The Chained Watcher

(Chained Watcher POV pt 3)

At least an hour has passed.

It's taking a lot longer than anticipated to get to the portal hub, what with multiple low-tier Watchers running around like headless chickens, but a break from the monotony comes in the form of four fighting human-ish things, seemingly three-on-one. 

Rounding the corner, they are revealed to be three odd-looking hybrids, all with masks and collars, fighting a man with cybernetic enhancements. The hybrids feel so glaringly... wrong, not an ounce of emotion present in either actions or aura. So distracted is he, that he didn't notice his little helper dash over to help the other human until it swept the legs out from under two of them.

A rather glaring design flaw in the form of a button that knocks out the wearer is found and used, and shortly after all three mindless hybrids are down for the count. He casually made his way over to them, getting all the way up to right behind his charge before feeling the abrupt spike of alarm at the discovery of his "sudden" proximity.

The two humans are now conversing, exchanging greetings as his mind wanders across all the happenings of the day. His attention was snapped back to them as the newcomer asked a simple question, but one that caught him off guard.

"Who's your friend?"

He just blinked for a moment, stunned by the question. Were they friends? Looking back, the human, what was its name again? It called itself Mumble? Mumbo, that was it. Mumbo had helped him without actually expecting anything in return, and they had laughed together, so... 

The human, Mumbo, started to speak "Oh, yes! This is... umm... Well this is embarrassing, I don't think I've actually asked your name." Ah. A name. 

Come to think of it, what would be the point of using a Watcher name to interact with humans? It's not like his name was easily pronounceable with human vocal cords. He could call himself whatever he wanted, and no one would so much as bat an eye at it.

Taking a moment to think, he speaks slowly, "Let's go with... Grian." Giggling slightly at the simplicity of this new name, he nodded and spoke with more surety "Yes, Grian will do." Oh this was fun. Who needs names to mean something when they can mean nothing? No expectations or preconceptions, and more importantly, no unwanted baggage from the past.

The cyber-eyed human nodded at him, finding the phrasing a little odd but not questioning it. "Ooookay then, Grian. Do either of you happen to know which way is out? I seem to be more than a bit lost, now that I think about it." 

Nodding, Grian resumes his path to the portal room, the two humans falling into line behind him.

Another couple of minutes pass before Mumbo speeds up slightly to walk next to him. The man looks up hesitantly, before asking what was on his mind. "Do you think we could pick up some of the others who escaped along the way? N-not that we have to, but..." he trailed off into a quiet whisper "I don't want to be the reason someone got left behind..."

Well how is he supposed to refuse when asked like that? Downright unfair, if you were to ask him.

He pats the mustached man's head and starts calculating which detours could be fit into their path without sacrificing too much time. Judging from the magic pulses flickering through the wall, there seemed to be another escapee a couple of turns away. Well, why not?

Pausing right before a corner, Grian made sure the maintenance hallway was open right before his target skidded around said corner at top speed. A man with a strangely tall hat went to rush past him, but with a well timed grabbed collar ended up with them running straight into the maintenance hallway. The other two are reasonably used to taking things as they come by now, and follow the man down the path.

Signs of what they were running from could be heard approaching, so Grian entered behind the humans and channeled his magic into the lock mechanism. The pursuers rush past in search of their prey, and introductions are exchanged between the humans as he starts walking again. If they're going to make it to the exit in any reasonable amount of time while walking, there's really not much time to waste.

Pausing at the next turn, Grian looked back at the humans and asked, "You coming?" continuing once they started following him again. He took the time to marvel at the things that had happened oh so quickly. After such a mind-numbingly long time of doing literally nothing, now it felt like everything was happening all at once. It was so invigorating. And all this because a human took pity on a being who looked the same as his captors, was the tapestry of fate not such a wonderful thing to behold?