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Post by otakulady89 on Oct 13, 2016 10:23:34 GMT -5
L's words drew the attention of every person at the table, more so than Near's swaying did. Gevanni, for truth, wasn't sure what exactly he'd expected when he looked up, but certainly not the reddening of L's arm and the flush of fever on Near's skin. He found himself standing abruptly, joining Near on his feet. He hesitated to touch him, though, afraid of burning himself on skin that seemed to have a heat haze coming off it.
The loss of words from the boy's lips spurred action, and Wedy slammed up from the table, her chair falling back against the floor with a loud crack. "Water! Now!" Aletta yelped out a 'Yes!' and ran for the kitchen to get the water in one of the big bowls, filling it with ice too. Wedy herself pulled out her work-gloves and wrapped them around herself, before taking Near's face in her hands. She hissed, the heat too much even through the thick leather. "His eyes... pupils dialated. Someone run for the doctor!"
To add to the chaos, Matt and Mello burst into the dining room, the redhead gasping with recognition (how could he know what was happening?!) and darting forward. "My Lady, Makneshi, My goddess, please, he is not trained!" He cried, voice aching with regret and sorrow. The humans crowded around, afraid of illness, and Matt shooed off the humans touch, holding Near through her words, and into the fading after, ignoring the glitter of his skin that no one else could.
"...What the FUCK was THAT?!" Aletta voiced, and no one had the heart to scold the child for her language.
Matt brushed back Near's hair, looking his face over for any sign that their Goddess had harmed him far worse than before. "Near is the Chosen of our goddess. Makneshi, She who Shines, sometimes speaks through his lips. Because he is chosen, he is her dwelling place for the time of rains, until it is safe for her to climb back into the sky once more."
"Wait. LEt me get this straight. You believe this child is posessed?" Wedy demanded, her voice so incredulous in that moment that she honestly sounded like she was accusing Matt of perhaps poisoning the boy himself. "He's clearly ill! He needs a doctor."
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Post by Fateful on Oct 13, 2016 10:40:46 GMT -5
The whole thing had been this strange turning exchange that didn't seem to make coherent sense. The boy looked as if he might boil or explore. Mello had no idea what to do except let the boy shake and burn up. Somehow, he thought that the boy would die there and they'd have an incredible incident. He knew that whatever was happening, Matt seemed to know what it was, so there was little risk of anything affecting them, right?
The blonde tried to keep them back and grabbed Gevanni by his arm to keep him from touching the boy.
L picked up Aletta to stop her from getting involved.
When Matt explained what happened, Wedy, being a faithful Catholic woman reacted as most religious humans do: WRONG. Your thing is not my thing.
L grabbed Wedy's arm as she made this declaration and pulled her back. "Remember that whole political thing you claimed to be so good at? You really need to consider how important faith was to those on earth and to your family. Don't negate theirs." Honestly, L believed in nothing, a true atheist, but he knew better than to debate with someone who truly believed in god. Gevanni was one such man. his faith had never really faltered.
Mello approached Matt and bent down beside him. He softly touched the man's back. "Hey.." He whispered to the red headed prince. "What do you need from us?" He gestured to the unconscious boy in his arms. "I... think it's best that you stay here for the night. I'll do whatever I can to help him wake. What do you need?"
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Post by otakulady89 on Oct 13, 2016 10:50:21 GMT -5
"Thank you." The grief and gratitude in Matt's voice was unlike any other tone he'd displayed to these people. He cradled the boy to his chest, even though Near's fever was burning his own skin. "A bed, and ice." He asked, swallowing, "If it's not too much. I can carry him home, but..."
The toll the Lady's presence takes was one of the most exhausting experiences one can have, if the previous Chosen were to be believed. It was said that when she took the Lady into her body, his mother would often need the entire day after to recover. Rainy seasons were always spent in her bed, for her, and anything that needed doing could be done by a slave, a servant, or a friend. Matt hefted his searing little sibling up, and when the large human gestured towards his own room, he followed.
Gevanni wasn't averse to giving up his bed for a sick person. They probably needed it more than he did, and he was always reminded of Christ's teachings. Give what you can. "...Your goddess hurts her prophets so?"
