Chapter Text
A day like any other, Magolor was cruising through the infinite vastness of space. He had recently excavated the ship known as “the Lor Starcutter” from his home planet of Halcandra. He had taken interest in the rich history of Halcandra since most of the planet was ruined and abandoned by the cold passage of time. He was one of the few inhabitants left on the planet, or at the very least one of the few left with compassion. Most of the inhabitants left on Halcandra endlessly slaved away at the machines on Egg Engines. He didn’t understand why, perhaps it was a desperate hope to cling onto any semblance of purpose they had, it didn’t matter to him. He wasn’t going to stick around that husk of a world, being nothing more than a cog in the machine with no will of his own. He needed control of his life, and so he sought out.
He could explore the cosmos as much as his heart desired! The universe was his oyster. Though, he still felt something was missing. Despite having access to the entirety of space’s night, he still felt insignificant, like he could be obliterated in an instant and nobody would pay him mind, just like what supposedly happened to most of his kind. He still felt powerless, not in control.
But he was letting all his thoughts get to him. He needed to do something to take his mind off this sudden existential dread. Magolor sat at the captain’s seat of the Lor and started sketching out various strange contraptions, something he found to be and odd hobby of his. While he was sketching these, The Lor stopped moving and played a message.
[Alert, Living Organism detected north from the ship. I cannot move forward until the organism is removed due to my hardwired programing to not harm living organisms.]
Magolor groaned. This had happened before with the Lor when it would stop in place due to its hardwired programming to be as safe as possible, half of the time it wouldn't be a sentient person and would just be a floating bacteria in space. He could iron out these flaws later. Magolor looked out the window of the ship and gazed at an unconscious body floating through space. Magolor stood there and gazed at the person, he was processing what was happening. An actual person was in danger and their life was in his hands? It was a lot for him to take in, he just stood there. The Lor spoke up:
Organism must be removed or moved before my trajectory can continue, Captain.
Magolor caught on to the Lor, in his time he spent with it the ship had shown a hint of sentience and wanted him to save the unconscious individual. Magolor started to rush toward the dock of the ship in a panicked state. When he reached the dock of the ship, the sinking realization hit him that he did not have a safe way to exit the ship into space. He didn’t have a cord to put himself on to keep him from drifting off, anything to propel himself in different directions, nothing. He sat off to the side for a moment. He couldn’t let this person just die, he had to do something. But was it worth risking himself? Magolor looked out to see the vastness of space. He was just a speck compared to the rest of the universe. He could be destroyed in an instant and nobody would care right? Even the people on Halcandra did not pay much mind to him and went back to their mundane lives. He had nothing left to lose, so he mine as well used his life to help someone else. He hesitantly opened the hatch to the endless void of space and was fiercely torn out of the Lor.
Darkness. That is all Magolor felt as he floated through the black empty skies. It felt therapeutic in a way. Like all of his problems he had with the world and how it treated him just melted away. But the euphoria of floating through space faded away quickly as he started to hate it, this feeling of floating eternally through space while he could do nothing but watch. It reminded him of the one thing he’s ever had in his life, control. He snapped out of the shocked daze being launched into space, put him in and started to struggle against the zero gravity. He tried using his energy spheres to propel himself towards the stranger. It took a lot of energy out of him as he only recently started honing his magic. The zero gravity continued to spirit him in different directions as he continued to struggle. Why was this happening to him, was he truly doomed to be pulled around by the universe in different directions for the rest of his life?
He at last made it to the unconscious stranger. They had a red and blue jester hat, with fangs sticking out of his mouth. Magolor tried not to space out and put his focus on getting the stranger back to the ship. This was when fate struck Magolor once again and he was struck by an oncoming asteroid. Magolor and the stranger were knocked far away from the Lor. Magolor felt himself choking on the lack of air as he struggled to propel himself back to his ship. His magic and energy was running out, was this it? Was he going to be doomed to float through space till the end of time like this stranger before him? Perhaps nothing mattered because in the end, he was just a puppet to be controlled by the universe, he could never choose his fate. Magolor reached for the Lor coming towards him one last time, and slowly closed his eyes.
