Chapter Text
Tamsy had only vaguely heard of drownings in his lifetime.
Cleaner’s HQ is nowhere near a body of water capable of doing something like that to a person, and none of his trips have been so adventurous so as to have taken him to a pond or a river, or even the sea. People no longer swam on the ground, most water sources becoming as polluted as the soil and needing to be purified. When it came to the sphere, there was perhaps a pool here or there, but it wasn’t something he had ever been interested in visiting or playing with. Being close enough to something that could honest-to-God drown someone just wasn’t something Tamsy had caught himself doing.
At that moment he could only think to himself one thing: Drowning really fucking sucks.
When he woke the sensation replaced everything else he could have been thinking of instantly. The water stung his eyes, it filled his nostrils— he gasped and he felt it piercing his throat as it seemed to want to fill every spare inch of him it could find. His arms shot out on impulse and found the ground with ease. He could not have gotten up faster, coming up on his hands and knees to do nothing but cough. ‘I must look so pathetic’, that was a thought that wanted to form badly in his mind but didn’t have the space behind all the panic.
All he could feel was the water that he was spitting out of his mouth and the snot that was sliding out of his nose along with it. They both left burning caverns behind with how much it stung. It barely registered in the back of his mind that the air outside of the water was warm enough that he wasn’t discomforted by the air touching his wet skin and clothing. Tamsy was still heaving by the time he managed to crawl up to just where the tide met shore and sit down properly.
He blinked once, twice, thrice, five times. He let his congealed, sticky bundle of thoughts wash over him for half a minute before he took a long, painful breath and straightened them all out.
The water in front of him was clear. Not crystal, but it faded into a solid blue that didn’t betray any pollutants. He stuck his thumb in his mouth and underneath the sand, the only thing he could taste was salt. Salt and nothing else. The gentle waves were still grazing past his feet and they were completely harmless.
Okay. He could work with that.
When he looked above, he saw a clear blue sky, completely free of smog. When he looked behind himself, he saw what must be a settlement. Un-domed, unprotected. Or, more like, there was nothing at all it needed to be protected from.
He was not on the Sphere, or on the Ground as he knew it. He was somewhere entirely new, completely alien to the world he lived in. And he didn’t even know how he came to be here, or where it was. He could not remember the last thing he was doing before he got here, either. That was fine.
He took his hair, heavy still with water, and tried wringing it out and braiding it. The repetitive motion bled the tension out of his shoulders, and doing something with his hands had forced his brain to finally acknowledge that at least he still had Tokushin with him when he had to set her down.
There was no point in stressing over things he would not be able to change. The situation as it currently was would seem insurmountable if he tried to bite at it in massive chunks instead of trying to unravel it one thread at a time. For now, he had not drowned. He was definitely too resilient to let something as silly as water be the end of him.
By the time he was done with his braid the panic had left him and gave way to a strange sort of emptiness. He had known it very well, once upon a time.
He really was not interested in knowing it again.
The beach he had washed up on was at least somewhat more private, though not isolated. If he turned his head to the side he was able to see groups of people with chairs and parasols, children and their parents going down the beach and swimming in the water without a care in the world. They were far enough away to not really care about or hear him flounder. They also confirmed that he was most definitely not alone or suspended in a strange, vivid dream.
He sat until he dried up enough to feel comfortable getting up. The fabric no longer stuck to his skin as tightly and it stopped sending tingles up his spine— a loose shirt and a pair of light pants were suitable to the weather, so he guessed he was lucky those were the clothes he’d woken up with. He shuffled across the sand and found that the sandals he’d woken up in gathered sand like nobody’s business. Fucking annoying.
He, importantly, didn’t seem out of place. He passed by people and received smiles and waves from those doing little, vendors offered him their wares as he passed. Trinkets, bracelets— one of them offered him a massage, said it might help that scarring he had down his arms. He was polite when he told her no and moved on. The sand was hot and scorched his feet when he began walking where it was dry.
