefully that wasn’t just it, though. 

    Anyways, back to the present! The fused mind pulled out a couple papers proving Gordan’s status as a college graduate as well as an ID card. The woman behind the counter raised her eyebrows, noting a slightly differing skin color and less masculine features but also noting that the face was still fairly close. “Can I see your eyes, please?” she asked as definitive proof. 

    They let out a slightly nervous breath, feeling one conscious trying to separate himself, take control, why now of all times . In response the combined mind exhaled softly, calming themself and focusing on their eyes, softly chanting, ‘ blue, blue, blue, normal, normal, normal ,’ internally. 

    When they pulled down their glasses, they sighed softly as the woman nodded, noting the presence of Gordan’s blue eyes as opposed to the fusion’s teal, unlocking the door into the school’s lobby for them to enter. 

    Almost immediately after the door closed behind them, the two minds that composed the one tried to separate, half-concerned, half-frustrated as their body leaned over, hand on their head in an attempt to assuage their migraine. 

    ‘ You two must trust me for once . Gordan is too awkward, and Noirall é , too harsh and blunt, and these are delicate questions with delicate answers that have to be dealt with. ’ 

    The two halves reluctantly settled down at their combined self’s logic, knowing of their whole’s surprisingly effective social skills. 

    Recognizing the chaperone that was designated for this little outing, a middle-aged woman who was one of the school’s few guidance counsellors, “Gordan” waved a hand and greeted her, emptying their throat a little in preparation for their attempts at imitating Gordan’s voice. 

    “Hello, Mister Mason... My, you don’t look quite as dark as in the image you showed us. Have you not been getting enough sun lately?” she asked, mostly joking. 

    “You could say I’ve been spending a little too much time cooped up inside, yes,” they responded with a deceptively masucline voice, less joking than the seemingly innocent comment implied. “Lots of things to think about and plan, planning this being a part of that. You know how busy life can get.” 

    “Oh, don’t I ever,” she said back, waving a hand and grinning lightly. “Anyways, the attendant at the front desk has called one of the folks in the office, they ought to page down the first per--” 

    Click . 

    “Would Annalise Belle please report to the lobby for your appointment, please, Annalise Belle to the lobby.” 

    Click .

    “Quite the comedic timing you have there,” they pointed out idly, to which the lady chuckled politely. 

    “Oh, I’ve learned to pick up some sort of timing for that in the decade and a half I’ve been here. Annalise ought to be along shortly. She looked awfully jumpy when this was brought up and just about begged to be called up first.” 

    They hummed and nodded in response, noting the brunette with a white headband approaching the two adults who came along a few moments later. 

    “Good of you to come, Annalise. This is Mister Mason, he will be asking you a few questions about Carol.” 

    “Hello, Mister Mason,” was all she said, expression cautious. Noting this, “Gordan” asked the counsellor, “I assume the table outside is the one we’ll be using for this?”

    “Indeed.” 

    “Good. Annalise, it should go without saying that we’d rather you not have to discuss personal matters in here for any other random gossipy person to hear. And besides that, it is a nice day out. I can only imagine how much you have on your mind, and I find that some nice and warm time outside can help with that.” The teen’s expression softened a little at that, nodding her consent to take this conversation outside. The counsellor smiled, pleased at how polite “he” was being. 

    The three exited the school and walked to the aforementioned desk, the fused being and the counsellor sitting on one side and Annalise on the other. Pulling out a few papers and pencils as well as a small list of questions, the “younger” adult spoke first, clearing their throat a little to reaffirm their voice’s tone. 

    “Before we begin, I must reiterate that this conversation will be as confidential as possible given that we are outside. I will not say anything you state here to anyone else unless you give your permission to do so, sans Caroline’s parents as they obviously deserve to know. Furthermore, this is not an interrogation. You are hardly a suspect in my non-existent investigation for the people behind this,” ‘ Maybe later .’ “I am currently searching for Caroline Ulysses and Filia Medici. That is the extent of my intentions here, and I would ask that you provide whatever information, theories, or suspicions you have to help me with that. If you wish to withhold any of that, I will not press you,” ‘ Unless it’s obvious that you’re hiding something particularly important ,’ “and that would be the end of that. Do you understand?” 

    The girl nodded, but couldn’t help but bite a little. “You make it sound like I would try to stop you from finding one of my best friends. What, you think I’m behind it” 

    The counsellor opened her mouth to calm her down but her cohort beat her to the punch. “Take a deep breath.” 

    Annalise hesitated for a second, eyes narrowing before she did so. 

    “Out.” 

    The girl leaned back a little in her seat as she did so, tense form relaxing just the teensiest bit. 

    “Okay. Again, I know you probably have a lot on your mind, but I am attempting to be as professional here as possible. All I was saying is that if you don’t want to say anything, you don’t have to, and before that I said that this is not an interrogation. I hardly know you or what you’ve seen or know that’s relevant to this case, and as such I can’t make any assumptions. All I want from you is what information you have to possibly track down Carol and Filia. Nothing more, and maybe something less at your discretion. Now, another deep breath. In.” 

    ... 

    “Out.” 

    ... 

    “Good. Do we have an understanding?” 

    “... Yeah.”

    The woman was vaguely impressed at their ability to disarm Annalise’s thorny exterior so quickly and calmly, but focused her attention back to the conversation as “Gordan” opened their suitcase and pulled out some papers and pencils. 

    “Very well. Let’s begin with a few basic questions... First, what are your relations with Caroline Ulysses and/or Filia Medici?” 

    The brunette inhaled a little, saying after, “Well, Filia, I barely knew her at all, aside from her being a Medici. You know, that big scary mafia family?” 

    “Indeed, I’ve lived outside the Canopy Kingdom most of my life but I’ve still heard of many of their, ah, notable exploits .” 

    The girl seemed a bit curious at the reveal of their not being Canopy-borne but focused quickly. “Yeah, yeah, so all I can maybe guess at is that they maybe had some kinda falling-out that got Filia and her mom ‘n’ dad iced? Like, I don’t have any evidence on that, though, I’m just speculating a little. ‘Specially with the Skullgirl being involved, who knows what she was thinking.” 

    They took a second to write her theory down before next saying, “The Medicis and the Skullgirl are both prime suspects, but no luck on them so far, given who they are. Is that all on Filia?” 

    “Yeah. And, Carol... Well, like I said earlier, she was -- is -- one of my best friends. S’far as I could tell she ‘n’ Filia were also pretty close, but I don’t think Carol had many other close people aside from Filia, her family, and me ‘n’ a couple others, y’know?” 

    Both adults nodded, urging her to keep going. 

    “So when she disappeared, I had as much idea about what happened to her as anyone else, which wasn’t much. And when I tried asking around if anyone saw her like the police did, no-one knew a thing either, and...” A fierce, angry sigh. “A bunch of them were acting like it was no big deal, that these two lonely girls went missing, no-one friggin’ cared !! And I’m still so goddessdamn angry over that!!” 

    Another, yet fiercer sigh from the lass as her palms rubbed over her eyes and fingers dug into her brows. The counselor sighed as well, understanding and pitying the teenager. 

    “Dearie, it frustrates me as well to hear so many people being dismissive of those two just because they didn’t have all too many connections here at the school, and I appreciate your anger and concern being caused by others. Rest assured, if and when Mister Mason returns Filia and Carol, we will let the whole school know that they are back, and perhaps then you can throw around a bit of your anger and remind everyone to not be so callous.”

    “And I will try my damndest to make that a when , Annalise,” “Mason” assured, not appearing to care that such advice as showing tossing one’s anger around may not be the best to give, nor that their voice was slipping. Luckily for them, neither of their cohorts appeared to notice as they cleared their throat and re-prepped their voice. 

“... Yeah. Yeah, you have a point there.” 

    “Hmm. My next question is, “Do you have any potential leads for me to investigate?’” the seemingly younger adult asked. 

    Annalise appeared to think for a few moments. “For Filia, no, unless you wanna count my theory from earlier. No hard evidence, though, again.” 

    A nod and a hum. 

    “And Carol...” Yet another heavy sigh. “Okay, this is going to sound a little crazy, but... A couple weeks ago, there was this... weirdo . Leather mask, glowing red eyes under that, nothing but a rag on and this weird bladed wheely thing on its back. You know what I’m talking about, right?” she inquired, looking to the counselor, who nodded. The fused mind looked to the woman for elaboration. 

    “Yes, a “monster” supposedly rolled through here a couple weeks ago, like she said. What of it, dear?” 

    “... Okay, okay, here’s the crazy part. Apparently I’m the only student or whatever who bothered to take a picture before running away or something. Lemme just pull it up really quick...” 

    The high schooler pulled out a new-looking touch phone from a skirt pocket and browsed through it before finding what she wanted, turning the phone around in her palm to show the two adults what she was talking about. 

    There was indeed a monstrous figure in the image. It looked a little blurry, like it was taken while the phone was moving, but both two more senior people could match her description to what they were being shown. 

    “I-I think that might be Carol.” 

    The counselor let out a small gasp at this. The other adult merely narrowed their eyes and leaned forward to look at the photo closer, simply saying, “Explain, please.” 

    “Okay, so, first off is its -- her -- hair. It’s all ragged and dirty, but it’s clearly the same color and style, right?” 

    “Gordan” thought to themself for a moment, needing to take a moment to recall what Carol looked like in the online reports and one of the “missing” posters from before this interview before concluding, “... Yes, you’re right.” 

    “And her skin color was a bit off, there were like, these blue veins all over and she looked a bit pale, but I still think they look the same, and what I can tell of her body shape...” 

    A nod. 

    “And I heard her sorta talking or growling to herself, and... I dunno, it was all raspy and muffled by the mask, but I couldn’t help but think of Carol when I heard her voice. I -- That’s not all that crazy for me to think that, right? I’m not just losing it ‘cause I miss her? ‘Cause everyone else was...” 

    The counselor had gotten over her shock by the end of that emotional tangent, overcome instead by intrigue and more prominently worry. 

    “Dearie, did everyone you show this to mock you ?” 

    A shaky, angry nod. “Y-yeah, ‘cept one of my besties, you’ll probably meet him later. Called me delusional ‘n’ shit for “not moving on” or whatever, but they’re just not fucking thinking !” Annalise near-growled as she finished with her explosive statement, clearly frustrated beyond words. The counselor got up and put a reassuring hand on the girl’s shoulder as she her frame was rocked by frustration.

    The combined consciousness took another moment to sort out their thoughts and words, and next said, tone initially cautious and after the Annalise calmed down, “From what I’ve seen from the reports and pictures of your friend, I can indeed see the resemblance. No, I don’t think you’re as crazy as everyone thinks you are, and you’re right to be angry. If this is indeed Carol, though... This investigation just got considerably more mysterious and even more than that, dangerous . If she got turned into something like that ...” They let out an odd mix of a hum and a sigh before continuing, “I don’t suppose you stuck around long enough to see where she went? Or if you saw where she came from?” 

    Annalise near-growled at that question. “I would’ve followed her around if I weren’t so scared. I just saw her standing there, grabbing her mask and muttering and with that wheel thing whirring around, and I-I took a picture and ran for it like a pansy before she saw me . Goddess damn it , I’m so friggin’ dumb...” 

    The counselor got up from her seat a second time and repeated her placating gesture. as the other adult rapidly scribbled down what Annalise had said.  “Annalise, you reacted more or less rationally and with your safety in mind. There’s nothing wrong with that , at least,” the guidance counselor assured.  

    The lass just sighed again, not content in the slightest with that rationalization. “I guess.” 

    “Mason” waited for his cohort to seat herself before requesting, “Could I ask that you text me that picture or what have you? Here’s my number,” they asked, showing Annalise their phone before she took to sharing the photo with Gordan’s phone.

“Done,” she announced a half-minute later. “Mason” checked Gordan’s phone for a moment for confirmation before resuming their questioning. 

“Did you try submitting that picture to the police or some such to help them out?” 

    Yet another sigh from the teenager. “Yeah, and they thanked me and everything, but they haven’t gotten back to me, so I’ve just kinda assumed they haven’t made any progress...”

    The combination of Gordan and his partner nodded before glancing through their notes again and considering their other questions. “You have no clue what the circumstances were behind her initial disappearance, I assume?” 

    A moody “Nope.” 

    “And I think the rest of your information cut down all my other questions except this: Anything else to add? Suspicious places or groups I should look into?” 

    Annalise thought for several moments before she chose her next words, evidently a little hesitant to talk about this next subject. “Ah... No, but, my friend I mentioned earlier, Jacob, he told me his mom, who works in one of Princess Parasoul’s financial offices? She’s apparently been really angsty. Something about “funding” and “labs” all the time, you should probably ask him about it.” 

    “You suspect some sort of shady business here,” the androgynous adult stated rather than asked.  

    “Yeah.” 

    “Well, modifying a body to such an extent like we see hopefully-Carol’s has been wouldn’t exactly be an inexpensive endeavor... Yes, it’s a long shot but this could be worth looking into. I’ll be sure to ask your friend if and when he comes out here.” They took a few moments to write down some more information before asking next, “If you have any other theories or information, please, do tell.” 

    The girl thought, thinking hard and humming several times before answering, “I think that’s it. Sorry...” 

    At that, the shared mind got up and leaned down next to the seated lass, folding their legs to look her square in the eyes before planting a firm hand on her shoulder. “Annalise, you have provided a lot of potentially useful information and a couple of leads to look into. You have nothing to apologize for, and I promise I’ll do my utmost to track down Carol and get her back, as well as Filia.” They got up as they finished, “Thank you for your time, Annalise. Let’s get you back to class.” 

    The girl awkwardly looked down at the ground before getting up, the three heading back into the building. The counselor asked that “Mason” stay in the lobby as she guided Annalise back to class. After doing so she walked to an office down the hall and came back out not a full minute later. “Our next student ought to be along shortly, Mister Mason... Let’s hope he’s as helpful as Annalise, hmm? Oh, and what a brave girl she was, telling us strangers all that for her friend’s sake...” 

    “Hmm, yes, on both accounts. It’s a good thing she did,” they muttered, already thinking heavily on what to make of this new information and where to go after this. “Though I’m not too sure on getting my hopes up on anyone else aside from that boy Annalise mentioned, I’ll try to parse whatever I can.” 

    “That’s all we can ask for, Mister Mason,” the counselor responded, just a bit gloomily but still with a smile on her face. 

Just then the intercom flared to life, the somewhat monotonous voice saying this time, “Would Jacobson Bert please come to the lobby for your appointment, please, Jacobson Bert to the lobby.”

The pair took to a semi-comfortable silence as they waited for their next interviewee to arrive.

Chapter Text

Jacobson turned out to be a rather stylish young man with a pair of sunglasses and dark hair combed into a large pompadour. His appearance just about screamed, ‘ I am a cool hipster ,’ but the fused mind brushed these facts aside, as they had more important things to be focusing on, namely what this “Jacobson” person could contribute to their search. 

The counselor began with, “Hello, Jaboson--” 

“‘S just Jacob,” he cut her off, frowning slightly. 

“... Oh! So you’re the Jacob your friends talk about every now and then. I’m sorry, I hadn’t quite made that connection. Your fiends have nothing but good to say about you, you know!”

“Hmm,” the teen said in response to the apology, not appearing to care about the indirect praise he was receiving. 

The other adult was curious about the little story they weren’t privy to but again, they had more important things to be focusing on. Noting how stoic the young man seemed, they decided that they didn’t have to be quite so gentle as Annalise and thus took a more straightforward approach to this meeting. “You have thoughts about Filia Medici and Caroline Ulysses you wish to share, correct?” they inquired. 

A nod plus an “uh-huh.” 

“And I assume you want to take this outside, where no other students can listen in.” 

“That’d be nice. ‘S a good day out, too.” 

“Agreed on both accounts. So let’s take this outside, we have a table set up under some tree shade.” 

Another nod from the teen as they promptly exited the building. They sat down and the merged consciousness took out the same list of questions, a couple of fresh pieces of paper, and a pencil, getting ready for this second “interview” with no large amount of time wasted. 

“Alright, Mister Bert, this won’t take long. I just have a few questions for you...”

They went on a more or less the same spiel as Annalise, and thankfully Jacob didn’t appear to have any questions nor was he feeling as apprehensive as Annalise, so the two minds in one got to asking their questions a bit quicker this time around. 

“My first question is, “What were your relations to Filia Medici and Caroline Ulysses?’” 

The teen took a second to think. “Didn’t really know either of ‘em, aside from Filia being... Well, a Medici , and both of them not having many friends. ‘N’ also that Caroline preferred “Carol.’” Though his shades didn’t betray a thing about his eyes, both adults figured that his eyes were narrowed a bit. The more androgynous adult made a cautious internal note of this little tick. 

Scribble, scribble. 

“How much do you know of what happened to them?” 

“Again, not much. Just that they both vanished a couple months ago and haven’t been seen since. ‘Lotta people think the other Medicis iced Filia and her folks, but there’s not any proof of that, so.” A light shrug. 

“That’s a pretty common theory about Filia, and also correct on there being no proof one way or another.” 

Scribble, scribble. 

That’s how most of the conversation went, with very little useful information to be gained from Jacob, especially compared to Annalise. “Gordan” was just the slightest bit irritated at this lack of information but remained patient until their last question, a new one that they hadn’t initially asked Annalise. Figuring that the seemingly stoic lad wouldn’t particularly care for any sort of manipulation or emotional coddling, they took a straightforward approach to posing this question. 

“I’ve heard from certain sources that you know of a certain governmental effort involving illicit experimentation on sentient beings. That is not to say that you are involved, merely that you know of it. Would you care to elaborate on that?” 

Jacob went rigid at that particular mention, hmphing emphatically just after. “Annalise told you about this, didn’t she.” 

“That’s not up to--” 

“Oh, stop with all the formal BS, I’ve only ever told like three people about that, and one of them is Annalise, who already came out here.” An aggressive sigh. “What, did she get too gossipy and couldn’t help herself?” 

“Dear, that’s--” the counselor began only to be cut off by the other adult, who exhaled tightly and narrowed their eyes, tone restrained. 

“If you must know, she wanted Carol found by any means possible, and only told us that little tidbit with no small amount of hesitation at the tail-end of our conversation. Those two were close, Jacob, and if I have my way, they’re still going to be . I know the chances of Carol’s disappearance and whatever stuff you or your relatives are involved in being related are slim to none, but if you have something, anything to share? I would like to hear it.” 

The counselor’s eyes widened a smidge at their straightforward and somewhat rude approach, and looked about ready to reprimand them about it in the brief moment between the end of their statement and Jacob’s indignant huff, which the young man followed up on before the woman could get her piece in edgewise: 

“Alright, fine, I guess I don’t really have a reason not to share, ‘specially if you want to find Carol and maybe Filia.” He proceeded to lean in a little and speak in a quieter volume. “ So , my mom? Kind of a big deal. She’s a higher-up working directly under Princess Parasoul, specifically helping to manage expenses or whatever. And over the past couple years, I’ve heard her, Mom that is, bitching and moaning about how much her job’s been becoming more and more of a hassle. Not gonna lie, I’ve been eavesdropping every now and then, ‘cause if you’re a teenager who doesn’t like one of their parents and when your mom is in charge of an important section of the economy and she’s pretty secretive about shit when I ask her straight-up, why not? 

“So I overhear her talking about these Labs, prolly with a capital “L.” There’s like, eight of them? Maybe more, maybe less, she keeps mentioning a “Lab Eight,” at least. Apparently they just keep asking for more money, probably a pretty big amount of the stuff if Mom’s getting pissy about things because of it. A couple things I hear her complain often is, “Saving lives, my ass,” and more importantly, ah...” The teen leaned over more than he already was and continued, in a conspiratory murmur, “‘Like those freaks’re ever gonna kill that Skullgirl.” The Skullgirl . And I’m just like, “Holy shit, what is my mom involved in?” So I spilled a few of the beans, not all them, ‘specially not that Skullgirl stuff, to Annalise and a couple other besties, and all of a sudden, here I am being pried open about this stuff by a’ couple strangers.” 

For the nth time the counselor’s eyes were widened in shock, as were the fused mind’s in a rare slip of their calm. “The Skullgirl , huh,” they muttered, also quietly. “And this is clearly a shot in the dark, but if that “freakish monster” from a couple weeks ago is connected, perhaps these Labs are turning people into weapons, to try and save lives by defeating her... Hmm. Things just got considerably more interesting, even if these Labs aren’t actually connected to Carol.” 

“You mean that photo Annalise caught a couple weeks back, right? Yeah, it did look a lot like her. Carol didn’t exactly have red eyes before, though,” the young man said, clearly dubious.

“Nor did she have over a dozen nails driven into her or a wheel of blades attached to her back, possibly even her spine ,” they retorted evenly. “Considering all the strange, often inexplicable stuff that happens in this city I’m not willing to exclude any possibilities, however outlandish this particular one may seem.” 

As the seemingly younger adult began writing their thoughts down, the counselor finally took her turn to talk. “Mister Jacob, you do appear to have helped out Mister Mason’s investigation quite a bit! However, as someone who is at this school to oversee and assist with student’s problems, I feel I must ask... You appear to have a rather personal dislike against your mother?” 

Jacob looked about ready to spit at the ground to mock his mother. “Yeah, the old lady’s great at her job as far as I can tell but doesn’t give a shit about me or Dad. Hell, those two have been discussing a divorce for a while now. I still got a year of high school left but if they do divorce, I’d go with Dad in a friggin’ heartbeat , even if it meant not having the money to finish my time here. I know she’s constantly stressed and all, but the way she just keeps brushing us two aside like we’re not as important as her job ...” He actually spit at the ground next to him at that. “Like, a third the reason I dress like this is because she hates how not-so-formal I’m being, you got me?” He pointedly poked his pompadour as he finished. 

The middle-aged woman let out a hum of thought before responding, “Yes, my dear, that does sound like quite the situation you’re in. I hope you and your father have tried to sit her down some night and have an earnest chat about your situation as a family?” 

“Hmm. A couple years ago, and we’ve tried a few times since, but no luck. Just keeps ignoring us, trying to detox or whatever after her days at work, even on the Sundays she doesn’t.” 

“Well, Jacob, if you want you can contact us and schedule all of you an appointment with a family consultant or some such. We have a number of contacts and resources that could help you, I think. We’re hardly here just for your money , you know?” 

Jacob’s posture softened a little at her offer. “Thanks, but no thanks. I’m gonna try and be more stubborn about it when she says no, try and see if Dad’ll do the same. Thought’s appreciated, though.” 

The counselor finished her piece, “Well if you at all want a bit of help, just remember that we are here to assist you,” just as “Mason” finished their own writing and theorizing. 

“Apologies about sort-of interrupting, but I was wondering if you had any other theories or thoughts about Filia and Carol that you would like to share with us. Anything at all would help.” 

The teen put a hand to his chin and thought for several seconds. “‘Fraid not, Mister Mason. Izzat all? ‘re we down here” 

“If you’ve nothing left to share, then yes. Thank you very much for your time, your information may prove very helpful in my search,” they nodded, and all three promptly rose from their chairs and re-entered the school. 

Jacob returned to his class on his own with a speed both adults could appreciate, and the counselor went to the office to prompt the next announcement. The counselor, remembering how her cohort had gotten a bit crass with Jacob, could’t help but point out, “You were so patient with Annalise, but not with Jacob. You got a little rude, there, too. Why is that?” 

“ Would Carla Quinton please come to the lobby for your appointment, please, Carla Quinton to the lobby ...” 

“The situation seemed to call for it. He was pretty stoic and crass and looked a bit impatient, so I figured I ought to be as straightforward as possible. Though...” Eyes narrowed behind glasses. “I will admit I didn’t like him badmouthing Annalise. Whether he knew it or not, she cares for Carol, and however indirect or unintentional he was being, I didn’t exactly appreciate someone trying to stomp out that care. That’s not my excuse, but that is my reason, I think. And before you ask, yes , I will try and be a bit more patient.” 

The counselor nodded in understanding, the two shifting into a comfortable silence while they waited for the next volunteer to approach.

It turned out the two minds in one had to fry fairly hard to maintain their patience like they said they would. The two teens who came first did so because they asked, sharing a want (one less apparent than the other) to share information because they at least cared about finding Carol, regardless of whether they were friends with her not, which the fused mind respected a fair amount. It came as quite the disappointment, then, that the same could not be said for everyone who came after, who all effectively just wanted a bit of time out of class and provided nothing useful to share. A couple of these few students even had the gall to ask for monetary compensation in spite of likely knowing they had nothing to really contribute, which “Gordan” reluctantly gave them as per their male half’s agreement for these interviews. 

The fused mind let out an aggravated sigh when the counselor informed them that the eighth “questionnaire” that had just finished was the last. Fueled by a slew of emotions from their components, they nearly growled after the last student went back to their class. “Surely I’m not the only one who is aggravated by these kids who don’t have their priorities straight. This is a more-or-less formal investigation, and they’re wasting the time of someone who is trying to track down their fellow classmates.” Their tone slipped off the slope of masculinity towards a feminine tone, though they realized this and lightly cleared their throat, trying to remain inconspicuous.

The counselor nodded in agreement, asking if they needed a napkin (“No thank you, it’s just something I drank earlier,”) and luckily not appearing to mind their apparent throat problems and said, calmingly, “I will agree on that, but this school is admittedly a particularly high-end one. There are a number of undeniably spoiled teens here, that I won’t deny. Do try and forgive them, though; they simply don’t know any better at this point in their lives.” 

“Hmph. Hopefully that’ll just last for the time being.” The two minds in one let out a lengthy sigh to calm themself before resuming. “I thank you and your school greatly. Though the only potentially useful information is based on the assumption that there is a connection here, if that connection proves valid I could very well be on my way to finding Carol. Filia, however... she remains an enigma. I will still sniff around where possible, however, rest assured.” 

They reached out a hand for the woman to shake, which she took with a grateful smile of her own. “Oh, Mister Mason, trust me when I say the pleasure and gratitude is all ours for your attempts to help us. Do try and keep us updated if you find anything significant, hmm? And, ah, considering these new discoveries you’ve made regarding the government... Stay safe, please.” 

A nod plus, “Will do, ma’am. You have a good rest of your day.” 

“And you as well,” she finished, waving goodbye as they left the school and put a cap on this first errand of the day. The androgynous adult turned their head and waved back as the door closed, a polite smile on their face until the doors closed behind them. 

The moment the school left their sight, they jogged over behind a bush and keeled over dramatically, hands fumbling with a loose bunch of leaves to avoid going to their knees as they began to pant furiously. 

“Alright, alright... You two want your turn, you can have it... And you’re welcome , by the way...!” 

With that, one mind fissioned into two as the body shifted to its normal darker skin tone, eyes becoming a normal blue and features shifting back into their rigid, masculine form. The two had to take several moments to reorient themselves mentally, sitting on the grass during that.

“ Guhhh ... That’s the most assertive they’ve ever been, Noirall é ... Hah ... I’m -- I’m kinda getting a lil’ concerned, here,” was the first thing either Gordan or his partner said, appearing winded in spite of a lack of physical exertion. The strain was likely of a more mental nature, considering how much their fused consciousness was working in their place and for a relatively long period at that, though the fact that his body had mutated back and forth after a while of staying in that “unnatural” form may have contributed to their exhaustion. 

‘ As am I , Gordon ... This has never happened to such extents as my previous hosts , and I have been in relations with a number of them magnitudes longer than with you and I. Surely we are not that similar so as to cause them to come out so easily and strongly? I’m not nearly as awkward or as bumbling as you, for one ?’ Her tone went abruptly and strangely light toward the end, as if telling a joke didn’t come naturally to her.

‘ Nor’m I as casually a jerk as you,’ the man nipped back, taking his time to get back on his feet. ‘ And you don’t even have a body to confirm if you’re any more physically clumsy than me! ’ When he did so he ambled over to the bench and sat down. 

‘ I don’t think I need a body for that , I’ve never seen a person trip over nothing or find so many unlucky places to sit as often as you do ,’ she retorted, chuckling lightly. 

“Hah,” was all Mason said to finish off their back-and-forth, popping open the suitcase to gaze over the papers that only sort-of had his handwriting on them. 

Gordan and Noirall é took several minutes to look over these almost-familiar notes cementing these facts in their minds relatively quickly. Once that was done, Gordan took out his phone and looked at the time. 

“2:30,” he mumbled, thinking about where he wanted to go to pick up his groceries and what to do after, as he would likely have a few hours to kill after his errands until sundown, when he and his partner would begin their stakeout. 

‘ I’m thinkin’ about going downtown again, things’re prolly going to be expensive in this high-end ‘n’ fancy area .’ 

‘ That is likely ,’ was all Noirallé had to say, agreeing with the man. 

As he began to walk back to the tram station, Gordan just then remembered an important errand he promised to take care of immediately after his school visit. 

‘ Oh goddesses, Carol’s parents, that whole deal with ... them, threw me off about that ! Where the hell did those two live again, somewhere near the school ?’ 

‘ 104 Prairie Avenue, was it ?’ 

‘ Yes yes, thank you, and it was this dull green color, two stories ...’

With those reminders Gordan could see his destination just a couple blocks down the road, at the end of a cul-de-sac and fairly close to one of the downward slopes that made this rather mountainous islet, well. Mountainous . 

Gordan approached the door and rang the electronic bell, having to loiter around for a bit, during which he felt the scorching afternoon sun really start to get to him. He rubbed at his forehead a little and sighed a little as he saw his forearm come away with a bit of sweat, half-regretting bringing more than a t-shirt and shorts in spite of the security his hidden tools provided should he need to use them. 

Luckily for Gordan it only took a few seconds for a blonde and stressed-looking woman to glance through a side window and open the door. 

“Mister Mason, I presume.” 

“In the flesh, Missus Ulysses,” he said as he pulled out his ID for her confirmation, “though I think I’d prefer just “Gordan” here? Feels awkward being called “mister” by people that’re older than me, hah.” Putting it away at her nod, he continued. “Like I hoped, I’ve got a few scoops from some students you’ll probably wanna know ‘bout, though I’ll warn ya that you may not like what ya hear. Carol’s probably not six feet under if my hunch is right, at least!” 

The woman worriedly hummed before nodding again, gesturing him inside as a slightly pudgy man with graying hair came down the stairs. 

“This is Mister Mason, Kalvin,” Carol’s mother introduced. Her husband’s eyes widened as he walked over to shake Mason’s hand, to which the darker-skinned man readily shook back. 

“Jus’ Gordan is fine, though. Like I told Amy here, I’ve got a few things to share with you about your daughter. Can we sit down somewhere for this?” 

“Certainly,” Kalvin said, clearly angsty to hear what Gordan had to say. The trio of adults sat around a dining room table near a window and what was evidently the kitchen before Gordan began relaying what he just discovered to the pair of concerned parents.

Chapter Text

Gordan and Noirall é’s merged consciousness had gathered some information, to be certain, but it was hardly an essay’s worth of would-be content. It only took about eight minutes for Gordan to get across what he had discovered to the worried parents, and only thought for a split-second before showing them his new picture of hopefully-Carol as his info’ dump neared its end. 

Both Kalvin and Amy took a couple seconds to scan over the photo as Gordan pointed out the similarities this person had to Carol. “This person appears to have Carol’s hair all the way down to her color, probably minus all the grime ‘n’ stuff, and something like her normal hair style too. One of her close friends told me they apparently have a pretty similar body type, too, but until that mask comes off I’ll be the first to admit there’s no knowin’ for sure. I’m leaning more towards her being Carol, though.” 

“I -- Yes, there are some similarities, but...” 

Gordan quirked a brow at Amy. “But what, Missus Ulysses?” 

The woman exhaled heavily. “I just can’t believe our Carol may have been turned into -- into that ! I just can’t ! And our daughter being involved in some sort of government conspiracy?!” A second sigh.

Her husband reluctantly admitted as he leaned back in his chair, “I don’t think I can either, Gordan... There’s just no way...” 

Gordan’s partner’s voice went sharp as a knife with her next statement. ‘... We need to test how much they care about their daughter . If they cease giving a damn about her just because her appearance has changed and her circumstances have become rather strange ...’ 

Gordan let out a hum, agreeing to his partner and seemingly a noise of thought to the two humans. He felt frustrated for a number of reasons. Spending several moments thinking carefully about his next words while trying to mitigate his negativity, the man next said, “And if it turns out this “monster,”’ he gestured those quotes for emphasis, “ is Carol? What’ll you do then?” His tone tip-toed across the line between dangerous and professionally calm. 

“Well... I--I don’t know,” she muttered. 

Gordan’s gaze hardened and eyes shifted into a bluish teal beneath his glasses, though they didn’t transform any further. His tone took a quick leftward step into dangerous territory. “Missus Ulysses, I hope you realize what you’re saying.” 

