Thanks so much to Lizzy once again! Not only did she beta, she also came up
with the wall idea. ^_^ Couldn't have done it without her.
Chapter 4: Even The Walls have Ears
~~
"Jou...?" Honda said slowly, blindly reaching towards his side to tap his friend on the shoulder. He couldn't tear his gaze away, even to look where he was tapping. Luckily, he avoided hitting any of the nastier gashes. "Ne, Jou, look..."
Jou simply ignored him. He was fascinated with a strange, dusty purple rock. The edges were sharp, almost as if it had been torn out of something. 'I wonder what it's made of...' He turned it over and over in his hands while trying to figure out if he'd ever seen such a thing before. Annoyed, Honda tapped again, harder. "Jou! Look!" This time, he did hit one of the worse cuts. Jou breathed in sharply as a wave of pain swept over him. It was only then that he looked up, still running his fingers along the rock's rough edges.
There were people coming. Or, to be more exact, there were some vague black people-like shapes showing up against the horizon, completely obscured by the sun's backlighting.
Blinking owlishly to get a better look, Jou shook his head. "Can't see a thing, can you Honda? Sun's setting behind them."
The sun dipped lower on the horizon, momentarily illuminating the building from which the people had come. The entire building was the exact same dusty purple color, Jou noticed, before something else caught his attention.
Did the people coming have wings?
~~
Yuugi hurried along, partially behind Yami and partially behind Seto. As a result of this arrangement, Yuugi could not see. He figured that if he were taller, he could see over Yami's shoulder, or if he were faster, he would be ahead of the two. Instead, Yuugi simply shuffled along diagonally, trying to get to a place where he could see.
Before he could, Yami turned around. He nudged Seto, who once more looked annoyed at having to translate. 'Yuugi, do you know these two?' Upon realizing that Yuugi couldn't see them, Yami moved over and pushed Yuugi forwards in one simultaneous motion.
The "them" Yami was talking about turned out to be two very familiar figures staring at him with no little incredulity, which Yuugi reciprocated as soon as he got a glimpse of them. "Jou? Honda? Why aren't you back at the lab?"
"Yuugi? You're okay?" Jou looked very embarrassed then, hands slipping to his pockets in an unconscious gesture as a slight blush crept across his cheeks.
"We thought you were in trouble," Honda announced, raising his eyebrows. "You weren't..." he stopped, eyeing the aliens, who, undoubtedly, had wings.
"It's okay, they can't understand us if we speak verbally." Yuugi looked cheerful, and very eager to talk. Honda favored him with a 'Pray-tell-us- lesser-mortals-how-else-we-could-possibly-speak?' look that Yuugi ignored. "They seem to communicate mentally, though not all of them can communicate with me. Not sure why. Something about emotion. Only that guy" (Yuugi pointed to Seto) "can understand me. They said that it was because he hates me so much. And I don't know why the stuff isn't working either. I looked at them, but they seemed fine."
"Mentally? They communicate mentally?"
'What are you saying? What do they want?'
'Oh, they thought I was in trouble, so they came to rescue me.'
'Why'd they think you were in trouble?' Seto asked, even as he passed on Yuugi's words to the rest of the group.
'...Gut feeling,' Yuugi muttered, a bit uncomfortable with the lying. But he wasn't allowed to mention any sort of human inventions, in case he accidentally furthered the aliens' technology. Kind of a stupid rule, but what could he do about it? (Yes, this is barely short of plagiarism of Orson Scott Card's Speaker for the Dead.)
'Well, they can't stay.' Seto announced finally, after an almost insultingly short discussion with the others.
'W-why not?' Yuugi asked, confused. He looked up at Seto's cryptic expression, wondering what he had done wrong.
'Gut feeling,' Seto replied angrily, with a hint of sarcasm and irony that Yuugi couldn't quite understand.
'Pardon?'
'If you won't tell us, we won't tell you.' His eyes narrowed. 'Oh, and you have to work harder at concealing your thoughts, researcher.'
The color drained from Yuugi's face, but it was at this moment that his ears decided to pick up on Jou's voice. "Yuugi? Hello? Are you in there?"
"Sorry, Jou. I was talking with them. They... know."
"They know? What do they know?"
"Everything that we weren't supposed to tell them."
~~
Yuugi's boss was Not Happy.
He had gone to the lab to find Honda gone, completely abandoning the expensive machinery that would still occasionally emit Yuugi's voice. Something about a vague "they" and what "they" knew. Not bothering to stay and listen, as that was a job for an underling, Pegasus made a mental note to fire Honda if he ever happened upon the stupid, irresponsible nitwit again, and went to look for the kid on the next shift.
