Private Sick Leave

[Mercy]

MERCY

EMPRESS | WARLORD | STAR-ARM

Location: THRONEWORLD | Tags: Srina Talon​

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Usually Mercy loved a good war. A good war meant good aches, good fire, good pain and finally a good party at the end of it. Humbarine had been different. She had just about managed to walk off of the battlefield on her own without needing to be carried out. This was good, Mercy didn't think she'd be able to survive the embarrassment, if someone had to carry her out. Neither was she sure anyone was equipped for a job like that. But while most people only needed one look at Mercy's face (or half her face), there was one creature who had continued to flit around her like a little humming bird.

Fretting over her, concerned, worried.

It was... strange to Mercy. She did not like it, but she also did not not like it. Her healing factor should have made quick work of it, but something about the white noise had really screwed her on a genetic level. It took... more than just a patch work and her flesh knitting itself back together. Something, somewhere, in her cells, needed a more thorough repair and as such the rest of her body had to wait.

Her face was still a mess, but at least her mouth had lips again and teeth. Her eye had regrown. But the rest of her body was still in slow, slow recovery. She was on her Throne currently, but staring out into the viewport, while considering if her body would heal faster if she cut off a part of it.

Maybe threatening it would work.

Mercy's head tilted there.

"I have already taken my medicine." The Empress of the Core said, defeated tone. "If you bring that spoon any closer to me, I will bite it in half and maybe take a few of your fingers with it."

She sighed and looked to the side, taking in her constant companion.

"I am surprised staying by my side hasn't bored you to death yet. I am no fun currently, sestra."

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ERASE THE PAST

 

[Srina Talon]

LOCATION: Throneworld
TAG: Mercy

Metallic orbs narrowed fractionally at the threat, though there was no real heat behind it. The slender woman remained where she was with elegant fingers wrapped gently around the offending spoon as she waited for the red-haired woman to take another mouthful. Srina was patient but annoyingly stubborn for someone that Mercy could probably still snap in half. Injured or not.

"Bite me, then."

The sharp statement was delivered with the solemnity of a death sentence, though there was something else behind her frigid response. One might almost think she was angry with Mercy , but there was more to it than that. Things that they didn't discuss, nor let anyone else speculate about, no matter the fate of Humbarine. "It won't be my fault when you choke on them."

But…She did relent for the moment while lowering herself to the arm of the throne. Perching, almost like a bird. The Blackwall Empress took a careful look at the half-healed features of her battle-sister with the same quiet scrutiny she had maintained since they'd returned from the accursed planet. She looked at every missing piece of flesh, every slow stitch of recovery, and felt them acutely. Like a lashing brand that she had no control over. Mercy had stepped between her and things meant to kill her without thought or regard for herself. Over and over. "…You've had three helpings…."

She breathed out with a lilting sigh, the spoon hitting the glass of the heated bowl.

"It's not medicine."

It was soup.

The admission caused her fathomless gaze to shift away, hollow, while holding the ceramic dish between small hands. It was one of the few things she knew how to make. Quinn Varanin had always liked it on rainy days or when her heart ached, asking for it, when memories of her parents or her sister haunted her. It made her daughter feel better…So she thought it might help Mercy, too.

Bland soup and very burnt toast.​

A beat passed, and she breathed in sharply before exhaling…As if remembering who she was. Where they were. What had happened—All at once. Srina had physically recovered from Coruscant, but every new war left a mark on her soul that dug deeper with every waking hour. Having taken so much of her battle-sister's madness into her being, it was more difficult than ever to keep her footing.

To keep other worlds from crashing in. But—Mercy, need not worry about that.

"You are incorrect, Sestra. You are exactly as much fun as usual…", her gaze drifted down toward the soup before she moved to set it down on a small table nearby. The Echani would try to reason with Mercy again later to ensure that she kept her strength up. Her caloric intake was astronomical compared to anyone else, and the White Noise had caused so much damage. It bothered Srina to see Mercy like this. Not the sight of her—The feeling. Knowing that she was only hurt so badly…

Trying to keep her safe.

"Let me help you."

Srina lifted her hand and reached out to touch part of her face that wasn't missing, and energy churned at her fingertips. She couldn't slam it into the Core Empress as she had on the battlefield, as her body might reject it. But…Just a small dose of the Dark Side from the wintry warrior seemed to promote healing not only to the visible injuries but to the cells that had been damaged. It was almost as if her presence seemed to rouse near-dead midichlorians rather than letting them continue to atrophy.

The damage that she had taken was significant, but the blood she had taken from her battle-sister had only one job. It went to work, healing her, while Mercy stretched herself so very thin.

Her eyes closed.

She was responsible for this.