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[goldenambition]

Will hangs around the Inn, but if you wait long enough he'll probably come to you!

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after the town meeting

[aneikonic]

[ There's a soft knock at your room door, Will. ]

[goldenambition]

[This is oddly familiar, after Joshua. He puts the massive textbook he's been working through aside and rolls out of bed to go answer]

...Clive? What's up pally?

[aneikonic]

Busy?

[ Skips that question with one of his own, standing a little awkwardly outside the door. ]

[goldenambition]

Not overly. Jus' reading. Come on in.

[He steps aside and holds the door for him]

[aneikonic]

Thanks.

[ He sighs and steps in enough that Will can close the door. Well, no preamble. ]

Can I ask you to look at my arm?

[goldenambition]

[His ears tilt forward and his brow furrows. He's only known this man for a month and some change, but he has a feel for his broad strokes, he thinks.]

You done fucked it right up, then?

[Cuz why else would Clive make a move for help that isn't about his brother?]

[aneikonic]

[ Oh.

Well.

He clears his throat. ]

Maybe a little.

[ He can't just roll his sleeve up, so instead he takes his shirt off. Will is going to need to see the joint too. He sets the shirt aside and turns the stone arm towards him. It goes all the way up to his shoulder now, flesh ceding way to stone there. ]

[goldenambition]

[Man he suddenly wishes this was for another, not awful reason cuz gotdamn. But any interest in Clive's tits is dried up instantly by the arm.]

Fall forgets...

[he breaths out the curse, sounding awed and pained.]

What... what happened?!

[aneikonic]

I severe miscalculation on my part. I assumed the curse wouldn't actually continue on my use of magic, as it was started by the death. A price had to be claimed, and that's what it took. But I didn't think it took my immunity, merely my sword hand. But... I think it may have actually taken the immunity. I can't check it myself, however.

[ He can look 'inwards' to call upon the forces inside him but that's instinctual, that's his body, it's how he was made. ]

[goldenambition]

...so it retroactively took it's price from the fight with That God... fucking hells.

[He starts shoving him to sit]

You... you idiot!!

[He sounds a bit heated but more upset than mad]

[aneikonic]

[ He will let himself be manhandled down into a sit, sighing hard. ]

No... it hadn't started until I... demonstrated Ifrit. But the amount it took is too much. Eikons should be able to prime several times, for long periods, before their flesh gives way to the curse. Because it's devouring their aether, burning it off. But I still have more than enough.

[ He can feel them, as healthy as ever. He can call them, without any issues.

Other than the petrification. ]

[goldenambition]

So whatever the curse is now you have a new special version of it no one has seen before because of course you do.

[Oh he's so heated. He stomps over to get his text book and toss it on the other chair]

You havin' way too much was what I was banking on and here you go showing it off. Gods damn you both, I swear.

[Said while picking up the text and flipping through it as he sits in the chair, cursing to himself like a drunk sailor]

Gimme your arm, daft motherfucker-

[aneikonic]

[ There's a strange familiarity with this that doesn't speak of anything back home. A vague half-dream feeling. Like this situation has happened before, only with scraps and bruises and not a half petrified body.

It also feels like being scolded by Gav, arguably his best friend, and it hurts a little. But only because he let him down. That Will, someone he barely knows, gets the same level of feeling out of Clive...

He sighs and shifts his arm using his left hand, closing the distance to hold it up for Will, frowning at the book so he doesn't look at the other. ]

I'm sorry. I truly thought it wouldn't do anything.

[goldenambition]

If I thought you did it knowingly I'd have shot you.

[He grumbles, prodding the arm with gentle fingertips]

[aneikonic]

Guess I'm glad it takes a while to load your crossbow.

[ The prodding makes him wince from the pain. Not from the outward touch but the nerves inside are alight and screaming. ]

[goldenambition]

[He barely needs his magic at all to tell it's hurting]

It's defiantly different from Joshua.

[He stops prodding]

If it didn't LOOK the same I'd wonder if it was something completely different- maybe... maybe it is.

[He closes his eyes, focusing his senses as he once against tries to peer at his aether- SOMETHING is inflicting this, and Will is starting to suspect it isn't just a natural result of burning through aether anymore. His cursebreaking skills hunting down any intent to it.]

[aneikonic]

It might be. Lithification usually starts internally. But I feel fine.

