❀ Short and casual ❀ Private Theo ❀

"Lesteeerrrr," a light whine came from behind, still enough distance away to dampen the loudness, but growing closer by the second. While Crystal Swan had amassed quite the collection of white haired males, he'd always know the one belonging to his best friend the best. Now fully arrived at the bench, he nestled his half of the butt brother glory next to its mate, though his position was much more relaxed and happy than his counterpart...a detail he'd yet to pick up. "You stood me up again!" he lamented, though more in jest than not. While it was true that Theo hadn't been his normal self since the incident, he'd been making an effort to try and return to normal. The new scars on the backs of his limbs and up his spine were so fresh they were still pink, and though it was a strange admission, he'd never been so glad to feel pain in his life. Did he still fear pain? Yes, but somehow not being able to feel anything had been far worse.

Finally noting his friend's down posture, he leaned forward. "Hey, what's the matter?" asked the jello mage, following the sightline to the murky water and the slick bodies bobbing within. "W-What happened to them?" his voice saddened. The beautiful koi were dead. Starting to decay. Their lives snuffed out, despite any aspirations or dreams or family... Okay, so his emotions and general psychological state was still terribly raw, because the sight of the death had his eyes prickling and breathing quickening before he could tell himself they were just fish.


[267]

As gross as the sensation of dead aquatic flesh was, Theo moved forward to kneel at the edge of the pond and reverently pulled the fish corpses up and placed them on the grass. They hadn't decayed so much that they weren't still beautiful, if only lifeless. Their motionlessness felt so wrong. Nodding in agreement with Lester's idea of a burial and a sign for the children, blobs of jello encased the fish and froze in a temporary fix for their deterioration and smell.

That done, determination crossed Theo's face. "...The water doesn't seem as clear as usual. Something must be up with the filter thingy." As if the two girls in their lives wouldn't have been threatened before, now the man hailing from Desierto was stripping down to his boxers with a quickness slowed only by his healing body's current limitations. Bright new scars seemed to glow against his sunkissed skin, making all the other old scars much less notable. Well, all except the ugliest one over his heart on the front and back. His new nervous system had some quirks he was still getting through, like a general tremble and even clunkier fine motor skills than the clumsy man was already known for. It was a process, but regardless he lost his footing after his last sock was off and crashed into the water. Ace material, right here. Mostly naked, sad over fish, and falling into a pond. But Theo Silversong was who he was, and nearly nothing could change that. Bobbing up with a deep gasp, Theo grinned at his squad mate, sheepish but unembarrassed. "When I swim down, what should I look for?"

[545]

"No, no, no, I can do it!" Theo overcompensated, a little over eager to show he had healed back to normal and didn't need help or sympathy. The human psyche was a strange and fragile thing, and something he seemed to keep a tenuous grasp on lately. It showed in the panicked vibrato in his voice that hadn't been there before, the occasional but ever vigilant eye scan partly for threats, the deity, or simply because eye contact was hard to keep when he felt so much unlike himself inside. The squad mate would prove his worth again, or shatter trying.

With a deep breath he disappeared beneath the surface, swimming straight down until he saw the grate. The jello mage was a pretty strong dude, especially so with his new nerves. Pulling the metal up wasn't an issue. Pulling out some tangled plants wasn't bad either. However, neither seemed to get the system functioning again, not even a kick on the mechanism below. For a filtration system to work, it needed to actually pump water, right? No wonder algae and murk was starting to take over the normally crystalline pond. Theo was about to give it another good knock when a shadow passed over. It didn't seem like a cloud. It seemed...closer. As if he could sense it. His hyper vigilance was kicking in, though he was terrified to turn around. Would it be her again? Wasn't she done? He hadn't been a good doormat lately, up walking and talking. A very bad doormat indeed. The Deity would return and punish him, take his new nerves and maybe something else to insure his purpose was realized as a simple thing to wipe muddy soles on. Despite being underwater, he felt the urge to inhale. But that would be stupid. Stupid stupid...

Maybe it was Lester? If the jello man had been down here long enough, perhaps his friend came to check on him and see if he needed help? No, he knew it was something worse. With halting motions he turned, expecting a nightmarish sight of a water-swirled white hair and glowing acid lips twisted into a sadistic grin as the acid lotion peddler forced his flesh to melt off and took something else from him. A limb or something. Yet, what he did see wasn't her, but something that could remove a limb with equal expertise. A shark. Of course there was a shark. In a pond. On a flying ship. Logic vacated his mind as terror retook its place as his primary emotion as of late. Did he notice the neon green polkadots or the cartoonish eyes and proportions? Absolutely not. He'd fought these devils in the sea while taking out a monster fish for a greedy fisherman, so just the silhouette of one was enough to identify and prompt the flight part of his acute stress response to take over.

Released all his air in a ill-conceived scream, Theo launched up with all his might and swam for the surface. Just as black dots formed he popped back up with a splash, gasping and sputtering as he flailed for dry land. Flopping up into the grass, he pointed at the fin slicing the water. "S-Shark!" he squalled with tears in his eyes that were thankfully masked with pond water, gripping his chest as he heaved for air. An overreaction? Definitely. But considering what the man had recently been through, was it beyond the scope of understanding?

[1125]

It was ominous indeed, the form lurking in the growing murk below. At first it swam sporadically in every which direction, as if searching for its lost prey. The round shadow looming above caught its attention, and before long it was beginning a slow circling ascension to the guild master perched on a lovely floating donut.

Theo was shook, laying on the grass clutching the towel. "Be careful!" he called, feeling poorly about leaving this to Lester. This new way of life was hard for him. His reactions to things were different. Before he'd have fought the watery foe, just like he'd done before. But now, he just felt a trembling in his belly and the most powerful and out of place sensation of impending doom. His flesh paled in the face of this danger, and though he told himself it was nothing compared to what he endured, simply allowing his brain to trace the edge of those memories quickened his breath. How long would he continue to suffer her. She wasn't even here!

A fin broke the water's surface. "There it is!" his friend called, frantically waving to it as if Lester couldn't easily see it. The neon green polka dots were plenty obvious. Theo saw them, and it occurred to him that perhaps the water beast wasn't a real danger at all, yet his overly panicked brain insisted it was just a new breed that was even more dangerous than a normal shark, and that Lester was in immediate danger. Then something odd happened. As the toonish sharp bobbed toward Lester, Theo fell unnaturally silent. Hands formally wringing the towel were completely still, matching his entire body. It was as if he'd become a statue.


[1412]