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TEIS' LAB - MIDDAY
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Narrator: It has been a slow half-hour at Teis' lab. The white cat and her lizard friend have been re-united once more, this time Tarbin getting the pleasure of 'seeing' the interior of Teis' lab. Teis would prepare a table, instructing Tarbin to lay down before she would begin her analysis, both with her instruments and some light magic. Eventually, the preliminary tests are done. "...Tarbin. This...Curse of yours. It...It's like it's hiding itself from me. I've...Read about this type of thing before. Never...Actually encountered it myself...But...I believe I can...Get it to reveal itself to me." Teis explains, though she does so in a quiet, solemn mood. "...But there's a catch."
Tarbin has been patient about the examinations, though he feels it is all too familiar a situation, laid upon a table and being looked over by a stranger, and it doesn't help that shortly after stepping into the room he felt like he was stepping further from Nature once again. His tails occasionally twitch in his mild nerves through the examination, though they stop as Teis begins to speak. "Catch... What is catch? Is this a bad thing?"
Teis: "That's...What I need to find out. Nobody goes to this kind of effort without...Look, it's just probably a bad thing." Teis explains. "I...I want your express permission to dive deeper. As I said, I can...Probably break through the first layer and learn more about the curse. But...Who knows what type of countermeasure, ah...That is, trap, I might trigger by doing so..." Teis sighs.
Tarbin twitches his tails again, not exactly welcoming bad news of this sort. "I am sorry, I do not understand, 'countermasser'? You mean to say block, as if the curse will defend itself? I am not good with curses, is... Well, almost opposite of my abilities."
Teis: "Yes. It seems...Very likely that will be the case." Teis nods. She looks away briefly, sighing again. It's clear she's uncomfortable, as well as saddened, by this. "I cannot possibly hope to cure this curse without further knowledge, but I don't know what will happen, Tarbin. At best, nothing will happen, and this has been nothing but a ruse to deter people from helping you. At worst, you could explode."
Teis: "The choice is yours. I won't do anything unless you give me express permission that you are willing to take the risk."
Tarbin pauses, looking suitably unnerved as his tails thump against the side of the examination table, which he willfully stops after he's thought out her statement. "There... Must be a way. Without exploding. They sent mages away instead of executing us, there must be a reason for that. The curse might be meant for lifting, then?" He sounds hopeful with his last question, though still looks worried as all hell.
Teis: "Eventually, all magic returns to the Infinite Arcanum, one way or another. Entropy is the only truth. This includes the magic that powers the curse." Teis ahems. "What I mean to say is...Yes. All curses can be lifted. But...I don't think this one was intended to be removed..." Teis pauses, trying to think of an analogy.
Teis: "Think...Of it like a lock. Only those with the key can open the lock normally. But a lock can be picked by someone who is skilled enough. To defend against lockpickers, they make their locks more complicated, harder...And the key becomes more complicated, too...But the lockpicker becomes better...Eventually, the lockmakers give up and nail a plank of wood over their locks. Now, the key won't work at all, but the lockpicker also can't pick the lock without breaking the plank of wood first. This is your lock. Your, ah, curse." Teis ahems. "I...Hope that explains it?"
Tarbin nods along, getting the mental image she's going for quite clearly. He hums in the silence that follows, his gaze directed at the floor while he considers. "I think I understand... How much warning do you think you will have of any problem, if you were to try?" He looks toward her. He's so tantalizingly close to being free of the hex on him that he's starting to wonder if exploding would be an acceptable risk. "I... I've only had this curse for a few months now, and I can still 'see' the flow in nature near me, enough to turn it, but being deprived of seeing anything else, anyone's eyes. If I can choose to not live this way any longer, I might."
Teis: "I'm uh. I'm pretty sure that whatever will happen, it will happen immediately. I just don't know what it might be. The plank stops me from seeing the lock underneath. I need to break the plank. Which I can do...But only with your express permission."
