tushanshu_logs | [FORWARD DATE] Trembling, crawling across my skin

Entry tags:

[FORWARD DATE] Trembling, crawling across my skin

Characters: Anton Shudder, Jintou; initially CLOSED but will have an OPEN thread later.
Date: FORWARD DATED to 27 June 2015 (2016 in-game)
Location: Water Sector
Situation: Anton's made himself a target. Someone's coming to collect. (The taggening of this reward request here.)
Warnings/Rating: Violence, potentially some gore, drugging.

All things considered, and given that Anton had in recent days made a target of himself both by housing Jintou and by retrieving Malcil, things were going relatively well. That was usually when they went south, which was why Anton was especially on guard whenever Jintou wanted to go outside the Hotel.

The man was in a difficult position. Anton knew that, understood that. But just because nothing had happened didn’t mean nothing ever would. It always did. Eventually.

Jintou had some friends to visit in more than one sector, so it wasn’t an unpleasant day, wandering around the city and picking up meals from the stalls—always the stalls where food was made right in front of them. Just in case. It wasn’t unusual for Jintou, having said he was going out, to take advantage by not going back to the Hotel until evening. Babysitting duty, maybe, but Anton had never minded babysitting duty. Not too much, anyway.

Some of the visits didn’t go well. Old contacts, people affiliated with the Snakes and not, people unhappy that Jintou had been a member at all. Anton didn’t keep track of whether any were family members so much as how likely they were to be informants or potential assassins. He suspected that a number were just an excuse to avoid going back to the Hotel, in any case.

No one sprang at them from houses, shadows or other avenues, and they swung past a food market in Earth Sector to get a bite to eat before making their way back to the Hotel’s Earth Sector entrance. The crowds had thinned but Anton still kept them at the edges. It was all too easy for someone to stick a knife in their target’s ribs and walk away surrounded by people; an alley was more ominous, but made danger more overt. Whoever wanted Jintou gone was unlikely to make an obvious play.

The light wasn’t quite fading yet; in fact it seemed especially bright, and Anton had to squint to make out the shapes of some of the buildings ahead. Then they turned the corner and he realised it wasn’t the angle of light that had been casting the glare, because it was getting worse; the shades of the stone seemed brighter than they strictly should have been, and when he glanced toward Jintou the man’s clothes made Anton’s temples throb.

That wasn’t normal. Nor, Anton realised, was the tingle in his fingers. He took a breath and his heart thudded, but slow, too slow—even slower than it should have been walking through the city.

Food? No. He’d watched them prepare it. But the utensils, or anything he might have touched over the course of the day—

“This way,” he said quietly to Jintou, and gripped his arm to take him down an alley instead of the roundabout but public ways on the main streets. There were fewer people in the alleys, yes, but that just meant people would stand out if they tried to come close. The light was drilling into Anton’s eyes now, making his head swim; he was going to need the clarity. They needed to get back fast, before any ambush happened. That meant shortcuts.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"What?" Surprise and a decent amount of foresight kept Jintou from fighting the hand on his arm. Habit and conditioning - however rusty - immediately put him on his guard. "What's wrong?"

He'd never really stopped being wary around Shudder, especially since the man didn't look very much like a bodyguard - or at least, not an effective one. It was only due to the surprising success of multiple expeditions outside of the Hotel that Jintou had learned to trust Shudder at all. If anyone knew that a man with such guarded expressions could be impossible to catch by surprise, it was someone who'd worked under Yunxu for decades.

Before today, Shudder had changed their route home only once before. Jintou had gotten complacent. How the hell he'd gotten complacent in the company of a virtual stranger was anyone's guess. He walked quickly at Shudder's side, keeping an eye out for whatever tipped the Hotel-owner off. "What's wrong?" he repeated, softly and urgently.

"Someone's slipped me something." If Skulduggery were here he could work out the hundred and one ways that could have happened, even with Anton being vigilant. Anton wasn't Skulduggery, and it was getting hard to think, with that sharp ache in his temples. He moved quickly but without hurrying, breathing evenly. His heartbeat seemed to fill his ears, not because it was fast but because it was slow, making him dizzy. "Do you feel dizzy? Headache? Light sensitive?"

