Chapter Text
He's handsome, truthfully, with a strong jaw and piercing eyes that followed you into your ship. The image of him remained clear in your mind despite the absence of his voice, but your hands were preoccupied with the creation of a pain-killing tonic. It allowed you to appear more calm than you were, and though you didn't know if he was watching you, you were grateful for the distraction. Maybe it's just your own thoughts, but you could feel something on the back of your neck––something watching you.
"I used to live in a city," you said, and a second later the background hum of the ocean and your fluorescent lights disappeared. He's listening. "Lived in an apartment. My neighbors used to always play music, loud enough to hear through the walls. I never really liked music."
Now, though, you miss it. It was far too quiet compared to how you used to work, how you're accustomed to working. So you hummed––some pop song you didn't know the lyrics to and just barely remember the tune for.
"Did your people have music?" You asked but earned no reply. The pulse of ocean water and buzz of electricity once more returned, marking the spirits' absence. You sighed long and hard.
"Fucker," you grumbled to yourself.
Using a simple process of paste-making, the painkiller was soon made ready by your hands. It was a thick liquid now, dark green and carrying the scent of salt and smoke. By then you're aware the taste is going to be incredibly unpleasant, so you plug your nose, letting the tincture fall down the back of your throat before you could gag it back up. You kept your nose plugged as you searched around for food, something with a strong taste that would rid your mouth of the plant's bitterness.
Eventually you found a bottle of beer. Generally speaking you tried not to drink––then again, you also tried not to take drugs, and here you were. With that you popped open the cap, taking a long swig that purposefully ran along the whole of your tongue. A long, satisfied sigh left you once you swallowed, the taste now distant compared to the taste of beer.
Crawling down to your knees, you slid in underneath the sink, resting your head on the pillow sat at the head of your bed. Your eyes fluttered shut, hoping to find some sort of relief in the coming minutes. With the two injuries to your back, you couldn't lie down properly anymore, leaving you to rest on your side.
When you woke it was dawn according to your camera clock. A bad headache is what stirred you, pushing you to your feet. As the pressure ran away from your head, the pain began to fade away, replaced with a pleasant high that had to be the result of that tincture. The world spinned a little––just a little, enough to knock you off your balance, but you caught yourself on the sink counter. You raised your hand to hold your head, slowing your breath so as to contain yourself a little better.
"It is working?" He asked, and the nearness of his voice startled you. Already you'd grown used to it coming from the back of your mind.
"I think so," you mumbled, your mouth suddenly feeling very dry.
"Drink," he said.
You hesitated to obey anything he said, but you couldn't deny that drinking is nothing more than logic considering your dehydrated state. Generally, purebred marijuana did have a tendency to dehydrate a person, and one saturated in salt water probably did its' job tenfold. You reached for your open bottle of beer, taking several swigs before either of you started talking.
"This is a holy plant," he said softly, his voice growing nearer to you until a heat began to radiate from a body that wasn't there.
"Thank you for... telling me about it, I guess," you grumbled, too fatigued to manage much else. You could barely tell the difference between having your eyes open or closed––open there's black spots and black edges, closed there's nothing but darkness.
Consciousness came and went in waves for the next several minutes, and when it returned to you for a blissful two seconds you caught sight of feet on the edge of your vision. The floor was still visible through them. While that was certainly alarming, the most interesting part of it was that they were blue, emitting their own light onto you. Unfortunately that was about all you could manage in that moment; three seconds later and you're fading back into a blackout.
He's crouching in front of you when you come back to. Instantly you jumped backwards, knocking your upper bruise on the edge of the counter. You let out a gasp of pain, but it faded when you met his eye, finding the same sense of surprise that you had.
"Can you see me yet?" He asked, eyes widening further as he leant in closer.
"What the fuck are you?"
He frowned.
"I thought we went over this," he said as a smile began to pull at his lips, reflecting in perfect symmetry the vacant smile of the King's statue. "Besides, I think I have far more questions for you, now that you can see me."
"Oh, so you wait till now to tell me you're a chatterbox?" You scoffed, shaking your head despite the grin on you.
"Couldn't scare you away," he said as he moved closer yet, into your personal space, "needed to gain your trust."
"... right, well, if you could get off me –"
"Hm? Oh, yes," he said, moving backwards till you were allowed room to breathe.
