A few moments pass with limbo. Alex stands facing his reflection. His face has grown indifferent, expressionless. Gazing at his own glowing, cyan eyes, the left one starts tearing up again. Memories shift in his mind, fragmented and lost. The faces of loved ones unseen, blank. Colors of these depictions are muted and cold. It feels... like his very essence, the last bit of 'self' left, is drifting, leaving the scope of his soul. 

A cold personality overtakes Alex's face. Riddik and Nilin freeze in place watching him as the air in the room transforms from spirited and warm to dull and gloomy. A fourth of a minute passes and Alex blinks twice. He roams the room with his eyes for a moment and looks at them both. A drip of his tears splatter the carpet, glowing yet again and then dissipating to yet another bland puddle of water, mist billowing away. The atmosphere shifts back to its original emotion as Alex wipes his face analyzing the annoying viscera that won't stop exiting his body. 

As Alex assesses his changes, Nilin and Riddik speak with one another in a corner. Riddik starts, "This... is normal apparently. I trust Akhmin on his word... He's had a bad sequence of events so far." Nilin nods as he listens but with a confused look. "So what's wrong with him?" Riddik looks back at Alex staring around him, taking in every single object with his sight. "I suppose... not 'wrong' per se... more like different. He doesn't necessarily have 'organic' proportions. He's... He's a Chiro." Riddik puts his finger on his jowl as he props his elbow in thought. Nilin looks at Alex amazed. As he watches him scour the room further, a thought comes to mind. His eyes open wide as he looks back at Riddik. "J...Just one moment I'll be right back...--" As he flees, Riddik sets his sights again back to Alex who is now playing with the textures of several suits. Riddik's face cringes in wonder as to why... 

Nilin brings in a small, rectangular case with a gemstone-esque appeal. Engravings of diamond geometry line the top. He opens it real quick and takes out some glasses. The wireframe is halved, the color, a deep bronzen gold. The lens is bare at the top, an opaque sea-teal color. Nilin pokes at Alex's shoulder softly to get his attention and presents them to him as he quickly turns his head without a spoken word. He takes them, stares at them as if taking in information of every single detail, and looks at Nilin. "I think... I remember these are..." He looks at them again, curiously. "Glasses?" He puts them on. "But why?" Alex states. "I don't have issues seeing. Isn't this what they are for? Handicap assistance?" His eyes don't seem to have needed adjustments nor did the tint of them block out light. Nilin grinned happily. "They just look very sophisticated" He says. Alex raises a brow, unsure what to say. Although confused he accepts them and keeps them on. "I do like them..."

Riddik has observed Alex's behaviors throughout the trip. He's deducted a wierd pattern. He was unsure of himself the whole excavation period, then Alex was serious... after he got visited by a ghostly figure in the night... He then started being more gentle with actions, being knowledgeable of his surroundings and his memory of words. Aphrodesian words... it felt nonsensical but then he started realizing that... Alex doesn't know... who Alex is. Alex is... humanoid. He is thoughtful. Alex is logical and adept. Alex is now formal and astute, observant... where are these personalities coming from? This doesn't seem like the same person from before. There was also something very different about this chiro. The other ones were scrap metal androids. Robots designed for work. Alex was a whole other level of design. His body resembled an organic figure with traces of inorganic metals and rock. What flows out of it is an essence quite similar to that of minerals. If it weren't for Alex being a conscious being capable of thought and feeling... he would've dissected him like a geode by now given the opportunity...

Before Riddik could mutter the words to pay, Nilin replied, "Take it. It was nothing but an imaginative artpiece that flooded my mind. Besides, Alex seemed to have been destined to wear it." He locks his hands in front of his face, thinking deeply about what just transpired. "Where do you think we go...?" Riddik raises their head to listen. "When we dream... where do you think our soul trails off to...?" Riddik also ponders this. He's been studying archaic ruins for many years, gemstones of a past forgotten by history and those naturally compressed. His answer is still not given to him even after all this work. Now... now he's nothing but a pawn in a gang's schemes. "I'm uncertain... but... one day we will probably be found by Taellis once again... That, I'm certain of."

Nilin adjusts his glasses and gets up from his seat. Seff and Elkhra meet Alex in the moment. Seff's eyes gleam with excitement at Alex's outfit, "That... looks... SO cool!" Alex looks at his cuff and arm. He gives Seff a side-eye. "It's... something I remember..." He taps his temple in grief of memory loss. He sighs frustrated. 

Riddik motions the group to follow him out of the store while Nilin joins them, a small flat pouch by his side. A smile lowers on his face as he turns to lock up his store for the afternoon. He looks around in the window of his store. The heatwave has caused quite a detriment to the customer count. If this lingers on... how will he make his dues...? "Three... days...", he says... He puts his hand on his forehead, staring in space downward toward the rocky ground. He puts his hand on the window, even knowing he'll need to clean it later. It felt like a carbon print of him existing, of life still persistant. He lets go of it... and turns to walk off with his friends toward the square.