Kalius wakes up to the feeling of wind on his skin. Last thing he remembers was... fuck... let's see. The girl with purple horns, Ociela.. she was tall, she... had some stupid frilly dress on.. heavy, clownlike makeup.. fuck. She was taller than him, too. He doesn't know why he thought he could beat her in that fight, especially with his broken leg.
He opens his eyes to see... oh, god, Memphi.. Memphi's wrapping his wounds. His right arm. Ociela must have broken it. Ociela probably broke a lot of his bones. It's nothing Kalius isn't used to, it's just.. he'd rather not have to go through this again. Kalius tries to move his left arm, feeling cold rock beneath him. The sky is near cloudless, the occasional flock of birds flying by.
"You have sustained much abrasion, Miazma."
"I k-know, Miss," Kalius sputters out. He coughs a little, before wiping his mouth and seeing the slick red blood shine under the sun. Memphi finishes wrapping Kalius' wounds, and looms over him.
"Will you allow me to position you on a stretcher so that I may bring you to my laboratory? I would like to examine you for further injury."
Kalius nods, closing his eyes once again. He soon feels Memphi's cold, cold skin touching his own, pulling him up onto a stretcher. He hates that feeling. He hates Memphi. Her skin touching his, it felt dirty to Kalius. He was sure she felt the same. Their mutual hatred for one another was often felt so strongly by others that it would make them uncomfortable.
Memphi's house wasn't too far from where they were. Kalius could feel the stretcher moving under him, and then the wind stops as he can hear a door opening. Her house is in the side of a large mountain, a smart decision, really. Kalius opens his eyes as they enter the living room.
The room color is a deep gray, with dust speckled on the ceiling. The room itself looks like a mess, with scattered sheets of data in every corner. Her bed is tucked away in the storm cellar’s closet, to save more space. She has a multitude of laptops around it, some sitting on the storm cellar’s built in table, and others on the floor or on top of stacks of data.
Memphi sighs, closing the door behind her. There's a tunnel stationed in the back of the room leads down a twisting hallway that splits in two at the end. The tunnels are a lighter grey, but seem darker from the lack of light. They go down the tunnel, as Kalius closes his eyes. He lets out a breath as Memphi shudders.
Kalius stares at the ceiling of the tunnel. Most of them lead to blocked places in the castle, and others twist around and end up in another tunnel altogether, making it a hell of a maze. Hence why Kalius never dared to explore them, plus with Memphi's... condition... she'd feel him anyways.
Memphi watches Kalius closely as she wheels him down the tunnel. She knew what he was thinking, and he knew it too. Memphi had memorized the tunnels, knowing exactly where to go. And she does just that. She heads through a tunnel that leads down into a large mechanics room blocked by a door. Memphi looks down to Kalius. And he looks back. Memphi looks up before opening the door and heading inside, pulling Kalius along.
The room itself is only full of grey, dark, and rusty red colors. The walls of the room are all gears, which are part of a huge system that keeps the power working, but also powers the mainframe computer, which is a huge, wiry supercomputer in the far end of the room. The computer is huge, and has wires running from every angle of its screen.
A keyboard sits on an elevated slab that blocks some of the wires, and faintly around the edges of the computer screen, gears can be shown from the mechanics. To the far top left of the room, on a plaque behind the gears, an electric clock sits, visible from behind the mechanism, and is turned off. The room would be completely dark, if it weren’t from the glow of the computer screen.
Memphi brings Kalius to the middle of the room, taking him off of the stretcher. Kalius stares at the monitor, sitting on the cold floor. The room itself is very cold. Memphi takes off her coat, placing it on the floor. She's wearing a white tanktop with the Catacombis logo on it. She stands over Kalius, looking down at him with an expression that he's unable to read. Memphi kneels down to her coat, removing a syringe, a scalpel, a pair of scissors, and a vial of a dark, inky substance.
"W-What are you doing, Miss-ss?" Kalius asks, finding it hard to move. Memphi stays silent as she crouches down and starts to remove Kalius' shirt using the scissors. Once the front of the shirt is fully cut down the middle, Memphi examines Kalius' chest closely. "Memphi? Wh..?"
