thisavrou_log | If You Listen Close, You'll Hear the Sound / of All the Ghosts That Bring Us Down

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original character: darin altway

If You Listen Close, You'll Hear the Sound / of All the Ghosts That Bring Us Down

Who: Darin, Open to Close and Semi-Close CR!
When: This week
Where: Kauto: Region 5 Hospital
What: Darin's been comatose since his bout with his shadow and it's time to wake him up with SCIENCE
Warnings: Probable blood and physical trauma

While his condition has stabilized since the shadows were officially defeated, Darin definitely isn't in the best of shape. His wounds are taking much longer to heal than they normally should, his skin is pale, and he's showing no signs of any real mental activity. In short: he's comatose. But, there's a glimmer of light in this dark cloud. Using experimental technology, someone (or a group of someones) can reach into Darin's consciousness and maybe try and pull him out of it. The problem? This might not work at all. Or things could go from bad to worse for everyone involved.

What's the worst that could happen?

I-The Hallway-
Interestingly enough, Darin's head isn't just a massive void of empty space peppered with memories of some really great explosions. Nor is it a palace with massive golden statues proclaiming just how amazing he is. It's just...a really long hallway. Each door is unmarked and unlocked, but if you put your ears to them, you can hear muffled voices coming from within. The hallway doesn't seem to have an end though. Pick a door, who knows what you'll find?

II-The Night It All Went to Hell-
One of the doors leads to a rather quaint hillock overlooking a quiet port town. It's dark out, but there's plenty of light from the spattering of stars and the twin moons; red and white respectively, giving the scenery and almost ethereal violet hue. There's a modest home on the hillock itself...which seems to be the source of some commotion. There's the sound of a fight, then some yelling. And then, finally, the spark of a fire being started...

III-Life Goes On-
This door leads to a bustling street in the port town itself. At the end of the street is a rather large smithy, and there appears to be a full garrison of knights standing about the premises, waiting impatiently. The sea are brings the fresh smell of salt on the breeze, and some of the knights are complaining to an older, stout looking gentleman about the rust on their gear. Meanwhile, a beleaguered, blue haired youth, no more than ten years old, is doing his best to measure up an impatient knight for some new armor. Except he's gone and tripped himself up with the measuring tape and fallen into one of the large barrels of water, sending a mixture of laughs and groans rippling through the platoon.

"Why do you even keep this kid around, Acteon?! He's more trouble than he's worth!"

IV-Something's Not Quite Right-
This door leads to an even larger marketplace...not just a port side town anymore. No, this is a huge bazaar in some forgotten nation's capital. There's stalls selling any kind of wares you can imagine: exotic fruits and spices, weapons and armor, fine silks and furs, if you can dream it, it's likely being sold here! Some well armored and equally armed guards push by you quickly though and head towards what seems to be a throng of people circling up. Follow them and you'll see a large man looming over that stout smithy from the previous door, who is in turn standing in front of a gangly-armed, teenage Darin.

"What's all this about?"

"Your brat! He comes up to my stall and he...he breaks my weapons right in front of my paying customers!"

"Look, I was just showing these fine folk what inferior gear looks li--" Darin is cut off by the larger weaponsmith.

"MY GEAR IS THE BEST IN THIS REALM!! ACTEON, EITHER REEL YOUR FREAK IN, OR I'LL HAVE HIM IN CHAINS!"

Darin's smug look turns enraged, and he's already jumping over Acteon to try and throttle the man.

"WHAT'D YOU CALL ME YOU SECOND-RATE--"

The guards are already dogpiling on Darin which...doesn't necessarily slow him down. He pushes through them, and instead of attacking, just turns and runs for the nearest alleyway.

V-Chain of Command-
This door leads to...almost nothing, really. In fact, all that can be seen in this low light is what appears to be a massive steel gate. The bars reach up seemingly forever, and beyond the gate, there is nothing but blackness. The doors to the gate are pushed open slightly, but they're not fully open yet. Something appears to be keeping the doors themselves from being forced ajar completely. That something is Darin, hanging and covered in hundreds of chains, all of which are wrapped around the many massive iron bars. He appears to be hanging limp, but upon closer inspection, his arms are pulled taut, the muscles flexed and tight. As if, though unconscious, he's fighting to keep the iron gates shut.

