Outside 43: Where the sun hurts your eyes and burns your skin

[Deathkeeper]

Pit

"You're hiding from some sort of bird things? I haven't seen anything scary resembling a bird in a year or two, so I guess your hiding place works pretty well. I don't know if I could find you somewhere with more space. If all you want to do is hide, though, I guess it's okay to stay here, as long as no one gets hurt." he says, a bit lost.

[Recaiden]

[Pit]

The magma-thing waves with an arm. It wants Nick to move away?

Its other hand, it places against an open expanse of wall. A crack at the tip of its claw opens, shining with blue heat. The wall starts to melt there, and slowly it draws shapes in the stone.

Circles, dots, concentric ellipses. A star system, not to scale.
'first hide. not only hide'

[Deathkeeper]

Pit

"Oh. You need that kind of space. There are space ships in the city. I'm sure we could find one to look for your home." he suggests to the creature.

[Recaiden]

[Pit]

The magma creature draws a deliberate slash through the whole diagram. Like the bloody lines through the birds.
'no look. gone'

[Deathkeeper]

Pit

Oh.
"Oh. Well, maybe we can find another place like it. Unless you want to stay here. Then I guess that would be that." he says, really quite confused.

[Recaiden]

[Pit]

The magma creature starts walking down the tunnel (which still slopes gently downward), further from the opening and the town.
'another. yes. space sky safe'

[Deathkeeper]

Pit

Nick follows it cautiously.
"Is the body I'm looking at really you, or are you further inside?" he asks it. He wonders if it knows that people can hear its Song for such a distance beyond the pit. He'll ask about that later.

[Recaiden]

pit

'further. This is only listener.

Abruptly, Nick will pass the last marker. A little later, he may see the faceplate of one of these suits, lying discarded and disconnected on the tunnel floor.

[Deathkeeper]

Pit

"People have died in here, chasing your Song. " Nick says, checking the plate to see if it was blown or knocked off, or simply removed.
"That's one reason it might be best if we find you a new safe place."
He pauses and looks at the listener.
"People died. Do you care?"

[Recaiden]

Pit

The listener stops, looks back, nods slowly.
'they chose'

The faceplate is burnt and warped around the edges, like a scrap left from a paper now turned to ash.

[Deathkeeper]

Pit

How'd it get burned?
How'd it get burned, how'd it get burned??

"But what did they choose? This is burned. Your listener is the only thing hot I see here. The villagers said some people came down here without good intentions. It's all right if you defended yourself. But I need to know that you'll work with me to make sure that we don't let anyone get hurt if we can avoid it." he insists.

[Recaiden]

[Pit]

'they found me'
'why'

The listener starts on its way again.
'they lie. fear you. I do not hurt. they knew'

That's not exactly an agreement, but it's something.

[Deathkeeper]

Pit

Nick sighs. He had expected that, to a degree.
But he looks between the mask and the listener, indredulous.
"This person would have been burned alive. That's...they chose that?" he asks quietly. But he doesn't have much choice but to follow.

[Recaiden]

[Pit]

'there are many worse things'
'even for them'

Of course, Nick does have a choice. He could leave. Forget about this place. Or order it destroyed from a safe distance. But he chose to follow the listener.

The tunnel starts to spiral tightly, clockwise, downward. It gets no narrower, keeping the same circular shape it has had, but changing direction, digging into the earth.

'it is easy to climb away, for them. the ropes are restraint. only choice to come back.'

[Deathkeeper]

Pit

"Well unless the real you can protect me from the radiation, I don't have a choice either. I can only last a few hours down here. There is safety in restraint." he says, eying the strange...spiral? of the cavern.

[Recaiden]

[Pit Spiral]

'i can. they are important to you?'

There is a slight increase in the pressure of the air, and a rumbling in the earth below.

[Deathkeeper]

Pit

"They? You mean The radiation? Uh, yes, it is important. Without this green suit I am wearing it would have lethally poisoned me by now. " he explains.

[Recaiden]

[Pit]

The song strikes a discordant note.
'no. the listeners. you are concerned for them, and for the dead.'
'I am not meant to be on this world with beings like you. But I lack the power to leave.'

The spiral downward is getting brighter. Starting to glow.

The listener, the magma-thing, it presses against the wall.

[Deathkeeper]

Pit

"Where people gather, there must always be those that remove threats, that keep people from harm while they hide in their homes. That is my job. I protect people. And even if they are not my people, I make it my business to do my job when I can." he says resolutely, moving sideways to the wall when the listener flattens against it.
He makes note of the Singer's increasing fluency as he descends.