[ Other than ol' rocky here.

It doesn't seem like anything in Clive is trying to malevolently force it. There's the chaotic swirl of the elements as normal and then there's that alien divinity covering it all, digging roots in. Because it truly all belongs to that alien divinity.

Even Clive. ]

And it's a painful process, agonizingly so, but that's because the living flesh is still ... there, near the rock. But my arm.

[ The agony goes from finger tips he shouldn't feel to his shoulder, and not simply localized around the shoulder where the living flesh is. ]

[goldenambition]

[His brows furrow. Not what he has hoped (hoped?? isn't that an awful idea. But a horrifying truth is better then a complete mystery) to find but good to know his aether hasn't changed. He sighs, easing some painkilling magic into the stone]

... makes no sense for the death price to be the cause. If it was just the immunity being taken away it should work like Joshua's...

The death, the death... could it- are you sure you're not Corrupted?

[aneikonic]

So I'm still immune... and I'm not sure, that would mean plants, right? Like the young lady, Nene, or the boy that was there?

[ He pauses for a moment, then sighs heavily and raises his hand a little to hold Will up, even as the numbing spreads through his arm deliciously ugh that's good. ]

Joshua, you might as well come in, or go lay back down.

[kingincognito]

[ --ugh, caught. The door creaks open gently, and Joshua slips inside, looking properly but politely ashamed. ]

... my apologies for the intrusion. I could not rest.

[ He is CONCERNED. ]

[goldenambition]

[His ears perk and swivel towards the door and... yeah now that he's listening for it he can hear Joshua shuffling around and pick up his distinct fire-y scent.]

Well, better you be here for this anyways.

[He turns back to Clive.]

That's what I thought, but that's the only other source of a curse I can think of you've been in contact with.

[And if it IS Suri... he might be fucked. At least Will might not be able to undo it]

[aneikonic]

[ He gives his brother a little shake of his head but his expression is soft. After the failure of earlier he doesn't blame him. Then he turns his attention back to Will, frowning hard. ]

I'm sure Zahliya would have cleansed it, too, when he cleansed Joshua.

[ He sits back, frowning harder, his hand going to his shoulder. It doesn't hurt now with Wills (and Joshua's earlier easing) numbing, but he rubs at the spot where stone softens back into flesh, thinking. ]

If it was the curse, it would have grown with my attempt to pass the Blessing back to Joshua... Yet it grew with Ifrit, and the minor summoning of Garuda's wind before that.

[ But Garuda had been nothing, while Ifrit had taken his entire arm the rest of the way. He glances up to Joshua and Will, then away. ]

Would you two forgive me if I tested something?

[kingincognito]

[ Joshua has listened to most of the conversation thus far, through the door so of course it's been a bit muffled. But he's at least caught up on the specifics - and that Will had sounded pretty angry a moment ago.

It reminds him of Tarja

But Clive's question gets a furrowed brow and a soft frown from Joshua, who glances at Will before answering. ]

That depends on what you plan to do.

[goldenambition]

Right. I'll listen but I'm keepin' the right to tell you to blow yourself.

[He leans back, arms crossed. Though the effect is ruined a bit by the textbook still in his lap]

[aneikonic]

I'm certain I could with a bit of bending, but I'd rather not have an audience.

[ All right. He nods gently to Joshua, then calls Ifrit's flames to his left hand. It's far different than Phoenix's. Where the Phoenix is warm and orange, the color of fire in an hearth, Ifrits is red and dark. Magma boiling from the earth.

He lets it surge, let it engulf his arm, heat pouring out. Let's it burn aether, then stops it.

The stone on his arm doesn't budge, which makes Clive frown. Then he calls Garuda, and she responds with a whip of the wind into his hand, a soft whirling tornado that - like Ifrits flames - creeps up his arm. It sends papers flying with the force and like with Ifrit he cancels it.

This time the stone reacts violently and Clive grunts in pain as the stone creeps up his shoulder, flesh turning ashen and grey as it solidifies up like small tendrils and into his neck. Reaches across his throat like spidery fingers and suddenly Clive's eyes widen, his left hand reaching up to grab there, his mouth open.

He can't get air past the petrification, and it's still crawling, up his throat to his chin, across his jaw. The look in his eye is very much: I have made a mistake. ]