Rods and cones and ∆ Candela, Todd blinks at the change in brightness. His satchel is packed heavy with his gear, though its weight reducing properties diminish that from a burden into a turn of phrase. For the second time in as many days, he’s appeared in the central plaza sopping wet. At least this time his pants are clean too. Todd adjusts his arms to get a better grip on the rolled up mattress and bamboo mat as his weapon bounces against his thigh. He’s tied it to his gi belt with a dirty sock, and it’s taken the shape of nothing more complicated than an elongated narrow spike.

Maybe a hundred(?) other people are already gathered around the crystal, and in every passing moment more figures appear at the foot of their residential buildings. Newcomers run towards the group as they appear, and frightened neighbors stand tight together: close as the herd.

Jostled by a kid running past him from behind, Todd realizes this was an appropriate situation to ask for an apology and files that datum away for next time. He moves forward, progressing from a desire to warn, into observe, into assess, all the way to assume, and then after a moment of self-censure back to inquiry. Approaching a tall gentleman that he recognizes as a bus driver from the first day, Todd clears his throat.

“I got attacked in my room… is that ah,” he motions generally, “is that uh – you okay?”

The public transit operator regards Todd without warmth. “Hey man, I can handle myself,” the man replies a touch defensively, “you think a little creepy crawly like that can scare me?”

“You got a little one?” Todd asks with some relief. “Good, I was scared that everybody –” he huffs, “you should have seen the size of the thing that came at me.”

“Not everything’s about you,” grumbles the man. “I could have saved Chuck, you know?”

“Chuck – you could have?” Todd looks around in confusion, left behind by a hard pivot. “Who’s Chuck?”

“I was gonna,” the man insists, “I was gonna.”

“Okay, man,” Todd begins slowly backing away, “I get you.”

“You just got a head start, you hear me? I’m goin’ to get stronger, Believe it,” he issues like a challenge as Todd politely flees.

There are injuries and frightened faces in his way, so Todd circles around and between them as he searches. He finds Candra first, but she’s occupied in comforting a stranger. Joe likewise passes by in a hurry, leading a man with a bleeding hand injury over towards the doctor. Nayira and Abhigjna are attending to and triaging the worst of the wounded, and are accessible by no clear pathway. So Todd turns to a stranger instead.

“Hey, have you seen Randall Cho? Kinda big guy? Short hair, got those laughing buddha cheeks going on?” He asks the man, and receives a shake of the head in response. They scan the crowd together.

Randall appears from the residence wall a few searching moments later. After setting down his pad and mattress, Todd thanks the stranger for trying and jogs over to meet Randall halfway.

“Omigod, it was awful dude,” Randall slows to a halt and adjusts his satchel. His gi is gory and gritty with bug muck at the wrists and ankles. “Also, good morning. But also also? Seriously nightmare.”

“You got attacked by a redburr, yea? I think, I mean I think they came for almost everybody.”

Randall shakes his head. “That wasn’t the suck part of it, man. I thought I could catch it, I did catch it; in my box chest thing.”

“That was smart, Randall. I didn’t even really think of that.”

“No, it wasn’t so hot a move. The room wouldn’t let me leave until I killed it. Dude it’s so much worse killing something that can’t fight back,” Randall crimps up his face in pain, and then smiles wanly. “It made this noise. I’m like mega traumatized.”

Todd starts a word, then sends it back to trade in for a new one. He forces himself to make eye contact. “At least you’re okay. Alright? You get all your stuff from your room?” He lifts his own satchel and shakes it. “I’m not planning to go back until we know what’s going on.”

“Aw, crud. No.”

“Don’t worry. Once the pixies get back,” Todd grits his teeth, “we’re going to get some answers.”

Randall’s enthusiastic head bob is not what Todd expects or is looking for. “You’re right, Aefore and Ciforre will help us!” The young man exclaims cheerfully.

“Randall,” Todd clutches his fists hard enough to pop his knuckles and releases them. “Jesus, I thought you were dropping hard on your smart stat. It is time to TALK.” He rubs his eyes with the side of his hand. “They are NOT on our side. Can’t you see that?”

