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 Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2023 6:49 am
Faustite hadn't yet heard anything from Axinite. No notes, no summons to the office to share news, no ideas for how to stave off progression of whatever was happening to him. Faustite had kept up with the logging to a point; he no longer saw the need once it became clear that the types and temperatures of the foods he ate granted him no greater illness or reprieve (save for the time he ate six sticks of butter and suffered a perplexing stomachache, but Faustite assumed it was beside the point).
He did, however, hear back from Medical. What he heard wasn't promising — after all the tests run and samples submitted, they found nothing to indicate that his human side was the problem. He was considered healthy enough, and they had no information on what may be happening to his youma side. Still, they blamed that and abstained from trying to find any other cause, so Faustite had asked for a second opinion.
It was time to visit that second opinion, even if Faustite didn't particularly care for the man from whom it came. It was because Faustite didn't like him, and he didn't seem to like Faustite, that Faustite assumed he wouldn't be reading the results any other way but accurately. If there was something to find, he would find it to get Faustite out of his office. And Faustite wanted him to find whatever it was quickly, for he didn't like being in the man's office. Faustite just had to tell himself that there was an answer, that he wasn't just walking into more bad news by entering Bloodstone's office.
When he reached the door, he knocked, then let himself in. The office hadn't changed. He assumed Bloodstone hadn't changed, either.
"Here for the results." Much as he wanted to stand, he had to resort to wearing the cincher so he could slump his lethargic body in the nearest chair. If he needed to start taking energy or starseeds like Axinite suggested —
Well. He would deal with it if it came to that.
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Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2023 8:08 am
Bloodstone didn’t want to be a second opinion. He didn’t want anything to do with Faustite, really. If he jumped into a lake to put out the molten cracks in his skin, then so be it.
But here he was. With the results of the tests, and the research he did on what he could of whatever youma information he could find. He hated it. He didn’t care about youma. Didn’t want to learn about them. He didn’t care about Senshi either, corrupted or not, but it wasn’t a Senshi walking into his office now. Instead it was the sulky half-fire-youma.
“Your human half isn’t strong enough to maintain the needs of your youma half,” he said bluntly as Faustite made his way to the nearest chair. Bloodstone sneered and waited for the chair to start smoking, but when it didn’t he continued.
“Might want to consider writing a will if you haven’t already. Not sure how long it’ll take the fire to burn through its energy reserves and incinerate the rest of your body. Maybe find a nice place in the Rift to hole up so you don’t burn down the castle.”
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Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2023 8:09 am
Faustite heard what Bloodstone said, but it didn't make any sense. His brows furrowed. He stared at the other General. Sat up a little. Squared his shoulders a little.
What was that supposed to mean? Why now? It had been strong enough for years. He'd been a General for years. He was — no — parts of him were replaced by magic, and that had been strong enough, too. None of this made any sense.
"Where the ******** are you getting that? Been fine for years. Now, suddenly, I'm not strong enough? You sound like you're full of s**t."
But Faustite didn't know for certain, either. He didn't understand anything about the medical scene. Bloodstone was the one who could tell what all those tests and assays and scans meant, but Faustite was certain that none of them said anything about how his youma half and human half coexisted — if they could even be called true halves. The only way for what Bloodstone said to be true was if something had recently empowered his youma half. He was sure, though —
He was certain that it should've been weaker, if anything, after spending so long powering a building. So that couldn't be right. Could it? Faustite squirmed in his seat.
Then he sat up straighter. Pulled together whatever scraps of energy he had. "Stop being such a ******** a*****e and explain yourself."
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Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2023 8:24 am
“You stop being such a whiny little b***h about dying, thank me for my time, and get the ******** out of my office,” Bloodstone barked back.
He was clearly not in the mood to be questioned about the actual effort he put into figuring all this out. It sucked, sure, but at least Faustite had some time to sort out his affairs. At least, however much time he didn’t waste kicking his feet about it.
“I wasn’t the one who forced you to merge with a youma that ate half your organs, nor did I force you to eat starseeds or go on insane, dangerous missions to the Rift to unearth relics that probably should have remained lost to time!”
Was he still angry that Roselite went behind his back and joined Faustite’s mission? Yes. And he blamed Faustite for it. He blamed Faustite for pulling Roselite away to do paperwork for him. He blamed Faustite for Roselite caring about what happened to him, and therefore meant Bloodstone had to try and give a s**t.
Bloodstone was already moving to stand from his desk. He knew Faustite was volatile. He didn’t want his office burned down.
