La Bella Vita @irretrievablecycle-blog - Tumblr Blog

“ I don’t know?” Gage mumbled against the table. He kinda just wanted to stay awake. If he had his druthers, sleep wouldn’t be required. Sleep would be optional. In a sense, it wasn’t necessary and he could just simply live off energy crystals if they had enough of them. It wasn’t the case apparently.

After all was said and done, he was exhausted enough to crave sleep, but not look forward to the experience of it. “Meh…”

“I’m sure Joseph has plenty of research on cyberelves by now. I’ll contact Ben and see about arranging a visit.” Aliblu offered. The research, of course, coming from experiences with various cyber-elves across the Faultline. “But please rest, Gage…It really is worrying to see you like this.”

Nix held Gage close and nuzzles his face again the elf. “I love you and I want you to be safe and happy.” Even if it meant the Demon had to be away from the elf for a while.

“Right now you can sleep, I’ll take you back to your room. I’ll stay with you if you want,”

“I... want you to be safe and happy.” I thought you’d be happier without me dying on your arm, but i don’t want to be alone. The words hadn’t even been spoken, but they could be read clear as day through the expression on his face. Yeah. In retrospect it was a stupid solution, but... there always stood a chance they couldn’t fix the problem that stood before them.

“...I still don’t want to sleep...” Yet Gage wasn’t going to put up a fight for once.

“I…” Gage blinked a bit, pursing his lips before shaking his head. ‘I’m not trying to fade faster.’ went through his head. No. He didn’t like sleep. It was far more terrifying than death, but much more terrifying.

After a few seconds, he sighed, pressing his head against the table. Asking him to do it for Nix was messing with his head.

Aliblu reached over and patted Gage on the back. “We’re not trying to be mean Gage. We care about you.”

“…. I know you told me sleeping is scary before… would it help maybe if where you some where were they knew more about cyber elves that here?” Nix didn’t really know any places like that… Maybe Aliblu did he wasn’t sure.

He just wanted to help his friend, even if Gage didn’t want him to help.

After all was said and done, he was exhausted enough to crave sleep, but not look forward to the experience of it. “Meh...”

“No!” Gage sat up, bracing his hands against the table. Aha. No. What if Gage didn’t wake up this time? That was always a constant fear for other times, but what if he didn’t wake up because of this? “I’m not sleeping. That’s final.”

He sounded unwavering stern. Funny how he could bounce between mentalities so quickly.

Aliblu rolled her eyes at Gage. “Unfortunately, Gage, resting is necessary.” She pulled out a handkerchief and dangled it, the cloth coming to life and whizzing over to clean up the spilled pudding.

Nix grumbles and Gage close. “Listen, you should know this. If you don’t rest, you can’t recharge yourself. If you don’t recharge yourself enough you will stress your ability to hold a charge even more and make yourself fade away faster. You need rest and maybe more energy crystals than we have right now.” He sighs and rests his head on Gage’s shoulder.

“Stop trying to make yourself fade out… Can’t you try to keep yourself safe for once? ….For me if for nothing else.”

“I...” Gage blinked a bit, pursing his lips before shaking his head. ‘I’m not trying to fade faster.’ went through his head. No. He didn’t like sleep. It was far more terrifying than death, but much more terrifying.

After a few seconds, he sighed, pressing his head against the table. Asking him to do it for Nix was messing with his head.

“Nyeh!” Gage catapulted pudding right at Nix’s head with his spoon. He was NOT making a big mess! Every mess was contained and he was not acting like a 5 year old– suck it. Taste his squishy wrath, demon-spawn. Your elder ain’t having that shit.

“ It’s a gathering. I dunno what it does exactly, but it’s a thing. A nice get together for people.” Under his breath, Gage grumbled something about pudding.

Aliblu stared. Really Gage? “Ah…I’m reminded of Caldre’s earlier days.” She managed to laugh.

Nix was just glad it didn’t end up in his hair…. “Cute… Maybe we can work on stabling your mental age too.” The demon let his tongue slide out of his mouth to lick the pudding off his nose. “Ok ill or wounded aside, this act is enough. You are getting snuggled till you sleep!”

He sounded unwavering stern. Funny how he could bounce between mentalities so quickly.

