Felinis: I wasn't planning on uploading for at least a week. I was a few hundred away from finishing a chapter of infinity... But, then I thought up the beginning of this chapter... The alternate title of this chapter is that is indoor thought.

Flynn woke with an ache and a groan that only sleeping on the floor could provide. His eyes groggily noted where he was and somewhere in the back of his head, he registered that Yuri was an asshole for letting him sleep here without as much as a pillow.

"Morning sleeping beauty."

"Fuck off." Flynn groans and turns on his side.

He chooses to ignore the humorous snort from above. "So I take it you slept well?"

"Why did you leave me on the floor like an asshole?" He sat up and did his best to shake out all of the small aches.

"Because from my perspective you've earned this." Flynn finally notes that Yuri is laying on the bed grinning like the world's smuggest asshole surrounded by pillows. "Call it payback- you know for the cage."

"Was that even the worst place you've slept?" Flynn gave one last stretch in his legs before starting to stand up.

Yuri seems to genuinely debate this as he bounces the answer back and forth with his head. "Close second. Nearly drowning, soaked, and scared on a river bed still tops."

"Same." Flynn nods back and tries to think what is the second worst place he slept. "I'm following mine with the time you left me unconscious in a back alley full of broken glass with a broken tooth."

"When did I do that?" It's a denial in the slightest.

Flynn thinks back to that simple time when hating Yuri as easy as breathing and when the bite count was less than ten. "Francis Pickler. We were eight and just starting to like each other and for some reason, you decided it be great to pick a fight with that guy."

"Oh yeah, Francis. Fuck that guy! He was an asshole!" Yuri exclaimed.

"Dude, he died," Flynn shouted both understanding and not comprehending this reaction.

"Yeah, and he was an asshole. It kinda makes me glad he died shitting himself." Yuri shrugged.

It is too damn early for any of this. "Yuri!"

"Flynn it has literally been ten years. Nobody gives a fuck anymore." Okay, but you weren't supposed to say that about a dead child. That's an indoor thought.

Flynn sighed and shook his head as he walked to take a leak. "I shouldn't have bothered."

"You really shouldn't have."

I have terrible taste. In men, in food, in life decisions, role models, and everything.

Even with a body as twisted as it was its still Yuri. Same terrible jokes, same smile, same everything that he liked. Which is why it wasn't fair… Flynn tossed his old shirt and pants aside as he slipped in the shower pondering what to do. Yesterday had been the hurdle of just reaching an emotional equilibrium that they could agree with. Now, they were safe and had comforts available to them.

Ideally, he'd want Yuri to stay safe here and while hunting for some way to deal with this. Or at the very least, he swallowed, till the other inevitably came to pass. Flynn made slow work as he tried to organize what the day needed.

Breakfast for him and something needed to be done to help Yuri eat. He managed to drink that liquor, but the guy couldn't live on just that.

Decide on whether they'd stay here and be safe or run after Alexei. The answer was more obvious than he'd like to think. Running out to fight had so many problems with it that would need to be sorted out. So much to plan for. How to encroach on such a delicate subject?

"Mind hurrying it up in there."

"I-Yes." Flynn yelps and quickly hurries to throw on clothes as Yuri opens the door without a care. "Yuri!"

The halfer rolls his eyes. "Look, this may come as a surprise, but we're both men and I've seen you naked multiple times. The only one who should be embarrassed is me." Don't remind him. Flynn might have helped earlier, but that didn't make helping Yuri get dressed any less weird or gross.

"Fair." Yuri fidgets with buttons and once more Flynn rushes to help. "Are you… are you going to be able to… um… you know...?"

Yuri takes him firmly by the shoulders and looks him dead in the eye. "You are my best friend and I value our friendship too much to let you see my penis. I'm perfectly fine in there."

"Thank god, 'cause even I have limits on this shit." It had been weird and disturbing enough busting Yuri out while he'd been naked, and Flynn hadn't even a chance to really look at Yuri. He watched curiously as Yuri shrugged off the shirt a deep curling question that he both wanted and feared the answer to. "It's still there and everythin-"

"The line is drawn. We proceed no further! We forget this and move on." Flynn was more than okay with that answer as he stepped out the bathroom. But, was it… no… just… Years and years of fantasies were being ruined in that single moment that Flynn was never going to forget. His head hurt just thinking on the matter and Flynn found himself rubbing his temples for relief.