“Huh?” 

Rather than address Amy’s confusion, Gordan posed another half-hypothetical. “Carol’s friend informed me that this girl was clutching at her head and growling. Let’s make the educated guess that she was in some serious pain at that moment. Would you shy away from Carol just because her body has changed? Probably not of her own volition, it ought to be said.” 

The blonde woman gasped at his question. “I -- no , that’s not -- what are you trying to insinuate here, Mister Mason!?” 

Gordan let out the nth sigh of this conversation thus far. “I’m saying that you should care about your daughter, regardless of what’s happened to her. I’d assume you’d care about her regardless of what she’s become, but if you don’t then I’ve just lost a damn large reason to continue my investigation, haven’t I? Because I’ve found this person’s resemblance to Carol more and more uncanny the more I look at this picture, and she’s furthermore my only potential lead for your daughter regardless.” 

He leaned forward, an arm across his leg as he asked, dead serious: “You got me?” 

Husband and wife shared a glance before slowly and reluctantly nodding. 

“Good. And if you two are even half -competent parents, I hope you’ll take her back in after I find her without a second thought, yeah? None of this being scared a’ your daughter bullshit , if you’ll pardon my language.” There was quite the venomous arc to his curse, likely fueled by some personal grievances. 

Kalvin’s eyes narrowed, likely a bit offended at how assertive and brazen this near-stranger was being about their parenting methods and their daughter in general. Eventually however he slumped back into his chair again, conceding, “I suppose you have a point... We wouldn’t turn away our daughter, regardless of whatever’s happened to her. Right, hon’?” 

Amy’s posture also softened a titch. “Right, of course... Just try and keep an open mind, Amy, your daughter’ll still be your daughter,” she assured herself. 

Gordan relaxed his own stance, eyes going back to their normal color. “Good. Ah, sorry about gettin’ a little unprofessional, there, you could say I’ve had some very personal experiences with my own parents, not gonna trouble you with that if I can help it or let it get in the way of my job.” 

Both parents inclined their heads in understanding, likely curious but polite enough to not press Gordan’s issues. Kalvin asked, “Is there anything else you want to share with us? Oh, and can we get that picture?” 

Deliberately grinning so as to lighten the mood, he responded, “Not really to that first one, of course to the second! I think you’ll see what I meant when I said you’ll see more and more of Carol the more you look at it. Gimme a sec’, here...” 

The blue-eyed man toyed with his phone for a bit and the image was distributed after Amy and Kalvin shared their contact information. 

The parents invited the darker man to stay for a bit of food but Gordan politely declined. “‘S actually my first day here in ‘Meridian, and all this business about finding those missing kids was at the top of my priority list. Still is of course, but I’ve gotta grab groceries and appliances, and I got plans for late tonight that I need to be all rested for... Basically it’s been and will be a busy day, y’know?” 

“Oh, Gordan, between work and stress for our daughter, it’s like that every day for us,” Amy stated. 

Gordan couldn’t help a slight stutter, finding their situation significantly worse than his simply being somewhat busy. “Uhm, hahah, yes , I can only imagine! So, ah, do you two got anything to share with me ?” 

“... Aside from thanking you for doing this for us and asking you to be careful -- really, thank you so much and please, please be careful -- I don’t suppose so? Amy?” 

“I don’t think so, no.” 

Gordan nodded and rose from his chair with a small huff. “Right then. Thanks a lot for your time as well, and have a good rest of your day.” 

“Hmm, you too!” was the woman’s reply.

“And you as well, Gordan,” was the man’s. 

The man waved goodbye again as he gently closed the door behind him, looking back into the house’s nearest window for a moment before going on his way. 

After the house left their sights, Noirallé pointed out, ‘... Perhaps you should keep your emotions in check a bit more . I know it may have been necessary to effectively make your point, but like you said yourself, you were losing your calm .’ 

A weary exhale. ‘ Yeah. Maybe I’m not as over Mom’s first reaction as I think I am ... Well whatever, that was ... Man, it’s already been about three years now, huh ?’ 

‘ Mh, indeed . Your brain hasn’t expanded an inch since, you know .’ 

‘ Yeah, because all the space you take up ain’t leaving much room for growth !’ 

“Heheh,” he laughed, for reasons no-one else would be able to discern. 

‘... Back to serious mode for a second, though. I’m pretty sure you were getting angry, too. Could almost feel a bit of bleed-over, there, again this is getting a lil’ concerning, but I’m more curious if you’re not over it, too ?’ 

Noirallé took several moments to think and more to respond. ‘ I think it was less that and more how illogical they were acting . Good parents ought to care for their progeny no matter what, that should be common knowledge, but when they were shown that picture and we presented our case, all their ability to reason just went out the window ...’

‘And I get how much you hate that. Pretty sure I do, too.’ 

‘ Hmm .’ 

For just a moment, eyes shifted to teal before the standard blue took back its place. 

Gordan’s walk back to the station was an uneventful one, as was his train ride. Thankfully Gordan’s mind and his “mental renter’s” didn’t merge into one again, though that wasn’t to say the man didn’t gaze out the train window again, content with the novelty of seeing unfamiliar sights whiz on by under the clear afternoon sun while wondering how the numerous windows and neon signs lit up at night. 

The dark-haired man had to wait until the station that came after the one closest to his apartment to get to downtown New Meridian, which entailed a few more minutes of waiting. The crowd of people entering and exiting was marginally thicker than usual. This was to be expected, considering how this area was a hub for so many things in New Meridian; entertainment, business, high living and both the least and most expensive shopping opportunities around could all be found here more than anywhere else in the massive capital of the Canopy Kingdom. 

Mason took out his phone and browsed around for a store to visit, a bit disappointed but not hugely surprised to find that there apparently weren’t any chains here in New Meridian from back home. He settled on some generic-looking supermarket, specifically the closest “Hallkart,” and noted his directions as he sprang from the pillar he was leaning against and got a move on. 

By the time Gordan had finished up his shopping spree, he was quite familiar with the store’s slogan, “Where karting to your goods is never more convenient!” It blared over the microphone every ten-odd minutes and he was there for a little over an hour, so he was feeling a tad miffed by the end of his shopping trip. This irritation was offset, though not completely, by one of the store’s gimmicks; the shopping carts actually had these little plastic models added on to make them look more like cars, like those specialized carts for kids to sit in except that was applied to all of the things. It was a novelty, at least, but not enough to get rid of the nuisance of corporate attempts at indoctrinating brand loyalty. 

Gordan only realized that he had made a somewhat significant planning blunder when he exited the store, shopping cart still in tow as his eyes widened several margins. 

‘ I can’t carry all this . Shit, I should have called a taxi or something ahead a’ time!! How ‘n’ why do I keep forgetting about things like this !?’

The man was fully expecting Noirallé’s casual verbal thorns but was a bit surprised to not get any sort of response. 

‘... Prolly asleep . I guess she was a bit off-cycle with her sleep, and she ain’t the biggest fan a’ shopping .’ 

The man took out his phone and dialed up one of the many local taxi services, and was again disappointed but unsurprised to find that he’d have to wait around for nearly half an hour for his ride to arrive. Resigned to his fate, the dark-skinned man sat down at a bench (he looked before he acted this time) and began browsing the New Meridian news on his phone, potentially for some other seeds of mystery to grow into sweet, succulent knowledge and truth. 

Gordan didn’t find any particularly interesting tidbits, hints he could practically look into, or were just spouting seemingly vague, baseless nonsense. A couple did at least draw his attention, though. Some of the article headlines for these attention-rousing articles are as follows: 

“Cirque de Cartes Sales Continue to Soar!” 

“Princess Parasoul: Racist Opportunist or the Apple That Fell Far From the Tree?” 

“101 Foolproof Ways to Protect Yourself From the Undead, Skullgirl Included!” 

“Strange Metallic Men Sighted in New Meridian?!” 

Et cetera, et cetera. 

Mason began to grow impatient as his boredom grew and his time was wasted, his taxi ending up going well over its estimated time of arrival. This only helped his frustration at his forgetfulness grow as the minutes wore on. His ride arrived some ten minutes late, marking his wait as nearly three quarters of an hour in length. The man hopped into the taxi after cramming his goods into the back seats with an aggravated haste, reminding the driver of his destination of the apartment near the Little Innsmouth area while politely resisting the urge to ask why his ride was so late. 

The ride was thankfully a short and quiet one, and after grabbing everything he put in the cab onto a little cart from the apartment lobby, Gordan paid and tipped the driver and headed inside. The woman from earlier that day was still present behind the counter, an opened magazine likely only partially read at one end of the desk and the dusty old computer at the other. The woman appeared to be idly browsing the web on the computer, eyes half-lidded out of boredom as she waited lengthy periods of time for whatever she was trying to look at to load up. 

Gordan waved as he pushed the cart inside and the woman sluggishly waved back. Scratching his head upon seeing the stairs, the somewhat scrawny man wondered what part of the load of items he had in front of him should go up to his room first. Eventually he settled on getting the heavier items out of the way first, making the mini-fridge his first priority and doing his first of a half-dozen flights up and down the stairs. This process wasn’t exactly long but it was tedious and slightly exhausting to the lean but largely unfit man. 

When Mason completed his sixth and final stair run he was panting lightly, eager and willing to collapse onto his bed as he regained his stamina. He took a few minutes to just sit there, letting his sore feet recuperate for a bit as he considered where to put his refrigerator and microwave. A couple minutes later the man rose from his plush grave and got to work unpacking his new appliances, placing them right next to each other across from the bed. He managed to squeeze all but a singular box of the items that warranted constant cooling into the refrigerator (the box contained some sodas, which he had ice for). Everything that didn’t need refrigeration went right nearby, stuffed under the little desk the refrigerator was placed on in a disorganized pile. 

Gordan looked at the clock after seating himself in his bed a second time, noting that it was nearly six o’ clock. This gave him some three hours to kill before he and his partner’s stakeout began. He got to thinking on things to do and first figured he’d review the facts behind Carol’s and especially Filia’s cases, as the latter’s remained far more ambiguous. 

The dark-haired man unfortunately didn’t manage to glean anything new from his fact-checking, so he instead decided to get to concocting a plan to get some information from the government about those mysterious Labs. 

‘ I could do the stupid reality TV show shtick and rush in and demand answers . This ain’t some crime show, though, I doubt anyone’d crack even if I showed them that picture of hopefully-Carol and bring up Jacob’s mom, and there’s a decent chance I’d probably get arrested on the spot for knowing too much of these probably-secret Labs ... You can’t exactly schedule an appointment with the Princess that easily, either, and sending a letter or email or whatever asking about some Labs -- capital L -- would probably result in me getting perma-traced online at the least and again being arrested at worst ...’ 

“Hmmm.” 

‘ I guess I can try to send a letter with that photo and ask if they know anything about it ? Keep things ambiguous on what I actually know ? That’s an idea, just gotta frame it carefully. Yeah, le’s do that. Not countin’ on my luck for any sort of helpful response, or a response period, but it’ll at least be something I can try .’ 

With that decided, Gordan tracked down some letters and grabbed a few fresh sheets of paper that were still in his suitcase and began ideating on his letter... Or at least he would have , were it not for the fact that there was a little something bringing out a letter reminded him to do. 

“Oh goddess damn it , how did I forget to call Mom ‘n’ Dad last night... Well, actually I was crazy-tired. Obviously. Once again, my brain drops the ball!” he sarcastically muttered. With that being said, Gordan had to take a moment to think about the time zone differences and guess on whether or not either of them were available to talk at the moment. With that in mind Gordan tried dialing up his father first, which was answered just after the third ring. 

“ Gordan , Gordan! I was jus’ beginning to wonder if I should text you! Were you too tired t’ remember to call us las’ night? ” a deep, jovial voice answered. 

“Hahah, yeah, got it in one. It’s almost like you’ve known me my whole life!” 

“ Hah, yeah! Anyways, how was the flight and more importantly, how are ya doin’ in New Meridian ?” 

“Oh, ya know, the usual boredom and tiredness after that you’d expect from a seven-hour flight. As for New Meridian, well, I haven’t exactly been here long enough to judge for myself, but I’ve already managed to find a couple a’ potentially spicy scoops. I would keep you updated but, ah, let’s say I may be finding myself in some hot water soon and I’d rather keep you out of it.” 

The Mason Patriarch hummed. “ Well, if that’s what’cha think is best. You’ve managed to swim your way out of some a’ that hot water before, but if you ever need a hand --”

There was a brief shout in the background, as well as the sound of clanging metal. “ Aw fer the love of -- Gordan, I’ll call you back in a sec’, your mother has not been doing so good in the kitchen without you !!” 

“O kaaay ,” was all Gordan managed to get across the microphone before the call cut off. “Huh. She usually does fine by herself. Hope my leave ain’t affecting her that badly.” 

It was of course not a second but rather about a hundred and twenty of them when Gordan’s father called back. “ Sorry about that, she ‘parently got a lil’ distracted near the stove and burned her hand. She’s fine though, don’t worry. Where were we ...”

“Me about to thank you for the bazillionth time for your kindness?” 

“ Aw, Sonny-Boy, it ain’t no thing, never was. ” 

“Hmmhmm. Anything else you wanted to ask or tell me?” 

“ Aside from a lil’ sobbing session on both‘ve our parts, I don’t got much else to say. You ?” 

“Well while I was shopping for stuff today I forgot to call up a taxi ahead of time. Had to wait forty minutes for that, got a little mad at myself for it but no big deal in retrospect. Noirallé’s been her usual snarky self, she’d prolly tell me to say hi for her if she were awake, which she ain’t right now. Had a nice little lunch yesterday at this Dagonian restaurant. Not much else aside from the super-secret stuff... Oh, first bench I tried to sit down at after my place ride? Collapsed when I sat on it.” 

“ Oof. If I didn’t know any better I’d say your luck is jus’ the worst in the world !” The older man chuckled lightly on his end. 

“Yeah, yeah,” with a comfortable, feigned irritation. “Anyways, I don’t have much to ask either. Mom’s doing fine, kitchen shenannies aside?” 

“ Yup yup .” 

“And how has work been? Forgot to ask for a while before I left.” 

“ Oh, things’re steady over at the station. Nothing big’s come up since you left, at least, though I’m ‘course still left pretty busy either way .” 

“Being a sheriff in a city like ours’ll do that to you.” 

“ Mmh... ‘Zat it ?” 

“‘Think so. I’ll see if I can get to calling Mom in the next day or two, tell her I’m doing fine?” 

“ Will do, soldier. You have a good night !” 

“And you a good day at work. Bye!” 

Gordan hit the hang-up button first, exhaling lightly and feeling just a bit refreshed at the familiar rapport he and his father shared. With that done with, Gordan figured he’d kill the rest of his free time making that letter and looking around the web for some more potential places to visit besides the downtown church, casinos and quick letter drop-off at the capitol building he had in mind for tomorrow. 

The evening passed into night quickly enough. The letter was a short, succinct thing. Gordan had tried to strike a careful balance between vague and specific, trying to make it intriguing enough to catch the attention of someone high on the government ladder to potentially, hopefully respond to. The body of the letter read as follows: 

“Hello, governmental and/or police official. My name is Gordan Mason, and I am an investigative journalist of sorts. I am asking for some information about a missing persons case I am looking into, and I think you may be able to help me. Specifically I am looking into a high school girl from the Maplecrest area here in New Meridian, one Caroline Ulysses, who went missing a couple months ago. I am seeking her out and have attached a photograph of a “monster” that was seen in Maplecrest a short while ago that I personally believe is likely connected to her case. Clearly there is some strange and cruel sort of human experimentation going on here, and I was simply wondering if you had any information at all to help me with my search. Any help you or anyone you know could provide would be greatly appreciated. You may send a response to the following address...”

The decision to mention human experimentation was just a step away from straight-up mentioning the Labs, and was a calculated risk on Gordan’s part. He brushed aside the slight nervousness that came with this risk as he glanced over his words, nodding when he found no immediate problems with them. Afterwards, a few copies of the text and its accompanying picture were printed off from a small portable printer the blue-eyed man had barely managed to stuff into his suitcase. They were then sealed properly tidily in envelopes (the extras would go to various police stations). 

Gordan had managed to find only a few new places of interest he could reasonably check out at a later date. They were the memorial to former King Franz, a “hero” (‘ Hero my ass ,’ he internally grumbled) who died in the war to stop the previous Skullgirl, his queen Nancy, as well as a few police stations to ask around about mysteries, particularly with regards to missing persons. 

It should be noted that there were a fair amount of other places he could visit -- for example, the weekly Glass Canopy ball would be a great in to talk to some higher-ups in the government and get some information, but that place was open only to the highest echelons in New Meridian or those with the right connections. The Bastet’s Den also night club seemed like the perfect place to go for some leads considering who likely goes there, but even a single visit would put a sizeable dent in Gordan’s savings. As such, starting fairly soon Gordan knew he would need to start looking into some marginally less obvious and potentially less-than-savory places to go for some leads and/or new mysteries to unwrap. 

‘ Some connections would be nice, preferably not-so-dangerous ones, but no luck there so far. Hmm .’ 

After that bit of research was done Mason made a somewhat small supper, then idly read a bit and program-surfed on his laptop. When the sun fully set not too long from then Gordan would go out and commence his stake-out, steak to be prepped and in hand for both he and his partner’s savory delights while they sat around in what was likely (hopefully? hopefully not?) set to be a long, boring night. 

The anticipation was killing him, truly.

Chapter Text

“Investigative Journalism” 

Chapter Six - Stake-Out

The rest of the evening passed by quickly enough, with Gordan having needed a bit of downtime to rest both his mind and body after a day of walking around under the summer sun and moderately intensive thinking. Just a few minutes before it was time to leave, Gordan unwrapped the package of steak he bought, cranked on the old fire-burning stove and set the meat down on a pan to cook it. He flipped it after only a minute or two, knowing his partner liked her meat rather on the raw side, and added just a touch of seasoning before grabbing a couple utensils and placing the complete package into a container to eat later that night. 

‘ I swear I’m picking up on her taste preferences, would always have this sorta thing well-done ...’ 

Speaking of Noirall é, the smell of one of her favorite foods slowly roused her from her slumber, which Mason felt as a slight rising pressure throughout his body, most prominently in his head. This sensation always caused a bit of aching at first but it passed soon enough. 

The first thing she said was,  ‘... You actually got some steak and made it. You madman .’ 

‘ I take my jokes very seriously, thank you very much! Also you may’ve be right, some good food’ll hopefully keep us awake if we have to wait around for a while. Hence, this. ’ 

‘... But does taking jokes seriously not-- ’

‘ Shhh .’ 

A playful grumble capped off that little conversation. Gordan re-equipped himself with his hidden tools and a briefcase that had a replenished supply of fresh papers and pencils, as well as a pillow and a pair of binoculars, ‘ Because a’ course we’re gonna need some distance and comfort .’ He also put on a dark-colored overcoat and an equally dark hat, feeling a bit satisfied at knowing that this seemingly random choice of clothes for this trip for these what-if scenarios was potentially going to pay off. 

With all his stuff packed into a small backpack he had picked up at the store earlier, the dark-haired man left the hotel, noting the slow creaking of the grumpy Gigan’s chair just out of view behind the counter as he pushed open the door and exited. 

The night was a crisp one. The temperature had certainly cooled from the day earlier but was still a bit on the hot side, particularly given Gordan’s outfit. The cloud cover was also practically nonexistent, the stars faintly twinkling overhead, obscured somewhat by the air pollution of this massive city but thankfully not entirely. 

The man couldn’t help the sigh of pleasure that escaped his throat at the pleasant circumstances the weather was giving, slight abundance of heat aside. His partner’s own exhale would have been audible as well were it nor for her lack of physical presence. 

Mason walked over to a decent-looking hiding spot he had observed on his way out of the restaurant two city blocks’ worth of distance away, near a bridge over one of the city’s many canals. He put down his pillow behind (relative to the restaurant, that is) a rusted and warped metallic bump near a pier that had evidently seen better days, unpacked his stuff and got to waiting. 

The dark-skinned man took to occasionally looking through his binoculars to try and spot some details around the restaurant’s windows and back entrance. He had to resist Noirallé’s want to eat the cooked steak right off the bat, wanting to save it for at least another hour or two to stave off his imminent sleepiness with savory delights until at least one o’ clock or so.

Nearly two whole hours of peace and quiet passed, the normal discomfort of being alone in a city commonly known for its criminal activity during the night aside. It was as that mark in the pair’s wait neared that Noirallé pointed out, ‘ The window up top just opened .’

Surely enough, Gordan put the binoculars to his eyes and looked toward the building’s upper floor and noted the window that was not open a few seconds ago. The blue-eyed man could clearly see the azure eyes staring back at him. The face itself was a bit more obscure because of the lack of light in the room but that was soon resolved as Gordan’s “head renter” enhanced his vision. 

‘ Yu-Wan has a natural squint and Minette’s pupils are unmistakably a bright magenta .’ 

‘ We got a stranger maybe living in their place, then .’ 

The two pairs of eyes competed in a short-lived staring contest before the one in the building turned around and left Gordan’s sights. Noirallé promptly rounded out her observations and asked a question.  

‘ Tanned skin, black cat ears. Mostly human but obviously part Feral. Face looked feminine enough but no concrete way to tell gender with what we saw. Anything else to note? ’ 

‘ Don’t think so. Mind enhancing my ears, something tells me she’s gonna try something sneaky. ’ 

‘ Very well .’ 

The dark-skinned man’s world momentarily got uncomfortably loud, and he grunted at the sudden explosion in his eardrums. The pain again faded soon enough, though, and Mason  resumed his visual surveillance of Yu-Wan’s restaurant, paying careful attention to his surroundings with his now-improved hearing. 

Gordan couldn’t help but look around every now and again, his enhanced hearing making him aware of many more little goings-on than the average person would notice. The occasional creak of an opening door. The sounds of trash cans and their bags being messed with. The pressing of shoe heels into concrete and wood. Even the constant, gently flowing water below, usually a rather calming sound, caused him to look into the canal every few minutes. 

The man stiffened up a little at the normally inaudibly quiet sound of feet and hands padding against the concrete a short distance behind away, as if someone was climbing a wall. Almost immediately after that, Gordan’s slowly rising state of paranoia seemed to convince him that the footsteps approaching behind him were closing in with a slow cautiousness and an aggressive swiftness simultaneously, like he was prey being stalked by a predator. 

‘ Noir’, get ready to use my body, we may need to react quickly .’ 

‘ Hmm !’

A slight feeling of numbness spread throughout the blue-eyed man, which he brushed aside as that was very much an expected consequence of his partner’s preparations. He rigidly maintained his posture as the person behind them grew closer, unwilling to show any sort of reaction so as to give away the fact that he was not being taken by surprise. 

The steps soon halted, probably about four meters away and around a corner. Gordan carefully maintained his breathing until the sound of a wet schlick entered his ears, his eyes opening up a few degrees in shock while he internally gasped at that entirely unexpected noise. 

The tense silence that lasted for the next several seconds was practically palpable, broken by a war cry from the stalking stranger: 

“Hope ya like to play catch !!” 

There was a slamming sound along with a noise that vaguely resembled a running faucet, and Gordan lost control of his body entirely as Noirallé took the helm, his friend reacting near-instantly as she brought up his arm to block. 

It ought to be said that the first slamming noise was like a face being slapped, flesh-on-flesh. This second noise was instead flesh-on-metal as the projectile bounced harmlessly off of sheeted steel, positioned over Gordan’s elbow under his sleeve. 

Their shared body shifting to a lighter skin and their eyes going teal, Gordan and Noirallé instinctively looked down at the thing they had blocked. 

“Yo, what the fuck !?” Gordan couldn’t help but shout, with Noirallé giving a similar but vocalless internal reaction. This was understandable given the noticeably animated severed head that was currently wincing in pain at being thrown at high speeds against solid metal, a trail of blood forming a line behind her. Gordan would have assumed a body would be at the end of that trail but it was conspicuously absent. Before he had the chance to think about that, the head began talking to him .  

“ Nyow , man, what the heck! I didn’t think you’d react that fast! What are you, some kinda cheetah?” 

“Cheetahs are known for their sprinting speed, not their reaction times,” said Noirallé using Gordan’s mouth, unable to help herself. 

Gordan followed up on that little correction in a marginally more normal fashion: “You are a talking severed head .” 

“And you’re tryin’ to clamber all up in my friends’ personal business! ‘Fraid I can’t let ya do that, Mister!” 

Noirallé reacted again, barely noticing the footsteps behind her just in time to leap away and over the head on the ground. The partners’ shock was doubled as what was clearly the head’s body, mostly concealed beneath a thick black trench coat, leaned back from its attempt at grabbing them, claws retracting as it stepped forward and picked up its head to reattach it. 

 “Okay, I have so many questions about how you function, but before that: who the hell are you and why are you attacking me ?” Gordan questioned, mostly recovered from his shock after Noirallé gave him a mental slap to the face. 

The Feral grinned slyly, putting her arms at her hips and smiling proudly. “Miss Fortune, Fish Bone Gang member and thief extraordinaire, at your service! I’m not here to steal your stuff, though; Imma havta turn you into my next scratching post unless you gimme a really good explanation about why you’re pawing at Yu-Wan and Minette!” Her grin transitioned into a fierce frown as she entered a fighter’s posture, one arm extended to scratch while the other was levelled closer to her body. 

“Actually, that would be stealing Gordan’s life,” Noirallé piped in, unable to help the use of Gordan’s eyes to stare as this “Miss Fortune’s” tendons and ligaments holding together her thoroughly cut-up legs and neck as she energetically bounced on her feet.   

‘ Not now, Noir ’!” 

‘ Ah, sorry !’ 

“And what’s up with your skin ‘n’ voice changing like that?” 

Gordan cleared his throat, asserting most of his physical control back from Noirallé while still giving a bit of leeway for her in case their shared body needed to act fast. “Well, again, I have so many questions , but so do you, apparently, though I think we ought to clear a few things up first. Can we maybe not fight? I was never intending to get your two friends hurt, and I didn’t even know about you until, like, a minute ago.” 

The Feral’s eyes narrowed in suspicion, her tone reflecting that emotion. “And why should I believe you?” 

Gordan and Noirallé had to have a brief back-and-forth to supply a reason, which only took a few real-time seconds. “Well, first of all, you can probably tell that I was staking the restaurant out, yeah? Passively looking out for weird stuff as opposed to, I dunno, assassinating everyone inside? Do these shields look like they’re meant for killin’?” Gordan rhetorically posed, pulling down his sleeves and dragging his shirts upward just after to let Fortune gaze at the old but still firm sheets of metal. They were a rather aged gray and had a trio of oddly glowing teal circles that were set at equally ratioed distances from the center. The ones on his arms, as well the ones still concealed at his knees, were about half the size of the torso plate, and all of them protruded outward slightly in a rounded design. 

Fortune’s eyes squinted further. “Hmmm, I guess not. Could still give someone a concussion, though!” 

“Hey, you’re the one who threw your head at a stranger with no idea what he could do! Still not over how weird that is, by the way.” 

The woman sighed before saying, “Same here, but that’s not im paw rtent right now!” 

‘ If she keeps doing that I swear to the Trinity!!’ 

“I still can’t exactly trust you easily with how you came asking around about me when you did! It was just a few days ago when I got turned into this, you know! How do I know you aren’t some Medici goon out to get on my good side and claw me and my pals in the back when I least expect it?!” 

Another couple of seconds of thought later and neither Gordan nor his partner could come up with something to win her over immediately. Instead they settled on trying to explain the power coincidence and bluffing held over this series of events.  

“Well, I can’t give ya anything concrete, I’ll admit. I can try and explain myself, though?” 

“Hmm... Fine. Better make it snappy, though.” The Feral’s claws extended in what was clearly a gesture of intimidation. 

“Alright, alright. First of all, how much did Minette or Yu-Wan tell you about my time in the restaurant?” 

“That you came in and asked about some screaming you heard and said you were a “journalist,”’ she said with air quotes. “Which, incidentally, were coming from me, but you only would have heard me if you were right nearby.” 

Gordan couldn’t help but smile amusedly. “Heh, well , would you believe me if I told you I was just bluffing?” 

“What?” The women’s shock was obvious. 

“You see, thanks to my partner’s help -- she’s a Theon, by the way -- my senses can be enhanced. She’s got some real keen intuition, too, and she was getting some weird feelings about the restaurant, so he took some sniffs around with my nose and she smelled blood real thickly from the back of the place. On Yu-Wan and Minette, too. Said it was oddly fresh, there was probably a lot, and that it smelled mammalian, which was definitely weird considering Yu-Wan’s is a fish place. So we asked ‘im an intentionally vague question, we got a suspicious response, and here we were, on a stake-out, when you came along. The fact that I asked specifically about screaming was just a coincidence, as we thought a murder had happened or somethin’ and that seemed like a decent thing to ask about with that in mind. Ya got me?” 

The other person thought for several minutes before heaving an aggravated sigh. “I guess that makes sense! Ya could still be lion about certain parts but a lot of it seems to add up. The heck is a Theon, though?” 

Noirallé was positively seething, now for two reasons instead of one, to the point where Gordan began to feel her anger bleed over into his own emotions. As such he clarified and then politely asked, “Theons are called Parasites nowadays, her being with me is why my skin and stuff keeps changing. She prefers Theon because not all relationships between host and “Parasite,’” air quotes, “purely benefit the Theon, it’s an objectively false and insulting label a lotta the time... Anyways, she’s literally and figuratively in my head. Also, she has an irrational hatred of puns, to the point where I’ve, ah, started feline a lil’ angry too. I find them funny but she sure as hell doesn’t. So uh, can we ask ya to stop?” 

Mason’s own pun and opinion seemed to appease the Feral, who shrugged. “You tried one yourself, even when we’re being serious like this, so you can’t be all bad... Okay, fine. So , here’s what we’re gonna do if you wanna avoid us two fighting. You’re gonna get all your shields and whatever else off ya, gather your stuff, we’re gonna go to the restaurant, I’m going to wake my friends up, and we’re all gonna sit down and have a nice little chat. Capiche?” 

After a brief chat with Noir’, the blue-eyed man reluctantly agreed, having to debate with Noirallé for a bit about whether to blindly trust this admitted thief before doing so. “... I’d rather not, ‘specially since you straight-up admitted to being a criminal, but if it’ll maybe get both of us outta this unscathed and help clarify the situation for everyone, especially about how you ended up like that and are still alive, then fine , I guess I’ll do it. You keep your distance, Imma take these things off and carry them with me.” 

The cat-girl nodded, deeming his “weapons” not being properly equipped as being disarmed enough to safely work with. 

Slowly so as to not startle Miss Fortune, the dark-haired man reached under his shirt and took off the largest shield. Curiously, the thing wasn’t physically bound to him, appearing to float just above his chest as if it were drawn to his body magnetically. The same was done for his elbows and knees, and he tucked all five of his armaments under his shoulder as he pointed out his being done. 

When Mason reached down to get everything into his backpack and grab his food, he did so just as slowly as the previous task, picking up every item to show his to-be “hostess” there was nothing off happening. As he moved to tuck the container under his opposite shoulder, the young woman commanded, “Open that thing up.” 

“‘S only steak, Miss,” the man said as he complied. Fortune approached and took a couple curious whiffs, actually purring lowly when she looked into the container for confirmation and realized how good the meat smelled. 

‘ If you offer even a bite of that stuff for her, I swear--” 

With the most miniscule of smirks, “You can have some if ya want. Freshly and lightly cooked steak, with just a pinch a’ seasoning. I was ‘bouta start eating when you came along. I can try some first, show you it ain’t poisoned or something?” 

‘ Oh by all that is divine, why.’ 

 Miss Fortune contemplated that for several seconds, a finger at her chin as her mouth bemusedly scrunched up in thought before nodding with a light smile. The dark-skinned man grabbed his pillow and binocular and jammed them into the backpack as the woman with a tail curled her finger a couple times, gesturing for Gordan to follow as she turned around and headed for the restaurant. Said tail was gently waving back and forth, giving away the fact that the Feral was likely looking forward to her surprise meal. 

Gordan attempted to placate his friend. ‘ Don’t’chu worry, I’ll grab some more steak next time we’re out ‘n’ about. How’s about we eat two cuts when that’s done with? ’ 

‘... Hmph. Fine. I suppose it’d be best to try and win her over however we can, regardless. That was admittedly a decent ploy on your part. ’ 

‘ My thoughts exactly, and thank you .’ 

After that moment’s delay to internally converse, Gordan promptly followed his new acquaintance to Yu-Wan’s restaurant, fighting off his and Noirallé’s apprehension every step of the way.

Chapter Text

“I’ll go get ‘em up. You stay out here,” Miss Fortune said as she and Gordan got to the front doors, unlocking them with a key pulled from somewhere in her trench coat. She pointed two fingers toward her squinted eyes and then to Gordan’s before heading inside, the doors locking behind her not a second later. 

