ximilialog | Let's Get All-Catching

[ Yzak was among the small group that went after Suk-Ju and returned with the cowardly Lord in tow. Everything was way too hectic to deal with at the time, but detaining him was clearly A Process, what with the varied physical state of said small group - Yzak himself with part of his outfit straight up burned through, the skin underneath bleeding and raw.

It's fine though. He's fine.

Once everything ends and they're swept back to the station is when he can finally take a moment to breathe. He'd been moving non-stop since the fighting started, and while he's adapted to that kind of adrenaline-fueled situation, it's never fun when it wears off. So he leans back against a wall and sucks in a breath. He curses to himself when he lets that breath back out, wincing slightly as he pulls some of the burnt fabric away from his skin to get a better look at the damage. The back of his left arm managed to take most of it, but there's a nice mark on his chest underneath that, too.

Okay he's still fine, but also, ow. ]

Ah, son of a bitch...

[ A general here and there list, in case anybody wants to run into Yzak during any of these times: ]

A.
[ Just after the end of the mission, after getting some healing from Sabriel, Yzak is one of the Orbers in medbay getting his wounds tended to (see here).

He's sitting off the side of one of the beds, looking a touch impatient, like he prefers to be literally anywhere else right now. He doesn't look like he plans to get comfortable there. ]

B.
[ Experiencing the Hardships of War™ and becoming a Commander himself, responsible for the lives of the entire team he was leading into battle, Yzak is definitely less of a stubborn, obnoxious fuck of a gremlin than he used to be. At least where his own sense of self-preservation is concerned. So he is taking things easy, in the days following their return to the station.

As easy as Yzak Jule can take anything, at least. Because he's still up and about, unable to simply sit somewhere for too long and do nothing. He won't be doing anything wild immediately, like practicing in the training room or the simulator, but he can be found in the kitchen making something (healthy!) to eat, or in the common area, reading a book (is it folklore? techy stuff? fiction? economics and politics? take your pick, he can have them all!). He might even poke his head into one of the more active rooms out of curiosity and see your character up to something. ]

C.
[ What kind of Gundam character would miss out on a prompt for just silently staring out into space through a window, thinking about things that have transpired?

Yzak can be found ... well, leaning against the sill of a window in the circular walkway, silently staring out at the stars, clearly in thought! Perhaps, even, about what has just transpired. ]

D.
[ Of course the moment Yzak can do so, he will actually be in the training room at various points, if only for some simple work-outs to stretch out his left arm a little as it heals. Gotta keep active, after all! ]

[ Thankfully Yzak's injuries aren't the kind that can really stop him from getting around - his legs are fine, thanks! And so is his other arm! So once he's been properly patched up, he's back in business. You can't keep a busy, consistently hard-working man down.

One of those first orders of business is to track Sabriel down, wherever she is.

He's had some time resting to think about things enough, and as a busy, consistently hard-working man, he's looking to add to his repertoire so to speak. ]

[ Enough time passes that Yzak is in good enough shape to start getting physical again. It's not a very long time at all, really, as Coordinators can heal up a bit quicker than your average human. And now that he has, he can finally tackle some other plans he'd made during their mission. Specifically, the one he made with Newton.

By now he's memorized the layout of the station and where his teammates are all staying, so on one particularly quiet evening, he's knocking on the door to Newton's room. ]

Hey.

[ He calls out, to let him know who it is. ]

[Sabriel's tired. She really, really should get some rest, but- she hasn't quite crashed from her adrenaline high yet and she can see that Yzak is hurt.]

Yzak. [Despite her exhaustion, Sabriel's voice is surprisingly firm.]

Can you get your shirt off? I'm going to try a healing spell.

[Sabriel's in the sunlight room, sprawled out next to the stream with her eyes closed. She's not sure if her surroundings are real or just a clever technological illusion, like the simulation room, but it's a better place to meditate than most other parts of the station.

After the desperate fighting and more than a week of grueling spellwork, it's nice to simply immerse herself in the Charter, with no need to draw anything out. Instead, she simply watches the marks circle, noting which ones she recognizes and which ones she doesn't.]

Yeah.

[ It's not a STRUGGLE, however it does hurt in the places he has to peel the fabric away from where it's stuck on his skin, so it takes him a minute because he's being careful about it. But off it comes, eventually! With a minimal amount of Yzak failing to suppress a stinging hiss for the nastier looking areas. ]

We managed to grab whatever the hell it was he was using to do this, at least.

Good. Perhaps it will come in useful on the next mission.

[Sabriel's hands hover over the injury, and leans forward. If the wounds were inflicted by something magical, perhaps... but no. Whatever caused the injuries, the burns themselves have no residual magic to try to resist the healing, so Sabriel flexes her fingers and gets to work, tracing out mark after mark, linking them together to form the healing spell, her expression full of intense, but distant focus, as though she's watching something that Yzak can't see.]

Right. Your arm first.

[There's a flash of light as the marks coil together and start to seep into his skin, but when it fades, Yzak's arm looks better, like it's been healing well for a week or two, with residual Charter marks crawling over his skin.]

I'll do your chest next. Just... Don't do any serious exercise for the next few days. The spell dulls the pain, but if you're too active, you'll disrupt it and stop the healing.

[ Yzak stops a short distance away from her when he notices her eyes closed ... napping?

There's no weird chill, or frost on her body, so at least he knows she isn't doing that whole going into Death thing. ]

Sabriel.

[ Said a little softer than usual, on the off-chance she is trying to rest so he doesn't startle her. ]

Yzak?

