In which there is a fire!
A grey day, once more, slowly easing into evening. The rain has stopped, and it is still cool out, but in a way it's a bit refreshing. The mist dampens noises as well as masking everything with a soft, fuzzy cover. Inside the Soldier's Defense, things have begun to settle down somewhat. At least, the influx of plague victims has become routine, and how to make patients comfortable is known. Inside the Gobbo's room, she, like many others, is coughing up blackness. And like others, she is quite unhappy with this. But hey, there is a fresh supply of hot towels, which she enjoys.
Not only hot towels, but a sith-makar whom has taken it upon himself to poke his head in on her now and again. The sith-makar in question slides around the corner slowly and carefully to make sure he's not about to bump into anyone. Once he sees that it's just Acedia in here he relaxes somewhat and the rest of him follows. He's carrying a tray atop what looks like a refreshment of her hot towels. The act of delicately balancing everything flashes his artificial limbs, affording a view of them that isn't usually there though they're still caught in half-glances. Crystal caught in shadow. He moves toward her with gentleness, setting the tray and towels on the bedside table carefully and eyeing her somewhat even as he keeps his body angled away from her. "Ascedia. How are you today?"
The Gobbo takes a laboured breath, and lets it out. "I could say I've been worse.", she says softly. "But all things considered, I am surviving." Acedia smiles up at the Sith-makar. "How're you doing, Zeke?"
"Thisss one isss very bussy." He fiddles with the tray slightly to straighten it. To bring it to her attention. It has a warm pie on it, a cup of warm tea that smells of mint and honey mingling with the undeniable scent of apples coming from the pie. It's enough to pique the appetite of anyone, and clearly isn't hospital food. Then he steps back and pulls his cloak forward slightly to better hide his limbs and bobs his head toward her. "Thisss one jusst sstopped by to bring you ssomething to eat."
Her eyes light up and she pulls the tray onto her, nearly dumping the pie onto herself. She saves it at the last moment, and somehow doesn't spill the tea. Acedia practically shoves her nose into the tea, and the pie, doing her best to smell them. The Gobbo digs her hand into the pie from the edge, and wolfs down that handful quite quickly. Licking her hand clean, she grins at Zeke. "Thank you! It's delicious. Would you have some?" The Gobbo gestures to the end of her bed. "Would you also sit with me? I'm kind of lonely."
It seems to please Zeke that she seems so fond of the food. Yet her invitation to sit... He looks around for somewhere to sit and finds the room distressingly empty of one. He hovers a moment and steps to a comfortable place where he can watch her. "Thisss one will... remain a while." He stands where he is and glances around the room. Zeke has a good view of the exit and of the goblin so happily eating her pie. "Thisss one iss glad you like it. Thisss one found out thisss morning that the khazad woman who passsed away was the one who made thesse piess. Thisss one is told that thisss iss one of the lassst sshe made." He seems sad. "Sshe made them for thisss one."
The Gobbo pauses in her eating, and stares at the pie. She begins to sniffle, and tears leak from her eyes. "But but.. if sh..she made them for you, why am I eating it? You should at least have some. We can remember her together." Acedia is resting in a bed, and all the signs around her, the used towels, the bucket... all of them point at the Goblin being a new plague sufferer. "It's not fair that she died.", she says, a catch in her throat. She sniffs at the tea, and then sips from the cup daintily.
Zeke makes a hasty hushing motion, trying to calm her tears from the distance between them. "Thisss one thought to sshare that isss all. Thisss one wanted you to have one. Thisss one knows..." He cuts himself off and looks down, green eyes bitterly sad. "Thisss one knowss what it isss like to be sssick and wanting care. Pleassse Ascedia. It iss for you."
Acedia frowns and holds the tray up. "Share some of it with me, please? It will taste all the better if you do. It is really thoughtful of you, and it is very good. But it is better when shared.. with friends." The Gobbo's eyes grow large. "Please?"
While Lysa does not seem to become discouraged or even upset very easily, this plague has been truly wearing away at her positivity and such. She enters the Soldier's Defense, She's not in her armor, but has her sword. Her usual uniform around the city. She pauses to remove her sword and scabbard, lying them aside before taking a deep breath and shaking her head. "Greetings." she says softly afterwards.
The sith-makar huffs at Acedia. Looks at the pie. Looks at the goblin. He's about to say something when Lysa walks in and he suddenly looks gladder to see a stranger than he's ever been before. He bobs his head and moves slightly toward Lysa. "Peasssce on your nessst. May thisss one help you?"
The Gobbo smiles at Lysa, and gestures to the bed she lays in. "Hi Lysa!", she says, before coughing something up, which she turns and spits into the bucket nearby. "Uh. Have a seat and some pie?" A tray laid across her lap contains an apple pie with a handful missing, and a mug of tea, which Acedia sips from. "It's better with friends.", she says quietly, blinking great big Gobbo eyes at Zeke.
Glancing to the Sith Makar, Lysa opens her mouth, and then she spies Acedia. Her eyes tear up immediately and she moves to the Gobbo's bedside, "Thank you for being asking." she says to the Sith. "I am being coming here to assist in any way that I am being able to." That said, she reaches for one of Acedia's hands and performs a soft prayer to Daeus. You know, the blessing and all that.
Zeke steps back so that Lysa can go to Acedia, the two women holding hands and Lysa sitting at her bedside. He recognizes the prayer. One that has been spoken all through the hospital. Again and again. He watches this time without a trace of hope in his green eyes; too often having seen failure. All these things which he can not do…
The little hairs on Acedia's neck start to stand up, and the Gobbo looks a bit surprised, and perhaps fearful, of the blessings that Lysa gives. Her expression remains a bit fearful until the end, and the divine power subsides. There's a few moments of confusion, and then she coughs. At length, completely with heaving and desperate attempts at breathing. She then makes an incredibly disgusting sound, and leans over the bed, nearly toppling the tray in doing so. The Gobbo spits something dreadful into the bucket, black and more voluminous than expected. Laying back, Acedia pants and whines.
Sighing after seeing the results of her prayer, Lysa's shoulders sag. A part of what makes her... her, is her ability to help others. Being forced to stand by and watch as people she wants to help are suffering in a way she cannot aid them... it tears bits and pieces of her soul away.
She steps back as Acedia has her coughing fit and turns her blue eyes to Zeke, wordlessly begging for -some- inspiration. Some way she can be of aid.
Zeke answers that wordless question of Lysa's with a motion back toward the goblin. /Help her/. The motion says. Hold her, comfort her. He opens his own claw and motions in a way that signifies spreading his hands though his left one never shows. Do as I can not. He says wordlessly, clearly good at articulating things without making a sound. "Thisss one thinksss. Only thinkss mind. That magic makess it worssse. Thiss one has heard rumors, only rumors that sssomeone caussed a great blacknesss to risse out of one of thosse with the plague with magic."
The Gobbo sniffles and sits up again after a little bit, breathing heavily. "Please eat some pie.", she says lightly. "Both of you. It would cheer me up." Acedia practically guzzles the tea down, and licks her lips. "What do you call this?", she asks of Zeke.
Shaking her head, Lysa states, "I was not being trying to be being casting a magical spell. I was being asking Daeus himself to intervene. I am being failing to see how that could..." But then Acedia mentions pie, and she trails off before she nods and sits down beside the Gobbo, "Of course." she says softly, "Whatever you would be being liking me to do."
The sith-makar dips his head to Lysa. He has little knowledge of the arcane arts in truth though he knows that they differ. Though he could offer more, he does not. Acedia's request takes precedence and he finally bows to it. "Thisss one will take what isss left. Asss for the tea, it isss."
Suddenly his jaw snaps shut, his eyes shift to the side. His shoulders hunch slightly as if only now he is realizing something. "It isss a recipe learned from... from old-kin. It isss mint, honey, and a little plum." Which explained why it tasted so good with the pie.
Acedia pushes the tray towards Lysa, across the bed, and then flops over the edge of the bed, rummaging in her backpack. She comes back with some object that looks like it has dozens of little bits to it. Fussing with it, she pulls free a sharp looking knife, and begins to cut a generous helping of apple pie for Lysa. And a second piece for Zeke. "Here. One for each of you. It is good!"
On this gloomy day outside, the Gobbo (resting in the bed), Lysa (sitting on the end of the bed) and Zeke (standing almost as far away as he can while still being in the same room) are chatting together.
