"Bright and early for their daily races
Going nowhere, going nowhere"
—"Mad World" from Trading Snakeoil for Wolftickets by Gary Jules
The four left the job board together with a light cloud of shame hanging over Max. "I told you she'd understand," Neb said.
Max hid his sparking cheeks by keeping his eyes trained on the scant few jobs he'd picked up for their expedition. "I could've handled it," he said. Standing on his toes to watch her grill the pelipper behind the counter could've started a fire with all the embarrassed sparks that flew off his cheeks. The whole scene felt familiar to him in a way he couldn't place, and he was glad that he couldn't. He didn't really want to know which set of memories held one similar.
Stuffing the missions into his bag, he then used the same paw to pull out the new badge and gave it to Eleos. "Here," he mumbled.
Eleos grabbed it with a nod of thanks, then turned to Neb. "I appreciate your efforts to expedite the process," it sucked up. While Max started to glare, he tried to hide it when Eleos turned to give him a concerned look. "Are you sure Mt. Steel will not be too much, though?" Hiding the glare became exponentially harder.
"I'll be fine," Max said. He closed his bag and tossed it back over his shoulder. "I already know what to do if it starts to get too much." Despite his best efforts, he couldn't hold back the bite in his words. Their plans on top of contingencies on top of contingencies had nearly driven him insane yesterday. "Besides, I promised Cori we'd never go back to Thunderwave Cave, so that just leaves the mountain."
While Cori winced at mention of their promise, Neb turned back to him with one ear raised. "What about Tiny Woods?" she asked.
"C'mon," Max grumbled. He could've mentioned how pointless that would've been, but he didn't want to drag the argument on. "It's not like I didn't think this through. Can't y'all trust me?" Neb narrowed an eye to remind him of the last few times she'd trusted him, then looked away when he winced.
"I'm surprised we can go to Mount Steel already," Cori said, taking the pressure off Max. "Isn't it a big Dungeon?"
"Well, sort of," Max said. He couldn't remember the expeditions themselves, but he did remember the knowledge (which made sense after Neb explained episodic versus semantic memory). "Nine floors is more than Thunderwave, yeah, but a lot of Dungeons have way more." As he explained, he nudged himself closer to Cori. Since they seemed a bit worried, he wrapped an arm around their back. "You'll do fine, all right?"
The encouragement got little more than a nervous glance in return. Max hoped it was enough. He didn't know what else to do and couldn't think of more to say. Aside from the infantilization, another reason everyone drilling him on whether he could handle this or not frustrated him was because he didn't know the answer. He looked down at his paw, tracing the pad of its palm with his eyes.
Starting from the pinky to the thumb, then back again, he wiggled each one, then squeezed his paw into a fist to gauge his strength. Was it going to be enough?
"No one knew me, no one knew me"
"The first floor ends here," Max said, then turned around. "Are we ready to move on?" He looked around as if asking everyone but ended on Cori.
"The doll probably won't be deep," Cori said. They took a moment to think, then pulled the mission slip out of their bag and looked it over to confirm. "She says she got a few floors deep but thinks she lost it early." Sharing a glance with Max, both nodded in agreement. "But I'm pretty sure we already checked all the rooms in this floor?"
Max nodded without much thought. As expected, he couldn't suppress his awareness once he entered the Dungeon, but he only got a basic idea of the floor's borders without focusing. "Yeah, I think so, too," he mumbled. A stray glance her way caught Neb's narrowed eyes. Max flinched before he could suppress it.
"How'd you know the floor ends here?" Neb asked.
Luckily, Max had managed to steel himself enough after the flinch to shrug it off. "Sometimes, I get lucky," he said. "I saw a rift in the air." He waved a paw in the general direction with little conviction. He didn't want to go against his promise with her, but he knew she'd assume the worst if she found out he was still using it.
"Alright," Neb said, though she kept a wary eye on the chu. "Well, I'm glad you did." Her satchel popped open, and out flew a notebook and a pen. "I want to know how you feel going deeper."
"Oh, right," Max mumbled. "Sure." He almost forgot she'd tagged along for research, not babysitting. "I'll, like, try to pay attention to it." Even putting himself under extra scrutiny, he could feel the pressure on him. He tried to shake off the nerves before his cheeks could spark and went through the rift. "Ngheh." A paw went to his stomach. It felt as disorienting as always, though not much since it was only the second floor.
