Edge Cases

Derivan regained consciousness in the exact same room he'd passed out in.

He wasn't exactly sure when he'd lost consciousness. That was not, as far as he had known, something that was even possible; the closest he'd gotten to passing out was the strange semi-meditative state he had ended up in all the way back when his link with the system had first been destroyed and then rebuilt so that he wasn't recognized as a monster. The dreams he'd had back then were strange — Derivan was almost certain now that he was thinking about them that they had mentioned the stars, and for the life of him he couldn't remember if the stars had existed at that point in time, or if they had only been in his dream — but he'd never been able to replicate the event.

It took a moment for him to gather his bearings. The others were still unconscious, and Irvis was nowhere to be seen; the floor itself had long stopped moving, having reached the top of the corridor it had been traveling up. Derivan didn't know what to make of it all, but...

Vex had probably done something. Derivan checked the system, just to make sure Vex was still alive, and saw a whole host of messages that had been left in their party chat — no doubt while they'd been caught up in the battle with Irvis.

[Hey, sorry, I lost access to the system for a bit,] he had sent. [Are you guys okay? I'm in the Ashion tower. Irvis showed up here — it was really messy. Some fucked up shit happened, and I don't say that lightly.]

A small pause, and then later, another message: [Respond if you get the chance, please? I'm worried.]

And then: [Shit, I can see Misa's health going down. You're in a fight. Do you need me to come find you?]

No messages after that; Vex had no doubt figured out what was going on once he'd used their joint Sign to stop Irvis from killing them all. And then he'd done... something?

[Vex?] Derivan sent, tentatively. He didn't like using the party chat very much; it was all very unintuitive for him, and his fingers didn't fit well on the keyboard. It was even worse now that he had only one hand to type with. Everything was a lot slower. [We are alive. In the central room. You did something?]

Derivan waited, but... no response, yet. Carefully, he dragged himself to his feet — he was still very much hurt, he was aware, and missing half an arm threw off his balance in ways he hadn't anticipated. The circuitry linking all his armor together had perhaps been damaged, too, because he found moving to be... sluggish. Slower than he was used to.

Maybe he just wasn't used to being this hurt, though.

He went up to Sev, first. The cleric would probably know what to do, and be able to heal any damage that Misa had sustained; very gently, Derivan turned him over so that he was facing the ceiling, and tried to examine him for injuries. He hadn't spent a lot of time learning how to do first aid — having a healer had made it sort of unnecessary — but there had been some mandatory classes in the Guild. He was glad for them now.

No major bleeding from environmental damage causing a status effect. Nothing was blocking his airways. Derivan saw Sev's chest rise and fall. Moving him wasn't too much of a concern, since Sev would almost certainly be able to heal his own maluses away, but Derivan didn't want him to do more healing than he needed to, so he tapped Sev on the shoulder instead.

To his credit, Sev started awake almost immediately. "What happened?" he asked immediately, his eyes scanning the room. "Is Misa okay? Where's Irvis?"

He didn't even wait for Derivan to answer his questions — Sev's eyes landed quickly on Misa, and he almost leapt to his feet; it was only Derivan's hand on his shoulder that stopped him. "Check your statuses, first," Derivan said gently.

Sev stared at Derivan instead. "Oh, gods, Deri," he said, letting out a breath. "Your arm..."

"It is fine," Derivan said. "It does not hurt."

Which was a slight lie — it did hurt. But the pain was minor, and nothing like the kind of pain he suspected organic life could feel. It was an irritating sort of buzz on the edge of his perception, like something that should have been there... wasn't.

"I can't heal it," Sev said. "I tried. I'm sorry. Maybe if we find the Guildmaster—"

"Sev," Derivan interrupted. "Check your status first, please. And then check on Misa."

Slowly, Sev nodded; Derivan saw the panic that had flooded into him ebb away as the cleric tried to center himself. There was all too much going on for him, and Derivan suspected that something else had changed, too; something deeper, that was related to the way he'd previously been restricted by the system. Patch showed a small change there.

But there would be time for that later.

Sev glanced at the air, at his status, and then let out a small sigh of relief; nothing dangerous there, apparently. He got up with Derivan's help and jogged over to Misa, popping a quick [Triage] to check on her condition.

"She's fine," Sev said for his benefit. "Just unconscious and... very tired. I think her skill started to eat into her, somehow."

"That is not supposed to happen," Derivan said, somewhat unnecessarily.

"You're telling me." Sev sighed. "We need to let her rest for a bit. System's not built for us to strain our skills to that degree, I guess... I don't see why it would eat into her."

"It was probably not doing that," Derivan said quietly. "It was likely eating into the reality anchor."

"...Which is a part of her right now." Sev cursed slightly under his breath. "Do you have any way of checking on that? Do you think her family's... you know, okay?"

"I cannot observe the anchor directly," Derivan replied honestly. "But I do not think it is irreparably damaged. We simply need to find a way to repair it."

