The sounds of off-key singing drowned out any mellow atmosphere the small restaurant could provide.
Mark had been drinking a beer he had no hope of getting a buzz from, when someone got onto the small rickety stage at the end of the room, and began belting out a chorus of lyrics.
To be fair, the first guy hadn’t been half bad, but it was what came after him that made Mark want to plug his ears.
It was just his luck that karaoke had survived the fall and decided to make an appearance on the one night he had free.
Quite a few people who were sufficiently liquored up, got onto the stage in groups or as solo acts. Their jovial voices only got stronger as the evening moved on into the early hours of the morning. Bodies clamored through the space, pushing to get by through a crowded room.
During the night several people came up to Mark to talk, he counted himself lucky that by the time he’d arrived a majority of the people in the place were already far into their cups.
So most ignored him in his solitary corner, surrounded by pitchers of drink and food. As strange as it sounded, the night's chaos was exactly what Mark needed. Everyone was relaxing and enjoying themselves, simply happy to be alive, to be in the here and now. If Mark closed his eyes he could almost imagine he was in some no-name bar and grill, relaxing with friends and family.
The damaged leather seat next to Mark creaked with the weight of another person.
When Mark opened his eyes, he saw a woman in her mid-twenties adjusting a stray strand of hair over her ear.
Mark watched as she gingerly took the pitcher Mark had been drinking from and took a couple of swigs for herself.
Her smile was bright and she introduced herself. Mark nodded his greeting and she took that as a sign to settle in.
The early hours of the morning kept approaching as the two of them chatted. She was charming but Mark wasn’t interested, even as she kept pressing herself against him.
It was around two AM when the singing ended, and the last person on the stage shocked the crowd by delivering the best performance of the night.
Even Mark was interested as the voice sounded familiar, even through the haze of alcohol that steeped their cords.
Looking over to the person there, Mark recognized Terry immediately. At first, he frowned in confusion, but his being here was not surprising.
After all was said and done, Mark had heard Terry had completely left NAS. He blamed them the most for what had happened. He now wandered through the neutral zones, getting drunk on whatever he could find.
Lisa had asked them to watch over him if he came by and Mark had agreed to put him on the admit list for their perimeter guard. At least if he was passing through here he was safer. Mark had not expected to see Terry for a while though, least of all here, but now that he had, he needed to talk to him.
Mark was about to go over when Terry fell off the stage, his balance shattered by the fair bit of alcohol in his system.
Mark stood up and moved toward the stage, Terry being a caster meant his tolerance to poisoning was left to his resistance, but by the looks of things he hadn’t given his body a chance.
When Mark broke through the encirclement of spectators, he kneeled to inspect the guy.
Luckily, he looked unhurt as Terry slowly tried to righten himself.
When he got close, Mark got hit with Terry's full stench.
Not bathing for weeks on end had become common for everyone, and when all you were trying to do was survive, it was understandable, but this was something more. By the smell of it, Terry had thrown up on himself several times and allowed the smell to mature by sleeping in a dumpster for the last couple of days, culminating in a sweet acrid scent that went straight to the back of one's throat.
Mark's face scrunched, but that didn’t stop him from getting an arm under the guy. There was already a puddle of sick under him and Mark saw what looked like the owner of the place moving toward them with a foul look on his face.
Sending him a trade of five hundred Sp, Mark stopped him in his tracks. When he saw Mark, his frown never wavered, but he nodded and motioned toward the door with his head.
While Terry was still turned around, Mark threw his arm over his neck and moved out of the building.
The night air was brisk with the chill of unfallen snow and Mark tried to change their direction toward the core of their base.
However, it was at this point that Terry seemed to realize who he was because he suddenly got more animated.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“Fuck, get off me!”
Pulling himself away from Mark as he did so, nearly collapsing into the street. Several eyes turned their way, but Mark ignored them.
“Terry, calm down, I’m just trying to get you somewhere safe.”
Getting his feet under himself Terry
“I don’t need your help, I only needed one person, and now she’s gone. You wouldn’t know what I lost”
The last time Mark had seen Terry was at the pyres, and they had not spoken once. Mark was well aware he was grieving so he chalked it up to a drunken stupor.
“I know exactly what you’re going through, I just want to get you a bed for the night. You need to sleep this off.”
Terry seemed a lot more sober now, and his eyes focused on Mark's face and then shifted behind him. A nasty smile crept onto his face.
“Oh yeah, you know what I going through? Because Daphne's corpse is barely cold and look at you, already fucking the first bitch that looks your way.”
