As embarrassing as that first step had been, at least there hadn't been anyone around to see it happen. One interesting discovery of slamming my face on the ground was that everything around me snapped into clear detail for a brief second before returning to the outlined nature I'd experienced while more comfortably on my bed. The fuzzy outer range of my sense also receded, as if the impact had pushed against the unknown materials. Thinking about it logically, that was exactly what it must have done.

Instead of bothering to get up and risk another groan-worthy, concussion-worrying fall, I stayed on the ground. It was closer to what would now be providing me sensory data. Hoping to test my earlier theory, I flicked my finger into the concrete. Sure enough, even if on a smaller scale to my face plant, a ripple of clarity originating from where my finger struck appeared around me even with my eyes closed.

Several minutes passed while I distracted myself testing the range of my new vibrosense. A flick of a toe here, a knock of knuckles here. Even if the sensory input was a little overwhelming, I just couldn't stop. It was like finding a hobby you never knew you wanted and then getting fully submerged in it. After tapping my knuckles against the particle board end table, I was also able to notice that different things seemed to 'buzz', for lack of a better term, a particular way when my senses picked them up. Maybe I can sense some of the density proper--

"Ah! Mr. Ronan!" The young guard, Glen, that had been assigned to keep me from wandering stepped into the building. I'd been aware of a shifting pattern in my vibrosense, but my focus had been entirely on the particle board-concrete floor dilemma.

"Oh, ah--"

"Are you hurt? Do you need me to get Mr. Sam? Can I help with--"

"I'm alright, thanks." I said, coughing to try to politely interrupt the man's panic. Keeping my eyes shut, I pulled myself up to my hands and knees. The outline for the elf lit up with each shifting motion, but curiously only his feet and boots lit up clearly. Unfortunately, I didn't have much time to dwell on that as the eager youth yanked me to my feet.

Impressive Strength for an air attuned. I had to shake my head to stop myself from going off on a train of thought about the possibilities and tendencies of Attunements as well as their corresponding Attributes.

"Sir, you are standing upright!" Glen exclaimed.

"I've... Had a development," I said, taking note that he was, in fact, right. Along with that and the utter lack of pain, I almost felt whole. If only I could walk at all...

Crushing that hesitation, I took a step forward. If my eyes plus my vibrosense were going to leave me bedridden, I would put one of them on hold. Since I didn't know how to put the vibrosense on hold, sight would just have to take a back seat.

The flat of my foot cushioned much of the force, but the ripple of clarity told me where everything nearby was roughly. If I had taken a longer step, I would have to endure something worse than faceplanting on concrete. Stubbing a toe.

"Sir, are you sure you are okay? Why are you holding your eyes closed? Oh my god, are you blind!? Ms. Ava is going to have my head. She told me to keep and eye on you and if your eyes aren't working then she's going to take mine and maybe give them to you and then I'll be blind and--"

"Deep breath, Glen. Deep breath. I really am alright. I'm just dealing with... A strange Trait, that's all."

Instead of a deep breath, the elf let out more air than his lungs had any right to hold before plunking down into one of the empty beds. "I thought I was a goner."

"I could use some help getting to the other Afflicted, though," I said casually.

"Oh, sure let me-- wait a second. I'm supposed to keep you from doing that!"

"Yes, but that was before I was healed up. Now I'm good!" I said, throwing as much enthusiasm into my voice as I could. How do people even maintain bubbly personalities? I only faked a sentence and I'm exhausted.

My feelings aside, the burst of energy seemed to be all the confirmation Glen needed. The youth grabbed hold of my forearm and led me out of the door. Over the first few days of my injuries and reinjury, he'd been by my side to help me in all sorts of ways. Even if his mind was a runaway train at all moments of the day, Glen was an honestly nice person. That made me feel a tad bad about stretching the truth, but it's not like he would have to endure punishment. I had his back on this.

If my epiphany was accurate and my body was strengthened by my new Trait, then helping the last Afflicted should only be incredibly painful instead of death-inducing. While I couldn't see the people looking at the strange sight of me in a robe, barefoot, eyes closed, and with Glen leading me forward, it was almost a guarantee. The fact that my vibrosense told me the clear ripples of feet around me halted when we got close was telling enough.

A familiar building came into vibro range. The thing that brought me up short was that the whole thing rippled constantly. There were ripples based out of the smithy, the leatherworkers, and even the quiet clothiers with hand sized circles of clarity, but that wasn't it. It was the parts of the building that had been shaped by my Skills that seemed to react to my senses. My gaping must have gone on for long enough that Glen got nervous again.

"Sorry. Just taking in the sights," I said, unable to keep the smirk off my face at the play on words.

Glen shrugged, resuming the walk into the test room. Where before there had been a rough work table filled with Infusions and various creature bits, there was now a strong table purposefully carved for containing the Infusion blobs. There were two people talking quietly at said strong table, both of which pivoted in surprise. Far in the corner, near a pair of slit windows I didn't recall putting in the room, were the five remaining Afflicted trainees.

I wasn't sure what exactly I expected to see, or sense, but it wasn't the mess of responses I got. First of all was the temperature mess. It felt like a cold winter day and a sauna at the same time in the room. Goosebumps rippled my skin even as sweat poured down my face. A frown creased my face as I tried to interpret the way fire came across my new vibro sense. It was like the ripples were more turbulent waves. Something about particle vibrations with changing temperatures must have had to do with it, but I simply didn't have the experience to really interpret the sensation. In contrast to the fire, the two water Attuned trainees had tight bubbles of near flat space around them. At least, I figured that was where the water Afflicted were because I could feel the chill on my right side more.

