Quote of the Day: "Unicorns exist. They're just fat and call themselves Rhinos."
"So... you want my blood for what now?" Silverhawk asked, one eyebrow raised. "In English this time?"
"Genetic studies on the molecular bonding of non-compatible DNA." Martin repeated, slowly, this time. "Humans and Awoken producing fertile offspring is like a Human and a monkey doing the same thing; there's thousands of years of evolution between them, which, in the Awoken's case, happened almost instantaneously. So you've got unstable first generation Awoken genetics, mixed with post-Golden Human-"
"Okay, okay, I get it. You're geeking over my DNA." she raised her hands in surrender. "But if you take too much, I might just have to start hanging garlic in my room for safe measure."
He looked at her, smileing blithely. "Oh, we all know Vampires suck blood for vitamin D because they can't go in the sun directly. I do get out of the lab sometimes, so you have nothing to worry about!"
Gloves on his hands, he carefully rubbed the anesthetic on her arm before quickly slipping the syringe in. Silverhawk looked away with a look of indignant disgust on her face; her typical reaction to any kind of needlework done to the flesh. It was a little ironic, considering she had to inject several varieties of key nutrients directly into her blood every day... another one of the misfortunes of the deathtouch. She couldn't eat fruit, vegetables, anything that was alive, not without the rads that pumped throughout her body frying any nutritional benefit out of them. Anything cooked, most certainly dead, was fine. Everything else? Toast.
"Ugh, needles; so gross." she grimaced. He let a dry smile creep its way onto his face. "You know, you seem different these days. I mean, you socialized. Did something happen at the Reef? Something having to do with a certain one-eyed Emissary, perhaps?"
He had to stop the shudder that ran up his body before it reached his hands. Yes it had involved Petra. No... it was not something good like Silverhawk seemed to think it was.
"Uhhh... she's... not interested." he said lamely.
"Really?" his sister's tone clearly said she didn't believe a word of it. "During the quest for the cure, she looked a bit smitten with you. You were just doing all that awkward stuff... did you actually talk to her, or is this just you making assumptions again?"
"Oh, we talked it out... uhhh... but it, uh, t-turns out she and F-Faroth..." the lie tasted like acid the moment it left his mouth, and he wanted to run and hide. How many times will I have to betray people just to get this done? He wailed internally. Would there be no end to his lies?
"Faroth? Really? That guy?" she twisted to look at him incredulously, only to recoil and look away when she caught sight of the needle sticking into her arm. "Dude, I thought she was totally into you! She was perfect! And lets face it; you're way more awesome than Faroth!"
If it were the truth, her words might have made him feel a little better. But it wasn't the truth; it was another, horrible, terrible, awful lie, and it would come back to bite him one day. He smiled weakly, removing the needle.
"All done. You going to talk to Ryan today?" he asked, setting away his kit and dabbing at the insertion point with a bit of cloth as blood welled from the small hole. Hopefully these samples would be enough...
He couldn't risk testing all the different serums on Silverhawk herself; but he could test them on her blood. He could perfect the cure when he found it, finish it in any way that it needed to be finished. Though the problem remained that he still didn't have the lab equipment needed for proper, discreate, testing. He had a plan for that. Another plan that involved being brave for once.
"Uhhh... no. Yes. Maybe." she pulled at her gloves nervously; perhaps a habit she had picked up from his constant sleeve-tugging when he was under duress.
"You should." he urged. She should get to know Ryan. If he had known Petra better... he would've been more careful, more afraid, more cautious when she had confronted him. Perhaps then, his arm wouldn't still be hurting like it was. It was important to know a person, no matter what, so there would never be any doubt as to how they would behave.
"Maybe." Silverhawk rubbed the back of her neck. "So, how're you going to test my blood with that cruddy gear you've got in the basement?"
"I'm... uh... g-going to ask an O-Order if I can use their l-labs." oh, the plan sounded to much more terrifying when he said it out loud!
"Really? You sure that's a good idea?" She looked at him incredulously.
"I'm going to be careful. I always am." There was always the risk that in doing this, someone might see the strangeness of Silverhawk's DNA, or some tool would pick up the rads coming from her blood. But he was determined; so close to his goal now, small risks were now necessary. He'd already thrown away so many things in order to get here... he had to succeed. He had to.
"Well... good luck with your bloody science." She stood, and brushed her cloak out. "Literally. I've gotta go, er, talk to a boy. Yikes, I'm going to puke."
He took her by the shoulders, and even though he wasn't sure it was true, he said what he thought was the right thing. "You've got this, Heather! Nothings going to go wrong, just sort it out. It'll be fine; I mean, what's the worst that can happen?"
Why did he have to say that? As soon as the words left his mouth, he'd had the feeling he would wind up regretting them at some point or another. And here he was; regretting it, as he stood at the halls of the Skycast Order. Don't freak out. Don't freak out. Don't freak out.