“But –”

“Christ man, we’ve been kidnapped. And they knew the redburr nest was here. How do we even know they didn’t bring them here on purpose too?”

Reddening in the face, Randall practically stomps a full widdershins circle. He raises his hands in the air and drops his voice low. “Todd, I don’t care. I don’t CARE!” He hisses. “They gave us magic. I can fucking do magic now. I have a bag that’s super-dimensional, and a Swiss-army sword and... Is something shady going on? Sure. Fine. But.” Randall stubs a thumb into his own breast. “Do not give a shit, I don’t. So get on board, Todd.”

Stunned, Todd watches as Randall storms away towards the crystal. All around him, stressed out faces glower at him distrustfully, maybe even angrily.

“They’re here to help us, coz,” a voice regretfully entreats. Jingshu is still wearing his baseball cap, and the teen tips it up level to obscure less of his face. “I wanted to say sorry for yesterday. Like,” the boy taps his fingertips to his chest, “I’m cool with you. It’s just that Abby’s mad that the purple witch lady likes you better.”

Todd glances through the crowd to see Randall animatedly speaking with Marketing Mike, before responding to Jingshu. “What’s she want Ciforre to like her for?”

“See, that’s that crucial attitude,” Jingshu taps knowingly against his temple, “I tried to tell her sucking up wouldn’t work. She’s gotta do whatever you’re doing. This whole, try-hard spaz stuff. No offense.”

“Can I take a little offense?” Todd murmurs in aside before replying. “I a hundred percent don’t get you guys. When you talk to them, don’t you just – I mean they ooze menacing, right?”

“That’s the thing Señor Drippy, I dunno if you noticed this: but they don’t really talk to us much. So far they’ve done nothing but help, and then when you and Smasherella shit-talk the pixies after…” Jingshu shrugs. “I mean it makes me nervous. Because they’re the only ones that have any idea what’s going on, and if I can’t even trust them I don’t know how to handle that.”

Todd groans. “I don’t know what to tell you.”

“Well that’s, and you didn’t hear this from me, kind of why some people maybe would rather you not talk so much? Like in general. Again, not me!” Jingshu pokes his head up, as much over the crowd as his height can reach him. “But I do need to make sure Abby doesn’t see me yappin' atcha.”

“I… Sure.”

Backing off in a retreat that Todd finds very familiar, Jingshu offers a low subdued wave. “You understand, yea? We’re still cool?” He turns his back as he goes.

“No,” Todd decides quietly. He doesn’t understand, and he doesn’t feel ‘cool’ either; not in the context of we or I. Excusing himself past a few eavesdroppers, he sweeps his bedding back up in his arms and heads off in search of Walter or even just an empty space. He doesn’t make it far.

“Hey kid!”

The voice is tired, and it belongs to a man in his mid thirties. Todd had seen the man fight at the front line during the swarm, but he hadn’t made a huge impression. The woman standing with him is actually from the transfer group, and her arms cradle around a child while her whole body bounces gently to console it. “You have a kid here,” Todd dumbly observes.

“Yea. Yea, my wife was – I guess in another zone. Or section. Listen kid, we were sort of in a rush and didn’t remember to get our bed stuff on the way out.”

“You have a baby in the Tutorial,” Todd frowns.

“We’re all together again, so it’s okay.” As his wife adjusts to free up a hand, the man grips and squeezes it. “I know, this is a little unfair for me to ask, but –”

“Yep.” Todd thrusts his armload forward urgently. “Nope, yes. It’s yours.”

“We’ll get it back to you, buddy. Thank you,” the man smiles broadly. “I’m Fred.”

“What?” Todd notices a handshake waiting for him, so he sets down his sleep kit on the ground and grips it. “Oh, I...”

“He’s one of the Candidates,” the woman speaks up. She wipes a thumb gently over her child’s forehead as it makes a little raspy noise. “Our pixies talked about it in subsection eight. Something about them picking up cosmic energy stuff faster and... can you ask your pixie to come help? We really need them right now.”

