[CLOSED]

[subtract]

Who: Add & Jakob
Where: Henir's temple
When: Forward-dated to May 11th
What: Jakob meets his new god.
Warnings: Add.

Add wakes up surrounded by darkness and the glow of cubes, floating aimlessly through a familiar space. The flood of memories is overwhelming. Elrios, Monad, Takamagahara... flashes of some other place he doesn't recognize. Everything feels jumbled and out of place. Why are these memories coming back now...? And why is he in Henir's space?

It takes awhile for him to piece everything together, but he's relieved to find out he hasn't been locked up by Henir to spend the rest of eternity running petty errands for Glave. Quite the opposite, in fact—he is "Henir", and he's back in Takamagahara. The extra memories in his mind belong to his shinki, who appears to be Jakob. It's been less than twenty-four hours since his last day spent in this world. For once he really does remember it like it was yesterday and it's not an exaggeration, even if it feels like he's been gone for months at the same time.

He has a feeling Jakob is the other presence he can sense within his temple, but there's a more important matter that demands his attention first. Add isn't a shinki anymore, and Jakob is here with him... what did that mean for Roxas, who owned the both of them previously? Or Ludger? Were those two still paired together, or...?

Neither of their phones give any answer. And when he checks the temple... it's gone.

... Maybe there's still a chance they're here, assigned under new roles. But the chance seems slim. Part of him still wants to try, to ask around and see if maybe someone's seen either of them, but... there's still something else he should take care of before that.

Right, Jakob. Probably still somewhere in the temple.

Luckily, Add can teleport even without his Dynamo now, so getting back to his temple takes about two seconds. Now it's just a matter of figuring out which of the big floating cubes has Jakob in it.

Whatever illusion Jakob ended up in, he'll eventually hear Add's echoing voice coming from somewhere vaguely above him: "Anybody home?"

Comments

[gentilitea]

For a man who barely even sleeps, waking up to all of this is just the worst. While Chang’e’s temple has always been relatively calm all this silence and emptiness is just unnerving and he’s already half a mind to simply get out of there and get some fresh air in the rest of the Far Shore. But not, of course, before he’s done with his daily chores. And that only takes all of ten minutes before he starts tearing through the illusion searching after the rest of his housemates. While Lord Roxas doesn’t necessarily sleep he does still enjoy breakfast, and where is Ludger fussing over May, and Apocalypse hovering over the corridors, and Add still stuck in his room…

Contacting his god through phone yields nothing, and the second most reliable man in the house (after himself, of course) isn’t picking up either. Have they both gone out for a nice morning stroll? He’d like to hope. That leaves only Add, of course, who, after a brief inspection is not even shut up in his room, but considering that it’s Add, and that he’s had some time to recover from the blight fiasco, Jakob allows himself a moment to get angry, and start yelling for the guy as he storms his way around the temple, because of course if anything’s amiss inside of the temple he can very well blame the guy for it.

Eventually hearing Add’s voice echoing vaguely above him doesn’t help. Anger has since turned into frustration morphing into an abomination of concern and regret and all of that comes out through a voice that’s already exhausted from all that yelling:

“So you’ve finally deigned to reply! Now, will you cease with your pranks and come out of hiding? Must I drag you out of trouble all the time?”

He can’t exactly make good on that threat, he knows. Add is using some strange dark magic again, and even yelling for Apocalypse doesn’t help. He feels so betrayed right now.

[subtract]

Man, it really sucks the fun out of teasing him when he can feel the uncomfortable edge of Jakob's distress. He sighs, drumming his fingers on the cube's surface.

"If anyone's hiding right now it'd be you," he answers calmly. "Hang on, let me see if I can find an opening..."

At least he's familiar enough with Henir's space to have some idea of how this should work. As for controlling all of this, though, he has no idea what he's doing. Can he even pull Jakob out of there, or would he have to run the whole challenge first...? Well, Add can teleport freely now, so maybe it'd be better to see what he could do on his own first and save teleportation as a backup.

Jakob can hear the distant sound of footsteps and tapping as Add feels around for the entrance. Finally, there's a sharp knock following by a gap yawning open in the ceiling near where Jakob is. Add pokes his head in.

