IV: Abschussen im Dunkeln

[Nayt]

"Beats me," he said to Cyril's question.

Cyril wasn't going to get anywhere with that line of questioning. Jyre either truly didn't know or wasn't willing to expound upon the idea . . . though, considering how honest he'd been thus far, there was a fair chance he was telling the truth. Nevertheless, that was a dead end. That was fine, though, because Cyril was done asking questions. Or, at the very least, Jyre was done entertaining any further questions 'til he'd gotten a few important ones in, himself. Unfortunately for Cyril, this was fairly important . . .

"So, you came in with that shade--no idea where she came from?" Jyre asked rhetorically.

He set his hands down upon the top rung of Cyril's chair. The man would be able to feel Jyre's fingers over his shoulders. Impossible though it may have seemed, it was easy to imagine that this man was capable of ripping Cyril in half with only his fingertips.

The worst part was that Jyre didn't want to kill Cyril.

"That's a problem," he said, "'Cause first, shades don't venture into this city. And second, a hungry shade'll hunt for adrenaline wherever it can. That li'l lady's hungry, but refuses livin' animals; all she wants is a drink o'water and a candy bar . . ."

[Ramlock]

Cyril might have moved forward a bit when Jyre put his hands behind his shoulders... If it was possible. Cyril didn't really like where the line of questioning was going, if only because... Well, Cyril honestly didn't know. And if Jyre was upset about that fact... Well, it made a bit of sense. Baht was halfway between these Ersatzshad and a shade, and they wanted to know why... Particularly how they could be free of needing that adrenaline...

"Her and her two little companions came up and found us. I don't know why, and I don't know why they seemed to want to come with us. Or why they were willing to come into the city while the other shades aren't. And I have no idea why she would eat a candy bar instead of try to kill us... They're almost like little kids. Well, two kids and a dog."

Really, Cyril hadn't trusted them at all for a long time... But they had grown on him. Cyril didn't like to think of what may be happening to Baht while he sat relatively safely in his cell... He wasn't sure just how these people would treat her when they really wanted to know something about her inner workings...

[Nayt]

Cyril's answer would've been less than satisfactory were it not for the fact that he'd said two things of interest: that there were three of these little shades and more people like Cyril. He'd specifically used the word us. Right now, that was good enough for Jyre.

"All right . . ." Jyre trailed off.

He drummed his fingertips across Cyril's shoulders, which was a lot less mild and painless than it sounded. It was more like being repeatedly hit with small bricks at ten miles an hour.

"I can trust you, right Cyril?"

There was only one right answer to this question . . .

[Ramlock]

Cyril winced as Jyre felt to be slamming his hands across Cyril's shoulders. Cyril's head started throbbing again, and he clenched his jaw and waited for his captor to finish. It was rather impressive, really... He had a lot of strength. More than even really made sense...

"You are my jailer and I am your prisoner. Of course you can trust me."

Cyril's remark, of course, could be taken in pretty much any way. He couldn't be trusted. Jyre would be a fool to trust him, and Cyril didn't really care to lie to him. He could be trusted for exactly as long as he was captive... And even then, only as long as there was no conceivable means of escape. And at the moment, as Jyre made physically pretty clear, there wasn't a whole lot of hope...

[Nayt]

"Good," Jyre said.

He sounded accepting enough. Even a little bit lighthearted . . . if a lighthearted response from this man could be considered a good thing, however, was a completely different debate.

Nevertheless, Jyre undid Cyril's bindings. He did it without a knife or even bothering with the knot, though. All he did was wrap his fingers around a strip of rope behind Cyril's back and tug in opposite directions. The rope snapped a branch in a hurricane--absolutely effortless. Cyril's former bindings would drape over his body uselessly, allowing him the luxury of standing whenever he saw fit.

As Jyre passed Cyril by, he remarked casually, "I'd ask that you not break my trust in you. That would be very, very uncouth."

