Confusion was the most appropriate term to describe what Aspen felt, eyeing her fellow Silver Wolf mage with slightly raised eyebrow. She didn't quite understand the appeal, the aim of this "maze", or whatever else this could be called, was to aimlessly wander around until one would find the exit, the value of entertainment such as this escaping her entirely. In her eyes there was no purpose in this action other than mindlessly killing time, which, as she had found, seemed to be the highest goal at this thing people called a festival. Though, of course, that wasn't the only reason why she thought Theo a complete fool. As soon as they had entered the maze the other seemed to go through some kind of nervous episode, wheezing and flailing like a suffocating chicken.
"Are ... are you okay?", the girl asked not out of concern, though what could be interpreted as a hint of strange curiosity, the man in the tracksuit, however, quickly confirming that he was fine, a fact Aspen was doubting heavily based on the fact that she had two eyes and assumed she could see fairly well.
Indeed, the other continued his strange antic, calling her by name, the raised eyebrow on the girl's face persisting for just a little longer, replying in a tone that was ever-so-subtly different from her normally monotonous one and laced with an indication of confused questioning,
"Yes?", the Treasure Hunter chuckling again, serving to begin to also unnerve the Dragon Slayer, slowly but surely.
"What is it?". Of course, this, too, wasn't answered by a straight reply, the other instead going in a strange tirade about ... blood?
"What about it? Hello?". Aspen found her patience runnign thinner and thinner, especially considering Theo was rather unresponsive, instead dancing around like a monkey, the sounds he produced not entirely unlike one either.
"Are you having a stroke, Treasure Hunter?", the girl would ask quickly, now with a more direct implication of potentially self-serving concern for the other's well-being. Despite his ... somewhat evident mental challenges Aspen wouldn't appreciate the fact that the first festival she would ever go on would leave her associate dead, and with the girl unsure what to make of the man's behavior she couldn't be quite sure either way. Was it possible he'd gotten himself into a rather unpleasant food-poisoning situation, lamenting the pressing absence of a toilet? Perhaps. One of many theories that crossed Aspen's mind, some reasonable, some more absurd, which was of course until Theo clarified.
This still didn't serve to clarify the matter to the girl, though.
"Huh?", the girl tilted her head at the mention of speedrunning, staring at the other when he explained that he had been ... tortured? Not just that, in this place? This didn't make sense. At all. The girl stared at the Treasure Hunter for a good few seconds before simply uttering a now openly confused and very much defeated
"What?", followed by
"Can you ex- Hey!", Theo caring little to do so, the other Silver Wolf mage, in fact, already in the middle of a mad dash, leaving Aspen behind. The girl simply closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose with a heavy sigh as she lowered her head. After everything that had occured thus far would she have to babysit him as well? Thinking about it ... without Theo, she would be pretty much stranded. She had no idea where in Fiore they actually were, if they even still were in Fiore, and being a new arrival to this land the way back to the guildhall was ... entirely unknown.
"Wait! Treasure Hunter!", she opened her eyes with a bit of shock, immediately beginning to make after him and deeper into the maze.
Although Theo had gotten a more than decent head start on her and was out of her sights Aspen managed to follow the man's scent using her slayer senses, which was her one saving grace considering that labeling her sense of direction as terribly inadequate would be a gross understatement, clumsily making her way through the maze and eventually out of the same double doors as Theo, spotting the guy on the ground right outside the Mansion, making her way over and looming over him, listening to his obviously distressed words. Sighing once more, she replied
"It's fine, but don't run off all of a sudden", the lack of emotion or tone returning to her voice. In honestly, the low expectations, or rather, the complete lack of any expectations whatsoever prepared Aspen for most setbacks, this festival thus far posing little more than a mildly amusing waste of time, the promise of a "fun festival" particularly lost on her. Well, in a sense, at least, an idea that was somewhat uncharacteristic of the unfeeling Slayer beginning to take shape in her mind, perhaps stemming directly from her morbid intrigue with the guy.
"Well, the festival is not yet over yet ...". Aspen extended her hand in an offer to help Theo up from the ground.
"... meaning you can explain what is wrong to me over a drink, Treasure Hunter. Come on, or do you wanna lie there and pity yourself all day?", she smirked subtly in a taunt that was, in contrast, all the more characteristic of the Slayer.
New Word Count: 890
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