"And we know it can be repaired," Sev muttered to himself. He looked down at Misa, and Derivan saw something in him crack, just slightly; the cleric took one of her hands in his own and hugged it to himself. "You're gonna be okay," he told her.

"Do you have reason to think she will not be?" Derivan asked, a note of worry entering his own voice.

"What? No, I just..." Sev looked down at her, and fell silent. He sighed. "...I think this reminded me of something," he said quietly. "Don't know what. But it feels like it's something sad. Like I lost someone important, just like this."

Derivan didn't know what to say to that. He went up to Sev and put a hand on his shoulder, and Sev gave him a small, appreciative smile.

"I'm not Vex, you know," he said. "That doesn't help me as much as it does him."

"But it does help," Derivan said.

"...Yeah." Sev leaned against Derivan, falling silent.

They sat like that for a while. Derivan didn't move, not wanting to break the moment; Sev was clearly embroiled in his own thoughts, and Derivan had all kinds of worries of his own swimming about in him. More than anything right now, he wanted to go look for Vex — but he didn't know which of the sixteen passages represented the Ashion tower, and he wasn't actually sure that Vex would be there besides. All he could do was wait and see if Vex would respond.

Fortunately, he did, about ten minutes later; Misa still hadn't stirred. [I got us into the bonus room,] Vex sent. [And, uh... I think the entire dungeon, too. Are you guys in the center tower?]

[We have ascended to the second tier,] Derivan confirmed. [We are waiting here for Misa to awaken. Would you like me to come find you?]

[No, I'll, uh... I'll come to you guys.] Vex hesitated slightly, then sent a second message. [I'm glad you're all okay.]

Derivan didn't respond to that last message; he didn't know how to. He wasn't sure that they were all okay.

But they were alive, and that was what mattered.

The pitter-patter of Vex's feet came down one of the sixteen corridors not more than twenty minutes later, though Misa still hadn't stirred in that time; Derivan was surprised it hadn't taken longer.

"Most of the dungeon doesn't seem to be active," Vex said with a slight frown as he emerged. "I guess that's not particularly surprising—"

He stopped, and his eyes widened. Vex ran forward, dropping the books he was carrying with him. "Deri— Shit, what happened to you? Are you— no, that's a stupid question, but—"

Vex stopped, seemingly unsure what to say, but the anxiety and worry and fear that filled his face was palpable; Derivan reached out with his arm, and the lizardkin practically flung himself into him, only pulling back at the last minute to avoid completely bowling him over when he was already hurt. Derivan appreciated the sentiment.

"Irvis happened," Derivan said quietly. "We were unprepared."

"I... does it hurt?" Vex's voice was soft and plaintive; one hand reached out to trace the ragged edges of the cut metal. He winced and pulled back when it threatened to cut him, and Derivan gently maneuvered him so that Vex wasn't near the side of his lost arm.

"Only slightly," Derivan admitted. He leaned in close, nuzzling his forehead against Vex's, and after a moment he felt Vex return the gesture; the lizardkin's heart was still pulsing wildly, but it was slowly calming down. He grabbed on to one of Derivan's hands, clutching at it like his life depended on it. "Sev tried to heal it, but he was unable to," he continued. "He did give me a new stat, though."

"You can't distract me with your new stats," Vex mumbled, burying his face in Derivan's chest. "We can... we can get you a new arm, right?"

"I believe so," Derivan said. "But I have never tried such a thing before."

"...I'm sorry I wasn't here."

"It was hardly your fault."

"Then I'm sorry I couldn't be here," Vex said. He pulled back, his eyes glistening. "If you'd gotten more hurt—"

"—I did not," Derivan said gently. "And that was because of you, was it not?"

"...I guess." Vex sighed, planting his face into Derivan's chestplate again; Derivan found the gesture comforting, though Vex was probably doing it to comfort himself. A win-win for both of them, really. "...What was the new stat?"

"Grace," Derivan said. "And Intensity."

"Intensity is from Irvis?" Vex asked, slightly warily, and Derivan managed a light shrug; he didn't know. They'd both appeared at the same time, more or less.

"I believe it is," he said. "Though I cannot be sure."

"Right," Vex said.

"I'm glad to see you too," Sev joked, smiling slightly to show he was joking; Vex paled anyway.

"Are you and Misa alright?" he asked. "I'm sorry, I got so focused on Derivan—"

"It's fine," Sev laughed. He'd moved back slightly to give Derivan and Vex space, sitting next to Misa's head instead. "You were worried about your boyfriend. Don't worry about it."

"But are you guys okay?" Vex insisted. "All of you." He looked at Misa — really looked at her, this time, and Derivan saw his demeanor shift even more to worry; he squeezed the lizardkin's hand gently, but didn't say anything. Vex needed to process this in his own time.

Next to Sev, the difference with Misa was even more stark — like she'd lost something vital, with her sunken eyes and shrunken frame.

"I don't know," Sev answered honestly.

"But we will be," Derivan added, and Sev nodded slightly. He glanced over at Misa as he did.

And Misa, perhaps rather predictably, chose that moment to stir.