The entrance into Myorzo while incredible just in the sense that they were eaten by a giant jellyfish monster was not as impressive once they landed. It was bizarre to Karol though as he'd never seen more than at most ten Krytians at once. Even in Nordopolica, he'd only seen them pass in groups of three or four. Never this many. There's a bizarre reverence in their humanness… no, it's more like they're appraising them.

Karol notes the smile on Judith's face that he's seen on countless angry nuns and mothers that were displeased with their children. It's the grin of someone who finds the company unpleasant and Karol is left pondering what has her in such a state.

"As always, not a care in the world."

"Judith is something wrong? This is your hometown isn't?"

Judith sighed as she stopped on the path. "Let's just say that sometimes the fact that Krytians tend to be carefree things is not always good."

Rita tapped impatiently ahead of them. "Let's hurry up already and find Yuri."

The stares never fade even as they drift further and further in, among the tall buildings are piles of old machinery that look rusted and ancient, yet none are broken. They look like they were just set down and never touched once since creation.

"Finding a city in a place like this is quite the surprise." Patty hums as she bobs side to side curiously to get a better look at everything.

Rita's eyes have been wide the entire time as she looks at the piles. "There are so many types of blastia I've never seen before..."

Karol hums as he pokes at the pile cautiously and is relieved that nothing is even budged. "Looks like the Krityans really were the ones who created blastia in the first place."

"...Yes. Seeing all these blastia makes it very easy to believe that." Karol is very certain that Rita is debating how many blastia she can stuff back in the ship and cart to her lab.

"It sure would be nice if we happened upon a way to do something about your power, Miss Estelle," Raven says eyeing on machine curiously. Karol swears it looks almost like a transport blastia.

"Really...that would be nice, but..."

"...It's not working." Karol finishes having long since seen that there aren't any cores.

"This city has stopped using blastia. What you see here is what everyone threw out long ago."

"Why would they do that?" Karol can't fathom what a life without blastia would even be like. The resources and efforts it would take just to stay safe from monsters. Then there's food which was a problem so big his head was spinning at the idea of how they watered all the fields and everything.

"Because that was the path we chose." An older and sturdier voice pulls them away as a figure comes out of the crowd. Karol whistles because he's never actually seen an elderly Krytian. They just didn't happen down below for many reasons.

Judith's face broke into a more genuine tone of fondness. "It's been a long time, Elder."

The old man walks up and pats Judith affectionately on the head. "So you were the cause of all of this commotion outside! You've returned to us." The elder glances down at Karol and then to Patty followed by Rita and then eventually Estelle and Raven.

"These children are humans who are traveling with me."

The elder leans down and grabs Karol's bag and throwing his balance off. "This is...a blastia, is it not?"

"Yes. It's my bodhi blastia that I use."

The elder let's go and walks slowly away with disinterest. "Hmmm. I thought that earth-dwellers

had stopped using blastia like us..."

"Do you not use the blastia here because they use a special formula, too?" Estelle asks and the elder shakes his head.

"There are no normal or special types of blastia. Blastia are made by crushing apatheia, and processing

those pieces with technology to produce cores, and through the absorption of aer."

Rita bites her lip. "So we were right."

Judith coughs and the elder returns his attention at last. "Elder there is someone here that we need to see."

"Ah, the visitor! Well, I won't stop you." The elder continues walking. "I was in the middle of my daily walk. I'll return to my house before too long so stop by and have some cucumbers."

Once out of sight Patty finally breaks the silence. "He's weird."

Judith chuckles. "I find it to be part of his charm."

As they continue forward the only real clue Karol has on where they're going is Judith's telepathy that she notes is 'oddly quiet'. A murmur passes through them on the state Yuri will be when they finally reunite after a hard month. God, it's been a month! A grueling and stress-filled month and Karol swears he is taking a bubble bath when he gets a chance because he is twelve and he should not be this stressed.

The building they wind up at is large and Karol thinks it's an inn until they enter and see that it's a house. "There's no shortage of empty houses here. This city once held almost all of the population of Hypionia until a vast number of citizens grew nostalgic for the surface. Most of those bloodlines are long since dead and forgotten. The city only comes down now in times of crisis to rescue those below, but otherwise, it has no connection to the outside world."

Estelle notes an empty nursery and shudders as they pass by empty room after room. "Seems so sad. All these people and they can never leave this city."

