Chapter Text
Shaman blinked the flashes in his eyes away, slowly grabbing his consciousness out from the depth of his mind.
Faint scent of antiseptic lingered in the air, recent disinfectant used to make sure the infirmary stayed sterile.
The smell mingled and mixed with the rhythm of a medical monitor next to him, wires extending out from the bottom like tendrils to place their hands on his arm and sides.
He stood up and let out a groan. A sharp pain going up near his ribs caused his hand to instinctively move to push the pain down, feeling the bandage wrapping around his side.
Oh, yeah. Shaman laughed. That’s right, he was shot.
Bullets grazed him, he’ll have to thank his luck for that.
The mission to retrieve Omen, who had went AWOL from the VALORANT Protocol, was a bust. Someone from the Scions of Hourglass was waiting for the two when Shaman managed to catch up to Omen.
The best Shaman could do was grab the journal Omen had retrieved, and rescue some poor sap that Omen found from the crossfire happening on the streets of Edinburgh.
He had managed to call for an extraction, and passed soon after taking a seat on the airship.
Shaman did what he always did when he woke up from the infirmary - pull the straps and cords off his body.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” A gruff voice rumbled from the left.
Shaman squinted his eyes and looked at the Leader of the Valorant Protocol through his black hair.
“Tell me if you’re here, Brimstone. Almost gave me a heart attack.”
Brimstone let out a huff.
“Like I could. How do you feel?”
“I feel fine. It was just a bullet graze.” Shaman heard Brimstone scoff.
“Bullet graze? Shaman, the bullet went through your hip- a fragment of your ribs and a quarter of your liver was taken out along with the lead.”
Shaman blinked a few times, and then pulled the blanket off his body.
“It’s just a flesh wound. I can heal.”
“No, you can’t.” Brimstone stood up and pushed Shaman back into bed, draping the blanket back onto Shaman. “At least not as fast as you think you can.”
Shaman saw Brimstone’s eyes soften ever so slightly. “For now, you’re back off the front lines.” Shaman let out a short laugh between his teeth. Fine by him. Only reason why they sent him back on the field was too catch an AWOL agent.
“What happened to the journal and the kid I brought back?”
“Safely recovered thanks to you. Journal’s being deciphered, no progress there I’m afraid. The kid - who’s only just a few years younger than you, by the way - is now a VALORANT Protocol recruit.”
“And Omen?”
“On leave. With official notice this time.”
Brimstone took a few steps back.
“And speaking of the kid - starting tomorrow, you’ll be helping with their training. They’ve never used a gun before, and their use of radiant ability can use more work before they’re put on the field.”
Shaman rolled to his side and pushed the pillow over his face.
“Great, another civilian pushed into being a soldier.” Shaman’s muffled voice echoed through the fabrics. Brimstone let out a small huff through his nose.
“They volunteered, if that’s what you’re thinking. Shaman, I do assure you that we’re different. We didn’t make any deals they couldn’t refuse, they weren’t forced or threatened into agreeing either.”
Shaman pushed the pillow slightly away to steal a glance with the corner of his right eye.
“I sure as damn hope so, Brimstone. I’m holding you to your word.”
“I’m sure you will. Now go back to sleep - and keep the IV fluid connected. Sage and Skye managed to help your liver regenerate, but not all of it’s there.”
Shaman lifted his left hand up and made a thumbs up.
“Close the door on your way out.”
Shaman shouted to Brimstone.
He tried to ignore the little mass of ghosts forming at the corner of the room. He instead focused on the black and red ladybugs climbing up the open window.
Shaman sneered to himself.
Ladybugs, they called those beetles. Got their name from Mother Mary, little gift that god gave to people. A symbol of fortune.
In his country, they were thought just the same. 무당벌레, his country called them.
Shaman bugs, because they were coloured just as brightly as the shamans of Korea.
If they really was god’s gift, then it must have been a cosmic prank the all-mighty bystander was pulling on him.
“I know it’s my Radiance, but I’d not like to wake up and see eyes watching me from the doorway.”
<🦋💓🐞>
Shaman stared at his locker door and rubbed his eyes with his two fingers. The door printed with No. 8 still had scratch marks imprinted on it. He had already filed a request to get his door replaced 2 weeks ago.
Whatever, he thought. We’re suffering from staff shortage anyway. Let’s just make them focus on the more important task at hand.
Shaman opened his locker door. Nearly everything Shaman didn’t want to see in his day to day life was shoved into his locker.
Photos taken during high school, or during the mandatory military services all men in South Korea were required to go through. Old phones that finally bit the bullet and got haunted.
