Epoch of Desolation

“Great,” Rain said, his expression a tad too plain and unexcited for what he had just witnessed.

However, that was just his outlook.

Within his mind he was actually throwing a victory party with shadow clones of himself. When he rolled, the others rolled. When he sang, the others sang. And when he jumped, the others jumped. The fact that he was able to finally enter into a conversation with another being besides himself was too great a joy for him; but since savoring it as he pleased outwardly would make quite the awkward scene, he decided to do so inwardly.

It was brief though. He composed himself soon after. And with that composure reactivated his self-imposed detective-level smarts.

The Jaguar’s paw being placed on the syringe he had thrown towards it was proof his notion on the existence of Mental Mutation was correct. But obtaining proof was not the be-all to investigations, it was just the start. What ended an investigation was the truth being heard straight from the horse’s mouth; in his case, though, that would be the Jaguar’s paw.

He needed to be a hundred percent certain to be completely relieved.

Rain was on the verge of asking his next question when he suddenly paused before a sound could even escape his lips.

He squinted for a moment, closed his eyes, and rubbed his chin with consecutive soft nods. His expression was that of someone who had stumbled upon some sort of realization.

Yeah, let’s be a hundred percent certain before moving on.

His eyes shot open at the Jaguar with a narrow glint. “Are you… a human?” he asked, looking completely serious.

Silence had always been prevalent in the atmosphere of the hospital, but now it seemed to have doubled a thousand fold. And with that abrupt increase came a cold shiver running down Rain’s spine.

He had not taken a moment to come up with the impromptu question he required to clear the doubts he had left, so he had just uttered the first thing that had come to his mind. But now, as his words echoed continually in his ears, he couldn’t help but realize how dumb his question sounded. Heck, even the Jaguar he still slightly doubted could understand what he was saying had a blank look on its face. That was how bad it was.

Rain chuckled awkwardly then waved his hands fervently. “No. No. That question was just… Ah!” He scratched his hair. “Just… Don’t mind what I said and just answer the question.”

It went without saying that the beast wasn’t human, Rain knew that. But the Jaguar could have placed its hand upon the syringe by mere chance, not in an actual attempt to answer his first question. He could have just misjudged it all. And so, his latest question was as a way to prove that thought false. The Jaguar just needed to take its paw off the syringe, and—

Rain’s breath hitched.

The Jaguar’s paw was off.

And at that, a feeling of satisfaction whooshed over him. Now he could converse to his heart’s content. And he delayed not.

“You see, I came up with a notion that you have been Mentally Mutated,” Rain’s excitement was evident on his shrunken face as he babbled off, unconcerned of the possibility of his words being too fast for the Jaguar to grab at once. “When you appeared, a message—Oh, that’s true. Do you receive messages floating before your eyes too?”

The Jaguar was a tad too slow, but it eventually placed its paw once again on the syringe before it, its gaze a lot more focused than it was previously.

Rain snapped his fingers. “I was right. Both humans and animals have this ‘Plexus’ thing. Anyways, as I was saying, when you appeared I received a message tagging you as a mutated Jaguar, but since your physique wasn’t anything to write home about—no offense intended—I assumed your mutation was mental.” He raised both his eyebrows. “Am I right? Are you actually Mentally Mutated?”

After asking his questions Rain began his countdown. Ten seconds, he had decided; that was enough time for the Jaguar to give him an answer.

Those ten seconds passed soon enough, and the Jaguar’s paw was still placed on the syringe. As a result, a lightness took over Rain’s chest, calming the rapid thumps of anticipation which had once been there as a radiant smile bloomed on his face.

That smile turned into laughter soon enough, and when he was done all the tension that had cloaked his body evaporated.

He leaned back on the wall behind him and heaved out a deep exhale, his eyes turning up to the darkness clouding the ceiling above him.

“I have more questions to ask, like if you were allowed to select, you know, what type of Mutation you wanted, and also what types of Mutations you were offered. My guess is that there are only two, Physical and Mental, but I doubt that. I’ve even begun to wonder if you lot get the Division and Skill stuff too.” Rain remained silent for a second. “But all those would require speech to be discussed effectively.”

He brought his gaze back down, examining the Jaguar he had imprisoned underneath his hospital bed, its midsection to be more precise. His attention was placed on the ribcage exposed through the animal’s skin and the way its breathing was flimsy.

“Also, thinking about it, I wonder if you received a survival message when you found me.”

Rain had come to a conclusion after his journey to the hospital dining lounge that the survival message only appeared when animosity was actually held by an opposing party. The wharf rat he had seen then had not even known of his presence so it had had no animosity towards him. Taking that into consideration for his interaction with the Jaguar, he was quite sure that the beast had not received any animosity message pertaining to him—well, that was obviously until he’d thought of surviving at any cost.

But…

“That is not what I’m most concerned about.” His hazel eyes slid towards the dull ambers of the Jaguar. “Why did I not receive a message for your animosity until a few seconds after I locked eyes with you?” The Jaguar just simply blinked listlessly; Rain, at this moment, wasn’t focused on if the animal’s paw was on or off the syringe. “Is it the way the Plexus is programmed, or… were you contemplating?”

This was a question that needed actual words to be answered to a degree of satisfaction, and Rain knew that much, that was why the question had not been in any way for the Jaguar but for himself.

For some reason, he was trying to make sense of what he should have just tagged as a normal interaction between a predator and its prey. Maybe it was because he was conversing with the beast. Maybe it was because he was relaxed. Or maybe it was because he felt some kind of sympathy welling up inside him. He was not sure. So he decided to pose an actual answerable question to the Jaguar.

“Are you hungry?”

A low, weak growl emanated from the beast, and Rain took that as his cue to continue.

“I see,” he muttered. “Attacking me because you are hungry is something I can live with—that’s a natural reaction after all. At least you’re not some sadistic beast.”

But that meant releasing the Jaguar would result in another attack on him.

Of course, he had the option of just leaving the beast where it was and it would eventually kick the bucket out of dehydration, but, strangely enough, he could not bring himself to do that.

It turned out he was now seeing the beast as a being equivalent to a human.

Rain sighed, the reason for his emotional distortion vivid in his head.

His interaction with this Jaguar was the closest thing he’d had to a conversation between humans since he’d woken up without his memories; who knew, it might even be the only one he would have in a while. He could not bring himself to just watch the beast die, it would eat into his conscience.

And since that was now the case, Rain knew that meant he had to help it in some way, or it would give up the ghost regardless.

What way could he help though? He thought for a moment and an answer arrived. It was something hypocritical, but to him the lesser of two evils.

“Let’s make a deal,” Rain broke the silence between him and the Jaguar with an offer. “In exchange for a truce, I’ll bring you a meal.”