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"Oh Perseuuuus!" Andromeda called in an enthusiastic, sing-song voice. She banged on his door as best she could while balancing the meal she'd brought on her other arm - a bottle of wine and a cheese tray, a common "quiet night together" snack for the two.
She was giddy. She'd heard through the grape vine that Perseus had finally reached his third ascension today; he'd barely changed between his first and second, so she was hoping beyond hope that he'd get something cool for his third.
Yet, despite her knocking, there was no response.
She frowned. Was he asleep or something? Getting a new ascension was supposed to give you a boost of energy, not make you sleepy… Maybe he just had his headphones up too loud. Andromeda started knocking again, even harder.
"Perseus!" she yelled. "Are you in there?"
Asking was pointless, she already knew the answer. She could sense his presence just inside.
Finally, a voice came from the other side. "I'm… not feeling well, sorry." Perseus said.
"Oh no! Are you sick?"
Perseus let out a cough. Something did sound off about his voice. Andromeda wondered to herself if he had a sore throat or something.
"Y-Yes, I think so, dear. I should be fine in a few days, but until then-" he started.
Andromeda cut him off. "Hold on! I'm coming in there."
"Wait, don't!" he yelled back. Finally putting some volume behind his voice made it easier for her to pick up on what was different about his voice. It didn't sound like his throat was sore; rather, it sounded almost artificial. The closest thing she could compare it to was the way Britomart's voice was filtered when she had her armor on.
"Why not?" Andromeda asked, now thoroughly confused. What kind of sickness would make his voice sound that way?
"I… I just don't want you to get sick too! Please, I promise I'll be fine. Just give me some time to find a way to fix this- I mean, get better!"
She raised an eyebrow at what had slipped out of his mouth. Something was wrong. Something was deeply wrong here.
Without another word, Andromeda started fiddling with the panel next to the door; it was set to be locked, but as his wife, Andromeda had the ability to override that. In an instant, the door slid open, letting her into Perseus's room.
Perseus was sitting on his bed, wrapped up in blankets, only his face peeking out. "P-Please, Andromeda. It pains me to turn you away, but I don't want you catching this… fever."
He coughed again, but now that she could see his body language, she could tell he was faking. Despite the blanket bundle, he wasn't shivering at all. More than anything, there was one thing that struck her right away.
"Why are your eyes glowing?" she asked, setting the wine and cheese down on the table and walking closer.
"My eyes? Um… They're just really reflective… They're, um, watering. From the fever. Very irritated." He rubbed his eyes with the blanket, but it wasn't convincing in the slightest.
Andromeda put a hand on his forehead. "You're not hot." she said, before realizing what she'd said and getting a little embarrassed. "I-I mean, you are hot! But you don't feel hot." She sat down on the bed beside him. "Perseus. I've known you long enough to know when you're hiding stuff, okay? I can tell you're not sick. I can tell there's something else bothering you. Please, just tell me what the problem is! I wanna help you!"
Perseus lowered his head in shame, looking down, occasionally glancing over at her. "…Okay. I'm sorry… I'm not actually sick." he admitted. "It's… It's about my latest ascension. Well… I think the best way to explain is to show you. Just, prepare yourself, please."
She nodded. "I'm ready."
With a little hesitation, Perseus dropped the blankets, revealing what he'd been trying to hide.
Perseus's limbs were mechanical. They were made of a bright white metal, smooth and polished to an almost mirror-like finish. Several little glowing lines ran from his shoulder to his wrist, looking almost like circuitry. His fingers were long and skinny, each one coming to a point at the end, almost like an animal's claws. The most striking part to Andromeda were his joints; they were bright blue glowing orbs, almost reminding her of a doll's joints in their construction.
"Whoa…" she mumbled, eyes wide as she took in the way her husband's body had changed.
