Paranoia | aionaraP

John couldn’t eat.

He wanted to eat, as he was quite hungry. He did not have breakfast, and they had spent quite a large portion of the morning hiking and searching for the barrow. After having completely checked out the encampment, they had rejoined Frida and figured now was as good a time as any to stop for a quick meal. However, despite how hungry John was and how fresh the rations were- having been kept that way in his inventory- he couldn’t muster the will to eat them.

Why? Well, frankly, he was scared. Not the “Oh no, there’s a spider on my wall and I am frightened,” nor the “Oh, there are unknown things hiding in the dark so I fear to go into the room without a light” type of scared. No, those were rather irrational fears. This one, at least in John’s mind, was quite rational. He had just learned the woman who had led him into this trap-filled barrow - the woman who threatened him with powerful magic, the woman who was three times his level - was actually a violent terrorist, or at least somehow involved with them, and was clearly trying to hide this secret.

Or maybe she wasn't. Maybe this was a big misunderstanding. Maybe she was innocent and only Hálfdan knew. Or maybe Hálfdan didn’t even know and finding his knife here was just an unlucky coincidence. Maybe Frida, Talia, and Hálfdan weren’t involved with this rebellion at all, and John was tying himself into emotional and logistical knots for no good reason.

However… John couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling that there was more at play here than he was aware of. Frida had been acting odd ever since they got here, then there was the whole business of how Talia’s parents reacted to the discovery of the barrow. They clearly knew something was up, and they chose to hide that information from John. As for Talia…

John wasn’t sure what to think. She seemed to have the same reaction that he did to the barrow, so either she was a better actor than her parents or she didn’t know about it. Plus, if she was a part of the rebellion, why would she paint them in such a negative light when telling John about them? But that could be part of the plan… and just what was that plan?

John didn’t know. But something was going on. He knew there had to be something. And he knew he had to be careful. After all, his first few moments in this new magical world were spent fighting for his life against a homicidal ice mage. He was clearly in over his head, and it seemed now that each moment, he was learning just how true that statement was. A couple days ago he was just a normal kid. He went to school, played video games, jerked off to porn, tried to help his mom whenever he could, and was overall just a normal kid. But now… he had killed someone in self defence. He was in debt to a mysterious teacher who was stronger than she looked. He was in a world he knew very little about, exploring a hidden tomb filled with traps, and accompanied by a potential terrorist.

Yeah, John really didn’t feel like eating at this point. He was more focused on not freaking the fuck out.

Just as John’s mind started to circle back to trying to figure out what was going on, he felt a hand on his shoulder, nearly making him jump out of his seat. Talia stood next to him, giving him a concerned look.

“You okay there, John? You haven’t even touched your lunch yet.” She gave him a worried frown, cocking her head to the side and pouting adorably. John could feel his heart melt a little bit, and offered her a small smile.

“S-sorry Talia. Just a bit nervous about the-the tomb,” he said softly, taking her hand in his own.

Talia looked around the encampment before turning back to him. “Worried about the tomb? Or about this camp?” She sat down next to him and gave him a small smile. “If it’s about what I told you, you shouldn’t worry. The rebellion is long gone. They haven’t been relevant for nearly 100 years, and were disbanded before I was born.”

John wanted to tell her. He wanted to tell her about the knife, about how it made sense to him now why her mother was acting so weird and why he thought she should be careful. But… he couldn’t. His brain wouldn’t let him. He was still too scared. What if Talia was in on it? Or what if she wasn’t, but if he told her, Frida would kill him for ruining her secret?

No. He would keep this secret. At least until he figured out what he should do next.

But first, he had to keep up appearances. “Maybe you're right. I shouldn’t be so worried about these rebels. Plus, if they are gone, they probably left some loot behind.”

She gave him a broad grin. “Now THAT'S the spirit! C’mon! Let’s go score some loot and treasure!”

As Talia walked away, John was once again tempted to tell her. But as he looked at Frida, and then at the knife now stowed away in his inventory, he suppressed those desires.

‘I’ll tell her. Just… once I figure everything out.’

John took a bite of his rations. He couldn’t taste a damn thing.

The first thing John noticed about the next room was how damp it was.

Well, actually the first thing John noticed was the giant-as-fuck statues that were standing on both sides of the room, depicting what John assumed to be gods based on their stature, weapons, and the whole awe-inspiring presence they gave off. But the second thing John noticed was definitely the dampness.

Seriously, John guessed that this room must have been placed under a lake, or maybe a Jotun’s piss room, with how much water was leaking in. The stone walls were cracked, the wood was musty and filling the air with the smell of mildew, and every other step was into a puddle. The statues were fine, adding to the godly presence, but everything else in the room was in serious need of a drying out and a decent amount of work.

John looked ahead at the two elven beauties, who he insisted on staying behind. He had used the excuse of wanting to ensure nothing tried to flank their rear, but in reality he was just nervous to let them out of his sight. So far Frida had been her same strange self, looking at everything with the vaguest hint of sadness. ‘Or is that actually nostalgia?’ John questioned, his hand tightening around the grip of Firebite. Talia, on the other hand, looked at everything with a sense of wonder and awe. ‘Could be pretending. Keep an eye on both of them,’ he reminded himself, despite having a similar reaction as Talia upon looking at the statues flanking them. They were quite awe-inspiring.

