FEALTY

   | A thin barrier-like territory sat between the residual lines of separate Metaversial-like realms. The Dark Hour, the TV World, the Metaverse. There were even pockets in the real world should the one traversing be strong enough to manage through them without physical displacement. Those who weren’t strong enough could still occasionally blip their way through on accident, when their creator or other self was far from their consciousness, either through alcohol or other means.

  Cogoro was never quite lucky during these intervals. Usually he would be left to the sea without any commands for short amounts of time, his mind clear and lacking any comforts.

   | There was a sense of amusement in trying to convince a masked oddity to move towards the palace without showing his presence or anything more, something he didn’t take time out of his schedule to feel. It was another benefit to following what he was told. He was trying different ways to lure him along. Once it worked well enough, he planned to quickly eliminate the potential threat. He couldn’t remember which ones were which very well, but he knew they should be taken out.

   | There were small chances that Cognitions were able to leave their palaces, usually under the commands or wishes of their Palace’s culmination. These were quite rare, as cognitions were only created in the scale that they mattered close to the current mentality of their creator, so there was very few logical reasons for a cognition to have to leave. 

  But Cogoro had somehow found the opportunity to leave and venture to the more surface levels of Mementos. Away from the palace and his Captain, he still blankly followed orders he was given as his reason to leave; to gather extra shadows and ring them in to work on the ship.

[ Since I can manage enough at the moment, I’ve decided to try and slowly get back to my own blogs. My activity will be slow of course, but it’s better to have that than nothing at all, I believe. And I want to get more threads going. ]

  | Deep breath in, slow breath out, deep breath in. Hold. While walking to not be detected, anyone has to be quiet. Any who took it seriously enough had to be careful to sneak along through areas they weren’t familiar with. Especially when he couldn’t see whether anyone was inside or not.

  He’d been dropped off for the sake of recon on the edge of a pier, where one of the rifts were visible between the worlds were. The Captain wanted him to investigate if there was anything of benefit within the area. There likely wasn’t, but Cogoro had no reason to argue. All he knew he had to try to do was find something of worth. Anything.

   | Through the thin lining of the Metaverse, standing sentry upon the edge of the ship was both simple and peacefully distracting for those trained for merely following tasks. The ocean was beautifully reflective, though the Cognition took no time in acknowledging it, instead keeping his eyes out for abnormalities on the edge of piers and in the water. Stowaways were more than a problem. But they were also the best way to fish up potential servants in the nets used mostly for profits.

  So upon spotting a figure walking along the pier, his curiosity perked. Usually they were only silhouettes, which could provide nothing, yet this one he could see in enough of a blurry clarity that perhaps such a thing could be useful.

   | . |  Starter call ! | . |

“Observant..” No, he was just obvious. He was trying to rile a reaction out of the copy. He had already gotten one moments prior, so this wasn’t much of anything to be proud of now that he seemed to dwindle down a notch.

“Actually..” He started to take a few more steps forward now, trying to close as much distance between him and the cognition so he could really see just what his face looked like up close. If it was as twisted as he imagined.

“The same could be said about bees, you know. They’ll avenge one of their own that’s killed. Although..wasps don’t need a reason to attack. They’re savages, killers by default. They’ll eliminate entire hoards just because they want to prove themselves. Because they want to be seen as superior. Isn’t that what your ‘Captain’ is doing? Taking out weaker competition simply because he feels he can. And yet..you’re perfectly fine with being thrown out once you’re not useful anymore. I guess you really are a puppet..”

The distance closed, and a hand lifted to remove the mask from his face suddenly, letting it rest atop his head before reaching forward with a gloved hand to grip a hold of the others face, squeezing with just enough pressure as he leaned in.

“You’re even more disgusting than I am.”

   | One hand kept tightly kept on his pistol, keeping only a foot back as he let the enemy keep his hand where it was. It was painful. Well, not quite as painful as other things could be, but just enough due to the slight dislocation of his jaw against his will. But he smiled at his comments mixed together with actions. A dull, hollow smile that only one who didn’t feel anything but a numb satisfaction could have.

  But he looked almost normal for once. Like a genuine human being, though his eyes held the broken look only a painted toy held. “ Disgusting? You find me disgusting? ” he asked, pretending to have his expression drop before it returned to its previous one. “ The Captain doesn’t. I’m his puppet, after all. He praises me. I’m useful, which is more than I should be. ”

  His irises examined his face briefly, taking in the features to memorize them. Every detail would be needed to explain his delay in return. Soon after, annoyance sunk in and he could only scowl at the feeling in his face.