queenofheartsrp | ００１ ☠ video/action;

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zinc | jemerite

００１ ☠ video/action;

[She has not moved from the place where the Labyrinth finally spit her out, lying in the grass curled into herself. The vine has come to investigate, now that she has been returned to the Garden. Where has she been? Has she learned her lesson? Perhaps.

She's filthy. Her hair lank and knotted, her clothes muddied and ripped. With her arms wrapped around herself, she claws at her skin with blunted nails, keening miserably. She has hardly ceased since the storm ended.

She rocks back and forth, her forehead pressed into the dirt, and as she falls onto her side, the vine follows curiously. Her face is bruised and crusted with blood, wounds she had not felt at the time, and truly she does not feel them now.

The vines slithering finally draws her attention and she makes a low whimpering sound. Her face is dry of tears, at least. The dead do not cry in such a way, even if her mouth is trembling.

She stares at the vine a moment longer before she draws herself up and tries to slink away from its gaze, but it follows her. She gives up eventually, sinking back down at the base of a tree and hiding behind her drawn up knees. That same piercing little wail eventually begins again, muffled from within her protective huddle.]

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[She tucks her chin down against her chest, afraid to ask and so she gives a little shrug.]

...away from them.

Then you may come with me, if you are quiet and well behaved.

Did I not say I would care for you?

I can be.

[She promises this eagerly. She doesn't want to be left behind for Gabrielle to shoot her ;~; ]

Very quiet.

[Shooting someone under Kuja's protection could lead to far worse consequences than anything Zinc is capable of.]

That's good to hear. Or not hear, as the case may be. I do take in lost little birds, if their feathers please me. [She thinks idly of the princess, though Zinc isn't much like her.] Shall I bring you home with me?

I reside alone. There are the children living nearby, but they're not ordinary children.

[She nods, pushing up to her feet in the awkward splay-legged way she does, staggering upwards. She touches her bruises quietly.]

I'm not pretty, like this. I'm sorry.

[Kuja doesn't offer to help, unsurprisingly.] You're lovely enough in your way. Will you heal, in time? [There are creatures in her own world that are similar, if different in many ways from Zinc. Healing magic injures them, so she doesn't attempt that, but she isn't sure of the details of Zinc's condition.]

[She shakes her head.]

No. Barbet would... fix it. [He would scold her, ferociously, while he did it and he wouldn't forgive her for being so careless for days. She lifts her hands, to make the motions of an injection.] With the vaccine, in small amounts.

Vaccine. [Kuja doesn't know what that is, but she doesn't mention that.] Can you not use the soil to make some? You can't be expected to continue in such a state.

[She gives Kuja a curious look.]

I don't know. I wasn't... an immunologist.

[She could make the paintings because she knew them, perfectly. Or so she thought. She didn't know anything about the vaccine besides what it did and could be used for.]

I could try.

[However, as if summoned, because it kind of was, a snake slithers between them, dragging a little pouch behind it.]

[Kuja also has no idea what an immunologist is, but she accepts this without comment as well.]

One can make so many things here--

[She breaks off when she sees the snake, addressing it pleasantly. The animals here are intelligent enough for her to converse with easily, like her dragons back home.]

Good day. You're a beautiful creature. What brings you here? [She reaches down to stroke its lovely serpentine head as she listens to its reply, then glances at Zinc.] Its burden is for your use, apparently.

[She had read in Jessica's pamphlets about the snakes, and she accepts the little satchel as it is passed on, opening it to look inside.]

The antigen.

[She pulls out one of the syringes for Kuja to see. She looks at the snake curiously. She normally wouldn't do such a thing, but... with Kuja talking to it so casually, it's odd for Zinc not to say anything to the snake,]

Thank you.

Precisely what you wanted. The Queen can be accommodating sometimes, can she not? [Kuja says this with a trace of irony, no friend of the Queen's.]

These creatures are rather closemouthed and sly. I have the distinct impression they know something they're not telling us. [Yet she smiles down at the snake.] However, she's charming, so I can't fault her too much. [Kuja is fond of reptiles.] She appreciates your fine manners.

[Zinc gives the witch a conflicted look, sullen in the face of any mention of the Queen, but incredibly pleased to be considered mannered. She hadn't been well mannered, at all, when she had been alive, but it was something she had taken to in death, it was a matter of assurances. Pleases and thank yous were always used where food was involved, because she did not wish to be deprived of it.

