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Combined Post!
Ana had left, and no one else remained in the Moogle but Melody and Jigumundo.
Jig wakes up after another unintentional nap.
Melody sat next to Jig on the couch after she picked up her med kit off the floor. "I need to change your bandages." she said, sounding a bit weary.
Jigumundo tries to move his right hand to rub his forehead. Immidiately regrets that decision. "AAARRGHH..." Clenches his teeth in pain. He grabs his right hand trying to withstand the pain. Professor hisses through his teeth.
Melody opens up her supplies and attempts to grab his arm so he stops hurting himself.
â€That.... bastard... Why can't I move my ARM-AGH!†Jig takes it away. "No!"
"If you let me check it again, we can try to figure out what more is wrong." she says sternly.
Jig groans and ultimately lets her do the job. "I swear... If I get this bastard I'm going to tear him apart piece by piece....†He looks very angry.
Melody gets to work unwrapping last night’s bandages. "I know...I want you to." she checks on how the stitches are holding up and sees she needs to apply more cream to the burned areas.
Jig speaks furiously. With every word of his angry rant the flame in the fireplace gets bigger and bigger. He clenches his teeth again trying to go through her treatment.
Melody notices it start getting hotter and quickly looks up at him with a dark look. "Keep that up and you'll only make everything worse."
“Like it could be worse....â€
Melody steels her gaze. "It could."
Jig keeps ranting. "That wimp got lucky... he barely survived my blow... ran away like a coward!" The flame in chimney went up a bit. "How dare he threaten you like that?!"Another blast up."If he did anything to Martsia...~!" The fire burns furiously like Jig's growing anger.
Melody feels a quickly growing need to calm him down. "I understand you're upset. We all are. But please, right now, be still." she is getting more stern and warning.
Jigumundo shuts up with grim expression. Looks down. His lower lip would twitch. Fire keeps burning.
Melody feels safe enough to look back down at the mess of his arm. "You yelled out in pain when you tried to move. How much feeling do you have in it right now?" she starts poking and prodding.
â€Not at all... pain when I'm trying to move it.â€
"Then what hurt?" she tosses the dirty bandages on the floor.
â€I don't know. It hurts like hell. I can't move it.â€
Melody frowns and thinks a moment. Her poking and prodding made her notice the muscles in his arm felt...odd."Hm...." she hops off the couch and stands in front of him."Let me see something...." she mutters almost to herself and moves to pull his wrists towards herself.
“ACK! What the heck are you doing?!â€
"I need to take your gloves off so I can see if I'm right." she looks up at him, seeming asking permission.
â€If you have to....â€
Melody carefully un-gloves his hands, trying to be as gentle as she could. Putting them aside on the couch, she held his forearms one in each hand and started feeling around with her thumbs, as if comparing.
Jigumundo clenches his teeth in another painful expression.
"Something's not right with the muscles in this arm." she concludes, holding the damaged one up a little bit. "They seem torn up..."
Jigumundo looks down in silence. Clearly he's not very happy about that conclusion.
Melody sighs deeply and wipes her brow. "This might be outside of my current abilities. But I do have extra serum from when I helped Mar with her ankle...." is she talking to him or herself?...
Jigumundo was awfuly silent. His face however shown some wide variety of emotions: from anger to guilt and even despair. Melody's rambling wasn't helping either.
Melody went back to her kit and pulled out what looked to be a vial of....something, and a small hard case with a hinge. She put down the case for a moment and started shaking the vial vigorously. "If it works it works and if not, then at least there won't be any more harm done..." she mutters, lost in her own thoughts.
Jigumundo looks away, probably feeling ashamed now for some reason.
Melody finally looks over to him while still shaking the tiny container, not sure if she wants to talk to him right now or not. She seems like she might be a little upset at him, but doesn't want to provoke any further. "We'll figure it out..." she says quietly.
†What...?â€
"I said we'll figure it out." she says loud enough for him to clearly hear her.
“Figure what out?†Jigumundo almost yelled but held his emotions at last moment.
Melody looks back down, done shaking the vial. She opens up the case with her other hand and pulled out what looks like a hypodermic needle. "This mess we find ourselves in." she feels like she should've just kept her mouth shut.
â€Mess... Enough said...â€
Melody snaps her finger and a small flame ignites above her fingertip. She sterilized the needle while she bites her bottom lip, looking very frustrated.She takes another deep breath as she snaps her finger again, putting out the flame. She fills the needle up with whatever is in the vial and walks back over to his injured side. She peeks up at him, frowning.
"This might hurt, but it might not. Since you're both feeling pain and not feeling anything at the same time it's hard for me to know what to warn you about." she uses her free hand to position his arm. She looks back down and searches for a good entry point.
Jig looks away. "Do what you have to..."
Melody nods and sticks him with absolutely no hesitation whatsoever.
Jigumundo hisses a bit, showing his teeth and frowning.
Melody hears him hiss and peeks back up at him. Is that curiosity in her eyes? She can't stop the questions from bubbling out. "What do you feel? Does it hurt? Anything tingling?--!" she bites her lip to shut up and looks back down.
Jig stays silent. No comment at all. Not even a swear.
Melody tries to bite back her curiousity but it's so very difficult
Jigumundo answers quietly, almost whispering. "It hurts..that's all." He doesn't even looked at her.
