Stalker Encounter
“Pity. I didn't want to have to do this.” The old man digs into the pockets of his coat. When his hand reappears, he is holding some sort of gadget. Too late, I reach out to stop him – he presses the button, and I feel like I have been submerged into a pool of needles.
I black out.
***
“-up! Wake up!” My cheeks are stinging.
“I’m awake, Kyrie,” I complain. I’m still aching all over, and she’s not helping. Kyrie heaves a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness. I was worried that you were in a coma.” I laugh as I push myself up into a sitting position and begin to observe my surroundings. “I’m not that unprepared.”
I’m in a detainment chamber of some sort. The room is bare, but there is an observation window set into the wall, and a door that is presumably locked.
“What are you planning to do now?” asks Kyrie.
“First things first… how did you get here?”
She curls up besides me and shrugs. “I can barely control where I decide to appear. I’m usually tagging along with you anyway, whether you notice it or not.”
“Can you leave here and get help?”
She shakes her head. “Sorry. There’s something off about this place. My form has been stable for the past… hour or so, I think, and I can’t get myself to dematerialize. You were out for quite some time.”
“But you aren’t in an actual physical form?”
“It’s the usual state I’m in when I need to discipline you,” she grins. This means that other people might not be able to see her, even though she can interact with me. “It’s a bit different for me,” I say. “I wasn’t in a physical form before I came here, but now…” I look at my hands. No powers. No tentacles. It is not my body. The old man needed to use a gadget to disable this body. This implied that their powers – or at least, his – were limited to a certain extent when it came to manipulating me, at least while I am here. They did not kill me outright when I refused to cooperate; either they knew of the possible reset, which would free me from their grasp, or they could not, or would not, planning on using me again. Either way, that doesn’t really change matters.
It’s likely that when they pulled my consciousness through the door, they captured and stored it in this vessel. The form is identical to my real body, so my consciousness would naturally gravitate towards it, similar to how Kyrie’s doppleganger had begun to turn into a vessel for her. This, then, is a physical body that I am inhabiting. They have probably built in failsafes, like the gadget the old man used, but are unable to directly dominate my mind. Theoretically, if I killed this body now I should be able to free my consciousness and allow it to escape back to my real body, but then again it might not happen, or it might trigger a reset on the spot. It is a rather risky option, but I keep it in mind.
“For a start, let’s try to get out of this room.” I stand up and walk towards the only door in the vicinity. Even in this strange world, the basics of circuitry seem to be the same. I pry open the panel and begin examining it. Then, I pull at a wire.
It slides open smoothly, with no hint of a protest.
“Nice job, you!” smiles Kyrie.
“Well, the technology is similar to our own, though a bit more primitive. I would have expected this place to be a lot more advanced, though.” I say. I’m more surprised that they haven’t posted any guards. It seems to imply that the Custodians don’t have any minions prowling the streets, and that they could be prioritizing something else over watching me personally.
I don’t think that they would leave me unguarded, however.
***
The detention facility proves to be rather uninteresting. I collect some pamphlets on my way out, attempting to decipher the text. There seem to be some vague similarities between the symbols. I begin matching the words to objects. If Yua was here she could probably hack out a translation in minutes, if not seconds, but she’s not. I’ll have to rely on myself.
We walk out onto the streets – it looks like we are in a city. Judging from what I can see, this is the same city where I appeared. I look around the streets again. They are empty, though as I walk I sometimes hear fragments of words spoken in an alien language. These are probably the echoes that the old man spoke of. Soon enough, we come across a booth. There are maps folded up neatly, arranged in rows, and numerous brochures that I think are promoting the city. A tourist booth? I grab a map and unfold it. The city is laid out before me, with important – at least, I assume they are important – locations marked out in red. I think I’ve managed to obtain a rudimentary grasp of the script they use in this world; I should be able to decipher the more basic portions of the map now. My search turns up a couple of interesting places:
There’s a building with the acronym I.A.E. The alphabet used is not entirely dissimilar to the one in my world, and I found it with little difficulty.
There is also a library nearby. It should have computers that I can play around with – that could be useful.
Finally, if I want to throw myself off a building in style, the tallest structure in the city is just one block away.
***
Which of the three locations interests me the most?
A. I.A.E Building
B. Library
C. Tallest structure in the city.
***
I fold the map back up and slowly turn my head just a little so that I can peer behind me. As I expected; we are not alone in the city. The old man had set a guard on us. There was a strange woman standing silently, watching us from an alleyway. She had ludicrously large sunglasses over her eyes and a long trenchcoat that covered her from neck to toe. It wouldn’t be a very inconspicuous outfit, even if the streets were flooded with people.
“I see her too,” whispers Kyrie.
The woman doesn’t move. “Wave at her,” I tell Kyrie quietly. She arches an eyebrow at me before doing what I say, waving furiously. The woman doesn’t react, but I can’t tell whether it is because she is being stubbornly stoic, or if she doesn’t see Kyrie. I begin to walk away.
“She’s still following us, but at a distance,” says Kyrie, acting as my eyes to keep a lookout.
What should I do? If they are going about matters in such a roundabout, obvious way, I rather suspect that they want to see how I will react. The same limits to their powers that I conjectured earlier could mean that they have no choice but to observe me in person. Then again, they could be tricking me. It's rather annoying, to say the least...
***
A. Ignore her and move to one of the three locations that I had identified from the map. If she wants to follow me, she is free to do so. Her presence may be a trick to make me panic.
B. Attempt to shake her off and head to one of the three locations. I don’t like being tailed, and she might mean me harm.
C. Confront the stalker. The easiest way to find out what she wants and who she is, is to talk to her. I’ll do just that.
***
Alright. Two days for this choice.