"Pro-" for a moment Matt didn't understand the word. "They are her voice, her word, They are her body on this world when she does not have one." He smiled, "Makneshi, our Lady, she is the sun. She is that burning star in the sky, and she blesses us all with life. Sometimes, she comes down and wishes to experience that life." It was the only explanation he really had, as he tuced Near into the cool, soft covers, and took the packet of ice from Mello's hand to lay on his forehead.
"I'll apologize for demeaning his faith later." Wedy scoffed. "But you and I both know that isn't any sort of God. That's a fever, and possibly a seizure. That child needs medicine."
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Post by Fateful on Oct 13, 2016 10:58:20 GMT -5
Mello got the ice and a damp towel. he put it over the boy's body, but it quickly heated. So, Mello got a bucket of ice water and used to wet the towel, ring it out and repeat. He brought a chair into the room for Matt and sat on the floor, his back against the wall, watching the red head. "You said he wasn't trained..." the blonde stated. "Does that mean this hasn't happened before?"
"If that was a fever, he would be dead." L showed Wedy his arm and the mark on his skin. "There's no way I believe that what he's saying is actually happening, but you have to keep in mind that..." L hesitated, because he knew that voice. The voice he'd heard come out of that boy scared him. It was haunting because it was the same voice that keep coming to him in his dreams, telling him to go inside the city. He wasn't sure what to do and it made him incredibly uncomfortable. For once, he was at a loss for what to do.
However, he did know they couldn't give him any medication. "Without knowing exactly what he has, it would be too dangerous to give him any medication we have with us. You saw how hot his body just got, there's no way to safe diagnose and treat whatever that was. We need... we just need to see how this plays out and what happens when he wakes up. If we give him the wrong drug, we could kill him and that's far more dangerous than whatever just happened."
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Post by otakulady89 on Oct 13, 2016 14:08:55 GMT -5
"Surely they have their own hospitals." Wedy pointed out, deadpan and unimpressed. Maybe it was because he didn't have children, or maybe it was because he was male (Wedy didn't quite see her own sexism at play here) but Wedy couldn't quite believe that L knew what he was doing. He was, after all, an engineer, not a doctor. "Perhaps they really are here without their king's permission and that's why Matt doesn't want to take him home."
Aletta rolled her eyes and fled the room, heading for the bedroom where Matt and Mello hovered over Near's sickbed. She sqeezed in beside Gevanni, her hand clutching at his shirt in a way she hadn't clutched at anyone since she was eight. It drew Gevanni's viridian eyes down to her, and then, they softened. He moved her hand from his shirt into his actual hand, and held hers tight. She would never admit that she felt safer.
"This has happened exactly once before." Matt answered truthfully, too afeared to offer any sort of lie. "On the night your star fell, the goddess posessed Near in order to stop the sacrifice we thought she had demanded. He took three days to wake up last time. It takes YEARS to train as a priest, to be ready to read the stars. It took my mother until her 27th year before she could hold the goddess this way." His voice caught, shook like an angry dog. He swallowed down that worry, and licked his lips to continue. "Near was an early birth, and he stole our mother's soul into his own. He must have stolen her ability to hold the goddess as well. Despite my training as a priest, it wasn't me she chose, but rather... Near."
He reached out a tender hand, smoothing the hair out from under that wet cloth, and he fought down sadness. He wouldn't mourn a life he wasn't to have, and he wouldn't mourn a brother that wasn't dead. The cloth had already turned warm, so he turned, taking it from Near's face and dipping it in the cold water again. "I need Rester. I have to have him take a message back to the palace, or Father will be livid."
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Post by Fateful on Oct 13, 2016 14:42:44 GMT -5
L glanced to Wedy and sighed heavily. "That's likely true. I'm going to run back to the ship and see if I can find an IV infuser. If we can infuse something cooler into his body, like a liquid IV, it should help to drop his body temperature safely and slowly. I bet I an find some saline." He told her and moved to the door. "You stay and make sure nothing else happens, and when it doubt, please say nothing about the whole thing. I don't want to start a religious war over Catholic guilt and the willingness to convert, alright?" He opened the door and took off into the heavy purple rains.