"If it helps, they don't think much of it. The city provides them all their needs… It's part of why the ones up here have gotten a tad lazy." Judith snorts as they seem to finally reach their destination. "Well, if he's not here I'm gonna be pissed." On that note, Judith flung open the double doors.

something smelled. A slight whiff in the air that made Yuri think of sickness and disease. It made him think of Estelle and briefly, Yuri found himself more than puzzles as he kept smelling the air and trying to get past Flynn's oder. It was a little different, sour might be the best way to describe it as he rubbed his nose against Flynn's skin and he ignored the small squeal of protest.

"Are you feeling okay?"

Flynn narrowed his eyes as he pushed Yuri off and backed away. "I think so... why?"

"You smell sick." Yuri truly had the nose for this kind of thing and had always been able to tell far before Flynn's body could catch up. "Really sick."

"I'm fine."

Yuri turned to flank his side. "When have I been wrong on this."

"That is not the point." Yeah, because Flynn will work himself to death and somehow blame it on Yuri.

Yuri crouched down on the bed in mock displeasure to hide that his legs were giving out. Walking back on his own had taken hours and Yuri was certain that if his body wasn't so deformed he'd have been back in minutes and wouldn't have needed to ask for help. Not having fully functioning hands was humiliating, but in a way that felt understandable and relatable. Not having legs was pathetic and almost disturbed. It's not like he's losing his legs, better not, Yuri should be fine to walk, but no.

"I'm going to get breakfast. Is there anything you can eat?"

"No, they had me on supplements so I wouldn't die. I can drink water, but…" His voice trails off and he curls up around one of his tails. "I miss food!" He's hungry all the time and there's no cure for it or at least one he accepts. If he eats aer that brings him further from his humanity and Yuri doesn't want that. "It's probably pointless, but will you give these," he gestures to the horns, "a trim when you get back."

He gets a nod as Yuri is left to lay and think more about the necessities and the future. Alexei… someone has to stop what he's doing, but as he is Yuri doesn't think he could lift a sword let alone hope to win in a fight. He knows his brain has been thinking around this in circles for weeks but, he hates this. Hates everything his body is becoming.

How his ears flick when he hears things or how while bathing he could barely hold the bar of soap in his hands unless he impaled it with his claws. Hated that he even had claws and paws… God, he really can't call these things hands!

He barely registers the warmth of a thick and sturdy palm grasping his malformed one. "Sit up. Let's see if we can get rid of these things and then we'll get started on the day."

"What about breakfast?" Yuri says glancing at the plate Flynn walked in with and he receives a shrug that brings a small smile to Yuri's lips. That smell is still tickling at Yuri's nose as Flynn sets to work on his horns. "You really sure you're fine?"

"Just a small headache if anything. Probably just a hangover."

It smells like infection. Rot… Poison. It smells like poison… Poison

A smack pulls him out of his head and Yuri shyly chuckles and turns back around with a small apology. This city is so quiet and the only sounds of blastia he hears are the ones that belong to him and Flynn. Exploring the town now that it's daylight is definitely in order. He still can't walk… "I miss your hair."

"Me too." He missed everything. "You know, I never thought I'd miss it, but I wish could sweat."

"Really?"

"My body just gets hot and I have to pant. It's ridiculous! Walking through the desert was hell." Yuri laughs and tries to joke about the situation while Flynn does something routine. Cutting these things and making Yuri into a human is routine and normal. It's twisted the more Yuri thinks on the obvious fact that the real normal, the one he should get used to, are these horns. The tails curl and he's glad that Flynn says nothing on the obvious cues his body is giving. It takes hours, but finally both horns clatter onto the floor and Yuri grimaces a little at the size. He remembers when they were tiny and only the width of a coin and now they're as wide as his wrists.

That smell has gotten worse and there's something else. A greasiness to the air? He pulled Flynn down on the bed ignoring the protests as he took in the scent knowing that the air around him was sour. Was this a fever? Or- what? He growled when Flynn pulled away as he tried to figure out what was wrong. Yuri grew up smelling disease from everyone in the Lower Quarter.

Colds smelled like old butter.

Malnutrition rotten produce

Yuri could never forget how plague smelled of tar and vinegar.

Weak people smelled like crab apples.

This was a rot in the air and that boiled his blood. Yuri was the only one who had the right to be sick right now. He feels Flynn surrender as he settles and let himself be comfortable. "Definitely too much wine."

Entering the room is almost serene compared to the week that they've been through. They don't expect to see a monster curled on the bed encasing Flynn. They don't expect to see empty bottles of alcohol or hear snoring. It's such a calm sight that Estelle finds herself muttering "What the fuck?"

"Do we wake them up?" Karol whispers. "They look like they're having a moment."