“Cold times.” Gage laid down on his side, trying to figure out how to eat the pudding without sitting up. Immediately, he frowned bitterly at the squishy texture. It… wasn’t bad… but it wasn’t good. The taste… was weird. Still… he ate the pudding without actually sitting up. “Thanksgiving is about something… about animals and stuff.”

“Food mostly.”

“It’s a holiday, about gathering family and friends and giving thanks for having what you have in your life. And yes, food, but what celebration doesn’t have a feast?” Aliblu explained.

“I might read something on it later and Gage you are making a mess.” Nix grumbles a bit. Really how was the older one here? Gage was acting like he was a 5 year old having a fit. “I’m gonna have to clean you up when put you in bed to sleep.”

“Nyeh!” Gage catapulted pudding right at Nix’s head with his spoon. He was NOT making a big mess! Every mess was contained and he was not acting like a 5 year old-- suck it. Taste his squishy wrath, demon-spawn. Your elder ain’t having that shit.

“ It’s a gathering. I dunno what it does exactly, but it’s a thing. A nice get together for people.” Under his breath, Gage grumbled something about pudding.

“Few spoons. Maybe. I don’t know anymore.” You’re asking the elf who doesn’t need to eat if there is silverware in the drawers. He frowned slightly, closing his eyes when he was lifted. Holding his eyelids open meant work. Work meant effort and effort meant energy. A little purr left him as he momentarily forgot the nasty things he’d said to get in this position in the first place.

Damn it. He was a dick.

“You were making this for a friend who’s gone now and it doesn’t get used often. I just… don’t read as much cooking things as I should, I guess.” Gage murmured and curled up gently against the demon, not sure… what pudding was and not sure if he should risk it to find out.

“I’ll be making my Thanksgiving small, because you two’ll be taking cooking lessons from me for the next couple of weeks.” Aliblu said matter-of-factly. ”Sweets first, they’re relatively easier. Yes Nix, that means cakes.”

She popped open the pudding cup’s top, locating a slightly bent spoon. “It’s chocolate, I hope that’s fine.” Aliblu handed the cup and spoon to Gage.

Nix makes a noise about being told he’s going to be getting cooking lessons, Gage was more important that Cakes! “Cooking can wait…. And what’s Thanksgiving?” He sits down in the booth side of the table, holding the elf in his lap so Gage can use the table to eat at.

“Cold times.” Gage laid down on his side, trying to figure out how to eat the pudding without sitting up. Immediately, he frowned bitterly at the squishy texture. It... wasn’t bad... but it wasn’t good. The taste... was weird. Still... he ate the pudding without actually sitting up. “Thanksgiving is about something... about animals and stuff.”

“Food mostly.”

Gage grumbled, barely listening to the talk of food. It wasn’t until they took their brief pause did the elf bark out something.

“I’m hungry.” He… didn’t even know what true hunger felt like. The tiny Cyber-elf sat up for a moment before laying back down with a grumble. Of course, he felt something… Gage assumed that he was hungry.

“Errr, hang on…”Aliblu dug through her purse.”…Well, I have a snack pudding. I think I packed it in case the kids got hungry, but considering they’re at the castle today, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind you having it.”

“Let’s head to the kitchen, I think the spoons are clean… if I have any.” He looked down at Gage a bit confused. “Did we ever find spoons? or was that still something on the list to find?” Either way, Nix picked the elf up off his lap as he got up to walk to the kitchen.

“One hell of a tour of the place I guess.” He chuckles a bit walking down the hallway to the kitchen. It was pretty well put together, even thought nothing matched what so ever. There was a like… half a booth for one side of the table and two mismatched chairs for the other side. Stove was in good clean working order and the fridge hummed away softly to show it was also in good working order and ready to store food, which they rarely had…

“Everything works, and I did remember to toss out anything that spoiled. Though there really isn’t that much food here anyways. I was making this a while back for…..” Nix made a noise. “That’s in the past… but either way, I have a working kitchen, now I just need to learn how to cook.”

Damn it. He was a dick.

“You were making this for a friend who’s gone now and it doesn’t get used often. I just... don’t read as much cooking things as I should, I guess.” Gage murmured and curled up gently against the demon, not sure... what pudding was and not sure if he should risk it to find out.

Gage sighed, his hands grabbing his chest. It still felt tight, but when coupled with the fact he was utterly exhausted… Gage couldn’t help but cuddle closer to Nix. His tiredness was caused by more than just energy deficiency. Jumping through emotional hoops hurt him and he still wasn’t over that…

“Just… do what you want to do.” He didn’t really sound up to thinking at the moment. Exhaustion gripped him firmly.

“I’ll see if Ben can help. He’s just as good a cook as I am, but I think him being a reploid might help solve that problem easier.” Or maybe the castle could help as well… “Whenever my reploid friends go to the castle, they have a slurry called ‘elec-slag’. It’s basically a liquid form of electricity. But…it might be too powerful for Gage, considering they have fully operating bodies…”

“I’ll see if Chola can create something the same, but a little lighter.”

“We have some time. Right now I think Gage needs some rest.” Nix sighs a bit. “Maybe some where else that can make sure this rage fit we both did didn’t cause him any extra damage.” Nix was a bit worried he still did something to hurt Gage.

Gage grumbled, barely listening to the talk of food. It wasn’t until they took their brief pause did the elf bark out something.

“I’m hungry.” He... didn’t even know what true hunger felt like. The tiny Cyber-elf sat up for a moment before laying back down with a grumble. Of course, he felt something... Gage assumed that he was hungry.

“…” Gage shuddered a bit, staying quiet. He shouldn’t have let them know still rang through his head. What if it didn’t work and he actually died off? That’s the natural progression for Cyber-elves like him. Their grief would be his fault. Still, he frowned and laid in the demons lap as he contemplated. “I’m sorry I’m dying?”

A long pause came from the unblinking elf.

“What’s the other solution, Aliblu?” If he had all options written down in his head, he could filter through them for the best ones.

Aliblu twiddled her fingers.”….When Belbi was still a full cyberelf, she ate part of my Saint blade. The metal was forged by magic, so…it began to poison her. Her Majesty. The White Queen. She changed Belbi into a techno-organic. You could…If there were no other options, I mean.”

Nix gave a look at this. “I don’t like this idea… at all. We have time though, So let talk to others and see what all we can find out. Maybe another world will hold the keys we need to make this all work out.”

“Hey Aliblu… That cake was really good, though Gage did tell me he didn’t eat a lot because he can’t taste every well, and he doesn’t like the feeling of the food in his mouth. Maybe we can making him some smoothies and energy drinks? Maybe that’ll help him hold on to his energy a little better?”

Gage sighed, his hands grabbing his chest. It still felt tight, but when coupled with the fact he was utterly exhausted... Gage couldn’t help but cuddle closer to Nix. His tiredness was caused by more than just energy deficiency. Jumping through emotional hoops hurt him and he still wasn’t over that...

“Just... do what you want to do.” He didn’t really sound up to thinking at the moment. Exhaustion gripped him firmly.

“I… don’t know.” Gage shook his head back and forth sadly. It felt like he should have known this information… he was a Cyber-elf researcher before his death, but all the information was moot at this point when he couldn’t decipher a word of it. Still, the lingering fact that he might have known a solution to this issue in the past upset him further.

“I’m feeling bad. I feel like I ran and I can’t catch my breath. Then… I remember… I don’t have lungs. The feeling where my core is supposed to be won’t go away and it scares me.” Gage bristled a bit at his own statement. “I don’t want to die again and hurt you guys. I just wanted to make it easier to say ‘good riddance’.”

“If that persists, I’ll drag Ben and Joseph in. They’ve dealt with things like this before. My Fa-” And it took a moment, her voice cracking on the word and a flutter of eyelashes to soothe away the sudden watering. “My Father. The first one I had. He was a cyberelf. They…Joseph fashioned a body for him. He was good as new again.”

And she hoped he still was, wherever he was.

“…If not, there’s another solution…” Though she was hoping that could be a last resort.

Nix reaches over the table and pulls Gage into his lap, hugging him gently. “Gage… if you feel bad you have to tell us. We can help… even if we can’t help right away we’re your friends and family. We’ll work to find a way to help you.”

He kisses the top of the elf’s head an then buried his face in that fluffy mess of hair. “You helped me so much, let me help you instead of trying to force me away. I’ll do all I can to figure out how to make you whole again.”

“...” Gage shuddered a bit, staying quiet. He shouldn’t have let them know still rang through his head. What if it didn’t work and he actually died off? That’s the natural progression for Cyber-elves like him. Their grief would be his fault. Still, he frowned and laid in the demons lap as he contemplated. “I’m sorry I’m dying?”

A long pause came from the unblinking elf.

“What’s the other solution, Aliblu?” If he had all options written down in his head, he could filter through them for the best ones.

“I’m dying…” Gage spoke up, clutching his chest with one hand. He frowned a bit, not wanting to say much more than that, but he had to. With his back turned, he moaned.

“I was gone for weeks… I had a lot of time to think and a lot of time to test. I noticed… that I was getting tired faster than normal.” He sniffled a bit. “My core was destroyed a long time ago. I’ve had a good run, but now i’m starting to slow down and… eventually…”

Now, that wasn’t going to be very soon, but the small bits of numbers being shaved down freaked him out enough that he’d lashed out at everyone in hopes that when he died… it wasn’t as painful. If everyone hated him, then letting him go would be easier. Too bad breaking people’s hearts hurt him as well.

“….”

Aliblu wasn’t showing any emotion. Notto say along the lines of Skarlette not showing emotion, but… There was no anger, or sadness. No shock or horror. Only one thing crossed her face at that moment, after what seemed like an eternity of sorting through the things in her head.

“…No.”

“This can be fixed.”

“……” Nix sighs and shuts his lap top. “We’re not going to let you just fade away. We have time to try to work something out. If I read things right I think the time line was like… 6 months to a year?”

Nix was hurting by the news, he kind of played out in his eyes even though he wasn’t showing it else where. “Besides, you have family and friends that’ll be more the willing to help you find a way to stop this. I can text X later and it he’s got free time away from the kids, have him come over so I can talk to him about what he might know about cyber elves….. And if I really need to I can go to Hope again and ask him to teach me more about cyber elves as well. I’m sure where is stuff we can do, we just have to think about them.

“I... don’t know.” Gage shook his head back and forth sadly. It felt like he should have known this information... he was a Cyber-elf researcher before his death, but all the information was moot at this point when he couldn’t decipher a word of it. Still, the lingering fact that he might have known a solution to this issue in the past upset him further.

“I’m feeling bad. I feel like I ran and I can’t catch my breath. Then... I remember... I don’t have lungs. The feeling where my core is supposed to be won’t go away and it scares me.” Gage bristled a bit at his own statement. “I don’t want to die again and hurt you guys. I just wanted to make it easier to say ‘good riddance’.”

He was laid there with a little sigh. The elf’s data looked as confusing as always… nothing really different other than a few large groups of numbers highlighted in red. What that meant was anyone’s guess… But Gage looked too out of it and non compliant to give a straight answer. If Nix really wanted better results, he might have to run a few more tests before he’d noticed the numerical data values were dropping.

Red numbers aren’t good, though.

“I’m sure you’ll do your best and it’ll be fine.” Aliblu responded. Data wasn’t a readable thing to the leporine; she always had Belbi to translate ones and zeros to a language she knew. But her children en masse were at the castle resting.

Nix grumbles a bit at the data, he couldn’t read ones and zeros either, but this was mostly all read outs or things… the problem was figuring out which read out went with each thing. Gage’s coding… even with patches and fixes, was still so messed up.

As calmly as Nix could, he started working on the laptop to decode the mess of files and numbers so he can make since of the code and better compare it to older scans. “…… Things seem the same…. expect this line that keeps showing up in red… What the fuck if this line about damnit.” The code was still a bit screwy.

“It looks like it’s what he’s freaked out over though…. he’d been running scans on him self over and over for…. gees that’s a long time.” Nix grumbles some more still fighting with the data till he stopped suddenly.

“Oh…”

He looked up over the laptop and sighs a bit. “He’s got an energy leak.” He runs his hand through his hair. “It’s kind of small…. but it‘s steadily dropping.”

“I’m dying...” Gage spoke up, clutching his chest with one hand. He frowned a bit, not wanting to say much more than that, but he had to. With his back turned, he moaned.

“I was gone for weeks... I had a lot of time to think and a lot of time to test. I noticed... that I was getting tired faster than normal.” He sniffled a bit. “My core was destroyed a long time ago. I’ve had a good run, but now i’m starting to slow down and... eventually...”

Now, that wasn’t going to be very soon, but the small bits of numbers being shaved down freaked him out enough that he’d lashed out at everyone in hopes that when he died... it wasn’t as painful. If everyone hated him, then letting him go would be easier. Too bad breaking people’s hearts hurt him as well.