Work Text:
Report
Subject: Agent Grapes
Date: ■■■■■■
Upon entrance into the glass prison, a classic identity check was done. The identity check classified the Agent as an [entity] despite multiple assurances from the Agent of being human. Furthermore, the Agent’s body reacted badly to the Glass Prison’s surnatural suppression. As a result, several tests were made to ascertain Agent Grape’s identity.
■■ and ■■■■ confirmed the Agent affirmations, but they’ve been known to be unreactive to shapeshifter-based Disasters or [entity] convinced of their own humanity. The use of ■■■ Mirror was authorised.
The mirror showed no reflection. We are now certain Agent Grapes was an infiltrated [entity] within the Bureau. Due to his unwavering belief of being human, we suspect the [entity] to either be a strongly contaminated individual or to come from a Disaster where their identity is [human].
The [entity] was sent to the glass prison under suspicion of spying for Daydream Inc. Being unaware of its true nature must have been a way to ensure it passed the Bureau job interview. We are currently checking over the other employee under suspicion of spying for any anomalous contamination.
Upon seeing the lack of reflection, [Agent Grapes] body and ego began to collapse. It pulled out a Daydream suit from empty air and put it on, to no visible effect.
It is common for shapeshifter Disasters to be unable to maintain their form once being found out. The suit might have been an experimental item Daydream lended the [entity] for protection. A request has been made to attempt to recover it.
Under the insistence of an Agent, we moved the entity away from the glass prison and inside an isolated sanctuary for cooperative spirits. Since then, several stabilisation items and talismans have been installed on the room. These talismans have shown their effect previously on fading cooperative spirits, and looked to have successfully slowed down [Agent Grapes]’s collapse despite the interference of the Daydream suit.
When requesting [Agent Grapes] to remove the suit, the [entity] has shown signs of fear, panic and accelerated fading. It was decided to work with the interference and postpone the Daydream equipment recovery until a solution has been found.
Agents knowing [Agent Grapes] have been sent to strengthen the [entity]’s ego and assess its mental state.
Spiritual beast potential: T.b.d. after stabilisation
“Grapes-ie, you need to remove the suit.” Agent Choi coaxed from the other side of the wall. “It’s interfering with our equipment to help with the contamination.”
I frenetically shook my head. I couldn’t. Who was to say what would happen if I removed it?
The memory of my flesh collapsing in on itself was still too fresh in my mind. Even now, I barely dared explore my nerves from the unstable balance I had found thanks to the suit. I had a vague sense of organs being misplaced and odd things like horns and claws having grown in weird places.
I’m human I’mhumanimhumanihuman—
I didn’t want to think about it.
“Grapes-ie…” Agent Choi opened his mouth, looking as if he wanted to say more, but ended up closing it right back.
After a last longful glance at me, he sighed and left.
Good.
That guy was the reason I was here in the first place.
I knew it couldn’t be helped because it was Agent Choi. Still, I felt resentful. If he hadn’t been so suspicious and trapped me here, or if he hadn’t recklessly decided he should save me from that company even though I was fine, my body wouldn’t be like that.
I wasn’t sure why it collapsed.
I didn’t remember.
The identification process had some issues. The Bureau had offered an alternative, and then—
My last memory was of a large empty glass. It loomed, wide and empty, different from the glass prison wall that endlessly reflected and reflected and reflected and where was myreflection?
It didn’t make sense. The glass prison was a place that could restrain ghost stories. Because I was a human, it shouldn’t have affected me much beyond restraining the link I had with Braun. The identification process should have worked.
Truthfully, I hadn’t heard anything from the doll since landing here. I wasn’t sure where it was, really. Part of my belonging seemed to have… fused, during the collapse.
I’m human—
Did it happen because I came from another world?
I felt like I was missing something.
In the first place, because I didn’t really belong here, I might count as a sort of [ghost story]. The nostalgia series didn’t work with me, either.
The identification process failed.
The Mirror they showed me— it should have shown a reflection.
There had been a reflection… right?
I could just remember a large empty glass and the dizzying realisation—
I don’t belong here. I need to go home.
The Bureau seemed to think I was some kind of ghost, or had been affected by a contamination from Daydream.
Could it be?
My skin was melting.