And now she wishes to be assured of Kuja's good graces. If that means saying thank you to snakes, she's quite willing.]

Snakes? Do they have snakes, where you came from?

Yes, we do have serpents. We have beasts of many kinds, some quite clever and easy to talk to, and others less so. I've noticed that most of the people here come from worlds where humans are the only civilized race. That is far from the case in the world I am from.

[She eyes the vaccine, interested.] Will you take it now?

[Oh man, she gives Kuja a horrified look and shakes her head.]

All of it... will kill me.

[If she took a full dose of the vaccine, it could easily fight back the infection, return her to a human state. She had been a Reanimate for months, all her major organs were mainly unused in that time, left to do nothing but atrophy. She had been shot in the head besides. Her brain would do nothing if the virus stopped powering it.]

Barbet...

[She takes out one of the syringes to show Kuja. She can't do it herself, trying to control the delicate thing would end up with it broken in her fingers, or stabbed in her eye.]

Does little pricks.

Too much medicine may become poison, yes. [She smiles.]

You'd like me to do this, I take it? My knowledge of human anatomy is extensive enough.

[She would like it, if Kuja did it. She trusts the witch, but she didn't want to assume, no. That wasn't polite.]

It's messy.

[She admits that up front.]

It bleeds, with each.

[She knows, she had helped Barbet with the others, when she was alive. She would sit and wipe up the blood in between injections. Barbet would fuss at her if she wasn't quick enough, because she was holding up his delicate work.]

Oh, my dear, if only you knew what messes I've witnessed, how much blood I've seen.

Such things are as nothing to me. Trifles barely worthy of my notice. [Kuja is far more willing to shed blood than to do something like display physical affection.]

Tell me precisely how it should be done.

[She gives Kuja a curious look at that, knows she doesn't really know that much about her, but figures there's time to ask.]

Mmm, I should... lie flat, and there should be good light. [She would have to watch how the bruise reacted to the quantity, how much the vaccine was effecting the patient overall; too much medicine easily became a poison. She also needed to keep an eye on Zinc herself, the process was not without pain, and with the way the virus controlled the flesh, it was inevitable she would twitch. The eyes were delicate, it would be terrible if the vaccine ended up in them.

She holds up one of the syringes.]

Pierce the skin, around the edges first. Inject a little.

[It takes her both hands to get it to give a little squirt.]

It's... delicate, and slow.

[It was difficult for her to be more precise than that. She wasn't Barbet.]

[Kuja listens, nodding. She's quick to learn, and she can be very good with her hands, when she needs to be. It's an interesting challenge.]

You'll need to move out from under this tree, if we're to commence. There's no sense in leaving you in this state any longer than is necessary.

[Zinc purses her lips, feeling nervous, like she'll let Kuja do this and suddenly Barbet will appear and be furious with her. She knows it's silly, there aren't any boys here and he wouldn't want her looking like this, it was horrible, but... It takes her a moment to get up, to move out into the sunlight to a place Kuja picks, lying back so her head is steady.]

All right...

Ah, my little fallen bird. You needn't worry, I'll fix your wing.

[She knows how to make living things from raw ingredients, so injecting a little vaccine into a body is no great challenge for her. Nor is the blood that stains her hands as she works, quickly and quietly, following the instructions she was given, her eyes bright.]

[Being a bird is so much nicer than being a zombie, and it's pathetically childish of her, but Zinc is obviously pleased with it. She's well used to being a pet, an animal. At least birds were lovely. Barbet had named himself after a bird.

Zinc does her best to hold still through all of this, she's glad that Kuja seems confident, at least. She twitches slightly, little jerks in her neck and the muscles around her eyes, it can't really be helped but hopefully she won't injure herself, and she'll be pretty enough to look at again soon.]

Kuja likes songbirds, pretty things that she can keep in cages. In the past, she may have been known to abduct such creatures, but of course, she's attempting to reform now, isn't she? To be a better person.

To be helpful, as she is now. The flesh that shakes beneath her hands is to be expected from a weak, mortal--or once-mortal--creature.]

Is that enough? You must tell me, so I don't go too far.

It's--

[She's quiet for a moment, swallowing against the pain in her face.]

All right. Is there much color left?

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