“Not too sure how you can keep an eye on us from inside, but okay,” the dark-haired man muttered, only for the Feral to pop her head out of one of the windows and repeat her gesture, expression more intense than before. Gordan noticed that her ears were twitching as she did that, likely intentionally. 

“Oh, right, cat ears. Don’t need eyes when you have hearing like that, I guess.” 

Noirall é, already somewhat irate at Gordan’s simply going along with this, repeated a point that she had made in their debates just a minute ago in an attempt to get Gordan out of this situation. ‘ This could easily be a trap, and you aren’t immediately ready to defend yourself! There’s no way we can trust this mutilated, self-confessed thief so quickly! ’ 

‘ Yeah, but I’m too damn curious about her whole deal! Plus, if the Medicis went after her in spite of being a thief, that’s probably points in her moral favor, yeah?  

Noirallé sighed aggravatedly. ‘ That is not how that works, you can’t just apply “enemy of an enemy is a friend” logic so laxly!! ’ 

Gordan conceded the point, immediately finding his argument a bit silly. Struggling to find any other additional, more grounded reasons in the Feral’s favor, he admitted, ‘... Mmmh yeah, you’re probably right. Actually this whole thing is pretty silly of me to pursue considering this level a’ risk, but it’s too late to back off now, yeah? We’d be on Fortune’s radar either way, and who knows if she’d try anything violent again! I’d really not wanna chance being ambushed by her again considering how stealthy she can be .’ 

Noirallé sighed again. ‘ Those claws do look rather sharp ,’ she muttered, conceding that point at least. ‘ But if things start to look like they’re going south in there, I am taking over and getting us out of there immediately. Understand? ’ 

‘ Yeah, I gotcha .’ 

It took a few minutes for Miss Fortune to get her Dagonian friends up. The doors creaked open again, Fortune noting the shields still unequipped and lying on the ground next to Gordan as her detached head peaked out around it, the thing being held in one hand. 

Gordan couldn’t help but exclaim in shock, “ Friggin’ hell !! Could’ja please not do that without warning??” 

The thief laughed a little before responding, “Sorry, but I need to practice this whole “being dismembered” thing. Kinda new to it, still, and I’m pretty sure I can do lotsa neat-o stuff with this! Anyways, they’re awake and tired but a’ course want to talk. Come sit down at a table near them, but not with them, ya got me?” 

Mason nodded, picking up his tools and following the cat-woman inside. 

Yu-Wan and Minette were indeed seated at a table, the younger of the two rubbing at her eyes as she attempted to get the sleep out of her eyes as the older Dagonian yawned, his large jaw stretching wide as he put a hand over his truly gaping maw. The atmosphere of the restaurant felt a lot different at night, especially with the general lack of lighting, the only light source being a little lamp pulled over to the edge of the counter. Furthermore, the presence of costumers gave the place a constant, almost familiar sort of business, which felt a bit off to be without even after Gordan’s only having eaten here the one time. Theon and man shook the feeling off quickly enough, however, transferring their focus from their surroundings to the people in front of them. 

“Hello again,” Gordan opened with, just a tad awkwardly, doing as Fortune ordered and sitting down at a nearby table, dropping his shields down next to the chair he sat in. “So, ah, we’re all just gonna sit down and have a civilized conversation, right? No one’s gettin’ hurt tonight?” 

Yu-Wan said, “So long as we don’t intend on hurting each other, obviously.” 

Gordan shrugged, again feeling a bit awkward. “Yeah, ‘course...” A brief pause before he proposed, “So, you want me to just lay down this whole deal from my perspective?” 

“Mmmhmm.” 

“Alright. Lessee here, where do I start...” 

“The beginning?” Fortune cheekily pointed out. 

“Well yeah, obviously . Just trying to think of where specifically... I guess the plane ride here would be a good place.” 

The dark-skinned man proceeded to get across the bulk of the important content of his journey so far, which wasn’t much, all truths be told. 

“Alright. So why’re you doing this, then? Sniffing and snooping around, finding mysteries like this?” Minette asked after Gordan finished his short explanation. 

Gordan couldn’t help but laugh for a second, knowing his reasoning would appear silly if not straight-up foolish but saying anyways, “You mean besides just my own curiosity and my friend’s? Which by the way is actually the primary reason, I’m just borderline obsessively curious about the world’s mysteries! Theon and magical studies and history would’a been my major were it not for all the hard science and number crunching, and not gonna lie, I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer when it comes to stuff like that. I figured that investigative journalism would have been a decent second, and I’m all for sharing info’ and buries truths, y’know? And this place seemed like the best place to go for that sorta thing. 

“Also, I got a personal newspaper I write for my hometown, edited and published by my college. Some hot scoops would get me some cash, I think, but, ah,” and he let out an awkward cough at that little reveal, spotting the apprehensions on the other three’s faces, “of course I’m not gonna spill the beans about you guys or anything! This is clearly something you wanna keep secret, so I’ll leave you be. There’s a decent chance they wouldn’t even believe me without pictures, which I have none of. ‘Course, you’ll have to take my word for that, and that I’ve been telling the truth all along, which I have been, don’chu worry!” 

The two Dagonians plus Feral relaxed a bit at his affirmations of secrecy. “There’s not much more we can do that take your word for it, I suppose,” Yu-Wan conceded. 

“I promise your trust won’t go misplaced, man. Now, ah, speaking of investigations... I don’t suppose I can ask some questions of my own? Again, I’m just too curious for my own good sometimes, heheh. Like our little catty friend, maybe?” 

Fortune looked conflicted on whether to laugh or scoff at his cat joke. She ended up leaning more towards the latter, saying a bit irritably, “Curiosity didn’t have anything to do with how this cat got killed, Gordan, it was the Medicis... Okay, tell you what. I’ll explain the whole story behind this --” 

Her head popped off, much to the human’s chagrin, and she began spinning it upside down on the tip of a finger. The rotation was slowed down almost immediately, her expression getting across a sense of nausea afterward in spite of a lack of connected digestive system. “ Bwuh , okay, try not to do that again, however fun it may seem in your head... Anyways , you tell me the deal with your Parasite,” an internal growl, “and I’ll tell you about the whole “dismembered” thingamajig. Deal?” 

“Nadia, are you sure about this?” Yu-Wan asked, looking wary at the potential of some spilled beans. Minette nodded her head, agreeing with the older man’s suspicious attitude. 

“Will the deal be sweetened if I go first?” Gordan asked, picking up on Noirallé’s anger and capitalizing on her desire to correct their labelling. “Heck, I’ll let my partner speak if you really want. She’s not exactly the best people person, though...” 

‘ Hmm !’ 

‘ I ain’t wrong and you know it .’ 

“So ah, just warnin’ ya. I don’t think she’ll lie or anything, she’s actually brutally honest, just be prepared if she gets snappy... Ah, figuratively, that is. Not gonna grow more teeth or somethin’, hah.” 

Fortune thought for several moments before saying, somewhat flippantly, “Hmm... Ah, screw it. You’ve got my curiosity and a deal. Oh, and don’t worry, you two, I’ll turn this guy into my next scratching post if I find out he spills the beans!” 

Another nod from the two Dagonians. 

“I really don’t doubt that you wouldn’t. Anyways, thanks for humoring me, lemme just... have a lil’ spaz attack ...”

The man did indeed have a momentary full-body spasm before his skin changed to a significantly lighter shade, bordering on paper-white. Facial features became slimmer and more feminine, while the eyes took on a brilliant emerald hue, glowing slightly in the dark. The body’s posture shifted from a casual, somewhat slouched over pose to something far more rigid, shoulders squared and back erect. The eyes blinked a few times, the mouth stretching as if to test the water, before: 

“... Greetings,” was all Noirallé said for her introduction, eyes narrowed and mouth set in a tight frown. She moved right on from that, apprehension obvious to the other three in the room. “Before we get to questions, you must know that I do not appreciate being labelled a Parasite. Gordan has already let you know that “Theon” is the correct term, and more importantly, how would you feel if I called you a leech when you’re really a Feral or Dagonian or what have you? Hmm?” 

Spoken aloud, the Theon’s words were paced with a certain methodical slowness, as if every word were chosen carefully. The other three looked vaguely uncomfortable at her accusation. It was Minette who spoke up first, uttering a quiet “sorry” before that was followed up by “apologies” and “my bad” from the other two.  

“Hmph. Just remember that from now on. Not sure how or why the history books got our kind’s true name wiped, but that is not important at this moment. You have more questions for Gordan and I?” 

“Hmmhmm!” Nadia had to take a moment to think up her first one, finger pensively on the tip of her chin before going, “I know that Pa -- Theons , tend to have all these kooky powers. What the heck do you do? Besides take over Gordan’s body, that is.” 

Gordan’s partner nodded. “A fair question, considering that you don’t know how dangerous I can be. I am actually comparatively very passive with my abilities relative to most other Theons; I can enhance Gordan’s senses, speed up his mental processing speeds, and grant impossibly fast reaction times by normal standards on top of being able to control my partner’s body. That is how we managed to react in time to defend against your surprise attacks. Combat is not my primary focus, however, though the reaction times I give can be very deadly in the right circumstances..." A shake of the head, as if she had to justify that sentiment to herself.

"No, I specialize in knowledge . I have been around for a long, long time, and I would much rather learn and share facts and stories than get into a battle. I would say I am more a lover than a fighter, hence the shields instead of swords or guns or what have you, but I am not exactly the most lovey-dovey of people either, in case you could not tell already.” A light shrug to cap off that explanation. “Furthermore I am literally in his head as a piece of solid Theonite and a cluster of smaller Theonite chunks throughout his body. Needless to say we tend to avoid medical check-ups whenever we can.” 

“I can see the x-rays being an issue,” Yu-Wan brought up, half-joking. 

“Mmh. Does that answer your question satisfactorily, Miss Fortune?” 

A nod. “You betcha. Next, how did you two meet?” 

Noirallé heaved out a great exhale. “That’s a long-winded story for another day -- or, as it were, another night -- but to make it simple... Approximately three years ago, Gordan plundered some freshly unearthed ruins he just found all on his own, like the curious fool he is--” 

‘ Hey, now !’ 

With a pinch of smugness: ‘ It is true and you know it, Gordan .’

“--looking for some story to talk about for his collegiate degree, he found me, I woke up and latched onto him, we struggled aplenty to get along at first, and eventually we did start getting along... I would say the end, but our partnership is always a work in progress. If you want more specifics about our history together, I would respectfully decline telling. That is a lot of personal history and struggles that I have no right telling in Gordan’s place, and we have furthermore just met. Gordan may be overly trusting, especially when he comes along the strange and interesting, but I am not quite so open as him.” 

“... Guess you got some points, there,” the Feral conceded. 

A nod from the Theon. “Now, I believe we had a deal?” 

“... Phew, alright. Fine, just, gimme a sec’ to think about this, it’s... not exactly pleasant to remember...” Her melancholy sigh was telling of her feelings toward this past series of events she was about to reveal. 

Noir’ politely gave the other woman a few seconds to collect herself. 

“... Okay. I guess I should start with what the Gang and I were up to... We were a pack of thieves -- family, really -- who stole from the rich and gave to the poor. Our most recent target was the Medicis. We got word they were shipping a pretty important package, some artifact called the Life Gem, from one of their locations to somewhere more secure, so we went to intercept. Went off without a hitch, we held ‘em up all properly, got the goods and were outta there lickety-split. No-one even got hurt. Then, a few hours later, some other Medicis, probably some higher-ups, came along and held us up, demanding what we stole back. We were stubborn, we denied them just the one time, and...” The sentence trailed off, the woman shuddering slightly at the recollection of her “last moments.” 

“... You were all cut down,” the Theon solemnly said, noting the tailed woman’s cuts. “Literally.” 

“They shot at us a bunch first, actually. I, ah... I’m pretty sure I was actually dead for a little while, there. Luckily for me, the Gang and I come up with all these weird ways to make sure our stuff can’t be taken back before we give it all away. The Life Gem wasn’t the biggest rock in the world, so the boys dared me into swallowing it. In retrospect I’m pretty sure they were joking, but it was a rock and it being in my gut probably wouldn’t do any harm to it, so on complete, kiddy impulse, I downed the thing. Everyone was so shocked to see me actually do it, heh...”

The Feral had to take a moment to rub at her eyes and regain her composure. 

“After I was killed, I woke up at the bottom of a pier near here, beneath the water. I was literally in pieces, bits of my arms and legs scattered everywhere and my head not even attached to my neck... My friends, they were in the same state as me. Chopped up ‘n’ dead, as they were supposed to be. But there I was, alive, and hurting like hell, some of their faces staring at me blankly...” Hands laid on her head to cover her eyes, head lowered as her expression shifted to one of thorough depression. Minette moved to hug the Feral without even being asked, while Yu-Wan patted her on the back, his own expression quite downtrodden. 

Theon felt man pushing for control, and not quite knowing what to say, she allowed Gordan his body back. After another brief spasm, their shared body shifted back to Gordan's normal self. He waited out the pair of Dagonians’ placating motions, quietly observing the way Fortune’s body rocked with grief. 

After the small group dispersed, the Feral likely having barely held back her tears, Gordan asked, quietly as to not startle the three with the voice change, “I’m, ah, sorry for asking about that. Probably should’a guessed with the cuts that it wasn’t anything pleasant. Do ya want me to come back tomorrow or something...?” 

Fortune performed a strange mix of a moan and a sigh. “No, no. There’s not much left to tell anyways. Had to spend a little while getting myself back together - literally, hah - before I swam back up and ran here. I’m pretty sure that that Life Gem thing is what brought me back, I tried poking around my stomach and I think I digested the thing as I died... Maybe if someone else in the Gang--” 

The feral whipped her head about and interrupted herself just as Gordan was about to do that for her. “No, no, no, Nadia, ya shouldn’t be thinking like that... You’ve already been weeping for a few whole days . No, what I’m gonna to do next is act !” 

The cat-eared woman energetically rose from her seat, fist pumped as she grinned viciously. “Those Medicis killed my family, and our mistake was not killing those scumbags when we had the chance. One way or another, I will get back at them. I’m not sure how yet, but they’re gonna pay --” 

Out of seemingly nowhere, the distinctive noise of wood being sliced sounded out, as well as a muted “ow” from Miss Fortune. Her head momentarily detached from her neck as she rotated it around with a little hop on her neck, eyes widening as she and the other three in the room observed how the table behind her had nearly been sliced all the way to its center. Four pairs of eyes looked up at the now-flattened, sharpened edge of her erect tail moments later. 

The Feral carefully poked around at the base of her tail and it came off. She raised the thing up and ran a finger across the detached limb, hissing a little as her blood ran down from the fresh cut, which healed in a manner of moments. 

“Huh,” she said simply after licking the blood away, “didn’t know I could do that. Cool! But ah, how do I...” 

With an almost comedic timing, the tail reverted to its more natural, semi-rounded, and most importantly not dangerously sharp form. The Feral quirked a brow and stuck her tongue out in concentration as she tried putting the thing back on in its proper spot, doing so after a few moments of struggling and gently, carefully sitting back down in her chair after. 

“... Oh, uh, I’ll pay for the table, Yu-Wan. Sorry about that, it’s on me,” Fortune sheepishly offered, a finger scratching at her head as she lightly shrugged. 

Yu-Wan waved off her offer. “Oh Nadia, there’s no need for that. That was hardly your fault, you had no way of knowing you could weaponize your tail like that until it was too late. I appreciate your offer, however.” 

“Thanks and sorry, again.” 

A hum of acknowledgement from the elderly Dagonian. “More importantly, it is good to see you doing better emotionally. However, perhaps we should slow down a little and think about what you specifically want to do? I understand you wanting to get back at the Medicis, but they are a large and powerful group--” 

Fortune cut the older man off, light blue eyes seeming to catch fire with the passion burning in them. “Are you tryin’ to tell me to not go after them?” A dangerous question with a dangerous eye-glint. 

“Can I jump in here real quick?” Gordan posed, reminding everyone that he was still certainly involved in this conversation. Nadia slowly nodded. “Okay, so, is your plan to get back at them going to involve murder?” 

That seemed to freeze the cat-eared woman’s passion right up. Her whole posture momentarily froze before she slumped into a bar seat. “... I don’t know. The Gang and I, we never went as far as killing anyone. Hell, no-one ever brought it up, ‘cause we all knew we were above that. It was an unspoken rule. Now, though...”

“You’re not so sure,” Gordan filled in her uncertain pause.  

“Uh-huh.” 

“ Pheeewie , this is a heavy topic to guide anyone on, umm ...” Mason had to take some moments to think and convene with his partner before stating his piece. “I am of the opinion that a good chunk of the Medicis deserve to die, the higher-ups especially. I’m not gonna try and deny all the bad shit they’ve done, no amount of jail time would excuse a lotta their actions. More importantly, though... I think you have a strong moral sense. Do you think you’d be able to live out the rest a’ your days as a killer? ‘Cause, ‘far as I can tell, you’ve never killed before, and judging by your hesitation, I’m not too sure you wanna start now. Which is a good thing!” he had to clarify, noting Fortune’s narrowed eyes. “You’re hardly a wuss or something, that just means you’re not flying by on the seat of your pants, just living solely on your anger or whatever, which’d be fair, considering the circumstances. Again, though, do you think you’d be able to handle being a murderer, especially in the long term? I ain’t exactly speakin’ from experience here, still a murder-virgin myself, thankfully, but killing really tends to shake a lotta people, y’know? Most don’t ever move past it, I think, and that really messes them up, and you’ve probably still moving past your closest pals being killed. Do you think you’d be able to bear that on top of--?” 

The Feral tiredy cut the man off, having effectively heard his question at least three times by that point. “Yeah, I get your point! And no, I’m not sure! Geez...” She sighed again before stating, “Maybe you’re both right. I should probably slow down a bit and think about this, really try and understand what specifically I’m gonna do and where I’m gonna draw the line.” 

The older Dagonian nodded, pleased with her decision, with the younger fish-woman sighing loudly in relief. Gordan was also pleased, and said, to close off this matter for now, “Just know that I’ll respect your decision either way, that Noirallé and I are both impressed that you haven’t stewed in your depression for longer because what you went through is objectively fucked up , and that I’m not gonna get in your way, unless you do something that’d obviously be really, really stupid.” 

“Like what?” the Feral inquired, only half-serious. 

“I dunno... storming a Medici stronghold by yourself unprepared or something? Maybe wi--”

‘ Do not bring up the Skull Heart around this depressed and desperate soul, you idiot!!’ 

“Oh, ah, but I’m not gonna start giving you ideas or anything!” Mason awkwardly laughed off, shooting Noir’ a quick thanks for the interruption. “That’d be stupid a’ me, hahah.” 

Nadia was clearly curious about Gordan’s abrupt cut-off, but shrugged and simply said, “I guess.” 

With some additional guidance from his Theon friend, Gordan steered the topic away from morbid matters. “Say, I nearly forgot about the steak I brought! ‘S prolly a little cold by now, but we could just heat it up. You got a microwave somewhere, Yu-Wan?” 

The fish-man looked befuddled at his question, looking at Miss Fortune with a quirked brow. 

“Oh, he offered me some really tasty-smelling steak! Said he’d eat it first to show it ain’t poisoned, so I took him up on that. But ah, why’d you bring that with you in the first place? Wazzat planned?” 

Clearly the woman was trying to get probe around again for a suspicious response, so Gordan continued with his straightforward, honest approach, as abiding by that hadn’t failed him yet. “Oh, that? I just brought that along ‘cause I figured it’d be a long and boring night. I figured some succulent stimulation would keep me up a bit longer. Plus, Noirallé happens to really like her steak, and she thought I was jokin’ when I said I’d bring some to eat tonight. Well guess what? I take my jokes very seriously!” He threw up his arms to accentuate his silly behavior. 

‘ Yes, yes, I get it ,” was all the Theon said exasperatedly. 

The other three in the restaurant just looked bemused at his theatrics, clearly disarmed of their suspicions. “Well, if you would hand that over, I can microwave it in the back room,” Yu-Wan offered. 

The blue-eyed man readily handed the container over, asking just after, “Oh, ah, do we wanna split that in four? Do you two want some too?” 

‘ Oh, for the love of --’ 

“I suppose I could have a bite or two,” the oldest of the four responded. 

“Mmh, same,” went the youngest. 

‘ Hrmmmmmm !’ 

“Alright then! I’d say forty or so seconds’ll do nicely, that stuff’s only a couple hours old.” Gordan’s pleasant smile certainly betrayed the exaggerated turmoil Noirallé was experiencing. 

Yu-Wan let out an affirmative hum and headed back to re-heat the meat.

In spite of all the tension that had been brewing just a short while ago, the four managed to share a pleasant little mini-meal together. It lasted only a few minutes, as one cut of steak divided in four hardly made the largest of meals, but there were still some small bits of light-hearted conversation and a joke here and there. 

Again, the meal was over with in a fairly short time. Gordan rose from his seat upon finishing and asked if Yu-Wan would like some help cleaning up the table and perhaps trying to get the damaged table out of the way. 

“Oh, these dishes are barely even dirty, same for the table. Cleaning up shouldn’t take but a couple minutes. As for the damaged table, well, Nadia isn’t going to pay it off, but I do expect her to clean up after her mess. That includes the splinters,” he added, noting Fortune’s relieved expression. She looked grouchy at having to carefully look around the place and perhaps grab a dust pan, but took it in good stride, already moving to the back room to grab what she needed for this clean-up job. 

“And Minette, you were tired throughout the whole day, and I once again apologize for making you work in spite of that. You may head to bed right now, if you want.” 

The teen looked grateful at the chance to go back to sleep as soon as possible, waving goodbye to Gordan as she walked up the stairs, yawning widely on the way up. 

Mason posited, once the other two were out of the room, “I guess we’re done here, then. I’ll just grab my stuff and get going, if you want?” 

“You may, Gordan. Be safe on your way home.” 

“I will, don’t’chu worry about me,” he said, placing the container in his backpack and tucking his shields under his clothes. “I’ll be sure to come back here in a few days, for both business and, ah, to check on Nadia, if you’d be fine with that? I’m pretty concerned, here,” he said, leaning forward a bit and lowering his voice to a near-whisper as he asked his questions. The Dagonian nodded in assent, both human and Dagonian giving a small wave of farewell as Gordan left the building.

Once the dark-haired man arrived back in his new home, Masan sluggishly undressed and went to bed almost immediately, as the shot of adrenaline that jolted through his body during his initial confrontation with Miss Fortune had really started to get to him by that point. He was asleep just a few minutes after he threw the covers over himself, already dreading the late time and probable soreness with which he would get up the following morning.

Chapter Text

Gordan’s predictions proved correct as he oh-so slowly roused from his slumber, feeling somewhat cramped all over and noting that the time was approaching a familiar ten o’ clock. 

“ Hoooof ...’ he groaned tiredly as he rolled over, stretching and forcing his torso into an upright position. “Thanks, adrenaline, really doin’ me some good right now,” he muttered, swinging his legs out to the side of his bed to get dressed. He did a bit of poking around mentally, finding that Noirallé had not yet roused from her own slumber. 

‘ I’ll let her rest s’more, get all caught up on her sleep cycle ,’ the host figured, scratching his side as he entered the adjacent bathroom and got to his morning routine. 

After freshening up, the man was wide awake. He popped open the ‘fridge and got to work making another early lunch, feeling quite hungry after his small supper plus fourth of a steak. He threw in some broccoli heads, a few strawberries, and a dozen frozen, fried chicken nuggets for his meal. He also grabbed a half-gallon of milk, not bothering with a cup when he knew he’d need more than what a single glass would give to fully nourish himself. He additionally almost always drank his milk, orange juice, and the like this way when he could. There’s a story involving spoiled milk, ruined cups and stubborn gestures of kindness that formed that habit, but alas, there are more important things to be focusing on, namely the present as opposed to the past. 

Once the blue-eyed man had finished his meal, unable to help his light burp after, Gordan got to thinking about where to go first today. 

‘ Lessee, there was the memorial for Franz, the capitol building and the police stations ... Guess I better figure out my route, here. I kinda wanna do a bit a’ sight-seeing, take a break after last night, so les’ make this efficient ...’ 

The man took upwards of half an hour to figure out his route, and that combined with his morning routine, lunch-eating, suitcase-filling and other preparations meant it was almost noon by the time Gordan left his room. He dressed himself up in an almost similar outfit compared to yesterday’s, just with differently colored shirts, and was thankful that the cloud cover that had moved in overnight meant his choice of darkly colored clothes wouldn’t result in a case of heatstroke on his part. 

The bored-looking woman was behind the counter again, and a familiar little routine was slowly being established as Gordan waved goodbye and the woman waved back once in response, barely paying the man any mind as he left. 

Mason had decided on visiting the memorial first, as it had been constructed relatively close to the capitol. From there he would of course take a look around said capitol and then visit a few police stations, making his choices on each station in an attempt to cover as much land across the whole of New Meridian as possible. He would drop off his letters and make a few inquiries where possible at each station before moving onto the next. That would take up the majority of his day, though Gordan would attempt to carve out some time where it was convenient and toward the end of the day to see some more sights like the Franz memorial. 

‘ Some commentary on the memorial and a couple sights oughta make for some decent fillers for the paper back home, methinks ,’ he silently added, figuring that he could find some voluntary business from the little pleasures he intended to have. 

It was as the man sat down in a chair after boarding the train for New Meridian when Gordan’s Theon partner woke up, and with a surprising, sort of snappy feeling at that. 

‘... Gordan, I think your forgetfulness is contagious. We should have wrote that whole encounter with Nadia and her friends down after the fact ,’ were her first words on waking. 

‘ I mean you are literally inside my head... Jokes aside, I can see where you’re coming from, but I’d rather not give even the smallest hint a’ betraying their trust. We can remember all that just fine, hell, we could probably just tell each other what all went down right now. I sure as hell don’t wanna turn their private lives into a headline. Do you?’ 

A singular moment to think on his opinion. ‘... Some fair points, and you are right about us at least remembering the important things. Very well .’ 

The man nodded his head at her agreement. Once again, Gordan sat and watched the sights fly on by from the vantage the window provided. 

The walk to the Franz memorial was a somewhat lengthy one, as the time period at and a little past noon was quite the rush hour in a place like downtown New Meridian. The streets were filled with a seemingly infinite amount of cars slowly but surely progressing through traffic light cycles, the raw number of pedestrians going about their day creating an immense crowd in and of itself. Gordan’s hometown was a city as well, but hardly had the size, population, or levels of business presence to create this bustling sort of traffic life day in and day out. As such, the process of weaving between the flow of people while trying to find his way around, the constant chatter, the frequent honking of car horns... It was all a novelty to the man. 

More than that, however, it was a nuisance. Quite quickly Mason grew tired of the constant pushing and shoving he had to do and was done to him, to say nothing of the endless background noise and the lingering paranoia that his stuff was going to get pickpocketed at any given moment. 

It was with no small amount of relief that Gordan finally emerged from the crowds into the significantly less packed downtown city park. It was hardly the largest or greenest of areas that the dark-haired man had seen, though that was understandable given that it was right near the center of one of the world’s most sprawling metropolitan cities. It was still at least somewhat scenic, however; large trees that were still growing provided many spots of shade to relax under, a few ponds had a number of waterfowl in them, and the trails of concrete likely would have made for some great loops to jog around. 

Gordan spotted his query after just a few seconds, the massive bronze statue of the deceased king likely large enough to be visible from anywhere in the park. It was fenced off, fancifully inlaid and beautifully patterned cobble making up the area between the base and the fencing. The deceased Franz was striking a heroic pose, one knee braced against the ground as his Living Weapon, some sort of umbrella-looking thingamajig (Gordan hadn’t bothered to memorize its name), was extended outward and open as if to fire off some sort of ranged attack. The way Franz held it brought some sort of vague amusement to the man. 

‘ That’s never how you should wield a friggin’ parasol, dude. ‘S not a bazooka or somethin’, hahah .’ 

‘ It is not a very polite thing to go laughing and scoffing at the dead, Gordan, particularly one who sacrificed himself for his country. ’ 

‘ He was also a power-crazed, opportunistic backstabber. I still remember all the days I spent as a teen being paranoid that he’d just strut over our then-shrinkin’ border, army marching on us in the distance, Canopy flags raised to conquer! I’m not sure how Gilgamesh -- rest his great soul -- stood that guy, even for those few days toward the end that they were working together .’ 

Gordan sighed heavily as he took out his camera, Noirallé giving her piece all the while. ‘ At the very least he managed to save a large amount of lives. Who knows how many more undead slaves Nancy would have made were she not stopped when she was ?’ 

‘Hrmm. Guess you got a point there... I’m almost tempted to say that Nancy deserves a memorial more than Franz, ‘specially with her anti-war stance, but, well. Skullgirl ‘n’ all that.’ 

‘ Indeed ,’ was the Theon’s response, somehow managing to sound quite morose with that one word. 

The human’s phone made periodic, synthetic snapping sounds as Gordan took pictures from a large amount of perspectives, slowly circling around the statue so as to perhaps find some of the most photogenic perspectives possible. When he finished up his slow lap around the statue, he leaned forward across the railing and snapped the best picture he could of the plaque at the statue’s base. 

“ Dedicated to King Franz Renoir; a man of great power, ambition, and sacrifice. ” 

“And vicious, needless conquest,” the Gordan couldn’t help but bitterly mutter. 

Just as Mason was about to finish up, the overcast weather began to break. The rays of the sun soon basked the statue in an almost holy, glorious sort of light, and the blue-eyed man immediately knew he’d have to redo his photo-taking, as his query just got significantly more picturesque. 

Five minutes later and Gordan was seated on a bench a few feet away, scrolling through his new collection of photos and attempting to sort through some of the better ones from his second round of picture-taking, picking out a couple that were from the front side and a corner-angle parallel to the direction of the Living Weapon’s shaft. Once that was done, Gordan popped open his suitcase, pulled out a few sheets of paper and a pencil, and got to ideating on article titles and headlines. He drew up a few lay-outs, some with one picture, some with two, and even some with zero. Eventually settling on the standard one photo set-up, the man then sketched some lay-outs on where the picture would go, as well as how well the text would wrap around each picture’s position while still being readable and, more importantly for the sales, visually appealing. Noirallé chimed in every now and then, giving her opinions on what seemed the most orderly and sensible, which the man appreciated and respected considering her apparent talent for the visual arts and the design thereof. Soon enough, Gordan entered “the zone,” focusing almost entirely on the task in front while barely paying most everything else any mind. 

It was during this last, comparatively lengthy phase of his creative process when Gordan’s friend pointed out, tone slightly irate, ‘ Gordan, you have someone who wants your attention? They’ve been poking your leg for a half-minute minute, now .’ 

“Huh?” The dark-skinned man was expecting to have to look up to see the face of whoever was poking him, considering his height when seated, but was surprised to instead find the face of a little girl staring at him at face-level. Her bright pink eyes and hair were striking, as were bright yellow raincoat, hat, and boots she had on in spite of the lack of a rainy forecast. Most notably, however, was the incredibly unusual-looking umbrella that the girl had in her left hand, which was a deep, royal purple in color and had a number of disconcertingly squirming eyes , all of which were staring at Gordan. He had quite the struggle forcing his attention back to the girl after a moment of staring at her strange tool, whose expression looked vaguely irritated, eyes narrowed and mouth in a tight line. 

“ Uhhh , hi? Sorry ‘bout that, I was focusing on my writing. Do you, uh, wanna sit here, or...?” 

“Yup, and you’re sitting right in the middle. Move over, please?” she half-asked, half-demanded. 

“Okay, lemme just scooch over, here…” 

He shuffled to the right with haste, wanting to put some distance between himself and the seemingly living umbrella that was still staring at him.  

The girl sat down herself as soon as room was made, thankfully putting the umbrella down next to the bench instead of between herself and Gordan. The first thing she did was pull out a little sleeve of crackers from a pouch inside her coat, tear it open and hang the sleeve over the top of the umbrella for a moment. The top opened up like the maw of an animal waiting to be fed, which is more or less what happened as the crackers swiftly fell into its mouth. It closed after the whole sleeve was deposited, and some crunching noises sounded out from somewhere inside the umbrella. Gordan couldn’t help but look past the girl (she began staring at the statue with a strange expression on her face) at the living umbrella in morbid fascination. 

Gordan voiced his thoughts internally to his partner. ‘ What the shit am I seeing and who the hell is this girl? I’m pretty sure I’ve seen her face a couple times, it’s right there on the tip a’ my tongue ...’

‘... I’ve no idea on what that umbrella-like thing is or how it functions, but isn’t that the younger princess? Umbrella, was it ?’ Noirallé pointed out, sounding equal parts vexed and startled. 

