[He says that with a jab at Dextera's chest, as if he could talk... But he means those eye words, he can see them!! Finishing the last bite of his apple, he chucks it outside and shuts the door. (It'll grow into a tree? Maybe?)]
[ dextera already said so much with his eyes... so he's lucky that his mouth is unable to catch up with that, lest he face guren's wrath.
he doubts that guren invited him over just for company or to show off that shirt, though, so he settles into that same sense of urgent curiosity he felt when he opened the message in following guren. to the... basement?
this doesn't bode well, and he's already unsettled at the feeling of descent. ]
[It's a fairly normal basement for these types of homes, at least. There's two different parlors, one much smaller than the other. The smaller one is below the kitchen, directly, and the larger one has its own fireplace that looks far less used. Yes, this place has two fireplaces.
There are a few closets and some old furniture, but mostly they're using it down here for storage. There's a supply of wood Guren had gathered against a wall down here, and some food that's able to be stored, too.
But Guren is leading them to a table he has against the opposite wall, with an assortment of unlabeled liquids in a variety of containers.]
When you were eating those harpy hearts... you were doing something to help yourself, right? Healing, or more energy...
[He turns, placing a hand on his hip.] Does that sort of thing help you when you're not injured? Can you tell if it makes a difference at all?
[ guren has a great house! dextera isn’t in the right mood, exactly, to be jealous of the fact that he has two fireplaces... but he’ll come back to that later. it’s information filed away, while dextera’s real attention is turned on these liquids.
this is not good. he feels that immediately, as someone whose earliest memory is the hazy sound of doctors injecting things into him that his body most certainly should not have injected into him. it’s different, in the neuro tower...
and he trusts it’ll be different with guren too, but his hands tighten around the strap across his chest for a brief comfort. ]
...
[ he nods. if he’s well and consumes those things, it just makes him stronger—in small, but helpful ways. to convey this, he gestures outward from his chest, and straightens his shoulders. a sign of growth, and even if that isn’t obvious, it’s clearly not a bad thing for him to consume hearts in excess. ]
[He really didn't want to have to hurt Dextera in any way to test that this worked. Grabbing one of the glasses from the table, he offers it towards Dextera, meeting his gaze. He can see that tension, and so he tries to soothe it in whatever way he can.]
I want you to try this. [It's not a lot of liquid, and it's blood red. Enough for one big gulp.] If I did it right, it should equal to about five, I think. It saves time, and it might even help more.
[If he did it right... There's a side effect he doesn't want to mention, but he wants to see if Dextera gets it, too, or if there's anything else to worry about with it.]
[ dextera does not feel soothed at all by this, even though it almost certainly cannot be worse than digging out the heart of a recently-living creature and eating it whole. it feels unnatural, maybe, to do it like this.
he runs his finger around the rim of the container, stalling, but then he takes a deep breath—still stalling, actually, but the way he looks up at the ceiling now is almost a little funny, like he’s a kid who just doesn’t want to take his medicine.
it doesn’t occur to him that he could just refuse, and so, he downs the weird medical shot and shudders.
it tastes bad! that can’t be helped, though, so he finds himself retching a little because if it—that’s no side effect, however. dextera simply got used to the grossness of eating hearts and flesh and bones, but introducing a new thing that probably wasn’t intended for consumption is hard on him. he covers his mouth with the back of his hand, wincing, and with the other still holding the glass, he waves vaguely to let guren know it’s okay.
[Guren moves to take that glass away from Dextera, his other hand resting hesitantly on his shoulder. He's watching him intently, focused, not sure when he should call it a success or when anything else might happen.
It does have an unbelievably horrible taste, so that's fair, but...]
How are you feeling? [He sets the glass back on the table behind him, in case Dextera needs to write in any detail.]
[ dextera swallows a few times around the taste in his mouth, but the reality is that his body is fine. better than it was, actually—he feels lighter, his health restored, and some of the exhaustion of the week has been lifted right off his shoulders. the cut on his thigh has mostly healed by now, but it smooths over the rest of the way, too.
he looks at his own hands, curling and uncurling his fists, and he pulls up his sleeve to check a certain spot on his arm. there’s something squirming under his skin, which is just the worst, but he seems satisfied with whatever he’s looking at.
he drops his sleeve, and nods. when he points to his mouth, he cringes as if guren didn’t know that it already tasted bad, but then he pats down his body and nods again—more firmly this time, his clear gaze meeting guren’s face.
