Dan makes an effort to go find Stacia every other month or so, which he never tells her is at Bunny's behest. It's not that he doesn't want to see Stacia; it's that Dan's spent almost none of his life with any reason to stretch the social muscle of keeping in touch, and as such, unless he's being outright prodded into maintaining his friendships, he tends to forget how long has lapsed between seeing people. When he was a child, he lived in a bunker; when he was a young adult, he had no longterm relationships to hold onto; on the Rig and in the Wilderlands, his relationships were managed for him, and he couldn't let them slide unattended to even if he wanted to.
So to ensure that he continued to spend time with Stacia (and Elle, Ace, and the others), he's put Stacia's world in his "circuit", the worlds he skips to and from with the Guardians' magic powering his travels, working on the grimmer, more small-scale sorts of mysteries and tragedies than Bunny and his comrades have time for. Stacia's doomed world offers up a lot of opportunities to de-escalate conflicts between monsters, and Dan's becoming increasingly fluent in the complex politics therein. Every time he gets involved in solving a mystery here, he gives Stacia a call, and greets her with a hug and her favorite order of coffee.
"Howdy, stranger."
He looks better than she's ever seen him, alight with having work to do and ways to keep his mind occupied but no longer having to get by on malnutrition, gas station vodka and a prayer between cases. His hands are so minimally chewed that there's currently no broken skin, and he's gained a few pounds, although somewhere between now and the last time Stacia saw him he lost a tooth way in the back of his smile. It's not hard to guess how, as he starts their walk through the woods and takes a sip of a cotton candy-flavored frappuccino.
"Just got back from a kidnapping in Vancouver. Turns out it was just your average humans having a custody battle. Ugly, not supernatural." He shrugs, then pauses, noting an unspoken question in her bearing. His expression gets concerned. "What's on your mind?"
no subject
So to ensure that he continued to spend time with Stacia (and Elle, Ace, and the others), he's put Stacia's world in his "circuit", the worlds he skips to and from with the Guardians' magic powering his travels, working on the grimmer, more small-scale sorts of mysteries and tragedies than Bunny and his comrades have time for. Stacia's doomed world offers up a lot of opportunities to de-escalate conflicts between monsters, and Dan's becoming increasingly fluent in the complex politics therein. Every time he gets involved in solving a mystery here, he gives Stacia a call, and greets her with a hug and her favorite order of coffee.
"Howdy, stranger."
He looks better than she's ever seen him, alight with having work to do and ways to keep his mind occupied but no longer having to get by on malnutrition, gas station vodka and a prayer between cases. His hands are so minimally chewed that there's currently no broken skin, and he's gained a few pounds, although somewhere between now and the last time Stacia saw him he lost a tooth way in the back of his smile. It's not hard to guess how, as he starts their walk through the woods and takes a sip of a cotton candy-flavored frappuccino.
"Just got back from a kidnapping in Vancouver. Turns out it was just your average humans having a custody battle. Ugly, not supernatural." He shrugs, then pauses, noting an unspoken question in her bearing. His expression gets concerned. "What's on your mind?"