‘... I’m pretty sure it is? What the hell are the odds of just encountering one of the princesses while I’m just out on a stroll?? ’ 

‘ Likely incredibly small. Perhaps you could try handing one of the letters to her and ask her to give it to her sister ?’ Noir’ suggested, a sense of opportunistic eagerness bleeding into Gordan’s emotional state. 

Gordan suppressed that emotion, indignantly saying, ‘ Hell no, if this really is Umbrella, she’s prolly here to think about her dad! I’m not gonna just abruptly shove myself into her life and ask her to give her sister a letter or whatever, that’d be rude and suspicious! I’m a stranger to this, what, ten-year-old, very important girl? No way, I’d probably get arrested for giving her a mysterious letter by whatever armed forces are prolly lurking ‘n’ protecting her. Have you seen the princesses’ personal guards? They’re a bunch’a insane people! ’ 

Noirallé’s indignation was nigh-palpable, but her strong sense of logic ultimately won out in the face of her partner’s reasoning. ‘ Very well, fine. Just try not to curse around her so much. ’ 

‘’ Course I won’t, what d’ya think I am ?’ 

‘... A man of strong moral sense and reasoning ,’ the Theon conceded with an exaggerated huff. 

‘ Damn straight. Now, lessee if I can get back to my work, here ...’ 

After one last glance at the girl and a much longer stare at the umbrella, which made a small burp when it got done with its meal, Gordan slowly but surely got back into the swing of his work, zoning back into his task as he resumed ideating on the format of his next article. 

It was just as Gordan was finalizing his ideas and specific choice of picture when a second round of poking at his leg interrupted his mojo again. Having to look down a little at the apparent princess this time, Gordan said, “Yeah?” 

“Izzit weird that I don’t feel anything about my dead dad?” The expression on the girl was carefully neutral, as if to guard her emotions. 

Gordan’s eyes widened an extra margin at this effective confirmation of the girl’s identity, but he calmed down and quickly convened with his partner. ‘ He died seven years ago, yeah? So she was like, three, four? Probably doesn’t remember him? ’ 

‘ Seems likely .’ 

‘ Les’ start with that, then .’ 

Gordan’s careful tone reflected the princess’ cautious expression. “Okay, so, I’m assuming big king-statue-guy over there was your dad?” 

“Yu-huh.” 

“So he died when you were real young, when you were like, three, four?” Gordan didn’t bother being gentle with his phrasing, seeing as how the princess had already casually said “died” like she didn’t care one way or another about the subject of her father. 

His Theon partner’s irritation rose at his casual nature about this topic, but apparently-Umbrella said before Noirallé could voice her concerns, “Yeah. I don’t remember much of ‘im.” 

“Well, there ya go, then. Plus, I’m pretty sure he was kind of a jerk? 

‘ Gordan, that is not an appropriate--’ 

“Yeah, I kinda got that,” probably-Umbrella said, surprising Noirallé into silence. “Started some wars, killed a lotta people. He was also prolly kinda stupid? I’ve had Hungern here,” the many eyes of the umbrella all simultaneously turned to look at the girl, “since I was like, eight. Dad specifically said eight, too. Who trusts an eight-year-old with somethin’ like Hungern? Someone pretty silly, that’s who.” A shrug, still all casual-like. 

‘ And I’m way better with kids than you! Now what do I say next --’

“I, ah, noticed that it’s taller than you, yes,” Gordan said, attempting to make small talk. 

The princess huffed, “Yeah, I get it, I’m short! I can feel the growth spurt comin’, though! Then I’ll easily be able to stare Sis’ in the eyes!” A pause. “Or at least the boobs, she’s like, really tall. Also, it’s less how big the thing is and more Hungern being really dangerous? Apparently it can eat a whole person or somethin’. Haven’t seen that yet, though. ” 

Were this an anime, the man likely would have sweatdropped. Gordan felt like this conversation was completely out of his depth by this point, so, wanting to steer clear of bringing up topics he knew about, Mason resorted to a bit of light assurance. “Well, your dad was pretty tall, too. Maybe you’ll have his height like your sister?” 

“ Mmmaybe ,” probably-Umbrella hummed, seeming uncertain. “Don’t wanna have his dumbness though.” 

“Well, I think you’re pretty smart already, knowing that your dad was so dumb,” Gordan said, grinning slightly. 

“Hahah, yeah, Sis’ says I am pretty smart! Can do some algebra already! I can show you?” The raincoat-wearing girl eyed Mason’s papers, tongue playfully poking out of her mouth as her brows furrowed in concentration and eagerness. 

Knowing that it’d be best to humor the noble with a potentially dangerous weapon whenever possible, Gordan readily agreed. He pulled out a few blank sheets and was just about to hand over the pencil first when a loud, male voice interrupted, “Princess! There you are!” 

‘ Oops, here we go , and, ‘ About time ,’ were the simultaneous internal responses to the shout, Gordan’s form tensing up as he spotted a man jogging over, clad in the military outfit of the Black Egrets. Umbrella’s expression tightened, evidently displeased at being located by her guard. 

The guard’s sand-colored hair fell over his eyes when he closed in. The other man slumped over, sweat beading down his face and mop of hair under the heat of the recently revealed sun, and likely his exhaustion as well. He had to take a moment to compose himself, leaning upright after several moments to pant and wipe the moisture off his face. “ Pheeew ... Princess, how and why do you keep getting away from me so much?! You know your sister would kill me if she figured out that I keep losing track of you!” 

“Aw, Adam, you know she wouldn’t actually! Who else would shoot up the bad guys when she’s in a tight spot? Plus, I’ve got Hungern right here if someone tries something stupid with me!” She patted the side of the weapon like it was a pet, and its eyes bulged out, massive tongue lolling out and orifice panting like a dog’s.

Exasperatedly and somehow without acknowledging the umbrella-shaped elephant in the room, Adam responded, “Princess, that’s hardly all that I do, and you’re hardly well-trained in Hungern’s use...” It was only then that this “Adam” set his focus on Gordan. Voice a disquieting calm, the Black Egret inquired, “I’m going to assume you weren’t going to do anything suspicious with Princess Umbrella, sir?” 

Noting the pair of pistols or some other, similarly sized gun holstered on both hips, Gordan responded, as serious and calm as he could manage, “No sirree! She just walked up to this bench and we started talking after a lil’ while. She was actually just about to show me her elite algebra skills! Right, Umbrella?” he asked, eyes shifting back and forth between the other man and the girl, every so slightly desperate to get out of this situation without some holes put in him. 

‘ Cease that at once, it is incredibly conspicuous !’ 

Thankfully, Umbrella confirmed Gordan’s story with a pleased grin. “Yup! D’ya mind if I do that really quick? It’ll only be five minutes!” 

“Princess...” the man started, only to be interrupted by the girl’s rather stunning puppy-dog eyes. “Oh, fine. Only five minutes, though! I still need to show you around some important places.” 

The puppy-dog eyes immediately left her features, purpose served. “‘Kay, thanks. You got some problems off the top a’ your head, Mister?” 

‘ Hmm, she knows when to use her adorable appearance to her advantage ,’ Noirallé observed, intrigued. 

‘ Kinda like looking at a tiger cub. Something tells me she’s gonna be dangerous when she gets older, in more ways than one ,’ Gordan said in turn. 

Noirallé proposed a few basic algebra problems off the top of her head, with Gordan actually writing the things down. Human and Theon alike were vaguely impressed as the girl promptly and quickly solved the problems usually reserved for kids a few years older than her. 

The dark-skinned man made sure to praise Umbrella when she correctly solved a given problem, to which the princess smirked proudly every time. Noirallé, meanwhile, still felt the need to admonish Gordan for his casual treatment of this small, very important child. 

‘ She already has something of an ego, Gordan, do not go overgrowing it !’ 

‘ What is with you all of a sudden, Noir’? You’re just about freaking out every time I open my mouth! ’ Gordan’s shell of taking the Theon’s sass with a grain of salt finally cracked a bit, irritation beginning to reveal itself.  

‘ Gordan, regardless of whatever path Princess Parasoul will take as she matures, this child has quite a large chance to shape this kingdom’s future! These are her formative years, so you must be more thoughtful with your words !’ Her tone spoke of a firm, logical stance. 

‘ Yeah, but she’s also a down-on-her-luck kid wondering about ‘er dead dad. Regardless of what she’s gonna become, I think she’d appreciate the words of someone who’s being nice ‘n’ direct over someone who’s all formal and clearly tiptoeing around her. She’d prolly notice me trying that right away. ’ 

‘ Hmm. I suppose we will have to agree to disagree on how we approach her, then ,’ Noirallé decided, noting her partner’s equally firm conviction. The man was going to nod but held back at the last moment, as that would appear a little strange to be doing for no apparent reason. 

The time flew by fairly quickly, and before either child or adult knew it, Adam stated, “That’s five minutes, Princess. Let’s get going, now.” 

Said princess pouted but reluctantly got up anyways, letting out a drawn-out “fiiine” as she retrieved her strangely organic weapon. 

Umbrella looked ready to take off at a moment’s notice in spite of her reluctance, youthful energy seeming to emanate from every inch of her coat-covered body, which was momentarily snuffed out as Adam said, “A moment, Princess, I’d like to have a word with this man. And please, please don’t run off while I talk with him?” 

A childish groan and a second, similarly petulant “fine.” 

Gordan only mostly succeeded in suppressing his nervousness as the elite guard approached closer, which was overcome altogether as Adam opened with, tone a bit quiet so as to keep Umbrella out of the loop, “Thank you for keeping an eye on her, sir. You can probably tell she’s something of a handful...”

“Oh, it was no big deal, just treated her like any other kid, and I’ve been told I’m good with kids,” the man brushed off. “And don’t’chu worry, I’m not gonna go outta my way to find her again or somethin’. This was a complete coincidence, and unless she goes looking for me , we’re only ever gonna meet again from more a’ the stuff. Ah, coincidence, that is,” he stuttered out toward the end. 

The other man nodded, appearing satisfied. Before he could turn around to resume his guarding of the increasingly impatient princess, however... 

‘ This “Adam” is no child, and he appears to know the older princess personally. Give him a letter! ’ 

‘ Alright, alright, geez! ’ 

“Oh, uh, sir, can I ask a small favor?” 

Adam’s expression went flat as a carved stone when he said, as if reciting something he’d said a million times, “If you want a personal audience with Princess Parasoul, that is out of my hands. You’ll have to go through official channels for that.” 

Gordan waved that statement off. “No, no, it’s nothing like that. You see, I’m an investigative journalist a’ sorts, and I’ve been doing a bit of sniffing around for a couple missing high schoolers since their trail went cold...” Mason leaned forward as Adam knelt down, getting Gordan’s vibes of secrecy. “I think I may have a lead, but it involves some potentially shady government stuff, something-something-Labs with a capital L?” 

Adam’s expression immediately shifted into one of shock. He leaned in as well, voice also lowered as he responded, “How do you know about that?!” 

The man had to suppress his smirk. ‘ ’Cause you just confirmed it! ’ 

“My sources would like to remain anonymous. There’s more important things to be talking about, besides. Here, let me show you this...” 

Gordan pulled out the one photo he didn’t have sealed in a letter and showed it to the other man. 

“I suspect this “monster” is one of my queries, and she’s prolly a victim of some gruesome, highly funded human experimentation; hence, I’m thinkin’ your Labs. I’m not asking you to give this,” at that he grabbed a fully prepared letter, “to the princess , per se, but I need some higher-up or another to really look around and get back to me. If you could follow up on this, both me and this girl’s family would greatly appreciate it, sir. The girl’s been missing for months and her parents are missing her, wantin’ her found real bad, ya got me?” 

The soldier eyed Gordan with suspicion, which the latter immediately noted and continued, “If you really want, ya can just tear open the letter and check it out yourself, I ain’t hiding anything in it. It’s even got my address if you wanna keep track a’ me.” 

‘ Why would you suggest that to an elite, potentially paranoid royal guard ,’ Gordan’s partner poked. 

“ Adaaam ! You’ve been talking with him for like, two minutes! That’s at least two minutes too long!” Umbrella appeared to be getting angsty standing around for even the couple minutes the two men had been talking. 

Adam huffed before reluctantly taking the letter, going, “Very well, sir. You already seem knee-deep in this mess, and we Black Egrets are sworn not only to our lieges, but also to protect the citizenry. Involuntary experimentation on sentients will not fly under our watch. I’ll pass this along to some trustworthy channels and see what I can do otherwise. Just try and keep all this to yourself, or we’ll find out and, ah, get in touch .” His eyes narrowed even further to accentuate his not-so-subtle threat. “Alright?” 

“Hahah, yeah, I gotcha. Your super-secret government stuff is safe ‘n’ sound behind these lips!” the darker man couldn’t help but let a bit of nervousness slip out in spite of his previous, professional calm. He performed the classic “mouth zipper” gesture to cement his agreement. 

A hum and a nod from Adam closed out that conversation, the Black Egret leaning back and turning around to jog over to the princess. The younger of the two just about sprinted off as soon as Adam finished turning around, and with a great heave, the soldier began running after the princess, likely intent on doing his duty even to the most exhaustive, heat stroke-induced end. 

‘... Involuntary human experimentation, hmm? Most curious,’ is the comment that ended the Theon’s sass streak. 

‘ Which implies there’s some voluntary human experimentation going on ... Hahah, just what the fresh hell have we gotten ourselves into, Noir’? ’ Gordan was less concerned and more excited when he asked that question. 

‘ Something as dangerous and conspiratorial as it is interesting, it seems . I suppose that something like this is what you were looking for when you came here to this accursed city, however ?’ 

“Heh.” 

“ Ya ain’t wrong, buddy o’ pal. Won’t deny that point against me .’ 

Human and Theon decided to relax for a bit before finishing the article and resuming the day’s journey. 

Chapter Text

In spite of the unexpected meeting with royalty, Gordan was determined to continue his day as he had initially planned it, and that entailed going to the one of the Canopy Kingdom's former capitol buildings next. 

The man recalled the capitol being a truly immense castle when the Kingdom first came to be, and was also located in New Meridian once upon a time. However, the disturbingly consistent Skullgirl appearances for the past few millennia, localized almost entirely in the Canopy nation in particular, have of course warranted the erection of several new capitol buildings over the years. 

This rendition of the capitol, having been around for almost a century by this point, was about as stylistically aged-looking as Gordan had expected. The building was relatively large, some six stories tall, but was still dwarfed in height by a large number of the skyscrapers and business centers that effectively neighbored it. Were the man to measure its dimensions Gordan would have noted the perfect square its base formed. Expertly masoned pillars held up stone awnings on all of its sides, and a quartet of elegant spires and the Canopy flags waving at their tips gave the building a regal air about it. Though it wasn't the official capitol, the building still hosted many official governmental and/or royal matters of business. The Princess Parasoul has notably made this building a sort of base of operations after the recent Skullgirl sightings prompted her to temporarily “move house” to New Meridian. 

Opening the perfectly clean glass doors, Gordan entered into the central lobby. There were a number of official-looking folk hurrying here or there, documents likely having copious amounts of legalese writing on them often in hand. Most others were chatting, often heatedly, with other government employees. Some were doing both, somehow managing to never collide with the flows and small groups of people while they multitasked. 

The room itself was expectedly beautiful. An immense, grandiose chandelier hung overhead, a pair of rounded staircases met at the center-back of the room to give access to the upper floors, with a pair of massive painted portraits depicting the two current princesses hung on that back wall for all to behold. The red-plus-black carpet likely made up more of the visible floor than the smooth and rich mahogany wood beneath it. 

Gordan tried to avoid the hustling people as he snapped a few pictures, taking in the sights while he could. Noting the multiple, lengthy lines leading up to the service desk on the left, the blue-eyed man felt a bit grateful for his own foresight to attempt to send or drop off a letter rather than attempting to talk directly with a representative. 

‘ Now that would a’ been something of a hassle ... D’ya think we should drop off a letter despite us meeting up with Adam? I did make a couple extras ,’ Gordan asked his partner, noting the gilded slot in the wall right near the entrance for letter deposits. 

‘ I do not see the harm in it. It never hurts to have multiple “entry points,” so to speak .’ 

Mason did as they had agreed upon and spent a couple more minutes essentially loitering before leaving, wanting to engrave this place of almost excessive royal elegance into his mind while he could. 

The next point on the dark-skinned man’s agenda consisted of police station visits, with a few inquiries about his two cases to make with whoever was at the front desk for each station and making letter deposits where convenient. He dropped his letters off at each planned police station without issue. 

What did present an issue, though, at least on a personal level, was the disconcerting levels of laziness and/or lack of care some of the officers were demonstrating. One or two of the desk people had been leaning against their chair, a newspaper or phone in hand, and one even appeared to be playing a card game and gambling with someone just out of view. None of the officers denied his letter, thankfully, though the lax reactions of these particular officers had Gordan feeling worried that they would not so much as open his letter. 

‘ I am growing concerned here, Gordan ,’ Noirall é shared in his sentiments, ‘ I am almost beginning to suspect some sort of corruption in the police force. Their attitudes I could forgive, but those two officers who were gambling out in the open ...’

‘ The desk guy looked way too comfortable doing that, yeah. Something to bring up to Adam or some other higher-up, I guess. Could look into this myself, but trying to get in with some corrupt police officials in particular is prolly a great way to get mauled ,’ Gordan remarked, swiftly crushing that flicker of fear and curiosity beneath a wave of rationalization. ‘ Also we’re already in some risky biz’ as is, so .’ A physical shrug. 

‘ Hmm .’

His route through his choice of police stations had been efficient enough for Gordan to get his more essential errands completed at around four in the afternoon. The clouds having taken over the local sky once again, Gordan asked his partner in crime, ‘ Yo, we got a bunch a’ time to kill. You want me to grab some supper ‘n’ steak before we do some sightseeing? ’ 

‘ Were I not reasonable enough to acknowledge that this little quest obviously took my priority over my gluttony, I would have demanded we do that first. Please and thank you. ’ 

‘Hah, gotcha .’ 

Gordan looked up the nearest not-so-ridiculously-fancy restaurant and headed there next for a bite to eat. That, too, ended up being an uneventful time, the novelty of seeing new places and people aside, though after last night and even this morning Gordan was rather grateful for an extended period to just sit down and relax. 

After that the man went to a nearby grocery store (it wasn’t a Hallkart this time), and was in and out in a jiffy. A small grocery bag in addition to his suitcase now in hand, the man sat down at a bench (again, he looked before sitting) and thought about his next destination. 

‘ What to do for the next three-ish hours ... There was the Grand Cathedral right near the center of town. It’s gotta bit a’ distance between here and there, seeing as how we went from downtown outwards, but I’m curious about what some others think a’ Trinity worship and other religions... ‘Zat sound good to you, Noir’? ’ 

Her response came a whole second later. ‘ Hmm, yes, I suppose... Apologies, I appear to be getting a bit tired... I had not assumed my sleep cycle would still be off nearly two whole days later, but that seems to be the case. ’ 

‘ If you wanna doze a lil’, feel free. I don’t think we’re gonna run into anything dodgy in a cathedral, of all places. I’ll have some steak cooked up for when you get up, alright? ’ 

‘ Hmm... Very well, though if something does come along, do remember to jolt me awake . Stay safe Gordan ...’

With a little sigh, the Theon was out like a light. Were it possible to get an x-ray at that moment, one would be able to observe the Theonite chunks in Gordan’s body did indeed dim a little. 

“I’ll be fine, Noir’, don’t’chu worry,” he mumbled externally. His next destination decided, Gordan located the nearest train station for a line that went downtown and waited for his ride’s arrival.

The streak of uneventfulness continued, as did the continual marveling of all the sights and people he strode past on his way to the cathedral. The point that this place was a melting pot of peoples and cultures felt like it was being proven true with every new locale Gordan visited. Humans, Ferals, Dagonians, Gigans, all were present, though the Gigans marginally less so than the other three, which, considering the war seven years ago, was understandable in Gordan’s eyes. 

‘ What with the war, this does kinda make sense. Hell, potential racism was a big negative point in the argument we had in coming here ,’ Gordan internally remarked on noticing the trend of fewer Gigans than the other three races. Who “we” encompassed remained ambiguous. ‘ ’S a good thing we haven’t encountered any evidence for that particular argument, ‘least, not yet .’ 

Gordan decided to once again take a bit of a roundabout route to his destination, wanting to take in some vistas and grab a few photographs for both posterity’s sake and for potential article shots. 

 About half an hour later than was strictly necessary, the blue-eyed man slowly propped open the sizable front doors of the Grand Cathedral, noting the sign up front that indicated that the place was open and that he wasn’t interrupting a worship session or some such. 

Immediately, Mason was beset with a sight he wouldn’t soon forget. This cathedral was significantly more grandiose than any other religious gathering place he had been to in his life, though considering Gordan’s general indifference toward the actual practice or worship that admittedly wasn’t saying much. Beautiful stained glass depicted the Trinity and shone colored light into the building magnificently, candelabras and chandeliers seemingly made of gold held the candles that provided additional lighting, and a massive marble statue behind the podium in the center-back of the place likely made in the visage of the Mother-Queen Lamia all contributed to the place’s immense aura of holy significance. That went without mentioning the velvet carpets, the engraved columns, and the dozens of other little details that tell of the work that was put into this one building. 

The first thing Gordan decided to do was sit down at a chair a respectful distance away from everyone else and simply look around for a little while. 

‘ It’s not every day ya get to sit in one of the world’s most fanciful hubs for worship ,’ he thought, pulling out his camera and taking a few photos. He then spent a good half hour just taking in the sights and vibes the interior of the building provided, the latter feeling quite calming. Aside from the hushed, respectfully hushed murmurs, all was quiet. The faded light shining down on him from the multiple windows, Gordan almost felt the want to seriously pray. 

‘ ’Course, I would if I didn’t know the goddesses were actually real. Wonder if that’d be heretical knowledge in this specific area, not believing in the Trinity but factually knowing they were a real thing . That’d be a neat test if I were stupid enough to actually try it in a place like this, hah ... Though, I do kinda wanna see what the worship here is like ...’

As the dark-skinned man relaxed, however, he began to feel something a little strange in the air. It almost reminded him of the time he first came into contact with his closest of friends, the pressure of the then-unknown and frightening excess of Theonite energies wearing down his body and mind down into unconsciousness after just a few moments of being near the stuff. Here, it felt a bit distant, but the fact that he could feel it at all without Noirallé’s assistance was... concerning, to say the least. Mason couldn’t help the hum of mixed emotions that left him on realizing this. 

After some time to deliberate, Gordan felt the need to approach the currently residing priest and ask a question or two, and not just about these vaguely off-putting vibes he was getting.  

‘ Better start off normal, don’t want to throw ‘er off or look weird or somethin ’.’ 

The woman behind the podium was slowly flipping through a thick, old-looking tome, likely reading some holy scripture. Her eyes appeared to be closed in a natural squint, her mouth frozen in a calm, near-perfectly horizontal line. Pale skin, blond hair and an hourglass figure were almost entirely concealed beneath thick black and white robes and a large hat with an accompanying headdress long enough to almost touch the floor. 

“Pardon me, ma’am?” Gordan first said, hushed so as to respect the apparent need for a quiet atmosphere. 

The woman took a few seconds to pause her reading, slowly tilting her head up to look at the dark-haired man, mouth still set in a horizontal line. Her eyes were still oddly closed as she asked in turn, voice the textbook definition of composed, “Yes, dear child? What guidance do you seek?” 

Gordan had to resist the temptation to say he was hardly a child, forcing himself to remember the “holy place, holy treatment” circumstances. “Well, ah, I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s guidance... Would you be able to tell me when your next convening is? I would like to sit in on it, if that would be allowed.” 

The priestess took not a moment to think, instantly responding, “Of course you may. Ten o’clock, two days from now will be the next congregation. Sunday mornings are typically host to our most populated meetings.” 

“Hmm’kay, thanks. Also, I don’t suppose you could tell me about any places for worship of other religions to go to around here? Don’t take that the wrong way, I’m just doing a bit of factual research ‘n’ stuff.”

Mason couldn’t help but feel like he had said something wrong, but the woman’s expression didn’t shift a millimeter. After a second to think, she said, “There are indeed a number of churches scattered around here and there, though I am not privy to their locations. You may search them out on your own time... Of course, however, all other worship pales in comparison to the divine light the Trinity shines upon us. Would you not agree?” 

The priestess’ expression was still set in unchanging stone. Gordan had to take a second to think about the question, as well as the potential connotations of it. He felt like he was about to walk into a minefield, in spite of the calm expression and tone the woman had demonstrated through the conversation thus far. 

“Ahhh... Yes, I suppose? I do believe in them, if that’s what you want to know.” 

The blonde nodded. Gordan turned to leave and say a farewell, but before he could commence his exit, the woman said, “One moment, sir.” 

The priestess took that one moment to reach into the podium and grab a book. She offered it to Gordan, who promptly read its title. 

‘“ The Trinity’s Gospels? ” Aw man, should’a acted more certain! ’ Gordan lamented, now finding himself in a rather awkward position. 

“Oh, ah, I appreciate the offer, but I’m already quite the believer of the Trinity!” He nudged the book, still in the priestess’ grasp, back a bit while politely shaking his head. 

“Is that so? Tell me, then, what do you know of the lives they lived? The blessings they gave? Their divine rulership? The righteous ways they taught?” 

The woman’s expression finally shifted a little, the corners of her mouth tilting up just the slightest bit. For some inexplicable reason, Gordan found that little smile immensely unnerving, fight-or-flight instincts instantly flaring up in alarm, like those upturned corners of her grin were knives reaching out to stab him.  

“... The methods by which the sinful are punished?” 

The man had to suppress his oncoming gasp, his frightened brain forcing him to automatically take the offered scripture and near-throwing it into his bag instead of bothering with fibbing his way along with what little he knew of the religion itself. Foreboding sensations and questions thereof forgotten in the heat of the moment, Gordan exclaimed, voice barely maintaining its hushed volume, “T-Thank you, ma’am! I’ll, uh, be seeing you in a couple days, then?” 

The woman hummed in affirmation, mouth thankfully reverting to its usual straight line. “Indeed. May the Trinity light your way through these dark times.” 

“You as well, ma’am!” 

The man beat as hasty an exit as he could without causing a scene, just about power-walking out of the Grand Cathedral and hastily opening and closing the large gates to leave. He got a few odd looks as he left, though in his rush these glances went unnoticed. 

The same went for the woman’s smile, which widened that bit further. Her eyes opened just the slightest bit as well, revealing a pair of glowing ruby-red lids, before her expression reverted to its usual blank mask and her scripture-reading resumed.

‘ Well, that was freaky, and my senses for danger almost never fail thanks to Noir’... That woman was not normal ,’ Gordan observed a few minutes later, after his heart had stopped pounding quite so fervently. ‘ Wanted to stick around for a bit longer to look some more, too... And I got too scared to ask her if she noticed anything wrong. Damn it. I will come back there later, though, there’s clearly something going on in there and with that priestess... After I read this thing a bit, that is ,’ he decided, pulling the somewhat thick tome he had hurryingly thrown into his sack and looking at it with a sort of grimace. ‘ Don’t wanna risk drawing her ire, wouldn’t wanna get on her bad side again... Though, I guess I am curious about how much they’ve glorified those three over the years, ‘specially with Noir’s perspective in mind... She’s been curious about it too, now that I remember. Guess I could start reading it in the next day or two. ’  

Mason placed the scripture back in the sack and thought about what to do next. ‘ Six thirty, still got an hour or two before I ought to head back... What to do, what to do… Oh, I know! Lessee, here ...’

The man pulled out his phone and once again pulled up a virtual map. Taking a moment to locate himself, Gordan found his next destination and went about routing his path.

The city’s public library was a massive thing, both in terms of the ground space it covered and its height, coming in at some seven stories. It wasn’t the most flashy or grandiose building in the world, unlike the capitol, but its stone-built, old-timey appearance gave it a rustic charm befitting of a place filled with so much text, both old and new. 

‘ Aw, man, why did I not come here first!? I got so much stuff to research and fact-check!! ’ 

Gordan was feeling a bit impatient to get down and dirty with one of his favorite past-times -- reading, that is, though researching history was something he also greatly enjoyed -- so he felt a bit affronted at the decently long line to the service counter, where the blue-eyed man intended to get his library card. Positioning himself at the back of the shortest line with a huff, Mason took out his phone and idly began searching random content online, not intent on really finding anything new so much as slaking his boredom for the next few minutes. 

When his turn came, the dark-skinned man coughed up a few coins, had a card printed out, and then nearly power-walked to and up the stairs to reach the historical sections, his pace this time around dictated by eagerness rather than fear. 

Gordan stuck around for every minute he reasonably could, intent on corroborating a few facts and theories he had while he had the time. Though the university library back in his hometown was a fairly expansive thing, containing two fairly large floors of shelves itself, this library was not only three times its size but was also located in the capitol of one of the most populated, historically rich, and long-term action-packed areas across the whole planet. This meant that this library in particular possessed a lot of valuable and insightful texts that were largely inaccessible elsewhere, debatably legal photocopying and/or digital redistribution aside. 

Considering the violent past and present of the Canopy Kingdom, however, this also meant that a large number of old texts were likely destroyed anywhere from a few to thousands of years past, but Mason believed the net gain of potential knowledge to be obtained here more than made up for any losses of wisdom that may have occurred in the past. 

‘ Ohohoh, boy, where do I even begin... Christianity, maybe? There’s a lot to fact-check, here ... Yeah, good place to start .’ 

The dark-skinned man looked up a book on the history of Christianity on one of the built-in library computers, found a somewhat large tome that at least claimed to be covering that subject matter in a strictly historical and factual light, located it, and found an isolated spot near a window to begin skim-reading.

Two whole hours later plus some change, Gordan closed his borrowed text with a “phew,” slotting it back into its proper place on the shelves before looking up a second historical that he would read later. It recounted a similar topic to the first, and he intended to give the book a read to give additional credence to the facts he just learned. Speaking of which, the man had written down some notes to look at later and share with Noirallé. Here’s a summarization of what he wrote down, both from his own previously established knowledge and the facts the text stated: 

“~2500 BCE - Death of the Trinity. Skull Heart and subsequent Skullgirls begin appearing sometime between here and 0 BCE. 0 BCE - Supposed emergence of Jesus Christ and the birth of Christianity. Christianity rises to prominence between here and the Dark Ages. At some point in the Dark Ages, worship of the Trinity begins to emerge. The Holy Crusades of c. 1100-1200 CE see Christianity and Trinity worshippers alike violently suppress other religious groups. Trinity slowly overcomes and subsumes Christinianty with their more “provable” displays of miracles with their apparently superior ability to manipulate then-misunderstood Theonite energies and provide greater rewards for the faithful over the next few centuries, hence the iconic reverse cross of the Trinity. Animosity emerges between the two groups as a result, though major conflict strangely never broke out considering their mutually shared tendency towards violence. Trinitism is the most prominent modern-day religion. Evidence for long-term corruption in Trinitismn?” 

Indeed, Gordan and Noirallé have both suspected for some time that there was some sort of corruption running through the Trinitism system, though considering the prominence of the religion, its grasp over the world, the lack of trustworthy people to ask and the shortage not-so-destroyed texts, proving anything concrete has been a slow going. This reading session didn’t present any new breakthroughs to Gordan, though he sought any pieces of information that he could, hence his choice of reading. 

With just a few minutes left until the man had to go, Mason once again remembered something important that he should have had in mind first. Looking up his desired historical and pacing over to a different shelf, he grabbed another comparatively thin text. “The Bloody Reign of Usurper-Queen Neferu,” was its title. 

‘ If you don’t wanna talk about her, I’ll respect that. But I gotta get to the bottom of this issue a’ yours, Noir’ , I’m just too damn curious and care too damn much ,’ Gordan thought, trying to keep his mixed emotions in check so as to let the Theon continue her slumber. 

He checked that book plus the historical on Christianity out and exited the library, noting the setting sun and the dark, looming clouds that were robbing the night of much of its moonlight. 

‘ Oh, right, supposed to storm an hour or two from now ... better hurry home ,’ the blue-eyed man reflected, quickly looking up the nearest transit station and indeed getting a move on once he figured out his route.

Upon re-entering his apartment, Gordan hefted his suitcase and sack (the thing weighed almost eight kilograms with how much book the thing was holding) down onto one of the nightstands, stripped off a few his now-unnecessary layers of clothes and put on some pajamas, and put the book on Queen Neferu in a somewhat discreet location (behind one of the droors) to read without Noirallé being privy. Gordan then started making some supper, as it had been over four hours since his last, only moderately sized meal. For a second time, Gordan’s partner woke to the scent of one of her favorite foods cooking on the stove. 