Hesitant, but resigned to the task, I opened my eyes slowly after walking closer. Sure enough, the strange pattern impressions from vibrosense overlapped with my vision. Thankfully, the walk from the medical building had given me baseline to work through the sensations and I didn't get the immediate urge to puke from vertigo. It was distinctly uncomfortable and I didn't think I could walk far with both senses warring for control of my mental processes, but it was a good first step.

Not wanting to back down, I placed both of my hands on the two water Afflicted. One landed on the turquoise ice that had replaced most of her upper body and the other splashed through the youth's arms. They were water with a strange membrane, similar to Blobby's exterior. Once I was able to get a hold of something I flexed my will. and triggered. My mind was tugged to two different black-grey-white spaces. As if it had sensed some kind of discrepancy, the two spaces snapped together like two unfocused images suddenly jumping in resolution.

Thanks to the nature of , I was able to target both of the Afflicted at once. Practicing the mental command was easy, and I pit myself against both of their grey-space bubbles to get at them. Almost instantly, when their white spaces expanded, they touched. Like a bubble in the bath merging with another and growing in size, the blackspace buckled under the merwoman and lizardman struggling to reclaim their sanities.

Almost as soon as I'd started, I found myself curling into a ball with pain. But, for all that it consumed most of my attention, my body only groaned with displeasure. My vibro went a bit haywire as the pain wracked my muscles, but it soon passed along with the mana side effects.

"Mr. Ronan!" Glen's voice finally reached me through the pain. He was hovering over me, so I reached out my hand for him to help me to my feet. I was sore, but the fact that I'd been able to endure the exchange was already an incredible change.

"It's okay. I just... I just need a few minutes and I should be okay to help the others," I panted, glancing towards the fire attuned trio. This is going to be unpleasant for more than just my side effects. Two of the orcs had parts of their bodies that seemed to smolder without prompting, and the third had the fire equivalent of Billy's misty limbs, if only reaching to his waist.

A quick series of ripples moving away from me told me that the people that had been working silently in the test room had scurried away. "T-They are probably going to get help," Glen said. I didn't need my enormous increase in Perception to read the nervousness in his voice.

"Let them. We'll be done by the time they get back, and I certainly don't want to deal with their parents. Or Sam and Ava, because that will probably be a worse scowling than I want. I'd rather just be unconscious for it," I said, cracking my neck.

"Oh, alright. Wait--" Glen snapped to where I was leaning forward. My mana is back up to over 90% and if the collective effect I'd observed to push back the Dreg grew with more bodies, then... "What do you mean unconscious? Mr. Ronan!"

The world fell away as I pressed my forehead against one of the non-smoldering bits of the middle orc and placed my hands on the shoulders of the others. Same as before, three bubbles of whitespace of various sizes appeared around me. Hoping that my plan worked, I focused my Skill on the one with the largest of the three. The green skinned youth stirred, meeting my eyes, before taking in the space around him. I couldn't necessarily communicate, but I tried to gesture with my arms to push even as I focused on pouring mana into them.

Sure enough, two gifts sprouted from within them. One a placid stream of red, while the other a more jerky zig zag of energy. My own umber mana embraced both. The gentle stream slowed even more, but it fed on my mana to grow to enormous proportions around the orc. The other seemed to crystalize, refracting light in hundreds of directions as it continued to zip all over the place around its owner. Without much delay, the zippy gift crashed against the greyspaces, causing it to wobble. The accompanying Gift seemed to stretch, losing some of its thickness but making up for it in total circumference.

The moment the greyspaces of two of the Afflicted overlapped, the whitespace seemed to get sucked, initiating that bubble effect I'd witnessed with the others. The legless orc stirred, and their Gift manifested as well. Without needing to be urged, all three of the Gifts spread the tunnel until the bubbles joined together. The boundaries were pushed further to accommodate the two orcs in the center until it crashed into the third and my consciousness got booted out.

The three youths crackled with sightless heat, searing the small hairs on my arms and flash drying the sweat that had been raining down my forehead. An unfortunate side effect of the method I'd discovered to help all three at the same time was that I didn't actually lose consciousness like I expected. My mana pool had only dropped just below thirty percent and the twitching ache in my abdomen actually hurt less than the flash burn the orc kids had given me.

Groaning as I laid there on the ground, Glen was in a panic. I could just barely hear him mumbling about how Ava was going to kill him, or maybe Sarah, and oh god, please not Clara with her caustic gas. He even drew up short as he remembered my other friend, Daniela, then the youth's knees buckled and he fainted.

"Well, that's just awkward..." I groaned, working my fingers to try to gauge how badly my burns had affected me. Other than the layer of crispy dead skin, nothing was out of place. There wasn't an ongoing smell of burning flesh, so I was also optimistic about that.

Exhaustion washed through me at the flurry of events that had happened throughout the day. My mind was still passively working through my vibrosense, incorporating it. Laying there on the ground I was able to sense the gentle thrum of Glen as he fidgeted and even a gentler ripple from the five beds as the youths stirred from their Dreg Afflicted states.

Hey, I didn't pass out but maybe I can just... take a little nap... I let the quiet frequencies of life reaching me through my vibrosense lull me to sleep. It was just like falling asleep at a sleepover in the Bunker, except I was sure the vibrosense ripples were less disruptive than Daniela’s snoring. For the first time in a long while, my sleep was free of the nightmares.