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[It takes him a moment to even remember what she's talking about, and then he scoffs, as if she just suggested a mosquito might be responsible for all this.]

A headache. It went away after a couple days, and there was no sign of this rot in there before I went home.

[He seems confident... Hange reaches into her magic case of wonders and produces a pair of gloves, which she snaps on over her wrists.]

I see... then could it be something you brought back from home with you? Let me know if this hurts.

[Some people might get squeamish about this, but this isn't the worst she's ever seen. Hange reaches to probe into his face. Just how deep is that pit?]

[For all that it has the appearance of endless darkness, it feels... like his face. Like she's prodding at very ordinary flesh soaked in oil. Which makes this quite uncomfortable for him, the way it would be uncomfortable for anyone to have their face groped.]

...I'm not loving this.

Bear it for now.

[She's not handling him roughly but it's very clinical and probing. Hange hooks her fingers under his jawbone and prods around to try and find the lymph nodes, see if they're swollen at all.]

Where is that coming from...? What does it feel like, to you?

[His lymph nodes (assuming he had any in the first place, assuming they still exist under there) do not feel swollen at all. He blinks slowly and his eyes leak a bit more of the black stuff, though he's not crying.]

I don't know where it's coming from. When I was being unmade, I assumed it was the part of me that was already gone. Like melting candle wax. Or... ashes.

But it doesn't burn. It doesn't really hurt like I think something is supposed to hurt. Just... For the past month, back home and here, I've been feeling this... Hum? Static? Vibration? Like when you're standing close to an electrical box. It's gotten stronger and stronger. Adam's felt it, too, whenever he's near me. He used to love my energy, but now it's grating to him.

[mom carried him to term, presumably. these dream kids have gotta have some analogous internal structures. Hange frowns thoughtfully, raises her now-wet hands to her nose, sniffs at her fingers. Then she raises her hands to his face again, presses her thumbs gently against his cheekbones, urging him to tilt back his head.]

I think a better option here might be fishing the rest of the imPort population for a [Slightest of frownier frowns] magical healer. I'll do it, if you like. I can pass it off as wanting to find out what my medical resources are.

[When Ronan wasn't waiting for him at the tower, Adam texted and went to look for him in the main house. He couldn't feel Ronan's energy at all, and it was terrifying. Ronan's energy kept weakening, and when Adam was near him he could feel the weird static in it. Ronan had never not been at the tower without texting except for when he'd been Ported out, and that was so recent.

Externally calm as he made a methodical search of the areas Ronan frequented in the house, Adam's panic increased steadily. He moved quickly, heading to the church as he sent another text, more worried now.

As he walked in and saw Ronan with Hange, he stopped short. The awful black liquid was unfamiliar to him, since he'd not yet lived through the situation with the demon that Ronan had mentioned.] Fuck, Lynch.

[Crossing quickly to the two of them, he glances at Hange, recognizes her behavior as a fellow scientist, and then focuses on Ronan without significantly interfering in Hange's studies.] What's going on?

Don't -

[Though he'd been cooperating with Hange, Ronan turns his face away as soon as Adam comes close. There isn't really any hiding what's going on, but he's doing his damnedest to try.]

Don't look, Adam. Fucking... please, don't.

[Adam doesn't remember, but Ronan does. In flashes, as he drifted in and out of consciousness like he was being tossed by waves, drowning. He knows that Adam begged to die for him. He caught glimpses of Adam's horror when the blindfold finally came off him. Ronan doesn't want to relive that day.]

[Hange releases him without resistance, glancing back to track Adam through the church. This just got so much more awkward. There will be no wheeling Ronan's melting corpse away now, clearly.

She says nothing.]

Nothing's going to make me look away from you, Lynch, [Adam tells him, voice soft but insistent.] I'm sticking around when you get old and ugly, asshole.

[Adam does his best to boost Ronan's energy, but he hasn't got much to give. He's exhausted from doing this for weeks.] What's going on? [He looks up to Hange for information, noting some of her accoutrements.] Did you find out anything useful?

[Ronan leaves this one to Hange. Though he probably has more answers than she does, he doesn't want to be the one to say them out loud. He keeps his head turned away from Adam, wiping at his face with his hands and accomplishing very little, only smearing them with the black stuff.]

[Hange won't risk this opportunity by telling Adam to fuck right off, but the thought crosses her mind. She has... the wrong impression of their relationship...