Everyone else followed right behind him, so he got ready to describe the feeling. "Stomach turns," he started. "I feel a bit like up and left switched." He tried to really listen to his feelings to give Neb good notes and felt a confusing inkling of unease. "N-nervous? That's… not noticed that one before." No analysis, he tried to just go on how he felt. "I feel queasy, like I'm sick, feel a bit more pull from my instincts, I feel… feel like…," he looked around the room, but couldn't see anyone else, "I'm being watched?"
"Paranoid?" Neb asked, looking at him with concern.
"I-I guess," Max mumbled. "I don't think… that one usually happens." When he turned around to look for the eyes drilling a hole in the back of his head, the gaze stayed behind him. That made him turn around even quicker, but it still remained behind him. He almost tried to call on his awareness to feel around them, but stopped when he 'saw' Neb. He was going to at least try to keep his promise.
"Is this perhaps a variation of the unease you normally felt stepping through thresholds such as these?" Eleos asked.
Max was starting to regret never teaching it how to talk normally. "Maybe?" he said, though he instinctively shook his head. This was different. He knew this feeling from last time he'd been followed through a Dungeon. A shiver licked its way up his spine. "Ngh, nothing, it's nothing." Maybe convincing everyone else could help convince him.
"If you're sure," Cori said, resting a paw on his shoulder. "Wanna go ahead?" The eyes still dug into his back, but the sensation at least calmed down somewhat, so he nodded. Cori clapped his back, and they went on.
Max let Cori take the lead, and Neb managed to walk along next to him. "I don't know," he mumbled before she could ask. "Sorry, hope this doesn't mess up your studying." Impeding her research on him as a subject shouldn't have bothered him, but he couldn't help feeling a bit guilty.
"My concern is about you," Neb said. "Not research." She tucked her notebook and pen back into her bag. "While I appreciate the cooperation, you feeling bad is more than a data point." Even priorities so basically ordered made Max feel a bit warm inside, and he only got warmer when she leaned in to nuzzle his cheek. "You've been on edge since we came in here."
His tail swished before he could stop it. "I-I'm, well," Max stuttered, but he stopped himself. He could trust her. If she said she was only worried about his well being, she meant it. "Yeah, kind of." Of course, he still couldn't tell her why, so he tried to focus on their surroundings instead. The cave had a crack in the wall on the right that looked like a lightning bolt, three rocks right under a crumbling overhang that suggested a path above them, and a couple on the opposite side suggested the same.
"Well, when you're willing to talk about it," Neb said. "I'm here." The lack of prying made Max blink, and she nuzzled his cheek again before he could question it.
"R-right," he mumbled. His paw went up to rub at his cheek while he kept an eye on Eleos. For some reason, he was afraid it might get the wrong idea. Neb chuckled. He yanked his paw back down. "Thanks." At least he could trust her not to tell it.
Not that she had anything to tell, just a misunderstanding. She had the wrong idea, of course, which obviously made him grateful she wouldn't tell his friend some rumor she made up against his will. Of course he didn't have any feelings, no, so Eleos might get its heart crushed if it got her wrong idea! Why did he assume him not having feelings for it would crush Eleos? He was going to not think about that.
"Enemy!" Eleos shouted, yanking Max out of his own head. He turned to where it pointed and saw a jet of water splashing into a pokémon in the air. The illusion fell before the water did. "Impressive work!"
"Yeah, nice," Max said. Cori looked surprised and then extremely flustered once they turned to see Max's supportive smile. Once Max checked that the coast was clear, he shuffled up next to them. "You must've been practicing."
"Shut up," they chuckled. "You're just saying that."
"You annihilated your enemy in a single blow," Eleos explained. It started to go on, but Max flagged it down.
"Keep it up, all right?" Max said, patting them on the back. Despite them apparently being cold blooded, Max could swear he felt their blush getting worse. The bit of extra warmth felt nice, too, so he ran his paw along their back a bit. The scales felt smooth when going down, barely more than rough skin, but turned into a forest of pinpricks if he tried to drag his paw up.
"Hey," a familiar voice called from Cori, despite the toto's maw not moving. "Don't go against the grain like that! It feels like you're ripping them off." Max almost apologized, but the charmander laughed it off. "It's the same as your fur, y'know?"
"Well," Max mumbled. He abandoned petting the charmander's back to scratch at the back of his head. "Not exactly, no." Blood rushed to his cheeks trying to figure out how to explain this. All of a sudden, a shower of sparks spewed out of his cheeks. "Wh-what?! Help!" Yet, despite the clear danger Max was in, the charmander did nothing but laugh at him!
"Max? What's wrong?" Cori asked. They looked down at him and seemed completely unaware of how blurry they were. "You all right? Is it instincts?"