[Recaiden]

[Pit]

'no. you are a jailer. I have heard this from my listeners; they believe it with their hearts.'
'but still, you are unlike them'

His radio briefly goes quiet. No transmission from either thing, no calls, no song. The light gets incrementally brighter.
'do you know what you do?'

[Deathkeeper]

Pit

"I can tell you with absolute certainty that I havr never jailed anyone. Are those people out there also your listeners? They fear those that I work for. They can be strict in their laws, and I understand their fear, but it's wrong. We don't go after people and jail them for doing anything that they seem to have been doing. I only came here to make sure that this place wasn't dangerous. Sometimes beings like you arrive in lands like you have, and they attack those around them. That is why they sent me to check. If you do not wish to harm anyone, then I can assure you that no one from us will strike out against you, or your listeners."
They have mistaken Nick for a policeman, or a jailer. They are wrong. Nick is a soldier. One who values restraint and would never strike at someone or something without provocation, but a soldier nonetheless. A sniper does not take prisoners.

[Cyber Punk]

Judy almost chokes on her sputter. "Spar? With you?" she spins around, smiling. "We don't even know each other. What if I hurt you? The agency that contacted me will never hire me again." she turns back toward the nice forested area. "I think for now we should just stick to lions, tigers, and bears. Oh my!" she says, shaking her hands in the air as if afraid at the end of the sentence.

[Not-North Forest]

Heck crosses his arms and looks at her disapprovingly. "Nice try, but no sell. Yes, I'm paying you to show me around, but that doesn't mean it can't be fun for you as well. Now tell me how we can make us both happy."

Then he leans back, waiting to hear her answer.

[Recaiden]

[Pit]

'then you have done your job'
'what do you choose?'

Planetary lifeforms organize themselves in so many silly artificial ways. It can't keep track of all of those.
The light becomes almost painful in its brightness, shining up from deeper in the spiral, filling the tunnel.

[Deathkeeper]

Pit

"Choose what? Choose like the ones that were burned Chose? Because no fire for me, thanks. I have a brother to get back to. What options are you giving me?" he asks, holding a hand in front of his eyes in vain.

[Recaiden]

[Pit]

'burn, die, and live again. help.'
'or leave, speak to your work-ones, and forget. concern yourself with your things.'

If he waits too long, the light will be shining through his hand.
The heat should start ticking up to 'miserable' soon.

[Deathkeeper]

Pit

"Why the bloody hell would I die for you when I met you an hour ago? That's what you do, then? Burn people into your own? Of course I'm going back. But why should I forget? Why can't I come back with a way to get you back to space?" he demands, walking backwards away from the light.

[Recaiden]

[Pit]

'it is not my concern.'
'nor do I know why you are defective in this way'
The brightness stops increasing.

'it is not your job. you may do so anyway'
But it isn't part of the choice. It's another choice.

[Deathkeeper]

Pit

"I am not defective, you arrogant- people don't normally throw themselves into fire for strange aliens in caves. You have done nothing to earn that level of devotion. I suspect the people in town only have done so because you've messed with their heads. I have a family to return to, people who rely on me. If you thought I would just walk in and kill myself for you knowing that, you'll never understand people. That is how I am different. I wanted to help you because it's the right thing to do, but killing myself and becoming your- what do your creatures even do?- is not part of neighborly goodwill. I don't know what sort of thing those birds you pointed out to me are, but if you just need to get back to space I'm sure we can help you." he says, stopping as the creature lowers its light. The Geiger counter must be going nuts this close to the thing.

[Recaiden]

[Pit]

'rather reckless of you to come here with others depending on you, isn't it? You are blind. Unable to see your own place in things the way they can, when I make it clear. That is why I must rely on these clumsy words, and you can walk so far.'

The counter is unhappy, it's true. Click click click, it would go, if it were the clicking type.
'why would you help, given all you've said? You are far more easily replaced by your organization than the resources transportation to space takes up. How could it fall under neighborly goodwill?'

[Deathkeeper]

Pit

"Actually, I can easily afford transport to Salamagundi station myself. All we'd need is a big lead-lined transportation box so you didn't irradiate everyone trying to move you, and we'd have you out an airlock and into the final frontier within a day. All for less than what they pay me every year."
The wonders of science.
"But that is it, then. Whatever protects me from collapsing in the tunnel from your Song also keeps me from wanting to kill myself for you? This is not the sort of thing people like to hear."
He won't kill the creature or anything like that for it, but yeah, how does it not see a problem with that?