[Azura Rayume]

Nines

It's bad enough he had to wade through the dampness of the sewer, but to do so in the dark was even worse. His long coat felt twice as heavy as it should, even with his innate magic keeping the worst of the water away, everything from the wall to the vaguely flowing sludge below smelled uniformly like a corpse in a bog, and his flashlight barely illumined his own hand, much less where he was setting his feet. And then there was the company.

When Nix had said she had someone else to help him with this, Nines had at expected someone... different. He had yet to see their face beyond their eyes, and they barely talked. When they did, their voice sounded robotic, but he could tell it's a piece of tech. The only thing that wasn't hidden was their eyes, and those were locked in a permeant crimson glare. Hell of a way to make friends, if you asked him. Didn't exactly foster trust.

As the path curved again, he had finally had it. "Brek," he growled, pressing the device in his ear, "please tell me you have some kind of layout of down here?" The only reply he received was a painful screech of static loud enough to force him to pull the earbud out. He stuffed the thing in a pocket as he grumbled, "No outside communication either. Of course."

[SpringsSong]

Mirmira/Nayva

The figure's eyes were still about the only thing visible at the moment, the hood drawn up to protect them from the environs around them. Their companion growled something to someone they called "Brek", then yank something out of their ear after a screech of static that even they could hear.

"No outside communication, and darkness so thick, I can't see anything," they grumbled, their voice still mechanical-sounding - and impossible to distinguish between male or female. "So much for my kriffing..." they muttered, pulling their hood back slightly. Jet-black hair covered their forehead, and had pale skin - however, it was not like their companion could see that. "Well, looks like we're going to have to feel this out the old-fashioned way."

[Azura Rayume]

"Old-fashioned way," he repeated, grimacing to himself. They meant touch the wall. The disgusting, refuse coated wall. At least, he hoped they meant the wall; even not being able to see, he was not about to crawl through whatever was crunching under his boots. He honestly didn't want to know what it was down there. "Fine."

Nines fished into one of the pockets inside his jacket, keeping his fumbling as careful as possible to avoid dropping anything, to find a pair of gloves. They were leather, expensive, and he felt a little bad ruining them with muck. Better than getting who-knows-what all over his hands, though.

The moment he set his hand on the wall, something flaked off and landed on his arm. Nines made a startled noise and shook his whole arm to get rid of it, shivering before trying again. "This place is disgusting. Let's find this tunnel and get out of here."

[SpringsSong]

The figure stretched out their own hand, which had been gloved from the start, to brush up against the wall as well. They shuddered visibly at the sound that their companion made, but also at the feel through their own gloves of what was on the wall. Of all the kriffing times that my infrared sight wouldn't work... they thought to themselves. I bet someone with Third Sight could manage to navigate their way through here without any problems.

"I agree," they said to their companion's statement. "The sooner we find this tunnel, the sooner we can hopefully find that lab that Nix character wanted us to find, grab whatever it is she wanted, and get the hell out."

[Azura Rayume]

Nines barely managed to stifle a laugh. "I think that's the most you've said since we were introduced," he said. Even that was a stretch, considering he had offered his alias and a handshake and received a grunt in return, he could barely consider them acquainted. They did have plenty of time in the dark together, though, and if anything else was down here with them, it likely could not see any better than they could. Might as well try again. "So... are you just in this for the payout, then? Or is there some other reason you took a job as glamorous as this one?"

[SpringsSong]

"Owed someone a favor. They decided to collect on it," the figure said in a matter-of-fact voice. "Hardly my top choice of jobs, but... could always be worse."

Yes, it could always be worse. The interior of this pitch-black tunnel could have been some creature's innards, and not some path down into the sewers. It would certainly explain the smell, but not the crunching, necessarily.

"I don't typically end up with... companions on these kinds of jobs," they said, glancing over at Nines. "Typically do these kinds of things on my own. Less... chances of complications," they said, their eyes almost seeming to flash brightly for a second.

[Azura Rayume]

They're practically chatty now. Isn't that something?

"Yeah, well, I'm not usually the kind who does these jobs at all. I'm more of a computers guy than a 'wading through other people's garbage' guy." Nines shifted uncomfortably. Neither of them were team players, then. So if they got into trouble, it was a coin flip as to whether they would have each others' backs. Or if this guy would save him, more like. He seemed capable. At least like he knew what he was doing.

He sighed and tapped his flashlight on the wall, grimacing at the shower of dry muck he heard flutter off under the impact. "Don't know why I let myself get suckered into these things. Or why I think they'll be easy. It never is."

[SpringsSong]

A computers guy? Lovely. That meant he probably had zero fighting experience, which would mean that they would likely be the one in charge of getting them out of any shit that they got into, if necessary. But, they could understand the importance of "computers guys" in any line of work - heck, they relied on a hacker or two for their jobs, but they usually stayed behind while they did the "dirty work".

