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Jacek did not flinch as Ruin appeared directly in front of him, in fact relieved to be speaking to them instead of Cam. Not that he necessarily disliked the younger man…but this was more familiar.

“Yes. I’ve come to understand that you would find it…useful…to learn more about social expectations, decorum, that sort of thing. In order to blend in more easily with Earth people.” He put a hand to his chest and bowed his head slightly. “I would be honored to assist you.”

“AHHH, YES. This pleases me. And you are partially correct... for to ‘blend’ is not my end goal. I will explain further in your orientation!”

With no further warning, Ruin grabbed Jacek’s shoulder in their huge gauntlet and teleported away. In a crackling flash of light, they had reappeared deeper in the woods, the clearing out of sight. Directly at Jacek’s feet was a rocky waterfall about five feet in height and ten feet wide. It flowed peacefully into a small stream below. Ostensibly, this was part of the creek which bordered his little territory, and it was the most dramatic location he knew of.

Jacek shrunk back slightly from Cam’s obvious excitement, eyes flicking back and forth like a cat exposed to a spray of water.

“Ah. No, it would not be a lie. I don’t suppose you know what sort of…experience he has with contract employment.” Jacek turned his focus back to Ruin, brow pinched as if he were trying to cast x-ray vision through him. “In any case. He may share my apartment for the time being, if it’s pressing that he find space outside….this place.”

“Actually, I do, and I’m gonna say it’s none,” Cam answered. “I also don’t think he’s ever been inside a house. We like it out here because there’s no one around. So don’t sweat it about keeping him as a roommate, yeah? Hold on, I’ll go get him.”

Cam hurried over to Ruin and spoke to him. The Idol flashed neon colors and teleported back in front of Jacek.

As the scarf was settled about her neck, Odie reflexively touched it. It felt right. She had been missing it this whole time, the one article of clothing she always wore–the real thing, not the hologram-created outfits she could never afford. It made her want to cry, an emotion threatening to suddenly well up and override the very laissez-faire attitude of a tech goddess at work. Those processes, though, would take too much energy away from regeneration. She couldn’t afford to dehydrate, so she smiled in a wobbly way at Hayzeus, overwhelmed.

“Be not afraid!” Odie said, suddenly, engaging distortion with her voice in a way Allie had assured her was a very funny meme. Humor often diffused difficult situations. It was one of its core philosophies: you could get laughter from disrupting tension. As she understood it, it had something to do with Christian angels, which she resembled in a bizarre way. The unexpected was also core to humor.

“Hayzeus is my friend. He doesn’t talk to other Regulators.” Odie’s remaining arm came up in another very reassuring gesture: the thumbs up. “We can all be friends.”

In the back of her mind, she was reminded that, despite all her reassuring gestures, she was currently mangled and partially devoured. This state of being would normally cause sympathetic distress in those who couldn’t survive such a wound. Hopefully, her attempts at humor and cheer would diffuse that.

Their eyes (John’s notwithstanding, behind their curly bangs) fell to Odie in shock and remained there. Cam’s pointing finger moved to the clean robot-gore. “Did Ruin do that?” he asked, strained.

“No, no, though, to be fair, he did try to kill us and kidnapped Odie, but no. This is actually why I was just talking to him about why we can’t stay.” Hayzeus carefully knelt back down, putting a hand on Odie’s shoulder.

Cirinia blinked several times. “He was chasing a radio signal,” she said suddenly.

“Yyyeah, that was Odie.” Ciri glanced up at Ruin’s helm and shuffled worriedly as Hayzeus continued, “We’ve been looking for her. Look, long story, but I’d like us to get back to the Commune. Do you guys live out here? Wait, are you the servants?”

Taking mild offense to the term servants, Cam explained their relationship with the Idol and keeping him out of society. Hayzeus traded the story of the dragon, convincing them that they should move clubhouses, although that put Ruin closer to Regulators than they were comfortable with.

“I can give him a glamour,” Hayzeus said.

“You can?”

“Well, yeah.”

“I just thought, since you quit, maybe they took your powers away or somethin’. I dunno.”

He paused. “No. I still have them. I can memory wipe. But I won’t!”

Odie had no such reservations or revelations. She took all of this information in stride. The conversation was recorded and she could ruminate over it again at her leisure to divine all the nuances of her friends’ behaviors–that was, when she was up and running again.

“I’ve shut off all non-vital processes for the majority of my recovery.” Odie explained helpfully to Hayzeus. “I’d like to go back to stasis to help speed up my recovery. Is that acceptable?”

“Yeah, that’s fine,” he exhaled, petting her hair. “Oh--wait. Stay awake.”

Out of his pocket he pulled the tattered red scarf. Ruin cocked his head noticing that Hayzeus wore a matching one. Hayzeus diligently tied it around Odie’s neck and straightened it over her collarbone.

“Someone found it,” he explained with a smile. “S’how we tracked you down.”

A flurry of cracking branches and clumsy running feet interrupted the moment. Someone burst out of the brush into the clearing and shouted breathlessly, “Ruin, what are you doing?!”

Ruin turned dutifully. Hayzeus saw three young people in various stages of shock and apprehension, leaves and dirt marring their clothing from the past two hours spent in the woods.

“AH, my servants,” Ruin said. “I have rescued another hopeful to join the clan. She is good with technology!”

Cam wasn’t focused on him. Instead, he looked horrified at Hayzeus, and started pointing. “That’s a Regulator, Ruin. That’s what Regulators feel like.”

