Shopping Break [Open]

[Special Agent Cox]

It felt good to leave the house, even if it was for shopping. This week was one of the weeks that Jesse Cox had off from his work with the PIDA, a week that he spent working. It was all that the man seemed to do as of late. Despite what some people thought Jesse was a pretty busy man. If he wasn’t juggling his workload for the PIDA, he was recording for his channel, doing livestreams to appease his fanbase, and doing some voice acting work on the side. Most of the work was at least fun but at times it could be overwhelming (especially when he tried to juggle recording on the weeks he worked in the agency.) But today Jesse was planning to take a little breather. It was the Saturday and since he had no livestream scheduled for the day he was going to take it easy. The fans wouldn’t notice that he didn’t do much; he already finished editing enough videos for his channel that he could just quickly shove on youtube when he got back home and be done with it. For now he wanted to have some fun.

And what was more fun than shopping for video games? He needed to get a few more games anyways; he needed to get Dead Space for his channel anyways. He could have gotten the game on steam but nothing beat a good old fashion disc copy. Besides, he wanted to get a few xbox games just for his own enjoyment while he was at it. Jesse walked through the busy mall and looked around for the game store that he was sure was here. It had been awhile since he came to this mall, but if memory served him well it should be here somewhere. Man it sure is crowded in here the man thought as he tried to squeeze his way through the crowd. Okay, so maybe it wasn’t the greatest idea to come out to the mall on a Saturday. Oh well, he was here already so he had to make the best of it. He wasn’t planning on staying here too long. He’d just go to the store and get out, maybe get a quick bite to eat before he headed home.

Once he got home he would call some friends to see if they wanted to hang out for the rest of the day. The most of his friends from the PIDA had the week off too, hopefully they didn’t have much plans for today. Maybe he’d call TB to come over too. Jesse couldn’t help but wonder how John was doing, since Jesse had joined the agency he didn’t get to spend as much time with his old friend as much as he’d like. The first person he’d call would be him. Surely his british friend had the time to hang out and get drunk with him. Fortunately the game store wasn’t too far away. Jesse smiled to himself when he stepped into the store and started looking for the game, hoping it would be there. He certainly hoped that he’d find the game here. The first Dead Space game had come out a long time ago, so there was a chance he’d wouldn’t find it here. Jesse moved through the PC section, going through the shelves to see if they had what he was looking for.

[Deleted]

Food....I need something. Something besides almost rotten or moldy food. Roger repeated in his head as he fast walked.

Sure fast walking wasn't good for him at the moment. But he really needed to find something! What he found was always bad. Few days old if he was lucky but not really good for him. What he needed was real food, something fresh something...something whole that nobody else had chewed on first. Course his search wasn't going so well since he wasn't near a restaurant or fast food place. He really couldn't go there. With no money he couldn't buy anything. Stealing.....stealing was the only thing he could get food. Either that or going into a dumpster. None of that was good. He was a good man, always followed the laws, even helped to put criminals away! This....this wasn't right.

"It doesn't matter if it's right or not. Honestly you're really gonna worry about breaking the stupid law when you're most likely starving?!" The dark voice hissed at Roger in his head.

"You're not helping...." Roger muttered as he paused.

"I just don't see what you're worried about considering your state! You're ready to fall apart and you'll end up taking me with you!"

"You're just worried about yourself."

Thank goodness, no response. A sigh left him as he stood there. Why had they done this to him?! This arm....it was a curse. His strength was out of whack, really high up there and...and sometimes weird things emerged if he waved his arm fast enough. And that voice!!! Oh god!! That voice in his head was driving him insane!! This arm....this weird and strange new arm was so much bigger, the bandages were hardly enough from the ones he found. Despite having it for a good while in that strange place, he still wasn't used to it.

Wait...what where this?! Roger didn't even notice going into a building, let alone a store! Turning round quickly, he wanted to get out of here. Though it seemed that wasn't going to happen as he bumped into a stranger. The physical contacted caused him to fall back due to his weakened state and he land on the ground on his back.

