Lost In Translation

[Maxpphire]

He shifted mildly uncomfortable in his seat as he thought how to respond to this. It was a very involved topic, some of which was even hard for him to still process. The smile had faded away, and his jovial appear mood shifted to be something more serious.

"Thats, well," he seemed to struggle to find the right way to start, he didn't want Sam to be let in to most of what happened either, last time he did, it ended with him having lost Sam. Being a friend was better than nothing and didn't want to chase either of them away.

"The short of it, I lost my parents when I was 16 years old. In foster care there was a little girl with mental disabilities I ended up meeting that the foster parents tasked me with helping take care of her, on top of other chores. Her and I ended up growing close, and when she felt like she could trust me enough, she hid me in her room. I had learned there that the foster dad was abusing her in a very," he looked away from them, "I don't really feel comfortable saying exactly what, it was despicable. Anyway when I found that out I basically went on the attack and had become the ire of his abuse for that night instead." He looked back towards him as he continued speaking, "after he went to bed, I took Emma and I ran. I really had no plans or any idea where I was going, but stopped at a gas station where the attendant noticed out injuries, and called the police. We ended up getting removed from the home, pending finding another place to foster us since Emma didn't want to leave my side anymore they wanted to find someone who would be able to take both of us. The story of what happened made the news, I was interviewed by a few news stations." He felt it was important explaining this before introducing Hofflan.

"The story caught the attention of a nearly 800 year old vampire, who decided that at least I would be an easy addition for an organization in which he worked. It was a heavily anti-supernatural organization that liked fighting fire with fire. They would take humans and alter their DNA with supernatural DNA in order to use them for their own purposes. I was allowed to choose what I wanted to be augmented with, but not many where that lucky. Back then I didn't think it meant I was actually getting augmented with actual supernatural DNA, I just thought it was science lab grown DNA that made changes similar to what the myths and legends say about those creatures. As a 16 year old I didn't know any better, and he manipulated me into it all using Emma, my education, and the fact that I didn't want to be blind anymore. He only focused on my eyes the initial time, but I had been augmented more than once over the years." It was clearly not an easy thing for him to talk about at all. His body language, seemed closed off, he seemed uncomfortable talking about it all.

"That organization no longer exists. Charon and his group ended up finding me by chance, decided that such a place should no longer exist, and with my help, it no longer does." He wasn't aware that Remi probably didn't know of the District Leaders or anything. He ended up leaving it at that, figuring if Remi had questions that he would be asked them.

[Ehcorn]

The ‘short of it’ ended up being long enough that Remi resumed eating while he listened. By the time Dreki got around to discussing the augmentations he’d undergone, the platter was empty and Remi wondered if the sick feeling in his stomach was due to eating too much or the confirmation that Dreki hadn’t become part angel by natural means.

It explained so much; why his aura felt wrong, like pieces of a puzzle that’d been forced together; how Dreki could look blind but see well enough to maneuver around Sam’s office; and why he’d be desperate to learn about a culture and language that he would’ve known already if he’d been born to it. They’d somehow taken parts of an angel and shoved them together with parts of a human, and the results of their experiment sat across from him.

What Dreki hadn’t explained, however, was how the organization had come by light angel essence to begin with.

"Where exactly did they get angel… DNA from?" Remi pushed the platter onto Sam’s desk so he could gesture at Dreki’s face without worrying about it toppling to the floor. "Why would they have given away pieces of themselves when they could’ve just healed your eyes?"

[Maxpphire]

"I can't say it was consensual on how they got it," He said feeling uncomfortable with that line of questioning, his tone becoming quite. He figured he hasn't gotten to those parts of the Data stores yet that he's been trying to get through it all as quickly as he could. But even so, a specific memory stood out in his mind, "I remember, during the downfall of the Facility, that me and Jeanne, someone who helped me a lot, that we were in the area where they kept other beings. We helped those there to escape. I remember seeing another Angel but it was very brief, certainly not long enough to ask questions. They left pretty quickly after their release. I've been going through data that was gathered at the Facility, I likely just haven't reached those sections yet."

He didn't look at either of them while he explained that, his stomach pulsed with pain as he had spoken about the incident. He didn't like to talk about that very much, as hard as it was losing Emma and killing Hofflan, it was also pretty hard to see everyone having been trapped, in ways worse than he was. His was only mentally and emotionally, not physically. He couldn't have imagined being physically trapped like that for who knows how long.

