The Edge

Matteo: Part Four

Tola's lips moved as she signed: "What's it like outside? Is it as bad as New Frontier?"

Arian shrugged. "No. It's just people who live in their corner and follow their own rules. Nothing we can't handle." Luca nodded in agreement. If Luca agreed, then Arian was definitely onto something. Luca's anxiety had its downsides, but he had managed to make an upside out of being super sensitive to the vibe of places. "But there's lots of prosthetics. That's weird. What's up with that?"

Matteo shrugged. "Just figured body modding is big in the area." As he looked around, he noticed a group of them approaching, and made a quick shushing motion. These were the most obvious of the bunch: multiple prosthetic limbs, blue skin, and one guy had enough piercings to add a pound or so to his body weight. Hope he's not here for an MRI...that'd be a hassle.

Luca made a point of not making eye contact as the group walked past. Arian did the exact opposite, making non-confrontational but definite eye contact and nodding casually. One nodded back before he kept walking. "That guy definitely had knives in his hands," Arian signed when the modders' backs were turned.

Luca made a face. "If he hears you talking about it, he'll use them on you," he signed back.

Arian shrugged. "He'll show them to me. I've met guys like that. They like talking about all the things they can stab you with, but they're not usually stabby."

"Why do you hang out with such weird people?"

"I don't know, why do you hang out with such boring people?"

"No fighting," Matteo said aloud. A quick glance at his transcriber told him Tola said the same thing. Luca looked suitably chastised, which wasn't really the desired effect. Most of that scolding had been for Arian. Dude, I love you, but you have no chill.

Arian did, fortunately, calm down a bit, especially when he saw the state Roland was in. It was impossible not to; the kid was doing a lot better, but he still looked one inch from death with both feet on ice. Matteo felt another pang of sympathy for him and his poor family. They'll probably have a long road ahead, even if he recovers. The emotional trauma alone...

"He's doing better," Tola signed to a distressed-looking Luca. "He really is."

"Bet he feels like shit if he looks like that," Arian cut in, "but better than being dead."

Luca nodded in agreement. His eyes glanced towards Nathan. "Is he okay?" he signed.

Tola's face turned sour, an unusual sight on the face of his usually all loving sister. Matteo was proud of her for it, though; sometimes all-loving translated to far too tolerant. Teaching her to stick up for herself had been priority one back then, and still was, if he was being honest. "He's sulking," she said. "I know this has been hard and I don't want to be mean but..."

"He made his problem your problem," Matteo finished. That was what it had sounded like from his perspective, anyway.

Tola nodded. She looked a little guilty, but she'd said it, and good for her. Out loud, probably so they wouldn't look suspicious, she added:

Tola: Are you two hungry? We got extra food.

The food at this hospital wasn't that bad, Matteo would give them that. He wouldn't exactly call it healthy, but that was true of pretty much every cafeteria he'd ever been in, hospital or otherwise. Humanity had figured out how to travel the stars, but they hadn't bothered to figure out a way to mass-produce non-fried foods. They ate without conversation for a while, until Matteo noticed Tola turn towards the door expectedly. A confused frown slowly appeared on her face.

A nurse? Matteo thought. When he checked the door, though, he immediately saw what made her so confused. He doubted the person in the doorway was a nurse; not unless this place was fine with casual dressing. The guy actually looked like another modder. The unnatural purple of his eyes and the circuitry on his temple was a dead giveaway.

Unknown: Dave?

Matteo frowned. There wasn't a Dave in the room, but the modder seemed pretty sure Arian, whom he was looking at, was named Dave. It said a lot about Arian and his various past activities that Matteo's first thought wasn't case of mistaken identity. It was, Oh, no, what did he do?

Arian: Uhh, sorry, I don't know who that is. You must have me mistaken for someone else. Sorry. We do all look alike. [Laughter] Don't worry, I'm allowed to say that.

Matteo's eyes narrowed as his gaze shot between the modder and Arian. The modder only stared at Arian intently for a long, uncomfortable moment before backing out of the room.

Tola: What was that?

Arian: Probably thought I was someone else. That happens a lot.

Arian wasn't completely wrong. Despite the white hair and silver eyes, people with his mutation were often mistaken for each other, and if they weren't being mistaken for each other, they were being mistaken for random people. That was the nature of the beast; the psychic field they gave off made them unremarkable until they chose to be, and sometimes being unremarkable meant looking like everyone and no one all at once. It was the simplest explanation, and the most logical. Occam's Razor.

And yet.

As much as Matteo wanted to believe it was that simple, as much as he wanted to believe nothing was going on...it was Arian. The list of "dumb stuff he's done this year" might've gotten smaller and smaller with every year since they'd taken him in, but Matteo had to cover for him several times throughout their lives. Even when he wasn't doing anything overtly criminal, he was getting into trouble. So...

Matteo pulled out his phone and went to his text thread with Arian.

Sent: You'd tell me if something was going on right?

He watched as Arian checked his phone, raised an eyebrow, and tapped out a reply.

From: Arian: duh. it was just some dude don't worry about it

Matteo's transcriber buzzed as Tola asked if that was the others. Arian passed it off as "just a social media notification." Tola seemed to believe him, or at least was choosing to for now to avoid drama.

It made him a bit nervous, but Matteo decided to do the same thing.

That wouldn't stop him from keeping an eye on the situation. He might not be able to sense that far in the future, but he knew potential trouble when he saw it. Even if Arian was telling the truth, mistaken identity could get them into all kinds of trouble, the kind of trouble they really didn't want.

After New Frontier, and with a long road still ahead of them, it couldn't hurt to be cautious.