If it was both of them they were in trouble. But if it was just Anton, Jintou might be able to make it back alone if he ran and Anton stayed to distract anyone who attacked, and if there were reinforcements coming. Regardless of Jintou's response, Anton dug for the radio in his pocket before he was too incapacitated to use it.

Jintou went cold and still. Someone's slipped me something. How? When? They'd watched all of their food being prepared, and Jintou had been extremely careful not to hold or handle anything in the houses of anyone they'd visited, whether he counted them friend or not.

It didn't matter. They could track their journey later. Right now, they were in trouble. Poison wasn't Yunxu's style - certainly not in this manner - and there was really only one other possible culprit. Jintou grew, if it was possible, even colder.

"No," he said slowly. "No. I feel fine. That's - "

Then someone dropped on Shudder from above, knocking the radio out of the man's hands, and the single thought Jintou had time for was see, that's Yunxu's style.

Conditioning took over. Jintou whipped out a small blade from his sleeve and sliced open the arm of another kedan on the ground reaching for him. The kedan fell back with a startled cry - did they expect him not to be allowed weapons? - but he was immediately replaced by yet another one. Before Jintou knew it, he was fighting for his life, fending off three different attackers at once with nothing but a small knife. He was good, but he wasn't that good. It didn't take them long to corner him against the alley wall, cutting off all his avenues of escape.

Something struck Anton and he let himself fall, twisted so that his attacker hit the ground first. The world turned around him and the man squirmed under him, but Anton managed to get hold of his hair and slammed his head into the ground until he went limp.

Anton staggered as he rose. There was no need to try and squint through the light to hear the fight. He stepped toward the nearest figure, dark clad and therefore not Jintou, his dagger already in his hand; a short sharp thrust slid it between the man's ribs and it ground against them. Anton left it there and shoved the body into the nearest figure, and stepped toward the silhouette of the next, his fist lashing out, intended for throat or face.

He felt slow. Slow and sloppy, his eyes slits to try and stave off the light's intensity, his feet braced apart to try and keep his equilibrium. His heartbeat roared in his ears; he was starting to feel lightheaded.

For a moment, Jintou believed they might escape, just through Shudder's sheer force of will. One of the three attackers was dead, another knocked aside by the weight of his dead comrade, and the third distracted by Shudder's fist. Once Jintou had time to recover, he knew he was going to be impressed.

He'd lost his knife and only weapon somewhere in the scuffle, but that didn't make him helpless. Far from it; when the kedan Shudder was aiming for dodged the punch with relative ease, he ended up folding under Jintou's kick instead, stumbling backwards with that particular look of someone struggling to breathe. Jintou moved to deliver another kick. He realised too late that the stumble was a feint, and tried to cut off his attack mid-step, but he was sent reeling before he could regain his equilibrium - and then someone grabbed him from behind and took his balance away from him completely.

Jintou's thoughts ran wild. Was it the attacker who'd been knocked back by the dead kedan? No, he was going for Shudder now. Was the poison a coincidence, then, or were they just distracting Shudder long enough for the poison to kill him? Jintou didn't know and, in the heat of the moment, didn't care. He kicked out backwards to try and shake off his captor. It didn't work. The kedan Jintou kicked came forward to add his strength to the vice-like grip. They both dragged Jintou backwards, struggling, through a doorway.

He opened his mouth, not to yell for help, but to give Shudder the name of the woman who hired him, so that someone - anyone, Aqua or Xion or the skeleton detective - could kill her. Find him, and kill her. But a thick hand clamped over his mouth before he could, and then he vanished from sight.

Trying to track the kedan's dodge made Anton's vision go white, and he hunched down and planted his feet and breathed until the white spin faded. It didn't--completely--but he saw a dark figure coming at him and slapped the fist aside with his open palm, and lunged.

The dizziness rose up and Anton let it unbalance him and they fell, the kedan under him and Anton's hand on his chin; they hit the ground and Anton's weight came down hard and the man's neck snapped. Anton rolled off him, hit a wall and grunted, and used it to pull himself to his feet.

