Crystal Fellowship (Season 6): The Vanguard Rises

As the group sits within Grim’s now crowded living room, waiting for Clyde to finish the prolonged treatment to save Lillian, they each pass the time reading through the 13 books Orion had brought down to them from the Observatory. Orion looks up from his book on the past champions of the past, and slowly rubs the back of his neck, where where his new mechanical helmet has screwed itself into the base of Orion’s neck. Sigh “You know, I figured after I finished my trial, I would feel different. But ...... not this different. I .... I feel ..... odd. I don’t know exactly how to describe it.” He pauses to attempt to crack his neck through the mechanical helmet. “ I feel so much stiffer.”
Iolanthe looks over at Orion, welcoming the distraction from her worry about Lillian "It will take some getting used to, I don't know much about gears, but maybe oil will help? Do you feel any different other than physically?"
Orion stifles a laugh as he says, "Well, I do have a barrel of oil." He looks around the room with a curious look. "Like I said, I honestly don't know how to explain it. I ..... The world around me just feels different."
Iolanthe shifts uncomfortably, twirling her necklace in her fingers. " Once you're activated everything feels different, your body is changing in ways you don't understand. I've never really understood those changes. It seems that with each new champion I only get more responsibility. Dahlia and Faron may be able to give you more insight... As I understand it, everything that Dahlia sees is blood."
CAW CAW (Translation: Sounds like puberty.) Nas-Bird flies overhead doing barrel rolls.
"Well, that is a good point...... Dahlia, Faron? Did your trials change you at all ?"
"I can't taste or smell anything other than blood. I can now see the blood pumping in things on other sides of walls and as of however many hours ago you completed your trial there's no more color in the world so yeah. I'd say there's been a change."
Faron makes a Faron face with glowing eyes
I am just going to point the paradox of you asking a revenant if he feels any different. And while I am all about little white lies to make things a little more sugar coated, I think looking at our current situation I will be frank. Apart from dying, coming back to life, not feeling the urge or need to sleep, eat, drink, or really anything an alive person does, I am good. And despite knowing exactly when I am going to die for good next time, I disturbingly find some kind of sadistic, masochistic enjoyment about the unknown future because I know until said time, I could just boop come back to life. Not that I am going out of my way to die, it wasn’t completely enjoyable (side eye to Io) to die.
Orion look, we are not normal, the champions so far are: a deceased ranger, a woman that is walking on a fine line between human and vampire, and now a cyborg. And all three of us are following a dragonborn sorceress to fight evil creatures that live on a floating castle. We left “normal” wayyyy the fuck back there. So yea, one or two things changed from what I was accustomed to, and it’s only going to get weirder from here.
"To be fair, you didn't sleep before either"
"ok well I don't need to trance anymore, you know what I meant"
Orion lets out a long laugh before smiling within the mechanical helmet that lays over his head, toward Faron. "Ahh, Faron. The question was not whether we as a group were normal. I realize that nothing about my life, nor any of our lives for that matter, is normal. For Gods' sake in the last year alone, I've fought against numerous hoards of both undead and half-dragon gnolls, fought and killed a green dragon that was somehow still alive that just withered into a pile of vines upon it's death, became the godfather of a sentient swo ......... Moral of the story. No, I have not found my life to be normal for roughly the last hundred years. As weird, and as very fucked the last year has been, I never really thought I would become more of a ... mech ? Warforged ? I guess warforged works. I just never thought I would become more of a warforged than I already am. I haven't really had feeling in my arm in many years. At least not the same way you can feel with flesh and blood. I'm sure that is a position that you may be able to feel for considering your current position, Faron. "Orion's dwarven arm slowly drifts across the cold metal of his mechanical arm. "Well.... that feeling. That.... cold feeling. Is just slowly creeping more and more throughout my body. I would assume that is why my heart no longer act like .... well, a heart."
"hahaha I never said you were normal, I included you on the list of things that are not normal. As for the machinery, I wish I could be more helpful but that is way outside of my expertise. I can relate to the heart not working anymore though..." Faron pauses and attempts a joke "... and if yours breaks, maybe we can find replacement parts to fix it."
Orion looks confused for a moment, before realizing that Faron was making a joke, as he smiles once more, "Ahh, yes well, if we ever get to that point, just make sure it's some high quality metal."
SCRAWK (Translation: Only the best parts for you my friend. Although I doubt we could ever find something to replace you. You’re irreplaceable.) Nas-dinobird lands next to Orion, his feathers a little ruffled, and lays on the ground with his wings spread out. CAW CAW CAW (Translation: I never realized how sore flying creatures get.)
"Okay, are we ever going to attempt to fix this, or are we all content with a Quetzalcoatl as a champion from now on ?"
Caw (Translation: I would assume my form will drop sometime during the next few minutes or so. I’ve never tried staying in one form for over thirty minutes or so, but I feel as if it should be ending relatively soon. The effort from concentrating this long is making me exhausted so it’ll probably drop when I pass out from exhaustion.) SQURAWK RAWK CAW SCRAW (Translation: But I’m not sure.)
"he talks less when he is a bird... lets wait it out"