"Way to go moron." the dark voice laughed at him, Roger didn't responded to it.

"S...Sorry about that." Roger apologized to the man he bumped into as he sat up.

Oh shut up. Roger thought in his head.

[Special Agent Cox]

The moment that Jesse found his way into the game shop he immediately made a beeline for the PC section. While the man did have some console systems that he played on he was still more into the PC. And of course the game he was planning to record would have to be on this system. After all for the moment he could only record games he was playing on his computer. Jesse was trying to find a way to record on the consoles he had though. He was well aware that there were things he could use to record off of an xbox or a playstation, but he needed to do more research on that. He needed to figure out which of the options were best, how to do it, and fiddle around with it on his own till he felt comfortable enough to start using it. Eventually things would change, but for now he was stuck with the one thing he had so he had to make the best of it.

Looking at what was on display Jesse was already losing hope on finding the game he was after here. It wasn't much of a surprise of course, the game he wanted had already been out for a few years now. At best he was likely to find a used copy, not a brand new one. But still, it was a little disappointing. Most of the games here were ones that he already had, MMOs he already played, or games that he had no interest in. Good going Cox, you came up with a brilliantly stupid idea. He should have known better than to come over here for this. At least he had steam. If there was any place that he could conveniently get any old game he wanted it was in steam. At least this wouldn't be a total waste of time though, there were still a lot more console games for him to take a look at. Besides, the point of coming here was to just stretch his legs. Even if all he ended up doing today was window shopping it wasn't a complete waste of time.

Jesse was about to go over to the playstation section when someone bumped into it. The man stumbled but steadied himself up fast enough to not fall over, the guy who walked into him however was a lot less lucky. “Wow there buddy, are you okay?” he asked, offering his hand out to help pull the poor man back onto his feet when the guy apologized to him. “Don't worry about it. It's not like you hurt me or anything so we are cool. ” he said in response. “It happens to the best of us sometimes am I right?” It wasn't the coolest thing to have someone collide into you when you aren't prepared for it, but Jesse wasn't about to hold a grudge over a simple mistake. Besides, while Jesse hadn't been hurt in the accident didn't mean that the other guy was. It was hard not to notice that something was off about this guy. He didn't get some kind of bad vibe from him, but he could see that he didn't look too well. The man looked like he was tired and worn out, and there was that bandage wrapped up on one of his arms too. “I hope you didn't hurt yourself there. Is your arm okay?”

[Deleted]

"I...I'm alright." Roger replied.

Seeing Jesse hold out his hand to him, Roger hesitated for a few moments. He couldn't grab hold of his hand with his bandaged one. That ran the risk of the bandage coming off and that he didn't know how to control his strength. So reaching out with his normal hand, he accepted Jesse's help and soon was back to standing up. Roger only nodded in response to Jesse's statement that it happened to all of him. True it did. Though Roger really should've been paying attention to where hew as going instead of being focused on just getting out of here and getting something to eat that was actual food instead of the remains of it.

"Okay now let's go." the demon requested.

Due to part of the demon's mind still being attached to the arm and thus in his head, the demon still held some control over the arm. As the demon requested to leave, the bandaged arm twitched but Roger grabbed hold of it before it could do any real movement. A nervous expression took over Roger's face.

"No, I...I didn't. It's alright just a little sore a...and all. No damage at all to it." Roger replied.

"Yeah that was....really convincing." the demon sighed in response.

Just shut up! You're not helping me at all here! Roger thought back at it.

"Do....do you know the fastest way out? I...I haven't been here in years and I...I've gotten a good bit lost." Roger asked, no harm in asking for help was there?

[Special Agent Cox]

Today might not have been nearly as peaceful as the man had hoped it would be, but still things were going alright in his opinion. Sure having some klutz come out of no where wasn't the nicest thing in the world to happen but he didn't hold a grudge. He didn't know what had been going on in the mind of the guy that walked into him, he could have been lost in thought, he could have been distracted by something he saw, or tripped. Who knew and who cared. This incident was only a minor inconvenience at best. It wasn't like the clumsy guy hurt him or broke anything so Jesse was cool about it. If anything he felt more concern for the man who ran into him rather than himself. Not only was the man embarrassed, but he was already hurt before this. Well, Jesse thought he was injured already. It wasn't like people walked around with their arm bandaged up like that for a fashion statement right? After Jesse brushed off the incident like it wasn't a big deal he asked the man if he was feeling okay.

