Void Rift (rp) - Intermission

“Not when I’m trying to be a good boy. Otherwise, very much so. As long as I get a good look at something, Asmia can usually figure out if it'd help us or not."

"I like puzzles but I'm bad at them. You're a guardian, better than humans at everything. Maybe you could try taking notes and see if that helps? Puzzles always have a goal, maybe if you wrote down what that goal is and then what each piece does you can solve them in-game?" I ask.

Evion follows her, albeit incredibly slowly. If the door is closed before he can follow her into a room, he gently scratches at the door.

 

Katie blushes a little.

"W-Well, I'm not better than humans at everything." Katie says, sounding a little embarrassed, before backtracking in the game.

Katie gets up, looking around before heading into another room; returning with a pen and paper. In-game, the character gets killed by an enemy walking up to it; though Katie simply reverses time and kills the enemy - death appearing to have little consequence.

Abigail heads straight for her room, door closing with a locking sound able to be heard. She pays the scratching no mind, or perhaps she's simply unable to hear it.

 

“If I don’t keep that mindset, less tolerant guardians will gut me for having some semblance of self-confidence. Just roll with it, though notes may actually help.”

Evion chirps, scratching at the door harder.

 

“Who’s Asmia?”

 

“Essentially my better half. I’m the street smarts, she’s the book smarts. I bring stuff back to her, she helps me figure out what and when to do stuff.”

 

Katie starts making notes about the puzzles, and slowly but surely begins to solve them, seeming proud of herself when she does.

Abigail eventually opens the door, looking annoyed.

"What?" Abigail asks, dressed in a red and orange woolly jumper and deep blue jeans; different to her usual attire.

 

“Told you that you go this.” I say.
“W... damnit. EVION!” I call, noticing my lack of a shoulder dragon as I stand up.

He just walks in and starts sniffing around the room, ignoring Abigail’s frustration.

He pauses when I call his name, but only for a moment before continuing his exploration.

 

Katie smiles happily, continuing to work through puzzles, though getting stuck with a mechanic about using one's past self to assist the present self.

"Hey, out!" Abigail says firmly, pointing out the door to her room.

Abigail's room has a strong scent of incense, the scent coming from the nostrils of a painted dragon figure on her desk. Her computer hums quietly, and a few crumbs of food litter her carpeted floor. A sticky and sweet-smelling substance seems to stain the carpet next to her bedside table, presumably from a spilled drink.

 

Evion cringes at the incense, reeling back acting like he just walked into a landfill before I scoop him up and take him back downstairs.
“Sorry.” I call back after a few steps.

“What did I say about exploring here?” I say firmly as I head back to the living room.
A faint grumble.
“We both know you remember.”

 

Abigail just closes her door, a hushed "Thanks." barely audible.

Downstairs, Katie appears to be solving a jigsaw puzzle from the pieces she collected by completing the time-based puzzles; seeming to be enjoying herself.

 

“Playing games with friends is good, don’t get me wrong, but I knew you saw how the puzzles worked. You just didn’t seem to know how to visualize it in-game, though writing things out seems to fix that.” I say as I sit down near Katie.
“I love puzzles, and people think I’m good at them. Really, I only know a few ways to solve them, but I do know how to change the puzzle into a format I understand. Perspective changes sure are weird things, huh?”

 

"Yeah! Sometimes when I get really stuck on a part of a game, I just need to sleep for a bit. When I wake up the next day, it comes to me naturally!" Katie says happily, completing the jigsaw puzzle; which seems to complete a milestone in the game. She moves on to one of the earlier levels, starting to pick up the odd pieces she missed.

Katie briefly steals a glance at the human next to her during a short loading screen, before putting her focus back to the game.

 

“...Yes?” I ask, having noticed the glance.

 

"Oh, nothing," Katie says quickly, "You're just...closer than you were before."

 

I scoot back.
"Sorry."

 

"It's no problem." Katie says nervously, trying to put her focus on the game.

A short while later, Abigail comes back downstairs, walking in and falling onto her sofa; lying in a way she can watch the TV while tapping away on her phone.

"Hey, Abigail." Katie says happily, smiling.

"Hey." Abigail responds dully, focused on her phone.

 

I toss Abigail a small wrapped present.
“Happy holidays.”

 

Abigail manages to grab it before it hits her - at the very last second - studying it before unwrapping it.

 

It’s about bracelet-sized, though it rattles quite a bit and feels somewhat heavy.

Upon opening, it’s a bracelet decorated with dragon teeth and shed scales. It’s warm to the touch, and Abigail can feel the ferocity of a dragon burning inside a red crystal centerpiece.
“More a gift from my family to you. You have a dragon form, but you have yet to master it. This should make several higher-end abilities of your dragon form more accessible, to the point where it should let you have better control over your dragon form than some elder guardians.”

A draconic claw rises from a portal, holding a substantially larger box in front of Katie.
“This is marginally less useful, but I think you might enjoy it. I was worried that you’d hate me for it, but I insisted on getting you one anyways.”

 

"A little macabre, but thanks. It suits my style." Abigail says appreciatively, sitting up straight instead of slouching over her sofa.

"Y-You got me a present?" Katie asks, shocked, taking the box and feeling it's weight.