baby's first trip to the doctor c:

[was_no_monster]

[modern medicine is amazing.

the first time his idiocy had cost him his pulse, it had taken him months of fading in and out of conciousness as his heart slowly healed enough to beat, and another of miserable illness as his pulse washed all the rot that had settled into his flesh out into his bloodstream. not to mention how weak he'd been after, and how long it had taken to regain his strength.

it's only been a week, though, and while he's still weak and fighting off several nasty infections at least he's conscious. and clearheaded. true, they had to get a machine to pump his blood for him to get him that far, but he will damn well take that and the hospital stay over the alternative of taking a slow, painful year to heal.

...even if being awake does mean being bored almost to tears.]

Comments

[was_no_monster]

[oh hello :D]

Better than I had expected to be, thankfully. And speaking of thanks, I believe I owe you mine.

[inshepherdscloth]

[setting the plant on a table]

Ah, there's truly no need. Neither of us wanted to see that happen to you.

[was_no_monster]

[shaking his head]

Whether you did or didn't, you saved me from death— or worse. I could very well have lived through what they had planned for me.

I told you that I take that sort of thing seriously.

[inshepherdscloth]

I truly consider it no more than my duty.

[pauses, then gives a wry smile]

... and he is just grateful not to have lost one of the first people to be kind to him, little though he likes to admit it.

[was_no_monster]

[chuckles, and promptly starts coughing. damned throat 8|]

Aaah, well. I supposed I can understand that sentiment.

[hesitating] ...How, exactly, did you get me out of there? There were still- still two left when that girl...

[not Miku, her name hadn't been Miku and he refuses to think of her as such. she didn't deserve her name or her face. bringing one hand to cover the gunshot wounds, both new and old]

[inshepherdscloth]

... I shot them. One to disarm and disable - the other, I had to go for the kill.

... I've never killed a human before. It's not... particularly pleasant.

[was_no_monster]

[letting out a slow breath]

...No, it's not. I'm... sorry, that you had to do that.

[suddenly bitter] ... I'd originally taken my position to protect others, both from that sort of person and from having to make that sort of decision. Perhaps I should rethink my career path, as it were.

[inshepherdscloth]

It would be a shame if you did, considering I had hoped to ask you about following you on it.

[was_no_monster]

[staring at him, startled]

[inshepherdscloth]

... My work, though it was meant at the root of it to contain him, and though I have come to doubt the particulars of it, was always to protect. Here, there is little need for a hunter - but it would seem there is need of police.

Perhaps... by protecting the people of this city, in whatever shapes they come, I may find what purpose I have lost.

[was_no_monster]

...

There are certainly worse purposes to have. If that's something you want to do, then I certainly won't turn you away, and I doubt our chief of police will either; we were already somewhat understaffed, and with the condition I'm in now...

Forgive me, though. I'm... rather displeased with myself over how I handled that situation, and between that and being ill I'm falling back on old habits.

[inshepherdscloth]

I do want to. I find that, with all else stripped away, it is the one thing I am still sure of wanting.

...Ah, old habits?

[was_no_monster]

[smiles, although it goes wry and a little sad at the question]

Ah... Being too hard on myself.

[self-loathing, if he's going to be honest, but he is not dumping on one of the men who saved his life and came to keep him company :I]

[inshepherdscloth]

Ah, I see.

If it is any comfort, I am trained to fight. And though I've never truly killed a human before, I have had cause to slay things that wore human faces... Better me forced to make that decision than another, less trained than I.

[was_no_monster]

...Perhaps.

But better still were it made by someone who already had blood on their hands.

[inshepherdscloth]

And better yet if it hadn't needed to be made at all.

But it did, and it is done. And all things considered, I do not regret saving your life even at such a price.

[was_no_monster]

[sighing] ...That means much to me, especially now.

And at the risk of sounding callous... I am glad the price was paid. Those people... They were mad, and the reason we came to blows in the first place was because they thought any who wouldn't or couldn't be happy should be put to death in the most painful ways imaginable. If they intended to enforce their opinions...

[inshepherdscloth]

... They did strike me as uncanny. The way they still smiled, even when I wounded one...

[was_no_monster]

[grimacing] I can imagine. Those people might have been human in body, but in mind? In spirit?

[making an angry, disgusted sort of noise]

My sister had more heart than they did, even before she had been properly given one.

[he hasn't been able to stop wondering: what would they have done to her, as she had been? he's met other versions of her; what if another who still had no heart came, and was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and...]

[inshepherdscloth]

... Sister? You have a sister?

[was_no_monster]

[...that is an effective way to defuse me before I work myself up too far, thank you '-']

...Two, actually. One I adopted here, but the other... My father made her, too, but in a very different manner.

He's primarily... a tinkerer, I suppose you would call him. He builds and repairs automata. Rin, my sister, is essentially a very advanced clockwork doll who can think and act for herself— but she initially couldn't feel. She had no "heart" until about a year ago... but what a heart it is now.

She's a good girl.

[inshepherdscloth]

To have created life not once, but twice... Your father is an intriguing man.

... I can see that you care a great deal for your family.

[was_no_monster]

There's a lot of love in him. If he hadn't figured out somewhere to channel it, he likely would have exploded.

[...blushing, very slightly]

...Mmm. They're... my redemption, in a way. ... Father was the one who fought with me over what I thought I was, over and over and over again, until I was willing to accept that I had been wrong. And Rin... well. It's very difficult to argue with a small, innocent child over why you might not be all that they see in you. It's far easier to just accept it, and change to match.

[inshepherdscloth]

[smiling faintly]

... You are a good man. I see that now.

[was_no_monster]

[...goodness, but hearing that is bittersweet.]

...Aah, I don't know about that. I try, though.