Day 131: the group returns, and a new group arrives

[bastionpc]

Who: A bunch of PCs and NPCs
Open: Open
When: backdated to Day 131
Where: By the path to the Skyway, in the Bastion
What: The away group is returning, and another group is arriving for the first time.
Format: action
Warnings: none

[Day 131 would prove to be an eventful one. Not only did the away group finally return home, but barely a half-hour later a second group of people arrived as well. With all of these two and returning faces, it was bound to get a bit hectic.

But perhaps a bit of talking was all everyone needed to sort everything out.]

Comments

Away party returning

[bastionpc]

[After a few days, the away group finally returned. Several members were battered and bruised, but at least everyone came back alive and mostly intact.

Nathaniel is also with them, and though he is tired, he is ready to share information with whoever has questions.]

[heptagram]

[Someone's there to welcome them! Well, just by sheer coincidence. She's out for a walk, and just happens to notice Nathaniel and the party returning. also that they're in pretty not-great condition.]

What happened.

[hellpyre]

[Yeah that's pretty obvious. One of their numbers isn't even walking on her own anymore. Rin is being Bridal-style carried by Colin, looking pale and ill.]

Shit, shit an' more shit...

[heptagram]

[Yeah, she figured as much. She's not gonna be rude about it, though.]</small. So I see. May your recovery be quick. Can you tell me something a little more specific, though? ... any of you?

[freedom_engineer]

[Yep, there's Colin with Rin in his arms.]

Yeah, we had a couple of setbacks. Also made some worthwhile discoveries, and I'll be going back a little later on.

Everything all right here? Nothing blow up? No wild plant attacks? No whipped cream falling from the sky and threatening to drown everyone?

[superdrowningskills]

[Alucard gives Colin an odd look at the last one. Just... what?

...No, nevermind. He's just going to carry on as normal.]

Is there anything anyone requires of me at this time, or shall I take my leave?

New group

[bastionpc]

[Not long after the away group returns, a trio of people arrive in the Bastion. Two of them are new faces, both with pale skin and dark, dark hair, but the third member of the group should look very familiar. She hasn't been gone long, so hopefully nobody forgot her.]

[hortulan]

[A mason jar filled with cut wildflowers and water sits in front of her. Yellow dandelion puffs, marigolds, and a few other assorted flowers picked from the backyard bounce softly in the breeze. She watches their subtle movement with half-lidded eyes and a growing fatigue that spreads from her chest, infecting her all the way into her bones.

She is so tired.

A child's voice calls out to her. Lifting her head, the bandages around her neck shifting against her fur, she offers her most gratifying look to the girl who had saved her life. The girl smiles down at her and takes her carefully into her arms. She'd always remember how gentle the girl was, how kind...

'Your fur is dark black, just like the night sky...'

The memories fade when the motion of being moved jostles her wounds, the pain bringing her out of her dreams. Disoriented, her mind was in a fog and her mouth filled with cotton. The aching pain in her side tells her this isn't a dream although it answers very little past that. The feeling of being carried, her head resting against someone's chest she can hear a heartbeat. The rhythm of it nearly lulls her back to sleep, but the pain snaps her out of any dozing. ]

Nnhn...

[bastionpc]

[Night is currently being carried by a very large Ura man. He doesn't seem too burdened by her weight, though. In fact, he has a pretty good humor about it, which he shows off as soon as the three of them arrive at the Bastion.]

Oh? This is it?

[Watch as he pokes Night's side while still holding her.]

Rise and shine, princess. We're finally here.

[bastionpc]

[Next to him, a much more petite, almost waif-ish young woman follows, practically dwarfed by her traditional Ura clothing that seems almost larger than her. On her back was another weight, but that of a heavy bag and two bedrolls, pots and pans clanking noisily as they hang from various rigged straps.]

This seems to be the place.

[Her voice was much more somber than the man's, and lacking the playful cheeriness that he had. But her eyebrows did go up once they entered, dark gaze shifting around.]

I was expecting something more... barren.

[hortulan]

[The prod elicits a low hiss from her, baring sharp teeth at the figure's blurry face carrying her. She blinks his face into focus, going over his words again in her head.]

Here...? [She rasps and winces at the sound of herself. God, she felt like shit and not even with a decent memory to remember what exactly happened to her. Wonderful.

Looking away from him she catches sight of the other person with him and then to the Bastion. She clears her throat and tries to speak again, this time a little more clearly.]

Who- [Ahem] ... Who are you?

Closed to Night - later in the afternoon

[hellpyre]

[There had been some commotion after their return home, and while Rin was trying to sleep off a recent episode of throwing up violently (something she had never done before in her life and god damn was it unpleasant) she had only heard a bit of the buzzing about outside her room.

As she started to slip back out of sleep some hours later, a faintly uttered name worked it's way back in to the forefront of her memory.

"Night".

She sat up with a start and instantly regretted it, a wave of nausea returning and the air around her feeling cold even though it wasn't. She shivered and hunched over, forcing it to pass long enough to throw her legs over the edge of her bed. Blanket pulled along with her, tugged around her shoulders, she stumbled and shuffled out of the room.

Was Night really back? Or had she been dreaming? There was only one way to find out...]

[hortulan]

[After her arrival at the hospital Night found that sleep was harder to catch here than it was up in the Skyway. Maybe it was the eerie silence the Skyway provided that made it so much easier to fall asleep to. Since her original arrival here her dreams had never been as vivid as they were up there and a very small part of her missed it.

