"H-hello?" She asked hesitantly. The room itself seemed to absorb the word; she had almost expected an echo. Is this really the right room? she asked herself. There was nothing in it but a torch. Unless... So far on this island few things had been what they seemed to be. She took another step. "My name is Sherry and I'm looking for my partner." Her voice didn't sound afraid, but it didn't sound like she was overly sure of herself right at this moment. Who would be? I'm talking to an empty room.
For a few heart-beats she stood, almost expecting something to happen. Like someone to jump out at her, or the walls to move (Please, no. Anything but that.) or a disembodied voice to offer up some kind of instruction. But nothing happened. Maybe I have to do something. She took a few quiet steps toward one of the walls.
"Huh..." she mused out loud. Several of the symbols on the wall looked vaguely like weapons. She reached out to touch one. It was very clearly modeled after a gun. As her fingers brushed the glowing tile, its glow seemed to dim and--
Sherry jumped and turned. She was still alone in the room. She could have sworn she just heard someone speak, though. A faint whisper, to faint to hear the words, but a whisper still. "My mind must be playing tricks on me," she said to herself and no one. She almost thought she heard laughter in response, but that could have been her imagination. She almost hoped it was. One wary glance around the room, and she turned back to the wall.
"I just have to figure out what I'm supposed to do here," though that was easier said than done. She examined another symbol. It was difficult to tell what this one was supposed to be, it looked a bit like a squished blob. As she studied it, she noticed something else peculiar. Each symbol was on its own tile. The tiles coated the wall, almost as though the wall was made out of them. Not only that...they actually looked like they could come out of the wall. "I wonder if it is like a puzzle..." her mind flashed back to those tile sliding picture games she'd played with as a child. Perhaps it was something like that. Sherry reached out to touch the tile with the blobby symbol. There was no whisper this time, but rather a feeling of...not right. "Just plain odd."
Sherry stopped and looked around. She had heard it again. That laughter sound. It was faint, but it sounded like laughter. Apparently someone thought this was amusing. Which would also mean that someone was watching her. The idea of hidden cameras was not that far fetched, so it was entirely possible. Perhaps it was some kind of test, and they were evaluating her right now. Well. I hope they enjoy the show, but I will figure this out. ... She was certain it was laughter.
Her eyes scanned the room. She was missing something, but what? She began to follow the wall, looking for something different or out of place. The symbols all seemed different from one another, and though she tried to touch a few, she knew immediately none of them were what she wanted. A few more steps, and then she heard it. It was odd...like a low hum.
It was indeed a low hum, so low she couldn't be sure if she was actually hearing it or just feeling it. Still, she followed it. There! One tile seemed to glow just the faintest bit brighter as she neared it. Its symbol was long and thin, slightly wider at one end. "That one must be the key," she stated as her hand reached out to touch it.
Sherry jumped back. A voice, a female voice, though she couldn't say where it had come from. "Who's there?" She spun in a circle, yet she was still alone in the dim room.
The voice had ended on a sigh. Sherry was not living up to their expectation, obviously. "Are you my partner? Where are you?" She looked around the room, hoping to see a door that had magically appeared, a speaker...anything.
The hum in the room got louder, and Sherry turned back toward the wall. The tile was glowing even brighter now. Slowly, she reached out to touch it. Is it some kind of strange speaker?
the speaker, yes.>
Sherry froze. She was certain she had not said that out loud. In fact, she hadn't heard that voice with her ears at all, had she? "I'm hearing voices in my head."
Honestly, Sherry was a bit dumbfounded. The voice had pretty much agreed with her: she was crazy. Still, she did as she was told. The tile slipped easily from the wall. For half a moment, she held a glowing tile in her hand. Then suddenly, she didn't. Instead she held a long pole, and found herself looking at a large blade. She jumped in astonishment and nearly dropped the thing.
For a long moment, Sherry stared. The torchlight flickered off the blade, and the handle felt almost warm in her hands. It was a weapon. A weapon, and Sherry was meant to fight-that is what she signed up for, right? Suddenly, it all made sense. Anywhere else in the wide world it wouldn't have made sense, but here, on this island, it did. "You," Sherry whispered to the strange new weapon. "You are my partner."
It was still a bit weird, even if it was the only thing that made sense. Unless of course, Sherry had taken leave of her senses completely. The fact that she wondered about that made it unlikely, right? "But you can talk?"
"So, I'm not crazy?" Normally, the fact that she asked the weapon would have answered her question.
"Huh."She could live with that response. Sherry moved the weapon in her hands, looking at is closely. It was clearly like nothing she'd ever seen before. But that was the story of her life since she'd signed that contract. Dolls filled with mud, giant death ponies, being squished, dying more than once, sleeping pods-all things she had already accepted. What was a talking weapon after all that? "What are you?"
"Oh. Well, I'm Sherry." She remembered something Dr. H had said. "Why did you pick me?"
If nothing else, she is sure of herself.
"Wait. You heard that? How?" Again, Sherry was certain she had not said that out loud.
Well, that made sense. So, you can hear my thoughts?
All of them? Was that what Bix had meant when he warned them about the partners being clingy?
Well, I suppose we won't be lonely.
Yes. Sherry could think of a few. Her mind flashed back to the things she'd seen through her mask. Things hadn't turned out so well back then.
Sherry turned the weapon again, feeling the weight of it. She had never used anything like it before, but she was willing to learn. It was a bit heavy, but she imagined she would get used to it. "What do we do now?" Old habits die hard.
"Right," Sherry lifted the glaive named Armagnac and turned her back on the torch and started for the stairs.
