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“Are you implying I had something to do with that?” Arsene responded with ridiculously fake innocence. If it was supposed to be amusing, it wasn’t.

“I’m not implying I’m stating; you did this.” He hissed “You think you can bribe me into trusting you?”

No,” The robber smirked “I just wanted you to hold on to my share as well. Besides, you don’t have much of a choice in terms of trust.”

Alessio narrowed his eyes at Arsene, curling a little deeper into his corner with his arms still crossed. There wasn’t any question of trust, Alessio didn’t trust him, and wasn’t going to…Trust was…something that had never gotten him anywhere good.

Stop even thinking about it!

“We came here together. People expect us to be companions. Let’s say one of us is thrown into the brig, the other will be too until further notice.” That was how the law worked in Alessio’s world, with more brutality than he wanted to swallow right now. “Our lives are too connected at this point. We’re stuck together, until we get off this ship.”

Alessio’s mind was whirring almost to the point of reeling with the complexity of the situation.

He had to return the stolen goods. He had to get enough information to find Nithel, so he had to stick with Arsene for a just a little longer, or find another lead…

“And what if I just knock you out and leave you?” Alessio prodded, hoping Arsene would make some threat that would help him gauge the robber’s resources.

He smirked at Alessio. “Well, I could solve that problem.”

Arsene glanced at the window, which was all he needed to do. Snapping up, Alessio dashed ahead of him before he could even think.

“Don’t you dare!” he gasped, instantly regretting it.

“Aw,” Arsene said “You do care.”

Baited again, he just couldn’t stop caring. He couldn’t. Walk. Away. Like he couldn’t not take in that barest edge of furtiveness in the robber’s voice when he said that. Like he joked about his own desperation to find someone who’d care.

Alessio glared viciously at Arsene, hurt all over again for sympathizing with the wrong person just one more time. Of course he just smiled obnoxiously, and sat back down with a sigh.

He just needed to get back to Nithel, everything would be ok. He felt stupid telling himself that but he wanted to believe it so badly.

Arsene pulled out a strange, crackling box.

“What’s that for?” Alessio demanded

“I’m bored, so I’m going to eavesdrop.”

“I’m bored, so I’m going to stab you.” Alessio grumbled, affecting a flawless imitation of Arsene’s voice.

Arsene ignored him, listening into his box. As much as he hated himself for it, Alessio was thoroughly intrigued by every strange, new object, smell and sound and he had to learn more about that thing Arsene was using.

Alessio cocked his head at the box while keeping a cautious distance from its user. He wanted to pick it apart and find out what he could of it. It kept jabbering in different cackling, fuzzy voices. He was more fascinated than he meant to be.

“They say it’s going down tonight. The goods are in the safe, but we can’t get inside it.” Apparently a “safe” was some sort of object that stored goods, Alessio was going to follow along as best as he could.

“Can’t you just break into it?” A type of treasury then..?

“Nope,” returned the voice “Any forced penetration will trigger the alarm.”

“How about overriding the lock?”

“We can with one of the locks, but there are five locks total. One is a digital lock, another is a combination lock, while the others require one key each. Enter the wrong key, and it’s lights out with 5000 volts.”

Alessio didn’t know what a “digital” lock was but combination locks and puzzle locks were being invented in the North. He had no idea what “volts” were but apparently they should be avoided…

“I think I’m going to check that out.”

You mean steal it before they can. He had to stop Arsene.

“In case you forgot, you quarantined us.” He said

“Oh right,” The robber deflated for a second, but only a second. “That means you’ll have to stay here to cover for me. Sorry that I can’t take you with me. I’ll tell you everything when I get back. Bye.”

“If you leave, I’ll scream.” Alessio threatened, already getting panicky, despite his best effort.

Arsene grumbled something as he scrambled inside the vent.

“Scream then.” He said.

Alessio flinched at the words, and the robber was gone before his mind caught up. It would’ve been a lie to say he’d never felt so powerless, because he had. He dug his nails into his palms hard, as if that would keep his hands from shaking.

‘Do whatever you want…’

Alessio cursed internally, swallowing threatening hot and cold flashes. Not right now, please, not right now…Sometimes it got so bad he passed out and he couldn’t afford anything close to that. He dropped on the bed, nauseous and trying to control his breathing. Every scar ripped in his back a brief reminder, just the mildest.

He swallowed again, willing to do anything to get it to stop just this once so he could focus on the problem at hand. Couldn’t act out, curse it all, he couldn’t do this right now! It was all he could do not to scream, he could barely breathe now, his body was bursting at the seams.

