Poppin' Arms Guild ~ Infirmary

[Namohysip]

"Hrrrgh..." Diyem still didn't like the prospect. Yes, it was the same problem as before, but outright telling Maple something like this... It was one thing to actively save the world. It was another to propose attacking the Tree of Life when they had no proof beyond Diyem's feelings. This was... different.

And the voice... it was getting tiring. He had to rely on the body. "Fine. One thing you can do..." Diyem sighed, then let his energy subside. "...Tell nobody about this. Any of it. I need to think..."

He sounded like he still had some eggshell on his scales.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

"You have my word," said Brisa. "I won't tell a soul. Hmph. Alright, Diyem, I'll let ya rest. Contact me if need be."

Were he not Dark Matter, she'd have considered offering him some token of physical comfort. But he was Dark Matter. And so she did not.

"Get stronger," was all she said, as she left his room. He'd understand.

Time to make herself useful elsewhere.

<><><><><>​

 

[Fusion]

Vix was still shaken up, despite Cynthian's best efforts. But he did give her the slightest bit of hope, and even more importantly, he gave her an idea. Well it was more her coming up with it, but if there was even the slightest chance to wake up Puddle, Vix was convinced she had to at least try.

She flowed across the ground to the infirmary, still half melted and darkened by shadows. She didn't even ask for directions when she arrived, she could feel where she needed to go. If her shadows and sadness caused some sort of reaction in Puddle's Ultra Stone, then bringing it to either the saddest or darkest members on the team should be enough to do... something, hopefully.

Unfortunately, Bahamut had lightened up a quite a bit, which meant her only option left was...

"Um... Diyem?" Vix peaked her head into the not-a-dark-type's room, reforming as best she could and rising up for him to see her. "Uh, hi. H-How are you feeling?" she asked politely. Manners were important, especially when the main reason you're seeing someone is to borrow something.

 

[Namohysip]

Oh no. That one was here.

Gathering the strength that he'd built up, Diyem channeled his Shadowy voice. "I am recovering... so long as I have my time to do so." That would do. The shorter he made this the better. He had no idea if the candle would try to hug him and ruin everything. Then again, he was sensing a great, negative aura from her... Maybe this could be worthwhile. "Did you need something?"

He was still completely covered by sheets. He was probably just a red ball...

 

[Fusion]

"So.. uh..." Vix floated over to the bedside, holding her bag closely. It pressed into her semi-wax body, and some of her melted over it. "I need... your help."

She shut her eyes, taking a deep breath to try and relax herself. A ragged exhale left her form, and despite her efforts to calm down, more faint wisps of darkness rose off of her. "During that last fight I... I messed up really, really bad," she muttered. "Starr got hurt, and after that I got, shaken up, a-and..." Vix's black flame flickered, and her body melted slightly, blackened wax dropping onto the floor and covering her bag.

"P-Puddle didn't want me to just stand there doing n-nothing, so... it took over a-and... a-and then... D-Deoxys shot us..."

With shaky, semi-solid arms, Vix pushed her bag towards Diyem. "N-Now Puddle... P-Puddle is..." More of her body started to melt, and blackened tears fell down her face. She tried to tell herself to stay strong but just... couldn't. "P-Please... c-can you help me?"

 

[Namohysip]

Whatever dread Diyem had felt before had gone away for something... else. He didn't know nor want to acknowledge what the feeling was, but he did lift the sheets just enough to see whatever Vix was doing. His eyes shined a little un the dark, and he said, "Right. Puddle took some of the blow. ...Fine. Leave the bag there, and don't look. I will inspect it from my shelter. And don't peek."

 

[Fusion]

Vix silently nodded and put the bag down on Diyem's bed, then fell to the ground in a mostly-melted mess. She hoped that this would work, but the chance that it wouldn't was strong enough for her to fall apart further. What would she even do if this didn't work? What could she do? Her body stung just think about it, and her body started to darken more, leaving her wax a deep, dark purple.

 

[Namohysip]

Tiny hands pulled the bag in, and then Puddle from the mess inside. He made sure to inspect the core first. Now that he thought about it, this was the first time that he got to have a proper look at the thing up close--an Ultra Stone, housing a life inside...

"Well, the core itself isn't damaged," said Diyem, humming. "As far as I know, that's the important part..."

 

[Fusion]

"B-But Puddle is still... I-I don't..." Vix bubbled, pulling herself together enough to speak coherently. She took another moment to stop herself from crying again, then said, "When I was with Cynthian, a-and I was talking about what happened... I got like this, and then... I-I think something happened with Puddle..."

"I can't tell if it was just from me being... sad, or my shadows..." she said, her voice shaky. After another moment to try and collect herself, Vix asked, "Could you... try putting more shadows into him? P-Please? I just... I need him to be ok..."

"Please..."

 

[Namohysip]

"More... Shadows." Diyem hummed, then pulled the core closer to him. "I don't know if that's what's needed yet. Let me look into this more. For all we know, Puddle needs energy, not Shadows. And I don't have a lot of energy to spare."

He pressed his hand against the core and closed his eyes. These Ultra Stones had bits of darkness to them naturally; they reminded him, in a way, of tiny Dark Matters, if only because they, too, were spheres with a dark element to them.