[He doesn't allow the amount of relief he feels at Dextera not puking his guts out show, but he does grin as he turns back to his laptop. Oh, his laptop is there, it seems, set up next to all of the glasses— he opens it up now and types a few things in a huge document he has saved. Next to a list of a variety of plants and numbers and chemical names, he writes "SUCCESS".]
That's about what you could get from eating five hearts in a row, roughly. It was hard to estimate exactly, since I don't know how it works, but... Just adding the right things to allow it to absorb into your body faster, and something to bring out the hearts... It's like your own first aid bottles.
[He places his hand over another jar on the table, that's full of the same type of liquid.] I'll find something easier for you to carry it in with the right amount.
[He's proud of himself!! He helped! Dextera has something he can rely on even when not fighting something he can eat the heart of!! It's five in one, isn't that great?!]
[ dextera, inevitably, drifts over to where guren is typing away on his laptop—and he surprises himself by recognizing certain chemical names. not all of them, it's not his forte, but he's spent enough time in the research lab and with doctor angelicus to know some of the things that should (and should not) go into the human body. ]
...
[ he nods at guren's explanation, pulls up the sleeve that does not hide a wriggling parasite, and traces his finger along the veins of his arm. he doesn't make any motion to inject, though, so the question is clear in that way—is the base of the drink blood? super-blood? ]
[He glances at that arm— he had noticed something squirming under the other one, but this one, there isn't? That's on hold as he finishes going over this drug, though.]
Blood, and a type of plant here I've never seen before. Feeding that plant to animals I had caught from the forest had a unique reaction in all of them when combined with a variety of other chemicals that are easy enough to reproduce. [Guren's speaking so seriously about this, but... He went through a lot of animals. A few of them exploded. He won't mention that.]
Harvesting from those samples and adding the right amount of other plants made it so you could gain the effects without anything else going wrong. You're able to stretch the use of the hearts out, too, so it's not as wasteful. [That was more of an accident than on purpose, though. He would have been fine turning five hearts into a potion of five hearts, but it seems like he can manage with just one.]
[ honestly, dextera would not be surprised to hear that something exploded. multiple things exploded, in fact? about half of the things that dextera has put in his mouth have caused an explosion and a nasty, subsequent death, but luckily he hasn't yet been able to remember that feeling. with any luck, he never will.
guren makes it all seem quite scientific, though, and his casual approach helps dextera feel a little less like this is some mad science experiment and more of guren trying to do some good around the town. the fact that it's in this basement doesn't do much for that, though. ]
...?
[ since it wasn't the topic of conversation, he'd forgotten that he hasn't actually told guren why he can eat anything, and in fact gently avoided being direct about it when it came up.
so he offers guren his arm, thinking that they're still talking about this drug. for a moment, nothing moves—and when it does, he remembers that he's a little embarrassed about it and quickly turns away to hide?! don't look... ]
[He saw it again, and Dextera is hiding?! Guren moves after him, grabbing his wrist gently and trying to convince him to let him see. He doesn't have to turn around, because Guren is moving around him for him, looking for himself.]
What was that? That moving under your skin— you know about it?
[ dextera nods. that's what guren was asking about? he wouldn't have shown him if he knew—the parasites are okay, when they tangle into his coats or his swords or his wings, but this particular one was forced under his skin by his good friend (???) the neophyte, and he doesn't have the heart to dig it out when it's pretty useful.
he's still trying to cover the spot where it moves with his other hand, but he's not actually fighting guren's attempts to look. ]
[Guren is absolutely going to look, because he is concerned, so he doesn't mind taking Dextera's hand to move it out of the way, the other holding his wrist still.]
What is it? Is it new? [Now that he's seen it, he releases Dextera to hide it all he wants.] Use my laptop if you have to, in a new document. I want to know if it's something I should be worrying about.
