“So,” the deep voice rumbled through the small room. “Just between us, you can understand me can’t ya?”

The person's fingers dug into Sepeti’s temples. It felt like his head was stuck between a hydraulic press. He wasn’t complaining, it was actually pretty enjoyable. It just made it hard for him to concentrate on the question.

Another mewling moan escaped Sepeti’s lips. Each time the man’s large fingers pressed into his aching temples it felt like a bit of the pain was being wrung out of him.

“There ya go again, making weird noises,” the person said. Their voice echoed, sounding like it was right next to his ear and far away at the same time. “Well, out with it. Yea or nay?”

Sepeti licked his lips through his missing front teeth, eyes rolled back as the calloused fingers continued to knead his head. If the person wanted to turn his head into a doughy concoction, he wouldn’t object. As long as he was allowed to continue enjoying the sensation. He moved his mouth, trying to respond, and realized that his jaw was still magically wired shut. Instead, he grunted and shook his head.

The person chuckled and held his head firmly in their grip. “If ya can’t understand me, then why’d ya answer my question?”

Sepeti froze as he realized his error. He hadn’t meant to react. Instinct had taken over and he’d answered the pointed question. Maybe if he kept quiet and didn’t acknowledge his mistake, the person would assume that they’d gotten an accidental confirmation. He stilled himself, halting his breathing as he forced his body to go completely still. His hope was that he would be able to trick the person into thinking that he had fallen back into unconsciousness.

“That won’t work, son,” the voice rumbled as they pressed their fingers harder into his temples.

For a singular, nearly imagined moment, searing pain spiked through Sepeti’s head. Fear coiled in his stomach as he expected the blinding headache from before to return. Instead, something else happened. The pain ceased but a voice blared in his mind.

“Bet ya can understand me now can’t ya?” the person's rumbling voice echoed in his head, shaking his eyes as the words bounced around. “So, speak up. Let’s have us a nice lil’ chat.”

“Fine,” Sepeti grumbled, unable to utter more than a single word through his wired jaw.

“Talk in yer head,” the voice boomed, a little too enthusiastic for his liking. “I know yer mouth’s all wired up. It’ll be easier this way.”

“Fine.” Sepeti continued to issue one word responses, even in his head. He’d decided he wasn’t going to be too chummy with this person, whoever they were.

“So, what’s yer name kid?”

“Status.”

“Oh, come on, you don’t gotta be like that.”

Sepeti could feel the disappointment in the voice. It reminded him of when Boba’s invasive ass was around. The main difference was the ever present physical contact. It was a constant reminder that he was in the middle of a very odd conversation.

“Status,” he repeated, completely unwilling to give up his name. He’d decided that being a stubborn asshole was probably the best course of action and he was going to stick to it.

“Fine, guess I’ll check it,” the voice drawled. A spike of electricity zipped through Sepeti causing his body to convulse involuntarily for a moment. “Huh, that’s weird.”

A second jolt rushed through him, this one a bit more forceful. He would have protested had his jaw not been wired shut. Or he would have just uttered one of his many favorite curse words. But, he stubbornly held his tongue. At least, that’s what he chose to believe as the electricity wove through him. It wasn’t painful, far from it. It was actually pleasant. Less like some torture method and more like muscle stimulation.

“What the hell’s this?!” the voice boomed in his head as a third wave of electricity zoomed through him. This one caused his body to flail in the odd pool of water. A little more painful than before but nothing he couldn’t handle.

“Who the hell are you?” the voice growled. The large fingers that had sunk into his skin and, presumably, into his skull flexed. Pain erupted in his head again as the fingers dug deeper into him. “Answer me, boy, who are you?”

Sepeti let out a muffled, close mouthed laugh. The sound whistled out between his missing teeth as he parted his cracked lips.

“Nobody,” he croaked, continuing to laugh. Mania settled as he found himself unable to control his laughter. He began howling, laughter hissing between his broken teeth.

Another jolt of electricity, the strongest yet, surged through him and his body splashed violently beneath him. The odd sensation of losing his bodily autonomy pleased Sepeti as his muscles jumped randomly. It began to tickle, spurring his bout of laughter further. Tears leaked from the corner of his unbandaged eye.

“This is stupid,” the voice grumbled, clearly vexed that they weren’t getting the information they’d expected.

Sepeti’s vision began to swim. His laughter suddenly faded as something tickled his brain. It was a niggling touch that annoyed the rest of his body. The dim light that illuminated the cave-like room grew in intensity as his vision slowly swayed.

“Kid, I don’t want to do this to ya,” the voice murmured in his head, suddenly much more subdued than before. “But I will if ya continue to be obstinate. I just want a short chat. That’s all.”

Sepeti let out a chuckle. His mind felt woozy and he could barely comprehend what the voice was talking about. Inane chuckling soon filled his head and he wasn’t able to tell whether he was laughing audibly or not. All he knew was that he felt good. More than good, it had been a long time since he’d last had any psyches.

