2020-04-18 - The Vivisectionist's Gift

With the three of them sitting in the back of the cab and bleeding all over, Byron makes sure to tip the driver well when he drops them off. In fact, Byron directs him to drive down into the underground parking beneath the building because the walk to the elevator was much shorter than if he'd just dropped them off outside of the lobby. And this way, they had no doorman to ask if everything was alright, because things were NOT alright.

Their stay in the elevator seemed like it took forever and rather than standing in the middle of the car as tends to do, Byron is leaning back against the wall in one of the corners, though on habit, he watches the numbers increase on the display the higher they got. Now that they were alone, he almost feels guilty for requesting this, seeing that Erin didn't come out of that nightmare unscathed. "Lilith was attacked by someone named the Vivisectionist, maybe about a week ago. Almost. Roen did his best to heal her, but, uh... something had him concerned and he told us to get actual medical expertise from you." His eyes then shift to look over at Erin right before the elevator ding announces their arrival to the top floor, "I can understand if now is not the best of times."

The doors open and he pulls out his key to let them all into his penthouse suite. Tossing those keys into the key dish in the foyer, he starts to undress or, at least, peel this bloody and torn jacket from off his person. "I'll set some towels out so as not to track blood all over. Though I think what we all need is for a little drink." He'll handle that second, because the first place he goes to is the guest bathroom right down the hall. They'd gotten some black and gray towels smartly, because with how much damage they tend to take, the white towels were always stained in blood.

On the way over, Erin had taken the time to send out a text then tucked her phone back away all the while being amazed by still having a phone. The ride over is silent for Erin's part and only when they were well away from other ears and in the elevator does she show some of her exhaustion. Just a touch around the eyes and how they squint from the pain of the wounds suffered.

Her concern though, is for the other two, especially after what Byron says about Lilith. "I wish you had called sooner, maybe we can find out what's going on." It's all she says for the moment until the elevator doors open and she steps out, careful not to touch anything, so it's not soiled or anything. "Good idea," she tells him in response to the towels for protection. "Maybe we all need protective covers on all the furniture too, in our houses." It's with a wry twist of her lips that she looks back to Lilith.

"When I was healing her earlier, I noticed something. It was really.. odd. Something off. It wasn't exactly a wound really, but.." she hesitates, not really wanting to voice her own suspicion she'd gotten it as soon as she'd seen it. "It sort of looked familiar in a way." Wrapping her arms around herself in response to a sudden chill that races through her body.

He'll probably wash the suit (along with the rest of his clothing) and if he's able to get the blood out, send it to his favorite tailor in Seattle. That's how Byron saves some of his suits, but those suits are few and far between because mostly they end up as trash. After removing his jacket, the buttoned down came next, so he could take the time to stare at the claw marks in the mirror. This was becoming all too familiar for him. Being raked across the chest like that. The next thing he does is get a better look at the damage done to his skull, touching tentatively at the bloody sections of hair that where the griffin latched onto. Obviously, he's not pleased by what he sees, but his head was also pounding right now, so he doesn't take the amount of time to this task as he would if he wasn't injured.

While Byron is away, the couple's very lovely cat with a wonderful temperament looks a little cranky as if it had been woken up from a nap by their arrival home. Smog yawns and stretches and saunters over towards Erin to stare up at her.

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With these towels in hand, he lays several down, draping the couch in them. Layers on layers. "I wish we could've gotten to you sooner as well, but... things came up even after that." Byron had been pulled into four Dreams as of late, tonight's Dream being the fifth. What Erin says, however, does bring that concern back to the forefront of his mind and he's reluctant to wander off to pour them some drinks, but he could use one and he's sure that they both could as well. Once Lilith is settled down comfortably on the couch, he looks over at Erin, curiously, "What do you mean familiar?"

Lilith was amped during that battle, but she's quiet in the cab and elevator in that sit and stare kind of way you do when you're hurt and trying not to be hurt. She gives little smiles, stares a little at Byron's damages inside on the sly as if making routes and plans and pathways of all the ways she's going to fix him. Her posture is slumped, her dress is ruined and it was one of her favorites that she never gets to wear much, so she's definitely going to cheat and use powers for nonsense to fix it later. She can't keep up with Byron's suits, though, without calling a doom beacon on the house. Those things always get the rough stuff, especially the real nice ones, it's just how things go.

