towerofanimus | Twas the night after Christmas -

Entry tags:

Twas the night after Christmas -

Characters: Asch and open; later, he goes to see Jade about things [closed]
Setting: A nicely hidden corner of the upper lounge and/or media floor; hassling Jade in the library
Format: What have you, bro
Summary: Feelings about regains, headaches about replicas, yelling at Jade
Warnings: Fon Fabre temper tantrums incoming.

[There's a redhead in a beanbag chair in the corner, heels tucked in, with an old framed photo in his lap. Asch's attention is pretty much entirely on the picture, which is tilted up so that it can't be seen from any other angle. Want to see? Better come lean around his shoulder and be obnoxious.]

[He puts a hand to his forehead very suddenly, as though taken by an unexpected headache. Uh-oh, isn't the flu epidemic over? Maybe you'd better go see what's wrong with him.]

Library -

[It's as good a place to start looking as any. Asch is very pointedly not hurrying through the shelves, because it's not like it really matters anyway. If Jade can't fix this, then no one can, and at least death in the Tower isn't going to stick.

Luckily, it seems that right there is the teal uniform he's looking for.]

Jade.

[All the greeting you get. No beating around the bush today.]

Is there any way to halt fonon separation once it's begun? Failing that, is there a way to slow it?

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[Of course it would.]

I'll be waiting.

[He really will, too. Asch takes his leave in a flutter of loose fabric and heads for the stairs.]

[Jade goes back to reading. Asch could barge in and demand his help, but it would certainly be on Jade's time. He wasn't out to make things worse for the boy, but he wasn't about to cut out his research mid-book.

However, as promised, Jade was entering the lab in exactly one hour, hands in his pockets and looking for the redhead.]

[And as promised, Asch is waiting, sitting up on the edge of an examination table with an anatomy book spread across his lap. He closes the book with a whumph when Jade arrives.]

Find anything useful?

Not enough to have anything solid.

[Jade went to grab the supplies and remove his teal outer uniform, leaving the gloves and tunic by the door before rolling up his black undersleeves. He returned to Asch with a butterfly needle, a tourniquet, some tubes, and alcohol swabs.]

Take off your gloves and roll up your sleeves.

[He does as instructed with a bit of a grimace, folding his gloves on top of the book he'd been reading. Pushing up his own black sleeves reveals forearms coated in criss-crossing scars that lessen only slightly at the elbows and disappear up under Asch's shirt.]

Let's get this over with.

[Jade says nothing further and wraps the blue band, tying it tightly around Asch's bicep, just above the elbow. He presses cold fingers against Asch's skin, looking for a vein he could access before he finds one and swabs it with the alcohol. He connects the needle to the tube and swiftly presses the sharp point against and into Asch's arm. When blood begins to dribble through, Jade unties the tourniquet and sets it aside. From there, the tube quickly begins to fill with blood. When it's full, Jade fills another before he pulls the needle from Asch's arm and sets the tubes aside, pressing a small swab of dry gauze to the puncture.]

This won't be done for a while, so you can go frolic about or do what you young kids do in your spare time while I work on processing this.

[Asch barely flinches as the needle enters his skin, and watches Jade work with disinterest; it's hardly the first time he's seen his own blood, and you don't exactly get the title "the Bloody" by being afraid of the stuff.

He takes over the handling of the small injury from Jade; really, this one won't even scar.]

I have nothing better to do. Anywhere I should wait?

[As soon as he's sure the needle prick won't bleed any further, he starts putting his uniform back in order.]

Not specifically. If you'd like, you can go wait in a corner quietly.

[Jade himself is taking the vials to be processed in a small machine. If tuned correctly, Jade could easily tell its scan the blood. Whether or not it would actually read out the blood fonon levels, Jade would be able to infer what thy were from the data he'd receive. When the machine was quietly purring with scientific activity, Jade was headed back to his coal, pulling the sleeve back down.]

I'll conduct your physical in two hours. It's best if you eat something after any amount of blood is taken. When you return, the results will here ere and we can get the next out of the way.

I'll eat and be back, then.

[And with his book tucked under his arm, the redhead is off. Luckily, the variety of food seems to have exploded in the last day or so for some unknowable reason, and he'll probably be able to find something that's actually worth eating.]

[And a little under two hours later, he's back, with the addition of a novel to his anatomy book.

Asch just resumes the seat he'd occupied before on the table, sticking his nose in the anatomy book and trying to not look impatient.]

[Jade looked to be in the middle of using a microscope, glasses perched neatly on his head. He had a hand extended over a vial to his right, a glyph glowing softly below his palm. His hand shifted occasionally, turning over as the blood seemed to respond by lighting up when his hand hit a certain angle. He ignored Asch until he got that response, turning off the light to the scope when he got the glow to easier examine it.]

Your blood fonons are not as low as I expected, but they are separating at an alarming rate. I've pinpointed how far in the process you are, though the solutions are far from desirable.

If there is a solution, that's more than I would have been able to find on my own.

[There, thanks allotted, now get on with it.]

[Jade finally looked up from the scope, to Asch and back at the vial. How indeed was the question. There was Luke, of course. The best solution included Asch opening his fon slots to the boy and the two of them sharing. After all, they'd fill in the gaps for each other and Having the link open from both sides would teach them both lessons. However, Asch was certain to have kittens if he heard that.

The other option was to give him something that could produce fonons for him. Something like that wouldn't last long, but it would be enough to give them more time.]

I could create something to replace the lost fonons, but that is temporary at best.

Temporary, huh...

[That is not a happy expression. He's sick of dying without quite making it to dead.]

Nothing more permanent?

The other solution is to open your fon slots to Luke.

... ... ...

[Faintly horrified look.]

... I suppose I know better than to ask if you're kidding.

[Asch crosses his arms, looking distinctly unhappy.]

And why would involving the dreck help?

You'd share fonons. He'd fill in your gaps and you both would be far more stable. Think of it in the sense of a circuit. You need to close it to make it more efficient.

...I think I'd rather not.

[Which, no doubt, was the response Jade was expecting. Predictable redhead is predictable.]

I don't want to get any more involved with him than I already am.

[Lies, dirty lies, and denial. ~~He just doesn't want Luke to know how nosy he is.~~]

There's no avoiding that, Asch. Inevitably, he's going to be more involved. You're being childish if you think you can hide a thing like this from him forever.

If you really didn't want him involved, you should not have forced his fonslots open in Coral Castle.

[At that, he snaps.]

Don't say this like I knew it was going to happen! You think I would have done it if I knew that it would kill me?!

[He would have, though. Jade probably already knows; Asch doesn't care enough for his own life to keep it, if that was the way to stop Van.

After all, he already has a replacement.]

...I'll hide it from him as long as I have to. All he can do is worry about it, anyway.

[Jade remained impassive, not appearing the least bit affected by Asch's temper tantrum. When Asch was done, Jade shifted to stand properly.]

Then I have nothing more for you.

[Jade went for the door, rolling his sleeves down and grabbing his teal outer uniform. Shrugging it on, Jade buttoned it up quietly. If Asch was planning on whining, then Jade wasn't going to have it.

You're making yourself worse, and it ceases to be my problem when you die from your own stupidity.

I don't need anything more from you.

[Stubborn to the end. Asch just stays right where he is until after he's sure Jade is gone.

When he walks out, in a huff with his hands still balled into fists, he leaves the books behind.]

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Twas the night after Christmas -

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