"Something's wrong here…" his other self had said aftterwards. A pretty obvious statement, but one he now found had not been actually heard by his ears since he entered this place. There WAS something very strange here. Something about actually vocalizing that fact felt off, like his mind had been entertaining every other possible thought BESIDES that. It was all so confusing and disorienting.
How had his doppleganger managed to think of that? That too was out of place. But how could he even point that out specifically? This whole situation was out of whack.

"Yeah… i know what you mean… I feel like I was sent here without knowing why … on purpose…" he said, still thinking back on how the walls had lit up earlier, as his companion had shushed him. They seemed to react to a sterner and louder tone of voice. It made him realice, he hadn't even really spoken much since he entered here, and when he had been talking, it had been in a mild tone, without much volume to it.

He couldn't shake off the feeling that something was still off. Like he was in some sort of … danger? Maybe not exactly physical harm, but it was more like something was out of place that shouldn't be, but given the whole situation, it was like trying to single out what colors were originally mixed into a grey blotch of paint. One could take a guess, but it was impossible to guess the actual original colors.

"What WAS that anyway? Did you see that…?" he asked his doppleganger, choosing to continue talking to him despite his inner feelings of caution, something akin to dread.

"Aye… i've seen it… no idea what it was though"

As soon as he had said this, Ashu's ears perked up, then right back down. Something about him saying that felt disingenous. He had felt this before he entered this place, but his mind was such a mess he could not place when or from who. It was like a wave of something had gone through his body and put him in fight or flight mode. His flesh told him not to entirely trust this other "him", no matter how similar they seemed to one another. It was as if he'd been identically copied up until the moment he'd woken up; but who could know how any of this had come to happen? Whatever the source of this situation, its inner workings were completely unknown to him, and that was reason enough for him to begin distrusting all of this.
But what could he really do? Was this all an illusion? They HAD eventually made physical contact with eachother, so they were both certainly made of flesh and bone, that much was true. Trying to run and escape, lose sight of this doppleganger didn't seem advisable. It ocurred to him that even if he DID successfully manage to get separated from this entity, he would probably end up MORE lost than he already was right now. And besides, it was entirely possible that they would end up magically running into eachother just like it had been when he woke up right next to him.
Had his doppleganger just suddenly materialized on the spot? Had he walked there from some hallway?
When discussing what each of them knew, it sounded like he had entered this place exactly as Ashu had entered it: possibly with a party of others, or maybe not. Maybe on his own, with some vague purpose or reason for being there, and ending up seemingly lost there, with little hope of finding a way out.

But something in his brain was telling him not to trust this… not to trust any of this. All of it was much too strange, too convenient! There had to be something more to it. What if this other creature was coaxing him into its own designs? Maybe he ought NOT to heed what it said, at least not fully… the choices were many, but his gut senses hardly failed him.

"Huh…" Ashu said, very much lost in his own thoughts, his mind racing to make sense of this sensation in him.

"I think…. we'd best be quieter around here… " the other him said. There it was again, not an outright command, but a sly suggestion, "advice" towards him. There was definitely something wrong here, Ashu thought.

"Well, maybe we ought to test it." Ashu said in a dead serious tone of voice, a jokingly deadpan delivery, with an underbelly of testing and prodding this being with a counter against what it was adivsing. What would it do?

"… what? Do you really want to risk that!?" the doppleganger said, now in a more hushed tone of voice, but with obvious urgency in his words. This made Ashu's heart race, as if some unknown assailant would suddenly walk in on them in this situation. This emboldened Ashu, maybe this was the right thing to do, so he doubled down.

"well, maybe i do!" he said with a slightly more confident and louder tone of voice, this time the walls slightly reacting to his voice, which both took notice of

"…s-stop it! you're .. you're going to make it happen again" his doppgleganger said, with clear panic in his eyes, an exasperated expression in his face, hissing out the words.

"WELL, TOO BAD!" Ashu retorted boustreiously, giving his companion a wide defying grin

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hehe we don't see Ashu smmiling too often! how nice he looks with that big toothy grin :3

art by  n3sting3yes