Take a look in the mirror

[piercetheheart]

Who: Gladio & the people he needs to Talk to
What: The storm was rough but some conversations need to be had out of earshot of the others.
Where: Around the entrance areas
When: 5/21&22 directly after the storm.
Warnings: These are likely to be some pretty intense Talks but will warn in subject lines if anything gets into CW territory.


Immediately following the storm anyone that wants to talk to Gladio can find him in the locker room, the room he and the other chocobros share, fighting with thread made from unwound strips of muslin bandages and a suture needle from one of the first aid kits making another couple pairs of the same wrap shorts he'd been using for months on the islands. As little sewing as possible while still being light weight and effective. It's actually easier with the cut down sheets than it was with muslin, the tighter weave allowing him to sew closer to the edge than the loose muslin had.

Comments

somewhere in the middle of all of the happening

[bloodyashes]

Not long after the entire thing at the bulletin board, Gladio will find that Asch has actually approached him, though the redhead remains carefully on the other side of Leo where he's not going to give the larger man a startle. It's been a storm of quiet tension that Asch himself spent mostly deep in his book against the doors. Pyram is hanging out outside of his collar, seemingly enjoying the warmer air.

"...Here," he says, offering a piece of paper covered in the same swirling handwriting as his notes on the board. At a glance, it seems to be formatted like a schedule of some sort. "You said you didn't really notice whether powers were working or not, so this is my notes about the last cycle. If the pattern holds, they're linked to the storm."

[piercetheheart]

Gladio makes a small sound, curious and then abruptly hisses when he looks up and ends up stabbing himself with the needle. Suture needles are not made for sewing clothes okay. Fuck.

He takes the offering though, holding it carefully before dropping it in his lap to look at while sucking at his finger, not wanting to get blood on the paper or the project. It makes sense enough and he nods.

"I'll keep it in mind. And if you wanna, idk, work on any non-magic type skills while you're down powers then... I dunno, hit me up? Probably gonna be helpin Iris train anyway if you wanna go through some drills with us or anything."

[bloodyashes]

"...I'll think about it," he says, carefully neutral. "Lessons and I don't really get along well."

It's a little bit of an understatement, but if Gladio wants to know, he can ask. It's not like Asch is going to offer the details of what's happened to him any time they're vaguely relevant to the situation at hand.

And speaking of hands... Asch's eyes fall on the bestabbened finger. "Want me to fix that? I could use the practice." Before he can't,in a few days' time.

[piercetheheart]

"Like all lessons or just the kind with sharp object?" He's halfway through the question when Asch asks about the healing thing and Gladio is immediately shrugging it off, glancing at his hand dismissively. Until Asch mentions the practice part and then he carefully tucks the needle into the seam he's working on, offering up both hands.

"There's at least another half dozen pokes from using this damn thing." Suture needles suuuuuck.

There's also a nice deep purple bruise across the back one knuckle where it'd gotten snagged and working the end with the thread through had ended up piercing the skin on his finger, leaving a single dark line.

[bloodyashes]

"Any, probably, but sharp objects most."

He steps around the tigerlily to get a better look at Gladio's hands, expression calm but focused as he hovers his hands over the man's much larger ones. Don't think about it, don't think about Van when you're trying to heal. Even if he can't intentionally access hyperresonance, that's how bad things happen.

But he murmurs something under his breath and light hums under his fingers, fixing up all the little injuries with a feeling of warm nostalgia. It's a feeling almost perfectly at odds with how Asch usually acts, but when the arte fades, he looks much more relaxed, himself.

"But I don't think I'm doing so badly on the self-teaching front," he says, pulling his hands back.

[piercetheheart]

Yeah Asch please don't hyper resonate his hands off that'd suck.

It's warm and tingly and sort of reminds him of the softer, weaker experiments with thunder spells Noct had tried out when he was young and still learning the magic. An odd thing to be nostalgic about, maybe, but it makes him smile.

"Whatever works. Dunno how many books we've got left but if you need any construction tips I can maybe help? been building shit from scratch on the islands for a year now. Now we've just got way less reliable resources. Fun stuff."

[bloodyashes]

Asch glances up at the ceiling above them. "More likely we're going to need repair than building anything, but I'll keep it in mind." Fortunately, the building seems relatively solid over their heads, at least if the previous two storms are anything to go by.

He drops his hands back, the glow from them gone.

[piercetheheart]

Once the glowing and humming and all that is done Gladio holds his hands up to touch his fingers, tapping each one to his thumb and then moving to the next, flashing Asch a grin when he finds there's no pain or blood from any of them now.

"Yeah maybe but if shit's gonna keep moving I'd rather get some things built that we can just bring in to take with us rather than hoping a room's going to pop up. Like half the damned kitchen would've been nice."

[bloodyashes]

"Not a lot of room for people as it is," Asch says. He looks thoughtful for a moment. "...I don't suppose you know enough to be able to tell which walls are load-bearing?"

When in doubt, get creatively destructive. Surely they don't need all of those walls.

[piercetheheart]

"Load bearing? Shit... I talked about that kind of thing with Tim but I dunno if you'd wanna trust me. Especially when everything's concrete, probably with some rebar in there." It was one thing tapping on walls to find studs that sort of thing he understood even from building the adobe and wattle and daub huts he'd done over the year on Enso. But when everything was solid concrete it's a lot harder to judge.

He kinda likes having a space for him and his boyfriends though, c'mon now.