Remnants of the Earth
EDANITH => Megacities => Tynova => Topic started by: Anonymous on October 13, 2008, 08:51:07 pm
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Long white talons clicked against the tile floor in odd rhythm. Tap, tap-tap, tap, tap-tap. Malachi Xanthe hardly paid any attention to the sound of its own walking, but it was certain it unnerved the hell out of the little mage it led around.
It was good to be a six-legged lizard-being, sometimes. It inspired respect.
Maybe that was why the mage was walking beside it, comparatively obediently. Either that or the set of slightly smaller claws attached to humanoid fingers that rested on his shoulder.
It couldn't have resisted picking this mage... he was just so cute. An unbonded catboy, with a feminine build and hair Malachi's very favorite shade of turquoise. What a catch, it thought, a smirk on its face. Without a doubt, he needed a Mordecai who would be taken seriously, and who better for the position than myself?
"Now, I'm not sure you know what you are in for," it said coolly, looking down at the mage out the corner of its eye. "You've probably heard about the mind-link process, though... you get a metal band bolted to your head." It smiled, showing pointed fangs... Malachi was certainly a forbidding creature, sharp at most ends.
"Don't worry, though, you'll be under anesthesia. Won't feel a thing." It gestured with its unoccupied hand as it talked, a habit it had that annoyed close friends and provided a surreal juxtaposition of appearance and demeanor to strangers. "You'll be fine."
Malachi looked its new possession over again, pleased with its choice. A mimic... he would certainly be fun, especially with the arrogant attitudes of certain Mordecai who thought their mages were one-of-a-kind. "What are you dallying for, child? I can move faster than that on two legs..."
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Tap tap tap-tap tap tap..
Each and every tap caused at least one ear to twitch in slight annoyance. It was hard for him to block out the noise with his ears. Ears that picked up even the lowest of sounds. He even tried flattening his ears against his head in an attempt to block out the sound. Wasn't working. Even in his nervousness at being chosen out of who knows how many others, the annoyance of having to listen to the tapping over powered it.
He said nothing about it though, a bit frightened that if he did those claws on his shoulder would cause pain that he did not want. Now that might not happen at all but he would be mindful of all of the things that could happen. It was the best thing to do to avoid problems.
Adel kept his eyes forward, doing his best not to think of what was to come. That didn't work out as the person that had picked him out started to talk. Being as short as he was, compared to his Mordecai of course, he had to look up when he glanced at him for a second as he spoke. The words though caused his face to pale slightly and quickly look forward again. A metal band bolted to his head. That certainly didn't sound...desirable.
Even with anesthesia.
Now he couldn't stop thinking about it. Lovely. His eyes stayed forward, not looking up or around. Now even the annoyance was gone. He was even more nervous than he had been a few seconds ago. He even started to feel a little faint. Too much thinking. His faint feeling was obvious too as he started to stumble a bit or walk out of line.
He tried to keep his pace up but it wasn't working and apparently his Mordecai noticed. "Dallying? Delaying having something so undesirable driven into my head, maybe." he mumbled. "Do we really need to rush it anyway?" Rushing to the area would probably be best though because at his rate he'd either trip and fall, or start to anyway, or just faint. At the moment fainting seemed the most likely thing.
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The mage's ears were certainly freaking out. Malachi watched them, amused, taking their antics as a coping mechanism, or something. They moved forward, to the sides, back, up and down... quite an interesting turn of evolution they were! Whatever it was that made them move so, it was the cutest thing Malachi had ever seen.
For all the antics of the boy's ears, he himself was rather sedate. Malachi's first reaction was a sort of dissatisfied look, but then it rationalized that the child would probably be afraid, and thus less talkative than its usual conversation partners. So Malachi decided to stop rambling, if only momentarily...
That is, until the mage started tripping over his own feet. The dragon-centaur slowed down a bit, giving the boy a look usually accompanied by a snicker. "Well, if you get it over with, you won't have to think about it anymore. Maybe we can get you a green one, to match your pretty eyes." That was wishful thinking, of course. If the boy wanted it decorated, that would have to happen later or not at all.
Malachi fancied itself a patient being, on the whole. However, the mage's missteps and slow pace were getting a bit out of hand... worse as he went along, it seemed. "Would you like me to carry you? That might be more efficient. Of course, if you want to keep tempting fate with those feet of yours, by all means, go ahead..."
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As a way of getting his mind off of the band being bolted in his head, he quickly started to think of the color of it. He of course knew he would get the standard colored one of course but thinking about something like that made the nervousness ease a little. Not enough to correct his walking though. It was probably too late to fix that since the light headed feeling, that came along with one ready to faint, had already set in.
The mention of being carried caused his tail to fluff out a bit and his face to turn red. He would absolutely not agree to something like that. He had his pride to think about. He'd rather risk falling and hurting himself. So no no no that was definately out of the question! Never ever in his life would he consent to something like that. Even if he couldn't walk!
"I can walk." he said rather quickly. Adel even tried so much as to hide the fact that the suggestion had sort of thrown him for a loop. He glanced over at the opposite wall so that his face couldn't really be seen. All that really would give away that moment was the fact that his tail was still fluffed out, making it look larger than it was obviously. He tried to will that down but it didn't work out so well so he settled for swishing it in a rather fast fashion.
Being so concentrated on those things though left him open for mistake. That was exactly what happened too. He managed to trip himself and when that happened he of course stumbled forward nearly falling. His desperate and feeble attempt to keep himself balanced was flailing his arms about. It of course didn't work out too well.
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That boy just kept getting worse at walking... it would have been hilarious if Malachi didn't feel sorry for him. It pulled a bit ahead of him, its strong tail swaying gently behind it. Malachi hoped the boy would have the presence of mind to grab it if he really did fall...
The mage's agitation at being asked if he would like to be carried was interesting indeed. From Malachi's experience, it was common for young human males to show their toughness by declining any help offered to them... a catboy is still close enough for that to be in effect, I think. It fell silent again, walking at a reduced pace for the child's benefit.
Malachi should have known the youth's attempts to hide his... embarrassment? Anger? Desiiiiire? ... would trip him up one of these times. As soon as it saw him pitch forward, it stopped moving altogether and snaked out its tail to support him, angling it a bit so the ridge of its spine on top wouldn't cause the mage undue discomfort. It caught the boy about the waist and wrapped its tail around him, lest he fall to one side or the other.
"Now, this may be a misdiagnosis, but you look like you would benefit from a ride." Its face was twisted into a wry grin. "I don't even have spikes on my back to deter you." It twisted its tail to place him back over his center of gravity. "Honestly. You have a lot of pride, for a mage."
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Adel wasn't expecting to hit the floor. He was pretty sure he'd be caught in some way. He didn't expect that would be done with the Mordecai's tail though. In fact he hadn't even realized that was what had stopped him from falling until he was upright again. That was only because the tail was still firmly in place around his waist rather than moved back to it's original position.
