CLOSED ♔ there is a seed inside of me | it keeps growing

[behindcloseddoors]

♬ Demon Seed - Nine Inch Nails

WHO || Violet, Jess Leighton, ?? [closed]
WHAT || Violet's new life has a turn for the incredibly dramatic
WHERE || San Francisco, CA
WHEN || Feb 14th, 2013 [backdated]
HOW || Actionspam

For some people, the transition from their home world to this strange new one is made easier than for others, by the simple addition of one thing: access to people who care about their plight and meet them with understanding, instead of suspicion and fear. Violet Fiore was lucky enough to be one such pilgrim, arriving in the big city of San Francisco, California, where plenty of locals could easily recognize the signs of disorientation common enough in Veil arrivals. She was directed to the Lethe Clinic, a cramped building with tiny rooms but many smiling faces eager to help the displaced.

Jess Leighton was one of the workers there - all volunteers, of course - who took a special interest in Violet's case. The blonde human was quick to recognize that there was something unique about Vi's situation. Unlike so many of their "Shadow World" tenants who needed to be taught everything from modern day lingo to how to operate electronics, it was obvious relatively shortly that she knew about a world much like this one. While Jess admitted it was unheard of as far as she knew, she didn't treat Violet any different for it, and offered her the same amenities they gave everybody else: a bed to sleep in, some basic clothes, information about the world, the city, and what was known about the Veil, and a promise to help her find work so she could get out there on her own.

There are a number of other residents here, of course, some human, but others more bizarre in appearance: elves, a dwarf, even a pair of halflings. Most disturbing, however, has been that one of the young human women has been ill ever since Violet arrived, and as Jess has informed her, the local hospitals won't take her, for fear she's nursing some kind of Shadowkind disease that their patient's immune systems wouldn't be able to combat.

Today, Jess is leaning against the door to the sick girl's room, looking in, sweat on her brow as she takes a break from running around all day for once. She notices Violet approaching and sighs, closing the door quietly so as not to wake the resting girl.

"She's not getting any better." She shakes her head in frustration. "It's been a week now. Garriss was supposed to get a cleric to come by and see her days ago. And now I can't even reach him. I don't know what to do anymore."

Comments

[graveflowers]

[That question is oddly comforting. She must not look a crummy as she feels. Violet flashes the woman a wobbly thumbs up.]

A-Okay, el capitan. [Liar.] But I might have killed a train. Hey, can you give me a ride? I think I have another monster to kill before it eats my friend.

[lissatrinall]

[ a willowy woman brushes past her down into the station, sparing her a side long look. a wisdom check of 15+ will note her unusual facial features as well - they seem somewhat pinched at the cheekbones, and her nose seems oddly flattened along the bridge. she flatly ignores vi's question. ] She's been scratched. There's a chance she's been implanted.

[graveflowers]

[With wisdom 15 she absently notices, but is too busy mentally flipping out to think about it. Actually, she might be outwardly flipping out, too.]

Implanted? Like what, some kind of parasitic demon baby incubat-- are you fucking joking? [Sigh.] I take back the shrubbery. [She winces, rubbing at her forehead.] Any way we can delay my dispatch until after someone gets Jess to safety?

[lissatrinall]

That depends. [ she's trying to look over the edge to examine the carcass but it's apparently not working out so well with the little left of it. she turns back to violet instead as the others make it down the stairs and gather around them. ] What color was it?

[graveflowers]

Red. [She's not even worried about the possibility of turning into Hellboy, she is worried about Jess, which is clearly more important right now.]

[layonhands]

Oh thank Pelor. [ the blonde woman reaches out a suddenly glowing light towards Vi's torn up shirt ] May I?

[ she rushes to add: ] The red slaadi implants take a full week to gestate. It's the blue slaadi bites that can turn someone within moments.

[graveflowers]

Yay. [Okay, it's great that she's not a giant frothing Vi-Beast, but she doesn't want to gestate anything. She doesn't even like real babies. Gestating is not on the menu. So, she doesn't look or sound all to happy to be slowly gestating.] Go for it. And then we get to saving Jess?

[luthir]

[ a straight-faced long haired blonde, ostensibly an elf to anyone who doesn't crit fail a spot check, and wearing light but impressive looking armor looks over to her, exchanging a look with the other women, even as the cleric lays a hand to violet and she feels a surge of strength returning to her (all hit points restored!) ]

How far is your friend?

