Masa con Papas: Proxy's Memory

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You've made yourself comfortable in the guest room, a hammock set up lovingly.

You made a deal, now you've got to commit to it.

Its been so long since you've been able to rest. It feels harder than it should be.

You're not long before Opera checks in on you, look of concern on her.

Charon: Hey.

Opera: Hey, things going alright?

Charon: Honestly about as I expected.

Opera: Is that good?

Charon: ...No.

Opera: What's up?

Charon: It's complicated.

Opera: Yeah? I mean you can explain it to me you know. Nobody's going to understand you more than well..

Charon: Aye, another version of me.

Opera: Mmhmm.

She look you over closely.

Opera: Clothes took a lot of wear and tear.

Charon: Been getting jumped repeatedly, nobody's meant to fight this much in a day.

Opera: No kidding..

Her eyes zoom in on the stains of various colors across your body, the dried gold of a fiend especially catching things.

Opera: You got hurt..

Charon: Nothing too bad.

Opera: You should've asked someone to come with you...

Charon: Didn't know what this place was, felt Rook and I were enough...

Opera: A proxy and a fancy sword's not enough to keep you safe forever you know.. folks in a tough place end up just as hard you know? Whatever power you got back home's a little less so in  a pocket like this..

Charon: I'm already struggling to keep up back there.

Opera: Bucket's not normal-

Charon: Neither is Ali, neither is anyone looking to gain from that auction-

Opera: Which is why we're working as a team, right? Our friends, me and paige, you and rook.. you live and die by that.

Charon: Mm...

Opera: Like I know you wanna take the load off people but if you break first-

Charon: I know...

Opera: We should get you dressed in something lighter for now, make sure you're cozy..

She grabs your cloak, it instinctively pulls away.

Opera: I just want to clean it-

Charon: I can't take it off anymore..

Opera: Wait, what do you mean?

Charon: It's become part of me.

You can tell she's trying really hard not to make a face.

Opera: Can I take a look?"

Charon: Mm...

She gently grabs the cloak, examining it carefully. Paige takes a peek as well.

Opera: Think you see something?

The sheet ghost gives a little nod and whispers something into her ear.

You can faintly make out some noise, they're audible...

Charon: What did she say?

Opera: Uh...  looks like a membrane? Like bat wings.

Charon: In other words-

Opera: This place did something to you...

Charon: Pocket always does ever since I killed Styx.

Opera:... Were there other things?

Charon: Mm... had issues with physical development as a kid. Fiend body was soft, fluid, unstable around the limbs.

Opera: Right, the braces. Never stopped needing them...

Charon: Never, because they melded to me.

Opera:... Wait, what?

Charon: Fiends are capable of rooting in materials to aid in healing and replacing chunks after fights. Usually pieces of things like wood, coral, bone, other living beings are used for that. Metal braces are a trick fiends use to help form parts that are unstable because truly inorganic material tends to be rejected.

Opera: And yours latched on?

Charon: became part of me, the inner core of the gauntlet became part of my own body like raw muscle. The other layers that protect them on the other hand are not. One layer was growing with me and the rest was becoming too tight to bare. We had to go with a modular shift, something where I can adjust and replace the shell's parts as needed and on the fly. It was difficult. It provided much needed stability but its hard on a body to carry all that extra weight, have plates rattling against you, risk exposure to heat and cold turning against you quickly.

Opera: I didn't know that...

Charon: You haven't been around in a long time, couldn't have.

Opera: And your eyes...

Charon: Likely another change. Whatever merging with Styx did to me has caused me to further and further distance physically from those around me.

Opera: Other people know, right?

Charon: The folks who need to obviously; Grandma Erica, Geezer, the Blancs.. not really a big list admittedly. Couldn't hide it if I wanted too, they'd see it themselves day to day.

Opera: I mean its important, should let the rest of the team know too.

Charon: Mm... I tend to bring a cane around to help me with long walks but it's not very ideal in a place where you'll be fighting so constantly. I left it back home..

Opera: Yeah I saw you using that earlier... maybe Anura can help?

Charon: We can ask, worst case scenario I could pry around Styx's place... suppose it is my castle now at this point. Feels wrong.

Opera: Every good knight needs a castle to protect, right?

Charon: I suppose..

Opera: Think we should get you leaned up first though, get you some new duds, check in on Rook honestly they seem pretty bushed..

Charon: They did good work today, they need this more than I do...

Opera: You both can have time to relax. You got into what, 4 different sword fights in a couple of days before jumping in here? 4 where you got beat down pretty hard...

Charon: I won the ones that mattered...

Opera: I know.. really appreciate you coming in clutch...

Charon: Geezer could've had it in the bag frankly. Bucket was never going to go all out against someone needed for the job. Erica prepped Geezer to take down any one of us, she's got a lot of faith in him for a reason.

Opera: Yeah... should maybe ask Mercury to make sure he doesn't bite more than he can chew up there. Between Bucket and Styx?

Charon: And Zana...

Opera: Really? I mean I know she's got issues with stress and all but-

Charon: She did shoot him on accident day one.

Opera: Yeeeah. Loose definition of accident..

Charon: And she's shot him on purpose before.

Opera: I mean Plat's there to anchor her, he seems really nice.

Charon: He is, you two need to go out for a day while you're here.

Opera: Yeah?

Charon: The Keith stories...

Opera: Who's Keith?

Charon: You'll have to find out... can you do me a big favor while you're up actually?

Opera: Sure thing.

Charon: Can you check on Rook?

Opera: Mmhmm, just a sec..

She steps out of the room.

You feel at ease, there's something-

You overhear talking.

Anura: Is that your friend outside?

Opera: Hmm? What do you mean-

Anura: I see another proxy out there.

Opera:.. What? Who's- jesus christ...

Anura: Should I go talk to them-

Opera: You're going to stay here.

Anura: Please don't pull out a firearm in my home-

Opera: It's being handled outside.

You hear the door slam open.

No time for rest just yet..