"May I help you?" a russet and silver-plated Exo asked him, a brow plate raised over one of his glowing white eyes. All moisture left Martin's mouth. The entire Order was here, and they were all staring a him. He could feel their eyes burning into him. He'd caught them at the start of their day, when the head of the Order had yet to open the doors.
Once, when he was but the tender age of nine, he'd dared to contend with their teacher on the nature of the Jupiter-Io flux tube. She'd had him stand up at her desk, all the way from his nice, safe seat in the back of the class, and explain his reasoning. Alone at the front of the room, with the collective gazes of roughly twenty older teenagers, he hadn't been able to get even one syllable out of his mouth.
His fainting spell in Pre-Quantum Mechanics was the reason his parents had started home schooling him on net courses; how could he ever show his face in public again?
He licked his lips, tried to say something-anything-but now, like then, the only thing to escape his mouth was a sound like a broken dog toy, before he unwillfully fell backwards into a dead faint.
It seemed curing Silverhawk's deathtouch would take more than one kind of trial and error.
Ryan lay on his stomach on the park bench, his face buried in one arm while the other dangled off the edge. His Ghost was still playing Elvin Bishop's 'Fooled Around and Fell In Love' in his earpiece. I need to stop listening to this song before I become it. But it was true; he'd gotten foolish, and what do you know, he'd wound up falling in love.
With a girl he couldn't touch, and he simply couldn't stop himself. He let out a heavy sigh as his nerves jangled around in his gut once more. This was it. Make or break. He wondered what she thought. He wondered if his note was too cheesy. Most of all, he wanted to scream and run away in terror, because in hindsight, that note was awfully cheesy, and if he had the chance to relive writing it, his knew his courage would have failed him after the first sentence.
I fooled around and fell in love
I fooled around and fell in love, since I met you baby,
I fooled around and fell in love,
I fooled around and fell in love...
"You know, if you were going for pathetic, you really topped the cake." He started so violently, he fell off the bench, and when he looked up, there she was, looking down on him, fedora, sunglasses and all.
"Well, hi, wonderful weather we're having. I wasn't moping." He said nervously.
"Dude, that's exactly what moping looks like." She lifted one eyebrow incredulously.
"No it's not. And I'm not doing it anymore, so you can't say I'm doing it." He jumped up, and brushed himself off, face growing hot.
"Then why were you all melty on the bench, then?" she challeneged.
"Melty? How can a person be melty?"
"Cayde, what are you doing?" the Exo looked ready to jump out of his plates at the sound of Tevis' voice.
"Tevis, by the Light don't sneak up on me like!" he hissed.
"Answer the question." the Nightstalker sighed. This didn't look good. "Why are you in a tree, with binoculars, in broad daylight?"
"Shhh, hey! You're going to blow my cover!" Cayde snapped.
"Cayde, it's winter; the tree is bare. Everyone can see you." he told his friend witheringly. Indeed, people would occasionally point out the Hunter and then hurry on their way, casting him bewildered glances over their shoulders.
"I'm investigating! If you have to know." the Bladedancer buffed his knuckles on his chest, before bringing his binoculars back up to his face. "I mean, sure I encouraged Silverhawk, but there's got to be something wrong with this guy. Nobody's mister perfect. I mean, what if he's one of those types to snort Hive chitin powder in his off time?"
"Cayde, nobody sniffs Hive chitin except the Thanatonaughts." the strange warlocks thought that introducing odd stuff to their bodies would give them prophetic visions. Wonder if they ever prophesize their own hospital bills... He leaned out from behind the tree trunk to look at Silverhawk and Ryan... just in time to see the former go boneless on a park bench. The latter shook his head, clearly in disagreement, before going limp and falling to the ground, and then raising his arms, looking at her, as if to emphasis some sort of demonstration. "Though I will admit, something weird is clearly going on here."
"What the heck are they doing, anyway?" Cayde muttered.
"Having a fainting contest?" Tevis guessed wryly as the Titan and Huntress proceeded to repeat the process in what seemed to be the oddest argument Tevis had ever witnessed. He would know, this was not how most couples hashed out their feelings for one another. "It certainly fits Silverhawk's style."
"I bet he's trying to bribe her with something. Free couch? New bed? Embarrassing photos he got his hand on somehow?" Tevis cast a withering glance up at his friend.
"Cayde, he's not minion of the Darkness, he's a prospective boyfriend." he chided.
"Who says they're not one in the same!?" the Exo snapped. "I mean, this is my d-apprentice we're talking about! My protege! I mean, do you really think Brask would've let us run off with the wrong kind of woman? Tell you what, if she turned out to be a sleeze ball, he'd have thrown her far as Shaxx could!"
"Are you saying that would throw Ryan as far as Shaxx could?"
"Maybe. I don't know yet. He's good." Silverhawk and Ryan had stopped doing the flop, and now seemed to be talking... while laying in strange positions, having not righted themselves. "Buuuut I kind of want to punch him into orbit..."
"Kh..." Tevis sighed. I hope I'm not like this when Emmira hits Heather's age... They'd finally got confirmation on the gender of his and Tirtha's second child; a girl, and they were already in debate about her name. 'Emmira' was his favorite.