As it is, her tone is cool but professional. Teens have died in the dozens all round her, Ronan is just one more to take the trip if he can't be saved.]

He's dripping black ooze and no longer seems to have blood. [that is, if he ever did.] He's not actually dissolving and flesh seems intact under the drip. Lymph nodes are not swollen. Some ooze left his tear duck, but I haven't been able to closely inspect the eye. The fluid doesn't seem to have a scent and I haven't tasted it. He reports discharge from the nose and ears as well, of the same kind. He informs me that this has happened before and was due to [... hm] attack or invasion, I suppose, by a demon, but none such is present in this world.

[Adam's impressed by the report, and it helps to have data like that. He only barely keeps himself patient enough to listen to all of it. While he does, he tugs out a cloth handkerchief and starts helping to wipe Ronan's face.] He doesn't have blood? Don't taste it. Ronan, stop. Why are you trying to hide this from me?

[Ronan wants to keep hiding, but he doesn't want to push Adam away, and ultimately he relents and allows Adam to clean him. Very slowly, he turns his face back up to Adam. Sometime in the past few minutes, the oozing had come to a stop. The mess left behind is still terrible.]

I don't want this to be what you remember.

[Hange... waits... teenagers. They get a moment to have their moment, she grabs one of the phials of ooze she just drew and offers it to Adam.]

This came out of a vein. Take a look at it. Ronan, I presume you normally have blood?

[he'd certainly know, what with all those scars.]

Don't talk like you're dying. I'm not going to allow that to happen. Remember how we talked about you trusting me with these things? [Adam sits on the pew beside him, curling a protective and supporting arm around Ronan. He accepts the phial, considering it briefly and handing it back. He's not that kind of scientist. He can't do anything useful with it.] He normally has blood.

I've got you, baby. Did anything happen or is this just the same thing getting worse?

[He is most definitely dying, and even with all the power of the ley line, Adam had been unable to stop it. Ronan can't bring himself to point that out.]

It's the same thing.

[He'd known this was coming. He should have left.]

Do you feel anything? Not off me. I mean... Your eyes? Your hands?

I'll be right back.

[Hange is just going to take one of those phials outside, where she can study it in better light... hold it up to what sun there is, see if there's any color to it there. How can anything be this depthless dark? This does NOT make any sense.]

I feel fine. Tired, that's all, from boosting you as much as I can. [Adam smooths his hair, trying to comfort him as much as he can. He sends a quick text to Magnus, because this is clearly a situation that needs some healing boost as soon as possible. When Hange comes back, Adam lifts his head.] I want to try something with him. I'd like you to observe and collect data, and interrupt if it seems like the situation is significantly worsening.

[Hange's not his first choice to trust, but Ronan seems to have accepted them--her?--and Adam needs information more than anything, which warms him considerably to the idea of a scientist collecting data on Ronan.

He knows Ronan's not going to like this suggestion:] I need data. I want you to take me into the dream. I need to see it for myself.

No.

[That's not a word he uses very often with Adam, but Ronan's using it now. Firmly.]

[Hange took those moments both to observe her sample (it's black out there too, an unnatural black that suggests if she uncapped the phial and dropped in a stone the stone would just be gone, out of the universe, a black that suggests a bit that could eat anything) and to lick some of the ooze off her fingers. A good scientist must taste as well! And it tastes like nothing, too. An absence of data rather than presence of it.

It's really not her argument to have, though Ronan's swift and firm denial interests her.]

I'm willing. [She's always willing to collect data!] Though treating this is completely beyond my expertise, and my equipment, asking for healers from the imPorts might turn up some possibilities. I could easily play it as exploring my own possibilities for medical treatment.

I texted Magnus. He's a magical healer. He'll come.

[He holds Ronan's gaze even as he speaks to Hange.]

I will not let you die, Ronan. I need you to trust me. I need data. I've let this get worse for weeks. I cannot let you die if there is anything I can do. I need to see it for myself.

[Ronan stares right back at Adam, unwavering.]

It doesn't work like it did before. I can't just take you into a dream. I have to take off my body, and I don't know if I can get it back if I do that now, and I don't know what will happen to you if I'm in your head, and there's nothing to see. Which is why I helpfully summed it up for you: No.

[Hange stands there, listening to what sounds kind of like gibberish, blatantly eavesdropping.]

You what? You can't dream without taking off your body? [That's... new.]

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