Sounds Like Something Drifter Would Eat
Warlocks Akeela Redsun and Akane had been working in the labs in close proximity for several days, each working on separate projects, and had not spoken a word to each other. Being in adjacent stations for so long, Akane had felt some pressure to say something to the other Warlock, but her introverted nature kept her silent. Which, of course, just added to the mental pressure to say anything, which made it harder to say anything or trust what might actually come out of her mouth. It was a vicious cycle.
Akane was working on a task assigned to her by Warlock Vanguard Ikora Rey. She had no idea what Redsun was working on, though she did know that it did not seem to be going well based on the names and colorful invectives he had been calling his work for the last several hours. Akane, who had just about solved her problem, brushed a strand of red hair out of her face and snuck a glance at his table just in time for Redsun to hit his breaking point.
"Skanks and skiffs," the blonde-haired man muttered and shoved his work aside, then planted his head firmly on his desk, sending a ripple along his mowhawk.
Akane's blue-white eyes widened at the outburst, and she barely stifled an embarrassed laugh, covering her mouth with a blue hand. Redsun's head rolled to the side, just enough for one blue eye to be visible and glared at her.
"Sorry," she mumbled.
The man popped back up with a loud exhalation, and said, "It's fine. I'd laugh at myself too, and wouldn't have been nearly that quiet about it."
"Project not going well?"
"Is it that obvious?" He sighed. "No, I think it's becoming completely obvious I've wasted the last 72 hours of my life trying to figure this out."
"Sorry," she offered again.
"It's fine," was his repeated reply, and he waved his hand. "I probably would have seen it was a dead-end earlier if I hadn't been distracted by other things."
"What things?" Akeela asked, curious.
"You know about that 'Drifter' guy who has set up shop in the Tower, right?" he asked.
"Yes," the Awoken woman replied. "He runs Gambit. I've tried it a few times. I find him and his game... interesting."
"Yeah, it is. He's got some interesting gear available as well. Anyway, have you heard anything about his... unusual appetites?" Redsun questioned with a raised eyebrow.
Akane's cheeks turned a light shade of purple. She had heard about the various Guardians who had become smitten with the operator of Gambit and visited his "dingy hallway" as he called it, as well as gossip about what might happen during those visits. This time it was Redsun's eyes that widened as a laugh broke through. Other Warlocks that were within earshot turned to look at them, which caused Akane's blush to deepen.
"No those kinds of appetites," he said through the laughter. "Traveler's Light! I'm talking food."
"Oh, of course."
"Though, I have seen the Guardians visiting at odd hours from New Monarchy's gathering point," there was no misinterpreting the eyebrow raise this time, as Redsun laughed again, then got control of himself. "But, seriously, have you paid attention to things he says about food?"
"Uhm," Akane vocalized as she thought. "Not that I can recall right now."
"Next time you go near him or into a match, listen. It seems the man is constantly hungry, and he'll make the occasional odd comment about eating things, including some of our enemies."
"Wait, really?"
"Yeah. The other day he made a comment about Cabal flesh being tough to chew."
Akane blinked. "That is... disgustingly fascinating."
"Right? Ever since I heard him say that, I can't get this idea out of my head. What would or wouldn't Drifter eat? I really want to run some experiments and find out."
"That's... not exactly ethical."
Redsun rolled his eyes. "Neither is he, and I don't see the Vanguard moving to do anything about it. As much as I hate to say anything against Ikora, they've been useless since Cayde died when it comes to keeping things in line. The only people who might do anything about it would be the Praxic Order, and they clearly don't like the man. What do you say? Want to help me out?"
He held out his hand. Akane stared at it. While the idea of running experiments on someone without their knowledge was unpleasant, she had to admit that she was fascinated by Drifter and the idea of finding out more about him was almost irresistible. After considering it for several minutes, she reached out and shook the man's hand.
"Great," Redsun grinned. "Now we just need supplies and our unsuspecting mules."
"Mules?"
"Well, I'm not going to be the sucker that delivers the food to him, that's for sure."
…
The first part of the plan involved setting up some sort of surveillance device. It did not matter what sort of food they got to Drifter if they could not observe whether or not he ate it. Redsun figured the easiest way to accomplish that would be to slip into the hallway when Drifter was out overseeing a Gambit match.
