Chapter 3: Elliot

God, he’s even more gorgeous in person.

The most magnificent man I’ve ever seen sits next to the Commissioner. Pale, unblemished skin covers every inch of his body. Big, violet eyes sit on his face, framed by delicate, round reading glasses. White bangs fall softly on his features, the rest of his hair stopping at his shoulders in a sort of jellyfish haircut. His body looks frail, his frame small, and yet he carries himself with unmatched poise and elegance. The colors of the uniform only enhance his loveliness. 

It would be hard to meet such an inhumanly stunning person back in my world; this meeting is only possible because I came here. Because of Marina. I never thought I would be thanking her for this, but hey, perhaps not everything is as bad as I thought it would be.

“Um, Marina? Is everything ok?” His amethyst orbs gaze upon me in concern.

His voice interrupts my trance, and I catch myself staring at him. Just how long did I gaze upon his perfection? I feel like an idiot. Whatever happened to bracing for impact? I thought I would be fine, but nothing could have prepared me for this. I take a second, forcing my voice to come through.

“Oh- Oh. Yes. I’m ok. Sorry, just had a rough night. Apologies for the lateness, Commissioner, Elliot”. My voice falters slightly when I call out Elliot’s name.

I walk to the seat next to Elliot’s, my heart thumping in my chest. My breath is uneven, legs shaking as I try to fight the heat making its way to my cheeks. I don’t think I’m handling this very well, but I’ll blame running all the way here if anyone asks. When I sit, the Commissioner stands up.

“King, Hayes. Thank you for joining me.” He moves to stand next to a screen attached to the back wall of the meeting room.

“Recently, The Untamed have begun moving in unexpected ways throughout the city.” Commissioner Grayson waves his hand, and the screen changes to show a detailed map of a specific section of Silver City, with a big red circle around one building. 

“We have uncovered a warehouse where members of The Untamed have been seen unloading several crates lately.” Another wave of his hand, and photos of augmented people carrying crates pop up next to the map.

“Attempts to confirm the contents of the crates have failed thus far. I’m afraid we need more intel before we can intervene. That’s where you two come in.” His expression is stern, yet hopeful. 

Thinking about it, I never did find out what was inside those crates in any of my playthroughs. Could this be a requirement to unlock the secret route? In any case, something tells me I need to find out what’s inside.

“Your mission today will be to support us with staking out the warehouse. We have other teams placed around its perimeter. The more eyes we get on it, the better.” Red dots pop up all around the map, marking the locations of at least 4 other teams. 

“We haven’t seen them carry out this big an operation in a long time. You must be careful not to raise any suspicions, or we might lose them.” Elliot nods in understanding as he writes something in a notepad.

“You have been assigned a vehicle to spend the night in; it’s out back. If you want to review the specifics of tonight’s plans, check the dossier on your terminals.” His hand makes another motion, and the screen shuts off.

“You two have shown great promise; your achievements speak for themselves. I believe that you are ready to take the next step.” Grayson continues. “You have expressed an interest in becoming detectives, have you not? This is your chance to start proving you got what it takes.”

“Thank you, sir. We won't let you down.” Elliot says solemnly.

I’m not exactly sure what kind of expression is on Marina's face right now, but it must not be a pleasant one. This is exactly how the first part of SCA goes. Grayson assigns Elliot and Marina to this stakeout mission, but things go wrong and Elliot goes missing. I wonder if there’s anything I can do this early on to prevent that.

“Hayes, any questions?” My face must be betraying my thoughts, because he looks doubtful that I paid any attention to the meeting at all.

“None, sir. Everything is crystal clear. Thank you for the briefing.” Fortunately, I have played this game so many times that I could recite this entire scene with my eyes closed.

“Very well. Meeting adjourned. Go home, get changed, and get ready for a long night.” Grayson exits the room promptly, and only Elliot and I remain.