The woman is always scrappy. Then again, she's generally more tactical than sheer murderlust at a certain point. Is this different? Maybe. Maybe not. It's Lilith, so it's hard to tell and she was tooth and nail injured and watching Byron get mauled through a lot of it, that can definitely make her reckless with fury and very single minded. But she knows, If you ask her right now, even covered in blood and gunk that burns, her body so terribly battered, she'd tell you she's ready for round two if it means she gets to kill another dragon. She also kind of wants to ride a dragon, but that's neither here nor there.

Right now, she's quiet and behaving and loses her heels once in the apartment, looking down at her dress to distract herself after Erin mentions that she noticed something wrong with Lilith. She has a sneaking suspicion it's her head the woman is talking about, like Byron is saying August mentioned, but she doesn't HAVE a headwound right now, she has been FINE, hasn't she? (She was supposed to call Erin, she went and blew up stuff on the day she had free time on an impulse instead). But she doesn't say any of that, she just listens with a vaguely wary expression, then gets curious just like Byron at the word 'familiar'.

While Byron goes to get towels, though, she goes to feed the cat with some uncomfortable bending that's only really possible because of what Erin's already mended on her, the rest of what's left makes it highly unpleasant. She wonders how Byron is even on his feet enough to get towels, though, surely she can feed the cat. They don't need that stankface meowing angrily at them while they're trying to bleed less, etc. And that's a guarantee if this thing isn't fed.

The stankface is a guarantee all the time, though. It edges closer to sniff at Erin and looks JUDGEY AS HELL like it's the woman's fault she's bringing in its owners all battered up.

(Then again, maybe it just looks that way. It has that face. It mews and surely it's not a trap.)

Erin watches him explore his wounds but doesn't do the same with her own. The trouble with the powers, she knew her wounds, but she couldn't heal them. She's stopped trying by now. Watching Byron though, she sort of loses focus a moment, just checking him out. Nothing that would kill him, not that she could tell at least, without really being intrusive.

Walking over, she spreads a towel, a lovely thick black one, on the floor before the couch and just kneels there a moment, her immediate concern more for Lilith. "Your wounds could likely be healed, but I am more concerned with your head." Hesitantly, she looks towards Byron again at his question before cutting a look back to Lilith.

"I could be mistaken. I was under a lot of stress and duress at the time," she says by way of explanation before she delves further into it. A disclaimer of sorts.

Momentarily distracted by the cat, she offers a hand for the sniffing and says quietly. "Kind of reminds me of Grumpy Cat. But definitely cute."

"Want to sit on the sofa?" Erin invites Lilith again, so at least the woman is sitting down. "I'll be honest. Almost brutally so. What I saw reminded me, in a way, of what I saw when I explored inside Thomas and found Gohl there before I cut the ties between them. I am probably wrong, I hope I am, but it just had hints of that. Or I'm interpreting it wrong."

Byron's only standing upright because he's bracing himself or leaning against something or other right now. He was exhausted. His whole body hurt and his head was spinning, but at least he wiped the blood from off his face, though his hair was damp with the sticky stuff. Walking passed Erin and the cat, then watching as the feline thing dart over to where Lilith fills up its bowl, the critter just seems to stare up at Lilith with those angry eyes. He even sniffs at her. But in the end, Smog needs his food or else he'll mew up a storm, so he eats.

Byron, however, is at the bar, setting out three glasses in which he plans to pour something into. What does he feel like drinking? He's not sure. "Any preferences?" He asks, "Otherwise, it'll probably be whiskey. Or bourbon. Or..." He lets his eyes close to help settle his mind. Though listening to what Erin says has his eyes snap open and with the bottle of rum in hand, he turns to Erin with furrowed brow. "You don't think..." He starts to say, his jaw tightening with all of these ideas running through his mind. He doesn't finish the question and instead goes through with the pouring.