The swaying room accelerated and decelerated haphazardly. He tried to make sense of how and why it would be doing that but found it much easier to just accept the fact that he was feeling very, very good.

“Now,” the person’s deep voice reverberated. The room seemed to undulate in time with the speaker’s cadence. “Maybe yer ready to answer my questions, yeah?”

Sepeti let out an awkward close-mouthed chuckle. He couldn’t help himself, he felt way too good. So maybe it was fine for him to talk to this person for a bit. After all, they were supplying him with free psyches. His vision swirled and spun yet he didn’t grow dizzy. Usually, he would have abhorred the feeling of helplessness that psyches usually bestowed. But this one let him feel in control.

“I guess,” he said, breath whistling between his teeth.

“I knew it,” the voice harrumphed as the temporary psychosis stabilized. “Those idiots had a suspicion but I knew it.”

“What are you talking ‘bout?” Sepeti flip-flopped between speaking out loud and in his head. It made the experience of the psyche so much more enjoyable as both forms of communication affected his trip differently. When he spoke, his vision swum horizontally. When he thought-spoke, his vision swam unpredictably. It made staring up at the ceiling, which he could now just barely make out, much more fun.

“Nothin’,” the person rumbled as they began to shift their fingers. He could feel them beginning to pull out of his head and he panicked.

“Wait,” he thought-yelped. “Just a little more, this feels pretty good.”

“What? It’s not supposed to feel good.” The fingers began to slide out of his skull and a slight twinge of pain sent imaginary lightning flashing across his half-vision.

“Please, wait, just leave them in,” Sepeti pleaded. “I’ll talk about anything, just leave them in!”

The sliding stopped as he felt confusion and slight disgust through the connection. His vision stabilized as the pain receded.

“Ya can’t actually like this, do ya?” The voice sounded unsure.

For the first time in a long while, Sepeti felt sure about something. He was enjoying the psychedelic trip and it was obvious that he wasn’t supposed to be. Thinking was hard but easier at the same time. His inhibitions were loosened some as he rode the waves of the psyche trip.

“I do,” he answered quietly, voice fluctuating as he fought to tamp down the urge to giggle.

“Another weird one,” they mumbled. “Fine, whatever. I’ll leave 'em in as long as it makes ya willing to talk.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Sepeti answered wistfully. His will, all but eroded in the face of the semi-psyche assault, loosened his stubborn hold on being an obstinate ass. His concerns with having to deal with people were, currently, completely nonexistent.

“First, just as a baseline, what’s yer name?” A low-grade electric current fizzled through his body, just like before. This one felt like it was waiting for an answer rather than probing for one.

“Sepeti,” he sighed through his extra-wide tooth gap. The electric current elicited the color green. He could see the color in his mindseye and he was sure that the speaker saw the same. A message dinged in his head but something seemed to block the system pop-up.

“Ok, weird name, but ok. Next, where are ya from?”

“Not here,” Sepeti answered, suppressing a giggle unsuccessfully. The electric current sparked blue and he got the impression that this was a neutral indicator. His vision, his mind, and his body all fluttered at the same time.

“Come on, sonny. We can do better than that. Where ya from?”

Sepeti frowned, flinching from the slight ache that penetrated the protective bubble of the psyche’s influence. He wanted to look like he was actually considering the question, or at least look like he was trying to be serious. But the psyches were taking him on a much too welcome trip that he was unable to resist.

“Offworld,” he whispered as if it were supposed to be some huge secret. The electric current buzzed light blue then switched to a light green.

“That’s a given,” they mumbled, sounding like they were mentally turning away from him. “Guess that was a bit of a stupid question. Next one, how’d ya get here?”

Sepeti’s vision suddenly flipped as he tried to think around his current impairment. His one good eye went cross as he had the disturbing displeasure of seeing the whole room upside down while being completely aware that his body was still upright. Somehow, he was still enjoying the trip.

“Dunno,” he rasped, lips flapping as he breathed the word. “Array, I guess.”

The current lit up green and he could feel confusion seeping through the connection. Whoever was interrogating him was very bad at masking their feelings. Impaired as he was, Sepeti still had the wherewithal to recognize that this method of communication wasn’t meant for interrogation in any way. Maybe the other person considered it more of an interview than an interrogation. For his sake, he hoped it was the former.

“Right, an array,” the voice sounded unsure as it stumbled around the foreign word. “What were ya up to before you got here? Who beat ya within an inch of yer life?”

“Long story.” Sepeti switched to mind-talk because his throat and jaw were starting to ache from trying to speak physically. Even the minute motions of speaking through a wired mouth made his jaw ache. “Some lady named Malia beat me and some acquaintances up.”

The person grunted, the sound sending ripples through his vision and correcting it. His stomach lurched but he found it pleasurable. It reminded him of the few times he’d ridden one of the old amusement coasters with his brother. If his arms weren’t busy floating uselessly he would have thrown them up and cheered.

“Malia,” they murmured. Their fingers twitched like they were going to pull them out of his skull but they remained attached. “Don’t know who that is. I’ll have someone check.”