That would be the final correspondence between Cyril and Jyre for now, as Jyre stepped out of the door, close it behind him, and began to walk away.

[Ramlock]

Cyril didn't really need to be reminded. He had heard what happened to Nia just a short time ago, with no measurable effect to show for it aside from a lot of pain on her part. The fact that Jyre could pull apart rope was also plenty ridiculous. And if he was here, what the hell was on the other side? Really... The real world wouldn't stand a chance against an army like that...

"I appreciate not being eaten, personally. It sounds fair to me..."

Cyril didn't immediately stand, instead taking the opportunity to hold the back of his head. He was still somewhat upset at that... He voluntarily surrendered only to be beaten across the head and locked up with criminals... Because he was human? Maybe one of these people would have had the same experience in the real world. Still, there was no reason for it... And now he was being held by a "polite" jailer... If the first guy had been polite, Cyril wouldn't have been locked up in a cell, now... And there was little to do but wait. Cyril couldn't even really be sure when or if Jyre was listening...

[Nayt]

Cyril was effectively left to his own devices. He had little to use, though; he had a chair, some rope, bars in a window, a tightly locked and shut door, and the ever dimming sound of soft sobbing . . .

---

IV.8 Shots in the Dark

Usurii was poised upon the edge of her couch. Her leg bounced by the ball of her foot, shaking the floor with quick intervals. She took in a deep breath, but soon held her head in her hands and sighed. She bit her lower lip, looked up at the door, and looked down at the coffee table again.

Isac was out with Mimi. They were going to be back any time. Usurii decided to just relax; she stayed at home in her pajamas, a tank top and underwear, and resigned to doing nothing for the rest of the day. She wanted to just lay down for the rest of the day. Why? Pain. She'd woken up uncomfortable, which soon became pain. Mimi was being particularly loud, which wasn't her fault. She was just a kid, full of boundless energy and curiosity. Of course she was going to bounce off the walls. It just wasn't a good idea when Usurii was having a bad day. She asked Isac to take Mimi out somewhere; she didn't care where, just that there was less noise in the house for awhile.

And then . . . well . . .

"Come on, Isac," she sighed.

[Zach Kaiser]

In what would no doubt seem like serendipitous timing, almost immediately after the door of the house would open and Isac Hazker would return, with the young girl in tow.

Any kind of amazing reaction that would potentially come at the marvelous timing would likely be offset by what he said as soon as he opened the door: "Oh, good! Right one this time."

[Nayt]

Usurii practically jumped out of her chair. She wanted to just shout Isac's name as excitedly as she could, but she refrained, if only because the act of standing up sent her head through all kinds of horrible pains. She slumped back down upon the couch instead, holding her cranium all the while.

"Usuriiii," Mimi intoned sadly, "Are you still feeling bad?"

Mimi, over the course of just a few days with them, was learning tremendously. They'd actually undertaken the effort of trying to teach her, and the fruits of their labor was so readily noticeable. Her vocabulary and understanding of the Common language was easily adolescent, now. She didn't even speak in the third person anymore.

Usurii nodded her head. "Y-- yeah. I'll be okay. Um, I just need to speak with Isac . . ."

"Okay!" Mimi chimed.

She remained in the room, though. Intelligent though she may have been, she was still utterly incapable of noticing subtle hints.

[Zach Kaiser]

Isac was fortunately capable of picking up on subtler things than Mimi...if only just. In his more self-aware moments, he wondered if this was due to the amnesia or if it was just how he was. He sort of hoped for the former; whoever he really was, he would have liked to be a bit less of a space case.

"H-Hey, Mimi, why don't you go to your room for a bit?" he suggested. Fortunately, Mimi's inability to grasp the subtleties of social situations worked both ways, as she would probably agree without thinking twice about it.

Once she'd left the room, he turned to Usurii, no longer masking his concern. "What's wrong?" he asked. "W-Wait...you need some of the pills, right?" He understood that Usurii (and probably most Ersatzshad by extension) got sick if they went too long without having them, and eventually died if they didn't get them at all. Perhaps he was simply more resistant to "hunger," because although he took them at the same time as Usurii, he never get got sick even when she did.