Oh, and wooden crosses he got from his grandmother. Warded off evil spirits my ass, halmui. Those cheeky little bastards recited the entire bible into his ears whenever fell into sleep paralysis.
“Shaman, nice to see you still walking after such a grievous wound.”
Shaman closed his locker door as he turned around to look at the source of the Moroccan accent.
“Cypher. That better not be my phone in your hands.”
Cypher outstretched his hands.
“No, no! Of course not.” The Moroccan imp pointed to another locker with his thumb. “I got it from Jett’s.”
Shaman blinked a few times and quietly nodded his head.
“So, you’re taking care of the recruit. We’ve… heard about it.”
“Of course you did. I’d be upset if you weren’t the first to get the info.”
“Are you going to be okay with it?”
The concerning tone in Cypher’s voice confused Shaman. He can train a recruit, no problem? The recruit didn’t look too hard to train either. Had a chat with them on the way to the extraction point - albeit he barely remembered the conversations thanks to blood draining out from his waist.
“Of course I will be. Why? Is it because of my injuries? It’s nearly done healing already thanks to Sage.”
“You’ll be working with Deadlock for their training, right?”
Shaman’s eyes widened a little at Cypher’s revelation. Shaman turned to look at Cypher.
“You’re serious?”
“Yeah, saw Brimstone tell Deadlock she’ll be helping with the training alongside you. I could practically see Deadlock’s face contort at the mention of her working with you long-term.”
Shaman clenched his eyes shut and turned his head up to the ceiling.
Shit…
“You… didn’t know?”
Cypher really didn’t disappoint. The Moroccan was always the first person to get the news here.
It wasn’t that he hated Deadlock. It’s that she hated him, and she was quite visible with it.
He understood why - when it was his involvement within Project Landfall that successfully lead to the creation of Radivores.
Thanks to his involvement, Deadlock had lost 2 teammates, her mission, and her left arm.
Inadvertently the cause of her trauma, Shaman had heard how much tension there was between her and Gekko.
And that was only because Gekko used Radivores - imagine how bad it was with the root cause.
Shaman still remembers how much Deadlock was shooting daggers into his back with her eyes.
Tell her Shaman was a Omega Earth Spy, she’d use that to put a bullet into his head without even asking a question.
Deadlock had already sent a voicemail to Brimstone, informing him that she’s created four crates specifically for detaining Gekko’s radivores.
And an entire coffin to detain Shaman.
… Ok, you know what? Shaman thought as he opened them back and walked out of the locker room.
Fuck Deadlock. The Scandinavian was an asshole. And there was only so much Shaman can understand and sympathise as trauma. Making an entire cell to lock up a fellow agent was just pushing the line, if it wasn’t already broken.
Shaman got the files from Brimstone this morning.
The recruit wanted to go by the code name Clove, already too eager to be sent on missions.
Shaman walked through the empty hallways, re-reading through the files to make sure he had planned everything for them.
The emptyness invoked liminal space, something he really preferred if he didn’t experience right now. The fact that the hallway was so familiar, made them so extremely off.
Though, to be quite honest, everything about this world felt so off to him. It was the very awareness that he was not seeing the world the same as the rest of humanity that probably made him constantly feel that.
Only solution to his problem was to get used to this uncanny valley blaring in his mind 24/7
They didn’t really know how to shoot, how to fight… they knew how their radiance worked… somewhat.
They knew that they were immortal - walking through limbo for a short while before coming back. VALORANT protocol didn’t dig deeper into how they learnt this and when. And to be quite honest, Shaman wouldn’t either if they didn’t want to disclose the information.
It wasn’t too important to the training, anyway.
Shaman stopped in front of the new recruit’s room.
Knocking on the door.
“Clove? Are you in there?”
Instead of the door opening, an excited voice rang through the door.
“Oh, hello there! Aye, this is Clove! Gran, I knew Brimstone would get the voice message!”
Shaman looked to the floor for a moment before asking.
“I’m… sorry, what voice message?”
“… aren’t you here to fix my door?” After some moment Clove’s voice turned to confusion.
“… No, I’m… I don’t know if you received the memo from Brimstone, but I’m Shaman. I’ll be one of your two trainers for the time being until you’re mission-ready. What’s… what’s this about your door, now?”
Clove groaned.
“I was gettin set up in my room- lovely accommodation, by the way. And ah… the door’s, stuck. Not like locked, but… stuck. I tried prying it open and that dinae work and er… I don’t have anyone else’s number yet. You sure this isn’t… you know, a test? Part of my on-boarding?”
Shaman took a few steps back from the door, and scratched his head.