 

[Fusion]

The hope Vix barely managed to hold onto started to slip away. Taking what little energy Diyem had to wake up Puddle would be bad, wouldn't it? What if Diyem gave Puddle all he had and Puddle still didn't wake up? What would happen to Diyem if he did? What if Puddle couldn't wake up, regardless of what Diyem did?

Before her mind was flooded with doubts and fears, Vix shut her eyes and tried to stop thinking. As a result, she fully melted.

---

As Diyem looked into Puddle's stone, he would see a broken darkness; bits of it cracking and fading into nothing. Should he look into it further, he'd feel sadness, regret, bitterness radiating from it. Deeper still, where the part of Vix Puddle took to make her its host resided, a faint, cold-burning anger would be known to Diyem.

...You...

A voice, weak and fading, spoke out to Diyem.

...I... need...

...Your... Dark...ness...

...T...o... be... wh...o...le...

 

[Namohysip]

"Cute," Diyem said blandly, looking deeper before he finally pulled away. This one was being dramatic indeed. Still, it seemed like there was something he could do to coax it out. "Puddle," Diyem said slowly, caressing the Ultra Stone. "Wake up, Puddle..." He channeled a little bit of darkness into it, not unlike the warm scent of breakfast in the morning. "...Imbecile, enough rest! You're disgracing yourself!" He shook the Ultra Stone violently, and for some reason this seemed to be effective.

 

[Fusion]

A grumble and a growl came from the Ultra stone, and the ethereal goop that was Puddle's lifeless mess pooled back towards it. Instead of retaking the formless shape of magic soup, a sort of... body formed around it. A short stature, with a round head, skinny arms, stubby legs... and a tail. The color of the ethereal parts was a deep purple, with specks of black scattered inside it.

"What the HELL!?" Puddle barked, trying to slap Diyem, but its arm only splattered on the creature of darkness' without doing much harm. "I could've been hurt still! You trying to give me a concussion on top of being..." Puddle's voice trailed off as it noticed what it did. It looked down at itself, seeing a body, and not a, well... puddle. It blinked, looking at Diyem again and slapping him with its other arm, watching as it splashed against Diyem like the first one did, then jumped when they just came back. It blinked again. "Holy shit... Arms..."

Hearing a familiar voice, Vix started to reform to rise up to the bed. Seeing the body of a... well a body that had Puddle's ultra stone sort of sent her into shock. She was entirely silent and just... staring.

 

[Namohysip]

"Congratulations. Baby's first slaps." Diyem rolled his eyes and shoved Puddle out of the blankets so his current form could remain anonymous to them. "Are you satisfied? I am still trying to gather my strength, and speaking to you uses some of that power."

 

[Fusion]

"Baby's first--" Puddle sputtered, then crossed its arms and glared at Diyem. "One, I am not a baby, and two..." it was briefly distracted by the sensation of both having arms, and also crossing them. With a harumph, Puddle said, "Well I'm getting tired of talking to you too, dick. And thank you, I couldn't be happier to have arms!" it barked angrily, turning away.

It was then that Puddle and Vix locked eyes. For a moment, Vix started to brighten back up, until she noticed the glare she got from Puddle. "Puddle, I--"

"Don't... start," Puddle cut her off.

"Wh-What..?" Vix blinked. She looked like she had something else to say, until Puddle's glare sharpened on her. That sting from before had returned as well.

Puddle shut his eyes, sighed, then shook his head. "I'm... going for a walk. I got a lot going on, uh, up here," Puddle gestured towards its head, then hopped off Diyem's bed. "Maybe... don't follow me."

Vix watched as Puddle left the room, not even sure what she was feeling, or what Puddle was feeling. "...What?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Don't follow, for now," Diyem replied idly, still hidden within the sheets. "Your performance in battle has led to a few things that he wants to process first. That is my guess. I do not think talking about it will be of any use until some time passes. Not that we have much of it."

 

[Fusion]

That... sounded about right. Anyone would have been if they also took a hit for her the same way Puddle did...

"Right... yeah," Vix nodded, sighing. She took her bag by the strap and sank down to the floor. "I really... messed up. What a hero I turned out to be..."

"Thanks, Diyem," she said. "Would it, be alright if I stayed here a bit longer? I don't really want to go anywhere, and since you get stronger from negativity and all, it's not like this wouldn't help, right? Hehe... heh..." her voice trailed off.

 

[Namohysip]

Diyem growled again, the blankets shifting and shuffling. He had a mind to refuse, but the way Vix was looking so crestfallen and pathetic... Some mixture of pity and the genuine need to feed off of that negativity stopped him. "Do as you want."

 

[Fusion]

"Thanks, again," Vix said, holding her bag close. It being so empty felt unnatural, but there wasn't much she could do about that. She did try to look on the bright side of things, at least Puddle was wake again!

...

That seemed to only worsen her shadowing.

<><><><><>

 

[Adamhuarts]

Cynthian caught a glimpse of a sad lamp floating out of the infirmary on his way there. He wondered if she was feeling better, but she was already before he could ask.

With a sigh, Cynthian made his way into the room. He steeled his expression as he entered and made himself comfortable on a stool nearby so he could sit at eye level with Diyem.

"You're recovering well enough, that's good," Cynthian said, fiddling with the tray of unused medical equipments. He didn't want to look Diyem in the eye while he spoke.