He'd finally gotten here, but it was just as eerily empty and quiet as everywhere else. There weren't even any obvious signs of people talking inside. For a second, he feared that maybe something had happened, but he quickly pushed aside that thought. He was going to end up as bad as Herr Forehead if he kept jumping to conclusions out of nowhere like that.
Klavier shifted the flashlight and pipe to one hand and knocked civily against the door with two steady raps.
Consciousness was a fickle creature tonight. It shifted its grip throughout dinner, leaving Nigredo generally disoriented and unaware. His roommate might have done most anything in the room-- The child wouldn't have known or cared about the details. He simply stayed in bed, eyes turned to the ceiling, never fully able to sleep despite the sheer need.
Because every time he closed his eyes, Rubedo's gift was sure to emerge. And there were no distractions, no second brother to wipe the image clean. (Clean? He wanted it gone.)
The child slipped a hand over his mouth. Vaguely, he heard the intercom crackle to life, the once missing Head Doctor cementing his presence, only his attention remained fixed on elsewhere and other people. Any words became fog; Nigredo was too tired to grasp their meaning.
{Nigredo, I--}Except for one. The boy snapped open his eyes and climbed to his elbows, in time to catch the door shutting. But Nigredo hadn't seen his roommate's departure or heard the tiny click of the locking mechanisms. Just memory and
( ... )
Klavier jerked his hand back away from the door when it suddenly flung open, startled. Nigredo didn't seem the type to normally do such things, so it caught the older man off guard. Obvious surprise came over his face as he stared down at Nigredo for a moment, then the look melted into confusion. He'd opened the door, thinking it was Albedo and-- Did he seem almost... hopeful when he said that? And what was that expression on his face? All things considered, this was the last thing Klavier had expected.
He blinked down at him, still trying to understand what might have happened that would cause such a shift, before finally putting his hand down to his side. "Ah. No. It's me. I... apologize if I surprised you." It was said neutrally and carefully polite. He still wasn't sure what was going on. "...Is everything okay?"
No, not his brother. Not his other brother either. Klavier, however, had been invited--more than accepted--but that meant... That meant...
His expression visibly sank, eyes hollowing in realization. Without conscious thought, the child stepped back and slowly, carefully, sank to his knees. The man's question echoed in his head, but Nigredo caught only the basic sentiment. He looked up at Klavier with a vacant expression, yet there was something expectant in the gaze.
Most certainly everything was not okay. Something looked like it had shattered in the moment Nigredo recognized who Klavier was... or who he wasn't, rather. The child sank to the floor with an empty, lost expression. That look and reaction was enough to fill Klavier with an immediate dread. He couldn't imagine what could possibly warrant such a raw response, but he had to admit he was slightly afraid as to what could have possibly happened
( ... )
The normally adult Nigredo felt no more than a child, and an emotion akin to frustration flickered across green orbs. "You don't understand," he heaved. "I can't find him! He's disappeared!" The connection was gone. Not severed, no. Nonexistent. It was foreign and in the boy's view, terrifying.
He searched the man's face for a moment until dissatisfaction took hold, and Nigredo forced his eyes away. There existed a plethora of actions he could take, but not one emerged to solidify. He didn't know what to do. What could one do for a vanished sibling?
That's right. Rubedo. He would know. He could confirm! But hadn't he been the one who had trouble with the limitations? Nigredo's fingers wound against the loose folds of his pants. "Yeah," he said, almost painfully. "We'll wait."
When he finally got to the hall that Nigredo's room was in, he already had the feeling that something was wrong. Junior had heard nothing that Nigredo had said, but it was easy enough to see that his brother had sunk to the floor. Klavier was there, so had he said something to upset his brother? Was it all because of what the redhead had done before dinner?
His heart sank a bit at the thought of that, but he wasn't jumping to conclusions yet. "What's going on here?" he asked as he approached, looking directly at Klavier as he did, probably a bit too much of an accusatory tone in his words.
Klavier said nothing in response to the tone. The boy was really, truly upset. But he couldn't figure out where Nigredo was getting this idea from. Albedo had been around earlier in the day, and if they were to assume he actually was taken at some point between then and now, it was far too soon to be declaring such things with this much conviction. Not seeing someone for a few hours didn't necessarily mean they were gone
( ... )
The panic heightened at the arrival of his brother, albeit its nature shifted. It caused Nigredo to sink lower to the ground while air suspiciously like calm came over him. If he had wanted to stand, he couldn't; the outburst to Klavier had sapped what strength the boy had recovered.
His gaze dropped to the floor. Explaining shouldn't be so difficult with Rubedo, but a part of him was uncertain. "I can't find Albedo," he muttered. "The link to him is gone."
Apologies left their place at the tip of the redhead's tongue, not forgotten but simply pushed aside in favor of disbelief for now. Klavier didn't sound convinced, but Junior certainly trusted his younger brother's intuition. What's more, Nigredo had known it before he did. Then again, things were severed on his end, so of course Nigredo would find out first.
