The man who appears near the area of the explosion, at first glance, looks like he was caught in it--he's covered in blood and dust, and terribly injured, sprawled on the ground and gasping gurglingly for air. But he has no outside injuries; it's more like someone shoved their arm down his throat and tried to rip out his internal organs.
Which is pretty much what happened, except that the thing that was removed wasn't one of his natural organs. They're all still there ... just maybe not in exactly the right places, or with healthy working connections to one another.
Which is why Dex is choking on his own blood, his vision revolving on an axis when it chooses to work at all. He can still feel his heartbeat, but it's almost fascinating, how slow it feels, how distant it's getting. He knows he's in pain, but it's the sort that's so overwhelming that the sense of it is shutting down. It's there, he's just having trouble caring.
He's having trouble caring about a lot. The only reason he's still bothering to try and breathe is a long-ingrained impulse not to give in.
On your feet and don't stop moving, Vex.
That'd be lovely, Deuce, Dex thinks dizzily, if I could breathe.
His last memories are hazy. Scouting a town with the Monster Hunters. Remnants. Then scattered, dream-like flashes he isn't sure he's meant to remember at all, of being in another town, leading a town, holding Valkyrie's baby sister, confronting Darquesse ...
He really doesn't want to remember much after that.
So he just lays there, trying to breathe and feeling, with distant fascination, his life ebbing away.
I NEED HEALING; CW for blood and severe injury; some spoilers for last book of SP
Which is pretty much what happened, except that the thing that was removed wasn't one of his natural organs. They're all still there ... just maybe not in exactly the right places, or with healthy working connections to one another.
Which is why Dex is choking on his own blood, his vision revolving on an axis when it chooses to work at all. He can still feel his heartbeat, but it's almost fascinating, how slow it feels, how distant it's getting. He knows he's in pain, but it's the sort that's so overwhelming that the sense of it is shutting down. It's there, he's just having trouble caring.
He's having trouble caring about a lot. The only reason he's still bothering to try and breathe is a long-ingrained impulse not to give in.
On your feet and don't stop moving, Vex.
That'd be lovely, Deuce, Dex thinks dizzily, if I could breathe.
His last memories are hazy. Scouting a town with the Monster Hunters. Remnants. Then scattered, dream-like flashes he isn't sure he's meant to remember at all, of being in another town, leading a town, holding Valkyrie's baby sister, confronting Darquesse ...
He really doesn't want to remember much after that.
So he just lays there, trying to breathe and feeling, with distant fascination, his life ebbing away.