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His face was wet and he couldn't see. He could hear screaming in the distance. Why was the voice so familiar? The screaming grew louder, and louder, and louder until his head was pounding.
He could make out one urgent, panicked word: help! And then he recognized the voice.
It was his, echoing from somewhere in the darkness.
It was him.
"--kles. Hey, Chuckles?" A hesitant pause. "...Danior, you in there?"
The Warlock felt a hand grip his arm and give it a shake. He reared up, swung a Void-assisted punch, felt the hit connect, then heard sudden swearing from whatever, whoever he’d hit.
"Not bad for someone who's been out cold for weeks." Drifter rubbed his jaw as he stepped back from the cot where the other man had been recovering. "You, uh…"
Danior flinched away, gasping as he rubbed the back of his still glowing hand against his face. He expected to see Hive blood, even his own blood, but his hand was clean aside from… huh. Tears. He didn't expect that.
The expression of shock and fear on Danior's face was enough to make Drifter decide to pause, crouching close to but not directly next to the cot, and he started talking in the tone of voice one does when trying not to spook a fearful animal.
"Got you out. This shit is real, see?" He tapped his left hand on a nearby pipe running from ceiling to floor. "None of that other stuff. Trust. You remember the Derelict?"
Danior huddled back under the blanket as Drifter sighed.
“I’m gonna call your gal. Stop freakin’ out.”
He hated doing this stuff. Emotions were things he thought he’d left behind. He looked back at the Warlock hiding under his cot and sighed.
“Ey Kailani. Your friend is… safe. I can’t say sane ‘cause he sure ain’t. He’s back outta the Pyramid but he’s rough. You might wanna come here because he ain’t budgin’.”
Drifter gestured towards where Danior had made a nest of blankets and tattered rags.
“Last time I tried t’coax him out of there he punched me, and not in a good way. I think he’s… he’s not…”
Drifter sighed. “I don’t think I can get him outta here. You… you know him better.” He paused. “In that way,” he admitted, shaking his head.
“He needs help. Help I can’t give him. Help we can’t give him,” he added, looking desperate for once.
“Maybe… Moondust?”
Kailani scratches her jaw as she stares at the lump of blankets, a nervous action as she thinks. “Eris would be the expert here, that’s probably a good idea.” She looks over to him and is not reassured by his expression.
She hadn’t expected Danior to come back ‘normal’, but she’d thought he’d be at least able to talk when he woke up and give some explanation to what had happened to him. But…it was still too soon, probably.
“Y…yeah. Give Eris a ring, see if she’d be willing to pop over. I will, uh…,” she looks back over to the Danior-shaped lump, thinking, “What d’you have to eat? Maybe we can get him a little grounded now that he’s awake with a meal and just, like, being here and familiar.”
"Already tried food. And water. And…" Drifter makes a frustrated noise in the back of his throat. "He's more stubborn than usual but I guess that's expected." He steps aside for a moment to contact Eris, summoning his Ghost to transmit a message to her.
The blanket mound shifts a little and out from under one corner another Ghost appears, looking weary even for one of its kind. Its eye is dim, its shell clinging tightly to its core, but it still bobs in a polite manner to Kailani.
"Danior is… um… he isn't well," the Ghost admits, sounding defeated and sad. "We've been trying but…"
Kailani chews the inside of her cheek. More nervousness. When Danior’s Ghost shows up she seems relieved at that at least. Maybe it has some information.
“What can you fill me in on?”
She’s clueless to the next course of action. If they want to get anywhere, the need something to go off of and she hopes Shade is going have literally anything they don’t know already.
To the Drifter, when he’s done, she inquires, “Has he been responsive to anything at all?”
"He… I… We," the Ghost stammers, sounding unusually out of sorts, "It was bad. It was dark and silent and…" Shade twirls in place as it goes quiet for a moment. "The other him did things and he's… scared."
Drifter pretends not to hear any of that. He shrugs towards Kailani, a vague gesture that means absolutely nothing.
"Like I said, he hit me when I first got him back. He's been under that pile since. Refuses to move."
