Unveiled Scars of a Boy

Unveiled Scars of a Boy
Date of Scene:	18 July 2013
Location:	Archades - Lower
Synopsis:	Sanel traveled through the world to find the Hyral sisters. Unfortunately, the boy's vulnerability in the desert left him in a very bad condition...
Cast of Characters:	Sanel, Kyra Hyral, Alma Hyral

---

Sanel has posed:
The streets of Archades is one that is filled with dreariness. The district is in shambles, casted in destitue as many of the buildings had been left in disrepair. This is also the district where the more weary and the nefarious lurk. Crime is high in the districts, theft and black market rings are popular. After all, the ease of getting difficult things is marketable.

This location, Sanel is able to recall that the Hyral sisters live here. The young boy wandered around for a long time.

...Now?

Sanel is sprawled out against a building, looking pretty dizzied. Steam is pouring from his body as the spacey eyes wander. "Sanel is hot...." He complains. The boy with the oversized coat wants to find the Hyral Sisters, but he is currently tuckered out.

Alma Hyral has posed:
When out and about around town Alma Hyral was wearing a wider assortment of clothing as of late, and right now she was wearing a simple yellow sundress with floral print, with a skirt that actually went just past her knees. It was rather conservative for the world they came from, but by the draconian standards of her family on Galianda it would have been quite scandalous. Luckily her parents hadn't come out of the darkness.. yet. The thought alone gave her sweatdrops. On her head was a straw hat, of the like one might see on a tropical Isle, with her hair down. And on her feet was a pair of sandals.

Since it was around twilight, it wasn't /scathingly/ hot for her, and she was quite comfortable after she'd slathered some of Kyra's homebrew sunscreen/lotion on her excessively pale skin that she'd introduced her to at the Magmatic Research Facility.(Still can't say Volcano Lair. Dratted Censors) Since crime was indeed quite high in Lower Archades, she took her detail with her, a pair of Archadian military who'd been assigned to protect her from... certain practitioners of evil /SCIENCE/. However, they remained about a block behind her, following at a languid pace, as Alma had pretty much instructed them that she didn't /need/ protection from the average person who came up to her. At their current distance they'd have more than enough time to react anyhow to the typically flamboyant assassination attempts by mad /SCIENCE/.

She'd radio'ed Kyra to allow her to know she was heading to the market to pick up some more necessary cleaning chemicals, and mogbreeze... something they needed an adequate supply of due to /SCIENCE/ occurring in their apartment. It was on the way there, that she spied Sanel up against the building, which caused her to do a double take, adjusting her glasses, she managed a cheerful smile, "There you are Sanel. I'm glad that you're okay. With how you ran off from Chuchu I wasn't able to catch up."

She approached with a sort of languor herself, before examining him, "Are you alright?" Her gaze becomes more scrutinizing, as she looks for signs of heat exhaustion. Eventually she reached into the satchel at her side and pulled out a canteen, filled with water... you didn't live in a desert city without keeping one of these around at all times! She offered it to him after unscrewing the top.

Kyra Hyral has posed:
Sunscreen is a fantastic thing and an essential invention for any of Ramuha that dares venture off their continent. The city of the endless storm never sees the sunshine, producing citizenry with typically very pale skins that veered into green and grey hues as well.

This heat was pretty rotten to Kyra, far too used climate-controlled labs and classrooms. With little inhibitions of her own, she's gone for a /much/ shorter skirt than her sister, though not one short enough that she starts flashing panties when she bends over or sits down.

She's also avoiding going outside like the plague. This little Hyral stayed home right now and was all too happy for Alma to be doing the shopping today. In fact, she even gave Alma a thing or two that she would like her little sister to pick up while she's out.

Right now? She's sprawled out on the couch at their apartment, running an electric fan right in front of her face.

Sanel has posed:
Unfortunately, Sanel does not do too well against the molten hot weather. The heatwave easily overcomes Sanel, leaving him a sprawled out mess. With Alma getting so close to him, the boy's single eye lifts up to see her. It examines her, then he leans forward to wrap his arms around her.

However, Alma will find that the strength behind that hug is there. In fact, the boy is pretty limp in the hug, weaken like a wet noodle. The boy is leaning his head against Alma, "Sanel's Almmy... Sanel found his Almmy..."

The boy manages to get a sip of the water, slowly regaining some sort of revitaliation. However, Sanel is still pretty weak. Steam is emitting from his body, showing physical signs of draining the boy of his strength.

Alma Hyral has posed:
Alma seems, shocked, that Sanel had almost no strength within his grip. Even though he was treating her a lot more delicately as of late, she could still always sense the power that he was supressing in his arms whenever he hugged her. It always carried just a little discomfort. There was none here. "Shh, shh. You did. Don't worry about a thing. I'm going to take care of you..."