Perseus looked away from her, red-faced. "Da Vinci said it was something to do with my divinity… It started to overwhelm my spirit origin, and now I look like…"
He trailed off, but Andromeda finished his sentence. "…like the machine gods…"
"She's trying to figure out how to reverse this. Normally we could just turn me back to a previous ascension, but for some reason, the limbs come with me every time…"
"How does it feel?"
"…Strange. Harder. They don't flex or bend the way my old limbs did." he said. "Like… When you twist your wrist, your whole forearm bends to do it. Meanwhile I just have a sliding joint at the wrist, so it doesn't do that now."
Andromeda put a hand on his forearm. "It's all metal… Can you feel touch at all?"
"A… A little. I can feel your fingers on it, but I can't feel the warmth the way I used to."
She nodded, running a finger up towards the upper edge of his forearm. "And… what about the rest of your body? You've still got the same cute face you've always had~" she said with a wink. "…Well, aside from your eyes, at least."
Now that she knew what she was looking for, she could tell that his eyes were glowing like TV screens. Looking closer, she could even see little gridlines between the different pixels.
"My torso and face… They feel the same, mostly. But I can tell it's more than just my limbs." he said. "You already noticed my eyes, but it feels like there's more machine parts inside of me. My heart feels like it's buzzing… It's like there's electricity moving through my veins."
"Wow…"
"B-But! Don't worry, love." He forced a smile. "Da Vinci is working on trying to fix this. I should be back to my old body soon, and you won't have to deal with… this, anymore."
That took Andromeda aback a little. 'Deal with'?
She moved her hand up to his shoulder, feeling the area where metal met flesh, a little ring of metal marking the edge between his limbs and his torso. His lower half was still covered by the discarded blankets, but she imagined it was a similar shape there too.
Andromeda was quiet for a moment, trying to figure out how to phrase what she wanted to say next.
"I don't hate this, Perseus." she said, giving him a smile. "It's… strange, for sure! But I don't hate it!"
Perseus was taken aback. "Really? I… I thought it would disgust you." He chuckled a bit under his breath. "…Now I feel a little silly. I was really going to try and pretend to be sick until they got me back to normal, all over nothing…"
She wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into a tight hug. "We're married, Perseus! I'm your wife! Wasn't part of our marriage vows about us sticking together, no matter the situation?! I would never be disgusted with you!"
Slowly, Perseus hugged her back. "I… With these limbs, I can't tell how hard I'm holding you. Please, tell me if this is too tight."
He was squeezing her way, way tighter than he usually did - but she liked it that way.
Andromeda nuzzled her head up against Perseus affectionately. "Feels perfect to me…" With her ear pressed up against his neck, she could feel what he meant when he said there was "electricity in his veins"; his body felt like it was buzzing, very very faintly.
After a moment, she pulled back, letting her arm run down his back, brushing up against the ring of metal that surrounded his shoulder. Her hand continued sliding down, feeling all the intricate curves and grooves of his arms, index finger tracing the glowing circuit lines.
When she reached his hand, she wrapped her fingers around his wrist and examined his hand in more detail. She brushed her thumb up against his knuckles. His fingers were long and slender, but something told her that they were just as strong as the rough and calloused hands she was so familiar with. They were cool, but not cold; thin, but not frail; sharp, but not painful.
"I understand your nervousness about this. It's a scary change! If you wanna keep it a secret from everyone else, we can just stay here until that cure's done. We can cuddle up together, watch some movies, my backlog's so long… Eheh, it would be like a little stay-cation for us!" Andromeda giggled. "But… If you wanted to stay like this, that's fine too!"
Perseus thought for a moment. "I… I suppose it might be nice to at least try it out, and see what it's like."
She nodded. "Yeah, yeah! Don't have to rush big decisions like this." Andromeda lifted his hand up to her mouth, planting a little kiss on the back of it. "I love you no matter the body, Perseus. No weird ascension would be enough to ruin that."
"Thank you, Andromeda." he said, putting his other hand on her chin, the sharp joints of his nails gently rubbing along her smooth, tender skin. "You have no idea how reassuring it is to hear you say that.
He leaned in, returning her kiss.