I didn’t remember. I couldn’t find anything about Daydream acting like that from the wiki either. Still, it was possible. Even though Agent Choi had removed Director Ho’s curse, there might have been other failsafes.
Looking at how we were sent to spy with our full name, it was highly likely Director Ho had sent us here with the expectation we’d be caught.
My finger fell off. It landed near a tooth.
My thoughts were interrupted as another Agent entered the room.
“Agent Grapes,” Agent Bronze greeted me.
Agent Bronze looked taller than usual today.
I nodded in return. Agent Bronze wouldn’t push. I could relax a bit more around him.
He’d brought some food, but I wasn’t hungry.
My stomach was scattered. Some bits of intestine clinged to a horn on my waist. It wiggled.
In the end he just ended up eating the snacks alone while I watched.
I felt numb.
“I’m sorry about Agent Choi,” he eventually said once his plate was cleaned. “He is trying to help.”
I knew.
It was part of the problem though. I didn’t need his help. Because he didn’t properly know my goals and my circumstances, it was detrimental at best.
I was still collapsing.
Shouldn’t the collapsing have stopped?
I reached out with a hoove. The suit was here.
As I stayed silent, Agent Bronze resumed: “Could you tell me why you refuse to remove the suit?”
I almost raised my voice by reflex before remembering it wasn’t currently possible. My vocal cords were distorted, partially displaced by the collapse of my body. Remembering my time as a “Security Agent” in the attraction park, I gathered smoke to speak.
Body: collapse
Why hadn’t it stopped?
Bronze frowned upon seeing my answer. “It should be fine, now,” he said. “You’re not in the Glass Prison anymore.”
I wasn’t?
I looked around. My eyes had lost themselves somewhere away from my skull, but I could still see.
One rolled on my tongue, trapped inside a too-long jaw.
Another thing it was better not to think about.
It was… possible this room wasn’t in the Glass Prison. It looked like a sanctuary, and I couldn’t sense the oppressive feeling that had suffocated me during the identity check. Still, I couldn’t let my guard down.
This may be a trap.
The jaw fell off. The eye rolled down and was stopped by the fabric of the suit.
Everything had gone too fast when I entered the prison.
Once my body began its collapse I had been too desperate to stop it to care about my surroundings. There had been questions. Shouting.
I didn’t remember.
By the time I regained my senses, I was here.
Here being this sanctuary. It was a simple equipped room, walls covered in all kinds of talismans to ward off disaster energy.
I couldn’t leave.
I think I tried. I wasn’t sure.
It must have been when I still had legs.
I think I still had a foot near my ear. Or was it a claw?
From careful observation, the room did look like the pocket dimensions the Bureau used to host cooperative spirits than like a room in the Glass Prison. It even had the calming bells and talismans to go with it. Still, that didn’t mean I could carelessly remove the suit.
It might worsen the collapse.
How long did I still have?
My chest hurt from stress.
Or was it from the rib poking at my heart?
Body: collapse now I added.
Agent Bronze’s face became darker. “As I thought… it’s not enough.” His gaze travelled to the talismans on the walls.
Were they supposed to stop my body from collapsing?
It obviously didn’t work.
Nothing worked. I was going numb.
If I didn’t have the suit, would I have died here?
Was I going to die?
“Agent Grapes, do you know what’s happening?” Agent Bronze asked.
I shook my head.
I did have the guess that this was due to coming from another world… but I couldn’t really tell them that, could I?
“We think Daydream cursed you with a type of contamination. Only, we can’t find any traces of new contamination from your body.”
There was something odd on Agent Bronze’s face when he said ’new’. I guess he had found the various contaminations I collected while working for Daydream, then.
“Currently, your body is fully indistinguishable from that of a ghost.”
But I wasn’t—
I was—
A wing grew.
“This means we can’t isolate the source. At best, we could try to indiscriminately remove all contaminations, but since you don’t even present as human, doing that would—” Agent Bronze fell quiet.
Remove all traces of contamination… this could work. Still, I wasn’t comfortable with mindlessly removing all contaminations. They were a part of me. What would remain if we removed them?
From Bronze’s expression, it wasn’t a good solution.
If the Glass Prison suppression hadn’t worked, removing the contaminations wouldn’t either. It might just accelerate whatever caused my body to collapse.
