The early sun beams shining across the window, down to her face. The breeze outside blows against her skin as she moans herself to wake. Her vibrant pink hair is like blankets wrapped around her body, so long that it spills outside of the bed frame. Using her elbows to get up - she rubs her eyes as the crusties fall off from her skin - ruffling her hair to loosen up the tangles, and stretching her arms so much that one can hear her muscles creaking like sitting on an old leather couch; following it up with a long soft sigh.
She checks her smart watch to see how long she just slept.
"19 hours?!"
"Zaaaaaaamn" she cracks her neck left and right "Slept like a baby though, and I feel like a gazillion bucks! Wonder what breakfast I should bu-"
Poppy suddenly feels a tingle on her feet. She expeditiously raises her blanket to peek at her legs. She gasped as soon as she saw it; her toes were moving!
Her eyes expanded while she expeditiously snatched the blanket off of her body. She pulls her ear to confirm to herself "Huh~ not a dream!"
Slowly she swept her hair out of her way, carefully did she perch on her own bed. She felt every fiber of the carpet as the skin of her foot touched the surface - she gasped again.
Carefully she pushed herself up onto her bed. The muscles on her calves tense up, then her quads, then her glutes. Expressing curiosity, her eyebrows squeezed together.
She's standing!
Her knees aren't wobbly, ankles not showing a twitch, she was standing with her chest out
Gasping, she lightly takes a step, then she puts her weight on it. Now she's gasping, and her eyes wide even further!
She takes another confident step, another, then another, and another! She started doing little jumps with both legs - she starts giggling like a dork, then she hops with one leg - she starts cackling maniacally. Suddenly she jumped so high she almost hit the ceiling, to prevent this she did a front flip and screamed.
*THUD* *THUD* *THUD* were heard under the floorboards followed by a muffled "SHUT THE FUCK UP! We're tryna' sleep!"
"Sorry man!" She yelled directly at the floor
"*gasp* I- I- I- I gotta call Kremmy!"
*15 minutes after the call*
Kremidal rhythmically knocks on the door
Loud thumping steps, followed by a squeak from the door as it opened.
"Kremmy!~<3"
"Poppy, you're walking?!"
"YES!" She yelled while she bolted then jumped to embrace him by the waist
She laughs while sobbing, Kremidal lightly gets knocked back as could feel the warm tears soaking through his black uniform. He gently hugged her by the shoulders as he caressed her head, pressing against his chest. He could even feel the back of his clothes being clutched under her grip.
"Thank you so much! *sob* O- oh my god thank you s- so mmmmuch" She stammers while she tightens her arms around him.
"It's okay luv, you're very welcome - however I'm not the only one you should chime those thanks" she unstuck her face against his chest - some strings of her snot and saliva were still drooping down, and her tear stains pseudo-formed the shape of her face. Whilst she looked behind Kremidal, is a masculine figure with the same height as him.
Wearing an all white outfit, as every edge of the fabric is adorned with baroque stitchwork. A white suit over a white shirt, tucked inside was a white handkerchief; his fingers adorned with intricate rings - all wrapped with rocks and metals over a fabric glove. An iced out watch on the left - a blinding silver bracelet on the right. He wears a white cashmere straight fitted pants, along with patches of crosses with the same color all over the fabric. A pair of white snake skin boots, with chains wrapped around the arch and the ankle. Finishing the entire outfit with a full head fabric mask, a pair of red circular shades, and a white baseball cap with a 360 degree brim.
Mah boy was dripped out
Lookin naaaaasty if you will
Fresh to death, if you're so inclined.
He takes his hat off, bowing to greet as she hears a deep voice with the thickest French accent you'll ever hear "Bonjour, mon jeun cher dame~ May we come in?"
Poppy raised her eyebrow and sternly changed her demeanor "Heeey wait a minute. Where is he from?"
The white figure answered "I am from the E.C.O.M., the European Capital of Mars, specifically the French union"
Poppy's face lit up as she shouted "OH! Arrividercci!" she waived her hand.
Kremidal irked "That's uhg- that's Italian luv, also that means 'goodbye'"
"Oh… uhhh- what're you guys doing outside?! Come in! Come in!"
*A few minutes later*
Both men were perched on her bed. Coming from the kitchen she prepared cups of coffee and some cookies "Get em' while it's hot boys!" She kicks up a folding table as it stands on itself. She lays the tray of treats down gently while saying "You can eat as much cookies as you want, I can whip up a mean cinna-bun if yer grumblin' fer a rumblin'"
Kremidal darts his eyes towards Charlotte "Thank you Pops, I don't think he can-" He stops talking the moment Charlotte picks up a chocolate chip cookie, then he covers his face with his hat while eating the cookie.
Poppy stares at him biting her lip, clutching the tray on her hands, waiting with bated breaths.
"That was… Delicious!" Poppy lit up a wide smile with squinted eyes as Charlotte asked "Do you have more for later?"
"Yes, but you're gonna have to wait, señor!"
Kremidal corrects her "Monsseur"
"Mon- surr…" Poppy repeated, her smile fading slightly as she noticed the look on Kremidal's face: grimacing - gesturing her to stop by waving his hand under his neck.
Kremidal scrambles his hands around "A- A- Anyway, sit down for me please - we need to discuss something important.
She sits on the couch, with her hands tucked around her stomach.
"Luv, this man is the one responsible for completely healing your legs. This miracle work is valuable to us especially when most of the inhabitants in OLAP (Our Lady of the Abandoned Parish) are gravely injured"
She leans forward with her hands resting on her knees "But what about the hospital bills?"