He passed a sign at some point when he departed from the shore and started walking near the buildings that lined the beach. The script wasn’t what he was used to but he could still read it, “Access to the Beach” it said. He turned and walked to the street right where it was, and it gave way to roads and shops and such. He was apparently on “Coastal Rd”.
He kept walking. On the beach, with how the people were dressed and splashing around, it made sense for them to leave behind their chokers. On the streets, however, nobody had any on either. Tamsy was missing his own, the familiar weight completely absent from his neck. So, chokers also weren’t a thing around here, good to know. He decided to keep walking.
The terrain was something he would describe as fun if it was any other kind of situation. It was like the mountains had crowded up around the beach, and like everyone on this little bit of land had crowded together to conquer it by building on it. He wasn’t getting the best view of it from the street, but he saw the way the streets started getting steep and the way the roofs of small buildings and houses were piling up one on top of the other.
Tamsy had no use for the shops, he had no currency. Not like he knew if they used the same coin that people on the Ground did. He had little use for the people at the moment, until he ascertained more on his own. He picked a street and started walking upwards.
It at least felt like a homely and familiar place. Despite how much brighter just about everything was, the same Groundlike wear and tear and ramshackle appearance adorned many of the buildings and homes he passed. Occasionally he passed a residence with a high wall and an obvious gate and he laughed— he guessed things here weren’t that different here either.
It was by sheer miracle that one of the little streets he came upon had even more familiar people on it. Faces he knew.
It was a gaggle of people circling around two kids. A gang most likely, adolescents only some years older than the other two. Rudo’s hair and eyes were absolutely unmistakable as he hid who was probably little Amo behind him. Rudo always did get in a lot of trouble, he very easily attracted peoples’ ire.
He watched from a distance for a while. The altercation had hit a bit of a plateau where it was mostly jeering without the immediate threat of escalation. Maybe it was these boys’ first time dealing with Rudo, but they seemed to think if they just loomed over him and insulted him long enough, he’d tuck his tail between his legs and hide. Apparently, they were upset he had been dumpster diving on their ‘turf’. If he had any doubts as to the identity of the kid, that factoid really did clear them.
And yet, Rudo looked in his element. Like he knew these people, and had lived on a street like this all his life. He had his 3R, but once again he looked like he had no idea as to the power they would’ve held. Amo was without her heavy boots, and she looked undistressed by it. They really were things deeply unsuited to the weather, but if it had been the Amo Empool he had known she wouldn’t have parted with her vital instrument, her tool of protection, that easily. Kind of harrowing.
“What, and you all have to gang up on me because you’re stupid goddamn cowards!” Rudo’s yell pierced through the conversation.
It tore through whatever frail assurance of non-violence existed between the groups. Amo agreeing with Rudo loudly, saying some bullshit like “Amo thinks you all suck too!” damn near trampled it underfoot— insult to injury.
“Oh, you two really are asking for it.” The tallest of the group, some brute that was clearly the ringleader, had a smirk in his voice when he said that.
They were all amateurs. Whatever gang they formed clearly wasn’t taken seriously, and had never been legitimate enough to get them into any real fights. They adopted mediocre stances and the leader clearly telegraphed exactly how and when he was going to hit Rudo without a hint of hesitation. He brought his hand high above his head, readied his strength when he saw Rudo wouldn’t back down, and—
“Is that really necessary?” Tamsy had walked up behind him and caught the leader by the wrist.
He spluttered and turned around, but it only made it easy for Tamsy to twist the poor boy’s arm behind him. He let out an undignified squeal before he recovered. All of his lackeys seemed to lose their steam hearing it, even when he gathered himself enough to bring back that bravado.
He yelled, “It’s none of your business, dude! Get lost!”
Tamsy chuckled at him. “They’re half your size. Do you really have to deal with them with your fists? It’s kind of unsightly, if you ask me.”
“I’ll deal with you with fists!” He snarled at him.
“Count me absolutely frightened,” Tamsy said.
