Whispers of Andre and Ridley

[Hap]

The door swung open.

There was no forest beyond it. There was only a beach with silver sand and black water, desolate and lovely.

 

[canisaries]

Thank the gods. Andre slipped out of the door. He also headed for the highest point on the beach for good measure.

It did make sense that the whole Powehi thing was lodged in Ridley's subconscious. He hadn't spoken to Ridley while he was under the shadows' influence, he didn't think, but he'd heard that it was rough for him. Andre would feel bad for him if it wasn't for the whole 'he's going to tell everyone about my terrible secret' thing.

Andre sighed. No, he did feel bad for him. And how Ridley had reacted should not have been, in any way, surprising. Really, people should think Andre was a monster. If Andre had heard of someone else doing what he did, he would disapprove. You couldn't trust a stranger to properly vet the targets. You couldn't trust them not to lose themselves to the thrill. But Andre knew himself. He knew that he was doing it correctly. He knew that he was in the right.

He had to be in the right. If he wasn't in the right, he'd simply be a monster. A sick, demented fuck that deluded himself into thinking that what he did was justice and not simply his own twisted game.

He felt bad for yelling at Ridley. He felt bad for swearing to lie to get his way. But what option did he have? The others would surely kill him if they found out about him.

Maybe there was still another way? There wasn't another way. He could beg Ridley to change his mind.

"I'm sorry," he called to the empty beach. "I'm sorry I said that. I freaked out. I just... I can't have the others find out. They'd kill me. A-and that would be bad for Forlas, right? They need all the help they can get." Not that Andre had been much of any help. "Can we talk about this? Please?"

 

[Hap]

There was no response. There was no sound at all. The water was eerily silent as it lapped at the shore.

It would take Andre some time to notice, but the tide was coming in. Slowly but surely, the water crept up the beach towards him.

 

[canisaries]

"Shit," Andre hissed. While he did know how to swim, he didn't know if he would be able to do it in something so horribly cold.

"Ridley?" he shouted into the silence. He didn't think he'd get a response, but he might as well try. Anything to keep his mind occupied.

 

[Hap]

There was no response. There was nothing Andre could do but wait, as the water continued to rise.

The world darkened...

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[canisaries]

When the walls and ceiling of the cave became visible, Andre sighed out all the air in his lungs. No drowning for him.

It felt strange to breathe through the muzzle of a deerling again. And to stand on all fours. And to have no hands. Hands... he should have appreciated them more while he still had them.

But there was no time to dwell on that. If he got to Ridley before Ridley got to anyone else, there was a chance they could still work something out.

Andre briskly walked onward, his hooves clip-clopping on the cave floor. "Ridley? Ridley?" he called out. "We need to talk."

 

[Hap]

Somehow, Ridley had neglected to consider what he'd do when he had to face Andre again. Great going, Ridley; once again, he was taken by surprise by the obvious and inevitable consequences of his actions.

Perhaps he should have felt scared, knowing that Andre was a murderer, but Ridley found himself oddly calm.

Would Andre try to kill Ridley to prevent him from telling anyone? It seemed like an obvious solution. People wouldn't even find it suspicious; Ridley came with a built-in excuse. Oh, I don't know what happened to Ridley, I guess he did something stupid and got himself eaten by the dungeon.

Ridley had brought an escape orb with him, but the dungeon ejected its spares. If he cracked the orb, Andre would be leaving with him. So: escape orb, smokescreen to disorientate, then shadow sneak or phantom force to grab some distance. Once they were out of the dungeon Ridley would hopefully be able to contact Betel again, and he didn't think Andre would be stupid enough to try killing him with a witness.

The thoughts slotted themselves together neatly and easily in his head. Ridley still felt no fear, only a kind of curiosity as to what Andre would do.

"So when you say talk, do you mean actually talk? Or is that a euphemism?" Ridley asked. "Because right now, I figure we only have two options. Either you can try to kill me, or we can pretend we still tolerate each other long enough to do the job we came here to do."

 

[canisaries]

"Kill you?" Andre's snout wrinkled. "Ridley, I'm not gonna kill you. I don't do that. I don't target anyone but abusers." Besides, Ridley had to have been better at combat than him. He wouldn't be able to kill him if he tried.

He looked around, but the cave was like a maze. Ridley could have been anywhere. "I'm sorry I yelled at you. I freaked out. You have to understand - if you tell them, they're gonna kill me. So can we negotiate this? Work something out?"

 

[Hap]

Yeah, Ridley didn't know how far he trusted that. He was sure Andre believed, or wanted to believe, that he only killed terrible people, but there were any number of ways he could justify killing Ridley to himself if he got desperate enough. It was self-defence; if Ridley died here he'd wake up safe and sound back in his own world, so it wasn't really murder; Ridley was a buffoon and it was only a matter of time before his reckless actions got people maimed or killed, so Andre was doing the world a favour...

Still, Ridley didn't think Andre would kill him here and now. In a few days, maybe, after he'd had time to marinate in stress and anxiety over what Ridley might be telling people.

The acoustics of this places were strange, sound echoing oddly off the walls, but Ridley started moving towards the place he thought Andre's voice was coming from.

