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Much to Enigmas dismay, he noticed his vision had started to get blurrier. Giving him unwanted trouble to see things from a certain distance. Making him have to squint really hard or go up closer to it so he could see.
He never understood why his vision had started to grow weaker. It’s not like he had a problem with it before. He had clear 20/20 vision! But it seemed this only started to happen soon after those restless nights in his dark living chambers. He never opened the lights, and practically did everything in the dark. Not like he enjoyed the sharp and bright light from the ones outside anyways.
Enigma used to be somewhat glad for his overgrown hair covering most of his sight so that the glaring white lights wouldn’t make him wish he was blind. But not anymore, because it made it even more difficult to see. Having to brush the hair away. The acting head of Laplace had even considered trimming it, but later got a whole paragraph of text from Ulrich telling him to not cut it no matter what. And he didn’t want to pointlessly banter about this with Ulrich—especially about something as stupid as whether or not to cut his hair. So he just dealt with it.
He did ask around for suggestions on what to do. Even if he absolutely did not want to. It was just that Enigma himself couldn’t think of any other solutions to solve his worsening vision.
The first people he asked was: X and Medicine Pocket.
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“Huh, your vision is getting worse??” Medicine pocket asked, fidgeting with their surgical needle in their hand as their legs were propped on the table, leaning back in the chair. While X was arranging the parts for their two Awakenens in boxes, shoving them into cupboards with labels stuck onto them. Just so he wouldn’t accidentally mess up Lucy and Ulrich's parts. Much like the last time he accidentally swapped their parts and didn’t notice until Ulrich came complaining.
“I didn’t realise you were this old Enigma” X said jokingly, a slight chuckle escaping his lips as Medicine Pocket tried their absolute hardest to not burst out in hysterical laughter. Even resorting to clamp their mouth shut with their hands. Just so they wouldn’t suffer the fate of an angry Enigma.
Much to their predictions of cracking this small joke, Enigma did in fact get a little irritated. But he put that aside for now, he didn’t have enough energy to spare on the nicknamed “Devious Duo” for now. Sighing a heavy sigh as he responded, “Yes, now do you two have any ideas to help me? If not, I’ll take my leave” The duo then quieted down for a while, actually thinking of how to help him. Before they said in complete unison.
“Just go get some glasses.”
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Well that was no help to him. So next he went and seeked out Marcus. Who was coincidentally with the Arcanist 37, as well as Recoleta from Ushuaia. The three girls were in the courtyard of the Laplace building, doing god knows what as Marcus is sandwiched between the middle of two girls who enjoy talking. While she could only sit and listen.
Enigma walked up to them, waving a hand before 37 noticed him first. She waved back enthusiastically, straightening her robes as she said “Mr Enigma. What brings you here?” Her voice was still the same as always, not that it was a surprise to him at all. Marcus and Recoleta followed with the same questions, the three wondering if he was in any dire need of help or something.
“No uhh..” he said, dismissing their first idea that he was in trouble. Enigma didn’t know how to bring this up to them. It was already humiliating as it is that his vision was failing, but asking these three young girls for help made it even more embarrassing. He rubbed a hand on the back of his neck before saying, “Do you guys have any ideas on what to do if someone’s vision is failing?” Wording the question as if he was asking for someone, not himself. But for some reason, 37 found out instantly that he was asking about himself.
“You’re asking about yourself, no? Why use the third person?” She asked first, putting her arms together. But then dropped it as she thought of some solutions in her head.
“Why not get glasses?” Recoleta suggested, adjusting the hat on her head. Enigma suppressed a disappointed sigh, having already received that suggestion. It was like that option could just never escape him. “If you don’t like glasses, why not get contacts instead?” Marcus said, clutching her papers so they wouldn’t fly away in the wind.
Now that was a useful solution.
“Ah, yes! Contacts would be a great substitute if you don’t enjoy wearing glasses, Mr Enigma!” 37 added on. Which made Enigma believe in this solution even more. The three girls all nodded in unison, agreeing that contact lenses were a good solution to help his growing problem.
“Alright. I’ll take it into account. Thank you girls” he said before turning on his heel and walking away.
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After talking with the girls, he decided that he would ask around a bit more before sticking to solutions. Asking people that included Aleph, Lucy, and Vertin herself.
They all gave the same few answers. Contact lenses or glasses. But Aleph included a suggestion of his own—helping Enigma's vision get better via surgical means. Which the man out right refused the second he heard it. He didn’t want the risk that came along with it.
But after receiving the answer of getting glasses so many times. He found it necessary to ask the only person he was aware of that wore glasses every day. Kakania. Even if it was a stupid idea, he just wanted to know if it really was as troublesome as it is.
When Enigma arrived at the suitcase, it was bustling with people. Humans, Arcanists and Awakens alike. Some of the people here didn’t even seem human, like Charon or Getian. He walked around awkwardly, asking some people he was familiar with where the psychiatrist was. Before receiving the answer that she was at the suitcase's porch. Which surprised him a bit to think that a suitcase could even hold a porch.
Once he arrived at the outskirts, he finally saw the familiar woman in green. Along with the opera singer: Isolde Von Dittarsdoff. He walked up to the pair, waving a hand as a small greeting as he started. “Ms Kakania. I’d like to ask you a question.” The mentioned lady looked up from her teacup, greeting the researcher with a nod of her hat. “What is it you need assistance with, Researcher Enigma?”
“Is wearing glasses .. troublesome?”
The Vienna lady was caught off guard, her hand that was holding the teacup pausing mid way to her lips. Before a small silence, she let out an airy laugh, along with Isolde even chuckling a little. “My, what a question from someone like you! Why? Is it because you need them?” She asked, pushing her own round glasses up her face.