‘ Me oh my. I would not complain if this ended up becoming a consistent thing, Gordan ,’ she said, not necessarily surprised but certainly pleased that Gordan upheld his agreement to make some more steak at the next opportunity. 

‘ When was the last time I failed to uphold ‘n agreement again? ’ 

‘... A while. Probably at least half a year, now that I think about it .’ 

Gordan hummed, point proven. He took the steak off the pan after another minute or so, seasoned it similarly to the previous cut, sliced it up and began gobbling it down, allowing Noirallé the sensation of taste during that. 

‘ Much appreciated ,’ she thanked after the first few moments of savoring the steak. Gordan nodded in acknowledgement. 

After eating that and a few other meal supplements, in this case more milk and some fruit, Gordan took out his notes from a short while ago and said, ‘ While you were out, I visited the library -- And yeah, I’m sorry for not getting you up, but we both know your sleep schedule is finicky and needs to regularize itself! ’ 

That second part cut short the Theon’s indignant interruption. 

‘ Looked up some stuff about Christian history. Found some new stuff, but nothing really ground-breakin’ for our research. Take a read if you want ,’ as he flipped open the notebook and turned to the first portion of his notes. 

After a few minutes of reading, the Theon agreed with Gordan. ‘ Indeed, none of this is noteworthy for our ledger of knowledge. Every bit helps, however .’ 

‘ Hmmhmm . I got a second book here to fact-check against. Wanna start on that ?’ 

‘ That seems like an efficient plan to me. By all means. ’

The beginning of the forecasted storm aside, the next few hours weren’t particularly interesting. Gordan did some light reading on his second book, finding that nearly all of the facts lined up with his first reading. Afterward he did some leisurely reading and video-watching on his laptop, planned out his next day to see a couple more sights and do some other leisurely activities, as well as to give his mother a call after all of that. He then called it a night and fell asleep quickly, Theon and man alike finding the pitter-patter of the rain and the light booming of the thunder in the background an immensely soothing ambience to fall asleep to. 

He fell asleep with a faint hope that his inquiries regarding Carol would go smoothly.

Chapter Text

“Investigative Journalism” 

Chapter Ten - Illicit Implications

Two investigations back-to-back happen, one providing more(?) mystique than the other. 

Gordan wasn’t so sure why, but he woke up considerably more physically and mentally tired than he ought to have been. After several minutes of stretching, rolling around and groaning, he eventually decided to look at the clock, feeling a bit miffed with himself at seeing the time being so close to ten o’clock.  

‘ I do not want getting up this late to become a routine... Noir’? You up yet ?’ 

Metaphorical radio silence was his answer. The man would have shrugged were he upright and not so sore, instead deciding that he could use a few more minutes of lying around. He did (technically didn’t) do just that and swung his legs out from the covers and over the bed after to begin his day. 

Bathroom activities and eating took a bit less time than yesterday, and he was all set to leave by 11:00. Gordan was a bit vexed at his partner’s continued slumber, but after a bit of mental poking around he felt Noirall é as she always was when she was asleep; emotions and mental voice subdued into silence, but that slight pressure in the back of his head still present as usual. 

He managed a shrug this time and left the apartments, already knowing where he wanted to go first today. He reviewed the path he charted last night and waited at the same train station he had visited the past couple days to get to downtown New Meridian.

The glass doors to one of the most visually stunning buildings in the whole of New Meridian, the River King Casino, automatically slid open as Mason approached. He spent a few minutes loitering around the entrance, gazing at the sights the interior of the casino had to offer. Fittingly, Dagonians made up more of the current occupants than the other races, and Gordan couldn’t help but observe the opulent or at least very formal outfits most of the people here were wearing. The ceiling and walls were painted over with stylistic murals, the slot machines were gilded like the outside of the building, and the multiple bright azure aquariums gave the place a brilliant aesthetic blend of royal and aquatic, hence the name “River King.” 

More prominently than all the theming and aesthetic were the mermaid-like Dagonians inside those tanks, swimming around idly and looking pretty with smiles plastered on their faces. Doing so was probably part of their job descriptions, and Gordan immediately wasn’t a fan of the implications of their being locked in there, promising himself to ask someone here a question about that.

The dark-skinned man was already in the habit of wandering over to the service desk of unfamiliar facilities, and his recent ventures have been reinforcing that. The Dagonian behind the counter, a youthful and rather pretty woman with bright green scales and a more humanoid appearance than average, noted the approaching man and asked with a perky smile, “Hello, sir, what do you need?” 

Knowing he probably wouldn’t be allowed to loiter around in the casino proper for long (and that asking about the tanked Dagonians first thing would be a bit awkward), Gordon responded, “Just a card to start gambling here. Your cheapest one, please.” 

“Alright. Your name, please?” 

“Gordan Mason.” 

“Hmmhmm, alright, and if you’d hold still so I can grab a picture...” 

The man did just that. After a bit of finagling on the counter’s computer and a prompt handing-over of Bone bills (the man felt none too nervous at how much he was paying just for this gamble at information and not money ), Gordan thanked the casino attendant before next asking, “About the Dagonians in those tanks...” 

The woman said to his prompt, “Oh, we get questions about that all the time. Rest assured, they’re being paid more than a fair bit for their services and are free to go from their tanks whenever they want a break! We even have contracts and legal consent forms if you want some hard proof, or you can just ask ‘em yourself. They can see and hear through the glass just fine.” 

Being the vaguely scientifically minded man that Gordan was, he felt the need for that proof. “If you have some on-hand, that’d be appreciated. You seem certain so I’ll take your word for it, I’m just curious more about the legal stuff than anything else.” 

The Dagonian nodded and reached under the counter, handing him a few dozen pages of forms. 

Gordan was surprised by the speed of this “transaction.” “Huh. You just have copies right there ‘n’ waiting?” 

“Heh, like I said, we get asked stuff like this a lot , especially ‘cause we’re pretty famous and high-end. Is that all, sir?” 

“Just one more question,” he said. “Can you tell me where some of the lower-risk slot machines are? I wanna get a feel for this place and its payouts without immediately bettin’ the farm.” 

The woman’s grin turned a bit more formal. “Luckily for you, sir, we’re here to provide a fun business just as much as money opportunities! Over to the right and near that bar are our low-payout machines. Enjoy your stay, and good luck!” 

With a thank-you, Mason hustled over to a seat near the machines he was pointed toward to skim over the papers he just obtained and to observe his fellow casino guests. He spent some time analyzing the forms and the various people killing their time, looking for some obviously unscrupulous individuals... or rather, that’s what he would have done were it not for the scene that was going on in a back corner of the lobby. 

A bronze-skinned, teal-haired girl in some sort of revealing, bright orange circus outfit and her accompanying hat with a menacingly sculpted pair of arms were doing something rather ridiculous. The girl was idly prancing about, eyes closed like she was the queen of the world while her hat rapidly and effortlessly juggled a quadruo of hefty-looking steel balls. The manner with which both entities moved conveyed a sort of familiar ease; juggling like this standing still would have been quite the feat on its own, but the fact that she was moving around blindly gave her the vibes of someone who was highly skilled at her craft, possibly to the point of smugness. 

The small crowd that had formed around her were giving this show all the attention it warranted, Gordan himself unable to help but observe for a few minutes. The performance wrapped up with the hat smoothly tossing each ball into rounded slots on the ground, and as soon as that was done with the young woman tossed her hat (whose limbs near-instantly became little stubby hands) and caught it with no small amount of flourish and a wink. Cheers and bills greeted her as she finished bowing, and had Mason bothered to enhance his eyesight, he would not her slight blush at the rush of attention. 

Gordan was a bit too far away to hear the girl’s words, but he imagined it was something like, “Thank you, thank you, I’ll be here next week too!” The evidently talented young woman packed up and left a few minutes after, several people staring at her as she left. 

‘ What is with that outfit? And how young is she, she is showing a lotta skin ,’ the man couldn’t help but remark as he, too, stared at her exit. ‘ Bwuh, focus, Gordan! More importantly, this city continues to show off its weird-ass underbelly. What the hell was the deal with that ?’ He felt a strong urge to follow the young woman but ultimately didn’t bother, knowing he’d appear and feel as if he were a creep by following this likely teen-aged girl out of the building. He didn’t particularly know what he’d hypothetically want to ask her, either, questions regarding her strange hat aside. 

Resigned, the man got back to looking around for potentially suspicious people, and ended up feeling a bit startled to find that no-one immediately shady was around A fair amount of security personnel were present, however, or there were at least a lot of burly men with stern expressions standing around and looking menacing for some indeterminate reason, so Gordan figured the lack of clearly rough-looking folk was within reason considering this.

‘ Hell, I’m probably one of the more rough-lookin’ people here! I feel real underdressed for this ,’ he remarked a bit nervously, looking down at his overcoat and plain plaid pants. 

After the blue-eyed man acknowledged this, he next decided to visit the bar on the far side of the building, intent on asking one of the bartenders, this time a finely suited and elegant-looking Dagonian man, some questions. 

Sitting down, the man asked for a moderately priced non-alcoholic beverage. The ‘tender complied after he handed over some bills and set a bottle down in front of Gordan, who popped open the cap after a bit of struggling ( Yo, can I please get a cap opener over here ?’) and slowly began sipping away. He was pleased with the taste, and a few sips later he inquired to the bartender, “Say, I don’t suppose you’ve seen or heard anything weird lately? Aside from the, ah, the circus performer? Do I have that right?” 

The bartender looked at him and responded while still rubbing away at the glass cups, “Yes, she is one of the showstoppers for the Cirque de Cartes. You haven’t heard of them before?” 

“Heh, nope. Kinda new to the city ‘n’ all that. They’re some sorta circus a’ ridiculousness?” 

The Dagonian snorted dismissively before saying, “Indeed. It’s a miracle no-one has died yet, both for the performers and the crowd. The stuff they pull isn’t safe for anyone in that building! Like juggling elephants for example, what about those poor things? And what if a toss ends up being a little too strong?” 

His interest piqued, Gordan tested the waters of the Dagonian’s exaggeration. “Hahah, what? Juggling elephants ? Are ya pulling my leg?” 

Expression dead-serious, the Dagonian said, “Sir, my opinions on animal cruelty are rather well-placed, as are my safety concerns. You’ll find no jokes from me in this regard. Look it up for yourself if you doubt me.” 

The human was vaguely surprised to hear that, as well as finding such a seemingly well-minded bartender in a place like this. Having found a new potentially interesting subject to look into, he filed away that tidbit for later, and next said, “Ah, sorry. I’ll be sure to do that. Anyways, my original question! Anything weird come around lately? Not asking ‘cause I’m one of the authorities or anything. Just curious is all.” 

The Dagonian hummed, stopping with his current glass and picking up the next one while he thought. “Well, over the past few years there’s been this absolutely massive man coming along every now and then. I’m talking over two and a half meters, and heavy enough to make the floor shake with every step he takes. I get worried we’re going to suffer floor damages every time he enters, but nothing has happened yet... Ah, but anyways. As far as I can tell he’s human, dark-skinned and with these strange, pupiless eyes. A classy yet simple hat, and a massive overcoat. I’ve seen what’s under that thing every now and then, and as far as I can tell he’s probably not completely human. Physically, that is. All I’ve seen under that thing are flat black plates and a pair of thick mechanical legs. He rarely ever actually gambles here, just stands around and observes, like he’s looking for someone... Good thing he never takes a seat, he’d probably break whatever he sits on.” A slight cough, likely to re-center himself on the topic again. “Were it not for his membership card, we’d have booted him out a long time ago, but he does use it every now and then.” A resigned sigh. “He makes everything a bit tense, especially for us employees. He’s never actually caused a scene, but every time he enters I can’t help but feel like he’s about to create one.” 

Another attention-getting tidbit, albeit one he couldn’t follow up on nearly as easily. “That does seem strange. Thank you. Anything else?” 

Another harrumph from the other man. “Well, I could go on and on about all the common crooks with gambling problems we’ve had to throw out, but those problems have already been solved... Hmm, not recently, no. Not that I am at liberty to disclose, at any rate.” 

Were Gordan’s Theon friend awake, she would likely have pointed out how much of an obvious give-away that statement was. As it was, the only thing Gordan felt the need to do was quirk a brow and say, “I’ll just pretend I didn’t hear that last part. Not like there’s not much I could do to look into that, hah.” 

The bartender narrowed his eyes, likely gauging how serious the human was. “See to it that you don’t try.” He turned around to fully focus on his washing duties, saying to signal his being done with the conversation, “Good day and good luck, sir.” 

“You as well... ah, at least on the day part,” Gordan likewise bid farewell, figuring he’d at least look like he intended to use this facility for its intended purpose and paced over to one of the low-risk, low-reward slot machines. 

He spent a little while at the slots, predictably not connecting as many three-in-a-rows as he was not. He ended up with a net loss, though it was fairly light and he didn’t feel the need to replenish his card funds. That is not to say that he would have spent much more than he already had, though, especially considering how much he had invested on just acquiring a card in the first place. 

After that he decided to sit around for a few more minutes, just in case something or someone else notable entered. His little time gamble paid off when a familiar lass entered, clearly exerting herself with the several hefty sacks she was hauling in. Gordan felt tempted to get his acquaintance’s attention but saved that for later, remembering Minette’s irritation at her time on the clock being wasted. 

The fish-woman behind the counter aided the younger Dagonian in carrying the sacks into a back room, and Gordan’s deductive skills told him that the probably-food was being directed into the casino’s kitchen. After the couple trips of food hauling were completed, an exchange of money and a signing of a check occurred, as was a brief trade of hushed whispers. The older woman then reached under the counter and handed Minette a bottle of water, to which the latter nodded in gratitude. Minette then sat herself down at an isolated bench and drank deeply before slumping over a little, likely to rest herself up before heading back to Yu-Wan’s. 

Detecting his opportunity to talk, Gordan got up and closed the distance between himself and Minette a little, waving as a visual greeting and verbally greeting, “Hey-uh!” 

The lass looked up and recognized him immediately after a second or two. “Huh? Oh, it’s you, Gordan. I didn’t think you were the gambling type! What’re you doing in a place like this?” She sounded and appeared quite curious. 

“Oh, you’re not wrong. I’m mostly jus’ here ‘cause a casino like this seems like a good place to hang around for some spicy leads, y’know? And Imma guess that you’re here running catering delivery?” 

“You’d be right... Though, I’ve also got some personal business here. Before you ask, I’d rather not tell you, it’s some pretty important stuff and that’s all you need to know.” 

Curiosity once again pressed him into some action that he didn’t end up following through. All he did was say, “Hmm. Alright, then. Ya sure you’ll be fine by yourself in a place like this?” 

Minette was miffed. “Don’t patronize me, and I have lotsa friends here.” The woman behind the entrance counter waved pleasantly as Minette’s pointed gaze. “I’ll be fine.” 

Gordan acquiesced, “Hah, alright, alright. Guess I’ll be seeing you later, then, ‘cause I’ve been loitering around for a while now and nothing much has happened... Well, aside from this weird teal-haired circus-woman with a living hat making a show with some juggling. It was really bizarre!” 

The young woman’s eyes lit up. Literally, actually, her magenta pupils seemed to shine a little brighter. “Oh! You got to see the Cerebella in action?! So lucky! ” 

Gordan was a bit less enthusiastic, especially after hearing the barman’s complaints. “So that’s her name? I hope that ain’t her real one, that’s kinda silly-sounding.” 

“No, but you see, it’s fitting ‘cause she has that hat on her head! Like, her cerebrum ‘n’ stuff?” 

Somehow, that pun hadn’t immediately clicked for Gordan. “Oh, huh. Somehow didn’t figure that out, thanks. Anyways, all I got to see was her juggling these metal balls around for a bit before leaving. There were four of ‘em, and she was doing it while walking around with her eyes closed, which was actually pretty impressive? Not gonna lie, there.” 

“I know, right?! She’s super cool, doing stuff like that!” 

The man couldn’t help but internally disagree (‘ That’s her stage persona, not her real self, which is a big ol’ question mark. ’), but politely went along with her enthusiasm. “Hah, yeah, she does some pretty incredible stuff from what I’ve heard. Anyways, you have a good day, Minette! Be seeing you!” 

“You too, Gordon!” 

The two parted ways, Minette continuing her rest and water-drinking as Gordan left the River King Casino.

Gordan’s next destination lay several miles away, outside of the city borders proper. Particularly because of his recent curiosity about these “Labs,” Gordan had been intrigued by the ruins of a government facility that had been destroyed some years ago. Were it not for a story he had heard from a fellow journalist acquaintance who was in New Meridian at the time, he would not have known about this place to begin with. His acquaintance apparently didn’t know much, only that it was a government-operated place that was conspicuously out of the way, and considering how hushed its destruction had been (there had been no televised broadcasts or online stories detailing it, at least), some red flags were immediately raised for Gordan. 

It took a bit of looking around to find out the closest train station to his destination, and nearly an hour of walking around and failed attempts at remembering his acquantance’s directions (“Just keep looking around, it’s right near a bunch’a destroyed trees on the ‘Meridian edge a’ No Man’s Land! You’ll find it eventually!”) to actually get there. The blue-eyed man found his destination right near No Man’s Land, the harsh orange and scarred earth beginning just a few meters away from the perimeter of the ruins. The green of the neighboring forest was oh-so slowly turning the charred ground back into suitable soil for plants to regrow, blurred orange and green being an indicator of this if one were to look closely enough. 

The ruins weren’t all that much to look at, at least on the surface. Worn down concrete and broken walls were strewn about the area, a good percentage of the surfaces covered in overgrowth. Spraypaint covered what were likely some signs or labels that may have told what this facility was once upon a time, giving credence to his fellow journalist’s words. There was a thick perimeter of caution tape surrounding the perimeter as well. 

Gordan took a few minutes to snap some photos, then another few to look around for cameras and other surveillance devices. With one last careful glance around the area, he ducked under the tape and headed inside the ruins, curious for any clues about what went on here. 

The interior was somehow even more dilapidated in appearance than the outside. Mason felt a bit spooked by being inside this unlit, destroyed series of hallways underground all by himself, but as was usual for him, Gordan’s wanderlust and curiosity compelled him into the dark and unknown. 

‘’ Least it’s cool in here, I was really bakin’ out there, ’ the man mused, looking for some little consolation to assure himself in the face of the unknown. ‘... Man, I could go for some bacon after that hike .’

He turned his phone up to its maximum brightness setting as he descended the stairs, taking a quick peek before entering the labyrinthine halls proper. Walking down the opening hall like it were a museum, Gordan first took notice of the numerous worn-off, painted signs on the walls, and the prominence of a faded purple cross several times down the length of the hall. Another large mark of spraypaint covered the end wall that gave way to downward-leading stairs. Just as prominent as these signs and occasional spraypainting were the deep gouges in the walls, as if something very strong and very deadly had torn through here in an exceptionally vicious huff. 

‘ Hmm ,’ Gordan thought, ‘ not much I can really do about looking into this, but that don’t make this any less interesting. Now, what about these rooms ...’

Said rooms were largely the same, having broken glass strewn about, emptied cabinets, dangling lighting fixtures, all the stuff you’d expect from someplace long-abandoned. Outside of this generic clutter were a few intact vases and vials, a few still in their containers and holders with most of them being heavily labelled. 

Wiping the dust off and reading a few, Gordan began to notice a pattern. 

‘ Now I ain’t no med’ student, but a lot of this looks like lab and/or medical stuff. There’re a couple operating tables, too... government-operated, covered up to keep it secret, medical tables, chemicals , hmm , not outta the question this place was one a’ those capital-L Labs,’ Mason concluded. ‘ Hopefully some papers or somethin’ are still here that I can nab, that’d be neat-o, informative, and potentially even a case a’ theft !’ With a loud exhale and a shake of the head, ‘ If only theft charges were the least risky thing I was involved with ... Well, whatever, I’m already knee-deep in those whole shebang . A few stolen and abandoned papers ain’t no thing by this point .’ 

Gordan went through each room one by one, taking pictures at every turn, and then descended to the next floor to repeat this process. He picked up a few more details here and there, little things that further indicated this place’s medically centered role. Some of these included, but weren’t limited to: 

- Scalpels and tongs, also littered on the ground and posing something of a safety hazard like the glass. 

- IV containers and their stands, both of which were also broken more often than not. 

- The rare intact bed mattress and their accompanying covers. 

- And a large amount of broken digital equipment near those beds, with Gordan assuming a large amount of them were heart monitors and such. 

The first couple floors were more or less repeating the same thing, plus some apparent offices appearing more frequently as Gordan ventured deeper. It was in some of these offices that he found his primary query: official papers pertaining to the workings of this ruined building. Wiping the dust off, Gordan read the title of the slightly smudged front page with no small amount of glee: 

“Lab 7 Weekly Gov. Reports,” followed by a blurred out date. 

The man couldn’t help but fistpump and let out an emphatic “ Yus !!” His elation finally woke Noirall é up from her prolonged slumber, the Theon stretching within the confines of Gordan’s consciousness as she roused herself. 

‘... Hmmh, you feel positively elated... And where are we ?’ 

Gordan couldn’t help but speak aloud, wanting to give further voice to his excitement. “Remember those government labs we were looking into? Wait, no, obviously you do. Well, we’re in their abandoned Lab 7! And I’ve got some proof right here!” He slapped the small stack of papers with the back of his hand to accentuate this. 

This got Noirallé wide awake. ‘ Hmm! Yes, this is a fairly significant find… At least, I believe it is? Do you know what they were up to with this laboratory? ’ 

Gordan shrugged. “‘Far as I can tell with what’s strewn about, some medical mumbo-jumbo. Prolly some experimentation on sentients like we’re suspecting’. There’s a lotta weird gouge marks in the floor ‘n’ walls, too, clearly unnatural. Lemme step out and show you.” 

He did just that, and Noirallé hummed in curious thought. ‘ Perhaps one of their experiments got out of hand ?’ 

“That’s a running theory I got, at least. Let’s look at these papers, maybe they’ll tell us somethin’.” 

Gordan spent a bit finding an object he could sit on that was unlikely to break down at the slightest touch of pressure. After warily pushing down on a stray medical stool with a foot to test its durability, the dark-skinned man sat down and eagerly got to reading. 

Most of the information the report presented consisted of financial accounts (Gordan felt a rush of tension at the incredibly large numbers of money that were being thrown around) as well as updates on subjects. All of them were a series of codes rather than names, though most of them followed a pattern: the abbreviation “ASG,” followed by a double-digit number. Some of the subjects were apparently skipped -- the one with the lowest number in the report was 28 -- and it went up with a few more skipped numbers until 81. Each of the subjects had a brief status report -- things like “nothing to note,” “progressing well,” “progressing poorly,” and the like. A single unfortunate subject, 71, was labelled “deceased: overcompensation of dosage during limb surgery.” 

“... Ya think the skipped ones were dead before this one report was written?” Gordan’s tone was dead serious, jovial mood thoroughly annihilated by the additional intrigue and the serious topic at hand. 

‘ Hmm. It’s a likely possibility. I would hope some of them were simply let go because this laboratory’s efforts -- whatever they were -- were successful instead of accidentally killing them, but ...’ 

“Ain’t no way to know for certain, yeah,” Gordan muttered. “Also, that label: ASG. Didn’t that kid’s mom mention these Labs were making things to kill the Skullgirl? You don’t reckon the “SG” stands for Skullgirl, do ya?” 

‘ Hmmhmm .’ 

“Wha’d’ya think the “A” stands for? “Anti?’” 

‘ Like you just said, there is no way to know for certain. Your guess seems sensible enough, however ,’ the Theon said, thinking hard. 

“Hrmm,” Gordan closed, getting up from the stool, placing the papers in his briefcase and exiting the room to continue his investigation. 

There were a few more similar floors that Gordan and Noirallé descended into and looked around, which didn’t yield much more valuable information for the odd pair. Some more scattered papers were found, certainly, but they were either singular pages of other random reports or simply didn’t tell much on their own. The human nonetheless grabbed every paper he could and stuffed them into the briefcase as well, not willing to turn down any potential tidbits of information. 

It was in the sixth basement floor that the slowly developing monotony was broken. Rather than another hall with several rooms on either side, this floor was clearly one massive laboratory. Even more desks and broken glass were strewn about, and the smell of the long-dried chemicals spilled all over the tiles and concrete initially made Gordan and Noirallé alike want to gag. The Theon quickly and subconsciously dulled the human’s sense of smell, which the latter silently and profusely thanked Noirallé for. 

“Okay, should we risk going down any further? What if we step in something radioactive or somethin’? Shit, what if we’re already irradiated??” 

His partner couldn’t help her tired tone, and not just because she had woken up only a few minutes ago. ‘ Gordan, I strongly doubt they were injecting radioactive chemicals into subjects, nor would there have been any radioactive chemicals involved in the making of... well, whatever it is they were making. This room at least looks far too open and not look nearly secure enough to safely contain anything dangerous, let alone avoiding the spread of radiation, even if most everything looks to be broken. ’ 

Gordan took a deep breath, thinking on those words for a moment before calming down completely. “Yeah... Yeah, you’re right. Dunno why I was starting to freak out like that, maybe I’ve been down here in this spooky-ass place too long...” 

‘ ... How long have you been down here, anyway? ’ 

“Oh, uh, lessee, here...” 

He took out his phone and checked the time, noting that it had been nearly two hours since his entrance into the Lab 7 ruins. Also noted was his lack of signal, which Gordan thought was reasonable, given how out of the way he was and, more prominently, his being in a forbidden place. 

“Yeah, about two hours. Let’s get finished up here, I’ve got a call for Mom and some article-writing to do. Still gotta make that hike back, too, hmm.” 

‘ Please do not rush things, Gordan, we could still certainly miss some valuable information if we do .’ 

“Right, right.” 

With that agreed upon, the two searched around the room, once again finding the occasional loose sheet but nothing else of note. Once this turn of looking around was done, they again descended the stairs, entering into the most expansive room yet by a wide margin. The amount of steps that the man had to walk down was well over double that of the previous stairwells, and the singular area of this floor had not only additional vertical space but plenty of horizontal room as well. Yet more destroyed and emptied vats lined the walls, and a massive mechanical something mangled beyond recognition lay in the room’s center, torn wires and other equipment dangling from it like a person’s innards becoming outtards. 

‘ There is even more destruction here than the upper floors ,’ Noirallé observed the even more frequent gouges in the walls and the lack of much of anything that was intact. ‘ Perhaps whatever went on a rampage originated here, or simply really, really disliked this room in particular ?’ 

An upward tilt of Gordan’s shoulders. “Your guess is as good as mine, Noir’. Better look around here extra-thorough like, regardless.” 

‘ Indeed .’ 

  The two did as Gordan said, checking every nook and cranny and underneath every piece of strange lab equipment they could. Frustratingly and in spite of the obvious significance of this room, they found nothing of note, as if someone or something else had recognized that fact as well and had rummaged around to cleanse this place of anything too revealing. Revealing of what was once again ambiguous, like so many others things and thoughts human and Theon both had about this place. 

With a huff, Gordan finished up the look-around and investigated to see if there was another staircase to descend. Relieved and disappointed at the same time to not find one, Gordan uttered, “Guess we’re all done here, then... Good thing, too, I’m getting a bit tired of all this bending over and putting my head against this dirty floor.” 

‘ You had best wash that grime off as soon as possible ,’ Noirallé cautioned. 

“Yeah, a’ course.” Mason promptly tried to wipe his face clear of the light layer of filth its right side had gotten covered in, to a moderate degree of success. Gordan still felt the phantom sensation of germs and bacteria crawling over his skin, making both him and Noirallé lightly shudder.

Seven somewhat sapping flights of stairs, another hour of walking, and a train ride later, Gordan managed to return to his apartment, throwing off his extra layers with haste and just about throwing himself at his bed. He sighed as he gave his leg muscles a chance to breathe, intent on resting for some time before getting to filling his gut and washing his face. Gordan made and ate a quick meal, cleaned himself up a bit, then gave his mom a call. Noirallé tuned herself out of the conversation, knowing these sorts of talks weren’t often her business unless she was mentioned. 

The phone on the other end was answered almost immediately, before even the first ring was finished. 

“ Hello ?” 

“Hey-uh, Mom.” 

“ Oh, Gordan, hello! I was wondering when you’d call me, especially after you got ahold of your dad! How has life over in the Kingdom been ?” 

A brief laugh before, “Hah, well, a bit turbulent, not gonna lie! I’m already gettin’ involved in some pretty shady stuff, I think, and before you ask, trust me when I say that I would keep ya updated if things weren’t so risky. I’m talking like, super-secret government stuff right here, y’know?” 

“ I’m pretty sure I don’t, but if you insist, it’s probably for the best... Anything else before I get all dotin’ and concerned? ” The tone implied a jest. 

“Well, besides some interesting and also private acquaintances I’ve made, how’s about I reverse the roles and ask you how you’re doin’? Work treating ya alright?” 

“ Ohhh, it’s all going like usual, if not a bit more busy than usual. Accidents ‘n’ such keep happening and I keep having to clean up for the guys below me, especially with those teenagers who get all reckless with their new licences and school getting out here pretty quick. Not much to say besides that, I think .” 

“Ya mean besides that burned hand? Did’ja get too used to me being in the kitchen, Ma’?” 

“ Aw, Gordan, maybe just lil’ bit ,” she joked back. The two shared a brief laugh before Gordan’s mother next asked, “ Really though, Gordan, have ya been doing alright? Noirallé hasn’t gotten up to anything yet, has she ?” 

Gordan had to repress a sigh. ‘ The moment we get outta her sight, she starts getting paranoid about you gettin’ up to your old tricks. ’ 

The Theon was now tuned in, responding, ‘ Indeed, but I suppose I can’t really blame her .’ 

‘ Hmm .’ 

“Mom, we’ve been tellin’ ya this for nearly two years now, we’re both past that. We’re only ever gonna get up to shenanigans when we both agree to it.” 

An exhale on the other end. “ I know, dear, it’s just... I have the hardest damn time getting over what she did to you. To us.” 

‘ May I ...”

‘ Yeah, go ahead .’

“Mom, you are aware she’s right here and listening, right?” 

“ Ah, yes, but ...”

A shifting of skin tone and a completely different inflection came over Gordan. Having to dam up her irritation, Noirallé argued, “Mrs. Mason, like Gordan said, it has been upward of two years since Gordan and I have mended our relationship. Just because you are no longer immediately around to “supervise” me,” and there was a polite but certainly sarcastic tone to “supervise,” “hardly means I will resume stealing his body. We get along very well and are always voluntarily working together whenever possible. What is your issue, ma’am? Do you not trust your son?” 

Radio silence. 

Gordan took over for Noirallé, feeling a bit bad for his mother for the emotional card his friend just laid down. “Mom, she’s right. Just leave all that behind you. And she did raise a good point: If something were coming up between Noir’ and I, don’t’cha think I’d be the first to tell ya?” 

The woman let out a shaky, tired sigh. “... Yes, you’re both right. I should trust you a bit more, and it has been a while since Noirallé got outta line. Try ‘n’ stay safe, Gordan; I’ll take your word that Noirallé ain’t the dangerous one here. ” 

“Hahah, yeah, again, I’m knee-deep in some weird conspiracy stuff already. If ya don’t hear back from me, that’ll probably be why.” 

Gordan only just realized that that was the exact wrong thing to say to his concerned mother after those words left his mouth. “Ah, not to say I’ll let that happen to me! Noir’ and I together, we can handle a lotta stuff, ya got me?” 

Yet another concerned sigh from the Mason matriarch. “ I suppose... Call me again in a few days, dearie ?” 

“Will do, Mom. You and Dad have a good night, ‘n’ try not ta burn yourself again!” 

“ Hohoh, I’ll try, dear! Stay safe! ” 

Mother and son hung up at nearly the same time. With a heave and a whump as he bodily descended onto the mattress, Gordan willed himself to let his swirling mixed emotions settle. He and Noirallé shared a brief talk about the conversation that just occurred before the two simply relaxed for a while. 

Over half an hour of almost meditative silence and calm later, Gordan rose from his horizontal position and popped open his laptop, intent on doing some article writing before he got even more tired than he already was. With the setting sun as his backdrop and some quiet tunes as his ambience, Gordan made a good deal of progress on his first New Meridian-centric articles before turning the lights off, throwing off most of his clothes, covering himself beneath his bedding and closing his eyes. 

The minds of human and Theon both went dormant just a couple minutes later.

Chapter Text

The night was flowing by for the combined consciousness, the shifting of book pages and the tapping of laptop keys making the room sound rather loud considering the time of night. Mutated eyes shifted across each page of information at an astoundingly rapid rate, their awake-and-tired mind attempting to retain every little bit of information in the painfully small timeframe they had. 

