My mind was in a haze when I woke up, and my eyelids felt like lead. I felt oddly fatigued so I stayed in my bed, eyes closed, trying to recall what had happened. There was a strange, dull ache in my left side; why was that there? I was still too drowsy to remember what I was doing in this bed, but slow memories were resurfacing.
I frowned as I felt something tickle my nose. It was like a warm breeze hitting my face rhythmically. I twitched a little and used what remaining strength I had to force my heavy eyes open.
And I saw a face not two inches from mine.
It was my face, looking down with unblinking eyes, staring straight into my soul.
“Ah, good morning, Lord Arbiter-”
I screamed. The sudden shock made me forget everything for a moment.
My doppelganger, which I just had the clarity of mind to remember was who that being was, noticed my shock, and once again turned himself into goo to hide. He sprayed me with whatever the fuck this horrible liquid was again in the process.
I heard fast footsteps before the door to my room was slammed open.
“Walter, are you ok?” Vadeem asked in panic before more people joined the room again. A strange sense of deja vu hit me and then I remembered everything that happened last night.
“Yeah,” I muttered, “I was uh…”
Well, I couldn’t say I panicked because I woke up seeing my own face hovering two inches in front of me.
“It was just a nightmare,” I said again, “It’s nothing.”
The Regressor nodded and gave me a look of understanding, “Nightmares…”
He sighed and shook his head in sympathy, “It’s not nothing, Walter. I… I know what you’re going through, and I won’t say the nightmares will go away, or that they’ll be easy to deal with, but if it’s any consolation, you will get used to them. I’ll get you something to help you sleep at night.”
Vadeem also gave me a pitying look, “Look, let’s give Walter some room, let him get changed. Um, I’ll go get you a nice hot cup of coffee, and we can just pretend nothing happened, yeah? Just take it easy, my friend, and if you need someone to talk to, you always have Vadeem on your side.”
Noel nodded and even she was uncharacteristically sympathetic for once, “Take care of yourself, little bro, some hot breakfast will help.”
What on earth did these people think happened to me? I wanted to tell them that I did not suffer some kind of strange trauma due to that last trial, but I saw the futility in that endeavour. I was too tired to even try to correct whatever misconceptions they had right now.
“And there’s some medication on your nightstand, Walter,” Vadeem added, “Take it twice a day, it should help with your condition.”
I nodded and saw a little bottle of pills on the counter. I might as well use it since I did have some mental contamination from earlier, although that was separate from what happened in the 2nd Trial completely.
“Um, thanks, I’ll take a shower and get changed,” I answered, “Is there a cafeteria or something in this building to get food?”
“Yeah, just go to the lounge and we’ll meet you there,” Vadeem replied, “We’ll all have breakfast together, maybe make it a guild tradition to share at least one meal a day with the whole group. It’s a great way to stay connected when things inevitably get busier as our organisation grows.”
I smiled and agreed. That sounded pretty nice honestly. I didn’t exactly grow up with a lot of friends or family around, so being in this kind of atmosphere was a nice change. If only Noe could join in as well.
“I wish for the same, my Host,” she answered.
Well, I’m sure you can figure something out when we get all those shards of yours.
“I look forward to that day, dear Walter.”
Once the last of my friends left my dorm, I walked up to the entrance and pressed my ears against the door. Satisfied that no one was out there eavesdropping on me, I told my stupid doppelganger to come out of hiding. I had some choice words for it.
“Yes, my Lord Walter?” he said with an innocent smile as he reformed his body from that sludge-like substance to be like mine again. I can never get used to seeing the damn thing. It wasn’t conventionally creepy like 90% of Q’s staff was, but there was just something so unnerving seeing a perfect copy of yourself move. No wonder people feared body doubles and skinwalkers in myths.
I sat down and tried my best to look my clone in the eyes, “Ok, tell me, from the beginning, what happened when you took over for me.”
“Of course, Master Walter!” my clone replied, “But let me begin by saying that I am a huge fan of yours! I have done my utmost to ensure that your exalted self was not diminished in any way while I was taking over! I’ve studied every file there was on you, and I’m sure that I have done an adequate job to ensure your pristine and exalted reputation!”
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I nodded, it seemed like he was another idiot fan of Arbiter W. That man must be something else to have all these die-hard fans even after being MIA for however long 10 cycles was.
He continued, “One of your charges, the big one called Vadeem, came to your dorm in the middle of the night. He said he wanted to discuss your tentacles.”
I nodded, I was expecting him to come talk to me about what had happened in that Trial; I was dodging a lot of his questions back then, and I owed him some kind of explanation. I just hope my stupid clone didn’t reveal too much, but given my friends’ earlier reactions, the fake Walter probably said something so ridiculous that no one would believe what he said to be the truth in the first place, even if what he said was technically correct.
The doppelganger continued, “I believe that these nighttime rendezvous are a part of the Human Mating Ritual, according to my internet research, but I also knew that you had the lovely Miss Xalla, so I kindly rejected Vadeem’s advances for coitus.”
I blinked, “You… what?”
He smiled again, “Not to worry, I simply stated that I did not wish to mate with him, using the most polite language that I could, and stated that your tentacles were taken. I also managed to explain that it was only natural that another fellow human would be attracted to your esteemed self.”