[Nayt]

"Oh," Mimi looked between Usurii and Isac.

At first it may have seemed like she got it, that Isac's suggestion was a less subtle version of Usurii's hint--but no, that wasn't the case at all.

"Okay!" she chimed, turned and headed down the hall towards her room.

Usurii smiled weakly at Mimi. She was a good girl. Any mother would have been blessed to have Mimi as a daughter. She learned so quickly and she didn't have a mean spirited bone in her body. If you said something she disagreed with, the worst that happened was that she stormed off to her room . . .

Reflections aside, Usurii looked to Isac with a shake of her head. "I-- no, I took my pill yesterday."

It was sweet of him to ask, though. Usurii knew that if she really needed a dosage, neither hell nor high water would stop Isac from getting it for her.

[Zach Kaiser]

"O-Oh, you did?" That was not what he expected. It made him wonder if took his. He didn't remember taking it, but perhaps it slipped his mind? He'd have to check later. They kept their supplies separate, so if he looked so see how many he had left and how many Usurii had left he'd be able to tell if he took his or not. She rarely reminded him about his pills; she was pretty good about everything else, but he suspected she thought he'd be embarrassed that he periodically basically forgot to eat.

Now that he thought about it, that was kind of embarrassing, really.

His mind snapped back, as he realized something. "Wait...if that's not it, then what's wrong?" Now he was really worried. He knew how to fix the other problem: go get some pills from the "master." But if she was sick and it wasn't because she hadn't taken her pills, then what what he supposed to do to help?

[Nayt]

"Yeah," she nodded at his rhetorical question, "Master actually renewed our doses the other day, too. We have enough for another few months."

Which was decidedly important for Ersatshad--especially Usurii. As one of the earlier Ersatzshad, she needed this particular medication more than most later Ersatzshad. But she was all stocked up, so she was fine. After Isac's question, though, she stood up and consciously refrained from pacing. Instead, she decided to do something productive whilst she was still standing and wrought with the urge to pace.

"Ummmmm, I-- Isac, um, would you like to sit down?" she asked, "I can make you some tea."

It was definitely dodging the question, but she wanted him to be comfortable, at least. Actually, in early hindsight, tea might not have been the best idea. Or any drink, for that matter.

[Zach Kaiser]

Usurii was being awfully courteous. Well, she usually was, she was a nice person after all, but people weren't usually this courteous when they were sick. Or so he thought. He hadn't actually gotten sick as far as he could remember (which admittedly wasn't far), but Usurii did, and she was still courteous but usually a little less so. But it didn't bother him, as after all she was sick.

Hmmm...what was I doing aga-oh, right. "I'm fine," he responded after the kind of pause Usurii was probably used to getting from him every so often. "Shouldn't I be offering to get you things and seeing if you want to sit down?" He started sounding like he suspected something was up and then halfway through the sentence stopped being sure so the question was somewhat genuine.

[Nayt]

"N-- no, that's fine," Usurii shook her head quickly, "I'll go put some tea on."

And with that, she effectively scurried off to the kitchen. It actually wasn't a place she occupied too often. They ate lightly and usually out of cans (but then again, most Ersatzshad did), which greatly reduced the time anyone spent in her kitchen. But today, she spent a great deal of time there. She put their tea on and she waited until it was done before she even began to head back into the living room. And even then, she made sure to actually pour their tea before hand, put in the proper amount of sugar, stirred it in, took a deep breath, started for the room, paused, took another deep breath, and finally entered the living room. There, Usurii set the tea cups on her coffee table and sat down by Isac's side. Hopefully. If he were sitting down, at least . . .

Then she waited . . .

Of course, the act of getting up and making tea didn't make her head feel better. Or the rest of her body, for that matter, but she was at least preoccupied during the process.