[IC] TFW Chapter 1: Sloth

[Shamitako]

Genie

 

Cheryn's trap worked quite well. Tallow appeared in his wisp form and tried to escape, but simply rebounded off the barrier.

 

Merlin

 

Merlin appreciated any attempts to cheer her up, she would make a better effort to express that at another time. Their mission wasn't quite over yet. "We have two primary tasks right now." She said, "We need to tend to the wounded and find our comrade. The place is apparently ours now, so I figure we can help ourselves to medical supplies. In other words, we can achieve all of our objectives  the facility. There might be a few more traps but they won't be lethal, Ansuz wanted to get me into that room alive. I need one person to stay here with Anemone, Ice, and Charity. Two to search the area MSC came in through for Cheryn and Amelia. One to come with me to find medicine. And the last needs to go find Bear, I know he's around here somewhere."

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

Anemone

Anemone nodded in reply. "Medicine can fix this as... far gone as it may seem. l'm not worried about losing my arm. lf it was an issue, l'd probably have amputated it already. There's no feeling in it so it'd not hurt." She'd got her mind back under her control and with the current situation she wasn't really even thinking herself. Anemone's ponytail drooped showing just how low on energy she was. She felt weak at the knees so as if she could topple at any moment. She didn't really register Forge's invitation for a moment. "Also yes... that'd be heavenly right now." she said promptly placing her head into the nook of Forge's shoulder. Forge would feel her ponytail ever so slightly swaying, maybe meaning nothing to her, but it portrayed Anemone's sub-conscience happiness.

While she was snuggling into Forge's nice and comfy shoulder she listened to Merlin's game plan. Luckily someone had one. lt must've been hard shoving down all of those emotions to lead right now. But, any leader knew they had to appear together for those that followed them. As flighty and strange a person Merlin was... she had a good head on her shoulders. Anemone respected that.
 

Anemone couldn't help but be a bit selfish though, she wanted one particular person to stay at the moment mostly so that she didn't risk collapsing during a transfer and end up injuring herself more. So practical selfishness! That's how she'll justify it~ "Merlin, leave Forge here. Mostly because l kinda need help to stand right now and l'd raaaaaather her not let go of me right now. l might... collapse. So that'd be the most sensible person to leave here by my assessment."

[Chevaleresse]

Ice frowned ever so slightly, though it was almost unnoticeable through her less-than-expressive face and the existing strain. She was being left here. . . ? She looked down at herself. Her legs. . . She wasn't going to be of much use securing the facility. She was objectively worse than useless at the moment; her lack of mobility would easily negate any advantage provided by her spellcasting. The woman finally allowed herself to succumb to the pain radiating from the entire lower half of her body, going limp in Bartek's arms and closing her eyes.

[ElfCollaborator]

Bartek

Bartek carefully catches Ice as she passes out, grunting a little at the surprise weight. He gently lays her down for the moment, trying to make sure he doesn't leave her in a position that damages her legs any further by moving back as he lays her down, a tactic he'd learned from laying down his far larger relatives to let them nap. He looks around, considering his options. Being that he was in better emotional and physical state than just about the entire group, his only injury being more or less a few grazes from being thrown across the floor by Ansuz, he could do anything Merlin set out.

 

In practice, his abilities were best suited to backing up Merlin on a search for the medicine or protecting the injured allies they had here.

"If Forge wants to leave, Bartek will stay and protect allies. Otherwise, if Merlin wants, Bartek will come with her to find medicine for comrades."

[Twinwolf]

Forge

 

Forge shook her head. "I can stay. Probably don't want to move Anemone too much, and I can send out some of my metal things as proximity alarms in case something else is in there and tries to get to us."

[Sutoratosu]

Cheryn

 

Seeing the boy appear, she shrunk the enclosed cell down around him, hemming it in to just about enough room for a child to comfortably stand or sit down in, as the wisp continued to bounce off the walls of his prison. With the deed done, she rose from her knees, walking closer to the translucent, crimson prism.

      "Hey there," she said in the most amiable tone she could muster; the entire reason the kid had bolted in the first place was out of fear after all. "Look little buddy, I know you must be scared, but it's ok, we won't hurt you- in fact, we just wanna help you and the others. So what do ya say, can you change back to your normal form for me? I'll promise we'll try to explain everything once we've taken care of you guys, but first we gotta get you out of here."

[Shamitako]

Tallow

 

Tallow popped back into his usual human shape. He glanced around nervously. "I can't go outside." He mumbled in Cheryn's general direction. He kept looking over his shoulder, expecting a certain someone to appear behind him at any moment. He'd come to this room because he knew they hated it and wouldn't look for him here.