Lilith really does want to sit down, so once that cat is fed, she tinks the fork on the dish and tosses that in the sink, she wanders over. Her dress is torn, shredded, and sticking to her with burns, rash out effect, shredded flesh, and goo, and after she gets to the couch with Erin's suggestion while listening, she thinks about taking the dress off.

In fact, after reaching back to get at the zipper, she suddenly stops with the battered up (but much less wounded) arms and realizes that it's stuck to burns and injury sooo... she decides to just wait instead of peeling it off like a horribly overpriced and ruined bandaid to reveal what's beneath for Byron to see the extent of. Erin doesn't need to see to know what's going on anyway, nor does Lilith need Erin to adjust clothing to see what's wrong.

Settling down to look at the other woman steadily, though, instead of sitting back, she puts her hands out on the other female's shoulders to just look at her with a distant expression for a moment, trying to take the pain away so Erin can focus. Then she settles back to look at Byron with a hard press of her lips with the Ghoul is brought up.

"... what is it you're seeing and where? I can't see on myself the same. What's it like? I thought August just... was seeing brain damage after the Vivisectionist tried to rip my whole head open. Mmm, like something that was just going to take a bit of time to accelerate through, you know? But it's still there?"

Hoping she is wrong, Erin watches Byron a moment when he asks what drink and she waves to whatever bottle he grabs first. "Whatever you are both having." The words are thick, or rather the emotion is as she voices them, making her voice slightly husky. "I don't know," she finally allows to Byron about what she thinks. "I won't know until I delve a little deeper. Out there wasn't the time. There was just some similarities in the two, offhand."

"Nono, it doesn't feel like an injury at all. Maybe like a scar on your brain, something that shouldn't even be there at all." Lifting a hand, she gingerly touches the front part of her head, her forehead, brushing her fingers there so lightly. "Here. I cannot explain it, but it doesn't belong there. Like Gohl had ties that bound to my Uncle Thomas, something like that. But maybe a little different too. I want to explore it, if you'd let me."

Her eyes close briefly, but not to explore just yet, just to appreciate the healing she was getting from the inside out. It helped, it really did. "Thank you," she says softly, lowering her hand again. "Can I check your head? And work on your other wounds at least? The burns.. they must be entirely uncomfortable." To say the least!

With all three glasses poured, Byron sets them all out on a tray rather than just collecting them within his hands, which he could do, but he was still a little unsteady on his feet. If Erin hoped that her assessment were wrong, Byron feels the same way. Joining the others at the couch, he kneels down beside the coffee table to set the tray down, before placing each individual glass across from both Lilith and Erin. He then pushes the tray aside after grabbing his own glass.

Not wanting to crowd around too much as Erin does her work, he settles down on the far side of the couch, where he curves into an 'L', leaning forward just so he can get a better view of what Erin is about to do. After taking a much needed sip of rum, he sets the drink down before he rises once more. "I'm going to get cleaned up and change." He's still walking around shirtless with that nasty claw mark across his torso. "Let me know if I can get you something." This is mostly spoken to Lilith. "A change of clothes, anything."

"Thank you. I love you. But babe? Sit down. Enough. There's no point in changing and cleaning up until I have at you, and as soon as Erin gets me where I can think straight, I'm going to have at you. I think my left eye is starting to twitch every time I look in your direction, all the up and down is going to make you..." Okay, Lilith is finally fussing at Byron and biting at the bit to get at him with her abilities, but she knows that he has quite extensive wounding she wants to be clear-headed and undistracted for.

Instead of continuing to fuss and be bossy, though, she changes tact and bats her lashes with rampant concern for the fact that he keeps moving around, "... please?" Naturally, though, he's either going to comply OR wave it off and get himself presentable on principle, so after making her bid to him, she looks back at Erin with a readying nod of her head, lax back against the cushions and waiting to take that drink like a prize once she's sat still enough to be focused on, "Yes. It actually might... be a good idea to get my body mostly whole before trying to figure out what's going on, just on principle so all those injuries flaring up don't distract you as you look in. It's like flashing lights to me sometimes, when I'm looking hard, the pain in people."

Then she lapses into thought trying to compare the things that Erin has described to her own situation, "... I don't think I'm possessed and sharing my body with a dead Veil scientist. I feel pretty just-Lilith. But it was the Vivisectionist, and..." She squints a touch to look at Byron with cut of eyes, "Do we know anything about the Vivisectionist?"