The statue on the left was most obviously Thor. Granted, he didn’t resemble Chris Hemsworth in any fashion, but the hammer covered in nordic runes, the shredded abs and pecs, and the giant carved runes on the base of the statue spelling out his name seemed to make it pretty obvious this was the norse god of thunder. His face was carved with a fierce expression, one probably made to make all Jotun run at the sight of it. Unlike Chris Hemsworth, he had neither long flowing locks nor the short hair of the later films of the series. Instead, he was carved with a thick head of hair and a large beard, resembling that of fantasy dwarfs from things like D&D. He stood in a rather plain looking position, all things considered, with his hand casually holding Mjolnir to his side and his right arm extended forward, raising what appeared to be a drinking horn as if he expected mead to start pouring from the ceiling. ‘Or maybe putting it up in a toast?’ John thought, rubbing his chin as he inspected the statue. Next to it was a wooden door, leading who knows where.

On the other side of the room stood a statue of Tyr, the one-handed god of justice. Much like his godly inspiration, this statue was missing his right hand which was instead capped off at the wrist with a rounded plate of metal, making his whole right wrist seem more akin to a giant bullet than a hand. He had a similar beard and hair situation to Thor, although his beard had been carved with beard rings giving off a more collected look in his face rather than the primal fury in Thor’s. Also like Thor, a door sat closed at his side. His left hand was also a bit relaxed, holding in it a large, rune-covered metal sword in a resting position. After a moment of back and forth, John realized that both gods had something peculiar in their design. Both of the arms holding weapons seemed to have a clear defined joint where they connected to the torso, and in addition, both weapons and arms seemed to be just long enough to reach across the room and touch each other. Tyr’s other arm was not long enough to reach Thor’s drinking horn arm, but John doubted that was the point of this arm. For one, it seemed incapable of movement. For another thing, the arm was directly pointed at the door that sat on the other side of the room.

Oh right. There was another door.

John turned his attention to the final door, which Frida was fast approaching. She reached into her side satchel and pulled out a small key as she grew closer.

“What’s that?” John asked, his mind ready to pick up on any hint of Frida lying with her answer.

“Oh, this? Found it in the previous room. I saw there is a keyhole next to this door, so I figured I would give it a try,” Frida replied calmly and quickly.

‘Truthful? Or well rehearsed?’ John though, slipping deeper into paranoia by the second. However, wanting to seem inconspicuous, he gave Frida a nod and went back to inspecting the statues. Or rather, he went back to pretending to inspect the statues and instead proceeded to keep an eye on Frida and Talia.

Talia meanwhile was doing the same as John, or rather what she thought John was doing, inspecting the statues. “Hey John? You notice the arms? They look like they are supposed to move.”

‘Damn, she is sharp,’ John thought, and couldn’t help as a small blush crept across his face. “Yeah. Looks like the arms would be able to meet in the middle. But one would wonder w-”

John was suddenly interrupted by the loud sound of gears turning, followed by the even louder sound of something snapping violently. He and Talia turned to look at Frida, who looked surprised as she stood by the keyhole, key turned, but nothing else different.

“What happened?” John and Talia yelled in unison.

“I-I turned the key and something broke! I think the door mechanism snapped…”

John and Talia made their way over, and while Talia checked her mom for injuries, John used a quick Observe on the keyhole.

Door Activating Switch (Broken)
A way to open the door without doing the two side room puzzle. Originally installed by the Barrow’s keepers as deeper chambers would require work, the keys to the door were standard issue handed out to Rebellion members.
Repair?
Y (0/10 Lumber, 0/5 nails, 0/1 chain)/ N

_‘And the conspiracy thickens,’ _John thought as he turned to give Frida a cautious glance. Another point stood in favor of her being part of this terrorist group, and in her wanting to get deeper into the barrow as quick as they could. John could hazard a guess that all the water damage in this room was the reason it broke, and for a moment he thought about telling them about the repair option, to see if they could find the materials and fix the door.

However, John had another thought enter his head. Frida was eager to get deep into the barrow, and John did not know why. In addition, he was still much weaker compared to Frida. While telling both Frida and Talia about the repair mechanic would be the most efficient route, he thought it may be more prudent to be silent and smart about this. It would give him time and allow him to think more about his next move, as well as prepare him for any possible betrayal that could be coming his way. He dismissed the notification, and turned to the elven ladies.

“Looks like the door mechanism is busted. It seems that this was made as a way to bypass the puzzles in the neighboring rooms, so it seems if we wanna keep going forward we are going to have to start puzzle solving.”

Frida gave a small curse before taking another look at the mechanism. “Solving the puzzles might be time consuming. Do you think you can use your gamer powers to fix this perhaps?

‘Yes.’

“No.”

“Damn,” Firda spat out. “Alright. But we stay together. No splitting up to solve the puzzles. For all we know, the puzzle rooms could be dangerous or even deadly, and we will need to help each other if that is the case.”

John gulped, realizing that, if any of the puzzles ahead were dangerous in any form, he couldn’t be sure that he would be safe from the puzzle OR his allies. Damn, paranoia was starting to get very taxing on him…

But that was beside the point. He gave Frida a nod, and looked to the two statues.