soul_logs | [Closed]

Isaac was glad he was even able to find some kind of kit that was used to fix watches and clocks. In a place like this, he didn't know what to expect. He ended up with some pretty good tools without really having to ask around all that much. He didn't even know what kind of clock it was that he needed to fix or if he'd be able to do so easily enough. With his engineering background though, he hoped that he could.

It did him a lot of good to know when he was able to help any of the people here.

He coordinated with Aion about where to go before he went on over. It was a bit surreal to go around meeting all of these different people to do odd jobs when he was used to doing work for the CEC back in his own world. It was honestly...a lot more personal than what he was used to. If he really did get sent back to his world one day then he was pretty sure he was going to set up some kind of business for himself....maybe after he got through the whole destroying the Marker thing first if he went back to the same place.

When Aion greeted him at the door, he couldn't help but notice the whole...not human thing. That didn't necessarily keep him from being friendly. It was just...he was supposed to be Viede's brother and all and they didn't look THAT much the same. Who was he to judge though? He managed a smile and held out his hand in a gesture of greeting.

"Yeah that's me. You're Aion then?"

His smile quirked into a friendly smirk as he took the offered hand and shook it. His grip was strong but not crushing and his fingers and palm had calluses that spoke of somebody who wasn't shy of physical work and using the sword. "The one and only. It's a pleasure meeting you. Please come inside."

Stepping to the side, he gestured for Isaac to come in while he took a good look at him as well. He seemed older than most guests as far as the demon could tell, but with a good build and a way of moving that told of experience. Good, good.

Closing and locking the door behind him, he said "Thanks for coming all the way here. Would you like a drink? It's on the house."

Well this was definitely a guy that knew all about fighting. Isaac could tell enough from a handshake. He didn't hear a great deal about Aion from Viede, and sure as hell not much about the guy's appearance. There again though...he wasn't going to judge as much as he could. He'd be damned if he did that when he trusted his partner. He wanted to anyways. This guy didn't seem so bad at all.

And hell...he was offering him a drink on the house. That was even better when this place pretty much demanded that people should get a little buzzed every now and then. He didn't just wanted to start drinking though if he was going to be working on something. When did that ever stop him though...at least when he was stuck in this place with the ability to change into a weapon?

Yep...drink first. Work later.

"Yeah. I'd appreciate that. And it's really not a problem. Just want to be of some help."

"Good. What would you like? I can offer you pretty much everything since this is a pub." He gave him a good-natured look an gestured towards the prepared table with the 'watch' on it. It wasn't the original of Shader's pocket watch-shaped device for translating, controlling and limiting the Astral output of souls and barely even a proper replica of it since they had lacked the tools to recreate one, but it was still the outcome of his best efforts.

...Shader would probably either be horrified or die laughing if she ever saw what he did with it during his hours of lone attempts.

"You can pretty much hand me anything. I'll try a recommendation."

Isaac didn't really have a favorite drink. Anything that took the edge off of his dementia was good. There was such a variety that he had no idea without asking to find out just how strong certain drinks were. That was a bit too much effort just to enjoy a little alcohol every now and then. He was surprised people weren't getting plastered all over this place since it brought people in randomly and all. Sometimes he felt like he needed a drink all the time. No way was he gonna depend so much on it. Becoming an alcoholic would mean pretty devastating things back home. Who knew what it would do here?

While Aion was getting that, he glanced over to where the guy was pointing at. So that was the 'watch'. He wasn't expecting it really even though it looked like a normal enough clock. Was this really what he wanted him to try and fix then? Since he didn't work with clocks too often, finding the tools in his kit made him feel relief. He'd be damned if he would fuck this up. He sat down the tools next to the 'watch' and started to examine it.

"This is pretty unique. Did you find this here?"

He nodded and vanished into the main room just two return with two bottles of cold beer and a glass after a short while. Seeing that Isaac had already found the watch and was taking a look on it, he shook his head.

"Not really. It's a reproduction of a prototype that my sister - our genius in the family - was working on before she had to leave." He drawing a chair close, he set down and placed the bottles and the glass on the table. "Do you want a glass?"

"Yeah a glass of that would be great."

Isaac felt like he was pretty damn lucky here. It seemed like he was offered drinks a lot. No way he was going to complain about that. Now all he had to do was earn his keep and figure out what he needed to do to fix this strange watch. It just looked like any regular old one, but there was something just...unique about it. He wondered if it would be too much to ask for this to be explained or if he should just fix the damn watch without any questions.

