[EVENT | FOURTH WALL] THE DREAMING'S FLATULENCE | APRIL 15-30

[ironwood]

Characters: ALL and plus ones. (Yes, fourth-wall characters, that means you.)
Date: April 15-30 2016 (2017 in-game)
Location: Mod-posted comment starters are for the immediate aftermath of the odd explosion which starts the event, but this log can also be used for anywhere in the setting anytime between April 15-30.
Situation: The College went BOOM. Weird people began appearing randomly in the city. After that, other buildings went BOOM even though nothing actually exploded besides the College. After that, scattered buildings developed spontaneous structural damage overnight. Could these events be related? You be the judge.
Warnings/Rating: Add warnings in subject headers as needed.

The morning of April 15th dawns cold, but clear. There isn't a cloud in the sky, the sun's barely risen, and in general the kedan are going about their daily lives - opening shops, heading to work, leading kirin through the city streets. In particular, there's a small but steady stream of people moving in and out of the College.

Then, without warning, a section of the College implodes.

During the following few days, an influx of strange Foreigners appear, seemingly dropped randomly by the Dreaming throughout Keeliai. Someone might end up in a canal, or on a rooftop. Someone else might find themselves flying through the air to land heavily in a disused alley. Someone might wake up in the corner of a kirin stable. A few might even land in Hatal on the mainland, and feel a curious draw leading them back towards the turtle. They arrive in the same unexpected manner as normal Foreigners; the only differences are the sheer amount of people arriving at once, and that none of the newcomers seem to possess any soul gems.

Also during the next few days, kedan and Foreigner alike might be startled by an exact replica of that thunderous boom from the College explosion echoing around Keeliai. This only occurs for about a week, but it occurs regularly, and the source of these strange echoes is impossible to trace.

Once the explosion echoes stop, investigators might notice that specific and exact sections of structural damage from the College appear on other buildings in Keeliai without any obvious cause. These cases of spontaneous long-term damage continue all the way through until April 30th.

Apart from those disruptions, life on the turtle is generally normal for the next two weeks - or as normal as it's possible for life to be when one lives on the back of a turtle where the most powerful gang makes the rules. No one can say for sure exactly when the strange Foreigners vanish again. Some will swear they all vanished at once; others will be equally sure they disappeared one by one over several days. One thing's for sure, however -- by the time April 30th draws to a close, not one of the strange Foreigners is left in Keeliai.

---

LINKS
The College | The Echoes | The Structural Damage | OOC Information post | Fourth-Wall Character Check-In

OOC
The top-level comments are for the explosion and its aftermath, but fourth-wall characters should feel free to use the rest of the post for anything within the setting! Just remember to label the top-level comment for location and date. You can also add more fourth-wall characters throughout the event at the character check-in, linked above. Please direct any questions to the OOC post.

Fourth-wall characters are also free to tag into player-posted logs and console/radio posts dated between April 15th and 30th! A quick reminder that fourth-wall characters will not have soul jewelry, and will not be able to create their own network posts or logs.

Comments

[vexingshieldbearer]

It is an English accent. Dexter hopes it doesn't belong to anyone who'd recognise him, or, God forbid, know that he was in one of the US Sanctuary's outposts only a few months ago. England and the US had been pretty tight back then.

Going suddenly from down there to up here is almost more than Dexter sense of consciousness can handle, even as gently as the corpsmen move. Corps ... people? What's the politically correct word there?

Events after that are a bit hazy, right up until Dexter feels the warmth of magical healing in his chest. He's abruptly brought out of his half-daze of dyingness by his lungs, no longer quite so ragged, catching on what isn't meant to be in there after all. Explosively he coughs, and chokes, and gasps for air as his body tries to expel what had seeped in where it shouldn't.

Turns out Fletcher is right. Healing doesn't remove fluid from the lungs.

[holbydelboy]

Lucky for Dexter, Fletch is used to spending his nights in an Emergency Department, so is quick with a bowl for him to cough up into. A hand is on his back, rubbing it.

"There we go, big fella. Cough it up."

[vexingshieldbearer]

Big fella. Big fella. If Dexter could at all breathe right now, he'd make an ill-advised quip about being hit on by an Englishman that would impress Donegan. Because Donegan's an Englishman, and probably around here ... somewhere ... getting killed for the sake of world-wide liberty ... way to make Dex feel bad, doctor-person.

Dexter is not terribly coherent right now.

The back-rub is kind of soothing though, so there's that.

It takes some time but eventually, after the gagging and the hacking and the spitting up various ickiness, Dexter manages to catch his breath and sink back down on whatever's he's lying on. His chest feels like it's on fire. Isn't it supposed to hurt more when you're closer to death and less when you're being healed? He has objections about the process of things as they stand.

"Where--?" he whispers croakily without even opening his eyes. It's all he can manage, but it pretty much encapsulates all his questions.

Is he still--where was he? Wherever the fight with Darquesse was happening. Or is he back in England? In a camp somewhere? Slated to be thrown in a cell?

[holbydelboy]

The thing he settles back onto is one of the beds in the emergency ward of the Healer's Guild. It's quite firm, but still rather comfortable for a hospital bed, if firmness is what you like.

"Here." The voice says, again, and Dex will feel a wad of tissue-like paper being pressed into a hand. "As for where you are? That's... A little hard to explain, mate."

