Entry 6: Now that stings!
“Welcome Aboard Captain” rang through the base as Ryley entered. They wandered towards Bart’s workbench, hiding something behind their back, and tapped on the wall to grab the man’s attention. Bart turned to find them smiling widely.
"Wow, looks like you're in a good mood." Bart commented. "What did you find?"
"Bart! I found something!" Ryley signed, excitedly, using only one hand. The other one was still behind their back.
"...Yes. I just asked you that." Bart pointed. "What you got there? Is it the rouge cradle seeds I was looking for?"
"No. A new thing." They answered. "A new plant! New plant for you!"
Bart smiled, increasingly more interested. "So? Let me see it!"
Ryley exposed their hand. A long and beautiful glowing algae was dangling from it, with thick leafy blue curls growing around a purple stem. It was dripping and heavy from being out of the water.
Bart instantly took a step back.
"Ryley, that's... that's a dropping stinger." He muttered. "Why are you holding a dropping stinger?"
"You like it? Pretty, right?" Asked Ryley, joyful. This time they used both hands, one of which was still holding the algae, causing it to splash in all directions. Bart dodged, fearful.
"Ryley, let go of this thing, it's poisonous!" He said. Ryley furrowed their brow. They looked at the plant in their hands, and then back at him.
"Why hands numb?" They asked, puzzled.
"Let go of this thing!" Bart slapped the dropping stinger from their hands. Ryley looked at it, sad.
"You didn't like."
"No, Ryley, it's not like that." He assured. "I actually really like this plant, I promise I do, but the thing is that it needs to be handled carefully. With special gloves, not bare skin. Honestly, it makes me happy that you thought of..." He stopped talking. Ryley was looking out of the window, distracted. "Are you even listening?"
Ryley looked back at him. And then at the ground. "Bart! You dropped the pretty plant!"
Bart rested a hand over his eyes for a moment and took a slow breath. “Ryley, I want you to look at me.” Ryley met Bart’s eyes with a glazed, unfocused look. Their pupils were way bigger than normal. The man let out a deep sigh. “Fucking hell. You’re high, aren’t you.” Another shrug from Ryley. “What exactly am i supposed to do with you now? I can’t even lecture you about safe plant care because you’re obviously too out of it to understand.” He started pacing around in circles. “No, no, don’t worry. I remember how it was, with Maida that one time. The effects will pass in a few hours, I just need to…”
Without warning, Ryley stepped over the plant on the floor to grab onto Bart, who scooted his chair just out of reach.
“I missed you so fucking much... Can’t believe finally here…” They were teary-eyed.
“Woah there big guy! I am not having you sit on my lap, you’re enormous! And I have space cancer, I’m a bit fragile at the moment.” Bart blurted. Rayley, naturally, didn’t register a word of that, just turned to him again and gave him a spine breaking hug. Damn, he was the cuddly kind of drunk back in the day, Bart thought.
“Lets go over to the bench, alright? That way you won’t crush me?” Bart took in the look of concentration on Ryley’s face with a growing sense of dread. And was promptly removed from his chair and carried to the bench, where he gained a lap full of his high as a kite best friend. “Is this better? See, pal, I’m back, I’m not going anywhere. Not that you’d let me.” Ryley nodded into his torso, and Bart laughed. He carded his hands through his friend’s hair for about 10 minutes until they started getting squirmy. Yeah, it definitely wasn’t like that with Maida that one time.
He remembered how she had spent her stoned hours trying to battle a reefback. Of course, all she had was a hardened blade at the time, which did nothing but scrape some mossy patches off the mighty animal. A gentle snap of a tentacle sent her flying 10 meters away and she was convinced she had won.
He missed those simpler days.
"I'm hungry" Ryley signed once their hands were free and facing upwards. Bart let out a weary sigh.
"Of course you are." Ryley started walking towards the kitchen. "Wait for me. I need to watch what you eat. I don't think cured fish is a good idea right now." Ryley gave a sloppy salute and sat up on the bench. “Stay here, okay? Don't go wandering off.” Bart watched them as they backed out of the room into the kitchen. They grabbed some lantern fruits and a chunk of marblemelon, hoping that it was light enough not to upset their stomach but still able to satisfy their munchies.