-WILDCARD-

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A celebration? Normally, Darin would be all about kicking back, relaxing, and enjoying having survived their latest ordeal. But something on his face betrays what he's actually feeling. He looks down at his hands again and begins to clench and unclench them once more.

"If you guys are up to celebrating, I'll sign off on that. But..."

And this where things seem to take a turn for the uncharacteristic.

"I have some work I need to do. And I need to start as soon as my body is properly recovered."

What this 'work' could possibly be, he's not clarifying just yet. But there's a fire in his green eyes. Whatever he's got planned, he's very serious about it.

All right, no. She's not going to let that one pass without prying.

"What do you mean? What kind of work?"

It's not the work itself that's the problem, of course. He's possibly one of the most productive members of Lion House. But his approach to work always seems to be more challenging himself. A game and a learning experience, wrapped in one.

That serious tone is different.

That makes two of them.

"Talk to us, man. What are you planning?"

Allura isn't the only one who Has Some Concerns about all of this. The last time something like this happened, he'd heard Darin went racing back to the scene of the incident. Running through the entire gauntlet over and over again.

"I need to learn my limitations. And in order to learn those, I need to learn what the extent of my powers are."

He lifts his head and turns to them.

"All my life I've been too scared to really delve into what I can do. I thought my strength and my ability to recover quickly were the ceiling, but there's a lot more that I never even knew about. Meeting Dromas again before the Moira picked me up, seeing what he could do only cemented the fact that I never wanted to know what abilities Diomuhr's soul granted me. All of that changed when my shadow showed up. Someone who readily accepted Diomuhr's help? He raised an entire colosseum from the ground without breaking a sweat. He just...rearranged matter into what he needed it to be. Those powers aren't exclusive to him. They're mine."

He laughs, as if he can't believe what he's about to say himself.

"I have magic. I always did. But it doesn't follow the conventions and laws that normally govern my world. And I not only need to understand it better, but I need to train my body. Doing what I did to my shadow took everything I had. It was a do or die moment and, let's face it, I got lucky. But I don't like relying on luck if I can help it. That means I need to learn how to tap into my magic...turn it into an extension of my body just like I would any other weapon, like a muscle. And I need to raise my stamina so I'm not just a glass cannon. I need to be ready in the event something like this ever happens again."

"So, please don't take this as more fussing over you -- but -- can we help?"

Allura really shouldn't look as excited as she does. It's as if her whole expression lit up the moment the word 'train' came up.

"I'm not exactly a practiced alchemist, so unfortunately, the most I can teach you about magic is second-hand. But if it's training your body, I should be able to help with that. We can come up with something specialized."

He's got to smile. Even if it's the kind of smile people make when they know someone is about to get themselves beat. Allura's idea of training had involved shooting them with the Castle ... but it worked. In the end.

So, part of him is a little curious what she'd come up with for this instance.

"And as long as it's not another arena... I'm in." Heck, he'd try even if it were. "Physically anyway. I'm more than a little shorthanded in the magic department."

Shiro that's not funny.

"But, seriously. Part of the team means we work together. On this, and everything else."

Darin is actually a little surprised. And his face says as much.

"Are...you both sure? I have some ideas for what I think I need but...it's mostly going to be centered around my physical abilities. It's going to be pretty grueling. I need to be put to task. If you really want to do this, I won't stop you but..."

He trails off and considers his options, then nods as he comes to a decision.

"I want you guys to come at me with your best. Don't just put me through my paces...I need you guys to try and break me. If you two are up to the task then..."

"Normally, I'd extend the offer to go one-on-one against you with a battleship. Unfortunately, I still don't have mine." She hums thoughtfully. "Well, that shouldn't be much of a problem! Piloting the castle isn't all I'm good at -- I'm sure I can come up with something more creative."

And then, in case this isn't terrifying for both the men in the room, she adds, "Perhaps we should try to get the other paladins involved, too. It's a good team exercise, to work together against a much stronger opponent."

