Caelstone City, Union Federa, Buthaan
Monday, July 20, 2663

Great, Hyukjae thinks, this will rate a decontam about 12 hours long, as he felt the hot vomit right through his uniform. First day on his portal duty rotation and he gets lucky to get a refugee.

The portal had made the expected alarms and he was racing to the portal when the first refugee came through the wormhole, landing haphazardly on the token cushions they placed at the floor in front of the portal. The refugees always came out of the fall through the wormhole rather disoriented, their inner ear still struggling to adjust to the sudden reappearance of gravity, despite it being the other side already of the wormhole.

As expected, the fall still went hard, and Hyukjae was already making a call to initiate medical scanning for the new arrival. Nothing more serious than a sprained wrist, but which the new arrival was using to lever himself up, perhaps unaware that any more pressure in the wrist could turn it into a permanent injury. Then Hyukjae had reached him and belatedly realizing the refugee couldn't understand him, he finally placed a hand to the refugee's chest to keep him down.

And was rather shocked to look into the most beautiful hazel eyes he'd seen, placed on the most handsome face he'd seen not to mention beautifully dark-colored hair. The feeling seemed mutual, the refugee suddenly looking at him with shining eyes. Before a kind of horror overtook it and Hyukjae was suddenly in the middle of a shower of vomit.

He should not have forgotten that a trip through the wormhole was rather, well, trippy. All their refugees had the same recounting, yes, including the violent vomiting. He would have avoided a longer decontam if he had kept himself away from the refugee's face. It just lovingly (puke) capped off a terrible day for Hyukjae.

Caelstone City, Union Federa, Buthaan
Tuesday, July 21, 2663 

Twelve hours in decontam meant Hyukjae had more than a good night's sleep and the provided food was more than healthy and complete compared to his self-prepared breakfast and dinner. He didn't skip on his usual fitness routine in the morning, deciding to jog and do crunches inside the decontamination room. It was a bit of a stretch considering it was nothing more than a cell, really, but he managed to make do.

It would already be lunchtime, after the twelve hours Hyukjae spent in decontamination was up and he prepared to meet the refugee, aka his case. He imagined their current refugee would have already been scrubbed clean himself, divested of the things he brought from the world they call Qali, quarantined for a long, long time as most refugees aren't allowed to go back. Not after the things they see in Buthaan.

Hyukjae donned a fresh uniform, well aware of his current change in assignment - from portal monitoring, he had now the unenviable task of integrating this poor soul into society. Protocol demanded that the first face refugees see through the portal will be the same in all the time needed to make them Buthaan citizens. It's the first time for Hyukjae and he doesn't know how long it will take - it varies between refugees, the speed at which they earlier accept their fate. He hopes his case would be quick about it, so that Hyukjae can go back to his main interest in the temporal mechanics rather than social case worker. He'd have to live a normal life, to easily let the case assimilate Buthaan life.

He wonders how his case fared: it wouldn't have been easy being into a strange world. Enroute to the holding facility where the transitional cases are, which currently counts one, Hyukjae read up on the temporal signatures of this case.

The Qalini is biologically male, from a time period known as the Blight Era. Hyukjae can't recall other details of that signature time other than it started a sort of world doom when the invading blight drastically reduced the world food source. They must have found a way through it, because the Qalini continued to thrive millenia after that period.

He checked the medical scan. The case is already an adult, the same age as he is, twenty-three, and Hyukjae made the quick calculation to note that the Qalini is eighteen in Qalini years, the Qalini homeworld revolving around their sun with a longer year compared to Buthaan. There was evidence of frost burns on the case's exposed skin, indicating he was in the Far Reach during its cold months. The hand abrasions were a curiosity, though. As Hyukjae recalled, the case wore leather-like gloves, and abrasions inside gloved hands would mean he had tirelessly worked those hands - climbing perhaps? He recalled similar abrasions on medical texts for mountaineers. The Far Reach is surrounded by a high mountain ridge, and he would have needed to climb those to get to Far Reach. There was also a trace of malnourishment and dehydration.

He was already outside the door of the case's holding facility before he recalled there was no vehicle capable of flight during that era, at least none that could breach the summit. Nor be used to fly up the Sky Island if and when he did managed to reach the center of Far Reach and get to the wormhole. So this case is some supreme alpha Qalini who actually managed to climb the mountain ridge summit, trek through the unforgiving ice plain formed over the lake during winter and then climb the Sky Islands? Hyukjae whistled at the thought.

He schooled his expression to something neutral as best as he could before he stepped infront the door sensor for facial scanning and recognition.

The door opened with a hiss and slid aside.

The case was standing in the middle of the room, Hyukjae noted, apparently taking in the relativley sparse but well-appointed furniture - a twin bed, soft carpets, sofas and settees, a dining table with chairs, viewscreens and an ensuite toilet and bath. They've all culled data from refugees to know that these things aren't strange to them, though Hyukjae thinks this case's era would have cruder versions of it. But curiously, the case wasn't so much in awe as just rather observant.

