Year: 526 A.B.
In the backseat of a cab, packed like sardines in a can, Rai, Nina, Sherwin, Xing, and Rae sit, in that order, becoming more and more uncomfortable by the moment. Elly sits comfortably in front next to the driver, making casual conversation.
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“We’ll be arriving soon, everyone.”
The driver says to everyone in the vehicle.
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“Thank everything that is good in this world! I was about to cry myself to sleep,”
Rae whines.
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Xing sits with his arms crossed keeping his cool, while tapping his foot on the cab floo, a vein bulging from the side of his temple.
“Mmhmm, except you already slept on my shoulder damn near the entire ride.”
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“Please calm down, Herc. You’re about to flintstone a hole into the bottom of the cab. You wished this upon yourself, and now I’m the one being crushed by what I can only assume is 300 pounds of ego.”
Rae repeatedly shifts his arms around in his cramped position in an attempt to get comfortable.
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Amidst the cramped chaos, Rai is in deep thought as he takes in the scenery.
“I’ve never seen so many different landscapes in such a short amount of time: plains, small towns, and now this. I say that like I’ve seen much at all…but still...”
On both sides of the window large houses pressed together with virtually no seams between them. Yet, they all struggle to hold their own individually with the use of various exterior colors and frontal designs ranging from ornate arches with hanging ornaments to inviting wooden porches and sliding glass doors.
“I wonder why I feel like something is off.”
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“Hold on one second…”
Elly looks into the back seat, pausing her conversation with the driver.
“How are you and the boys holding up back there, Nina, sweetheart? You all haven’t said much since we were in the courtyard.”
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Nina sits stiff as a board, forcing a smile.
“Fine! Everything is fine. This is great!”
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“You poor thing... I would have even lapped up with you in front, but the roof is kind of low. On the way back we’ll see about calling in an XL cab.”
Elly looks into the back seat through the rear-view mirror, taking on a maternal tone and doe-like eyes.
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“Or you can sit back here with us next time, Elly, my good friend. Or better yet, switch with me,”
Rae whines sarcastically… again.
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Xing grunts. No one really knows if it’s approval, disapproval, or involuntary from the many patches of gravel, wearing down his patience just like the obviously worn tires of the vehicle.
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The cab driver picks up her conversation with Elly.
“Are they always like this?”
“For the most part. Sorry about that,”
Elly says with a chuckle and sincerity.
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The driver shows her a dismissive wave.
“No, no this has been a great drive for me. When I hear stories about you three, the feats don’t even sound human. Yet, here I am talking to you, and wishing the ride was a bit longer...”
The cab comes to a stop.
“But alas, we have arrived at your destination.”
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Everyone unloads from the cab stretching accordingly.
Elly bends, holding the hood of the cab to look inside at the driver.
“Thanks for the talk, and all the work that you do.”
“I was actually about to say the same thing.”
With a tip of her hat, she drives off.
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Sherwin looks over at Nina and Rai who are taking in their surroundings.
“Quite a ride, huh? I was feeling so sure back at the base, but standing right here now my feet feel kind of stiff, you know?”
No doubt a result of Elly’s lecture earlier.
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“Mhm, mhm. I feel you, but I know we’ll be fine! The idea of a first mission is kind of exciting!”
Nina says despite herself starting to nervously play with her earrings.
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They both look over at Rai, lost in his own little world, expecting him to chime in. He turns to face them after noticing the stares in his direction.
“Sorry, what was that?”
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Before the attempt at idle conversation can continue, they are cut off by Xing briefing them on the mission.
“Alright, listen up. We are currently standing in Lower Noble District - North, and in the building ahead of us, we got a call very early this morning not from the resident, but his neighbor who happened to hear the fuss since the buildings are so close together.”
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Rai speaks up.
“So was it a poltergeist?”
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“Yes and no, kid. Basically, the guy’s neighbor walked in on a possession in progress. After that, he bound him the best that he could before the possession was complete...” Xing pats Rae’s back. “And with that being said, now would be a good time to show your stuff, partner.”
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“Heavy-handed son of a bi-,” Rae mumbles.
