Jean was in charge, just as usual.
Helt had been a bit out of it when they’d left Noth’s room, due to what Jean assumed was his debilitating pain from his [Gift]. She took him to his room, hoping that the familiarity of the space and laying down in his own bed might help him calm down before she attempted what she believed would be impossible. Sure, she’d used her [Gift] multiple times to coerce people into the opposite of their beliefs, but that was only possible because those people had a weaker [Gift] than hers. Helt might not have had any tiers or qualifiers in the name of his [Gift], but just the fact that it belonged to a Krysthid, well… That automatically made it a more amazing blessing than what most ordinary humans could ever hope to receive.
But that same reason for his powerful [Gift] was what had turned it into such a potent [Curse].
Jean had read many books since coming to live with Noth. She may have been young, but she already knew very well that the only real difference between a blessing and a curse was how it was perceived; One man’s trash was another man’s treasure, and all that. It was one of the many things she needed to learn to realize that her own [Gift] wasn’t the horrible [Curse] that she’d thought it was. In fact, she even read many factual stories about [Gifts] in the past that everyone had once thought of as a [Curse] now being seen as great blessings, and she'd even found out that Ren’s own [Gift] was an instance of this. However, this time she wasn’t facing some sort of theoretical dilemma or interesting view of society; Helt had an actual [Curse] from the God-dess plaguing him. This wasn’t something that could be easily fixed by simply changing how they looked at things. She couldn’t give him some kind of meaningful talk and suddenly cure his problems.
The only thing Jean had that could help him was her [Gift], but still she was scared to use it.
She would be breaking multiple promises she’d made to herself if she did this. She knew it needed to be done if she wanted to help Noth, and she’d used her [Gift] for his sake before, but… This was Helt, her first ever friend. What if while she was trying so hard to use her [Gift] in this weird new way, she somehow broke his fragile mind? What if she turned him into some mindless love doll? What if his [Gift] actually wasn’t as strong as they all thought, and he couldn’t shake off her control? What if he somehow got stuck like that, and Jean couldn't remove her power over him?! Noth’s powers were on the fritz, so they would have no safety net to fall back on!
Jean would never be able to live with herself if she did something irreversible to Helt.
The sickly looking amethyst boy took Jean’s hand, smiling weakly at her as he was barraged with her thoughts. Her insecurities with her [Gift] weren’t anything new to Helt; He’d heard it all before multiple times.
“Jean, it’ll be alright. Even if you mess up, Noth’s powers won’t be gone forever. I won’t hate you if you turn me into a brainless idiot; I mean, at least I won’t have to feel any of this pain then. I’m okay with waiting like that until Noth can fix it.”
Jean almost wanted to tear up when she saw how obviously tortured Helt looked. This was no time for her to be stuck in her head, her friend needed her and he needed her now!
“Okay, okay, alright, um… Are you comfortable? Close your eyes- No wait, look at me! Uh, uhm…”
Jean willed her [Gift] to affect Helt as hard as she possibly could. She stared into his beautiful sparkling dark-purple eyes as deeply as she could, despite the fact that she wanted to close her eyes from the pressure she was feeling. Jean could easily perceive the resistance that Helt’s high tiered [Gift] was putting up against her invasion, but she still pressed on. It almost felt like she was smacking her soul against a wall repeatedly, and a part of her wanted to give up and say that she wouldn’t be able to help him... But this was her friend, dammit! She would never just give up on her friends! They were the only family she had, the only people that really mattered to her. They were irreplaceable!
As Jean tried and strained with all her might, Helt laid there, twitching sometimes from the small pricks of discomfort that would occasionally poke at him from Jean’s direction. He already knew that Jean had never tried to use her [Gift] against him before, but having the confirmation of knowing that he’d never felt this kind of feeling before was also an interesting revelation. However, that small bit of interest quickly became drowned out by the realization that this really wasn’t working. If they were going to go out and help Noth, then it wouldn’t do for both of them to be in a miserable state.
Just as Helt was about to open his mouth and tell Jean to stop, something horrific happened.
His vision suddenly went black, and just like before, his sight was filled with the same menacing smile that had previously rendered him comatose.
It was almost like the words wrapped around Helt’s very soul, and when they faded away it felt as if some small piece of him had been stolen. And now, with that missing piece taken away, there was suddenly nothing left to stop the full frontal assault of the beautiful girl standing next to him from worming its way into his mind. His heart beat faster than it ever had, and his eyes could see nothing but her. His sights, his sounds, his smells... all were Jean.
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When Jean suddenly stopped feeling the resistance and saw Helt go slack jawed and bug eyed, she somehow knew it had worked.
“Helt?”
She waved her hand in front of his unblinking eyes, but there was no obvious reaction.
“Helt? Are you okay? Talk to me.”
The amethyst boy’s eyes finally blinked, and a wide, almost creepy smile spread on his face.
