[When sleep is a more lethal risk than staying awake..]
You succeeded, so no more apologies, you'll wear them out.
[It's grisly, this gathering of what amounted to organic debris that was still alive and should be in horrific pain had he not muzzled that. He'd seen humans torn apart in that fashion countless times, been the perpetrator nearly as often, but it hit so much differently when it was his own kind. It was, of course, utterly different to him and always would be.
He sets it aside. Compartmentalizes emotion, puts it away with the rest.
Doing is one thing. Teaching others how to do it is another, especially in the middle of this kind of situation. He nods regardless, they can put her together again now. Legs weren't explicitly needed, but it helps. Healing thirty percent of a person is much less taxing than healing 70%. And with him right here, the chances of Tessla slipping away and dying were close to zero.]
Of course. We have everything we need now; I will need to take a bit of everyone's strength. You won't get it back, but it will heal Tessla. I can't- [He can't just force it anymore, he didn't have that power.] ..assist directly. What I will show all of you will work for every plant, but be careful doing it alone. The more help you have, the easier it will be. Touch makes it easier too. It may look scary, there will be smoke, maybe light, but it's safe. Pay attention if you can. If you can't, it'll be over in a couple minutes.
[It's nice they're all in contact already but that's part of instruction, stating the obvious so it's no longer implied, it's an out loud fact. He doesn't say it'll work on humans, he's never tried and doubted it would, there wasn't the same fundamental biological connection. Even mentioning it would likely upset the small flock regardless.
Granted power, he's deliberately slow at first in taking it in a fine, minute strand of his own waning abilities and directing it, moderating its flow and strength, allowing very little of Tessla's though it was needed to form a connection at all, somewhat more of Vash's, and putting the heaviest metaphorical lifting on their numerous intertwined sisters. Their greater numbers were their advantage, and there is the barest echoes of muted puzzlement is the only mark that Knives has to take a moment to figure out exactly what Vash's power is, and then how to best make use of it. That wasn't ... how it was supposed to be, what it was like before.
A puzzle for later, he can still make use of it.]
Start with bone. It knows where it belongs, give it the power to be there, and rebuild itself. While it does, organs need to be put back into place, bone usually protects them.
[Like so, the needle-thin direction of their combined strength set to fueling the rapid regeneration and healing of severed joints, broken bones, and missing bones, and close them over organs gently pulled back into place by threads of flesh and the subtle tug of microscopic specks of gravitational force. At the edge of rebuilding bones is the light he'd warned of, the fine spiderweb of plant-glow and discharge of unwanted matter mixed in such as sand burnt off in a thin haze of white smoke.
It would be terribly painful, if Knives allowed any of them to feel the pain. In the absence of pain, there's much more bizarre sensations. Once he has a sense of them understanding what he's directing their powers to do, the process speeds up, mending blood vessels before they can hemorrhage, an intertwining rootlike network of veins and arteries, bones encouraged to produce more blood. It's a drain, tangibly, for any he's taken power from. And none of the power being used is his, there's just emptiness where there should have been Knives' own plant abilities.]
Work from the inside out. Once everything is in place and held together even a little bit, then the rest can follow. Skin is always almost last, without a cut there's no bleeding to worry about.
[The only real problem is it does rely on a body's innate sense of what it's supposed to look like, the number of limbs or digits and so on, and that might be ... blurred, connected directly to ordinarily bulb-bound sisters. Power seeks out broken and torn bone and flesh there too, in amongst the feathers. Damage is damage and they are a whole.]
wall of text. TW: descriptions of inside bits.
[When sleep is a more lethal risk than staying awake..]You succeeded, so no more apologies, you'll wear them out.
[It's grisly, this gathering of what amounted to organic debris that was still alive and should be in horrific pain had he not muzzled that. He'd seen humans torn apart in that fashion countless times, been the perpetrator nearly as often, but it hit so much differently when it was his own kind. It was, of course, utterly different to him and always would be.
He sets it aside. Compartmentalizes emotion, puts it away with the rest.
Doing is one thing. Teaching others how to do it is another, especially in the middle of this kind of situation. He nods regardless, they can put her together again now. Legs weren't explicitly needed, but it helps. Healing thirty percent of a person is much less taxing than healing 70%. And with him right here, the chances of Tessla slipping away and dying were close to zero.]
Of course. We have everything we need now; I will need to take a bit of everyone's strength. You won't get it back, but it will heal Tessla. I can't- [He can't just force it anymore, he didn't have that power.] ..assist directly. What I will show all of you will work for every plant, but be careful doing it alone. The more help you have, the easier it will be. Touch makes it easier too. It may look scary, there will be smoke, maybe light, but it's safe. Pay attention if you can. If you can't, it'll be over in a couple minutes.
[It's nice they're all in contact already but that's part of instruction, stating the obvious so it's no longer implied, it's an out loud fact. He doesn't say it'll work on humans, he's never tried and doubted it would, there wasn't the same fundamental biological connection. Even mentioning it would likely upset the small flock regardless.
Granted power, he's deliberately slow at first in taking it in a fine, minute strand of his own waning abilities and directing it, moderating its flow and strength, allowing very little of Tessla's though it was needed to form a connection at all, somewhat more of Vash's, and putting the heaviest metaphorical lifting on their numerous intertwined sisters. Their greater numbers were their advantage, and there is the barest echoes of muted puzzlement is the only mark that Knives has to take a moment to figure out exactly what Vash's power is, and then how to best make use of it. That wasn't ... how it was supposed to be, what it was like before.
A puzzle for later, he can still make use of it.]
Start with bone. It knows where it belongs, give it the power to be there, and rebuild itself. While it does, organs need to be put back into place, bone usually protects them.
[Like so, the needle-thin direction of their combined strength set to fueling the rapid regeneration and healing of severed joints, broken bones, and missing bones, and close them over organs gently pulled back into place by threads of flesh and the subtle tug of microscopic specks of gravitational force. At the edge of rebuilding bones is the light he'd warned of, the fine spiderweb of plant-glow and discharge of unwanted matter mixed in such as sand burnt off in a thin haze of white smoke.
It would be terribly painful, if Knives allowed any of them to feel the pain. In the absence of pain, there's much more bizarre sensations. Once he has a sense of them understanding what he's directing their powers to do, the process speeds up, mending blood vessels before they can hemorrhage, an intertwining rootlike network of veins and arteries, bones encouraged to produce more blood. It's a drain, tangibly, for any he's taken power from. And none of the power being used is his, there's just emptiness where there should have been Knives' own plant abilities.]
Work from the inside out. Once everything is in place and held together even a little bit, then the rest can follow. Skin is always almost last, without a cut there's no bleeding to worry about.
[The only real problem is it does rely on a body's innate sense of what it's supposed to look like, the number of limbs or digits and so on, and that might be ... blurred, connected directly to ordinarily bulb-bound sisters. Power seeks out broken and torn bone and flesh there too, in amongst the feathers. Damage is damage and they are a whole.]