Alteans. Go hard or go home.

"We're not shooting him with the Castle... Even if it were here."

There is such a thing as overkill, even where Darin is concerned. Besides, that thing is more than just a battleship, it's a whole flotilla unto itself. He pauses, thinking.

"Allura, how much can you tell Pidge and Hunk about how the training room worked? Maybe they could recreate it, here, somehow." Good for the two of them to bond over, too. Speaking of which... "Add in Lance and Keith taking him on at the same time, we'd have a lot of angles of attack covered."

Another thoughtful pause, glancing up at her. "More, if you wanted to throw in too."

"Wait wait wait, back up. Rewind that tape for a second." He gives Allura an incredulous and frankly insulted look.

"Did you just say 'battleship?' As in you we're going to attack me with a battleship? You do know I don't have a robot lion right? I can't punch ionized photon blasts--"

He stops himself and blinks twice.

"Wait...can I punch ionized photon blasts? Is that a thing I can do? Shiro, I rescind my comment about Allura being a lunatic. I wanna punch ionized photon blasts. Also if you think Lance and Keith can take me I don't know who you're overestimating or underestimating here."

"Let's not forget, he created a building out of thin air. And creation -- controlling a large amount of matter and energy, and organizing it in delicate patterns -- is a much higher difficulty than destroying. For all we know, he could make his own robot in the middle of the battle and fight back."

She gives a 'look, I am not completely insane' shrug.

"Since that's the sort of sort of strain he'll need to adjust to, that's where I would focus the training. No matter what he's facing, he needs to go in unarmed. And if he wants to change that, he needs to fix it himself. Every time."

Darin just gestures wildly at Allura while looking at Shiro, mouth agape.

YES?? A THOUSAND TIMES YES?!

WHY AREN'T WE DOING THIS NOW?! THIS LUNATIC PRINCESS GETS IT!!

"We... are not... starting out shooting Galra-battleship-decimating lasers at him."

The look on Darin's face alone says that's a terrible idea.

"If he really wants to fight laser blasts let's at least start with Lance and Hunk's bayards." There is an unspoken please directed at Allura in that statement. "They have them here, let's make use of that before anything else. Or see if he can counter Pidge and Keith's."

Because sure, one is a blade but it's also basically magic.

"You can work on getting something close to the castle's level of firepower while he does that."

"All right. I can agree to that. We'll start with the weapons you'd find in martial combat, then work up to larger things." Sorry, Darin, but she literally doesn't have the firepower to argue this.

"Rebuilding the training room is a good idea, too. Both for the challenge inside, and to minimize the collateral damage outside." Being blind to future events, she adds, "We should be able to find a space for it somewhere around the house. Or perhaps down in the basement?"

She looks to Darin. "How does your magic work, anyway? Did you generate the matter from scratch, or is it more... well, moving around matter that's already there? Like, say, clearing a hole beneath the house?"

"Uuuuh..."

Darin thinks for a moment.

"It's a little tricky to explain. I only kind of remember the way Diomuhr explained it to me when I offered to let him take my body if he told me how it worked..."

I'm sure they'll both want to come back to that in a moment.

"But from what I was able to figure out, I can rearrange matter. In other words...if I have a big pile of wood, I can touch it and make a desk. But only a desk whose mass is equal to that of the starting components. I can't just make something out of nothing. But from what I gathered, doing so would require intimate, piece by piece knowledge of whatever it is im trying to create. So if I want to make a desk, I'll need metal, or at least elements that I can reconfigure into metal, so make screws and bolts and all of the minute components. That's how I was able to beat my shadow. He was a human so I just...broke him down into every trace element that makes up a person's body. It was a gamble but...hey, there it is."

Never let anyone say that Darin is stupid. Shortsighted? Maybe. But definitely not stupid.

"I was riding pretty high on adrenaline at the time though so I don't think I can do something like that again."

"Basement might work. I don't think we're doing much else with it right now... unless Lance put the cow down there."

Which is entirely possible, all things considered. Where did that cow go, anyway? No, beside the point.