“Alright,” she says to the two of them, looking past Shade to the blanket pile, “I’m goin’ in. If he gets aggro, don’t intervene, I’ll be fine.” She’s fully prepared for this to end poorly, but whatever. Not her stupidest decision in her weird unlife thus far.
Kailani heads towards the Danior-shaped pile, not hiding her approach, she’s not trying to sneak up on him. At about a yard away, a mere three feet that mean nothing if he flips his shit, she sits down on the floor of the Derelict. Her leg armor scrapes against the metal as she does.
She speaks calmly to the blanket pile. “Hey,” she starts, “you don’t gotta come out here and explain anything, none of that shit is important right now. Just give me a sign of life,” so to speak. “You can punch me or bite me or whatever you need to get it out of your system for the moment.”
She doesn’t move to reach out to him as she talks, just staying in her spot. “I’m here, ol’ rat man is here, Shade is here. Eris, uh, might be coming by. But we’ll swear her to secrecy.”
The pile doesn't move. Given the amount of fabric bundled up it's hard to tell if someone's even under there, let alone breathing. Shade hovers near the Titan and tilts to one side.
"He's been like that for a while now," the Ghost comments. "He hasn't moved since he was brought aboard and had a… fit of sorts. I only know he's still alive because, well, of course I would."
Drifter keeps his distance, looking ready to offer assistance in case the situation should go to hell, but otherwise leaves Kailani alone.
Kailani sighs a sigh that sounds resigned. To getting maimed? Probably. She scoots closer, trying to not make an obnoxious amount of noise as she does so. Then, she reaches out for the edge of the blanket where Shade came out of, picking it up slowly to peek under it. She does so for another, a rough canvas piece of fabric.
“I’ll apologize for invading your space now, in advance, and later, as well,” she comments into the darkness of the fabric.
Her Ghost finally makes an appearance, floating next to her head in a concerned manner, “You sure this is the best idea?,” it quietly inquires of her.
She shrugs in response, “I don’t know if any ideas right now are the best idea, to be honest. But I do know if you leave Danior in a state similar to this for too long, shit starts to edge close to ‘irreparable’. He’s not gonna like being pulled back to reality,” in a manner of speaking, “because it’s gonna hurt - on multiple levels, in multiple ways - but sucks for him because he’s got people who give a shit and will be here to help him through it.”
Carefully reaching in a little more and grabbing the corner of another piece of fabric, she mutters, “And…whatever the other him did, we’ll take care of that, too. Not the first around these parts to be all doppleganger-y, after all.”
It’s absolutely, completely, utterly dark underneath that blanket pile. If she pulls back enough of the layers she’ll eventually come across the Warlock, curled up into an impossibly small ball, knees to his chest and his arms hugging his folded legs. His eyes are wide open but he’s not even blinking, and it really is hard to see if he’s even breathing. It’s almost as if he’s in a comatose state.
Shade joins Kailani’s Ghost, hovering as it watches what’s happening just in case it has to do… something.
“I briefly considered rezzing him but I think that might put too much strain on his body and mind.”
"Y...yeah. It might," Kailani comments to the Ghost, but keeps her eyes on Danior as she pulls the blankets over her arm and one shoulder, making a tent sort of situation so she can see him but he's not exposed, and she carefully scoots a smidge closer.
Briefly hesitating, she does reach out to put a hand on one of his and gently squeezes it. "Well, we got you physically out, halfway there, huh?," she jokes, a little half-hearted.
His hand is cold. Not even Void cold, not even temporarily Stasis cold, but corpse cold. His fingers don't even twitch when she touches them.
Shade moves in a little closer and makes a sad noise as its glowing shell dims.
"I thought he was in there but…" The Ghost comes to rest just above Kailani's closest shoulder.
"I've never seen anything like this before."
Kailani’s eyes flick from Danior’s Ghost over to Drifter, a look of severe concern on her face. Maybe even scared? Probably scared. “I– I don’t know what to do.”
She looks back under the blankets and chews at her lower lip nervously, “Have you heard back from Eris?”
“No answer. Think she might be busy with Ikora. That whole, ah, situation, y’know?”