Melody peeks up at him once more to see no reaction on his face. Her face turns into one of utter frustration, and also a little red as well. "You know this could be good research for me. This is only the second time I've used it, so I don't know much about its effects yet." she tries to bait for more info. She realizes the needle is still in his arm and draws it out.
â€Research, huh....?â€
"Mhm." she hums affirmitively and goes back to clean everything up.
“Your dearest friend is in danger... and you care for research now...?†He furrows his eyebrows and glowers at her starting with really angry voice. "Research is now the most important part?! If you really want to know, YES IT HURTS LIKE HELL! I'm just curious though... How does YOUR DEAREST FRIEND feel right now?! Research... Haha.... Hahaha..."
Melody Adagio twitches.
Jigumundo laughs hysterically. He covers his face with the healthier hand laughing."Research..."
Melody Adagio just stands there, dead-faced.
Jigumundo stops laughing and glowers at her once again with blaming tone. "How does it make you better now than those BASTARDS who destroyed half of your country?!THE ONLY THING THEY CARED WAS RESEARCH! I CARED ONLY FOR THAT! And you see what happened?! All those who was dear for me DIED! How. Does. It. Make. You. Better?!†he breathes heavilly. “ANSWER ME!â€
Melody flashed him a horrible, hurt-looking glare. "What more can I do right now?!" she seethes. "My best friend is somewhere going through gods know what, and you almost died last night!"
"I was doing my best to save her!"
"I'm trying to do whatever it takes to stay SANE right now!"
"Your mad-scientist muttering CERTAINLY helps! What are you going to do? Take notes?!â€
Melody stomps over to him. "Like you are ANYONE to talk right now." she clenches her teeth.
Jigumundo opens his eyes wider. "What did you just SAY?!" glowers mad at her. The fire in fireplace bursted out again.
"You heard me." she steels her eyes and places her hands on her hips, not giving any shits about the damned fire behind her."In case you haven't figured it out already, neither one of us is currently capable of doing ANYTHING USEFUL RIGHT NOW."
"All we can do is wait for Ana."
“Waiting does not HELP! This is a waste of time!â€
"Neither does using black magic AND NEARLY KILLING YOURSELF!!"
“I WAS TRYING TO STOP HIM! Not like you could do anything about that!What should I do?! LET HIM HURT YOU AND YOUR FAMILY MAYBE?!â€
Melody takes a deep breath while pinching the bridge of her nose under her glasses.
â€I HAD to do something! What were you expecting me to do?!â€
Melody is still shaking with frustration and hurt, but tries to calm down. "I know! It was never a good position for any of us! But I don't need to lose two people at the same time, and I DEFINITELY don't need to now be arguing with you over impossible circmstances! This is not helping anything right now!"
Jig tries to stand up. "Nothing is... uh..."
Melody Adagio flashes him another glare. "What now?!"
He slowly goes towards his coat.
Melody Adagio closes her eyes, biting her lip. She grips the couch and starts putting away her things. "I need to bandage your arm again. You don't want your stitches coming out, do you?" she sounds subdued.
Jigumundo clumsily wear his coat over his shoulders. "No time for this now. I'm going to find her... hng... Myself..."
Melody has had it. She walks over to stand in front of him, making sure he can't get away. He had to still be weakened enough for her to be able to do at least that. "Are you even thinking right now?" she looks him in the eye.
"Get off my way, Melody..." He says through his teeth.
"No.Ana said she would send for us.There is no point or use in you going anywhere right now."
â€This could take weeks!â€
"She said it wouldn't take long.She knows the area that clue came from.â€
â€She thinks so... But that doesn't mean she's right.â€
"You're not right all the time either, Professor." she hisses.
â€She might be falling into a trap right now and not comin back...â€
"And what are you going to do? Hm? Stumble around blindly until you just walk into Mortine by chance and pure luck?"
â€I have my ways....â€
"Your ways can wait." she plants herself firmly in his way.
Jigumundo said that with sinister tone like he's going to do that over corpses.â€No.They. Can't... Get off my way.â€
"No."
“I said GET OFF MY WAY!†Jigumundo's eyes glew purple for a second.
Melody doesn't budge. "It's alright to rely on others sometimes, you know..."
“We don't have time for such luxury... NOW MOVE!â€
Melody thought she saw his eyes change color for a second and seemed confused briefly, but went right back to being stubborn.
Jigumundo grows mad with every passing second. Melody could feel Aether around getting dense. The purple spark in his eyes appeared again.
"Instead of triapsing around the forest when we already have someone there actively hunting for them, why can't we just strategiz--!" she saw it again, and something made her skin crawl.
Jigumundo grabs her arm with his healthy hand and pulls her closer. His eyes glow faintly. "What good will it make now?!" Is the furniture began to shake along with small objects or she's crazy...?
"Jig...?" she winced at his grip and looked at him, feeling ill for some reason.
Jigumundo breathes heavily and glowers at her madly. The fire extinguished and nearby plants began to wither slowly.
"ANSWER ME!"
Melody moved out of sheer instinct and terror. Her hand flashed lightning fast and would strike him across the face, very very hard.
Jigumundo was taken by surprise. The slap was so hard it sent his glasses flying on the floor, cracking one of the spectacles. The force turned his face to the side with surprised expression. He instantly releases his grasp.
Melody stumbled away and landed on her rump in front of him. Her hand was numb from how hard she'd slapped him, and she was breathing heavily while watching him. She started to shiver.
JigumundoDarkbore falls to his knees, covering his face with healthy hand. His eyes were widely opened.