He walked back to see Ryley on the other side of the room, in front of the window. Naturally.
“Whatcha doin’ there bud?”
Ryley accepted the lantern fruit, biting into it as if they hadn’t eaten in days. Then they tried to speak, forgetting their current condition, and course the headache attacked. Not only that, but they hadn’t even finished chewing, which caused yellow juice to grossly drip through their chin.
“By gods Ryley, you’re starting to act like me. Please take your time” Bart attempted to clean their face with one of his tissues, while his friend confusedly tried to shake the pain away from their head. Finally, after these few struggling minutes, Ryley managed to sign… and Bart took a step back once he read it.
“Wanna go out and fight a Reaper?”
He had to admit, he was impressed. As far as he taught them, Ryley knew all these words separately. Still hadn’t gotten the hang of signing sentences from scratch. But with the fluidity of their gestures, it was like they had known the language their whole life. Bart began to think what was holding their friend back when his inhibitions were in place. Perhaps they were shy, afraid to get it wrong, so they didn’t really try?
That was a question for another time, as Ryley was still staring at him, excitement gleaming in their hazy eyes, after having just asked if he’d be up to wrestling a leviathan.
“Uh… Wait, are you serious? You’re not serious, are you? Are… Holy shit you are.” Quick, think of something. “Ahn - I’d love to, pal, but I think that one might be a little out of our league, don’t you agree? Also, your sane self would murder me if I even got out of the house. So that’s a no from me and you.” Bart tried to coax them back to the bench, but they kept pushing back to go to the hatch. “No, no, no, don’t make me drag you, you know I won’t be able to. Eat some more first and we’ll talk about going out on adventures, okay?” He was suddenly worried that this was going to turn into the Drunk Maida Incident 2.0, and he’d have to go along for the ride. He sneaked over to the locker nearby while Ryley was distracted by a marblemelon and, just in case, snagged the stasis rifle. Not doing that all over again.
Turns out he was right to, as Ryley refused by all means to get away from the hatch.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Bart blurted, distressed, feeling somewhat like the parent of a toddler. A very large toddler.
“Wanna find more plant” Ryley signed, slow and deliberate. “More stuff. Wanna go out. Pretty colours out there!”
Fuck, they really were tripping bad, if they were already seeing more colours than the myriad of bioluminescence outside. No way in hell would Ryley be able to keep themself from being mangled by some stupid shark if they left now, but in his condition, Bart couldn’t possibly stop his giant and strong trained-in-the-military friend from doing whatever they wanted. He cursed himself for not thinking of giving Ryley a prep talk on the poisonous organisms in that planet. That would have been the sane thing to do, right? And shit, they were already reaching for the damned hatch again.
“Ryley wait!” He exclaimed, and they looked at him, waiting.
Bart knew he couldn’t hold them back. Not with that condition. But what else could he do? Go along for the ride? Ryley had been very insistent on him not leaving the house - and he couldn’t even pretend he didn’t agree. He could get hurt, he could die, they both could die despite his best efforts.
And yet, there he was, faced with the opportunity to, after months, finally live a little. Not trapped in a cage, not feeling so weak that he might as well be dead. He couldn’t even remember the last time he hadn’t been drowning in habitat malfunctions, medical emergencies and resource depletions… until now.
He knew Ryley wasn’t thinking straight. Deep down, Bart knew it was unfair for him to take advantage of that moment. But if for once in his life he could prove he was good enough to be trusted with his own life, that could be it...
“I’m coming with you. I could help you find more plants, and… colours. Can you help me get my diving equipment?”
Ryley waved their head, excited, and let go of the damned hatch. No backing out now. Bart headed to the moonpool to gather his gear.
.
