His heart pounded in his chest. Should he take it back? Should he say something else? What would Aster do?
'Aster wouldn't join the siege... but I have to join the siege.'
A dire conflict between his own goal... and Aster's nature.
He felt death wrapping its skeletal hands around his throat, whispering into his ear to come to its embrace.
The ghastly stare of Aster's mother didn't help either, and neither did his panic.
"Who. Are. You?"
Her face started to contort - her eyes widening, her skin hardening and splitting, her jaw starting to split at the cheeks as she glared at him.
'...Curses!'
Had he known Assailants were on thin ice for being caught he'd have never dove down so recklessly.
He was pallid, sweat perspiring on his forehead as he struggled to open his mouth to speak momentarily.
On the spot, he started to reassess the situation... or moreso, Aster, as quickly as he could.
Anything to get out alive.
From what he knew, Aster's mother was tense around asking Aster stuff and soft spoken. Similarly to how Paper's sister acted around their parents when they were high. Not just that, but Aster's notebook essentially had a fit of rage at the woman.
And most importantly, Aster had called her crazy.
One thing led to another in his mind, resolving the turmoil mentally before speaking with a grating tone.
"Im your son, who else? Have you seriously gone crazy, you dog!?" Paper snarled, glaring back down at her.
At that moment, the world seemed to resume, coming back to life once more. The fire started crackling, and the birds started to chirp again as she flinched away, shivering slightly as she avoided eye contact as her face repaired itself within a blink of an eye. As if it never happened. The icy grip of death slid off cleanly, grazing his neck almost as if longing for his soul as he let out a loose sigh in relief.
'... That felt too dangerous. I didn't like that at all.'
"I-I'm sorry, dear. It's just..." another pause that had threatened to hurt his heart... or more specifically, Asters. Paper himself didn't care much anymore. "You seemed so adamant on not going... what changed your mind?"
He shrugged slightly, still maintaining a furious glare. If there was one thing he never lacked, it was the ability to lie on the spot.
'The orb has a funny way of working.'
"Because I want to. I don't have to explain why to you, lady." He spat.
She blinked, seemingly taken aback. He pressed onwards, unphased as he slammed his hand down on the table.
"And because nobody would like to live with a woman like you."
She was downcast, her head drooping in hurt.
"...You... truly don't?"
"Why should I? I don't want to. Simple as. The conversation is over."
Had she been any sharper, maybe she'd have noticed how quickly he responded. Or how he worried the bottom of his dried lips between his teeth, or how he narrowed his eyes to the side.
A solemn silence passed between them as she spoke with all the care in the world.
"I love you."
He would have had felt awful if he had any sort of free will here, but he doesn't. What's there to blame other than circumstances? With a vicious grimace marring his emaciated face, he turned away.
"I don't."
He walked back into his room, picking up the notebook. Now that he knew what had to be done? Well, he had to learn as much about Aster as possible. For the sake of his survival.
"Got into another fight. This spitwad was talking mad."
"I KEEP SAYING I DIDN'T BEAT HER CAUSE IM A BRUTE BUT BECAUSE SHE HAD A KNIFE! AND NOBODY BELIEVES ME!!"
"THREE GUYS HUNTED ME DOWN TODAY FOR SOME SORT OF 'RATIONS' AND THEY TRIED TO STAB ME AS SOON AS MY BACK WAS TURNED!"
'Goodness. How unlucky is this guy!?' He kept reading, and came to a disappointed stop as he came to the last line.
'Got a weird ability, for some reason. I'm pretty much able to make things, including myself, look dead.'
To say he was unimpressed was an understatement. Maybe it'd have been useful in the backstreets as a disguise, but there were no details on how to activate his powers. Not just that, but they had no combat utility. It was far too specific for something he understood not much of.
"...Super good at playing dead and making people play dead? The hell sort of useless ability is this?"
He shook his head, tossing the notebook back down on the white desktop drawer before collapsing with a sigh onto Aster's bed. Paper started to mull over what he could do.
'Actually... for a death game, it's not terrible. I have to kill the Noble and beat the trial. Perhaps, when I do find the Noble... was their name Wonder? Yeah, when I do find them, I pretend to be dead near the final fight then kill them. If I figure out how to activate it.'
It was reaching what seemed to be midnight but world outside was still abuzz with life amongst the darkness. It'd be best he figured out a way to get a weapon soon.
