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Inside house Beneviento, Angie and Donna were curiously searching through Rodeo's armor which was kept on a large table. Both had no idea about the armor's features or functions, but the fact that the helmet was shaped similar to Rodeo's head suggested that it had been crafted with expertise and care, unlike the armor of knights in the past that both have read stories about.
"This is nowhere close to the design of the armor of knights from old."
Donna agrees with Angie and nods. Even while Donna tends to use Angie as a way to communicate with others, sometimes Angie does have a mind of her own and can think for herself. For many years, Angie has been her only companion ever since she lost her parents and sister a long time ago. Family was something she missed having, and while Miranda has been a mother figure to her, it has never felt the same as what her parents provided her.
Thinking about it more, Donna could only glanced down in sadness.
Angie, meanwhile, continues to inspect the armor until she notices a button on one of the gloves, triggering her curiosity.
"Oh! What does this button do?"
The moment she pressed the button, a holographic blue screen pops up on the armored glove which startled Angie. Donna also noticed it since she is linked to Angie because of the Cadou parasite in a hive mind connection.
"Is this magic?" Angie wondered as she and Donna examined the screen closely more until Donna touched the screen, which followed after were multiple texts popping up and being positioned on the screen horizontally with dots next to them.
These were the following words mentioned on the holographic screen that they were seeing.
● [Mission Briefs]
● [Audio & Video Records]
● [Music]
● [Maps]
'What's this?' Donna pondered, feeling curious.
"Touch." Angie joyously smiled as she simply touched the screen and selected Audio & Video Records.
Once she selected it, an audio recording of with Rodeo's voice began to play
"Oh, it's the voice of the cat man with the silly name."
[Well... I never do recordings, but the armor had options, so I'm using it. If you're hearing this, then my name is Rodeo, a human who has turned into a Stand known as Killer Queen.]
":/ I have no clue what a Killer Queen is really," Angie muttered, as Donna nodded in agreement as they listened to the audio clip.
[The team is currently in the cafeteria as it's been two days since the Vegas incident and the hell dimension forces attack as well as the possibility that they may have connections to the Scarlet King. Furthermore, what made things even more difficult is that the Pillar Men are back.]
In the audio recording, the two could hear him letting out a sigh as he continued, [I strive to advance one step ahead, but a new evil rears its head to show no mercy to us.]
'What is he talking about?' The two both thought at the same time.
[I shouldn't be getting my mind scarred any further with what I saw in the city. Most of the city's population died at the hands of the demons from the hell dimension, and hundreds of thousands of MTF soldiers died in the struggle during the last twenty hours, but at least I know they went out honorably while staring death in the face and battled to protect the innocent. We stopped them for now, but at the cost of countless lives.]
He takes a deep breath, before adding, [I signed up for this work with the foundation because I want to keep people safe, especially those around me, and as their team leader, I'm trying. I see the flashes, and they just keep... getting worse.] Rodeo began to sob silently, [Why don't they ever stop? I just... I don't know. I've been taking therapy, but... minimal improvements have been made, and I'm taking precautions to avoid snapping and becoming something I'm not... I will not break. I will not break. End of audio recording.]
As soon as he finished speaking, the audio recording ended, returning the atmosphere around the two into silence.
"He seems concerned, and..."
"...Desperate. Worried." Donna added, surprising Angie in her arms.
"Wow, mostly you keep quiet and rarely talk, and now you're speaking. Do you feel sorry for him?"
"I... don't.... know. His voice in this... just radiates his concern for himself and... the ones close to him, but we won't know more... if we don't check more of these... audio things."
"Then let's check the next one."
Returning their attention to the armor, Angie and Donna were about to check the next audio when they heard a knock on the door, prompting the two to hurriedly switch it off by pressing the button that Angie pushed, which immediately turned off the screen. Donna carries Angie in her arms and heads for the door, which she opens shyly to reveal Rodeo and Daniela.
"Welcome to house Beneviento, cat man with a silly name," Angie greeted Rodeo with a genuine tone, "And you as well." she added bluntly to Daniela.
"Rude."
"Come in!" Angie exclaimed, returning her previous attitude and dismissing Daniela's criticisms.
