Time is hard
Jon proceeded to fill Basira in with the tldr version of events that Daisy would be aware of now, with Daisy chiming in from time to time to both fill in things Jon didn’t word properly. Daisy semi joked at one point that the most cursed knowledge in all this is she was going to have to wait several years for a new episode of the Archers. The mood in the room lightened considerably after that.
Basira started to fully calm down about halfway through after seeing Jon talk in an unguarded manner with Daisy back and forth about how some events actually went down. He was a little less emotionally constipated, but still the same Jon she’d spent all that time in uni with. She began to snicker from time to time cause of course Jon would get himself in the kinds of messes he was telling her about. His curiosity was both his best and worst trait as she remembered some of their late-night adventures about the town.
Jon did leave out detailed information of the fears, he neglected to mention his feeding habits and the actual how he ended the world, just told her it was terrible and the time went weird when it reversed. It would take too long and he knew his assistants would only be out for so long. Plus, he needed a proper script to inform Basira of all those things. He remembers how terribly it went last time and how she felt about avatars.
Basira was sectioned, but he didn’t know how much she wanted to be filled in with information wise. At the moment his goal was only to make sure she was filled in enough that Daisy wouldn’t end up feeling lost in time. He would ask Basira if she wanted detailed information about the fears once he got her up to speed about the future stuff.
He also made a point to tell them both that he’d only told Georgie about the future stuff, but his assistants knew about the fear junk and how Jon wasn’t a person in the same way he used to be.
“So you’ve stopped calling yourself a monster?” Daisy didn’t miss that. She also didn’t miss that Jon didn’t look as weak as he had back when he was on a statement only diet. She wasn’t sure if he was feeding on innocents or maybe he didn’t need to yet and was just a healthy pseudo-human still. She wasn’t going to call him out in front of Basira with as touchy as the subject had been before. Not that she was okay with Jon victimizing others, but she had no room to talk.
“I’ve been banned. Georgie will cut off my Admiral cuddle time.” Jon sounded bitter.
Basira let out a snicker. Of all the mannerisms and actions that she observed in Jon that helped her believe he was still him, that was what sealed it. If the Admiral trusted Jon like this, Jon was Jon. For better or worse. “Good. I’ll report to her then if you let it slip.”
Daisy laughed with a solitary ‘ha’ and Jon looked betrayed. “Basira, you wouldn’t do me like that would you?”
“Only if you call yourself ‘monster’. Admiral bound rules are sacred.” Basira had a warmth to her smile. Jon was still a mess even if he had more time then them to mentally grow. She would need to make sure to join the ‘keep an eye on him’ crew.
“On another note, does this get any less disorienting to have two sets of memories?” Daisy looked to Jon, still keeping her smile. “Not to be dramatic, but seeing you without your scars keeps throwing me off.”
“I’ll let you know when I do. Been at this for 6 months, almost 7 now, and the repeating dates still are hard to adjust to. Let alone the fact I’m completely left-handed now out of habit?“ Basira looked at Jon with a confused eyebrow asking for clarification. “Oh, yeah, my right hand got severely burned about a year from now and I had to change my dominant hand because of the damages of self fist aid.”
“What the hell Jon.” Basira glared.
“It was during that part where I was wanted for murder. I couldn’t go to a hospital. It healed pretty well all things considered, but not a problem anymore.” Jon glanced at his unscarred hand.
“Next time, though there had better not be a next time since you will take care of yourself, come to me. If you are wanted for murder or not.” Basia rubbed her forehead in almost a defeated manner. Jon’s self-preservation function was still as broken in the future than it had been in the past.
“So what now?” Basira was slightly annoyed but wanting to change the subject.
“Hm, well, I’d say the many-eyed demon case is solved, since it was me. Not sure how you’d report that one in, but would be great if I don’t go on a sectioned file so soon? We could get dinner and catch up on less work-based things? I could also fill you in more detail over the 14 fear? Not sure how much you want to know or how involved you want to be ahead of time, or I could just be on your speed dial if you need info. You’re free in a way you couldn’t be in the future. I don’t want to take that from you by sharing too much information all at once.” Jon started to feel a ramble coming on, so he forced himself to stop.
“Hm, yeah. Not today, but I’ll send you a text when I’m ready for another info dump. Dinner would be nice sometime soon.”
Jon nodded. “My numbers still the same. And I’m free most nights.” Basira nodded in return.
“Cool, I’ll be in touch then. You ready Daisy?”
“I, I think I’ll stick around here a little longer. My head is still a little, I need a little more time to adjust. Jon can make sure I get home, Right Jon? He Knows the way.“
“I don’t mind at all.“ Jon did Know. He never realized they shared a place before.
“Fine. I’ll see you later then.” Basira gave Daisy a kiss on the cheek before leaving.
Jon let out a surprised noise he tried to cover up with a cough.
Daisy grinned, “Yeah, we are pretty private about that. Guess Basira figured you musta known so no reason to hide it.”
“Why did you hide it, I mean, it’s not like you needed to tell me or that-”
“Chill, it wasn’t just you. We didn’t tell anyone -we still aren’t telling anyone, so keep it to yourself- but guess she assumed that there would be a time she would’ve told you. Honestly you both being friends is a bit of a shocker to me. She never mentioned knowing you before the whole worms thing. Guess that makes sense why she was so eager to share the taps to try to get you to slip up if you did it.” Daisy had a fond look to her smile.
“So, that outa tha way, time to fill me in on the stuff you were hiding Sims.”
“You noticed that hm?”
“Yeah, you are missing the classic tired and ready to rip out a statement look..”
“I figured some things out about that, but I’ll get to it. The short answer is starving myself was what caused the problems in the first place. Still not content about that, but I’ve made my choice to accept it.”
Daisy had a feeling he was about to give details on it, wondering if it was going to be a mess of guilt and excuses, but he shook his head. Almost like a reset?
“That can wait. First a little bit about you on that topic cause I’m worried we might not have a lot of time. I didn’t want to say it in front of Basira, but there is a reason your memories stop before the end of the world. What I did blasted you with all the memories, even the ones when the Hunt took you.” Jon took a deep breath before continuing. “The memories that you have as a full avatar of the Hunt. I can’t remove them after awakening them, turns out. So I sort of suppressed them before you could wake up to try to-, I don’t know how long it will last, Daisy. It's bad.”
“Huh, that makes sense. I’ll try not to dig for thoughts after making Basira promise to put me down then. Side effects I should expect?”
“I wish I could tell you definites, but I don’t know. What I did was pure instincts. The memories that were suppressed were…I don't think you could come back if you remembered them.” Jon’s voice cracked a bit there. “I'm sort of expecting the next time you give into the blood and hunt. The memories might resurface. But not sure if it would be just normal hunts that would trigger it, or if you went full avatar again that would do it... The bright side, you are not a full Avatar like me. Not yet. You only got the memories implanted, not the whole future package. So theoretically you could pull a Mike Crew and find an out through another fear? Maybe keep those memories locked away since the Hunt couldn’t take you then?”
“So give up the Hunt and force it out with something else?” Daisy could tell she wasn’t as far gone as she had been after being Elias’s personal monster hunter, nor did she had the hunger lingering from 6 months in the Buried holding her back. “You got any ideas?”
“Actually. Somewhat?”