"Thanks for helping me with these, Em," he said as he glanced up with a grin from the fabric he was working rolling into neat rolls so they could be stored with the packs' supply of bandages. Every once in a while they would need to make a new batch of bandages whenever some of them got too worn to reuse again or some were too stained to feel good about using on another patient so it wasn't something that was a new task for him, but over the last week or so his eyes had been bothering him more and more. Aunt Gwyn examined him and wasn't concerned yet, but he couldn't seem to get his vision to focus very well–at least not well enough to cut even strips of fabric to turn it into neat rolls of bandages. Luckily his sister was the crafty sort so when he went looking for asistance with this task she was willing enough to lend him her paws. He let her cut the bandages apart and when she was done with one she passed it over to him so he could roll it up. It didn't take a lot of focusing just to roll things and place the rolled up bandages into a basket sitting beside him. "So, what've you been working on lately?" he asked curiously, striking up some conversation while they worked on the admittedly kind of boring, repetitive task. He knew it wasn't the most exciting thing to work on which was why he appreciated his sister's help all that much more.

"Solaire Carpathius"

Okay, sure, cutting up fabric was by far not the most exciting craft Ember had ever done in her life, but hey, anything to help out her sweet brother. Em would have done anything for Solaire, as was now evident with how she was sitting in front of bolts of fresh clean fabric and cutting them into thick strips to be used as bandages and gauze. As she unwound the bolts, Ember would use her razor sharp feline claws to cut through the delicate material, shaping it out to the lengths and widths her brother specified before handing them over to him to finish wrapping into bandages. It was an easy, repetitive, and mundane task, but it made Solaire happy, so it made her happy by extension. "No worries, Sol. I can't imagine how long it'd take you to do all this on your own. There's just so much fabric!" she remarked, eyeing the massive bolts of fabric he had procured. She didn't know about her brother's eye condition, she just assumed he'd wanted the help to make the work go by faster.

Ember glanced up from her work to look over at their companions sitting idle in the corner, Nocturne perched upon Dovleac's head and studying the capybara like he was some foreign creature, occasionally giving his head an experimental tap with his beak to make sure the impassive thing was still alive. It made Ember giggle, but her attention was soon returned to her brother as he struck up some idle conversation. "Oh, ya know, just practicing with my new sword. You know how serious Dad is about making sure we're 'being responsible with those weapons, you know they're not toys'," she replied, doing her best mock imitation of Artorias' voice. She flashed a playful grin at her brother as she passed him a few more cut bandages to wrap. "What about you? What've you been up to? Besides singing songs to the plants in the greenhouse." She teased him, but only because she knew her brother could take it. If it was Vendrick, he'd probably start crying as soon as she poked fun at him.

"Ember Carpathius"

Solaire chuckled as his sister pointed out how long it must take to do this over and over to all of this fabric. "It's actually going faster than it usually does since you have your claws to cut it with!" he replied enthusiastically. If Ember wasn't careful he'd try to recruit her to help him make bandages all the time. "I've gotten pretty fast at it usually, but this is even better." If only he could teach Dovleac to roll bandages, then he'd really be set! He wasn't surprised at all when Ember told him that she had been spending her time practicing with her new sword, but he did grin and laugh a bit at her impression of their dad. Artorias was always harping on them about weapon safety and even though he totally understood why he couldn't help but roll his eyes a little at it after a while. They were all super careful and they were hardly allowed to practice with their real weapons anyway. Solaire was just as excited about his new axe and whenever he wasn't here in the infirmary with their aunt he tried to squeeze in as much training time as their dad would allow.

He took another stack of fabric strips from his sister and had to blink and squint a bit until he got his vision into a more comfortable state before he could start rolling them into neat bundles and putting them off to the side in a basket that was slowly filling up with other bandages. At this rate they'd have a full basket in no time! He glanced up at Ember as she turned the question back on him with a teasing comment about his singing to the plants in the greenhouse. "Hey! They really like it when I talk to them!" he insisted, but even he couldn't resist chuckling and grinning at her teasing. He knew Ember never meant anything as an actually hurtful comment so he could enjoy her comments that poked fun at him. "Well, I've been doing a lot of this kind of stuff, obviously... Helping out Aunt Gwyn and the other healers around the infirmary and trying to memorize all the different plants." He paused his bandage rolling to rub at his eyes with one of his large paws before getting back to it a moment later. "I've been trying to teach Dovleac some fighting moves too... Mostly biting at ankles and running away."