He was momentarily surprised to hear that Aion's sister, meaning Viede's as well, had been here. That's what it sounded like. Just how many members of their family did they have around here? And he still did have to wonder why the hell this guy had wings and...better not to think about that.

"I'm sorry that she had to leave. Must be tough seeing members of your family disappear. I just hope I can finish what she started."

He gave him a short smile before he used his claw-tipped fingers to uncap both bottles with practiced ease and poured part of the cool golden liquid of one bottle into the glass that he hard brought. Then he pushed the glass and the bottle both to the human before he helped himself to a gulp of his own, drinking right from the bottle.

The beer felt cool and refreshing as it went down his throat, even though it was almost too tame for alcohol for the Sinner's taste. Getting drunk for real was no option, though. He only did that when he wanted to make sure that he'd sleep without nightmares.

"It's alright. Most of my siblings have died, so I'm kind of," he grimaced, "used to deal with it. Since she was just returned home as the locals here call it, I have hope that she's still alive elsewhere. But thanks." He smiled lightly, noting the looks he was receiving when Isaac though he wasn't paying attention. Leaning back, he crossed his leg over the other and gave the man an amused look.

"There's no need for holding back if you want to ask me anything."

Isaac accepted the drink and stopped inspecting the watch long enough to take a decent sized gulp of it. Not bad at all. He'd have to come back here sometime when he wasn't working. He still wondered how many siblings existed between all of them. When Aion mentioned most of his siblings dying, Isaac didn't get the impression it was just a few. Maybe that was just a hunch though. He eyed the watch a bit longer before turning his attention back on Aion.

He wasn't sure what to make of those wings and just...the entire package here. The guy was polite enough, more than a lot of people in this world. If he was offering to explain something then maybe he should take advantage of that. He'd rather learn about the different races and what not around here than anything else.

"So what are you supposed to be anyways?"

That question just kind of came out before he could think about how to word it more politely. He could hear any kind of explanation from anybody else, but the guy said he could ask him anything. He genuinely wanted to know who he was talking to, or rather WHAT he was talking to. He'd seen some crazy stuff around here, so he wasn't going to judge.

"What?" He chuckled under his breath as the corners of his lips turned up lightly. It would seem that not everybody in this place was used to dealing with people like him after all.

Giving Isaac a sly look, he said "I'm what you would call a devil." He paused, letting his smile turn into a laconic smirk as he let the words sink in. "'Demon' is just as correct. I'm the kind of being that resides in a world that is different than those of the humans and who devours souls. The thing your religions warn you of."

Letting out a short laugh, he relaxed and shrugged his shoulders.

"Or at least I used to be. Now I'm just another wanted man on the run."

...Demon? Isaac was used to seeing some crazy shit around here. He knew the Kishin eggs were something akin to devils, but goddamn if the way Aion was looking at him didn't scare the shit out of him. It shouldn't have after all he saw here. It was just...that look on his face...he was related Viede? That probably meant...yep. Viede was a demon too.

He turned back to the watch and started working on that again, trying to shake off the feeling he got just from the way that Aion regarded him when he spoke. Used to be? Did that mean he WASN'T devouring souls? Better not to think about some of those connections. He tried not to think about any of it, but that was damn hard right now.

He gave off a nervous, short laugh.

"Er...glad...you're not like that anymore then."

"It actually is, back home. But here I'm just like the other Weapons." He unfolded his legs and leaned forward to nurse another (overly) casual drink from his beer. He shouldn't be doing it, but Isaac's reaction amused him way too much to not to tease him some more.

For the sake of the watch in the nervous man's hand and since he cared about Viede he silently reprimanded himself not to push it too far, though. Making sure that he looked as un-intimidating as his true demonic form would allow, he added "Sorry if that ended up scaring you. I figured that my brother might have mentioned it to you before." He added a lenient smile. "The stories tend to make us sound worse than we are, really. We literally can't harm the soul of a living human without his consent. Same goes for entering the human world. ..and I would like to think that most of us have better things to do than to try and corrupt anybody."

"Well I sure HOPE you all have better things to do than corrupt souls!"

Isaac wondered how the hell he was even supposed to believe he was talking to an actual demon. No matter how many times he reminded himself that he saw stranger things all the time. Maybe it just struck him as different with the way he described it. His emotions were getting really thrown all over the place here. Maybe it was that Madness business he heard about. That's what apparently ended up getting to him when Viede helped him out. Still...there was still his dementia that he had to contend with.