Doing her best to keep her friend comfortable and happy, Lysa takes the serving of pie and reaches into her own haversack to withdraw a skin of liquid. She looks to Zeke and asks, "Is it being alright to be being offering mead?" as she holds the skin -generally- towards Acedia.
Zeke looks a little startled at the suggestion but shrugs with one shoulder. His right shoulder. "Thisss one sseess nothing wrong with it. It sshould do her no harm." He seems slightly amused suddenly. "One sshould be careful not to drink /too/ much however."
There is a thunk of a staff, and a silver scaled Sith Makar tromping into the Soldier's Defense. "Peace on your nestssss..." he says to them all. he says as he walks forward to Acedia. "What is wrong?"
"Mead?" The Gobbo's ears stand up, and she takes the skin, pops it open, and begins to greedily gulp it down. She hands it back, the skin feeling a bit lighter, but not too much so. Acedia hiccups then, and looks at Durrankar, her eyes narrowing. "I have the plague and am slowly dying bit by bit.", she says bluntly. Looking to Lysa, she grins. "That is good stuff! Are you selling it, yet? Making some coin?" The Goblin looks to Zeke then, her head canting slightly. "What's got you tickled?"
"Aye. Some." offers Lysa, "I am being selling it to local taverns. I call it the Golden godsmead." She shrugs. The liquid looks more like molten gold than wine. Perhaps that's due to her using alchemy to alter its cosmetic appearance. Maybe not. Who can say? Well, she can! "We will be being finding a way to end this plague Acedia. You have but one task now. To be being holding on. To be being not giving up."
Zeke, the tall blue-scaled sith-makar in black robes standing comfortably back from the bed startles slightly at the approach of a stranger. Noticing the other sith he bows to them. Taking this as yet another opportunity to dodge a question posed by Acedia which he feels is better left unanswered. These interruptions have been timely - if hard on his heart - for him. "Peasssce on your nessst." His green eyes slide over the other sith. "Thisss one iss Zeke, and Ascedia... Ascedia hasss the plague."
"So, this is a true plague.....and not something else?" Durrankar says as he goes to look over Acedia. "What are the symptoms of thisss...plague?"
Acedia eyes Durrankar, and begins to cough wetly. It goes on for several long moments, and then she makes a fairly nasty noise, and spits into a bucket that is next to the bed. "Fever and other flu-like symptoms. And they cough up black... gunk. No cure. And people die." The Gobbo looks to Lysa and smiles. "That's good. It's very good. say. Saaaay. Have you tried using something spicy? Hot peppers? To make mead with?" Looking back to Durrankar, she extends a hand to Lysa. "This is Lysa. Paladin of Daeus." To Zeke, she sighs. "Please have some pie...?" The Gobbo sniffles.
Durrankar looks inside of the bucket and tilts his head. "When did you contract this plague?" he has noticed Zeke as he studies what was coughed up. "I am Shaman Durrankar, Steward of Mictlan, where I have been for a few days. This plague is....new to me."
"I have not been being trying such things, but I -will- be being doing so now." offers Lysa. "I will name it ... Aced-a-mead." she says with an emphatic nod. "Perhaps Gobbo Mead?" she asks as she tries out new name ideas. Mainly, she's trying to keep her friend Acedia here feeling good about herself and about the world. She glances over as others enter, and takes a bite of the pie.
Zeke steps back a little bit more to allow Durrankar space. "Pleassed to meet you Durrankar." Zeke utters politely as he does so, drawing closer to the exit purely by virtue of their being so little space. "It ssseemss ressisstant to being cured. Sso much ssso that we have not found a way to do sso usssing any magicss." His green eyes flicker toward Acedia and he bobs his head to her. "I will, I will."
The Gobbo coughs wetly again and clears her throat, spitting into the bucket once more. "It happened a few days ago. I helped a ... K.. k.. Khazad woman into here, but she died." She wipes at her eyes. "She had been vomiting up a slime. It grabbed an Oruch woman, and we barely got _her_ into a bed too. I splashed it with holy water and it attacked me, covering me in slime. While others watched. Watched." Acedia bends her arm and smashes her elbow into the headrest, making a loud crashing sound.
"A short time later I started feeling feverish and coughing up black gunk. I suppose I was due, since I was helping here, and I found the source of the slimes in the sewer... with Lysa there, and others."
