Nursed back to health

[pippilongsockings]

Nursed Back to Health Comment with your character, preferences, preferred role, and any information you'd like to include. Your character has either been injured/sick and had to be taken in (possibly against their will) or has been the one to help somebody like the former. Through the mending process, the two characters in a thread have fallen in love - or at least grown closer and more affectionate. Reply to others. Thread.

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[demainvient]

What?

[ He's laughing now, his earlier strain fading away. Talking with Lune is always a little like swimming along an unknown river: one moment he's fighting against foamy, choppy rapids and the next there's nothing but calm water. ]

Only somewhat?

[ He braces himself on his left hand and gestures with his right, fingers spreading wide and lifting into the air in short, round movements as he motions between himself and her. ]

Well, I'm glad you're here to pick up the slack. Not everyone can rain fire and ice down from the sky, you know. Some of us have to do what we can with sword and pistol.

[ It's an absolute oversimplification of what they both do, but he's happy to keep teasing her, now that she's started it. The truth is he's grateful every day that if he had to find only one other expeditioner, it was someone whose fighting style is so complementary to his own. It means they can watch out for one another's weak spots. ]

Oh, you wouldn't be able to withstand her sad puppy eyes. No one can. It's her superpower.

[trebuchim]

[ She can't help but breathe a small laugh herself, gratified by his elevated spirits. Strange, perhaps, that they can find things to joke about after everything they've been through, but that's probably a good thing. They'd lose their minds, otherwise. ]

That's what I'm here for. Me and my... [ She tilts her head as if she has to think about it, the grin spreading to her lips heralding the fact that she's going in for the kill. ] Sparks, was it?

[ Maybe it's not entirely fair to fling back his words spoken in the heat of the moment when he wasn't feeling his best, but she's going to do it anyway and he'll just have to deal with it.

But all joking aside, she's grateful. So grateful he's here, with her, and it's reflected in her expression just then. There's never been a moment where she hasn't respected his ingenuity and integrity, even when she didn't yet know him as well as she does now. Now, she realizes just how well his strengths complement her weaknesses, and not just out there on the battlefield. There's no teasing when she goes on, simply quiet earnestness. ]

I wouldn't have made it very far on my own. I would have forgotten caution in the face of the first puzzle I'd come across.

[ Which she sort of did, already, with the odd pale Nevrons. She absolutely needed Gustave and his healthy suspicion there to rein her in. ]

Safe to say we make a good team, hm?

[demainvient]

[ He groans and ducks his head, rubbing his right hand over his face as it scrunches up, embarrassed. ]

You'll never let me forget that, will you?

[ With a memory like hers? Absolutely not.

Carefully, he draws his left leg up and loops his artificial arm around it, testing the way it feels to move and bend this way. ]

Does it help that I think you're very scary now? We haven't even been here that long, and you've grown so much stronger. We all have.

[ In this, at least, he can be satisfied, take some amount of pride: it's the Lumina Converter that allows them to grow stronger, after all. He feels a bump of warmth and pleasure at his own success every time they win through another fight and the little light of it glows with chroma, dispersing it out to the expedition members.

If the others had lived, they'd have been unstoppable. He knows that now, when he'd only believed it before. ]

Yes. A very good team.

[trebuchim]

I'll accept that, [ she agrees so very magnanimously, chuckling at his dismay. All's been forgiven a long time ago, but she reserves the right to still tease him about it. ]

It's true, though, we have. And a bit more still, every day. A good thing too, so I can keep up with repairing you all at the end of the day.

[ An indicative, wry glance toward his side follows. Since not only can she now field her elements further away, more strongly and consistently, her healing ability too has been significantly elevated. ]

At this rate, just imagine where we'll be a bit further into the journey. [ She shouldn't jinx it, to have too high hopes, but she really does think they have a real shot thanks to the Lumina tech. ] It's... a real chance, Gustave.

[ Her voice goes a little hushed, awed by the thought that they could actually be winning a future for themselves and all of Lumière. A humbling concept that makes her stomach sink and swoop, scary and exciting all at once. ]

[demainvient]

Yeah.

[ She's right, and he'd felt it the moment he reached out to that fallen Nevron to try out the Lumina Converter for the first time, the disbelieving thought slipping into his mind: this could work. They could do it. They can be the first expedition to get stronger as they go, instead of weaker, more tired. They can win. ]

But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves, [ he cautions, though the same rill of excitement runs through him at the thought. He can only barely allow himself to touch it: succeeding. Taking out the Paintress and going back home to live full lives in peace. Giving Lune the chance to build out a legacy of her own, watching Maelle grow up without fear of her Gommage. ]

We're only at the edge of the continent still, and we're bound to come up against Nevrons a lot stronger and more dangerous than the ones we've seen so far.

[ But if they beat those Nevrons, that's even more chroma to absorb and utilize. They just have to live through each fight, and the next one will be a little more possible. ]

Unfortunately, I doubt this will be the last time you have to patch me up.

[trebuchim]

No, I know. You're right. We don't yet know what's out there, the closer we get to the Monolith. Stands to reason the resistance will be stronger there. We can't afford to get overconfident.

[ She's usually the one championing thinking every step through, no variation. It's telling that she's letting herself get swept up with these daydreams. She's always believed in their expedition, but they all prepare to simply clear the way for the next one. It's dizzying to picture they might be able to reach higher than that. In a rare moment of openness, Lune confesses; ]

It's just... hard not to start getting hopeful. Actually hopeful, not just telling ourselves the things we need to in order to keep going.

[ It's been a long time since she's had any of that. Since Lumiere's had any of that. ]

You're probably right about that, too. [ She smiles wryly. Injuries were likely in store for all of them, but if she keeps getting stronger... she'll be able to fix all that. Rather than cracking another joke, she picks candid truth instead. ] Don't worry. I've got your back.

[demainvient]

I know. I have to stop myself with it, too. It's... it's what I've always hoped for.

[ Hope. He's never been able to wring it completely from himself, even in his most despairing moments. It was why he and Sophie disagreed so fundamentally about the future: he'd always, always believed their fate didn't have to be set in stone. He'd believed in the expeditions, what they learned, what they could do. ]

Like you said, a real chance. A real future.

[ Not just for those who come after, but maybe for them, too. A lifetime unrolling before Maelle, a chance for Lune to study what she wishes to her heart's content. And he...

He has his apprentices, his work. Maelle and Emma. Maybe, one day, he might even be able to look at a woman without seeing Sophie just behind her. He's still a young man, despite everything. There's so much more he'd like to do.

He meets her eyes, dark in the glimmering firelight, and nods. It almost seems like they don't even need words anymore, not for this. ]

I've got yours, too. We're a team, now.... and someone's got to watch your back all the way to the Monolith.

[ A beat, and then, more lightly: ] Keep you from getting distracted by the gestrals.