Aion wasn't being a jerk to him though. Well...he might've been, but it seemed more like he was joking around with him. He tried to remind himself of that as he turned back to the watch. He didn't mean to come off so damn paranoid. It was habit though. He explained a lot of it to Viede. So maybe he should just find a way of replying back without coming off as a bit freaked out.

"You're saying some souls actually consent to you harming them...living ones?"

He grimaced a bit and shook his head at the outburst, feeling a touch of worry for the device in the humans' hands. Had this really been such a good idea? Whether it was or not, it had been his first trail of making progress in this particular matter for weeks. He just had had to risk it.

"Souls can't be corrupted like that." He corrected him gently. "It makes more sense if you imagine them as an unique kind of energy depot. Or like water to animals or sunlight to plants. There is a natural balance to it. The cases you are asking about is when this cycle gets broken by force. Humans can summon demons from Pandaemonium under certain conditions. Compared to what you can do, even the lowest creature from Pandaemonium is much more diverse with its abilities."

He paused, eyes focusing on a point behind and to the right of Isaac's head as his voice grew silent. "Summoners put chains on their demons that prevent them from going against their wishes by cutting off their natural ability to draw upon the power of souls that is naturally released. That way they can control them, but since a demon still needs energy to exist and do their bidding-" he trailed off, shrugging. "Bluntly said, you pay thew fulfillment of your desires out of your own pockets. The demon is the fish, your soul the tank of water."

Edited 2012-05-10 08:00 (UTC)

Isaac was always the type to have an outburst every now and then. He just had a shortened fuse for all of his feelings really. That's what happened when he ended up forced in a situation where he had to kill several people because they turned into nightmares. No big deal. Once he got his bearings though, he'd cool down...that and having a drink on hand was helpful...very helpful really.

He didn't really know what he was getting at with this stuff about Pandaemonium or whatever. He definitely didn't sound like he was dangerous which was all he really cared about. The whole thing about them being demons from their world...maybe it didn't matter. Unless they did something here he should be worried about then this was nothing, right? What he was describing was something that kind of went over his head though he did understand the last part of what he was saying and it sounded bad for them.

"...That sounds like a pretty bad deal."

Whatever panic he felt in that initial revealing of what Aion and his...uh...siblings actually were was going away. Oh he still didn't feel entirely comfortable. He was getting there. It was mostly this place and the place he came from that put his nerves on end. Maybe he should explain it to him at some point...assuming that Viede didn't tell him already.

"I think I understand what you mean by that. Sounds pretty intense."

He chuckled lightly under his breath and turned his attention back to Isaac. "It is."

He made a somewhat apologetic gesture with his hand, as if to disperse the tension they had collected in the room. "To cut the long story short, even if we are demons you won't ever have to fear about your soul around us. Religions and superstition like to paint us a whole lot more evil than we actually are."

Well, it did, more or less. It also contained more than just one grain of truth.

Cocking his head to the side, he gave him an apologetic grin. "I also fear that I have an acquired taste for being a bit evil and melodramatic if the situation is light and you give me the chance for it. But no worries, I'm only teasing!" He laughed, "or else Viede wouldn't have let me talk to you. He is very dedicated to anything he sets his mind on.

Are there any other questions that are burning on your tongue?"

"I don't think I was worried so much for MY soul as much as I would be for somebody else. I'm honestly just jumpy as hell all the time."

Isaac didn't like to admit that, but working around somebody who probably wanted their stuff to be intact or understand why he was like that might want to know. He did agree with books ending up turning things into what they might not be. He never really did trust religion, especially after knowing enough about Unitology. he didn't think there was anything like that around here.

He shrugged when Aion stated that he was teasing him. That was better than being lied to about something and he was terrible at reading people. Too damn trusting. This guy seemed okay though. Viede wouldn't have talked about him like he did if the guy was somebody that could not be trusted. As for questions though....hmmm...he turned back to the watch.

"Nothing really's coming to mind. I don't mind if you have a question for me either."

He watched him closely, paying attention to the things he said and did not say out loud. Was he aware how much he gave away with his body language? Probably not. He considered upping the tension of their conversation once more to be sure, but then discarded the thought since he still wanted the clock to be in a better shape as soon as possible. Relaxed hands worked better than those lead by frayed nerves, period.