Acedia looks to Zeke. "You say that... but will you? I've your word on it?" She glances to Lysa then. "Nono, don't name it after me. Call it Hydra."
Durrankar takes a deep breath and looks at the sludge again. "Let's see something." he says as he takes the bucket outside.....
Inclining her head, Lysa narrows her eyes, "Who was being watching and not helping?" she asks. Her voice almost angry. Almost.. her hands clench up a bit and she turns her head to slide her eyes about the place.
Zeke nods once to Acedia, but curious about what Durrankar is up to, he heads out of the room to see what the other sith-makar is up to. His steps /might/ be a little faster than they ought to be. Maybe. Enough that his cloak billows out a little behind him and that's faster than he usually moves.
Durrankar takes the sludge to a rather large area.....and dumps it on the floor. Durrankar then backs up and *FWOOOOOOOOSH* A large gout of flame is breathed from his mouth for only a second or two. When he stops, he looks through the smoke and.....blackened char. "Mmm...."
Acedia lets out a long breath when Durrankar and Zeke leave, and she glances to Lysa. "It's okay. I will have words with them later. Not everyone can be brave like you." The Gobbo cuts herself a small slice of pie, and nibbles on it daintily. "I wonder what they are doing..."
"I'm guessing they didn't have any idea of what to do." Durrankar says as he walks back...and puts the char on the floor. "If that was a normal disease, that would've been evaporated. Instead....char. Like something was burned, and not liquid." He then lets out a bit of steam from his nose. "You have something inside of you, Acedia...."
Zeke's forward momentum is stalled when he sees Durrankar's sudden exhalation of fire. The backlash of the heat pushes back his cloak, showing off two artificial limbs and the glitter of crystal. All that's left of what was in the bucket is char, and Zeke blinks between it and Durrankar. Before following the other into the room once more. The question on the verge of his lips is answered so he remains silent, watching the other sith-makar cautiously.
The Gobbo slips out of the bed and reaches up to put her hands on Lysa's cheeks. "Shhh. No point in getting upset. Remember... not everyone is as strong as you. You naturally help the weak, like me. Not everyone has the stomach for it." Acedia then settles in Lysa's lap. And stares at Durrankar. "Yes, I know. The Dwarven woman vomited a slime out. I suspect one is inside me, and at some point, it's going to come out and infect someone else. I wonder why it didn't get the Oruch woman. She got up a little bit after it had left her, haven't seen her since." Upon seeing Zeke again, she points at the tray, with the slice of pie awaiting its fate in Zeke's stomach.
"You... you are being having a creature within you?" asks Lysa, allowing the touch and perching and all that. She goes so far as to gently reach to hold Acedia in her lap. But then she looks to Zeke and asks, "Are you being knowing, or even being suspecting a way to remove such a creature from someone?"
Durrankar says, "Oruch woman. Hmmm..." He then ponders, but then looks to Lysa. "I can try, I think." he says as he looks at his staff. "If it got off of this oruch woman quick, I wonder what she did to make it leave." He then looks to Zeke. "Do you know who she is? Can you find her?""
The blue-scaled sith looks... lost. What to do about a creature living inside of someone? He looks at Acedia who motions him toward the pie and he makes another hushing motion toward her. Can she think of nothing but pie at a time like this? Zeke is thinking of something black and vicious living inside of her. Waiting to come out. He steps toward a wall and shakes his head, saying silently that he has no idea how to fix this problem. His eyes flicker toward Durrankar and he can do nothing but shake his head. "Ssshe wasss here with Ascedia. Sshe... left asss ssoon as sshe came. Very quickly."
"I didn't get her name, or if I did... I have forgotten it. I know she's alive, but I lost track of her." Acedia seems content to stay in Lysa's embrace and lap, and the Gobbo looks up at her. "I think so.", she says. She lets out a breath. "Chay was trying to tell me something. There's a spell. Nullifies magic. I have some spells, but nothing like that, do you know what he meant? And uh, the slime can be washed off with soapy water." The Gobbo makes a very unhappy face. "I think he wants me to take a bath. Or... to gargle or drink soapy water. I don't like that idea one bit."
She looks to Durrankar. "Can you cancel magic?" Her glance moves to Zeke. "But before we do anything, Zeke needs to have some apple pie."