Melody could barely speak. Her heart felt like it was thumping right inside her throat. "I....I-I'm..."
Jigumundo sits like that paralyzed with the shock he just experienced. Things around them settled down as well as the aether density.
Melody gulps and feels the change in the air to her relief, but she can't seem to stop shaking. "I'm-" *gulp* "n-not sorry." she chokes out.
Jigumundo starts to shiver and hunches a bit almost reaching floor with his forehead. He grabs his hair. Melody could hear unstable breathing and... sobbing?
Melody watches him intently with wide eyes. She tentatively starts reaching out her numb hand, but hesitates to touch him. She slowly scooted closer to Jig's hunched figure and gently laid her offending hand on his shoulder. She was nervous to say anything, not trusting his stability right now.
Jigumundo pushed her hand away with shaking hand. "Don't touch me!" His voice cracked. Was he crying...?
Melody pulled back for a moment, but then scooted closer to sit next to him. She stayed silent and kept watching.
Jigumundo sobs silently. "Stay away from me..."
Melody doesn't budge. "I'm not going to run and hide from you if that's what you want..."She thinks to herself that that probably should seem like the logical thing to do, but chooses to ignore herself.
â€I'm going to hurt you...â€
Melody takes a huge gamble. "Willfully?"
"I don't know...."
Melody Adagio thinks about it for a moment longer and decides to take a seat on the chair. She waits for him to get himself together. They were going to finish this and she would wait as long as it needed.
Jigumundo straightened after some time. It took him a while... He just sits on the floor staring with tired eyes at extinguished fireplace.
"Whenever you're ready..." she was getting tired of waiting.
“What are you expecting...?â€
"Not sure..." she tested the waters. "I don't really know what to expect from you right now and it terrifies me."
Jig stands up, showing some pain on his face. "I... don't know either..."
Melody eyes him him warily. "That's even more terrifying."
Jigumundo hobbles towards the door looking down.
Melody hops up and stops him.
â€No...â€
"Jig…I'm not letting you run away from this.Also, your stitches need re-doing..." she notices blood and torn threads.
"I'm not going to..."
She doesn't care to argue anymore and starts pushing him back to the living area. "I'm not going to keep doing this. Go sit back down." she says darkly
Jigumundo's voice crumbles. "Melody.... stop..."
She shakes her head and grabs him in a tight embrace, not wanting him to go anywhere. "How do you think you can just walk out of here after that?"
Jigumundo speaks no more.
Melody grips him tighter. "Can't you say anything?" her chest feels like its tightening and tightening. What does she have to do to make this man stay put?!
Jigumundo, feeling Melody's embrace starts to shake. She could feel his heart pounding like crazy. He sobs quietly, shivering. His head fell on her shoulder, losing all strength.
She keeps her grip on him and feels her face crack into a cringe. "All I wanted to do was take care of you."
His healthy hand clinches on her back as he's embracing her tight, sobbing at her shoulder. "I'm so sorry......"
Melody violently lets out the breath she was holding when she feels him finally responding. She rubs his back soothingly through his sobs. "I'm fine...you didn't hurt me..." she's not sure if he is listening, but tries to comfort him anyway.
“But I would... and was close to..."
"But you didn't."
He shakes burying his face in her neck. "F-Forgive... m-me..."
Melody holds the back of his head and lets him get it all out. "I do. I forgive you." she nestles her face against his head. She tries to keep it together. This hurt worse than his angry words earlier...
"I-I should leave..."
She grumbles and keeps him right where he is. "For the last time, no."
"You don't understand..."
"I don't care."
"I'm dangerous... I could hurt you and everyone here... You can't do this, Melody!"
"Please don't leave me alone right now..." she squeaks.
"You want me to stay... even if I could snap at every moment and hurt you...?"
Melody grips him even tighter if that was even possible and starts quivering.
"By the twelve, what have I done..."Jigumundo hugs her with all strength he had left. Embraces her like there's no tomorrow. He gently pats her head while hugging her, trying to comfort the girl. "It's okay... it's okay... I'm here with you…. I'm so sorry!"
She is trying to hold in her own sobs by keeping her lungs full of air, but that wasn't helping too much.
Jigumundo let's her feel his touch on her cheek. "I'm here! I'm not going to leave you... Never. I promise." he looks like he's kinda freaking out right now...he starts kissing her forehead and cheeks.
Melody Adagio lets out the air in her lungs and tries to get fit over with quickly. "D-don't - gasp - do this - gasp - to me - gasp - again!" she says looking very upset with the waterworks pouring down her face.
Jigumundo just hugs her very tight, as strong as it's possible with one hand. "I won't..."
Melody is calming down now. "G-good!" she starts taking deep breaths to calm down.
"You are my precious, little treasure... I don't know what would I do if something happens to you... especially if I would hurt you..."
Melody's sobs have now turned into sniffles.
“ Please, say something...â€
She looks back at him when she was done. "I'm okay." she’s breathing almost normally and has calmed down.
Jigumundo lets her go and rubs his forehead. He tries to grab her hand, but he’s not very sure about it.
Melody lets him take her hand."I'm sorry…I could only handle so much after everything that's happened."
“ You don't have to handle anything... You've been strong. Stronger than I would ever be. Everything that happened today reminded me of something I wanted to push out of my memory for a long time...â€
Melody Adagio runs her thumb up and down his bare hand and moves to guide him back to the living area. "Talk while I fix you back up. You're bleeding all over the floor...â€
â€Right... forgive me. Did... Martsia ever mentioned any details about her family?â€
She opens her supply kit for the umpteenth time now and fishes out things to clean his arm with. "Some. Why do you ask?"
