Death Drive Dark Age

Falling then thudding against a hard floor, a pair of people lay very injured after a fall. Much greater than 10m, a bit over 20m even. One of them, hears this conversation from the rock formation around the falling sort of entrance to down here:

“Damn! I know we’re here to hunt her down, but I didn’t mean to send her off a cliff with some stranger! Boss’ gonna be fuckin mad he wasn’t the one to kill-” “Oh pipe down, really. You hit her with that Starshine thing, so, there’s a good enough chance they both survived the fall by developing powers. At the very least gave them some zeal.” “Fuck, let’s just get out of here and return quick. Hopefully we’ll avoid the mark being used on us...” “We won’t avoid it. Let’s go. I’m sure we can call in people from her past in, to do our job for us,” following this is the sound of two people walking over long, dry grass and getting into a car that’s quickly started up and rashly driven away.

Whoever they are, reach up to the starry night sky with intent around the area her two assailants were stood. But, before this person even processes it, they’ve lost consciousness. Like being put under for surgery.

Hours pass. With only the feeling of rain pitter pattering down onto Nira’s face, waking her from this extended slumber. Though as this sensation stirs her from sleep, she feel the rain stop softly landing on her face, but still hearing it. Upon waking up just enough to open her eyes, she can see something over her face and body, which explains how the rain was no longer hitting her. ‘The who put this here?’ She thought. ‘While I was out cold, too. Who was this close to me while passed out?!’ She thought on. Her eyes opening quickly in response.

Sharp, but scared eyes scout and dance with the surroundings. It’s the bottom of a long drop, the walls are steep but supported with the sturdy stone. It’s a very faded royal blue colour, mainly appearing as monotone grey. Snapping into reality with a sharp pain in the back, top and side of her head, Nira looks to her right, seeing someone laying nearby at first. In fact they’re almost on top of her but they’re unharmed and appear to be peacefully sleeping. Startled, Nira immediately tries to move but finds her body to be stiff, heavy and almost unresponsive. ’Why won’t you do what I want?! Move damn it! I don’t know this person and they’re laid almost on me, move! Move! Run! Fight!′ Seemingly in response to this, Nira’s body becomes more moving, commanded like a robot or vessel instead of thinking subconsciously and the body moving naturally however.

However, much like the meme of ‘best I can do is a really low price,’ Nira’s body effectively said ‘best I can do is slightly roll over which will only alert the person.’ Which is what happens to to a fault! Nira is rolled away slightly, a bit of rain coming down on her but the weather clearing up over the chasm. Though, in this clearing of weather, Nira can see two things: A glowing egg to her left that’s responding somewhat to her impulses to move and to the right, the suspicious person now standing up, looking menacing and intense in the shade of the tunnel. They walk forward with a tattered fleece jacket, dirtied baggy jeans, torn long sleeve tee, scuffed/scratched boots, bandages wrapped tightly around their hands that are swaying side to side, like two whips hung over a horizontal beam. Their alarmingly swaying, shambling walking motioning to Nira, reaching a hand forward. Stepping into the limited sunlight, showing their dirty but maintained hair? Big caring eyes? This person... is actually a cutie!

Not as cute as you though, dear reader. You’re an 8/10 on a bad day.

“Wh-who are you?” Shakily asks Nira, as she tries to not so subtly back away and cling to the rocky faces behind her. Her legs won’t allow her to stand up, her head feels light and her body feels heavy, while her arms are beginning to give out underneath her, as she’s pushing to be sitting up. “Forgotten my name..?” They appeared spaced out, meanwhile Nira’s mind is aching out thoughts such as ‘They don’t seem aggressive! Good, good, maybe I can get away if I just- A DAMN IT! My legs won’t move!’ This person is however calm, fingertips placed on the bottom of their chin “Well I suppose I can expect you to be dazed after that fall. Even if I told you my name and everything only last night. I’m Akira.” Stopping with her struggling for a moment, Nira gets a solid look at this Akira person. “... Bright/Clear, huh. Funny that.” “That coming from ‘Garlic’ Nira,” while initially surprised, Nira processes that at minimum she must’ve told them that.

