Intermission

It'd been nearly three days since we'd been to the Chemical Compound, and Apollo still wasn't awake.

I'd spent most of that time pacing around camp, making plans, and testing out my capabilities.

The former alleyway we'd holed ourselves up in was now a combination of rubble, holes-in-walls, trash, and various other eclectic bits of scenery that did nothing to hide us. Hell, I'd spent most of today fending off ferals or poor excuses for bandits who though it'd be a great idea to try and steal from me.

They'd given me great target practice for the various new circumstances I seemed to now be stuck in. For one: I hadn't touched the ground much since Apollo fainted. I'd been... well, I thought I was levitating, but it really felt more like flying. Less like floating on air, more like defying gravity itself to move around however I felt I wanted to. Apollo seemed to do the same thing, occasionally, in his sleep, which helped chase off a few bandits handidly. They really thought he was some kind of vengeful ghost when I flailed his arms about, it was pretty funny.
...I was still unsure of what exactly this was. I figured it had to do with my typing, but then Apollo started doing the same thing. Maybe he really did die back there, and the bandits were right.

I could believe that much, if I was being honest with myself. I knew he needed to eat and drink. I knew he needed to do both within two days of living, or he'd die. He'd done neither, and it'd been three days. Plus he was floating. The only reason I wasn't sure of this was because I could still slap him and my tendril wouldn't go right through his face unless I was phasing.

Furthermore, there'd been--

I was snapped out of my thoughts by some shuffling in the back of the former alleyway. As I approached the dark corner, I could see a figure shuffling about in the straw bed I'd thrown together for Apollo out of obligation.

To my great dismay... Apollo had woken up, and was now staring at me like I was some kind of reaper. "Di, I..."

He shook his head for a moment, then looked around. He blinked a few times. While he adjusted to the light level and his surroundings, I just leaned against a wall and gave him a bored look. Would it kill him to get to the obvious freak-out already?

"...I've got claws?" That was the first thing out of Apollo's mouth, and he couldn't even be bothered to make that sound exciting. Or in awe. Or like anything other than some mix of confusion, elation, and panic.

"Yeah, for a few days now. Bigger hair, too, and actual legs. Get up, I'm dying to get out of this hole," I waved a hand at him and turned around to go start packing our things. We'd probably need to find more food, after all, and there was probably a local group of eggheads scheming to drive us out of here already.

"...claws 'n... arms..." His voice was weak, of course, but I could still hear it.

"Yes, yes, both of those! You don't need to use me as a fancy pair of makeshift arms anymore, huzzah. Get your butt off that straw and help me out here," I groaned. I wasn't able to pack up the bag, bed, tarp, seat, and campfire set all at once. I'd really need an extra pair of arms here; preferably, someone else's.

"Di, you..." Apollo stumbled forward, stopping halfway between the ground and an inch above it, staring at the ground for a moment like he'd never seen it before. I rolled my eyes as the ground was soon covered in a nice smoothie of natural gunk that I don't feel I need to elaborate on.

I was about to give him a rundown of the situation, but he was already yelling over me. "Have... have you just... has it been days since ah've eaten??"

"And had a drink, yes. If you need it so bad, just go take it from the damned bag," I sighed. It wasn't my fault his stupid beak didn't bother opening when I tried to feed him that one time. It made for a better can opener than it did a food chute while he was asleep, assuming I even managed to pry it open in the first place.

By the time the campfire set and tarp were all packed up, Apollo had run through half of our water supply in five minutes. Most of our food, too, without even thinking about it. He'd been going so fast that he didn't even think to pry out the fish skeletons or apple cores before he downed them.

"Yeesh, Apollo, slow down!" I only noticed by the time another third of the water supply was out. "We're halfway across the City from the Bottomless Lake, it'll take ages to find more of that stuff unless we want to go through Team Sour."

"HALFWAY ACROSS?" Apollo looked at me like I was insane. "From the Chemical Compound?? The Park--"

"--The Park isn't a threat right now! We're far from them, too! We're closer to the Shocking Cistern than anywhere else. Calm down," I growled. "We'll need to stop by there sometime soon, anyways. I need an Elixir or I'll be useless by the evening."

"By evenin'..." Apollo cocked his head up to the cloudy blue sky. "...you... you really jus' let me starve 'til sev'ral mornin's after... whatever happened 'n there..."

"I was busy defending us from a bunch of gangsters while you slept like a rock, you ungrateful snot. Come help me pack up," I repeated.

That finally got the nuisance to shamble over and start helping, but he gave me some kind of side-eye the entire time. If I stared at him long enough, that stupid bit of my soul that kept egging me on to take care of him would begin to cry... but I snapped myself out of that quickly enough to remember how much of a traitorous asshole he'd been.

Siding with the Guard in the sewers, wasting my time in the Compound with his constant whining about how important relics might be, telling me off for daring to defend his sleeping corpse... I was really at the end of my wits, here.

At least, now, I had some idea of what might be holding us together. What might've been constricting me and forcing me to share air with this complete waste of space. Maybe, just maybe, my one remaining move had something to do with it.

Destiny was its middle name, after all.