“OH?” The Idol swiveled their head.

“Oh, geez. No. Listen.” Hayzeus rose to his feet, showing his palms. “I’m not doing anything here, I’m retired.”

“Retired!?” Cam shrieked, his voice cracking.

“Calm down! We’re just here for our friend,” he said.

technorganics​:

Odie processed this all quickly. His requests were unorthodox, but so had all been of her since leaving her Cetic. She wasn’t designed for any of this, yet she adapted. She liked to be helpful.

However…

“I’m not designed for Chaos.” Odie sighed regretfully. “I do not think I can cause it on purpose. I also do not know what technology is involved with fireworks and spray paint.”

Her gaze flit about from Ruin’s intensity to Hayzeus and Karma’s concern. “Are these things I should do?”

“Not without a purpose.”

Karma’s assessment of this stranger had changed. When they’d first met, he’d been sinister and threatening. Now…

“This all seems pretty pointless. And juvenile.” She folded her arms. “Unless you’re trying to get the Regs on your ass.”

“It has a purpose. We exert our will and freedom by refusing to be held back by laws!”

A weird feeling passed through Hayzeus. He’d navigated a lot of hard cultural and communication issues with aliens as a doctor. Sometimes it was like when a patient lied to you about how they got an injury, except they really believed in what they were saying. He was only an off-world human and wouldn’t judge, per se, but he needed to suss out the truth relative to medicine.

This felt similar. He sensed Ruin had just exposed something about themself without meaning to. This profound realization all took place behind Hayzeus’s scrunch-nosed, ajar-mouthed stare of mild disturbance.

“...Alright. We can all talk about this soon. Odie needs to heal up before anything, okay?” He looked down at his friend and touched her wounded arm. “Your antigrav is down. That guy must be strong.”

Jacek closed his eyes as if gathering himself at ‘be his friend’. With a cosmic effort he resisted commenting on it.

“…I see. Well. If there is to be an arrangement, I would need to confer primarily with him. As a recent transplant to Earth myself, I don’t know what utility I have at answering questions about living here. But…decorum, social mores, I am sure I can handle. And while I have no interest in…decorating a clearing…” He glanced around witheringly, “I could perhaps find some sort of accommodations more befitting someone of his stature.”

“I can’t serve you if you threaten my friends.” Odie thought that was reasonable. Legality had never occurred to her; after all, it was her purpose to serve higher beings. If she couldn’t do it per her original purpose, it was important she do so in any other way she could.

“Ruinous Idol, what do you want me to do?” Hayzeus was right; she couldn’t help Ruin without knowing his will. She may not have the proper capabilities. Her eyes twitched between the three of them, searching for answers and approval.

“YOU ASK WISE QUESTIONS.” Ruin came forward and crouched down, the helm fixed on Odie with hawk-like keenness. Hayzeus reflexively had his hand on Karma’s arm and leaned away from the strange alien.

“Your task is simple. You will join my followers and sow chaos at my whim. You will also find me things and clean up sticks around the perimeter.”

“Whooo are your followers?” Hayzeus interjected.

“Four young Earthlings. They have shown me the ways of this world. With Odie’s power over technology, our power will expand!”

“Power?” Hayzeus stared at him, expression scrunching in deep confusion. “You haven’t actually said anything actionable.”

“We like to set off fireworks in the dead of night and spray paint police cars.”

technorganics​:

“I did say I would serve him,” Odie supplied unhelpfully. Her shivers subsided as she found something new to focus on, her head leaning on Karma’s shoulder. “But he will still let me do my two part time jobs, so I will have to leave at times.”

Karma let out a frustrated sigh.

Odie was smart, but work and service meant different things to her than they did to most other people. On this planet, anyway. Karma worried that it made the tech goddess easy to take advantage of.

“Did you make this agreement under duress?” she tried to ask patiently. “Cause that’s not legally binding. Did you sign a contract?”

“SHE WAS UNDER SOME RUBBLE.”

“He does not seem stupid to me,” Jacek replied, his tone going almost icey. “The intricacies of an alien society like Earth’s inevitably seem trivial to a being like him. I am surprised that he’s taken up these…pasttimes…” he glanced over his shoulder as well, taking in the camp furniture and how Ruin seemed to be sulking. “…rather than. Whatever it is he’s suited for. Executioner? Maybe you’re lucky, then.”

He turned to pin Cam again with his stare, mouth pinched. “It seems to me that it’s less that he needs a chaperone, and more that you would feel safer if he had one. But that decision would be up to him. Unless you’re looking to have someone shadow him everywhere.” He sighed. That sounded dreadful.

“…What exactly are you looking for in a…chaperone.” He said finally.

Cam felt the blood drain from his face. Shame and a little bit of dread pooled in his stomach. “Y--yeah. Sorry. You’re right,” he said, licking his lips to bring the feeling back into them. “He’s not stupid. He’s just, kind of like a newborn, he doesn’t know what his options are. He talks a lot about freedom and free will. That just...” He inhaled, glancing at the pair at the creek. “For him, that usually means doing crimes. Things that are considered crimes on Earth.”

@lambonthealtar THE TRUTH CAN BE HARSH

@stealoncepaytwice I HAVE HEARD THEY ATTEMPT TO KEEP THE PEACE. DO THESE EXPLOSIONS DISTURB THE PEACE?

IT SHOULD BE. YOU DO NOT KNOW WHO IS COMING FOR YOU.