Event: Abort! Part Two (day 25, Egret). Luggage carriage

[voidtreckermods]

They are on world world#27462947582 for about five hours, helping, ushering people out of the city, fighting monsters, keeping guard. All seems well in the city itself, peaceful even except for the slight panic of people being told to move south.

Wherever they are, north in the desert, travelling through the countryside to the south or still in the city itself they will notice from their peripheral vision a darkening of the sky. Looking up they will see clouds. Strange clouds, appearing in the blue sky out of nowhere.

Their SCA’s start beeping, rapidly, flashing red. The clouds are too weird to be clouds, dark shapes in the sky. It might be that the Voidtreckers heed the warning and tap their SCA to evacuate to the train. It might be that they do not.

If they don’t then there is a moment, a moment of absolute stillness as those around them notice the shapes. A confused pause. Children stop their chatter, people stop their complaining, even the monsters seem to sense something and pause in their attacks.

The remaining voidtreckers are yanked away, even without pressing their SCA, they glow gold and disappear.

They all appear in the luggage carriage and not even a second later, with no warning the train lurches, flinging everyone off their feet as it enters the void.

It’s not really easy to tell speed in the void, but they will get the sense that they are moving fast. Faster than before, leaving that world and whatever those shapes were behind.

(OOC: Information on this event is here and part one is here)

Comments

Re: OTA

[laurefindil]

Glorfindel catches the falling boy with the hand that isn't cradling a weasel. After a brief moment to let the other acclimatize himself, he lets Joss down to the floor at a more controlled vector and speed. "Steady there."

Glorfindel isn't going to ask if Joss is all right, not when he himself isn't either. Especially with the cut on the bridge of his nose and the broken glasses.

[I'm going to assume that the weasel then transferred to Joss on the other thread, since the two of you are close and all :)]

Re: OTA

[dredefulchilde]

The boy is still seeing black spots when he finds himself safely on the floor. He blinks up at his rescuer through cracked lenses, then gives up on trying to make any use of the broken glasses and shoves them in a pocket alongside all of the things he’d stolen during their brief jaunt off the train.

“Thanks,” he says, probing tenderly at the bruises on his face. Goodness, that’s quite a lot of blood, isn’t it? Facial cuts always bleed.

“Oh brilliant, I see you’ve got Romeo too. He’s liable to be flattened in all this otherwise.”

Re: OTA

[laurefindil]

Glorfindel nodded. "Times like these are when you protect your smaller friends and comrades."

He offered a bit of plaster out of his bag that had something green smeared on it. "This should help stop the bleeding. I'd offer that it is organic, but then so are leeches. This is better for you than they are."

[dredefulchilde]

Being as old as he is, Joscelin is familiar with all manner of poultices so the green stuff doesn’t exactly phase him. He presents his battered face to Glorfindel to apply the plaster for him, as there are no mirrors in the baggage car and the elf probably has a better vantage point than he does. As it is, the cut on the bridge of his nose is bleeding freely, as is his split lip.

“I can’t say that I miss bleeding as a form of medicine. I’m quite certain that being bled constantly hastened my death considerably, the first time.”

[laurefindil]

Glorfindel passed the weasel to Joscelin so he'd have his hands free to apply the poultice. "This is athelas, it promotes healing and is very good at stopping bleeding. Plus, well, I'm not as good at stopping bleeding unless I'm applying a bandage, but I do tend to aid in healing as well." He also handed him a pre-moistened cloth to clean his lip.

"I can believe it," Glorfindel said. "Elrond was firmly against it as well. Healing comes from within, no matter what we do externally to speed it up. Removing part of you would seem counter-intuitive." He knew from Joscelin's aura that he was among those on the train that looked far younger than they felt, so he was not surprised the other was in the "Been there, Done that, was Reborn with this cool T-shirt" club.

[dredefulchilde]

Joscelin deposits Romeo in his accustomed place on his shoulder and allows Glorfindel to work. The poultice is cool and soothing, and it feels lovely on his throbbing, painful face.

Elrond. The boy can’t help a slight snort. A character from a children’s book—as is Glorfindel himself. Months into their insane journey and Joss still can’t quite wrap his head around the fact that the Tolkien elves are real, even though he’s roommates with one.

“I was a very sickly child, before I died for the first time.” And now he is one again. Resurrection is a bitch. “I was born too early, and was often ill. They bled me all the time, for various things. Can’t imagine that it helped much.”

[laurefindil]

"I don't imagine it did. It's not the blood that makes a person sickly. Often it is because the blood is either insufficient or not efficient enough," Glorfindel said. He smoothed a little of the poultice on the split lip too.

"I am reminded of a saying I heard once that the Orcs used. 'Beatings will continue until morale improves.' Orcs are not very bright, are they?"

"Did they think it would teach your blood a lesson?" he wondered.

[dredefulchilde]

Joscelin chuckles a little, then immediately regrets it because it makes his face throb even more. “I think I saw that on a t-shirt once.”

He tilts his head up further to give Glorfindel better access to the split lip.

“About a thousand years before I was born, there was a physician called Galen. He said that the human body is governed by four humors: yellow bile, black bile, phlegm, and blood. An imbalance of these humors was thought to be the root of all disease. Total bollocks, of course, but he was the basis of all medicine for centuries. They bled me because they thought that reducing ‘excess’ blood in my body would bring the humors back into alignment and cure whatever it was that ailed me.”

[laurefindil]

"I think my friend Elrond would have given this Galen a bloody lip, if he were able," Glorfindel said. He dabbed carefully as to not cause more pain.

"If I had four glasses of liquid and needed them all to be equal, if I decided that the only way to equalize them was to pour out the excess...I would quickly end up with four empty glasses. They never considered that the issue might be there there was simply not enough of the other three and that they needed to be added?" Glorfindel asked.