Drifter begins to pace nearby Kailani. Him, nervous? Never! He’s thinking. Really.
“...he still in there? He hit you too?”
Add humor to the situation. Just like Danior would.
Kailani peeks back under the blankets, “Ain’t yet. Still time, though,” she watches him pacing, “but it’s a definite ‘lights are on but no one’s home’ kind of situation.
She sighs, rubbing her face with her free hand, “Alright. I’m gonna go down to my apartment and pick up some things. I’m also gonna swing by the tower and see if I can catch Eris.”
A pause, as if a sudden thought hit her. Which it did. “Where’s his ship?”
Drifter gestures towards a window facing out of the Derelict.
“Docked outside, as usual.”
Usual?
“I’ll keep an eye on him. Uh, say hi to Moondust for me, would ya?”
The wheels in her brain are turning as she squints and extracts herself carefully from the blankets. Shouldn’t it have been on the moon? Or wherever he left it when he went into the Pyramid?
But then she thinks, if someone– something else had been jet-setting around as Danior, then it probably would’t’ve been on the moon. But if it’s here, then where is….not-Danior? Is the doppleganger still fucking around in the solar system?
Fuck.
Kailani gets to her feet and nods, then smirks, “That’s a cute nickname,” but she doesn’t give him a chance to respond, transmatting off the Derelict.
Back on Earth, she heads into The City with a running list in her head. Real food, not whatever rat man has on his ship. If she’s gonna be spending extended time there, she’s not gonna be subject to whatever mystery food is there. Then, to her apartment to grab some necessities and better nesting materials if the poor boy is gonna be doing that for awhile.
Drifter flicks Kailani off as she leaves but, when he thinks she’s not looking he crouches down next to the tent of flotsam and curiously pokes a piece of fabric before looking over at Shade.
“Y’sure he’s still in there?”
The Ghost makes a noise that’s both annoyed but unsure.
“He is /alive/, if that is what you’re asking.”
Narrowed eyes meet one narrowed glowing eye.
“...his heart rate is highly elevated but still… stable-ish, for a Guardian. But why do you care? So called, ah, Rat Man?”
Drifter lets out an actual laugh before he sits down on the floor, legs crossing, staring at Shade.
“Cause I like him. That so hard to understand? But don’t you go tellin’ anyone or…”
Shade spins in the air and huffs.
“I don’t know what you have going on with him and Kailani but I am keeping my eye on you.”
Drifter just nods, “I get’cha. I don’t trust you either, little light,” he sneers, “but we got a truce here.”
It’s, admittedly, a few hours before Kailani returns, but when she does it’s with creature comforts she hopes will help Danior or maybe even coax him back over to consciousness. Fresh, clean blankets, snack food she knows he likes, that kind of stuff.
She also doesn’t show back up alone.
“You can say ‘hi’ yourself, now,” she says as she passes Drifter.
In tow, there’s Eris, who doesn’t seem surprised the destination is the Derelict, considering Drifter left her a message earlier, but also has not been debriefed on the details of the situation and the situation is….peculiar.
“Say hi to who-ohhh, heh… uh, hi Moondust.” Drifter glowers at Kailani before quickly putting on his usual annoyingly cocky smile.
“So, this Titan here has a problem with her friend bein’ knocked out by the Pyramid and replaced by a changeling or somethin’. She came runnin’ to me for help and well, how could ol’ Drifter be mean and say no?”
Kailani doesn’t see the glower, but she knows it’s happening. She doesn’t NEED to see it. Instead she sits her stack of stuff down and swings a duffel bag off of her shoulder to rummage through it.
“You’re telling an awfully embellished version of that story, my man,” she comments idly before looking to Eris who seems like she’s just going to let this play out between them. “Danior went into the Pyramid and apparently Not Danior came out. Nega Danior? False Danior? I don’t know, we haven’t picked a good term for the doppleganger,” she waves a hand, “I’ve been running with him for, I don’t know, months? No clue. Seemed fine, a little more aggro, some small weirdness, but like, he can be moody to begin with.”