The guy claimed he was fine, but the agent started feeling a bit suspicious of the man's answer. He seemed a little too nervous about it. Then again that could just be his imagination going on overdrive. It wasn't like the man wasn't just the shy kind of person, who was still embarrassed over the little incident. There was nothing suspicious about that. Open your eyes Jesse, don't forget what happened when you made assumptions like this. Right, he shouldn't always assume that everything was so simple. He had made that mistake in the past. In fact the last time he thought that he was dealing with a normal person it had been on one of his trips here. He had just been doing a bit of window shopping at this store when a little girl approached him. At the time though he was a PIDA agent he didn't think anything of the incident, till a girl named Blake had came up to him and warned him that that innocent looking kid was actually a demon planning to eat his tender juicy flesh. Did Jesse think this guy was going to do the same thing? No, he didn't. But still he had to keep his guard up to some extent until his suspicions were confirmed or denied.

“That's good to hear.” Jesse replied, now that he had the chance to look at the man's arm he noticed that there was something off about it than he originally thought. Was his mind playing tricks on him or was that arm a little bigger than the other one? It was hard to tell from the man's outfit just how big that difference was, but he could have sworn that it looked a little bigger. Alright, that was definitely odd, but that didn't say much about the guy besides that he was a little more than average. If at most this guy was not human that didn't mean he was dangerous. Judging by the way he acted Jesse didn't see him as much of a threat. If this guy was anything like the demon that came after him the last time he would not act so awkward around him, so he could lure Jesse into a false sense of security so he could catch him off guard. The man began to relax a little, human or not this guy wasn't a threat to him. Still it wouldn't hurt to do a little subtle investigation if he could just to see if the guy wasn't in any trouble. Judging from the man's actions alone he could very well be in some kind of trouble.

The stranger suddenly asked him if he knew how to get out of the mall. “You are looking for the exit? Well this is the wrong place to be doing that.” Jesse laughed. “At least you came to the right person. I'm not the greatest at giving the directions but I can do you something better. I can help show you the way out.” Jesse didn't mind giving the man a bit of help there, it wasn't like he couldn't just come right back to the game store if he wanted to. Besides, this gave him an excuse to stick with this guy a bit longer and get a better understanding of what he really was and if he was in some kind of trouble. “If you want to know the way, just follow me.”

[Deleted]

Even though he held a demon arm and had the originally owner of the arm in his head, he wasn't going to eat Jesse. The demon never mentioned to Roger about eating humans though...that was probably just one of the secrets that the demon held. Roger never asked and honestly, nothing ever pushed Roger to ask such questions. After all, when you're going through pain in Axium and losing your mind from time to time, you tend to ignore some things and not ask em. Really Roger was just nervous that Jesse would be in danger since Roger was still new to this arm and the demon could take over in the form of insanity. That wasn't what he wanted.

When Jesse looked at his bandaged arm, Roger looked down at the ground a bit. Great...now Jesse might end up asking about it. At least he couldn't see underneath the bandages. Maybe he could make up a lie about the arm's size? Yeah but...but what? Really the only reasons he could think of weren't really good ones and that would just make it more suspicious.

"Will you stop standing there and let's go!! This guy isn't going to give us directions, so come on!" the dark voice hissed, Roger closed his eyes and put his hand to his head in the way anyone would if they had a headache; he kind of did have one though.

Honestly, you aren't helping so please just leave me alone! Roger thought back as he moved his hand and opened his eyes.

When Jesse asked that he was looking for a exit, Roger nodded. He really needed to get out of here, just to be safe. He didn't want anyone to get hurt by him or by the people of Axium if they had found him here. After all, this place had cameras for security reasons and who knows what Axium was capable of. They could be hacking into the security feeds to try and find him. That was why he didn't go to anyone he knew to show them he was alive and ask for their help. Surprise came to Roger's face when Jesse offered to show him the way since he was bad at giving directions.

