[This comes from the idea of making in-universe sense of things in video games, think of it like Tutorial but on a different topic. Also in a different setting.]
You're not human, that's what's going to get you through this, assuming you actually do survive. Wounds that would take a human being months or years to recover from are things you can heal your way out of in under a minute.
All you need to do is get your body into a state of rest, that includes no longer being shot, stabbed, punched, burned, fried, functioning as an electrical resistor, crushed, impaled--
Just what the fuck do you think is going to happen to me?
You want to do great justice or some other naive bullshit like that, I expect you to be subjected to everything short of a meat grinder.
Somehow I doubt I'll be run through a meat grinder.
I said everything short of that. Anyway, get your body in a state of rest and count to thirty at a pace somewhere between languorous and ordinary. That should get you back to normal. But have like a backpack of extra clothes or something because they won't magically heal.
Thank you fashion consulting. I'm not planning on being shot stabbed and sliced so very much that the bullet holes, punctures, and incisions in my clothing make me indecent.
You're so damned naive.
So I just wait a bit? I'm supposed to trust my survival to my ability to be a stopwatch.
One of the few areas where you're in luck. You're not human but you are human enough that your eyes aren't like mine.
And this helps how?
The closer you come to death, the more the spirit world will become visible to you. When you're at death's door it'll be so overpowering you'll see only it. As you heal it will recede and you'll see the mundane world unhindered again.
Only your rods are capable of perceiving the spirit world, half-breed. For some reason they have an easier time with it and your eyes are too human for your cones to see the spirit world.
So the spirit world is black and white, like I'd see in low light.
No, it's full of vibrant colors some of which you're incapable of even imagining. You can only see it in black and white. Just remember that when the colors fade you're not well, when they go away you're near death, and when they're back to normal you're fully healed.
What if I get shot in my eyes?
Wear goggles or something if you're so concerned.
What are the limits on this healing? If I lose an arm--
Then pick it up, wait for a calm moment, and sew it back on.
If I get shot in the head?
Try not to.
But if I do?
If you do, and you remain conscious long enough to escape and heal, then you're in luck. Your soul is tied to your body much more tightly than a human's. It'll be able to tell your brain how to heal properly. A human with brain damage usually doesn't get access to how they were before until after they're dead and their brain no longer mediates between their soul and their consciousness.
Hellfire and Angelfire?
Pack a medkit. If you patch yourself up, the healing will take over as if the wounds were mundane. If you don't patch the holes, you risk bleeding out the same as a human with an ordinary wound.
My odds of success?
It would take a miracle, and half breeds like you aren't in the good graces of any of the powers capable of granting one of those.
So why the advice?
Some people, ones with incredible willpower and the stupidity to put themselves in situations where there's no hope of winning can make their own luck and change the odds.
You don't think highly enough of me for that to be a factor in your thinking.
There is a chance, however slim, that you will survive. That chance wouldn't exist if I didn't give you a basic primer on your biology. So, when you end up dead having failed to accomplish anything, I can keep my conscience clear by reminding myself that I gave you that chance.
If, on the other hand, I didn't give you that chance, then I would always have a nagging doubt that maybe you would have survived if I'd given you the chance to do so.
That does sound more like you.
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And that shifted characterization between beginning and end. When I first had this thought it started with "You're not human, that's what's going to get you through this" and the faith of that (you will get through this) was a key part, as was a genuine desire on bold's part to help Italic survive.
Took a sharp turn at "My odds of success?" Not sure why it did.
And I could just cut that section off and have it be an in-universe explanation for the health regeneration that signifies damage by desaturating the world and healing by letting the colors return.
Not sure which version of the characters I like more, Bold with faith that given the right information Italic can survive, or Bold pretty much sure that Italic is going to die, and only doing it so Bold can have a clear conscience when Italic is inevitably a corpse.
The original idea probably ends right before "Hellfire and Angelfire?" but I was thinking of a semi-divine explanation for why Italic isn't human and thus can regenerate health so the question did flow from the premise in my head.
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