Erin doesn't reach for the glass immediately but she does thank him for the drink and bringing it to her. Her eyes rake over his wounds as he moves around but she doesn't say anything about them. The concern is apparent though, if one were to look into her eyes at all. Not only for him, but for Lilith as well.

"I know the definition. Do you think she experimented on you for whatever reason they do things? Maybe a wound from her.. doesn't heal correctly here?" So uncertain about everything, it is her best guess, but there's a modicum of relief that she doesn't feel possessed. That was very good news.

So, without further ado, she touches Lilith again, just for the contact, to hopefully strengthen herself as she dips into her again, to try and heal the wounds she knew what to do with right now.

Immediately, as soon as her eyes focus, there's disappointment there. "I couldn't do the last one." A frown mars her brow. "I tried. Perhaps August?" So few of them had such a high healing ability, but they knew one another well!

Byron was moving around way more than he should be. I mean, it's not that he's worried about his modesty, just parading around his apartment shirtless. It's probably the fact that he has a gaping wound right there for all to see and that he was still dripping blood all around him. But when Lilith asks that he just settle down until she can tend to him, his body and mind were telling him that he should rest, so it doesn't take long for him to just lower himself back down and reach for his rum glass once more.

"Only because you asked me to." If she looks his way, she'll see that smile on his lips again. It looks like one of amusement if not for all the shit they'd just gone through. After taking another drink from his glass, he just settles himself back into a deep recline. His eyes were already growing heavy as his body began to try and relax. He was absolutely exhausted, but the others must be feeling the same hurt too.

"I didn't even see what that bitch did to Lilith." Byron says, one hand lifted to to his forehead, almost as if he were shielding his weary eyes. "She appeared out of nowhere. The Vivisectionist. And the next thing I knew, Lilith was down. Then Isabella took that bitch out." Byron tried, but to no avail. "Was there even time for her to experiment? And why Lilith out of all of us? The Vivisectionist is dead now and Roen was afraid that her death and the destruction of the factory, FCN, would cause changes in the Veil. Anyway, It was August who told us to speak to you about this. He sensed something, but didn't have the medical expertise to pinpoint what exactly."

Erin seems to have had the same idea Lilith had and takes it all, or tries to, but some of those burns from the splash acidic burst or whatever came out of those bronzed mythical beasts is mean. It might in part be because she's still wearing some of that ick in against her skin, which isn't real helpful to the situation, but she seems to feel better all the same. The gashes tingle as she feels them close under her shredded dress, her battered arms hit by debris are gradually just left with pink fresh markings where that flesh knits, then slowly fades back pale and smooth again.

She's still dirty and still hurts and she hisses some on straighten to get her drink as a reward for being a good girl and waiting for healing and mending (before she attacks Byron with a slam of her own powers to benefit his own pain). But she's also now missing half the injuries she had just moments ago and that's nice. So is the drink. Erin's supposing, is less nice, but it makes sense and Lilith takes a moment to really let her mind and body play refocus and catchup after the strange mending sensation she'll probably never really get used to washes over and through.

"We're hurt and taxed, you're not fully healed either, I felt my abilities kind of piddle out in the middle of trying to fix your middle. We'll try to get each other good and comfortable completely before bed after we've both showered. I'll get you a nightgown and a robe and some clothing to wear home tomorrow to put in the guest room when we're finished in here. It's okay." Lilith explains this to Erin with a gracious slant of partial smile in reassuring, patting the couch after she shifts herself carefully in slide over to get within touch-Byron range, "Now relax, at least, you can stare at my brain from comfortable couch cushions and towels and I'll tend to him."

Then she has a thought, "... maybe she uses her powers to hurt a little differently than us because she was a Veil creature made to... well, experiment, yes. What does that part of the brain do? I'm not a doctor, but I know different parts of the brain do different things. I don't feel impaired, but..." Brains are tricky. It's what makes nasty head wounds so damn hard to heal right. And Lilith thinks of that while reaching a hand to adjust Byron's hair again once she's close enough, sweeping caress and dote when she whispers, "Ready?"