Once again his tail fluffed out and if he had looked completely like a cat, fur and all, this was a perfect moment to imagine him with fur sticking straight up on his back. Ah but he didn't have that so he just stiffened up a bit. Now it didn't seem like he had too much of an option of walking or being carried or in fact, as recently offered, getting a ride. At least the last option would save his pride and keep himself from hurting himself.
Adel kept his eyes on the ground for a second before looking up at the Mordecai, weighing out his options in his head still. "Fine...I'll...take that..ride..." he said, though hesitant obviously. He puffed out his cheeks a little at the last part, his tail still fluffed out but now swishing back and forth in an irate manner. "Is it a bad thing to have a lot of pride?"
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Malachi couldn't keep from laughing a bit as the mage puffed himself up again. It looked cute when cats did it (at least it did to Malachi; it wasn't sure how other cats felt about the whole thing), and doubly cute when the catboy did it. For all it knew, the action was fearsome indeed, even to humans... but Malachi was no human, and he certainly had no fear of cats.
A pleasant smile lit the dragon-centaur's face as the mage acquiesced. It knelt, in a way slightly different from a horse, and unwrapped his tail carefully. "I won't walk too fast. Just get on and hold the back of my shirt..." From this point, Malachi was shorter than the mage, which must have made him feel better.
"Not... in a normal sense, no." Malachi thought it over. "You'll have to prepare yourself to have it crushed frequently, often not by me. Pride comes before a fall, as they say..." it grinned over its shoulder at the boy, hoping he would catch the joke without assistance. "I mean, we care enough about you to drill a metal band into your head... that should tell you what pride is worth among mages."
"Ah!" The humanoid section of Malachi's spine straightened visibly. "How unbelievably rude of me..." He rotated around as much as he could without knocking the mage off his back, and extended a hand. "My name is Malachi Xanthe."
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The laughing only caused him to fluff out his tail and puff up his cheeks even more. He couldn't quite figure out what was so funny. He saw nothing funny about what had happened or what he was doing. So why laugh? He obviously didn't believe it was funny because he wasn't laughing.
Adel watched as the dragon like creature knelt down so that he could get on his back and only then did the tail unwrap from around his waist. So he was right? He never really had the option of attempting to walk again. He said nothing as he did as he was told. 'Definitely better than being carried.'
He frowned a little at the next words though. None of that sounded desirable at all. Actually none of it was. "If not by you then who else?" And then the joke. It went way over his head. The confused expression his face held proved that too. It would need explaining. "I get it."
He arched a brow and stared at the hand that was extended out to him after the sudden introduction. Why hadn't he bothered to do this sooner? Why hadn't Adel bothered to think of it sooner? He just stared at the hand for a second longer before finally taking it in his own and shaking it. "Mine is Adel....Adel Wright." He paused for a second. Best commit his name to memory because he would obviously need to remember it. "Nice to meet you."
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Malachi calmed itself quickly. Its laughing obviously wasn't helping the situation any, and it didn't want its mage to completely hate it on the first day. Cats certainly have an odd way of showing their ferocity, it thought. Puffy cheeks really wouldn't do him any good in a fight. Doesn't he have claws or teeth?
It felt the boy mount it and bury his hands in Malachi's shirt, and as soon as he was steady, Malachi rose smoothly onto its reptilian limbs and resumed walking, slowly at first, working up to its normal speed once he was sure the mage wouldn't fall off.
"Other Mordecai," Malachi said with a shrug of the set of shoulders that wasn't presently helping it walk. "You'll find I'm a very agreeable person, at least comparatively." It didn't need to turn around to pick up on the mage's confusion. Malachi let it go. "It's good to have some measure of self-respect, though. I've seen some of the dullest mages, who just let their Mordecai walk all over them."
Malachi waited patiently for the boy to take his hand. Not that it could blame him at all... a scaly, blue, clawed hand was probably not very welcoming to someone as warm and soft as the mage. "Adel, right?" Another pun. Malachi was on it today. "Well met." It smiled and turned back, glad not to have hit anything while not looking where he was walking.
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Adel held on tightly to Malachi's shirt when he...she...Wait what was he..she? Nevermind that...he'd just refer to him as a 'he' until proven wrong since he didn't really look like a girl nor necessarily sound like one either. He was more in the middle but either way that was how it was going to be for now. He shook his head to get the thought away and just continued to hold tightly onto the shirt, fearing me might fall with one simple movement.
"Okay." Adel mumbled. He blinked at the last part and huffed slightly. How could anyone have enough self respect to allow that to happen? Really? "You don't have to worry about that happening." he said simply. It wasn't like he'd be completely unreasonable though. After getting used to things he'd probably not be as mouthy or anything as he normally was.
His ears flattened out against his head at the pun. Yea he had gotten that one. "Very funny." he mumbled, huffing slightly. When Malachi turned around again, he tried to see around him or over his shoulder or something to see if they were almost there. He was curious..and frightened at the same time. "How much longer?"
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The dragon-centaur moved at a smooth trot, nothing too severe. It would have been hilarious had the boy fallen, but that degree of clumsiness was hard to imagine. That and it was a good four-and-a-half-foot drop from Malachi's back, and would doubtless put a rip or two in its shirt, which made the scenario less funny. Malachi resolved to be careful.
Adel certainly didn't sound very enthusiastic. Of course, Malachi couldn't exactly expect enthusiasm from someone about to have several bolts put in his skull... "That's good. I'd rather have the odd argument than a soulless drone of a mage." Those were no fun at all, in Malachi's opinion. A mage with a sense of self-worth makes a better conversationalist.
A grin spread across Malachi's reptilian face as Adel reacted to the pun. It rolled its eyes and kept walking. "Serious business..." it felt Adel's weight shifting around on its back, and wondered what was going on until the mage spoke. "Ah. We're practically there, don't worry. A hundred feet, tops."
Almost before it got the words out, Malachi stood at the door of the surgery room. It opened the door and ducked its head, taking Adel through with him. Its shoulders and hips just barely fit through the door, but once it was through, it moved to the center of the room and knelt again, allowing Adel to dismount. "Here we are. I'll stay with you..."
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"And I'd rather provide an odd argument than be a soulless drone. So I guess we have an agreement there." Adel said simply. Being a soulless drone just didn't sound fun at all. Not only that but it just didn't fit his personality. Even if his pride would be crushed he would never become like that. He'd still hold onto a bit of it at least.
He huffed a little at Malachi's comment. "Not all of the time. Besides you wouldn't like it if someone turned your name into a pun, now would you?" he said. He felt the nervousness come back when Malachi said they were almost there. No more curiosity then.
As they went through the door, he was almost as stiff as a board and stuck in place. He didn't want to move. He didn't want to get off of the Mordecai's back then. Maybe if he closed his eyes the completely untrue principal of "If I can't see you then you can't see me".
