No matter where the kid looked, his so-called companions were nowhere to be found. The sound of the sand scratching each other filled the void of silence. Emptiness. The scorching sunlight made his skin burn, but his face remained pouted. As he kneels on the bed of hot sand, water droplets formed in front of him. He hadn't realized it yet, but his eyes were leaking the entire time. Once he felt a tear rush down his cheek, he instinctively wipes it off with his palms. Now, he notices.
"Why... why did you all leave me here..." he mumbles to himself, sniffling in between words as his lips shivered. "You said..."
His heart felt heavy, the feeling of being alone. Left to rot. Abandoned. The tears ran faster as he punched the ground, grabbing a handful of sand in frustration.
Seeing this all from afar, Taihen gathers the courage. He grabs his coat from his bag in panic and wears it. Mustering his will at the edge, he looked like an inmate that wont leave his jail cell. He takes one step out the shade, keeping his head faced down to keep any sunlight from contacting his skin. But it wasn't enough. His face felt like it had touch melting iron and began simmering like a pot of boiling water. He jumps back in the cave screaming in pain, fanning himself using his hands to stop it from burning like hell fire.
The kid, despite his lifeless eyes, looks over as soon as he heard the shouting and notices that his companion was crouched under the cave, fanning himself as he shouts out profanities. A reminder of his purpose. His mission.
Taihen glances to his right and spots him walking back towards the keyhole, his steps much more heavier and more difficult. His head, despite the heat and grains in the wind, kept low as he wiped his own tears with his dirty hands.
When the kid arrived moments later, what he's met with could shake one's head in disbelief. The bag was opened with all of its contents scattered all over the cave floor, some even managed to roll down a tad inwards the cave. Not to mention, the stench coming from Taihen's coat is as rancid as rotting flesh. The kid couldn't help but frown whilst pinching his nose with the blood ridden cloth.
"Don't... I'll take care of that." he cautiously comments, gesturing the kid to move aside.
Taihen packs the scattered stuff up whilst fanning himself non-stop at the same time. As the kid shifts aback, ever-so-slightly does he notices that his companion's dark blue complexion was simmering, and it made his face look like it was made of a moving jell-like substance. And his hand, it was as if the skin was bubbling and popping from the inside. As the kid's skin crawls, his face turned from confused to terrified. His hand trembled as he falls to the floor, continually staring at this horror with a pounding heart, lips jittering as if the scorpion he encountered earlier came after him once again.
Hearing this, Taihen looks over to see what had just happened, only to bare witness to a kid with both his palms pressed against his mouth, staring at his face with eyes that grew wider the longer he stares.
"Kid, no..." Taihen mumbles as he takes a step towards the kid. "...this is just temporary—it will..."
"No!" The kid pleads whilst in a fetal position against the cave wall. "Stop!"
"Just—"
Tears fell from his young eyes once again, sobbing loud with an intense frown. His arms wrapped tighter around his legs as the tears slowly creeped along his thighs. Taihen raises his hands to look at it as his skin, reminded of how horrid and disgusting he truly is. He places both of his palms against his cheeks to cover his slime like face. Ever since leaving his wretched homeland, he knew his unfortunate state would petrify people, let alone an innocent young kid. He once convinced himself, after the rather complex relationship he had with the daughter of a royal before, that he's not to be ashamed. Turns out, he may be wrong.
The cries of fear now turned to cries of sorrow, loneliness. From him restraining himself from going near Taihen, to just letting his flowing tears dictate his emotions as he's conflicted by being left alone stranded with a peculiar stranger.
Placing his palms once more, he notices that his own cheeks weren't swelling anymore. His skin finally settled, firm as it ever was. Once he stepped the focus away from himself, he realized that the kid's cries were different. The tone became much softer, but the hacks and snuffles were more frequent. Somehow, he felt as if his squalls were still about fear, but not towards him.
"Kid... what's wrong?" he worriedly queries.
The young boy raises his head, eyes now puffed and swelled. Marks of dried tears spread across his face like spilt milk. He stares at Taihen for a brief moment, before staring at the empty desert. Using the blood-ridden cloth, he wipes off the remaining tears out of his eyes all the while sniffling irregularly. Having received no response, Taihen's heart became heavy. He gulped and sighed as he closed his eyes and clenched his lips without showing the kid. And while doing so, an idea came to mind.