Hyukjae stepped inside the room, and the door hissed closed behind him, a gesture that firmly indicated that Hyukjae will have the right to impose on this case's privacy by not even asking if he could come in. He could see how that affected the case, who took a step back as Hyukjae had stepped in. They watched each other, neither making a move.

Hyukjae really thinks his case is beautiful. The brunet was now dressed in regulation sterile shirt and pants they give refugees after taking their clothes and things for quarantine. Hyukjae imagined the case must be uncomfortable in strange clothes, but it's the simplest it's going to be. Hyukjae, however, was aware how hardpressed he was not to notice how the shirt and pants just seemed to stretch right across the case's arms, chest and thighs, which were proportionately buff for his shorter height. Hyukjae made a mental note to provide him with looser clothes, but it'll have to do for now.

"Hello, I'm Hyukjae, welcome to Buthaan," Hyukjae suddenly said in fluent Qalini standard, earning a surprised, and relieved look from the case. Hyukjae couldn't help but note how those wide eyes and thin lips just looked adorable. "What is your name?"

It was as if a dam broke for the case. "Oh oh, thank the Ginu, I can understand you!" The case was suddenly flailing around, as if quiet unsure what to do. Recalling his training, Hyukjae just stood still to allow the case to continue. "Oh oh, my name is Donghae," the case recalled the first question asked by Hyukjae.

Donghae. Hyukjae liked how that name rolled over his tongue. Then he noticed the case stood still, scrutinizing him from head to toe. Hyukjae felt like blushing at the suddenly adoring way Donghae was looking at him.

"Are you real?" he was asked in a suddenly gushing voice.

Hyukjae recalled that to the Qalini, Hyukjae and his people were considered gods, the Ginu. It slightly ruffled Hyukjae to learn this was how the other timecops felt being suddenly put on a pedestal and why they get training to take the sudden god-worship in stride.

He automatically gave a standard response. "I am as real as you are, a being of flesh and blood. We call ourselves Buthaan."

"But you're too beautiful." Donghae gushed again.

Awwww, Hyukjae suddenly wanted to coo, though he thinks the burning feeling on his ears indicated he was already blushing hard. No one in his planet would ever mistake his looks for beautiful. He mentally sighed, wondering what Donghae would think of the general populace if he already thinks Hyukjae is beautiful.

Because he doesn't think his monolid eyes, plump lips and sharp jaw could be anything beautiful. Certainly normal compared to Choi Siwon.

There was also a standard response to this. "Thank you."

Donghae suddenly blinks, looking down at his feet. "I-I'm sorry. I don't know, I don't think the Ginu would appreciate the staring."

Hyukjae suddenly chuckled, causing Donghae to peek up at him, perhaps wondering what caused a god to be laughing at him. Hyukjae was finding it funny that this is a textbook reaction for a Qalini who suddenly finds himself in the presence of his god. If Hyukjae were megalomanic, he'd have already lorded it over the case but he is a proper and competent timecop and enslavement isn't his game. But a natural curiosity is.

"It's alright, Donghae, I appreciate it. Though I will make you understand that we Buthaan are not the gods you make us out to be. We are the same as you are, nothing so high and mighty as a god." It needed to be made understood, that the Qalini cannot insist with the belief that an alien species is a god.

Donghae looked at him then, troubled.

"Please, can we sit?" Hyukjae indicated the dining room table. "I believe you have yet to eat. And if you would allow it, I'd like to eat with you, and perhaps we can discuss why you are here in the first place."

"Oh," Donghae suddenly heard his stomach growl, earning another chuckle from this Ginu Hyukjae. Who says he isn't a god, but already knowing what Donghae is thinking without him saying it. Only gods can read minds, right?

They sat around the table, Donghae suddenly giddy at the thought that he would be sharing a meal with this Ginu. It had been a harrowing time waking up in this strange room on the strange bed in strange clothes when he recalled what happened to him before he woke up here. Somehow, the embarrassment at the knowledge of him puking over a Ginu stood out more than the fact that his things were nowhere around or that he didn't know where the door or window was and if he should feel more like a prisoner.

He had just finished surveying the room, carefully handling the things around there, even gingerly tried out what he knew were chairs. They were softer than what he was used to, definitely comfortable, including the bed. And then the door opened where he thought was just an undecorated wall - and there stood the beautiful Ginu he met earlier. Who had suddenly greeted him in a language he could understand. Hyukjae, who is now sitting across from him, talking still.

"We have a variety of dishes you are familiar with, just make a request." Hyukjae was saying, opening a curious contraption that was sitting in the middle of the table. "Watch." He held up a finger to quiet Donghae who was about to ask something. "Tola soup."

Something shimmered in the middle of the contraption, a bowl of chicken soup Donghae recognized by the familiar homey, delicious smell that suddenly wafted around the room. He reached to touch the bowl to see if it is real, yelping to find it hot. He should have expected that, not when Mum serves it piping hot from the pot seated over embers so it stayed hot throughout mealtimes.

"Careful, it's not an illusion," Hyukjae cautioned him, apparently sympathizing with him, though also finding it adorable how this case had his whole face wincing and showing it was painful. "Is it too painful?"

