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The crimson red jacket now draped over Lex's injured body had seemingly manifested out of thin air. The leather itself is covered in a thin glossy sheen that faintly smells of dried blood but the only other noteworthy aspect of it is the various patches stuck to the back of it.
You count five in total. One of a centipede, one of a pair of antlers, one of a briefcase, one of a guitar, and one of a gemstone. It's otherwise a pretty simple jacket that you wouldn't know was anomalous if not for your fine-tuned instincts.
>CALL ME LEX obtained for Lex! (Blocks 2 FLESH damage from all sources, does not hamper his TORMENTED SPARK gains. Allows him to be empowered through the suffering of allies.)
>While wearing CALL ME LEX, he gains 0.5% per FLESH/RESTRAINT damage an ally takes and 5% when an ally receives a CRIPPLING INJURY. This can boosted by his BARBED WIRE BRASS KNUCKLES.
>LEX TORMENTED SPARK PROGRESS: 70/200.
"I see you lookin' at me." Lex wipes away the blood on his hands onto his already stained PARADIGM. "Like it?"
"It's rather simple." Most of the other PARADIGMs you've seen have been ominous and mystical artifacts, fancy swords, or fucked up mutations. "Not like mine is any better."
"I ain't fancy. <span class="mu-b">I just wanna wear my heart on my sleeve.</span>" Lex shrugs. "My heart ain't fancy either, what can I say?"
"Can't judge you for that." Your brain is too frazzled to really say any more. So you don't. You pop open some of the HIGH QUALITY WHISKEY you've been saving for an occasion like this.
You immediately tense up when you feel the beady eyes of five exhausted, booze-hungry allies staring down at you. You take a deep, hearty gulp of the bottle you opened before putting it and a full bottle of whiskey down onto the ground.
As if your allies were like a swarm of locusts devouring fields of rice, as described in N-Corp's many religious texts, their greedy hands grab at the bottles of whiskey to drink every single drop left.
You lean against the still warm corpse of Bel to try to recover your sanity while your allies begin to party like animals. Your belly feels nice and warm as the whiskey settles in.
>+4 RESTRAINT to you! (3 from Whiskey, 1 from AZURE BLUE REGENEARTION) 5/10 RESTRAINT LEFT!
>+3 RESTRAINT to LEX! 6/8 LEFT!
>ALEXIS is fully sane!
It doesn't take long for the booze to make Wendy and Quentin drunk but the others, either through sheer bulk or through high tolerance, are barely affected. The two drunkards promptly find themselves hitting the ground (before promptly laughing like idiots).
Lex and Alexis sit down next to you by Bel's corpse while Ashley tries her best to rest her leg.
"Thanks for the booze." Lex takes another swig of a mostly empty bottle of whiskey.
"Felt like we deserved it after what we had to fight." You sigh. "Fuck, man. Hearing myself scream like that was something else."
"Yeah. I don't think I want to hear that again." Alexis can't help but to shiver when she remembers what she heard.
