silentandtested – Siblings-a-Fixin'

E could tell his tone was on the unsure side but otherwise seemed fine with being on his own. That was good enough for E to feel no regret on leaving the repairman alone.

‘I have people and places waiting for me on the other side, So yes.’

Once shown, E closed the notebook, slipped the pen back in the spirals and tucked them safely back in their pockets. Then held a hand out for a handshake.

“Ah, all right,” he replied. Still seemed odd to take the monster-infested tunnels, but hey, they seemed to know what they were doing.

He extended an inky hand and shook E’s. Nodding, he thanked them once more and began to head out. He idly wondered if he’d be back here any time soon.

E just nodded to that and let a bit of silence fall. They took some time to look around, eyes eventually falling back to the tunnel. They realized they could probably leave the Repairman here. The road lead right into a small town with quite a few pay phones, and he looked capable of fending for himself if left alone. Just to be sure though, E wrote out a half joking:

‘Think you could find your way from here? There’s not more tunnels to help you navigate from this point on. :p′

The Repairman looked around as they fell into silence. Finally, he heard the sound of E scrawling on the paper again, and turned back to them expectantly. He chucked as he read.

“…Uh,” he started, taking a look through the clearing. “…Yeah, probably. You heading back?”

He wasn’t sure whether or not he would visit this world that often, but he was certain E was a huge part of it. If he came back, he had a feeling he’d see her again.

E looked at the notebook in their hands and debated on how much to say. The repairmen didn’t seem to have any ill intent and but for all the small talk and questionings he was still a stranger.

Probably one of the most interesting and most non-human looking one they had yet to meet but still, something told E that saying “oh I’m running away from the very people who made me and kept me in a cage” was saying too much. E flipped to a new page.

‘I wasn’t monster hunting I was trying to get through to the other side. I wasn’t expecting a rescue but just think of it like luck being on your side that I was their.’

E paused before showing the answer but shook their head to themselves and decided that’s all they wanted to say for now.

“Hmm,” he nodded. Well, there was that, too.

“Well, again, thank you for that. Not sure what kind of creature eats ink, but I wouldn’t want to meet it!”

He chuckled, and then glanced back into the dark. Gosh, he hoped none of those monsters would want to slurp him up. He hated the spit getting on his inky form. Oh, and being eaten alive was no picnic either, even if it wouldn’t kill the Toon.

E let their head tilt to the side at the question, eyes full of confusion. They weren’t sure what that mean. A game hunter? A ghost hunter? A monster?

Their appearance was strange, that was something E knew, but people never really asked. Those who did mostly assumed E was homeless, or a performer.

Vitiligo wasn’t common either and black eyes were seen as demonic almost everywhere.

Shaking themselves out of thinking E brought pen to paper again.

‘I’m more of a traveler. So nope.’

E pause before skipping a line.

‘What kind of hunter did you mean?’

“Ah.”

The Repairman had seen a lot, from a rapping dog who woos a flower to a wrestler who spends his days reading fan mail. An elfish-looking monster hunter with black eyes was not out of the question to him.

Still, he couldn’t help but wonder why so few questioned a two-foot-eight talking ink splotch.

He quickly stopped that train of thought before it could start again. He was fine!

“I meant, like, were you hunting monsters in there? Or rescuing someone? I almost never see any other reasons for people to wander around monster-infested caverns.”

He seemed to completely miss the irony of him saying that.

Oh this could be fun. E tried to keep there face clean of any mischief at play, only failing when they smiled, twirling the pen and started scribbling.

‘The caves are said to hold really odd creatures. Most of them very dangerous and will attack on sight. Not sure what would of happened to you if I didn’t find you and lead us out the right way.’

E just barley held back a string of giggles as they showed the message. While the caves were a danger, the worst that could happen is you get turned around and get scared if the dark wasn’t your favorite. The “monsters” were just added for a good horror story around a campfire- but E saw no reason to say that when they saw an opportunity to spook the repairman a little.

His eyes widened as he read.

“Oh,” he finally said. "Well, thank you! I hate it when I get attacked!“

He looked up at E, with some visible admiration. This soon changed into a desire for more clarification.

"So, um, are you some kind of hunter or…?”

E’s face scrunched up in confusion at that. They wanted to ask what a ‘forth wall’ was but there were other things they wanted to know first and knew the Repairman probably had his own questions, so they wrote before repeating the process of showing once more.

