Luna had been studying her stall for a long time, a paw at her chin. Pondering her little portion of territory amidst traders older and wiser than she - she'd come up with something, she was certain. It was just... Taking a little while.

She knew she'd trade gems, but where would she find them? Sure, The Dark Throne was promising, but should she be so eager to throw her prizes to the masses? People were unpredictable. Some of them even had bad taste.

She was reluctant to accept that the customer could be right, where she might be wrong.

Luna was certain of one thing- she'd need help. She'd discussed with Bartholomew, and posted an advertisement for an assistant. She wasn't certain how'd she pay anyone yet, considering there was no current cash flow and, like most Gembound, she was broke. So she posed it as an investment - no explicit material gain for now.

Aside from her company.

She noted now the click of something sharp against the (beautiful) cobblestone path, the large shape walking towards her, not past. A customer? Better yet, an applicant? She turned to face the approaching stranger - and was hit with the smell of rotting meat.

Hmm.

The world had changed when Vestyge wasn't looking.

Or, well, sleeping. Fuck. How long had it been? Long enough that the smell of bodies had left his home. There was just... Dust and bones and dry weather. That was supposed to be Hydra's deal. The job was finished without him. He had awoken to a place where he was obsolete. Sure, the god he'd served was cruel, but this was a bit much, even for chaos. Only autonomy had this taste for bitter irony.

So like any purposeless wall-spawn, he'd wandered, wet and cold. He still smelt of death, the fresher death - the kind he found he missed. He hadn't thought he could be so sentimental. Maybe if he knew exactly how ancient he'd become, the feeling would make a little more sense.

Death might've been a kinder fate. But he was not dead, unfortunately, and thus was searching for a solution to his current existential predicament. He'd found Orion in tattered ruins, just as dead and dusty as the cave before. Had he outlived all of it? He couldn't even tell who won the war, which was of vague importance to him. Only one side had taken the courtesy to beat him to near death.

But there was no answers in these new caves. Just a strange quiet.

Vestyge had shuffled his way, undirected, to Scorpio, after some indeterminate time going nowhere. If he'd been there before, it wasn't enough times for him to remember the place. Most of things past his rewaking were cloudy. He didn't mind too much, he found.

So he'd seen the bounty. And he did not care about the lack of immediate reward. Just the fact he got something for his work sent an... Unwelcome chill. He was not supposed to want a reward. He was supposed to do the work, and go back to sleep. These were new, softer times. He would simply have to adapt.

Speaking of soft.

Three sets of eyes stared unblinkingly at the much smaller Gembound. There was a vague sense that he'd left behind a dignity, that serving his Overseer had been... grander, than this dust bunny in front of him. Something to brag about. Not that Vestyge would. He made a point of being humble.

"YOU." He barked in a voice he'd not used in thousands of years. He readjusted his tone - attempted to. "Uhh. You made a... Request, for an... Assistant, was the word. I want the job."

Should I say please?

"...Give me the job."

Luna was a little more refined than 'Love at first sight.' She, however, considered the possibility - not in the romantic sense of course, but in terms of pure... Aesthetics.

She didn't have the privilege of seeing the creatures of Draco up close, but she'd dreamed of the moment she did, and hoped it would not end in her reduced to a red smear on the floor. Now this Valkhound stood before her, asking her for employment - oh, she nearly swooned!

Luna's gaze raked this beasts design, soaking in every detail. Vestyge faced the full, uncomfortable weight of her attention for an uncomfortably silent moment. From an outside perspective, this resembled a stand-off. A staring contest. An assertion of DOMINANCE. And in a way, they were correct - The other party found himself unable to fully return the eye contact, establishing himself as the LESSER animal.

Hierarchies are enforced by fear, after all.

They still had to actually talk to each other, and it was Luna's turn to break the silence. "Welcome, then! I am Luna - I am sure you know my name already, though. SO, to recap... I am seeking an extra pair of hands as I get my little shop set up here in Scorpio. Wonderful place, by the way, have you tried the stew?" (She, having no money, had not.) "Anyways. Since everything's still in development, I can't pay you for the work in coins, though we can discuss an arrangement once it's all up and running. I trust this is okay with you... What was your name?" She bet it was something cool.

Another thought, shrouded in the fog of time, returned to his brain. He hadn't worked for someone like this ever. He wasn't thrilled to expand on this lack of experience, but there was no turning back.

He had not been stared at for a long time. And there was something alien in the gaze he was pinned under. It made him... nervous. That was odd. All of this was too weird for him to deal with.

And yet he would HAVE to deal.

Have you tried the stew? "No-" He began, but she'd already continued onward, and he felt himself losing track of his own train of thought. It was like this whole situation had been designed, specifically, to fuck with Vestyge. He was beginning to remember how fragile he actually was, in the wake of most forces of nature.

He was just conflict avoidant, and kind of tall.

He was not enjoying how destabilised she was making him feel. "My name is Vestyge, the Grinning Reaper, and it was a name that I earned. That I worked to the bone for the privilege of claiming." This scrap of meat probably found hers. She didn't know what it meant to have a name, not really. "I seek no wage for my labour. The work is enough."

Because he was better than her. Because he remembered a time where the Gembound made something of themselves - rebels or otherwise.

Luna's eyes widened a little, jaw agape. "You have a TITLE!?"

Oh goodness. She must've won the lottery. (Next Winner's Choice: Introduce the Gembound to the wonderful world of gambling.) She stared again, in a purer form of wonderment. One without any particularly upsetting undercurrents.