"Or were," Rita adds. "Look I'm not interrupting this shit. It's too weird."

"I think it's cute," The group slowly crane their heads to look at Raven. "Yeah, I said it. Just because I don't bat for the team doesn't mean I can't appreciate it. Personally, I think the two of 'em are adorable."

Judith hums. "Yeah... well, fuck Flynn."

"Judith!" Estelle gasped. Even if Flynn had betrayed her and she was pissed beyond measure at him she wasn't going to say it. That is an indoor thought. And, she did still care!

"That guy stabbed me in the gut. I have every right to hold a grudge."

Karol looked like he wanted to protest that statement but couldn't. "Okay, but you're not supposed to say it. That's an indoor thought."

Rita blinked. "What the fuck does that even mean?"

"You know, indoor thoughts! Stuff you don't say because it's mean and really insensitive."

Patty snorts. "That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. You're just describing opinions."

Estelle rose to Karol's defense and stood at his side. "No it's a completely valid idea." Slowly everyone was muttering softly over things like what constructed an indoor thought unaware of Judith sauntering up to the bed. The lancer took a large swing at Flynn carefully to avoid Yuri as she aimed for the eye.

The argument broke as soon as Flynn screamed and freed himself from the cuddle. "What the fuck?"

"That's for stabbing me in the gut!"

Flynn's eyes widened at the realization only to be kicked in the groin by a dainty, but we'll toned leg. "That's for breaking my trust!"

The knight had rolled onto the floor at this point doubled in pain. He looked to see Karol cracking his buckles and aiming for the other side. "That is for kidnapping my guildmate and putting the Don's blood on my hands!"

A book on thrust into his back. "That's for making Estelle cry!"

A pistol whack from the right. "That's for hurting my husband?"

Flynn looks up at Patty and through all the pain groaned out a "What?" before being hit again by Raven. "Personally, I'm not mad I just felt left out. What 'bout you kid?"

Yuri looked between everyone slowly before leaning back. "I- I'm actually good for once. I don't want punch Flynn in his pretty face for a change." The pregnant pause between everyone as they all took in what had happened before finally, the crew dogpiled on the bed aside from Flynn who nursed his sores/

"How did you get here?"

"Why is that asshole here?"

"You're okay? Nothing hurts, right?"

"They better not have hurt you!"

"You're still wearing chaps."

"How did I get here? How did you guys get here?"

Flynn looked down at Repede who'd politely stayed to the side and gave a small wave. The dog lifted his leg and peed on him. Somewhere in his pain rattled head Flynn thought to himself, he more than deserved that.

It took time for everyone to calm down before they could get their stories straight. Flynn and Yuri's easier and faster as they listened to Estelle recount everything that had happened in that month. This had the two of them shouting on deaths and declarations with shock, disgust, and as Yuri eloquently put it with 'what the fuck Estelle?! Only one of us needs to be dying in this relationship'-ness. It took hours but at last, they had reached a point where they had collectively reached a common ground to talk from. It went something along the lines:

"Alexei is evil and a dick. Flynn is an idiot- sometimes a dick- but not evil. Yuri is dying and Estelle apparently may bring the apocalypse, an entire race is being turned into batteries to power who knows what. The Don is dead, Patty is not Yuri's husband! Indoor thoughts are a stupid construct and pineapple belongs on pizza but not on all pizza. Something is going to happen soon that is very bad. Yuri is still wearing chaps."

The conversation drifted a few times…

"He's planning something at the capital," Yuri said as everyone focused intently on their plan of action. "Something he wants Estelle for."

"How can you be sure?"

"You'd be amazed what people will talk about when they assume you'll be dead and three months and you're high on morphine." Jokes on them, morphine doesn't work. "Alexei plans on taking the empire. As for the cores… I'm not even sure he's using them for weapons."

Patty scratched her brow. "So then what? He just makin one fancy weapon?"

Flynn nods. "More than likely. I'm not sure why he'd need Lady Estellise when he has so much."

"The Sword Stair." Everyone turns to Raven. "There's a passage in the Zaphias palace that can only be opened with the power Estelle has. It's supposed to have a weapon, or so I'm told."

Rita hunches over on her arms as she looks for hidden lines among the dots. "Cores for a weapon, but he can't mean this one to be long use. The cores we've created in the labs are too unstable. More importantly, the lab can't handle the process of making an apatheia. It's too delicate. Which means… But why Estelle… Why not just make someone with her power…?"