A slight noise drew their attention from their work. Paranoia fueled their sudden stillness as they tried to get a cleaner understanding of the sound. 

To anyone else, the somewhat rhythmic noises could have been mistaken for a mouse clambering around in the walls. Not to them, however; they could hardly dismiss the sound of someone climbing up the walls of their residence. 

Tension entered their body as the clambering ceased right below their window. They could feel the pair of eyes staring at their back, and with calculated haste faked going back into their work, exaggerating their shoulder movements for good measure and appreciating the coincidence that their back was facing the window rather than their front. 

A couple minutes of this later, and the window slowly opened, eerily and impossibly silent considering how old it was. The only reason they were aware of this was the slight change in the air and temperature that came with the opening outside. 

Another minute passed before the person outside leaped inwards, the hybrid of minds barely reacting in time, leaning down to dodge the syringe that was thrown at where their neck was. 

A second syringe was thrown before they could fully turn around, this time at their midsection, which was also dodged by a leap to the side and off the bed. 

They took in their assailant and couldn’t help but their surprised expression at her... minimalistic outfit, which consisted of a nurse’s gown that barely concealed anything, a pair of elongated slipper-like shoes and a distracting lack of pants. Spiky teal hair was held back in a ponytail, and a single ruby eye with an unnatural cross-shaped pupil stared at her query. A medical breathing mask hid the lower half of her face, leaving her emotions a bit difficult to decipher just from looking at her alone. 

With slightly narrowed eyes, the woman analyzed, “Hmph. Not bad, dodging my syringes... Impossibly fast reaction times, good acting on-the-fly acting, and of course, those eyes... I think that you warrant more than some simple silencing .” 

“And just what--” 

Revealing a vicious smirk by biting her mask with her teeth, the woman cut off their snappy comment by becoming a blur of motion. The two minds in one prepared two dodge to the side but was surprised as the woman appeared behind them, a third needle in hand and being thrusted at their neck. 

Instead of attempting to move aside, they again demonstrated their inhuman reaction time and considerable speed, batting the incoming arm aside and attempting to slug the woman in the gut as they twirled around. 

The woman was quite fast herself, leaping back into the wall to evade. They noticed the way she didn’t bump against the wall but planted both feet smoothly onto the surface, body momentarily compressing against the wall before she sprung at them, a bonesaw in hand that was previously slung across her lower back. 

Knowing that blocking a swing with merely one’s arms from most any weapon was a bad idea, particularly with bladed ones, they instead settled on leaping to the side, hitting the wall themself and leaning to the side straight after to dodge a swath of thrown medical scalpels. 

This dance of mutual dodging and missing continued for a whole minute before the stalemate was finally broken, the fused consciousness finally managing to snag one of their shields from the corner of the room their assailant was attempting to keep them away from. The bonesaw swing aimed at their outstretched arm was barely parried in time. Taking that split second of resultant posture break on the woman’s part to grab their other arm shield, they went on the offensive, voluntarily getting in close for the first time in the fight. Repurposed medical tools and occasionally the woman’s gloved fists met metallic barriers in a series of rapid clashes and clangs until another parry on the shield-user’s part sent the bonesaw flying into a wall. A crunching sound and a suppressed scream came along with that, followed up by a drawn-out wheeze resulting from a solid punch to the woman’s gut. She promptly doubled over, the nurse-looking woman clutching her wrist while she attempted to regain her breath. 

After a couple seconds, the woman managed to raise her head to look her opponent in the eyes. They had brief stare-down, four pupils meeting one and two pairs of lungs making their exhaustion known from the short but intense bout. The more androgynous of the two eventually leaned down with a heavy sigh and narrowed eyes. 

“I’ll help you with your wrist and let you leave if you do three things for me. One: Don’t try to stick, slice, or otherwise harm me again. Two: Explain what the hell you’re doing here. And three, though I’m doing this whether you want it or not: Put on some actual pants and a shirt, ‘cause I sure as hell don’t remember calling in a prostitute.” 

The woman narrowed her one eye, clutched at her mask with her teeth and managed to spit on their bare foot while the mask was momentarily down. With an aggravated groan, their response to this show of spite was, “I suppose we’re doing this the hard way, then. ” 

“Wha--?” 

A loud thwack of metal on skull, and the woman went unconscious. With a drawn-out heave and a dragging of foot on carpet, as well as that feeling of internal compression that signalled an oncoming headache, the fused mind started scrounging around for clothes to properly and forcefully dress their assailant in as well as something to tie her up with.

When Gordan woke up, he couldn’t help the low, extended groan that left his throat. He felt incredibly sore, more so than any physical activity had left him in the past couple years. The back of his head also burned with a migraine. Noirallé shared in his pain only for a moment before cutting off her sharing of bodily sensations, the emotional sensation equivalent to a pained cringe briefly sweeping across the man’s mind. The mental pain curiously stuck with the Theon, however, to which she also groaned. 

A slow turn over revealed the time to be a little past four in the morning, and with a huff he immediately attempted to get back to sleep. It was only then that Gordan noticed that the blankets that were covering him when he went to sleep were all neatly laid before him, spread square and properly over the whole bed. 

With a strange mix of curious hum and frustrated moan, Mason leaned up and looked around, expression shifting into shock as he noticed the number of syringes and scalpels laid out neatly on top of the covers, as well as the bonesaw on the leaned against the night stand. Several small holes peppered his room’s walls, and it was only as Gordan was doing this visual sweep across the room that he noticed the three-fourths hogtied and disconcertingly unconscious woman in front of his bed, a small trickle of blood leaking down from a large bump on her head, wearing what he was fairly certain were his shirt and pants. Gordan’s gaze was drawn to the arm that wasn’t tied up, the end of which being placed on a pillow. Her wrist was decidedly not healthy-looking, swelled up and very purple. A small medical mask was also laid off a couple feet away from the woman’s feet.

Gordon sluggishly complained, “Yo, Noir’, did... did I get drunk ‘n’ hire a hooker and get too rough in bed or somethin’? I’ve never drank a sip before, though... Izzis what a hangover feels like? What the fuck did we do last night?? Friggin’ hell, my head is pounding ...”  

‘ As far as I can recall, no... we went to sleep like we normally did. So what ...’ She sounded just as vexed as the human. 

“ Guhhh , whatever, le’s just... grab some pain meds and maybe wake this woman up... Hopefully she isn’t a prostitute, for Trinity’s sake, I am not having my virginity taken like that...” 

Five minutes and a pill downed with some soda later, Gordan grabbed a pencil and moved to carefully prod the woman on the shoulder. He would have gotten straight to that were it not for the sticky note that was placed on the woman’s back, which he only now noticed. Gently ripping it off the shirt, he read, “Do not untie this woman, she is exceptionally dangerous and was likely attempting to kidnap me/us. Question what she is doing here and let her go only if you have your answers and when you know for a fact that she will cease attempting to harm you. Treat her broken wrist and head wound at your leisure.”

“You’re welcome for quite possibly saving your lives... Mind Mason,” the man externally finished. “Oh, shit , Noir’, did they take over when we went to sleep? And what kinda name is that? Sounds like some lame-o supervillain title... Though, I guess I gotta appreciate the pun they tried.” 

‘ That is probably the case on all those accounts ... More importantly, is even our sleep not safe anymore ?’ 

“Apparently!! Goddess, whatever , let’s just focus on what’s right in front of us for now and worry about them later.”

A swell of worried agreement entered the man’s mind, and that brief talk ended. 

The no-so-wounded human gently poked the woman in the shoulder with his pencil a few times. When some attempts at that yielded no fruit, Gordan’s concern grew a bit and he dropped the pencil, shaking the blue-haired woman’s shoulder a couple times softly and then with a bit more force. That final attempt is what got the woman to stir, shaking her head with a somewhat pained exhale. Just a second later her whole body gave a sudden jerk, accompanied by a gasp. 

“What the -- I’m tied up? And... these aren’t my clothes! Damn it, they weren’t joking around!” she exclaimed, seeming to be far faster at waking up fully and completely compared to Gordan. She wriggled her legs and unbroken wrist to either test her bonds or try and escape. After that failed she winced in pain, both from the head wound and unintentional jostling of her untied and damaged wrist. 

Not particularly certain on how to start this conversation considering the circumstances, Gordan awkwardly began, “Uh, hi, I don’t suppose some weirdo with strange eyes did this?” 

The woman’s head jerked to the side to gaze up at Gordan. “Yes, who are -- Wait. You... wouldn’t happen to be Gordan Mason, would you?” 

“Yeah, what’s it to ya?” he retorted, mostly trusting their “greater” self’s words about this person. 

The woman glowered at the man. “Hmph. It means a lot right now, actually, not that I intend to tell you.” 

The man frowned in turn. “Miss, or Missus, uh...” 

A beat to think, then, “Valentine. Single, if you really have to know.” 

Were he to see the choice of outfit underneath the shirt and pants, Gordan and his Theon friend would both have strongly doubted that was her real name or that she was uninvolved with anyone romantically. As it was they still doubted that, especially with her narrowed eyes and the time she took to answer that simple question. 

Quickly finding her suspicious, Gordan tried to balance an aggressive interrogation approach versus a diplomatic one. “Right, Miss Valentine, do you really think you’re in any sort a’ position to gamble? Honestly, if I really wanted to, I could just step on that broken wrist a’ yours and force you to talk. Luckily for both of us, I was raised better than that, but I’d rather not have to sit here and wait you out while you suffer from a maybe-concussion. And I would wait you out, ‘cause I wouldn’t be surprised at all to find that you somehow manage to wiggle your way outta those knots and escape if I leave. So !” 

Mason gave a pointed clap and smiled diplomatically. “How’s about this: I give you a painkiller or three, some bandages and some food ‘n’ drink and we can sort this out all peaceful-like, or I can sit here and wait for your stomach growls to get loud enough for me to hear. Your choice, Miss Valentine.” 

The ruby-eyed woman had to take several moments to think before sighing and going, “Fine. I’m not going to tell you everything , but if it means getting out of here quickly, I’ll go along with this. I have better things to be doing, anyways.” 

“Good!” the man exclaimed, thoroughly pleased. “It’s nice to see you’re a reasonable, sane person. Now, lessee, here, food ‘n’ medical stuff... I got some soda ‘n’ milk ‘n’ orange juice. What’cha want?” 

“You don’t have anything hard?” Valentine asked, seeming entirely serious. 

“Beer or somethin’? Nah, I don’t drink.” 

“Damn, I could use a stiff one right now... Fine, I’ll just take a glass of milk.” 

“Breakfast and that, coming right up... After some bandages, that is, where the hell did I put the medical supplies ...”

‘ Beneath the bathroom sink ?’ Noirallé attempted to recall. 

“Oh yeah, ‘think so, thanks,” Mason said, already forgetting the presence of Valentine in his brief think session and talk. She was shooting Gordan a thoughtful look, as if she were thinking hard on his apparently talking to himself as something more than a little quirk. 

‘ Gordan, that woman is still here, refrain from talking out loud with me !’ 

‘ Ah, shit, right .’ 

After locating his homemade first-aid kit, Gordan carefully sifted through the woman’s large blue lockes to find the bump, gently cleaning the line of dried blood that had welled from it off with a wet paper towel (“Promise not to bite me?” “What do I look like, an animal? Just hurry up, I don’t want to cut that patch of hair off.”) and placing a bandage on it like he had agreed to. He then spent a couple minutes making food and pouring two glasses of milk for himself and Valentine, leaning back from his cooking every few seconds to make sure she was still secured, and set the plate and cup down in front of her when he finished. 

Feeling an inexplicable sense of déjà vu coming on, Gordan assured and then stated, “Okay, so, before I say or do anything else , I want to say that I am not doing this to humiliate you or get off or somethin’. With that being said, I again don’t trust you to attack me or get out of here if I untied your arm, so , I’m gonna havta feed you myself.” 

The woman groaned in severe aggravation. “Oh, for the love of -- No you will not . Just... put the cup in front of my mouth, I’m not hungry.” 

Noirallé’s then-brewing aggravation with her partner’s occasional social ineptitude and lack of basic medical knowledge helped fuel Gordan’s sheepish response. “... Actually, now that you say that, it probably isn’t a good idea to give you something to eat with a head wound. Yeah, sorry ‘bout that.” 

“Hmph.” 

Gordan raised the glass to her mouth and she took a few sips, leaning her head back to signal when she was done. Gordan took a few bites out of the small meal he had made for himself and sat down a respectful distance away, also on the floor. 

“How’s about we do a bit of back-’n’-forth with questions to keep things not-tense. ‘Zat sound good?” 

‘ Gordan, you have all of the cards here, why are you doing this ?!’ Noirallé bit. 

‘’ Cause she’s clearly not in the mood to only give, and it may keep her from coming back and trying this again. She already knows where we live, Noir ’,’ Gordan retorted. 

A grumble. 

‘ Look, I understand that trusting her ain’t on your agenda -- it ain’t on mine, either -- but I prefer to build my bridges instead a’ burning them .’ 

‘... Very well, if only because of your nice use of persuasive metaphor .’ 

‘ Hah, thanks .’ 

“Gordan? Hello?” Valentine interrupted in a timely manner. 

“Oh, sorry, I was, ah, having some internal debate on what I just said and wasn’t quite paying attention. I hope you said yes?” 

Another thoughtful look before she nodded her head. 

“Okay, good. I’ll start, humm... The obvious and pressing one first. I’ve been told you came in last night and tried to kidnap me? Can you tell me why?” 

The rather pale woman’s one eye scrunched up, thinking heavily. 

“If it’s any motivation, I already know about this whole “secret experimental government Labs” thingie. Something about trying to stop the Skullgirl? What do I have to do with this?” Mason attempted to play dumb. 

“‘How am I involved?” Don’t play dumb with me, and don’t try and divert the topic,” Valentine just about spat. “You sent a letter asking for an investigation into the Labs’ business, which eventually led the inspectors to us .” 

“Yeah, and ? ‘Cause you’re implying that you had something that oughta’ve been kept secret, like, I dunno, what’s happened to Miss Carol Ulysses ?” 

He was hoping for some sort of shocked reaction, a kink in her armor to strike at, but was only met with a derisive snort. “I’m afraid I can’t answer that, Mason. Now, I believe it’s my turn?” 

He sighed at the lack of a response he could utilize, information-wise. “Fine. Go ahead.” 

“Last night, I did indeed intend to kidnap you, but found someone else that only vaguely resembled you. Who was that?” 

Gordan sighed again and convened with Noirallé, the latter only giving her consent to tell Valentine what was about to be shared because of her apparently sharp eye for lies. ‘ Split personality is the only thing that would maybe work, but they’re too outwardly strange for that, and I don’t think she’s gonna buy whatever half-baked lie we’re gonna havta put out on the spot ,’ was Gordan’s reasoning. 

“Okay, well, you’re right that that wasn’t technically me. Ya see, I have this... friend , you could say, and she’s...”

“A Parasite?” the woman guessed, seeming unimpressed with his hesitation. 

“She prefers the term “Theon,” actually, and how did you guess ? It was the mumbling earlier, wasn’t it? Damn it!” Gordan panicked slightly, frustrated with himself. Noirallé was frustrated, too, but for different reasons. 

Valentine smirked. “Well, the mumbling did help, as did the strange not-quite-resemblance going on. Your confession cemented it, though.” 

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” he mumbled, a sentence that was almost mirrored by his partner just a few moments prior. “Well, whatever, you have my super-duper important secret. No use trying to skirt around it or put it out gently, I guess.” He exhaled loudly and heavily, trying to minimize his anger. “I know that doesn’t answer your question, but I already spilled some big beans here, so my turn again. Are your Labs really out to kill the Skullgirl? I’ve done some snooping around and noticed the “ASG” label being thrown around a lot, and my Theon friend ‘n’ I are hazarding a guess that that stands for “Anti-Skullgirl.’” 

Again, the woman narrowed her eye in thought before shrugging, apparently not finding much harm in sharing this bit of information to its fullest. “You’re right, and that was initially the goal when the Labs were founded. It’s still their primary objective, but some of the Labs have gotten a bit... off-track , let’s say, but overall they’re still putting most of their efforts towards snuffing out the Skullgirl as soon as possible after her emergence.” 

“Alright, good to know. Your turn?” 

“Your reaction times, maybe even your physical speed as well, aren’t exactly easy to achieve for any normal person, and your eyes weren’t like they are now. What’s the deal with your Parasite?” 

Feeling Noirallé’s biting indignation at Valentine’s insistent use of that apparent slur, Gordan let his friend take charge of their body. The blue-eyed woman’s expression again went pensive as facial features, skin, and eyes all shifted around and changed colors. 

“I will answer that question only if you agree not to call our kind “Parasites” when I am nearby. You have been told once already,” Noirallé stated, attempting to retrain her frustration and appear professional. 

Valentine huffed out a “fine.” 

“Hmm. And to answer your question requires multiple answers, I enhance my partner’s sensory abilities and reaction times like you have likely deduced, and the Theonite energy I pump through his body does make him faster and perhaps a little stronger than normal when the situation urgently calls for it, as the one you created apparently did. As for the eyes...” 

Human and Theon shared a brief conference before, “We are at something of a loss ourselves, to be blunt, primarily because we do not actually know much about our, ah, brainchild? Yes, that is a good word for it, thank you Gordan.” She shook her head, getting back on track. “I suppose they sort of... come out every now and again, usually when we relax enough or share the same “wavelengths,” so to speak, and that is about all we know. We aren’t exactly aware of much when they are in control, nor do we remember much depending on how lucid we were when they emerge, which leads into our next question... Were the head wound and broken wrist acts of cruelty or self-defense? We are getting a little concerned, here, Valentine.” 

Indeed, the Theon’s expression appeared uncertain, if not straight-up nervous. 

Her gaze a calculating sort for a second or two, the cross-pupilled woman frankly responded, “I’d be tempted to try and lie, but I don’t think that’d slip by you so easily. Yes, it was self-defense, and it wouldn’t take much less than some broken bones or a concussion to stop me from continuing a fight. I’ve seen and had a lot worse than this.” 

“And perhaps done as well, if all of those weapons and this property damage is anything to go by,” Noirallé muttered toward the end, eying the many holes in the walls and floor that would need patching up. “We are half-tempted to ask for monetary compensation, Valentine, many of these repairs will likely take a few hours from someone we must commission, to say nothing of actually making the room look as good as when we first came along.” 

The ruby-eyed woman brow quirked sassily during that second bit, and she retorted, “Well, this problem wouldn’t have come along if you two hadn’t gone poking around where you shouldn’t have. My turn,” she preemptively cut off Noirallé’s retort. “What have you been up to since you got here? And how long have you been here?” 

Reigning in her frustration, the Theon said, “That is two questions, but I suppose they tie in well enough... Just a few days, three or four if my sleeping has not interrupted my time here for terribly long. As for what we have been doing... Snooping, as Gordan would say. Your Labs have been a subject of much curiosity for us, as have some kidnapping we have been looking into. Officially we are here to acquire some “scoops” for a collegiate newspaper and editorial back in Gordan’s hometown, however, there have been a number of more interesting things to look into, which we would like to keep private for the sake of those involved... Ah, yes, thank you Gordan. Speaking of investigations, we don’t suppose you have anything to do with this “monster,” do you?” 

The Theon grabbed Gordan’s phone and showed Valentine the picture of the “Maplecrest terror.”

Valentine smoothly responded, “I’m afraid I have no idea what I’m looking at.” 

“Oh, please. That is the exact tone and response of a liar trying to slide one underneath us. Additionally, if you really did not know anything, why did you go after us when we specifically asked about that one missing person?” 

All three eyes in the room were squinted in tension, and after a brief moment and a full-body spasm, Gordan took Noirallé’s place. 

“Valentine. This fifteen-year-old high-schooler is missing, and as far as Noir’ and I can tell, you are involved somehow. For Trinity’s sake, do you know how exhausted and resigned her parents looked when I went to ask about her? This is the opposite of a good situation! If you can help us make this better, please , tell us something, anything !” 

A couple more seconds of tension went by. Valentine’s expression shifted, her hesitation concerning this matter made very clear by her face. Eventually, with what was likely a forcefully cold voice, she answered: “... I have nothing to say.” 

A bloated, frustrated exhale, then Gordan exploded . Hands clenched and posture leaned over and threatening, he said, “You... just might be a terrible, shitty person! You’re clearly involved in turning this rando’ girl into a horrendous, scarred freak and you’re not willing to owe up to it or even try and make things better! Holy shit, I am so fucking angry that people like you even exist !!” 

The man started stomping around the room while he went on that small tirade, skin rapidly fluctuating between pale and dark tones and body shaking somewhat violently as Noirallé attempted to wrest control of the situation and calm her partner down. In spite of these goings-on and threats, however, Valentine looked rather calm. She interrupted the other two’s struggles with a casual, “Hey.” 

“ What ?” they pretty much spat, one hand on their head as teal but still single-pupiled eyes looked down at Valentine balefully. 

“I’m guessing you’re not willing to share anything else with me?” 

“Holy shit, if you’re not going to spill the beans, then no ,” responded a voice that was a little less deep than Gordan’s usual. 

“Hmm. Alright. Guess I’ll be going, then,” she said, as if she weren’t mostly hog-tied. That’s because she no longer was, though, her impromptu bondage falling off with a simple flex of her wrists. 

“Wha -- Hey!! ” Gordan completely reasserted control and attempted to reach over and grab her somewhere, anywhere to stop her, but fell short as she flipped herself up to her feet and vaulted for the window with some startling speed, as if she had been internally practicing the motions this whole time. Unlocking the window in a split second in spite of her handicap, she kicked open the window and hopped onto the sill skillfully balancing on her heels as she slid her medical mask back on to her face with her good hand. She then tauntingly waved goodbye, a smirk creased onto her face cover as she did a short hop backwards and off the window sill. 

Gordan sprinted over to the window and peevishly observed the woman sliding down the wall and leaping down to the ground, sprinting away and down an alley when she had descended enough distance. 

“You sneaky bastard!! I will fucking find you, you pissant sonuvabitch!! You hear me?! Hrrrk --” A discolored hand flew to his mouth, and his throat suddenly clammed up, causing that choking sound. 

‘ That is enough, Gordan!! You are making a scene and it is quite early in the morning yet! ’ 

‘ Who gives a shit! That woman is gonna get the ass-beating of a lifetime the next time I see her, Noirallé!! I am so pissed off!! You have --’ 

A banging on the ceiling cut off Gordan’s train of thought, as did the shout of “Shut the hell up down there!” The surge of embarrassment also served to quell the fire of his fury, and with one last look down at where Valentine had disappeared, the man closed the window, locked it, and sat down on the bed with a huff. 

“... I made a fool a’ myself, huh, screaming like that at like,” a glance at the clock, “not even five in the morning? Geez, yeah.” 

The Theon assured her partner, ‘ I was quite angry as well, yes. To think anyone would have such a skewed moral compass is not exactly the most pleasing thing to see. However, keep in mind that we learned a fair bit from that little information trade, did we not? ’ 

“Yeah, but she and whoever she’s associated with learned a lot about us , too. Damn it, are we gonna havta to find another apartment? I do not have the money for this...” 

Noirallé assured, ‘ Perhaps, however, we likely have at least a few hours to decide on what specifically we ought to do. I do not imagine that woman will be coming back to have another attempt at us for a while with that wrist, at least. For the time being, I believe we should simply relax a little and focus on what has occurred and what we have learned since last night. Perhaps also make an actual meal to eat instead of these meagerly scraps as well ?’ 

Gordan eyed the few bits left from his small-to-begin-with meal, and though he didn’t feel particularly hungry, he considered the uncertain immediate future and agreed. He figured he could use a bit of time to mentally distance himself from all these recent shenanigans, at least, and a cooking session would be just the way to go about that in his eyes.

Chapter Text

It was about six o’ clock at the moment. Gordan had showered, fed himself more thoroughly, spent a half hour just watching stuff online to destress, and finally ideated with Noirallé, which was capped off with Gordan attempting to recall and list all the important facts he and his partner had come across recently. 

“So, in sum: These secret Labs do indeed experiment on sentients and turn them into weapons to fight off Skullgirls, and if Adam’s words meant anything, most of these experiments are actually voluntary.”

‘ Hmmhmm .’ 

“One of those in voluntary experiments was probably Carol, who was kidnapped a few months ago. That woman, Valentine, was prolly involved and may still be involved.” 

‘ Agreed .’ 

“Lab 7... Actually, we know next to nothing still about Lab 7, its violent destruction aside.” 

‘ Unfortunately .’ 

“Our weird-o combo-alter ego keeps emerging when we ain’t expecting it, which has led to some pretty big shenanigans and these weird notes, which then begs the question of what the hell they’re looking into...”

Gordan glanced down at his open laptop, re-opening a window which had a somewhat large number of tabs opened at once, most of them relating to Theon and Trinity history. A lot of the information on the pages were mostly review for the two, and a quick check into the browser’s recent web history revealed much of the same in that regard.

‘ I would advise keeping a closer eye on them were it not for the nature of their existence and how they emerge .’

“Kinda scary, how we can’t really keep them under control, not sleeping or relaxing aside... Anyways, lastly, there’s a pretty good chance we should grab our important stuff and get out of here pretty soon. You sounded like you were having ideas other than renting out another apartment?” 

The Theon elaborated, ‘ Yes, though I do not personally like the idea. Since we have a certain extent of trust with Nadia and her friends, and our funds are hardly infinite ...’

“You’re sayin’ we should ask if we should crash at their place until things blow over,” Gordan finished at her hesitation.  

She just about huffed, ‘ Again, I would rather not, and not just because it would be intruding, but it is a fairly logical course of action .’ 

Gordan hummed before agreeing, “Yeah, makes sense. Better go over and ask before packin’ up, though I ain’t so sure Yu-Wan’ll be up in the next half-hour...” The man eyed the clock in thought before following up, “Then again, he’s the owner of a small business, and a pretty popular restaurant at that. Wouldn’t be surprised if he’s up by now, actually. Better get going, then!” 

‘ Please do .’ 

Two seconds later, Gordan abruptly paused in the motions of walking over to the closet to properly clothe himself, having just had an aggravating epiphany. “Holy shit , how did I forget to mention this!! I just remembered about the friggin’ church !! Damn it, Gordan, stop being so forgetful !!” 

‘The church...?’ Noirallé took a moment to connect the dots. ‘Oh, do you mean the Grand Cathedral? I suppose I was out of it at that time. I had assumed you did not tell me anything because nothing significant happened. That is not the case?’ 

“Damn straight it ain’t! I could feel the Theonite below that place, and that was without you being awake! And there was this scary nun, too, and I dunno why but my fight-or-flight instincts went apeshit around her!” he gushed, quite agitated about this matter. 

‘ I sincerely hope you ran instead of fought ?’

Gordan huffed, “‘Course I did, it was in the middle of the day in a public space with people around, and though I definitely didn’t see it then, there were a lotta uncertainties goin’ on.” 

Noirallé went silent for several moments after that somewhat sassy response before going, ‘ We had best see if we can check out that place in the future, then. Preferably without anyone else being there. ’ 

“Hah, well, ya see, I may have kinda sorta asked that scary nun-lady if I could sit in on a worship session this morning? So it’s not gonna be as isolated as we’d want, but we can still maybe do some snooping around after if the nun ain’t there or’ll otherwise be busy. Here’s hopin’!” 

‘ I would not get my hopes up. She is likely involved in whatever Theonite-heavy activity is going on, and will be keeping a close on things. ’ 

“You’re prolly not wrong... Anyways! Yu-Wan’s! Going there now!” 

The Theon snorted at his delivery, vaguely amused. The man proceeded to dress himself in something like his usual attire, grabbed a few of his smaller necessities and stuffed them into his pocket, and left his room, making absolutely certain to lock the window before he left as well as the door just after.

With time potentially being of the essence, Mason decided to wait for the tram to get to his destination, figuring it would be more time-efficient. The tram ride itself and the brief walk to the restaurant were peaceful enough, the calm and mild weather setting Gordan in a good mood in spite of how tired he was, which was particularly nice considering the upcoming and potentially awkward meeting. 

Walking up to the door at half-past six, Gordan tentatively knocked on the front door. 

“We do not open for another half-hour! Come back then, please!” said the somewhat elderly Dagonian, voice muffled by the physical barrier of the door. 

“Ah, Yu-Wan, it’s Gordan? I’m here on some important business,” responded the human. “If I can have like, ten minutes of your time before you open, that’d be appreciated.” 

Several seconds later the door clicked, signalling its unlocking before opening. The relatively short but stocky man welcomed, “Come in, Gordan, feel free to sit down at the bar, I still have to cook up some things and prep the tables.” 

Mason was tempted to say that this upcoming request warranted the older man’s full attention but decided to stay respectfully silent on the matter. 

Sitting down as requested, Gordan watched the Dagonian work at the various foods and drinks for a minute before asking, “Mind if I get started? Don’t wanna get in your way or anything.” 

“Hah, Gordan, with my job I’ve learned to multitask quite efficiently. Ask what you will, I can work and talk at the same time just fine.” Indeed, Yu-Wan hadn’t even turned his head around to look at Gordan as he said that, seemingly dividing his attention between his cooking and the conversation very well. 

Trying to seat himself as comfortable on the round stool as possible, Gordan began his talk in earnest. “Alright, then. So . ‘Lotta stuff happened last night. I told you I’m a sorta-investigative journalist, right?” 

“Indeed.” 

“Well, I’ve been doing a good amount a’ snooping since we last saw each other. Gathered up a lotta useful stuff to look into, including a lead on this missing high schooler! Good progress on that so far, I think.” 

Yu-Wan hummed to show his continued attention. 

“The problem here is that I sent a letter asking about her to the wrong people -- specifically actual government conspiracy sorta people -- and one of their super-deadly ninja-lookin’ agents tried to kidnap me last night. Something about “silencing” me.” 

The Dagonian couldn’t help but pause his work to turn around and look at Gordan, expression incredulous. 

In response to this, Gordan leaned backward, unable to help the slight raising of his voice. “Look, I wish I was joking, but I’m not, I swear! I mean, if you had told me the stuff about Nadia without proof, I might’ve had a hard time believing you,” 

‘ You really would, though .’

‘ Shh! ’ 

“but that ended up being a very real series of events, and it’s the same sorta situation here!” 

Yu-Wan’s eyes scrunched up even more than they usually do before he reluctantly agreed, “I suppose... Very well, I shall believe you. What does this matter for me, though?” 

The blue-eyed man let out an artificial, nervous sort of laughter before going, “ Weeell , with government agents probably on my ass, I might just need someplace to stay for a few nights? At least until the immediate sweeps for me are over.” 

The other man let out a heavy sigh, rubbing at the space between his eyes. Rather than bringing up the safety issues of the human’s potential stay, Yu-Wan focused on a lack of other things. “Gordan, we already have Nadia hanging around here for the time being. We had a spare bed for her, but there isn’t really a place for you to sleep.” 

Nervousness being clawed away by Noirallé as it emerged, Gordan tried to reason, “I’ll just pack my blankets and pillow and sleep in one of the booths during after-hours... Sorry if I’m coming across as desperate, but I only have so much money, Yu-Wan. I’m not going to get down on my knees and beg, and if you really don’t want me, I’ll leave. I’d just appreciate this solid for a few days, is all.”

A brief pause from Gordan to think about a suggestion Noirallé had freshly offered, then: “Hell, I’ll help around the restaurant if you want some kinda compensation. I could actually use a part-time job, now that I think about it.” 

The Dagonian’s face performed some odd cross of a glower and a thoughtful scrunch-up. After several seconds of pensive silence, he went, “Ahh, very well, Gordan. If you’re willing to sleep without a bed and help out every now and then, I will oblige your request.” 

Relief surged through the younger man and his partner like a tidal wave. “ Phew , thank you so much , Yu-Wan! Noir’ ‘n’ I’ll try not to get in your way. I can get started today if you’d gimme a few hours, if you want?” 

Yu-Wan again thought for a few seconds. “... No, your offer is appreciated, but you seem far too tired for that, especially if your story is true. I would insist that we wait until tomorrow at the earliest. Get your essentials and get back here quickly, we open in less than half an hour and I would rather you not get in the way of Minette and I.” 

“Oh, that reminds me,” Gordan said, a bit disappointed that he was having to be reminded of things so often, “really quick, how’s Nadia doing? And can I ask what she’s been up to?” 

“Oh, she’s been running around the neighborhood, looking for things to do and practicing blending in with her altered body. As for how far I can’t see... She says she’s been training with her body’s new and strange functions to become a better fighter... Outside of the restaurant, of course, hah. You will have to ask her about that if you want more details. Also, her mood has had its ups and downs these past few days, nor has she made up her mind about taking more extreme measures against the Medicis as of yet. That is good, I think, she ought to take her time making up her mind with this matter.” 