While stretching and yawning Akira asks “So, um, why do you look really scared, Nira? You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” while walking forward with a bit more energy, to Nira. “I’ve just woken up at the bottom of a pit, with someone I don’t recognise. Now I’m questioning if this isn’t the afterlife or final dream from me dying,” backing away a bit at hearing this Akira, looks at Nira with an expression of small hurt. “We spent a lot of hours drinking together while you recovered from what I could tell, was you being chased through the surrounding woods,” pausing for a second Akira, thinks their next words through a bit more. “That explains those two that drove up to us and shot at us, but not your memory loss. I’m going to safely assume, it’s the head injury, but maybe you need extra healing?” Now approaching directly to Nira’s right hand side, Nira flinches at this but asking one question: “What do you mean when you say ‘healing’ huh, Akira?”

A gentle green glow, flows from Akira as a small creatures emerges from behind them. “What the fuck is that thing??” “WH- you don’t know what this is, despite having one yourself??” Akira, says while pointing at the egg at Nira’s left hand side. Shaking their head and saying nothing more, Akira produces a soft glow in the palm of their hands, before pressing them slowly against the bandages wrapped around Nira’s head. “Augh!” “S-sorry, does that hurt?” “Yeah, it really fuckin stings. It’s like the worst hangover I’ve ever had fucked a migraine and this is it’s kid! Ghh,” to that Akira can’t help but giggle a little bit. “Fuck’re ya gigglin at?” “Sorry, it’s not that you’re hurting is why I’m laughing, it’s just what you said. You seem to have lost memories, but you’re not that different from last night.” There’s this relieved, almost thankful look in Akira’s softened expression while they pull away from Nira, palms put back to their sides. “Well. My headache’s feelin much better, cheers for that for sure.” Nira tries moving her legs with apparent success, before them becoming unsteady when she’s stood up, using the rocky wall that was initially behind herself to stabilise. It’s no use, Akira catches Nira before she ended up eating stone or broken teeth. “Gotcha, easy does it there!”

At least able to sit up, down on the floor, Nira finally notices the pain coming from her back. “Fuckin’ back too? Ugh. Hey, Akira, can you do whatever you did to my head to my back please?” Saying nothing and bringing out the same green glow, even if slightly more shaky, they bring their palms to Nira’s exposed back, her shirt and jacket lifted up as best she can. Which in this case is taking them off, much to Akira’s flushed face/flustered demeanour. “Oi. You not used to seeing skin?? ᴮᵉᵃᶜʰᵉˢ ᵃⁿᵈ ᶦⁿᶠˡᵃᵗᵃᵇˡᵉ ᵖᵒᵒˡˢ ˢᵗᶦˡˡ ᵉˣᶦˢᵗ. ᴬⁿᵈ ᴵ ˢʷᵉᵃʳ ˢᵒᵐᵉ ˢᶜʰᵒᵒˡˢ ᵉᵛᵉⁿ ʰᵃᵛᵉ ˢʷᶦᵐᵐᶦⁿᵍ ᵃˢ ᵖᵃʳᵗ ᵒᶠ ᵗʰᵉ ᴾᴱ ᶜᵘʳʳᶦᶜᵘˡᵘᵐ,” mutters Nira, wrapped in her thoughts for the moment. She still twitches and makes groans during the healing process though. While this initially provides a problem where Akira can’t use their healing fully in certain spots, they do it in circles round the spots to gradually reduce said painful area.

When it comes to Akira saying “There, all done Nira,” she responds by very quickly putting her clothes back on. Quickly saying “it got damn chilly,” while adjusting her bra. The trip down to the bottom of this pit ruffled a few things out of place. For Nira this is her red jacket with some rips across the back that go right through the leather and a rip or two to her jeans even if both are covered in a thin layer of dirt. ‘At least my t-shirt is ok in not showing any dirt’ she thought about her black t-shirt. Finally standing up on her own, Nira utters “Thanks a lot Akira! If not for you, I’d stand back up out of stubbornness, or stab my fingers into the rocks and drag myself along to... what’s this place called again?” “Through the tunnel, we’ll be in The Catacombs.”