Chapter Text
Another summer has passed
In the depths of merging crowds
I find you once more
Getting out of Penacony is almost akin to arriving on static ground after a deep swim… more so than Ratio thought, at least. The trip, albeit haste, had been oddly imprinted in him. Of all the research he has done, all the books he had scoured, this opportunity to study the constant leakage of memoria in the planet tugs on him slightly stronger than he would have expected.
He groans at the thought. Would it be too haughty of him to march up to the IPC office and demand a vacation with specificities in his mind? Well, it isn’t that his reputation says otherwise, not that it would bother him either. If he tries, perhaps he could actually land one.
Speak of the devil.
It is hardly surprising when he gets a cryptic message from the Strategic Investment Department right when he steps foot into the Space Station after his landing.
He sighs and opens his phone, clicking on the number.
<Strategic Investment Dept.> Dr Ratio, please come to the office. It’s urgent.
<Veritas Ratio> And this is?
<Offline>
He clicks his tongue, putting his phone away. He had just finished their most recent mission with a certain someone in their department… not that the corporation itself is aware of such an event. Ratio still desperately longs for his peace. IPC does not provide him with any. In fact, it is quite the contrary; for some weird reason, he is always roped into situations he’d rather not be a part of.
Ratio sighs and looks out the window.
He’d have to postpone his meeting with Herta for a while.
“He did not tell me where he went,” Ratio says. He crosses his arms. “Besides, I assumed he would have already reached your office in all of his pompousness and enthusiasm.”
Jade gives him a dry laugh, her fingers playing around with a pair of dice on the table. “You don’t think I know my subordinate well enough?”
Of course, she does. Why wouldn’t she? She and her barbaric bosses are probably the reason why things turned out the way they did. Even so, did he not fulfill most of his agendas single-handedly? It is difficult to understand all of this suspicion and anxiety then.
Jade does know him well enough to know that those baseless accusations are wrong.
But, Ratio knows him too.
“Aventurine may have been alone, but you and I both know that he has suspended all contacts a bit too soon.” Jade cuts to the chase. “And it has been too long. I don’t want to presume that he is dead.”
“Hm,” Ratio narrows his eyes, “and you think he vanished in thin air. I didn’t know magic shows were his forte.”
Jade smiles. “I think he ran.”
“You don’t know him at all then.”
“My, no need to get so defensive,” Jade says, letting out a laugh. “It’s just that the IPC needs their stratagem back.” She sighs and for the first time, there is some seriousness in her tone. “The department cannot function to it’s finest with a lack of its most essential members. Besides, Diamond had planned a rather… celebratory meeting and well, I’m afraid things aren’t exactly in control without him around.”
Ratio almost wants to laugh. Doesn’t everything about the IPC revolve around this very notion? Their incomprehensible need to be in control of everything in the universe is the sole reason for perhaps every other calamity in the galaxy at this point. Is this really what they think would grab the attention of their beloved Aeon?
Ratio digresses.
In the end, no matter how strong their disparities may be, the IPC handles the funding for the Intelligentsia Guild. Members like him provide them with the help they need as long as it remains under their own pursuit of knowledge around the galaxy. It is a symbiotic relationship. And Ratio, of all people, knows that the one to cut ties from such a relationship suffers first.
“You said this was urgent,” Ratio reminds her. “I’d appreciate it if you’d get to the point then.”
“I need you to find Aventurine.”
Ratio blinks. He crosses his arms right after. “I hope you’re not under the assumption that he gave me a map before disappearing.” He scoffs. “Besides, I am a consultant, not your employee.”
“Mm, this operation was signed by Yabuli,” Jade says, leaning against her chair. “We’ll cover your expenses. Feel free to spend as much as you need.”
Ah. So it isn’t a request. It is a demand.
“Deadline?”
Jade smiles. “Take a month.”
A month to search the entire universe to find a particularly evasive man; the logic of it all sounds so inhumanly pathetic that Ratio almost wants to rip his own hair out of his skull.
He won’t do that.
Besides, it is an unusual circumstance. Aventurine has no reason to disappear if he really thinks about it. He had a mission. He performed his role. He gained profit. He was supposed to be rewarded.
Why would he run?
If he were anyone else, Ratio would have rejected the mission entirely. It makes absolutely no sense for him to take it upon himself anyway.
The thing is, however, that he knows Aventurine. A bit too well for his liking, really.
“Why am I even doing this?” Ratio groans, pulling up the coordinates on his ship.
The announcement blares over his screen in an eerily jolly way.
Next stop: Penacony-Planet of Festivities!
The Golden Hour is bustling as ever when Ratio wakes up. Or rather… when he falls asleep. Regardless, he stands in front of the Clockie Statue, the atmosphere unnaturally all familiar to him by now. How long did he actually spend inside the dreamscape during the Penacony crisis really?
Sighing, he looks around. The nauseatingly happy faces around him look like they’ve been pulled right out of a children’s book. It isn’t really the absence of pain that keeps pulling people inside the dreamscape, Ratio thinks. It might just be the false sense of distraction which makes them yearn for such peace.
Even so, living inside a dream forever doesn’t sound all that fulfilling to him.
The truth remains outside the dream, in the end, among the planets and the stars. The dreamscape will never give answers. All it gives is lies.
Ratio turns around to walk towards the other end. For now, the truth that he is looking for lies here, in the dreamscape.
So, he walks up to a manhole and enters it.
“Did you know?” Aventurine laughs. “Who am I kidding? Of course, you knew. You’re a genius, after all.”