"Ah! There we go." He grins proudly, and with no further explanation he jumps down into the space. The gap seals up behind him as he lands. "Interesting, so it can look like places from this world as well... well, anyway—"

Unable to come up with a more tactful way to break the news, Add shrugs.

"Welcome to my temple! You're my shinki now."

[gentilitea]

That’s…new. But Jakob doesn’t bother to hide that look of relief as Ceiling Cat pokes his head in. Somehow the prospect of a tear in the fabric of space and time is rendered that much more harmless when it’s your asshole roomie doing it.

Of course, that relief is short-lived the moment Add breaks the news.

“Do not make me repeat myself, Add! I am not in the mood for one of your games. Lord Roxas and Ludger are still—”

[subtract]

He scowls, annoyed at being brushed off so quickly. What, did Jakob not think he was good enough to be a god?!

But more importantly— "Roxas and Ludger are missing. Chang'e's temple is gone, what you're looking at right now is only an illusion of it. Do you think I'd joke about something like this?"

Well. Maybe before, but it's different now that he fully understands what it's like to lose someone precious. It was practically a miracle that both he and Roxas ended up in this world together, but now to face the possibility of being separated...

He sighs and rubs at his temples, turning down the hallway. Finding the exit would be a good start. He's moving at a leisurely pace, so Jakob shouldn't have any trouble keeping up with him.

"If you don't believe me, I'd be more than happy to stick you in your vessel form for awhile. Would that be satisfactory?"

[gentilitea]

Walking disasters like him shouldn’t be a god—

“Missing?” That…explains so much and yet so little, but it does stun him to further silence after that, and he’s got no choice but to follow Add along while he stares suspiciously at…well, everything now. Illusions he can sort of get, but dammit, he just got over the trauma of seeing his god horribly blighted and he does not need to deal with another emergency in their number!

And yet…there’s that creeping little feeling, all the same, like an itch he can’t quite scratch. It’s as if his shinki’s mark has gained a certain weight of its own, even though it’s still stuck on his neck like usual.

“I would prefer it if you would explain yourself, Add,” says he at last, in a dangerously low tone because how dare he imply that he can even shove him into his vessel form like that? That’s…That’s the exclusive domain of Lord Roxas and if Add is tampering with that as well…

He’s coming to conclusions he’s definitely trying not to think about, so sorry, Add, you’re going to be the target of his diatribes for a while.

“If any harm has come to Lord Roxas because of your antics…”

[subtract]

That tone isn't going unnoticed. Add really can't say this sort of reaction wasn't expected, but it's still annoying. Why did he have to act like such an idiot as a shinki?

"I don't know any more about this than you do. Yesterday I was a shinki, and today I'm suddenly a god. If there's a reason for it, I wasn't informed." And that's honestly all he knows, as far as how all this happened. He doesn't think it was his fault this time... he definitely didn't do anything worthy of a promotion, that's for sure. But if Roxas somehow knew he was going to be sent away... is this something he would have asked for Add, maybe...?

He stops, hesitating briefly before turning halfway to face Jakob again.

"I know this might be hard to believe right now, but I'd never do anything to hurt Roxas. Not intentionally. He's..."

My assistant? No, that hardly captures his feelings anymore. But friend is still too embarrassing... he winces before settling on his answer, his voice falling quiet. He can't hide the melancholic look seeping into his face.

"He's someone I've known for a long time. He's important to me. I couldn't remember that before, but I do now. I remember everything."

Both the good and the bad, but that year he spend in Monad still stands out the most. The place where he met someone he'd be willing to give up everything for, even his life's work...

[gentilitea]

Jakob takes it all in a glowering silence. Like Add, he’s going through his own internal turmoil, although unlike Add, he only has the benefit of memories he’d accrued during his stay here. Which hadn’t been very long.

So he chooses to withhold how he really feels about Add for the time being—because in any case it’s rather complicated, and all he really wants right now is to make sure that Roxas is okay.

Finally, after clearing his throat, he makes an executive decision: “If you truly are still loyal to Lord Roxas, then we mustn’t waste any more time. Where is the exit?”