His vision was blurred and still white with lightheadedness, and his heart was still pounding too slow. His limbs tingled with heat, a sort of raging powerlessness to move any faster than he already was. He just wasn't getting enough air.

No one in the alley. Anton had blocked this end and they couldn't have reached the other already, but there were rectangular shadows in the walls, things it took Anton a few crucial seconds too long to realise were doors. Inside. They'd taken him inside. There was no way he could search each of them in this condition.

No way he could search.

Heat flooded his limbs and this was the sort with intent. Break the walls, Anton commanded his gist. Break the doors and the walls, but not the people.

The gist erupted from his chest with a shriek and tore the nearest door off its hinges, ripped through stone until the air was filled with dust and the rooms behind laid bare. It tried to lunge at the few warm bodies behind those walls but Anton pulled it back, and it sucked into his chest with an impotent howl.

The ceiling thundered above them. One of Jintou's captors slipped on the steps leading down and, cursing, pressed his back against the stairwell's wall. They waited without moving through the screams of nearby kedan, staying hidden half below ground. Jintou took the opportunity to try and break free again, but the most he managed was to elicit a short grunt from the man holding his feet.

"Did you see that?" asked the one at his head.

His companion shrugged, unsettled. "Looked like a ghost."

"Ghosts can't rip down walls. And its face!"

Kedan, being shapeshifters by nature, weren't easily unsettled by strange faces. Despite everything, Jintou wondered what it looked like.

"What d'you expect?" came the response, edged with the irritation of fear. "It's a Foreigner. They can do all sorts of things. Now shut up and get underground before it comes back."

Now Jintou tried to scream for help, but he knew his desperate deep-throated noises would have been muffled by the surrounding stone even if Shudder hadn't been poisoned. And a minute later, when they'd reached the bottom of the steps and entered the sewer system, he could have screamed at the top of his lungs and no one would have heard.

For a moment there was quiet. Anton's knees shook but he locked them and tried to steady his breathing. The dust stung his eyes, but if anything that helped take the edge off the light. There were one or two wide-eyed kedan watching him, huddling into the far end of their opened rooms; when they saw him looking the kedan shrank away from the expression on his face. The rooms were storage for the shopfronts on the other side, mostly. Goods were covered in dust, plumbing leaking water, an open and deep shadow of stairs leading beneath the earth.

Anton stepped toward the stairs and his knees buckled and he hit the ground. He pushed himself up and only then noticed his hands were shaking violently. His whole body was shaking violently. Of course it was. It always did after he loosed the gist. Usually one of the others was there to catch him. Where were they?

... Not here. Of course they weren't. Keeliai. Damn it.

He wasn't thinking clearly. The light hurt and he was addled by lack of air, and it was almost as frustrating to know that while it was happening as to not. He tried to crawl and his hand knocked something he thought was a stone and realised a moment later was his radio; and it took a moment longer to realise that he needed it.

Anton pulled himself upright against a piece of remaining wall and took a breath, and the stillness helped the world stop turning. Somewhat. Only somewhat. He needed to get reinforcements. Someone else would have to go after Jintou. And someone else needed to find out what it was Anton had been dosed with.

Radio. Now.

He fumbled for the buttons and turned it on.

The alley behind the Lane of Fuchsia Dyes is a wreck, and by the time anyone arrives there’s a small but concerned crowd of kedan at the entrance. Some of them are already picking up debris to clear the way and for reuse in the rebuilding. None of them have much idea what happened, except that there was something howling and then the alley was torn up.

Inside the alley the debris is larger. The alley is six buildings deep on either side, and four of them—eight buildings total—are missing the alley-facing walls and, in several cases, parts of the ceiling. It looks exactly as if something with very sharp claws tore them apart, which is exactly what happened. Beneath the debris are three bodies: one sprawled on the ground, the back of his head bloodied due to having it slammed against the cobblestones multiple times; one slumped by one of the semi-intact walls with a dagger still between his ribs; the third collapsed bonelessly with a broken neck.

In two of the opened-up rooms there are a couple of kedan shivering in corners, shocked and stunned. If calmed and questioned, all they will be able to say is that there was the sound of fighting in the alley out back and then a ghostly monster ripped off the walls.