[ dextera shakes his head when guren asks if it's new, but there are enough questions about it floating around in the air now that he feels like he probably should just answer it. it's just an unpleasant thing, and while he has no qualms about the way he eats hearts or flesh, this is oddly a point at which he draws a line. ]
...
[ so he'll use guren's laptop, but the way he decides to answer it probably doesn't help. ]
[ it's a parasite!!! dextera can't answer while guren is grabbing his shoulder, and so he gently pulls himself away from guren's worried hand to try to explain more. whatever he says, though, probably isn't going to go well. that's just the nature of the game! ]
[At the very least, he gets the hint and pulls his own hand back. Dextera keeps typing so calmly, and Guren thinks that must mean he's fine... They've been here nearly two months and it hasn't changed anything, right? So was it fine? But...]
Can't you understand how that would be worrying? Can't something like that kill you? Do you need it taken out?
It's the reason I don't need to cook anything. It protects me from raw and rotten meat, as long as I keep it alive.
[ he's only typing calmly because he is really not stoked about its existence. it's kind of big, and it's been inside him long enough that he is, admittedly, a little worried about it? but the last thing he wants is for it to be taken out, when it does such a good job! ]
[He doesn't know what to say to this. It... helps, then? If Dextera is processing things like human hearts. But... Is that bad for him, then? He stares at Dextera's face, rather than his arm, giving him the most concerned frown he's ever openly expressed here in this town.]
I won't look at it anymore if you promise to tell me if it changes for the worse.
I will, but it won't change. I've had a lot of them. This is just the newest one.
[ honestly if it didn't seem like it would kill him for real, he might have already tried to start looking for new ones—but there's no way to know that there are even any viable ones out there, in the forest, and it's hard to raise a family with just one little guy in there!! ]
[It's incredibly clear that Guren isn't happy with that answer. There's no attempt at even expanding on what it does, or reassuring him, so he can only assume that the answers aren't good. Hiding it from him, and so stubbornly, without holding back... He doesn't want to admit it bothers him.
Beyond that, it just doesn't feel right. And when he'd just been celebrating the drug he made to make things easier, too.]
Whatever. Then we're moving on. [In clear anger, he allows that topic to drop, turning away from his laptop and over to the other items on the table. That's right... There are a variety of liquids he hasn't mentioned at all. He unhooks his sword from his waist, leaning it against the far end of the table, and picks up one of the glasses.
The liquid is grey, since the majority of the ingredients were, as well.]
Now, it's me who has to try a few things. I just need you to watch.
[ the thing about his silence is that it's pretty easy to maintain, when there's something he doesn't want to say. he's a truthful person by nature, but the fact that he can't talk is an easy excuse to avoid explaining things when he doesn't want to—and right now, he doesn't want to! sorry!!! ]
...
[ he is genuinely sorry to have pissed guren off, but if they're moving on, they're moving on. he gets rid of his own document with the evidence of their brief, awkward conversation, and then he follows guren closer to the table.
"to watch"? that doesn't bode well, but... reluctantly, he nods. ]
[Guren holds out his arm when Dextera gets close enough, keeping him at roughly that distance. That probably also doesn't bode well, but he wants to be cautious. With a stare down at the glass that's honestly just as reluctant as Dextera had been, he tips his head back and downs it, shoving the glass down immediately after.
It's disgusting, and that's his first reaction coughing with a hand over his mouth, and for a moment, he's hoping that's all it'll be.
But then pain shoots through his body, enough to make him yell, which is strange enough. His legs buckle, and then he's on the ground, shaking violently, still making strained, pained noises.
This one didn't work at all... He can't even test it for its intended purpose if this is the effect it gives.]
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[He says that with a jab at Dextera's chest, as if he could talk... But he means those eye words, he can see them!! Finishing the last bite of his apple, he chucks it outside and shuts the door. (It'll grow into a tree? Maybe?)]
Follow me.
[And with a turn, he's heading to the basement!]
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he doubts that guren invited him over just for company or to show off that shirt, though, so he settles into that same sense of urgent curiosity he felt when he opened the message in following guren. to the... basement?
this doesn't bode well, and he's already unsettled at the feeling of descent. ]
...