“Jean. Jean, Jean, Jean… I love you, Jean. What can I do for you, Jean?”
Jean’s face immediately lost every hint of concern, instead falling into an annoyed grimace.
“Yeah? Well don’t. I don’t want your love, it’s gross.”
She crossed her arms and did her best to retract some of her power, willing her [Gift] to go from 100% to only 40%. It was surprisingly easy to stay connected now that she’d finally broken through Helt’s wall, but she was still cautious in case it somehow suddenly kicked her back out.
“And how about now? Are you still gross?”
Helt’s eyelashes fluttered wildly for a moment, and his hand reached up to grab his head as he winced. After a moment he blinked once more, and his eyes hesitantly strayed towards Jean's direction.
“I… Yeah? I think I’m better, but… Ah, but you’re still really really beautiful Jean. You’re a little too dazzling. It’s kind of hard to focus.”
The luminescent girl crossed her arms. Her previously disgusted face turned instead to a look of only slight displeasure.
“You say that like I’m not always beautiful. Hmph, guess this’ll have to be good enough. Since you’re only slightly charmed right now, maybe I can get away with just a teensy bit of altering. Here, look at me.”
Jean suddenly leaned forward and grabbed Helt’s face. Her eyes were only inches away as she stared deeply into his.
“Listen: I’m absolute. There is no pain. There is no [Curse], only a [Gift]. You are Helt. We are friends. Help me.”
The light in Helt’s eyes seemed to dim, and they began to shake. He repeated after her, word for word, in a droning voice, and once she finally let go and broke eye contact, he sat up and smiled at her as if nothing had ever been wrong.
“Jean…”
His gaze towards her was filled with an affection that Jean had always known he'd had towards her as best friends, but had never quite let show. For a moment the girl was worried that she’d overdone it and would have to try again, but suddenly the boy violently shook his head. A strained laugh escaped his lips as Helt climbed out of bed and pressed his hands against his eyes, but soon after he once again looked at her like how he always used to look at everyone.
“Alright, I’m fine now. That was really hard to get over for a minute. You’re really strong, Jean, that was terrifying.”
A smile grew on Jean’s face. She was so happy that she hadn’t turned her friend into a brainless puppet… although his comment on how terrifying it all was secretly stung her heart a little bit. She tried desperately to think of other things so that Helt might not be able to hear that particular thought.
“A-and you aren’t feeling any pain right now?”
Helt stopped to think for a while, but after slowly tilting his head one way and another, he eventually shook it no.
“I don’t think there’s any pain, but it feels like there’s only a tiny thin dam holding it back. If we’re going to go out, we need to hurry.”
In truth, Helt could already feel the pain trying to seep in through the cracks of this dam, but he didn’t want to worry Jean with such a miniscule thing when she’d already tried so hard.
Jean and Helt quickly sprung up, and rushed to the door. As they opened it they were surprised to hear the sound of small feet turning the corner and running down an unseen hall. Jean was bewildered for a moment and started heading in the direction that she heard the steps receding in, but Helt quickly grabbed ahold of her arm and stopped her.
“Helt…?”
The small boy simply shook his head and began to drag Jean away towards the exit of the villa. It wasn’t until they were finally outside and headed towards the town that Helt finally let go of her arm, although he didn’t stop walking. Jean stared at him in confusion at first, but was shocked when she noticed that the boy was biting his lip so hard that it began to bleed.
“Helt! What’s wrong?! Is the pain coming back?!”
Jean jumped in front of him and tried to stop him. At first he struggled against her, trying to simply move around her, but when she spread her thin, graceful arms that were much longer than his own, he eventually gave up and slumped in place. Helt’s lips quivered. Now that all the momentum had been sucked out of his sails, he was forced to finally face what he hadn’t wanted to notice.
“Jean…”
As his eyes began to grow wet, he could feel the already weak dam that was holding back his [Curse] grow even weaker. It was as if his intense flood of feelings were chipping away at it. His hands came up to cover his eyes, as if somehow blocking the tears would also help to keep the dam strong. He could tell that whatever voice had helped him earlier had been the one stopping him from looking too deeply into his friend. That voice clearly wouldn’t like it if he told others what it was trying to hide, but Helt couldn’t keep his worries bottled up anymore; Now that they had escaped the mansion’s grounds, for some reason the boy suddenly felt like he could tell Jean the truth. At the very least, he believed that whatever evil thing had attacked and helped him wouldn’t be able to overhear them all the way over here, although he had nothing to back that belief up besides blind hope.
“Jean, something’s… something’s wrong…”
“What?! Does it hurt really bad? Should I try to do the thing again?”
“No… No, no, Jean…”
Helt raised his eyes. The beautiful purple was now ringed with red. He didn’t care anymore, he would let the pain come if it meant he could save what he’d promised to keep safe.
“Jean… Something’s wrong with Ren.”