galratech | (no subject)

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[Shiro doesn't remember falling, but it feels a little like he's been dropped off a high building and frankly, given the likelihood that he was teleported here, for whatever reason... he doubts, with his luck, that it was a gentle landing. He deeply considers lying prone for a few more minutes, but the sound of excited voices filter through to his awareness past the pain, talking about a 'beam of light'. Before he can think about how much he hurts, he's rolling into a tense, ready crouch, just in time for several large shapes to break through the foliage. Shiro can only gape at the variety of the figures that fan out to surround him, scales and vines and wings. He hasn't seen such a menagerie gathered in one place since, well... the coliseum.

It's not a comforting comparison.

Weary dread sluices through Shiro's body as they circle him, jeering. He seems weak! and King Darc will know just what to do with this one. and He'll be quite a prize, with this last line, an echo from the past again, ratcheting his pulse up until it feels like his chest will break. Though Shiro knows from their tone it won't do any good, he warns them to back off just once before lunging at the nearest one, hoping surprise will give him enough edge to run.]

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[Darc frowns, drumming his scaled claw.]

There's no group I know by that name... Humans?

No, they're not.

[He supposes he should be relieved. The Galra were unlikely to be starting any new conquests just now...

He focuses a little more on Darc. Not human, but much more human than any of the others he had seen. Had Shiro been rescued from them....? He would have expected to wake up in a cell, not bed.]

Can you tell me your name? And what your people are called?

[Darc startles, shocked.

He knows Shiro is drugged, but surely no human he doesn't know already could be so drugged that they would start assuming Deimos have names and are people right off the bat?? He knows Kharg was talking big about teaching broader acceptance but what the FUCK? He's been asked for his name so genuinely like, NEVER, without the presumption that he's some thing first]

... My name is Darc. King of the Deimos.

[Uh.

Shiro runs that back through his drugged brain to make sure he heard that correctly, and think about whether or not Darc is using the word 'king' in some particularly weird alien way. But no, King of the Deimos sounds pretty unmistakable. No wonder the guy looks so surprised that Shiro doesn't recognize him.]

Sorry, I'm... not from around here, obviously. So those people who found me were your subjects?

[WHAT THE FUCK MAN.]

That's right. They found you in the Coalept forest, about to get eaten or worse.

You're telling me you have no idea how you got there? It's no place for humans. It's practically no place for Deimos. You're lucky you were found!

I know. ... I can't thank you and your people enough, King Darc.

[He meets Darc's eyes as best he can, trying to blink away some of the heavy pleasantness of the drug.]

It's complicated. I was in a battle, there was an explosion. I really don't know what happened after that.

[But if it was the Black Lion who teleported him, he sent Shiro somewhere safe. Or so it seemed right now. Shiro wanted to believe that.]

[whfhbn this gratefulness and being thanked]

You're... thanking us? Hah... you really are drugged. You say you were in combat, but I've never met a human warrior like you.

[he shoves aside the OBVIOUS FLUSTER for steel instead, agitated by this whole situation]

There shouldn't be any battles on this continent, not since the treaty. Who are these Galra that they dare disobey my decree, and dare toy with despicable experimentation? Tell me where they are and I'll rip them limb from limb.

[Shiro stares at him. This is a lot to take in. He's trying to get together a picture of the political situation; he expected this place to be on the verge of some conflict, like so many others but it seems like this planet has already slayed its demons, for the moment. Maybe it won't last. He's a little stunned at the vehemence coming from Darc. Looking at him, maybe he was also experimented on... turned half human? He can't even tell if that makes sense.]

They're... very far away. In another galaxy, probably. I can't say they're not a threat, but we just dealt them a serious blow... I don't think they'll be regrouping anytime soon.

[frown!!!! the rest of it he can understand, so that's fine, but...]

Another... galaxy? What's that?

[How does one explain space while high.]