As soon as they both entered, Rodeo saw the inside of the house and it seemed pretty lovely, but he knew how the design of the house is from the inside from the beginning since he played Resident Evil 8.
"So, what brings you here?" Angie asked.
Rodeo responded, "Well, I wanted to know how you handle things here."
"Unlike the other lords, we don't do much, but we are involved in flowers."
"You mean the ones growing outside?"
"Yup!"
"I'll take a guess they are special in mysterious ways."
"Yes actually, sorry if we disappoint."
"Nah, it's alright." Rodeo responded, turning his head and seeing his armor on a table, "My armor!"
Heading for the armor, he checks it carefully. Everything was still there, including the scorch mark on the armor's chest plate from the Perfect World still present.
'Tartarus, when the day comes for me to return to the SCP world, I will stop you and I will kick your ass once more!' Rodeo muttered angrily in his mind.
As Rodeo continued to examine his armor more, Daniela lowered the hood of her robe that covered her head, revealing her long red hair, which Rodeo caught his sight on.
"You have a really nice hair color on you."
"Are you…?"
"Complimenting you? Yes. Yes, I am."
"Thanks... I guess."
Daniela wasn't used to hearing compliments from others, but hearing it from Rodeo and knowing he was being respectful about it... felt nice to her. Daniela lets out a small smile before noticing the scorch mark on the armor, which she asked.
"Did the enemy you fought do this?"
"Yeah, and has a unique ability on him."
"Is he something similar... like you?"
"More or less." Rodeo replied as he pushed the button on his armored gloves, causing the holographic panel to display.
This caught Daniela by surprise as she lay her eyes on the device in astonishment.
"Magic?"
Returning to Rodeo, he then went through the audio and records and noticed one of them had been played.
"Uhhh, did you two go through the armor's features?" he asked Donna and Angie, while the doll herself looked around to see if there was anything she could use to defend herself.
"<_< >_> No."
Rodeo: *doubt 100*
Angie & Donna : >_<
Rodeo sighed, "I can't blame you. You both were curious because my armor isn't something you see everyday."
"True.... sir... Rodeo." Donna said in a shy manner.
"It's just Rodeo, and it's fine if you don't want to speak. Let Angie talk for you instead."
"No.... I'm fine. I'm just not used.... to talking like.... this."
"I see."
Returning his attention back to his armor, he suddenly finds his helmet is missing. Turning to his side, he sees Daniela wearing his armor's helmet.
"This thing is strange, everythings is dark in this helmet. Can you even see through this?"
'If only she knew how to activate the lenses of the helmet.' Rodeo thought with a small laugh watching the scene, but then he sensed someone was approaching him, turning around, he faced Donna, who seemed to be nervous.
"Can I... pet your ears?"
"What?"
"Sorry if I asked!"
"No, I don't mind. Go ahead."
"Are you... sure?"
"You're asking politely, so I'll allow it."
Rodeo was used to this by now even in the SCP world, so he didn't mind too much that his ears get petted all the time, mostly by ladies. As soon as he agrees, Donna proceeds to pet his ears and let out a small giggle, finding it adorable. Daniela, who was watching the scene from a distance, was feeling... jealous for some reason.
"...Idiots."
"Excuse me?" Donna and Angie both said after hearing her mutter.
"You heard me, idiots." Daniela repeated, somewhat louder for Angie to hear, infuriating her.
"Why you little-"
"Hey! No fighting right now!" Rodeo interrupts the two and sighed as he turned to face Donna, "Just show me around the house, Donna."
"Y...es."
Minutes passed, Donna and Angie showed them on a tour around the house, which was fairly large. Rodeo observed some other dolls lying around, but they didn't resemble as Angie, and he noticed most of those dolls staring at him, giving him goosebumps
Shortly after, Donna led everyone into a room with a table and an old-school film reel projector on the table as well as a plain white rectangular sheet of paper on the wall.
"Does this work?" Rodeo asked.
Angie nodded, "It does most of the time, but we don't use it very often and it's only meant to project small pieces of film reel most of the time."
'And to terrify your enemies no doubt.' Rodeo added it in his thought.