Tarbin works his jaw, tails thumping against the side of the table again. "Is there any risk to you?"
Teis: "Uh...Minimal?" Teis hadn't considered any possible risk to herself. She never does, when knowledge is afoot.
Tarbin nods curtly. "If you're willing to take that minimal risk, then I trust you."
Teis nods. "Alright then. I'll uh. I'll prepare you some painkillers. Just in case. Sit tight?" Teis instructs, walking off briefly to collect said painkillers, as well as a glass of water for Tarbin, assuming Tarbin doesn't stop her from doing so.
Tarbin watches Teis's blur wander off, nodding to himself as he considers what might be about to happen. "If you have any willow bark, that would suffice."
Teis: "You sure? I mean, I have some. It's a common enough reagent." Teis replies. Maybe weird nature-lizard has weird nature-painkillers. She detours to jar, containing shards of said bark, opening it and offering it to Tarbin. "Take what you need, I suppose?"
Tarbin finds the opening of the jar, pulling a piece of the bark out. The scales on his fingers fade to orange where they touch the bark, as the natural painkiller seems to lose it's slightly withered appearance before he pops it into his mouth. He pins it between his teeth in preparation. "That will do, yes, thank you."
Teis nods. "Alright then..." She mentions, putting the jar off to the side. "Just relax. As best you can. Take a deep breath..." Teis instructs, although she also takes a deep breath herself. Seems more instructions for herself than Tarbin in hindsight. She slips on her mana lenses once more, watching Tarbin closely as she begins chanting as well as moving her hands in time, which begin to glow a faint purple. The spell begins, Teis in full swing of her incantation...
Tarbin follows her instructions, taking deep breaths and bracing himself with a grip on the edge of the table, sinking his teeth into the willow bark. As he listens to her incantation, he feels a tingling sensation beginning in his gut, which begins spreading like an uncomfortable buzzing just under his scales. His head twitches to the side as the sensation reaches his neck, chewing at the bark which does little.
Rondelethia: "Hey Teis. I was out in the market, and I found this new pastry place, and I thought you might like to try someth-" She walks inside, turning to pick up a coat off the hook, before turning back "..ing" She pauses for a good five seconds "...Maybe I should come back later, leave you two in peace" She begins to attempt to make a retreat!
Teis' attention falters ever so briefly on her spell as Della enters, though Teis picks her spell back up. She can't exactly respond to Della mid incantation, sadly. As she continues, her incantation grows stronger, her glow increasing in intensity, as does a soft purple glow around Tarbin appear. Teis is intently staring at Tarbin, sure to take in every detail her mana lenses provide her with.
Tarbin doesn't seem aware enough to notice Della entering the room, tilting his head down a bit as the sound of muffled tearing comes from his mouth. A second later he spits the split bark to the floor, his blunted claws digging into the edge of the table top as he grits his teeth against the now fiery pain surges after Teis's distraction. Whatever foreign magic is in him, it has moved to every inch of his body, though it seems to be shifting up towards his eyes as her incantation continues. The lizard finally gives in and begins a low groaning cry of pain.
Rondelethia was going to just leave..then Tarbin starts up, and...she opens her mouth again, then closes it. She wants to interrupt...but she trusts her sister..well, to not be torturing lizards for fun at least. Instead, she reaches over, to pick up one of the other pairs of mana goggles, and watches what might be going on here..from a distance. She doesn't want to interuppt!
Narrator: As Teis continues and the incantation becomes more intense, underneath Teis' distinct mana signature present enveloping Tarbin, another signature of bands slowly begins to form, especially around Tarbin's eyes. This seems to be exactly what Teis is looking for, as she continues trying to draw out those bands as much as possible. The entire process takes a good, agonizing minute...And Teis is only about halfway through.