“Got it.”
He closes his eyes, taking a deep breath.
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“You see, my, well our, old teacher told us something once. ‘When an Ahstralan is in touch with their sense of empathy or is familiar with another person's soul, it is possible to sense their condition and whereabouts.’ But Rae is a special case…”
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Xing talks with his back turned, projecting his voice to the trainees. Even with his praise he tries to make himself look cool. They pay no attention to that however as the air immediately around Rae tingles as if it were made of therapeutic needles. The trainees feel it quickly pulsate through their limbs and dissipate.
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“We’re not one-hundred percent sure what case he falls under because he can be a bit of an ass, but we do know this: as far as sensory Ahstralans go, he’s in a league of his own and the only one known to see auras,”
He proudly continues.
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Rae exhales and opens his eyes.
“On the building’s the top floor, I’m sensing a mashup of 2 souls, but the foreign one definitely feels like it’s on the weaker side, a tier 1 poltergeist like we thought.”
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“So the information from the briefing adds up?”
Elly inquires while taking a step toward the house and looking up at one of its windows.
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Rae rubs his eyes and yawns.
“It seems that way. The thing that’s odd to me is that even though the spirit’s aura is on the mischievous side, they’re fused too perfectly.”
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“Hey, the bright side is that I didn’t hear you mention anything about this area being heavily populated right now. Which means this is a perfect first mission for these guys even if things go wrong,” Elly adds.
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“Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get going.”
Xing walks into the house with no hesitation followed by Elly and Rae.
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The trainees stand frozen in place for a moment.
Weird, unreliable, lazy.
Despite Rae’s demeanor, the trust Xing and Elly place in him is enough to earn their respect as a veteran alongside his peers and change at least the second previous assumption they had about him.
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Sherwin stands to the side of the entrance gesturing for them to go in first.
Nina nods and shoots him a thumbs up as she walks in.
“Nice!”
On the other hand, Rai looks at Sherwin puzzled as to why he’d be holding the door open for him. “Rai, I’m letting you go in first.”
He says, sounding mildly irritated at this minor situation being dragged out for this long.
“Oh, my apologies. Thanks.”
Rai awkwardly makes his way past him.
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With everyone now inside the house, Rae walks over to a glass, spiraling staircase next to a lonesome coat hanger on the far right corner of the initial area of the house. Even though the glass is quite thick, it’s as clear as water. Only the steel pillar in the middle adds a sense of sturdiness to it.
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“Based on my survey earlier, this should be the quickest path to the top floor. There’s a small elevator in here too, but…” He looks at Xing.
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Xing whistles with awe and looks around the large room, oblivious to the jab taken at him.
“Fancy. So the guy we’re exorcising must be more than someone just living in the area.”
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“You didn't see the name of ‘the guy’ in the briefing?”
Elly asks.
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“You think I’d take the time to memorize every lower-noble family name? I don’t care much for the high-nobles. There’s one I give more than a damn about though,” He responds with a smirk and wink.
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Elly coughs in surprise and she places a hand on her forehead, then her cheek as if she’s checking for a fever.
Rae visibly shudders and gags.
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“I wish I knew what was going on,”
The trainees all think at the same time with blank stares.
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“Somehow, I know exactly how you guys feel…,” Elly reassures them.
Rae takes the lead walking up the stairs.
“Yup, but for now let’s get up these stairs before I gag again.”
And yet a faint smile is visible from the side of his face.
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There, on the top floor, they walk upon a man bound to a chair with projected ropes and chains in the middle of the floor’s kitchen. Drops of alcohol from a broken whiskey bottle slowly drip onto the floor from the counter behind him. He stares silently at the team as they make their way into his vicinity.
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“If it wasn’t obvious already, there’s our guy,”
Rae announces.
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“Alright then. Getting down to business, what we’re performing is an exorcism, otherwise known as a counter-possession. Essentially, what you’re doing is flooding the soul of someone else with a projection of your own soul, and hoping that you can either eject or erase the foreign entity inside of them.”
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“That doesn’t sound to-“
Sherwin is cut off.
