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Damn it Luca, why do you have to get caught so easily. It's your second chair already. Edgar clicked his tongue as he noticed Luca's status on the machine given to survivors change from Last Effort to knock down. He noted that the Forward was already half health, and recalled the Lawyer had brought Broken Windows and not Tide, so he pinged, 'Stay put, I'm coming!'
On his way there, he continued his unfinished painting from before. Good thing he was the first one to be chased before the hunter gave up on him and changed target so he was able to record the hunter's face.
As he finished the said painting, he continued running towards Luca, and the hunter, Jack, was near. The Ripper noticed Edgar coming close and he tried to fog blade Edgar, which Edgar dodged with ease. He placed down his finished painting, though Jack was quick enough to not look at the direction of the painting.
"You have to try harder than that Painter."
"You know you can't attack me if I stay close to my painting."
"Then you won't be able to save the 'Prisoner' if you keep staying close to your painting."
"And you won't be able to attack me or Balsa if I save him cause you would have to look at it."
The Ripper let out a 'tsk' before aimlessly swinging at the direction of the painting a few times. All times he missed Edgar by an inch.
The final time he swung, he hit Edgar's painting, which broke into two pieces. Jack finally turned towards the direction of the painting, confused by the sound, surprise filling his face(or mask?) when he realised the finished canvas had broken in half. Edgar stood on top of the broken painting, mouth agape.
Jack looked at Edgar for a solid few seconds, before he started laughing, "I guess I can't attack you, but I certainly can attack your painting so that it won't have any effects on me."
"You--" Edgar begun, but was unsure of how to continue. He was definitely fuming though.
He took of his beret and ran a hand through his hair, "You just--"
Luca could definitely tell Edgar was really mad, but now was definitely not the time for him to be mad. He was kinda tied to a chair that was waiting to be blasted off, afterall.
"Uhm... Eddie, a little help here?" Luca gestured to himself, though his wrist is locked in place by the rocket chair.
"Not now, Balsa." Edgar waved him off impatiently, "There's currently more pressing matters to attend to."
"Like what, Painter?" Jack folded his arms, curious on how this would play out.
"What got you so worked up Eddie-?" Luca raised an eyebrow.
Edgar waved his hand towards the position where the painting was last placed. "Didn't you see-!? He just-- He broke my painting that I had just placed--!"
"The hunters break my connections all the time, it'll be more of a surprise if they didn't break it at least once in a match." Luca informed, sinking further back into the rocket chair. To be very honest, it was quite comfy once he stopped struggling in the chair. Minus the ropes binding him down to the chair, that is.
Edgar glared at the 'Prisoner' sitting on the chair, "They break your connections, not your inventions, Balsa--!! Not any of the nonsense you set up in matches!"
He turned back and glared daggers at the hunter. "Weren't you an artist before-? Shouldn't you have respect for another's work-!?"
Jack stood there in silence, amused at the whole situation.
Edgar clicked his tongue, "Y'know, I was originally going to make you my muse for a session or two since your appearance did intrigue me, but after that stunt you did-? I'm ashamed I even thought of that."
Luca glanced at the little machine he had on his wrist, which showed the current state of the survivors in the match. His status was someone trapped on the chair, and the progress bar kept filling, almost reaching the end. Luca looked at the message William was spamming, 'Save when it's critical!'. William was probably worried(and most definitely confused) that Edgar had not rescued him by now. He pinged a 'Focus on decoding!' so that William, who was still half health because the other survivor in the match was Riley, would not come and attempt to rescue when he could have used the time to decode. There was just 1 cipher left. He would just need to remind Edgar to rescue him before he gets blasted off.
"Uhm... Eddie, not to interrupt your session or anything but the--"
Before Luca could finish his sentence, The Ripper interrupted him, bowing slightly, "Why, my apologies. But you seem to have forgotten that this is a non-friendly match. I can't be standing here chit-chatting with you, now can I?" With that, Jack raised a hand to attack Edgar.
Edgar was quick to react, however, as he swiftly moved out of harm's way, causing Jack to hit the chair instead. Luca flinched back in surprise. Once the attack landed, Edgar immediately ripped off the wires trapping Luca on the chair.
He grabbed Luca by the arm, and they were off, Edgar cursing at Jack with a lot of swears in different languages as they ran, "DONT CALL YOURSELF AN ARTIST IF YOU CAN'T APPRECIATE OTHERS ART--!"
Luca didn't know what to react to. The fact that Edgar finally saved him at the literal last second mark, or the fact that The Ripper has stopped chasing them, staying next to the rocket chair, clearly confused on how to react to the painter's lack of filter, or the fact that Edgar knew that many swear words in that many different languages.
So he said, "What the f-ck."
"That's what I should be saying." Edgar stopped running, and pulled Luca behind a wall. "Now stop moving, that b-stard isn't chasing us anymore. I ought to heal you first before you get yourself hurt again."
Luca laughed as Edgar began to bandage him.
"You do know if you continue to run your mouth like that, the hunters will start to dislike you even more?"
"I could care less. I'll only respect them if they respect me and my art."
"Is that why Galatea never seem to attack you when you're matched with her?"