He stayed quiet, looking around the surgery room a little, his ears flat against his head. He hesitated a moment before getting off of Malachi's back. He was more afraid now than anything and it showed in the shaking of his body. It wasn't something he could easily hide. "...Not sure what good that will do...but...okay.." He actually liked the thought of having someone there with him. It made the thought of having bolts put into his head just a little less intimidating because, just in case, there was someone else there in case anything went wrong.
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"Very good." Malachi smiled pleasantly. "I believe we're going to get along fine." It had barely spent any time with the mage at all, and already it had seen Adel's personality at work. He was strong-willed, but obedient for his own sake. A bit thickheaded, but that would just make things interesting. Malachi was very patient.
Malachi turned its head, just enough to see Adel out the corner of his eye. "I dare you to try that, Adel... nay, I invite you." It knew its name, and Malachi Xanthe was a hard one to make fun of. It had been hit with "Xanthe is a girl's name", but Malachi could function as a female, so the point was invalid.
The boy's tension was palpable. Malachi stayed mostly still, and moved one arm to pat Adel's thigh consolingly. Before it could say anything, though, the surgeon swept through a door on the other side of the room, a rather sterile-looking woman with her hair up in a bun and a black box in one hand that held the mind-link band and all its necessary parts. It nodded at her, and, after a raised eyebrow and half a second, she nodded back. "I'll be with you in a second." She disappeared back through the doors and emerged with a long-needled syringe. "Have a seat, mage."
Malachi moved back a little, so not to be in the way, and sat down on its hind legs, using its height to hopefully intimidate the surgeon into doing a good job. That and I want to see, he thought. It's been quite a while since I last saw a mage outfitted for a mind-link.
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"That's good." Adel said though he didn't smile anything. It was a good thing though, a very good thing. Nothing would get done right if they didn't get along now would it? Not only that but he could only imagine there were be a lot of problems for him if he didn't decide to get along with him.
"Well now that you invited me to, I'll think of something. Just to prove there is something." he stated. It would no doubt take it quite a long bit of time to come up with something but he was persistent. Even if it was totally lame, he'd figure something out.
Upon feeling the pat on his thigh, he quickly looked up at Malachi, eyes slightly wide. He didn't say anything though. He couldn't find the words to say. When he heard the door open on the other side of the room, he looked over at the surgeon and nurse that walked in. He swallowed dryly as he eyed the box. It no doubt held the band.
When the nurse left and came back with a needle, he stiffened up again. He eyed the needle like he had the box and started to shake a little bit more. Adel looked over at Malachi, only to see him move back. He then looked back at the nurse for a second and took one small step towards where he was supposed to sit. He stopped then and stared at the needle for a little bit longer. '..It'll be over soon...won't feel anything....it'll all be okay...'
He took a deep breath and let it out slowly even though it didn't help him any. He was still shaking as he walked over to where he was supposed to sit down and did so after looking the needle and nurse over once more.
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What remarkable tenacity! Malachi smiled at Adel. He was glad to have picked a mage that could rise to a challenge. A pat on the back for you, Malachi.
Malachi felt sorry for the boy. That kitten-eyed stare of his melted its heart (which would have felt weird to anyone else, considering Malachi's heart was nowhere near its humanoid chest). All he wanted to do was make the poor mage a hot cup of tea and read him a story, or something. That was out of the question, though. For now.
The nurse tapped her foot impatiently as Adel stared, and sighed when he sat down, as if to say "finally". She moved closer and held up Adel's arm, swabbing the crook of his elbow with cleansing solution. "You won't even feel this," she said, and then jabbed the needle into Adel's arm and depressed the syringe, diluting the mage's veins with morphine.
Malachi looked distastefully at the needle... it was certain the nurse had used more painkillers with the last mage it had seen. Maybe this one is just smaller, he thought. For now, it stayed in its spot, nearly immobile, watching.
The surgeon now had latex gloves on her hands. She opened the box and slid the band out, and the bolts after it. There was a device on the inside of the band that looked like a dart: that would burrow through Adel's skull and bury itself in the mage's brain... the thought made Malachi shiver from across the room. The surgeon hid that part from the mage; no need to freak him out unduly, since he wouldn't feel it. "Are you ready, mage?"
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Adel's ears twitched a little at the sound of the nurse tapping her foot. Such impatience. Maybe he should've made her wait a bit longer just to irritate her? That would've been funny for him but he probably would've gotten himself in trouble by doing that so he didn't delay it anymore.
He closed one eye, holding back a wince when the needle was more or less jabbed into his arm. 'Not feel it...yea right..' He rubbed his arms a little after the needle was out and frowned slightly. At least it wasn't that long before the morphine started to kick in. He made his thoughts fuzzy so he couldn't really focus on worrying about the band being bolted in his head.
Really the only thing he could think about was the fact that everything was a little off set. It was a sort of trippy feeling, making him feel as if he were falling off of his seat and occasionally seeing two of things. To fix that he just blinked a bit and he saw one of things for a little bit of time.
When he heard the surgeon he looked at him or well attempted to look at him. When he moved his head, he actually swayed a little and had to hold onto his seat so that he wouldn't fall off. After that he just settled for answering any questions they had without looking at them. "..Yea.." he mumbled, a bit hesitant again.
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Malachi watched Adel's reactions intently, making sure the boy doesn't register any major discomfort. He frowned as the needle came out, but Malachi was beginning to suspect that was his default expression. It could tell when the morphine kicked in; Adel seemed to have forgotten which way was up. Still, something seemed a little off.
The surgeon positioned herself behind Adel and measured the mage's head. Then she stepped aside for the nurse, who held a razor in her hand. She quickly and expertly shaved the part of the mage's hair that would be covered by the band, leaving the longer layer on top of it, to cover the band. She clipped Adel's hair to the top of his head, so it wouldn't get in the way, and moved aside.
The surgeon returned, holding the band, and positioned the barb at the right part of the mage's skull. Malachi's eyes were locked on Adel's face. The surgeon snapped the band shut around Adel's head, and the barb immediately shot deep into the mage's cranium.
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Adel sat still or well as still as he could anyway. He blinked and tried to look up to see what was going on when he felt his hair being shaved away. Of course it didn't work but that didn't mean his tripped out mind wasn't going to try and make him do it anyway. Just the action of trying to look up without moving his head was like when he tried to look at the doctor. He sway a little in the other direction this time though. He didn't fall over because he was still holding onto his seat.
Every pause in the changes between surgeon to nurse unnerved him a bit because he couldn't see what they were doing. He knew what they were going to do but he couldn't see the preparations for it. He glanced over at Malachi who was watching the two intently. Well with him watching he didn't have much to worry about..did he? He hoped not.
His body stiffened up immediately and his eyes went wide as the band was shut around his head and the thing on it went into his skull. It hurt! It didn't hurt as much as it probably could have but it still hurt quite a bit because the thing was going in his head after all. Besides that he thought the morphine was supposed to keep it from hurting.
When tears formed in his eyes, he shut them tightly and his body started shaking again. "S-Stop! It hurts!" he yelped, reaching up to try and take the band off but stopped short. If he took it out then it would hurt more, wouldn't it? His hands shook a bit as he settled for holding onto his head tightly where the band wasn't at.
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The nurse put a hand on top of Adel's head as she shaved the ring of hair, trying not to miss with the razor. She rather liked his hair, and he probably liked his scalp, so things would work out a lot better if his head didn't escape her.
Malachi stood up immediately when it heard Adel's pained cry. "Doctor," it said, voice still calm, "are you sure he is properly medicated?" An honest mistake, it assured itself. I won't jump to conclusions... maybe catboys are impervious to morphine or something. It shuddered, the motion going all the way down its spine. Still, that goes right into his brain...
The surgeon looked at the nurse, who looked at the floor, then up at Malachi. The dragon-centaur's eyes were narrowed, its stance a bit more threatening. The nurse planted her feet. "I don't see why it's necessary to waste any morphine at all on mages, sir..."
That was not a satisfactory answer at all. Malachi took a step toward the nurse, talons tapping, lowering his head. "He is still human... or close enough, anyway."
"It won't harm him," she said adamantly. "By the looks of you, he could use some pain tolerance." There was a snippy, entitled edge in her voice of which Malachi wanted no part.
Malachi snarled viciously at the nurse and held its clawed hands in a threatening position. "Give him the dosage he needs. I'll pay for it, if that's how you want to be." The surgeon's eyes darted worriedly between the two, but she kept silent. Malachi certainly looked about to rip the nurse's throat out.
The nurse retreated into the back room, and the surgeon glanced apologetically at Malachi. Malachi looked over its shoulder at Adel, to verify that he was still alive. "Sorry," he said softly.
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Adel faintly heard the voices of talking but couldn't concentrate on them even though the people the voices belonged to were near him. They seemed so distant because of the pain. It was really the only thing he could focus on even if he didn't want to. It was the only thing his body was registering. He couldn't see where everyone stood either because he had his eyes closed and refused to open them, as if clamping them shut would somehow relieve everything.
Tears continued to slide down his cheeks as he desperately held onto his head, wishing this ailment would just stop so he didn't have to deal with it. So he didn't have to hurt so bad. Pain really was an awful thing and though he was somewhat used to it because of his clumsy ways, little bumps and scratches were vastly different from what he was feeling now.
He heard the one word apology, faintly still, and tried to figure out who it had come from. He was so disoriented that he couldn't be sure if what he was hearing was really being said or not. He had heard of people who had been put through vast amounts of pain, how they heard things as they were crying out for help before eventually the pain became too much and they either died of some form of shock, their wound or just passed out. Passing out...he really didn't want to do that and he wasn't sure if dying was something that could happen in this situation. If it could...he definately didn't want that.
Adel didn't want to stay sitting anymore. Just sitting and holding his head wasn't helping out. If anything clutching his head was probably only making it worse. Even if he fell after getting up it'd be so much better than sitting and waiting for the surgeon to do something else that would cause him more harm. He didn't want that. He wanted someone to hold onto. A person to seek comfort in so that they could ease everything is some way.
His eyes weren't opened yet and as soon as he was on his feet he did indeed stumble forward. Keeping his eyes closed and the morphine made him light on his feet and it was going to happen. At least the closest person, as he just lost his footing and pitched forward, was Malachi. Rather than falling and hitting the floor, he fell into him and immediately, just having contact with someone, Adel held tightly onto whatever he touched first which felt like a shirt and buried his face into it. "Take it off...take it off..please...make it stop hurting." he whimpered.
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The boy did not look good.
Malachi stepped back looked at him worriedly as he stood up. He almost immediately fell forward, and Malachi rotated to catch him against its chest. He was crying... the poor child. It held Adel close, out of habit, and stroked his back, deliberately keeping its hands away from the mage's head. "I'm sorry, Adel... I can't take it off you..."
It whipped its head around to stare at the back door, as though willing it to open faster. "Hurry," it ordered, voice ringing in a commanding tone. Malachi never wanted Adel to have to go through this... crippling pain. It made its stomach turn to see the proud mage beg.
The nurse returned, with another dose of morphine. She had only filled the syringe halfway the first time. Like that did anything but make him dizzy, Malachi thought bitterly. "Sir..." she said, a bit more sheepishly, "could you hold his arm out?"
Malachi did not respond directly to the nurse, but took Adel's arm by the wrist and held it out, gently but firmly. "Please don't move, Adel. After this, you won't feel the pain anymore."
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Adel whimpered more when Malachi said he couldn't take the band off. Even him stroking his back helped him a little. It only helped him calm down a little more so than helped the pain go away. It just would've been so much better if he could take the band out. It would probably hurt more to take it out though so maybe it wasn't the best idea after all.
He did as he was told, holding still. It whatever they were about to do was going to get rid of the pain he'd definately do whatever he was told. He unburied his face from Malachi's shirt and opened his eyes a little so he could see what they were doing. He sniffled and hiccuped a little as he wiped some of the tears from his eyes so he could actually see. Another needle.
It wasn't like the needle the first time had done any good, obviously. Despite that though he still didn't move, hoping that this time there really would be no more pain. He watched the nurse for a minute before looking up at Malachi, noticing that he was watching her intently.
After that he buried his face back in Malachi's shirt, not wanting to see the needle being put into his arm this time.
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Malachi stayed with Adel, holding him partly to make the mage feel better, and partly to make itself feel better. The needle slid easily into Adel's arm, and the nurse depressed the syringe all the way before removing the needle. "There," Malachi said calmly. "You won't feel it anymore, now..."
The surgeon waited until the morphine took hold, then spoke. "Sir, I think he will be fine now..." Malachi looked up at her, no longer acknowledging the existence of the nurse at all, nodded and reluctantly set the mage down on the hospital bed. "You'll be alright, Adel... just stay still." It stayed near Adel anyway, wanting to keep itself between its mage and the nurse. Not surprisingly, the nurse didn't protest, but rather stayed as far from Malachi as possible without being obvious.
When Adel had sufficiently calmed down, the surgeon hefted a professional-looking drill with a shallow bit, so she wouldn't hit anything important. "Can you hold him steady, sir?" She asked, a hint of a quaver in her voice as she briefly looked into Malachi's eyes. "Yes," it answered, and placed one hand under Adel's chin and the other on the opposite side of his head.
With the press of the trigger, the drill buzzed to life, and the surgeon held it precisely to one of the holes in the metal band, and slowly pressed it in. She moved very carefully, not wanting to damage the mage's brain, and instructed Malachi to hold Adel's head sideways as she fitted the bolt in. She twisted it in with nimble fingers, then used another chrome instrument to tighten it. "One down," and smiled uneasily at Malachi. "You don't have to stay, sir, if you don't want to."
"I'll stay," it said adamantly. The surgeon could not have expected less. She wiped the blood off the metal band with an antibacterial pad, and began again on another hole.
-
"Okay.." Adel mumbled, his voice muffled a little since he still had his face buried in Malachi's shirt. He'd much rather stay like that than have to sit back on the hospital bed. He didn't want anymore to do with the band after all even if the second dose of morphine was getting rid of the pain he already felt when it set in fully.
Too bad it couldn't be that way. Not that he was in any right state of mind when he was moved back to the bed. In fact he couldn't even really even sit up without swaying a little back and forth and side to side. He only nodded slightly when he heard Malachi tell him to sit still. It didn't really register of course because it wasn't like he could keep himself still.
It was probably best that Malachi held his head so that the surgeon could put the bolts in because he definately wasn't going to be able to hold it still himself. That was already made obvious of course. His ears twitched a little as he heard the drill start up. Once again it didn't really register and if anything he glanced up at Malachi with an expression that made it seem he had no idea what was going on anymore.
Adel closed his eyes after a moment and probably would've fallen forward off of the hospital bed if Malachi still wasn't holding him still. He wasn't feeling pain anymore, which was good, but he was feeling quite sleepy then. He wasn't sure if it was from the morphine or if it was from finally getting relief from the pain. Either way drifting off sounded so nice and in fact that was exactly what he was starting to do.
-
Malachi watched the feeling fade out of Adel's eyes, the way it was supposed to have the first time, and relaxed a little. He was alive and not in shock, which was very good news. Selfish as it was, Malachi hoped the mage wouldn't blame the pain on it. That would put them off to a bad start, and mean it would inevitably have to use fear to right the situation...
...And I don't feel like dealing with another of those.
It was a good sign when Adel fell asleep. That meant he was numb enough to let his mind wander a bit. Malachi stayed with its mage as the surgeon drilled into the catboy's skull, at one point rearing its front legs up onto the hospital bed and resting Adel's body against its own. Its arms were tired, and so was the rest of it.
Soon enough, the surgeon held the last bolt up to the last hole, and carefully drilled it in. She wiped down the band and smiled weakly at Malachi. "Thank you for your cooperation, sir. And sorry..." The nurse had slipped out of the room as soon as she found the opportunity, presumably to go re-sterilize herself.
"You're welcome, Doctor," Malachi said with a nod, and set Adel down gingerly on the hospital bed. It returned to the floor, sitting back on its hind legs. The vertebrae in its tail slowly pivoted to one side and then the other as it waited for the mage to awaken.
-
Sleep was a very satisfying escape. He didn't feel anything else and didn't have to worry about anything. Even if he was sleeping sitting up, which normally would be an odd position to sleep, he was comfortable. He didn't even wake up when Malachi adjusted himself.
In fact he didn't even wake up until everything was done and Malachi had laid him down on the hospital bed. He stirred slightly, curling up a little before actually opening his eyes. He wasn't entirely there though since the after effects of the anesthesia hadn't quite worn off yet. Rolling over onto his back, he whined a little and covered his eyes some. "Turn off the sun...." he murmured. "Five more minutes...."
When the light remained on and he could see it when he looked through his fingertips. He turned over again but of course miscalculated how wide the hospital bed was. This time when he turned over he turned right off of the bed and said hello to the floor. "Ow...ow...ow...ow.. ." he whined, not even bothering to sit up. His head was spinning and even the floor looked like it was moving.
'Stupid...anesthesia....'
-
The lizard man's heart did a little leap when Adel awoke. "Aww," it said softly, so not to force the mage into a higher level of wakefulness, and smiled. It paced a bit, anxious to find out whether or not Adel was doing well, but reluctant to forrce him awake. After all, if I'd just had a band drilled and bolted into my head, I would want to sleep for at least a week straight.
However, Malachi's pacing took it too far away from Adel's bed to impede the boy's fall. It rushed over, though, and picked Adel up and cradled him a little. "Poor thing! You must be having a bad day... first your mind-link band, and now the floor... what you need is a warm meal and an actual bed. Which reminds me..."
It turned its head to the surgeon. To her, it was probably still frightening, but that was the least of its concerns. "Doctor, is my band set up? It would be a pain to take him home and have to come back, or something like that..."
A look of realization came over the surgeon's face. "Ah! Yes, sir. It should have been with this one." She set the drill down and walked over to the counter where the box sat. After rummaging through it she pulled out a thinner band, without bolt-holes in it. "Here you are, sir," she said timidly, and handed it to Malachi. "I trust you've done this before..."
"I have," it said, and smiled as pleasantly as possible as he took it from her and placed it around his forehead. He adjusted it so it fit, and moved his hair out from under it, all the while keeping a front paw around Adel. "Are you alright now, Adel? Can we activate the mind-link?"
-
His head was still reeling so he couldn't really concentrate on anything except how cold the floor was to his exposed skin. The coldness of it didn't motivate him to move any sooner though. He had thought about moving once and even went to but his body protested, refusing to move even an inch. It still felt a little heavy like he was actually awake, could see and hear, but his body wasn't.
Suddenly being lifted from the ground didn't really help too much either. Being moved just made everything start to spin. He glanced up at Malachi but couldn't just focus on him. Everything had stopped spinning after a minute but his mind was everywhere at the moment and it hurt to try and concentrate. A bad day was an understatement though.
Adel remained quiet as Malachi just went on to talk with the doctor..or whoever it was that was still in the room. He didn't want to look since he knew it would probably cause the spinning to come back. Not something he wanted again. It had already started to make him feel ill to his stomach before it stopped a second ago.
He blinked when Malachi addressed him again. At least this time when he did, Adel could see straight. "..I'm okay. I think.." He wasn't entirely sure if he was okay or not. It depended on the definition of okay. "Activate...the mind-link..? Will that hurt too?" he asked, not wanting anymore pain or anything like it for the rest of the day. Really all he wanted to do now was to sleep a little bit longer without having the risk of falling off of another bed.
-
Adel just looked so tired. The mages always did, after this stage. Some of them fought more than others, so some got more tired. Adel hadn't put up that much of a fight, but still... Malachi ran its fingers lightly through Adel's hair, careful not to touch the band. "I hope you're okay. You'll be better once we get you home."
It smiled pityingly at Adel. "No, it won't hurt. The part that hurts is over, okay? We'll just do this, then I'll take you home, and you can rest and heal." Malachi regretted keeping Adel for one more thing, but it was necessary, in case Adel wandered off or something. It had heard far too many stories from disgruntled Mordecai who brought their mages home the first day without activating their mind-links, only to have them run off.
Malachi looked at the surgeon again. "Alright, ma'am."
The surgeon nodded and pressed a button on the side of Malachi's band and a matching one on Adel's, at the same time. "There. Now, it should gradually fade in, and by tomorrow, the two of you will be fully linked... though I don't know why I'm telling you this, Malachi."
"It's fine," it said. "Adel would like to know, probably. So it doesn't freak him out." It turned its head toward Adel. "Like she said, by tomorrow, our minds will be linked. We can communicate that way, as long as you don't get too far away. It doesn't look like you're up to moving much right now, though." He looked back at the surgeon. "Thank you. We'll be going now... is that all right, Adel?"
-
Adel closed his eyes when Malachi ran his fingers through his hair. It felt nice and there really was no stopping the purring that ended up starting shortly afterwards. He was too tired to worry about not purring or anything anyway. It would take too much concentration to keep himself from doing it.
A small sigh of relief escaped his lips at the mention of the process not hurting. He was still a bit wary of it though. "Okay...thank you." he murmured, opening his eyes a little before yawning quietly. He really was tired..more than he thought actually. When the surgeon pressed a button on his headband, he closed his eyes for a second, still afraid that it might hurt. Once the surgeon was done though, he opened one eye for a second before opening both. No pain. That was nice.
"I understand." he said when the surgeon explained what would happen. He had heard a little bit about it but experiencing was something that was needed to understand it fully. Adel blinked and looked up at Malachi as he explained a bit more. "Okay." At the mention of leaving, Adel quickly nodded. Of course he regretted it soon afterwards when it made his head spin again. He'd have to remember not to do that for a little bit. "Yea. I'm ready to go." He was actually more than ready to go and it was probably obvious.
-
Malachi felt Adel's purring before it heard it, and smiled. "Poor thing. I'm sorry this is taking so long." The surgeon flinched a bit as it said that, even though it hadn't meant it as her fault. Malachi kept running its fingers through Adel's turquoise hair, admiring the color and the seemingly-obvious fact that his ears matched. It was fascinating, to someone who only had hair on his head and wasn't quite sure why it had that.
Adel, apparently, possessed some uncanny ability to get cuter the longer one knew him. Once the surgeon moved away and Adel made his intentions clear, Malachi gently lifted him into its arms, not about to just throw him on its back and expect him to hang on. That would be irresponsible. It could already feel the barest hints of murky, tired thoughts coming through the link. That was the most exciting part, at least in Malachi's opinion. Maybe it would get to listen to Adel's dreams.
"Let's go, then." It held Adel close to its chest, so he could grab onto its shirt if he felt dizzy. It thanked the surgeon, and backed through the door, walking toward the outside door at a steady pace, trying not to jostle Adel too much. The poor child had been through a lot already. It was all Malachi could hope for, to let him get comfortable before they started training or anything.
-
"It's okay." Adel murmured quietly, the fingers through his hair started to put him to sleep. He sort of didn't mind if it took just a little bit longer, even though he really wanted to leave, just as long as there was nothing else that dealt with pain involved. If there was he'd attempt to just get up and leave. Of course he probably wouldn't get very far due to being sleepy and probably very uncoordinated because of it.
When he was suddenly lifted up, Adel blinked and looked around to see what was going on. Realizing that it was Malachi that had picked him up, his cheeks flushed a little. "I can walk." he mumbled even though he knew he couldn't. Too bad it didn't seem protest from him was going to work any as Mal simply held him close and started to leave.
There wasn't much the cat boy could do to keep his eyes from starting to drift closed since even though he wanted to protest, he was comfortable being carried. Even twitching his ears and flattening them against his head didn't keep him awake as he soon found out when he slowly started to drift off to sleep, holding onto Malachi's shirt a little. Cuddling things while he slept, sometimes, was something he was used to and a lot of times did without realizing. 'Can't..stay awake..' he thought, the words actually just coming out as incoherent mumbles.
-
Malachi grinned down at the tired boy in its arms. "You can not either," it said calmly as it walked down the hall. "Maybe tomorrow, you'll be able to walk." It could see Adel wasn't quite up to answering, though, so it kept walking, looking ahead and ignoring the uneasy stares of passersby. After a few steps, Adel was asleep in its arms. Just as well, thought Malachi. The noise outside would hurt his head, if he were awake. It headed outside and started for its house, listening to the faint echoes of thoughts that meant his mind wasn't so lonely anymore.
-----
The rest of the day, Malachi drifted. It had set Adel up in the spare room it kept for a mage, with lights off, the way humans liked it, buried under covers instead of baking under an oversized heat lamp, as was customary for a lizard. He was very cute when he was asleep, Malachi couldn't help noticing.
Then it had retreated to its own room. Malachi's room was nothing extravagant. A huge, somewhat clawed-up bed with faded blue sheets and a veritable mountain of matching and unmatched pillows with an electric blanket or two and a heat lamp installed over it, a lighted vanity with combs and brushes and makeup and jewelry strewn haphazardly across it, for feminine days, a closet to keep shirts in, and an adjoining bathroom. Everything, somewhat unsurprisingly, had double doors. It left one of the doors open when it went in and lay on its bed, turning the lamp on and curling up with its humanoid half on the pillows. It spent the daylight hours neither sleeping nor awake, half-listening to Adel's dreams licking at the edges of his mind.
It awoke sometime in the evening, ravenous and rather un-rested, but otherwise feeling well. It wandered into the kitchen, worrying more about Adel then itself, and looked through its cavernous, but rather vacant, refrigerator. It spotted a carton of eggs it had purchased, knowing its mage probably wouldn't want what Malachi would be having, and took it out. Now the difficult part... cooking.
-
Adel slept comfortably for quite a while. The mix of wanting to sleep off the little bit of pain that was left and the left over effects of the anesthetic helped out a bit. He didn't even wake up because of being able to hear bits and pieces of Mal's thoughts. All sounds and anything else were blocked out for the time being. Sleep was more important right now.
In fact the only time he woke up was when he got too warm buried beneath too many blankets. He stirred a bit and closed his eyes a bit tighter in hopes of being able to go back to sleep because his head was throbbing a little. Just a slight headache he figured. It helped with the problem of getting back to sleep. Adel whined a little and pushed the blankets off of him before sitting up, rubbing his eyes a little. He still felt a little groggy and couldn't exactly see straight just yet. Still half asleep.
Despite that the cat boy carefully got to his feet and glanced around the room he was in. '..Hn...where is this...?' He had fallen asleep long before Mal got to his house so it was understandable that he would have no idea where he was. Rubbing his eyes a little more, Adel headed towards the door. Unfortunately his accident prone skills decided to kick in at the worse times. Rather than going out the door..he ran into the door frame. His expression went blank as he stumbled backwards afterwards. He was unable to regain his balance and ended up falling flat on his bottom. "Ow...."
He pouted a little and put a hand to his head before letting out a puff of air. His accident proneness couldn't just choose another time to kick in? He was still tired and groggy and didn't feel like running into things or tripping and falling. Adel whined a bit before getting to his feet again. This time when he went to leave the room, he actually managed to get out. Tilting his head a little, he blinked, thinking he smelt something cooking. Looking around, Adel just whined more. Where was the kitchen..? Shaking his head slightly, he put a hand on a wall to keep himself steady and followed the smell until he got to the kitchen, seeing Mal cooking something. "Hi..."