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There are a few closets and some old furniture, but mostly they're using it down here for storage. There's a supply of wood Guren had gathered against a wall down here, and some food that's able to be stored, too.
But Guren is leading them to a table he has against the opposite wall, with an assortment of unlabeled liquids in a variety of containers.]
When you were eating those harpy hearts... you were doing something to help yourself, right? Healing, or more energy...
[He turns, placing a hand on his hip.] Does that sort of thing help you when you're not injured? Can you tell if it makes a difference at all?
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this is not good. he feels that immediately, as someone whose earliest memory is the hazy sound of doctors injecting things into him that his body most certainly should not have injected into him. it’s different, in the neuro tower...
and he trusts it’ll be different with guren too, but his hands tighten around the strap across his chest for a brief comfort. ]
...
[ he nods. if he’s well and consumes those things, it just makes him stronger—in small, but helpful ways. to convey this, he gestures outward from his chest, and straightens his shoulders. a sign of growth, and even if that isn’t obvious, it’s clearly not a bad thing for him to consume hearts in excess. ]
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[He really didn't want to have to hurt Dextera in any way to test that this worked. Grabbing one of the glasses from the table, he offers it towards Dextera, meeting his gaze. He can see that tension, and so he tries to soothe it in whatever way he can.]
I want you to try this. [It's not a lot of liquid, and it's blood red. Enough for one big gulp.] If I did it right, it should equal to about five, I think. It saves time, and it might even help more.
[If he did it right... There's a side effect he doesn't want to mention, but he wants to see if Dextera gets it, too, or if there's anything else to worry about with it.]
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he runs his finger around the rim of the container, stalling, but then he takes a deep breath—still stalling, actually, but the way he looks up at the ceiling now is almost a little funny, like he’s a kid who just doesn’t want to take his medicine.
it doesn’t occur to him that he could just refuse, and so, he downs the weird medical shot and shudders.
it tastes bad! that can’t be helped, though, so he finds himself retching a little because if it—that’s no side effect, however. dextera simply got used to the grossness of eating hearts and flesh and bones, but introducing a new thing that probably wasn’t intended for consumption is hard on him. he covers his mouth with the back of his hand, wincing, and with the other still holding the glass, he waves vaguely to let guren know it’s okay.
blhgghh. ]
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It does have an unbelievably horrible taste, so that's fair, but...]
How are you feeling? [He sets the glass back on the table behind him, in case Dextera needs to write in any detail.]
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[ dextera swallows a few times around the taste in his mouth, but the reality is that his body is fine. better than it was, actually—he feels lighter, his health restored, and some of the exhaustion of the week has been lifted right off his shoulders. the cut on his thigh has mostly healed by now, but it smooths over the rest of the way, too.
he looks at his own hands, curling and uncurling his fists, and he pulls up his sleeve to check a certain spot on his arm. there’s something squirming under his skin, which is just the worst, but he seems satisfied with whatever he’s looking at.
he drops his sleeve, and nods. when he points to his mouth, he cringes as if guren didn’t know that it already tasted bad, but then he pats down his body and nods again—more firmly this time, his clear gaze meeting guren’s face.
what was that? ]
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That's about what you could get from eating five hearts in a row, roughly. It was hard to estimate exactly, since I don't know how it works, but... Just adding the right things to allow it to absorb into your body faster, and something to bring out the hearts... It's like your own first aid bottles.
[He places his hand over another jar on the table, that's full of the same type of liquid.] I'll find something easier for you to carry it in with the right amount.
[He's proud of himself!! He helped! Dextera has something he can rely on even when not fighting something he can eat the heart of!! It's five in one, isn't that great?!]
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...
[ he nods at guren's explanation, pulls up the sleeve that does not hide a wriggling parasite, and traces his finger along the veins of his arm. he doesn't make any motion to inject, though, so the question is clear in that way—is the base of the drink blood? super-blood? ]
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[He glances at that arm— he had noticed something squirming under the other one, but this one, there isn't? That's on hold as he finishes going over this drug, though.]