His carefree sight never ceases to amaze Ratio. He doesn’t think he has even seen the smile on his face break down in the midst of any of their expeditions. It does take a special talent altogether to keep holding on to a mask.
Aventurine leans against the railing, letting his arms dangle down. He doesn’t look up to see Ratio walking towards him.
Well, at least he still has his baseless confidence.
Ratio stops beside him and looks at the same sky that Aventurine gazes at. Falling stars; about a hundred or a thousand floating down slowly. It is beautiful in a mundane way and something about it makes Ratio almost wish it was real.
“I assumed you had a plan,” Ratio says. Aventurine smiles and Ratio continues. “Perhaps something far deeper than mere destruction.”
Aventurine still doesn’t face him.
“You underestimate me, Doctor.” He sighs. “Well then, tell me. What do you want?”
“Answers.”
“I don’t have any.” He shrugs.
Ratio glances at him. “I’ll see that for myself.”
A part of him really hoped that Aventurine would be okay. He is self-destructive in more ways than one and Ratio may not understand it, but this incessant, nagging side of him doesn’t allow him to turn a blind eye.
Aventurine hums a tune under his breath. Ratio has never heard it before.
“Have you deduced why I’m here?” Aventurine asks, finally looking at him.
Ratio doesn’t hesitate. “Because Penacony is the last place anybody would search for you.”
Aventurine’s smile increases. “And the first place you’d search.” He lets out a tiny laugh. “Guess I know you too well.”
It is eerie in a way. They haven’t known each other for all that long if he thinks about it. Aventurine is perceptive, though. He calculates the merits and demerits of being around someone before even befriending them. In a way, there is no harm in being careful, but if it were someone else, they would have immediately taken a few steps back.
Perhaps that is what Aventurine wants.
He hums. “The Family thinks like you.” Aventurine picks himself off the railing. “Turns out there are still supporters of the Order all around. They don’t believe Sunday’s dead. Pretty smart, I’d say.” He frowns. “Still annoying though.”
Ratio may not completely understand Sunday’s goals yet, nor does he need to. Idealism itself isn’t something terrible. Yet, taking things too far can leave behind consequences beyond anyone’s control. He wonders if those people supporting Sunday with nothing to stand on truly realise the absurdity of their faith.
Ratio doesn’t say anything. He looks past the railing and suddenly his eyes fall on a woman standing near the gates, looking up particularly at the duo.
Suspicious.
“We’re always being watched in Penacony, Doctor.” Aventurine smiles again. “This is where the Family rules.”
Something, however, doesn’t fit right.
The crisis was resolved. The Family isn’t supposed to hunt down an IPC worker.
Ratio grabs hold of Aventurine’s sleeve and pulls him away from the railing. As quickly as possible, he turns the avenue and enters into a gap large enough for them to fit apt between two enormous buildings. Aventurine doesn’t complain, following him obediently.
“What did you do?” Ratio asks the moment they stop walking.
“I di—wait,” Aventurine narrows his eyes, “why did you assume that I did something?”
“Your reputation precedes you.”
“WOW.”
Well, technically Aventurine did a lot of things during his time in Penacony, but all of those happenings were kept discreet with the courtesy of a deal struck between the IPC and Old Oti. The general people wouldn’t know Aventurine’s involvement, nor do they know that their beloved Sunday is a traitor and convict, imprisoned far away from their planet. The feud between the IPC and the Family had naturally died down and there must not be any cause for disturbance then. That leaves him with the conclusion that something else must be stewing that Ratio has missed during Aventurine’s disappearance.
Whatever it may be, he doesn’t have a particularly good feeling about it.
“We need to get out of here.” Ratio sighs.
“There’s no point.”
“Isn’t it better to not stay where the Family’s threat persists?”
“And you know of such a place?” Aventurine smiles. “Don’t forget that the IPC rules where the Family doesn’t.”
Ratio frowns, crossing his arms. “And why exactly are you running from the IPC? The last I heard, they were praising your feats.”
Aventurine hums, leaning against the wall behind him.
“I want a vacation.”
“Excuse me?”
“I want a vacation.”
“I heard you the first time.” Ratio sighs again. “Can’t you just apply for one? In what ways did you think it was smart to cut all contacts instead?”
“Ah,” Aventurine says, stretching his words leisurely. “I’m really not in the mood to listen to Jade and Diamond’s constant nitpicking at the moment. I don’t feel like going back.” He places one of his hands in his pocket. “Hm, in a way, Penacony sounds more fun than the IPC headquarters.”
“Do you understand that you are a wanted man, right now?” Ratio says. “They think you ran away.”
Aventurine snorts.
“Aventurine,” Ratio lets out a sharp breath, “by even interacting with you I’m breaking several rules.”
“My, my.” Aventurine laughs. “A little rebel, aren’t you?”
Ratio blinks at him. And then he places his palm over his head. He’s definitely going to get a headache.
“So,” Aventurine smiles, “any recommendations?”
Ratio had almost forgotten his initial mission. He was strictly told to bring Aventurine back. He can do so with ease, of course. But, forcing his hand on another individual sounds too harsh when he knows he is no stranger to Ratio.
The truth, however, remains that Aventurine broke a cornerstone. That cannot possibly go unpunished. Is he scared of the consequences of his own gamble? No, that doesn’t sound like him. At the very least, it cannot be the reason to make a rash decision such as this. Jade did mention a meeting. Perhaps they will decide Aventurine’s fate. Is he, perhaps, delaying it? What would Ratio have done in his place?
He frowns. He doesn’t really know.
Such a dilemma. Ratio groans in the end. “I… do have a place in mind.”