heart game - Kantera

[wroughtandtempered]

I’m sorry. I tried— I tried, but I can’t keep going—

I don’t think I can do this alone, so— Please. Please—

I need help.

Comments

[happydreamed]

Yeet aborted. Kantera turns around to look at who had spoken.

"I would like to be rid of it in some manner, if possible. Is that unwise?"

[scalepel]

It's a person-sized copper-colored snake, head just poking out from the kitchen doorway. It flicks out a black, forked tongue, then says in a woman's voice:

"Very."

[happydreamed]

...A person of few words.

"I was under the impression that this was a piece of the shrapnel that was causing Eve harm. Am I mistaken?"

[scalepel]

"You're not. But that doesn't mean it isn't anything else, either."

[happydreamed]

"...Did I nearly throw an important piece of Eve outside with great force?"

Ah. Shit.

[scalepel]

She laughs low and rusty— a lot like the way Eve laughs, actually.

"Sure did. That's what I'm here for, though.

...Do you want to come to the kitchen? Or you can poke around where you were some more, I'm not going anywhere."

[happydreamed]

"Thank you for stopping me." Kantera inclines his head. "I think - I would like to go back and take a closer look at that painting of our clinic, first, and then I'll come chat with you at greater length."

[scalepel]

"No problem. See you later, then."

She slithers in a wide arc back into the kitchen.

The painting, when he approaches it, is a simple oil painting of the front of the clinic. It has no label.

[happydreamed]

"...Is it egotistical to want to see what she would depict me as?"

He touches the painting lightly.

[wroughtandtempered]

You’re filled with determination, with an undercurrent of spite. This is yours— your heritage, your dream, and you won’t let it be taken from you again.

[happydreamed]

"You make a fine healer, Eve, and you deserve to be one."

That done, he'll go to the kitchen to talk to Dad.

[wroughtandtempered]

To the kitchen!