Bart breathed in, savouring the moment and the bottled up oxygen. As surprised as he initially were, being out was really doing him some good. In the water, his weak body felt a lot lighter, and his lesions didn’t ache so much. Could do without the cold of the ocean, though. He started to imagine a way he could make his dive suit generate its heat. Such mechanism would likely require power, which he knew could become a limited resource from day to night if one isn’t watching it. Still, he could…
He jumped to the side, startled, as a giant mouth emerged from a white dune and a huge shark started barking at him.
“Geez, I’m really out of practice, aren’t I?” He whispered to himself, as he rose the stasis rifle and paralyzed the creature. “Get outta here. Bad dog. Bad dog!! Where’s Ryley when I need ‘em?”
He searched around and found his companion, digging for abandoned treasure around the giant wreck stationed in that section of the Grassy Plateaus. High or not, apparently the kid still had their survival instincts impaired. They cut a very wobbly hole into a sealed door and got in.
“Can you at least wait for the metal to cool down?” Bart yelled more at himself than at Ryley, as he knew his friend wasn’t going to pay mind to anything he said. “Hey, Rye, do you have any water on you? My throat is parched.”
Ryley dug into their Compressed Inventory and threw him a bottle. Missed him by a few meters, of course, but nothing Bart couldn’t swim and catch by himself. Swiftly, he pressed a button on his helmet, deploying a plastic tube into his mouth. He attached the other end, stuck in the suit, into the bottle, and drank. What a ritual just to get some water, when you’re already surrounded by the stuff. The ocean sure was a deceiving place.
Bart was actually surprised at how well he was doing. He wasn’t even feeling dizzy. Perhaps it was the breathing, helped by the oxygen mask, finally pumping the right amount of much needed air in his lungs. Such realization came with a darker thought, however. He had never been in need of an oxygen mask, until the last time he had enough resources to thrive. And he needed it now. The bacterium had spread further into his lungs.
Ryley bonked a fist on his helmet, to call his attention. Proudly, they exposed their salvage: several cheap plastic hair clips, one broken wind chime, and a jukebox file. The last one actually caught Bart’s attention.
“Hey, Ryley, good job! This is going to be great for us! Imagine having a jukebox back home? With music?” He ignored as Ryley stuck the hair clips into his helmet antenna. “Do you think the blueprint would be around here as well?”
“This was cafeteria wreck.” Ryley told him. “I think jukebox is here, or close, in pieces.”
“Where’s all that eloquence when we’re studying, huh?” Bart crossed his arms. “You’re a sign language natural!”
“I gonna try to find more music.” They said, turning their head away, flustered.
And they sure did. The wreck was littered with all kinds of files and other treasures. The cafeteria menus, cards for the snacks, the snacks themselves (all rotten and moldy) as well as music. Ryley followed them across the room, and then the corridor, and then another room, until they ended up at the back of the section, in front of a cave entrance.
Ryley spied it, with curiosity. They didn’t know that particular opening, but it seemed to lead on the same giant system that contained the bright pink jellyshrooms. The one they had previously found one of Bart’s old habitats inside. Something in their mind was trying to bypass the intoxication, and tell them they should step away. But, peeking further into the hole, there was some kind of equipment abandoned on a rocky platform, and once they realized what it was, their eyes gleamed with excitement and they forgot any bad feelings he might have had about it.
“Bart. Bart. Bart.” Repeated the PDA, in maximum volume, as they tried to get their friend’s attention with the monotone robot voice. At least it worked. Bart came swimming, a little slower than they’d like.
“Yeah? What did you find there?”
“Bart, I fnod hrj jsaubox!” Said the PDA.
“Wha…?” The question was abandoned when Bart realized where Ryley was swimming. “My stars. Ryley, get out of there.”
Sighing, Ryley dropped the PDA on the floor, where it was still blurting nonsense, and decided to sign at him. Too high on their own excitement, and too focused on figuring out the signals to see a giant slender form creeping up behind him.
“No, no, no, no, no, get out of there! Ryley it DOESN’T MATTER, GET OUT OF THERE!”
Ryley was about to tell him they had found the jukebox, but was cut short when the crabsnake rising it’s enormous body from the hole snatched them by the waist with it’s mandibles.