"Even if he doesn't get his hands on Estelle he has other plans. Like that sword Duke used."

"So what he's after isn't myself per say, but a specific formula," Estelle adds.

They keep wandering in circles as Rita starts drawing with her hands before reaching into her belt and pulling out chalk. They watch the circles and the scribbles as Rita keeps writing and drawing till the entire area she's in is covered and she moves down two feet before stopping. "It would cause an outbreak…"

"What?"

"Yuri remember when we met how you said you were allergic to aer?"

Yuri nods. "Yes, you called it horseshit."

"I was wrong. You can get aer sick it's just so rare that hardly anyone documents it!" Rita sits up and looks in frustration. "Ugh! Where is that book when I need it!? I'll just have to make do." She slides over and draws a stick figure and some small circles.

"This is the standard human." She drew another one, this time in more detail. "This is Estelle." She draws another this time with crude horns. "And this is Yuri plus the Entelexeia."

"Human being normally eat food to consume aer and nutrients. In doing that they survive yadda yadda, but they don't generate more than they consume." She drew an equal sign. "Estelle, on the other hand, generates aer by taking in from the surroundings like a blastia while Yuri eats the excess." She drew less and more signs.

"Here's the thing though, human beings can't do what Estelle does because their bodies lack the Rizomata formula. If you tried the formula would feed off their life force and quickly kill them."

"Estelle's special. What's new?"

"But, that's the thing! Estelle shouldn't be breathing, not if you based it on a formula you'd use for a blastia. Yes, the expended aer would be more than the input, but a human would already try taking in more aer to balance." She drew squiggly lines around the person for emphasis. "The result would kill the body almost immediately, unless…" A smirk grew on her face as she pointed at chalk Yuri. "You based it on something that's not human."

"But Estelle is poisonous to Yuri!" Karol interjected.

"And there's the problem. Base it too close to a blastia the subject is a walking corpse in an hour base it too close to an Entelexeia and you'd get what happened at Keiv Moc. Too much aer in the creatures diet the thing expand, intelligence drains, it mutates beyond control! Imagine that on a human being?"

"Would that even work?" Raven says poking at the chalk lines and being shooed away.

Rita nods. "It has. There have been four occurrences written as far as we know of. All people living in aer dense locations who suffered bizarre deformities as well as insanity."

"So that's why he can't make an Estelle copy, but what does that have to do with everything."

"That's the thing about aer sickness… It spreads. Not like most diseases where you need contact, you just need to be in the right area. Flynn, I want to do a blood test later because unless you wear protected with a formula you've risked infection."

"I can smell it!" Yuri adds.

"The nobody go near him. This is bad…"

"What's going to happen to me?"

"If you implant humans with a formula to replicate Estelle's power or mutate and suffer mental contamination or come out fine and with the formula encoded. It's almost the exact thing as Yuri's, but worse. Aer sickness is dangerous because for all extensive purposes the human would become a living aer krene/Hermes blastia and spread it to other people. Alexei might not even be aware of it, but he's created a deadly virus and all it would take is locking people up in a box to see if it works."

Patty's face has gone white as her eyes gaze out emptily at the chalk drawings… "There was so much blood. There was- and- the crew they just- it was a routine job- and that blastia- that blastia!" Estelle pulled her into a hug as Patty hyperventilated in her arms and screamed. "Seifer! Seifer! All those people- they-!" Her face twisted as she vomited into Estelle's chest heaving.

Estelle pulled the girl along and ran her to the bathroom while Karol hovered from the side. Flynn stood to follow so he could see about getting anything when the dull throbbing since this morning finally caught up to him. It felt like something popped inside his head.

One minute he was walking and talking and now he was on the ground and he thinks he might be vomiting because something is coming out of his mouth. Blood? Yeah, that's definitely blood? His head hurts and why is the room so bright? He tries to breathe through his nose, but it's like breathing through glass shards and he feels blood. He's not dying, is he?

"Get that blastia off him!" Someone yells and another person is throwing him on the bed. What is…

"Flynn," That's his name- everything hurts- someone says as they point a light in his eye. "I want you to talk to me? Can you talk to me? What's one plus one?"

Swimming- pain…. Letters… numbers- swimming- pain

"One plus one is two."

"Yuri keep him focused on that. Just keep him talking." Swiiiiiimmmmi- "Stay conscious!"

"One plus two is one…" Swim

What the hell even is this? He's not- it hurts! Yuri! He needs-swim

His head is heavy… Damn. Yu… Fuck… How? Swim…