“It may be important...â€
Melody pursed her lips together. "She sure didn't tell us EVERYTHING, but ask what you need and I'll try to remember." she cleaned up the bloody areas and started pulling out the torn stitches.
“Is Mortine the only member capable of using magic?â€
"That, I don't know. She never even mentioned he was a magic user, from what I recall...Sorry, I don't have anything to numb this with…" she keeps pulling torn threads out of his skin.
“Well if there's one there may be more...I need to know... to get prepared for the worst.â€
Melody continues working while speaking, "From what she told us before, all that was left of her family was her father and brother-in-law. We were all under the impression Mortine was killed by her father."
“Who are they?"
Melody Adagio cocks her head..."Hm...I think her father's name started with a K...Kertaw...Kershaw maybe?"
"Kershaw... Kershaw Troy? I need to check that..."
"Don't quote me on that...I could still be wrong."
"Fine. But it's still some lead…The more we know, the better."
Melody finishes cleaning up the mess that is his arm and starts threading a needle.
"I have a feeling I heard this name before..."
Melody gets ready to start stitching the wounds again. "Huh? How is that possible?"
"I don't know. I might have heard of him. I can't remember now..."
She begins sewing his flesh closed, no hesitation. "I'll try to get this over quick."
He clenches his teeth answering with sarcasm. "Tch... Take your time..."
The smirk that appeared on her face felt nice in the middle of all this chaos. "Once we find them, are you really going to be able to fight?" She sounds concerned.
"I better be... I have some score to settle..."
"I can put this arm in a sling so you don't re-open these again." She works fairly fast, seems pretty practiced. "I have some things to help out a little bit too."
"I still have my other arm. Mortine knew how to counter and react to thaumaturgy... Someone must've taught him this..."
She nods, finishing up the dirty work and applying a thick paste to the stitch work. "Do you suppose we can assume there will be another magic user there than just Mortine?"
"Too late for assumptions. This is sure like death and taxes..."
"Alright. So let's say there are two highly competent mages, and likely her father and brother-in-law. So at least four enemies."
"We are going to need help..."Someone who might give us proper distraction or snatch Martsia while we provide one...but we will see about that when Ana's back...Listen, Melody..."
She's re-applied the burn ointment that got wiped off during their argument and is now bandaging his arm again.
"I'm sorry about what happened before..."
She stays silent as she finishes her work, not looking at him yet.
"If you want me to leave after all of this.. I will."
Her eye twitched. She put his arm back in his lap and finally looked at him. The hurt was plastered on her face. "I don't want that. But...you can't let it happen again."
He couldn't even dare to look at her.
She gets up and goes to pick up his broken glasses, feeling like that was warning enough. "These are no good anymore."Turning back around, she goes back to him and kisses his forehead gently. "Do you have any spares?"
He'd only shake his head. He looks like a mess.
She brushes the hair out of his face to get a better look at his green eyes. "Are you able to see well enough?"
"Could be worse"
His eyes look tired. The dark circles underneath were even darker and bigger than usual.
She gives his cheek a timid caress. "I need to get some more things from my room. You better still be here when I come back."
"I will..."
"I'll be right back." She goes down the hall for a few minutes.
Jig layed on the couch on his left side and closed his eyes for a moment.
Melody comes back into the room lugging a heavy-ish looking chest nearly the size of her torso, and a small blanket over one shoulder. She drops it down on the floor with a small thud, and sees Jig laying down already. With a small smile, she'd drape the small blanket over him.
He opens his eyes slightly and smiles faintly at her. "What's this...?" he mumbled half-concious already.
"Just working on a little invention."She says softly, giving his cheek a quiet kiss as she tucks him in.
"Should I be scared...?
She chuckles as she sits on the floor and opens up the chest. She looks at him real quick and adjusts her glasses with one finger. "Only if you’re at the receiving end." She pulls out a small cheap looking vial and shows it to him. It's packed full of red and black granular powder.
"What is this?"
She puts on a glove from inside the case and grips the vial in her fist. Her fist produces a fireball and she tosses it in the fireplace. A small explosion goes off.
"Firepowder...?"
Melody nods, "Black powder and fire sands."
"Where did you get that idea from...?"
She shrugs and pulls out a bunch of empty vials of the same variety as well as two sacks of the aforementioned ingredients. "I've just been thinking of different ways to play to my strengths. I even got to test them recently, so I know they're effective." She manages a grin.
"Clever girl..." he muttered.
"A... plus..."he's passing out again.
She watches him falling asleep and starts making as many explosives as possible. "Get some rest while you can. I'll wake you when I hear from Ana."
Finally the Professor drifted off to sleep and Melody continued making quick work of the reagents for her mini-bombs. After working on them for a few bells, she ran out of fire sands. Wanting to be fully prepared, she decided Jigumundo was deep enough asleep and she herself was mentally stable enough to make a quick run into town to make a quick purchase. She left a small note on Jig saying what she was doing in case he woke up. It didn't take very long for Clef to take her to the gate to Limsa. Once Melody was in the city, she made her purchases as quick as she could and headed back right away. She and Clef were just heading up the last few stairs when Ana's linkpearl went active.
Ana had left, and no one else remained in the Moogle but Melody and Jigumundo.