A few moments pass in silence as Elliot keeps jotting down his thoughts on his notepad. He doesn’t seem to acknowledge my presence; too busy writing things down. My own brain is trying to come up with ways to change the story to prevent Elliot from disappearing, but it’s coming up blank.

“Marina.” Elliot’s sweet voice breaks the silence. SCA is voiced, but hearing him live is a totally different monster. I only wish he were saying my name and not Marina’s.

“Yes, Elliot?” I say as casually as I can, given the circumstances.

“You sure you’re ok? You look a bit distracted today.” He looks worried. About me? Squee.

“I’m fine. Don’t worry, I won’t interfere with today’s mission. I know how much you’ve wanted this.” I’ve replayed this scene so many times. He’s looking forward to this assignment so much, but Marina messes it up by going into the warehouse, and Elliot is left with no choice but to follow her inside. She thinks she’s some action hero, ready to figure out what’s in the crates. I won’t make the same mistake. Tonight, we play it safe.

“Huh. So you have been paying attention.” He raises an eyebrow, amused.

“How could I not? We’ve been partners for a long time now, haven’t we?” I smile at him fondly.

“Too long, perhaps.” His words come out jokingly. He puts away his things and makes his way to the door. “Let’s go take a look at that car they gave us.” I scramble to join him as he heads out of the room.

The walk through the halls of the precinct is silent. I take note of his stature as we walk next to each other; he is around Marina’s height, not too tall. Perhaps around 165 centimeters? He’s so precious. I want to do my best to protect him, but I’m coming up short on ideas. Perhaps staying in the car all night, unlike what Marina would have done, would be enough to prevent him from also going in?

We exit the building and start searching for the car. I pull out my phone and search the dossier for any clues. The document says we’ve been assigned a black, “classic model”. Sure enough, there is only one car fitting that description in the parking lot, making it easy to spot. 

A black muscle car that looks a bit old for this setting is parked a few meters from the entrance. I never cared much for cars, so I couldn’t say what make it is, but it’s certainly beautiful. “Found it,” I gesture towards the car and make for the dark beauty.

“I do have to say, it sucks that we got a car instead of an apartment. Did you see where the other teams are stationed? Unbelievable.” I say, shaking my head in disapproval. All the other teams were inside buildings, safe and cozy.

“Tell me about it. But we’re the rookies, it’ll have to do.” Elliot remarks as he regards the car with his beautiful eyes. “It’s not half bad, actually. Looks taken care of.” He runs his fingers along the hood in admiration; he seems to like it.

“I didn’t know you were into cars.” I try to make small talk, but the way Elliot looks at me, eyebrow raised, makes me think that I asked something weird.

“You never asked. But yeah, I love them. My dad was a mechanic, we bonded over repairing old cars when I was younger.” He stares at the car, his expression now wistful. “Anyway,” he says as he enters the passenger seat of the car, buckling his seatbelt. “I have to pick up some stuff back home. Let’s go.”

I freeze. That’s right, Marina drives him to his place in this section of the game, but me? Zero driving skills. Another way I differ from Marina, one that I’m not so sure is positive. Even if I’m inside Marina’s body, I’m not so delusional that I’d bank on muscle memory kicking in. This is certainly game over if I try to drive.

“Um, Elliot? Would you like to drive today?” I say sheepishly. He liked the car anyway; perhaps he’d be happy to drive it.

“Huh? Oh. Sure, I guess.” He unbuckles his seatbelt and makes his way to the other side of the car. “You really are out of it today, aren’t you? You sure you’re ok?” His tone suggests he is still suspicious of me, but he looks a bit excited to be taking the wheel.

“I’m fine, I promise. It’s just good practice to switch every once in a while, distribute the workload equally and stuff, you know?” Mentally, I’m slapping myself. I really wish I were smoother.

“Right.” He just raises an eyebrow but makes himself comfortable. He adjusts the seat to his height and buckles his seatbelt while I do the same on the passenger side.

“I’ll drop you off, then. ” He says as he starts the car and drives off.