Trinity

The Links Between Us

There are three things he is absolutely certain of right now. His gut hurts like a sumbitch, he's alive, and it's currently Eclipse. There was some light around him, but it was still fairly dim. It took the better part of an hour for him to really come back to himself after opening his eyes for the first time. It wasn't like he didn't understand what was going on, his body just flat-out refused to respond to any command he gave it.

He was literally experiencing latency in real life; his ping had to be in the thousands.

Scratch that.

It was definitely in the thousands. Five seconds after he tried to move his arm, it barely twitched.

He had no idea how long he'd been out. Last thing he could remember was feeling someone's hand in his and hearing the frantic, muddled sounds of those trying to save his life. But as far as he could tell, he was the only one awake. Despite his body refusing to work, his ears worked perfectly fine and he could only hear breathing from the others.

Eventually, he was able to regain control over his body. Which, in hindsight, probably wasn't the best thing that could have happened. In all fairness, he wasn't trying to actually move; he just wanted to adjust how he was sitting. He fucked around and found out. Sharp, stabbing pain speared his abdomen and left him damn near gasping for air. If the originating spot of that pain hadn't been his gut, it would have doubled him over.

Okay. No moving. Got it. Understood. Lima Charlie. Jesus.

Well...

Unfortunately, Lyle just so happened to be a glutton for punishment. So he started testing the waters to see what he could get away with. The answer was, unsurprisingly, not a whole lot. But as long as he didn't try to move his torso, he was in pretty good shape for a man who should technically be dead. Sure, it still hurt, but it wasn't excruciating.

Ja would probably be pissed if he knew what Lyle was doing, but to be completely fair, he was being careful. The second something tightened or pulled in any way, he stopped. He wasn't gonna ruin whatever work they put into saving his dumbass life. However, he did need to have some idea of what he could actually do and how fucking bad it was gonna suck if some reflex triggered and pulled on the wound wrong. And if the pain from him trying to barely move was any indication, it was gonna suck.

The bandages wrapped around his abdomen were clean; he couldn't see any blood spotting; that was a good sign. It was after he gently placed his hand over the gauze that he saw a very small set of orange eyes staring at him from the other side of... y'know he probably should have noticed before now that he was in a cave.

It looked like a miniature version of those monkey-like things they saw the first day. God, that felt like it was ages ago. It doesn't do anything but tilt its head curiously, so Lyle decides that it's not a threat. Honestly, it's kinda cute. The whole extra pair of arms splitting off at the elbows are pretty fucking freaky, but otherwise, cute.

It cautiously scampers over to him and sits by his free hand.

"You're friendly." Jesus, his voice was rough. At his words, it pushes against his hand, and he smirks. It vocalized softly with chitters and quick chirps, transitioning into cooing happily when he lifted his hand and ran it down its back. Even the sounds this thing made were cute.

It eventually ends up curled on his chest, purring happily. He didn't really recall why it ended up there, but Lyle didn't mind either. He absentmindedly pets the little dude until searing pain makes him take a sharp breath. The aching pain had been increasing little by little until it finally became excruciating without him moving.