21 Down The Rabbit Hole (1/2)
It had been years since Joshua had been in such a pitiful state. This was the type of attitude he often had back when he was jobless and sleeping in the cabin in the woods. Still, Joshua had matured quite a bit since that period and after a few minutes, he calmed down. He still wasn't sure what had crossed his mind at that moment but that didn't matter. There is something Joshua didn't tolerate: pure stupidity. Now, what did that mean in Joshua's eyes? He could forgive people making mistakes, everyone does. However, what he couldn't stand was people making the same mistake over and over while refusing to learn from them. When something goes wrong, one should reflect on the event and take measures to avoid the incident to repeat itself.
The party had set up camp for the evening in the meantime. The T-Rex would serve as a fine dinner. Catherine hadn't heard from Joshua since he had vanished inside his world and was starting to get a little worried. She was in the right when she had yelled at him, that she didn't doubt. It's just that Joshua's actions took her by surprise. She had gotten used for him to pull brilliant ideas out of nowhere. Sure, he goofed around a lot, but he was always up to his game as soon as a dangerous situation arose. She decided to check up on him.
When she entered his soul world, he was busy doing something ridiculous as usual. However, she frowned as she saw him. His hair was in complete disarray, his clothing was badly damaged and worse of all his mental body was covered in various wounds. In front of him was a burning furnace. To his right, there was a table with 2 filled glasses. To his left, there was a large teddy bear. Catherine had absolutely no idea of what he was doing.
Joshua didn't notice her and hugged the bear. He smiled, nothing happened but something did seem to please him. Next, he picked up one of the glasses and tried to drink it. Suddenly his body trembled as if he had just received a shock and he dropped the glass on the table. The liquid spread all over and Catherine noticed the table was starting to melt. Was there acid in this glass? Not losing his concentration, Joshua picked up the second glass and drank it in one go. Nothing happened this time. Finally, he turned to the furnace. He opened it and stretched out his arm, clearly wanting to put his hand in the fire. Catherine was about to yell when he appeared to be shocked again. He left out a big sigh and started to laugh.
”What the hell are you doing? You look terrible… Don't tell me you actually enjoy this?” Catherine told him, in a scolding tone.
”Oh, my lovely Catherine, you're here! Good! I solved the issue.” he answered as he ran up to her.
”What issue?”
”By putting your hand in a furnace?”
”That was just a test. Basically, I designed a new function for Luna. If based on its constant analysis of a situation Luna detects I'm acting abnormally for the situation at hand, I will receive a small shock to snap me out of it.” he explained.
”... Is that why you're covered in wounds?”
”Yeah, I had to perform a few tests to get it right. Like, at first, it failed to detect me stabbing myself. But it's ok now! Look, it prevented me from drinking acid and putting my hand in a furnace while allowing me to drink water and hug a teddy bear!” he clarified as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
Catherine left out a sigh. It looked like he was back to his original self on the surface but…
”Joshua… Are you all right?” she asked, with a hint of worry.
”Heh, I suppose I'll manage. I guess a solution like this might shock most people, well me included haha, but I honestly think it's for the best.”
At this point, he had dropped all pretense of his usual nonsense. He suddenly realized his appearance would probably scare people so he fixed his soul projection and returned to his usual casual outfit. He placed his hand on Catherine's shoulder and told her:
”You have a lot on your mind already, don't worry about me.”
Catherine slowly nodded, although she wasn't totally convinced. Joshua didn't appear to be in a talking mood so she didn't press further. So just told him: