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Post by redtopaz on Aug 31, 2008 13:09:02 GMT -5
Nex felt like he was going to heave all over the floor. Not a good sign when one’s on the job. Slipping into a shadowed corner, he reached into his pocket and extracted one of his homemade lozenges. He felt better within moments. Taking a deep, steadying breath and sending a short prayer to the Goddess for strength, he pulled himself up and stepped back into the well lit portion of the waiting room. No one was at the Hospital, which wasn’t an althogether strange state. There was very rarely anyone at Good Hope on any given day. Still, Nex had been dong his best with the few patients he had during Camilla’s absence.
It hadn’t been easy. Discovering that whatever he’d lifted off of Camilla was poisoning him had not helped. He was constantly combating feeling ill with the stress of trying to run a hospital. He spent his off hours trying to find a spell to expel the black from his aura, but nothing was working. He could never resign himself to death, but he was quickly loosing hope. Sighing, Nex slumped into one of the waiting room chairs. He needed to fins a solution, and fast.
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Post by Jules on Aug 31, 2008 13:18:48 GMT -5
Camilla had been at home for a while now, working over a desk, smoothing away and a unicorn horn until her hands went numb and beyond. Until her vision quadrupled and she was taking naps inbetween blinks. And as bad as she felt about Mary's predicament, there was someone she needed to check up on.
She hated how long it took her to get to the hospital. She had to use public transport. And she hadn't even bothered putting on makeup without her wand. Camilla looked a lot more prosaic then she normally did. She was even wearing sweats.
The hospital when she arrived was quiet like normal and she walked through the halls. When it opened up into the well-lit waiting room, her eyes immediately arrested on the figure slumped over in the chair. Jasper? No.
Nex? Oh no. She rushed forward, hand on his chin she lifted his face towards her and she peered down her nose at him. "You haven't deal with it yet, have you?" She asked angrily.
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Post by redtopaz on Aug 31, 2008 13:26:43 GMT -5
Nex tried to give her a reassuring smile, but it looked more wan than anything else. "I'm working on it. If we'd left it with you, you'd be dead. I have a little more time," he chirped, the energy he was forcing into his voice completely at odds with his pale, sickly appearance. "I think," he added, sounding decidedly less chipper. It had seemed like a great idea at the time, but now he was feeling really rather stupid. Maybe he'd been this dumb from the start and just needed something sucky like this to alert him to it.
"Sorry to bother you. I know your busy working on... something." What was it that she was doing anyways? Nex had been so focused on himself he hadn't even stopped to think about why Camilla would suddenly put him in charge of the hospital. Being sick was a major drag. he couldn't keep up with anything it seemed.
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Post by Jules on Aug 31, 2008 13:32:33 GMT -5
Camilla grunted in response, still examining him carefully. "We're going to get it out of you. Jack owes me at least that." She was slightly terrified of going to him with a different problem then the one she was supposed to be working on, but Nex's life was clearly in the balance.
"How long have you been feeling this bad?" She asked, remembering when he'd first taken it from her, he'd made a comment about actually feeling better. The Fairy Godmother felt horrible about letting it go this long before checking up on him. She should've been more persistent.
"And I'm not too busy for this."
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Post by redtopaz on Aug 31, 2008 13:38:41 GMT -5
He looked up at her in mild surprise. That was nice of her. To worry like that. And what she'd said about getting it out of him... She knew how? He couldn't help but feeling hopeful at that.
"Just recently. My magic had been getting stronger. It still is. I bent a hole in time, yesterday! It was incredible! I just felt so... ill, afterwords," he admitted listlessly. "Do you really know a way to get rid of it?" he asked, feeling more like a lost little boy than he'd ever want to admit again.
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Post by Jules on Aug 31, 2008 13:44:51 GMT -5
"I could probably if I had a wand. But we don't have six months to wait. But the King will know what to do." Hopefully it hadn't been in him long enough to grow roots, or whatever the hell it did. Hopefully Jack would be more successful with Nex then he'd been with her. At least put it off until she could wish it out of him. "No more using your powers until it's out." She advised and finally let go of his chin.
She tried on a small smile, if only to comfort him, because honestly she was worried it might be too late. And it would be her fault. She was really, really bad at her job lately. "Let's get you some painkillers before." She slipped one of the small white vials out of her pocket, feeling guilty as she did so, since it was Mary who provided this handy little device to the hospital.
She'd brought home a personal supply since headaches plagued her when she remained so focused on one thing for so long. She touched the uncorked vial to his skin, infecting him with a small dose of Congential Insensitivity to Pain.
It was probably somehow unorthodox for a hospital to infect their patients with a disease, but oh well. It worked.
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Post by redtopaz on Aug 31, 2008 13:54:40 GMT -5
If he thought he'd felt better after the lozenge, it was nothing compared to how he felt after Camilla touched the vial to his skin. That was amazing! He wanted to learn spells that could do that! It was the whole reason he'd bought into the Goddess so completely.
"Thank you," he said, rolling his head now that she'd released his chin. He felt so much better. "You think the King can get rid of this?" he asked, genuinely intrigued. He'd never even seen royalty, let alone met any of them. It was kind of intimidating to hear they were going to be going to a King.
"But I'm getting better at casting," he argued. "I can feel it! Whatever is making me sick is also boosting my magic. I'm not sure I want to let this opportunity pass me by." Nex had never claimed to not be power hungry. He loved the rush of spell casting. And lately it had doubled ten fold. He felt so high when casting and so very very down when he wasn't.
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Post by Jules on Aug 31, 2008 14:00:10 GMT -5
Camilla thought back to what Jack had told her about the force she'd taken out of his son and Nex had subsequently taken out of her. "It purifies Nightmare Aura. That's why it made me so sick, because it pushes out the Dream and strengthens the Nightmare. And I'm all dream. You on the other hand, are all Nightmare. It's natural that it should make you feel stronger. But it'll eat at you. It used to be in a mask, not in a person. I think that's how Jack was able to use it. Don't cast." She reiterated, trying to sound firm past the desire to yawn.
"The King is familiar with it, and was able to help me somewhat with it. It was only because of him that you were able to get it out at all. Now I just hope he can do the same for you."
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Post by redtopaz on Aug 31, 2008 14:11:59 GMT -5
Nex's smile flickered. It bruised his ego to hear that he hadn't been able to extract the curse on his own, but he guessed it made sense. He was still learning, as it was. He was conflicted. The 3/4ths of him that was Nightmare was flourishing with the added power of the evil, but his Dream heritage was suffering, making him physically ill. He didn't want to relinquish such a lovely power augmentation, but he didn't want to go around feeling queasy for the rest of eternity.
"Alright. I'll go. Do you know when we can see him?" If the King had prior experience, he might know how to use it even with the Dream blood present... Oh, he was being silly again. The King would want it extracted completely. That was the way it was. There was no way he could hold on to this curse and keep his life.
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Post by Jules on Aug 31, 2008 15:35:40 GMT -5
Camilla pushed back her sleeved and flipped her wrist to get a look at her watch. She couldn't take too long a break from wand making, and going to Jack while she was supposed to be doing that would probably not make him so happy, but Nex did look horribly ill. "Now. If we hurry, do you have a ride?"
She was really and truly hoping they wouldn't have to take public transport again. It was so slow.
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Post by redtopaz on Aug 31, 2008 15:54:07 GMT -5
Nex looked guiltily up at her. His job paid well, but not well enough for a passenger vehicle. Besides, he didn't want to contribute to global warming, even if there really wasn't an atmosphere in Morpheus. Still... it was the principle of the thing.
"I have a bike. I can give you a ride on the handlebars," he suggested. He'd done it before. With girls back in the countryside. Camilla didn't look heavy, or anything. She was actually fairly thin. It wouldn't be a problem if she could get over the stigma of catching a ride on a pair of handlebars.
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Post by Jules on Aug 31, 2008 16:37:44 GMT -5
Camilla blinked slowly, a bike? It would be faster then public transport, but riding on the handlebars? She sighed and nodded. "But we're going to my place first." She said, if there was a chance they could do this without Jack, Camilla would certainly try. And she had an idea.
"I live in Dreamer's Hell, just above this little boutique down the main street." It was not common knowledge that Camilla lived in Chimera, but it wasn't because she was ashamed, not really. More because she wasn't always up to explaining.
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Post by redtopaz on Sept 2, 2008 17:18:40 GMT -5
"Right!" Nex said with the first strains of enthusiasm he'd been capable of in weeks. "I'm parked right outside. I'm glad for whatever you gave me. I probably wouldn't be able to pedal us both otherwise," he babbled, rushing to his feet and out the door. Thank the Goddess for fairy magic or whatever the vial had been. He felt like he could move without swaying. After saying the un-grounding spell (one of the few ones he'd mastered on his own), he hopped on the seat and gestured to the handle bars. "Hop on, Camilla!"
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Post by Jules on Sept 2, 2008 17:36:30 GMT -5
Camilla sighed and slide onto the handle bars slowly gripping them as best she could. She'd never done this before, but she'd seen others do it and it didn't look like a complicated science.
"It was a disease, actually." She replied, hoping it wouldn't worry him. She explained to her patients what she was doing before she did it usually, but she wasn't really so good at being calm and collected these days with all sorts of different pressures on her. Namely the new wand.
"It wipes out any kind of pain reception. Quite handy, really. It'll run out in about three hours though. Hopefully we'll be done by then."
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Post by redtopaz on Sept 2, 2008 17:43:39 GMT -5
Nex looked surprised. "You gave me a disease?" he asked, alarmed, as he began pushing with his feet to build momentum. "I thought it was fairy magic, or something." He started peddling, rolling through the slight decline leading away from the hospital. "So, can you give me directions?" he asked as they trundled down the path. He knew how to get downtown, but he didn't know where in town he was going.
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