...and despite Sanel being smaller kilo for kilo than her, the chances of her physically carrying him was out of the question. Sick as he might be, he probably was still stronger than she was physically. This left two options. Magic, which might upset and disturb the populace, or her guards which might upset Sanel...

She chose the latter given the current situation, putting a hand to her linkpearl and stating something frantically, before stating to Sanel. "Sanel, these men are going to help get you back to our home. Don't hurt them, okay? Let them help you." The two men approached quickly, one of them lifting up Sanel assuming that he let them. He was large enough that he could likely carry his weight with ease.

And then Alma was making her way back home as fast as her feet could carry her, with the men carrying Sanel right behind her, assuming he'd let them. She'd be running, if not for the fact that she was a terrible klutz, in a dress, and not athletic in the least. She radio'ed Kyra on the way with a brief message, "I found Sanel, it looks like he's suffering an extreme form of heat stroke. He's an advanced Ice Magic practitioner. I'll explain the rest when I get there. Can you prepare an ice bath for him? Don't know what sort of creations you have available for this."

About ten minutes later they were back home, as Alma fumbled with the keys before finally opening the door...

Kyra Hyral has posed:
Sprawled out on the couch, Kyra only wishes it were cool enough to drift off into a nap. But in these conditions, the sickening heat made that nigh impossible. She twisted and turned, contemplating just stripping completely or taking a cold bath to find some relief. She can feel her exposed skin sticking to the couch she lies on and it disgusts her immensely.

On the low table next to her couch sits her ma belle, a complicated device that almost reaches the level of sophistication she was accustomed to in Galianda. The device remains untouched until it vibrates and emits a thumping sound. Scrambling, she reaches over, recognizing the ringtone she set for her sister. It's a ringtone she hears pretty often, actually.

"Heat stroke?" she murmurs, sitting up suddenly, "I have some stuff. I'll be ready."

INSERT SCIENCE SPINNY HERE. NANANANANA~

There is an ice bath set up. The interior of the apartment they share has also become several degrees cooler. Several bottles of water stand by in addition to a few test tubes set up in a rack, each containing some mysterious, glowing blue liquid. Kyra paces back and forth in an agitated fashion, though her anxiousness isn't out of anger, but of concern for Sanel's well being.

Alma will find the door yanked open by Kyra before she can fumble those keys into the lock, "Come in, come in. The ice bath is over there. Get him into it."

Sanel has posed:
As the heat's strength continues to consume Sanel, the boy's body became weaker. The heat stroke is enough to leave Sanel in a feeble position. What is comforting to hear is that Alma is telling him that she will take care of him. She is here for him. That is enough to make the boy happy.

However, when the guards show up, Sanel's eyes widen at the sight of two men approaching him. There is already a paniced look on his face, the flash back of many strange men approaching closer. Those men with weapons directed at him, closing in. As much as Sanel wanted to fight it...

"No... go-go away. Sanel does not like---..."

...He was too tired and to weak to fight. This allowed the two men to carry the boy with ease. The boy is barely even five feet and is amazingly light. As those minutes pass, it allows for Alma to fumble with the keys while the guards take a pliant boy.

As the door is yanked open, the single visible eye looks at Kyra, reaching out to her with a giggle. The voice sounds delirious, but the cheerfulness is still there. "Mog Ky~ Sanel misses Mog Ky~" In fact, the boy is reaching out to her. It is short lived when he slumps over from the guard's shoulder.

Yet, the boy can feel a bit of the cool air, which fights against the heat. However, with the distance so far away, Sanel is unable to rejuvinate.

Alma Hyral has posed:
Feeling the chill in the apartment, Alma gives Kyra an inquisitive look, "Liquid Nitrogen?"

But already she's directing the guards to lay down Sanel in the ice bath, which they do, with the sound of shifting ice cubes and light sloshing in the chilled water. She then bids them to wait outside, which they do, shutting the apartment door behind them. Then she's cursing in a soft voice, "Chaos /damnit/ Kyra. Had I known that the heat would do this to him I wouldn't have ever allowed him to come looking for us here. I'm a complete moron!"

She rubs her hands against each other as they get closer to the ice bath. Now that he's stabilizing in the bath she casts a simple Libra spell. Perhaps the simplest spell all White Mages learn to get some inkling of an idea of what's going on in that body of his. "Something about what he is.. makes him a skilled natural practitioner of ice magic. Probably as a result of whatever.. experiments made him what he is. Like, he can do amazing things. Sculpt ice wings out of ice that allow him to fly. Create a field full of snow instantly on a sunny day. Ice skate on a rink he creates for himself..."

