ways_infirmary | (no subject)

(no subject)

Day in, day out, all is routine.

Others come in a regular ebb and flow. Old fluids, new fluids, clean this, tidy that, make sure things aren't getting worse, hope things are getting better.

He's still breathing, the only movement he's done himself since his arrival. He's still feverish, if not as bad as he was at first. He's still, even if the shadows seem like they're winding here and there.

But today, something new happens. Or it happened. Who knows if anyone actually witnessed it happening? It was so quick that one could argue it didn't happen at all except for the obvious evidence that it did.

Lucas is most definitely not awake.

But his eyes are open.

[ooc: Have a lump post. Threadhopping encouraged. Psychic/magic/whatever pups answering the previous request for help, have a dragon!]

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The feeling was building even before she stepped in the room. It's familiar in a way she hadn't felt for 11 years.

As soon as Mia crosses the threshold, she steps back against the wall.

"You weren't kidding," she tells Enzo.

Enzo nods solemnly.

"To me, when he first came in, he smelled like burning. But then he smelled like nicer burning, like a campfire, and then like incense. That's how it is now."

"Mia?" Autor says, standing from his seat near Lucas' bedside. He closes the book he'd been reading aloud and tucks it under his arm. "It's great to see you."

He nods at Enzo and tips his head to Lucas, addressing Mia. "You can feel whatever it is, too?"

She turns to Autor and manages a smile. "Ah, you too, Autor. And that's...that's an understatement. This is massive. It feels like the room is too small."

Mia straightens up some, hoping she hasn't just offended whatever she's speaking about.

Lucas is still as he was, and nothing's come to chomp Mia's head off.

"I thought so. Usually I don't smell anything this strong unless it's a major spell in progress or a god. But it still doesn't smell bad…?"

It's a statement, but his face is all question.

"Are you all right?" Autor asks Mia, furrowing his brow. "Do you recognize whatever it is that he has or is it just the presence of magic?"

"I'm beyond my limits here," she confesses. "I don't recognize it completely, but it's akin to some things I've encountered at home."

And now that she's started that line of conversation, she realizes how rude she's being if this power is indeed a separate entity from Lucas.

"...hello?" she calls towards the bed.

And a deep voice reverberates back in her mind, Hello.

She presses herself against the wall again. "We're using the wrong nouns."

"What is it? What are you getting?"

Autor pulls up a chair for her. "Which nouns should we be using?"

Edited 2014-02-11 00:04 (UTC)

Mia holds up a hand to both boys, still on shaky ground metaphysically speaking.

"Who are you? Can you tell all of us?"

I can, echoes in all three of their skulls, taking Mia's words as introduction. I am the Des-

There's a hesitation. The introduction, to some, is a bit much.

That is, I am the Dark Dragon.

"Whoa. That's new."

Autor flinches at the sound. "What do you want with Lucas?" he asks. "He awoke you, right? What does 'passing his heart on' mean?"

You misunderstand, the Dragon continues, the reverberations aimed mainly at Autor but still audible. He is the one who woke me up. He is the one who wanted.

Mia reaches to put a hand on Autor's shoulder, as if to pull him away from his own questions.

Lucas's heart is my heart and his will my will.

"So… he is still in there?"

Autor glances at the hand, but proceeds anyway. "Do you... know how long he'll be out?"

The silence is almost as palpable as the energy.

"We're not going to like the answer, are we?" Mia asks, having her guess.

No.

She squeezes her fingers on Autor's shoulder.

He will be up soon.

For given values of soon.

"There..." Mia begins. "There were repercussions, weren't there? To you taking residence with Lucas?"

Yes.

"Repercussions how?" Enzo demands.

Autor squeezes Mia's fingers with his free hand, nodding at her.

Then he adjusts his glasses and waits for the Dragon's answer to Enzo's question--the same he himself would have asked.

Mia reaches and grabs Enzo's hand. She's going to give both of them a talking-to after all of this.

There's a puff like a dragon's snort in Enzo's direction.

Lucas is now free to create what his heart wants. But before new creation can take place, there has to be destruction.

Enzo is, to be frank, less concerned with whom he is addressing than with checking his own temper on principle, but either way, Mia's hand-holding helps. He takes a couple of deep breaths—in through the nose, out through the mouth—and responds with greater, if forced, calm.

"Destruction of what?"

"Their whole world," Autor murmurs, eyes wide. "The Dark Dragon is the power of the entire earth, remember?"

Yes, the Dark Dragon confirms. We are all that remains of the ashes until Lucas shapes it anew.

"Crash and restart," Enzo murmurs, falling back on a familiar analogy. He focuses on his breathing, and the fact that he has such an event to thank for his own existence, and tries not to freak out.

"Does Lucas know he has this... responsibility?" Autor asks, shifting the book under his arm.

He accepts it now as dreaming. I will help hold him together when he wakes up, but the longer he spends recovering physically, the better.

And then, because they've been so insistent on them, Thank you for the fluids.