"Oh great...now we're stuck with him." the voice moaned, clearly displeased.

"Um....s..so long as you're not....too busy..." Roger started in response to Jesse saying to just follow him if he wanted the way out.

Didn't seem like he had much of a choice. If he wanted out of this place, then he'd have to follow after Jesse. Hopefully they could get out without incident. Last thing Roger wanted was for this man to get hurt all because of him.

[Special Agent Cox]

“Busy? Me? Nah.” the man laughed. “Don't worry about me buddy, if I was busy I would not be in here in the first place. I really don't mind helping you out for a few minutes. You get what you want, and I get to feel like a good samaritan for a day so it all works out.” Jesse wasn't lying when he said that. Though technically speaking he was in here looking for a game for work related reasons he really wasn't that busy. The man had originally came out here to have an excuse to stretch his legs for awhile and relax. If he had been really serious about getting that game he could just buy the damn thing on steam. There was no way in hell that he wouldn't be able to find Dead Space on steam. If he really wanted to he could always just come back over here after helping this guy out. There was nothing stopping him from doing that if he so desired. Besides, this guy was a bit more interesting than looking for a game that may or may not be in this store. It was pretty obvious to Jesse that there was something off about this man. Whether that was because he was dangerous or not he did not know, but gosh darn it he was going to find out somehow.

“Come on buddy let's go.” With that Jesse began to walk towards the store exit, making sure to look back at the stranger to make sure he was following. It was the start of a short journey, if Jesse planned to get some information out of this guy he needed to do it as soon as possible, but also as subtly as possible. It would do him no good if this guy thought he was up to something. So with that in mind Jesse decided to act cool and natural. “Oh yeah, I forgot to introduce myself. The name's Jesse.” the man offered his hand out to shake as he introduced himself. He would wait for him to shake back or at least say something before he continued to walk. Now with introductions (or at least his introduction) out of the way Jesse needed to keep the conversation going. That was an easy task to accomplish for someone as talkative as he was. “So you said you haven't been here in years right? Let me guess, you used to live nearby then moved out. Did you return to visit? Or did you move back in?” it was a simple and innocent enough question to ask. There wouldn't be anything suspicious in asking that, since the guy mentioned something about him coming to this mall in the past before.

[Deleted]

Well he knew he couldn't make the guy change his mind. That was that. Many people were determined and set in their ways that Roger meet or knew, so he really never tried to change em. They were who they were. That was important and that mattered. When Jesse gestured for him to follow, Rodger hesitated for a moment but followed. There wasn't any other way to get out of this place quickly so following Jesse was the only way. Course when Jesse held his hand out once more and introduced himself, Rodger tried to react faster to appear...'normal'.

"Normal? You? BAH!!!" the dark voice snapped as Roger reached with his normal hand in kind of a awkward angle and shook Jesse's hand; trying to avoid using the demon arm.

"I"m Rodger." Roger introduced.

Releasing Jesse's hand and placing it in his pant's pocket, his dark brown gaze looked to where they were walking. Course he soon heard his normal human companion asking questions and Rodger glanced at him. Oh great.

"Just tell him the truth, isn't that what you humans do?" the dark voice asked.

Oh sure, you act like every human would be fine and dandy hearing what happened. Rodger thought back.

"Well....sort of. I...I was forced to move out after...after my wife and....and....well after they died." Rodger started, clearly nervous. "Some family members weren't doing well either with the news and...they pretty much dragged me away. Just recently was able to get away from em. I came to...well...to really try and settle back in the city and...and to visit them since...I couldn't really attend their funeral..."

"Real convincing." the voice replied in a sigh.

SHUT UP! Roger hissed back.