She rubs one of her temples, her voice growing even softer, more muted, "...and so it should have occurred to me that desert heat might do this to him."

Kyra Hyral has posed:
The expression on Kyra's face becomes even more grim as Sanel is brought in, looking quite boneless. Right away, she motions for the guard to place Sanel in the ice bath, which is set up in a big metal basin that she's dragged into the center of the room.

Kyra shakes her head, "No, a few other tricks. I don't exactly have liquid nitrogen lying around very often." And Kyra liked to save that material for actual SCIENCE.

Once Sanel is in the tub, she goes to stand next to him, reaching for that hand he had been holding out to her. "This reaction reminds me of stories I hear of Shivans or Ramuhas going to Ifriti." Kyra remarks. "Neither of them can handle heat this extreme well. I know I'm not handling it well."

Alma reviews several of the talented things Sanel seems to do with his ice magic, "That's quite a bit of mastery. Maybe it's something..." she looks to the boy, "...innate?"

Sanel has posed:
The guards lay the boy down within te ice bath, allowing him to become more cooled off. Thankfully, the presence of the ice that makes the atmosphere calming. As the boy relaxes in the bath, he can feel some of his strength return. There are even signs of the steam that originally rose from his body subsiding. However, he grimaces over the muddy, wet oversized coat.

Slowly, Sanel undoes the coat and he tosses it out of the bath, still exhausted. Strangely enough, the boy has a well-toned body in the sense that some adults would have if they worked from labor. With the coat removed, the scars are more visible along the arms. Granted, he is wearing a tight, sleeveless black shirt underneath.

The most visible thing, however, is what is around his neck: An ominous looking collar. It is a black collar that is wrapped around his neck. In a way, this collar looks like it is embedded into his skin. At the center of the device is a gem of sort. The strangest thing, moreso than most, is that the collar appear to be breathing.

Alma Hyral has posed:
She responds to Kyra in a speculative voice, "Yeah, it definitely.. seems like that to some extent, but this.. I mean /steam/ was rising off him in the heat when he was outdoors, Kyra. That's not normal heat stroke."

And after a moment's thought, "Innate? Maybe, he might come from a unique world but.. this might have been something that was implanted into him too."

The sight of Sanel without his coat, covered with those scars, causes her to inhale a sharp breath.... Even though she'd seen absurd amounts of cruelty as of late, her initial reaction was still shock in regards to who would do this to a child.

Images of hundreds of bodies stacked like cordwood give her the answer a moment later.

But it's the collar that attracts her attention most of all. She gets a little closer to it, but doesn't do anything to it, not even trying the simplest of magic on it to get some inkling of what it actually is, "...Kyra, take a look at this. It.. looks like it has a respiratory rate. Effort. I think it's alive."

Kyra Hyral has posed:
Letting go of Sanel's hand, Kyra steps over to their kitchen table and grabs a pair of chairs to drag over so both she and Alma can sit next to the ice bath. She watches the boy very carefully, occasionally touching his forehead to feel his temperature. When he struggles to pull the coat off, Kyra moves to help him.

There are those scars again. Kyra remembers observing them before when she first met the boy in Vector. "Yes, innate, like a racial ability. Enhanced ice magic-because those things are quite advanced. It'd take decades of study for a black mage to replicate them." she says, helping the coat off and tossing it aside. That thing would need a good washing later.

For a few seconds she's faced with a sudden dilemma. Sanel was pretty well built beneath that coat. Riku, however, looked pretty well-built as well. Physically, both of them would be suitable candidates for Alma. Whoever is chosen would need to be strong and capable. Those thoughts are discarded as Alma calls attention to the collar. She leaps in, brushing aside some of Sanel's hair as she looks.

"You may be right." she says, actually deigning to poke the collar with a finger.

Sanel has posed:
"...Sanel found Almmy and Mog Ky. Sanel is very happy now..." That was the one thing that was important to him. After all, they told him to come back and see him. This was likely not the ideal way of encountering them again, but he was happy all the same. Even as Kyra touches his forehead, the young boy relaxes against her hand.

Although the young amnesiac was slightly dizzy, more of his strength started to return. As he lies within the ice bath, the energy gathers around the boy. Already, Kyra and Alma may notice that the inside of their house is becoming cooler.

After all, Sanel dislikes the heat. With the ice bath, it is his own battery to charge him and to stave off the heat.

Kyra's findings upon brushing his hair away from the face will reveal that the mass of hair covers a burned portion of his face. It is a scar, likely heat-related that covers that entire face. There is the revelation of his other eye, which is unlike the normal, visible yellow eye she will instead find it as a monsterous slit. It's almost beastial.

As for the collar, it twitches. ...One can hear a hiss emit.

Alma Hyral has posed:
When Kyra drags over the chairs, she pulls her up so that she's almost literally touching the ice bath with her legs, having a seat. She idly places a hand within Sanel's, just squeezing it gently. "I mean... maybe. It's possible that he could have been born with it.. it would have made him an ideal candidate for..."

The words die in her throat as Kyra pushes away Sanel's hair.. and reveals the monstrous slit. Her hand slides away form Kyra's, as she creeps forward off her chair, standing to peer over it before stating in a low voice, with the timbre in it indicating anger, "What do you make of it, Kyra?"

Alma's hand moves to lightly feel the scarred, rough skin around the eyeslit. And then Kyra pokes the eye, and it hisses.

Her hand moves away from Sanel's face in an instant. And then she's casting a simple Libra spell on the collar.. trying to ascertain anything about it. If it was alive, she might be able to get some information from the diagnostic spell. "...Sweet Cosma, have you ever seen anything like that before, Kyra?"

Kyra Hyral has posed:
Why yes, Kyra DOES notice their apartment becoming cooler. Kyra actually assumes this is due to the extra precautions that she has put in place and not any act of Sanels. Sanel is starting to look a whole lot better now-and she didn't even need to break out the special cooling formula in the test tubes. As she watches this, she ponders getting more ice and adjusting the directions of the fans in the room.

These thoughts cease when she brushes away that hair to reveal significant burn scars underneath. Not only that, but the eye, which definitely is not a human eye, on that side of the face. Ever so slowly, Kyra pulls her hand back.

The poking finger retreats much faster.

"No, I..." her voice drops, "...I don't think he's human. That I-" she points at the collar, "...well that's obviously not human. Maybe a genetically modified snake of some kind?"

Sanel has posed:
There is poking, prodding, and so much going on. Sanel is mostly unaware of it. However, the collar is sensing it. The collar can feel the presence of people around. The more people are aware of it, the more vicious it is becoming. In fact, as the Libra spell is activating on the 0thing...

Alma's data-gathering will reveal that there are some dark properties about it. Whatever the properties are, it is not natural. In fact, there are indications that it is man-made, if not through alchemy. Nevertheless, the hiss becomes an inhumane screech before several sparks fly out towards both Kyra and Alma, given that they are in the vicinity.

However, Sanel gets it worse, given that it looks like it tightens for a brief moment and the sparks engulf him. The boy shrieks, clutching his own throat before the moment passes. THe collar eases on the hold and it is back to a more plaint state.

"... Sanel is hurting." The boy clutches his chest, resting the hand on his heart. "...Sanel does not know why. It feels... familiar." The color on his eye fades, through he looks at Kyra and Alma.

"...Sanel does not remember, but does not like..." His had moves to his neck, feeling that collar. "...Sanel is scared."

Alma Hyral has posed:
"Maybe a genetically engineered symbiotic ectoparasite? It certainly doesn't seem mutualistic, their relationship...." She leans down to get an idea of how it attaches to his skin, "...maybe a mesoparasite, it could go beneath the skin."

As her spell takes effect, she snatches her hand back, "Kyra....no white magic near it. None at all. This is..." Then it screeches and she actually takes a quick step back so fast that she knocks over her chair, a hand upon her chest. Sanel's scream is telling, and while she desires nothing more than to take the pain away, she realizes that a kneejerk reaction here would cause more harm than good.

It's only once he stops screaming that she relates to Kyra in a soft voice, "...it's alchemical I think. And aligned with the darkness. If we use any white magic on him it could.. set it off..."

Once Sanel stops screaming, she moves back towards the tub, putting her hand over his, and squeezing gently, "Shh... it'll be okay...."

She brushes back his hair over the monstrous eyeslit, with her opposite hand. "...there's no need to be scared. It's over now. We're not going to let anything else happen." She doesn't intend any further examination herself, fearing what might happen if she did. She tries not to even look at the collar, despite it's eye closing.

Sanel has posed:
The pain is slowly ebbing away. However, it is enough of a warning for Sanel, if not a reminder. However, what the collar is reminding him of, even he doesn't know. This leaves him shaking in fear, wanting to curl up and get away from everythig.

He is pliant. The collar is pliant, mostly because it is back to is dormant stage. While Sanel continues to shake, Alma gets his attention by squeezing his hand. The boy leans against Alma's hand, nuzzling against it happily.

"..Nn." Sanel lowers his head, "... Sanel finds that it is part of something that he no longer wants to be a part of. Sanel does not know why it is here. Sanel does not know why he is the way he is. ...Snow Mouse King was right. Sanel wants to look forward. ...Sanel wants nothing to do with ... what is stuck to him."