…
Magolor woke up on the deck of the Lor. He was shocked as he peered around the deck, surprised he had somehow made it. He gave up didn’t he? Shouldn’t he be dead, or at least floating through space. Wasn’t the Lor coming towards him when he struggled to reach it, perhaps it saved him. Magolor did not have time to think about the powers of his weird sentient magical ship, he had a wounded stranger he had to care for. He rushed the stranger down to his bedroom and tucked him in his bed. He didn’t really know how to care for people, he had isolated himself for most of his life. He decided the best option was to get some bandages for their wounds and some food. After rummaging around his first aid cabinet and heating up some food with his fire magic, he returned back to the stranger. He sat by his desk next to the stranger and anxiously awaited for them to awaken. Magolor just kind of stood there and cared for the stranger for a couple hours. This was when he started to fall asleep himself, apparently propelling yourself through space with magic takes a bit of energy out of you.
…
Magolor was woken up by the pained grunts of his passenger. He quickly scrambled to his feet to greet his guest. The stranger groaning slowly creaked their eyes, before immediately jumping back with fear.
“Wh-who are you? Where the hell am I? I-i thought I was…”
The stranger continued to ramble on as Magolor was fixating on something else. As the stranger recoiled, opening their eyes, they seemed to sprout large gold wings with illuminating lights. Perhaps this was some sort of defense mechanism, safe to say, Magolor was a bit concerned for his life at the moment, he tried to choose his words carefully.
“I’m sorry if I might have scared you at first, my dear guest. I swear I have no ill intention and if you just give me a bit of time, I’ll give you some background as to what happened, please?” Magolor exclaimed anxiously.
Magolor stuck his hand out to the stranger in a friendly gesture, with a bit of an anxious look on his face.
“Oh right, your name if I may ask?”
The stranger looked up at Magolor with his eyes hesitantly drafting around.
“It’s Marx.”
“That’s a nice name, I would be Magolor, the grand explorer of the stars!”
Marx stared at him awkwardly for a couple of seconds, confused. Magolor thought he should probably show a bit of character while explaining things before the jester marked him.
“Now you see my passenger, on one of my many voyages across space, I had found you floating through the void unconscious, So I triumphantly jumped out of my ship at an instant’s moment in an act of self sacrifice to save your life!” Magolor spoke bombastically.
“That’s… really stupid. What kind of idiot jumps into space without a plan?” Marx muttered, annoyed.
Magolor got a bit embarrassed. He should stop trying to be a huge showman in front of this person who was clearly not in the mood.
“But that’s besides the point, point is I saw you floating through space in my ship and decided to rescue you, after I tended to your wounds and got you food,”
Marx shot up at that moment and started darting around.
“Where.”
“Where wha-”
“Food.”
Before Magolor could respond, Marx spotted the cold bowl of soup on the drawer next to him and instantly pulled it towards him. He slurped it down with such volition and speed that Magolor was astounded. Marx had food all over his mouth.
“I have not eaten in like… I dunno, forever, thank you literally so much oh my god,” Marx mumbled, talking while he was eating.
Marx was shaking with hunger. He had clearly not eaten in a long time. How long had Marx been floating through space exactly? Magolor would feel rude for pressing his guest with questions the instant he awoke so he held his questions while his guest caught his breath.
“I think… I think I should sleep a bit longer… I still feel a bit icky after… y’know,” Marx explained.
Marx was visibly shaking. Magolor anxiously looked upon his wounded traveler and tucked him into bed. He then realized that he kind of needed that bed to sleep as well, it was the only bed on the ship.
“Hey uh I kinda need that bed, do you mind if I sleep by you, that was kinda my only bed,” Magolor asked.
“I don’t care dude, just leave me alone,”
Magolor crawled into his bed while nervously shifting around. He had never had a guest like this before, he had typically isolated himself for most of his life, living on his own. He looked back at his guest soundly sleeping. He snores really loudly, it made it really hard to sleep but it was kind of charming. The snoring revealed his giant gnashing teeth, which intimidated the halcandran. He had the energy of a feral animal constantly on the verge of shattering into pieces. Despite not knowing this “Marx” fellow for very long, he felt kind of endeared to him, his unhinged expressions while sleeping, his sudden jump when food was mentioned. Maybe while Marx recovers, he could get to know him more. At the very least for the next few days, Magolor had someone to travel the stars with.