 

Merlin

 

"Very well, Forge stays." Merlin acknowledged, "Bartek, our mission has the greatest urgency, so we're leaving right away." To punctuate that urgency, she immediately walked into the facility once more, expecting Bartek to follow. Optimally she'd have Ice helping her, as the resistance she expected would be better dealt with by destroying it than guarding against it. But Ice was incapacitated and if for any reason she did need a shield, Bartek was perfectly suited to give her one.

[Sutoratosu]

Cheryn

"Yeah, it makes ya sick, I heard. Don't worry, we'll figure something out for you..." She paused for a moment, noting as the boy looked around the room frantically "Whats wrong? You... kinda look like you expect someone to leap out at you or something..."

[Shamitako]

Tallow

 

Tallow double checked to make sure they weren't here. "It's my big sister." He confessed, "She's always really angry and gets in trouble a lot. I don't like trouble. She always checks on me when she's not supposed to. And her eye is scary like yours." Tallow understood she was doing it out of caring, but he really hated all the attention she brought with her. He didn't feel the same attachment she did and really wished she'd leave him alone.

 

(OOC: This will not be the last time your eyes scare/upset someone)

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

Anemone 

 

Anemone spoke under her breath, however her being that close to Forge it was probably perfectly audible. "Oh good. Nothin' against muscles over there but l'd rather him not pop me like a bad zit in those arms of his..." Anemone however then went back to her passive observing for now. She assessed the current crew with relative speed in her mind.

Only really her and lce sustained major damage in that battle. lce moreso than her, and probably being the one that committed the most firepower. However, her own efforts managed to allow lce that room. She still wasn't sure who had nudged her though. She wasn't familiar enough with the casting styles of all of them yet to discern who had done so. She could've had more burns to her name if it weren't for that. She wished she could thank someone for it but... she couldn't.

Past that everyone looked quite healthy. Bartek despite taking a hit was holding up remarkably well. He seemed to be quite the hardy one. Wasn't all talk then it'd seem. After assessing the big guy though, her eyes came to Charity. She was sure this would be a topic that may explode sooner or later. For now... no one was losing their cool at the least, probably since there was yet things to do. Anemone herself wasn't really sure what to think.

On one hand Charity would be a traitor. She turned on all of them in that action of hers. Further, she showed that she didn't trust Merlin in that moment and was capable of that mistrust. However, Anemone to some degree could empathize. That situation was not an easy one. She had a feeling Ansuz preyed on such things. lt felt as if that's what his goal was. Charity couldn't have known the true danger in her action, but Anemone was sure she'd know now. Her actions resulted in Gypsy's death. She'd be the one that had to live with that. Perhaps penance enough. However, she wasn't sure the others would quite see it that way. Anemone endeavored to make that known to her as soon as the others filed out. When it was just the two of them and Forge. She figured she shouldn't be bereft of the situation. Though she had an inkling that she understood already. She hoped she did, otherwise she'd not be long for this world if she couldn't assess something that plain.

[Sutoratosu]

((¯\_(ツ)_/¯ rip.... there's only so much I can realistically do about them...))

Cheryn

"Uh huh...." Cheryn muttered. Geez, the second one of em to say that- were her eyes really that scary? It wasn't like she'd gotten those types of comments before or anything, so... maybe it was just the kids? But Red was the scariest color.... hmmmm. She honestly didn't know, but she couldn't exactly change her eyes now could she? Maybe keep the glow on the down low, but the color was definitely outside her control. Speaking of which, she took a second to conscious dim them even further now, to the point that the glow was barely visible at all, even in this dim light... just encase this really would prove to be something that unsettled more of the kids. She supposed that in the dark, it could have been rather easy for an impressionable mind to mistake someone with glowing red eyes as some type of monster...and god knows these kids had likely already met more than their fair share.

      "Well I'm.... sure she means well..." She said, returning her attention to Tallow, "We've gotta go though. If I let you out of that barrier cage, do you promise you'll stay close and won't try to run away from us again?"

[Yours Truly]

Feardorcha quietly walked up to the rest of the group after being separated from them for what felt like hours, and he spent a few moments looking over his teammates for no reason in particular. After a while he suddenly shrugged and walked off towards Exile as she didn't seem like she would mind having him suddenly ask "How is Merlin holding up?".

[Empiricist]

Exile

 

Exile definitely didn't look like she'd mind seeing as she's jumping around waving excitedly at his approach.

"Hiya~! How've you been? Was it fun? Did you make any new friends? Did you find out anything about what's going on here? Anything interesting~?"

She tilts her head and a blade appears inches from his throat.

