Chapter Text
Jon jumped over Basira’s desk and darted around shelves. Daisy was hot on his heels, mirroring his every move so as to never let him gain distance.
Gerry was lounging by the printer as he watched them rip around the Archives, a look of amusement on his face.
They knocked over boxes and sent papers flying.
They were fairly evenly matched, with Jon being a bit healthier and having a tail for balance and Daisy getting the slightest taste of the Hunt as they went- so their playful chase went on and on.
Eventually the Hunter triumphed and tackled the Archivist to the ground and both of them tumbled across the floor in a mass of limbs and fur, right into one of the shelves.
“Oh shit.” Gerry cried as the shelf tilted as if about to fall, but before it could crush the two avatars wrestling under it, long, sharp fingers pulled it back into place.
“You’re welcome!” Helen grinned down at Daisy and Jon who had paused their play fighting to take notice of their near death by shelf.
Gerry huffed in relief and settled back down while the two on the floor untangled with grunts, growls and chirps.
“Thanks.” Jon told the Distortion as he got to his feet, brushing off his jumper and flicking his tail aggressively.
"Be careful not to squish yourselves, now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got people to eat.” Helen said as she stepped through one of her doors.
“No need to rub it in that I’m on a diet.” Daisy muttered, but she was ignored by Helen who popped a pencil into her mouth on the way out as a snack. Then her door swung shut and vanished.
“So you’re just not going to do anything about that?” Gerry’s voice came from behind them where he was lounging, suspended in the air casually.
“About what?” Was Daisy’s response as she stretched her muscles after their game.
“About her eating people?”
“There’s not much we can do, she’s the Distortion.” Jon huffed in resignation as he went to get some water from the break room for himself and Daisy. He’d spent plenty of time worrying over Helen, just as he’d spent time worrying over all of them. But he’d come back to the conclusion that everyone had to make their own choices, and she couldn’t change what she was.
Gerry just shrugged in response. His opinions on all of the avatars in the Archives was… vague, to say the least. He wasn’t in pain and the world hadn’t ended and he helped out with research, but he mostly kept his thoughts on things to himself.
He too seemed to be of the mind that everyone had to make their own choices.
“Yeah, I’m just surprised no one is too fussed about it.” The ghost shrugged.
“Beleive me,” Jon stepped back out with the water and Daisy held out a hand for her’s. “I’ve worried about it.”
Gerry tapped his foot on nothing for a movement before speaking up again. “Where is everyone else?”
“Sira’s checking around for more monsters of the Flesh. I don’t think she’s reassured by the fact that she hasn’t seen any lately.”
“Michael is in the tunnels, Sasha’s sleeping upstairs and the others…..”
Jon didn’t have to finish that sentence. They all knew that the others still weren’t in contact with the Archives.
Tim would presumably show up eventually since he was still bound, but it could be weeks still before he needed to and Martin…. Jon didn’t like to think about Martin.
He’d called, tried sending messages, gone back to their shared flat, but it had been a full week since their fight and he still hadn’t been able to reach his boyfriend.
Right now there was a divide between the people who had avoided falling into avatarism and those that had, with Martin dancing on the edge of his own fate and Basira clinging to humanity in the Archives.
“Well, anything you want me working on today?” Was the ghost’s follow up question.
They hadn’t made much headway with finding a way to quit, nor with the other rituals, and even less with what to do about their own issues.
“Um…”
“What about Elias’ office?” Daisy cut in.
“What?” Jon twitched an ear curiously.
The Hunter had her arms stretched over her head as she kept her muscles limber. “His office. He had tapes and shit locked up in there, along with god knows what else.”
Jon blinked. That was… that was right. Hm.
She raised an eyebrow at him. “Did you forget about that?”
“There’s been- there’s been a lot on my mind.”
“Wait,” The ghost in the room cut back into the conversation. “Isn’t Lukas using that office now?”
“I’m not scared of him.” Daisy bared her teeth, her long canines on display.
Gerry rolled his eyes at her display of bravado. “Even if he is, no one ever sees him, and we can whip up a distraction.”
Jon thought about the option of breaking into Elias’ old office for tapes, and while it was a pretty good one, another thought occurred to him.
He turned to Daisy with a flick of an ear. “Do you think we could find Lukas?”
Daisy paused in her stretches to raise an eyebrow at him. “Do we want to find Lukas?”
“I-I don’t know. Maybe? It might be good to try and get information on what he’s doing here at the source. What he’s plotting. Between the two of us we might be able to do it.”
Daisy stared at him for a long moment and he could feel Gerry’s eyes on him as well. What he was really after might be obvious to them, but luckily Daisy took mercy on him.
“We can try. Don’t know what good it will do us but we can try.”
While Jon felt his heart soar at her agreement to help he was aware of Gerry’s face twitching into a frown. The ghost shifted where he sat on one of the desks.
“Going after an avatar is always dangerous, and Jon I don’t like the idea of you going after one of the Lonely.”
The meaning behind that sentiment was clear, and while warranted Jon still bristled at it.
You’re boyfriend won’t talk to you so you’re vulnerable.
“I’ll have Daisy with me, he’ll be less dangerous when in company.”
Gerry didn’t look convinced but didn’t argue the point.
With one final flex of the muscles in her back, Daisy decided she was done with the conversation and began to wander off. “Let me know when we’re going, yeah?”
Jon could only nod while something akin to hope and dread fluttered inside of him.
~
Their plan was simple. One test run trying to track down Lukas and see what they could learn from him, and then they would break into the office.
Between the Eye and the Hunt, Daisy and Jon stood a decent chance of being able to find the sea captain, although the biggest worry was if anyone could find them if things went wrong.
