Because enough shit has already been blown up recently, for starters. Also, the fuck do you need explosive arrows for? I am not making anyone what is essentially a grenade launcher unless they have a very good reason for one.
You've got to recognize how unhelpful that information is.
[Which is why Dustin is going there to take a look for himself. He brings his tablet with him - unusual, since he doesn't like the idea of having it broadcast his location, but if Link is in a potentially dangerous situation, he'd like as many live updates as possible along the way.]
Apparently there are no more updates to be had. On the one hand, this could be due to Link's quiet nature; on the other hand, something could have happened to him. It should be obvious which direction Dustin's brain has gone in.
When he makes it to the lake - which doesn't take very long, thankfully - Dustin is on full alert, armed with a satchel full of testing equipment and a freshly-sharpened woodworking knife. It's not exactly the protective arsenal he would've preferred, but while the bow and crossbow for Felwinter's expedition are still under construction, it will have to suffice. At least there isn't any immediately visible, tangible danger waiting for them, and Link seems whole enough, save the fact that he's doggedly throwing rocks at a strange, ominous building that has more or less appeared overnight.
"Alright, alright--I'm here," Dustin calls from a decent ways down the main road, just in case Link is feeling as paranoid as he is and he accidentally catches him by surprise. "That's...wow, what the fuck? How the hell...?"
The rock that Link had just flung at it bounces off, as if the thing was made of rubber. It lands in the lake with a splash, before sinking down beneath the water.
Link looks at Dustin, and shrugs. He certainly doesn't know where this came from. Or why it so stubbornly refuses all of Link's attempts to destroy it.
Then he draws the Sword, holding it out before him so that Dustin can see the way that it glows with a bright blue light. "Evil," he says.
Dustin's dogged jog slows to a walk until he's roughly level with where Link is standing, his head tilted to the side with a skeptical eyebrow raised. This is some sci-fi movie shit, even more so than a lot of the other things that go on around here, and emphasized by the feeling of oppressive...something that seems to grow in intensity the closer he gets. Suddenly, Dustin realizes that the warning from Link's sword isn't necessary; if he had to guess at what 'evil' felt like, this is definitely how he would've described it.
Regardless, that sword needs some explaining. Dustin peels his eyes away from the obelisk to glance over it. "Resonating with certain EM wavelengths?" he murmurs, mostly to himself. The urge to reach out and touch its glowing blade is just about quashed by his common sense. "What else does it react to, in your experience? Does it ever change color or is that static?"
At the mention of "EM wavelengths," Link just tilts his head, and shrugs. He has no idea what those are, so he has no idea whether the Sword is resonating with...whatever it is.
"Malice. Creatures infected with the Calamity. Guardians." Link shrugs, again. "Evil."
And then, on the question of whether it changes colour...all he says is a simple, "No."
Interestingly, it's the shorter of Link's answers that gives Dustin the most information. Single resonance mode, he decides with a slow nod. Or possibly the others are too high-energy to be visible, or to reach from a distance. The targets would have to produce a specific type of emission for the sword to pick up on - radioactivity? Fuck I really need to build a Geiger counter.
Dustin decides to stow that line of questioning for later; there's no way to verify his suspicions without the proper equipment, therefore this is, for the moment, a waste of brainpower. "Is there a certain distance where it stops glowing?" he asks instead, while at the same time starting to edge his way closer to the obelisk itself. Grabbing some samples from close up wouldn't be a bad idea, probably...
Link shrugs, having not really made any effort to measure the exact range of the Sword's ability to detect evil. He had a feel for what it was, sure - but no exact numbers.
"Just nearby," he says.
But he frowns, at Dustin starts edging closer. Link's only approached close enough to really feel the effects once, but...it wasn't nice.
Dustin pauses to glance sharply over his shoulder.
"...You've said that a few times now," he says, warily, eyes roving over Link once just to verify that he's not secretly injured by proximity or something. "Elaborate."
Dustin arcs an eyebrow. Hallucinations? Definitely not outside the realm of possibility. But that's also not inherently dangerous - what makes Dustin more wary, actually, is what could possibly be causing them to occur. Anything that fucks with the brain enough to make people experience a sense of unreality is concerning in its own right.
"Do you...still...feel that way?" Dustin follows up, suddenly feeling a lot less confident about his approach.
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