--- Lily ---

It was a few minutes later now and Lily was pretty sure she was in a cauldron. It was hard to tell. She’d been moved, Lily was almost certain, but when she felt someone’s hands on her it was all she could do not to attack them. It HURT even after what was probably healing potion had been supplied. Now she was in a barely filled cauldron with what she hoped was healing potion soaking into her. It was up to just below her chin currently and the half of her that was under the liquid was feeling better.

But it hadn’t completely solved the problems. Her ears still saw blinding white spots when she tried to open them and her ears had given up for the moment. Perhaps dipping them in healing potion would help but Lily didn’t really want to do that. For now she was content to wait. Though perhaps content was a bit of a stretch. She was a bit too out of it to feel much contentment.

Kat was trying her best, singing away across their mental link to give Lily something to distract herself with... but the words were missing and the sounds seemed a bit warped and distorted. Lily couldn’t focus properly to listen in. She sort of just got to vaguely experience the impression of music. Still, Lily considered it a good thing. If Brook was still up and about, Lily imagined Kat would be a lot more frantic and certainly not singing lullabies.

Eventually, Lily felt someone, probably Appoline, dump more liquid over her head. It raised the ’water’ level up past her mouth but Lily was soon shuffled around. Lily couldn’t help but lash out a bit at the treatment, but she managed to keep enough of herself to at least not extend her claws when she did so. Nobody retaliated against her for her strike so it was probably fine.

Lily found herself tossed and turned through the liquid. Some of it was brushed over her, most of it was just spread around. Then Lily started to feel that itch creeping up at her before the hands started to peal off what had to be dead skin. More than one layer that was for sure... and Lily had a suspicion that some of her fur had gone with as well this time.

Eventually the pain cleared up enough for her to think properly, and realise that Kat had been singing parody songs for the last however long. How rude. Making fun of the fact she had no idea what was going on by singing parodies instead of actually thoughtful music. Kat just sent a smirk back at her.

Lily was able to open her eyes around now. Her vision still a bit off but it seemed to be recovering still. It also let Lily confirm that she was indeed, inside of a cauldron. The liquid around her was filled with burn fur, dead skin, and it looked pretty bad honestly. Lily glanced up at Appoline who said "..." something. Her mouth moved but Lily’s ears apparently still weren’t working. Lily batted at her ears a few times and meowed. Appoline seemed to get the message, pulling her from the cauldron and setting her on the ground.

Lily immediately transformed and her ears were still ringing. Odd, looking down at her arms she saw that they were bright red as well. "What I... ok... hmm..." Lily could sort of hear herself but it was like she was underwater, or a room away. Her voice sounded muffled. "Why am I still injured even like this? I was going to ask what needs to be done but..."

Appoline shrugged, "My best guess," Appoline put a rather strong emphasis on the words that Lily could hear even with her ears half asleep, "... is that serious enough damage carries across forms. Perhaps not true damage, but echoes of it. I have enough healing potion to try and help... but your ears and eyes will likely need to repair themselves on their own."

"That’s... not ideal but I suppose I understand why," Lily answered. "How is everyone else?"

"They’ll live, especially Vanilla. She’s fine just fretting over Maryland who had the worst of it. She managed to hold on long enough for me to heal her, but she’s passed out now. Perhaps for the best but it means we’re down a fighter for the moment. I expect her to make a full recovery at least," Appoline explained.

Lily nodded. "So... back to the pain then?"

Appoline shrugged, "Healing potions deal with wounds better when they’re fresh so..." Lily grumbled a bit under her breath but Appoline emptied the cauldron she’d been in out into another jug. Lily decided she didn’t want to think about the fact that would probably become an ingredient later.

When Appoline filled the cauldron up again Lily transformed and hopped inside. Appoline got to work applying more healing potion. It wasn’t exactly a comfortable experience. More skin flaked off and a bit of fur as well. Eventually though, if you excluded her ears everything was back to normal. Her eyes had recovered completely from what Lily could tell and her hearing... well she could sort of hear things in her Memphis form.

Lily hopped out of the cauldron and transformed again. Annoyingly, her skin was still red, and her eyes actually got worse after the transformation. "Did I just backslide?" asked Lily.

Appoline shook her head. "Remember, it’s an echo or reflection of the damage. That means it’s permanent, or well, as permanent as any wounds are."

Lily sighed, "More healing potions?"

"A bit," acknowledged Appoline as she pulled out another one. "Just apply this to your skin. It’s not too damaged so one bottle should be enough. I’ll... leave you here for the moment. Considering how things translated you are probably going to need to get everywhere,"

Lily just stood their mortified as Appoline left the room. She was glad the elf had just left the potion on the table. Lily wasn’t sure she’d have been able to force her body to move to catch it if she’d thrown it. Once the door was firmly closed, Lily started to undress, ignoring the snickering from Kat.

Sadly, much like Appoline predicted she was ready... basically everywhere. Her face might have been spared but it was hard to tell. Her chest and stomach weren’t too bad... but twisting around showed that her back was bright red and bubbling slightly in a few places. Lily shivered, glad that she didn’t really feel the pain despite how bad it looked. It made her wonder just how bad her Memphis skin had been.

Still, Lily got to work. Reaching her back wasn’t too much of a problem with her increased flexibility. Getting the potion everywhere was embarrassing... and the weight of Kat’s attention didn’t help. She knew it wasn’t really meant to be sexual, Kat was just worried and wanted to ensure that she’d got everywhere... but dammit did it FEEL awfully like that. Kat’s gaze felt practically smouldering, and Lily was quite sure that if things were less serious she might have done a few unwise things.

Luckily, the situation wasn’t fully resolved and she was far too embarrassed for that. Lily managed to get just about everywhere... until Kat mentioned her tail. Lily frowned. She was basically out of potion and she’d need more for it. Flicking it around... she could feel that same slight burning tightness. It probably did need some potion... but after the pain of everything else, Lily hardly noticed.

What was more important was that her back was peeling. Dead skin came off in chunks as she picked at it. Perhaps not the smartest idea... but it meant she could look at the stuff underneath. It seemed... surprisingly fine. Lily kept her shadows below her and started to pick off the skin on her back. The stuff on her front and limbs simply returned to normal colours, but her back had clearly been a lost cause.

Lily bundled up the skin and sighed, before placing it in a neat pile on the table. Once she was dressed, she transformed again and made her way to Appoline. She was in the main area... with everyone? It seemed like Appoline and Vanilla were the only two currently awake. Lily had no idea what had happened to the rest of the researchers nor why the other two guards didn’t wake up...

Vanilla hovered protectively around Maryland. No sign of... well anything wrong at all. Even her neck looked fine. The fact that she was currently asleep did seem to indicate there was an issue. Though... where was Brook? Lily looked around the room a bit more and found her answer.

Behind the table Brook was bruised and bleeding. The chunks Lily had taken from her had notably, NOT been healed. She was bound and gagged and just... stuffed away under the receptionists. Desk. There wasn’t much space down there for her... and Lily supposed that was the point. Her wounds had been dressed sure, but considering the healing potions available that seemed like inadequate care... then again she DID try to kill everyone so... Lily’s eyes hardened. She’d be fine.