Dilan was outright doubled over in sheer agony, thrashing and struggling against even efforts to help, yet even now he still wouldn't stop clawing at himself like some kind of senseless madman, like a rabid animal.....
It was an easy mental transition to make--almost too easy. Almost alarmingly so, if Aeleus weren't on such good terms with his own inner demons. In the back of his mind, something stirred, slid against his thoughts as smooth as tempered steel gliding beneath his fingertips, sunk in like the grounding reassurance of Skysplitter's massive weight settled solidly in his hands. It wasn't a voice to be heard, not really--if anything, it was the rush of adrenaline that blew away the mental fog of shock like an icy gale, and the stillness and clarity that it left in its wake. Was he in need?
Yes. Yes, he was in need. They both were.
Aeleus gave himself over between one heartbeat and the next, reorienting himself in the span of a single breath. Out with the useless, let go everything except that which he needed within this moment. In with the vital, take in what he had to and use it. Emotion and the chaos it was causing bled out of him, and his eyes turned steely and cold, expression a flat, unreadable mask; even his whole bearing changed, as he straightened to his full height and stood properly grounded and braced, intimately aware of his body and ready. All in all, it was a look Dilan might have been very much familiar with.
Lexaeus considered the situation at hand. An incapacitated colleague, mentally and physically--some manner of internal growth was the cause, origins unknown, end results unknown. Currently, the symptoms were intense pain and physical injury, a connection to injuries sustained in nightmares, and an accelerated rate of growth in response to Cure spells. Dilan would be useless at best, and a liability at worst, crippled in mind, body, and heart by his injuries. Left to his own devices, Dilan would further injure himself, on top of an impending unknown level of injuries that could range from mild to potentially Fatal. Given the limited information, circumstances and resources at hand, and presumably relatively low risk..... what was the best course of action for controlling and correcting Dilan's condition?
The main injuries and pain at the moment, putting aside the nightmare, were being caused by subdermal skeletal growth. His body was changing so quickly on the inside that the outside was being compromised because of it. Presumably, given freedom to grow, there would be substantially less issue--incisions needed to be maded in Dilan's shoulders to give the growths access to open space, and possibly surgically remove them. If they could be removed, they probably should be removed--but if these growths were outcroppings from his own skeletal system, then chances were they might be already integrated into his nervous system as well, and too fundamentally a part of him already to remove without extensive risk and the potential for serious, possibly permanent damage.
If that was the case, then they should be left intact, accommodated however needed, and the damage created by their rapid, unprecedented growth healed--and their growth hastened as much as possible to ensure that the recovery time was as brief as they could make it. Judging by the latest reaction, controlled and monitored applications of Cure could probably be used for the latter two. Whether the growths could be removed or not, minimizing the damage they caused and trying to determine their cause would be most effectively done by Even, or the two of them together; Even had more experience in these matters than he ever would. That meant getting Dilan to..... probably the infirmary, rather than the labs, and getting Even to help along the way.
Difficult, with Dilan in such a state, but not impossible. Hardly impossible. In terms of raw strength, he had always come out on top, and Dilan was hardly in his right mind at the moment. If one last attempt to talk him down with reason didn't work, then he would simply have to forcibly subdue the man to carry him. Heavy and unwieldy as he was, as long as Dilan wasn't full-force thrashing in his arms, then it could be done. He'd need to be carried back outwards, to account for jarring his wounds and damaging the new growths the least.....
And if Dilan didn't understand? Well, he could apologize and explain later. This was about what his colleague needed, not what he wanted. So Lexaeus pressed in close to render Dilan's struggling as ineffective as possible, only grunting quietly at the impact of feet and knees and closing his hand around Dilan's wrist in an iron grip; he would not be moved. He would not be stopped. When Lexaeus had his mind set on a goal and turned the full strength of his will towards achieving it, no force on Heaven or Earth, in Darkness or Light could ever hope to stand in his way--the willpower a Nobody could bring to bear was capable of challenging the natural laws of life and death themselves, and even now, his will remained undiminished.