"They're not going to kill you," Ridley called back. Wouldn't it be an ironic twist to this whole situation if other Wayfarers heard their words echoing through the cave and learnt about Andre that way? "What, are you afraid of finally getting a taste of your own medicine? You kill the people you deem evil, so you assume everyone else will do the same to you when they learn what you are? You know you're not the only murderer in the Wayfarers, right?"

Ridley hadn't cared when Nova told him about his past. Was that because Nova had been abused and coerced into it, or just because Ridley hadn't personally seen what those deaths look like? Nova certainly wasn't the only Wayfarer who'd killed before, and Ridley didn't care much about the other potential killers either.

...shit, Ridley might be kind of a bad person, actually.

"If you tell them yourself, you get the chance to control the narrative," he said, instead of dwelling on that thought. "You get to present yourself and your motivations however you want to. Isn't that better than the risk of someone who doesn't know the full story turning everyone against you?"

 

[canisaries]

"They're not going to kill you," Ridley called back. Wouldn't it be an ironic twist to this whole situation if other Wayfarers heard their words echoing through the cave and learnt about Andre that way? "What, are you afraid of finally getting a taste of your own medicine? You kill the people you seem evil, so you assume everyone else will do the same to you when they learn what you are? You know you're not the only murderer in the Wayfarers, right?"

Andre took a moment to contemplate Ridley's words.

Sure, maybe it was a little extreme of Andre to jump to the conclusion that he would be killed. After all, one major reason that he did what he did was because most others weren't capable of such acts. But the Wayfarers were a diverse bunch. Some of them must have had the nerves to do it, right? Those 'murderers', even if the ones he knew about had been doing it under coercion or in self-defense?

Well, then there was the fact that many of the Wayfarers likely believed in a little thing called sapient rights. Or human rights, if pokémon weren't people in their worlds. Just as they would be disgusted with him eliminating people even if they were all rotten pieces of shit, they'd hate the idea of capital punishment on Andre. They might just throw him in jail. Which didn't sound great either, but better that than meeting a violent end.

"If you tell them yourself, you get the chance to control the narrative," he said, instead of dwelling on that thought. "You get to present yourself and your motivations however you want to. Isn't that better than the risk of someone who doesn't know the full story turning everyone against you?"

Andre sighed. Maybe that was the best way to do this.

"You're right. It's probably better." Even if he hated the idea of seeing the others' faces as he told them that he tortured people to death. Out of his own free will. And liked it. And thought it was the right thing to do.

Maybe he could make things at least a little bit easier for himself. "If I agree to tell them, how soon do I have to do it? Can I get some time to think about how I'll let everyone know? A few days, maybe?"

He could always run away during those days. But that would mean abandoning the mission. He wasn't so much of a coward that he'd shirk his duty.

Gods, his duty. It was the reason he was in this mess to begin with...

Andre listened for Ridley's response.

 

[Hap]

"You have a week to start telling people," Ridley said. Was that reasonable? What the fuck did he know. "I don't care if you tell everyone or just a few, and I don't care how you tell them, but I'm not going to be the only one who knows about this."

And, Ridley, know this. You're free to tell the others what you saw here today. But I'm gonna make sure that not a single one of them believes you. He added, "And just in case you're still thinking about fucking my credibility over, remember that some psychic-types in this world can look through memories. I hope that's not a fight you're stupid enough to pick."

...Ridley should probably spend the next week or so making sure to keep company with other people and being very careful about what he ate and drank. Just in case.

"Hey, just out of curiosity. Have you killed anyone in this world?"

 

[canisaries]

"You have a week to start telling people," Ridley said. Was that reasonable? What the fuck did he know. "I don't care if you tell everyone or just a few, and I don't care how you tell them, but I'm not going to be the only one who knows about this."

A week. Okay. Andre knew already that he would keep it to himself until the very last minute. Not only to find the best way to present things, but also to choose who were the ones he would tell. How many were a few? What was the minimum? Three? The fewer people he told, the better chances he had of them all deciding to keep it a secret, even if he didn't believe for a second they would.

Then there was what Ridley had said about being the only one. He wasn't the only one. Articuno also knew. But should he tell Ridley that? What were the advantages and disadvantages of divulging that information? Well, he didn't have to decide right now.

"And just in case you're still thinking about fucking my credibility over, remember that some psychic-types in this world can look through memories. I hope that's not a fight you're stupid enough to pick."

"Right." Andre didn't know if they were actually going to end up meeting psychic-types like that - other than Articuno, anyway - but he didn't feel like arguing.

"Hey, just out of curiosity. Have you killed anyone in this world?"

"No," Andre said, offended. "I don't have my aura sense here. I'm not gonna decide someone's fate without being sure that they deserve it. And I also wouldn't know how I'd get away with it here. Or manage to do it in the first place. Or --" Oh, yeah, talk at length about the logistics of murder, you sicko. "No. I haven't killed anyone."

 

[Hap]

Well, it was good to know that Andre (probably, unless he was lying) wasn't an active risk to the people around him. "You could sense aura in your world?"