I shook my head.
Request: me → go
I awkwardly formed an arrow towards the door with my smoke. If I went to Director Ho with what he wanted, he would give me the wish potion. I just had to go home. Then, all abnormal effects would disappear.
Did I have a home?
This time, it was Agent Bronze’s turn to shake his head. “We can’t do that.”
Why? I asked.
I understood why they wouldn’t let a spy from Daydream escape, but… still, I felt a bit hurt. My body was still collapsing. This was a matter of life or death for me.
None of my hearts were beating. When did they stop beating?
Couldn’t they trust me just this once?
Since when did I have two hearts?
“Your body will collapse if you leave,” Agent Bronze explained, gesturing to the talisman.
My smoke buzzed angrily.
No. Reason: Suit.
The talismans were aimed for cooperative spirits. If the Bureau believed I wasn’t human, they were working with the wrong bases. It wouldn’t work.
The suit, on the contrary, had successfully slowed down my body collapse.
Had it truly been the suit?
Why wouldn’t the talismans work on me?
I was—
I didn’t know how long the suit would give me, but it must be enough to go see Director Ho.
It had to be.
Agent Bronze looked at me with the same air he gave Agent Choi when the latter tried to convince him smoking was good for health.
“Agent Grapes— the suit is not helping,” he gently said. I had seen him use that tone on terrified citizens while coaxing them to the exit. “All it did was interfere with our talismans. It might be best to remove it.”
A rush of panic crossed my numbing mind at the idea of removing the last thread keeping my body together.
I was still here.
No.
The frown on Agent Bronze’s face increased. “It’s something Daydream gave you, right? What did they tell you about it?” He stepped forward, hands reaching out as if to touch the suit.
I was still me.
No. I increased the size of my smoke-word.
I couldn’t risk it.
My body— it had been collapsing too fast.
“I understand,” Agent Bronze relented, stepping back.
Not long after, his phone rang. His air was serious as he listened to the voice on the other side of the phone.
“Would you be alright with Agent Choi coming back?” He asked once the call was over, pointing the phone towards me. “He says he has a solution.”
I stayed silent.
I didn’t know how I felt about Agent Choi yet. I couldn’t trust his idea. Still, if the Bureau refused to let me go, this might be my best chance.
I didn’t have long left.
After a moment, I nodded.
“Thank you,” Agent Bronze gratefully said.
Not long after, Agent Choi came in running while waving packs of candles in his hands. “This- this should work,” he panted. He, too, had grown taller.
By then, my mind had regressed to the point I couldn’t feel panic anymore. My last fingers had fallen somewhere down near what remained of my stomach and been swallowed by what looked like snake teeth.
I wasn’t sure I still cared.
Everything was numb.
“We need to place those in a circle,” Agent Choi ordered, slightly recovered from his sprint. “The long ones in the back, the short ones in the front.”
He demonstrated with a segment in the side of the room.
Agent Bronze and I received our own pack of candles. I looked at mine indecisively.
Could I grab them?
Even then, I couldn’t walk. Should I just place them around me? I hadn’t tried to move since my failed attempt at walking.
By the time I reached out to a candle, Agent Choi had stolen it from me.
“We will revert you back to your original state Grapes-ie, so don't worry,” he reassured as he passed by, mistakenly taking my hesitation for anxiety.
I looked at the candles. A ritual owned by the Bureau to restore something not to their pre-contamination state, but to their original state.
If I had been my full self, a shudder would have run down my spine.
I remembered a disaster like that. It had been marked as a cooperative spirit during the early years of DER, then lost traction and ended up mostly forgotten.
Because its effect was so powerful, it had been determined that it was a bit fickle as a cost. You could never guarantee what it considered an “original state”. At least not without serious offerings to increase the likelihood of the spirit goodwill.
Question: price paid
“Nothing you have to worry about,” Agent Choi assured while placing a other candle.
I waited for a familiar frustration to fill me, but it didn’t.
I wasn’t worried about him.
It should have been terrifying. It wasn’t.
I could feel myself go numb but couldn’t muster the will to stop it.
The circle was done.
Agent Bronze and Agent Choi began some odd dance outside the circle of candle, while I stood in the center. I mustn’t have been more than half a meter tall by then, my flesh an uncertain lump pooling at the bottom of the suit.