If it was respect Vestyge wanted, who was Luna to deny him of that? This was the start of a beautiful partnership, and she'd treat it that way. She shook her paws free of the juvenile enthusiasm that'd briefly overtaken her. "Vestyge. A pleasure to make your acquaintance." She offered him a paw to shake, still unsure of the exact mechanics of that physical exchange.

"And can I say? I love that shade of green. It really brings out your teeth."

Ok, we got sort-of close to a normal compliment. Good enough.

"So, what are your skills? What can you bring to my venture?"

Finally, a bit of recognition around here. But pride was unbecoming of him, and much like Luna, he shook it free of his pelt. Vestyge was more polite than your average, slavering Valkhound. No, he'd retained some of his dignity.

But he did stand a little taller at her clear adoration. It's not something he got often.

He wasn't sure which hand to reach with. One of them would be risky, and the other was awkward - he'd go with the latter. Wouldn't want to injure someone who was probably about to become his boss. But oh, it was definitely a finicky manouvre. He had to raise a forearm, balancing on one knuckle as the second arm behind it stretched toward her tiny paw... Ok, this was starting to hurt.

Ok. Fuck. This was actually a problem. His arm strained further, beyond a limit he was previously unaware of - he at least completed the handshake, but it was over before it really began. He let out a low, suffering hiss. His performance had been Subpar.

He tried not to feel too bad about it. Vestyge wasn't created for handshakes.

He nursed his aching shoulder with the other arm as he spoke. He hadn't felt this embarrassed since he'd been murdered. "Ah. I did waste disposal for Overseer Vargas. Is he still kicking, even? Did the rebels end up winning, even after..." He remembered the corpses piled high. They'd almost reached the ceiling on good days, the stench of wasted blood seeping through everything, passing through you like a ghost. Leaving you a little colder than you were before.

"After all that, I mean. Fuck, do any of you even know about the war?"

She squeezed his odd, smooth hand as hard as she could, knowing that it would not harm such a grandiose creature. This way the contract - a contract without a name, yet - had been sealed. They were bound. What would come of this would be for time to tell - what a beautiful thing to have. All the time in the world.

The remains in Canis, in their desiccated state now, flashed in her head. Time was a privilege they'd been briefly afforded, and it would run out someday. Luna felt as though she was being watched again, the creeping dread. The yearning for something better, easier, beneath it. For her to be better than the feeling.

"Overseer Vargas? I've heard the name, I think. I've never gotten a face to it- but I DO believe he's alive." She'd hear much less if he wasn't. "I'm... Relatively sure The Rebellion failed, if the bones littering Canis are any indication." The description The Collector provided was more theatrical than informational. That was not entirely his fault - it was simply the nature of the interaction.

"I only learned of it from someone who knew of it himself. I am sure there are others who remember, but clearly, their numbers are vanishingly few - most Gembound live in ignorance of their history, as did I, until recently."

She'd noted the pain he seemed to be in post-handshake. "Are you... Okay?"

Vestyge rubbed his sore arm as he soaked in what little information Luna had to offer him. Maybe he didn't want to know how long he'd been sleeping. At least there was an Overseer left to... Oversee. Maybe he'd check in on him. He'd probably have a better idea of what'd happened in his absence.

But then he'd have to see Vargas again. He'd have to properly weigh the pros and cons later.

"Canis." He hissed with something close to nostalgia, a shrill noise echoing from somewhere deep in his throat. Laughter? "That was where I worked."

"There's a reasons why there's so few gemstones on those skeletons." The daggers on his forelimbs clicked and rasped against each other, recalling... ugly sensations. "Would be a shame, if the rebels had brought back the dead, just to be slaughtered again and again. And I've never been a fan of bloodshed, myself."

That was a lie, mostly. He just wasn't a fan of shedding it himself.

"I'm fine." He answered her a little too quickly to be convincing.

SURELY this was some kind of blessing. She could not simply have been lucky enough to stumble upon this model Gembound. There was that something that Luna lacked profoundly, and others in her niche had in spades. Presence...

Style.

"What an honour it is, to have the chance at working with someone so accomplished! Goodness, what I'd give to see you in your prime... Ah, not that's passed you. I'll make sure it hasn't." That last sentence was delivered with a determination so grim it bordered on sinister.

"As for the nitty gritty. In truth, I don't have much you can assist with at the moment. I wasn't expecting a response to my announcement so soon." Her paw returned to her chin, coming full circle. "But considering your experience, fulfilling a few of the more trivial bounties shouldn't be a problem. Perhaps you'll find a few gemstones on your way." She looked to Vestyge for his approval, though she didn't expect him to object. He didn't seem like someone with high standards.

He didn't seem 100% to Luna, still. She squinted up at him. "Did you... Injure yourself, during our handshake? Pull a muscle?" She guessed out loud, her face turning from curiousity to an almost maternal concern. "I'm sorry, I should've probably guessed-"

"IT'S FINE." Vestyge almost shouted, his whole body tensing as his fur stood on end. Today was not the day he wanted to confront his new reality.

He was old.

And worse, Luna could tell.

"I'm fine." He affirmed sternly, blood rushing hot beneath his skin. He'd never been strong, not in the way the others were. Vestyge had been content with that. But he'd rarely felt vulnerable - he did not like the gentleness in her tone, and the pity it implied.

It was time to do something else, other than suffer through this conversation. "I'll do that. Goodbye."

With the stiff way he stalked off, he was NOT beating the allegations.

exit