towerofanimus | A few days after the event [Open]

Characters: Taiki and all that stumble across him.
Setting: Room 2-18, corridors and finally the meadow on floor 25.
Format: i'll follow you
Summary: There is far too much blood in this Tower and the latest fight has made Taiki even more sick than before. But he is attempting to act normal ~~and failing~~
Warnings: Angsty self hating Kirin, mentions of blood and violence

Taiki had woken up with the others after the tower was put back together. Unlike the others though he promptly fell unconscious and remained that way for two days. When he finally woke up he felt awful. His clothes were still covered in blood and he felt nauseous.

He slowly pieced together what had happening, they had been attacked and mister Kirkland and Eridan had been protecting him. He hoped they were alright, he hadn't been much use.

Tears filled his eyes as he remembered. He had been so useless. He tried to sit up but a wave of dizziness hit him and he lay back down and cried. Everything had gone wrong, just as it had been going right when he had found his King and had done something right for once.

Now he was stuck in this tower, Gyousou was dead, Tai was being destroyed... he couldn't even help his friends that were here with him never mind the people of Tai who he couldn't even get to.

He felt a soft hand on his face and buried his head in the pillow, "Go... away... Sanshi," he sobbed and instantly felt bad. He sat up to apologies but the nyokai was silent. Taiki's tears came stronger and he got out of bed, barely able to walk without holding something. He wanted to be helpful though, he couldn't do anything lying in bed.

He stumbled his way to the bathroom to wash the blood off himself. He realized he was cut; as much as the infirmary made him fell even more ill he would have to go there to find some bandages.

He made it half way down the first flight of stairs before he remembered the rooms of blood and that he should use the elevator. He turned round but the movement made him dizy and he stumbled. He fell not onto the stone of the open floor like he expected, the one he and Eridan had flew from; but onto grass.

Tears streamed down his face as he realized he was too dizzy to sit up. He just wanted to go back home...

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Taiki's eyes flickered open to see a troll. "Aradi... sorry," it wasn't the girl he had taught to swim, she was too old. He tried to sit up but had to reach out to grasp at the troll.

"Sorry..." He was feverish hot and unfocused.

Hearing her name surprised her a bit, but it wasn't the first time she'd encountered someone who'd met her before she met them. Aradia gently helped him to sit up against the wall, smiling warmly as if to an old friend.

"Don't be sorry. What's wrong? Are you ill?" She paused to press the back of her hand against his forehead. "Good grief, you're hot enough to fry a grubroast on."

Taiki shook a little but sat up as she helped him and smiled softly back. "Thank you."

He nodded slowly at the question and was about to try and explain. But then she pressed her hand against his forhead and he growled and went to bat her hand away the nausea hitting him and making him double over. He couldn't go anywhere because of the wall but he was pressed as far into it, and away from her hand as possible.

"S...sorry..." Tears filled his eyes again.

Oh dear, that was an odd reaction. Had she done something wrong? A headache? Or was forehead-touching some kind of offensive gesture on his planet? It seemed like she had genuinely agitated him, one way or another.

Aradia withdrew her hand. "I don't mean to upset you, I'm just trying to help," she said gently, as if to a wiggler. "Let's get you to the infirmary, all right? Do you think you can stand?"

"No... sorry..." He wiped his tears away, he had not wanted to be rude or annoy her. He nodded and tried to get to hid feet, grasping on to her arms. "Sorry... my horn... it hurts if you touch..." He needed all his concentration for standing so he fell silent.

A horn? She didn't see a horn. Oh no, what if the poor boy was delirious? Aradia did her best to support him getting up, but soon gave up on the idea. There was no way he'd be able to walk that far, and she'd be cruel to force him to.

"It's all right. I said don't apologize, didn't I? It's not your fault if you're ill." She patted his arm lightly. "Tell you what, I'll just carry you, okay? Go ahead and sit back. I'll help you down."

She made a small, quick gesture with her hand, forming an invisible surface for him to sit on. Boy, telekinesis sure is convenient!

Taiki nodded slowly and then blinked but did as she said. Some sort of magic caught him and he brought his knees up to his chest looking at the troll in surprise. "You're a magic troll... sorry... is it magic like Sollux?" He didn't know much about troll magic, just that Willow had enchanted Eridan's ring to protect him from Sollux's magic.

Something in Aradia's chest cage jumped at the mention of her old companion, and she couldn't hold back a chuckle. So he was hiding out here somewhere, was he? That troll. Even if he wasn't the Sollux she knew, this was an unacceptable lapse, and he would need to be brought to heel for it, yes sirree.

She lifted Taiki a few feet into the air, maneuvering him safely up the stairs ahead of her. First order of business was the infirmary, which if she recalled correctly was just down the elevator and then up a few floors. Piece of cake.

"It's hardly what I'd call magic," she explained as she was doing this. "'Psionic powers' is more accurate, especially in his case. Mine are a little more utilitarian, but we're a lot alike, he and I."

Taiki didn't know why she was chuckling but just sat very still, he didn't know how he was being carried and he didn't want to fall down the stairs again. He nodded, he had heard the words before, "Mind magic... he can make things move just with his mind... sorry... you don't hurt people with your powers do you..."

If he hadn't been so ill he probably wouldn't have asked such a question, but he had always seen magic as something that helped people. Mainly because the only magic he knew came from Kirin, and they couldn't harm people.

Knowing that some people used it to harm others worried him. But still it had been a rude question, "Sorry... I just..."

Aradia smiled sympathetically. He wouldn't be the first one to find a troll's unusual powers new and frightening, after all. "It's okay," she said. Then, after a pause, "It... wouldn't be the truth if I said I never have. But I'm not going to hurt you, and that's the important thing at the moment, right?"

Taiki blinked sadly, though he knew he shouldn't judge people it was what he was made to do, stop his king from being violent or unjust. So although he sort of understood that some people deemed some violence and hurting of others to be necessary it was not something he could understand or not dislike.

He nodded though, "Thank you..."

"It's no problem at all, dear." Not that she liked violence either! But sometimes, you know, if someone wouldn't listen no matter what you said, or was getting violent themselves, or... well, a little fighting got the blood roaring, you know, very good exercise.

Okay so maybe she was a little violent now and again.

By this point they'd reached the elevator, and she filed into it with Taiki in tow. "Oh! How rude of me, I never asked your name, did I? You already know mine, I believe, but just the same."

Taiki was glad they were going in the elevator, most of the floors made him feel sick just walking through them and he already felt bad enough.

"Oh... sorry... it's Taiki. I am glad to meet you."

A few days after the event [Open]

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