Dylan nodded, intrigued, "So you were given yours? Odd. I always figured we were born with it. I was. Or, at least, I've had these powers for as long as I can remember. Minus the miniture sun I have stuck in my palm, of course."
He inspected his right hand as he said it, and found the glow there once again. Somehow, he believed it was the cause of most of their problems at the moment. He hated it. But there it was, ready to help keep him safe if need be.
And turn him into a killer, if he wasn't careful.
He gave Vaughn a curious look, "How about you? What's your story? Secret experiment? Pact with the devil?"
Vaughn’s lips pulled into a tight frown. He wasn’t fond of talking about these personal subjects to people he didn’t know too well, but he told himself that it would be fine. “Had some sort of illness when I was born that would have killed me off pretty easily. My uncle on my mothers side made some sort of serum to cure the illness, but there were side effects and I developed these powers,” he explained in a hesitant tone.
“And it’s funny you had the idea that I formed a pact with the devil. Not that I don’t have a pact with a different demon, but that’s far more complicated,” he added with a solemn expression.
Dylan smiled, "I've just got a knack for guessing that stuff. Anyways, you're still here, so I guess it doesn't matter what you did. It's great to have you around. Looking back, I had always thought that being able to play with shadows and hide like I can meant that I was destined to be evil or something. Like using darkness was, by itself, a sign of alleigance. It took a couple of years' worth of thinking to decide that wasn't true."
"Well, I'm glad you guys aren't villains or anything. I've had way too much personal time with them for my liking…" Avery trailed off, looking out over the water with a thoughtful expression on her face.
Dylan raised an eyebrow, but decided not to press the topic. He summoned a chair and sat down, suddenly bored.
(And because he's bored, we may wanna time skip. Unless you guys wanna say something else…)
(Nope, a time skip sounds good.)
– The Next Day –
Avery stood on the deck of the boat, looking out over the calm, peaceful water. Yesterday had been weird, but she tried not to think about it. She kept her eyes trained on the horizon, searching for the dark strip of land that was soon to appear. Her patience was rewarded after about an hour of simply standing and watching, and she smiled when she finally spotted it.
"Hey, guys! We've got land ahead!" she shouted over her shoulder.
Dylan yawned, leaning back in his control seat. Just ahead of him, Avery shouted, but there was too much metal and shadow-glass between them for him to hear her, so he stuck a hand to his ear in a repeat that? manner.
Avery rolled her eyes and gestured to the growing line on the horizon.
"LAND!" she shouted, grinning.
Dylan got up and went outside. Seeing the land made him happier than ever, the rocking of the boat was beginning to get to him.
As he approached, he smiled, "Fine day to be hitting shore," he said merrily.
"I'm just glad I won't have to worry about getting seasick anymore," Avery declared as she looked back over the water, her grin still lifting the corners of her lips.
"You seem to be doing pretty well right now anyway," Dylan said, noting Avery's grin, "Getting used to it? "
Avery nodded, her eyes still trained on the horizon. "Yeah. I took some more of that medicine this morning, and that seems to have helped a lot."
(I expected Opia to comment. Sorry for the delay.)
"Thst's good. if it's keeping you on your feet, that's good. Now we just need to keep us all awake for the ride there. So much ground to cover…'
(Ah sorry, thought you two were having a moment lol)
Vaughn vaguely heard shouting from his cabin and he pushed off his bed, rubbing at his eyes. He hadn’t slept well, too much running through his mind. He stepped out of his cabin and went above deck, trudging over to Avery and Dylan. “Land, huh?”
(Lol. I kinda did, too.
Yeah, just an excited Avery. She's kinda bottling her feelings away right now. "Leader mode" has kicked in.)
"Yeah, finally!" Avery exclaimed, glancing at Vaughn as he came up, then back at the dark, growing line on the horizon. "I'm pretty sure I'll be able to stay awake the rest of the way there, Dylan. Adrenaline, ya know?"
Dylan nodded, then turned to Vaughn, "Did we wake you up? I didn't even realize you were asleep."
Vaughn shook his head slowly, running a hand through his hair. “I was already awake for a while, you didn’t disturb anything.”
Avery finally turned away from staring out across the water. "You guys hungry? 'Cause I am. I'm gonna make something to eat if either of you wants to join me," she declared, making her way below deck.