[subtract]

He can tell Jakob isn't completely satisfied by his answer—being a god has its perks. Still, he's right. They have bigger concerns right now, so figuring out what to do about this surprise god situation of theirs can wait. Add turns forward again, continuing along the hallway.

"There should be a door somewhere around here." Though really, it's less of a door and more of a floating crystal slab. That should still stand out enough to get noticed, though. "Have you noticed anything out of place? Or is there any room you haven't checked yet? It might be hidden, but it shouldn't be too hard to find."

[gentilitea]

Dealing with this shit is way better than confronting his own feelings, anyway. Even if he doesn’t outright hate Add for what had happened the last time, he sure is pretty salty for ever having been made to feel so fragile and helpless in the face of such terrifying odds. He’s only felt it twice before then—once when he was abandoned as a child, and next when his first master nearly died—neither of which he can really remember right now, which is probably for the best.

And so his focus shifts outward, taking in their surroundings in a new light. It’s pretty safe to say that since Add’s blighting, Chang’e’s temple has never really felt secure for him anymore, not when the worst possible danger that could happen to any of their number would occur so easily within its hallowed walls.

“I have searched all our rooms quite thoroughly.” After all, he does need some clues as to the whereabouts of everyone in the temple. “I must confess that in my zeal to search for you and the others I might have missed a door where it should not rightly be.” Especially if it’s an ordinary-looking door, as he thinks, instead of a floating crystal slab. “Would it be possible for this exit to appear outside the temple grounds?”

[subtract]

Add checks a couple rooms anyway as they pass them by, finding little of interest. It's a fine imitation, but as the new Henir he innately knows nothing here is real. Just him and Jakob... and maybe a few things back in Jakob's room? Probably just whatever possessions he would've brought with him from the old temple. Add can see some of his machinery work on his (fake) desk, but his real equipment is sitting somewhere in another cube most likely. He closes the door pointlessly before moving on.

"... Hmm, maybe. I'm not sure how far this illusion goes, but I can't imagine it being any larger than the grounds." But it doesn't seem to be inside, so it must be somewhere outside. He skips the rest of the rooms along the hall to head straight for the temple entrance.

It turns out this particular illusion ends right at the doors, however. The moment Add pushes the door open, something shatters on the other side of it. Their surroundings are completely enveloped in a blinding flash of blue as crystalline shards fly past, the temple behind them crumbling into sparkles of light in the blink of an eye.

And in the next instant, they're standing within the entrance of a dimly lit cave. Water drips steadily from the stalactites above them, flowing into pools below the carved stone path leading deeper inside.

Add frowns, apparently unfazed by the sudden change in scenery. He's kind of gotten used to it before...

"Annoying, but it's progress," he says with a sigh before starting to move forward again, lifting up a hand to block some of the water from landing on him. "It's normally supposed to be a challenge, but it looks like there aren't any demons around. We should be done after another room or two."

As a slight afterthought, he also adds, "Watch your step." Those floors are slippery, man.

[gentilitea]

He can’t help that little gasp of surprise the moment the illusion breaks behind them, leaving them stranded within the massive caverns. Of all the illusions he’s ever seen even in his previous life, he’s never experienced anything quite so elaborate as this.

And yet Add doesn’t seem bothered by the transition at all. That gets him to straighten up, as if to make up for his surprise earlier on, and strides after Add, very pointedly not touching anything around them as they make their way past the slippery cave floor.

He’d like to think his footwork is pretty damn impressive, thank you. But the mention of demons does give him pause. “Do you mean that ayakashi lurk here as well?” Caves are such ideal setting for an ambush, after all…

[subtract]

"This temple is a space that exists in my homeworld. You can think of it as an interactive record of history," he explains at length. "It recreates points in time and space, places from the distant past or future, alternate realities... those who enter are made to fight against their greatest foes, and if they pass the trial they're bestowed power from the goddess Henir. Or so the stories go, anyway." He can't say Glave never gave him anything for putting up with his bullshit, but like hell Add is rewarding anyone to muck up his temple.

"This cave as I remember it was full of demons, though, yes. And spiders. Giant ones." He turns halfway to Jakob again to gesture with his hands just how large these spiders are. He's stretching his arms pretty wide. "I'm not sure if I'd need to do anything to cause enemies to appear in this illusion, but if you see any cocoon-like shells sitting around I'd recommend against touching them."