With his free hand, Lexaeus reached out to push one of Dilan's flailing legs aside to step in between them, close enough to slide right into and past Dilan's guard, if he could manage. "You need to hold still. We're getting Even and going to the infirmary to help you. Do you understand, Dilan?"
no subject
It was an easy mental transition to make--almost too easy. Almost alarmingly so, if Aeleus weren't on such good terms with his own inner demons. In the back of his mind, something stirred, slid against his thoughts as smooth as tempered steel gliding beneath his fingertips, sunk in like the grounding reassurance of Skysplitter's massive weight settled solidly in his hands. It wasn't a voice to be heard, not really--if anything, it was the rush of adrenaline that blew away the mental fog of shock like an icy gale, and the stillness and clarity that it left in its wake. Was he in need?
Yes. Yes, he was in need. They both were.
Aeleus gave himself over between one heartbeat and the next, reorienting himself in the span of a single breath. Out with the useless, let go everything except that which he needed within this moment. In with the vital, take in what he had to and use it. Emotion and the chaos it was causing bled out of him, and his eyes turned steely and cold, expression a flat, unreadable mask; even his whole bearing changed, as he straightened to his full height and stood properly grounded and braced, intimately aware of his body and ready. All in all, it was a look Dilan might have been very much familiar with.
Lexaeus considered the situation at hand. An incapacitated colleague, mentally and physically--some manner of internal growth was the cause, origins unknown, end results unknown. Currently, the symptoms were intense pain and physical injury, a connection to injuries sustained in nightmares, and an accelerated rate of growth in response to Cure spells. Dilan would be useless at best, and a liability at worst, crippled in mind, body, and heart by his injuries. Left to his own devices, Dilan would further injure himself, on top of an impending unknown level of injuries that could range from mild to potentially Fatal. Given the limited information, circumstances and resources at hand, and presumably relatively low risk..... what was the best course of action for controlling and correcting Dilan's condition?
The main injuries and pain at the moment, putting aside the nightmare, were being caused by subdermal skeletal growth. His body was changing so quickly on the inside that the outside was being compromised because of it. Presumably, given freedom to grow, there would be substantially less issue--incisions needed to be maded in Dilan's shoulders to give the growths access to open space, and possibly surgically remove them. If they could be removed, they probably should be removed--but if these growths were outcroppings from his own skeletal system, then chances were they might be already integrated into his nervous system as well, and too fundamentally a part of him already to remove without extensive risk and the potential for serious, possibly permanent damage.
If that was the case, then they should be left intact, accommodated however needed, and the damage created by their rapid, unprecedented growth healed--and their growth hastened as much as possible to ensure that the recovery time was as brief as they could make it. Judging by the latest reaction, controlled and monitored applications of Cure could probably be used for the latter two. Whether the growths could be removed or not, minimizing the damage they caused and trying to determine their cause would be most effectively done by Even, or the two of them together; Even had more experience in these matters than he ever would. That meant getting Dilan to..... probably the infirmary, rather than the labs, and getting Even to help along the way.
Difficult, with Dilan in such a state, but not impossible. Hardly impossible. In terms of raw strength, he had always come out on top, and Dilan was hardly in his right mind at the moment. If one last attempt to talk him down with reason didn't work, then he would simply have to forcibly subdue the man to carry him. Heavy and unwieldy as he was, as long as Dilan wasn't full-force thrashing in his arms, then it could be done. He'd need to be carried back outwards, to account for jarring his wounds and damaging the new growths the least.....
And if Dilan didn't understand? Well, he could apologize and explain later. This was about what his colleague needed, not what he wanted. So Lexaeus pressed in close to render Dilan's struggling as ineffective as possible, only grunting quietly at the impact of feet and knees and closing his hand around Dilan's wrist in an iron grip; he would not be moved. He would not be stopped. When Lexaeus had his mind set on a goal and turned the full strength of his will towards achieving it, no force on Heaven or Earth, in Darkness or Light could ever hope to stand in his way--the willpower a Nobody could bring to bear was capable of challenging the natural laws of life and death themselves, and even now, his will remained undiminished.
With his free hand, Lexaeus reached out to push one of Dilan's flailing legs aside to step in between them, close enough to slide right into and past Dilan's guard, if he could manage. "You need to hold still. We're getting Even and going to the infirmary to help you. Do you understand, Dilan?"