And this was definitely dirty work.

"Nothing's ever easy," they said with a dry chuckle. They shuddered at the sound of the muck falling off of the wall at the sound of the other's flashlight tapping against the wall.

[Azura Rayume]

[Prompt 2 start]

Up ahead, the path began to lighten, and Nines breathed an involuntary sigh of relief. No more traipsing through the dark, no more mystery substances and disgusting noises he cannot see. Whatever was ahead of them, it had to be better than this.

"Finally," he groaned, wrapping his hand around one of the broken bricks of the entrance. This should have been the place they needed; it looked exactly as Nix said it would. But he could smell must and more dampness beyond, not what he would have expected for being so near a laboratory like the one they were supposed to be finding. Still, he hauled himself through the entrance anyway, the ground beneath his feet definitely soil instead of stone.

As he made his way forward, it became very clear this was not, in fact, the lab they were looking for. "The hell is this?" he grumbled, frowning. There were too many people here, too many eyes, and he had a sneaking suspicion they were way off the mark.

[SpringsSong]

The figure kept moving along with Nines, offering their own sigh of relief as the darkness seemed to subside and they could actually see again. However, the sigh was soon stifled as they walked into a large cavern that definitely did not have the steel doors they were looking for.

"Well," they said simply, looking over to their companion, keeping their voice low. "It would seem as though we've come across a market," they said, their voice very matter-of-fact. Unlike their companion, their demeanor almost seemed to relax at the revelation. However, their demeanor didn't relax too much just yet - they regarded the human that had addressed them with a nod, but began to survey the area with their red eyes carefully.

[Azura Rayume]

Nines barely acknowledged the man that greeted them, which did earn him a scowl he barely cared about. Instead, he shifted his focus on one of the nearby mushrooms glowing in the dark. There are people in this world that would pay a fortune for this kind of thing, for experiments or curiosity or whatever. Didn't matter much to him either way. He reached for his phone to snap a photo and send to Brek once he reconnected, and immediately the shadow below a nearby stall started to move.

The lizard creature hissed, and he jumped, startled. It blinked its multiple eyes at him and focused on his phone before it lunged, snapping, toward him. Its tongue shot out quickly, snagging his phone and yanking it from his hand to delicately between its teeth. Quick as it had started, the thing dashed away, toward the towering mushroom tree in the center of the cavern.

"Hey!" Nines barked, taking off after the creature. "I need that!"

[SpringsSong]

The figure sighed as the lizard snagged Nines' phone from him, shaking their head as they walked off after the lizard, a certain purpose in their stride as they followed the creature. They cast a glance to each stall they passed, but never stopped to linger for more than a few moments while keeping the lizard in their sights - even after it had slipped into relative darkness, they could see it through their infrared sight.

Guess I ought to have spoken up to the guy about making sure to keep his valuables close at hand, and never let anything startle you because they'll take that as an opportunity, they thought to themselves, following after the creature after shaking their head in response to one of the stall owners motioning to their goods.

[Azura Rayume]

The lizard darted under one row of stalls and over another, scattering merchandise across the ground with its claws. He had no idea if it was doing this intelligently or if it just snatched something shiny to take back to its nest. Either way, it didn't matter; he needed that phone.

Nines skirted around the wreckage just in time to see it dart into a hole under the giant mushroom. "Oh, come on," he growled. Of course the thing would go to ground when perused, but he had hoped that ground would be a little easier to get to. He turned to look back at his companion, dismay in his eyes. "Any ideas how to get it out of there?"

[SpringsSong]

"I don't know the first thing about the creatures in this world, to be honest," the figure said, folding their arms across their chest. "I've heard things from one of my contacts, but frankly, they were a little too outlandish for me to take on faith. So I have no idea if this... thing is intelligent, or if it just saw a shiny thing and decided to snatch it because it could," they said, looking down at the ground where the lizard darted. For a moment, they rifled through one of their pockets that had been sewn into the inside of their coat.

"Maybe this might entice it out," they said, pulling out a random shiny thing from their pocket and examining it, turning away from the hole and acting like they were fascinated by the trinket.

[Azura Rayume]

Nines stared at them for a long moment. They couldn't be serious, trying to lure it like that. But sure enough, there they were, back turned to the hole. He shrugged and slowly got to his feet, positioning himself just out of sight of the creature.

From inside the hole, the lizard shifted, its attention on the phone momentarily split. Three of its eyes blinked toward this new shimmer, and a growl echoed out of the hole. Quickly, it whipped its way out, twisting in a serpentine manner, and striking out at the new shiny thing. It still held fast to Nines' phone, wrapped up in its tail, but its focus was clearly on this new sparkle.