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“But if you're thinking it’s simple, there’s a catch. If your resolve is out of place, meaning if whoever you’re possessing is stronger than you are, you’re almost certain to lose yourself. The only other way would be taking the spiritual capacity gamble of quantity over quality.”
Elly explains, sensing the misplaced relaxation in the air.
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Xing slings his arm over Rae’s shoulder; the weight makes his knees buckle.
“Which is part of the reason why I volunteer Rae for the first attempt. For now, just try asking it to exit the man’s body.”
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“Day one with the new guys, and you refuse to leave me be. Fine, I’ll give it a shot…”
Rae approaches the man and begins to speak in his best attempt at an authoritative tone.
“Uhm. We are exorcists sent by the Organization. Could you exit this man’s body and return to the Afterlife?”
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The spirit responds with a layered voice from the two souls inhabiting the body.
“Sure, why not? I was getting kind of bored anyway.”
Rae smiles with relief.
“Wait. Wow, seriously?”
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“No. Now, get the hell out of here. You smell like you just woke up. You might kill this guy before you can even force me out!” The spirit lets out an odd snort-like laugh.
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Internally, Rae shatters.
“I should have stayed in bed, but nooo I have to set a good example. Thanks. Thank you all so much.” He mutters to himself while finding a corner to sulk in.
“I thought he did well.”
Sherwin says in an attempt to comfort him from afar.
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“Ahem!”
Xing recovers from silent laughter.
“Okay, now seriously. Does anyone want to take a crack at this? It’s no laughing matter, but even though possessions are none of our specialties, the three of us will make sure you aren’t hurt.”
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“Resolve…”
“Out of place…”
“Capacity…”
Rai opens his mouth, but the words have been stuck in his mind since the moment they were spoken. He balls his fist at the thought of his only saving grace being the very thing he’s thought of escaping from.
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Looking at Rai’s conflict and after a brief moment of hesitation from himself, Sherwin volunteers.
“I’ll do it. I don’t mind showing you what I’m made of.” The grand nature of his words doesn’t match the tone that he speaks them in.
But he still strides forward with initiative, stopping a meter away.
Close enough to show that he’s serious, but far enough to take in the rest of the situation up close. That is what he thinks. But truthfully, he’s read like a book.
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Another shot of laughter bursts from the spirit’s mouth sending specks of saliva through the air. To make things worse he kicks and rocks in his chair, Sherwin’s pride is crushed and an unexpected anger wills him to rush the imprisoned joker down. His vision becomes blurred and tunneled until he can only see what’s in front of him.
“What’s so funny?”
He yells, grabbing it by the collar.
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Its choppy, layered laughter is mixed with its words.
“Aw man i-its just that you’re hilarious! I mean I could hear you, you know? ‘...what I’m made of.’ You’re just full of shit! A coward!”
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With his other hand, Sherwin projects a small knife and brandishes it high in the air. He can’t even hear anything else in the room anymore except for the entity's voice and his own quickening pulse. He doesn’t even question how riled up he’s getting.
“Coward? Never! You’re just a worm in a body that’s not yours! You don’t know me!”
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The spirit’s laughter dies down until It becomes a distorted whisper.
“Maybe. Maybe… But you are pretty stupid aren’t you, Mr.Legs?”
Sherwin snaps out of his furious trance, dropping his knife looking down at his legs before they seem to give out under him. He looks up in panic at the spirit’s manipulative gaze. Energy begins to ooze from its feet, stretching to connect their shadows.
“You’re useless, but it sure beats being tied to a chair, right?”
A figure suddenly stands between them, completely breaking the spell and reconnecting Sherwin’s awareness to the rest of the room's inhabitants.
They’re familiar but not quite.
A blazer.
But it’s buttoned.
The pink shirt underneath is barely visible anymore.
The same face, but that puppy-like persona is replaced with a perpetual scowl.
And there more. Something’s off. Her earrings are now in the shape of jet black moons.
“Nina?
“Nah, she’s on the backseat right now. It’s Anni, but this is the last time I’ll correct you and the last time I’ll cover you if you jump in recklessly again.”
The spirit smirks.
