Elaine was at Gage Hospital to oversee the replacement of Pain's lower jaw. She had Dr. Gage and Nagix make a new one for him, one that better suited him. Nagix revealed it to them, the replacement had a silver colored tongue, with fake teeth on the bottom that matched his dental records.
They had tried a prototype earlier, but it did not have a lower lip, so Pain drooled everywhere. This one had a silicone lower lip. There was also an added style choice of a zigzag, child's drawing of a monster mouth of flat metal shark teeth at the end of it that was raised over the lip, ending at halfway across each cheek. The color was a dark purple called cyber grape. The replacement itself looked heavy, but it was made of light metal materials, it only visually looked clunky.
She instructed Pain how to put it on, after Dr. Gage took out the adhesive in his throat where his tongue was. The tongue had a built in device that would connect to his throat with the same adhesive that was used before. The prototype before used small screws, which didn't stop the bleeding and were painful to remove.
"You might gag when you put it in, since it has the tongue," she said.
"That's okay, I never really had a gag reflex anyways," he said.
She watched him put it in, and a whirring noise came from him.
"There is a compartment on the bottom of your jaw to refill your adhesive." Dr. Gage walked up and pressed a part of Pain's lower jaw, which popped out, and a vial of clear adhesive was inside the compartment. Dr. Gage put it back in and it clicked back into place.
"So can I talk now? Verbally?" he asked, picking at the white stitches of his dark purple shirt he wore on the day he died.
"No, that lower jaw doesn't have a joint, so you cannot talk. We'll be making one that looked just like your old jaw soon, but for now you'll have to work with what you have," Dr. Gage said.
"I see, so the teeth and tongue are just for comfort then," he said.
"Well you need your tongue for things like excreting saliva, it took awhile for me to be able to thread it properly," Dr. Gage said.
"My breath smelled like death all the way through the prototype phase." Pain giggled and smiled.
"No amount of teeth brushing could help it either, which was sad, he was brushing his teeth multiple times a day." Elaine giggled as well.
"Yes, and I have apologized for that unfortunate side effect." Dr. Gage laughed awkwardly.
"It looks good on you, Pain. Especially since everything else you wear is purple now." She pinched the cloth of Pain's elbow length glove, which was a dark purple, almost black, like his knee high shoe socks.
Pain had his claws out most of the time, he had told her he felt more comfortable with them out. He also had his wings out a lot, unless he was going out in public, which he hadn't done ever since he came back to life. He would always use portals to avoid going out in public.
"I heard from Zlyena that purple is the color of peace in their culture. I thought it was profound enough to adopt it." He blinked slowly, and rubbed his gloved arm.
"I wouldn't be surprised if you became a blob of various shades of dark purple." She laughed.
"Oh, you." Pain giggled in response.
She had asked him out during his prototype phase, and he accepted. She was afraid it would be a rebound relationship, even though she never even dated Adam, or told him how she felt. She wondered if even one sided love could produce a rebound relationship. She reached out for his hand, and grabbed it. She intertwined her fingers with his, and stared at her hand in his.
Read the rest of the book here: https://www.moonquill.com/book/113