-
The eggs were sticking to the pan, and Malachi was not the least bit happy about it, nor did he have any idea how to prevent it. He scraped the bottom to the best of his ability, but that only caused them to smell burnt. After a while he got frustrated and fetched a plate from a cabinet, and picked up the pan to scrape the eggs onto it. Cooking was a pain, but he didn't want to risk Adel's health because he didn't feel like doing it.
Speaking of Adel... he turned his head toward the kitchen entrance to see the cat-eared boy there, leaning against the wall. He shut off the stove and set the pan down on a cool burner, then took the plate and a fork to the table. "Good morning," he said brightly. "I'm sorry... I'm not a very good cook... hopefully this is alright, for you. We can go shopping later, for food you like." He had set up a folding chair at the dining table for Adel. His house was sparely furnished, mainly because he couldn't use chairs very well himself. "Maybe a comfier chair or two, too. Things to sit on."
Malachi returned to the fridge and took out a few steaks and a bigger pan, which he set on the stove. He cut through the plastic wrap with one claw and placed the steaks in the pan, then threw away the wrapping. Then he took a plate down for himself and flipped the steaks over, not letting them cook too long. "Welcome to your new house, by the way. Not quite as catboy-friendly as it could be, but we can fix that, right?"
-
Something was burning...that wasn't a good thing. What was burning exactly though? He was curious. Adel stood on his tiptoes a little to see in the pan that Malachi was using but the result of that was him tilting forward, almost to the point of falling. He quickly fixed that by standing flat on the floor again. The food that was burning was shown afterwards when put on a plate. Eggs? Well it looked like eggs anyway...His stomach growled a little, betraying the small crinkle of his nose because of the burnt smell. "It's fine." he mumbled, not sure what else to say.
For a second he just stayed where he was at before the smell of the burnt eggs caused his stomach to growl again and he decided to follow Malachi. As a chair was retrieved for him, he looked at the plate of eggs for a second, tilting his head slightly. His ears twitched a little before looking up at Mal when he returned with the chair and set it up. "Okay. Thank you."
When Malachi returned to the kitchen, Adel tested the chair real quick just to make sure he wouldn't fall off of it too...since it seemed he was doing a lot of falling lately. When he found that he could stay on it without falling over, he made himself comfortable and then once again inspected the eggs. Not exactly what he wanted for breakfast but he was hungry so it was fine. Being picky could come later when his stomach didn't sound like it was going to eat itself.
Picking up the fork, he cut off some of the egg and stuck it in his mouth, his tail swishing back and forth a little behind the chair happily. His ears twitched a little again as silence ensued for a moment and the only thing to listen to was Mal in the kitchen. For a minute anyway. Adel glanced over to the kitchen, eating another bite of egg. He swallowed it and nodded. "Yes. It shouldn't be too hard." If he wasn't being picky it wouldn't be too hard. "Thank you for the food. It's good." Yea..despite it being burnt it was good. Though...he'd need to learn a bit more about cooking so that he could take over doing that...burnt food wasn't always nice.
The thing on his head felt a little weird there still so he couldn't help but reach up and just touch it for a second. Well that was until he got a little twinge of pain from touching it. He quickly hissed and left it alone, attempting to glare up at it. It didn't work...he couldn't look up and cross-eyed. His tail twitched in an irritated manner as he huffed and went back to eating his eggs, pouting a little.
-
Malachi nodded. "You can pick anything you want. Clothes too... I want to make sure you're happy, okay?" That was how Malachi treated all of his mages, in the past. Some of them had even wound up not hating him! Joy of joys, to have this one accept him... but he didn't want to get his hopes up too high.
The lizard smiled over his shoulder at the compliment. "Thank you! I haven't cooked eggs in forever... I was worried you wouldn't like them. If you want more, I can make more for you." Malachi had two cooking settings, he figured: burnt, and nearly raw. He placed the steaks on a plate and brought them over to the table with a fork and knife, sitting on his hind legs on the floor to eat.
He watched Adel as he touched the band on his forehead, and winced a bit when the young mage hissed in pain. "I'm sorry... it's going to hurt for a while. Maybe we can get you more painkillers for it." He cut his steaks into what he thought of as manageable pieces... that is to say, at any rate, he cut them... and started eating like anyone would expect a giant lizard to eat... that is to say, with lots of tilting-back-the-head, and very little chewing.
-
"Okay. Sounds like a plan." Adel said since he was sure he had next to no clothes with him. Actually maybe he didn't have any at all except the ones he was wearing right now. When he woke up it hadn't crossed his mind to look for other clothes to wear later on. Now that he was thinking about it...he was curious and really wanted to know. At the same time he wanted to finish eating though. He'd just go after eating or something since it wasn't like he'd die if he didn't check.
He glanced down at his eggs to see how many he had left since he really hadn't been looking. Still quite a few. He wasn't a really fast eater and it never took much to get him full either. "I'm okay right now." Considering Malachi was about to eat too, he would probably attempt to make them himself. It'd be a nice way to practice until he actually figured out how to cook.
When Mal came into the room and sat down, Adel just nodded at the part about the painkillers. He wasn't fond of pain, of course, so more pain killers would be nice. Maybe it'd take away the weird feeling too and he wouldn't want to touch the band again. He was taken from his thoughts when Mal started to eat though. He blinked and tilted his head a little, not really thinking about the fact that staring at a person while they were eating wasn't nice. "How do you do that?"
-
"Alright, then!" Malachi smiled brightly. He had completely forgotten to get Adel any clothes from the fortress, and didn't make a habit of having pants lying around, so a shopping trip seemed to be just the thing. It had been far too long since he had last had a mage to pamper, and he was determined to have fun with this one... and bipedal humanoids couldn't really begin to have fun without pants and proper chairs, right? Of course not.
He silently added painkillers to the shopping list. Adel was a good boy; he didn't need to be miserable just because he was a mage. He swallowed a bite and tilted his head a bit at Adel's comment. "Do what?" he said, then paused for a second. The way he ate was completely natural to him, but it occurred to him that Adel didn't do it that way. For pity's sake, he was chewing eggs. "Ah, that."
Malachi set his utensils down briefly, and did something akin to a wide yawn, accompanied by a cracking of joints, the action causing his jaw to unhinge and fall wide open like a snake's mouth, pointed white teeth revealed in detail. It's a giant lizard thing, you see. I find it very useful. Sorry if it freaks you out, he said, testing out the mind-link. The same thing reversed set his jaw in its natural position again. "If I couldn't do that, eating would take forever..." Malachi did eat a lot, being a formidably-sized dragon-centaur, and a forkful at a time just didn't cut it for a semi-quick meal.