[graveflowers]

She's at the Lethe. That was, um, that was, that was nice. We should be friends. [Sorry, her weirdness is not to be blamed on the blood loss. Wow, that feels better than nectar and ambrosia. Can she keep him? (Spot check of 13 and mostly she's checking out his armor. As one does.)

In any case, she feels the need to explain further.] I was supposed to find a cleric, hey, but I'm a moron and I got lost, so I don't actually know where I am right now, thus I don't actually know how far she is.

1/2

[layonhands]

[ as she removes her hand, she gives a little smile at vi's enthusiasm. ] I am a cleric. My name is Risa. [ she looks to the elf ] The Lethe. Did any of you see a place with that name on the way in?

[lissatrinall]

We don't have time to get side tracked. We need to take the girl to safety. It may be too late for her friend if there was already infection there.

[graveflowers]

No. [She shakes her head, all that bright exuberance gone, replaced with a narrow-eyed frown.]

You can go do whatever, good luck, have fun, but I'm going back for Jess. Even if it is too late, she deserves that much.

And the girl? Her name is Violet.

[layonhands]

Of course, Violet. [ risa shoots a look of gentle chiding back at the brunette with the unusual features ] We'll come with you. If there's someone in need, we'll help them. That's what we do. [ she's drawing out a cell phone as she speaks and typing in some information ] You said she was somewhere called the Lethe?

[graveflowers]

Yeah, it's a clinic. For people when people, I don't know, get displaced for something. It's, um, a couple subway stops from the Shadow market? Oh! [She digs into her pocket to pull out the crumbled map Jess had drawn her, smoothing it out against her thigh and holding it.] Map?

[luthir]

[ the elf tips it his way with a finger, studies it for a matter of seconds and nods, drawing an arrow from his quiver. ] Let's waste no time, then. [ he nods back towards the steps up and looks to violet, indicating her bow ] You can defend yourself?

[graveflowers]

So, you missed my soliloquy about killing Big Red? [A pause, like maybe she's rethinking being so flippant.] Yes.

[lissatrinall]

He heard you. [ the dark haired woman casts a glance over her shoulder as they start to emerge on the street, where a listen check of 13+ can catch distant screaming ] How long has your friend been infected?

[graveflowers]

She's not. [She absently nocks an arrow when she hears the screaming (listen 14), but she's too busy thinking to give it much attention.] She's fine, but there's a girl there that's sick and isn't getting better. Jess said they've been trying to get a cleric for...

[Her face falls as she goes back over what Risa had just told her about the Salami Monster.] For a week.

[layonhands]

[ for a moment, risa's face falls and there are significant looks between all three of them, but then she forces a little smile ] We might still make it. [ and out they go into the light... where it's a pretty awful sight. red and blue creatures are visible far up the road, climbing out windows of buildings, pushing over cars... risa nods in the opposite direction, however ] This way!

[graveflowers]

[Violet follows because that's what she does, but she can't help glancing behind her every so often.] So, um, how exactly did Hellboy and the Backson sort of start taking over? 'cause this? This is nuts. And I can frickin' grow flowers with my brain, so I know nuts.

[lissatrinall]

The slaadi are creatures of chaos who can summon others of their kind and reproduce by infecting living hosts. It would only take the arrival of one to potentially start a chain reaction.

[graveflowers]

Like dominoes. Great. Is there anyway to, like, reverse the way they fall. Kill one domino, it takes out the rest? [Does that make sense? PROBABLY NOT.] Like when you blow up one toilet and the rest blow from the water pressure.

[Yeeeeeeeah, much better explanation.]

[lissatrinall]

Not quite. [ there might be some judgment in her tone there, vi ] But the slaadi, for all their desire for power and dominion, recognize their limits. They're likely scared, probably recently arrived and disoriented, and lashing out. If we can put up a fighting front, they'll retreat. The newborns will be easy to take down or drive off.

[graveflowers]

[She just killed the Kool Aid guy with a train, her adrenaline is so high that she could be blatantly called out for being a moron and it wouldn't bother her. It was a moronic plan, it deserves to be judged.]

Well. I like a good violent plan.

[luthir]

[ up ahead, another blue monstrosity claws its way around a building high up, looking ready to leap down in their path. before she can even blink, luthir has an air knocked and shot in one fluid motion, that strikes it right between the eyes. it loses its grip and plummets down several stories to hit the ground in a heap. ]