[closed]

[pregames]

Who: Atem and Vector
When: backdated to 01/26
Where: somewhere in ViViD
What: Two old "friends" decided to go all Indiana Jonesing
Rating/Warning: Comic violence?



After and hour or two -- it was hard to tell when the day and night cycle literally reset itself in the span of a few battles -- Atem can tell they're finally nearing the end of their session. The creatures that started as a mild annoyance have grown in strength and frequency to pose a much more considerable threat now and the lush crush of the jungle is slowly thinning as they continue their upward trek. But more than anything, he can feel it in his limbs and counts it in the scrapes and cuts accumulated.

A disembodied chirping first alerts the pharaoh and his companion to the appearance of something up ahead, then they clear the crest of another hill and the not quite sun breaks through the foliage to bath the valley before them in its manufactured light. Rising up from the very middle, a stepped pyramid, so large that it's almost a wonder that anything had obscured it from them before now.

Atem is promptly awe struck for a myriad of reasons, and judging by the sympathy he seeks from Vector, not all of them are good. "Is this supposed to be a joke?"

Comments

[jyajyaaan]

Vector gives him a blank look that could be interpreted as subtle understanding, equal confusion or simply not caring in return before he grimaces lightly as he shrugs his shoulders.

"Well, it fits the theme?" It's more of a question than an offer for an explanation, a way he has felt way too often since he had accepted the other one's offer for a shared game earlier that day on a gut instinct. Atem and the way he seems to think he knows him still confuse him, so Vector decided to come along once more and ..do what exactly? Observe while on the field? Learn more about the Pharaoh? Make sure that he really did know what he claimed to do? If any memories of their shared past would return? If he needs to remove this potential threat quickly and efficiently?

So far none of those questions have found an answer, leaving Vector somewhat compliant and going along with whatever Atem decides to do in his lack of direction. Now that they have the last level in front of his eyes, he straightens his shoulders and gives Atem a confident look.

"Joke or not, I think we should go down there and see what the last game has to offer. The other ones were almost too easy for us two."

Which is another wide way of calling it, as he has been letting Atem take the most of the battles and just hung back most of the time.

[pregames]

"Says you." Atem levels Vector with a knowing look; the later's aversions haven't been lost on him but he supposes it's nothing new. Neither is the way he indulges them although he doesn't do so uncritically. There's a hint of certain qualms that are just as easily reserved for their circumstances as they are the object of attention.

He pulls away to survey the expanse of greenery before them, searching for the quickest way to cut through it and end this game, get out with their credits. It isn't long before he makes out the outline of an overgrown path, winding its way like a serpent all the way down into the basin below. Without saving a second thought for safety -- it hasn't been a concern thus far -- he heads for it.

"Are you saying you're familiar with this kind of thing?" He'd heard stories of Vector's homelands but never witnessed them for himself.

[jyajyaaan]

"Mhhhhh~ Yes and no~?" He sounds maybe a touch too amused as he pounces after Atem, easily moving past loose soil and twining roots as if it were the most natural thing in the world. At first the temple reminded him a bit of the ruins of his own former home, but the closer they get the more it becomes a simple new adventure with no strings attached to the redhead.

"I've heard a lot of stories about doing things like this." A pause before his voice suddenly comes from Atem's other side. "...and done some smaller raids before. Well," a laugh, "-just went to pick up what somebody else left there not too long ago in an errand running kind of way, really! Anyway, I think that places like this can be fun!"

More rustling as he runs off for a couple of breaths before he suddenly bursts out of the bushes in front of Atem, waving him over eagerly. "Over here! I found a shortcut inside!"

[pregames]

The pharaoh, arbiter of ma'at and all things related to justice and integrity -- or so he would tell you -- quirks his brow at that. "Just left behind for you to help yourself, huh?" It hits a little too close to home for his liking even if it sounds perfectly innocent coming from Vector's mouth. But if that's how the game is played he'll grit his teeth and keep striving for victory.