~~
Promising to tell Yami, Seto, Ryou, and Anzu the truth from now on raised their tolerance for humans from the negatives to the low positives. But they were still unwilling to let Jou and Honda stay, and Yuugi sadly bade the two farewell. Yuugi was uncomfortably aware of Seto's presence at his back, and mutely wondered if he was in danger. Telling lies wasn't exactly the best thing to do when somebody hated you.
'We're not going to kill you,' Seto said, causing Yuugi to blush yet again. He had to figure out how to hide his thoughts better.
'It's very understandable.' The other boy patted him on the shoulder. By now, Yuugi's face resembled the sunset. 'Your species is not accustomed to such a close and specific mind-to-mind communication. It will take time. You've actually made remarkable progress for such a primitive species. We've noticed that there are weak bonds like ours among certain members of your species. You have one with that blond haired boy, do you not?'
Yuugi did not know how to answer.
They led him back to the building. Yuugi's eyes darted around, looking at anything other than the Winged Ones, whose trust he'd betrayed. His eyes wandered to the walls. 'Purple. Strange.'
'It's special material,' Seto announced. 'It helps amplify our thoughts. Before, we used your own indigenous materials, such as wood or stone. The thoughts were blocked by the walls, hindering communication between those inside and those outside the building. Now, the walls amplify the thoughts instead.'
'Oh.' Yuugi leaned in to inspect the walls more closely, and surprisingly, Seto stopped to wait. The others continued inside with a few backward glances; they obviously had more important places to go. 'I thought you were mad at me.'
Surprisingly, Seto laughed. 'I'm the only one who can communicate with you, remember? And I'm not mad at you, exactly. You make it sound so childish.' He turned serious again. 'It's nothing that simple, I can assure you.'
'...Okay.' Yuugi shrugged slightly, and put out one hand to touch the walls. There were little white flecks buried deep in the purple, he noted. 'How'd you make this? How can it amplify thought?' He leaned in closer for inspection. 'How can anything amplify thoughts?'
Seto folded his wings close to his sides, rather like a bird might. Leaning against the wall, he smirked. 'Why should I tell you?' He stayed like that for a few moments, then stood and unfurled his wings violently, causing several black feathers to fall to the ground. 'How do you make walls that amplify sound? We're very interested in that.'
Yuugi jerked his head up sharply, before a sheepish smile spread across his face. 'Oh. Right. Shall we go inside now?'
Wordlessly, Seto opened the door.
Once inside, Yuugi sighed. 'Now what?' Realizing that Seto hadn't heard, he repeated the words again and again. And he'd thought that he'd mastered this mental communication thing.
Miles away, Jounouchi looked up with a start.
Chapter 4: Even The Walls have Ears
~~
"Jou...?" Honda said slowly, blindly reaching towards his side to tap his friend on the shoulder. He couldn't tear his gaze away, even to look where he was tapping. Luckily, he avoided hitting any of the nastier gashes. "Ne, Jou, look..."
Jou simply ignored him. He was fascinated with a strange, dusty purple rock. The edges were sharp, almost as if it had been torn out of something. 'I wonder what it's made of...' He turned it over and over in his hands while trying to figure out if he'd ever seen such a thing before. Annoyed, Honda tapped again, harder. "Jou! Look!" This time, he did hit one of the worse cuts. Jou breathed in sharply as a wave of pain swept over him. It was only then that he looked up, still running his fingers along the rock's rough edges.
There were people coming. Or, to be more exact, there were some vague black people-like shapes showing up against the horizon, completely obscured by the sun's backlighting.
Blinking owlishly to get a better look, Jou shook his head. "Can't see a thing, can you Honda? Sun's setting behind them."
The sun dipped lower on the horizon, momentarily illuminating the building from which the people had come. The entire building was the exact same dusty purple color, Jou noticed, before something else caught his attention.
Did the people coming have wings?
~~
Yuugi hurried along, partially behind Yami and partially behind Seto. As a result of this arrangement, Yuugi could not see. He figured that if he were taller, he could see over Yami's shoulder, or if he were faster, he would be ahead of the two. Instead, Yuugi simply shuffled along diagonally, trying to get to a place where he could see.
Before he could, Yami turned around. He nudged Seto, who once more looked annoyed at having to translate. 'Yuugi, do you know these two?' Upon realizing that Yuugi couldn't see them, Yami moved over and pushed Yuugi forwards in one simultaneous motion.
The "them" Yami was talking about turned out to be two very familiar figures staring at him with no little incredulity, which Yuugi reciprocated as soon as he got a glimpse of them. "Jou? Honda? Why aren't you back at the lab?"
"Yuugi? You're okay?" Jou looked very embarrassed then, hands slipping to his pockets in an unconscious gesture as a slight blush crept across his cheeks.
"We thought you were in trouble," Honda announced, raising his eyebrows. "You weren't..." he stopped, eyeing the aliens, who, undoubtedly, had wings.
