Chapter Text
It turns out that being part of the cooking crew is awful. Not only does Echo have to deal with his coworkers talking his ear off, he has to deal with everyone else making some sort of snide comment to him when they queue up. Then again, the snide comments are easier for Echo to digest than the genuine compliments for the very low bar of being a functional adult.
Even he has to admit that it's necessary, however. So he keeps at it, opting to join in for one meal per day for a few days. He even cleans the dishes a few times. His ultimate goal is, of course, to gain a better foothold with everyone else, but he can't deny that it's also a good way to get himself outside more often.
The day Skeptic stops glaring at him is the day Echo decides to make his request. After dinner, Echo catches Skeptic before he heads off with some of the others.
"Can we talk?" Echo asks. When Skeptic raises a quizzical brow, he adds, "I've a request to make."
Skeptic turns to look at his companions. Prisoner shrugs, Cheated yawns, and Hero flashes a thumbs up. Skeptic turns back to Echo. "Fine," he sighs. "I think it's about time we talked, anyway."
The two of them leave the courtyard, Echo with his arms crossed over his chest and Skeptic with his hands in his pockets. Echo leads the way to a nearby house; nobody else is around, making it a prime spot for discussion.
Skeptic leans back against the side of the house. "I owe you an apology," he says, before Echo can say anything.
Well, those were not the words he expected to hear. Echo blinks at him. "What?"
With another sigh, Skeptic looks at him before his gaze focuses somewhere over Echo's shoulder, as if holding his gaze is too uncomfortable. "As much as I still don't like the way you handled things, you had a point. If you hadn't obfuscated the truth, things would have gone to shit way too soon, and we might have done something irreparable."
"Oh."
Skeptic continues, "I doubt I could have done much better in your position. I'm sorry we gave you such a hard time about it."
If he'd had any actual memories of being the many Narrators that Skeptic and the others had faced, Echo is sure the apology would've felt nice. Vindicating, even. Instead, he just feels slightly awkward about it.
But it's a promising first step to have Skeptic apologize in the first place. This is what he'd been working towards! "Thank you," he says before the silence stretches on for too long. "Now that that's out of the way, about my request…"
That gets Skeptic to properly look at him again. "What is it?" he asks. His tone is gruff, but not unfriendly.
Echo draws in a deep breath. "I need your help with something. It may be a large-scale project, but I'm certain you can handle it. I need you to gather every single book in this place and help me go through them."
Skeptic's brows pinch together more and more as Echo speaks. "Why?" he asks, cutting into Echo's spiel.
"I was getting to that part," he grumbles. When Skeptic scowls at him, Echo throws a placating hand up. "Sorry, sorry. This has just been… weighing on me for a while. In short, I've realized the books we have here are very likely drawn from my knowledge. I would like to see if any of them contain hints about who I… who I used to be."
As he considers this, Skeptic holds a hand under his chin. If he were sitting down, Echo imagines he'd be rather reminiscent of The Thinker. "Interesting theory. But why come to me? Who else have you talked to about this?"
"Nobody," Echo says. "If there's anybody I could trust to find something that might mean anything to me, it would be you."
Skeptic's eyes bore into him, like he's trying to look right past the uncomfortable body and peer into his soul. It's a long and uncomfortable moment. "Fine," he says. Before Echo can say anything, he very swiftly adds, "I want a favor from you in turn."
"Yes, yes," Echo says. "Anything."
The look Skeptic gives him is strange. "'Anything?'" he repeats. "Good thing you haven't asked anybody else. No telling what some of them might ask of you."
Echo rolls his eyes. "Well, I didn't ask them, did I? What is it?"
"Simple." Skeptic pushes himself off the wall. "I want a chance to sit down and talk. I have questions, and you're going to answer them."
That's it? Ridiculously easy. "We can do that as we look into things, then," Echo says. "Although I expect gathering all the books might take a while." A pause. "I was considering asking Hunted for help with this, come to think of it. He could help with gathering everything up, at the very least."
Skeptic gestures to another, nearby house. "We can use my place as the base. You'll be wanting to start as soon as possible, I expect?"
Echo nods. "I've already made a list of the volumes I have in my bookshelves. We can avoid picking up duplicates."
"No." Skeptic has his hand under his chin again. "We'll need every single one. The chances of the same books containing nothing but the same information is high, but not a guarantee. We'll need to run everything through a fine-toothed comb if we're looking for anything hidden."
"I…" Echo hesitates. It sounds completely unnecessary—in fact, in sounds like much more work than he'd hoped for. But if Skeptic's right? If there's something that they miss just because he decided to be complacent, when really they have all the time in the world?
"I understand," Echo says. "But I'm beginning to suspect we may as well get multiple people to help gather everything. We can deal with the hard part ourselves afterwards."
"Agreed." Skeptic breaks out into a grin. He even sounds as eager as he looks. "I'll go spread the word. We should have everything gathered by tomorrow at the latest."