Patton wasn't himself, that much was clear. Something was off.

Problem was, he wasn't giving off any clues as to what. That made Logan's job of checking on him about 100 times harder.

"Patton?" He asked. "Are you okay? You aren't yourself." Patton looked up quickly.

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine."

"And you're also lying again."

Patton sighed and he seemed to shrink slightly.

"It's just something with one of my friends."

"Janus? Or Virgil?"

Patton looked up at Logan, his eyes wide and scared. "How did you-?"

"They're the only two people you talk about. Or at least, the people you talk about most often. It wasn't hard to connect the dots." Logan sensed that this wasn't enough reassurance for Patton. "I haven't been spying on you, I promise. I mean, how could I from where I am?"

"It is possible, though. Don't you have, like, heightened senses?"

"Heightened hearing and a heightened ability to read emotions. Nothing too incredible."

"Well, couldn't you have like heard something going on?"

Logan nodded. "Oh yes, very definitely. But only snippets. And only if you're close to here." Logan bit his tongue, wondering if he should continue. "I think," he said slowly, "what you're doing is feats of imagination. It's where the human imagination leaps around to try and find a logical answer with what they know to a problem."

Patton looked at Logan before dropping his eyes to his feet. "Sorry." He mumbled.

"It's nothing to apologise for. It's quite a normal thing. It used to be a frequent thing with me when I was a child." Logan's eyes widened when he realised what he'd said.

"But you said it was a feat of human imagination." Patton said. "Are you a human?"

Logan gestured down at his tail. "Cleary not, Patton."

"Oh, right, yeah. Stupid question. Um, were you a human?"

Logan hugged his elbows. "I guess the cat is rather out of the bag at this point. Yes. I was a human once and then this happened." He gestured to his tail slightly.

"Where did you live? Do you think I knew you?" Patton asked excitedly.

"I very much doubt that we knew each other-"

"Oh no, I think it's possible." Patton crossed his legs and pushed his glasses up his nose. "There are only twelve coastal towns around the Spirit's Triangle and you must've come from one of them because mermaids really don't swim that far. They only swim about 300 miles in each direction so you must've come from somewhere near here. And there's Risuca, where I was born, Aistemor, Lycon, Gradon, Astraestein, Oscien-"

"Risuca." Logan said quietly.

"What, sorry?"

"Risuca. I was born in Risuca." Logan muttered a little louder.

"Well then we must know each other." Patton's face fell as he realised. "Oh."

Logan nodded. "It's rather poetic, don't you think? The place I lived for most of my childhood, the place I hated, that I wanted to get away from at the first chance, is there place I'm going to die."

"Oh, Kiddo-"

"There's no point in pity." Logan said. "It's a fate I've already accepted."

"You shouldn't have to accept it."

Logan looked up at Patton. "Maybe someone should've thought of that before they imprisoned me."

I'M FINALLY BACK TO THE FUCKING PLOT! Jesus Christ, that took way too long. Also, I just can't let the angst go, can I?... To be honest, I kinda hate this chapter, don't know why.
Bye,
Blaize