Speaking of the devil

The hexagono clock read four in the morning and Roxy was sleeping next to Mr. Garlic, he washed his face with the wacky bath water which's good for stabilizing his condition apparently.

He looked again at the giant garlic cowboy plush.

'I should bring cloudy back from my brother's.'

He morphed into his blob form to sit on the plant crowded windowsill. Which took too long compared to usual, full five minutes to what was ten seconds job.

He looked at the dark sky outside, somewhat between pondering and admiring, not too far from burning a memory in his head.

The days didn't change much, except for a sense of goodbye that stood quietly behind the motivation of most actions, though not knowing what the goodbye is directed towards is a bit polarizing.

The work on the Qamarias was like a prince from a mighty kingdom under the disguise of a commoner. A rare subgenre of stained glass in almost a tower of a building, which is entirely from clay.

'I gotta know my mentor's work agent if she have one. There's bunch of cool stuff out there.'

A short week went by. The faux stones resembled fabric stronger, he got quicker at patching up the half circles. His veins got dark gray at night, and the pain in his bone is kinda gone.

Thought he officially couldn't sleep he was no longer extremely hungry all the time which lead to a huge discovery.
Hunger and sleep depravation suck equally if he to be asked.

The twist in his guts still invite itself every other day, and morphing between forma became like lifting a heavy rock.

"Both of your parts are starting to reject one another." Roxy said, pouring the boiling soup in bowls.

"Why?"

"To be honest It always puzzled me, the harmony between your forms."

His eyebrow asked for elaboration.

"You know, human bodies in particular is finicky about mixing up with other genes. Whenever you got mixed up with... blob you I guess...a part should've rejected the other in days."

"But I never felt like this before."

"That's what I'm saying. It's puzzling, the fact that you're here walking and working and not acting like a homicidal maniac in pain is beyond me. What your secret?"

"Talking like you're not a parasite who perform photosynthesis while moving a human body."

"It's different, we and y'all. A plant could grow on a turtle's shell and a parasite well we could be anywhere. But you high on the food chain people aren't like that, your sense of self can't handle all that mingling around."

They ate in their usual silence after that, the conversation picked up again while washing dishes.

"To be honest you dying has lower chances than ten percent, eight or nine maximum." She put the left food in portions for the freezer.

"Round it up." He joked.

"But whatever is gonna be the result of this wack puberty I can't guarantee."

"I think I'll be okay if.."

"If?"

"Never mind."

"And you say I'm too reckless."

"Well, if it's not for this mixing I wouldn't be here today, walking around out side, doing things I wanna do. Whatever comes out of this, I will be fine."

"Looks like you can make the outcome you want though."

He paused before putting the last bowl to dry. She eyed closely his movements.

"I know, but I can't." He dried his hands, gave the towel a shake and put it away.

'Too stable, that sentence should've caused a fight'

His own last input in that conversation stalked him the next day, hearing the admission with his own voice brought distress loaded questions to the surface.

'It's fine, just don't think much of it. It'll go away on its own.'

He convinced himself or tried to, brining another fresh piece of faux stone after recycling the previous.

The work on the Qamarias maintained its steady progress.

'We could finish up this floor today if we stayed late-' He cuts off his thoughts, he didn't count the ones high up near the ceiling.

He supplied his mentor with mixed ready gypsum before heading to work on one himself.

"Can you handle the ones above the door kiddo?" She requested.

"Sure." He remembered that she's better avoid climbing ladders and such. Doctor's orders, in fact most of his past duties as a less skilled assistant mostly included attaching and detaching stained glass frames from the walls.

That was the catch, none of the high works were this close to the ceiling.

'Great..' He frowned, remembering what he was aiming to forget.

"You go ahead kid, I'm gonna do some shopping." His mentor told in their way home. A stand was selling books near the station.

He started looking at books too.

"Anything specific?" The seller asked.

"Anatomy books please."

He flipped through the stack the seller pointed too while she explored freely.

"Finally interested in adding humans in your work kid."

"Not really, my brother like to collect those."

"Thought he's done studying."

"Yeah, he like to compare how much was known about the body throughout the decades. Geeky loser."

He said as be payed for three old large books.

'Wait, if I died who gonna annoy him? Poor guy, after I barely managed to pull him back to the ground here and there.'

He looked at his mentor who was still grabbing things to buy, a thin book with a dark cover in her hands.

'Speaking of the devil...'

"You know this story kid?" She noticed hid alerted recognition.

"...Yeah.."

"What is it about? Looks like it gave you nightmares back then."


"I don't know, it's about a kid who's best friend got taken by an evil ghost. Then goes in an adventure to return him. Swims in sea with sharks and gets lost in a labyrinth with black mambas."

"So was the best friend saved?" She already payed for the books including that story.

"I spoiled enough."

At night he stared into the dark sky, soon one invisible trindel was closing the window before he flew away like something is calling his instincts from the far distance.

His roomie woke up to the after math of his night stroll, gray blob trying to remove the pink sticky matter all over him.

He grew dozens of spikes tearing the chewed gum like matter away from him.

' I remember when shenanigans were my thing, good times.' She layed the paper and the new book all over the tiny kotatsu. Translating the Latin book about houseplants care.

"I suddenly had a wired urge to go somewhat isolated." He slowly morphed into his human body.

"Normal probably, a lot of creatures crave privacy in sensitive times."

'Means whatever the result of all this is soon coming..'

"Wait, doesn't some creatures go into isolation to die?"

"I don't see blobs doing that, to be honest, they usually get violent when the end is near."

'Hope I can keep it in till the Qamarias are fixed.'

The glass in two upper floors suffered less damage than they thought so they started working on it, leaving the pesky near the ceilings Qamarias for last.

Ten days passed, fixing the broken glass. Three floors are almost completely done.

Mitsuki was looking at the feared Qamarias so did he, the angle they're embedded at is almost invisible from outside which granted them much less damage. They could finish today if one of them stopes chickening out.

Mitsuki puts her hands on her waist looking at the wide ladder with a plenty of sitting space. Almost looking like a comically giant stool.

Ryu knew enough that she puts her hands like that to make sure the wound is okay.

"I want to do it." He was internally surprised these words came out of his mouth. Could be for his mentor, could be for the last chance to work on something with this solemn, could be a mixture of all, nonetheless the bullet was bit.

"You good up there kiddo?" She asked as he settles on the stool-ladder.

"..Yeah." He looked at the glass with stiff eyes but he knew that his head would bump into the ceiling if he rose his chin.

"Don't worry, If you fall I'll catch you!" She joked.

Maybe it was the faint light landing colorful spots on his face, or perhaps the small signature of the maker hidden in a tight corner that allowed him to drop into focus, throwing his baggage into the void for a hours.

After the placement of the last strake of gypsum he looked at the ceiling right to him.

'It wasn't that bad after all.'

At night he looked at the broken pieces they replaced.

"Can I make something with these?" He asked his mentor.

"It comes back to the owner, though it's a historic material so it better stay in the building. Already wanna make your own Qamaria." She nudged him with her elbow.

"If possible."

They both looked at the fixed half circles for the final time.

"This is why I do what I do kid." The mentor said, that was the closest translation of the feeling they both had in the moment.

The owner insisted they eat dinner and stay the night in his house, they enjoyed the local cuisine of Zurbian and fenegrace based sauce.

'I gotta know their bread technique.' He thought while eating a local bread called Ruttab.

"I finished the best friends story, it was beautiful. The adventure was scary though." The mentor said as they walked to the station in the morning.

"Yeah, that story scares me."

He glanced at the rising sun before looking away, pondering upon a major decision.