Later she realized what she really missed was the stark clarity and sincerity of Monaka's smile again.

She wakes up with tears in her eyes, hurting and tired still. Her hand moves under the hospital bed sheets to gingerly touch at the bandages covering what had once been a gaping hole in her side. She couldn't remember the severity of it right off the bat, but she did remember the amount of blood she lost thanks to it. Even with a slight press to the gauze she winces at the pain that flares up along her side and frowns in distaste. This would take a while to heal...]

[hellpyre]

[Luckily it didn't take as long as Rin thought it might to find the right room. She was slow as hell thanks to how she felt, but by some odd chance they were only a few doors down from one another.

She stumbled to a halt outside the door, staring in complete surprise.

It really was Night lying in that bed. She was really, really back.]

Night...

[hortulan]

[Her eyes close only a few seconds before she hears Rin speak her name in the door frame. She looks over, her bangs falling over her face from the movement.]

... Rin?

[hellpyre]

Y... you came back... y-you really came back... !

[Rin couldn't help the emotional well that rose up inside her. So many others had been lost and never returned in the weeks and months since, and Rin had thought the same had happened to one of her closest friends in the Bastion. It had come so soon after Kuro, Sonic and even Maka that Rin had finally started to simply shut down that part of her that reacted to every loss. It hurt too much, too deeply.

But there she was, in that hospital bed, obviously worse for wear but alive.

Tears poured down her cheeks before she could even try to stop them, and she burst in to the room with a sob, practically throwing herself at Night.]

Closed to Bon | Rosethorn - shortly after the first group arrives

[hellpyre]

Rosethorn

[So Colin taking Rin to the hospital was A Thing after the team from the observatory returned home. Which was probably good timing because that nauseated feeling had already started creeping back up on her again. She was finding it hard to keep it down, too, and as soon as she was in the hospital she was pretty much throwing up or at least dry heaving every few minutes.

Luckily it subsided eventually, but it left her feeling even more awful - aching all over, throat sore and scratchy, eyes heavy and stomach still twisted in to nauseated cramps.

She had never been sick before. Ever. It was always Yuki that came down with things. She didn't know what it felt like and frankly she could have gone the rest of her very, very long life without knowing and been perfectly happy.

For the moment everything was presenting as she might have the flu or something like it. The idea that her flames weren't as strong as normal due to the fire suppressant hadn't occurred to her (it would later, which was when Tris would wind up helping her) so she just lay in the hospital bed, bundled under blankets and making noises like a pathetic overly dramatic child.]

Bon

[Some time after Rosethorn would leave Rin alone to rest, Bon would find her not asleep but staring tiredly at the wall. She didn't want to sleep, but moving was still painful even with the medication she'd been given, and the idea of not being covered by blankets was just as unwelcome.]

[earthandpine]

[Rosethorn went straight for her medicines when she saw the shape that some members of the returning group were in, supplementing her own supplies with some of Briar's to make up for how little time she's had to build her stash. She trained him, after all, so she knows his techniques every bit as well as her own, even when they branch off into something slightly different.

She doesn't usually stand for dramatics, but Rosethorn is always a little gentler with patients than she is with people outside of an infirmary. She won't be too hard on Rin even with the whimpering.

Rosethorn enters with tea in hand.]

Here, let me give you something to settle your stomach.

[hellpyre]

[She might apologize for the dramatics later.

Maybe.

She was still sitting with her legs over the edge of the bed when Rosethorn came in, her tail lying next to her limply. She slowly looked up, resembling a kicked puppy pretty damn well.]

Thanks...

[earthandpine]

You're welcome. Drink up, and no complaints about the taste. You'll feel better afterward. [Rosethorn is certain of that much, at least. A few of her medicines taste rather vile, but every single one of them is effective.]

[hellpyre]

Won't hear any from me. My sister was a doctor, I'm used to bad tastin' medicine.

[And she really doesn't complain, drinking it slowly.]

[kyotoprincess]

[Rin, forgive your boyfriend. He was preoccupied with things when the group returned, so he missed the big arrival. By the time he did notice it, Rin had already been taken to the hospital, and he had wasted time talking to Nathaniel to find out where she had gone.]

There you are!

[That's relief in his voice, not anger. When he had been told that she had been taken to the hospital, he had grown worried. Not panicked-worried, since Rin got hurt a lot anyway, but still worried.]

[hellpyre]

[Slowly, Rin sat up, grimacing as soon as she moved. God everything still hurts like hell and she's hating every second of it. Especially the way her stomach cramps up if she so much as twitches.

Letting out a breath, one eye closed with the wince of pain, she tried to give Bon a smile. Yeah he was worried... why wouldn't he be? At least this time she didn't actually get physically hurt.]

Hey...

[kyotoprincess]

[Still, it's obvious Rin is hurting, and Bon is going to try to make her feel better.

Since she's not dying or hurt real bad, Bon will just take a seat in the chair nearby, instead of being all mother hen-ish.]

What happened to you?

[hellpyre]

Well... there was a horrible plant monster that tried to kill us all. And it's still not dead yet, so there's that...

But before that there was this... stupid hangar and we pressed the wrong stupid buttons and I damn near drowned in fire suppressant. I still feel like shit and it's been almost three days since it happened.