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Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2023 8:26 am
"If you think I'm going to ******** die from this," Faustite seethed, the words sizzling and popping in his mouth. "There has to be a way to survive. You were supposed to tell me they missed something. They misinterpreted some lab result. Don't ******** care what, but I can't accept that hopeless ******** answer!" He laid his hands on the desk, marred and blistered as they were.
Everything hurt — throbbed in time with his heart. He felt dizzy, like his skin was too tight, like he itched everywhere, like he was going numb but feeling every part of how he was slowly being eaten away. Bloodstone was only right in that it felt like he was burning to death. But did that make him right about the youma? About the human part of him?
Was this really all the Negaverse could offer him? After everything?
"Those ******** relics gave us an advantage," Faustite hissed back. "But you can't see the benefit. You can't see the solution to my ******** problem, so you're sending me off to die because it inconveniences you to have to explain yourself. ********, you're a complete shitbag of a narcissistic doctor."
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Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2023 8:54 am
Bloodstone could have snarked back, could have told Faustite that he missed the memo where he was supposed to fabricate results that magically resolved all problems. Maybe he should have told Faustite that everything was fine and dandy and send him on his way.
But no. Despite being a complete shitbag of a narcissistic doctor, Bloodstone actually knew what his job was and he did it really ******** well.
“What advantage?” Bloodstone snapped. “Training youma to do tricks? Maybe you should use those relics to turn your fire youma into organs!”
He had no idea how it worked with half youma. He didn’t care -- or didn’t want to care about what Faustite was going to do now that he’d been given a terminal diagnosis. But if he was going to play around with things that turned youma into other things, maybe he should stick himself inside that crucible and turn himself into something more useful than a crying, sniveling, waste of space who took Roselite’s time and effort for himself.
Bloodstone’s weapon was in his hand, and he swung the non-pointy end at Faustite to encourage him to take his sorry a** out of his office. It was clearly a gesture of goodwill.
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Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2023 8:56 am
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Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2023 8:56 am
What Bloodstone thought about that was: putting a dangerous half youma down would be better for everyone. It wasn’t as though Faustite wasn’t dying anyway. For all Bloodstone knew, Faustite was trying to burn out his youma half faster.
Besides, the only way Bloodstone figured could stop the fire was to put out the source.
He flipped his pick around and, after teleporting away from his desk so he was beside Faustite instead, brought his weapon down on him.
“Get out of my office,” Bloodstone bellowed. He could feel the heat licking at his face, at his hair. His uniform protected his hands and body at least, but too much heat would surely start to burn the fabric or melt the material that reinforced it.
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Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2023 9:00 am
When Faustite saw Bloodstone disappear. he spat on the man's desk. Then he felt his body bend under the weight of a blow. Don't look at it, he told himself, but he already felt the familiar, diffuse soreness that was a deep injury. Bloodstone's weapon had some kind of a pick to it; didn't take long to guess what had happened, even if he didn't look to his right.
His fire petered out around them, leaving only his burning core and any scant fires started in Bloodstone's office. Faustite hissed under his breath, feeling a cold sweat overtake him.
Bloodstone yelling in his ear made him twitch. There was the sharp pain he was expecting, no longer smothered by ebbing adrenaline. "Go ******** yourself," the General muttered. "You ******** hack."
Already panting, Faustite didn't know if he had enough energy in him to execute a transformation. He knew that teleporting was out of the question, so becoming fire himself was all he had for leaving Bloodstone behind before he did more damage. Even if Faustite would start to bleed heavily. What did that matter if he was actually going to die? No — he still couldn't accept that diagnosis.
The flesh in which the pick was buried raveled out into pure fire, then there was no longer a body impeding the pick from falling completely. The living flame that was Faustite trailed out the door, peppering Bloodstone's office in invective as he exited. The halls were quiet, so he yelled a last <******** you over his fiery designation of a shoulder.
Looks like it was back to ******** Medical. Back to eating starseeds again.
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Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2023 9:03 am
Bloodstone seethed and grit his teeth as Faustite pulled himself away. He was tempted to hit him again, but he was more concerned with making sure his office didn’t burn down. Thankfully he still had coffee and water in the coffee maker, and he quickly rushed over to grab it and dump it on whatever flames were still licking at the flammable objects in his office.
“If I see you again, I’ll put you out of your misery myself!” Bloodstone roared after the dying, half-youmafied man-child.
Good riddance. The castle would be infinitely safer without some psycho burning things down wherever he went.
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