Altered Fate (Inscryption Fanfic)

Chapter 3 ~ First Sign of Trouble

After a while of chatting and relaxing with Grimora, you prepare yourself to face off with the next scrybe... Magnificus. You have to admit, as uncaring and brutal as he seems, as a teacher, you can't help but almost feel bad... remembering all the times he did his best to reach you, shake your hand... all the times he got so close and failed. The other two you had to say goodbye to, each time, were at least peaceful and calm... Magnificus, however... you vividly remember how upset he seemed. One thing he said bounced around your head, the most... "You've allowed my goo mage to be deleted, as well... I thought you two were becoming friends!" The true anger in his voice, at that moment... the pain.

You weren't excited to look either of those two in the eye, again. Seeing Goobert was going to make you feel guilty, and Magnificus was likely going to have a lot of questions... hopefully, this time, he won't disappear in the middle of talking to you. That was something you were never able to truly understand... you hope that, this time, you'd actually get the chance to talk to him.

Upon getting to the tower, you hear something behind you... you quickly turn and look, but there's nothing. You swear you can hear whispers... this isn't right. The logical thing to do would be to run inside the tower as fast as possible, to avoid danger... but you're so jaded and excited for change, that at this point, you decide you can handle whatever it is. You run the direction it went in, the last thing on your mind being your own safety. Of course, you instantly regret it. Not long into the chase, you trip on something, falling and hitting your head on something sharp... the last thing you see, as you fall unconscious, being a 2-headed figure standing over you, one of the faces seeming slightly panicked...

You wake up a few hours later to find your wound was treated and bandaged... you're wrapped in the blanket Leshy had you take with you, and you can smell... what you assume to be tea being made. Looking around, you're... not in the tower... you're sat in a fairly cold room, the sound of machinery working everywhere around you. There's a window adjacent to you... you get up and go look out of it. You see... the tower... just across from this building you're in, now... but that can only mean...

"Finally." You jump from the suddenness of the appearence of the robotic voice behind you... P03... did he really find you and decide to take you in? You're speechless... you knew it'd be different, but you couldn't have expected the robot to have any sort of heart. He sighs. "You can sit back down, you know," he says, motioning to where you were sat down, before. Almost as if you have no choice, you silently go sit back down. "Can you say something? If you hurt yourself, too bad, the other three will probably think I did it," the droid speaks, getting a sort of irritated yet worried look...

"Sorry, just," you begin, taking a minute to find the words you want to say. "I... the last thing I expected was to wake up here..."

P03 chuckles, a little, as if he'd expected that response. "Listen, I couldn't have you dying on me, when we're not even close to the fun part. Besides, me, Leshy, and Grimora are already on bad terms. If those two thought I killed you, we'd both be dead." 

You two stare at each other, for a minute... the silence becomes slowly more and more awkward. Finally, you speak. "So, you and Leshy, huh?" P03 gets a look of shock, and frantically stutters, trying to speak, before finally saying, "Okay, who told you about that?!"

"Grimora." P03 growls, slightly... of course. You get a smug look, trying not to laugh. "That was supposed to be a secret between us scrybes," he says, irritated. "We were married for a year. Then it started getting in the way, we drifted apart, it was over. Nothing special." You nod, snickering, trying to stifle your laughter. He gave you this sort of death glare. "If you say anything more about this, I will end you."

"Uh-huh, sure," you say, grabbing your bag, and checking to see if you have everything you need. "What are you doing?" You look at the robot as he asks you this question... "Getting ready to go," you respond, tilting your head. "Why?"

"Well, you fell pretty hard. You were bleeding a lot..." You looked at him, almost dumbfounded by his concern. "... Are you worried about me?" Of course, 03 instantly becomes defensive. "No! No, of course not! Just... I don't think I've seen someone bleed like that, in a long time. It was... disconcerting..." You're absolutely speechless... "P-plus, I was making you tea! if you leave, it'll just be wasted! I'm a robot, I can't drink it!" Hearing him stutter makes you uncontrollably giggle, like a dork... you can not believe, the amazing scrybe of technology, who cared not for emotions, was worried about you.

"Stop laughing!" You stop laughing, and just glare at him, with this goofy smile on your face. You shake your head. "I'll stay for tea... alright? But I have to get back to business, sooner or later. 'Kay?" P03 nodded... still embarrassed. In an attempt to change the subject, he asked, more seriously...

"So... what, exactly, happened, anyways? People don't get hurt, that badly, from nothing..." You get a look that just says you'd wished he wouldn't ask this question. "I tried to chase something, and fell..." He looks at you with the most judgemental look you've ever gotten, from him... "I know, it was dumb, but I heard something, and wanted to see what it was!" It only sounds even weirder... and he only judges you, more. He snickers. "So, you decided to risk your life to figure out what some noises were?" "I know, it sounds stupid, but I'm just excited for some change! I've been waiting for a different outcome, for what feels like forever!" He seems to pause, his screen showing an ellipsis, when you say this... he then gets this odd look of understanding. He seems like he's about to say something, but suddenly, Melter comes in with the tea.

Melter brings the tea to you... You thank him, and he leaves, once again. Now, you sit, sipping your tea, glancing at P03, now and then... He's avoiding eye contact. You wonder what's going on, in that robotic mind of his... You wonder if you've just gotten closer to befriending the most stubborn scrybe, or further from it. You shake your head, deciding not to focus on that, right now. You try to relax, while you can... waiting out the headache from how hard you must've hit your head.

This is... definitely different, but not the way you wanted... you were wanting to befriend 03, and bring the scrybes together. So far... it almost just seems like you've unintentionally made him uncomfortable... here's hoping you can fix this, before you get too close to act 3...