Erin's eyes unerringly follow Byron a moment before sitting back on her feet and reaching for the glass to take a long drink from it. It may burn, but it's a reminder that life was normal sometimes too. "I could do some research. Do you have any symptoms at all, other than the headache and the sudden passing out that happened before?" A thought, "Other than fighting dragons and other mythical creatures."

It was interesting to watch Lilith, her brain, that mark there on the front but inside where so few could see it. Once she is looking and exploring beyond the battle field, without such distractions and complications, she is able to diagnose the location a little more accurately. "It's the Prefrontal Cortex." But the function of it has her taking a mental refresher into the workings of the brain. Finally, she adds. "Mostly, it controls judgment and impulses, aggression and emotions. The regulation of yourself and those emotions. Social skills and planning and reasoning."

Back to Byron now, she questions. "Have you noticed changes in her involving any of that? I can't tell how deeply it goes, but I am also not finished trying. I will finish this drink to relax and then maybe try again." Rising to her feet, very carefully, she moves to have a seat, not between them, but at the opposite end to give them space for Lilith to work.

"Perhaps if you're unable to get all of Byron's wounds, I could help out too. Better not overwork yourself right now. Until we know more about things."

"Don't worry about anything, Erin." Byron says, stirring from his seat, the hand finally lowering from his face to drop into his lap. "We can catch a ride if you like, tomorrow morning, to pick up our cars at the Addington House so that we can both go ahead with the rest of our day."

Usually, Byron shows some fascination to watching others, and even himself, get healed. But today, he was in so much pain and it was difficult for him to concentrate. This wasn't similar to when he suffered brain damage from a crushing jolt to the head, but it still hurt like hell. When he senses Lilith creeping her way towards him, he reaches a hand out to her, before leaning into her slightly, feeling her own weight pressed against his form. The claw marks to his skull are basically that, a creature with sharp talons dug its claws into his skull. Thank God, that most of his wounds are hidden beneath his hair, but there are signs of puncture near his right temple where his skin had been scraped.

Though what Erin says has him thinking, especially to some of his and Lilith's most recent arguments. But then again, Lilith was impulsive, so he couldn't possibly put full blame on any of that onto whatever was effecting her, right? "You know Lilith. Though I probably know her more than you do. We argue and bicker, but," He shakes his head, making it harder for Lilith to pry at his scalp, "It feels like all Lilith."

To the whisper to his ear, his hand grasped onto hers now, he nods, giving her permission to do the thing.

Lilith is a little too injured and dirty and Byron is a little too badly off for her normal approach to the way she typically mends him. There's no kiss that floods him with relief that fans out from the lips and washes through, she wants to focus in full on what she's doing because it's head wounding, and that always makes her a little nervous about slipping, especially given her own brain is... well. Something?

She touches the hell out of Byron, though, while murmuring to Erin and being a relatively still and focused piece of woman while working on the man's injuries. With one hand laced through his, he feels the initial power of relief wash through and take the smaller wounds first, then his chest and stomach starts to close under all the clotting blood, the natural strange tingles of acclerated knitting coming after she rubs her free hand along his ribs.

"... I haven't noticed any particular oddities, no. I have actually been... very active since I was healed. Perhaps a scan at the hospital with you looking at it instead of doctors that don't know things like we do...? You'd have context and might see something differently on a screen."

Woah, did Lilith just offer to willingly go to the hospital? She must be distracted if she's putting out ideas like that. Her hand has fanned up to delicately shift some of Byron's blood matted dark hair and for a moment, his edges of wounding start to tingle like they're going to heal, but then her power fizzes out and it makes her blink a few times before she carefully focuses again with stubborn will.

"You know... we'll wash up and do this again in the morning now that we all at least have... some relief to rest with." She's too anxious now to try again, though she's tempted, but she also knows she's still in pain herself and fatigued to boot, like everyone here. It can't be good for focus and that's a head injury she wants to be thorough and feel good about mending.

Erin cannot do anything further with Lilith tonight, her brain is just closed down for now. Byron though is a new challenge so she focuses there for several long moments. Afterwards she finds she is able to assist him at least, a sheepish look his way before looking back at Lilith with a wry look. "I can try again tomorrow for you, I want you at full capacity so we can make more sense of your head trauma."