[Sabriel's eyes open and she sits up, clearly not sleepy even as it takes a moment for her eyes to refocus on the world around her, to remember that there's grass beneath her rather than Charter marks.]

Here to talk?

[He doesn't sound upset, so he's probably just here for conversation.]

Once he lost that and his guards, he crumbled like a sniveling little coward.

Which wasn't shocking to see at all.

[ Because people like that always crumble when they realize the jig is up. Yzak sounds proud, though, when he says that - even though ideally he wouldn't have gotten hurt at all, they still managed to capture him before he got away. So it was worth it.

Curious, he watches the way Sabriel moves her fingers, noting the patterns she traces to make the marks. ]

What constitutes as 'too active' exactly?

[ Strange as it is to witness those marks on his skin, he already feels a little better. Yzak rolls his shoulder to test it a little - still sore, still pretty gross, but better than it just was. ]

Thank you.

Gentle activity. Walking around, some light stretches, everyday things. Now I'm going to move on to your chest next.

[It's the same set of marks, with a the same sense of gentle warmth fading to painlessness. But with the adrenaline high fading, Sabriel finds herself swaying afterwards, even as she surveys her handiwork.]

You should probably put salve and bandages on your arm and chest. It'll help keep the wounds protected.

Gentle. Right, I can do that easily. [ And because he's not being ordered to bed rest, thank god. But Yzak is tired, too, after all that. He plans to go relax after he take a visit to medbay to get properly bandaged up. Right now he just wants a little peace and quiet in his room. And maybe some tea. ]

Hey—

[ His hand shoots out (it's his good arm!) to catch her by the forearm when he notices her sway a bit. ]

Are you okay?

I guess so.

[ He doesn't move to sit or anything just yet, but he does close the distance between them. ]

Were you trying to rest?

I'm tired.

[And that's understating it. Sabriel's been pushing herself magically for the past few weeks, and while she's sure that her connection to the Charter has grown stronger for it... she's also ready to collapse.]

Magic can be draining. And for the last few weeks- between the cure and the fighting, I've been using a lot of it.

I was meditating- Immersing myself in the Charter. I've already slept.

[For more than eighteen hours even!]

That mission was... enlightening. In several ways. As was the chat I had with Viveca afterwards.

[ Frowning at that! Frowning very much at that! ]

Then what the hell are you still doing here!? I could have taken care of this just fine in the infirmary! [ This all left him hurting, sure, but he's not on the verge of passing out! ]

Get out of here! Go rest! Right now!

[ He's putting on his big boy commanding authority voice. ]

You better have slept enough, with how you looked before.

[ She does look better now! Which is - good. Good!!

Yzak perks up when she mentions Viveca. ]

What did she say?

But you were hurt.

[Sabriel looks like she really, really wants to argue, even as he tries using a commanding tone. But she also is very tired, so she shuts her mouth and starts shuffling away, trying desperately not to yawn.]

She explained the Orb's intentions, and those of the people she's working with.

[Sabriel frowns, her fingers digging into the dirt.]

The orb does have an agenda- chaos. This station was built to contain it.

Also, given what it allows rulers to offer in exchange when they make a bargain... I think we should make sure the orbs never fall into the hands of anyone with any kind of authority when we're on a mission.

A station built to contain chaos.

[ He crosses his arms in thought. ]

So that means they had a familiarity with the orb before this all, if the purpose of this station was to contain it. I wonder what kind of familiarity, if that's the case. Before, or after it was broken into pieces? What was it doing before then, just roaming free in one, big, potentially even more dangerous piece?

I didn't ask. But from what we saw on Gyeonje, the orb probably wasn't broken recently. Perhaps the breaking came from someone else's attempt at destroying it, or at least containing it.

[A dangerous entity broken into many smaller, weaker pieces would be easier to bind piecemeal. Although if that was the case, it's clear the fragments have broken through whatever was made to imprison it.]

Beyond that, we'll need to ask. The other worrisome thing is that the orb will get stronger the more of it is reunited, so... I suspect that's the answer to what's in the locked wing of the station. And Viveca suggested she might need my help in the future.

This one alone affected a city to that extent, so a larger power has the capacity for a hell of a lot more. And that's not even knowing how many pieces of this thing there are.

Funny you should say we shouldn't let it fall into the hands of an authority when this ... commander as he called himself, just assured us to leave things to him. It'd be nice to hear a bit more from him, if he's here and keeping tabs on what we're bringing back.

True. He's probably hiding somewhere on the station, but... that's another thing to ask Viveca about and see if she'll answer.

Still, as we don't answer to him... we may not need to worry about being used as chips in his bargain.

[Hopefully he's smart enough not to make one. Viveca's group seems to understand the orbs enough to know that using them would probably be a bad idea.]

Well. Keeping dangerous magical forces safely contained is part of Abhorsen's duties, so at least I can tell myself this isn't really a vacation.

I'd would think this isn't being considered any sort of vacation by anyone!

But, I hope you're right there. [ It's true that understanding the dangers of the orb is a good thing ... but, there's always someone who looks at it and goes, "I bet I can handle it, though!"

Finally, he moves to sit as well, about a foot away from her to leave her her space. ]

Anyway. [ Right to the point. ] You said you can teach others magic, didn't you?

Let's Get All-Catching

The Return (cw some talk of burn stuff) (OTA)

A Sprinkle of Everything (OTA)

Work Some Magic (for Sabriel)

🛡️💪 (for Newton)

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