"What!?" he demanded, the disbelief on his face dissolving to anger, though Junior tried not to sound so outraged that he'd frighten his brother. "What do you mean!? How do you--" know for sure, was what he had planned on finishing it with, but he already knew that answer, so the question died in this throat.
With Nigredo, of all people, in such a state, he should have attempted to better school his attitude, to at least make it seem like he had things under control and that everything would be okay. But maturity and stoicism were Nigredo's thing in just about every other situation they'd encountered in life
( ... )
The 'link' to Albedo? What was that supposed to mean? Judging by Rubedo's reaction, the other brother didn't seem to know much more than Klavier himself did. But it seemed like the redhead was willing to push aside the whys and hows in favor of trying to get Nigredo back on track, a wise move.
Though honestly, Klavier was a tad bit baffled here for other reasons. Despite what logic might have said, the concern was perhaps warranted (though to this degree was a bit strange) being that they were all brothers in the end. Love for a sibling wasn't something that was so easily ignored. But between these two, Klavier had expected a bit more sentiment, not Rubedo talking to the other like a parent. It kind of reminded him of
( ... )
If they lacked the details, Nigredo would enlighten them. Normally. If the missing connection had not pushed past his limits, he might have shared precisely what he meant by "gone" and all the consequences associated with the sentiment. An absent U.R.T.V. could still be traced back in the link; even that disaster had retained the connection between himself and his brothers. Being brought here hadn't changed this arrangement. They could stifle their presence, block out the others, but they couldn't
( ... )
Junior certainly knew what that sort of gap in the link felt like, but it didn't mean Albedo was gone. That whole Testament thing had shot down that idea pretty quickly. So he shook his head at what Nigredo had said. "It doesn't mean anything," he replied firmly while Klavier helped the other boy up. "His waveform can't completely disappear like that. Not without..." Something he wasn't going to give a voice to.
Just as well that his words died in his throat, because he heard the gasp and saw his brother staring back towards the room. Just spacing out wasn't exactly something he was prone to, so maybe he'd found Albedo along the link? The redhead had a horrible, nagging feeling about it, like there was something that he should recognize that his brother already was, but it seemed too far away for the moment. "Nigredo?"
Oh, yes. Klavier was most certainly missing something here, and that fact was more than a little irritating. Having people talk over his head wasn't something he was the least bit accustomed to, let alone with children involved. But what Rubedo had just said somewhat tied everything together to a certain extent. He had spoken with Nigredo about this 'waveform' concept before; something about all conscious life having some kind of emanating waveform which could be manipulated in various ways. He still wasn't fully accustomed to this idea, but he understood the theory behind it.
Judging from what they were saying, did that mean it was possible to... sense a waveform and track it? The concept wasn't a terribly new one; there were certain types of 'psychics' who claimed to be able to do such things as well. Aura Readers, was it? So Nigredo was saying he couldn't sense... Albedo's general aura anymore? Hmn. He wasn't a big fan of this paranormal theory concept, but he could see why Nigredo would grow concerned over such a thing
( ... )
The link had reformed in the space of a heartbeat--instantaneous to Nigredo, who never recalled such a feat to be possible. There were, however, several aspects off about it: the path was lined with a bright haze, violet and magenta like a brother's eyes, mixed with a danger he couldn't voice. And when he neared its end, the boy thought he heard an echo of a song. Two elements never expected to become so familiar, so intimately associated with what he had supposed was the end.
With a snap, he pulled back to the others, sparks dying in his eyes. "U-DO. The Song." Klavier shouldn't know the terms (and what poor timing to hear them now), but Rubedo should have picked up the same. The fact that he had not nagged at the younger variant. "There is an infected unit in this building."
U-DO? Yeah, the redhead supposed that the ominous feeling did sort of have that same feel to it, though there was no way he could pinpoint an exact location just yet. But he wasn't hearing the Song. How was Nigredo picking that up? There was only one other unit at all in this building, and he'd been infected, so was it really...?
Junior groaned, loudly. They should have been done with this! Especially here, where they didn't need to worry about the Zohar or their damn father or any of that crap! He wanted to just say it wasn't their problem and move on, but it was. Even if he'd had all his anti-U-DO powers stripped and didn't even have his normal weapons to use, it was more their problem than anyone else's. Letting an infected unit run free was extremely dangerous, especially if the Song was playing.
"Dammit." He scuffed at the ground with one foot. "Can you tell where? We've gotta follow it." Even though after last night, he was in no shape to be fighting, but there was also a growing twinge of desire for that fight against the
( ... )
M98... M97... M96.
He'd finally gotten here, but it was just as eerily empty and quiet as everywhere else. There weren't even any obvious signs of people talking inside. For a second, he feared that maybe something had happened, but he quickly pushed aside that thought. He was going to end up as bad as Herr Forehead if he kept jumping to conclusions out of nowhere like that.
Klavier shifted the flashlight and pipe to one hand and knocked civily against the door with two steady raps.
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Because every time he closed his eyes, Rubedo's gift was sure to emerge. And there were no distractions, no second brother to wipe the image clean. (Clean? He wanted it gone.)
