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.

Comments

[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.