-
Adel watched quietly as Malachi demonstrate how he was able to eat the way he did. The cracking of joints caused him to cringe a little and his ears to flatten against his head because to him it sounded quite painful. What seemed even more painful was the fact that Mal had unhinged his jaw. If he tried something like that he was sure his would get stuck or something..or he'd break it and have to go to the hospital. It was a sort of disturbing thought but at the same time he was curious if he could even get his mouth open at least half the amount Mal could.
When Mal spoke through the mind link, he blinked and quickly looked around a little. He was not used to being able to hear someone else's voice in his head obviously so for a second he had no idea where it came from. Once Mal spoke again, he quickly looked over at him and connected what had been said through the mind link to what was said then. He had to get used to that..
"Ah I understand." Adel went quiet after that for a second before deciding it was a good idea to test and see how wide he could open his mouth. His ears twitched a little as he opened it normally and found that he could not open it more than that and thus tried to use his hands to pry open his mouth wider. It didn't work. Actually all that happened was his jaw ended feeling sort of funny. It didn't hurt to try though.
-
"Don't worry about it," he said calmly after reconnecting his jaw. "It doesn't hurt... like cracking your knuckles, you know. Something like that." He smiled at Adel. "You'll get used to the mind-speech thing, too. It won't pick up anyone but me, so it's safe to assume any thoughts you hear that aren't yours are mine." He sympathized with the kid; this was almost definitely the first time he had to deal with any of this.
Malachi couldn't keep from laughing at Adel's attempts to open his mouth as wide as he had. "Don't hurt yourself, Adel. You're too cute..." Mal took and swallowed another bite of meat. "You don't need a mouth that opens wide. You don't have to eat as much as I do... unless you're not telling me something." He leaned over to ruffle Adel's hair, grinning affably. "I'd hate to find out I wasn't feeding you enough."
The dragon-centaur finished his food and stretched a little, shaking off his morning lethargy. He had a big day ahead of him, and he didn't want to spend it half dead. "You don't drink coffee or anything, do you? My house is kind of... poorly furnished, as far as that goes... but we could go get coffee if you want some. Or milk, or whatever." He picked up his plate and put it in the sink, running hot water over it to prevent undue nastiness when he had to do dishes later.
-
"Ohh.." He never cracked his knuckles much so he wasn't sure about that either. Usually they cracked themselves but since it didn't hurt he pretty much understood what Malachi was saying. Adel was pretty sure though that if he tried to crack his jaw like that...it would hurt a lot and not just feel weird like it had when he had attempted to do it at first. "Ah...so..you can hear what I'm thinking then?" Well that sort of meant he had no privacy anymore right? It would also be odd.
When Mal laughed at his attempts, he tilted his head to the side a little. "I won't." he said, having given up on trying anyway. His cheeks went a little red at the cut comment and he smiled a little, even more though when his hair was ruffled. It made him want to start purring but he kept himself from doing that at the moment, thinking that it would sound weird to Mal. He thought he sounded weird when doing it so that was another good reason not to. "Ah..I don't eat a lot."
Adel finished his eggs off shortly after that when there was silence again. He looked at Mal again when he spoke though. "I drink milk~!" he said happily. That really sounded good at the moment too. Cookies sounded even better with it. Actually..any sort of sweet did. 'Hmm yummy...I want sweets now...'
-
The lizard-being nodded rather lazily at Adel's question. "I can. It's an interesting system. I can hear all of your thoughts, but you can only hear mine when I want you to." He shrugged. "I guess it's another one of those master-servant things. I mean, you wouldn't need to hear my thoughts. Don't worry about the privacy thing so much, though. I'm only listening to make sure you're okay. Besides, there is very little you could think that would make me visibly embarrassed," he reassured, a pleasant smile on his draconian features.
Adel's reactions kept getting cuter and cuter. Mal would have forgiven him for purring, as he did that sometimes as well. "Okay. I've gotten rusty at keeping, er, humanoids," he confided. "You'll have to help me along somewhat."
Malachi was glad to hear he had correctly judged Adel's diet; little things like that always made him happy. He didn't eat sweets himself, though. Adel really seemed to like them, so Malachi guessed he would have to keep some around at all times. "I don't think I have any here, just now... we can go and get some, though. You can just pick out what you like... so long as it's not all junk food." He grinned at Adel again. "We don't want you to be unhealthy, either."
-
Adel was just about to ask if he could hear Mal's thoughts but went quiet when the question was answered before he got a chance to ask it. "Ohhh..." The master and servant part sounded a bit odd and would no doubt take a little bit to get used to hearing. Of course his image of master and servant was slightly different than how this seemed to be. His image was not really as nice as what was actually happening at the moment. He wasn't complaining though! There was absolutely nothing wrong with this version of master and servant. Actually he much rather preferred this version. Who wouldn't?
"Okay. I will." Adel said. He wouldn't really mind doing that. He'd get to choose things too and not just be told what to have. At least that is what is sounded like anyway. For a second he looked a little confused when Mal talked about getting something. Then he remembered that the lizard could hear his thoughts. "Oh! Okay. It won't be all junk food. Promise." Adel said, smiling innocently. Just mostly sweets probably."I understand." he said, smiling still.
-
“I’ll be nice to you, okay?” Malachi said softly, smiling at Adel. “I know what goes on in the fortress. You know... they don’t treat you very well at all.” He wrinkled his nose. “Not like humanoids and sentient things should be treated.” He went over to rest his head against Adel’s shoulder. “Tell me when you want to leave, and we will. I’m gonna go see what I have for you already...” He stood up again and walked back into the hallway and toward the room where Adel would be staying.
The room was rather dusty. The window hadn’t been opened in a while. Luckily, the bed looked about Adel-sized. He had stacked some of his smaller shirts and skirt-things on it. He wasn’t sure Adel would be interested in the skirts now that he’d seen him, but it wouldn’t hurt him to have options. He would need pants and underthings, though... Mal filed that away in his mind for their shopping trip. Maybe they’d find some with tail-holes in already.
-
Adel blinked and glanced up at Malachi, tilting his head a little. He smiled a bit, his ears twitching slightly when Mal rested his head on his shoulder. "I'll be nice too." He couldn't guarantee that he wouldn't be a little picky though. He couldn't really help that part. It just happened. "Okay. Take your time." He was ready to go any time but since Mal wanted to check things out he'd give him time to do that.
When Mal walked away, Adel glanced around a little. He was done eating and now his curiosity was starting to kick in a little. He wanted to know what the other rooms looked like since he had really only been in his room and where he was now. Well he had seen the kitchen too but hadn't really been in it. Well that was where he'd start then. Adel picked up his plate and took it to the kitchen, placing it in the sink before glancing around a little. Pretty much just like any kitchen just a bit bigger which was understandable.
He looked in the various cabinets and things that he could reach just to see what was where so that if he needed to get anything. Once he was done with that though he left the kitchen and tried to think of where to look next. 'Hmmm...let's see...' With a small shrug he just headed the way his room was, wondering what other rooms were around it.