"I.... did want to show you one more thing," Donna said to him as she opened a passage on the wall, leading to a flight of stairs going down. The group of four soon head down the stairs.
'Please no monster baby. Please no monster baby. Please no monster baby that will haunt me for eons.' Rodeo repeatedly said in his mind, feeling anxiety and nervousness the more they continue moving forward.
Few more seconds had passed, everyone had reached the end of the stairs and were standing in front of a well.
"Look..... down."
Listening to her words, Rodeo and Daniela gazed down and saw no water at the bottom of the well.
"It's empty. So?"
"The well never ran dry, not even during the winter we had last year." Angie stated.
"Is that so?"
"Yes." Angie nodded.
"How long has it been dry?"
"For one month before you showed up." Donna answered.
"We wanted to go down there and find out, but we weren't as strong as the other lords... unfortunately." Angie explained as she looked down.
Rodeo pats Angie's head, surprising both her and Donna as he says, "You don't always need powerful abilities and strength to prove that you're strong. Sometimes, you just need a big, brave, and iron-willed heart to prove that you're strong. My abilities are powerful, true, but powers like these require a brave heart to control." he said with honesty in his voice.
"Thank you." "Thank… you."
"No problem…"
Just then, the silence broke when a loud yawn could be heard, disrupting their moment.
"Are you done or do we investigate?" Daniela asked boredly, who was the one who yawned and interrupted the moment.
"You're right. I think we should look into it."
Returning to their main objective, Rodeo and Daniela jump down the well and land at the bottom on their feet. They looked around and saw two tunnels on their side. Without a doubt, this may have caused the water to run dry. They also found many muddy footprints on the ground, however the footprints appear to be showing that they were moving in an erratic manner, and they also noticed two sets of footprints were larger than the majority of them.
"Hmm…"
"Why are there tunnels underneath house Beneviento?" Daniela said.
"Seems to have been dug by someone or something."
"You think it's connected to the purple thing or this aether?"
"It's hard to say, but going down these tunnels now might not be the best option, because who knows what might be down there, and we can't risk putting Donna and Angie into this." Rodeo said, "We'll search the tunnels some other time, but for now, we seal the well so that nothing comes out of it."
Daniela nods, and both of them leave the well by a ladder, reaching the topside and informing Donna and Angie of what they saw.
"Oh dear."
"I know you're concerned, but for now we seal the well."
Donna and Angie both nodded. Soon after, Rodeo lifts up a large circular-shaped boulder and proceeds to seal the well...
Unbeknownst to Rodeo, a pair of orange flashing eyes of a walking corpse watches him from the bottom of the well before letting out a growl and heads down into the tunnels.
"That'll do for now," Rodeo stated as soon as he is finished, adding, "We'll start our real search down there another time. Let's head back."
The four walk up the stairs and head back up. However, as they walked ahead, Donna suddenly stumbled and fell backwards, but Rodeo swiftly caught her before she could fall down any further.
Once Rodeo caught her by her shoulders, he saw her mourning veil fall off her head during the fall, revealing her face. Her left eye was normal, but her entire right eye was covered by the cadou parasite which seemed to be attached to that part of her face.
Realizing what she had done, Donna's face turned grave and immediately grabbed her mourning veil and hastily ran up the stairs with Angie.
"Donna, wait!" Rodeo shouted as he was about to stop het, but was too late as she was lost in sight. "...Damn it. Daniela, I need to talk to her alone."
"You want to help her?"
"She might take the part of me seeing her face the wrong way. I don't want her to be... sad about it."
Daniela clicked her tongue, "Tch, fine, but I'll give you ten minutes. Not more than that."
"Thanks."
"Save the thanks. Now go."
Turning to the direction where Donna left, Rodeo heads up the stairs and looks for her.
——————————————————————
Donna was in her room with Angie, resting on her bed and having a struggle in her mind until she heard a knock on the door. She ignored it but the knocking persisted until she heard Rodeo's voice on the other side of the door.
"Donna, look you might think that I will see you differently because of your face, but believe me, I'm not that person who judges people based on looks."
"..."