Anton himself is seated at the far end of the alley, against a pile of brick that’s still somewhat in intended stacking order. Next to him is a shattered door, and behind him is the deep shadows of a stairwell into the sewers. He’s propped himself up, his radio clenched in a white-knuckled hand; his breathing is measured but his hands shake and every so often his whole body trembles. He keeps his eyes closed, his face tight with the headache that is fast approaching a migraine.

[ooc: As noted in the network post, this thread is for either Anton directing people after Jintou or getting healed/applied with stabby blood-drawing objects. Either way, responses should be kept to one thread; Erskine and Skulduggery will tag in first for a short round before being sent away, and after that it's totally open. Those who get a blood sample from Anton for testing will receive information regarding the substance he’s been dosed with, to share as they like.

[Those whose characters are going to look for Jintou should feel free to either have their character make a quick appearance to get information or assume they got information and moved right onto a search. The rest of this log is for search attempts! Note that Jintou cannot be found even with plot requests, and no further information as to his whereabouts or his kidnappers can be found by following them. How your characters are diverted from finding him is up to you, but do keep in mind the rules for major NPC interactions or minor NPC deaths and collateral damage.

[Please PM me with any questions.]

Edited 2015-06-28 04:08 (UTC)

Skulduggery's never without his radio these days. When Anton's message crackles over the network, he and Ravel are the very first ones on the scene, by virtue of flying, with Skulduggery grabbing Ravel the moment they're outside of the Hotel and refusing to give him a choice in the matter.

They touch down on the edge of the Lane of Fuchsia Dyes. Skulduggery followed the line of the wreckage visible from the air once they were close enough, and now that they're on the ground it looks even worse. It looks like Anton used his gist, alien only because Skulduggery hasn't seen him use it in Keeliai. Masonry litters the alley both inside and outside of the buildings lining it. Three kedan are dead in the middle of it. Skulduggery's amazed Jintou was taken at all.

Anton sits hunched over at the very end of the wreckage. Skulduggery ignores the panicked bystanders to make a beeline for him. Anton's broadcast hopefully means other Foreigners will be arriving soon - let them deal with clean-up and crowd control. The Snakes patrolling nearby can handle it if no one else does.

"Anton." Skulduggery kneels by the gist-user. He's dangerously pale. "What happened?"

Ravel is infinitely glad that Skulduggery knows his way around Keeliai better than he does himself, because the "Lane of Fuschia Dyes" meant nothing to him when he'd first heard it over the radio. Of course, some part of that could also be attributed to the panic of hearing Shudder sounding as if he couldn't breathe. They're not at war, as far as Ravel knows. Admittedly he knows little about the kedan Anton's been sheltering in the Hotel, but hearing Anton obviously distressed was not on the agenda for today, thank you very much.

He even likes to think that he managed to handle the flying part rather well, considering that he's been using Air magic for the better part of four centuries and this isn't how Air works. And if he momentarily lost his head and gripped Skulduggery in a vise-like hug, well. He won't tell if Skulduggery doesn't.

He kneels along with Skulduggery, not because the chain is so short that he can't get around it, but because he's reaching for Anton's eyes, holding them open so he can examine his friend. Erskine may not know kedan politics but he knows poison.

Anton knows when they land. He's still lightheaded, even seated, but that doesn't mean he's not paying as much attention to his surroundings as he is to his breathing. He knows they're there, recognises Skulduggery's too-light step before he even speaks.

He inhales. Exhales. Answers. "Drugged."

Erskine's touch is gentle on his eyelids but their being lifted makes the light sear, and Anton twitches instinctively away with an objecting grunt. In the glimpse Erskine and Skulduggery get, they'll see that his pupils are dangerously dilated. "Light hurts. Heart's slow. Not enough oxygen."

It's halfway between apology and indignation. He'd failed all because his own body is betraying him. Whatever he's been dosed with, it's potent and annoying, and the flush of rage from his gist both helps to clear his head and makes his head pound with his heart failing to beat faster.