"It's okay, they can't understand us if we speak verbally." Yuugi looked cheerful, and very eager to talk. Honda favored him with a 'Pray-tell-us- lesser-mortals-how-else-we-could-possibly-speak?' look that Yuugi ignored. "They seem to communicate mentally, though not all of them can communicate with me. Not sure why. Something about emotion. Only that guy" (Yuugi pointed to Seto) "can understand me. They said that it was because he hates me so much. And I don't know why the stuff isn't working either. I looked at them, but they seemed fine."
"Mentally? They communicate mentally?"
'What are you saying? What do they want?'
'Oh, they thought I was in trouble, so they came to rescue me.'
'Why'd they think you were in trouble?' Seto asked, even as he passed on Yuugi's words to the rest of the group.
'...Gut feeling,' Yuugi muttered, a bit uncomfortable with the lying. But he wasn't allowed to mention any sort of human inventions, in case he accidentally furthered the aliens' technology. Kind of a stupid rule, but what could he do about it? (Yes, this is barely short of plagiarism of Orson Scott Card's Speaker for the Dead.)
'Well, they can't stay.' Seto announced finally, after an almost insultingly short discussion with the others.
'W-why not?' Yuugi asked, confused. He looked up at Seto's cryptic expression, wondering what he had done wrong.
'Gut feeling,' Seto replied angrily, with a hint of sarcasm and irony that Yuugi couldn't quite understand.
'Pardon?'
'If you won't tell us, we won't tell you.' His eyes narrowed. 'Oh, and you have to work harder at concealing your thoughts, researcher.'
The color drained from Yuugi's face, but it was at this moment that his ears decided to pick up on Jou's voice. "Yuugi? Hello? Are you in there?"
"Sorry, Jou. I was talking with them. They... know."
"They know? What do they know?"
"Everything that we weren't supposed to tell them."
~~
Yuugi's boss was Not Happy.
He had gone to the lab to find Honda gone, completely abandoning the expensive machinery that would still occasionally emit Yuugi's voice. Something about a vague "they" and what "they" knew. Not bothering to stay and listen, as that was a job for an underling, Pegasus made a mental note to fire Honda if he ever happened upon the stupid, irresponsible nitwit again, and went to look for the kid on the next shift.
~~
Promising to tell Yami, Seto, Ryou, and Anzu the truth from now on raised their tolerance for humans from the negatives to the low positives. But they were still unwilling to let Jou and Honda stay, and Yuugi sadly bade the two farewell. Yuugi was uncomfortably aware of Seto's presence at his back, and mutely wondered if he was in danger. Telling lies wasn't exactly the best thing to do when somebody hated you.
'We're not going to kill you,' Seto said, causing Yuugi to blush yet again. He had to figure out how to hide his thoughts better.
'It's very understandable.' The other boy patted him on the shoulder. By now, Yuugi's face resembled the sunset. 'Your species is not accustomed to such a close and specific mind-to-mind communication. It will take time. You've actually made remarkable progress for such a primitive species. We've noticed that there are weak bonds like ours among certain members of your species. You have one with that blond haired boy, do you not?'
Yuugi did not know how to answer.
They led him back to the building. Yuugi's eyes darted around, looking at anything other than the Winged Ones, whose trust he'd betrayed. His eyes wandered to the walls. 'Purple. Strange.'
'It's special material,' Seto announced. 'It helps amplify our thoughts. Before, we used your own indigenous materials, such as wood or stone. The thoughts were blocked by the walls, hindering communication between those inside and those outside the building. Now, the walls amplify the thoughts instead.'
'Oh.' Yuugi leaned in to inspect the walls more closely, and surprisingly, Seto stopped to wait. The others continued inside with a few backward glances; they obviously had more important places to go. 'I thought you were mad at me.'
Surprisingly, Seto laughed. 'I'm the only one who can communicate with you, remember? And I'm not mad at you, exactly. You make it sound so childish.' He turned serious again. 'It's nothing that simple, I can assure you.'
'...Okay.' Yuugi shrugged slightly, and put out one hand to touch the walls. There were little white flecks buried deep in the purple, he noted. 'How'd you make this? How can it amplify thought?' He leaned in closer for inspection. 'How can anything amplify thoughts?'
Seto folded his wings close to his sides, rather like a bird might. Leaning against the wall, he smirked. 'Why should I tell you?' He stayed like that for a few moments, then stood and unfurled his wings violently, causing several black feathers to fall to the ground. 'How do you make walls that amplify sound? We're very interested in that.'
Yuugi jerked his head up sharply, before a sheepish smile spread across his face. 'Oh. Right. Shall we go inside now?'
Wordlessly, Seto opened the door.
Once inside, Yuugi sighed. 'Now what?' Realizing that Seto hadn't heard, he repeated the words again and again. And he'd thought that he'd mastered this mental communication thing.
Miles away, Jounouchi looked up with a start.