Mello nodded and glanced toward Gevanni. "Alright." He mentioned once Matt stated he needed Rester. "You two stay here with him and bring him what he needs. I'll go find him." While he had the feeling Matt didn't want to be alone, he figured that the other two would do fine. He pulled himself to stand and walked out the door. When he noticed L was gone, he glanced to Wedy, as if to ask if they got into an argument. She glared and he shrugged, leaving the house.
It didn't take him long to find Rester and the two returned together quickly. Once Rester arrived, he charged into the room, quite concerned. He touched Near's face, but did not pull his hand away, despite how hot the prince still was. Then, he kneeled and took the boy's shoulders into his hands and pulled him to sit, supporting his body. Then, he began looking for something. He smiled and he pointed to a mark that had formed on the back of Near's neck, at the start of his spinal cord. It was their sacred mark of the goddess that seemed to have almost been burned into his skin.
"He will live." Rester concluded and laid the boy down in the bed. "However, I do not think it wise to move him now. When he wakes and is strong enough to walk, then he shall." The man glanced to the elder boy and rubbed his back. "You should not be so quick to mourn." He rubbed the boy's hair as he stood up. "I shall go tell your father and then I will send another here in my place to alternate guard."
Mello hesitated. "Is that needed? What do you plan on protecting him from? If you're that worried about us hurting him, then take him. If not, let us do something about this. There may be a shot we can help treat him and aid his recovery."
Rester paused to glance to Matt. "You will do nothing until I return. Is that clear?" Matt had say in all else, but at least until Rester returned, he wanted nothing more to be done to the young prince. The giant departed not long after, darting back to the city in record time, less than two hours. He went straight to Light's home, where he knew the Tlatoani would be at this time. He was drenched in purple water. "Tlatoani," he called, but was sure Light already knew he was there.
"I am afraid Near will be unable to leave the Tvikta until we wakes. The goddess tried to take him and he was not strong enough." He began, knowing this would no doubt upset him. "His body temperature is high and a mark has appeared." Rester hesitated for a few moments. "At... the start of his spine, just below the neck."
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Post by otakulady89 on Oct 13, 2016 19:06:09 GMT -5
Wedy watched the two men leave the little hovel in a hurry, before following her son into the bedroom and standing at the doorway. It was like watching something out of a hospital drama. The red-headed prince knelt on the floor next to the bed, hardly moving despite the giant's appearance and dissapearance. She'd heard his voice when he'd promised that they wouldn't do anything to the boy. He was worried sick. Clearly SOMEONE in this culture didn't beleive this goddess was all good.
Or perhaps he just knew the effects of the posession the boy was under. She watched him press tender lips to Near's forehead, and wondered how close the two boys were. It was a shame, she thought to herself, that she'd never been able to give Gevanni a sibling. She set a hand on her son's shoulder, and shooed him from the room.
Gevanni followed, clearly nervous about leaving his guests alone. She sat him down and got him a cup of tea, and they waited.
/.../
Rester's report was not only unexpected, it was harrowing. Light couldn't imagine what would posess their Lady of Light to attempt to take Near so soon, and at a place like that, but he could only hope that his son would recover quickly enough that her next attempt wouldn't injure him further. He stood, pacing the chamber, the long red robe he'd chosen to accessorize his white wrap for the day sweeping along the floor the way the veil of the sacrifice might.
"She has marked him. That means that for the rainy season, she will be within Near. We must pay careful attention to his actions and health." He could only imagine how harrowing it would be on the boy's body. Misa had spent the entire season in her chambers, being waited on hand and foot. "...Please make sure that the moment he is of health enough to be brought back to the palace, it is done. Take a litter if you need to, I'm sure Matsuda can arrange such a thing." He waved a hand, as if to dismiss Matsuda before he was even in the room.
"I would go to them myself, but with the preparations for the festival and the removal of the clear water, I have so much on my plate already. ...Not to mention finding a new Tinnocht. I have a very promising prospective on hand, but I need time to vet him properly, and there's not much to do about that." He sighed, the weight of the world on his shoulders.