But he's not dead. Not dying. It's been long enough that surely he ought to be dead, if it was meant to kill him. "Stairs."

Edited (tense) 2015-06-28 06:51 (UTC)

Raine's on her way. She must be. If the poison Anton's dosed with was meant to kill him, it's failed, either because of the hardiness of the gist or because whoever took Jintou didn't want to risk the unrestrained ire of the Foreigners. Either way, this is as close to being properly hurt as Skulduggery has seen Anton in a long time, and something about the sight makes the world feel like it's just tilted off its axis.

Anton would be fine. Jintou would not be.

"How many?" Skulduggery asks before getting back to his feet. "And are there any unique weapons we should be aware of?"

Erskine winces in sympathy as Anton pulls away from his touch. Light sensitivity. Pupils badly dilated. Slow heart. He knows what the poison might be in his own world, or at least the family that it belongs to, but he has no basis with which to suggest an analogue for Keeliai. Knows the antidote, but couldn't begin to venture a guess as to how it would function here. Not without knowing the source, the method of absorption. Clearly he's going to have to do some catching up, once this is over.

But Anton will be fine. Shudder's been through worse. Ravel knows what it would take to drop Anton and it's a hell of a lot more than this... whatever this is.

He almost resents the indication that they're going to leave Anton here, however, no matter how sure he is that the man will be fine. But between Anton and Skulduggery, it doesn't seem like he's going to have much choice in the matter.

"Two left," Anton says. Inhale, exhale. "That I saw." Inhale. Exhale. "Could be more downstairs." His head rests back against the brick. He's still tense, but Skulduggery had been one of those to bring Jintou to the Hotel in the first place. If anyone can find him, it would be Skulduggery and Erskine.

"Manacle keys. Top pocket." He isn't about to force them to go after some unknown kidnappers while being chained together. That was just idiotic. But his eyes open barely even to slits, not even enough for him to properly see past his eyelashes. "Don't kill each other."

"Good," Skulduggery murmurs, fishing the manacle keys out of Anton's top pocket. "I was worried I'd have to fight you for them."

Under other circumstances, he would be glad to get rid of the chain. A part of him is. But the cost is too high for him to be truly grateful, and his interactions with Ravel have become too level for it to feel like a removed threat. An inconvenience, yes. But not a threat.

Skulduggery unlocks the shackle around his neck, then tosses the key to Ravel. "I won't make any promises," he tells Anton. "But I'll do my best. Try not to die before a healer gets here."

God, it's a relief to be rid of the shackles. Ravel doesn't even stop to consider the full ramifications of getting the bloody thing off his wrist beyond the obvious--a full range of motion, he's no longer connected to Skulduggery, and he no longer has both arms limited in some way.

...speaking of which.

It's been three weeks now, and though his shoulder still twinges from time to time where the glass had bit into his flesh down to the bone, three weeks is surely enough time to heal. He lays the shackles down near Anton and slips his left arm out of the sling, dropping the restraint to the ground as well. Rolls his shoulders.

He'd still rather be here with Anton, but Erskine can't even claim to know if he could keep the man alive until a healer arrives. Besides, he's not going to die. The most he'd be doing is keeping him company, and maybe he's of more use this way instead. Ravel leans down to grip Anton by the shoulder, then nods to Skulduggery.

"Let's go."

Anton feels the rifling through his jacket and grunts some kind of acknowledgement. He hadn't planned this; he hadn't really had a plan for when to unlock their chain. But this was too important to expect it to remain, and their working together without that duress might well be a boon.

"I'm not going to die," he says, but firmly and more for Erskine than anyone else. He won't die like this; poisoned, taken by surprise. He won't die the same way Hopeless did. He refuses.

He listens to them go descend the stairs behind him, and takes another breath, and lets it out, and waits for others to arrive.

Raine arrives at a dead run, which is just about the same pace at which she left the Guild. She's out of breath by the time she skids to a stop next to Anton and drops unceremoniously to her knees, but she doesn't particularly seem to care. "Blood samples," she says, without preamble, unshouldering a small bag of the supplies for just that. She reaches to check on his vital signs first, though, feeling for his pulse, looking to see if his pupils respond as they should.

