Gooey Awakening

Leaves and vines exploded everywhere as Galyn violently burst out of his regenerative cocoon. After taking a moment to remember how to be alive and conscious, the Decay Lord took a long, deep breath, tasting and smelling his surroundings. Beneath the pungent, acidic smell of his own regenerative fluids, he could sense old carpet, singed metal and repair foam. But he could also smell a tentative campfire, lit with the cheapest of wood. For reasons unknown, Galyn was not where he had originally passed out.

“Did not know you would explode so violently…” Litvir grumbled as he wiped green goo off his face. “Or at all. I guess that is just how you heal yourself.”

Galyn opened his eyes, staring directly at the psionically charged Decayling. In his hand was a checklist of things that needed doing or were being done, which Litvir had been diligently ticking off, up until Galyn woke up.

“Oh. You are alive.”

“We are all alive and well, except for you. Retvik and Arkay are working on the ship, and it was currently my job to keep an eye on you, but thankfully you are awake now.”

Litvir stopped giving Galyn any further attention and reached for something to clean himself up with. There were quite a lot of beds and blankets in the room, to the point where Galyn assumed they had all been sleeping by his side.

“Because we have…” Litvir tutted. “Heating is still down. I cannot cope in the absolute cold the way Retvik and Arkay can, and to save on resources, we only keep this room warm.”

After getting most of the slime and gunk off himself, Litvir returned to what he was doing, which seemed to be mostly checking the walls and windows of the room and making sure everything was the right temperature.

Galyn watched Litvir work, not saying anything. He was more surprised than anything else. Litvir seemed perfectly calm and in one piece.

“You are all fine?”

“What do you mean?” Litvir asked, looking confused. “Yes, we are all fine.”

“None of you are injured or hurt?”

“No. We are all fine,” Litvir repeated himself. “Are you alright? You are acting strange. Do you need anything?”

Galyn eyed Litvir some more. “No… I am… just confused.”

“How comes? Is it because Retvik and I moved you? Did we neglect to help you in some way?”

“No… Is… everything… well?”

Litvir rolled his eyes. “Galyn, everything is fine. The ship is damaged, but Arkay got us anchored to the pit stop, Retvik is doing all the repairs he can and we have arranged replacement parts. We are just waiting for the pit stop’s teleporters to be fixed up. But Arkay managed to sweet-talk the owners, somehow, and we will get what we need as soon as they come in.”

“So everything is… alright?”

“What is your problem?” Litvir put his hands on his hips somewhat angrily. “It is almost as if you think we are completely lost without you!”

Galyn hesitated. “I… well… if I am honest… I did not expect to survive that whole… moon collision… Did not expect any of us to. That sort of thing ruins even large Decay Lord vessels. And you three… pulled through fine, even when I was…” Galyn paused. “How long have I been unconscious for?”

“Uh…” Litvir frowned, thinking to himself. “A week?”

“How many hours.”

“Oh. About 168 hours.”

“Oh. You three clearly do not need me at all then.”

Litvir smiled. “Do not say that, boss. We would have been completely fucked, had we not found your emergency funds card.”

Galyn grunted, then tried to get up, only to be forced back down by Litvir.

“Excuse me. I need to-”

“You need to rest!” Litvir smiled, handing Galyn a towel. “We have this under control. Trust us.”