“Anyhow,” she’s rambling, nervous, anxious, “I recruited shithead here to help out because him and Danior hang out a lot and figured no one else would be stupid enough for this little excursion with me. But now that we’ve got the real….we hope it’s the real, at least, Danior back, he’s got, like, a ‘lights are on but no one’s home’ kind of situation happening.”
Eris hears her out, seeing the rambling for what it is, before speaking, “Hello, rat,” she says to Drifter first, and then, “Can I see him?,” she asks Kailani.
Drifter frowns hard in Kailani’s direction.
“Actually, she didn’t want me to say anything, but his sister is the one who helped me find him. I saw Kailani needed a break so I asked around.”
He looks, for once, awkward, then hmphs and turns away from her and Eris both.
“She didn’t wanna stick around in case it brought up bad shit. I don’t know what bad shit but it isn’t my place to ask.”
Shade zips over to Kailani, spinning in a happy greeting while making a chirpy noise.
“Thank you, Titan. I’m sure my Guardian will appreciate this once he’s…”
The Ghost hesitates.
“Normal?”
Shade pauses again and dips down in an apologetic manner.
“That wasn’t…. right.”
Shade hovers away and makes a harsh sound, like gears grinding against gears.
“Moondust.”
Drifter steps in and pushes Shade away.
“He’s all sorts of fucked. Figured you’d know, uh, bein’ down in those tunnels and whatnot. So. Call it a… favor on my end. For once.”
Kailani does a slight squint at the Drifter’s comment about Danior’s sister. There’s wheels turning in the Titan’s head as she works to connect the dots. She looks like she wants to say something, but reads the room and bites her tongue. For now, at least.
To Shade, she offers, “His normal, at least.”
Eris looks to Drifter and, per usual, her expression is mostly unreadable, “A favor,” the tone is simply one of acknowledgement before she continues, “Let us see him then,” she motions nowhere in particular, “I cannot offer anything in exchange until I am able to see what precisely is wrong.”
Kailani glances at Drifter, Shade, then finally Eris before motioning to follow. She knows where he’s holed up because she was just here a few hours ago and unless he’s skittered off somewhere in the ship, covered in blankets, she suspects he’s in the same spot they left him.
“The big ol’ lump of blankets,” she says, “He bit Drifter, apparently, but didn’t react at all towards me, but if you need a wall of meat to get bit instead of you, just let me know.” Attempting some levity of the situation.
Said pile of blankets still hasn’t moved aside from where they were lifted up and left to fall back into place from earlier. If anyone lifts them up Danior’s in the same position as before, still curled into a small ball, still staring blankly at nothing, but still breathing thankfully. He hasn’t checked back in yet and Shade gently nudges his Guardian’s shoulder before tucking himself under the comatose man’s chin.
“I was hoping he’d at least shoo me away,” the Ghost sadly comments, its eye turning downwards towards the floor before focusing on Eris.
“Can we save… I mean… is he able to be fixed?”
The tone of the Ghost’s voice is bordering on begging, pleading almost, a faint hint of hope in the background as it does a quick scan of Danior.
Still no response.
Eris moves to sit on the floor in front of Danior, “He is alive and he is breathing,” she says to his Ghost, “Plenty is able to be repaired from that foundation.” She reaches out to take the Warlock’s face in her hands, clearly looking to glean from Danior something the other two individuals aren’t able to.
Kailani glances back at Drifter as she stays nearby Eris, ready in case Danior freaks out or something. The atmosphere is tense, like a held breath.
Normally Danior would swat away any hands touching, let alone close to, his face, but the only sign he’s still alive is a subtle shudder when she touches him.
The only physical sign, at least.
Mentally he’s a clusterfuck. Whatever the Pyramid hit him with did some impressive damage. It’s a rush of negative energy that hits Eris.
HATE HATE HATE LOATHING PAIN GO AWAY
GO
AWAY
Eris’ expression does not change as she holds her ground, so to speak. The negative energy alone can communicate much more than what could be spoken. “Go on then, get out what you can.”
To call it a flood is like calling the ocean merely a single drop of rain. The sheer amount of toxic emotions that assault Eris, well, it’s overwhelming to put it very simply. No wonder the Warlock’s unable to communicate on his own; multiple voices scream and yell and blaspheme, banshee-wailing every awful thing Danior’s done in this life and his pre-rez one and…
Some of it is very shocking.