Despite the lack of obvious major injury, she will not be particularly satisfied with what she finds. Still, mindful of what he said on the radio, she proceeds to the actual meat of taking a sample -- a few small ones, for redundancy's sake. "I take it you were poisoned, if that's your concern. Then will you let me heal you?" Her tone is brisk, cool, any genuine fear hidden away in favor of mild exasperation.

Valdis arrived a few moments after Raine, her eyes bright red and her large head hanging low as she growled her way through the small crowd and the Kedan quickly parted to allow the large hound through. She took a breath, tasting the scents on the air and moving among the debris, taking in the bodies, the blood and the destruction.

Anton had unleashed his gist and had still lost Jintou, but Valdis could care less about the former Snake at the moment. She moved around Raine, waiting until the woman was finished taking blood samples, before releasing a sharp, worried chuff. Then she gently pushed her way between Raine and Anton and laid down, resting her head on his lap.

Yuri didn't really know what all was going on, but he'd heard things around the Hotel and heard the radio call. Since it sounded like the guy needed some help, Yuri arrived not long after Raine and Valdis.

"Hey boss, you all right?"

He then took a moment to look around, seeing the damage to the surrounding buildings and the Kedan trying to pick things up.

"Damn... what happened here?"

"That's exactly what I want to know."

Unless you were paying attention, it would be pretty hard to notice Shay Cormac approach the scene, since he was quite adept at being stealthy. Still, he drops down into the alley from atop a pile of rubble, mask pulled over the bottom half his face.

"I can help track the ones who did this." Assuming his Sense co-operated. It's been hit-and-miss ever since he came to Keelial. He nods to Raine. "Since I'm assuming he's in the best of care."

Edited 2015-06-29 17:12 (UTC)

It was almost like being back in the war, with concerned Irishmen coming out of the woodwork, and in spite of how awful he was feeling and how badly compromised he actually was, a corner of Anton's mouth twitched up if only from nostalgia.

The wolf's head in his lap wasn't even all that much of a surprise, taking into account the time Larrikin had brought a litter of puppies into camp and forced them on each of the Dead Men. Anton had gotten used to having a rottweiler flop in his lap for those two decades.

"I did," he said in answer to Yuri, pausing to breath. "Too slow." The frustration was audible. This shouldn't have happened. "Took him down." He turned his head enough to indicate the yawning stairs behind him. "Two left that I saw." His brow furrowed and he lifted his head enough to at least indicate he was squinting at Yuri. "Who's watching the Hotel?"

Aqua was invested in Jintou. She wouldn't stay away. If Valdis and Yuri were here ... maybe Tadashi, or one of the kedanese ex-gang-members Anton trusted.

Raine did not look best pleased to be pushed away from Anton, but she had better sense than to quibble with Valdis over this particular matter. When she had what she needed she tucked the samples away into her satchel and sat back on her heels, hands folded over her staff, eyes sharp. Content -- mostly -- to watch.

He hadn't answered her question. She didn't blame him for the dodge, really, since there were urgent matters at hand, except that she considered his health also an urgent matter. "I assume you wanted to be sure whatever was used to poison you could be analyzed," she said, quiet but no less intent for it. "In twenty minutes at the most, whether I have your permission or not, I am going to heal you before I can no longer purge the poison from your system."

She didn't elaborate why, only directed a significant glance at the hound. Which Anton might well miss, exhausted as he seemed.

Shay and Yuri each received brief nods in turn, but her attitude was terse, her focus almost entirely on Anton himself, looking for the slightest sign that he was worsening. Jintou was important, but right now, a secondary concern: there were competent people who could handle it. Anton was currently her priority.

One ear flicked back as the others arrived, but she didn't lift her head to look, identifying them by scent and voice alone. Yuri, whom she knew and Shay, whom she knew nothing about but his name and that he had a ship. Neither were a threat, so she focused on Anton, closing her eyes to rely on her other senses.

He smelled wrong, not strong and healthy like usual. He felt wrong, his normally stable state out of kilter. Her ears picked up his irregular heartbeat and she felt each shiver that wracked his body. She slowed her breathing, taking deeper, longer breaths, hoping to coax his breathing into matching hers.