[vexingshieldbearer]

It's a surprise, and Dexter's hand jerks before he realises what it is, and also how kittenish he feels. Like a wet noodle. Like Sabrina when she used to flop on his lap all bonelessly, only he isn't doing it by choice.

It also takes him a moment to realise what he's meant to do with the tissue, but then brings it up to wipe at his mouth, turned half into the pillow because rolling over is too much effort.

But it gives him the chance to figure out whether he can speak some more. His throat's burning and he could really use a drink, but he figures he can also manage a couple of words. This time, he opens his eyes, turning his head so he can search, blearily, for his English benefactor. "M'I dead?"

Well, if it's difficult to explain ... what were the odds he managed to die slowly enough to actually get rescued? How healed is he? The hand clutching the tissue moves to press probingly against his chest with some degree of field-medic experience.

[holbydelboy]

Again, Fletch has your back, Dex. Nursing for so long, he knows people generally want water after coughing and throwing up stuff. A glass is poured and placed nearby in Dex's field of view, Fletch stood off to the left of him.

"No, you're not dead. I wouldn't worry about that." He shifts, pulling a chair over and sitting down. "You're in a place called Keelial... It's not where you were. Somewhere different..." He laughs, nervously. "I barely understand it myself."

[vexingshieldbearer]

What a wonderful, perfect, incredible, amazing mysterious nurse guy. Dexter eyes the glass and gingerly pushes himself upright, reaching out with a shaking hand. He manages to touch the glass and comes to the conclusion that holding it is probably not going to happen without water and glass going everywhere.

Especially with that bombshell that makes him try to snap upright. He doesn't even make it off the bed, luckily, but it's still a burst of adrenaline that gets him to a sitting position, even if the ward does swirl dizzyingly around him afterward.

His chest hurts too, but he isn't sure if that's because of a lingering injury or just because his lungs feel like they've been through a cheese-grater from all the coughing.

"Shunted? Where? Which dimension?"

Damn it. Who did it? One of the Children, one of their allies?

[holbydelboy]

"Hey-!" And a hand gets placed on Dex's chest, pushing just enough to be a warning. "Woah, there, mate. Hang about... Don't go ruining what the healers've done, alright?"

And from what this guy's saying, he knows a good deal more about different dimensions than Fletch... At least he isn't trying to talk to someone who's clueless... Like he was when he first got here.

"I don't know who they are, but we're brought here by some magic spell that was cast by an Emperor ages ago. We're not needed, but the spell's kinda broken, so it keeps dragging people here." He pauses. "When you go home, you'll go back to the exact point you left, or so I've been told."

Best to be honest, right?

[vexingshieldbearer]

Right. Right, ruining healing wounds is probably not a good idea. Dexter obeys the hand on his chest and doesn't try to stand. "Shunting spell," Dexter repeats, and hangs his head to huff out a hoarse chuckle. He consciously stifles anything more than that, though. At least he can think through numbness.

Like about the fact that he'll go back to dying.

Dying in a world where most of his brothers were already dead. Or worse. Not exactly much to live for, there. Maybe dying in his world just means he'd find the others again, after.

"I can live with that," he says, lifted his head with a twisted smile. The words catch in his dry throat, so he reaches for the glass again, and htough his hands don't precisely feel steady, with the both of them he manages to bring the glass up so he can drink. He maybe spills a bit, but eh. His shirt is already probably beyond saving.

"So who's my saviour, then?" he asks between sips, eyeing Fletcher for a nametag.

[holbydelboy]

A nametag he does have. Above his left breast is a white badge that says "Adrian Fletcher", and the printed badge has "Holby City Hospital" and "NHS Foundation Trust." Not a native, for sure.

"Nurse Fletcher. Call me Fletch." He replies automatically, hands still on the cup so the guy can drink. "I'm the nurse in charge of... well, just about everything considering I'm the only nurse at the moment."

He removes the cup once it seems Dexter has drank enough.

"I'm not from here, either." He replies. "So, let me welcome you to Keelial."

[vexingshieldbearer]

The name makes Dexter flinch, and the glass nearly upends; if it isn't for--Nurse Fletch's--hand on it, it would have.

Dexter almost wonders how Fletcher is doing, the Fletcher he knows, from back home, a young man--boy, almost; English, too--shoved into spotlights and danger and war and "Renn! Bug out!"

The cup vanishes without Dexter really being aware of it, but he answers automatically. "Thanks. When can I get out of here?"

He means, When can I get out of the ward?, but it maybe doesn't come out like that.

[holbydelboy]

"The guild, or Keelial? Cos the latter will be a bit hard."

He's noticed that flinch, there, Dex, and he's giving you a questioning look.

"Bad memories?"

[vexingshieldbearer]

"Kid named Fletcher in my unit," said Dexter automatically again, because filtering the memories with a response was easier then trying to throttle the lot. "War's on. Don't know what's happened to him."

It was enough of a controlled outlet that the bad memories sailed on by and Dexter took another, steadier breath. "The Guild. If I tried to walk out, would I regret it?"

Would it stop him? Probably not.

[holbydelboy]

"Oh." A pause. "I'm sorry." A hand goes to his shoulder, because what else can you really say? Fletch sounds like he means it, though.

"Right now? I guarantee it. In 24 hours, after I've kept you under observation, maybe not."