Sepeti could feel consternation flowing through the connection. He was still feeling really good, albeit his high was coming down, so he decided it was the perfect time to ask a question of his own.

“Who are you?”

“Oh,” the person harrumphed as they were pulled out of their thoughts. “Pretty rude of me. The name’s Gran d’emas Ter. Just call me Gran.”

“Cool.” Even when he was communicating in his head, Sepeti tended to mumble. In his slightly free-spirited mood, he decided to make a mental note to eventually fix that bad habit. “So, where are we?”

“Right, makes sense ya wouldn’t know where ya are.” The person cleared their throat and Sepeti got the feeling this was going to be a long winded explanation. A feeling of pride and enthusiasm flowed into his mind.

“This here is the island city-state of Extuahal-Tol. Half of the island is covered by arid desert, the other half is dominated by the indigenous Extuano. Yer lucky to have ended up here, what with the locals being fervent believers in the rules of the Travellers. They worship the sun, who they believe is a sentient being that brings light and warmth to all worlds. Ya may or may not have noticed, but they speak a very melodic language. The language itself is treated like a constant prayer, so ye’ll be hard pressed to find any of the Extuano not speaking at any given time. As for how they survive, they…”

Sepeti’s eye rolled back into his head as he leaned into the trip. He’d lost interest right off the bat but had been forced to listen due to the connection. Hell, he was still listening but he’d figured out how to let the words just slide right over his understanding. He was much more concerned with the undulating lights and the way the room was growing and shrinking. If his face didn’t hurt so much, he would have been smiling inanely as he floated in the strange pool.

As he tacitly absorbed all the information Gran was providing, he let his mind wander. The little part of him that was concerned for the dragon grew slightly as he began to wonder where exactly Kid had ended up. He hoped it wasn’t some place that would get them in trouble. Sure, he didn’t want to get involved too heavily with the dragon, but he was much more concerned for the kid stuck inside the dragon than anything. He was pretty sure Kid was a world calamity that had yet to fully develop. If anything, Kid would probably be completely fine without him. They far outleveled him and also had a growth boost that, he felt, far outranked his own. But concern still lingered.

“Now, somethin’ of note to remember: always refer to the sun as Zen-La’ihe. They take this very seriously. Names hold special meanings, so you’ll want to make sure you remember each and every person’s proper name and recognize the naming conventions…”

Gran continued their lecture and Sepeti continued to let his mind wander. The enjoyable psyche effect of the ‘interrogation method’ was slowly beginning to wear off so he wanted to enjoy it as much as he could. The feeling of fingers being crammed into his head was disconcerting but he’d grown used to it. At the most, it tickled.

He thought about Malia and hoped the bitch had ended up some place hostile and inhospitable. She’d done a number on him and all because he’d broken some pendant. Normally, he wasn’t one to bad mouth people he barely knew. But she was an exception, at least for now. He couldn’t remember most of the beating she’d given him but he could remember how she had broken his face with a shoulder bash.

Knowing his current luck, there was a high chance he would run into her before Kid or any of the monsters. Speaking of the shadow monsters, he assumed they would be fine. Hopefully the array wouldn’t affect them too adversely. But, being that it was a hastily scribbled experiment, he couldn’t be completely sure. Kid had claimed they would just revive where they’d died but he wasn’t sure that would happen with how powerful the array had ended up being.

“So, in conclusion. The Extuano are a very pious and helpful people. Their way of speaking and their constant chatter might throw newcomers off, but we all get used to it. Ya got any questions?”

Gran was finally done with their spiel. Sepeti felt that he’d just been steamrolled by a travel agent trying to sell him on a new, exotic location.

“Yeah,” Sepeti rasped, pursing his lips so he could speak through the hole. “Why are you here and what’s in it for you?”

“I didn’t mention it?” He could feel them thinking deeply as if they were combing through their long-winded diatribe to see if they had forgotten to mention their own interest in being on the island. “Huh, guess I didn’t. Well, I’m an Anthropologist and I’ve lived here for some time studying the Extuano. Since their contact with the rest of the known world is limited, I took it on myself…”

Sepeti fought the urge to roll his eyes as Gran launched into another explanation. They were seriously harshing his mood and he was beginning to grow grumpy again. Still, at least he wasn’t the one having to do all the talking and such.

“So, you’re an anthropologist,” he interjected, trying to get the message across that he was tired of the person’s constant talking. “Is that why you didn’t really care too much about me being an Offworlder?”

Gran paused as the feeling of being flustered came across the connection. They cleared their throat again before they resumed speaking.

“Well, yes. I’ve studied yer kind before and know more than most about you folks.”

This piqued Sepeti’s interest. He’d never assumed himself to be special. One of the first sentient beings he’d met on this backwater planet was also an offworlder. So, it only made sense to him that there were plenty of other offworlders stuck on this mudhole.

“What can you tell me about most of them?”

Magics Learned!

Physical Manipulation - {Lie Detector}

Physical Manipulation - {Electroshock Therapy}