... now that he thinks about it, he's kind of unarmed and useless as he is right now. He can't even do any cool shinki tricks anymore. Could an illusion kill someone here? Hmm.

[gentilitea]

So he remembers…though some shinki have professed to recalling bits of their past without ill effect, Jakob is at least a little more inclined to believe him on the ascension to godhood bit. Whatever else that comes with that package…it’s going to be a bit hard to swallow.

“Then I suppose you had better stay close to me.” As if Add isn’t the on already leading them out of this slippery death trap. Though Jakob’s got plenty of knives hidden in his uniform, he doubts they’ll be enough to fend off a veritable colony of giant spiders and what else gaining down on them if they make the wrong move. To say nothing of that fighting your worst enemy bit…are they going to run into Hibari by any chance? If so, they might have better luck with the spiders.

[subtract]

He scoffs loudly, walking a little faster. Stay close to him! Add can totally handle himself. He'll just teleport if something shows up! That's good enough, right? Even if they get swarmed by giant spiders... or demons, or if the mother Magmanta shows up...

"It's just an illusion, so stop worrying so much," he says even though he was the one who warned Jakob to be careful. "This space is created from Henir's power, so as the new Henir it would be strange for any attacks to target me. It's a trial for visitors, not the owner. If anything shows up it'll be far more likely for you to be the target, so staying close to you would be putting myself further in danger, if anything. Besides—"

Just as he's starting to really get into his overly defensive rant, his hastiness causes him to misplace a step just as they move onto some particularly icy ground. His foot slips and he cuts himself off into a surprised yelp, teetering backwards.

[gentilitea]

“Add!” Well thank you for cutting him off on his self-righteous retort, then, as Jakob’s quick to reach out to catch the guy in front of him, only to lose his footing as his boot slides one way and its pair another. If it’s any consolation, Jakob is at least doing his best to make sure that Add gets a soft landing—or as soft as a landing can get when it’s on top of Jakob and his hidden daggers.

His ears prick as his cry echoes along the caverns, before they are met with a suddenly very unnerving silence. If Roxas is trapped somewhere in here, at the very least he might cry out for help, but anything else might get alerted to the noise…

“Will you stop being so careless? We have to keep moving!”

[subtract]

He appreciates you, Jakob, really. He groans a little as he starts to pull himself back up, rolling off of his living cushion.

"I told you to watch your step," he grumbles anyway, even more blatantly ignoring how he was the one who slipped. But it was just to show Jakob how slippery this floor is, really! Or... something like that.

Add dusts himself off as he very carefully stands back up. After a pause, he reaches down to offer Jakob a hand as well, looking off to the side to avoid his gaze. That fall was pretty embarrassing, and Add couldn't hide it to save his life.

"Keep an eye out for the next door. It might still be hidden somewhere out of the way."

[gentilitea]

Well, Jakob can’t exactly gloat considering that he’s slipped anyway, and to save face, he brushes that nice gesture off and hauls himself to his feet with an indignant harrumph.

At least the embarrassment is mutual. It’s galling enough for him to rely on Add for answers, if not a way out of this uncomfortably damp hellhole they’ve found themselves in.

“It would take us ages to search every inch of this cave!” Better to complain than to offer a different solution, right? “We would need one with Apocalypse’s abilities to navigate in here.”

Yes, Add. He thinks your cube son is way more reliable than you are.

[subtract]

Wow, talk about rude. He makes a face before folding his arms over his chest, like he totally wasn't trying to help Jakob up anyway.

"And who do you think gave Apocalypse his abilities, hmm?" ... Well, actually that was a different Add, but details. And he doesn't have his Dynamos here... ah, if only they'd just appear in his closet overnight or something convenient like that. "This is my domain now, and I've already navigated it plenty of times in the past, so why don't you stop whining and do what you're told? I'm the expert here."

That he is, but his plan is still kind of... not really a plan. He'll carry along confidently anyway, though, because surely if they just keep moving forward the next door will appear somewhere. It's meant to be a challenge, so it's not like it'd be impossible to complete, right?

"This would take no time at all with Dynamo..." He sighs wistfully after mumbling that thought out loud. He can't deny that Jakob is right...

