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Zeke wasn't at all sure that Ever's belief that everything was nothing more than an elaborate trick of the mind was a good thing. He might even have expressed as much, but around the same time as the sureness faded from pale features, Zeke's awareness began to flicker, and where one mind faded, the other began to swim back to the surface.

For moment his features matched those of the man he was kneeling in front of, puzzled confusion bordering on concern. But then he started to sit back on his heels, hands sliding down Ever's shins, to look around the room they were in.

It was their bedroom, that he was sure of, but there the surety ended. There were bed beetles scattered around them, blood smeared in messy prints here and there along the walls. In the archway leading into the center of their shared apartment he could see liquid seeping slowly across the floor, glass radiating out in wide circles. Bits and pieces of things he recognized as samples he had collected.

Then he noticed the jar in Ever's arms. The smears of blood on his arms. "Ever..." The blood on his own hands...his arms. Deep scratches criss-crossing his upper body.

All at once he fall back on his own a**, breath draw in sharply. Half pained, half just baffled. "What is happening?"

A robbery explained the mess, he supposed, but it didn't look like anything valuable was missing. The table beside the bed still held whatever jewelry he hadn't had on earlier that day. It certainly didn't explain away the wounds. "I am." He just sounded confused, lost.

As the jar was offered out to him he'd take it with a frown, holding it in his hands as he stared down at the contents. "I do not know what is happening." Which was not something he liked to admit willingly.

Zyk set the jar down beside his hip, then leaned to the side to look out through the arch, sighing softly. "All my specimens." He might be able to save a few, but the majority was ruined. It was such a waste, and very troubling, but not half so much as the lapse in memory leading up to how they had arrived there.

"I was standing at my bench..." The frown deepened, and her sat up straighter again, reaching out idly to lay a hand on Ever's ankle. "You were not here. How did you get here?"

"Be careful." It was thoughtless and automatic, page she's watching keenly as Ever began to strip down. "There is a lot of glass." It occurred to his that he should start cleaning that up, but he felt oddly drained of energy, as if he'd been running for a long distance.

As for his injuries, he'd have to give himself a more thorough look over. "Numerous long, deep scratches, some still bleeding." He frowned thoughtfully down at his own nails, there was blood beneath them. "Possibly self inflicted, though I am not sure why." The subtle buzz in his voice was growing more pronounced with his mounting unease.

"Some of my beetles are dead."

He made a thoughtful sound. Ever's questions were good distraction. It prevented Zyk from fixating on the whole, and kept him focused on a single issue. "Not dangerous, no." It was a bit waffling. "Messy, though." Which seemed a bit trivial, given the current state of their quarters, but he wasn't keen on adding to it.

It was a fixable problem, and a place to start. "Come help dress them?"

Belatedly he noted the time of Ever's voice, and the look on his face a secund later. It had brows arching. "What is wrong?"

They could use one of the linen clothes from the bed, instead. He leaned forward to grab it, then offered it up. The least deep of the scratches would be gone within the hour, the rest would likely take a bit longer, but beyond the prospect of getting even more blood all over he didn't seem very concerned by them. Just incredibly puzzled.

The question had him typing his head, mossy eyes examining what he could see if the mess in the other room, then the room they were in. "Some of the jars look like they might have been knocked over, some look purposefully smashed." He huffed and annoyed sigh at that. "The rest looks as if it were done with intent."

He grimaced slightly for the deepest of the wounds, but was sitting calmly through the rest. It was still baffling, but Ever tracing fingers over his skin, dressing the scratches, was fairly enjoys me, despite the sting and the destruction room surrounding them.

"It would appear so." He still sounded annoyed about it, but his hand was loose in Ever's. "I do not know why." He wasn't exactly a friendly horseman, but he didn't have any enemies that he was aware of. "Why now, during the worry over the crystal?"

He was quiet as Ever ran his fingers across his palm, taking the light touch for the comfort it was meant to be. For once, actually in need of such a thing. It meant the the joke was answered with a faint hum, not quite amused, but he was listening, at least.

"Not that I had noticed, but who knows. It is possible I had missed the spread of panic." It was a simple explanation for an baffling set of circumstances. Or, rather, part of those circumstances. It still didn't explain how they had ended up in this room, how he had gotten hurt. Zyk sighed heavily, and he dropped his head into the palms of his hands as Ever released him to nudge him towards the mess.

It was a good idea, though Zyk seemed reluctant to actually do it. Obviously unhappy over the lose of his possessions, having to sift through the remains was adding insult to injury. "Probably should." Though he didn't immediately move.

Zyk waited until Ever had found the boots and were pulling them on before bothering to get up off the floor. His movements a little stiff, like things still hurt a bit. It'd heal, he just had to be patient.

"Just be careful with the glass." Blind, Ever was at even more of a disadvantage with the sharp shards. "I am going to grab a couple of towels, one moment." Careful of where he was stepping(he was still barefoot), he slipped through the arch and around the corner. After a moment he'd return with a small stack of towels, as well as a bowl for the ruined specimens.

"We can sort, but perhaps we should make a call to have the rest cleaned. There are denizens in Halloween that will provide services for compensation." He had a number in his phone that he had yet to bother calling, but now seemed the perfect time for it.