[Existentially Odd]

Sam was stunned by what he heard from Dreki, his mouth hanging open as he stared at him, processing. It made sense but... it was horrifying.

"Hang on," he said warily, holding a hand across his desk towards Dreki as if the man was still throwing information their way and it was too much. "You're saying that those evil bastards had an angel imprisoned at the facility? An angel and other creatures?" Sam rocked back into his seat, putting facts together and speaking before Dreki even had a chance.

"And you don't know details but, what? You're thinking that the angel they held was the one they used to enhance you?" he guessed. "That's awful! At least you released them," he sighed, fighting the urge to reach across the desk and squeeze Dreki's hand.

Sam turned to look at Remi. Knowing how Dreki had come about didn't change anything, really, but he was curious to see what Remi made of the story.

[Ehcorn]

When Sam had first found out that he’d earned a fine from the Ward for flying in the city, he’d issued a warning: he might not be fined next time — he could be tossed into a cell until they’d ascertained he’d learned his lesson. The angel at the facility hadn’t been offered the same terms. They’d only been able to escape because they’d been given the chance by Dreki and his companions. If they hadn’t shown up, the angel would’ve likely still been there.

The thought of one of his kind trapped indefinitely and at the mercy of the same people who’d abused and used helpless children was a knife twisting in his chest. They couldn’t have flown away, or defended themselves, or— Cracking plastic and sharp pain in his hands startled him back to the present, where he’d clenched the armrests of his chair tightly enough that he’d broken them. He flipped his palms over, expecting to see blood, but it was only two bright red welts that he focused his healing ability on until they faded.

"Yeah," Remi said finally, his voice low and rough. "Thank you for helping free them. I hope they’re home now."

He pushed free of the chair and stood, pressing his fingers into the space between his brows as he paced away as far as he could and turned back. The chair’s arms had fallen sadly askew. "I’m sorry, Sam. I— I’m just… It’s a lot. I’ll get you a new one." And he wouldn’t sit in it when he was given news that overwhelmed him. Remi sighed and dropped his hand. "I’m sorry to you, too," he said to Dreki, "but not because of the chair… because I need to talk to Vretil, my mentor, about… Well, about everything. About what you said happened to the angel, and what’s been done to you. I want to teach you what I can. It’s the least you deserve after everything, but I need to talk to him first, okay?”

[Maxpphire]

He had jumped of the noise of the chair breaking, he certainly hadn't expected it. He had felt guilty about this all, even though he knew it wasn't his fault. Anxiety in him rose as Remi said he had to speak to someone else about this. He didn't want this information getting around, nor this Vretil person to investigate further on how things were done at the facility.

"When I said the past couple of weeks I've been dealing with a lot, this is what I've meant, not just deaths of those close to me. I have no idea if that Angel was the one who's DNA I was augmented with, but it was the only Angel I ran into at that place, and while I would have loved it if they stayed and talked with me, I don't blame them for taking off as soon as they realized they could. There were several different demons, nymphs, faes, and other such creatures, but only one Angel." he said looking at Sam, silent tears fell from his eyes as he was slowly unable to hold back the stress of everything anymore, he then looked to Remi

"I understand. The only condition I have is that I will not talk about how their procedures work, nor how to augment anyone else. I've been systematically destroying that info as I come across it. Like any of the hard drives where such information is left on them, I've been opening them up, removing the disks, using bolt cutters to snap the disks in several places, then sticking the pieces to incredibly strong magnets. It's probably overkill, but I'd rather it be overkill than risk any possible chance of anyone else finding this out."

He was incredibly serious in regards to how he felt about that. He wasn't going to let anyone else suffer like he did, not if he could prevent it. He even had plans on going to Jeanne and talking with her about possibly removing those memories or locking them away if full removal wasn't possible, even though he hated the idea of that given what Hofflan put him through, he needed to make sure no one else could get that information. Going to Charon directly made him too nervous, and figured since he felt comfortable around and trusted Jeanne, that they could discuss what would be best for that when the time came.