Another memory. "Ugh, no," Max groaned, clutching his head on instinct. Although, for the first time, it didn't hurt from a memory coming back to him. It remained disorienting to go from a cave to a field and back to the cave, though, so he still needed a second to get his bearings back. The stone, thinning coat of dirt on the ground, and vague draft of a chill brought him back, and he found himself smiling. "I remembered." He let his paw drop off his head to look at it. Not quite the same, but familiar regardless.
"Oh, was it a good one for once?!" Cori asked, and Max realized they had their paws on his shoulders, ready to catch him, when they started bouncing in excitement. The sight only made his smile wider. They were probably the same age as him (relatively), yet they had an envious amount of youthful joy.
"Yeah," he said. He could still hear his partner's laughter. "It was when we met." The charmander's scales somehow returned to the palm of his paw for a moment, but he had to shake himself out of it. Reminiscing had to wait; he had to remember he was on a timer. "I'm all right," he gave a thumb's up to the party, "Let's head out."
When he went to walk, however, a purple paw held him back by the shoulder, so he turned to see Neb smiling down at him. "I'm happy for you," she said. The familiar rush of blood invaded his cheeks again. As much as his control had improved since that first day, a few sparks still had no trouble escaping.
"Th-thanks," Max mumbled, and though he meant it, he still took a slightly more forceful step forward to escape her grasp. Not from embarrassment, of course. He had no other reason than the ticking timer of his instincts.
Instincts that still demanded that a threat watched over them all. Yet, for all the fur standing on end, the cave looked desolate. Only one enemy in two floors. That didn't happen. He'd expected a good few more than usual because of Thunderwave Cave, yet nearly no ferals had shown up. Maybe his instincts had picked up on that as strange?
No, no, he definitely felt some presence. It pained him to resist using his awareness, letting it extend, even if only for a minute, but he couldn't. He had a promise to keep (no matter how stupid and arbitrary it felt to him).
The cave opened up a bit to some semblance of a clearing. Not much more than dirt and rocks speckled the ground until they stepped all the way in. Max noticed the Kecleon's rug first, thanks to experience, yet the red and yellow rug sat alone, off to the side. Some dirt had even piled on top of it, which he knew Kecleon would absolutely not tolerate.
"Stop," he said, raising a paw. The party followed it, albeit a bit hesitantly. "There's something wrong here." He pointed to the rug. "That rug, I've never seen Kecleon leave his post before."
"Oh, look!" Cori said, pointing to the very same rug and, seemingly, forgetting Max had told them all to stop.
Cori made a mad dash for the rug. "Hey, wait!" Max shouted, starting to run after them. By the time he'd started, though, they'd already made it to the abandoned post, bending down to pick an item up.
They turned around to show their loot to Max. One paw held it while the other proudly pointed at the pikachu-shaped pokédoll. "It's the first item!" Cori said.
"Okay, but, look!" Max shouted. Then, he heard Neb and Eleos walking up behind him. Stepping back, he turned to alternate looking at them and Cori. He felt his ears shooting up like lightning rods to listen for the pokémon he knew had to be around, but he couldn't hear a single sound besides the four of them. He looked back at Cori again. Holding the doll. They were fine.
"What is wrong?" Eleos asked. Suddenly, Max felt insane. He knew something was wrong. He knew running into this clearing was a bad idea. But everyone did, and everyone was fine. Everyone's eyes dug into him. For a moment, at least, but then Eleos bent over to take the rug in a gentle paw. "Does this seem suspicious to you?"
"Yes," Max said. "Or, no. Not the material." One paw went to adjust his bag while the other rubbed his eyes. "This is Kecleon's rug." With a quick glance, he saw that at least that much made enough sense to them. "He sets up shop in dungeons."
"I've heard as much," Neb said. Max felt a wave of relief. Good, maybe he wasn't losing it. Neb moved around him to look at the half-buried corners. "I'm surprised he'd leave it like this, though."
"Yes!" Max shouted with a little jump. "He'd never leave it like this!" He threw a paw to the dirtied rug in triumph. "Not only that, but this!" He went over and snatched the doll out of Cori's paw. "He doesn't sell lost items! I've never seen him touch them!"
Cori snatched the doll back from him and stuffed it in their bag. "So, you think he left in a hurry or something?" they asked, though didn't seem interested in the answer. Max nodded, but they focused on checking the doll off their checklist rather than pay attention to him. Had he annoyed them by snatching the doll out of their paw?