Jig wakes up after another unintentional nap.
Melody sat next to Jig on the couch after she picked up her med kit off the floor. "I need to change your bandages." she said, sounding a bit weary.
Jigumundo tries to move his right hand to rub his forehead. Immidiately regrets that decision. "AAARRGHH..." Clenches his teeth in pain. He grabs his right hand trying to withstand the pain. Professor hisses through his teeth.
Melody opens up her supplies and attempts to grab his arm so he stops hurting himself.
â€That.... bastard... Why can't I move my ARM-AGH!†Jig takes it away. "No!"
"If you let me check it again, we can try to figure out what more is wrong." she says sternly.
Jig groans and ultimately lets her do the job. "I swear... If I get this bastard I'm going to tear him apart piece by piece....†He looks very angry.
Melody gets to work unwrapping last night’s bandages. "I know...I want you to." she checks on how the stitches are holding up and sees she needs to apply more cream to the burned areas.
Jig speaks furiously. With every word of his angry rant the flame in the fireplace gets bigger and bigger. He clenches his teeth again trying to go through her treatment.
Melody notices it start getting hotter and quickly looks up at him with a dark look. "Keep that up and you'll only make everything worse."
“Like it could be worse....â€
Melody steels her gaze. "It could."
Jig keeps ranting. "That wimp got lucky... he barely survived my blow... ran away like a coward!" The flame in chimney went up a bit. "How dare he threaten you like that?!"Another blast up."If he did anything to Martsia...~!" The fire burns furiously like Jig's growing anger.
Melody feels a quickly growing need to calm him down. "I understand you're upset. We all are. But please, right now, be still." she is getting more stern and warning.
Jigumundo shuts up with grim expression. Looks down. His lower lip would twitch. Fire keeps burning.
Melody feels safe enough to look back down at the mess of his arm. "You yelled out in pain when you tried to move. How much feeling do you have in it right now?" she starts poking and prodding.
â€Not at all... pain when I'm trying to move it.â€
"Then what hurt?" she tosses the dirty bandages on the floor.
â€I don't know. It hurts like hell. I can't move it.â€
Melody frowns and thinks a moment. Her poking and prodding made her notice the muscles in his arm felt...odd."Hm...." she hops off the couch and stands in front of him."Let me see something...." she mutters almost to herself and moves to pull his wrists towards herself.
“ACK! What the heck are you doing?!â€
"I need to take your gloves off so I can see if I'm right." she looks up at him, seeming asking permission.
â€If you have to....â€
Melody carefully un-gloves his hands, trying to be as gentle as she could. Putting them aside on the couch, she held his forearms one in each hand and started feeling around with her thumbs, as if comparing.
Jigumundo clenches his teeth in another painful expression.
"Something's not right with the muscles in this arm." she concludes, holding the damaged one up a little bit. "They seem torn up..."
Jigumundo looks down in silence. Clearly he's not very happy about that conclusion.
Melody sighs deeply and wipes her brow. "This might be outside of my current abilities. But I do have extra serum from when I helped Mar with her ankle...." is she talking to him or herself?...
Jigumundo was awfuly silent. His face however shown some wide variety of emotions: from anger to guilt and even despair. Melody's rambling wasn't helping either.
Melody went back to her kit and pulled out what looked to be a vial of....something, and a small hard case with a hinge. She put down the case for a moment and started shaking the vial vigorously. "If it works it works and if not, then at least there won't be any more harm done..." she mutters, lost in her own thoughts.
Jigumundo looks away, probably feeling ashamed now for some reason.
Melody finally looks over to him while still shaking the tiny container, not sure if she wants to talk to him right now or not. She seems like she might be a little upset at him, but doesn't want to provoke any further. "We'll figure it out..." she says quietly.
†What...?â€
"I said we'll figure it out." she says loud enough for him to clearly hear her.
“Figure what out?†Jigumundo almost yelled but held his emotions at last moment.
Melody looks back down, done shaking the vial. She opens up the case with her other hand and pulled out what looks like a hypodermic needle. "This mess we find ourselves in." she feels like she should've just kept her mouth shut.
â€Mess... Enough said...â€
Melody snaps her finger and a small flame ignites above her fingertip. She sterilized the needle while she bites her bottom lip, looking very frustrated.She takes another deep breath as she snaps her finger again, putting out the flame. She fills the needle up with whatever is in the vial and walks back over to his injured side. She peeks up at him, frowning.
"This might hurt, but it might not. Since you're both feeling pain and not feeling anything at the same time it's hard for me to know what to warn you about." she uses her free hand to position his arm. She looks back down and searches for a good entry point.
Jig looks away. "Do what you have to..."
Melody nods and sticks him with absolutely no hesitation whatsoever.
Jigumundo hisses a bit, showing his teeth and frowning.
Melody hears him hiss and peeks back up at him. Is that curiosity in her eyes? She can't stop the questions from bubbling out. "What do you feel? Does it hurt? Anything tingling?--!" she bites her lip to shut up and looks back down.
Jig stays silent. No comment at all. Not even a swear.
Melody tries to bite back her curiousity but it's so very difficult
Jigumundo answers quietly, almost whispering. "It hurts..that's all." He doesn't even looked at her.
Melody peeks up at him once more to see no reaction on his face. Her face turns into one of utter frustration, and also a little red as well. "You know this could be good research for me. This is only the second time I've used it, so I don't know much about its effects yet." she tries to bait for more info. She realizes the needle is still in his arm and draws it out.