So he smiled gently and leaned back in his seat once more. Finding out what the clock was really used for would be the first challenge for Isaac. It had a clock face, but much of the rest of the things that were needed to make a clock a clock were missing or replaced by what Shader had considered more useful.

A question.. "Why?"

"The incident that happened in my world. It's a long story. Viede knows more about it after what I told him. There was an incident with an artifact called the Marker. It turned the dead into monsters pretty much and it made everybody else suicidal. I got caught up in it by chance really. Needless to say...I had to do some pretty horrible things to survive."

Isaac was surprised it was getting easier to talk about it even if this place had its share of crazy shit with these Kishin eggs and all. Everybody being in the same boat here was something that helped too. He didn't want there to be more people involved in it, but that wasn't something he could fix. The sooner this war ended, the better everything would be. When he got sent back to his world then he'd have a chance to fix something on his end.

He was momentarily distracted by the inner workings of the clock. He knew the basic functions of these since they still obviously had clocks where he came from, but the inner workings of this one was...unique to say the least. He was pretty sure he could figure it out still. He wanted to say he could probably make it better with how he ended up fixing Gintoki's television.

"I'm not gonna freak out on you or anything. I've been through some things, but I'm sure everybody has here too."

Aion turned very silent as he listened to Isaac's words. The dead, turned into monsters... some of those symptoms sounded familiar in a painful manner. Closing his eyes for a second, he forced the flashes of memories that were not his own but Pandaemonium's main core's down and back into his subconsciousness. Not here, not now! He didn't need another one of those flashbacks that always ended up threatening to overheat his mind.

He took a quick, big drink from his beer as he pulled up his poker face and fixed it firmly in place once more. Despite that the calmness in his voice ended up surprising himself as he spoke.

"That is good to hear, Mister Clarke. I am sorry to hear that something like that has happened to you. It must have been horrible." He considered for a moment, before he carefully added "We once had to deal with something similar. Maybe we will have to again once we return as well. That is why I want to continue and finish this 'clock' as soon as possible."

Isaac didn't mean to bring up something that might end up giving Aion a bad memory. He couldn't help but notice something about him that changed a bit. Maybe there was the whole swig of alcohol he just gulped down before his face changed again. It wasn't difficult for him to figure out when somebody else went through a traumatic event of some kind. Maybe he had kind of a sixth sense for it when he went through the shit he did too.

As much as he liked having something in common with another person, he also didn't want them to have had to go through something just as bad...if not worse for all he knows. He didn't really want to dwell on it if it was a touchy subject even if he wasn't the one telling it. Telling his own side of the story any more deeply and he might stir another bad memory up for both of them.

"...Er...well I promise you I will do all I can to fix this up if I can. Right now it looks like I'll just have to figure out every part and go from there. This'll probably take more than just today. If you don't mind me hanging around, I'd like to keep working on it. Maybe then the stuff back home will turn out better than you hoped it would."

And he hoped it would for him as well. He didn't have a clock or whatever, but he did get some incite into a few things so far. This time he really put his concentration back on this clock. There were still some things he needed to know first though like what the hell this was going to be for. It couldn't just be a clock. Even sentimental value didn't feel right.

"What exactly is this going to be for besides telling time...if even that?"

"Thanks," he smiled gently, back to his old self. Giving the man and the clock in his hands a level look, he nodded. "I am fine with whatever it takes to get it working."

"As for what this thing is..." He grinned weakly as he raised a hand to cover his chin. Stroking his thumb over his lips, he shrugged. "The simplest answer would be a lifeline. A clock ticks time away, right? Each soul has a certain amount of time, just as every demon needs astral energy to survive." He shrugged his shoulders again. There was really no easy way to explain the device without going into too much details or over-simplifying things.

"It's a pacemaker." It's a word that he has found in one of the textbooks about human medicine that he has taken up studying and which seemed to ..fit what the clock was going to do.

So this was basically what Aion mentioned before when he spoke of deals with people or whatever for this astral energy. Isaac didn't study complex shit and not take away an ability to be able to figure out what others were getting at. he didn't see anything wrong with it existing or anything, so no moral reasons not to. He felt like he owed Viede one by helping out his brother.

He didn't even want to know the kind of shit he would be in if he didn't meet any of these guys that turned out to not be crazy. At least...he hoped they didn't turn out to be assholes. That would...pretty much mean he was duped all over again. Nicole always told him he had a tendency of being too nice of a guy sometimes.