Any reason this mattered got stuck in Max's throat. Despite everyone more or less facing him, he felt completely ignored. The sense of someone watching over them paled in comparison to the burning hum of embarrassment hitting him from all sides. "Well, yeah, but it's probably nothing," he mumbled. He yanked the missions out of his bag and moved to the middle of the clearing before anyone could question him on the sudden change.
"The rest are probably on a higher floor," he said. He prepared to brush off concerned probing.
"Probably?" Cori said. "We should still keep an eye out, though." Yet, no one seemed to notice his sudden shift. He didn't want to answer any concerns, but he at least wanted them to exist. "How big is the second floor, do you think?"
Answering that was probably going to be a bad idea. He wanted to avoid Neb's suspicion, after all. Although, he couldn't help wondering if she'd even notice. Surely she would. Yet. "We're a third of the way into it," Max answered. He needed to test this. A brief run of silence made him wonder if anyone even heard him, their reactions all seeming to lag a moment behind when he'd actually finished talking.
"I doubt backtracking would be necessary," Eleos said. "Yes, let's forge ahead with intensive surveyal, then." Cori nodded; Max felt like he could disintegrate, and they'd move on without noticing.
"No, we shouldn't," Max said without good objection to the plan, just assuming he'd be ignored again. Instead, everyone flinched at his interjection like he'd screamed it at them and gave him a side-eye that suggested he'd insulted every single one of them personally.
"Uh," Cori mumbled. For the first time in a while, Max felt his fur turning to stone. His paw struggled to close for a second, and he could almost feel his flesh hardening. "Why not?"
Max started walking deeper into the Dungeon and mumbled, "Nothing." His mind raced for some explanation or excuse, no matter how weak, and finally came up with one at the edge of the clearing. "Sorry, I was thinking to myself." Every judgmental glare they'd all given him etched into his vision. Even when he avoided looking behind him, the expressions etched themselves into the stone on the walls.
"Cori," Eleos whispered. Max's ear twitched; its voice sounded close, but its pawsteps were noticeably further away. He just shook his head and tried to ignore it. "Surely you've noticed he's acting strange?" That got his attention. He needed all of his available restraint to pretend he couldn't hear.
"Well, yeah," Cori said. Max pretended to look around at the walls to hide a glance back to see how far ahead he was. "He just sounds mad." They were way too far back to sound this clear. "Maybe his instincts are bothering him?"
"Perhaps," Eleos said. "Though, he never has been the most patient." Max had to grit his teeth. He couldn't even disagree with that one. "He's an asshole for no reason sometimes." That, no. Max flinched halfway back before he caught himself. That didn't sound right—that didn't even sound like Eleos. Was he imagining this entire conversation?
"Well, I guess, yeah," Cori mumbled, crushing Max's hopes they'd stick up for him. No, if he wanted to fix this, he'd have to do it himself.
Max stopped in his tracks and turned half-way around, saying, "Uh, hey." The three stopped, at least. "Sorry." He looked down, scratching at the back of his neck. If only he'd actually thought out his apology before committing. "I'm just on edge, and I'm taking it out on y'all. Sorry." Did that sound genuine? Sure, he meant it, but did it sound like he did? He glanced up to check, and everyone looked mostly empathetic, if a bit confused.
"Does that mean you're ready to talk?" Neb asked.
"Wh-what? Uh, well," Max stammered, almost biting his tongue. The prospect tempted him, if he thought about it honestly, but he shook his head anyway. "Well, sort of, but I'm still on a timer." He crumpled a bit when he looked up at her with an apology.
"Oh, right," Neb said, letting out a chuckle. "Good point. Let's get going, then."
The denied relief made it hard for him to bring himself to move on. Nevertheless, he still forced himself to go, though not before sharing a glance with Eleos. Their eyes met, but it only wore its default blank expression. Had he imagined what it said? It tilted its head in concern, so Max turned to continue on.
He took a breath to try and calm down. First, that sensation of being watched (which still hadn't gone away), and now this. Despite the feeling getting stronger, he couldn't see anyone around them—and he'd started looking with increasing frequency. Could the threat be invisible? Could pokémon turn invisible? Surely ghosts could, and he (somehow) knew Transform was a move. If they'd hidden in the surroundings, they'd be able to avoid his notice with ease. Yet, the cave looked completely normal, without so much as a pile of pebbles in a peculiar shape.
"Max?" Eleos asked.
Max screamed and jumped away, turning to face Eleos and pull his tail in front of him in the air. "Eleos?!" he shouted. Eleos put its paws up in surrender. "Don't sneak up on me like that!" Neb and Cori stopped a bit ahead of both of them, giving Max a shared look of confusion.