Tarbin arches his back, his horns scratching the top of the table as his head angles up. He manages to gulp a breath of air in before immediately letting loose a howl that echoes in the lab despite it's clutter. The curse is persistent, and every step forward that Teis's magic manages to make seems to cause double the benefit in pain to Tarbin. His eyes are shut tight against the pain, but something seems off about it, not that he has the presence at the moment to think much on what he's seeing behind his eyelids.
Rondelethia sure hopes that Teis knows what she's doing, but at the same time, she's edging her way to the side of the lab with all the safety precautions...
Teis: Slowly, surely, those bands begin to highlight themselves. Teis begins to change the nature of her incantation, though she's hardly able to get through the process. The mana lenses of both Teis and Della light up in a brilliant, dazzling flash of blinding white, not unlike if a flashbang had just gone off in front of them. And in that white? An orange insignia, burned into Teis' and Della's retinas momentarily. The incantation ends, freeing Tarbin from his torment. Teis cries out, stumbling around in her newfound, if only temporarily, blindness. Gonna take a minute to recover from that one! "Muffins! Muffins muffins MUFFINS!" Teis curses, stumbling around back from Tarbin, taking off her mana lenses, though the damage is already done.
Tarbin arches his back and pulls a strip of wood from the side of the tabletop as the whirling agony in his body reaches a breaking point, then altogether vanishes. Instead, as he drops to the surface, heaving exhausted breaths, his body only aches in every joint and muscle. He remains with his eyes closed, and the little bit of willow bark he'd absorbed begins to subside.
Rondelethia closes her eyes and keeps quite still, counting slowly back from twenty while she composes herself, and takes the mana lenses off. She didn't quite know what was happening, and instead focuses on helping herself, and her sister. She puts her hand down on the eye wash station, which was part of the countermeasures she had positioned herself at, and washes her face off, before she takes a cool cloth, and in one quiet step, moves over to Teis, and puts it to her face. "I gotcha sis, just..stay still.."
Narrator: Sadly, the decontamination station does nothing for images burned directly into the back of the retinas like the scorn of sunlight. Thankfully, the white fades away in due time, though the orange insignia remains for a good few minutes. Teis instinctively swats away the cold, wet object from her fur and face. "Don't worry about me, Sis!" Teis hisses. "Tarbin, are you okay?" Teis shakily puts her mana lenses down on the bench, mostly out of fear that looking at Tarbin through them again would only serve to blind herself again. She makes her way over to Tarbin.
Tarbin lets out a low groan as the bark's painkilling effects wear off, bringing his left hand up to his forehead. He opens his eyes slowly... Or not? Or... Yes, they are certainly open. His breathing quickens before he lets out a strange, pained laugh. "Ha- I -ha- I can't see -ha ha- anything!" His eyes have gone milky and bloodshot, complete physical blindness replacing his magically induced one. The lizard rolls onto his side, shakily trying to sit up. His voice is raspy from all that shouting as he speaks up "I am... I don't... -ha- It hurts, but... Is the curse gone, or simply worse?"
Rondelethia: "Never gonna stop worrying" She simply replies, though she leaves Teis do her thing with Tarbin, and instead focuses on securing those expensive mana lenses away in their protective case! Imagine just leaving them there before you got horribly blinded in a magical experiment! "I'm going to write a letter of complaint. These things should have mana-flare protection in them..." Grumble, Grumble.
Teis: "I know, Della! There will be time to worry about me after!" Teis scrambles. Teis quickly offers Tarbin one of her hands. "Easy, easy!" Teis instructs. "Gone...What do you-" Teis realises, her eyes widening. "I-I-I thought I was clear!" Teis stammers in a panic. "This was merely to get more information about the curse, to help me cure it in the future. This wasn't the cure itself! What do you mean you can't see?" Teis begins to look over Tarbin's eyes.
Tarbin gives her a panicked look, turning toward her voice as best he can. "It what?! What do you mean what do I mean?!"
Rondelethia was gonna just..do some clean up, and let those two panic at each other. She didn't know what was going on, and wasn't going to learn anything useful right now anyway!