An eager nod, excitement brimming all over again, "I'd like to do that. Or maybe gain access to the records where you've already been scanned." Careful not to stretch, not wanting to interrupt her wound that is left, she does stifle a yawn. "Thank you for the offer of the clothing and the bed, I would love to take you up on it. I don't think I could manage to get home right now if I wanted to."

There's no rush, but once shown to the spare bedroom, she'll get all cleaned up, showered, changed, dispose of her dress completely. Another text or a few will be sent to her guy friend.

Byron doesn't mind being touched, having Lilith's hands all over him while she heals him. He's used to her healing techniques, even when she uses his body to heal others and he can feel it start to work, the strange sensations at his wounds, the tears in his chest being spiritually mended, putting some ease to the discomfort felt with each of his movements. His chest lifts and falls beneath her touch, feeling as his breath fills his lungs, followed by the exhale.

Closing his eyes helps and the tingling sensation at his scalp is somewhat soothing in its own way. He can feel her attempt, but the wounds could be too deep or Lilith was still recovering. Either way, he doesn't fuss about that and when he opens his eyes again, he has another of his smiles for her, his hand reaching out once more to grab one of hers to give a reassuring squeeze. Looking between both women as they speak about this possible problem that seems to have attached itself to Lilith, he just blinks, "Would we need to take new scans? Or do they have some on file already for her to look at?" If both Erin and Lilith were up for it, he sees no problems in trying to help make this happen. But with Erin working in the hospital, it might not be too big of a challenge.

It looks like he's about to get up, when Lilith suggests cleaning up and getting some sleep for what will be a busy morning. That's when it hits him, this new wave of sensations, but it's not coming from Lilith. While he'd been healed by Erin before, with Lilith being his primary healer, he's grown unused to others aiding him in this way, so it's feels a little strange and it catches him by surprise. It also keeps him seated as she goes about her work.

"Thanks." He murmurs once it feels like it's done. There was still a pain in his head, because even with magical healing, it merely hurries the healing process rather than wiping the slate clean (despite code), but it felt somewhat better. "Let us know if you need anything." He says, slowly rising from his seat when Erin heads off to the guest room. Once their guest and healer seems settled in, he turns back to Lilith, "Are you okay? Are you bothered with what Erin said?" About this mystery thing inside of her.

Lilith bats her lashes a few times and she is bothered, irrationally so, possessively so, but.. that comes when she's unable to fix Byron with waning focus that prohibits her from accelerating his mending. It's reaction that flares up when Erin is able to make him just so from the inside, and OF COURSE she is immediately gracious and relieved when she notices, knowing he won't have to spend the night in pain or miss work (and he can wash his hair!) Lilith likes to be the one to make him right, she KNOWS how he's made, and she's never actually much been around when someone else has helped him. It's a weird obsessing impulse feeling, mineminmine. He can feel her hand tense when it happens too, still laced in hold on his.

But it's Erin. It's okay. Possessive and irrational gets swept aside. She breathes for a moment while looking at Byron a little longer, then smiles some before bidding the other woman goodnight, letting her go to shower in the hall bathroom. She'll put some clothes in the bedroom for the woman when they get up, but for now, she says 'good night' to the Addington woman and calls about seeing her in the morning when she's down the hall. When Erin is departed, they have a cat leaping onto the back of the couch starting a cautious sniff at the back of Byron's blood-matted head of hair with pissed-off looking nosy concern.

"I don't know how many scans they did after getting me stabilized. It might be interesting to compare progress between scans over time to see if this is seriously just something that is going to take time due to the nature of the giver." She sounds a touch hopeful about that because like she keeps insisting, she feels fine, and marks are just marks, like scars, right? Okay, it's probably bad in the brain, but... "We'll see what they think best." She's including August in this now, even though he's not here, because he did the initial healing and saw it right after it happened, he'd know if there's differences between then and now, too. Maybe.