Eleos, too, did its best to imitate them. "I called your name three times before approaching," it said. "You didn't respond, but I had not realized you didn't hear." Max stared in abject confusion as it gave a low bow of apology. "Forgive me, I had no intention to scare you."
This had to be a joke. Max looked between the three of them for some sign of a chuckle, laughter, anything, but nobody showed any such expression. Only confused concern. "Oh," he mumbled. He could hardly believe he'd been that in his own head. "N-no, I'm sorry." His tail returned to his back as he crumpled into a bashful slouch. "I just, it still feels like someone's watching."
Eleos nodded in understanding, or at least empathy. "Well, I had intended to ask what was bothering you," it chuckled. "I suppose you've already answered me." A mere glance at its warm smile melted Max's knees like gelatin over an open flame and gave him the first full breath of air since he'd entered the dungeon. "Hm, you seem to have relaxed. Why is that?"
"Oh, uh, well," Max stumbled over himself to say little. Neb and Cori shared an amused glance that he hadn't any power to stop. When he looked back at Eleos, though, he didn't want to. "I guess seeing it just makes me feel a bit better." If a simple look cheered him up this much, why not?
Eleos tilted its head and asked, "Seeing what?"
The chance leapt out at him. He felt it in his paws before the terror could hold him back. Knowing better couldn't stop him if he acted before he thought. Max walked up to the psuedomander and wrapped his arms around it. "You," he said. Eleos looked down with a blank expression, which gave Max just the opening he was looking for. He hopped up and planted his lips on Eleos's; his arms fought gravity to let the kiss last a mere half a second longer.
It had to end, though, as he well knew when he started. When his paws hit the ground, he squeezed his cheeks into Eleos's chest to (hopefully) hide his burning cheeks that only got hotter when Cori let out a little, "Awww." Was this too sudden? He'd known it for at least a year, now—gaps in consciousness notwithstanding—right? Why was it just standing there?
Eleos finally ended the non-response by grabbing Max and throwing him to the side. "Watch out!" it shouted as he slammed into the ground. He probably could've caught himself, but he couldn't process what happened. Even watching the barrage of rocks hit Eleos instead of him didn't dull the ache in his heart.
Cori jumped out to blast the geodude that had attacked while Neb went to help Max up, but he jumped up before she could. "Max," Neb started. "Are you—"
"Fine," Max answered. He turned around before she could stop him. They were in a Dungeon—why did he try to do that in a Dungeon? "I'm fine." Neb called after him, but he pushed on and hid his face. He didn't know why he needed to hide it since he wasn't crying, but the thought of anyone looking into his eyes made him want to tear his fur out. His eyes, even.
Nobody fought to make him talk, at least. After he'd rushed away from Neb, they all knew to keep their distance. For once, they respected his wishes to be left the fuck alone. They had a mission to complete, not a therapy session. The surroundings, those mattered infinitely more than how he felt at the moment. The cave, he needed to focus on the cave. The walls didn't have any particular oddities embedded into them, a simple crack on the right that looked a bit like a lightning bolt, not far from. A small pile of three rocks under an overhang. It looked familiar, but he shook it out of his head before he could dwell on it. A cave—it was a cave. Of course it looked similar.
"A crochet kit," Max mumbled. That was probably the next one they'd come across, and they only had about one more mission left anyway. One or two. After Neb's humiliating help, he forgot how many missions exactly he'd taken on. At least he had enough experience spelunking to lose himself in it. Dungeons all had different oddities about them, but mostly fell into the same flow that he at least thought he liked. Either that, or he'd needed to get used to it. Either way, he at least found it relaxing anymore.
He kept looking around for the kit, sort of. As much as he wanted to keep his mind off what happened, the act of ignoring it took up the entirety of his mind. At best, he managed to look around and put on a show of trying to find it, but he probably wouldn't notice if he saw it.
The silence, too, only served as a reminder. As if everyone wanted to leave him to his misery. It was nice enough at first, but at this point he just wanted a distraction. They'd even kept their pawsteps silent! "Any luck?" he called back.
No one answered. Not even a mumble. Now that he thought about it, why couldn't he hear them walking? His stomach sank as he turned around, then dropped when he only saw an empty cave behind him. "Pika!" he swore, then nearly bit his tongue. He couldn't start slipping on the second floor! The slip, though, at least forced him to calm down. He took a breath. "Control." Panicking could only make his situation worse. "I'm in control."
