Pain. It's all Seth knows right now. His body feels like one, overly sensitize conduit. There's no escape. He thinks there's something he was meant to be doing this week, something important, a vendetta he wanted so badly to see through, but he can't focus enough to even know anymore. His own name almost eludes him during the worst of it. Sometimes, his head clears, and he chants it to himself just to try to remember who he is, but it's fleeting, and another wave of fresh agony tears through his body.
He thinks, sometimes, he hears a voice, but it's far away, quiet, and he can't cling to it. When he does succeed at somewhat opening his eyes, all he sees is pale white, unable to move his head to look from side to side, or any other angle. His lips are dry, cracked when he tries to open his mouth and speak. Adds to his discomfort, leaves him thinking that he really may not survive this.
His fingers flex, his toes curl, but when he tries to arch, to avoid the pain still coursing through his veins, his body seems unmovable, tethered to something. He breathes shallowly and blinks, blinks, and blinks again, feeling something glide down his side, then another deep wave of white hot pain lances up his side. "Please," he manages to say, feeling something wet drip down his jaw. "Pl- ... please..."
There's a voice, not like the other, this one is mocking, sharp and almost cruel, and he cringes away from it, not wanting to cling to that at all. He knows as soon as he hears it there's no hope of being spared from whatever hellish cycle he's currently trapped in.
-x
Shinsuke huffs, examines the Digivice once more. "I don't even know," he says slowly. "He could be anywhere. Luke, is there anyway to find out what's around here?" He uses his thumb to circle the area around where they'd found Seth's digivice. It's still coated in a thin sheen of the man's blood and Shinsuke, despite himself, is worried.
Luke makes a face, eyes locked on the red tinted digivice as well. "There's a village here," he says, tapping the screen to the left of where Shinsuke indicated. "The digimon there are usually forthcoming and helpful in my experience. Perhaps you can go and ask them if they know of anything strange around there. Unless things have changed, they were always very happy to see digidestined."
Shinsuke purses his lips. "Unless things have changed? Did you expect them to?"
"Well, no," Luke says, brows furrowing as he thinks about how best to explain it. "It's simply things are always in flux in the digital world, and it has been a long, long time since I've dealt with them personally. Perceptions may have changed."
"I see," Shinsuke sighs. He doesn't even like Seth, especially lately, but he can't just leave the man to die, no matter what he thinks of him. It really leaves him with little choice. "Fine. We will go to this village and see what we can find out. Thank you, Luke."
"If you need anything, you know how to reach me," Luke tells him and Shinsuke nods with a faint smirk.
"Hai. Thank you." Turning to the group of Digidestined, Shinsuke clears his throat to get their attention. "We're heading off to a village near where Seth's digivice was found. The village hasn't been visited in a long time, Luke thinks they're friendly but just in case, be prepared. Everyone ready?"
The group nods and Shinsuke nods briefly back, turning to the digiport. "Digiport, open!"