Making the camera was not a challenge at all. He made it as inconspicuous as he could could, and even though it was miniscule, it still recording quality audio and video. The only challenge was matching it to the walls of Drifter's station. That took a few visits to the man while his Ghost secretly took some pictures for comparison's sake.
Once the camera was ready, it was Akane's turn. She visited with their subject, signing up for a match and making mental note of the upcoming schedule. Once Redsun was armed with that information, he could figure out a time to slip in and plant the bug.
On the designated day, Redsun made sure to stop by and visit with New Monarchy representatives. He was a known supporting of the faction, having developed defensive technologies for them that they were now deploying along the Wall. No one would question him walking through that section of the Tower after seeing him there.
"I'm not sure how you associate with those self-important jerks, sitting around in their pillow-fort," Akane had said when he mentioned that part of the plan.
"Because they care about the City and its people? Better than those lunatics in the Future War Cult or Dead Orbit and their great philosophy of 'Run away!'"
"Dead Orbit has helped the City quite a bit."
"Oh, sure," Redsun snarked, "like when they built all those deep space sensors that somehow managed to completely miss an entire fleet of Cabal warships entering the system and heading straight to Earth?"
They both decided not to continue the argument, as it was distracting from their goal. As often happened with conversations, Akane later thought of several things she could have said about New Monarchy holding to pointless, archaic ideals and rotted notions, how everyone knew they just wanted to take over the City for themselves, thing to really shut him up. She almost convinced herself that she would say them to him later, but knew that was not likely to actually happen. Instead, they let their interest in the subject and curiosity about the Drifter override their differences.
A couple days later, Redsun mingled with others at the New Monarchy gathering point, half paying attention to anything anyone was saying to him. Instead, he was keeping most of his focus on his mental link to his Ghost. He'd outfitted the Ghost with a basic shell so that it could look like any unbonded Ghost flitting about the Tower. If this particular Ghost happened to linger close to a certain half-open gate, so be it.
Eventually, the word he was waiting for came. Drifter was out.
Redsun stepped away and casually sauntered across the small courtyard. He leaned against a wall near the Drifter's hallway, taking a relaxed pose and let time pass. Once he figured that no one would be paying him any attention, he turned and cast a glance to his right.
The entrance to the Drifter's little home was mostly covered by a security gate that looked like it had been force open and jammed. Redsun peered through the gate, looking at the wall opposite where Drifter normally stood. He flicked on a small laser pointer, placing the dot near the upper corner. His Ghost slipped below the gate, materialized the camera at the indicated spot, then returned to his Guardian. Redsun idled for a few more minutes, then turned and headed toward the stairs leading to the main platform.
…
The next part of the plan required multiple Guardians assist without realizing they were assisting. That was actually the easiest part of the whole operation, it just took a little time.
Gathering a variety of materials was a simple matter of placing bounties for Guardians to pick up on patrol. They were all used to collecting a random assortment of items for reasons that were never explained to them. A little ether here, some Hive chitin there, lichen from Io, it didn't matter as long as they got a little glimmer in the process. They just had to make sure there weren't too many at a time in one location.
Once the materials were gathered, they could cook the items and get them to Drifter. It would be important that not all the meals came from them so that the rogue Lightbearer did not become suspicious. Thankfully, there were plenty of Guardians who were drawn to him and would be more than happy to curry favor by bringing him gifts.
Akane took the first meal. She struggled not to let her nervousness show when she did. The hardest part for her was having to make a bit of a show of it on the way in so that the idea was planted in other Guardian's minds.
"Come on, keep it together," Drifter was muttering to himself. He turned at the sound of her scuttling under the gate. "Hey there, sister, good to see you again. Old Drifter's always happy to see a friendly face." He noticed the object in her hands. "Especially when they come bearing gifts, assuming that's for me."
"Y... yes, I brought this for you. I've heard you mention that you were hungry before, so I thought I would make you a little something."
She uncovered the dish and held it out to him, revealing an indistinct casserole. Drifter took the dish in both hands. When he did, his fingers lightly brushed against Akane's and she felt her heart skip a bit. She nearly backed out of the whole project right there, but curiosity compelled her.
The Drifter breathed in the aroma of the meal and smiled. "Well now, that is a mighty fine gift. Won't score you any points in the Gambit rankings, though."
"N... no, of... of course not," Akane managed, her cheeks flushing a light purple.