Atem pushes his way through the brush after the other and sure enough they happen upon the outer wall of the pyramid with a large fissure that splits the massive foundation in two. It's fortunate that they're small enough to slip inside, as if the space was practically programmed for their convenience.

"I'll go first." Because why should that change now that the end is within reach? Pressing himself between the jagged walls he feels with hands and feet and he ventures into the dark, cautiously feeling for anything amiss, one step in front of the other until something clicks.

He gives a shout and casts out for something to grab onto, a ledge or even the edge of floor but all he finds purchase on is the empty space that has opened in the ground beneath him and he's sent tumbling down a chute into the bowls of the edifice.

[jyajyaaan]

Atem's falls doesn't last long before a surprisingly strong hand catches him. Holding steady, Vector stares down at him.

"No, what I had to get had been left there as a means of security backup." He frowns. "Basically 'If everything goes south, recover these and redeem the sealed truths they are the keys to'." A sliver of disquiet crosses his face and voice. "They stood for powers that were forgotten for a reason. Skills. Bonds, that would have better stayed buried and out of public ears. Names. Histories." Another scoff as he regards Atem with eyes that dare him to disagree.

"I think you should better go down there." His grip loosens as he lets the other fall. Counting down two minutes in his heads, he follows him.

[pregames]

Atem merely frowns but not because he has any cause to disagree. It's the complete opposite in fact. Before he can say anything though, Vector has released him and he has to focus on his footing as he slides safely to the bottom.

There he finds what looks too be an impossibly long corridor, far to long to fit the dimensions of the pyramid above, and all of it lined in torches that burn bright and paint the walls and ceiling above in fresh soot. Immediately, Atem reads the signs spelling out that they're not alone.

But neither is he, as Vector appears at his side again, who is of far more interest. "But you had to go and stick your head into them anyway? And you're still here to tell about it." There's no missing the esteem Vector earns for such a supposed feat, for reasons left unsaid.

[jyajyaaan]

Vector lands in an effortless crouch, looking like he does this all the time for what it's worth. Straightening up, he brushes some imaginary dirt off his clothes.

"Well, of course I am," he gives Atem a look as if ever doubting that would imply that he doesn't know Vector very well. Nodding at the corridor in front of them, he starts walking down it.

"I might not look like much compared to others, but if there is one thing I can do well, then it's doing what needs to be done." He pauses, the tone of his voice mellowing down into a sheepish chuckle as he adds on an afterthought. "-not sure if that's really a thing to be proud of, though. But I try."

[pregames]

"Not at all. That takes a certain courage that plenty of men cannot claim to possess." If there's one thing Atem can be sure of, Vector has left behind much of the clumsy bumbling kid he once had to entertain on their visits to Egypt -- although it had been just as much to the entertainment of the hawk in the nest as well. Something had happened in those few short years, a shared experience spanning thousands of leagues, the results of which remain to be seen. "I guess we both had to grow up."

It soon becomes clear that the the path wasn't not quite so long as it first appeared. Rather, the ceiling slopes downward at an angle responsible for the clever illusion and the tiles above are soon pressing down, practically on top of their heads. Atem's brow furrows, although it's not clear whether the cause is his words or the situation.

[jyajyaaan]

"Mmmmh. Sucks to be a king, huh?" The last comment is offered in jest. Vector ducks instinctively as they progress and the ceiling becomes lower, tensing his jaws at the feeling of restriction every part of him rejects. He has wings, he should fly. Not crawl through spaces where he couldn't even properly spread them. (Although how long has he not done that recently? He misses it.)

Chasing the thought away with a shake of his head, he turns his attention back to Atem. "What happened after the last time we parted? I heard some things, but I'd rather hear it from you than blindly trust gossip."

[pregames]

Atem isn't particularly pleased to find them stuffed into such a small space as well. If anything were to happen to them, there's barely enough space to summon so much as Kuriboh, let along engage in any practical defense. Before long they're reduced to a crawl, with a few choice words to follow and the sound of disgust reserved for the dirt and debris into which they find themselves descending.