The kid wiggled out of his grip and Tamsy let him. He turned to Rudo and glared at him before spitting out:
“Be grateful you had your mommy over here come save you, you little shit. Never let me see your face again!”
Rudo seemed confused as to why they would call someone he’d never met “his mommy”, but Tamsy understood it well enough— they were calling him feminine, a sissy, painting his help as something embarrassing by virtue of that. It was one of those insults Rudo hadn’t really had to hear, rare as that was.
Speaking of Rudo, he had turned to Tamsy with a mildly constipated expression as the other boys huffed off. It was a look that said I could have handled it, but also that those words didn’t come out of Rudo’s mouth because he knew they were rude.
“Thanks, sir,” he mumbled.
Amo’s eyes sparkled as she looked at him. She surged forwards and tugged at Tamsy’s hands, bringing them into her own. “You’re so pretty! An angel came to save Amo and Rudo!”
Oh, the ugly cackle that would have left him at that statement if he could only afford it. He held back his sneer and replaced it with a smile as he usually did. “It was a pleasure, young lady. Do you two get into fights like that often…?”
“It’s not my fault.” Rudo huffed.
“Well, I won’t disagree that they were nasty folks that didn’t know how to pick their fights,” Tamsy said to him.
Tamsy extricated his hands from Amo’s as she circled around him to admire his sloppy braid, chattering away and leaving Rudo and Tamsy to stare at each other.
“Ah…!” Rudo fidgeted awkwardly. “My, my dad always told me I should thank people who do kind things for me. Is there anything you, like, need…? I’ve got a bunch of stuff I could give ya for the trouble.”
The way Rudo phrased it, his Regto was probably dead as well. More importantly than that though, there really was no recognition in those eyes. This was definitely not his Rudo, the one that gawked at him and admired him openly. It wasn’t just that everyone was here and Tamsy arrived late, it was that he was somewhere different, that had different copies of the people he knew. The mere thought of it made him a bit dizzy, but he didn’t show it on his face.
Tamsy merely shook his head. “Oh, no, I need no such thing. Though— do you have anything I could use to contact anyone else?”
“We’ve got a phone at home.” Rudo pointed upwards somewhere. Probably towards where he lived.
A “phone”. Probably their version of chokers. Not like he needed to use it now that he’d gotten a better grasp on things, but if it kept him near this Rudo then it was probably a solid start to figuring the rest of his situation out. He would cling to this little bit of kindness and familiarity and wring it for all it was worth.
“If you wouldn’t mind letting me use it?” Tamsy said.
“Sure.” Rudo nodded.
They walked for some time. Rudo (and Amo, he supposed) didn’t live too far, but it was still another bit of a hike. Amo asked him all sorts of inane questions as they walked, and Tamsy answered all of them patiently. There wasn’t any point in being dismissive or rude even if he thought the questions were pointless and that Amo was strange and obnoxious for asking them to a complete stranger. Her eyes sparkled as she asked if he would pretty pretty please teach her how to braid hair, since she’d felt shy about asking Riyo to do so. He didn’t say no.
They came upon a shabby house with a white metal door that Rudo knocked on. It was down the road from many of the richer looking houses, it seemed like it had just barely survived some sort of gentrification effort. They all waited patiently to be let in after they heard someone call out from inside the house. Rudo and Amo in front, Tamsy behind them, slightly off to the side. He didn’t want to look like he was imposing, after all.
Before long the door slammed open and Enjin came into view. He smiled at Rudo, said something about him “finally getting back home, you little shit”, and Amo bristled at it in her usual unique and extravagant way. Exactly the same way it would have happened back home. Enjin ruffled their hair, bantered with them, and when his gaze trailed up to see who they had brought home his face—
—twisted in horror.
His entire expression fell for two moments. As though he had been caught thoroughly and completely off guard. It took him more time than usual to bring the facade back, and even the expression he recovered to was a ghost of what it had been before.
This Enjin was absolutely mortified to see him.