Catch-all: Taichi

[ercnerd]

Comments

[ercnerd]

Catra and Sakyou took off with documents about Viola and Chad.

I heard there was another group before us, but I don't know if they returned with anything.

[goalsides]

[a frown.] I'll try to catch Sagihara later. And I told Catra I'd text her tomorrow. I might try to find some of the others from the other group before tonight, too. Just in case.

It's...weird that there were two groups of you that just vanished. Do you have any idea why?

[ercnerd]

. . . There was that voice.

We met its owner at the very end. They didn't say much, but they were the one who left the papers behind for us.

[goalsides]

[ah. let's go back.]

The one telling you where to go and stuff. Who were they? Or was it even a person?

[sometimes disembodied voices happen? or possess people to talk? he doesn't know how this works in this world.]

[ercnerd]

At a glance, they looked like a person. I couldn't see the face under the hood, though.

[goalsides]

Couldn't take the hood off? [no, because that's rude, taichi.]

...how did you know you could trust them? When they were giving you instructions, I mean.

[ercnerd]

We had no choice: it was either follow the voice or stay trapped.

[goalsides]

Trapped where, exactly?

[ercnerd]

Where could it have been? We started out in the storage room, then went out to the hangar, and eventually washed up onto the island . . . There was nowhere else to go. We would've been trapped the moment we stopped.

[goalsides]

I can't tell if you're being avoidant or if you really don't know where you were. [hard to tell with sieg, sometimes, and taichi frowns as he thinks.] So you kept going to get back to here. Following a mysterious hooded voice.

...what kind of objectives were you supposed to do?

[ercnerd]

Ultimately, the goal was to reach a cathedral on the island. Our objectives were the steps we had to take to get there, and that was where we met the voice in a hood.

[goalsides]

Why a cathedral? [that's not a real question.] ...that doesn't explain why all of you were really badly injured, you know.

[ercnerd]

. . . We fell from an airship . . .

[goalsides]

...how are you even alive right now?

[ercnerd]

There were two parachutes between four of us. Most of our injuries came from the water landing.

[goalsides]

[there's a wince because...ouch.]

...I don't know if you even know, but how did you guys get back? Like, officially.

[ercnerd]

. . . We walked. The jungle we passed through came out here, even though it should have been the shore. You probably won't be able to reach the cathedral from this side.

[goalsides]

I don't know if I'd want to if that's what happened. [he doesn't seem all that surprised to hear that they started walking one place and ended up back on campus either, even if it's frustrating.]

...things like have have happened before, but usually there's some kind of explanation. I can't think of a good one for this.

[ercnerd]

I don't really understand it, but the voice called us sympathizers and our objectives a test.

There was also one last test at the cathedral . . . It was meant to test how far we'd go for our loved ones.

[goalsides]

Sympathizers of what? [hate this, hate this, hate this.] Maybe it doesn't matter. We're being tested here enough as it is.

[...he doesn't want to ask, but.] ...what kind of test was it?

[ercnerd]

There were illusions of those close to us inside the cathedral. They were being threatened by the illusions of some of the people here.

[goalsides]

[...he wants to ask a few things. what people here? how were those people being threatened? why a cathedral? but he pauses again.]

...how were you so sure they were illusions?

[ercnerd]

I know my descendant well enough. Her faker didn't make a convincing display.

As for the other group, I understand them enough to know they wouldn't reach for the explosives without attempting conversation first.

[goalsides]

....did the other three realize they were illusions, too? Or was it harder to tell for them?

[ercnerd]

I don't know whether they realized it sooner than later, but they were aware.