He grabs the temporal device from his coat's left pocket and boots it up. It opens with the usual Temporal-Galactic World Military Agency, along with the female voice that greets him. The kid takes a bleary glance at Taihen, who had his back turned whilst in a crouching position that made him look like an unwashed potato with this baggy coat, after hearing such unusual noises coming from him.
The menu section pops up off the screen, which emanated a fairly faint purple glow. The interface was, empty to put it simply. He had a childish selfie with a young, ginger girl beside him that was taken in a low angle almost completely showing the ceiling, making it seem like they had just discovered what the shutter button does. He was wearing the baggy coat he usually wore, while the young girl was wearing a maroon dress that had a wide strap with small details of floral patterns etched onto it. Both were laughing whilst facing the camera, which caused the photo to have a low amount of motion blur and made their background almost indistinguishable. At the upper hand corner supposedly had the time, date, and battery life written yellow text, but a crack from the screen originating at the same area covered it like an branch of a tree cutting through the sunlight. There were only two apps available. At the far-left corner was an app with the agency's logo and was labeled using its acronyms over a deep blue background, and beside it was an app with a white, pixel-drawn pistol labeled 'One Mission'.
He turns around to see how the kid was doing. So far, the kid had just been staring at him with his lips slightly open and a confused stare, which was only cut off by a few sniffles and coughs. Taihen goes on all fours and wistfully sauntered closer to the kid. Albeit weird, the kid never flinched, and this offered him courage.
Upon tapping the app, it shows a loading screen with the TGWMA logo slowly spinning clockwise. After it pre-loads all assets, it presented the two of them with a simple interface that had only an outline squircle in the middle with the title 'start' written on bold italics. The background consisted with an outdone animation of cruising through space in first person on the speed of light, which sped up even faster the very moment Taihen began the game. Throughout this experience, the kid was left with a soft shocked open mouth, with his brows slightly clamped together. No matter how confused the kid had felt, he knew he wanted to give it a go.
"It's... it's called a game." says Taihen, smirking. "Want to, well... give it a go?"
The kid silently stares at Taihen's golden eyes for a short while. His once immovable frown slowly turned into a soft smile. But this smile quickly grew moue as he places his focus back on the empty desert. The loading screen was still stuck at this spinning logo over a bright white background, so this gave Taihen a chance to console.
"I—uh... I apologize for scaring you." he stares at the pads repetitive motion with a face that reeks of disgust. "My skin... it's... it's just like that. But it's fine now, see?"
He shows his skin to the kid, rubbing his skin thoroughly to show hefty proof. He so much so as rubbed his face to prove that nothing was wrong. And out of nowhere, the kid's brighter side returns as he chuckles while keeping his face hidden from Taihen's sight by staring at the stone floor.
"What? I... what's funny?" he asks the young boy with a genuine bewilderment.
The kid chuckles once more, affecting Taihen as well, which causes a domino effect of a laughter that gradually increases louder and louder to the point that the echoes of their noises have already reached the depths of the cave they have once been in. Amongst the noise is the up-tone bell sound that came from the pad, which sturdily cuts off their intense giggles.
Before the actual playthrough began, the game first asked if they want to go through downloading an update first by showing a bland square box with text inside it. Taihen presses no. It fades to black then opens the settings menu first for the players to fix their preferred interface. For a government ran game with potato graphics, it was an interesting sight for it to have such customizations.
At the left showed a two-dimensional pixelated character resembling a military man wearing olive green uniform holding a cream pistol that swayed side to side as its idle animation. Just right below the character had "Agent Diwa" labeled, and the kid took his curiosity towards this.
"What's that, mister?" the kid points out.
"It's their name. Agent Diwa. It's—uh..."
"Can I change it to my name?"
Taihen's face lights up in surprise. "Um... yeah! Sure. Never got to ask as well... you know." he objects as the keypad appears on screen. "What's your name?"
"Krys."
He ponders for a moment; Taihen figured that the kid may have not been able to read the characters on the screen, so he had to guess how its spelt himself. For now, he writes 'Chris'.
"How about you? They—" he curiously professes but holds back after getting reminded of the companions he was supposed to be with at this moment.
Taihen clinches his brows together and thought of it for a bit. "Taihen," tired his voice sounded, "just call me... Tai."
"Tai." the kid repeats.