After dropping her lashes a moment, Lilith thinks about Byron's next concerned question, "Honestly, Byron... I'm more worried about you obsessing over it. Which I understand, I do. I'd probably break myself trying to make you perfect and right again if I knew something was amiss inside. Do I seem different?" When the brunette looks back up, she seems honestly and genuinely curious and asking for the blunt truth, not assurances, because her perception of how she feels isn't the same as outside perception, she knows that rationally. After asking, though, she leans with small wincing to pick up her drink to drain in short order like she needs the nip to warm and ease the pain of moving to shower once they've actually started moving.

Byron knows how Lilith can get if someone else dares heal him. He understands that feeling too and despite the throbbing pain, he was willing to put up with it for the night, until Lilith was focused enough to try again the next morning. Of course, he has no complaint that Erin was the one to sooth that particular pain. He was no longer bleeding, the gashes in his skull being closed, but some of the discomfort was still there and would linger for a few more days. If anything, he gives Lilith's hand a gentle stroking with his thumb.

"You're probably right. The more scans the better. Progress." He repeats most of what she'd just said. "I wish I could..." He starts, licking at his lips, before starting again, "I wish I could dive into your mind and try to find its source. I don't even know what I would've gotten if I'd done that to Thomas Addington when Gohl was still piggy backing on him. I sometimes wish I'd tried."

That leads into this obsession he has over this thing that none of them know anything about. His words had confirmed his worries. "No, I don't think you seem different." He says this despite their huge argument just last night, but they must've worked something out to be able to go out to the garden together without much fuss or coldness. "It's the idea that Erin was reminded of Gohl being attached to Thomas Addington that concerns me the most. What did the Vivisectionist leave behind?" All of this comes out, though he'd bee wondering these things for a while, in silence. However, he doesn't mean to alarm or scare her, so once she's gathered up her drink to finish off, he helps her to stand, setting their glasses in the sink, before escorting her to the bedroom in slow, steady steps. "If you feel fine, it's probably nothing. I just don't want it to be this dormant thing and who knows what will happen when it activates."

"I suppose you could try at length to assess me in your way, if only to assure there's no other factor at play with what the mender-eyes are seeing. Because it's like you say, we don't know, we can't know with these things, I can't imagine it would hurt at all. You'd know whether or not I'm not carrying a Ghoul, at least, I think. And that'd be some relief to us both to know that.. even though this seems similar, it may not be what Erin saw in Thomas at all. The circumstances are different, but... "

Lilith doesn't really finish that sentence because a Veil being of significant name and power and existence isn't really a thing that's better than a possessing ghost, it's just a different level of strange and dangerous, in potential. She also suspects that Byron has been doing little mental scans incessantly on her up to this point and might have noticed by now if she were sharing her mind with something foreign or invasive or wrong, but that's not the same as doing a full deep mind delve and connection as he did when she was close to catatonic levels of shut down after the terrible Valentine's Day ordeal. They were truly connected in a rare moment then, he doesn't like to do that but he was desperate to have her right again at that time, and this time may be no different in his mind.

After he answers to her inquiry as to whether or not she seems overtly changed. though, she exhales small noise of relief. She might have been a little overly explosive about his surly joke about sex, but it's Lilith and she usually has reasons she flips out and pulls back like she initially did (before exploding). Then again, Byron probably isn't aware of why she was so set off with that seemingly little thing as trigger, so again, these things are really just so Lilith here and there, it's hard to tell if that part of her is actually a symptom of brain damage that lingers for whatever unnatural reason. Same with her just deciding to run off and blow stuff up instead of going to get checked over by Erin when she should have. It was slightly out of character for her not to invite Byron and jump with aggressive unthinking impulse toward the lure of destruction, and she did punch Easton in the face, but also... Lilith.

Basically, it's just fucking hard to tell and it probably seems like micro-analyzing if he tries. Lilith is generally well-behaved until she's just not with a flipped switch, as per trend.

When Byron helps the brunette up, she squeezes on his hand once standing, then draws it up to her lips, "I'll be okay. Whatever this is, I'll be okay in the end, I always am. I'm like a cockroach, it'll take an apocalypse to lie me down for good." While she speaks, she looks at the man's dark eyes and then starts to drift toward the bedroom and bathroom, "Come on. Let's clean up and lie down, hm?"