"So if you wanted to clear out more space under the house, you need somewhere else for it to go, first?" Made sense. "Can't just make nothing out of something... Or the other way around." So he couldn't just hollow out a giant hole in the ground, and magically make a training room.

Somehow, that's more reassuring than anything else. Limits, rules... that meant it wasn't as limitless as Darin kept implying.

"And yeah, let's. Not even try to do something like that again."

"Wait. Is that why Diomuhr was out of control, after? Or was it that he took advantage of your exhaustion? Now I'm getting confused."

Still, it all worked out, and she's not about to give him another lecture. They all took some big gambles. Next time, they need to find a safer approach.

"It could still work. Not a wave of the hand, but... he could change the bedrock into a pile of dirt, and from there we carry it out by hand. Or he could make statues out of it. You know, for further practice."

Euuugghhh explaining this wasn't going to be very fun. Darin takes a very pointed step towards Shiro as if he were going to leap behind the man and use him as a shield at a moment's notice.

"Soooo...I may have told Diomuhr that I would let him have my body if he told me the secret of my powers so that I could save...y'know...everyone. So, he did, and I figured I could use my shadow as raw materials to seal him up again. Buuuuut apparently taking my shadow into my body like that was basically poison, so it took all of my mental willpower to keep Diomuhr from taking my body out for the world's worst joyride. Hence, Comatown; population: Darin. In short, my epic double cross was kind of not well thought out and it almost killed me."

He sort of...inches behind Shiro.

"Also, uuuh maybe don't sign me up to make the earth move just yet, Princess. I'm pretty sure the most I can do right now is take a plank of wood and turn it into a lump of wood."

Edited 2017-08-23 05:19 (UTC)

He doesn't say anything. He just keeps looking steadily out the window, with a very serious, thoughtful expression on his face. The kind you'd expect from a Fearless Leader debating Serious Training Choices.

And then, once Darin finishes up, once he's ducked more or less behind Shiro's left shoulder?

He flicks his hand across the back of Darin's head. Like every time he had when Lance stepped way, way over the line back in the beginning.

Because? Darin?

WHAT WERE YOU THINKING????

"All right, moving past that story..."

Talking about it might suddenly launch into more lectures and shouting. If only because they worry about you, you idiot.

"If moving dirt is out of your skill range right now, why don't we make actually building the training room part of it? Get you used to doing what you do with the ground before you work your way up."

A pause.

"And way before we let you try to stop lasers."

It's this look.

Just... this look.

She doesn't even have to say or do anything, because hearing that 'donk' of Shiro dope-slapping Darin sums everything up nice and neatly.

"Yes, I think we have ample evidence on why we shouldn't start with the little guns, but with no guns. No combat until you've finished your chores."

That's it, that's your entire punishment Darin. Let it sink in.

Of course, the plans may have to change drastically in the near future, but none of them know that yet.

"Look, I never said it was a good idea. And, let me get this straight. You're basically saying my punishment is 'no fight club until I build fight club?'"

If Shiro's whack was felt, Darin didn't show it. Honestly, he's probably taken so many shots to the head at this point, he has more of a carapace than a skull.

"Because I feel like the incentive here is a bit skewed."

It's not whether or not it was felt, it happened, that's the principle of the thing.

"Forget the firearms, we're not even letting you go up against blades, or arms."

See what he did there? Did you see? That's your real punishment, Darin. Those jokes. Except he's sort of serious on that count.

"No training room until you can control yourself enough to build it. And if that's not enough of an incentive, if you don't practice building the room first..." He glances at Allura. "... we'll let Pidge actually experiment on you."

Go with it here, Allura...

"Oh, now there's a fun alternative to training," Allura muses, in a way that is very difficult to tell if she's serious or not. "After all, the goal here is to build endurance, isn't it? There's really no need to get real combat and laser cannons involved at all. Why, with the right injections..."

She hopes this works, and this doesn't somehow also sound really cool to Darin.

Darin's response to the word 'injections' is to literally pick up Shiro and hold him up like a tower shield.

There is no mouthy response.

No lip or sarcasm.

Darin is deeply entrenched in the 'no injections' camp.

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