â€Research, huh....?â€
"Mhm." she hums affirmitively and goes back to clean everything up.
“Your dearest friend is in danger... and you care for research now...?†He furrows his eyebrows and glowers at her starting with really angry voice. "Research is now the most important part?! If you really want to know, YES IT HURTS LIKE HELL! I'm just curious though... How does YOUR DEAREST FRIEND feel right now?! Research... Haha.... Hahaha..."
Melody Adagio twitches.
Jigumundo laughs hysterically. He covers his face with the healthier hand laughing."Research..."
Melody Adagio just stands there, dead-faced.
Jigumundo stops laughing and glowers at her once again with blaming tone. "How does it make you better now than those BASTARDS who destroyed half of your country?!THE ONLY THING THEY CARED WAS RESEARCH! I CARED ONLY FOR THAT! And you see what happened?! All those who was dear for me DIED! How. Does. It. Make. You. Better?!†he breathes heavilly. “ANSWER ME!â€
Melody flashed him a horrible, hurt-looking glare. "What more can I do right now?!" she seethes. "My best friend is somewhere going through gods know what, and you almost died last night!"
"I was doing my best to save her!"
"I'm trying to do whatever it takes to stay SANE right now!"
"Your mad-scientist muttering CERTAINLY helps! What are you going to do? Take notes?!â€
Melody stomps over to him. "Like you are ANYONE to talk right now." she clenches her teeth.
Jigumundo opens his eyes wider. "What did you just SAY?!" glowers mad at her. The fire in fireplace bursted out again.
"You heard me." she steels her eyes and places her hands on her hips, not giving any shits about the damned fire behind her."In case you haven't figured it out already, neither one of us is currently capable of doing ANYTHING USEFUL RIGHT NOW."
"All we can do is wait for Ana."
“Waiting does not HELP! This is a waste of time!â€
"Neither does using black magic AND NEARLY KILLING YOURSELF!!"
“I WAS TRYING TO STOP HIM! Not like you could do anything about that!What should I do?! LET HIM HURT YOU AND YOUR FAMILY MAYBE?!â€
Melody takes a deep breath while pinching the bridge of her nose under her glasses.
â€I HAD to do something! What were you expecting me to do?!â€
Melody is still shaking with frustration and hurt, but tries to calm down. "I know! It was never a good position for any of us! But I don't need to lose two people at the same time, and I DEFINITELY don't need to now be arguing with you over impossible circmstances! This is not helping anything right now!"
Jig tries to stand up. "Nothing is... uh..."
Melody Adagio flashes him another glare. "What now?!"
He slowly goes towards his coat.
Melody Adagio closes her eyes, biting her lip. She grips the couch and starts putting away her things. "I need to bandage your arm again. You don't want your stitches coming out, do you?" she sounds subdued.
Jigumundo clumsily wear his coat over his shoulders. "No time for this now. I'm going to find her... hng... Myself..."
Melody has had it. She walks over to stand in front of him, making sure he can't get away. He had to still be weakened enough for her to be able to do at least that. "Are you even thinking right now?" she looks him in the eye.
"Get off my way, Melody..." He says through his teeth.
"No.Ana said she would send for us.There is no point or use in you going anywhere right now."
â€This could take weeks!â€
"She said it wouldn't take long.She knows the area that clue came from.â€
â€She thinks so... But that doesn't mean she's right.â€
"You're not right all the time either, Professor." she hisses.
â€She might be falling into a trap right now and not comin back...â€
"And what are you going to do? Hm? Stumble around blindly until you just walk into Mortine by chance and pure luck?"
â€I have my ways....â€
"Your ways can wait." she plants herself firmly in his way.
Jigumundo said that with sinister tone like he's going to do that over corpses.â€No.They. Can't... Get off my way.â€
"No."
“I said GET OFF MY WAY!†Jigumundo's eyes glew purple for a second.
Melody doesn't budge. "It's alright to rely on others sometimes, you know..."
“We don't have time for such luxury... NOW MOVE!â€
Melody thought she saw his eyes change color for a second and seemed confused briefly, but went right back to being stubborn.
Jigumundo grows mad with every passing second. Melody could feel Aether around getting dense. The purple spark in his eyes appeared again.
"Instead of triapsing around the forest when we already have someone there actively hunting for them, why can't we just strategiz--!" she saw it again, and something made her skin crawl.
Jigumundo grabs her arm with his healthy hand and pulls her closer. His eyes glow faintly. "What good will it make now?!" Is the furniture began to shake along with small objects or she's crazy...?
"Jig...?" she winced at his grip and looked at him, feeling ill for some reason.
Jigumundo breathes heavily and glowers at her madly. The fire extinguished and nearby plants began to wither slowly.
"ANSWER ME!"
Melody moved out of sheer instinct and terror. Her hand flashed lightning fast and would strike him across the face, very very hard.
Jigumundo was taken by surprise. The slap was so hard it sent his glasses flying on the floor, cracking one of the spectacles. The force turned his face to the side with surprised expression. He instantly releases his grasp.
Melody stumbled away and landed on her rump in front of him. Her hand was numb from how hard she'd slapped him, and she was breathing heavily while watching him. She started to shiver.
JigumundoDarkbore falls to his knees, covering his face with healthy hand. His eyes were widely opened.
Melody could barely speak. Her heart felt like it was thumping right inside her throat. "I....I-I'm..."
