AU Week: Daemonverse

[2goodarms]

Eighteen years of tight quarters led to some changes in basic biology. Everybody below the age of thirty settled as something small, compact, easy to keep close. People around Curtis’ age usually had something a little bigger: malleable enough to re-settle, just hardened enough not to venture too far from their original shape. A few people who were too old — too set in their ways, even after what the train did to them — ended up dying from the stress, unable to keep their outsize daemon from being touched so many times a day. Nobody had anything much bigger than a dog anymore.

And nobody’s daemon could ever get more than a foot or two away from them without feeling the strain of separation.

But, like Dejah’s fond of telling Curtis, he’s not on the train anymore. He remembers people whose links could extend almost the full width of a car. Joanna thinks it’s a shitty idea, but it’s just a test, he keeps reassuring her. It’s just another muscle to build up.

So, by the fire, Curtis hunches in an armchair with his eyes fixed on the honey badger next to his feet. Slowly, Joanna places one clawed foot in front of other other, inching forward against the pressure of their link.

They can do this. They’ve endured worse hurts.


[ooc: keeping it simple for AU week: daemons! Everything else about Curtis' background remains the same. Mun will be sporadic until about 10 PM ET, then around solidly until 11:30ish; post is open until I say it's not.]

Comments

[vance_prime]

The tiger's ears flick back against his head. "We've been spotted," he murmurs.

The woman grimaces. "Sorry," she says to Curtis. "I was just... are you all right?"

(It's a stupid question, and they both know it. She knows what pulling against the bond between human and daemon looks like, even if she's never seen it at such a short distance before.)

[2goodarms]

"Yeah," he says. "Yeah, we're good. Just testing something."

It's a bit of a lie -- made more obvious by the miserable lump of honey badger in his lap -- but, as she musters her composure, Joanna lifts her head to get a better look at the tiger.

[vance_prime]

Said tiger regards her impassively, but the nervous flick of his tail gives away his concern.

The woman clears her throat and tries to compose herself. "Um, I guess I should introduce myself. My name's Alyx Vance-Freeman, and this is Kei."

[2goodarms]

"Curtis," he says. As he settles a hand on Joanna's back in another gesture of reassurance, "This is Joanna."

"Hey," she says to Kei: subdued, but making a go at being polite.

[vance_prime]

Kei chuffs a quiet greeting in return.

"So, uh..." Alyx fidgets with her hair nervously. "You don't see that many people here with visible daemons. I was just wondering what kind of world you're from?"

And what the hell your living situation is like if you can't get three feet away from your daemon, is the unspoken coda to that question.

[2goodarms]

Curtis lifts his good shoulder in a lopsided, awkward shrug. "It froze," he says. "Couple decades ago."

"We were on a train," Joanna continues, picking up what Alyx isn't saying.

[vance_prime]

Alyx quirks an eyebrow. "For how long?"

[2goodarms]

"Since the freeze started, so..." A rueful twitch of a smile, just as lopsided as the shrug. "Couple decades, almost. Eighteen years."

[vance_prime]

Alyx blanches, and Kei's ears and whiskers flatten back against his head. "Jesus."

[2goodarms]

"Yeah," agrees Joanna, grimly. "And we were in the tail."

No space. Barely anything else.

[vance_prime]

"Of the same train? That whole time? Where was it going?"

[2goodarms]

"Nowhere," says Curtis. "Not really. It went in a loop. The track went around the whole world."

Joanna nods. (It looks a bit strange on a honey badger.) "It wasn't for travel. It was for protection."