Mark leaned back as though struck, glancing behind himself he saw the woman from his booth. He hadn’t been paying attention to her because of the fall, but she must have followed them out.
Mark ground his molars at Terry, and in a steady voice spoke to both of them.
“First off, how I deal with my loss is my own damned business. And second, we need to leave, ma’am have a good night.”
The woman seemed to take the hint and make herself scarce.
Mark wasn’t about to explain himself, but the guy clearly needed someone to set him straight. Mark had promised Terry he wouldn’t see him if he didn’t want to, but the guy was drowning and trying to take others down with him. He didn’t have people to rely on like Mark had.
Mark grabbed Terry by the collar and dragged him towards a nearby ally, uncaring of how it looked.
The guy was so out of it, that he didn’t even think to throw Mark off with his magic. Instead, Mark slammed him against the rough brickwork, using his limit release to hold the guy there. Pushing Prana into his system to get rid of the alcohol and days of physical neglect.
“T, you are not the only one in pain, it's not exclusive to you. I lost two people who were dear to me in the space of a couple of days. I tried the gentle approach, but you need to wake up. Get yourself together, and come with me. We’ll tackle the rest in the morning when you’ve slept... You’re alive and Bonnie would want nothing more from you.”
As the effects of alcohol melted from Terry's system, waves of emotion rushed over his face, anger, confusion, hysteria, finally settling on pain.
Tears sprung up from the corners of his face, and his voice wavered.
“We weren’t like others Mark, what we had was special, we were meant to be together till the end. I can’t replace her… I can’t live without her”
Every word from him cut against Mark’s throat, but he refused to leave, nor leave the man to himself.
“Terry listen to me, what you had was special, but I’ll say it again. Bonnie would never want to see you saying that. If she’s anything like I remember, she would beat you unconscious before she’d allow that.”
It got no more than a snort from Terry, but Mark would take it. His face had not improved at all but at least he looked like he was listening.
“Now come with me. At least then it might get a bit less painful, that's what I’m hoping for anyway… Plus you’re in sore need of a shower, and thats saying something”
Relaxing the muscles in his forearm, Mark pulled Terry away from the wall and nudged him forward.
He was tempted to use his newest spell to dull the edge of Terry’s pain, but he needed to work through this now. He wasn’t helping himself by hiding from the facts. Mark had been in his shoes just days ago and the only way forward was to keep moving.
Guiding Terry toward their home base was necessary in his current state, right now Mark wanted to keep an eye on Terry. He was dangerous to himself and possibly others.
Mark had not seen it directly, but it had been one of the biggest losses of human life outside of the Corrupted.
If people couldn’t adjust to the harsh changes, they were left spinning. Mark had never thought Terry was someone to worry over but now he thought differently.
When they got to the base, Mark brought him up the twice-repaired elevator and onto their main floor.
Giving him a key to a spare room and a fresh change of clothes. Mark only left when he was showered and was certain the guy would not harm himself.
When Mark got out of there he leaned up against the hardwood door and slid to the floor in the hallway. It was his turn to cover the spire gates in a couple of hours, but Mark had not realized how much that had taken out of him. It was like looking at a fun house mirror, but Mark refused to allow himself to cave like that. He could handle it.
He needed to get a guard to watch over Terry and then a few minutes of shut-eye…
Mark blinked when he felt the soft vibrations of footfalls approaching down the hall. The carpet muffled them to quiet thuds, but Mark still glanced up when he heard them coming.
Down the hallway, he saw the last couple of people he expected to see here.
Dr. Haley, Dr. Johnson, Sam, and a woman Mark vaguely recognized were approaching at a blistering pace.
Seeing Sam’s body language, Mark was on his feet and ready in moments, as they got to him Sam looked both a little excited and worried at the same time.
“Mark, have you seen the system announcement, wait what are you doing out here?”
Blinking sheepishly, Mark shook his head. His eye caught on one of the windows nearby and saw the light streaming in. He must have blacked out for longer than he thought.
“I was just helping Terry, what's going on? Are you all allowed to be here? I can’t imagine the Loyalists would take kindly to this.”
Mark pulled up his grey-out system at the same time as Dr. Haley spoke.
“Who cares about that, we have had a first contact event since all of this began.”
Mark frowned not understanding what she was referring to. His system had not notified him of anything, but at the bottom of his prompts list was a single grayed-out line of text.
World conduits 2/7: tethers connected, open sector spire to participate.
Mark stared at the prompt trying to understand what he was looking at, and what would have Sam in such a state. Locking eyes with her he asked as much.
“This is only a guess, but I think another First Rite has been completed. There’s another spire out there!”