You have stars, right? At night? Each of those stars is something massive, but very far away. Different suns, different planets... It all exists in space, just like this planet. And galaxies are, uh, kind of like space... Countries. But mostly just. Geographically? A galaxy is a collection of stars and planets that are loosely related by gravitational pull, um... An invisible connection that keeps them close.

[...squints, his back going rigid. Who is he.]

... Sounds like talk from the ancients...

... And sounds like you're still drugged. But I get the gist of what you're saying, if it's true - your enemies the Galra are defeated for now. I already had a full patrol sent out, and sent a message to Kharg. I'll know soon enough if you're telling the truth.

Until then, you stay here with me, Shiro.

[So he was a prisoner. Maybe? Worry gnaws at him, but it's having a hard time penetrating past the pleasant haze of the drugs combined with his comfortable he is. Still, it leaks through his eyes somewhat, as he tries to regard Darc neutrally.]

What will you do with me after?

Hmph.

[Dark frowns, hesitating. Part of him feels as though-- well, he's found a warrior all alone, scarred and experimented on and nearly dead, in ex-enemy territory and afraid. He's acting so strange. The closest anyone has ever been to Lilia, except so much more... vulnerable. His face doesn't seem like he's lying.]

...I want to know why your arm has the first magic I've sensed in months! Other than that... You don't have to look so pathetic, I'm not going to keep you. I'll turn you over to the humans. If anyone breaks our treaty, it'll be the humans first! So long as you have kept your word, Deimos keep their word.

Sorry. I have a... bad track record, you could say. I didn't mean to imply anything.

[Shiro tries for another weak smile, but he is very drugged.]

... I honestly don't know. The Galra... gave me this arm. Made me have it. It works on some type of energy, but I don't really understand it.

... Not at all?

[That's a bit softer. sympathy seeping into Darc's defensive posture.]

How long ago did this happen to you?

[Ahah. This was also a question he really could answer accurately; most of his arena days were an indistinguishable slurry. But he already finds himself off-balance from the sympathy in Darc's face. It was hard enough for Shiro to wrap his own mind around that year with the Galra. He couldn't ask any of the other Paladins to understand it. Yet Darc seemed to know without even being told.]

Around a year ago, [He hazards, and, trying to push the subject toward the less personal:] Is that why you said I'm not like other human warriors? Because of this 'magic'?

Edited 2017-01-22 21:15 (UTC)

Magic makes you not like anyone, right now!

No, I... You assumed I had a name. You're afraid of being captured, but you're not afraid of me. You even offered thanks to the Deimos.

[Whuh.]

Uh—Sorry, maybe I am a little too drugged. Isn't offering thanks to someone who saves your life pretty standard?

[flustered?!]

I -- the Deimos aren't so soft now that we go around saving weaklings for no reason! If you were weak, you wouldn't have survived. I just can't have a human showing up and dying in Deimos territory!

[... He's really embarrassed?? Shiro can't make sense of it, but he has to bite back his amusement.]

That uh, still means you saved my life. No matter why you did it. And you're taking pretty good care of me now, so... 'Thank you' doesn't even seem good enough to cover it.

Edited 2017-01-22 21:54 (UTC)

[scrunches his face. He rubs at the black mark on his upper arm with his scaly claw.]

...You see! That's exactly what I'm talking about.

[Shiro's mouth quirks.]

Sorry, but I really... don't see.

[. . .

Darc stares at him. Absolute bewilderment is on his face.

He tries to reframe all of Shiro's answers. Digest them somehow]

. . . You're really not from here, are you? Do you... not know the Deimos at all?

No, I've never heard of the Deimos before you told me the name. Were things between the Deimos and the humans really that bad?

... [laughs, short...]

Yes.

I can hardly believe this... [tightly] Your arm... there's nothing like it left on our planet, but the same sage that cured your poison and tended you may be able to learn more about it. No one left in this world knows more about magic than her.

[...stiffly] I told her not to examine it until we asked you about it. She knows what it's like to be experimented on.