Possibly not the best time to ask about that, but Andre seemed fairly open right now and Ridley strongly doubted he was going to get any chances to ask questions in the future.

[...]being sure that they deserve it.

He deserved to die. Alone, afraid, and in pain.

"Actually, no, forget that," Ridley said suddenly. "Way more important question: what the fuck was up with that weird xerneas-looking guy in your memory? Justice, or whatever it called itself."

He'd guessed it might be some sort of representation of Andre, but it hadn't sounded like Andre had been in any way aware of that encounter. In which case: What the fuck?

 

[canisaries]

"Actually, no, forget that," Ridley said suddenly. "Way more important question: what the fuck was up with that weird xerneas-looking guy in your memory? Justice, or whatever it called itself."

Andre stared into the distance, confused, until he remembered.

Really, Evil Cave? Really?

"I... think I know what you saw," Andre said. "But it's not, like, real. I see it in my dreams sometimes. That's it. I wouldn't think much of it."

He sighed. "Anyway, yeah, I did sense aura in my world. I wasn't sure if I ever told you, but it's true. Certainly a shock to lose that ability on my arrival to Forlas."

 

[Hap]

Ridley considered that more alarming than Andre apparently did, but fine, whatever. Dungeons were weird.

"So just to be clear," Ridley said. "When you say you only targeted abusers, you weren't doing any actual detective work? You were just targeting people because their vibes were rancid?"

What the fuck yet again, Andre. Ridley didn't know how aura sense worked in Andre's world, but assuming it was similar to aura sensitivity in humans in Ridley's world... well, there was a reason that shit wasn't admissable in court.

If he didn't think it was possible to decide whether to kill someone without his aura sense... How much faith was Andre putting in something so subjective? There couldn't be very many people stupid enough to casually confess their crimes to some random guy they met in a bar.

He turned a corner and finally spotted Andre ahead of him.

 

[canisaries]

"Aura allows me to see when people are lying, or when they're hiding something," Andre said. "I lead them on until they admit to something, and their aura confirms they're telling the truth. Of course, that most often doesn't end up happening. I've brought many, many assholes into my flat without catching them for anything. When that happens, I just drop my mask and give them a lecture and throw them out."

Then Ridley appeared from behind the corner. When Andre met his eyes, he looked away. "Hi," he said quietly.

 

[Hap]

"Hi," Ridley said. He gave a jaunty little wave, which did nothing to make the situation feel less awkward.

For all his talk of making the world a better place, what Andre was describing didn't sound like a particularly focused or effective way of going about it. Nothing significant, nothing meaningful, just inviting random assholes back to his flat and hoping they'd give him an excuse to kill them. Five seconds ago Ridley would have said something to that effect, but something about being face-to-face with Andre again stilled the words in his mouth.

Seeing him felt weird. Ridley knew, on an intellectual level, that serial killers looked just like anyone else, but there was still a part of him which had half-expected Andre to have changed, to in some way reflect this new understanding Ridley had of him. Instead, he just looked like Andre.

"So we're here to search for this Brisa person, right?" he said. "Any ideas on how best to go about that? I think I've got some chalk in here somewhere; we could use that to mark where we've already been. I don't know how much good that would do, in a dungeon like this, but it might help us get slightly less lost."

 

[canisaries]

Andre nodded in response to Ridley's wave.

"So we're here to search for this Brisa person, right?" he said. "Any ideas on how best to go about that? I think I've got some chalk in here somewhere; we could use that to mark where we've already been. I don't know how much good that would do, in a dungeon like this, but it might help us get slightly less lost."

"Yeah. That sounds sensible."

Andre paused, then spoke again.

"You know, since you saw... something related to me," he began, "I should tell you that I saw something related to you as well. I was... in some woods that looked like Glimwood Tangle, then what I think was your childhood home with two people arguing in the background, then the woods again, and then a lab... with two mannequins. One had a labcoat, the other a pink jacket. I couldn't make out what they were saying. And then..." He glanced away. Ridley wouldn't like the reminder. "Powehi. I saw Powehi."

He cleared his throat. "Do you know what the cave might have been trying to tell me with those?"

 

[Hap]

What? Why had that been what the dungeon chose to show Andre? Well, Powehi made sense, maybe, but Ridley didn't think there was anything particularly unusual about his childhood. "Not a clue," he said, shrugging.

Not that he'd tell Andre if he did know. They might be managing to be civil to each other right now, but Andre currently ranked rock bottom in the list of people Ridley would ever willingly tell anything personal or sensitive.

 

[canisaries]

"Right." Andre nodded. Maybe Ridley did know what the visions meant, but just wasn't comfortable telling Andre about it. It might not have even been due to the whole 'this guy is a murderer' thing, but a 'my childhood was deeply traumatic and I'm not ready to open up about it to a relative stranger' thing.

Well. It was safe, now, to stop talking about the visions. Better to focus on practical matters for now.

"So, the chalk idea's good," he said. "You should probably mark this place, maybe with an arrow that points in the way we're gonna go. Of course, the dungeon shifts, but maybe it doesn't shift that much, I don't know..."

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