Calm didn't mean he couldn't run, though. He didn't even give the room another glance before dashing out as fast as he could. Running like he did felt a bit ridiculous, upright, pumping his forelegs as if they were arms, barely fast enough to get his scarf trailing in the wind behind him. Maybe Neb could show him how to run like a normal pikachu if he found her.
When. He shook his head. When he found her.
Seeing another clearing ahead, he called out, "Hello?!" No answer. He ran right into the clearing ahead and skittered to a stop when he saw it. The group was still somewhere else, but he saw Kecleon's rug again. "Wh-huh?" he mumbled. Had he gotten turned around? When could he have even done that? The Dungeon must have a circuit somewhere since the rug was on the same side as last time.
At least that told him he was probably headed in the right direction. Either he took a turn they didn't, or they were gonna come up from behind him eventually. He took a few more breaths standing still and went back to running. "Hey!" he yelled again. "Can y'all hear me?!"
A voice muffled back at him. It wasn't much, though, and it almost sounded like an echo, but it gave him enough hope to push past though his already breathless lungs. Even if Neb couldn't help him learn to run, he probably needed to work on his cardio.
More clearly, he heard someone calling back, "Max?" It had to be close! Just around the corner! He turned in the tight passage and dashed forward before he saw Cori right in front of him. Max clashed right into them before either could react. He tried to mitigate the damage by wrapping himself around them at least, though they felt a bit different this time. Unfortunately, the idea he'd done this multiple times made it a lot harder to compare and contrast the instances.
His tail covered their back right as their rolling turned to skidding. Which sucked for Max, since he had to drag his tail across stone with his and Cori's weight on top of it, but he grit his teeth to bear it. He'd knocked them over, after all. Luckily, towards the end, they rolled over just enough to scrape his arm across the ground instead. "Cori?" he puffed, trying to ignore the searing pain. "Are you all right?"
Cori shoved him off and stood, brushing off Max's tail in the same motion they brushed off the dirt. "Ow," they grumbled. On closer inspection, they didn't have any dirt to brush off. They looked down at him with narrowed eyes. Had the impact really hurt them that much more than it hurt Max? "C'mon." They turned and waved at Max to get up. "He's back!"
Max rushed to get up and run after them, still out of breath. Some help up would've been nice. Luckily, Neb and Eleos waited fairly close by. A wash of relief joined the burning in his lungs, but no one seemed as happy to see him. Or relieved. Even Cori's glances back sent exasperation his way. His ears flopped onto his head, and he tried to tuck his chin into his chest.
After Cori reunited with the rest, they turned to join them watching Max make it the rest of the way. Their eyes all weighed heavy on him. Not malicious, but certainly not happy. "Sorry," he mumbled. "I wasn't paying attention and got turned around." He glanced back at the path behind him, mostly for their benefit. "I somehow ended up back where we came from."
Neb and Cori raised a brow, then shared a glance. "You came from ahead of us just now," Neb said, walking up to nose her way to his side. Before Max could be baffled at the claim, she nudged at his arm. "Lift. I need to check if you've hurt yourself," she gave him a pointed glare, "again." The argument in his throat shriveled to a meek whimper as he followed orders. He'd gotten turned around once, after all. Maybe he'd done it again.
He started to raise his arm, but the sting yanked against it when he even slightly tried to raise his shoulder. At best, he managed to get his arm up to the highest stripe on his back. Neb nosed under his arm to shove it up until it was parallel to the ground. "Chu! Pika pi!" he shouted out in a hiss. A psychic barrier held his arm up when he tried to yank it back down. "Hey!" Right. He grit his teeth to try and fix his speech. "Can you be a bit more gentle? That hur—PIKA!"
His own complaining distracted him from the jar of balm she floated out of her med-kit. The burn nearly brought Max to tears. "You've got dirt embedded in your scrape, here," Neb explained (despite Max being in a bit too much pain to listen). Though, as she looked over it a bit more closely, a hint of regret pulled across her eyes. "Oh, I'm sorry. It looked a bit worse than it was." Despite this meaning Max was right about her being too rough, he didn't really feel like he'd won.
He wasn't out of the woods yet, either; Neb started rubbing her paw along his scrapes to get the disinfectant all across it. Max nearly pulled a muscle in his face wincing so hard, the only slight reprieve coming when his muzzle forced itself open to let out pitiful whimpers. "Don't worry about slipping," Neb said, which only made him remember to worry about it. "I know cries of pain are different from losing yourself to instincts." She gave him a wet pat with her paw, and he could feel her smile at him.