Trust...he finally just nodded to him.

"Got it. I just hope I don't screw this up and turn it into something the direct opposite of that."

He grimaced at the idea. "That would be most unfortunate. Besides the obvious I also need it to make it up to a person that I hold very dear and killing them is... Not what I'd like to do."

He leaned back, the spell of their earlier topic of conversation broken. The memory of how it felt when he had torn Chrono's horns out was still fresh and - as much as he should feel guilty about it - it gave him new energy. Just like for Chrono without his horns, there was no way for him to falter and go back either. They had to keep on moving forward and do their best to survive.

"Let me know if there is anything that I can help you with. I'm no technician but I ended up helping them out from time to time. Well," he waved his hand, "I was pretty much an assistant for whoever needed one."

For some reason it made Isaac feel a hell of a lot better knowing that this was for somebody Aion cared about. It wasn't like he could not make that shit up or anything, but it didn't exactly feel like he was lying either. The whole trust thing...he was starting to wonder if his own radar for that was broken or something.

He finally smirked. The idea of having to explain things to somebody while he worked was not exactly awesome, but it would be nice to have somebody to talk to. If Aion really sat in on a few technical things then he might be just as interested in hearing how everything worked. Despite being a demon, he really wasn't so bad.

And that was not the most comfortable understanding he had as a human being, but there it was. He felt more at ease around this guy than a lot of the people on the network could be.

"I'll be sure to do that."

It would have been more alarming if Aion had added that it had been him who had brought that person in need of help in the first place, but the Sinner wisely kept that part to himself. His and Chrono's relationship was too difficult to explain, even back when it had still been simple. Love and hate really laid close between them, but Aion knew that at least he didn't hate Chrono.

Watching Isaac's face, the demon returned the grin. "Thanks. Feel free to just ramble away, most of my friends do that once they start talking. I'll just ask if I don't understand anything or need a break." He winked. "The same counts for you as well, of course. Viede and the others keep telling me that my translations into English aren't always the best."

Isaac wasn't sure if Aion would actually be interested in what he had to say when he got going. Right now he was looking at the clock and considering all it was supposed to do. He wanted to say it was out of his league, but the future taught him a lot about the strange things objects could do when given the right combination of basic things. That didn't mean he knew how to put together a clock that messed with somebody's...life force or whatever.

He was never really good at small talk. It always came off a bit forced to him. He wasn't really nervous about the guy not being human, or Viede for that matter. He got over that. Speaking of questions, maybe he should start there.

"So...why do you guys need something like a clock? I wasn't really aware that demons or anything would need something to control their power...even if it comes from somebody else. Don't you all have...unlimited power or is that just me asking a stupid question?"

Aion finds that listening to people talk about something that is important to them is always well worth the effort. Even if the subject didn't interest him that much the way how and what people spoke would still tell him lots about themselves and what they thought and Aion - well, he found it interesting. In a way he had no hobbies of his own besides wanting to live a life without regret. But he enjoyed partaking in what was important to others. It felt like he was adding a tiny feather to his wings every time he did so, creating bonds and increasing his knowledge little by little.

One day those wings would be big enough to shake the world with their beat.

"Why?" He gave him a look that was half amused and mildly impressed. It was a good question. "No, it's no stupid question at all. You see, normally we wouldn't need it since we have an organ that takes care of our Astral consumption. It's probably the easiest when you imagine it like how your own lungs work. The problem is that you always consume the same steady amount of 'air' the natural way." He raised his index finger and waved it in a circle as if to demonstrate a cycle. "The clock is for times when we can't use those organs anymore. If that happens and we are dependent on the soul of a contractor... It's like being locked in an underwater cave with only a limited amount of air left, you know? If we just breathe normally we'll have consumed it very quickly." He paused, giving Isaac time to think through what he had just been told as he casually forgot to elaborate on the question about their powers and its limits.

With the way Aion was speaking, Isaac felt like he should be a little on edge here. Maybe he'd just been through enough crap back home that considering what this guy was saying was actually a bit disturbing. He was always paranoid though. Whatever this demon was saying...it just didn't sound good. The way he was describing it was easy enough to understand, but what happened to the contractor they ended up using? Did they have any idea about all of this? Did they even live through it? Somebody using their souls to utilize their own power...sounded like some science fiction shit to him. Since he just went through his own version of science fiction from his own world, this was only a little bit of a stretch.