You were 80% sure if you wanted you could've just stood up and phased right through him, but it sounded like something that would be rude, so instead you waited till he was on the other side of the room before you stood. You were still unsteady, moving to your feet––he tried to reach forward and help you, but you brushed his hand away. As expected you went right through him, but nonetheless he understood your message.
"Are you a God?" He asked eagerly, fingers curled into his palm as excitement oozed from his every motion.
"Not that I'm aware of," you mumbled.
"But you came from the sky," he said, and despite himself moved closer. "I saw you. You fell from the sky, engulfed in flame before you came here. Have you come for me?"
"I don't even know who you are," you said. He (very clearly) didn't like that answer, but continued anyway.
"Do you know what happened here?"
You paused.
That was the only question you had for him, the only important one, and he didn't have the answer. A weight sunk in your chest.
"No," you answered truthfully, no matter how much the answer annoyed you.
"Do you trust me yet? Or did you already trust me, and now I've ruined it?"
"How about you calm the hell down and then we'll see," you snapped, exhaustion pulling underneath your eyes and blurring the feeling in your limbs. Yet it didn't deter him––or, in the least, it didn't put him off.
"One more question," he asked of you, and you nodded absently, feeling sick from the up and down motion. "What is your name?"
"Tofu," you murmured. "It's a family name."
"Uh... right. My name is Ahkmen. I'm the prince of this world," he said with an air of pride, his chin tilting upwards. For a split second you could imagine him as a King––royal, master of the lands, the object of deification.
"Not a very exciting world you've got here," you said, though it's a lie to you. There's nothing more exciting than this, but to a king, riches are unreachable without subjects to command.
"You haven't seen the whole of it," he said, grinning.
"There's more?" You asked.
In an instant you recall earlier thoughts of yours; the logical conclusion that there had to be more beyond the statue. The pungent attitude of your sickness melted away the more you thought about it, the more you itched to leave this ship, the more you imagined what awaits you.
"Of course there is," he said, and even now you can tell he saw every bit of your growing excitement. "But you must rest now. Wait until the medicine has settled in you. Alright? After that I can answer any other questions you have."
You reluctantly slunk back under the counter, curling up in your blanket with your wet suit still on.
At last you got a rest that lasted longer than thirty minutes. Dreams danced with their meaningless stories, entertaining you for a pleasant two hours that allows the tincture to mellow out. It was still morning when you woke up, but your wits were more about you, and eagerness tainted your every thought.
He wasn't here anymore, at least not visible to you when you stood. You almost called out to him, but you stopped yourself before you did, quickly deciding it'd be best to prepare yourself before calling him to guide you. In all honesty you probably didn't even need him to guide you. You had a map, after all, but he could give you insight that you would otherwise never know of.
Your water suit covered the entirety of your body but added nothing else. Fins and little jets would aid you in both speed and agility, overall increasing your safety and the safety of your mission. Fins didn't just come with your ship, though––why would the government mandate those? They aren't essential, no matter how helpful they would be. It didn't bother you all that much considering you could just melt down some plastic and rebuild it at the molecular level. In fact, it took you less than ten minutes before you were pulling brand new fins onto your feet, and the first six minutes were spent looking for tupperware. Seven more minutes and little jets are implanted into your suit's palms.
Reaching for your helmet, you grabbed it from the counter and settled it over your head, waiting for the safety lock to click before you let it sit upon your shoulders. A grumble from your stomach stopped you in your tracks, growing louder and gnawing at your insides once you were aware of its' presence.
"Fuck," you mumbled. "Food."
You haphazardly stuffed granola bars into the little storage pockets in your helmet, refilling your water packets with fresh water before you stepped out of the Treader. Even midday there was no light down there––nothing but the headlights of your helmet, illuminating the ground in two perfect circles. Turning to the sky, you began your journey to the surface, popping your ears as the pressure got lighter.
Water rippled around you once you breached the air, eyes searching the perfectly blue sky hanging above you. You pulled off your helmet, the heat of day instantly reaching your cheeks, warming them to a pleasantly dark blush.
"You seem excited," Ahk said in a familiar whisper.
You whipped around, trying to balance yourself in the water while you searched for him, still attempting to keep the inside of your helmet dry. The progress of his incorporeal form had already vanished, leaving you talking to the air.
"Are you ready to begin?"
Your scanner was on your hip. Research log ready. Food and water was stocked. The time was upon you, and it was a beautiful day today.
"Let's go."