Chapter Text
Tee trailed his way through a dark cave on a strange planet. He'd just finished beating some tentacled thing into leaving him alone. The things it wanted to do to him... It made him want to throw up just thinking about it. He could only imagine how Ess would react when he told her about it. She'd probably be so mad, indirectly cussing out and threatening the thing. Ess was abrasive, but once you got past her temper, she was a caring first mate always ready to protect the rest of the crew.
Tee sighed and clutched his chest, wondering what to do now. The SOS signal was out, so really, all he could do was wait for his crew to arrive. He contemplated sending it out again for a brief moment, but before he could decide either way, something interesting caught his eye.
It was a necklace. A teardrop-shaped necklace, with a violet jewel encased in a cage of silver. It was glowing, brightly, lighting up the room in all sorts of colors. It was beautiful, and he wanted to take it for his own. Then again, whatever eldritch forces lived here might be mad at him for that... But he was so compelled to take it, and eventually, the necklace's irresistibility won out. He took it from the rock it was perched on and placed it around his neck. Surely it wouldn't cause too many problems for him, right?
Oh how wrong he was.
No more than two seconds after he donned the necklace, he felt a strong wind, lifting him off the ground. A bright beam of light overwhelmed his vision, and he felt something circling him. He had the feeling he was in a lot of trouble...
Suddenly, magic began to surge into him, causing him to shriek instinctively. A burning, stinging pain quickly spread throughout his body, making it very difficult to think. Tears of anguish dotted the corners of his eyes, tears he couldn't release. Everything hurt. It all hurt.
He couldn't tell how long this persisted. It was like time refused to obey its normal rules in these moments. Either way, it hurt a lot. Every second, every minute, every hour was painful. He had so many regrets, but it was too late now.
Eventually, though he didn't know how long "eventually" was after, the flow of magic stopped. Tee's breaths were heavy as he collapsed to the ground. He was in so much pain. He couldn't even stand, it was that bad. He crawled over to the rock he'd obtained the necklace from, the tears he'd held back finally running down his face.
As he sat there in silence, he pondered the choices that led him to this. Sure, taking the necklace didn't seem like a bad idea at the time, but he knew the possible repercussions. And while the ones he could think of didn't match up with what happened, he could have avoided this if he'd listened to his own reason. So why hadn't he?
Everything was starting to get dark and fuzzy. He knew he was going to pass out soon. But with how much everything hurt, he accepted that. However, that didn't happen before-
"AESTHETIC MAGIC!"
A bright red light filled his vision, and when it was gone, so was a large amount of rock. Ess stood in the gap her spell had left, breathing heavily and holding her parasol over her shoulder. She blew out a small ember on its tip and quickly went to check on him. "Tee! Oh my goodness, are you okay?"
"E... Ess... It hurts..." he muttered. He tried to reach out to her, but he couldn't find the strength to lift his hand more than a few inches off the ground. The darkness was overwhelming him now, and he closed his eyes, ready to melt into its embrace.
"Uh-oh. I think he's about to..."
Those were the last words he heard from Ess before consciousness left him entirely.