"Bad news is: because of our government's incompetence they're still up, even after our workers are healed. Good news is: our debt is down 1 billion chips, after two relics were returned"
Poppy implied "But even if we're able to deliver all of the relics" she sighs, resting her elbows on her thighs "It still won't be enough - we also can't rely on duping our products for short term gain…
But how long do you think they'll hunt us down after all that debt?"
Kremidal crosses his arms "Pfft, as long as we're paying, we're untouchable - they only hunt people down who stop paying monthly - I've even settled that we can finish it by five years. To do that, we're gonna have to do things the old fashion way; since election season is near" he leans forward resting his elbows on his knees
"We're going back to contract killing"
She clicks her tongue as she shakes her head "Darn… So Ms. Baker's paperwork and logistics ain't cutting it huh?"
Kremidal cringes while he nods "You and Zephyr are the hands of the church after all"
Poppy replied "Didn't Zeph quit?"
He stammered "W- Well yes, but don't forget I'm part of the picture too… SSIA (Secret Security and Intelligence Association) are capable, but as impressive as our bullet-dodging acrobatics"
"What about the relics?"
"Only two have been found, the rest are still missing; not a single trace"
"Um, if I may-" Charlotte raises his hand interrupting their conversations "I can help you with the relics"
"You can search for them?" Kremidal leaned back
"Non, I can replicate it 1 to 1" the conjures a silver chalice right out of his hand, Poppy's jaw dropped
Kremidal shook his head "Absolutely not, once the other churches discover that duplicates exist, they will come after us for sure-" scrambles his hands "A- anyway, the reason I'm here is because he needs to give you something"
"Please mon ami, give me your hand~" said Charlotte as he reached out with his own. Poppy's eyes kept switching up and down as he reached out, she gently gave in to touch his hand. His touch didn't feel warm, nor cold, it did not feel any weight either.
He starts to use both hands grasping hers, all of the sudden: he gently lets go and says "Welcome to the Eyes of Charlotte, from now on: every body you catch will be transmitted to me, think of it as a biological messaging tattoo"
She looks at her hand as a symbol of a three-pronged crooked fork, with an eye at the top
She says with a deadpan expression "Ain't gonna lie bru, this tatt highkey look ugly"
"POPPY!" Kremidal shot up from the bed
Charlotte holds Kremidal back by the sleeve"No mon ami, I do agree. I think the design needs an upgrade, please let me know what symbol you'd like instead"
She juts her lower lip while tapping her chin with her finger "Hmmmm… how about a black cat?"
Charlotte snaps his fingers "Done"
Meow
Poppy looks at her hand, instead she's a tattoo of a black cat sleeping. She gasped "That is so fricking cool! What did you get Kremmy?!"
He raises his hand while his lips are twitching "the ugly one you got earlier"
"CKAH-HAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"HOHOHOHO! *snort* HOHOHO!"
Charlotte lightly taps Kremidal by the shoulder "Hoho! Don't worry mon ami, we can change it anytime-
clears his throat as he stand up "Anyway we're off to the hospital where the church-folk are staying, you can-"
"Join you?! Yezzzzir! Imma change real quick! BRB!" the zooms her way to her dressing room
Charlotte leans in close to Kremidal "Is she always this energetic?"
"Forgive her, she had a traumatizing upbringing."
*Fast forward to the Hospital where the rest of church-folk were staying*
They first arrived at Claire's room, with a few other patients in the same quarter. It was the ICU, the hum of the air conditioner fills the room, the sound of air tubes wheezing, machines periodically beeping. Some of the patients even started to cough. But Claire was just watching short format videos on her phone.
Suddenly the door was opened, then it was frantically closed again. It was loud enough for everybody in the room to notice.
Then somebody gently knocked, then they opened the door, it was Kremidal.
"Hello luv! Someone's here to see you!"
Poppy peeks from behind. She was wearing a leather jacket, a white tank top with roses printed all over it, a white miniskirt, and some knee-high boots "Hiiiiiiiii~<3!" she says while waving her hand.
Claire looks at Poppy from top to bottom "No frickin' way!"
"Yes, frickin way! C'mere!"
Claire dropped off her bed and rushed towards Poppy. Alas both of them embraced as tight as they can, Poppy even lifted Claire up due to her shorter stature. Both of them let out an infectious laugh, while Poppy's eyes started welling up. They even started spinning so hard that Claire's legs began flying.
After the both of them stopped spinning around, Poppy finally puts her down as Claire asks "HOW? How did you manage to get them back?"
Poppy answered while Claire was wiping her tears away "I- *sniff* I had a little help.
Kremidal and Charlotte enter the room, everyone in bed started to sit up as all of them started murmuring 'it's the pontiff' and 'Father Swanson'
Kremidal gestured to them "Settle down now, I will address you all one by one - please continue your rest" as he said that, all of them laid back down."
"Why are they here for Pops?" said Claire as both men approached them. Poppy points at Charlotte "That 'man' is the one responsible for healing my leg"
"Seriously?" Claire's eyes widened, looking from Poppy's legs to the mysterious man. "How was it? Did you feel any pain? Are you feeling any side-effects?" She then leaned in and whispered, "And how much does he charge you?"
Charlotte leans down to her "It is free of charge mon petit cher flur"
"Oh bonjour! Je m'appele Claire Phoenix, j'habite à Cavḗz Avinolia~" Claire said with fluent French. Poppy's eyes expanded while her lips were pursed. While Kremidal's jaw was visibly dropped and eyebrows high.