"Rester, are you certain you will not reconsider my offer to be Tinnocht?"
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Post by Fateful on Oct 13, 2016 20:27:46 GMT -5
Mello returned and went into the room, ignoring Wedy's threats. He offered Matt some tea and told him to drink it. When the prince refused, Mello forced the cup into his hand. "If something happens, you need to be ready. Drink that." He instructed. The two of them were stubborn, but Mello more so. He stood there and waited until Matt took a sip. When the red head finally did so, he would probably find himself happy to have the bitter, yet somehow savory tea. The blonde sat down across from him, stretching his legs so they were near the chair Matt was seated on.
While he could go and get himself a chair, he preferred to sit with his back against the wall. This way, if Matt moved or needed something, he would be there. And he could stay awake the night if the red head needed rest. After all, the last time this happened, the boy slept for days. This night made the most sense for him to rest.
"If you want to sleep for a while, I'll stay up and watch." Mello offered, sure that the prince would declined. When their eyes met, it showed how much he meant it. All humans had tells when they lied, but this mortal honestly meant it, he would protect them both and not just for the treaty, he'd grown particularly fond of them.
\ ... /
"It means she has been in him all this time..." Rester reminded him. Misa and Rem had been weakened significantly from the start of the rainy season and were often confined to bed. Somehow, it felt incredibly strange that Near was able to run and walk and basically do everything normally up until this happened. He was strong and that was considerably surprising to Rester.
What didn't make sense was how Near fought the goddess when she tried to enter him. He had been trained. Not as much as the others since he had just been chosen.
Rester straightened his back when the offer to be Tinnocht was once again offered to him. "Again, I am flattered, but I don't see it as the right time. While I do think that I may one day be the tinnocht, it is not now." Part of him wanted to confide that he felt protecting Near was more important at this moment. It was an incredibly difficult transition. He feared for the boy and it worried him immensely to know that something like this happened in the presence of strangers.
"I think..." Rester hesitated. "I think I have chosen who I will send to help heal Near, but it is not an idea you will be particularly fond of. I will send Naomi." Of all the botanists they had on the planet, she was the best, the supreme, the highest caliber and the best educated. She knew everything and had consumed nearly every plant on the planet. She had encouraged her body to be immune to all poisonous plants and it was her blood that she learned to make antitoxins from, even if it caused her illness. It had made her the perfect choice to be L's queen.
Even Sayu had apprenticed under Naomi, under L's encouragement - which could also been seen as L having Naomi do him the biggest favor he had ever requested.
"If anyone can find a way to stabilize him and keep him safe, it would be her."
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Post by otakulady89 on Oct 14, 2016 8:13:44 GMT -5
The very name of that woman filled him with that jealous rage he'd felt as a young man. Light truly did hate her for having competed with him, even for a moment, for Ls affections. Time had dulled the feeling, as it was no longer murderous, but that didnt change that he didnt like her. But, he knew she would do her duty, and do it well. She was the best, and that was that.
"Yes yes. Bring her. Tell her she has access to any garden or field in the kingdom she needs, by royal decree. She is to ensure the goddess' chosen is in perfect health." And that his son, his beautiful Near, lived.
"You are dismissed, Rester. Take good care of him."
/.../
The water was cool on matt's throat, and he guzzled it, frowning. "This is pink water, isnt it? Why are you not collecting the purple water? You should absolutely set up containers. Its a waste to let the sacred rains dredge into the ground when you can collect them for drinking and cooking."
He sat, shifting uncomfortably in the chair. He wished they were home where he could perform his vigil in peace. But the blonde wasnt budging. "Thank you for your kind offer. However, i wouldnt be able to sleep knowing my brother could wake at any moment." He licked his lips, "you dont have to wait with me, however. I know you have other things to do."
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Post by Fateful on Oct 14, 2016 13:30:07 GMT -5
Rester nodded and bowed his head. "Of course."
The man disappeared into the darkness and went to find Naomi. The news surprised her, as he did not arrive there until dawn. Since she and L split, she moved to the furthest city from the capital. She took several hours gathering plants, herbs and other vitals before being ready to go to the others.