"She's the only hunter now I'll be willing to paint that's not for the matches. Maybe that Geisha or the mirror lady as well, but we'll see." Edgar tightened the bandages around Luca, earning a yelp from him, "Now shut up while I bandage you. I'm not in the mood for anymore chit-chat."
Luca laughed sheepishly, staying in silence after that as Edgar continued to heal him up. He received a ping from Riley, 'The hunter is near me' and another one from William, 'Cipher machine primed!'
Freddy got hit soon after and the last cipher was immediately popped. Luca immediately felt better as he was able to get up, even without fully getting bandaged by Edgar. Luca was about to leave for the back gate of Sacred Hearts Hospital, but was pulled by Edgar in the opposite direction, towards the front gate.
"You dolt, the Lawyer got hit in the maze near the back gate, and he had already changed his trait from peeper to blink just to down you just now. He'll check the back gate first." Edgar pushed Luca towards the switch so he could punched in the numbers as he started another painting.
Edgar had a nonchalant expression on his face as he shook his head slightly. "You seriously need to be more observant, Balsa. Aren't you supposed to be a genius? You should be able to choose the better of the two options."
Luca punched in the long strings of numbers onto the number pad, as he chuckled, not finding the painter's words to be rude even though it would have came off as an insult to others. It was just the painter's own way of caring, in his opinion. He knew Edgar usually do not choose the right choice of words when speaking, but he knew he cared for him.
As he entered in the last few numbers, he felt his heart starting to race. He turned around as soon as he finished entering the numbers, noticing Jack coming closer and closer, his eyes shining red.
Oh sh-t.
Luca ran in front of the door, which was opening slowly. It seemed to open slower than usual, or was it just his imagination? Regardless, he needed the door to open, so he can get out, like now.
Where was Edgar, even? Wasn't he right behind him a few moments ago? Was he that not observant? Probably.
Jack walked towards him even quicker, being amidst in the fog. Luca closed his eyes, bracing for the impact when The Ripper do attack him, and still continuously hoping for the door to open quicker. Jack raised his attacking hand, "Hello again, 'Prisoner', I'm terribly sorry for continuously attacking you, but I can't let myself get a 4 man escape, now can I?"
With that, he swung his raised hand down to hit Luca.
...
Well at least that's what should have happen--
Luca heard a cry of pain from the hunter in front of him and immediately opened his eyes.
Jack was holding the side of his head with his hand, and a broken piece of the painting from before was on the ground beside him. Another of the broken piece from that painting was thrown at Jack, this time hitting his hand. Jack turned his head and looked at the person who had done that, and surprised, surprised, it turned out to be Edgar.
Jack clicked his tongue at the sight of the painter. The painter's words really did ticked him off after his initial shock. Edgar, with a smirk on his face, quickly stepped to one side, revealing a painting that had been placed there by himself. Jack immediately put down his hand, and he, as though he was in a trance, walked straight towards the painting that was placed quite a far distance away from the now opened Exit Gate, curiosity overcoming his urge to get at least one survivor down. Edgar bolted towards Luca as both headed further in towards the exit.
After that few seconds of trance, Jack turned around, finding himself far away from the two survivors who were already deep into the exit gate and was basically on the edge of escaping.
His eyebrows furrowed, walking towards the last two survivors in the match(William and Freddy got out when Luca pinged 'Get out of here!'). Edgar continued smirking at the hunter, arms folded as Jack walked even closer towards them both. Luca stood there, wanting to leave after confirming that Edgar was going to leave as well.
Edgar ensured that Jack was able to see him clearly, before flipping a finger at him, as though to say 'That's what you get for breaking my painting', and grabbed a hold of Luca's hand, and left.
As the two of them walked back to the Manor, Edgar had a smug face of satisfaction, after doing that to Jack, a hunter. How Edgar had the courage to do that, Luca didn't know. He was still very much a snob and very much egotistical in Luca's opinion, but that doesn't mean that courage of his was not part of why Edgar can admittedly be so admirable.
Edgar snickered at what he did, feeling a sense of contentment for having done that to poor? Jack. Even though Luca did not exactly approve of what Edgar did, Edgar's laughter was kinda... pretty, to hear. That was the first(and probably last) time he heard Edgar's laughter.
"Glad to have done that to him. He doesn't deserve to be called an artist." Edgar pleased, before grimacing, "I, however, need to write in to the Baron to request for sturdier canvases in matches, lest this happens again."
Luca absentmindedly nodded, entranced by the appearance of the painter in front of him. Edgar was also still holding his hand in his, and his laughter was still very much pretty to hear and Luca really wanted to hear it again, even though Edgar had only just stopped laughing.
I kinda want something like this to happen again if I can hear that laugh once more.
Edgar snapped his fingers in front of Luca, forcing him to turn his attention back to Edgar and his words.
Edgar removed his hand from his own, eyebrow raised, folding his arms, "Are you even listening to me, Balsa?"
Luca felt his face heat up as he replied with a shaky, "Yeah, of course-?"
Edgar sighed, "Whatever. Anyways, as I was saying..."
Edgar's voice trailed off as Luca fell back into his thoughts of Edgar's laughter again. He really did want to hear his laughter once more. Maybe he should write to the Baron not to fulfill Edgar's request, but that would be too selfish of him, wouldn't it?