“Yeah! And I’ll be sure to sit down and have a chat with her the next time I see her, assuming I’m not runnin’ from the sorta-law again, hahah.” 

Yu-Wan understandably didn’t seem to find that joke all that funny, and just as he was about to rebuke Gordan about that, a catty yawn echoed down the stairs. 

“I heard’ja, Gordan, we can talk right now if ya want,” the Feral said, lazily striding down the stairs without her previously worn trench coat. Gordan couldn’t help his staring at the lines that literally divided her body, and to a lesser extent the cut-up leggings that exposed all of the leg before the shins as well as the rather small navy top she had on. Her cut-up limbs bounced and seperated a little with each step, ligaments and tendons stretching and revealing themselves in a fascinatingly horrifying manner. 

Eyes snapping up to Nadia’s face after a few moments of bewildered observation, human and Theon both noted how she rubbed at her eyes, as if she had just gotten up. Considering her previous yawn and current face-rubbing, that seemed to be the case. 

“Oh, hi, Nadia. We can do that in a few hours if you’re still up for that by then, I gotta get the rest a’ my stuff over here and have an appointment right after.” 

Nadia shrugged and said, “I’ll probably still be free, sure. If I’m not around, just ask Yu-Wan or Minette where I’ve gone.” 

“Alright then.” Gordan turned back over to face the Dagonian and noted his slightly scrunched up expression. “Ah, Yu-Wan, you look like you’ve got something you wanna say?” 

Yu-Wan inquired, in a somewhat challenging tone, “Dare I say that your “appointment” will involve some risky business?” 

“Hahah, well, sorta? Noir’ ‘n’ I’re sitting in on a worship section at the Grand Cathedral, if you really wanna know. We think there may be something weird happenin’ over there, so we’re gonna do a bit a’ scouting around. Plus we’re legit’ curious about how Trinity worship works and is observed here, so, yeah, pretty convenient, we think. We appreciate your concern ‘n’ all if what you’re trying to do is warn us against more dangerous stuff, but in the search for the strange and unusual we’re on, danger is just a part of the job description!” His response was confident, if not straight-up practiced, as if this sort of assurance was something he offered frequently. 

The older man’s expression didn’t soften one bit. “I won’t bother trying to stop you if that’s the case. Just be careful where you can help it.” 

“You gotcha, Yu-Wan. So , my stuff! Going to go get it now! Be right back.” 

He left to do just that.

On the way to his room, Gordan asked the front desk attendant, who was again that grumpy-looking young woman at that moment, “Huy-uh, Miss? I’m gonna be gone for most of the next few days, but I’ll get back to living here after that. Some, ah, urgent business has come up. I assume I don’t gotta do anything special to accommodate that?” 

The young lady looked up from her bored scrolling on her phone to rhetorically ask, “What, got involved in some gang stuff or something?” Gordan was going to reply with a rebuking “no,” but the woman continued, “Whatever, not any a’ my business. Shouldn’t be a problem, no, but as far as I’m aware you’re gonna be charged your monthly rent regardless of whether you’re here or not unless you cancel your contract.” 

The man was prepared for her to formally ask if he’d like to do that, but after a second of awkward silence, Gordan said, “Yeah, won’t be doing that, and that’s all I needed to know. Thanks.” 

“Hmmhmm,” was all she let out in response, going back to her bored phone-based activities the moment Mason started going up the stairs. 

Gordan was fairly certain that he managed to pack just about everything into his single suitcase, which made sense considering he got here with only the contents of that one suitcase. He grabbed most of the food that would spoil without his eating it as well, placing them in the couple plastic sacks he had accrued over the past couple days. In a separate sack he put his couple rented books, and the mini-refrigerator and microwave had to stay because there was no way to take them along without a second trip. Gordan had a brief internal struggle over whether to grab that book about Neferu before deciding against it. 

Noirallé noticed this indecision and asked, ‘ Are you forgetting something ?’ 

‘ Oh, no, just trying to find out if we can bring some more food ,’ and Gordan immediately felt bad about his fib but rolled with it anyways, ‘ or if we really need to? I think this’ll be good, at least .’ 

The Theon borrowed Gordan’s eyes to observe the contents of her partner’s sacks before agreeing, ‘ I suppose, especially considering that we are moving into a restaurant.’ 

‘ Hah, yeah, yeah ...’

A vaguely tedious and cumbersome trip later, Gordan re-entered Yu-Wan’s. Already, just a few minutes after opening, two of the tables were occupied, with Minette evidently serving them. She looked far less tired than the first time he had seen her on the job, eyes awake and a professional smile on her face as she took orders in spite of the somewhat early hour. 

Feeling a bit awkward and insecure with all most of his belongings in plain sight, Gordan set his stuff down at an empty booth and asked the other man, “Hey, Yu-Wan, where should I put my stuff? Upstairs?” 

“Hmm, yes, go ahead, just shove those into the second room you’ll see on the right, that is where Nadia is staying at the moment,” the older man said, eyes and efforts primarily invested in his cooking. 

Not willing to get in the way of either of his acquaintances' work any more than he needed to, Gordan carefully paced up the stairs and managed to get all of his luggage up in one trip. Following the Dagonian’s instructions, Mason knocked and said that it was him and waited on Miss Fortune’s response (“You can come in!”) before opening the door, looking around the room for a bit before waving hello to the Feral. Nadia was situated on a somewhat dingy bed, carefully manicuring her lengthy and sharp claws. This wouldn’t be a big deal were it not for the fact that she was manicuring the toe nails of her detached foot, which she carefully held in one hand. The Feral put down her foot for a moment to wave back, like nothing unusual was going on, but swiftly got back to her current task, indicating that the job of maintaining her nails was one that had a rather high priority for her at the moment. 

Gordan shoved his stuff into a corner before resuming his curious observation. The room was a bit on the dusty side, and the bed-plus-mattress Nadia was on looked old and sounded the part whenever she shifted around a bit. What few belongings the cat-featured woman had were scattered here and there, a small drawer and a miniature chest with a fishbone insignia on it the only storage Nadia evidently had. He noted the open window, looking around outside for a moment and remembering that this is the same view Fortune had of him that night they had met. He let out a little hum at that realization before going to the Feral, “Guess that whole “detaching your limbs” thing is handy every now and then, huh?” 

Still focusing on her manicuring, she snorted and went, “Yeah, ya got that right.” 

“Anyways, Imma get going to the Cathedral in a sec’. I’ll assume you can keep an eye on my stuff?” Gordan had phrased that question a bit cautiously, optimistically deciding not to question his trust of Nadia but rather her ability to keep his contents safe. 

“I mean, I’m not aboutta let just anyone in here. Yu-Wan told me you were gonna put your stuff in here, by the by, plus I recognized your voice, which is why I let you in. No one’ll get in that I don’t want, so your stuff is safe with me!” she assured somewhat playfully. 

“Hmm, thanks,” he said as he zipped open his suitcase to retrieve his pre-packed briefcase, strategically placed on top of his pile of belongings. Gordan noted Nadia’s curious stare as she eyed the briefcase, to which he said, “Oh, there’s not much in here, if you’re wondering. Just blank papers and pencils. I’ve also got my camera in one of my pockets,” as said, fishing the thing out to show her. Now that attention was really brought to it, the camera wasn’t all too impressive, but nor was it particularly shabby, having worn-down edges and a few scratch marks but still looking and somewhat shiny. 

The Feral nodded before looking down at her fingernails, resuming scratching at them with that smooth piece of wood and saying, “Welp, you’d better get going, and I’ve got some tool-sharpening to do! See ya, Gordan.” 

“Gotcha, see ya in a few hours.”

The Grand Cathedral looked just as Gordan had remembered it from last time, the shift in lighting from late afternoon into the morning aside. The man had evidently managed to get here just a few minutes before the morning worship session formally began, as most of the bench seats were filled to the point where some people had to sit on (admittedly very quality-looking) fold-up chairs on the sides. 

Gordan took a seat at one of those chairs and was about to pop open his briefcase when he noted the strange priestess from last time, again behind the podium and reading more scripture. Without any sort of prompting, she looked up from her reading to gaze straight at Gordan. That slight, unnerving grin went back on her face the moment eye contact was made (though her eyes were still closed), but Gordan was not so easily deterred the second time around, nor at this farther distance. Determinedly staring back for a couple seconds, the two broke their staring contest in synch, both of them looking down to sort out their stuff for the worship session. 

‘ I’m telling ya, something’s off with her, Noir .’ 

‘ She does seem a tad strange, yes. Hmm .’ 

A couple of minutes later, the priestess cleared her throat and raised her hand, drawing everyone’s attention to her. Silence quickly followed and everyone turned to face her, with most folks getting out the tomes pre-placed at each seat to follow along. Gordan felt a bit out-of-place not doing likewise, at least until he shifted around in his seat a bit and felt something brush against his shoe. Leaning down, he grabbed the tome that wasn’t there ten seconds ago, immediately befuddled at when and how it got there. He looked back toward the nun but she had already begun the introduction to her sermon, and with a huff he popped open the book, figuring he would follow along as he had little else to do. 

The woman gave out a section and page number and began, “The Holy Trinity gave all unto us...” 

“... And so t’was that we stole everything from them; our ultimate, sinful greed. Let us repent day in and day out so that we might be spared our stewarts’ mighty, baleful wrath. Amen.” 

A small chorus of “amens” followed. Gordan was one of the few who refrained from that, though the fact that the only other ones who did likewise were the bored-looking kids made him feel vaguely embarrassed. 

The blue-eyed man decided to hang around for a bit and snap some photos before starting to sniff around (maybe literally) after the majority of people left. A few minutes of picture-capturing and jotting down notes for a potential Cathedral-centric article passed before Gordan felt eyes staring at the back of his head. Already knowing who would be doing that, he turned around with a wary exhale to meet the priestess’ gaze. She beckoned him over with a finger-waggle and Gordan reluctantly approached. 

Theon quickly advised human to open politely and nicely. Gordon attempted that, saying, “Hello again. Before you ask, yeah, I read some of that scripture and made sure to follow along with your sermon. Interesting stuff, and not gonna lie, you did a pretty good job with speaking and leading as far as I could tell.” 

The woman didn’t visually or tonally react to his praise, merely saying in turn, “The Trinity guide my words and actions down the path of absolute truth, as they do for all who embrace their words.” 

Vaguely irritated at the nun’s not-so-down-to-earth nor particularly polite response, Gordan next said, “Must be, for you to speak so eloquently. Did’ja just want an update on my reading, or...?”

“No, child. I have a small request to make of you.” She leaned forward and gestured for Gordan to do the same. He did so with no small amount of trepidation, and the woman put a hand between her mouth and the rest of the room before she whispered in a vaguely monstrous, warbly voice entirely different from her usual one, “ You seek truths and secrets, do you not? ” 

Thoroughly startled, Gordan had to resist whipping his head away, fighting hard to only tilt his head slightly to look at the woman’s face. Neither Gordan nor Noirallé were understandably prepared for the sight of the vertically oriented, sharply toothed maw jutting out from her jawline below her ear. The man barely held back a frightened shout. Noirallé had the convenience of not being audible unless she wanted to be, and took advantage of that by letting out a rare, sharp curse in Gordan’s mind. 

Taking a second to get over his panic, the man shakily nodded his head at the newly revealed abomination. 

“ Then return here at midnight tonight. Refrain from this and I will seek you out and retrieve you by whatever means necessary. Do you understand? ” 

Another, shaky nod. The unnatural mouth tilted sideways at its corners to vaguely resemble a smirk. 

“ Good .” 

Before their shared eyes, the mouth squelched and twisted back into the woman’s jawline, as if nothing unusual had just happened. The moment the woman started to lean back, Gordan did the same, staring at the nun’s standardly stoic expression for a few seconds before once again leaving the premises as swiftly as he could without making a scene. 

Gordan spent a couple minutes just getting some distance between himself and the abomination, sitting down at a bench only after he felt like he had gotten a safe amount of space away. 

“Hohohoh, shit, Noir’. What was that .” 

Her response was a trepidatious one. ‘ I have no clue, but this is something that we are now looking into whether we want to or not. Not that that is going to deter your enthusiasm ?’ 

“Hah, hell no .” He only realized he was talking aloud just then, and switched to a more quiet method of conversation. ‘ A weird-o flesh monster posing as a nun in a Theonite-heavy place like that? There’s so many questions that need answerin’! ’ 

‘ Hmm, I had supposed not. Let us be cautious, however; we have no idea what kind of dangers we are getting into, here .’ 

‘ Ya could say that again. Better remember to bring all the shields !’ 

Noirallé voiced her agreement with a hum, the conversation closing as Gordan rose to begin his trek back to Yu-Wan’s restaurant. During his rise, a small wave of vertigo hit him, as did the slight bite of hunger. 

‘ Man, I’m hungry again... Damn tired, too. Tempted to ask for a free meal when I get back, but I ain’t no moocher! ’

‘ And if you were, you would no longer be one with me around .’

‘ Probably not wrong on that, heh .’

Meal plans decided, Gordan looked up his current location (he may or may not have picked a direction at random during his freak-out), routed out his way to the restaurant and got moving.

Chapter Text

Resisting the urge to directly interrupt Yu-Wan and Minette, Gordan sat down at a table once he arrived at the restaurant and patiently waited for Minette to come along. It took her a few minutes, which was understandable considering how the place was packed to the point where only a couple tables and booths were empty. She approached with a curious glance, pen and notepad already out to take his order. 

“Ah, hi, Gordan. Are you sitting here ‘cause you wanna actually order something, or...?”

“Yeah, didn’t wanna start mooching just ‘cause I’m gonna be staying here...” The man took a moment to realize that Minette may not be aware of his temporary living conditions. “Ah, did Yu-Wan fill you in on that?” 

“Yup, he did. Anyways, your order?” 

Having thought about that on his way here, Gordan said, “Oh yeah, same thing from last time, pancakes plus the bacon ‘n’ eggs and the fish-water tonic.” 

“Got it. It’ll be a little while, though.” 

“Take your time, girl, I can tell how busy it is right now.” 

The teen nodded, the curve of her smile going a little wider than its usual professional line, and she hustled over to the next table. 

A refreshingly filling meal later, the blue-eyed man paid Minette with a generous tip, rose from his seat and ascended the stairs, trying to ignore all the eyes staring at his back as he did so. Gordan knocked on the door to Nadia’s room, and her voice shouted from inside, “Voice check?”

“Marco?”

A barely audible snort from inside, then: “ Paw lo!” 

Already, Gordan felt Noirall é’s irrational hatred of puns creeping up on him. The man did his best to ignore that and was opening his mouth to say hi, but forgot all about that the moment the door opened. All things considered, he probably should have been used to the surprises the Feral’s oddly functioning body presented by this point, but he still couldn’t hold back his small shout when Nadia’s headless body greeted him. 

“Hey-uh, Gordan, down here!” said Miss Fortune’s severed head, slowly but steadily approaching upside-down on the floor, apparently using her ears as makeshift legs. “Man, hahah, you have neow idea how disorienting this is. Like, I’m having to look up at something almost two meow ters above me while I’m upside-down? It’s like I’m in the middle of doing really freaky yoga stretches or something.” 

“ Uhhh ,” Gordan intelligently let out. “I guess? That does seem like a, uh, novelty, I think.” Half of Gordan and Noirall é’s shared headspace couldn’t help but occupy itself staring down the exposed innards of the Feral’s neck, as neither human nor Theon had ever had the opportunity to observe such viscera up-close before. The other half was busy resisting the urge to vomit. 

“Aw, Gordan, if this is weirdin’ you out, nya just gotta say so!” Fortune said as her body scooped up her head and reattached it to its neck. 

“Oh, yeah, definitely weirded out, not gonna lie there, but I’m gonna try not to be. Not like you can help being all torn-up ‘n’ stuff, kinda like your pants,” Gordan added, certainly having seen her turn-up leggings and pants before but only just now really paying attention to that clothes choice. “Actually, have you considered getting a new pair? And, ah, not to sound rude, but maybe an actual shirt, too?” He blushed a little, unable to help his flustered attitude now that he really began to pay attention to how much skin Nadia was showing, and his previous bout of disgust wasn’t helping to keep him from making a fool of himself.

The Feral thankfully didn’t seem to mind the questions much, tugging at the torn-up and protruding leather and cotton that protruded up past her knees. “Maybe not the pants? May sound weird, but it’s actually kinda handy to not have a pair of pants on when I can... do... this !” 

With a large and probably intentionally dramatic wind-up, Miss Fortune put her back into a leg swing, the limb segmenting and stretching to touch the wall on the other side of the room before quickly snapping back into place. That was a little over three meters of reach, which certainly left Gordan and his partner more impressed than freaked out. 

Shirt temporarily forgotten with his surprise, Gordan said, “Woah. You could really surprise a guy with that. Like, y’know, me , three seconds ago.” 

“Hah, that’s kinda the point! I can sink my claws in real deep while doing that, too.” To demonstrate, she walked over to a somewhat torn-up floor board, extended a very sharp-looking and oddly hooked claw into the wood and tugged for a second. With a huff, a chunk of the wood came away, Nadia’s nail embedded deeply into it to the point where she had to tug at the piece of flooring to remove it. 

“Neat! Were your nails always that hard? I’d a’ thought doing something like that would just break it,” Mason remarked. 

“Oh, things like my nails and ears and tail can do all sorts a’ weird stuff neow . You already saw how strong and flexible my ears were, and I’ve been working on refining my tail use.” 

She casually pulled the mentioned limb off, and before Gordan’s shared gaze the length of the tail that Nadia wasn’t gripping sharpened into a probably-lethal blade. 

“I’ve got it all under control, I think,” she continued as she put her tail back in its proper place. “Hopefully I won’t be forced to use it anytime soon, but... hmm .”

Gordan asked, tone as careful as he could manage, “Still thinkin’ about your little moral dilemma?” 

Mouth set in an uncommon frown, the Feral answered, “Yeah. Now that I’ve had a couple days to think on it, I’m kinda leaning towards the whole “vigilante justice” shtick, especially with all these new powers I’ve got. I’ve barely had these new moves for a week, and already I’d imagine I can beat the snot outta a lot of goons pretty easily.” 

“I can see that, yeah,” the human readily agreed, Noirall é likewise took a brief recess from her stewing irritation to consider how she would do against herself and Gordan in the background. “Best not get cocky, though, because, ah...”

He was about to bring up the fact that that overconfidence may likely have spelled the Fishbone Gang’s downfall, but his Theon friend made him think better of it at the last moment. Nadia picked up what he was about to put down, however, and replied with a heavy exhale and a “yeah.” 

With a whump , Miss Fortune sat down on her bed, expression thankfully less downtrodden than it was pensive. “I’m gonna keep thinking on this for a while, I think.” The grin that next came onto her face was thankfully at least partly genuine as she asked, “Oh, and about my top... What, am I just that distractingly purrty ?” She grinned very cattily and offered a teasing smile as she said this. 

Gordan noted the very obvious attempt to shift the topic, but went along with it anyways, both because he didn’t want to put Nadia’s mood down if he could help it and because he was again a bit flustered. Taking a few moments to consider wording, Gordan responded, “Okay, yeah, I’m gonna be blunt? You’re pretty attractive. But I’m gettin’ into all this dangerous stuff like, every other day, so I don’t want more drama, and I haven’t even known you for a week, and there’s probably a few years between us, and that’s not even bringing up what Noirall é would think or feel --” 

“Heh, okay, I get it, I was just teasing,” Nadia interrupted Gordan’s listing-off of reasons. “Sort of, at least. I’ve gone up against a lotta goons who’re, ah, easily distracted . When you’re a thief of my caliber, you use all the tools available to you, even your looks. Thanks for the compliment, too...” As she further considered Gordan’s words, she curiously asked, “Oh, how old are you, anyways? 25?” 

“Close, 27. And before you ask, Noirall é’s really old, she’s got several thousand years on me. She spent the last couple millenia sleeping, though, so not sure if that counts or not...”

Yanking Gordan’s mouth control away from him, Noirallé’s unexpectedly dissimilar voice said, “Gordan, were it not for the fact that I am physically a collection of rocks, I would say it’s rude to divulge a woman’s age. I’d rather you not ask Nadia, either. ” 

The Feral stared while Gordan took a second to recompose himself. Awkwardly he responded, “Hahah, right you are, Noir’! Sorry, sorry, hahah.” 

“Your friend’s a sassy one, ain’t she?” Miss Fortune asked. 

“I am right here , you know,” voiced Noirallé again, “And yes, but that is mostly because I am constantly tired of my partner’s antics. If you have lived with and in him as long as I have, you would see how foolish Gordan can often be.” In spite of her words, the Theon’s tone had this odd sort of familiarity and softness to it, as if she were telling a favorite story or positing Gordan’s strengths rather than his weaknesses.

“Yeah, well, I think you need to learn to relax a bit more, Noir’,” Gordan responded, that same sort of tone implying that they were having a playful back-and-forth rather than a real argument. “By which I mean relax at all . You’re really stiff as a stone , you know that?” 

Nadia snorted while Noirallé growled externally. “I’m afraid our punnery shall hound you forever , Noir’! Forever, I say !!” Gordan jokingly exploded. 

The Feral started to openly guffaw as Gordan’s mouth struggled between grinning widely and frowning ferociously. 

“Foolish!!” the Theon said, fully ceding Gordan’s oral cavity back to him as she “conceded defeat.” 

‘ Seriously, though, Noir’, lighten up a little.’

Radio silence.

‘... Look, I’m sorry about punning things up, but Nadia’s good company, and I’ll take whatever chances I get to cheer her up. Surely you can understand that, at least ,’ the man rationalized. 

Alas, logic outside of pun hatred was Noirallé’s weakness, and she grumbled, implicitly accepting Gordan’s apology.

‘ Seriously, sorry about that, Noir’. ’ 

‘... Your apology has already been accepted, Gordan .’ 

‘ Okay, good. Anyways --’ 

“Hey, uh, you two okay?” Nadia conveniently asked, looking at Gordan with a curious expression. 

“Oh, yeah, sorry, we were talking in here --” he tapped his head with a finger -- “for a sec’. Were you sayin’ something?” 

“Oh, no, just laughing. I really a ppurr ciate your punny ways!” 

“Hahah, yeah... Wow, we got a lil’ off-track there, didn’t we? Anything else you wanted to talk about?”

“Yeah, actually,” Nadia said, expression becoming somewhat serious as she inquired, “How did the cathedral visit go? Anything freaky go down?” 

Making a split-second recess to talk with his partner to decide on what to tell the Feral, Gordan settled on disclosing only most of what he and Noirall é had found . “Well, heh, things were pretty normal for a while...”

“Midnight tonight, eh,” said Nadia after Gordan finished his exposition, eyes narrowed in thought. “If I were you I wouldn’t risk it, ‘specially because freaky monsters are involved, but if she said she’ll track you down and if she’s all paranormal and stuff, I guess it’d probably be safer to comply.” 

“‘S what Noir’ ‘n’ I were thinkin’, yeah. I don’t wanna get you or your pals involved, either, so we’d ask that you stay away. ‘Course, we can’t really stop you, but if you try ‘n’ help out I’m not too sure it’ll be safe.” 

The woman thought for a second before reluctantly agreeing to their combined request. 

“Thanks. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some stuff to sort through, and probably a few hours of sleep to catch up on.” He groaned and reached his arms above his head, stretching widely before adding, “ Hot damn , really feelin’ that shot of adrenaline right now...” 

“Oh, if you want to use my bed, feel free. I’ll be going out here in a bit anyways, been cooped up here for a while, myself. And before you ask, don’t worry, there’s not any blood or stuff like that on the sheets!” 

“Heheh, uhh, yeah. Thanks? Guess I don’t have anywhere else to sleep, so, yeah, appreciated,” the man awkwardly said, glancing over at the bed to confirm her words, nodding when he didn’t see anything immediately off about Fortune’s bed. He then started unpacking, not really intent on getting everything out and set up, just the things he would need for the next few days. 

Nadia left in the middle of this process, putting on her trench coat and waving bye. Gordan waved as well, but just as she was about to close the door behind her, the Feral paused in her tracks. Turning her head and only her head around to face Gordan, she said, “I’m 20, in case you were really wondering.”

It took the human a second to recall why Nadia said that. “Oh, uh, thanks for telling me? Yeah, guess that is a few years,” he stated, not quite sure on how to respond to that sort-of sign of trust. Miss Fortune nodded and swiveled her head back into a normal position before actually closing the door and leaving. 

Gordan’s thoughts had completely halted for a little while after that, perhaps caught more off-guard than he should have been. ‘ It is nice to have made a reliable-looking friend already, Gordan ,’ Noirall é said, attempting to snap Gordan out of his little trance.

‘ Oh, for sure. Just kinda came outta nowhere, hahah ,’ the man responded, managing to shrug off that previously unmoving bewilderment thanks to his partner’s words. Gordan got back to focusing on his partial unpacking, only taking a few minutes to get out everything he knew he would immediately need. He looked at the Feral’s bed for a bit, truly confirming that it was clean enough for his standards before laying down, endorphins briefly running through his body as it finally relaxed. He didn’t bother undressing aside from throwing his coat off, intending to only be out for a few hours and not wanting to have anyone walk in on him mostly naked. 

After a few moments of silence, Noirall é voiced her opinion on the current situation. ‘ I do so desperately want to do more than simply rest, Gordan, but I do not believe that there is much more that we can do than not be dead on our feet and have the shields on us .’

A rueful, ‘ Unfortunately .’ 

‘ Hmmhmm .’ 

Gordan and Noirall é were both asleep after a couple minutes of closed eyes and getting comfortable.

When Gordan and his partner woke up, they did so with a sense of yet-lingering trepidation. There was no clock on the nightstand to conveniently show the time, so Gordan had to rouse himself a bit to reach over and retrieve his phone. Clicking it on, he noted the approximate time of 3:30 PM, which meant he and Noirallé had gotten almost four hours of sleep. The man still felt a little groggy but also awake enough to get up and start doing things, so he rose from his bed and started thinking on what to do for the next eight-ish hours. 

‘ I think now’d be a good time to do some article work. What’d’ya think, Noir ’?’ 

‘ I suppose it would make for a productive distraction from all of this stress ,’ she mused, ‘ and I do believe we are still a little sore from last night, so some additional bodily rest would be wise .’ 

‘ Gotcha .’ 

That was how the two passed the next couple hours, typing away on Gordan’s laptop, eyes occasionally flicking between blue, cyan and green as they finagled with visual design elements like text arrangement and picture placement and otherwise finalized their products. At the end of this period, Gordan and Noirallé were both fairly satisfied with the fruits of their labors and submitted their first two articles -- one about King Franz and his memorial and the other over a couple of popular spots in New Meridian besides the Franz memorial. A couple emails later and their work was submitted to Gordan’s college’s publication, which then got the pair thinking on their next article topics. 

‘ Hmm, I’m thinkin’ maybe the Grand Cathedral, considering how much focus we’ve got on the place lately? Oh, or maybe talkin’ about Yu-Wan’s place? I think he’d like the notion of worldwide attention, if not the business .’ 

‘ Perhaps... It would be best to ask him first, however .’

‘ Yup. Oh, and what about... ’

Ideas continuing to storm across their shared mind, Gordan suited up and his partner suited up (shields included) and went down the stairs to ask Yu-Wan about article-writing permission. Being that it wasn’t the lunch or dinner times, Yu-Wan was taking to his cooking just a little slower than the rush hours. A bit relieved at not getting in the older man’s way during a busy moment, Gordan sat down and waited for Yu-Wan’s attention. He turned around after just a moment, likely used to feeling eyes staring at the back of his head. 

“Hello again, Gordan. What do you need?” 

“Okay, I know I said I wouldn’t write about the little situation we’ve got here.” He paused, briefly and intentionally. “ But ! Would you be up for me just writing an article about your restaurant?” 

The Dagonian looked intrigued at Gordan’s proposal. “I will consider it if you would elaborate.” 

“Oh, sure. When we first met, I didn’t just compliment your place to suck up to you to get your favor and information.” 

Yu-Wan’s already squinted eyes scrunched up a bit further. 

“Okay, yeah, I was. But it wasn’t just that! You really do have a pretty nice gig going on now that I’m more familiar with this place, and as far as I can tell you make some damn mean dishes. I mean, I’ve only had the basic breakfast stuff, but I’ll make sure to try something more complex for dinner at some point, promise.” 

A hum and nod from Yu-Wan, both of understanding and telling Gordan to continue speaking. 

“So I was thinkin’ that, with all that I suddenly owe ya, I could maybe get you a teensy bit of international fame? This is just for a local periodical for my university back home, so I don’t think you’re actually gonna get much of any business from this, but at the very least I think you’d appreciate the notion of having some attention from ‘round the globe. I’m not doing this for any sort of underhanded scheme like last time, promise. I just need to do my job and kill time, and again, I’m pretty sure I owe ya multiple favors for what you’re doing for me. I’ll even show you the finished thing before I send it in for editing and whatnot if ya want.” 

Eyes yet further narrowed as he thought, Yu-Wan responded, “This will likely not do much good for the business like you said, but if you really want to write about us, I will not stop you.” 

Gordan nodded, pleased. “Thanks. I’ll be sure to get this place’s best angles, don’t’chu worry.” 

“Though, before you leave,” Yu-Wan stopped Gordan’s rise from his seat, “You mentioned “back home” and “international.” I had already supposed this, but you aren’t from the Kingdom, are you?” 

“If you’re really curious, I’m from Gigan country. Not that it matters any, right?” Gordan was prepared for these sorts of questions, tone placed in an ambiguous spot between carefree and defensive. 

Yu-Wan didn’t appear to mind the man’s careful tone, even appearing a bit amused at it. “Hah, you are not wrong, and I don’t particularly care one way or another. I was merely curious.” 

Gordan tilted his head forward a bit, appreciating the other man’s indifference. “Good to see we’re eye-to-eye on that. Now, if you’ll ‘scuse me, I have some time to kill before my next “appointment,” and before you ask, yes , it’s probably gonna be some risky business,” he finished, rising from his uninterrupted seat this time. “I’ll do my best to get back here safely and with you all uninvolved... You know the drill, I think.” 

“I suppose I do,” Yu-Wan said, again looking vaguely resigned. “Just try your best to follow through on your words.” 

“Will do,” the human finished, a slight nervousness entering his mind at the older man’s words. “Have a good rest a’ your business day.” 

“And you, a fruitful one.” 

Yu-Wan turned back to re-focus on his work, Gordan leaving as he brainstormed about the next three or four hours with Noirallé. 

‘ Let’s try looking around somewhere a bit more mundane than the last couple places ,’ Gordan began with his partner, not wanting to be any more tired than he had to be for tonight. 

Noirallé readily agreed, ‘ That would be for the best. Where to, however... ’ 

‘ Somewhere .’

‘... That joke was never funny, Gordan .’ 

‘ I know, I know. Really, though, I got one or two places in mind. Lessee, here ...’

Gordan pulled out his phone, looked up one of the safer places of interest on his itinerary and got moving after choosing his route.

The weather had since turned overcast since Gordan’s morning trips, which threw Gordan’s initial impression of the Maplecrest district a bit out of whack. Without the clear skies the place suddenly felt a whole lot gloomy, in spite of the abundance of teenagers out and about on this weekend afternoon. Gordan had texted the Ulysses family while on his train ride to Maplecrest to see if they were up for an in-person update. Mrs. Ulysses was thankfully there, having the day off from work, so Gordan had decided to make his first stop in the area the Ulysses residence. 

It took a reminder from Noirallé to get Gordan on-track to the right house, and he knocked on the door when he got there. Amy opened the door and took a moment to analyze Gordan, saying after a couple seconds, “My, you’ve gotten a lot darker since the last time we met, Gordan. Are you alright?” 

Gordan momentarily panicked. ‘ Oh sunovabitch, they really screwed this up for us!! ’ 

Noirallé guided, ‘ The usual reasons, Gordan !’ 

Taking a split second to compose and remind himself of the “script,” Gordan exposited, “I was pretty pale around that time I showed up ‘cause I wasn’t gettin’ enough Vitamin D, but I’ve been out and about a lot these past couple days, so I’m all good. Ya could say I have something of a skin condition, my skin pigment gets all outta whack when I don’t get enough sun. How I showed up in that photo I sent when I first reached out to you is how I usually look, in case you’re wonderin’... I think I mentioned something about that last time, actually,” he said, feeling a slight sense of déjà vu at the notion. 

Along with that sensation came a brief spark of rage from deep within Gordan and Noirallé’s headspace, Gordan’s eyes bugging out for the split second that that violent emotion lasted before their feelings were calmed. 