My mouth hung open. I didn’t know what to say.
“That was when he looked at me with his lustful eyes,” my clone continued with grim determination, “before running to get the other members of your party. I believe this is the standard human reaction when faced with rejection. Humans behave in the strangest ways.”
“...”
“After that, they made me lie on the bed and wrapped me with that fabric,” he shuddered, “I feared the worst. I knew that no human would be able to keep their appendages off your body, hence the restraints. Thankfully the Lord Arbiter came back before the worst could happen.”
I felt my eyes twitch.
“I… see,” I forced myself to say, “Was there anything else?”
He shook his head, his smile never faltering, “That is all, my Lord.”
I took a deep breath, calming my nerves. I was thankful that I had all those opportunities to control my emotions because if I hadn’t I would be strangling Q’s fucking clone to death right this instant!
But instead, I said, “Thank you. Please go back to Q, and while you’re there, take some of those Intro to Earth classes with the rest of the staff.”
He nodded enthusiastically, “I shall do as you say, Lord Arbiter! I shall endeavour to learn all that I can about Earth and its humans!”
I smiled, “Good, you may go now.”
I took a step backwards this time, and avoided his splash of liquid when he turned into sludge and disappeared. Let’s… let’s just pretend that I never heard the thing’s explanation, and hope to god that Vadeem never, ever brings up what happened last night with the others. I shuddered in primal fear thinking about what would happen if Noel ever caught wind of that.
Another deep breath, and I was relaxed enough to just let the whole situation pass through me. I was zen. No need to be upset. Q’s got enough on his plate right now, so let’s not add any more stress by complaining about his worthless, garbage, mentally deficient doppelganger. I thought these things were supposed to be good at mimicking others, so what the fuck went wrong with this one? And it was a so-called grand doppelganger as well?
No, let's not get angry. Zen, Walter, zen.
Forcing myself to calm down like I had in the last Trial, I took a nice cold shower and thoroughly cleaned myself, my mind utterly empty of thought.
I got dressed quickly and headed down to the lounge to meet up with the rest of my friends. I almost jittered a little when I saw Vadeem, but the big man didn’t seem to mind what happened last night or had the decency to chalk it up to my mental corruption. Yeah, if anyone asks, it was all mental corruption.
“I can see you’re feeling better now, Walter,” Vadeem said with a smile, “And sounding better as well. Sorry, we should have had you checked out immediately. I had forgotten how bad things were for you.”
“It’s fine,” I said quickly, “I’m better now, I’ll take the medication, so let’s just move on to brighter topics, please?”
He nodded and the others agreed as well.
Now that I had the chance to see everyone all rested up and properly bathed, I almost couldn't recognize some of them. The twins had changed into more modern clothing, now sporting matching black long-sleeve shirts and comfortable-looking shorts. They were looking a whole lot better after a proper bath, although nothing could hide the scars that covered their skin. Still, no one else here seemed to care, and their complexions had turned a lot more pink. Even their hair was starting to really grow out.
The girls were still huddling mostly beside Vadeem, although they would venture out of his immediate side every now and then. I guess they were still reliant on the big man, but they were warming up to the rest of us.
Vadeem was still wearing a chequered shirt and some cargo pants, while the Regressor was wearing a black t-shirt and loose sweatpants. Noel was wearing a new red hoodie and tight-fitting pants, while Yoona had a simple white dress on. We almost looked like a normal set of friends.
“Come on, let’s get some food,” Yoona said, “We still have a lot of things to set up after. This will be the first day of operations for the Abyss Guild! I’m a little excited about getting everything set up for the future.”
I smiled as we headed to the building’s eatery. It turned out to be a fully decked-out restaurant, the really fancy kind as well, but it was a bit weird seeing as we were the only ones here. There was also no one around.
“Sorry,” Jae-Hyun said as we grabbed a seat at the nearest table, “but the guild staff won’t be here for another little while. We’ll have to rough it out with whatever’s in Vadeem’s storage for the time being.”
“The food that we got yesterday was amazing,” Yoona said, “so it’s not like we’re roughing it out in any sense of the word, brother.”
Noel chuckled and grabbed Vadeem’s suitcase out of his hands. She opened it and grabbed herself more steak and ribs.
“How are you able to eat something like that in the morning?” Yoona asked.
“You want some too?” the other girl answered between mouthfuls, she handed the high schooler the briefcase so that she could choose what she wanted herself.
“Um, no thanks,” Yoona replied politely. She looked around in the case for a bit before pulling out a bowl of soup and some fried eggs.
We passed around the storage and each got what we wanted. I will have to admit that Vadeem’s purchase was really handy, even if it nearly bankrupted him like he previously said. I’ll make sure to properly stockpile the thing with all the goodies Pandora has to offer soon.
By the time we were done with the food, all of us excused ourselves one after the other. We all had our assigned tasks, after all, and it was about time for me to do mine. Let’s take a look around Pandora and see what kinds of interesting schemes I can come up with to better my new home.
I chuckled. After all the craziness with Q and the trials, I was happy to be finally back in my own element. Pandora’s people won’t know what’s coming.