[gentilitea]

“Useless as usual.” Jakob rubs at his temples with a sigh. Team Chang’e is in yet another crisis and the only person he can turn to for help is Add—who might actually be more qualified than he is to deal with this—although having to find some randomly generated exit which even Add can’t locate is really starting to tax his nerves.

He wishes he’d had a cup of tea in the illusory Chang’e temple before they’d gone out to all the way out here. This could take ages indeed—and knowing that even Ludger is out of contact, with no way for them to find out if he’s with Roxas in the first place, does little to allay that stone-cold sense of fear settling itself in his gut. Not to mention…

“And how, pray tell, are we to guarantee that any door we stumble across will not simply lead us into yet another illusion?”

[subtract]

Okay, now Jakob is starting to get on his nerves again. Those ripples of fear only make him more irritated rather than sympathetic. This guy is calling him useless when Add has been pulling all the weight so far? What did Jakob do on his own today?!

But he decides he's not going to yell at him this time. No, he has a better plan. Add stops abruptly and turns to face Jakob, hands on his hips, an extremely passive aggressive smile on his face.

"Since you're oh so opinionated about all of this, why don't you take the lead then, hmm? I'm sure a skilled and knowledgeable butler such as yourself would have no trouble at all clearing one of Henir's trials."

[gentilitea]

“Ha. As if any sort of challenge could stand between me and Lord Roxas!” But he’s perturbed and trying to hide it, anyway, already regretting having taken his frustrations out on Add. Add, who is now the master of this place, and who can moreover create strange technical marvels that Jakob could scarce fathom… He never does learn, does he…

“But if I must, then I must.” You might as well get him to clean out all the toilets in the temple while you’re at it. “I don’t suppose there is any point in us searching separately, is there?” Not if Add can’t really defend himself in here. So much for efficiency. He’s already turning toward the path from whence they came.

“Come along, then. We can manage a more thorough search from the very beginning.” A sigh. “With any luck, the door might as well be hidden beneath some spider’s nest.”

[subtract]

It's almost disappointing how easily Jakob agrees, but no matter. He'll get frustrated eventually. Add strides along behind him without a word of complaint.

"There could be many number of doors in this illusion, you know," he chimes in helpfully, "but most of them will lead back into themselves. Do you think it would be so easy that the real exit would be back at the start? What an unusual maze that would be, kukukuku."

But hey, finding the exit isn't his responsibility anymore! Good luck, Jakob! Add is here to cheer you on and offer snarky comments. Have fun.

[gentilitea]

“I am hardly that naïve.” And it’s getting more and more difficult to maintain his composure with Add now acting even more useless than usual. Dammit, why does he keep falling for these kinds of tricks anyway?!

He will get his revenge just you wait.

“But I don’t suppose you would mind if I take the liberty of marking our passage while we are here.” Drawing out his dagger, he begins scratching nicks into the colonnades and stalagmites as they make their way to the entrance. If he had a pen and paper with him he’d have pressed Add to draw a crude map of the area, but…such is fate, after all. He has to do all the work around here…

[subtract]

Add folds his arms behind his head and makes an exaggerated yawn. It's only a matter of time before he starts asking Are we there yet?

"It's an illusion, so do whatever you want with it. There's no guarantee those marks will even remain." That's a lie, physical changes will probably stay until they move on to the next illusion, but he might as well make Jakob more paranoid about getting lost. "Ah, but we shouldn't waste too much time. These trials are normally under a time limit, you know. I'm actually not sure of what happens when you exceed that limit..."

[gentilitea]

He knows Add is fucking with him and that doesn’t help his temper any—even causing him to strike at the scenery with the tip of his dagger just a little too hard. Good thing he’s got like about a dozen left, but if they don’t get out of here soon they might need to hunt around for a whetsone or something.

So he does his best to ignore Add for the time being, concentrating on marking their way and trying to absorb as much of the scenery as possible, only stopping abruptly when the time limit is mentioned, whereupon he immediately whirls around to face him.

“A time limit?” Are you fucking kidding him?! “And why is it that you have failed to mention such an important detail before now?” And wasted our time with your ineffectual searching? he doesn’t add.