[Existentially Odd]

Samuel murmured, "Nah, don't worry about it," to Remi and waved his offer of buying a new chair away, glancing up as the angel stood, looking agitated. Sam caught the chair that rolled towards him, inspecting it and seeing that it would be easiest to detach the arms and throw them out. The chair would still work and serve its intended purpose without them. He peered at the collection of stationery in the cups on the top of the cupboard behind his desk to see if he had a screwdriver handy as Remi said he'd need Vretil's approval to teach Dreki.

The vampire had an opinion on the Enochian but he didn't air it as Dreki began speaking, drawing Sam's attention. What he saw confirmed the tightness he'd heard in Dreki's voice, the tears giving him pause. They made him feel uncomfortable but he also felt bad for the young blond and thought about hugging him. That would be inappropriate now, though. "That's a good idea," he commended Dreki's devotion to the destruction of the facility's augmentation information. "No-one should ever get their hands on that. Torture like that shouldn't be repeated."

Sam realised that he'd referenced the mistreatment of supernatural creatures again, which had just upset Remi to the point where he'd wrenched arms off a chair. His expression turned guilty as he looked over at the bearded angel, rising to his feet and walking towards him because he still didn't look like he'd recovered from the news. Belatedly, Sam thought it might have something to do with the notion of his brethren being locked up, because his eyes held a hint of the wildness they'd had in the elevator the night before.

In two strides, he was beside Remi, wrapping his hands around Remi's to give him physical contact to concentrate on. Between him breaking chair arms and Dreki crying, it was becoming a very eventful evening in his office. "Perhaps you should step out and get some fresh air?" he suggested quietly to Remi, squeezing his hand in an effort to focus him. Sam fancied the angel was beginning to look a little peaked around the mouth.

[Ehcorn]

Sam’s much cooler hands became Remi’s grounding point. He sighed and focused on the fact that the other angel was probably safe now. No matter what they had endured, the facility didn’t have them anymore. Hopefully when Dreki had witnessed them disappear, it’d been because they’d pushed their way from the earthly plane to the heavenly one — a place they could heal in mind and body and soul. Until he could confirm their well-being with Vretil, that hope for the angel would have to suffice.

Remi squeezed Sam's hands in return. "If I do that," he said, shaking his head slightly, "then I won’t come back tonight, and we only finished translating the first chapter." The urge to fly until he outdistanced his remaining worry was strong, but something he could resist if he couldn’t breathe the night air deep into his lungs. "I’ll be fine now. Thank you."

Remi smiled, then slipped his hands free so he could dig into his pocket and extract his phone.

"If I could get your number," he said, approaching Dreki at the desk. He opened his phone to the area Sam had when he’d given him his information the night before and set it in front of the blond. "I'll be sure to call as soon as I touch base with Vretil. We can talk more then about what all you want to learn from me."

Dreki’s eyes were cloudy, but the part-angel had said his first augmentation had been to repair his vision. Remi thought he’d be able to see the screen just like him.

[Maxpphire]

He had at one point shifted his position to try and calm down. Leaning forward, his elbows resting on legs right above his knees and his palms pressed into his eyes. He hadn't meant to start crying, and he had kept that position well after the tears had stopped until Remi had started to talk to him, and then he looked up and listened.

"My sight is still very limited. I won't be able to navigate your phone unless you have accessibility settings turned on. I can tell you my number, or I can hand you my phone and you can enter your number there." He explained having seen the phone placed in front of him. He was calmer, but looked almost guilty. He felt bad for possibly having brought down the mood of the room.

"After we trade numbers I plan to head out. Not only have I taken up more time than I had meant to, but I haven't felt well all day and this conversation didn't really help with that. Wasn't expecting it to become this heavy, I'm sorry." He explained as his fears of even not being Sam's friend sunk in. He was convinced he messed up, that Sam wouldn't really want to even be involved as a friend at this point, remembering what caused Sam to run last time. His heart beat raced as his anxiety ticked upwards, looking down at his lap as a way to escape whatever looks sat upon their faces.

[Ehcorn]

“Oh,” Remi said, realizing his error too late. Given that he had no idea what accessibility settings were or how to get to them, the angel reached for his phone and spun it around, mentally preparing himself to poke numbers after he’d asked for them. He never reached that point, though. His lips parted and he sucked in a short breath to power his voice, but Dreki had continued talking and all thoughts of phones and numbers flitted off like a startled butterfly.

