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He was staring down at his hands, frustrated at the inability to feel his family's magic under his skin. He had tried a small, experimental hum--which he normally didn't require--to summon it, and nothing. He swept back the sleeve of the shirt he was wearing, only to see that there were no looping, teal marks there. His breath came a bit short, panic beginning to set in--

My name is Arrakis Dismth. My name is Arrakis Dismth. My name--

When the ding at his hip jolted him out of it and made him jerk his head up to the one standing in front of him. He heard the question asked of him, but blinked once, twice without response before quietly reaching for his phone and flicking to the message he'd just received. He looked up, then back down at the cell phone. His gaze remained here for a couple moments. Then, shaking his head as if pulling himself out of thought, he gave a nervous chuckle of his own.

His smile was tight, strained as he put his phone back on his hip and looked up. "Yeah, I guess so."

Had Alice said something about time? He couldn't remember. He looked down at his arm again, the sleeve to his shirt still awkwardly pushed up on that side. The other hovering in the air caught his attention, made him jump a little. But what definitely caught his attention was the name he was given.

"Yildirim Ig--" It floored him and he stuttered out a response that, ultimately, was nonsense. The ding of the text on his phone, again, snapped him out of it. He took one deep breath, then another, trying to tell his racing heart to slow down, to stop choking the words out of his throat. A third slow inhale and long exhale, and he looked back up at Ignatius.

"Well, hey. It's Arrakis." He tried to chuckle, but was not entirely successful. The fact that there was someone else he knew here was reassuring, but it wasn't stopping the panic scratching at the back of his mind. Another deep breath and he rubbed his hands together before rubbing his arms. He wasn't cold. Looking around made him reaware of the weight of the horns on his head, and he touched them again with a small wince. It also made him aware of the tight braid his hair was in. He didn't like it. It felt restricting. Immediately, he pulled the braid over his shoulder and began to undo it. Something for his hands to do also helped focus his mind, and he visibly relaxed the more he released the braid.

Given the length and thickness and tightness of the braid, it took a moment or two before he looked up at Ignatius. He would re-braid his hair later. For right now, it lay down to his knees, especially wavy for its time in the tighter braid. "So... Any ideas?"

Well, it wasn't that disappointing--Arrakis couldn't reasonably expect Ignatius to know something he didn't, after all. But the phone thing was indeed a fantastic idea, and Arra immediately whipped his out to open a note in its notepad.

My name is not Aran. My name is Arrakis Dismth. I am a reaper. I live in Amityville. I'm a student.

He looked up at Ignatius, then back at his phone.

Yildirim is Ignatius. I know him, and I can trust him. He paused to think. I can't remember always being a horseman because I'm NOT one. Another pause, then something occurred to him.

Don't trust Dorothy. Arrakis looked up at Ignatius. "Okay, so, we need to try and find other creeple we know." Well, that Ignatius knew. It was a start, at any rate. "Maybe they have an idea or information we don't?" Was it worth going on a wild goose chase, though? Clearly their appearances were altered, so the only way they were going to find them was to ask every horseman they saw, but...

That would probably be very dangerous. Arrakis sighed a "nevermind" and looked around, rubbing the back of his neck in an unconscious mirroring of Ignatius' body language. "I guess we could wander around to see what we can find out?"

He would have called Ignatius a show-off for flying around him, but Arrakis had to admit it was pretty cool. He broke into a lope after him, not wanting to let his one friend out of his sight. He remembered a couple creeple from school and all that, but he had to admit that he was going to largely be useless trying to find anyone they knew. Anyone he knew well enough to recognise even under whatever shape-changing this was, Ignatius also knew. Well, he supposed he could be backup. Though, hopefully that wouldn't be necessary. Arrakis wasn't a particularly strong fighter normally, and this form was utterly alien to him at the moment. Its weight distribution was weird and different. It was making his neck hurt to have the horns on his head, though he did reflect with a bit of bemusement that he hadn't noticed any discomfort before.

Before?

Before remembering he was Arrakis Dismth, reaper student, and not Aran, Conquest horseman. He had never been Aran, Conquest horseman. He could still remember his family, the friends he'd made since coming to Amityville for schooling, the whole bit. This horseman business... that was what was unfamiliar to him. Unfamiliar like pretty much everything around him as he followed Ignatius. Nothing looked explicitly like a way out. At least, not that Arrakis could see. "I almost wish I could give us travelling music," he mused, an attempt at lightening the mood.

They had to have a bit of space between them to allow for Ignatius' new wings--which were still super cool, honestly--but it wasn't so much as to make Arrakis feel uncomfortable talking to him. He didn't have to shout, or anything. As Ignatius paused to scribble something, Arrakis also paused, amused. "Yeah, it's... not a comfortable thing, not having my music there. This weapon also isn't my weapon, and I don't like that much, either." He lifted aforementioned weapon, wrinkling his nose at it before putting it back by his side. "And Jack only knows how I'm supposed to get used to these." He gestured to the top of his head, where his horns were, still strange and heavy. He couldn't even think of how he could use them as a weapon, and it wasn't like they offered much defense except to the very top of his head. What was the point of them? Aesthetic? Did Conquest horsemen just... really like the aesthetic of horns?

"I mean, I guess 'Aran' is an alright name," he shrugged. "But I like mine better." He did not comment on the fact that, technically, both names were his. "Hey, at least you still have one of your names? Even if I can't pronounce it half the time," he grinned back at Ignatius.

"I mean," he shrugged, "not that I know of? I know next to nothing about horsemen, much less specific clans." He grinned. "So, honestly, they could be. But I could ask the same thing about War horsemen and those wings you have going on." As Ignatius went over his actual first name for Arrakis, Arrakis chuckled. "I mean, I usually pronounce it that way, though sometimes yil-di-rim if I'm talking too fast." He stuck his tongue out good-naturedly. "Not like many people ask me things, much less about you." The fact that it was quite the lightning elemental name made Arrakis laugh with Ignatius. "You're a faster flier than I am?" he joked.

Of course, Ignatius wasn't the only one looking around for anything out of place. Unfortunately, he was also not the only one not finding anything.