"What's your name? What's my name? My real name? What were your orders? What were the team names? Which team were you on? Which team was I on? What did you say to me last night? What was the first thing you asked me this mission? What was my response? Why were you captured? When's our anniversary? Where did we first meet? Oh and to answer your question, she's probably gonna bawl her eyes out when it's over. Gypsy's dead. Ansuz was mortally wounded, but someone retrieved him, don't think it's the last we've seen of him!"

 

[Strider]

As soon as Sense saw the flash of a knife, he was over next to the two, ready to try to keep things civil. "Exile! That's too many questions. We've still got time constraints and-- how would he even answer some of those? Anniversary? What--" Sense spluttered. "How--nevermind. For now one of us needs to go get Bear, and the other two need to find Cheryn. That's more important right now." Sense glared at Exile, and found time for a suspicious glance at Feardorcha. "I think you should come with me, Exile, and we'll go find Cheryn." He addressed Feardorcha. "It's not likely to happen, but if you need to disguise yourself, you can probably work better on your own. That make sense?" Sense asked this, and then tried to slowly push Exile's knife hand away from the other guy's throat.

[Yours Truly]

Feardorcha responded to the barrage of questions and the presumably illusory blade held to his throat the way a man used to being in dangerous situation would, and that is by moving as little as possible while clearing his throat before saying "In no particular order, Surprisingly fine, No it was boring, The only new person I met is hopefully dead, Something involving the Carls fringe science group, They apparently have a good dental plan, Feardorcha, Exile, Fucked if I know, to scout out ahead, Mega Star Cannon and Those Guys, Mega Star Cannon, the same team as me, I actually don't remember but I think you tried to set me on fire afterwards, She what now? which was a rhetorical question but then I said 'are you trying to set us on fire or something', Maybe, To serve as bait to get Merlin to listen to his confession or something, I would have to check the date for last night actually, Last night in Merlin's meeting. Also fuck.".
Immediately after saying that he slowly started to move back from the overly excitable illusionist enough to hopefuly be able to turn and face Sense with his most wise looking face on before saying "Actually I think I should stay here and treat Ice as I *am* a doctor. I only need some clean cloth, and something I can use to make two splints to try and make moving her around less painful, and maybe some ice packs....also has anyone checked her heartbeat or breathing yet?".

Edited August 13, 2017 by Cronos5010

[Shamitako]

Genie

 

Tallow nodded. "Okay." He agreed.

Now that the issue with Tallow was resolved, Genie had a chance to talk again. "I was checking something while you were busy and it seems like three children aside from Tallow were left in the facility but not placed in the bank."

"Which ones?" Blink asked, "Any chance we can get them without another big ordeal?"

"D3112, I234, and... D279." She seemed pensive with the last.

"And the chance of an ordeal?"

"Flower is a jerk but he'll be easy enough to deal with. I just don't know where he is. I234 is probably in a pod, she just has a special room." She paused, "And Caliber is Tallow's sister. According to the log she was never returned. She was in the infirmary when the evacuation started, so they probably sedated her and locked her in. I wouldn't want to be the one to let her out."

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

Anemone 

 

Feardocha would find himself suddenly with a purple hoodie thrown at him. how Anemone got out of it that fast with but one arm... the world may never know. Underneath was a white tee, with the same flower symbol that they often saw within her magic. The image of an Anemone flower."You can use that, l've got more of them anyway and it's missing an arm. Should be clean enough for you to tear apart and use. The fabric should be sturdy enough." She settled her head back into the crook of Forge's shoulder before continuing.

"As for the splints... not much l can do there. l probably shouldn't be casting right now unless it's an utter emergency so ya'll will have to find something suitable to use. Take care of her though, those injuries to her legs are bad... l just hope she's okay." She paused for a moment. She easily took the most punishment out of those still here. Some self-inflicted even. Anemone was genuinely concerned, though if her arm was fixable, this should be too. She pushed through the feelings though and continued speaking.

 

"Feardachshund or whatever you go by... once you get lce's legs set though, go. There's nothing you can really do for my arm, as l told Forge it's beyond anything first aid can do. l know cause l can't feel it at all. Nerves are gone. That means extensive damage. Forge, Charity and myself, if things get desperate enough, can hold down the fort here."

[Twinwolf]

Forge

 

Before the groups leave, Forge stops them to give them something - "Hey, guys, hold onto these..." she tosses each person two slivers of metal, one triangular and one circular. "Since we don't have much to communicate with... tap the triangle twice if you're coming back, tap the circle twice if you need help. If you feel the circle one vibrate it means we need help back here, and if the triangle one does it means everyone's supposed to come back." It wasn't much, but it was a way of communicating with Gypsy gone. 