And with that, he walked to the wooden front door, and opened it. The world outside was just as pretty as the vision he had of the world moving backwards. Through the lush fields of grass and footpaths, to the right of him were rows of houses and huts and ramshackle shacks which were similar in their qualities if not homely. To his left, the fields stretched endlessly instead, leading to the dark hues of the night sky and rolling hills with sparse amounts of houses scattered across it. In front of him, nothing but the expanse of the forest which grew to the right rapidly.
He walked to his right, noticing that the peoples chattering turned hushed, and that they shot him spiteful glares. He nodded silently at them before cursing internally.
'Just how hated is this guy?'
Paper was scowling internally. Not only was he stuck in the body of a prick, but he also had to use this bodies awful powers, all while surviving a Dormant Marauder... without any connections? Any friends?
This is about as screwed as it could ever get for him. Marauders in particular were just above average for a trials difficulty - it tended to be Dormant Beasts. If you were unlucky, it'd become a Dormant Predator instead. A Maruader was far stronger than the other two, and had... some form of intelligence.
'I take it back. This is Hell.'
"You."
A voice from behind him startled him out of his depressive revery. He turned, staring at a young woman with a black, wavy lob haircut. It framed her face well, which was both sharp yet soft, angular yet round. One part was slightly swept over her left eye, which glistened with an almost ethereal glow of gold. She was also quite tall - significantly taller than himself atleast.
And she was dressed in thin, mobile steel armor, a helmet held loosely in her left hand, a slender longsword in her other hand. One that looked far too good to be a native sword to this location.
'Oh, a Starbound weapons and armor? Well. That was easy. Found you, Noble.'
Starbound weapons and armor were the crux of any Hunter. If a Hunter had no energy left to use their Star, their starbound weapons would be able to save them... as long as they had enough skill. Which most Hunters did have.
"Hm?" He frowned at her, scowling. She regarded him cool, before speaking.
"Assailant."
Her voice rolled out far too gently for the words that served like a lashing of a blade. He stared at her silently, glaring, as he desperately tried to figure out how she knew.
'I guess this really is hell!'
Was she told by whatever forces held the Orb together? Was she given a big red sign pointing to him?
He wouldn't be surprised actually. Knowing just how bad his luck currently seemed to be, it wouldn't have made him blink twice.
He started to run through everything he knew about Aster's history from the notebook to figure out a way to twist the meaning of Assailant. A way to convince her otherwise. If she gave him the chance.
She lingered slightly, tilting her head at his reaction before exhaling.
"...Apologies. It seems I got the wrong person."
She looked away awkwardly, and if he wasn't surprised earlier he certainly was now. Why did she back down so quickly? Didn't she see him freeze up?
Unless... the challengers had a role to play aswell, disallowing them from breaking character?
Aster's mother did freeze when Paper attempted to act like a good son to try and get information. And he froze up when she said the word Assailant... which would mean that if she knew how those who existed within Orbs acted to a change in character?
She shouldn't suspect a thing.
"Yeah, yeah, quite alright." He shrugged, before grinning at her.
The least suspicious thing he could do... was play to the role he knew she didn't know. The villagers would look at him in disdain which would solidify his position, and he would clear his name off of being an Assailant as the world around him would react to him as if he were Aster rather than Paper.
That is of course hoping the noblewoman would know about Assailants... the same amount as him, atleast.
"If I join the siege I am getting paid, right?"
The attractive Noble turned her head to face him, raising an eyebrow. "Pardon?"
"You heard me." He shrugged. "See, I wanna join the siege. I'm young, pretty handsome, kinda good at holding myself up in a fight. And all we're going to do is go to the black castle. With me there, you don't even have to worry about a thing as long as you give me a good weapon, you know?"
She seemed to cringe physically at his comment of his apparent handsomeness, but thought better of disagreeing, a small frown appearing on her face.
Murmurs of disdain exploded around the villagers, but a few particularly tall ones started to approach them while nodding. She looked to them, and they started to have an incredibly muted conversation right infront of him. She glanced at him a couple times before nodding to the few villagers, turning to face him.
"...Come tomorrow morning." Her voice was sharp, tinted with expectation. "We won't leave without you. I'll have a weapon prepared... I don't know about armor though. Please, rest while you can."
'How kind of her.'
He thought to himself, a small, carefree grin playing on his lips. He only gave her a polite nod then walked off, his face in a false mask of anger while his thoughts were a tumultuous mixture of unrest and excitement.
It certainly seemed she wasn't aware of how life was on the backstreets of the Underworld. Trusting a stranger so easily... though his "role" in the Orbs trial helped, he knew for a fact he wouldn't have trusted someone like himself easily.
Getting the Star's powers may not be so hard after all.
Because if she approved so easily of his joining?
'You'll be dying soon, Noble.'