Point-of-View: Argent Stryker

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"How is he? Will he be alright?" I inquired worriedly.

"Yes, I believe so...he appears to be in fairly stable condition, he isn’t in any danger of dying, although his body is quite severely malnourished and frail. But while he isn’t in any immediate danger, he seems to be in a very deep sleep akin to a coma, I don’t know when he might wake up," The doctor informed me with a puzzled look on his face.

It was around midday, the 23rd of December, 2015. Izzy and I had made our way to Cusch Town after she stabilized dad’s physical condition, we’d arrived here at around 3 AM or so. I then snuck into the town, slipped into a cosmetic store and got some hair dye and razors, along with a ton of make up and a long haired red wig for Izzy.

I also got an eyepatch and a loose fitting dress for her...I felt bad about stealing from fellow Commoners, so I put some coins in the cash register in the stores I went into before leaving.

I then got back out, shaved dad’s beard off, before I cut and dyed his hair green. I then slathered Izzy with make up all over her face, arms and legs to cover up her red skin...she didn’t like it at all, saying it felt really uncomfortable.

But her transformation power only lasts for an hour, and she’s weakened while in that state. Plus I feel bad leaving her outside of the town by herself, waiting for me.

I used the eyepatch to cover up her right eye to hide the black bone-like layer over it and the pink mist emanating from it, and then used the red wig to cover her horns.

She was able to wrap her tail around her waist like a belt, but hiding her wings were a bit more tricky. She can fold them in, but she can’t retract them or anything like that. Fortunately, the wig I got is pretty long, so she folded in her wings and I used some cloth to wrap around her chest and upper back, binding her wings against her back...it was pretty stressful since she had to take off her top for me to do that.

She kept complaining about how uncomfortable she felt all over, but she’s more or less gotten used to it, though she does keep shifting about and trying to pick at the makeup all over her face and limbs...plus she doesn’t like wearing a dress.

I’ve had to constantly keep stopping her from smudging the makeup, since we can’t afford to reveal her red skin. I feel bad for putting her in such discomfort, but it can’t be helped. Just an hour of transforming into a human form isn’t long enough.

Oh, and as for the Status Bar problem...we’d taken a crystal off one of the Knights who attacked us down in the sewers, and she put it inside her hand. If anyone checks, it’ll show that she has the Dark Attribute.

I was actually quite surprised that it worked...transplanting a person’s Status Bar crystal into another human won’t work, it’ll just cause them immense pain and then shatter. But looks like it works fine if transplanted into a Monster instead.

Anyway, once I was done disguising her, and I must say I did a hell of a job at it, we headed into town once the sun began to come up, and took dad to the hospital in town.

The people of this town have an especially strong distaste towards Nobles, so my cover story is that dad was kidnapped by Nobles as a slave and abused, and that I managed to rescue him...which isn’t a complete lie.

Once I said that, the hospital was more than happy to help. They have a lot of rooms in the basement, which they’ve also used to hide Commoners who are on the run from Nobles, they’ve placed dad down in one of those rooms.

"Would you be able to make an estimate of when he might regain consciousness?" I asked the doctor hopefully.

"Sorry, but no...it’s hard to tell with coma cases, especially without the fancy equipment you can find in the hospitals in the capital," He shook his head.

Yeah, figures...

"Well, thanks anyway," I sighed in response.

"How long would you like to have us keep him here in the hospital? It’s five coppers per day, so-...," Began the doctor.

"I’d like to keep him here for as long as it takes for him to regain consciousness...since we don’t know when he’ll wake up, I want to avoid moving him around too much. Four platinum coins should cover a bit over a year, yes?" I replied, as I took out the coins and handed it to the doctor, his eyes widening.

"W-wow, I’ve never seen more than one platinum coin before...how did you get this?" He inquired in bewilderment.

"When I saved my father from those despicable Nobles, I thought I’d help myself to some of these...after all, what use do the dead have for money, am I right?" I responded with a shrug.

"Hah, well in that case, I gladly accept this. How should I contact you once your father regains consciousness? Do you have a phone number I can call?" He asked me.

"No, at least, not yet. But I plan to get one later today, I’ll be back once I do and give you the number," I informed him.

That way, I can finally contact Larrk too...it’s been ages, I wonder how his voice has changed since the last time we spoke? It’s gotta be a lot deeper now, it has been five years, after all.

"Sure, got it. We’ll be sure to take good care of your father, rest assured that he’s in good hands here," He remarked with a nod.

"Thank you so much, I really appreciate it, doctor," I replied gratefully.

I then headed out of the basement after giving my unconscious father one last look, going back up to the first floor, where Izzy was waiting for me. She perked up as she saw me coming, walking towards me.

"Hey, how did it go?" She inquired, as I patted her head.

"Good, he’s fine now, though he’s still unconscious. I really can’t thank you enough, Izzy, he’d be dead if it wasn’t for you," I smiled at her.

"You don’t need to thank me, I’d do anything for you. Also...I don’t like this wig, I can’t feel your hand as well as I usually can," She grumbled with a pout.

"You can take it off once we book an inn room and settle in. Let’s go find one, we can also get some food on the way, plus there’s something else I want to buy," I remarked, before heading for the entrance as she nodded.

As we left the hospital and asked for directions to where a good inn was from some passersby, we passed by some food stalls and bought a few meat skewers to munch on as we walked.

"Humans are really good at making food taste better," She grinned happily as she chomped down on the meat.

"Careful, there’s sauce all around your mouth, it might smudge your make up," I replied with a wry smile, as I carefully wiped off the sauce.

"Mhm, okay," She mumbled with her mouth full, a content look on her face.

I’m glad, she was so down after seeing Lucifer in the capital, it’s good to see that her mood has improved.

"I should ask someone where I can get a cellphone from, I don’t see any-...," I began as I looked around.

"A-Argent, what is that!? The pictures are moving!" She suddenly tugged my sleeve and pointed with a wide-eyed and fascinated look on her face.

Huh? What is she...? Oh, it’s a cinema, with a large screen on the outside above the entrance that was playing trailers for the movies that were being shown inside.

Ah, that’s right, she’s never seen one before, since she usually waits for me outside of the towns we’ve been to. And the few times that she has tagged in along with me, we’ve never walked past a cinema.

"That place is called a cinema, it plays what we call movies...hm, how to explain it? Basically, movies are stories that are recorded, moving images. Actually, that doesn’t sound like a totally accurate description...it’s hard to put into words. It might be easier to show than explain...want to go in and see what a movie is like?" I asked her, as she stared at the screen with a look of wonder.

She’s so cute... 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

"Yeah, I do, I’ve never seen anything like this!" She nodded eagerly.

"Alright, then, let’s go check it out. It’s been a while since I’ve seen one too, so this could be fun," I grinned, as we headed towards the building...

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