Blood, and a type of plant here I've never seen before. Feeding that plant to animals I had caught from the forest had a unique reaction in all of them when combined with a variety of other chemicals that are easy enough to reproduce. [Guren's speaking so seriously about this, but... He went through a lot of animals. A few of them exploded. He won't mention that.]
Harvesting from those samples and adding the right amount of other plants made it so you could gain the effects without anything else going wrong. You're able to stretch the use of the hearts out, too, so it's not as wasteful. [That was more of an accident than on purpose, though. He would have been fine turning five hearts into a potion of five hearts, but it seems like he can manage with just one.]
Can I see your other arm?
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guren makes it all seem quite scientific, though, and his casual approach helps dextera feel a little less like this is some mad science experiment and more of guren trying to do some good around the town. the fact that it's in this basement doesn't do much for that, though. ]
...?
[ since it wasn't the topic of conversation, he'd forgotten that he hasn't actually told guren why he can eat anything, and in fact gently avoided being direct about it when it came up.
so he offers guren his arm, thinking that they're still talking about this drug. for a moment, nothing moves—and when it does, he remembers that he's a little embarrassed about it and quickly turns away to hide?! don't look... ]
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[He saw it again, and Dextera is hiding?! Guren moves after him, grabbing his wrist gently and trying to convince him to let him see. He doesn't have to turn around, because Guren is moving around him for him, looking for himself.]
What was that? That moving under your skin— you know about it?
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[ dextera nods. that's what guren was asking about? he wouldn't have shown him if he knew—the parasites are okay, when they tangle into his coats or his swords or his wings, but this particular one was forced under his skin by his good friend (???) the neophyte, and he doesn't have the heart to dig it out when it's pretty useful.
he's still trying to cover the spot where it moves with his other hand, but he's not actually fighting guren's attempts to look. ]
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What is it? Is it new? [Now that he's seen it, he releases Dextera to hide it all he wants.] Use my laptop if you have to, in a new document. I want to know if it's something I should be worrying about.
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...
[ so he'll use guren's laptop, but the way he decides to answer it probably doesn't help. ]
It's a parasite.
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[He's only getting more worried!! He's tense, grabbing at Dextera's shoulder.]
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It's not new. I've had it for a long time.
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Can't you understand how that would be worrying? Can't something like that kill you? Do you need it taken out?
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[ he's only typing calmly because he is really not stoked about its existence. it's kind of big, and it's been inside him long enough that he is, admittedly, a little worried about it? but the last thing he wants is for it to be taken out, when it does such a good job! ]
Don't look at it.
[ an addition! ]
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[He doesn't know what to say to this. It... helps, then? If Dextera is processing things like human hearts. But... Is that bad for him, then? He stares at Dextera's face, rather than his arm, giving him the most concerned frown he's ever openly expressed here in this town.]
I won't look at it anymore if you promise to tell me if it changes for the worse.
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[ honestly if it didn't seem like it would kill him for real, he might have already tried to start looking for new ones—but there's no way to know that there are even any viable ones out there, in the forest, and it's hard to raise a family with just one little guy in there!! ]
For now, I need it.
[ and that's the end of that, isn't it? ]
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Beyond that, it just doesn't feel right. And when he'd just been celebrating the drug he made to make things easier, too.]
Whatever. Then we're moving on. [In clear anger, he allows that topic to drop, turning away from his laptop and over to the other items on the table. That's right... There are a variety of liquids he hasn't mentioned at all. He unhooks his sword from his waist, leaning it against the far end of the table, and picks up one of the glasses.
The liquid is grey, since the majority of the ingredients were, as well.]
Now, it's me who has to try a few things. I just need you to watch.
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...
[ he is genuinely sorry to have pissed guren off, but if they're moving on, they're moving on. he gets rid of his own document with the evidence of their brief, awkward conversation, and then he follows guren closer to the table.
"to watch"? that doesn't bode well, but... reluctantly, he nods. ]
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It's disgusting, and that's his first reaction coughing with a hand over his mouth, and for a moment, he's hoping that's all it'll be.
But then pain shoots through his body, enough to make him yell, which is strange enough. His legs buckle, and then he's on the ground, shaking violently, still making strained, pained noises.
This one didn't work at all... He can't even test it for its intended purpose if this is the effect it gives.]
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