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A tragedy was painted before them. Bloodied planks creaked beneath Quail's steps. They needed to leave- fast. The ring of bells sounded and shouts echoed, leaving Quail's mind unresponsive.
Everything closed in on them, mind reaching an impossible silent unlike any other, even quieter than the moment they willingly gave up the song. Nothing.
A hand hit their arm softly, yet it still hurt.
The room around Quail and the vesperian next to them was a cell. A chuckle echoed, pressumably the vesperian's, but Quail didn't bother looking, gaze fixated on the hand that had just touched them. Disgusting bug.
"Woah, you sure look like you want me dead!"
Quail involuntarily hissed at that, only prompting yet another light laugh.
"Okay, okay," he raised his hands defensively, "no need to be so snappy, buddy."
"I'm not snappy."
"Perceive yourself however you want, and I'll perceive you how I want."
Stupid beetle. Quail rolled their eyes.
"What was it you wanted, bug?"
"Bug?" The vesperian simply faced them, no viable emotion present on that mask practically glued to his face. "Oh, no, that won't do- the name's Orpheus. Orpheus Zeneki."
"What you wanted, Orpheus." Quail harshly reminded.
"Huh? Oh, you just zoned out when I asked you how you got here, remember?"
"So you opted to punch me?"
"Come on! It was a friendly nudge at best!"
This guy was underestimating himself greatly if that was a mere nudge. Everything seemed to want to happen all at once- like ending up in Fort Merit's prison and having all their weapons confiscated. The last bit was a particular bummer.
Quail groaned.
"If you've a headache, I have a lil spell for that," the vesperian chimed in. "Just give me the word and I'll fix it."
And then there was the headache right next to them in the claustrophobic cell.
They gave the vesperian a thoughtful look, that curious eye-like symbol on his mask catching their eye. "Aren't you a blindseer? Can't you blindsee our way out or something?"
"Huh? Well, the one thing I did notice was that the cell bars don't take too well to physical impact, but are pretty much untouchable by any mantra."
"So you're telling me I've spent the past, what? Half an hour? Stuck in here with you when I could've easily broken the bars?"
"Wait, you're telling me you can destroy those bars?" He pointed at the bars as if to show the obvious.
With a sigh, Quail got up on their feet with far too relaxed of a demeanour. Even they were a bit freaked out by it. Perhaps that bug made them too comfortable for a moment.
Quail paused, picking up on something. A hum. Familiar at that- shadowcast? Apparently the turning of their head to look at the suddenly standing vesperian eye to mask, was terrifying, if the flinch indicated anything.
"What is it?" Quail hissed with a furrowed brow.
The vesperian cleared his voice, the tune of it soothing. "You were going to kick the bars, right?"
They raised a brow, curtly nodding.
"Your posture's off, try keeping your upper body leaning away from the-"
"I know what I'm doing," Quail snapped.
He fell silent. Uncomfortably so, even the constant hymn in his heart died down ever so slightly. "Sorry."
A measly kick and a loud bang was all it took to snap two bars off, one of which they hinged on where their greatsword would usually rest. It was uncomfortable, given that they were used to either heavier or way lighter weapons, but nothing too worrisome.
"Hey, weirdo, you coming?"
"Right."
Quail looked back, biting at their tongue. It was unsettling how quiet the bug had come to be.
Quail turned to look ahead once more. "Ssorry."
"What was that?"
"What was what?" They feigned ignorance, unwilling to admit to the mumbled apology.
"Your s in sorry!" From his voice, he sounded like he were about to burst out in laughter any moment.
"Right. Blind folk have better hearing, got it."
"Have you just given up?"
"There's no point if you heard it."
"Good point."