The more I witnessed Agent Choi and Bronze awkwardly wiggle their ass while saying ominous things, the more I regretted not having pushed more to go see Director Ho instead.
It was a bit lame of a last sight.
Then the atmosphere turned heavier and the flames began to dance in rhythm with the Agents' voices.
Fire rushed towards me faster than I could react.
I stayed still, knowing this particular disaster hated nothing more than people refusing its touch after asking for favours.
The suit disappeared first. My body immediately resumed its collapse.
Was that the sound of a music box?
The noise was drowned by the roar of flames.
I knew they were devouring my skin, yet I couldn’t feel anything. I even felt numb to the idea of being burned alive.
And then—
Welcome, Ireun-nim!
Welcomewelcomewelcomeyournotafraidgoodgoodgoodbravesoul
The flames spoke.
I can help.
Doyouneedhelpafavourhasbeenasked
They gently brushed my face, warm.
I will help.
Justthistimegiftingthegiftofrebirth
They filled the skin which had collapsed with life.
Remembermeusyouremember.
falsebodymadewholemadebettervesselforIreunnim
They rose a fire in my numb heart.
You are—
KimSoleumIreunnimSociusLodgeMaster–
Your vessel is—
TheYellowDragoncorpse.
I blinked.
The world looked bright. Brighter than usual.
So bright, actually, that it was a bit painful.
The candles were all off.
“Agent Grape?” Agent Bronze hesitantly asked.
I turned in his direction. Or at least, I tried to, but the movement shifted my weight in an unusual way and I immediately collapsed on my muzzle.
My thoughts stopped.
Muzzle?
Looking at it now, the reason I had collapsed was that I moved my legs forward without taking into account the two front paws firmly anchored onto the ground.
I had become a large, golden dragon.
“Why— How did this happen?” Agent Choi swore.
I’d also like to know. Even if I was not from this world, how could my origin be linked to a dragon?!
“It’s alright,” Agent Choi said, his complexion going pale. “I can fix it. I just need to—”
My brand new tail swept his feet and tripped him before he could say another word. As far as I was concerned, he’d done enough.
I could fix myself.
After all, the solution was easy. I had always known it.
I just needed to leave this world.
Director Ho might not recognise me under this shape, but I could still exchange the information he wanted for a wish potion.
He… he definitely wasn’t human. He would probably agree to trade with another ghost.
I tested my wings. Their whole length didn’t fit in the room, but they felt ready to work. As promised, the disaster had given me a ’better vessel’. I was pretty sure I could figure them out on the go.
“Agent Grapes!” Agent Bronze called. I turned a head larger than his waist towards him. He was crouched down at Agent Choi’s side, who looked to have gotten knocked out when being tripped by my tail.
It looked like the blow had been a bit stronger than I intended.
I guiltily bowed my head.
Agent Bronze slightly relaxed. “He will be fine,” he assured. Something quivered in his eyes. “Are you leaving?”
“You don’t have to,” seemed to be on his lips.
I could feel his desire to convince me to stay, but also the acknowledgement that he wouldn’t stop me. Agent Bronze was as reliable as always.
I nodded.
Right now, I wasn’t human.
I could be admitted by the Bureau as a cooperative spirit beast, but—
This wasn’t my proper form.
Your vessel is the yellow dragon corpse.
It felt misfitted, rented. I needed to become a human again.
I wanted to go home.
Unlike the numbness that filled me a moment ago, I could feel a renewed determination to accomplish my goal running through every restored nerve of my body.
This time, nothing stopped me as I stepped out of the door. Agent Bronze was mutedly staying near the collapsed Agent Choi, refusing to look in my direction.
I took a few minutes in front of the entrance to locate my tattoo between two golden scales. It looked intact.
I pulled out any items the Agents could find useful in the future. Still, it didn’t feel enough.
Despite Agent Choi’s misguided attempt to save me, Hyunmoo Team 1 had done its best to welcome me. They deserved a proper goodbye, or a letter at least.
I couldn’t wait.
I could almost smell the scent of a wish potion on my lips. Now that my decision was taken, I was so close to going home—
I raised my wings and took flight.
I had a wish potion to collect.