‘ What in the --’

‘ Strange, but we need to focus! ’

An internal nod, with that brief talk ending just as Amy apologized, “Oh, yes, Gordan. I suppose I was just a bit surprised and forgot, sorry for asking.” 

Gordan had to suppress a twinge of regret as he responded, “Oh, it ain’t no thang, other people have been way more rude about it. Anyways, should we have a seat? I’ve got a couple status updates for ya, like I said over the phone.”

The mother nodded, movements seeming quite vigorous as she near-rushed to get Gordan inside and in a seat. Once they were seated and comfortable (Gordan had to politely accept a cup of water from Amy after some insistence on her part), Gordan opened, “First, I have solid evidence that the girl in the photo is very likely to be your daughter, because I’m fairly certain I met someone involved in her kidnapping and, ah, alterations . She appeared quite stubborn about not bringing anything up about her, specifically.” 

“Do tell,” Amy said, eyes storming with a mix of worry and wrath. 

He divulged what he could about his brief encounter with Valentine without bringing up anything related to the secret governmental projects. When pressed for more by Amy, Gordan said, “Trust me when I say that I definitely do want to tell you, and I probably would if it didn’t involve actual government conspiracy nonsense. I’d rather not get you in any sort of danger if I can help it.”

The older woman’s expression shifted between anger and wariness, with anger quickly dominating. “Gordan, I don’t care about whatever kinds of risks could come to me, and I doubt Kalvin thinks any differently. Even if we can’t do anything to help you find Carol, if you know something, anything , we want to know .” 

Gordan and Noirallé conversed for several moments internally and about one second externally before loudly sighing, making his exasperation clear for Amy to see. “Alright, fine, but if any government goons come for ya, please don’t tell anyone Gordan spilled the beans. Now, this first bit in particular may sound reee diculous, but I promise, I’m telling you that this really happened...”

“... and that’s the long and short of this. If it helps any, Carol’s probably one of the few in voluntary people those Labs have done stuff to.” 

Amy’s expression somehow managed to sour even further, negativity whipping her emotions around as if they were flecks of paper in a storm. “That really doesn’t. I really want to not believe you, this all seems so impossible, but...” She likely thought of Carol even harder than usual at that moment. 

“Well like I said, that’s the truth of the situation from my perspective, and I swear I’ve been telling nothing but the truth,” Gordan diplomatically tried, Noirallé having to steer him away from automatically pointing out Carol’s appearance. “And I have a face and probably a name to sniff around for, though said name and face’re involved in top-secret stuff, sooo may or may not actually have a lotta luck with that...” 

At the woman’s tired expression and Noirallé’s internal facepalm, Gordan amended, “Oh, but rest assured, Imma try my damndest and keep looking, even if things keep bein’ dangerous. I will find Carol, and if things go my way I can maybe sock that asshole Valentine while I’m at it.” 

Amy looked doubtful (and perhaps a bit inquisitive at his language) but forced a smile anyways, saying, “Well, I hope you keep finding out more about Carol’s situation. Kalvin would, too, if he were here at the moment. Please, let us know whenever you find something important, and keep up your search.” 

“Will do, ma’am,” Gordan said, handing Amy his mostly empty cup as he started heading for the door. “Have a good day ‘n’ try to stay positive, alright?”  

A small smile was the last expression Gordan saw on Amy’s face that day. “You too, Gordan.” 

Gordan’s next place of interest in Maplecrest was its high school, where he dropped off a letter he wrote more or less on the spot giving some of the safer updates he could on his investigation Carol’s whereabouts (and a lack of updates period for Filia, Gordan still had no idea on where to start with her). 

Item number three was a walk to the former Medici house. Gordan and Noirallé both figured the place would still be taped off from the public, in spite of its being two months down the line, and they were correct. Gordan felt that slight, foolish impulse to break in, but with the gossipy teenagers out and about plus the very conspicuous hour for break-ins to be noticed, the man didn’t bother. 

‘ Maybe they’ll let that tape down some time soon, kinda doubt they’ve made much more progress than me ... Which is to say, none.’ 

Noirallé simply grunted at those observations, a bit curious about looking around in the house herself but likewise knowing better. 

After that, Gordan felt the need to take a relaxing walk around the district, knowing he’d need whatever mental breathers he could get in preparation for tonight. The strip mall right near the school had a semi-consistent string of incoming and exiting kids and dogs and cats wandered the streets, with a few particularly sociable animals coming up for sniffs and pats. Gordon gladly gave the wandering pooches their desired attention as he likewise wandered, just taking in the sights that both the district itself and its height and proximity to the ocean provided. The variety of trees that littered the lawns and sides of streets were almost in their prime summertime vibrance, the various neighborhoods were bustling on this quaint Sunday afternoon, all while the slowly setting sun approached the far-off horizon at the end of a yellowing plane of blue and white. 

With all this noted and in the front of his mind, Gordan again felt the need to simply take an hour or so to sit on a bench by the cliffside and do nothing for a while. Arms thrown across the top of the bench and head tilted back, the man took a brief look around before asking his partner, ‘ Yo, Noir’, you wanna take over for a lil’ while? There’s a tree right there we can trade behind .’ 

The Theon barely even considered the question before going, ‘ As soon as you think it is safe, I would gladly take up that offer. This scenery is something I would like to truly experience myself .’ 

‘ And ...?’

A proud little snort before, ‘ Yes, thank you , Gordan .’ 

“Heh,” the man smarmily let out, heading over behind the tree and looking around once, twice, thrice before he let go, body spasming and changing as Noirallé took control of their shared body. Once the hand-off of control was complete, the Theon walked over to the bench and sat down, smiling contentedly as she took in the sights, sounds and smells for herself. She also threw her arms behind the bench, eyes closed and head tilted back as she savored these bodily sensations that she so eagerly savored. 

Eventually, a slight but negligible pressure began to build in the back of Gordan and Noirallé’s consciousness, though it was brushed aside with how content human and Theon were at the moment. Half an hour into their dozing and like a predator springing towards its prey, their combined ego attempted to seize control. In their mutual laziness, Gordan and Noirallé barely had time to alert each other before the self-named Mind Mason yanked the carpet of control out from underneath their components, another spasm seizing their body as their various features melded into Mind Mason’s chimerical ones. A couple passing teenagers noted this with slightly unnerved expressions but only really saw their hair shifting a bit, so they didn’t pay it much mind before moving on. 

Idly adjusting their shades to make sure their eyes were fully concealed, Mind Mason decided to relax for a bit as well before stretching and getting on their feet, intending to take their own brief jaunt around Maplecrest before heading out, a destination already decided on. 

‘ The early bird will often get the worm, and in this case, the worm holds many nutritious, delicious secrets ,’ they mused.

It was a whole quarter-day earlier than the monstrous woman had asked Gordan, but Mind Mason arrived at the Grand Cathedral regardless. Taking a moment to internally steady themself, they checked if the front doors were locked, which they were. With a hum of minor frustration and major thought, they did a perimeter check around the building, noting a pair of inordinate, locked windows close to the entrance. It was still virtually broad daylight out, and there were certainly still people hustling about in the streets, so with no other options immediately available to them, they decided to make their break-in as stealthy as possible. 

Affecting a casual air, they leaned against the window, thankful for the deep shade the buildings were casting down on them. Thanks to their relatively tall height, they managed to mostly conceal their arm behind their torso as they messed with and eventually broke the old creaky lock with raw force after a couple minutes of failed finagling. Backing off after that was accomplished, they stalled and looked around for the nearby crowds to thin out for a bit before pushing the window upward and swiftly vaulting inside, glancing behind them to make sure gravity did its job and shut the window for them. 

Looking around again and making sure no one was inside the building, Mind Mason took a moment to appreciate the utter quiet. In spite of the hundreds, if not thousands of people close by outside, all was silent inside the building. This in combination with the scenery and the vague sort of pressure of the immense Theonite quantities below them caused goosebumps to rush up their skin. The building nerves and anticipation also weren’t helping with that. 

Mind Mason went behind the pedestal and approached the locked stairwell behind the massive statue at the back of the room. Analyzing the significantly stronger-looking lock compared to the window and giving it a few tentative tugs, they sighed, regretting having to use brute force and leave traces of their presence behind. Taking the shields normally positioned over their elbows and making the tools hover over their hands, they stretched vertically and brought their hands together before slamming down with all their might, wooden cover shattering before the force of hard metal and near-inhuman strength. 

Kicking at the hole they made to widen it until it was person-sized, Mind Mason slipped through their makeshift entrance, muttering, “Let’s see what kinds a’ secrets we’ve got, here...”

Chapter Text

Of all the things the mixed mind had anticipated finding, a swath of catacombs was not among them. All sorts of random thoughts were speeding around in their head, partly because the location didn’t make much sense and partly because of nerves. 

‘-- So was the basement of this place always a place to throw corpses, or --’

‘-- This doesn’t make any sense, how are they keeping this a secret --’

‘-- This place’d be a damn mean Halloween venue --’

‘-- You know, it really doesn’t smell all that bad down here --’ 

Indeed, they were pleasantly surprised to not feel the immediate need to vomit once they realized they were in a resting place for the dead. 

‘-- Just weirdly stale, all things considering --’ The last thought came to them just as they noticed the large amount of fleshless cadavers. There were actually a fair number of complete skeletons, a couple even having clothes on and weapons nearby. The Theonite in the air was even thicker down here, blue veins of varying sizes consisting almost entirely of the stuff running along the ground and walls. They felt so very tempted, curiosity and a deep aching in their stomach compelling them to reach out and run a hand along the lengths of Theonite, to feel the raw energy pulsing beneath their fingers. Before they could bother, however, their specific combination of observations got them into a more unified line of thinking: 

‘ Wait. Bones and armed, clothed skeletons, crazy amounts of Theonite, monsters and abominations --’

“Oh, shit , this is the opposite of safe ,” they muttered, shocked and in awe of whose lair they were probably standing in. “But where the hell is she if not here...?” 

“Who is where, dear child?” said a placid, womanly voice from behind them. 

Thoroughly startled, they gave a small shout as they spun around, shields already floating slightly above their elbows, kness, and torso. Their surprise wore away quickly when they saw the monstrous priestess standing at the foot of the stares, hands at her sides, face stuck in an expressionless mask like usual. Their trepidation, however, remained. 

“The Skullgirl outside of this place, her lair,” they said boldly, not bothering with any sort of pretense. “Sorry for coming in early, by the way. You could say I’m terribly, dangerously eager for information, and this place seemed like a hotspot for the stuff.” 

An unnerving smirk crept onto the monster’s mouth for a moment before returning to its normal stony line. “An interesting sentiment... Hmm. You are Gordan, but at the same time, not quite... Tell me. Do you pay host to the Theon Noirall é?” 

“You could also say that you’re speaking to her at the moment,” Mind Mason retorted, optimistically figuring that some modicum of honesty now may result in some honesty from the monster later. “Why’s that so important?” 

“Because that makes you very lucky, child,” she said, eyes opening to reveal glowing red ovals as she smiled. “The Trinity have been wondering what became of their first envoy to this wretched plane of existence. Your appearance here has made them very pleased, indeed.” 

“‘Has?” Present-tense? That sounds like a big deal to me,” they said in turn, mind going a hundred different directions for a moment before focusing back on the thing in front of them. “I’m tempted to ask, but right now, I’d say it’s more urgent for me to ask you who and what you are and what you’re doing associating with the Skullgirl.” 

“In due time, child. Perhaps if you cooperate with the demands of your goddesses, I may elucidate this situation for you.” 

Mind Mason was doubtful of her words yet simultaneously genuinely curious about her insistence on focusing on the Trinity. “‘Will of the goddesses,” you say. What, you got some kind of magic radio link with them? And what if I decide to get all heretical and not do what you want?” 

“Oh, child...” Her mouth stretched open like a snake popping its jaw, except significantly wider in degree. Inside the mouth was half of a pale face, an eye with black sclera and a red pupil staring at the fused mind wrathfully. In the warped voice Gordan had heard when she all but ordered Gordan to come tonight, she said, “ You’ve no idea what it is you are delving into .” 

The face hid itself somewhere in that mess of flesh as the jaw widened to an impossible degree, head raising up as the monster’s body turned inside out. Mind Mason had to hold back a gag as they struggled to make sense of the liquid pile of flesh that coalesced into a vaguely feminine form. The flesh writhed and puddled at the monster’s bottom, as did the rest of its body, which was topped off with an ovular head with that same single eye and a yellow crown. A clash of white and off-color reds and blues gave the thing its palette, and if Mind Mason was seeing things right, additional faces and eyes occasionally appeared as the liquids shifted and undulated about. 

Flabbergasted and somewhat frightened, Mind Mason, asked, “What the fuck are you supposed to be...?” Then, from deep within Noirallé’s memories, a vague, familiar visage started to come together for the fused mind. “Wait... That face you showed, and that crown...” 

Before Mind Mason could ask about those particular details, the monster stated, “This cadaver is merely a vessel for the will of our righteous goddesses. If you must have a name, however... This vessel has been named “Double” the most as of late.” The abomination grew several arms from its puddle and began dragging itself closer to Mind Mason. “The Trinity wish to know what has become of their vassal since her disappearance. Relinquish control to her so that we may commune.” 

The moment that command was made, Mind Mason’s components made themselves known and started grappling for control. Distracted by this “Double’s” approach, they were unable to resist Gordan and Noirallé for long, quickly being dragged back into the recesses of the two’s shared headspace, “vanishing” with a frustrated groan and an unslaked need to learn. 

On their knees and panting from their splitting headache, Gordan reluctantly allowed an insistent Noirallé to take the helm after a brief and rushed conversation: 

‘ This seems hella dangerous but it’s definitely your business and you probably know a lot more’n me anyways !’ 

‘ Correct on both accounts, now let me out.’ 

Not bothering to “verbally” respond, Gordan ceded control to the Theon, who managed to rise to her feet after a couple moments. Struggling to remain calm in the face of all these uncertainties and the writhing mess of flesh in front of her, Noirallé tried, “You... I do not know why, but I cannot help but think of Mother when I look at you. I will ask my host and I’s previous question: Who are you, really?” 

Double halted its advance for a moment, eye and head as a whole becoming oddly still until it replied, somewhat wrathfully, “ How many times must I repeat myself? What you see before you is a vassal for the Mother and her daughters. Nothing more and nothing less .” 

“And yet I cannot help but doubt your words... I suppose I will not be getting anything more out of you, however, and I am not too keen on fighting you without knowing what you are capable of...” Swallowing her pride, she continued, “Very well, but before we start, I must have some proof of what you claim to be. If the Trinity are really there, observing Gordan and I, tell me: What happened to them all those eons ago?” 

Noirallé had to hold back on adding a “besides die” to that sentence. She felt a familiar sense of trepidation as Double came to a stop about a meter away, its towering height and golden crown casting a long shadow and encompassing Noirallé while giving her an awfully sharp tinge of déjà vu. 

“ The traitor-queen’s betrayal resulted in our goddesses’ deaths. Such powerful forces and souls as theirs cannot be so easily done away with, however. They yet linger in a place far away from this world, watching and casting their absolute judgement upon this world. This body exists only to aid them to those ends. If you still desire additional proof, however ...’

Double’s head twitched for a moment, a strange hole forming on someplace approximating a normal position for a mouth, before a voice, muffled and static-y as if being spoken through a microphone of poor quality, said, “C’mon, Noir’, what’ve we told you about being so paranoid?” 

The Theon’s borrowed body froze up completely at that familiar voice. Before she could recover, another, more docile voice inserted, “Indeed, Noirall é. We are here.” 

Finally, a voice that was somehow simultaneously motherly yet commanding stated, “It is as our puppet says, Noirallé. You trust us, do you not? Then extend that trust to this puppet of ours, for it is indeed an extension of our will.” 

Double twitched again, hole disappearing as Double stared at Noirallé, likely wanting her to make an immediate decision. The Theon was indeed under no small amount of pressure, memories of ages long past flashing through her memories and the rising and lowering opinions of her creator and her daughters all in a few drawn-out seconds until--

‘ Look, Noir’, I know you’ve got a lotta history here, but I’d rather not jump straight into any sort of relation with this ultra-spooky freak a’ nature. Plus she’s definitely an associate of the Skullgirl, and that don’t exactly give this thing any trust points. ‘S your call, but I don’t think --’ 

There was the sound of small footsteps descending the stairs, a refreshing break from Double’s constant, unnerving squelching. Noirallé turned around to look at the new entrant only to freeze up yet again, in spite of correctly anticipating who this stranger was. The Theon instantly recognized the glowing red, strangely shaped pupils, the maid uniform and the disturbingly young appearance of this person from several recent news articles. 

“What is going on here, Double? Who is this?” came the current Skullgirl’s young, strangely echo-y voice, acting the role of interruption-ception. Her outfit had little flecks of still-drying blood on it, and her expression was weary yet slightly curious as well. 

‘ Okay, this is enough bullshit for you to deal with for like, two weeks, and I have so many questions for this girl , sooo ...’ Noirallé was too caught up in her sort-of panic attack to bother fighting off her partner’s reach for control. Their shared body underwent its usual momentary shuddering and shifting as Gordan took control. 

Double, meanwhile, huffed through a number of temporarily formed mouths, clearly displeased with the Skullgirl’s entrance. Briefly scanning the young girl, the monster said, “ Marie. You are back earlier than I had anticipated. Your justice has been exacted, I assume ?” 

“Indeed. Meanwhile, you are here , conversing with a stranger without informing me. I assume this person is important to you so as to not be killed or consumed or what have you. Explain, Double.” The Skullgirl’s eyes were narrowed just a tad in challenge. 

“It is not this foolish mortal shell that is important but the Theon it contains,” Double clarified, not appearing to care about its objectifying of Gordan. “You would do well not to interrupt us further, Marie; we were about to come to an important understanding.” 

“Uhh, if I can give my own, more informed and honest take?” The bravado Gordan tried to assure Noirallé fell apart almost immediately as three bright red pupils turned to gaze at him. 

“Since you are likely going to be honest and since you are in no position to try anything...” 

“ Do you know who and what you are making requests of, foolish human ?” 

At their simultaneous statements, the two monsters shifted their attention and began a stare-down, challenging each other’s authority. A couple seconds of estranged silence went by before Gordan next said, “I’m just uh, gonna start anyways, ‘cause you two seem pretty intent on arguing and I’d rather not be nearby when that happens?” 

The other two broke their staring contest at the same time to turn to Gordan, Marie giving a silent nod and Double simply growling but making no move to stop the man. 

“Okay, so, uh, Double here, in disguise up there,” he pointed up to clarify, “pretty much threatened me into coming down here ‘cause... it? They? She? Double, what the hell do you even identify as? You have this vaguely feminine shape and voice but I really can’t tell for sure.” The human was a bit too hysterical to acknowledge how off-track he was already getting. 

The shapeshifter gave a more pronounced growl, followed up by, “ This body has no gender alignment because it is a thing, not a person. Its shape is merely imposed by the goddesses. How often must I repeat myself ?” 

“Okay, you call yourself a thing but you’re also saying “I”... You know what, whatever, you wanna be an it , you’re an it . Anyways ! It threatened me down here, and due to some sorta-split personality nonsense, I’m here earlier than expected. Double was using the Trinity’s voices, I think, to try and goad my Theon friend into trusting it. I wasn’t exactly immediately trusting for what’re probably obvious reasons, but my partner was freaking out because she probably trusted the Trinity way back when or something? Her and I need to talk about that, I think, she’s super cagey about this stuff no matter how much I ask--” 

Another growl, this time from inside. Gordan ignored Noirallé, a bit too caught up in his rambling to acknowledge her reaction. 

“--and also I’m not too sure what to think about the Trinity maybe still being alive and watching us? Especially me? Also I think I’m starting to freak the fuck out because I am being stared and judged at by a couple a’ killing machines !!” 

That last part was almost shouted, Gordan panting for a couple seconds as he tried and partly succeeded in calming down. Marie looked at the man with a slight expression of shock while Double’s sole eye was quirked upward to vaguely resemble amusement. Reacting partly to what he just said and to Noirallé’s near-instinctive aggravation at his swearing around children, he continued, “Uh, sorry ‘bout that, I’m uh, kinda fearin’ for my life right now.” 

The Skullgirl calmly said, “Understandable. You had best continue speaking for your sake, however.” Her tone brokered no room for argument, nor did her narrowed eyes. 

Gordan again stammered, “Right, okay, uh. Where was I. Oh, yeah, so, my friend and Double were talking, you entered, then I took over while you distracted Double ‘cause I didn’t want her doin’ anything stupid without my consent, which she may a’ done. Thanks for the save, by the way, your timing was really on-point and saved us... some... trouble.” Gordan reconsidered his words as they left his mouth. “Okay, I sounded pretty stupid considering I’m saying that to you , the friggin’ Skullgirl , but you get my point, right?” 

Said Skullgirl’s expression was initially affronted but shifted to resigned as she said, “Yes, I suppose I can see that. And it is a good thing you tried to guide your friend away from Double -- the Trinity are not to be trusted.” 

The shapeshifter hissed at the girl’s words, multiple mouths forming along its body and frowning with a grotesque degree of expressiveness. “ I have tolerated your heresy time and time again, foolish child. Remember that your position is one that can easily be substituted .” 

“I would like to see you try, abomination .” Another stare-down ensued, Gordan having to once again break up the tension by saying, “Again, I’d rather you two not start a fight when I’m nearby ‘cause I’m probably gonna get caught in the cross-fire, so ! Can I maybe ask you a couple questions, Marie? And maybe we can work this out peacefully?” 

Double inserted, “ And what makes you think you think that will matter, considering the fact that you will die here if you do not swear your allegiance to our goddesses ?” 

Having burned through at least some of his hysteria, Gordan managed to put on a bit of genuine bravado this time. “Because Noir’s not gonna tell you anything if I die, regardless of whether you get her a new host in time or not. She’s stubborn like that, plus she’s gotta lotta stuff in those weird crystal-y brains of hers that I think you might wanna hear. Kill me if you want, but you’re gonna lose access to a lotta valuable intel that she’s been gettin’ over the past several years if you do.” 

The intel-centric argument was reluctantly brought up by Noirallé, and their combination of logic and commanding delivery seemed to get to the monster, who again growled in aggravation rather than giving an articulate response. 

“And besides, I’m not gonna tell anyone what’s happening here ‘cause they’ll probably just die.” Gordan then turned with a certain amount of slow, dramatic flair to look at Marie. “It also helps that I think you’re not actually that bad of a person, Marie.” Gordan had both earnest conviction and trepidation in his eyes, gaze momentarily flicking to the blood on Marie’s person. “I noticed you’ve only been going after the Medicis and their operations, right?” 

The Skullgirl’s features scrunched up, apparently wary. “Yes. And your point is?” 

“Well, in that case: Yeah, you’re a killer, but of all the people to go after, I’d say you’re targeting the right people. The fact that those assholes are still kicking and screaming after all the blatant cruelty they’ve been up to is just a friggin’ tragedy, and it pisses me the hell off just thinkin’ they’re still around and manipulatin’ people into thinking they’re the good guys. And, ah, well...” 

Marie’s eyes held a certain degree of respect in them, apparently Gordan’s fervent opinions to be very agreeable ones. However, as the human trailed off, her eyes narrowed, urging him to continue. Gordan was a bit spooked at the thought of offending this highly dangerous child, and so he did exclaim, “You’re a friggin’ kid !! Like, holy shit , Skullgirl or not, I’m not gonna try and fight or get in the way of this kid tryin’ to do the right thing, ‘least as far as I can see! Not like I’d stand a chance in a fight anyways, not with you or probably Double, no sirree, I am steering way clear a’ that!” 

Again, the Skullgirl’s expression became shocked, not expecting that sort of opinion from Gordan. Trying to poke a hole of doubt to really get a feel for him, Marie responded, “Child or not, I am still the Skullgirl. Do you not have some societal duty to have me killed, directly or no?” 

“Man, if society wants me to kill you, I’m gonna havta to tell society to screw off! The fact that you didn’t just kill me on sight, have been patient with my nervous blubberin’ and are going after the actually bad people tells me you’re still more or less yourself, and again, I am not hurting a child!” 

The pale girl’s grip on her vacuum (and Gordan certainly found her maid outfit and apparent weapon of choice strange, if not incredibly uncomfortable in its connotations) slackened, as did most of her features and posture. “You... are strange,” she said, apparently at a loss for words. 

The same could not be said for Double. “ Such naïveté will spell your doom, foolish son of Man. Marie ,” it began to command, shifting in place to look at the girl, “ we have already said too much. You must end this fool before he discloses our whereabouts .”

Gordan was unsurprised by this turn of misfortune but still felt unable to stop the rush of nervous tension that ran up his spine. Before he could try to come up with a second reason to not be slaughtered, aid came from an unexpected source. 

“No.” Righteous, long-standing defiance somehow managed to seeth off of that one word from Marie. 

In response, the monster’s bulbous face morphed and shifted to reveal that eerie half-face from earlier. Scrawny, veiny arms formed, hands clenched together in front of the shapeshifter’s midsection like a parent about to sternly berate a petulant child. “ Oh? You would dare to defy the ones who blessed you with this power, who gave you this opportunity to take sweet vengeance upon those who have wronged you so ?” 

“It is as you have just said: I use this power to slaughter the evil and the obstacles in the way of that goal. This man is neither,” Marie reasoned, surprising Gordan with her overt display of trust. 

Double merely growled again, and before the human knew what was happening the monster was right in his face, a hand far too strong with how stringy it looked lifting him up and choking him. “ I’m afraid that Noirall é’s information had been deemed unnecessary in the wake of your knowing about us ,” it said, grinning with a frightently toothy smile as a fleshy tendril rose from the ground and sharpened at the end. Just as it was about to thrust forward and skewer Gordan, a hail of precisely aimed bullets annihilated the offending appendage and the hand that held Gordan. Hissing, the shapeshifter had little choice but to release Gordan, who propped himself up, coughing furiously. 

“ You are making a grave mistake, foolish child ,” Double warned once again, shooting a murderous look at the well-dressed skeleton armed with a tommy gun that had harmed it before redirecting that stare to Marie. 

The girl met the abomination’s gaze calmly and evenly before huffing, “Clearly you will not back down from this... Very well then, Monster. I’ve a proposal.” 

“... Choose your words carefully, child .” 

Much like Gordan, Marie evidently did not like repeatedly being called a child by the shapeshifter, but calmed down and thought for a couple seconds before arguing her case. “We will let this man live, and you will extract what information you want from his partner. He will additionally act as our eyes and ears for the public world and will periodically share with any information he finds relevant, all while keeping to his word of not revealing our whereabouts. Does this not seem advantageous enough to warrant his living?” 

“ You make the generous assumption that this man will follow through with this agreement. Furthermore, we already have an agent to accomplish such potential tasks ,” Double readily countered. 

“I mean, I don’t doubt you two could just track me down and kill me if you really wanted, so, uhhh, I don’t think I have much choice?” Gordan dared to interrupt again, having had to take several seconds to catch his breath and calm down yet again. 

Marie glanced toward him for just a moment before saying to the shapeshifter, “He isn’t wrong.” 

Double’s body morphed in several places, roughly half of its spontaneously created eyes twisting and snarling in aggravation and the other half closing hard, thinking. Eventually, the monster’s form normalized, saying, “ You are lucky indeed that the Trinity still desire Noirallé’s cooperation, meagerly human. You may leave after we have set our terms for your service .” 

The man’s relief was virtually palpable. “Okay, phew , thank you for sparing my adorable lil’ life... Uh, am I going to have any sort of say over the terms, ‘cause--” 

“ Marie and I shall discuss, and you may futilely argue after .” 

“--Oh, okay then.” 

With that sort-of agreement being reached, the Skullgirl and the shapeshifter went away a short distance, convening near the catacombs’ entrance. They didn’t bother huddling close or lowering their voices, knowing the human’s opinions likely wouldn’t make much difference until their discussion was over. A couple minutes passed before the two broke, approaching Gordan again. Marie opened, “You will be on the lookout for any relevant information pertaining to us. It needn’t matter if the words are from ordinary people, government officials, or what have you; you will share with us anything that seems remotely significant to us or our operations.” 

“Okay.” 

“You will also be on the lookout for any information regarding the Medicis. If you catch wind of any of their operations, you will let us know at the earliest possible opportunity.” 

“If that means you’ll go beat ‘em up, gladly.” 

Yet again, the Skullgirl’s expression softened just a bit for just a moment at Gordan’s shared hatred of the criminal organization before her features hardened, becoming strictly professional as she continued, “If you do not find anything relevant to share, you will meet with us every week, preferably sometime during this day. Double will know if you are here and come running when she realizes that. If you are incapable of making those times, one of us will find and meet you personally and exact whatever punishment we feel is warranted if you lack a legitimate reason to not be here.” 

“Okay... Hang on, can I say something really quick?” 

A nod from the Skullgirl. 

“How’s about I just get you like, a cheap phone or a walkie-talkie something, so we can avoid drama with that?” 

Marie thought for a few moments. “Phone signals and such can be tracked; the Kingdom can be rather thorough with checking for that sort of thing, particularly here in New Meridian. It is a decent idea, but there is too much risk.” 

Gordan reluctantly agreed with her reasoning, saying, “You’re pretty sharp, kid. Alright.”   

“Hmm. When you come here every week, Double will ask Noirallé for information on whatever she sees fit. You will not be directly punished if Noirallé finds her resources lacking, but if your usefulness on this front expires, then I cannot guarantee that Double will simply end you at a moment’s notice.” 

Said shapeshifter formed a few mouths just to grin eerily, apparently agreeing with Marie’s statement. 

“Uhh, alright?” 

“Lastly, and perhaps this goes without saying: If we find out that you are leaking anything about us to anyone , there is a very good chance that we will be forced to kill you. Those are our terms. Do you understand them?” 

Gordan responded in the affirmative, waiting for a second for Noirallé to confirm her agreement and becoming a bit befuddled when she didn’t say a thing. “Uh, hold on a sec’, please?” 

‘ Yo, Noir’, you there? Hello ?’ 

That direct referral appeared to break her surprising streak of radio silence. ‘ Apologies, I was thinking rather heavily and admittedly was panicking a touch. I have been listening, more or less. I do not think we have much choice but to meet their demands .’ 

‘ Yyyup .’ 

“Well it’s literally do or die, so I guess I’ll go with your deal,” Gordan readily conceded. 

Marie’s expression didn’t take an upturn , per se, but it did become a bit less severe at the human’s agreement. “Good. Go now, Gordon. Double will unlock the front door for you.” 

The monster disappeared the moment the Skullgirl finished that first sentence. 

“Will do. And uh, Marie, I’m really not tryin’ to come across as patronizing or creepy here, but, ah...” He took a moment to compose his thoughts and feelings about Marie’s wretched situation. “If you ever feel the need to like, hug it out or share your story or something, I can be there for ya. Lotta Skullgirls just kinda have their personal histories brushed under the rug after they, ah, turn , and I’d rather that not happen to you.” 

‘ Gordan, what--’ 

“That is... an interesting proposition,” Marie said, thoughtful. “Not the hugging part -- I have not needed nor wanted those for quite some time -- but rather the chance to share my story... I will consider it. Now go, before the abomination decides to slaughter you for keeping it waiting.” 

“Hahah, yeah, right,” Gordan said, again nervous as he paced over to the stairs and began his exit from the cathedral. 

As the man ascended into the main floor of the cathedral, he felt a certain weight being relieved from his shoulders, the halting of Theonite in the air resonating with the same substance flowing in his body coming as quite the relief. He also felt inexplicably hungry as the sensations left him. Gordan let out a hum at this, uncertain. He decided to ask his friend about this later, however, figuring there were more important things to come, namely getting out of the Grand Cathedral ASAP. 

Gordon was a bit nervous at the broken window and the ruined floorboard, and he hoped that the shapeshifter would be able to patch his mess up without drawing the wrong (or perhaps right) kinds of attention to either of them. The front door was already unlocked, Double nowhere in sight. Noirallé enhanced Gordan’s vision and hearing, and the two were simultaneously relieved and unnerved by the monster’s lack of presence. Gordan did one final scan around the room as they slowly creaked open the door, closing it behind him and mightily resisting the urge to slump down from exhaustion then and there. 

‘ Holy shit, Noir’, that’s like, the third or fourth big and dangerous mystery we’ve gotten involved in .’ 

‘ Indeed ,’ the Theon replied, still seeming deep in thought. 

‘... Do you want some time to yourself? You’ve clearly got a lot on your mind .’ 

Noirallé gave a brief sigh before saying, ‘ That would be very much appreciated, Gordan .’ 

‘ Alright. Better just leave here for now, pretty sure I wanted to crash at Yu-Wan’s and conk out five minutes ago.’ 

With that immediate goal being set, Gordan looked up the nearest train station and headed back to his temporary home.