tushanshu_logs | I don't Wanna Battle from Beginning to End

Valdis took those ten minutes to get dressed, carefully avoiding aggravating the wound on her arm as she pulled the arm of her vest over it. Anani curled around her legs, purring madly, pleased with himself for warning her.

"I'll get you some fish later," she told him, heading down the stairs as she sensed the vampire approaching. She reached the bottom of the stairs just before he knocked, her cat racing ahead of her to rear up and look out the side window, releasing a louder mew to confirm safety, or as least she liked to think the cat had that much intelligence.

Valdis opened the door, "Remind me to never challenge you to a race."

The vampire arched an eyebrow at her, a wry smile tugging at the corners of his mouth despite the coppery tang of blood in the air when Valdis opened the door. "My speed does have some advantages," he concurred, and stepped inside so they weren't letting the chill in with him.

"What happened?" he wanted to know, gesturing to the improvised bandaged on her arm.

She shut the door after he stepped inside. The warmth of the house seemed to keep the fog at bay thus far, though with it invading the rest of the city, she wondered if it was only a matter of time.

"Someone I killed tried to return the favor," Valdis replied.

Anani mewed again, rubbing up against Devin's leg, not wanting to be ignored.

"He might have succeeded if not for my fearless cat here."

Devin studied her for a moment. Thus far, only Genesis had been able to inflict long-term damage on her that she couldn't immediately heal (and Revelations, he presumed, since it was a similar blade).

"A guard cat," he said dryly to Anani. "Well, I suppose there's a first time for everything." The vampire headed for her kitchen and set the kit on the table. "Let me take a look at that."

Anani trotted off after Devin, jumping onto the table before the vampire set the kit down and sitting with his tail curled over his paws to observe. Valdis followed Devin into the kitchen, ignoring her irritation at herself for the near disaster.

"I'm no expert," she said as she pulled out a chair to sit herself and delicately untied the rough bandage, "But this might be a task for an actual healer."

The wound wasn't shallow, and without the bandage holding the edges together, it had begun to bleed again, not terribly, but enough that she knew it would take time to heal. She didn't know how humans could withstand such things. It stung, but at least the cut hadn't been deeper and Anani had woken her in time to avoid something much worse.

"If you wanted a healer, you'd have gone to the Guild immediately," Devin replied mildly. "And luckily for you, I have enough experience tending to these kinds of injuries that I could be a medic. I've become adept at patching myself up, and that's easy enough to apply to others."

The cut appeared to be fairly deep, but it had missed major blood vessels. The fact that it was still bleeding was concerning, although part of that could be attributed to the fact that it looked to have been caused by a sharp blade.

He pulled clean bandages out of the kit, pressing one to the wound and lifting her arm up above her heart. "Keep pressure on that and leave your arm raised for now," Devin instructed, extracting a few more supplies and laying them out. "You're not prone to infections, I'm assuming, but that's going to need stitching unless you make sure to get some magical intervention in the next few hours."

She might have argued, but she really had no idea how to deal with an injury that didn't heal. The pain was more an annoyance for now, but she hoped it wouldn't linger at the same level for long. Her ignorance when it came to treating her own injuries was of more annoyance for now, but she kept her arm raised and placed her other hand over the bandage to keep pressure on it.

"This is a minor irritation," she replied, "nothing life threatening, the Healers Guild has larger issues at hand. If you can stitch it, then by all means."

"I should have known you would have allies." Came the chilling and familiar voice.

Anani arched his back, hissing loudly at the specter who appeared behind them.

Before Devin had even heard the words, the hair on the back of his neck had stood up in warning, even if his senses had never been honed for ghosts. This was something beyond his normal perception. Instinct took over, and he reached for one of the daggers he'd taken to carrying around with him instead of picking up the sutures.

When the vampire spun to face where the voice had come from, however, he was holding the Genesis dagger - not the one he would have consciously chosen. His skin crawled, the flame in him brightening and dancing in agitation.