Only a little bit before he had the sinking feeling that this clock he was working on was going to be used for. He wondered what this...organ was he was talking about that they had to use their powers with. It didn't really matter. What DID matter was that he was possibly helping to complete something that would end up killing somebody. The feeling welling up in his gut was not exactly comforting. In the end, asking about it might be the best way to just figure it all out and decide from there what to do. Just getting up and leaving because he felt strange over this seemed like kind of a bad idea.

"So what happens to this contractor then? Do they know what they're doing and...well...obvious question is obvious but...do they live?"

For the moment, he didn't question anything about not being told about the whole power limiting and what not. He wasn't sure it would matter right now. He needed to find out if he was even doing what was right. He had no idea how he'd get out of it though. There was so much shit going through his head that, for now, he was too confused and uneasy to move.

His eyes narrowed slightly as he watched the human stop his work on the watch, making him look predatory for a moment. Then shrugged his shoulders and smiled, breaking the effect.

"That's a question that I can't answer you properly, to be entirely honest." Taking his beer, he took a casual gulp from it. "You see, it's very rare and unusual for higher ranked demons to enter contracts, contrary to what stories might tell you. I am thirty years old and have never as much as heard about a demon who did it in that time."

"What I know is based on hearsay and the technical details I could glimpse, so take it with a grain of salt." Putting his drink back on the table, he folded his fingers against each other. "A contractor always knows what they are doing, at least as far as the chains and conditions of a contract go since it is normally the human who instigates it. But whether they live or die..." He waved his hand in a 'there and gone' manner, as if he was trying to grasp something just to toss it right away. "That depends on them and if they know their limits. Using the watch we should be able to cut the connection before anything too bad happens, but without it it's a very risky gamble at best."

Isaac wasn't sure why...but he felt like he should be treading a little bit more lightly on the territory this was getting into. He didn't really know if a demon brought here could actually hurt him or not. He could imagine though that he was at least in the presence of somebody that wouldn't mind hurting him badly enough and keeping him from telling some higher up. His paranoia was definitely showing right now. There was good reason at least. The problem now though was trying to keep from making it so obvious that he had no choice but to do something fucking stupid.

He didn't turn to face Aion. He couldn't shake the feeling of unease though no matter what he told himself. He always tended to look at the downside of a situation. It was just...something behind the demon's words that made him feel like his questions were being welcomed, but not technically appreciated. That shouldn't matter all too much...if he didn't feel like his life was in jeopardy. If this was Viede's brother then he should try to get past that, right?

This contractor business though...was it really as simple as the person that instigated the contract being able to have any place in the rules or were they really tricked into it? He guessed though that he wasn't lying at least about that. If he really wanted to think about it enough, the stories he heard usually had to do with a stupid person contracting with a demon or the devil or whatever and getting what was coming to them in the end. He didn't have anything to really compare it to, but it just didn't feel right.

"...I guess that's fair enough. Sounds like a bad deal for either side of it."

"Because it is." His expression turned serious and unhappy.

Leaning back, he sighed. "The demon loses its freedom and autonomy and the human has the risk of quickly having to pay a prize that is way more than they can afford. There is a reason why stories warn of it." He shook his head. These stories existed in both worlds, that of the humans and Pandaemonium alike. "Damned if you do and damned if you don't. ...and yet we have to bet our lives on it..."

If they kept their horns they would be able to use their full powers. But that would be meaningless as long as Pandaemonium could use those very same horns as receivers and invade and destroy them from inside out. He still remembered the terrible force the Geass had had over him during the battle on the Eden and how it had been used with the intention to force them to hold still while the reanimated head was going to tear them apart one by one - and that had only been a mere minor terminal! The queen itself would have a far greater power and range once she got involved. Which was only a question of time and priorities. This whole thing was a horror scenario that would end with their utter annihilation or worse if their enemies ever thought of it, and Aion was not willing nor able to let that happen. They had to find a way to survive without the horns!

"You said that there was a disease in your world that turned your own kind into monsters. Did that only affect the bodies?"

Now that Isaac could hear more and more about this contract business, he supposed that he wasn't giving Aion enough credit for what he had to deal with. Demon or not, he was still a being with a conscience. It was just the problem of whether or not he had enough of one to not squash one of them here like a damned bug. He still had no doubt that he had an advantage over him with strength and whatever the hell else he had over humans. It sounded like it was a raw deal for both parties. Freedom was...a pretty powerful thing.