"Ani-" he started in Mahan, before realizing it was rude when Hyukjae spoke to him in Qalini standard. "I mean, no, it's just hot. I didn't realize it could be." He said sheepishly.

"Go on then, try it," Hyukjae said to him as soon as he got the soup bowl off the contraption.

Feeling ridiculous talking to the air, Donghae nevertheless copied what Hyukjae did. "Tola soup." He was awarded another shimmering, a bowl of chicken soup before him. He was careful about the bowl this time, gingerly pulling it towards his side of the table.

"We'll need to put something more substantial in you." Hyukjae suddenly remarked. "Start with water, too, as you're dehydrated and malnourished."

Donghae stared, ready to believe again that Hyukjae is really a god. "How did you know?"

"No, no." Hyukjae shook his head, apparently getting that Donghae was back to god-worshipping him again. He raised up a thin, rectangular piece. "We did a medical scan on you earlier... uh something like what a doctor... no, a healer, would do to check if you are healthy or not."

Donghae was disappointed. He really thought this god just knew everything about him. But if he did say a healer had looked on him, any good healer would see traces of his ordeal across the Far Reach. Healer Gamena certainly had that skill.

"There are more of you?" Donghae suddenly asked. Though he had seen no one but Hyukjae ever since his journey in the between, Hyukjae kept referring to "we" and while he first thought it was a self-address, he had parsed Hyukjae's way of speaking to mean other individuals including himself. Because while Hyukjae was speaking in Qalini standard, he was using certain words and phrases that revealed non-Qalini concepts.

"Uh yeah. I had others help me earlier when you fainted. It is just that we make sure someone like you sees the same face, at least until you are ready to get out of here."

So he was indeed a prisoner, though Donghae was more concerned at the knowledge that somebody other than Hyukjae saw his sorry state.

"I am really, really, really sorry, Hyukjae." Huukjae was startled to hear his name from Donghae's mouth. That and the tingle that went up and down his spine realizing he liked the way his name was being uttered. Like extremely liked.

He coughed, startling Donghae in turn, who was hiding his face in his palms in what Hyukjae recognized as embarrassment. "For what?"

Donghae decided to look him in the eye, sincerely contrite about something. "I am really sorry I vomited all over you earlier."

Ah, Hyukjae finally understood. He didn't see how Donghae's eyes widened with the way Hyukjae's face softened. "It's alright. It's understandable, knowing what you went through."

"You've been in the between?" Donghae asked in surprise.

Hyukjae was hard-pressed to understand that phrase, until he recalled the refugees called the wormhole as the "night between the stars", apparently because it was a band of blackness that stood out against a starry night sky. "Uhm, I haven't been there the way you have." Then he paused, realizing the implications. "But you are aware that you are not the first Qalini who came through here."

Donghae nodded. "There have been a lot of stories, of people and things getting lost in the between. Initially these were stories handed down as folklore to us, until the Masters discerned that they were a true history. There is a recounting from one of the Fire Fork countries that a Qalini had managed to come back from the Far Reach, bringing in more curious tales about the between... and about the Ginu."

Hyukjae recalled the Fire Fork countries to be those situated in a wide swath of a geological event - a planetwide volcanic eruption that spouted lava flows for millenia. And millenia after the last event, the land formed a flame like shape and rendered the resultant area with rich soil and where majority of the Qali have agricultural lands. "Oh, then you know we are not all-knowing gods?"

Donghae grinned, finally realizing why Hyukjae kept getting uncomfortable when he ascribed god-like powers on him. "Oh no," he shook his head. "We've been taught that the Ginu are not all-knowing - in my country, there are three of you whose teachings we follow, namely the animal-doctor, the ground-inspector, and the science-officer, with the kind of life and trade we have in my country, Mahan. Other countries follow their own set of main gods, too. But among all of us, we have always been taught that the Ginu isn't all-knowing... it's just that you know more than us."

Ah, a sensible lesson. Hyukjae was glad that the god-worship his mentors in the academy had drilled into them was nothing more than a show of respect for what the Qalini perceived of them as experts, as opposed to being gods as them Buthaan understood it.

Because for the Buthaan, the gods are a pantheon of mystical, mythical creatures adept at all sorts of things divine, erudite and celestial. Not someone living and breathing in the here and now. Not even he is sure if they are already dead, or some may be alive, just that they are taught since birth that the gods are just there.

But this Qalini, heck, all Qalini for that matter, knew their gods lived on another side of the wormhole. Some gods they were, to be that reachable to their "worshippers". Though apparently without ordeal, as Hyukjae recalled Donghae's medical results.

"So what made you go through hardship to get to us, Donghae?" Hyukjae finally asked. "I am sure you did not undertake such journey just to prove a point about the Far Reach, or the between." Yes, Hyukjae is also very much aware that the Qalini culture considered going into the Far Reach as being too ambitious.

Donghae briefly debated whether or not to tell Hyukjae. But it is what he came here to do, right? And now that he met a Ginu...

"We need help. We need help to stop the blight from spreading."

Hyukjae was more than surprised. He was rather shocked.

They were the Qalini's solution in the Blight Era?

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