‘I am E, a wanderer. Your kinda lucky I found you you know.’

“Well, nice to meet you, E,” the Repairman replied, sticking out an inky hand.

“You’re right about that, E,” he chuckled. Realizing something, he continued, “Wait, lucky how?”

He hoped it was just the luck of not being lost in a tunnel. And not something more than that inconvenience.

Another minute of silence and they were at the exit. The light came in spots of rays shining through the pants that had been covering it. Like before E exited through the free space. Outside was hard on their eyes and they winced before pulling there hood up to help block some of it.

On the outside of the cave were tree’s lined along what looked to be a dirt road for a few feet then suddenly cut into asphalt. The leaves grew out and made a sort of overhang canopy.

E pulled the Pen out of the spirals of the notepad and begun writing.

‘Who are you?’ Was what they chose with first and showed it so the Repairman could see it.

The Repairman sighed in relief and awe as they left the tunnel. Still, even his painted eyes had to squint until they adjusted to the sunlight.

“Thanks. Never really know where I’ll end up when I enter a new world, y’know…?”

He looked up at the other, and noticed their discomfort in the sun. At least they had a hood.

He watched with vague interest as they began writing something down. As the book was shown to him, he quickly realized the writing was for him.

After quickly determining that this wouldn’t cause too many issues for his job (and that he was kind of sick of dodging the question), he said, “Oh, I’m the Fourth Wall Repairman. And you?”

Once The other was following E didn’t bother to turn around to look at him again. Conversations tended to fall flat because of the lack of voice, and walking and writing on paper was difficult so the best they did was lead and hope they didn’t loose the tag-along. E could only think how grateful they were that silence wasn’t minded.

The floor of the tunnel was soft and taken over by green and soft dirt that was damp but thankfully wasn’t mud quite yet. Nature had taken it and from the light fasting from the lantern their eyes could make out the walls being in a similar state of over growth.

It wasn’t long before there was light at the end of the tunnel and E pulled a notepad from the pockets in their jacket as they walked. E had every intent to ask questions once they we’re out of the tunnel.

The Repairman looked around, noting the overgrowth. If he had had a slightly different profession, he would’ve seen this as an affront. As he didn’t, he just wondered why this place was apparently abandoned, except for this person.

On that note, where were the two of them going? It wasn’t like he could see much, even with the lantern.

Finally, another source of light appeared. He turned off the gas lamp and began to feel more at ease.

As they moved towards the apparent exit, the inkblot could see the humanoid pull something out of their jacket. He pulled back slightly, thinking this might be the obligatory betrayal. But, no, it was just a note pad. Shrugging to himself, he got back to moving.

E took a small step back, not willing to get closer to the offending light but otherwise looked calm. Hands were not clenched and shoulders didn’t tense at the action. They let their hand drop once the greeting was exchanged.

They nodded though, pointing a thumb over their shoulder and motioning behind them to the way they had just entered. Turning on their heels they took a step, then turned to the other giving an ‘are you going to follow?’ look before continuing forward again.

The Repairman didn’t think twice about the humanoid’s silence; he saw many silent characters before. Still, he couldn’t help but wonder what her intentions were. After all, it was common for the nice-looking person to lead someone into a trap.

Still, it wasn’t like he knew his way around. And the humanoid might actually be nice.

He slowly moved forward, making sure to keep his lantern in front of him so he could see the figure. He found himself looking around a lot more than he normally would. He didn’t exactly need an ambush.

@silentandtested, continued from here

Watching the other in front of them move so suddenly had them tensing up, but despite feeling like a wound up spring they didn’t move when the other came closer. Their face scrunched up in an odd mixture of amusement and confusion when they could see paper in their hand. E was no threat to anyone, but even so what could paper do?

Seeing as this strange looking man was of no major threat to them, E forced themselves to relax and followed the others lead and walked the rest of the day just on the edge of the light and stopped, giving a little wave.

The inkblot reflexively shuffled back a bit once he saw someone in the light. However, seeing how nothing scary or even suspenseful had happened, he relaxed and waved back at the humanoid.

“Um, hello,” said the Repairman, putting away the paper. He tried moving closer to the other. “You happen to know a way through here? This is my first time in this worl–er, area…”