On the outside his body’s still cold and only barely moving with the twitching that’s started making its way throughout his limbs. Shade scoots closer to its ward and pulses its glow softly, soothingly, trying to calm its Guardian down as best it can.
Eris starts to feel a pressure, as if gravity was cranked up to max and pushing down on the area around her and Danior. Thankfully it’s not the sensation of an impending Nova Bomb, yet, but whatever it is it’s not natural.
Neither are the black and red specters that form in the air above him.
Eris does not budge. The ‘flood’, as it were, tracks as normal. Well, normal for this situation, it seems. The pressure does not, and she instinctively looks up when she feels it press down.
Hm.
She gently pulls her hands away from Danior, untangling herself from his psyche, and sits back on the floor of the Derelict.
“Those will need to be dealt with.”
Danior falls “silent” again.
His Ghost just settles next to him and waits.
Drifter glances up at the hovering shapes, waves a hand at them, and snorts.
“How are we gonna kick them off my ship? And outta his mind?”
“Without him awake, they will linger,” Eris says as she lifts herself to her feet, “And they will linger after he awakens. But then we will be able to assist him with them. He is carrying psychological trauma from both this life and his former one. I think it would be pertinent to contact his sister, as well.”
Kailani crosses her arms tight, watching the spectres, “I guess, on the up side, they just kind of…float around there?” She offers a half-hearted shrug, “That’s all I got. Aside from ‘Derelict’s haunted’.” She seems frustrated that that’s all she has, as well, chewing at her bottom lip anxiously.
“So how do we wake him up without his mind shatterin’ like cheap glass? And before anyone asks, no, I really don’t feel like building a machine that allows folks to go jumpin’ around inside someone’s noggin. Don’t need Hunters startin’ up some dumbass dance party on anyone’s frontal lobe.” Drifter mutters, shaking his head, then looks back down at Danior.
“Is it even safe t’move him? I mean, is he stayin’ here, which is probably the worst idea, with all the junk he might infect, goin’ to his girlfriend’s place,” he pointedly looks at Kailani, “or, well, I’m not sure if his sister would want him around her. I get the feelin’ the two ain’t exactly a happy family.”
Shade peers up at Drifter and bobs once. “I can’t believe I’m saying this but I agree with the rat. Ugh.” The Ghost makes a low sound of disgust. “But our options are, sadly, very few.”
Kailani motions to the spectres above the comatose Warlock, “I can’t take these into the City,” she points out, “Or it wouldn’t be a big deal, him at my place.”
“Lea’s farm would be an…okay option? If she’d suffer it, of course. At least it’s out in the middle of nowhere. Our only other real option is, y’know, going to the Vanguard.” She’s not so sure that’s a great idea, but it’s an idea nonetheless.
“No matter the relationship with his sister, they are tied together from events in their previous lives. If she saw things similar to what he saw, she could be beneficial in helping to bring him back to the surface,” Eris says. To Kailani she gives a half nod, “Perhaps Ikora.”
Shade carefully slips away from Danior, though it’s clear it doesn’t want to, and lifts up until it can hover on eye level with the other gathered people.
“So it seems our safest bet for now is Lea? I rarely say this but I admit, I’m not convinced this plan will work. Lea is, well…”
The Ghost spins one way, then the other, then back to its original hovering position.
“But perhaps if Eris suggests it she might be more open to at least hearing us out instead of using us for target practice. I know for a fact Mr. Rat is banned from her farm and Kailani is on a case by case situation. However I don’t think she knows much about you,” it adds, giving a polite bob to Eris.
“I’d hate to get the Vanguard involved but, well, walking avatar of chaos aside, Danior /is/ a Guardian and does need official Vanguard help. Maybe we–oh!”
Shade’s shell glows brightly as it makes several excited beeping tones.
“Elsie! Maybe she could help us as well, or at least give us information that Eris might be missing when it comes to the Pyramids and the Darkness stuff! No offense, Eris. You also know a lot and I thank you for helping my Guardian.”
