Necro: In regards to a question I got in my comments, I have no clue what Jaxon is gonna do. He does what he wants, I'm just along for the ride.
MP: Also, don't forget to check out Necro's blog necros-writings on Tumblr. He actually uses it now.
Necro: Hey!
For first time in as long as he could remember, Jaxon tumbled completely gracelessly to the ground. He had had many adventures throughout his life, but flying with Net was one he would much prefer to never repeat. Unfortunately, he couldn't fly his own ship, so he would be forced to endure it all over again. The Ghost shook itself free of his hood and floated around his head in slight concern, nudging him eventually. "I'm fine, little luux, I'm fine." He groaned as he stood back up and faced his pilot. "I am never riding with you again."
"Oh come on, it wasn't that bad, was it?" This Net directed at Reed, their Ghost.
"No more than usual." The Ghost replied.
"See? Reed says it was fine."
"That is not at all what I said." Reed replied indignantly.
"I'm taking a taxi back, I swear."
"What's a taxi?" Net asked as Jaxon spun around slowly so that he could listen to the world around him.
"It's a bit like what you just did, but they get paid and they're slightly less terrible drivers." He replied slowly, allowing everything to begin filling in. The first was the snow beneath his feet, crunching gently with each movement. Next came the buildings around them, the soft creaking of wood and harsh clank of metal, painting a picture of a half hand-built, half scavenged little town. The details, as fine as he could get, would come later, as he explored this little haven, but for now, the general image and map he had would do.
"What are you doing?"
"Seeing, in my way. Now, you said something about clothes shopping?"
"Right. This way, I think I know the perfect shop for you." Net grabbed his hand and led him down a side street, talking all the way about the various places they passed. Many were homes, but there were a few shops, even an inn.
"You come here often?"
"You could say that. This is where my Ghost found me."
"Not in the alley we just passed, I hope."
"What? No, up there." Net pointed to something outside Jaxon's perception, but he just nodded. Figured he could explain how his 'sight' worked later.
"Ah. That must have been an interesting day for everyone here."
"It was! Came back twice because the locals were convinced I was a zombie."
"Oh. Were they headshots at least?"
"That…that's your question?"
"That and how do you know what a zombie is but not a taxi?"
Net shrugged as they pushed open the door to a store at the end of a long, narrow street. "I don't know, maybe zombies are more timeless than taxis."
"I refuse to believe that." He grumbled as he stepped past Net and into the store, taking a deep breath through his nose. "Homemade clothes. Interesting."
"What? How can you tell?"
"I'll explain later. Just stop me when we've hit a budget." Jaxon waved his hand dismissively as he stepped closer to a rack of what he thought were pants. Luckily, he'd guessed right. The next half hour was spent feeling various pants and asking about the colors. Eventually he settled on several pairs of more neutral colored slacks, though he'd hovered over a pair that was, according to Net, a bright blue, then moved along to the shirts. He spent, amazingly enough, an even longer amount of time checking out the various shirts available. Finally, Jaxon worked his way to the changing rooms, arms loaded down with black and gray slacks and several button-ups of various colors, including a few that could only be described as jewel toned.
Net, for their part, was fairly alright with taking a seat and waiting for Jaxon to get back. After all, since watching Jaxon was a mission, they technically didn't have to pay for all of this. Not that they couldn't afford to, but still, it was nice to not have to. However, they had unfortunately sat themselves down right outside of the changing rooms and was soon treated to a veritable catwalk as Jaxon modeled each outfit combination and asking their opinion. This was the truly unfortunate part of all this, as the outfits weren't actually all that bad looking, but Net barely had enough color sense to fill in a color-by-number. All they could really do was smile and nod, occasionally providing comments. Eventually, possibly because he was taking pity on Net, Jaxon emerged from the changing rooms in his old outfit, the clothes he'd picked out carefully folded over his arm. "Well, they all fit. Now, I hope I haven't burrowed a hole in your wallet." As he set the clothes on the counter for the cashier, he added, almost absently, "Or rather the Vanguard's wallet." Net actually caused their neck to pop with how swiftly they jerked their head around to look at him. "Calm down, it was incredibly obvious. And if they give you grief about my expenses here, I can promise that this will likely be my greatest expense. I don't do much."
"I doubt the cost of these clothes will be a problem, but how did you know about...you know? Was it Cayde? I bet it was Cayde."