He’d said he didn’t feel well, and now that Remi was up close and paying attention, he could see redness in his cheeks and a sheen that told of a temperature that was higher than it should’ve been. His lips thinned and he dropped his phone back to the desk to free his hands.

“You aren’t well,” he said, concern in his voice and the lines of his face. “I could help.” He’d already moved around Sam’s desk to stand next to Dreki with his hands outstretched, fully prepared to make contact with the hybrid before he paused and looked questioningly at him. “If that’s alright with you?”

The exact moment he received permission, he closed the gap between them and rested his fingertips lightly on either side of Drek’s face, with his forefingers at his temples, his pinky fingers at the tops of his cheeks, and his thumbs just beneath his eyes. Remi lowered his head as a glow emanated from his hands and he opened his inner eye to begin a search for what could be ailing him.

He wasn’t prepared for what he found.

Normally, fever was a sign that a foreign body of some kind was present — viruses or bacteria, but Dreki’s body was at war with itself, attacking and rejecting what wasn’t human. Remi expanded his influence, and the golden glow encompassed Dreki completely like a halo. He joined battling segments where he found them, smoothing their jagged edges and encouraging them to work in harmony.

Eventually, the fight ended.

Remi smiled but wasn’t ready to stop yet. He homed in on Dreki’s eyes, intending to mend them, too, but there were pieces missing. No connections could be made. He was a healer, not a creator. The glow faded and Remi stepped back from Dreki.

“You should feel better now,” he said, returning to the same side of the desk Sam had remained on. “I’m sorry I wasn’t able to do anything about your eyes, though. I tried.”

[Maxpphire]

He had an idea of what Remi meant by help, after all he could heal others too but that was at the cost of his own health, he doubt Remi had that same restriction but he was curious on whether or not an immune system issue could be corrected by an angel. He knew what was wrong, as he was diagnosed with it right before the downfall of the facility anyway. He agreed for Remi to help him because he figured that at worst nothing would change.

He sat still while Remi did what he could. While he couldn't see the glow, he could feel it's warmth. It was comforting and relaxing, so much so that his worry and stressed faded a bit. Closed his eyes and just focused on that relaxed feeling, while Remi worked. Things that Remi may have learned through that, is that Dreki was about 2/3rds angel, and while it was his stomach and intestines most affected by what was going on, there where hints of other places within him that were likely to start being greatly affected next and would have produced symptoms if Remi hadn't stepped in and corrected it all. By the end of it, he didn't even feel like he was sick. He had opened his eyes when Remi was done and listened to the part about his eyes and he smiled.

"Don't worry so much about that, I'm able to get around fine as it is," He had a light smile on his face, while still slightly worried of how heavy a tone their conversation got, he was in better spirits now that he also was physically feeling better, "Thank you, I was curious on whether or not you could have fixed an immune system issue, seems as if I got my answer on that. I know I'm not that powerful, at least, I don't think I am." He wouldn't be without major repercussions to his own health, which was something he never did quite try was to push his powers to such limits.

"Ready for my number before I leave?" He asked, he hadn't quite felt this good in a long time, which lead him to think that maybe the cost of his powers were just amplified when he was augmented that last time. He was kind of in a hurry to leave, as he was still concerned about Sam's reaction to the heaviness of the conversation that happened earlier and didn't really want to feel those consequences. It was almost as if he was running away before Sam really could, except this was really only for the night as any he just didn't want to deal with any in person reaction right now.

[Existentially Odd]

When Remi had stepped over to speak with Dreki and offer him his phone, Samuel had slunk out of the way and back into his seat at his desk. He'd found a screwdriver he thought would fix the chair arms but he was too preoccupied to worry about those when Remi offered to heal Dreki. He watched in amazement as the angel of light took the hybrid angel's head in his hands and an ethereal glow emanated from them. It was otherworldly and fascinating.

Sam only snapped out of it when Dreki talked about Remi getting his phone number so he could leave. There was colour in his cheeks that didn't come from his body fighting off whatever had been ailing it when he walked in. His temperature felt normal (from across the broad desk) and his heart beat... well, his heart beat always fluctuated a little because Dreki was a flighty creature, in Sam's experience (in his presence, technically but Sam didn't flatter himself by thinking it had anything to do with him), so his body was usually operating under some sort of stress or other. Now, his heart seemed steadier than Sam had ever heard it, which had to be a good sign.

