#consolatio

By the time morning came around Dr. Iplier was exhausted, and Dark was minus two eyes. The discoloration deeper in Dark’s eyes suggested a spreading poison, and the doctor realized the only option for Dark’s safety was an enucleation(removal of the eyeball) of their eyes. In normal circumstances he would have waited until they could receive a false eye to support the structure of their eye sockets, but it was too risky to let the poison spread.

Breaking the news of the surgery was… disastrous, as expected, Dark was completely against the idea of a surgery to remove their eyes, instead taking the ‘die slowly and painfully’ option, until the doctor could talk them into the surgery. Needless to say, it had gone perfectly; especially with Dark completely sedated, and no one to witness his delusional ramblings to his fantasy nurse.

He had cleaned up both himself and Dark when the Host walked in to get his bandages changed.

“Doctor.”

Dr. Iplier grumbled and moaned in response to the intrusion.

“Doctor? Have you been awake all night?”

“No- only most of the night.” He struggled to lift his head up to look at the other man. “Can you replace your bandages yourself?”

“Yes I can.” He answered.

“Great.” The doctor’s head made a ‘thunk’ sound as he fell asleep again.

-----

The Host ended up late to breakfast, meaning every face in the room turned to him when he entered the room.

“Where’s the doctor and Dark?” Google Blue asked.

He shrugged. “Dark was asleep when I arrived, and the doctor told me to replace my bandages myself before passing out.”

“They must have been doing things last night.” Yellow added. “Perhaps a development was made with Dark’s eyes.”

“They were doing it.” Edgar muttered.

Bim and the Jim on his other side gasped and slapped him. There were suppressed grins from the others who pretended not to hear it.

The Host made no indication of having heard Ed’s comment. “I believe so…”

He trailed off.

“Host? Do you know something?”

He may have turned around had he not seen a vision of him telling the others about what he saw and felt while in the doctor’s office.

The Host sighed. “Through my vision, I felt a depressing aura, it almost had a mourning feeling to it.”

He let the others connect the dots to a loss of Dark’s eyes.

“We can’t know for sure though, not until one of them tells us.”

“I don’t like the odds.” Wilford grumbled.

The others couldn’t help but agree.

The rest of breakfast went by quietly, and it wasn’t until nearly lunch when the doctor arrived. No one had left the dining hall since the Host’s arrival; none of them wanted to miss Dr. Iplier’s statement on Dark’s health. When he did arrive he barely seemed to notice everyone else in the room until he turned around after shuffling through the refrigerator. Everyone was staring at him, and he was staring at everyone.

“Let me eat before I say anything.” He rolled his eyes at the disappointed stares. “I want to die on a full stomach, at least.”

The doctor felt the weight of the others’ eyes on him as he ate. He was not looking forward to updating them all on the situation. As much as they pretended not to be too invested in the well being of each other, they all cared deeply about each other.

He finished eating, and slowly got up and cleaned the dishes before turning around to confront the others. At that point they were all, sans Host, glaring at him. He would have smiled if he didn’t have to give such grim news.

“A few hours ago, Dark woke me up and complained that their eyes were itching badly.” He started, the others already appeared to be going through the five stages of grief. “I investigated their eyes, and I saw signs of poisoning. I realized that an enucleation of their eyes was the only way to stop the spread. If I allowed it to continue, I’d have to behead them.”

“What’s an enucleation?” Jim asked.

“Enucleation is the term for the surgical removal of an eye, but not of the surrounding tissue.” Google Blue said automatically as he pulled up a search page. “Related search terms: exenteration and evisceration.”

“Evisceration?” The other Jim asked.

“Google, stop.” Dr. Iplier stopped Google before the android could explain the term.

“So Dark is blind- permanently?” Wilford asked.

“Unless he can regrow eyes, yes.”

There was a few moments of silence before Bim spoke.

“Are we going to tell Mark?”

“To hell with Mark.” Wilford replied angrily. “He doesn’t deserve to know.”

“That’d be quite the shock for him to learn suddenly, when he visits us.” Edgar said mischievously.

“From the sound of it, we’re not telling Mark shit?” Iplier asked.

There were some mutters of approval from the egos.

“Don’t tell any of Jack’s egos either- Anti’s an asshole.” Google Red added.

There was unanimous agreement- this was going to be their secret.

“Speaking of- Google- can you create glass eyes for Dark?”

“Yes we can.” Blue answered. “Though- why can’t we create a working prosthetic eye and then wire it to Dark’s brain- effectively restoring their sight.”

“Dark is… technically dead. No heartbeat, and probably no brainwaves.” He sighed. “I doubt they’d work, though you can ask them. For now, do glass eyes.”

The Googles stood up, taking it as a dismissal, the others followed the androids out. The mood for the rest of the day was uneasy, the development shook the egos to their core. Dark spent most of their time in the doctor’s office, until a few days later when it came time to receive their glass eyes, courtesy of the androids.

-----

“We made them to match the eyes that you lost.” Google Green explained. “And, because the muscle surrounding your eyes is still intact, they’ll move when you look around.”

“Perfect.” Dark answered. “For the sake of the other egos, however, I’d like a pair of glasses to cover them anyways.”

“Understandable.” Green replied, despite not understanding. “Is there anything else we can do to assist you?”