Cardia

It's not that Cardia disliked Caduceus. Sure, sometimes he was a bit more focused on his own work than other dragons, but that by itself wasn't a bad trait. It was his tendency to only think about his work as positive. Even the best intentions can have negative outcomes, but Caduceus had a hard time seeing that. Project: EX is the perfect example of this. Yes, he has managed to create a unique life form from spare parts, but the poor thing is always in pain and is unsure of it's own existence.

It can't be helped though. If Cardia tried to bring it up again, she would just get another lecture about how "We've made big leaps in science" and how "It's going to be for the greater good." What Caddy probably doesn't know is how much extra care Cardia has been giving EX this past month. Helping it learn, trying to ease some pain of living. She doesn't think Caddy will mind, and even if he did, frankly Cardia wouldn't care. She might be shadowing him, being his assistant, but Cardia is smart. She knew right from wrong in medical practice, unlike him.

The Bogsneak sighed and opened the door to her lair. She wasn't feeling to great today, or any day this week for that matter, but especially today. Cardia limped over to her chair and started to unbuckle her lab coat and her hood to check on her scar. It had gotten slightly bigger again, to Cardia's concern.

She leaned back nervously in her chair. The scar was almost perfectly vertical, straight down her neck, about as thick as two pencils now. There was only slight discoloration from her bright red skin a few days ago, but now it was turning a deep greenish yellow. The Bogsneak carefully stroked it with her claw. It tingled.

For the past nights Cardia's been rubbing a lotion she made onto the scar, hopping for some form of improvement. Though none was showing. She'd promised herself, if there was no improvement by tomorrow night, she was going to go talk to Caddy about it. Or Strike. Just a doctor of some sort. Despite her own medical background, this was stumping her.

Cardia reached into her lotion jar and lathered it around her claws, before stroking the scar
once again. But as soon as she touched it with the lotion, it HURT. It stung like crazy, and almost sizzled. She hissed and pulled back. This was the first time the scar actually caused pain like that, and Cardia was shocked. She stared at herself in incredulity, wondering if it was wise to continue. Nervously, she touched her scar again with the tip of her claw. It throbbed in pain again, this time only worse, causing the Bogsneak to stumble back in confusion.

She didn't even need to touch it for it to start hurting again though; in her staggering it started feeling like she was being stabbed in the neck. In an instinct of panic, she grabbed her neck, but that just made it worse. She ambled back to the mirror, but couldn't open her eyes to look. Instead, she howled in pain, before biting her tongue down to avoid making noise. And then, the pain reached a climax, but suddenly stopped. Now there was just an odd sensation in her neck instead. Cardia signed, half in relief, half in stress. She slowly opened her eyes.

But then she wished she didn't. Her neck now had a massive hole, no, a massive mouth carved into it. There was a moment of processing, pure shock, before Cardia turned to curiosity. There was no panic yet, for she had seen worse, even if not on herself. The bogsneak carefully poked the teeth that were lining this mysterious mouth. It took her a second to realize it, but she could actually control this thing that had grown on her neck. She caused the tongue to move up and down, and closed and reopened the mouth. She was fascinated before it suddenly hit her what was going on.

"...Caduceus?" She whispered to herself, unsure of what the cause of this was. The truth was she knew it was Caduceus, it had to be; a secret test he had done on her? Some medical experiment backfire? A side effect from Project: EX? It had to be. There's no way a mutation like this could have occurred by itself.... right?

But she wouldn't tell him about this. Her hatred for him suddenly boiled, realizing that this "Partnership" could have just been some way to ruin her life in the long run. Cardia would NOT let him have this.

So, for now, she slowly wrapped up her neck back in bandages, covering her second mouth from view for now.

Maybe Strike was a better doctor to become an assistant too....