Thus says the Lord…the Lord who created you…

‘You can do whatever you want here. No one’s going to find you.’

He dug his nails into his wrists, white with scar tissue, begging the pain to turn off his emotions.

It wasn’t working, it wasn’t doing anything. He started to reach for his knife, but he didn’t. He shut his eyes, locking it in, except for a tear that managed to make it through. And he forced it to click, the persona modeled off his abuser.

It was easier to do without Nithel.

Turn off every single emotion and think out what to do about Arsene. He just wanted to stop him from robbing the treasury. With as little force as necessary…

And he didn’t know much that was, and he’d rather be safe than…

Too much. So much Alessio laughed huskily, just as unhinged as everyone said. That was it, then he just felt numb, completely and utterly numb. An actor, playing his role.

He got up, straightened himself and forced himself to hold up his chin. That was the hardest part because he was so used to trying to hide his face, it felt unnatural. He knew how to wear exactly the kind of assurance smile that made people want to believe you.

He felt disconnected to his body.

In moments he located a member of security, in his forties, carved out with muscle. It was against every instinct of self-preservation to get close, but Alessio strode directly to the man like an old acquaintance.

“It must be a pretty thankless job, working for rich people who want you to do your job and disappear at the same time.” He said, intuiting the idea from his experience with palace guards. “It must take a special kind of dedication to keep doing it every day.”

He completely dropped “sir” from his vocabulary in this persona, projecting confidence that made him sound dependable.

He knew it was probably the money, but social engineering meant people on average wanted to do for you if you assumed idealistic notions about them, true or false.

“I have a family to feed,” The man corrected, a bit gruffly, and glanced over Alessio’s bright, quizzical eyes. He was genuinely an active listener, and that meant people admitted more around him that around most people. “I honestly couldn’t care what happens to these topdollar peacocks. They could afford to pay better wages really, but it’s enough to live on.”

“Yeah,” Alessio said, sounding a little disappointed and almost as uncomfortable as he actually was feeling. “Listen I really don’t want to cause a fuss but…someone I know is making me really concerned…”

He was sick, acting like a worried friend to gain the man’s trust. Just like he had done.

“He was in the sickbay before…but now I can’t find him and…and I don’t know if he’s thinking straight…” This was very true. “I’m afraid he might do something…harmful to—”

“What’s your friend look like?” The guard interrupted. Arsene was going to murder him when he found out, he was going to do something terrible to him just like—

“Um, seventeen or eighteen, mismatched eyes and black hair—”

“The cafeteria vomiter.”

“Yes…” Thaaaaat got out quick…

“Yeah, he had trouble stamped on his forehead.” He grumbled “I honestly thought you were helping him until you came to me.”

Yes, that would…definitely be untrue…

Arsene was going to do something terrible to him the moment he found out.

“Yeah, we’ll keep an eye out for him.” He said “Don’t worry kiddo.”

He’d probably not be suspected as a partner in crime immediately now. Wait maybe half an hour and say he found the stolen goods Arsene placed in his possession, and he’d probably get off clean. He just needed to stop Arsene before he robbed the treasury and “find” the stolen goods before Arsene was caught so he needed to delay the robbery first.

And then, then he needed to completely disappear before Arsene caught on.

“Hey, does it help pay for college?” The guard called after him with a bit of a laugh.

“Huh?”

“The, uh, cosplay or Renaissance fair thing with your costume and all?”

Alessio glanced down at his outfit, suddenly blindingly aware of just how much he stuck out in this world. He had no clue what cosplaying or Renaissance fairs were but he could make a close guess and roll with it.

“Oh…it’s decent…” Actors in flamboyant costumes for plays had reasonable pay, he guesstimated that was close enough. Whatever college was he could…figure out…somehow…

He needed something to blend in.

“Actually I lost my old—”

“Suitcase?” The guard laughed “I figured that was it. Look, until you get your suitcase back you might want to buy yourself a T-shirt at the gift store, on the left, ok?”

He pointed out a direction and Alessio pretended he absolutely and totally understood everything he was saying while panicking because he had literally no clue.

Buy a T-shirt; apparently the cultural outfit of this world which would be available to purchase in the direction the guard pointed out…

Shortly after Alessio stole a hoodie with very large pockets and disposed of his old cloths, he set about trying to figure out how to hide his bow which apparently didn’t fit in but he wasn’t about to give it up…

Yeah…he was lost…

 

(And yes, the price tags are still very much on his cloths because he has no clue you’re supposed to take those off)

 

@ragnarok