"So silent treatment, huh? Fine, I'll sit down and wait." Rodeo, who was on the other side of the door, sits down next to it with his back against it and says, "Look Donna, I'm also different, but I've also made friends with people I work with who are all humans, and while I'm far away from them, I can't go back to them my own way for now, but even though I look different to them, they treated me like a human being rather than a monster. And-"
Interrupting his sentence is when the door opened, causing him to fall on his back since his back was against the door. Looking ahead, he saw Donna, who wasn't hiding her face behind her veil staring back at him.
Sitting next to Rodeo, Donna began to explain.
"I've.... seen others see my face, and they saw me as a monster, along with Angie. Do they not see the fact that I lost my real family long ago? Do they not know I was given the cadou by Miranda. My sister died of illness, and my mother and father died soon after because they couldn't bear her death and me becoming alone." She said with sadness in her voice. "The only thing I have is Angie, which my father left me, while the rest fear us for what we are, and they will fear you as well. They always do, and stay away from you!"
Rodeo stood up and stare at her, but Donna averted her gaze from him. That, however, does not stop Rodeo as he said.
"...You're not a monster in my eyes, Donna."
"You lie. You just arrived yesterday and you don't know anything about me."
"In some ways I really don't know much about you, but I can understand."
Casting a gaze at him, she questioned, "What do you understand?"
"Being alone and having no one around you. I know two people who lost some things in the past but... tried moving on while being haunted by the ghosts of the past, but those two now have each other because they understood each other's past and emotions, Donna. I didn't know about their pasts but when I talked to them and was honest with them, they opened up and now I'm a friend to one of them and a son to the other."
"I..."
"Donna, look, people fear things because they don't understand them." Rodeo stated, "If they understood your past or you tried to open up to them regarding what you feel, maybe they would see you differently, like why did you open up to me regarding your past right now."
"I just... did, and I wasn't sure how you'd take it."
"But you knew, at least to some degree that I would understand, right?"
"Yes... I think."
"Donna, there are people like me and those whom I work who would treat you fairly, and... we wouldn't mind having you being part of our say family."
"Family?"
"Yeah, family, but I do want to ask you though. Has anyone else ever visited your house?"
"Some have, but they all left nonetheless because of what I am and because of seeing their worst nightmares come to life due to the pollen of the flowers that grow outside my house, which... are merely hallucinations. Killing.... I never really was able to do it nor did I ever do. Most of their deaths were caused by the hallucinations misleading them. Do you wish to blame me for it?" She asked, her one normal eye began to let out tears.
"I do want to blame you, but the damage has already been done, so blaming you now means I'm treating you like an evil person when you're not. You're just... scared, alone, and confused. I'm not sure about the rest of the four lords and Miranda but... I can understand your emotions and feel sympathy for what you may have gone through in the past, and I'm sorry for you."
"..."
Rodeo sighs after hearing no response from her, "I'll take my leave then. I still have to visit Karl and Moreau as well."
Rodeo was about to stand up when he felt something hugging his leg and realized it was Angie. Before he could respond, Donna hugged Rodeo as well, which he responded by hugging her back as Donna started crying.
"It's okay, Donna. It's ok."
"*sobs*...Thank you for your kind words, Rodeo. I'll take your words to heart." She said, crying with a smile on her face.
Until then, Donna notices a napkin in front of her face and turns to look at the person holding it, which turns out to be Daniela, who is standing behind Rodeo.
"Hm?"
"Just clean away those tears on your one eye, they don't suit you."
Donna smiles and breaks away from the hug, taking the napkin from Daniela and wipes away her tears.
"So we're all good?" Rodeo asked.
"I... still don't know much about you, but... you are an honest person."
"Too honest actually." Daniela added.
"Well, I am what I am, but Donna, do you have any maps of anything related to the village's underground areas, because whoever or whatever dug those tunnels that Daniela and I saw could mean trouble, and judging by the number of footprints we saw, it could be a large group."
"You want me to help?"
"...Of course."
"Unfortunately, no... but perhaps the Duke might help you, he does pop up anywhere in the village, so you can't miss him." Donna stated.
"Thanks, Donna. Also, the armor?"
"I still have to keep it under Miranda's orders..... so I can't give it back yet."
"Fair enough."