"Now that would be telling." Jaxon replied, stepping aside to let Net pay for the clothes. "And I don't like telling."
"Alright fine. Just go get changed. You smell a bit like death." Jaxon made a face at them and grabbed an outfit from the pile to change.
"I'm keeping the jacket."
"You are not keeping the skeleton jacket!"
"Oh, but I am." And that was all that was said on the matter.
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"And this is where you'll be staying, until you can find something of your own." Net said as they showed Jaxon the small room that every inhabitant of the new Tower resided in. There was space for a bed, a dresser, and maybe a small rug, if he was so inclined. The closet was, as all closets are, smaller than the room, but even so, it barely fit his new clothes. The dresser he didn't even consider, making a comment about wrinkles before hanging everything.
"Well, at least I don't have much to unpack." Jaxon chuckled.
"Not much at all, no. Where'd you even come from? There's plenty of communities out beyond the walls, but everyone that comes to the City brings…things with them. You brought the clothes of your back and...those." Net waved a hand at the, admittedly unsettling, bone knives that Jaxon was currently trying to find a decent spot for.
"Not exactly from a community." Jaxon made a pleased noise as he finally found suitable places for his knives. Namely, one under his pillow and the other...hidden somewhere that Net didn't see. Fantastic, now he has hidden weapons. "I suppose you could say I was traveling before this. Saw a lot of places, people."
"Right. And what brought you here?"
"I went looking for humanity." He stepped back and observed his room for a moment then nodded his head in satisfaction. "And I found you all. Hiding, but alive. And fighting back. More than I could have hoped for, given what I'd seen on the way here."
"And what did you see?"
"A lot of empty cities. Empty if you don't count the bones under your feet and the crews of….Fallen, you call them?"
"Right. And you just…managed to sneak past whole crews of Fallen without picking a fight?"
"Of course not. I'm good, one of the best, but stealthing your way past every single living thing out there? Not possible, even for me." Jaxon stretched and nodded at the door. "Now, this little interrogation of yours can happen while we eat, right? Cause I'm hungry."
"It's not an…an interrogation. I was curious, that's all."
"Right right, you can keep protesting while treating me to dinner." Jaxon started for the door, turning sideways to shuffle past Net.
"I'm not…protesting, I'm just…why am I paying?"
"Cause I'm broke and you already set the precedent by paying for the clothes."
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Net, despite many protests along the way, did end up treating Jaxon to dinner, oddly enough at the same ramen shop that Jaxon had met Cayde in. Or rather, the street vendor version, as much of the building hadn't survived, with the exception of a small bit of the kitchen. Regardless of the shape of the shop, Net had to admit, not aloud of course, that the food was very good.
"Now," Jaxon said after taking a big gulp of the broth for his noodles, "you wanted ask some questions?"
"Well, I'm more than a little curious how you survived the wilds, presumably without help."
"Well, admittedly, things were a lot more difficult before I made the knives. There were some moments when I thought I would die. Fighting creatures with multiple arms can be difficult." He shrugged and ate a mouthful of noodles. "Of course," he gestured vaguely with his chopsticks, "not so difficult when they barely bother to use all four. Once fought an individual with four arms that used a different weapon in each and was a master of all them. That was a hell of a fight."
"So you didn't use that…whatever you did during the attack on the City?" When Jaxon didn't respond, Net chanced a glance at him. And nearly had to pick their jaw off the floor when they saw he was simply trying to fit an enormous wad of noodles into his mouth. "You're going to choke doing that!" Much fussing ensued as Net attempted to dissuade Jaxon from trying to eat a clump of noodles bigger than his mouth in one go. They didn't succeed. But at least Jaxon didn't choke himself to death in the process. "You owe me an answer for that!"
"You were going to get an answer anyway. It'd be rude of me not to, since you're paying for dinner." Jaxon finished what was left of the great ball of noodles. "As to my…abilities, most of the time, I avoid using them. I much prefer actual proper hand-to-hand anyway."
"That why you have those knives and not a gun?"
"Well, that's partly why. The other reason being I'm blind."
Necro: It's been a while, folks. So long in fact that I forgot I was using my old pronouns in the author's note up top. I want to come back to this, so I am. But I'm gonna leave you on this cliffhanger! Also, the pronouns are they/them now. Respect it.
MP: ….I'm still the same.