There is a thought going through Lysa's mind. It sorta shows in her eyes. "I would be being gladly hosting this creature within myself if it would remove it from you." she says to Acedia.
"Not...cancel magic, but....I have an idea." Durrankar says as he leans his staff forward....and dual voices of chants can be heard. One from Durrankar, and one from his....staff. And the focus of the spells is on Acedia. Though ANY magic near her at the moment is....dispelled.
GAME: Durrankar rolls 1d20+17: (4)+17: 21
Now Zeke leans forward. Has a touch of... expectation. Not exactly hope in his green eyes. "What isss it?" He whispers mostly to himself, feeling awed as he had when Alba had done her work.
The Gobbo looks angry for a moment. "NO! If something comes outta me that is gross and gooey and moves on its own.. you kill the shit out of it. If you let it get you, I'm going to be quite cross with you, Lysa." She wiggles a little finger in the woman's face. Acedia eyes Durrankar, and then the staff, and she holds her hands to her ears to keep out the chanting voices. At the end of the chanting, she sits up suddenly with a lengthy gasp... and then scrabbles for the edge of the bed, to vomit a very large amount of blackness at the bucket. Some of it doesn't make it into the bucket though. And there is another heave. And another. By the fourth, the Goblin is crying and heaving, which doesn't help things.
There's... something moving on the floor. Something... crawling away from the bucket. Sliding.... Clamoring actually straight up Durrankar's foot!
As Acedia moves off of her lap, Lysa is already getting to her feet to see how she can help. But when the black gunk splats onto the floor and starts moving towards Durrankar, she's already in motion. She reaches a hand out and says, "Please being forgiving me." as she grasps the staff, whirls it about and SLAMS it down onto the ooze. She has quite the ability to smoosh stuff with a weapon in her hands!
As soon as Lysa grabs the staff, everyone can hear it yelling. "Hey! HEY! You're supposed to-OW! Hey Watch it that-OW! Cut it-OW! I GET MOTI-OW! *BLLLLEEEEEEEGH*" The staff IS actually throwing up too...but it's sparkling water.
When Lysa takes the complaining staff to hit the slime on the ground, he cranes his neck and lifts his leg. Then, Durrankar's mouth opens and a LARGE gout of flame erupts from his mouth...onto his foot and leg....and boy is it hot....
It's safe to say that Zeke doesn't know what to do with the situation, but he doesn't hesitate to move forward. There's a blast of fire and he stops. Stops and drops his head in prayer to Daeus. Low whispered words of draconic slip from his lips with practiced ease and a pulse of healing emits from him. Then he looks up once more, staff ready in his hand.
The blast of flames strikes the ground at Lysa's feet. She gets blasted, and engulfed in the fire. The staff is tossed aside.. Lysa is able to exercise judgement in that.. fire and wooden staff is a bad combo. So she tosses it away even as her clothing catches fire and well, her hair. She drops to the ground and starts flailing about, rolling to try to put it out... taking the time to channel healing power into herself as she does so.. sure, she screams. It's fire damnit, but... before a minute passes, she's healed, healthy and hale. But pretty much naked. Scraps of conveniently located She-Hulk type clothing is all that's left.
The Gobbo shouts something just before the flames erupt, and she's there with blanket to smother the flames on Lysa. "What are you doing?!", she snarls at Durrankar. "The whole place is wooden!" The insides are, at least. If she could look green, she would, turning back to the bucket to heeeeave once more.
There's /more/ ooze clamoring out of that bucket. More of it. Now it's headed for Lysa. Because she's closer. And being that she's prone makes it hard to get away from something that's sliding along the floor to get to her…
GAME: Durrankar rolls 1d20+17: (13)+17: 30 GAME: Lysa rolls fort: (19)+11: 30
After long moments of being on fire. It felt like minutes when it was really only seconds, Lysa ends up lying on her back, heaving large deep breaths as she tries to recover. Healing energy helps, and she slowly begins levering herself up to a seated position, "Wait.. is that being more?" she asks.
The Gobbo tears from the room.
Durrankar watches as the gobber runs from the room...and he slowly picks up his staff...which isn't bothered by the fire that was in the room. He then starts using his staff's water to put out the fires that he started. Once THAT is done....he starts rebuilding the parts where he set fire to, by....regrowing the wood!?
-End