"You should've called for help when you still could"

Woops, somebody fell in their tub, get your vitamins kids— I'm terribly sorry for the Solace spam, I swear I've got more characters, just not that much recent art of them.

This follows a long-lost "based off a painting" sorta art trend. I remember having done like 5 in 2020 and now I decided to finish the remainder.

This one specifically is based around the one painting of the journalist who died writing in their tub while writing. No idea what the actual thing is called though, HHHA. I studied 4 years of art history guys, this is completely professional—

But other than that, the reason I chose the dork for it was because this is an actually relevant part of his long story arc.

I might someday release a much more proper book with every chapter & quit teasing scenes like this, but it's also a ton of pages I still need to run through a proper checker prior to release, because guess who doesn't speak English as their primary language? :D

WARNING: topics of medical conditions ahead.

Anyway, the scene basically goes that Solace had been mourning for well over a week now. It's specifically around the death of a very neat & dear rookie he grew fond of. It was also his first squadron after Beat was stripped from Captain-hood.

Now, having interitus means any negativity will absolutely make the condition worsen considerably. For somebody as absolutely stressed and messed up as Solace, it probably took less than five days of progression. However, as he does, he didn't wanna bother anybody. In fact, no one knew he even had interitus nor that he was taking more than 10 different prescriptions to keep it in check as to prevent pushing Kaiia's healing powers over what was respectively his problem to face.

Unfortunately, because of all that was going on, his condition got to the point where meds weren't enough. His insides were already collapsing, so there was no way he could save his own life by taking 'em this time. In a panic, feeling himself slip into potential unconsciousness and helplessness, he tries to call the one person who approached him since he arrived to Khuron from Porco's place. He phones Azure, but the rapid loss of senses and strength caused his phone to slip through his shaky hands, cracking it and hanging up the call. By the point he bent over to pick the phone back up, his brain and his ability to stand up anymore started to shut down per se.

Solace falls back and onto his tub in a far less graceful manner than what's seen here, going unconscious. Just as it happens, Azure starts calling back, but Solace is unable to pick up the phone anymore.

Thankfully though, Azure was gonna visit him per usual to leave him a few snacks from her workplace as a head chef at a local restaurant and she finds him unconscious & bleeding in the very bathroom, phone in hand. However, not because he could hold the thing, but because his entire body stiffened and locked into place. It became a tight race against time, but Azure thankfully gets him to the hospital right on time.

Granted, his time there meant losing muscle mass and weight that was crucial for a soldier altogether. Rehabilitation and recovery was two weeks thanks to Kaiia, but it could've been more. His condition is not disclosed even after all this happens due to privacy rights that doctor Levinee, his head medic, still respected. He didn't agree to it at all, hence the quote in the title.

Levinee thinks it's very unwise of Solace to keep something so dangerous as a secret precisely due to things like these. But alas, Solace believes it'd be a burden on people's shoulders that they don't need. To him, this is basically his cross to carry and the idea of telling someone would mean he's giving them that weight on top of their existing baggage, ignoring the fact people have problems of their own too. He finds it selfish of himself to simply dump that kind of stuff on others. So long as he can breathe, he can stand that kind of issue on his own, no problem.