Jigumundo sits like that paralyzed with the shock he just experienced. Things around them settled down as well as the aether density.
Melody gulps and feels the change in the air to her relief, but she can't seem to stop shaking. "I'm-" *gulp* "n-not sorry." she chokes out.
Jigumundo starts to shiver and hunches a bit almost reaching floor with his forehead. He grabs his hair. Melody could hear unstable breathing and... sobbing?
Melody watches him intently with wide eyes. She tentatively starts reaching out her numb hand, but hesitates to touch him. She slowly scooted closer to Jig's hunched figure and gently laid her offending hand on his shoulder. She was nervous to say anything, not trusting his stability right now.
Jigumundo pushed her hand away with shaking hand. "Don't touch me!" His voice cracked. Was he crying...?
Melody pulled back for a moment, but then scooted closer to sit next to him. She stayed silent and kept watching.
Jigumundo sobs silently. "Stay away from me..."
Melody doesn't budge. "I'm not going to run and hide from you if that's what you want..."She thinks to herself that that probably should seem like the logical thing to do, but chooses to ignore herself.
â€I'm going to hurt you...â€
Melody takes a huge gamble. "Willfully?"
"I don't know...."
Melody Adagio thinks about it for a moment longer and decides to take a seat on the chair. She waits for him to get himself together. They were going to finish this and she would wait as long as it needed.
Jigumundo straightened after some time. It took him a while... He just sits on the floor staring with tired eyes at extinguished fireplace.
"Whenever you're ready..." she was getting tired of waiting.
“What are you expecting...?â€
"Not sure..." she tested the waters. "I don't really know what to expect from you right now and it terrifies me."
Jig stands up, showing some pain on his face. "I... don't know either..."
Melody eyes him him warily. "That's even more terrifying."
Jigumundo hobbles towards the door looking down.
Melody hops up and stops him.
â€No...â€
"Jig…I'm not letting you run away from this.Also, your stitches need re-doing..." she notices blood and torn threads.
"I'm not going to..."
She doesn't care to argue anymore and starts pushing him back to the living area. "I'm not going to keep doing this. Go sit back down." she says darkly
Jigumundo's voice crumbles. "Melody.... stop..."
She shakes her head and grabs him in a tight embrace, not wanting him to go anywhere. "How do you think you can just walk out of here after that?"
Jigumundo speaks no more.
Melody grips him tighter. "Can't you say anything?" her chest feels like its tightening and tightening. What does she have to do to make this man stay put?!
Jigumundo, feeling Melody's embrace starts to shake. She could feel his heart pounding like crazy. He sobs quietly, shivering. His head fell on her shoulder, losing all strength.
She keeps her grip on him and feels her face crack into a cringe. "All I wanted to do was take care of you."
His healthy hand clinches on her back as he's embracing her tight, sobbing at her shoulder. "I'm so sorry......"
Melody violently lets out the breath she was holding when she feels him finally responding. She rubs his back soothingly through his sobs. "I'm fine...you didn't hurt me..." she's not sure if he is listening, but tries to comfort him anyway.
“But I would... and was close to..."
"But you didn't."
He shakes burying his face in her neck. "F-Forgive... m-me..."
Melody holds the back of his head and lets him get it all out. "I do. I forgive you." she nestles her face against his head. She tries to keep it together. This hurt worse than his angry words earlier...
"I-I should leave..."
She grumbles and keeps him right where he is. "For the last time, no."
"You don't understand..."
"I don't care."
"I'm dangerous... I could hurt you and everyone here... You can't do this, Melody!"
"Please don't leave me alone right now..." she squeaks.
"You want me to stay... even if I could snap at every moment and hurt you...?"
Melody grips him even tighter if that was even possible and starts quivering.
"By the twelve, what have I done..."Jigumundo hugs her with all strength he had left. Embraces her like there's no tomorrow. He gently pats her head while hugging her, trying to comfort the girl. "It's okay... it's okay... I'm here with you…. I'm so sorry!"
She is trying to hold in her own sobs by keeping her lungs full of air, but that wasn't helping too much.
Jigumundo let's her feel his touch on her cheek. "I'm here! I'm not going to leave you... Never. I promise." he looks like he's kinda freaking out right now...he starts kissing her forehead and cheeks.
Melody Adagio lets out the air in her lungs and tries to get fit over with quickly. "D-don't - gasp - do this - gasp - to me - gasp - again!" she says looking very upset with the waterworks pouring down her face.
Jigumundo just hugs her very tight, as strong as it's possible with one hand. "I won't..."
Melody is calming down now. "G-good!" she starts taking deep breaths to calm down.
"You are my precious, little treasure... I don't know what would I do if something happens to you... especially if I would hurt you..."
Melody's sobs have now turned into sniffles.
“ Please, say something...â€
She looks back at him when she was done. "I'm okay." she’s breathing almost normally and has calmed down.
Jigumundo lets her go and rubs his forehead. He tries to grab her hand, but he’s not very sure about it.
Melody lets him take her hand."I'm sorry…I could only handle so much after everything that's happened."
“ You don't have to handle anything... You've been strong. Stronger than I would ever be. Everything that happened today reminded me of something I wanted to push out of my memory for a long time...â€
Melody Adagio runs her thumb up and down his bare hand and moves to guide him back to the living area. "Talk while I fix you back up. You're bleeding all over the floor...â€
â€Right... forgive me. Did... Martsia ever mentioned any details about her family?â€
She opens her supply kit for the umpteenth time now and fishes out things to clean his arm with. "Some. Why do you ask?"