"Solaire Carpathius"

Ember couldn't resist the proud grin when Solaire complimented her claws and how efficient they were at cutting bandages out of gauze. She liked feeling helpful to her family and being recognized for the effort, so she was glad to lend a paw to her brother whenever he needed her. "Heh, well, any time you need a professional set of cutters, you can come find me. I don't mind playing hero to my bigger brother from time to time," she remarked with a lopsided grin, very reminiscent of Artorias'. His remark about the plants liking when he sang to them earned him an amused snicker from his sister. Yeeeeah, Sol was a weird one, but he was her brother, so she guessed she kinda loved him and found him endearing or something. While Sol continued to tell her what he had been up to in his free time, Em reached the end of the bolt of cloth, cutting the final bandages out and stacking them off to the side for him to finish up. That was when Ember noticed something amiss about her brother.

While he was talking, Em took note of how he would stop every now and then and begin to rub at his eyes, almost like he was trying to get something out of them. But when he kept doing it again and again, Ember knew this was something more than just a bit of dust in his eye. She watched him with furrowed brows, giving him the courtesy of remaining silent while he spoke, but as soon as he was done, Ember interjected right away. "Something up with your eyes, Sol? You're rubbing at them an awful lot." Uh oh... did she need to go get Aunt Gwyn?

"Ember Carpathius" | "Carpathian"

Solaire blinked when Ember suddenly changed the topic away from the bandages they were making and the rundown of his typical day, interjecting to ask him about his eyes. He didn't think he had been rubbing at them that much, but maybe he was just being just convincing himself that everything was fine too well. "I'm fine! They just feel kinda weird is all... And stuff just looks kinda fuzzy," he insisted with a smile, trying to reassure his sister that nothing was going on. "Aunt Gwyn already checked them for me," he added since he knew she'd most likely jump to wanting to call for their aunt, but the last thing he wanted to do was bother Gwyn or have another whole exam just for her to not find anything wrong with his eyes again.

He looked back down at the cloth between his paws to keep rolling it up and had to blink and squint a bit to refocus his eyes with the change of depth perception. "I'm sure it's just like a weird growing thing or maybe I'm not sleeping enough," he added as he rolled up the last couple bandages and put them in the basket, yet again having to squint and blink each time he looked somewhere else. He sighed with a bit of frustration, his ears flicking back. It was really annoying, especially since he didn't know what was going on. Well... He didn't expect Ember to notice anything if Aunt Gwyn didn't, but it didn't hurt to have someone else take a look, right? "I mean... If you want to take a closer look yourself I certainly wouldn't mind," he said as he looked back up to Ember, trying to keep his eyes wide open for her and meeting her blue and turquoise gaze. Who knows, maybe she'd notice something stuck in his eye or something!

"Solaire Carpathius"

It did concern Ember a bit when Solaire mentioned that his vision was going blurry and his eyes felt weird. She was no doctor like Gwynevere or Syanna were, but that didn't sound good. When Solaire mentioned that their aunt had already checked his eyes and found nothing obviously wrong with them, well, that was the most concerning news of all! Something was clearly wrong with her brother's eyes, but no one could find any cause of what was bothering him? Hell no, that wasn't right! Ember shot Sol a skeptical look when he chalked it up to just growing up or not getting enough sleep. "Sol, you and Nelu are the only ones of us with a set bedtime," she pointed out to him. There was no way he wasn't getting enough sleep.

Solaire invited her to check his eyes out and Ember shot him another quizzical stare. Really?! He wanted her to take a look at his eyes? What the hell was she going to see? She didn't have the first clue as to what she should even be looking for! But when Sol sat there and stared at her with huge, wide open eyes, Ember just breathed an exasperated sigh and came closer to humor him. "All right, ya big goof, let's see what's going on in those peepers." Reaching up to cup his cheeks in her paws, Em brought Sol's head down to her level so she could peer into his eyes. She didn't have to look long to find what was wrong. The change of color in his irises was so dramatic that it nearly made her recoil in shock, blinking wide-eyed in surprise. "Uhh, Sol? Your eyes are... changing colors," she began, not really sure how else to explain it. "You've got amber like Dad's eyes blending in the turquoise now. Kinda like mine, but amber instead of blue." Looking around quickly, Ember guided Solaire over to a mirror on one of the cabinets so he could see what she was talking about.

"Ember Carpathius" | "Carpathian"