Todd shifts uncomfortably. “Does nobody… I don’t know if that’s a great idea.”

“Please Dripsy,” she adjusts her generational burden and locks eyes with Todd like a direct personal attack. “Nayira says you’re the purple one’s favorite. Can you at least try?”

“How do people know who I am?”

“Oh. Oh! You’re the kid who keeps asking questions.” Fred taps one fist lightly into his other palm. “Personal favor, Dripsy right?”

“My name is Todd.”

“Why do you call yourself Dripsy then,” Fred shares a chuckle with his wife as Todd briefly considers taking his mattress back. “Sometimes it’s really… uh, distracting? When you interrupt Aefore and Ciforre. Because there’s a lot to process here, and some of the rest of us – maybe we’re not following along so fast. All this magic stuff, it’s kind of new for me; for regular people and...”

Todd looks from Fred to his wife and down to the child. “I’ll see what I can do, I guess,” he reluctantly offers.

“Thank you, Todd. And I’m Ly, and this little bumblebee is Martha.”

“Really Todd, thanks.”

Todd inclines his head and leaves them to set up their nap arrangements. For the third time this morning, he tries to put distance behind him. At this point, there aren’t a lot of places to escape to so he sidles up to a distracted Candra.

“Oh, hey Drips. You okay?” She inquires mildly.

“Bleeding fashionably I guess?” He lifts his heel to look back at the browning oval blot on the back calf of his pant leg. “So I guess middling range okay. How was your giant monster this morning?”

“Scary that it got inside, but less scary when I flipped out and hit it with my table.”

“Table casualty huh.”

Candra allows the corner of her mouth to quirk up. “May he rest in peace.”

“Weird little observation, and call me crazy after almost getting eaten again but, do people trust the pixies more now?”

“Oh. My god. Right? They are,” Candra tips forward conspiratorially, “getting real weird about it.”

“But why? I’m not gonna say they’re evil, but – they’re obviously evil, right?”

Candra shrugs. “Stockholm syndrome.” She looks down at her hands, and her composure frays a little. “I kind of thought the rooms were going to be safe,” she admits nervously. “It’s not dumb to feel a little shook up.” She indicates towards Todd’s bleeding leg. “I mean, even you got tagged by the little sucker.”

Todd’s mouth presses down to a line, then tucks hard to the side. “Nobody got hit by a big one? Not even Drew?”

“Yea. Thank the elf unicorn wizard whatevers. Everybody’s basically got super strength now, and the pixies kind of oversold the poison too. I think most everybody’s okay.”

Todd’s gaze drifts over to the ten or so poor souls in the doc’s care.

“Or at least mostly okay,” Candra corrects herself. “Not horribly, awfully dead.”

The human mob grows more restless, and additional figures have long since stopped appearing from the residences. Todd looks out across the plaza. He sees the remaining redburr mound nest, unchanged for two days. Officer Bernice and Walter stand along the way towards it, and are in a discussion with Ranger Drew that involves a lot of loud faces and large hand gestures.

Looking even further, Todd sees the slight waver that denotes the boundary to the Ishiate section. “Hey Candra, how’s your wisdom coming along.”

“My wisdom? I guess I got a sweet boost from the title. So it was like a nine last time I checked?”

“You haven’t put any points towards it?”

Candra scoffs at him. “Why would I waste points on wisdom? Does it even do anything?”

“Kinda helps protect against mind control.”

“And if we get attacked by telepathy hypnosis bears, I’ll worry about it then. Drips, don’t second guess this. I can tell you right now, literally nobody has spent points on wisdom,” Candra grins. “Drop them in dexterity. It really does make you faster,” she brags as Todd’s attention slips away from her.

The illusion curtain weighs heavily on Todd. He and Nina had been the only two to see past it, and even if he called on Candra now it would cost her three full levels to breach the array. But is it even important? There’s still the redburr nest, ten or more wounded, another big trial coming up tomorrow, and now there’s an actual baby to worry about too.

“Hm,” he replies absently. “I’m kinda getting a headache.”