He didn't suppose he needed to say anything about that. If he was telling him then he knew about how dreary all of that was. He was thinking about what to do next for the clock when he found himself once again gripped with a nightmarish memory. It wasn't something that could be helped really. Asking about it was just natural. As far as he was aware of he hadn't seen anything about somebody living becoming one of those. What he had seen was a person changing right before his eyes when one of the Necromorphs stabbed the guy right in the forehead. Basically that person died and immediately became one of them in the same instant. It was fucked up....REALLY fucked up.

"Bodies...bodies of the freshly killed...that's as far as I am aware of. The ones that immediately died were infected and turned as soon as a Necromorph got a hold of them. They tend to adapt over time. I have no doubt...that turning the living would be very probable in the future if it hasn't already happened since I've been here."

Maybe that question had been a bad idea. He watched the man fighting with himself and whatever memories he had - Aion figured that they were no good ones. But he was also glad that he asked because it only affecting the dead was an important piece of information.

He made a small, empathetic sound and then made sure to create eye-contact before he said his next words. "I am sorry to hear that. Hopefully they didn't. But in our case..." He paused before he delivered the blow. "As long as we have that organ it affects the living. And it spreads at the speed of sound."

Well damn. And Isaac thought he was the only one suffering from some of this kind of crap with the dead. He couldn't really tell the kind of specifics he would like to question, but he had a surprising respect for him now than he thought possible. He had something in common with a couple of demons here. Should he feel bad about that or what? Something told him it really didn't even matter. They were all in the same boat here and some a lot more than others. He finally just turned away from what he was working on, deciding that a drink might be a little more important right now to calm his nerves in a way that he needed and he was sure that Aion needed to.

He managed a smile at the demon.

"We have a lot more in common than I thought. To be honest...I didn't really expect that. Did you want me to come by here on a regular basis to work on this or should I take it with me? I have a feeling you want to hold onto it."

The whole trust thing was something he could understand for sure. There were a lot of pretty terrible people here and there were a lot of good ones. With people like that Saleh running around, there was little they could do but try and keep as much to themselves as they could and hold onto what they understood.

He laughed lightly at that. "Why, because I am a demon? You'd do good not to believe in all those stories that are going around about us, most of them are just made up tales to scare friends and little children." He winked. "And even if I act like a jerk at times, I guarantee you that I'm also person who cares and likes to prove it if given the chance."

Thinking about the offer, he gave him a grateful smile. "I would prefer to keep it in my possession and have you come over if it's not too much of a bother, to be honest." Recreating the watch would be impossible with his knowledge of technology alone, after all. Aion didn't know what else he would do if it were to be taken or worse, broken, but he was sure that it wouldn't make him happy. Maybe even made enough to forget his manners and destroy a couple of things and people. Controlling their rage once set off was neither his nor Chrono's forte.

"Well...that I can believe...the whole caring and what not. Viede is sure as hell a caring guy even if he can be a little more quiet than I am."

Isaac didn't really know how he SHOULD feel if he was helping these guys finish something that could potentially be something bad in the future. He had no idea whatsoever if he was just getting himself into a situation he couldn't get out of so easily or if he was genuinely reading these guys the way he should be. It was better to have stronger acquaintances around to be the type he knew he could count on. He would hate to find himself in a situation where it really did turn out that he was absolutely and completely alone.

Which was exactly what he figured it would turn into eventually. It seemed like his growing pessimism was not going away in the near future after all and he doubted he was any good at hiding it. He decided that he was going to trust Aion though and that meant that he would be returning to work on this watch. The way he described it was just something he had to see for himself. He felt like he needed to get a feel for a couple more tools though as he was sure he would need a couple of things a little less conventional to be able to achieve what he needed. He had to admit that it was a project he could definitely get behind.

He nodded finally, standing up and giving him a much more assured smile.

"I can understand that. Better not to lend somebody something important and end up losing it. I think I need a few more supplies for this though, so I think I will just be on my way for today and be back whenever you need me to be with some other equipment. I got a head start on it, but an engineer has to have everything at his disposal and I need to do this right."

[Closed]

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Just give him a heart attack, Aion :|

He would, but then Viede would be silent at him because he broke his partner too much. :(

:O That would be too sad!

It really would :'(

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Sorry about the wait on this.

welcome back <3

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