So that’s where Helen came in.
“The Distortion can find anyone who has crossed its threshold.” She’d informed them cheerily, teeth twisting into a myriad of shapes. “And that included you.” She had booped Jon on the nose as she finished speaking.
“Even in the Lonely?”
“There’s almost nowhere else where someone doubts their reality as much as they do there.”
Jon and Daisy had had a lengthy discussion on who they were telling about their mission and who they weren’t. In the end Gerry, Helen and Michael were all told and Sasha and Basira were to be left out of it for now. They would be roped in for the breaking and entering, but not for the highly dangerous stalking of a Lonely Avatar.
Once their barebones plan was made and they decided on who was involved, all that was left to do was put the plan into action.
Daisy paced by the door that led to the Archives stairs.
Months in the Buried had made her grow thin and weak, but with the help of Basira and Jon and the little tastes of the Hunt she’d safely been getting through her play with the Archivist there was some obvious muscle hiding under her taut skin.
She stalked the area like a true predator animal who needed enrichment.
Meanwhile Jon sat just on the other side of the door by the stairs while he tried to tap into the Eye and Know something, anything, that could help them.
Trying to Know about Lukas was risky as it felt like trying to descend into a deep, dark well and draw forth water while unknown creatures lurked down there, waiting to pull him in- but he had to try.
He mentally waded through a hazy bog as he neared the correct pool of knowledge, a thousand other things trying to pull him off course with their promises of secrets, but The Archivist stayed his course.
He reached the lip of the pit and peered down into it only to find a thick fog rolled up off of it, blocking his sight. He could take the plunge, dive in and hope to surface with something of worth without losing himself, or he could turn back now and play it safe.
The Archivist jumped into the haze.
Daisy heard Jon let out a yowl and burst into the stairwell in the blink of an eye to find him folded in on himself, tail curled around his legs and growling at nothing.
She bent down and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.
“Jon?”
He only growled some more.
“I take it it don’t go great?”
With his face still tucked up against his knees he shook his head.
“Should we call a quit-?”
“No.” Power buzzed in that one word that then dispersed into the air around them and he managed to uncurl and get to his hands and knees. “No- It- I know where to start.”
Daisy gave him space, something animalistic shining in her eyes.
“Alright, lead the way.”
Jon had found Martin in this place before, and while he didn’t think himself fortunate enough to find him here again, he was sure he could locate Lukas.
Daisy walked next to him, her body taut like a spring, ready to pounce at any moment.
It was still a little scary having her next to him. Everything about her reminded him of that day in the woods when he’d run for his life, but he kept telling himself that she was trying to be better and that she was on his side. That the time in the Coffin they’d spent together had changed everything.
And it was…. Nice, having someone on his side who understood so well as her. Who understood the animal urges as well as the Avatar ones.
Together they stalked the halls of the Institute. Jon used the Eye to Search and See while Daisy took on the role of Hunter.
The misty forms of other employees drifted past them and they both fed a little on the unease that their unseenselves caused with the joint feelings of being Watched and Hunted, but the distance that the Lonely provided gave them both a buffer so that they didn’t get too caught up in it.
They checked each room they passed, each hall and closet, until Jon stopped them abruptly in Research.
People buzzed around them but they were no more than ghosts to the two of them as they stood in the center of the space, cloaked in The Forsaken.
Daisy inclined her head at Jon curiously at being told to halt by his outstretched arm before she picked up the scent and realized who they had found.
Lukas was there, little more than a patch of thicker fog from their perspective with how deeply entrenched in his Patron he was, but he was there.
Daisy let out a low growl while Jon stared deeply into that blurred part of reality.
Now that they’d found him it was time to learn something.
The Archivist once again found himself in that world of mind numbing possibility, the well of answers that was Peter Lukas right in front of him, his for the taking if he were brave enough- or stupid enough- to take the plunge. He pushed forward, the ocean of knowledge looming over his head, threatening to crash down on him at any time as he thrust his mind into the blurry point that was Lukas.
Rushing Ocean wind and the taste of salt on the air, the distant cry of gulls and rolling waves against the shore.
So alone and so free.
A cunning’s man laugh, lovely and horrid at the same time.
Are you willing to stand by that belief, Peter?
Brandy drank in solitude. The satisfaction of lovers split up.
The Fear of Extinction.
Pain blossomed in Jon’s skull and the cold rushed through his bones and stole the air from his lungs. He sunk into shifting sand and numbing waves.
Jon woke up curled up against Daisy’s side, dizzying patterns floating in the air around them.
He blinked groggily and let out a pitiful chirp as his head pounded in pain.
“He’s waking up!” A giddy voice that he recognized as Helen’s exclaimed.
Daisy shifted next to him as he settled back into her body. “Okay, let’s get him out of here.”
Jon felt the Hunter hoist him to his feet and walk him past a lot of disembodied ears until they passed through a yellow door.
Once outside the world looked much more monochrome and stable.
Hm.
Daisy eased him back down to the floor and they sat in a corner of the Archives away from anyone else.
Jon chirped since he couldn’t quite make his vocal cords work yet.
They sat in silence while he recovered enough to function, just him and the Hunter as Helen had clearly gotten bored and left.
“How you holding up?” She asked him at last.
“Ugh.”
“‘Ugh’, is right. You got really deep into it back there. I had to call Helen to help pull you out. Did you at least learn something?”
Jon lashed his tail back and forth on the floor while he rubbed at his eyes with the heels of his palms.
“Mm. I- yes, actually.”
He had learned two things of interest.
The first was that Peter Lukas planned to dispose of the Archival staff once he had what he wanted and the second was that Martin had agreed to work for him full time.