“Well… shit. I can absolutely tell you with all my confidence that no, it’s not a test.”
“… Oh…”
Shaman gestured in front of the door like Clove could see it.
“Take a few steps back, I’ll get it opened.”
“Gran! Thank you so much!”
Shaman let out a small sigh as he rolled up the sleeves of his shirt. And grabbed onto the groove in the middle with both of his hands, all 10 fingers digging in.
He put his back into it, and slowly pulled the doors apart.
He wedged a small spirit or two into the openings he managed to force, which acted as further leverage to prevent his fingers from getting hurt in this process. Inflated creatures adding extra force that allowed the doors to finally open. Shaman took a step to the side, letting out his trainee out from their temporary prison.
“Oh, thank you so much! I dinnae ken what I’d do without your help!” Grey eyes shined from inside the room, as a freckled face met the pale on the right.
Grey eyes stopped on Shaman’s face for a moment, pupils constricting a little before dilating.
“You’re alive!”
Shaman shrugged his shoulders.
“Of course I am. Why… wouldn’t I be?”
Clove stammered and put their hands on their stomach.
“You had a hole punched here… with a bullet!”
Shaman laughed.
“I had it patched up. It’s not enough to kill me, so don’t worry.”
Shaman outstretched his right hand in front of Clove. The recruit just stared at Shaman’s hand, before careful grabbing the hand and shaking it.
“Umm… Nice to properly meet you, aye?”
“… Well, yes. But I was also asking for your phone.”
Clove stammered a bit as they let go of the hand. Frisking the pockets of their shorts to place their phone cautiously on the palm of the tall agent in front of them.
“Oh, right. Ok… What would you need my phone for?”
“You said that you didn’t have anyone else’s number yet, right?” Shaman stated as his thumbs went to work, punching in numbers on the contact page. “This way, you’ll at least have me on the dial. Call me if you need anything.”
Shaman handed Clove’s phone back to them. He heard the little ‘wow’ as they saw that they finally got an agent available on the line.
“I mean, feel free to send voice messages to Brimstone. But uhh… don’t, don’t expect them to be answered.” Shaman looked behind his shoulder briefly before bending his waist lightly. “He’s a bit too old to know how to work those things.”
Clove giggled. “You’re joking, right?”
Shaman shrugged. “I could be, and god I hope I am. But you don’t want to find that out when you’re in dire need of help, now would you? It’s good to have a safety net. Now.” Shaman tapped Clove on the shoulder as he walked past them, hand gesturing to them to follow him. “We’d love to take some time to get you comfortable here, but we have staff shortage that Omega Earth is definitely not helping with. Best we can do is drill firearms and radiance into you ASAP until you’re up to standard.”
“Right! Training arc!”
“First thing’s first - don’t expect to be a crack-shot with an Operator by the end of this. I can tell you right now that I’m not. What you should expect is faster reflexes and just… decent aiming. That’s honestly all we ask out of you because you won’t be sent into the field alone.”
“Hey, what are those little creatures on the ceiling.”
“Ignore them, that’s from my radiance. Which also brings to my second point: Expect me to be pushing your radiance out of the comfort zone during your training. It’s good to know you’re quiet fluent with them already, doesn’t mean we’ll be satisfied with it until we know your limit.”
Shaman lifted his left hand up as a corner was slowly coming closer.
“Last thing before we actually start the training-” Shaman grabbed the oncoming fist popping up from the corner with his left hand, twisting it around and pulling the sudden assailant across the floor. “Check you’re corners. I don’t want you rushing in the field and get hit by a stray bullet.”
Clove raised their finger to interject. But Shaman already knew what they were going to say.
“Even if your radiance is being immortal. Your life may be infinite, but time allocated in the mission isn’t. Rather not have you waste them resurrecting yourself. Gekko, off the floor.”
Gekko let out a huff as he felt Shaman’s hand release his fist. Rubbing his knuckles as he stood up and gave a wave to Clove. Shaman lightly tapped Gekko on the back with his palm as the formerly newest recruit went through the hall.
“I told he that I’d tell Brimstone he’s mission-ready if he can land a punch no matter what. As you can see, he’s failing.”
Clove giggled. Looking behind them to see the green-haired teen starting to play with the cutest critters she had seen. Different to the creepy crawlies disappearing from the ceiling.
“Oh, and one more thing.”
Shaman opened the door at the end of the hallway, which lead to the training field - practice weapons and dummies lined up on the wall, and replications of different fields ready to solidify from the hologram at the touch of a screen.
“Welcome to the VALORANT Procotol.”
<🦋💓🐞>