 

When Feardorcha asks for a splint, Forge focuses for a moment, and two metal ones appear. "Not the best splints, but they'll need to do unless some people can magically make proper ones. I've got things here, I should stay back to communicate with people anyway, and I can see if anyone we don't know is coming. Anemone, hold on a second, I think you should probably sit..." Forge eaaaases her way down with Anemone, to let the other girl sit and rest rather than just stand for an hour or whatever.

[Empiricist]

Exile 

 

"Annie's right, we need all the manpower we can get! We've got allies still in there and we need to regroup with them!" 

 

"You!" she bounds towards Sense, practically lunging at him, her face drawing uncomfortably close, uncomfortably quickly towards his own. "What's your name? What can you do? I'm Exile, that's Fedora, he can do illusions, I can do a bit of that and a bit of conjuration; are you good with bears? Are you good with beer? Are you good with animals that are like bears? What about glowy shield mages and hula-hoops?"

Edited August 13, 2017 by Empiricist
Slight SwiftKey error.

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

Anemone

Anemone didn't really have the time to pay attention to the madwoman as Forge helped to lower her to ground level. She didn't really protest much given her knees were screaming at her already. So, she was happy to go along with it. Forge probably intended her to sit, however Anemone sunk lower, laying on her back. She nestled her head into the ultimate place for resting on somebody else, Forge's lap. She really was in heaven. She looked up at Forge with her soft golden yellow eyes, a little smirk on her face. "l think this arrangement might be more comfortable for the both of us.~" She crossed the one arm she could move across her chest and giggled.

[Strider]

"What." Sense took a very small step back. He had been a little uncertain about his decisions on who should go where, but this boundless mania convinced him that Exile needed someone watching her. "Call me Sense. That's not my real name, but you didn't give me yours, so you can't expect that. I can do a bit of mental manipulation, and general telekinesis things. What was that about bear and beers? And Hula-hoops?" Sense would probably have to learn to ignore some of the stuff that the uncomfortably close person said if he was to retain his cognitive faculties. "Um, just a moment, Exile. Feardorcha?" That was an awkward name to say. "Bear's probably back near the center. Go get him once you're done with the splint and stuff."

"Oh, useful." He said in response to the comms system that Forge handed out. So she could sense what was happening through the metal? Huh. "Well, let's go then." Sense then set off with Exile in an arbitrary direction which he hoped would lead to wherever Cheryn might be. "So. . .  do you need to take some sort of medication?"

[Empiricist]

Exile

 

"Amelia. Her mech looks kinda like one. Melee. Very high speed. Poor defenses. Anyway~ no I'm not crazy, unfortunately for you~ and no I'm not off my meds either!" she takes her communication set and follows. 

"If you see a rune, tell me! I've some experiments to run."

[Twinwolf]

Forge

 

"...Well, that works too." Forge said as Anemone lay down on her lap instead. In fact, Forge seems to be entirely fine with it, even patting Anemone on the head. "If you think that'll let you rest a bit more comfortably, go ahead." ...It would probably be in poor taste to flirt with the girl that is effectively missing an arm and probably more than a bit delirious. 

[Yours Truly]

Feardorcha gratefully took the hoodie that Anemone gave to him and immediately set to work on ripping off as many bandages as he could make in a short notice "Oh don't worry, I don't think that this will take that long". He also picked up the splints that Forge gave to him and set it down next to Ice before he tried his best to bind and clean her wounds with what little he had available. After making damn sure that her legs were properly dressed he picked up one of the splints and stared at it for a while before commenting to no one in particular "You know, if she was awake I would have asked her if she could make some ice packs....but on the other hand that is probably a terrible idea". He then did his best to slowly but surely attach the metal splints to her legs in a way that he hoped would help keep the pain bearable.

 

After doing everything he could to make her comfortable with the materials provided he did his best to move her in a way that would raise her broken legs up slightly higher than her head just in case she woke up anytime soon, and he laid whatever was left of Anemone's hoodie and his own black trenchcoat across her in an attempt to keep her warm.
Immediately afterwards he slowly stood up and dusted himself off before he looked directly at Forge to say "Right, just try not to move her around too much until we get back, and if she does wake up...try to distract her from the pain and the fact that she won't walk for another two months somehow". He stood there and looked down for a moment as he tried to think of anything else to say, but instead he simply shrugged and emptied his briefcase. After finally emptying his briefcase he said "Well that's about it, I'll try and find a stretcher somewhere".
He then walked off towards the insides of the facility with his usual array of deflection spells up, and he made damn sure that every single step he took wouldn't trigger a trap.

Edited August 14, 2017 by Cronos5010

[ElfCollaborator]

Bartek

Bartek follows swiftly after Merlin, pulling up a small shield as he keeps close to her, his eyes searching the facility for enemies who might try to strike at her. He remains conspiciously silent near Merlin.