"I wouldn't let that get out," he says, but he also understands. They can't exactly complain about their lives but that hardly made it a prize. Even without...

Admitting as much, even to Vector, signals a budding rapport he felt with the other. "Quite a bit as I am sure you can imagine." Thinking back on the time when they last saw one another, before finding themselves here, he smirks.

"You remember the tablets we went to the trouble of organizing for the shrine keepers? Well, lets just say the whole of Egypt had never before witnessed such entertaining duels. At least until one of the priests nearly lost another eye." He shakes his head, knowing it wasn't funny, but fond of the memory all the same. "It was a full month before they sorted it all out again."

[jyajyaaan]

The memory makes Vector involuntarily laugh. To his surprise it's an honest, cheerfully amused sound with just the tiniest bit of impishness in it. He couldn't tell when the last time he made such a noise was, which sends a faint tingle of worry down his spine. His eyes dart to Atem, wondering if it is the other's influence that is getting to him.

"I remember." A coy smile flashes over his face as he brushes an amalgamation of a spider's web and the dust of times out of his way. "I'm sad I couldn't stay to see the results of our hard work. That priest, was that Akh- Akh-" he frowns, trying to recall the name. "Akh-nana?"

[pregames]

"Akhenaden," he offers, without hesitation though it pains him to say so, dredging up the past and how things once were and how they could have been if it all hadn't gone so wrong. All of that, he keeps to himself so as not to tarnish what remains of the memory.

"Be glad you weren't around for the punishment. It was a whole month before Mahaad would let me out of his sight." And if Vector remembers anything about that name, he'll know it meant more than just having a nanny, but a real taskmaster to boot. But even that hardly seems like a chore in retrospect.

[jyajyaaan]

He nods. "Right. Aknaden." He never got that name right even then, as he remembers now. Ahhh, the beauty of a fragmented memory and the most minor, inane details coming back to you in bits and pieces first. Like... "You liked Falafel."

Discarding the thought, he grins as he disables another trap with a gesture that is that casual that it's hard not to miss it. "I did something similar on my own to one of our temples not that long after I got back. It got me a two years ban." Stopping for a heartbeat, he flashes Atem a smile. "Needless to say, I was back in after a month. They had no chance against a royal child who knows all the secret pathways and shortcuts."

[pregames]

"Huh?" While it may have been true on it's own, it's such a strange interjection in context that Atem has to stop to marvel at it. So much that he almost misses the rest of it; the subtle sleights of hand, the too easy way with which his companion seems to skirt the edge of danger. It's not that it's been lost on him so much as he was willing to let it slide in lieu of holding on to something familiar.

"Vector..." What happened to you? Is what he wants to ask. The question that has been on the tip of his tongue ever since it was first shot down when he first arrived; only he hadn't realized it until now. But it will have to wait until who knows how long as another question surges to the front.

"Do you hear that?" In the time that they had been talking, a rumbling had been growing from deep in the heart of the vast stone edifice, a sound that has slowly increased in volume and condensed into a kind of dull, distant chanting. Up ahead, the pharaoh makes additional note of the glow that's appeared at what he takes to be the end of the tunnel.

[jyajyaaan]

"Hm?" Vector looks confused for a moment before he realizes that while they might technically be more alike than he could possibly have been with most others, there are still things that distinctly set them apart. One of them are Vector's good ears, which have already caught more than most expected from him before his senses had been upgraded to a Barian's.

"The chant? I think it could be something like your burial rites, or at least they seem to have oriented the texts on them vaguely. I can't make out everything," that's a lie, "but it's about a great king and his journey to the 'river below'." He shrugs his shoulders. "I know it's silly, but each time I hear that part all I can think about is that taking a bath in an underground river has to be really chilly. Silly, huh?"

He chuckles awkwardly at his own joke. In truth the text has him think of a certain god whose sanctuary was submerged deep down in a certain sea, but he won't ever mention that to Atem.