Anger simmered beneath her calm and concerned surface. Anger at the ones who had done this. The responsible party would regret provoking her ire and when she found them, they would die agonizing deaths. But for now, she tried to keep the anger in check, stopping a growl in her throat from rising too loudly. Anton's safety was more important than her revenge and her anger would only place stress on her other allies.

If anyone not a foreigner moved too close to Anton, they would get no warnings, only teeth. Shifting her head slightly, she opened her eyes to look at Raine, her irises a bright, blood red. The woman was the only one here she trusted to heal Anton, and probably the only one to realize what might happen should Anton die.

Edited (format) 2015-06-30 15:53 (UTC)

Yuri looked up as Shay appeared then looked back at Anton. He was about to offer to help track down those who did this too, until the boss man looked pointedly at him.

"The Hotel? ... I dunno. Shouldn't that Skull digging guy be there?"

This said as he started scratching at his arms absently. Anyone that looked would see dark blotches on his arms, chest and neck. Obviously though, the idea that the Hotel would need watching hadn't crossed his mind. Did it need watching? There should be plenty of people there right?

His eyes then focused on Valdis.

"That's a big dog."

No really, she makes Repede look tiny. He didn't recognize Valdis at all, having never seen her in her hound form. But he knew dogs and she didn't seem like a threat. To them at least.

"The hotel?"

Shay's momentum is temporarily stopped as he realises that. Anton wouldn't have asked if he knew Skulduggery or Erskine were still there.

"Uh, I can..." He looks in the general direction of the building. "If you want, I can run back and watch over it?" He looks to Yuri. "Unless you...?"

"Sent him after Jintou," said Anton in answer to Yuri. His eyes had closed again, his fingers twined in Valdis's fur; he didn't see Yuri's skin. "If you're willing, Master Cormac, I would appreciate that. Just ... throw anyone who throws a punch into the street. I'll handle anything else--when I get back."

He opened his eyes again, focussing on Raine. He'd heard her, almost forgotten to answer. "How many do you have?"

No one present were technically or medically minded, except for Raine herself. Perhaps the resources of the Guild would be enough.

"She's not a dog," Raine informed Yuri, and further gave him a curious look, noting the blotchiness and the scratching. She didn't comment on that, though, only making a note to perhaps follow the matter up later. It wasn't zhyris and he seemed fine otherwise; it could wait.

Anton was her priority for now. "Three, and the materials for more if necessary, though I'd prefer not to." He was already weak. His mystery condition was on her mind, too, though that had lain more or less dormant for centuries. Still, compounding the poison with much more seemed imprudent.

A low growl followed Yuri's comment about dogs, but she didn't raise her head to glare at him, too intent on comforting Anton and burying her worry and rage until she knew he would be alright. Only then would she hunt down who had done this and destroy them.

Oh.

Yuri lifts up his hands in apology to... the... dog. Or whatever it is. "Sorry, nothing personal."

But back to Anton. "Are you expecting an attack, or something?" Because Yuri can help out there too, especially if the bone guy has already gone on ahead.

"Will do." Shay comments. "The hotel's safe with me."

And, with a nod to the others, he's going to start heading back to the hotel.

"Thank you," Anton murmured to Shay's vanishing back. He was beginning to feel significantly ill out of this, even though he was at rest; his magic kept trying to elevate his vitals, while the drug worked to keep them slow. The difference was ... uncomfortable.

"Perhaps," he answered Yuri after a moment. "Malcil is there. It should remain guarded."

But he wouldn't tell Yuri to go back. Wasn't sure he did; his words trailed off, his ability to think slowing bit by bit. He wasn't going to die. He knew that. He just felt terribly tired and pained, and knew he was losing the ability to think coherently.

No one else seemed to be coming. When Raine healed him, he definitely wasn't going to object.

Raine waited, with ill-concealed impatience, for Anton's directives, for everyone else to do as they had been ordered; finally, as Anton's coherence ebbed and he seemed to slow, Raine made the decision. She had the samples he'd insisted on, and she didn't plan to chance that he might pass the threshold of effectiveness for her artes. "That's enough," she said, a little sharply, and she gathered her mana to cast.