The child slipped a hand over his mouth. Vaguely, he heard the intercom crackle to life, the once missing Head Doctor cementing his presence, only his attention remained fixed on elsewhere and other people. Any words became fog; Nigredo was too tired to grasp their meaning.
{Nigredo, I--}Except for one. The boy snapped open his eyes and climbed to his elbows, in time to catch the door shutting. But Nigredo hadn't seen his roommate's departure or heard the tiny click of the locking mechanisms. Just memory and ( ... )
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He blinked down at him, still trying to understand what might have happened that would cause such a shift, before finally putting his hand down to his side. "Ah. No. It's me. I... apologize if I surprised you." It was said neutrally and carefully polite. He still wasn't sure what was going on. "...Is everything okay?"
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His expression visibly sank, eyes hollowing in realization. Without conscious thought, the child stepped back and slowly, carefully, sank to his knees. The man's question echoed in his head, but Nigredo caught only the basic sentiment. He looked up at Klavier with a vacant expression, yet there was something expectant in the gaze.
"He's not here," was the answer.
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He searched the man's face for a moment until dissatisfaction took hold, and Nigredo forced his eyes away. There existed a plethora of actions he could take, but not one emerged to solidify. He didn't know what to do. What could one do for a vanished sibling?
That's right. Rubedo. He would know. He could confirm! But hadn't he been the one who had trouble with the limitations? Nigredo's fingers wound against the loose folds of his pants. "Yeah," he said, almost painfully. "We'll wait."
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When he finally got to the hall that Nigredo's room was in, he already had the feeling that something was wrong. Junior had heard nothing that Nigredo had said, but it was easy enough to see that his brother had sunk to the floor. Klavier was there, so had he said something to upset his brother? Was it all because of what the redhead had done before dinner?
His heart sank a bit at the thought of that, but he wasn't jumping to conclusions yet. "What's going on here?" he asked as he approached, looking directly at Klavier as he did, probably a bit too much of an accusatory tone in his words.
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His gaze dropped to the floor. Explaining shouldn't be so difficult with Rubedo, but a part of him was uncertain. "I can't find Albedo," he muttered. "The link to him is gone."
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"What!?" he demanded, the disbelief on his face dissolving to anger, though Junior tried not to sound so outraged that he'd frighten his brother. "What do you mean!? How do you--" know for sure, was what he had planned on finishing it with, but he already knew that answer, so the question died in this throat.
With Nigredo, of all people, in such a state, he should have attempted to better school his attitude, to at least make it seem like he had things under control and that everything would be okay. But maturity and stoicism were Nigredo's thing in just about every other situation they'd encountered in life ( ... )
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Though honestly, Klavier was a tad bit baffled here for other reasons. Despite what logic might have said, the concern was perhaps warranted (though to this degree was a bit strange) being that they were all brothers in the end. Love for a sibling wasn't something that was so easily ignored. But between these two, Klavier had expected a bit more sentiment, not Rubedo talking to the other like a parent. It kind of reminded him of ( ... )
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Just as well that his words died in his throat, because he heard the gasp and saw his brother staring back towards the room. Just spacing out wasn't exactly something he was prone to, so maybe he'd found Albedo along the link? The redhead had a horrible, nagging feeling about it, like there was something that he should recognize that his brother already was, but it seemed too far away for the moment. "Nigredo?"
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Judging from what they were saying, did that mean it was possible to... sense a waveform and track it? The concept wasn't a terribly new one; there were certain types of 'psychics' who claimed to be able to do such things as well. Aura Readers, was it? So Nigredo was saying he couldn't sense... Albedo's general aura anymore? Hmn. He wasn't a big fan of this paranormal theory concept, but he could see why Nigredo would grow concerned over such a thing ( ... )
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The link had reformed in the space of a heartbeat--instantaneous to Nigredo, who never recalled such a feat to be possible. There were, however, several aspects off about it: the path was lined with a bright haze, violet and magenta like a brother's eyes, mixed with a danger he couldn't voice. And when he neared its end, the boy thought he heard an echo of a song. Two elements never expected to become so familiar, so intimately associated with what he had supposed was the end.
With a snap, he pulled back to the others, sparks dying in his eyes. "U-DO. The Song." Klavier shouldn't know the terms (and what poor timing to hear them now), but Rubedo should have picked up the same. The fact that he had not nagged at the younger variant. "There is an infected unit in this building."
No guess as to whom, of course.
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Junior groaned, loudly. They should have been done with this! Especially here, where they didn't need to worry about the Zohar or their damn father or any of that crap! He wanted to just say it wasn't their problem and move on, but it was. Even if he'd had all his anti-U-DO powers stripped and didn't even have his normal weapons to use, it was more their problem than anyone else's. Letting an infected unit run free was extremely dangerous, especially if the Song was playing.
"Dammit." He scuffed at the ground with one foot. "Can you tell where? We've gotta follow it." Even though after last night, he was in no shape to be fighting, but there was also a growing twinge of desire for that fight against the ( ... )
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