“It may be important...â€
Melody pursed her lips together. "She sure didn't tell us EVERYTHING, but ask what you need and I'll try to remember." she cleaned up the bloody areas and started pulling out the torn stitches.
“Is Mortine the only member capable of using magic?â€
"That, I don't know. She never even mentioned he was a magic user, from what I recall...Sorry, I don't have anything to numb this with…" she keeps pulling torn threads out of his skin.
“Well if there's one there may be more...I need to know... to get prepared for the worst.â€
Melody continues working while speaking, "From what she told us before, all that was left of her family was her father and brother-in-law. We were all under the impression Mortine was killed by her father."
“Who are they?"
Melody Adagio cocks her head..."Hm...I think her father's name started with a K...Kertaw...Kershaw maybe?"
"Kershaw... Kershaw Troy? I need to check that..."
"Don't quote me on that...I could still be wrong."
"Fine. But it's still some lead…The more we know, the better."
Melody finishes cleaning up the mess that is his arm and starts threading a needle.
"I have a feeling I heard this name before..."
Melody gets ready to start stitching the wounds again. "Huh? How is that possible?"
"I don't know. I might have heard of him. I can't remember now..."
She begins sewing his flesh closed, no hesitation. "I'll try to get this over quick."
He clenches his teeth answering with sarcasm. "Tch... Take your time..."
The smirk that appeared on her face felt nice in the middle of all this chaos. "Once we find them, are you really going to be able to fight?" She sounds concerned.
"I better be... I have some score to settle..."
"I can put this arm in a sling so you don't re-open these again." She works fairly fast, seems pretty practiced. "I have some things to help out a little bit too."
"I still have my other arm. Mortine knew how to counter and react to thaumaturgy... Someone must've taught him this..."
She nods, finishing up the dirty work and applying a thick paste to the stitch work. "Do you suppose we can assume there will be another magic user there than just Mortine?"
"Too late for assumptions. This is sure like death and taxes..."
"Alright. So let's say there are two highly competent mages, and likely her father and brother-in-law. So at least four enemies."
"We are going to need help..."Someone who might give us proper distraction or snatch Martsia while we provide one...but we will see about that when Ana's back...Listen, Melody..."
She's re-applied the burn ointment that got wiped off during their argument and is now bandaging his arm again.
"I'm sorry about what happened before..."
She stays silent as she finishes her work, not looking at him yet.
"If you want me to leave after all of this.. I will."
Her eye twitched. She put his arm back in his lap and finally looked at him. The hurt was plastered on her face. "I don't want that. But...you can't let it happen again."
He couldn't even dare to look at her.
She gets up and goes to pick up his broken glasses, feeling like that was warning enough. "These are no good anymore."Turning back around, she goes back to him and kisses his forehead gently. "Do you have any spares?"
He'd only shake his head. He looks like a mess.
She brushes the hair out of his face to get a better look at his green eyes. "Are you able to see well enough?"
"Could be worse"
His eyes look tired. The dark circles underneath were even darker and bigger than usual.
She gives his cheek a timid caress. "I need to get some more things from my room. You better still be here when I come back."
"I will..."
"I'll be right back." She goes down the hall for a few minutes.
Jig layed on the couch on his left side and closed his eyes for a moment.
Melody comes back into the room lugging a heavy-ish looking chest nearly the size of her torso, and a small blanket over one shoulder. She drops it down on the floor with a small thud, and sees Jig laying down already. With a small smile, she'd drape the small blanket over him.
He opens his eyes slightly and smiles faintly at her. "What's this...?" he mumbled half-concious already.
"Just working on a little invention."She says softly, giving his cheek a quiet kiss as she tucks him in.
"Should I be scared...?
She chuckles as she sits on the floor and opens up the chest. She looks at him real quick and adjusts her glasses with one finger. "Only if you’re at the receiving end." She pulls out a small cheap looking vial and shows it to him. It's packed full of red and black granular powder.
"What is this?"
She puts on a glove from inside the case and grips the vial in her fist. Her fist produces a fireball and she tosses it in the fireplace. A small explosion goes off.
"Firepowder...?"
Melody nods, "Black powder and fire sands."
"Where did you get that idea from...?"
She shrugs and pulls out a bunch of empty vials of the same variety as well as two sacks of the aforementioned ingredients. "I've just been thinking of different ways to play to my strengths. I even got to test them recently, so I know they're effective." She manages a grin.
"Clever girl..." he muttered.
"A... plus..."he's passing out again.
She watches him falling asleep and starts making as many explosives as possible. "Get some rest while you can. I'll wake you when I hear from Ana."
Finally the Professor drifted off to sleep and Melody continued making quick work of the reagents for her mini-bombs. After working on them for a few bells, she ran out of fire sands. Wanting to be fully prepared, she decided Jigumundo was deep enough asleep and she herself was mentally stable enough to make a quick run into town to make a quick purchase. She left a small note on Jig saying what she was doing in case he woke up. It didn't take very long for Clef to take her to the gate to Limsa. Once Melody was in the city, she made her purchases as quick as she could and headed back right away. She and Clef were just heading up the last few stairs when Ana's linkpearl went active.
Oschon, Oh Oschon
What did we do to thee
That you'd let us be ravaged by
This sickness of the sea
What did we do to thee
That you'd let us be ravaged by
This sickness of the sea