The same old white circle spun only briefly, quick and steady. "Recover." The result was a pale light that settled over Anton, cool as it purged the poison from him. When she was done Raine sat back again, watching, and she did not plan to let Anton out of her sight until she was sure he was all right.

Still. He would be in good hands, wouldn't he?

Valdis continued to ignore everyone until Raine cast her spell. Only then did the hound lift her head and take another deep breath, filtering out the familiar scents and focusing on memorizing the unfamiliar ones for future reference. She would find whoever had done it and the scents were only the first step.

"All right, I'll head back too."

It didn't look like he was needed here anyway. He wasn't exactly a healer, and apparently Skullduggery had already gone after whatever had attacked Anton. He'd probably be of most use back at the hotel like he'd been asked.

So with that, Yuri takes his leave, but not without scratching at his arms again. Darn that squid ink.

Anton had said there were two attackers left, with a possibility for more down in the sewers. No unique weapons. No advantage apart from whatever substance was currently coursing through Anton's veins. But even if there were only two, the attackers knew the sewers better, and they had a head start. Skulduggery wasn't about to underestimate that.

He took out his radio and called Aqua, then held a hand up to sift through the stale air currents. Someone had passed through the north tunnel. He was about to suggest Ravel go on ahead, then stopped.

No sense in splitting up. No reason - no legitimate reason - to send Ravel into a potential ambush. They could move much faster than a pair of kedan who had a struggling captive to contend with; they could afford to wait for Aqua.

Ravel paced back and forth, the line of his jaw tight as he stared down the north tunnel. He could read the air as easily as Skulduggery, had already done so. He knew where they'd gone.

So why the hell were they waiting?

In the field, during missions, Skulduggery had always had operational control of the unit. That didn't make the skeleton infallible. "Is there a reason," Ravel asked finally, keeping his voice low, "that we've stopped? If you're expecting an ambush, is one more person really going to make the difference?"

And if they had to wait, why the hell weren't they waiting back up there with Anton?

When she'd arrived on the scene, Raine was already present and attending to Anton. And she wasn't alone: a number of others were present. Anton was in good hands, and though she loathed to leave him in such a state, there wasn't much help she could render in the matters of poisons. With the number of other hands on board, someone was bound to be of more assistance than she. At least, that was how she tried to justify her actions.

Besides, Jintou was important. She had sworn to protect him, and this... she couldn't break that promise.

So it was with a divided heart that Aqua only briefly paused to make sure Anton was secure before plunging into the sewers. It didn't take long before she encountered Skulduggery and Ravel, thankfully no longer chained together. That would have been a hindrance, one she would have removed.

"I'm here." Her words were slightly breathless - she had been running nearly full-pelt. "Where did they take him? Do you know? We have to find him."

She was babbling, she knew it, but there was an urgency to her words: they had to find Jintou.

"It might," Skulduggery said calmly to Ravel, "or it might not. Jintou's been terrified of someone he was convinced could reach him even inside the Hotel. Whoever it was, they knew enough to poison Anton out in the open, which means they know the Foreigners very well." Both for the obvious tactical strategy, and for the fact that the poisoning had happened at all; Anton was constantly on the lookout for such attempts. "The more of us going after Jintou, the better I'll feel. We can afford to lose a minute."

They could afford to lose a lot more, actually. But rather than point out both he and Ravel could track trespassers through mazes of tunnels an entire hour late - something which ran the risk of becoming a pointed jab, and wouldn't Anton be absolutely thrilled to hear they were arguing mere minutes after the chain coming off? - Skulduggery fell silent until Aqua arrived. Less than a minute later, as predicted.

He pointed up the north tunnel. "That way. Let's go."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[FORWARD DATE] Trembling, crawling across my skin

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first ERSKINE and SKULDUGGERY; then TOTALLY OPEN

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Sorry this is so late!

and then i failed too, sorry all orz

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feel free to make your tags wrap up tags, i think this is about as far as we're gonna get

o7

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CLOSED to Erskine and Aqua | Sewers

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