tushanshu_logs | I was Looking for a Breath of Life

Characters: Valdis and Gene to start, others to follow
Date: March 26th
Location: The farmlands outside the city
Situation: Valdis' patience is at its limits, she hasn't slept in days, the nightmares are becoming worse and her thoughts are twisting into shadows.
Warnings/Rating: There will be blood...

The large hound ran across the back of the turtle at full speed, testing her agility, trying to keep her mind off the reoccurring nightmares and the evolution of her strange illness. She slowed as she approached the farmlands, sitting on the edge of a field to watch as people worked. Familiar and unfamiliar scents filled the air, but she ignored them all, losing herself in her thoughts. She was tired and not from running, it felt deeper than that and if her suspicions were correct, then it was also deeply disturbing. To say she was frustrated would be an understatement, she felt more on edge, agitated and anxious. She had a terrible feeling that it wouldn't take much to set her off and worst of all, she felt detached from herself, her normally sharp senses muted and dull.

She had been trying to pretend that nothing was wrong, it was easier than facing the truth. Lying to herself and others was so much simpler. Denial kept her going, acceptance would only cause more pain. Her head began to hurt and her vision darkened, the feelings of detachment intensified as her irises shifted color. She suddenly felt energized again, craving a release, she simply needed a reason.

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[Wan snorted at Vergil's request - waiting until just after he left to do so - and started to pull his own shirt off.]

We can dress her in my clothes if he's going to be like that. We should get her cleaned up anyway.

[The fact he immediately jumps to taking his clothes off earns him a briefly disconcerted look, but Raine has other, slightly more pressing concerns. When she's satisfied Valdis is otherwise unharmed, only comatose, she straightens a bit.]

Yes-- there's little else to be done for right now. I'll need to keep an eye on her. That arte is almost certainly the place to start, but I'm missing something...

[Thanks to Vergil's teleportation, its only a handful of minutes after Vergil left that Anton comes through the door, glancing around before focussing on the pair by Valdis's bed.]

Wan. Raine.

[He inclines his head and move toward them, slightly less urgent now it's clearer as to Valdis's status.]

Vergil said there was trouble.

[IT WAS ONLY HIS SHIRT RAINE, GOSH. ;) He wasn't stripping his pants off. ~~though he did consider it~~.]

The darkness that Valdis fights is winning.

[Wan answered as he started to peal Vergil's coat off her so he could slip her arms into the sleeves of his shirt. Her body was still mostly in his lap.]

[~~wan no~~]

[Raine helps Wan handle Valdis' limbs, glancing up only briefly when Anton enters to return the nod. A shame it's not better circumstances.]

She attacked someone and then fell comatose, apparently. I was able to rouse her for a few seconds. She asked for you, I think, or perhaps feared you were dead; it wasn't entirely the common tongue.

I know she's important to you, and we may yet need your influence to reach her.

[When he saw Wan's process Anton regretted that he hadn't thought to bring some spare clothes. He returns Raine's nod.]

Then I am here. Are there blankets? They shall be more useful until the blood has been cleaned, surely.

[There was no point in dressing her in clothes that would only become bloodied as a result of her being dressed.]

Blood getting on my clothes doesn't matter, but Nelo Angelo... Vergil? Whatever he's calling himself, he didn't want his coat getting any more messed up. Besides, when Valdis wakes up again she'll be wearing something familiar.

[And towels made poor shirts.

There may also have been a bit of protectiveness to his actions, the way he held her to his chest even after she was covered properly and all that.]

At least if any of it is hers, she's long since healed it. I can't find any remaining physical trauma.

[Raine points Anton at a far cupboard, anyway, an absent gesture because she's more focused on the problem of Valdis. She sits back on her heels.]

I can try the same thing again, to see if she responds differently with your presence, but I doubt that will actually fix anything in the long term. I need--

[Raine's a little frustrated. She has half the solution, she's sure, but she hasn't the faintest idea where the other half is.]

I don't know what I need.

[Anton doesn't bother to explain to Wan that that isn't the point; it's simply a matter of logistics and ease. Now they'll have to undress her again to clean her. He follows Raine's direction to retrieve a blanket and bring it over.]

Was her sword nearby?

[It was meant to be magical; perhaps that would help. In the meantime ...]

Have you sponges and water?

[They may as well make her more comfortable and less bloodied.]

No. It wasn't. She was in her hound form when I found her and her sword wasn't on her. She can't carry it properly when she's a hound. She's basically naked. That's why we have to put other clothes on her now.

[He babbled a little, feeling responsible for that choice on her part. He'd been the one to convince her she didn't need to give the sword to him, that if something happened, he'd be able to use their connection to bring her away from the darkness. And he'd failed to do so.]

It may be better that it wasn't; it inhibits her regeneration.

[Said absently, though matter-of-factly. Raine frowns, though, as she realizes what she just said and examines that thought closer, more consciously.] I wonder if it would have helped her stop, or if she had it to begin with and misplaced it along the way-- I don't often see her without it. Locating it and testing the effects is a logical next step.

[Oh, right, Anton asked something a little more immediately relevant. Raine indicates both for him as well, and in a moment stands to help.]

[She's oddly grateful for his grounding presence; she usually has her head in a crisis, but Valdis' atypical responses are throwing her off. Thinking aloud, now, though vaguely in Wan's direction:]

Briefly conscious, though perhaps not lucid... I wonder if it's a matter of raw power, or of focus. I don't have a mechanism to target separate parts of a person's mana, but the way you spoke of it makes it sound as if her 'darkness' and this barrier are distinct from the part of her we would think of as Valdis. If that's the case...

[Nope, she still has no idea what piece she's missing to fix this.]

I was Looking for a Breath of Life

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