What she said made him wonder how severe his instincts had gotten, so he tried to listen in, see how much sway he felt from them. He stopped a moment, mostly ignoring Neb, and dug into his mind. They weren't deep, he felt them nearly immediately, but they were far from his conscious thought. It felt like he could go a few more floors before they'd even start to fight him in any substantial ways.
Even this simple check in, though, was still listening to them. Drifting along with their usual demands (food, run, attack, dissociate) was a spine-chilling sense of unease that, once he felt it, he couldn't shake. The sense of someone watching over them had finally faded, but it hadn't left. It had changed. He could feel Neb behind him, tending to a few of his other scrapes, but she felt off, like a ghost. Even when he felt her touch him, it felt like the touch of a specter.
Her paws weren't cold, yet their touch suddenly chilled him. She hummed a tune as she tended to his wounds, and Max couldn't remember if she'd ever done that before. Instincts said she hadn't, and he found it hard to disagree with them. The tune didn't sound like one she'd like, either.
"Hey, Max?" Cori asked. Max looked up to them and got a similar chill. "Are you all right?" Even though they looked completely normal, Max thought he could see right through them. He looked them over again and again with as close an inspection as he could manage, and even though he couldn't find even a single scale out of place, they looked wrong. "Wh-why are you staring at me like that?"
Even their voice. "Sorry, just thinking," Max mumbled. They spoke the same way they always had—even stuttered in the same way—yet sounded flat. Their intonation, was it too little? Too much?
A roll of bandages spun around the front of his torso, pulling him out of his thoughts. "Your tail's swollen," Neb explained. The bandaged yanked his tail against his back, and he had to fight himself not to rip it out of the restraint. "I think you might've sprained it."
Max looked down at the bandages and saw they started at the scrapes on his shoulder. "Isn't-this seems a bit much?" he asked. At least his shoulder didn't feel too restricted. His tail, though, got more restricted with every pass, and it was driving his instincts insane. Any lack of mobility for it drove him up a wall on a good day, and he had to feel it alongside the sensation a bunch of replicants had taken the places of his friends.
The roll went another layer down and squeezed out a squeak of a whimper from him. As it started wrapping underneath his rib cage, he took in a breath to push his stomach out a little bit, praying she wouldn't notice. Maybe this would help him stop worrying about the extra bit of chub he lugged around. Maybe.
Although, looking down to see the bandages rolling back up to cover the little pouches of yellow pudge only made him more self-conscious. He even heard Neb chuckling at the sight.
No, no this wouldn't help his self-image in the least.
"Will not this limit the boy's ability to use his electricity?" Eleos asked. Max's ears snapped at the air hearing it call him a boy (had it ever called him that before?).
"Breaking it would, too," Neb answered. "I don't want to risk it." The roll of bandages went around one last time, and Neb followed them to his front where she bit it off, then tucked the rest into her kit. "Feel any better, hon?" Okay, he knew she'd never called him that.
Max tried to swallow his building trepidation and act normal. With his untouched paw, he touched the bandages around his chest while rolling his other arm around to test its range of movement. "A bit, yeah," he mumbled. "Thanks." It could still move as far as normal, though it took more effort, and the bandages rubbed awfully hard against his raw skin.
"Must we tarry interminably?" Eleos growled. Max raised a brow that it countered with a glare. "Your little stunt and the ensuing tantrum have wasted more time than we have." Well, thank God he suspected this wasn't the real Eleos, or he might've killed himself then and there. "Need I remind you of your condition?"
Act natural. "Fuck off," Max mumbled. Pretty convincing, if he did say so himself. Terrified or not, he could lose his temper better than anyone else. Yet, even with his anger, with feeling like he spoke to a fake, he couldn't expunge the guilt he felt yelling at its face. "You can always go on ahead if you're tired of waiting." He needed certainty; if he could just trick it. He crossed his arms, looked off to the side and mumbled, "Not like you had any trouble leaving me alone last night."
'Eleos' smirked from the corner of its eye. "Oh yes, I'd almost forgotten," it chuckled. "You must indeed be lonely to be so desperate for so long." Max grit his teeth and looked away. "Pray tell, what was your rationale? That you'd failed to sleep with me, but a kiss would end in your favor?"
Max had to bite his lip to pretend that hurt him even though, internally, he was screaming. Eleos was utterly clueless. Max wasn't convinced it knew sex even existed, and it had curled around him every night since it started using that charmander form. "Can we just go?" he mumbled with a fake whimper. If either Neb or Cori were the real deal, he hoped they'd believe his clarification later.