"I would be willing to speak with his Titan sister to help facilitate his care," Eris says to Shade, "I think that Kailani and Drifter would not mind a trip to Europa."
Kailani audibly groans. "I hate Europa. But, yeah, Elsie is a good option. We need all the information we can get," she says, then points at Shade, "You go with Eris, it'll be good diplomacy or something. I think."
To Drifter, "Would he be okay here by himself?" She's definitely....unsure of that option.
Shade sparks. Literally. Its shell sends off actual sparks as it spins in a whirr of anxious plates meeting plates.
“Leave Danior here? With HIM?! I will NOT!”
The Ghost zips down to hover in a protective manner over the blanket pile that is Danior.
“No! Not one bit!”
Drifter just watches all of this happen, humming to himself, and once the Ghost makes its ultimatum known he lets out a bark of a laugh.
“For a useless piece’a Traveler flotsam it’s got spirit. Besides, can’t you handle that Exo and that other Titan?”
Kailani was thinking, 'would he be okay here alone in case he woke up' or something. But....Shade does also have a point. She rubs her face, tired, frustrated, a multitude of emotions.
Two parties could cover more ground in less time, logistically, but it seemed that wasn't going to happen.
"Fine. Fine. We'll break this down into tiny steps that'll take forever." She definitely sounds aggravated.
To Eris, she gives a nod, "Let's go out to see Lea, I guess."
Drifter suddenly looks away from Shade to Kailani, his eyes narrowing a touch as he snaps his fingers in her direction.
“Hey.” It’s meant to sound and look as rude as it is, his sharp tone focused like a blade meant to catch her attention.
“Tiny steps that mean Ch–Danior here gets back safe and sound, alright? Take your temper out on whatever did this to him, but not on those helpin’ out. Feed that anger properly.”
He reaches for a battered husk of what was probably once a very nice chair, swings it around and puts it down nearby Danior, then smirks as he sits down backwards in it. It’s hard to hide the tired wrinkles that show up on his face but he does his best.
“Thanks, ladies, but I just changed my mind. Seems that Gambit’s gonna be closed for today. Guess I got better things t’do with my time right now. Now get the hell off my ship before I call the Vanguard.”
Shade makes a sound that’s the approximate replica of whatever a Ghost would do when caught in a spit take, and whirls in Drifter’s direction.
“But! But you just said he– wait… what?! Oh please, you have to see reason here!”
It rushes to float directly in Kailani and Eris’ faces, moving back and forth between them and Danior, its plates and eye glowing.
Kailani snaps her gaze at Drifter and looks like she's ready to pop him in the face, her hands curled into fists at her side.
Eris, however, reaches out to put a hand on her arm, "You're at a disadvantage here, he'll come out the winner on his territory and you'll just end up bitter about it. Ask Shaxx to mediate your punching later on."
The Titan's face twists into something between anger and 'goddamnit she's fuckin right' and she pulls her glare from Drifter to focus on Shade. "If he wakes up, let me know. We're going to go see Lea."
And, with that, Eris and Kailani are gone.
Shade grinds its panels against its core in a none too healthy manner before charging towards Drifter’s face.
“You… you… You ASS!” it chirps, eye narrowing, then rushes back over to where Kailani and Eris departed from. “How could you DO that?!”
Drifter’s smile drops as soon as the duo depearts and he rises from his seat, snatching the Ghost out of the air before it has time to react as he snarls at it.
“Listen here. I did what I had to do, as usual. I pissed Kailani off because I know it’ll get her ass movin’. We don’t have time to waste bein’ sad. Your Guardian is /broken/ with a capital B and the sooner he’s fixed the sooner we can all play a nice round of “punch the Drifter”, okay?!” With that said he lets go of the Ghost and collapses back down onto the chair by Danior’s blanket pile, staring down at it in hopes it’ll move on its own.
Shade freezes, plates hugging tightly to its shell, as it remains in place. From fear? From speechlessness? It’s hard to tell. Probably both and then some.
“...okay,” it finally says, slowly moving to rest against the blanket pile. “...okay.”