/.../
"We have some, but that water tastes awful when it's cold. I figured you would like this one better since you know," he gestured to the marks on Matt's skin.
The blonde watched him. "You said the last time this happened, he slept for three days. This is the night when you should rest to make sure you're rested when he does wake up." Somehow, he doubted the man would sleep, but he offered it knowing it was the right thing to do, and not just politically. He didn't sleep for a few days after after his sister died. His father drugged him to get him to sleep.
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Post by otakulady89 on Oct 14, 2016 14:08:51 GMT -5
While the prince couldnt fault the human's logic, his hearts told him that if he slept now, somehow, he would lose something important. He shook his head, to clear both exhaustion and worry from it.
"I cant." Was his only reply. Then, "tell me about your world. Or yourself. I dont care, just something to pass the time." It was begging, if one looked close enough.
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Post by Fateful on Oct 14, 2016 17:32:26 GMT -5
The blonde rested the back of his skull against the wall, thinking of what they could talk about. He felt it was foolish for him not to sleep, but could also understand why he didn't want to. So he tried tot think of something they could talk about. Then, he sort of went for the obvious. "I could talk about our planet?" he offered, meaning of course the human's original planet: earth.
"There was a lot of things happening. Industry and humans destroyed a good portion of our atmosphere and deforested the trees that made breathable oxygen. it... It was awful. So, the planet was uninhabitable. A nuclear war started and scientists and engineers came together in the small colonies that were left to launch space ships to keep our race alive. All this happened before I was born, before my father was born. The whole planet started to fall apart. There's little chance we will ever be able to return to it. We've been in space, most of our race for about 100 years now. We've been looking for a new planet about that long. WE were looking for a new planet when we crashed here. Your gravity was too strong and pulled us to the ground."
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Post by otakulady89 on Oct 14, 2016 18:57:06 GMT -5
A planet destroyed by it's own people... Matt shook his head, trying to clear it, and understand how that could be possible. His mind conjured images of deserts with treestumps in them, of trees so withered they might as well be matchsticks, animals dying in pools of rainbow water, water too foreign to imagine properly. He pictured the fledgling human race, and how they must have scraped together, huddled together, brought together only by the threat of extinction. He felt as if it were something cursed, just imagining such a thing. And this was the race they had given room to live on their planet.
But the bright boy in front of him, this spectacle of humanity who looked so sun-touched and goddess-blessed, was so mournful of his lost home, that he couldn't help but think that they were sorry.
"...Makneshi offers second chances, and third and fourth and fifth. As many as needed to learn the lesson." He counseled, as any priest would. "I do not doubt your people will find another home, and having learned from this, will treat it better. Maybe My Lady brought you here to learn from us, so that you can survive better?"
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Post by Fateful on Oct 14, 2016 19:00:20 GMT -5
Mello smirked at the red head. Somehow, Matt reminded him of his sister, how full of life and positive she was. Maybe that's why they were here. Who knew, really? He rubbed the back of his neck, watching the prince for a short time, but not unhappy. "Yeah, maybe that's why." Their goddess seemed strangely like god and somehow, he saw some similarities between what they believed, what the pagans once believed and what the Christians and Catholics spent generations killing one another over. Maybe that's what really destroyed earth and left them homeless, aimlessly wandering the earth.
Sighing, he moved his legs so they were stretched out in front of him. "Tell me... more about this planet. How long have your people been alive?"
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Post by otakulady89 on Oct 14, 2016 19:13:20 GMT -5
Matt stretched out as well, leaning more on the bed. His arms crossed and he pillowed his head on them, feeling old and weary and so, so young. Scared even. His foot tapped against the floor, waiting making his nerves run wild.
"Our people have had history since..... Well, archaeologists have gone back as far as 200,000 years. That's when written record ends. Before that we only have verbal, and before that, we've traced bones back pretty far. I don't know exaclty how far, though. Archaeology wasn't exactly a favorite of mine." He shrugged, admitting that he didn't have a perfect understanding of his own culture's history. "How long have your people existed?" He asked, getting into the tete-a-tete of questions that made time pass faster.
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