"Cayde, you're taking this a little too far." he said. "Maybe instead of spying on them, you should just wait and ask how it went next time you see Silverhawk. She's not the type to lie. And even if she was, we both know she's a terrible liar."
"Yeah, but- Thrall spit, she's coming this way! If she asks, I'm not here!" He proceeded to try and hide himself deeper in the branches, quite unsuccessfully, as Silverhawk bounded over in their direction, looking for all the world she'd just won the lottery. Back near the bench, Ryan looked both elated, and like he didn't know what to do with himself. Oh, dear.
"Cayde Cayde Cayde Cayde Cayde Cayde!" she spurted hyperactivity, looking at the tree like she could see right through it's bare branches, and ignoring Tevis completely. "We did it, we worked it out! I HAVE A FREAKING BOYFRIEND IT'S SO NORMAL! Well, actually, we're going to go on a strike and see how it works out, but WE'RE AS GOOD AS ESTABLISHED RIGHT NOW!"
"That's awesome!" Cayde exclaimed, his voice containing an odd, high-pitched hitch. "What's the assignment?"
"Zavala's got a this HUGE HUMUNGO Face Spider infestation on one of our Jovian outposts, like, we're talking FACE SPIDERS AS BIG AS YOU"RE ENTIRE BODY AND I"M SORRY FOR YELLING BUT I'M REALLY EXCITED RIGHT NOW OKAY BYE I CAN'T WAIT ANY LONGER! Oh, hi Tevis. Bye, Tevis." with that, she twirled, ran back to Ryan, grabbe dhim by the hand, and ran off, practically dragging the near-comatose-with-giddyness boy with her.
With that, Cayde fell out of the tree in the closest to a dead faint an Exo could get, in very close resemblance to the odd flopping Ryan anbd Silverhawk had just done. Tevis strode over and looked over him worriedly.
"Cayde?" he inquired his friend's blank upwards stare nervously.
"What am I going to do Tev?" he asked. The Nightstalker shooked his head with a sigh.
"There's nothing to do, Cayde. They fooled around and fell in love, is all."
Yup, I was listening to that song this whole chapter.
Furious Titaness: No, he found a hay stack with a needle in it, unfortunatly. Knowing poor Martin, he'll prick himself with that needle by accident. EVERYTHING YOU LOVE ABOUT EARTH IS GONE GONE GONE GONE, BABY!
alienraptor: Were you pleased, or disappointed with the end product? Yeah, he's going to be getting a bit braver as we progress.
jsm1978: I do miss the days, sometimes, when I had less characters to deal with... I mean, chapters are getting e bit noisy with all these plots and pieces, I'm sure you've noticed. Nah, Amber writes differently. Not as much detail... and she fails to capitalize things sometimes. Besides, she's been a bit... absent from writing in general lately, I'm sure you've noticed(I thing she's losing her fire when I comes to this site).
Fan Of Variks: I've said it before, I'll say it again, even now knowing how exciting D2 is; I will not be covering Destiny 2 in this series. There is just no place for certain characters, and I'm sure you would all rather live in a world where Martin doesn't get killed by a SIVA-zombie Sierra Rogers. As far-fetched as that sounds, I have given some thought into what a Dysfunctional D2 would look like, and that's what happens in my head. While it would be fun and interesting to write about little Andal all grown up and fighting the Red Legion, there are just too many things to explain, there would be too many characters to juggle, and, quite frankly, I don't want to stretch this series so far out it becomes repetitive. This series will end with the Taken King. That being said, if I ever do decide to do a separate fic afterwards about D2, I would probably write it after the tetrahedrons of death come for us all in-game, so I can write proper foreshadowing.
Whew, been quite the month, hasn't it? I'm having a lot of fun with D2... so much, in fact, that sadly I have neglected my writing. Now, don't sit there thinking I do nothing but game all day; I've got this thing called 'real life', and it hates me. My muse still hasn't recovered from weeks with a broken wrist, and real life has all the dispositions of a cat; it likes to play with it's food. That food is me, in this case.
Sorry this chapter was so short after such a long wait, but all the stuff that happens in it hopefully makes up for it. We'll be getting some Saladin stuff next time, so yeah.
By the way, the poll for Dysfunctional Vault of Glass has gone live! Thanks to everyone who voted on the name for Andal's sister, and special thanks to everyone who sent in suggestions! In the end, though, the winner was, as you can see in this chapter, 'Emmira'. Be sure to vote for this poll it actually is quite important, and I do have a bit of a time crunch for the decision. This is one of very few things I'm unsure of, and the next ten chapter may or may not depend on your influence; yet another reason I'm slowing down chapters. Because once I reach the point of no return... well, it's the point of no return, and I don't want to put something in this fic that nobody, or too few people, want to see.
Next Time: Saladin faces rough times, Martin tries again, and the Jovian face spiders don't know whats about to hit them...
Cheers!^^