quakquakduckc
BRIGHTNEY IS TWISTED AND ASTRO IS GOING SLOWLY INSANE :C
Astro gently takes Brightney's mangled wrist in his hands, his fingers tracing over the rotting flesh that peeks out from under the tattered bandages. He doesn't recoil at the sight or the stench, too lost in his desperate love and the delusion that he can somehow mend the irreplaceable damage wrought by the ichor.
With a soft, almost manic smile on his face, Astro starts to carefully unwrap the ichor stained bandages. As each layer is revealed, more of Brightney's decaying skin is exposed, a grotesque patchwork of oozing wounds, exposed sinew, and blackened, rotting meat.
Astro doesn't see the horror of it, the inescapable truth of his beloved's current twisted state. In his mind with his slowly deteriorating sanity, it's just another chance to "fix" her, to "fix" all of this and make things return to how they once were...
Nothing matters except keeping her with him now, keeping her... human. Even if she's not quite that anymore.
"Don't worry, my love," he murmurs, his voice barely above a whisper. "I'll make this right. I'll patch you up, like I always do...like I've always done"
He picks up fresh bandages with trembling fingers, his exhaustion and malnutrition making the task more difficult than it should be. But Astro is undeterred, his love for Brightney giving him the strength to persist in this ritual of futility. As he works, he leans in close, inhaling the scent of her rotting flesh, and pressing a desperate, fervent kiss to the decaying skin of her wrist. He doesn't taste the ichor that oozes from the wounds, doesn't feel the way the skin sloughs away at his touch. To Astro, it's just a chance to be close to her, to pour out his love in the only way he knows how now. To him, she's still the most beautiful thing he's ever seen.
"You're still in there," he says, voice trembling. "You have to be. You promised."
"..."
"I'm so sorry, Brightney. I failed you. I failed US..."