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It was late. Really late. Their move to Season 8 came tomorrow, and most of the Hermits were asleep or visiting any family they had left. Those who weren’t-
“5,763! Yes! Shinies to me!”
-were playing Stat Poker at Xisuma’s. And Keralis had just won.
For the fifth time in a row.
Doc hissed, shoving his diamonds across the table. Ren flicked his, looking a little put out. He had the second highest, but it was 3,459. Not even close.
“Well, my friend-“ X clapped a hand down onto Keralis’ shoulder-
And promptly disappeared.
The three remaining players stared at each other, stupified, as their comms chimed. Doc was the first to break out of it, pulling out his comm and frowning at it.
“Xisuma was… by Keralis. I… I can’t read the middle part. Like my eyes just… skip over it.”
He looked up at Keralis, and Keralis finally broke out of his own shock as a pang hit somewhere in his chest. It hurt, with a potent mix of fear and guilt. Because as he turned to Ren, he saw the same thing he’d seen hovering in Doc’s eyes in every line of the wolf hybrid’s body.
Fear.
-
Xisuma gasped as he woke, sucking in air in a futile attempt to combat how badly he hurt. Every fiber of his being had burned as though they’d each individually been lit on fire. Now though, it was fading… slowly.
His entire respiratory system burned as he breathed, his lungs, his trachea, his mouth and nose. The subtle movement of his breathing made everything else burn too. He coughed, and almost screamed as fire lanced all the way through him.
There was a glass of water in front of his face. How- you know what? He didn’t care. He did his best to take a drink, the cup in front of him shifting to accommodate. He took a few desperate gulps of water, exhaling in relief as it soothed some of the residual respawn pain.
He glanced around, the legitimately floating glass being dismissed as another Keralis oddity once he was able to sense the distortion in the void connecting them. …a distortion that also seemed to be around him?
Doc and Ren were close by, carefully not touching him but hovering anxiously. Keralis was a little further, almost seeming to hide in the shadow in the corner.
“What…? Happened?”
He glanced to both Doc and Ren as he sat up, but he focused on Keralis. (He didn’t miss the way Keralis’ form seemed to darken, as if he was trying to melt into the shadows, but he chose to focus on one crisis at a time).
Ren answered, or tried to. “Dude, you touched Keralis. While he was all… staticky?” At this, he turned to look at Doc, as if he was asking for confirmation.
Doc nodded back. “Staticky is one word for it. I don’t think any of us have done that before.”
Keralis just fidgeted.
“Staticky?” Xisuma was the one to ask. “What do you mean?”
Ren cocked his head, one ear flopping down and the other sticking straight up. “Dude. When he gets all hyped or rage-y, and feels like the first communicators felt? All high-pitched and weird, that raises the hair on your arms and breaks goosebumps on the back of your neck? All your instincts say to run even though it’s just Keralis?”
Keralis was just about one with the shadow, and X was still so confused.
“What? No?”
Everyone in the room went still, and X suddenly felt as though he had majorly misstepped. It would be helpful if he could figure out where.
“What do you mean no?” Doc just about growled. “Do you not feel it, even now?”
Keralis spoke, so quietly from the corner of the room that the admin almost didn’t catch it. “You mean I’ve done that on this server? The whole time?”
Both Doc and Ren’s heads whipped around to Keralis. “Yeah, dude, you… what?”
Keralis nodded, an air of finality on his movements. “I see. Well,” he spread his arms, keeping his head down, “I assume you didn’t understand before now, but the static only comes when I’m putting off enough energy to tear you apart. I- normally you wouldn’t respawn. I just… I didn’t know I could do that without trying.”
X blinked. Once, twice. Then he threw his head back and laughed.