The Warlock had the sudden sensation of being watched and glanced behind her. She caught fleeting glimpses of several heads ducking back under the gate. Bait taken. She looked back to Drifter as he stuck a finger in the meal, bringing it out with a little sauce on the tip and licked it off.
"Well, see you later," she offered weakly, then exited, eyes flicking to the camera for a fraction of a second before she ducked out.
Once out, she went straight back to the lab. By the time she had made it back, Drifter had apparently finished every bite of the casserole, and was licking the dish clean.
"Control mean down," Redsun said with a gesture to the monitor. "Drifter will accept food and eat it without knowing what is in it ahead of time. Let's get this experiment underway."
Moving forward, they managed to slip the meals to other Guardians who were more than happy to get in Drifter's good graces. They experimented with mixing a variety of ingredients with traditional Tower foods, but eventually the meals became more outlandish, with the unusual ingredients dominating the dish. Nessus frog legs. Batadactyl wings. Spine burger. Warbeast ribs. Some weird blobby methane fish from Titan.
Drifter ate everything that was brought to him.
Other Warlocks in the lab started to catch on to what they were doing, and started to watch the monitor as well. Discussion broke out about how he could possibly eat such a variety of ingredients without ever showing any ill effects. Nor did the man ever seem to be full. One day, eight different Guardians were plied with the experimental meals, and the rogue Lightbearer ate every single one, and then had a ration bar later.
Over time they fed Drifter every single non-toxic animal and piece of plant matter that they could get their hands on. The final experiment was driven by a comment that Drifter himself had made before a Gambit match that Redsun had participated in.
"Think you can eat a Hive Knight? Those're the questions you ask yourself on the frontier."
The piece of Knight was prepared as if it were a traditional seafood meal, the unsuspecting delivery Guardian having been told it was lobster.
A Warlock named Liran leaned in close, her Ghost, Spook, hovering over her shoulder. "No way he eats that," the Ghost muttered as they stared at the video feed.
Drifter ate it. Someone wretched in the background.
"That is it," Redsun said, stunned, running a hand through his blonde mowhawk. "That is practically the last thing in this system we could feed him, and he ate it. There really is nothing that man will not eat. Really, I should be disgusted, but I can't help but be impressed."
"He is a fascinating test subject, I'll admit," Akane said.
"I wonder how things would go differently if we brought him in and he knew what we were feeding him?" Redsun wondered aloud.
"Count me out on that one," Akane remarked.
The Awoken woman stood and walked away from the station. As she did, she felt a twinge of guilt and considered confessing everything to Drifter. It was not the first time she had had the thought. It was harder to push away this time.
The other Warlocks dispersed as well, leaving Redsun as the last one watching the video feed. Drifter was standing at the end of his hallway, messing with something out of view. He straightened up and stretched, then casually strode down the hall and glanced out of the gate.
"I like you, kid," Drifter said, but Redsun couldn't see who he might be talking to. He strained his ears, but heard no one respond.
On the monitor, Drifter moved closer to the wall, stepping under the small camera and disappearing from view. There some odd scraping and thumping sounds. Suddenly, Drifter's face popped into view, filling the entire screen.
"As I was saying, I like you, kid. You're a good Gambit player, and thanks to you I've got a full belly for the first time in years. For now anyway. Never seems to last. Anyway, that being said..." Drifter glanced away for a second before turning back to the camera. "If you ever bug my nice, dingy hallway again, I might just have to kill you."
Drifter smiled, showing his teeth, then his face disappeared as his hand filled the camera's field of vision and the feed cut off.
…
AN:
FF: Thank to jollymusician for the story follow and favorite!
AO3: Thanks guest and Netraptor for the kudos!
So, the genesis of this story was a conversation on discord. Moderator said for people to let them know if they needed anything, and someone tried to reply with a food order. For some reason, their autocorrect changed "cheese" in cheese burger to "spine." I commented, "Spine burger? Sounds like something Drifter would eat." A minute later, I thought, "That could be the Destiny version of, 'That's what she said,' because it could apply to so many things." Then I had this idea.
Akane belongs to acexfdiamxnds, Akeela Redsun belongs to a discord user by the same name who isn't on here, and Liran (who had a cameo at the end) belongs to fireteam_dumb_luck. Thanks for letting me play with your toys.