Preparation - open/sparring + war paint

[madster]

malphas padded over, eyes bloodshot and sore. a sadness ran through him, even with things that excited him were drowned in his grief. how could beck have been so casual about it? she's gone, we've hired two people to replace her, that's it, he thought, paraphrasing beck. no matter how many nurses there were, no matter how big the medical team was, they could never replace her.

sparring? a quick, suicidal thought ran through him. maybe he'd have somebody kill him in a sparring match and everyone would think it was an accident and nobody would be truly sad, because he wasn't gone, he was dead. he had an end to his story, he didn't know about nayru. she was just gone. malphas had found a mask for himself- despite not ever actually beating the graveyard challenge, he wore it. it was a blood-stained surgeon's mask, fitting for his occupation.

"i'll be making sure nobody gets too hurt," he said bluntly in his usual tone of voice, glancing over at morgan as he sat down next to him. looking at him now, he simply muttered "maybe next time i'll fight. i'm not in the mood." he hoped morgan would understand.