Day 248, Night ♈ Open

[emissaries]

Who: the Emissary, the Disciple, the Psiioniic, and you!
Open: Open like love is a door
When: Day 248, some hours after this.
Where: Near the entrance to the Skyway.
What: The trolls finally drag their asses into the Bastion.
Format: Starting with prose, but will follow.
Warnings: Troll blood and injuries. Also, the Psiioniic.

Darkness descended suddenly upon the three trolls as they passed into the limits of the Bastion, the sourceless, diffuse light from the Skyway fading to almost nothing within the span of a minute. Though a bit surprising (at least, until the Disciple explained this was normal), to someone nocturnal it was like coming into light after hours in the dark. Night felt safer, and the lights in the windows were a welcome sight, even with the architecture so unmistakably alien.

They must have made an odd sight, the three of them. Though the Disciple had already lived here for a little while, her two companions were new. One was a woman, with huge spiraling horns (yet somehow wearing a fedora), her black-and-red pantsuit stained liberally with something dull yellow. The other was male, carried on her back, severely emaciated and barely conscious, with the same yellow substance oozing from and beginning to crust over dozens of punctures and gouges, the worst along his spine and head. (The yellow stuff, of course, was his blood. We are all completely blown away by this stunning revelation.)

The Emissary glanced from building to building as they passed, trying to determine which one was their destination. Not having an amulet of her own, she couldn't read any verbal signage, and while some of the visuals explained themselves, none suggested a culling hive¹ to her. If they were to run into any locals outdoors, she hoped the situation - and the Psiioniic's urgent need of care - would be more self-evident, without the need to play charades.

¹ "Culling" means "taking care of," or "nursing back to health." Obviously. Everybody knows that.

Comments

[scary_music]

[And coming to greet them is a fellow troll-wait no, it's just a human with hair horns for some reason. Ibuki was up for who knows why, maybe she had a surge of energy for some reason]

Uwah?! Has Ibuki finally met kindred spirits?!

[Ibuki those are real horns, but wait, more importantly-]

Wait, one of you is hurt! There's a hospital over here, follow Ibuki!

[disciplewhomsignlessloves]

Kindred--what? [She's tired, mentally exhausted, and there's a strange pale girl with ridiculous hair talking about spirits. Spirits? They were hardly ghosts. She's about to dismiss her and head to the eight story walk up when she comments on Psii's condition]

Hospital? What, like a person to look at his wounds?

[She's pretty sure about Psii's feelings on the matter. Docterrorists are rarely helpful and they had always gotten by on the knowledge of plants her and Dolorosa shared and medicines sold in towns. Going to a hospital seemed like a death trap to her. They'd chop off his limbs or something to save his torso--she'd heard stories. ]

[emissaries]

[Aradia nearly mistook the girl for a troll at first, too - wrapping hair around your horns was unusual in most eras, but that wasn't to say it had never ever been fashionable. But she wasn't grey, so either she had some kind of skin condition or she was one of the pink aliens Disciple had mentioned - probably the latter. She couldn't understand a word she was saying, of course, but it sounded oddly like East Beforan.

She stepped forward urgently and responded in kind. In reality East Beforan isn't mutually intelligible with Japanese, they just sound kind of similar, but the amulet will translate it regardless so that's kind of a moot point.]

<Yes! A hospital! Please, he's badly hurt.>

[polariity]

[It's very sweet that everyone is so worried about him, really.]

[A shame that the Helmsman's only response is for red-blue energy to crackle around one hand and gently fold in his fingers until he's flipping everyone off.]

[scary_music]

Ibuki doesn't know if there's anybody there right now to look at him, but the place is magic and should help him heal just by being there! Come on, come on, it's this way!

[And Ibuki will lead the way, specifically towards the B-wing for its healing properties]

[disciplewhomsignlessloves]

[She snorted at Psii, shaking her head. It's like him enough to make her smile. Less worried maybe. He's still being his asshole self.] Psii you aren't helping at all.

..Magic. Magic healing. Sure--why not. Let's try it. [She's actually slightly more hopeful about the fact that he might get help without a terrifying person with saws and clamps and knives getting near him. Even if magic isn't real. Maybe it's powered by a psychic who can heal or something. She's heard weirder things

She gestures Aradia and Psiionic to follow their hair-horned lead]

[emissaries]

Magic?

[Aradia was a little skeptical about that, but... she wasn't one to look a gift hoofbeast in the mouth. Anyway, there's that old saying: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Troll Bea Arthur.

She's reasonably sure Troll Bea Arthur said that.]

I... suppose it's better than nothing. [If it's legit, anyway. But she'll follow along with them, at any rate.]

[polariity]

[Beep beep all aboard the train to hospital express...]

[scary_music]

It might not be magic! Ibuki has no idea, she's no expert in these sort of things! You just bring somebody in and UWAH! They start healing up faster!

[And into the hospital's B-Wing they go!]

[disciplewhomsignlessloves]

[She looks around curiously but it's hardly what she expected. More blood maybe? Things hanging from the wall? She starts to wonder if the stories were just baseless rumors but she reserves judgement]

Hmn, odd. [The Disciple turns back to Aradia, repeating what Ibuki said]

Oh--do we just. put him on a bed? What all does it heal?

[emissaries]

[At least the hospital wasn't far; even a bundle of twigs could start feeling heavy after a while. Aradia was kind of impressed by the size of the facility, especially relative to that of the settlement, and it seemed clean and nicely maintained inside, for the most part. That was a good sign.