His entire torso is covered in scar tissue, bandages, and wrappings. Memphi lifts the scalpel to Kalius' chest and pushes it down, cutting into his chest. He winces in pain, his breathing quickening. He knows he can't scream. Memphi will make it hurt worse. She slices open his chest as Kalius silently sobs.
Memphi continues to cut into Kalius. He thinks he's going to die. He's had dreams about this before. It's finally his time, he supposes. Memphi's expression becomes scary, to Kalius. A smile. She doesn't smile. He hasn't seen her smile in years. Memphi places the scalpel on the floor, opening the wound in Kalius' chest more with her fingers. She then plunges her arm deep into his chest, deeper than it should go. She latches onto something, something painful.
Kalius feels his very self being pulled at, as Memphi pulls out a shining white sphere, appearing almost like marble. The surface appears to move and flow fluidly. Memphi stares at it in wonder, as Kalius stares in horror. Memphi places the sphere on the ground, and she takes the vial and syringe. She takes some of the substance from the vial, sucking it into the syringe.
Memphi picks up the sphere, and holds the needle up to it before shoving it inside. Kalius coughs, it feels painful, it hurts like nothing Kalius has ever felt before. Memphi slowly injects the substance and it begins to spread inside the sphere, darkening it. The wound on Kalius' chest slowly begins to change as well, the crimson of his innards becoming a dark jet black. He slowly begins to lose consciousness as Memphi stands up.
She looks to the computer, walking up to it and dropping her tools. Memphi places the sphere on the elevated slab as she presses some buttons on the keyboard, staring into the screen. A compartment on one of the machines opens, a small mechanical arm protruding out from it, taking the sphere and bringing it inside the compartment before closing.
The computer's screen changes. It's black, now. Not off. Just black. A message appears on the screen as Memphi steps back.
[LOADING LimVeil2, PLEASE STAND BY]
Memphi's vision begins to blur, things begin to clip into one another.
She sees things, so many things. Is this what she wanted? What does she want, anyways?? God, she can't fucking remember right now. She sees white hallways, a manor in the woods, fire, a tall man with no face... They're all around her, she sees it all, it's all right here but it's so out of reach. The hallucinations get worse quickly, everything feeling so loud. Memphi feels like she needs to vomit. It hurts. It hurts. She falls to the floor.
And then it all stops. Memphi's body is still recovering, and she stays on the ground for a bit. She notices the room around her is a sterile white..? She slowly gets up. She's wearing her lab coat again, though now embroidered with the Catacombis logo. Black leggings with kneepads as well, her boots are black with pink shoelaces and pastel pink fluff.
Memphi's glasses are rounder, as well, her hair being dyed pink at the tips. She looks over herself, in shock. It.. it worked..? It worked. Holy shit. She searches her pockets for her phone, taking it out and looking at the date... fuck.
Two years before she wanted. Bullshit, this is bullshit. Doing that again, the process would be lengthy.. but these new memories... they can be useful. She looks around the room. It appears to be a hospital room? Memphi steps through the door, and starts walking around. There's a lot of people, also wearing the logo. They all look to her as if she's important...
Memphi realizes, this can be good, this can be useful. She attempts to locate her... office, maybe? She soon finds a map, locating an office beneath the first floor, where she happens to be. Perfect. Memphi makes her way through the halls of the building and to the main room of the building. There's a hall in the back of the main desk.
Memphi heads down the hall. It leads to some stairs which she descends, into another hall leading to a door at the very end. Memphi approaches, opening the door. The room looks just like her room. She walks in, and feels someone's footsteps behind her.
Memphi turns, seeing Kalius. He's.. alive again. He's wearing a black t-shirt with a white, unbuttoned shirt embroidered with the Catacombis logo. He's wearing a choker around his neck, and his once green horns are now a jet black, matching his short though messy hair. He's wearing torn jeans with black sneakers.
The thing is, though, his arms. From the elbow down they seem to fade in color, going from a pale skin tone into pitch black. It's messy, too. Like a scar from being shocked by lightning, it seems to go up his arms, ending at around halfway up his neck.
Kalius stares at Memphi, holding the door open, his fingers digging into the wood as black blood pours from them.
"What the hell did you do, Norwin."