“Well, yes..” he answered, fixing his bangs slightly so it would shroud his face. “No need to be shy, I’ll answer your concerns with utmost sincerity!”
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Lastly, Hissabeth did recommend for him to clean it up a little, or to clip it up. Something similar to his hair style during the Laplace public event just a few months ago. But he denied the offer, saying that it seemed like too much work for someone like himself. Also because Enigma just couldn’t bother to style his hair every morning when he went to work, he wasn’t one for appearances anyways.
But, this vision problem just couldn’t keep going. The more he left it alone, the worse it got. To the point he started bumping into things when he wasn’t looking, or had to buy contacts just to wear them. Sure, buying glasses was an option. But it just seemed far too troublesome for him. Even after receiving that “consultation” from Kakania. And so, he decided to buy contacts just to make his life a little easier.
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Today, Enigma had to go to those grueling Laplace conferences that were held every end of the month to discuss progress on ongoing projects. The pre storm protocol, equilibrium umbrella, storm immunity, and such others. Enigma didn’t practically enjoy these conferences, especially having to be the one in charge after Lucy had left him as Acting Director of Laplace.
But hey, at least he had Ulrich to go with him right? That was something that could lift his mood just a little. Even if Ulrich would barge into his room for the millionth time to remind him of the conference. Because if the Acting Head didn’t remember, at least the Assistant Head would.
“Addler Hoffman, it’s time to wake up.” Ulrich's voice rang out in the dark and messy room, hand reaching over to the light switch and flicking it open. Causing the sleep ridden Enigma to grunt and pull the blanket up. Wincing at the brightness of the light and the sudden disturbance in his sleep. After all, his lights were always closed and this was one of the fateful days he could actually have a good night's sleep.
But it seemed fate was out to get him again, because he had completely forgotten about the conference and was now stuck with a certain awakened ferofluid waking him up from slumber. “Wakey wakey Adler. I don’t want you to make both of us late.” Ulrich said, the black liquid in his tank swirling around and soon expanding into a small ball with multiple spikes protruding outwards.
“Go on your own then..” Enigma said, turning around as his voice was muffled by the pillow. “No, I want to go with you.” The awakened replied.
Now Enigma started to realise why he had found Ulrich exceptionally annoying. Before they even started dating.
After a few more minutes of nagging by the magnetic ferrofluid, as if Enigma was a child. The cryptic man finally shot up from bed. Throwing the pillow at Ulrich, which the scientist had tried to catch but it still hit him. “Alright alright, now get out of my chambers.” Standing up and urging Ulrich out by force. Despite the man's complaints, Enigma still pushed him out the door and locked it, hoping Ulrich would be socially logical enough to not break in again.
Finally, peace and quiet. The German groaned, pulling his hands across his face as if he was in immense despair—well, to Enigma he was. He walked over to the bathroom, taking off the clothes he wore to sleep and throwing them across the floor, grabbing the towel on the rack and walking into the shower.
Steam rose from all around in the bathroom, making every surface have a sheen of water on it. Once cleaning himself so he wouldn’t seem “unhygienic” to the other employees was done. He walked over to his sink and decided if he should shave off the slight stubble on his chin. Wiping off the thick coat on the mirror, he turned his face left and right to examine his chin, wondering if he should. All while a stubborn and rushing Ulrich was outside, talking to him through the door for him to hurry up.
He decided not to.
Walking out the shower as he dried himself off, throwing on the clothes he usually wore and tying up his slightly long hair into that same messy ponytail with the string of ribbon. Did he finally decide to leave. Not noticing he forgot one important thing—his contact lenses.
Sliding the metal door open and nearly pushing Ulrich to the wall, he had finally stepped out of his room after what felt like days. Although it was only one. “Well, look who finally decided to show up” Ulrich said, in a more passive aggressive tone than Enigma liked. Seeing the awakened cross his arms together, it made Enigma scowl. “You hadn’t even waited that long. Now let’s go, weren’t you the one rushing us?”
Ulrich's ferrofluid suddenly expanded into a spiky ball for a split moment before it returned to its usual form, trailing behind Enigma.
The two bantered and bickered about small things on the long walk there. After all, Enigma's chambers were on the other side of the building compared to the Conference room. So they had to take quite the detour there. Even finding time to stop and make coffee for themselves. Well, it was more like Enigma making it for him and Ulrich, because the awakened refused to do it himself for some reason. Well, not like Enigma minded.
But, the longer they walked. The more Enigma started to feel this impending sense of doom. Like he had forgotten something extremely important but couldn’t pinpoint why. At first, he thought it was his contact lenses. But he could somehow swear he put them on, or at least didn’t need them for now. But that prediction was soon deducted as false as his vision kept getting blurrier, and he was sometimes even bumping into things that were in plain sight.
To the point it even raised a question from Ulrich.
“Is something the matter, Addler? Why have you been bumping into things left and right since our journey?” The Acting Head heard the awakened ask. And for some reason it made him want to crawl into a hole and die right there. Because it finally struck him that he should’ve put on the contact lenses instead of believing that he didn’t need them for today. Especially since he hated how it irritated his eye and made him carry eyedrops everywhere.
“I’m fine Ulrich. Now keep walking” Enigma shot back, avoiding it the best he can. Because he never wanted Ulrich to know that his vision was failing him, or the teasing would be never ending. Oh how he could already envision and hear Ulrich's voice in his head teasing him about his deteriorating vision. And if he were to ever get glasses? Oh the horror!
If Ulrich had a face, he would’ve been cocking an eyebrow up right now. But all he could do was tilt his “head” sideways and the ferrofluid formed a question mark for a moment before returning to normal.
Until finally, they reached the conference. And Enigma thought that this would help him distract his mind from his vision problems and the fact that he knew Ulrich was already suspicious.