When Disciple started translating, though, Aradia noticed a bit of an inconsistency. Neither she nor the alien girl had switched to the other's language, but they clearly understood each other. A universal translator? She'd have to ask about that in a minute. If there was such a system in place, she wanted in. In the meantime, though...]

... What's a bed?

[If that was a medical term, she doubted there would be any out in the hallway, but it was worth knowing what they were looking for.]

[polariity]

[Well, y'all are going to have to put your rescued nerd somewhere, because apparently he's getting tired of just sitting here. There's a rattley kind of breath, and then he starts to wiggle against Aradia's back.]

[There's not too much energy to it, but he's honestly trying to get his face to meet the floor. Maybe a hard enough jolt will wake him out of this dream.]

[scary_music]

Ibuki thinks it heals anything that somebody would normally heal on their own! Just faster!

[She peers into a vacant room, to make sure it is vacant indeed]

Here! Here! You can put him on that bed here!

[She glances at Aradia, before pointing at the bed]

That's a bed! They're comfy!

[disciplewhomsignlessloves]

Ah sorry. It's a human thing--Psii!

[She rushes over to grab him before he does some sort of permanent damage] Soft and I guess they sleep on them? They seem to be in respiteblocks. I used it as a pile. Here, on the bed you wiggly thing. [She glances up at Ibuki] Thank you.

eep sorry for late

[emissaries]

[Psii's sudden wriggling nearly knocked Aradia off balance, but only nearly. Instead she planted her feet and tightened her grip, such that he was only going anywhere if he managed to bodily fling himself into the air.]

Good grief, you! Hold still!

[Yeah, it was probably best to get him on the thing before he managed to hurt himself worse.]

Well, it's no recuperacoon, but it'll do.

[With Di's help, she went ahead to lay Psii down on the human sleep rectangle. Facedown, of course. Even if the B-wing healed things ten times faster than usual, it'd probably be a while before he could comfortably lie on his back. Aradia kept one hand gently on his arm as she turned back to Ibuki.]

Thank you, miss. You've been a great help. Uh - if I can ask you one more favor, is there a doctor in this village?

[polariity]

[Disciple touching him again earns another keening noise, but he goes still enough at her touch long enough to be placed onto the bed. There's no further movement at that.]

[Don't mind him, just facedown, hoping to suffocate]

[scary_music]

You're welcome, you're welcome! Ibuki's glad to help! Ooh... sorry, Ibuki hasn't met everybody! She can try to ask around to see?

[unfortunately, the amulet network thing was used so little that she didn't think of that...]

[disciplewhomsignlessloves]

[Her attention is already fixed on Psiionic again, tilting his face so he won't really smother himself in that and fumbling for a chair to pull up close. She's mumbling to herself.]

He doesn't need one...if he'll heal faster, what would they do? Try to chop off his legs to heal his arms.

[She starts fiddling with the straps to his goggles, wincing when she sees how they've grown into his face. Peeling them off is a slow delicate process.] I'm going to personally murder the Empress if we ever cross paths.

Ah, she says she'll ask, Emissary. Ibuki--um, is there a way to get them amulets?

[emissaries]

[Aradia nodded politely to Ibuki, but the Disciple's words were the ones she could understand. A healthy distrust of the medical profession she could understand, but the little comment about murdering the Empress turned her head real quick. She was, after all, still wearing a signet ring given to her by an Empress.

But... ah. Right. That must mean 'Her Imperious Condescension.' The erstwhile owner of the battleship. She really needed to get that straightened out, but she'd wait till Ibuki had gone.

More immediately why was Di messing with the embedded goggles don't touch those. Alarmed, she turned fully around to try and geeeently but firmly move Di's hands away.]

Ah-ah-ah please don't mess with those, dear, we don't know how deep they go...

[polariity]

[Disciple's mutterings just earn a wheezy sort of sound that could have been sniggering once upon a time or might even be agreement. Impossible to say at this stage.]

[There is, however, a flinch and a keening noise at Disciple's claws start to mess with the goggles. More yellow blood starts to ooze out from every bit peeled away and his body is freezing up against his will. It hurts, he hates it when his hallucinations mix with real life and make all his pain feel sharper. It's only when the Emissary pulls those fingers away does his tense and weak body relax.

[scary_music]

[Trying not to watch the bleeding person]

Ibuki can get some more amulets! It's easy, they're free!

[and then... she gives The Disciple a strange look. Sorry, but she has really good ears]

Ooh, doctors must be scary where you come from... there's no scary bad doctors here that Ibuki knows of!

[disciplewhomsignlessloves]

[Honestly it's more his noise that makes her stop than anything Aradia says. Her body freezes up, shrinks back, small and uncertain]

I'm sorry, I didn't want her touch on you. [She hesitantly touches his hair, stroking and then looking up] Oh--um...

All doctors are like that, aren't they? [Bastion: shattering her world view since day 239]

[emissaries]

Depends on when they got their license, I'd imagine.

[Because let's be real, old timey doctors were fucking terrifying, and that's when they were trying to save your life.]

[polariity]

[Probably for the best, Ibuki. The Helmsman makes a kind of gurgling noise, but who knows what that's in response to.]

[scary_music]

Ibuki doesn't now anything about licenses...

Ooh, right, right, let Ibuki go get amulets and, hopefully, a doctor! A good doctor that actually helps people, not a scary doctor! Ibuki will try to be back as soon as she can!

[And she runs off]