phantasmalrift | IC INTRO

Sometime after the group all heads back down the mountain, comes another mass text from home base -

Hey guys? We started getting some weird readings overnight... It might be good if you started heading back this way? We're not sure what the Fissure is doing right now. (,,꒪꒫꒪,,)

So back you had better come! Along with that new friend of yours, who surely won't raise questions...

With the time issue being what it is, it's over the course of a day or two that people actually get back to the Station. Thus, there is no single feast set up like usual; instead, there are lots of hot drinks and various pots of soup made up throughout the two days that people trickle back to base. It's warm and filling, can't ask for much more.

The Station you return to hasn't changed that much from the one you left, though all your left behind pets are very glad to see you. It's now January and frost is on the ground, though not snow, at least for now. There is an air of emptiness around the Station that the first group of arrivals - the few of you who remain - will likely find familiar, though the murder sign has been updated while you were away as usual.

The androids, for their part, are very glad to see everyone (or at least, most everyone) returned safe and sound. (Though certain injured parties are destined for the medbay and Strange's fussing before they even get a chance to settle on rooms of their own.) In particular, Muon - now in a bright yellow vest instead of her previous scarf - spends a lot of time hanging out in the glider bay to welcome everyone back, both new faces and old.

TRADING POST - STRANGE - MUON - SIGNAGE CATCHALL - And don't forget to get on the housing post!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

And you must be Regis. Just 'Strange' is fine, there's not really a formal school I could get a degree from.

[The android dips their head slightly - they're actually an inch or so taller than even Izunia, because 'two meters' is a nice round number. There's a faint but pleasant smile to their expression - 'bedside manner for nervous patients' is engaged.]

You're my second-highest priority case at the moment, so don't get too comfortable. I'm afraid Izunia already told me about your troublemaker.

[Look even if I can't play out interactions with my own NPCs I can handwave them.]

[Wow, just look at how nice and polite His Majesty is. Gosh maybe Nyx should follow his King and just like... talk to the-

Godsdamned Magitek Monstrosity!?!?

Oh hell no. Nope nope nope nope. He's on crutches he can't move that fast but he can damn well try and he is just going to be inserting himself between his King and... that.]

Sir... are you sure we should just be taking Izunia's word right now?

Experience trumps schooling in a great many cases.

[Ah, but speak of the devil, or the coeurl as the case may be.

Regis rests his hand on Nyx's shoulder, the pressure both gentle and commanding at the same time.]

Stand down. I am as...unsettled as you are, but if Izunia wanted us dead, he wouldn't have gone to the effort he did keeping us alive. He would have just left the pair of us to bleed out or freeze in the snow.

[Ah, there's trouble. Strange gives Nyx an eyeballing before sighing.]

I'm pretty sure that if I was even inclined to try anything, he'd turn me into parts faster than you can say 'circuitboard.' Not the most stable chemicals in the fume hood, those two.

[They mean the twins, presumably.]

You can relax - we're researchers, not soldiers. Most of us can't even fight. My specialty is analytical magic, not anything that can hurt people.

[Nyx does ease back a little into the hand on his shoulder, a little of the tension leaving him. He shifts half a step back, close enough that if he takes a deep breath his back will brush against Regis' chest, close enough to feel warmth of the other man at his back.]

And I'm sure there's plenty of researching that can be done on someone's insides. So bullshit nothing you do can hurt people.

[Everything can hurt if you twist it enough. But that's paranoid crazy talk and something really does need to be done about his leg.]

But fine... If you really think it's okay. [This over his shoulder to Regis without taking his eyes off the MT.]

[The comment about the twins causes just the hint of a smile to pull at the corner of Regis' mouth. Who wouldn't be a least a little unhinged after being put through what they have been through?

And he only knows the parts of the story that made it down through the years.

He shifts his gaze from Nyx back to Strange, an apologetic tone filling his voice when he speaks.]

Unfortunately, we have found out the hard way that researchers can be every bit as terrifying as the best trained soldiers. We have seen too many of our fellows die at the hands of the creations researchers made in order to improve the world. Our fear and mistrust is founded on the most terrible of experiences.

[Even if Nyx's may be a bit extreme at the moment. Regis understands it, though.]

If it makes you feel better, my friend, I am certain that even in the shape we're in we can deal with one android should it become necessary.

[No offense, Strange. Just trying to calm the coeurl for he does something foolish...again.]

I'm reasonably sure a Lucis Caelum could deal with all nine of us without too much trouble, even in your current condition.

[Which is a pretty good indicator that Strange does, in fact, know what they're dealing with here. They watch Nyx for a moment, the way his posture is still guarded.]

If you're that worried, I don't think Izunia would mind babysitting again - I assume you're at least more willing to trust him than you are me. Just maybe let him get a night's sleep first, with that chronic fatigue you lot have.

[A small incline of their head at Regis. That gosh darn Lucian fatigue.]

Babysitting.

[Oh the scowl he gives you, Strange.

But as much as he dislikes the term used it's not exactly inaccurate. He would feel much better if someone else were here with Regis while he is not capable of caring for the king himself.]

Fine. If Regis and Izunia can keep an eye on each other and you then... then fine.

[Even if he's still bristling like a cat someone's trying to force into a bath.]

Stand down.

[The words are just a step shy of the order Nyx seems to need to let this go, and hopefully that will be enough as Regis doesn't really want to resort to actual orders to deal with this.

...

Okay, he doesn't want to issue orders to Nyx to deal with this. Strange might be a different story.]

That is acceptable to me, however let me make it clear that the next being who refers to guarding me as 'babysitting' will find out very clearly just how much an angry Lucis Caelum in my condition can do.

[For Astrals sakes, he's fifty people, not four!]

[Strange is going on a hundred and ten, Regis. Also, you're not their king.

But there's a bit of a shrug and a slight apologetic expression.]

Fair enough. Anything I should know prepping the surgical facilities? Allergies, unpleasant magical reactions, so on?

[He gives Regis a nod, agreeing wholeheartedly that using the word babysitting for guard duty deserves an ass kicking. The babysitting was more for him anyway cause he's the one being a baby about it. He's not terribly comfortable with a walking, talking cellphone fucking with his insides.]

Not that I know of? You don't wanna be around when I come to, I promise you that.

[Not a threat, just gut reaction is gonna be, kill the MT.]

Does his unique talent for causing trouble even when sedated warrant inclusion in this discussion? I have it on good authority that the sticky note in his file referencing it is most official.

[Lets just leave behind that whole 'babysitting' topic now. They've all made their opinions on it perfectly clear.]

If it is acceptable, I will be happy to sit with him until he awakens. I'm sure the process will be gentler if he recognizes the presence of the person in the room with him.

[Joking from a moment before aside, Regis does think of one more thing worth mentioning.]

I have no doubt that Izunia has told you much about the Crystal's magic and how it runs through our very blood and that of those who we grant the power to. Just be wary of that when you work on us both. I do not believe it will strike out at you as you are assisting us, but we also have no way of knowing how being brought to this place may have affected it.

IC INTRO - JAN 2019

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