“Is this a field trip or something? Now they’re letting little girl-“
The possessed man’s eyes fly open as it’s interrupted by her hand muffling his mouth.
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She speaks with an aggressive, yet nonchalant tone.
“I hate that I could smell the alcohol on your breath from across the room.”
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From the hand making contact with him, she begins the possession. And the next time she blinks, Nina finds herself in a void that’s obviously not of this world.
The ground beneath her attempts to entangle her feet, vines like that of a neglected house and shackling obligations. While the sky and floating structures above become infinitely farther and farther away just like the staring crowds of faceless people at her sides.
She tears her feet from the viney footholds and struts forward until two figures are seen in the distance. One in a deep slumber, grounded and on his knees. The other with his arm around the prior’s neck, tightening his grip with every step Nina takes.
“What are you doing here? This sad sap didn’t even struggle when I came for him. He’s mine!
Come any closer, and I’ll erase us both!”
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Nina stops walking and puts her hands in the air.
She doesn’t say a word, only closing her eyes.
The spirit’s grip loosens and in an instant he lunges for Nina.
“Just like that, you puppet! I’ll jump to your body, then to the gifted one!”
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Another voice echoes through the void, catching him off guard.
“Our body.”
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Before he can even turn around to react, he’s disintegrated from the legs up. His head rolls on the ground of the void, giving him a view of his assailant. The last thing he sees before his ejection back to the afterlife is Anni helping the formerly possessed man to his feet.
“There were two of you?...’Our?’”
He reaches his conclusion.
“I see... What a freak.”
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The intruding spirit completely disappears and the man's image of himself in the void awakens, now standing on his own and holding his head.
He speaks in a groggy voice at first, as if his hangover carried over into his very soul.
"What's going on?"
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Anni immediately begins grilling him.
"What's going on? What's wrong with you? What's all this crap about you not fighting back? You're not wasting our time, are you?"
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"Wait up, Ann, we could always hear him out before chewing him out."
Nina says, calming her, but not excusing the man.
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"No, your sister's taking this the right way. I owe you an explanation…"
The man looks around, below, and above him, fully taking in everything around him and not around him.
"This is the first time in ages that I've seen my Soul Space. It's pitiful. Perhaps I should have been doing some soul searching instead of poisoning my mind. My name is Creed Freesia, one of the lower-nobles in charge of security and peacekeeping in this region.
But the thing is, I've always struggled to come to grips with the way things work in our homeland. It's a sickeningly lonely fate. Every class of nobles has their issues, but we lower-nobles live in the equivalent of a bucket full of crabs. We have nowhere to look but upwards, and as such so many of us are nothing but bitter competition to drag down."
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"Okay, and what does that have to do with you letting a spirit possess you?" Anni inquires, refusing to let up.
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"Well as luck would have it, the region I protect is full of nothing but high-income denizens looking to achieve noble status and lower-nobles themselves. I simply lost sight of my purpose. I felt like protecting these people who would want nothing but to take my place would be the same as feeding into an already vicious cycle. I didn't let the spirit possess me. My drunken state on top of the crushing weight of my soul just left me unable to do anything even if I tried."
Creed concludes in a matter of fact tone. However, his words are made genuine by the fact that his eyes can’t help but pull themselves toward the ceiling of the void, full of dreams that he has given up on.
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They stand in a brief silence. Anni walks over to Nina, taking her hand and facing Creed with their response. Nina begins their telegraphed chant, speaking one after the other.
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"Somewhere a few miles south of this building."
"There's a decent-sized house."
"But also a homely, humble orphanage trying its best."
"I lived in both. One after the other since my parents died."
"I had thought life was a game like the ones I'd played so much, a TV show like the ones I'd watched so much."
"But as the days passed, I learned more and more about what happened that day. I learned more and more that nobody would take pity on me."
“I can’t leave anything up to fate.”
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They begin to speak in unison, an action that further synchronizes their souls.
Little by little, the space around them warps into something new.
