#darkrealm

He was definitely real. Another real person here, in the flesh. Aqua could have cried, if she wasn’t so shocked to see him. And there was...something about him, something unsettling. Was it just this place? The weapon was dangerous-looking, and that coat... but Aqua didn’t have the luxury of worrying about it.

And that leg looked bad. Aqua made a concerned noise, bending to see it.

“Hold still.” She held out her free hand to cast a Curaga, as instinctive as breathing after all the years fighting alone in the Dark. Green light bloomed over the wound. Aqua sighed in relief and straightened. Only then did she get a good look at the man himself.

“My name... is Aqua.” It seemed so strange to introduce herself, it had been so long, but the polite niceties came back so quickly. She extended her free hand in invitation.

Was she hallucinating again?

Aqua’d been in this awful place for...for so long, now, and never laid eyes on another living person. She knew her mind was starting to slip. It wasn’t often, but sometimes she thought she saw phantom versions of her friends. They always vanished before Aqua could reach them.

But this person was a stranger. And they looked hurt. Aqua couldn’t ignore that. If they were an illusion, or it was a trap, she’d known soon enough.

But if they were real??

Aqua broke into a run towards the stranger. They didn’t vanish as she approached.