A few sparks bounced down his cheeks. Even though it would make the situation worse, he really hoped they were all fakes. He started heading deeper into the dungeon, and the rest followed. Cori caught up from behind and started struggling to say something. That matched, at least, considering how nervous they always were (especially when talking to someone upset).
The way they ran their paws over each other seemed the slightest bit off, although at that point it was so granular, Max couldn't take it as proof they were a fake. "Are you okay?" they whispered, glancing back over their shoulder. Trying to be stealthy in a way that draws attention. Pretty on brand. Without a good answer for them, Max didn't bother. "Did you have an argument with her?"
Max glared over at them and made them flinch. "Her?" he asked. "You mean Eleos?" 'Cori' nodded. Pretty convincing, too. Max shrugged while assessing exactly how fucked he was. "Well, you know how she is." Cori had picked up on Eleos' (admittedly uncommon) gender situation flawlessly. They didn't even raise a brow when Max called Eleos 'it', nor had they slipped since.
Looking over at the counterfeit 'dile, whoever this was did eerily well. The amount they must have watched Cori and him to pull this off, to know as much as they clearly did sent freezing slime dripping down Max's spine. Whoever was impersonating Eleos, though, missed by entire lines of longitude, which made sense. Eleos hadn't been out and about for more than a few days. Maybe they just hadn't had the time to study it, or even thought they had to.
The latter seemed more likely for Neb, though Max had to wonder how no one else noticed three people entering the dungeon with them. She was acting off, but he needed to be sure. He pretended to look around for the missing items while brainstorming his skull in half. As well as a test, he needed an escape route the second he confirmed only his skin needed saving.
Unfortunately, the only way to get a better idea of his surroundings broke a promise. Fortunately, in the event of an emergency, what Neb didn't know wouldn't hurt her. He stopped resisting the pull of feeling his surroundings and felt a ten ton veil lift off him. Even breathing became easier.
Neb had been right, though; his instincts didn't blow up, but he could definitely hear them a lot better now. He just needed to last a few more minutes. His salvation was only a turn away; he felt the distortion to the next floor right around the bend. Could he make up that she said something? No, whoever these impersonators were had probably watched them at the first distortion.
When they turned the corner, Max pretended to look for the distortion a moment, then called out, "Oh, Neb, this is the next distortion." She hadn't called him on knowing where it was earlier, though. "Did you want to take notes again?" It didn't need to be convincing, just plausible so he could gauge her reaction. "You said it was for a book? Or a paper?"
"A journal," she answered, nodding along. That sounded… frustratingly plausible. It's not as if it was strange to ask what this was for, so the real Neb would definitely tell him. As the same pen and notebook floated out of her bag again, she said, "The same one we've talked about before."
"Oh," Max sighed. All that worrying for nothing, then. Not only had they never talked about that, but if they had, Neb would absolutely neg him for forgetting. "Well, good luck with that." He steeled himself and turned to the distortion. "Talk to ya on the other side." As much as he wanted to break into a sprint immediately, it'd give him more time to play along until they couldn't see him. Even a fake espeon could outrun him with ease.
One paw clutched his bag while he forced a calm gait walking to the next floor's entrance. He didn't take his usual breath before pushing through all at once and broke into a sprint the instant he made it through. Precious few seconds were all he needed to grab his badge and teleport out of there. He darted around the first corner and slowed a bit to reach into his bag.
His badge was gone. He flipped the front flap down, but it wasn't pinned to the front either. Of course, of all the times for it to get lost in his bag, it would get lost now. Just his luck. He sped back up while frantically digging through his bag.
Max dashed into the nearest tunnel and ran straight into a wall of scales he hadn't seen. If he'd had his tail, he could've re-balanced to avoid the fall, but he fell right on it instead. "Looking for this?" the wall of scales asked. The fake Eleos holding out his badge greeted him when he looked up. "I'm impressed. People don't usually figure this out for another few floors."
Max hopped up, ready to fight, but a fur-covered leg kicked him back down to the ground. "Though, there's one thing I always wished I could do, but only another human would understand," Neb's doppelganger explained behind him. "You seem nerdy enough to get it, though."
Right as Max pulled together the strength to push his face up off the ground, a blue hindpaw kicked his face hard enough to launch him into the wall. Max clutched his nose and looked at the fake Cori standing over him.
Teeth skewered out of its stomach, gnashing into each other as they formed a wide, grinning mouth. "Fall before my invincible ability!" the horrific mouth called out while the psuedo-toto hid its face with one paw while the other reached to the sky. "Mad World!"
Max, for once, was glad he couldn't remember something.