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"I know a thing or two about loneliness, futility, and purpose. We are not sisters, but two souls sharing the same body. You could call it two halves of a single coin. Years ago, somewhere between the countless homes and many families that I tried to become a part of, my loneliness became so crushing that my soul split itself in two in order to find a way to cope."
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The infinitely spanning voids above and to their sides divides itself into two finite, concise singularities of hopeful and realistic light and darkness.
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"But that still wasn't enough to satisfy me."
"Something was still pressing me."
"My parents didn't die. They were killed."
"I was saved by people like you and people under your command."
"Yet, I was resentful at first 'why couldn't they get here sooner'."
"But eventually I realized that sort of thinking was the problem in the first place."
"I know now that I'm going to become those people myself."
"In my own way."
"To be the one to protect myself."
A moon rises in the dark. Somehow, even it’s pitch black realism shines light upon the void.
"To give back to everyone who helped me along the way."
Bright, bubbly formations like those of clouds hover in the hopeful sky. They’re uplifting, beautiful even, but the pressure felt under those clouds in that boundless sky make them just as serious.
"And eventually find my own truth."
The undeniably different spaces converge at their borders and center, creating the vision of a goal that is intangible through sight and yet felt in the core of anyone around it.
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Creed once again looks at the space around him, this time with a sad warmth that he cannot explain.
"Here I am feeling inspired by you young ladies. I have never seen a Soul Space so abstract, and yet perfectly clear." He approaches them to shake their hands.
His drunken, beaten posture now full of something he'd lost long ago.
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"How can I sit here feeling sorry for myself when you're already working so hard. Besides, I just thought about something…"
The void fades out into a flash of white as their souls and psyches return to the physical world.
"If someone was willing to bring help for someone like me, there has to be plenty morepeople worth risking my all for..."
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Nina stumbles backwards with slight shortness of breath, but regains her footing.
"Piece of cake!"
She throws up a peace sign, and receives a well-earned applause.
Rae scans the room again, focusing on Nina and peering into her vessel.
"I knew I was sensing something else off earlier. Two souls, two auras in the same body. It's like neither one of you is the original."
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"Not bad. I don't know where you learned control like that, but I'm glad you're not just another meathead like me and Elly here," Xing adds.
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"Um, hold on, speak for yourself. You're the one always telling me to go in literally guns blazing, while poor Rae has our backs…," Elly says, defending herself.
"But seriously, Nina. That was amazing. I'd say that was more than enough to earn a more comfortable ride back to the complex."
Rai pulls a small notebook and pen from his pocket. A slight frustration shows in his brows as he quickly scribbles on one of its pages.
"Taking notes so that we don't fall behind?"
Sherwin pokes at him, both a mechanism to comfort himself and reach out.
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"Ah, sorry this is just for a letter I may write later. Don't mind me,"
Rai says somewhat aloofly.
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Sherwin opens his mouth to speak, dismisses his thoughts and carries on.
"Nevermind that then. What are we going to do with him?" He points at Creed who is still fast asleep in the chair.
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Xing picks up a piece of glass from the shattered bottle of alcohol. Turning it around between his fingers. His thick calluses stop him from being cut.
"Most of the time a person's memories for the past 24 to 48 hours are either a mess or completely wiped after a complete possession. This guy was also drunk off his ass though, so he probably won’t remember most of this when he wakes up regardless. We can cut his restraints and get out of here, honestly."
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The spacious afternoon cab ride back is peaceful in comparison to the morning's ordeal.
Rae sleeps, leaning on the window. Streaks of saliva run down his face.
Xing munches on a bag of rice cakes while reading the miscellaneous trivia on the back of its packaging, unbothered by Rae now that he has space.
Elly and Nina share an exchange.
"I think I see why this ended up being our first mission..."
Nina announces with a thoughtful enlightenment. She places her hand on the back of Elly’s seat.
"You must have known more about me when we first met than you let on. Thank you, Elz."
Elly smiles and looks out of her window at the passing hills.
"I have no idea what you're talking about, but you're welcome, and thank you for the nickname. That’s sweet."
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Meanwhile, Rai and Sherwin, to some capacity, share a thought as they watch the same passing hills through different windows:
"I need to get stronger…”
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