Teis: "Look, just. Look-" Very poor choice of words, Teis. "-Just stay calm. Okay? I saw what I needed to see about the curse, okay? Enough that I can begin my research on how to lift it, alright?"
Tarbin grits his jaw, a growl in his throat as he does try to calm, stepping shakily down from the table, where he nearly crumples to the floor, holding himself up on the edge. His legs feel like he's lost weeks of progress towards healing, but the fight is quickly draining from him in his exhaustion. "I have no choice but to trust you now, I suppose..."
Teis' tail arcs up as she panics, doing her best to try and physically support Tarbin. "Hey, easy easy. Please. I don't know what the counter-measures might have done to you. The counter-measure - It stopped me from being able to see what it did to you. So just - Just take it easy. You mentioned you can't see at all now?"
Rondelethia: "I think you both need to relax a little, drink a glass of water" She's got two glasses for just this purpose! "And work out what's happened slowly"
Tarbin looks toward her, the change in his eyes evident. "Nothing at all, before everything was... mush. A fog. Now there is nothing..." He sets his hand on her shoulder for support, a streak of yellow-green appearing in his mind as well as the impurity of the minor damage from the goggles. He hums, focusing for a moment on that, directing Nature's energy toward healing what the flash had done to Teis's own eyes.
Teis: "Thank you, Della. But...Maybe we should get Tarbin to one of the guest rooms? He's in no state to head back to the Minnow like this...And I promise, I'll explain everything." The healing takes Teis by surprise, the insignia fading from her vision. Huh, neat.
Rondelethia: "Of course. I trust there's a good reason for this, but..please Teis. Keep the living experimentation to a minimum?" She helps Tarbin to his feet "Follow me Sir. We'll get you comfortable before long"
Tarbin blindly (of course) seeks out his cane, nodding as he does his best to follow Rondelethia. "I... Appreciate it, thank you." He does manage to not bump into anything important on the way, at least.
Rondelethia eventually returns, having set the lizard up in a guest bedroom. "So, what was all that about?"
Teis signs, thankful for Della's assistance. She begins to clean the area up, notably inspecting the damage Tarbin had caused during his anguish. When Della returns, Teis is busy taking notes, as well as having sketched the insignia that both her and Della had witnessed. "The short version is that Tarbin has a curse. I've agreed to help him, in exchange for him teaching me about his magic we discussed the other day." Teis turns to face Della. "Look, it's fortunate that you're here. I didn't mean to be rude earlier, it's just that things were more pressing in the moment. I wanted to ask you if Tarbin can stay with us. At-At least until I cure him. He...He has no home. And now he's blind."
Rondelethia: "He was blind before, though?" She sighs "I'm not going to say no, but we're not a charity. We're a business, and its commendable that you're helping people, and I'm not going to be telling you to stop, but.." Please start doing things that actually make money, is unsaid "..In any case, once we're finished cleaning up here, we should get something to eat"
Teis: "Partially blind before." Teis corrects. "I know, I know Della. I promise, I'll make it up to you. The knowledge of both curse-breaking and Tarbin's magic is too good to pass up. I promise I'll spend as much time in the lab as possible between helping Tarbin, okay? And think about it this way. A reputation for curse-breaking can be profitable? Yes?" Ties tries to convince Della. "...Are we going somewhere?"
Rondelethia: "Yes. Lunch" She tugs Teis out "You can do what you want in the lab. All I ask is I have something to include in my report at the end of the month, okay? There's plenty of time, so no all nighters, and remember to eat. I won't be here every afternoon to drag you out of the lab"
Teis: "Okay, okay." Teis agrees, trying not to be sassy about it. Della did just agree to take Tarbin in, after all. She doesn't want to punch that gift horse - Or rather, Easter Bunny - In the mouth. She leaves with Della.
Rondelethia would bring her off to a wonderful little pastry shop. How did they even get the ice-cream into the middle of the hot bun!? It's a mystery so it is.