"Look, don't worry about sharing numbers or any of that," Sam interrupted authoritatively, picking up his own phone from his desk. He navigated to his contacts and shared them with each other. "Dreki, I just sent you Remi's number and Remi, I sent you Dreki's," he smiled, though he knew Remi would struggle with adding the contact to his address book without help so he rose into a half-stand in order to reach across and pluck Remi's phone off the desk to do it for him. He spoke as he confidently waded into Remi's phone, treating it like his own (because he'd set it up to give both he and Remi access to it) as he added Dreki Arach as a contact.

"Remi will be able to contact you whenever he knows something and Dreki, I put him in your phone so you'd be able to identify who's calling you, just... be warned Remi's still learning how to use phones," Sam chuckled, smiling at Remi as he got up and walked up behind him. He slid Remi's phone into the pocket it had come from in a familiar manner, his chest pressed against Remi's arm as Sam turned his attention to Dreki.

"That heal looked... just, wow. You already look better, Dreki. Immune system issues, you said? Wow. Looks like they're fixed. I hope this can help boost your healing on every level," he said softly, his tone conveying the genuine intimacy of his wish because he didn't want to be obvious by leaning forward to give Dreki's hand a reassuring squeeze. The poor hybrid angel had a lot to recover from but hopefully Remi's intervention could be a catalyst for such changes to occur with greater rapidity now. Sam wished for him to be less troubled.

[Ehcorn]

Remi looked sidelong at Sam with a grin. "He’s understating things. I’d never held a phone until he got me one last night." He moved his hand to touch the pocket Sam had dropped the device into, then reached farther back to briefly curl his fingers around the vampire’s in a silent show of gratitude. If Sam hadn’t intervened, there was no doubt in his mind they would’ve still been in the process of exchanging numbers. "But I promise I’ll be able to make the call when the time comes. It’s one of the first things he taught me how to do."

His expression became more solemn as he tilted his head and examined Dreki, paying close attention to his aura; it was different now, too. Angelic threads of silver and gold on a background of white had once been interrupted by more neutral, human tones — something like a roughly hewn patchwork quilt. Now, the colors were blended, cohesive, and the sense of wrongness he’d felt before when he’d observed Dreki’s aura was gone as well.

"Anyway, I’m glad I could help," he said. "If anything changes, let me know and I’ll take another look."

[Maxpphire]

"Thank you," He said to Sam in regards to the whole phone thing and having been healed, "It's one less thing to be stressed about thats for sure. I'm glad the effects of what Remi has done have been noticeable this quickly. I hope that it does indeed work out like that." The genuinity in Sam's tone was a welcomed change from compared to before, it made me feel less worried about the future of his and Sam's friendship for sure.

"I'm sure whatever skills you do have, it's better than what my dad could do. He was also blind and honestly trying to teach him how to even dial numbers was like pulling teeth, sure back then it was with flip phones, but the number 5 had a little guide bump on it to help, but he," he became distracted when Remi had reached out to hold Sam's hand. It was a little much for him to have seen their affection towards each other just yet. When it had been hidden behind the deck, he just couldn't see it and thus wasn't aware it had happened. "He just didn't like anything that he had to work at to do. He didn't like learning, and didn't like the fact that I enjoyed it. Anyway, I should get going now. Again, thanks, to the both of you, and Remi, I'll be waiting to hear back from you."

He had turned around and began to walk towards the door, and would leave provided that no one attempted to stop him. At the end of him talking his tone turned a bit stiff, but he was genuinely thankful towards them both.

[Existentially Odd]

Samuel's attention was briefly captured by Remi's fingers working their way around his; he glanced downward and clasped them back, smiling at him before returning his attention to Dreki. It took him a moment to realise that Dreki was talking about his father using a phone because his mind was still on healing but once he was on track, his expression opened up and he smiled at Dreki.

"You're welcome, Dreki. Thanks for coming," he bade, watching the blond as he exited his office, completely oblivious to Garan's side-eye as he walked past the circulation desk. Sam used their joined hands to pivot to face Remi, lifting the one not connected to the angel to cup the side of his bearded face. "You've had a bit of a stressful night, too! I meant what I said about you taking a break, if you want?" he offered, raising his eyebrows. "In fact, we don't even have to do any more tonight if you don't want to?"