Summary: Darsas greets his beloved as she comes home… And the unexpected guest.
“Honey, my love!” Darsas warbles out, a delighted grin appearing on his face as he wanders over to the front door, having given his bonded a couple of minutes to come in through the front door and sort herself out. He paused for a moment, tilting his head a little as he took in the sight of Honey, yes. But also a baseline who he has never met before in his life. If his assessment is correct, they are a teenager, and have frozen stiff at the sight of him.
“Hey, Darsas. I’m guessing that my messages didn’t reach you?” Honey asked, a mixture of resignation and something that Darsas couldn’t readily recognize in her voice.
“No, I have not received any messages from you all day, neither by text nor over those vocal snippets that you sometimes send me while you are driving but do not have the time for a full conversation, or if I am busy at the base with… Things.” Darsas answers honestly. He is very curious about the stranger, but much more concerned about his beloved. “This is the third time in as many weeks that we have had a breakdown in long distance communication. Are you sure you do not want to borrow a wrist mounted vox? I can trade for one amongst the-“ He probably shouldn’t say corpse worshippers in front of the very nervous looking and smelling teenager, they were getting more anxious by the moment “The fine people at Stoneflame base.”
Wait. Was he being rude again? He glanced briefly at the nervous baseline and said “I am Darsas of the Death Guard, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance young one. What name do you go by?” He was being nice by not asking the other to give him a name. While the ancient death guard was not generally in the business of Selling or Bartering Names, there were many reasons why Chaos marines, particularly ones as deeply gifted by their patron deity as himself was… Careful when it came to revealing his full Name to others. While he could not fully be bound or trapped as a Neverborn could be by their True Name, it could still cause him many. Problems in the wrong hands. “Hmm. I am missing part of the greeting… What is it? Oh Right! Pronouns. He/him works well enough.” Darsas didn’t particularly care how he was referred to, as long as it wasn’t openly insulting. Gender was a ridiculous mortal concept, anyways.
“I… Uhm… I’m Simon? I also use he/him pronouns.” The teenager answered, their voice small and frightened. They turn and hiss to Honey in a lower tone of voice that Darsas could still clearly hear “You didn’t say that the bonded Astartes you had looked like that!”
“Do not be rude to my bonded, please. He can hear our heartbeats half-way across the house, he can absolutely hear your words right now.” Honey answers, a reprimanding tone in her voice. Her voice softens a little before asking “Are you certain you don’t want to go to one of the group homes, while I help you sort out what you want to do for the next steps?”
Simon shook his head “No, if I go somewhere like that, they’re probably going to find me. I don’t want to… I don’t want to deal with them trying to get at me, before we’ve got all of the legal stuff sorted and they can’t yank me back into that hellhole legally.”
Ah. This was one of Honey’s strays that she was bringing in. “The guest bedroom should be ready - although it may need a brief dusting. Would you like me to give young Simon here some time to settle in?” He was curious as to what sort of trouble the teenager was trying to deal with - as usually Honey didn’t offer space to a client in their home unless they were either in some serious danger - as Honey knew that the many, many wards that Darsas had woven around not just the house but the front, back and side yards would keep all mortal would-be intruders away - or they were very desperate.
“I think about two-three hours while Simon here gets settled will help. If you’d be willing to pick up some basic supplies for our new guest, I’d be grateful? I’ve got a list right here - oh! Simon, do you want to read over it again, and see if there’s anything else you’d like to add?” Honey answers, offering the younger baseline a piece of paper.
“I… Uh… Uhm… Sure. Yeah I’ll read… The list…” Simon answered, clearly uncomfortable in Darsas’ presence in a way that was… Unusual for this time period.
Darsas slowly uncurled the tiniest, least-threatening tendril of his psychic power from where he generally kept it pulled very tightly around him so as to not make everything dirty in a quarter mile radius around him, and reached towards the young baseline.
The young baseline had the barest beginnings of a psychic field himself. His powers were mostly dormant, his potential active ones at least, although he had several passsive abilities that would likely manifest as a high accuracy intuition and good luck. How fascinating! … he was going to have to report this to the local astartes base leaders. He flinched at the briefest touch and “What the fuck was that?” He hissed, looking around anxiously.
“What was what?” Honey asked, genuinely confused “Take in a deep breath for me, Simon, you’re safe here.”
“I just… I thought I felt something try to-…” Simon stopped talking, shuddering a little and trying to obey.
“My apologies, I thought there was something… Unusual about you, and I did a small psychic test, which proved my suspicions correct.” Darsas apologized with a small smile.
“Wait… As in like.. ESP? Magic? That sort of thing?” Simon asked, his eyes going huge.
“Yes.” Darsas answers with a nod “You have…” Hmm, he should probably not be the one to explain these things “You have the potential to learn how to harness your… Mmmmm… Magic? But I would not recommend trying to learn on your own, as doing so can be.” dangerous, life threatening, or catastrophic depending on how powerful the psyker in question is “It is like… Trying to learn a very difficult skill,. It is best, safest, to learn from those who have experience and can help you learn carefully, without over-exerting or expending yourself.”
“So… So I’m really not crazy? I didn’t think I was, but-“ Simon stopped talking, his shoulders hunching anxiously. “No one ever believed me when I said that I could sense things, could hear things that others couldn’t, or not as clearly. And you can help me learn how to control it?”
Oh dear. He knows how he wants to respond, but goes with what he should respond with instead “While I would be honored to talk on another student, I do have several I am teaching already, and most of the skills I am able to teach others like us are… More advanced. You would need to learn the basics, and it would be best to learn the basics from one of the other talented - ah, I believe the term is.. Espers? Who live here in Gannet Point.”
Darsas would be delighted to teach this young baseline all he knows about psykers, and test what sorts of aptitudes that he had. He also knows that attempting to do so without the clearance of the alliance would get. Incredibly ugly very quickly in ways that he absolutely did not want to deal with… Besides, he wasn’t sure if he could be a primary teacher to a psyker who did not embrace Grandfather and not lead them down that path. He firmly believed that one should be able to choose to follow Chaos. While he hadn’t been given that choice, it was not a forced change that he would knowingly inflict upon others.
Simon deflated “Oh… I suppose that makes sense. And that’s all the stuff that I need, ma’am.” He hands the list off to Honey, who gives it to Darsas.
“Love, would you please get these things for our guest? Simon here had to leave his previous place of residence with only the clothes on his back and his legal documents, and the latter was a fight and a half to get his hands on.” Honey asks, looking up pleadingly at him.
Darsas would have agreed to help the younger psyker anyways, but who is he to deny his beloved when she looks at him like that? He smiles benevolently and presses his forehead to hers - his version of a kiss that did not involve his larger mouth - as he did not want to further panic the much younger psyker. “As you wish, my love. I will return with the items our guest requires. Dinner is in the crock pot.”
“Thank you, handsome. See you soon!” Honey murmurs, pressing her forehead harder to his forehead for a couple of moments before taking a half step back and away.
Darsas nods, shifting so that the two baselines could pass around him, before he made his way out, off to hunt down some appropriately sized clothing and school supplies. He is already drafting vox-messages to the leaders of the local astartes bases as he does so, making sure that the report is as detailed and complete as he can make it.