[Special Agent Cox]

“Nice to meet you Roger.” Jesse replied when the man finally gave him a name. It was hard to tell if that was really this guy's name or some kind of alias but after a bit of a debate he decided that it must be true. There was little reason to for him to hide his real name. Sure the guy might be a little suspicious and all, but even if he was trying to hide his true identity he kept things on a first name basis. That was the smart way to go about it, even if you couldn't think up a name on the spot it was harder to have someone track you down just by your first name. That was the way Jesse would have done it. Technically speaking he was already doing that. It wasn't like Jesse was his first name. His first name was Louis but almost no one called him by that, it was just his own personal preference that he went by his middle name. At least that kind of helped keep his identity a secret. Well...it wouldn't do much if someone did a bit of searching and found out who he was from his youtube channel. Luckily for him it didn't seem like any of his 'enemies' even heard of youtube.

While the two men started their journey Jesse thought it would be a good idea to do a little bit of light investigation on Roger. While the man seemed alright Jesse's agent intuition was saying something was up. He didn't think that it was anything serious. His gut was telling him that Roger wasn't a threat. He didn't seem like a monster, and Jesse knew well enough that even if he was some kind of supernatural creature that didn't mean he was a bad guy. There were plenty of supernaturals that lived in the city and most of them lived pretty peaceful and quiet lives here. Jesse's job wasn't to find out who were human and who were not so he could lock them up. If it was then he and his friends would be thrown in cells right next to people like that beast Guillotine. Technically speaking Jesse and those he worked with were human, but the fact that they had powers made them just as 'dangerous' as supernaturals.

Roger didn't seem like a bad guy, so he had no intentions of arresting him for anything. But he had a feeling that something was wrong with him. He seemed so weary and nervous just interacting with him, it was as if he was trying to avoid someone. What was this guy's deal? Jesse had to find out. The only way he would find out was to keep the conversation going. So he did just that. While the two were on their way out Jesse asked Roger why he had left the city before and why he decided to come back. The answer he got was something he didn't expect. “I'm sorry to hear that.” he replied.

Good going asshole he berated himself. Jesse only meant to be a little nosey but he didn't think he would be doing any harm while doing so. Now he felt like a jerk, but despite that his more practical side still felt a little skeptical. Roger was a grown man who claimed to have lost his wife. Someone who suffered such a tragedy would have done all they could to go to his loved one's funeral. Unless he was stuck in an a hospital bed the whole time or was too injured to move there was no way he would have missed that funeral. It didn't help that he seemed really vague about the incident. Was he over thinking this? Perhaps, it wouldn't be to surprising if someone would keep details light on a tragedy that happened to them when discussing it with a total strange. Even then something about this just didn't sit right with the man. Call him crazy but Jesse still felt like there was more to this than met the eye. “What happened that you couldn't go to the funeral?”

[Deleted]

"You really think this is gonna work? We should just ditch this guy and find our own way out." The dark voice sounded off in Roger's head.

Due to the demon, he hadn't heard Jesse's apology. If he had then Roger would've told him it was alright. Course it really wasn't alright. Roger had ruined his own life and unmeaning took the life of his wife and son.

"I don't...don't really remember what exactly happened that they...dragged me away from here before the funeral happened. It's been a great deal of years..." Roger answered, removing his normal hand from under the shoulder and he moved his normal hand about as he spoke. "My condition at the time didn't really help either....they pretty much kept me locked indoors so I couldn't risk doing further damage while I was trying to recover."

Some people talked with their hands while the spoke. So really it was a instinctive thing that Roger had done. True he didn't do it constantly but every so often it happened. Yeah...like any of this was conversing. Roger looked away as they walked, really not sure on what to tell Jesse if the man questioned the matter again. Many was this nerve wrecking! He was trying not to give away the details or the truth cause he thought that was best.

There was good reason for Jesse to think something was wrong with Roger. True starvation was part of it but not really. He had a demon arm sewn into his shoulder wrapped up in bandages. The arm was larger than his other arm and the size was easy to spot. Just compare the bandages and to the size of his unbandaged one, the unbandaged one was clearly thinner and smaller than the one that was bandaged. Another thing was the demon in his head, annoying him as well as giving him a headache with the possibility of losing it at any moment.