"Well, aren't we rude," he said dryly.

Raphael's gaze drifted from Valdis to Devin, cold and calculating. Valdis almost rose, but the sight of the Genesis shard in Devin's hand kept her from interfering.

"It seems my ability to affect this world is limited," Raphael allowed, watching the dagger in Devin's Hand. "Tis a pity I could not end it in one shot as I meant to. Prolonging suffering is not in my nature."

Valdis shifted her sight to the soul plane, watching her father light up in a way that shouldn't have been possible, but Devin's fire looked strange too. More active, more present, than usual.

"Begone, Raphael." She growled.

"My job here is not finished."

Raphael. And Devin was holding the remains of the blade that belonged to him. Brilliant.

"You do not have a job here in the first place," he disagreed. "But if you insist on attacking again like the idiot that you apparently are, then keep this in mind: when you're capable of affecting this world, this world is also capable of affecting you, and I'm something of an expert at killing what's already dead."

Not in this context, of course, but he was not having with vengeful ghosts. He wondered, distantly, if the aspect could help him here, but it was dormant.

"Do yourself a favor and go back to wherever you came from. This fight has been over for a very long time."

"My quarrel is not with you." Raphael replied mildly, recognition finally flitting through his eyes. "Though it seems the sword is not the only suitable weapon around for said quarrel."

Valdis said nothing, though she did consider lowering her arm to a defensive stance. Anani stopped hissing, but the cat still appeared agitated. Raphael tore his gaze away from the dagger and looked at her again.

"Hiding behind a man? The archangel questioned, "The queen I knew wouldn't show such weakness."

"I'm trying a new strategy." Valdis countered, "Besides, right now, all you are is talk."

"For now..."

"You're here and you're threatening someone I have responsibility to. That makes your quarrel with me," Devin said flatly. "And correct me if I'm wrong, but queens have pawns for a reason."

Certainly, he'd let Valdis fight her battles if she wanted to, but two against one wasn't bad odds. He'd generally prefer she stay alive, although that had more of a powerful draw than it usually did.

Valdis looked at Devin, eyes narrowed at his comment, surprised by his words, and even more by the accompanying resolve behind them.

"Responsibility? Raphael asked, eyes moving back to Devin,
"And it is my responsibility to end this creature. Pawn or not, I'd prefer to avoid extraneous casualties."

"Devin," Valdis said, lowering her arm to rest it on the table, "I'd like you to meet the Archangel Raphael, my father."

Raphael looked at her, and for a moment she though he looked sad, but his eyes quickly filled with anger.

"Your luck won't last forever."

Ah. Those were some puzzle pieces he hadn't put together before. He studied Raphael like he was an incredibly fascinating insect.

"This has very little to do with luck, archangel." Liquid electricity crawled down his spine as the aspect flared again, and the vampire stepped towards their unwelcome visitor. "Your responsibility ended with your life. If you want your afterlife to continue, get out."

Raphael didn't move, though Valdis rose after a moment's hesitation, still holding the bandage to the cut. She didn't know why Devin felt so on edge, the minor irritation of her father shouldn't have affected him like this.

"You are not what you seem." Raphael almost seemed surprised, but in the next moment, he began to fade from view.

"And that," Valdis said after her father had gone, "Is why I called you."

She sat back down, lifting her arm again.

"He's not so much a problem when he can't move Revelations, but when he can...well, my poor mattress can speak to that."

It took a few seconds after Raphael disappeared, but Devin relaxed enough to put away the Genesis dagger. He spared it an almost confused glance before returning it to a sheath under his jacket.

"I can see where the problem is, yes," he agreed, returning to the table. He picked up some gauze and poured some antiseptic on it, relying on the familiar nature of the actions to steady his mind. "I haven't heard of them being able to physically interact with us before," Devin continued, frowning. If his family came back, he was in trouble. "This is going to sting," he warned her, before moving the bandage to clean around her wound.

Valdis watched Devin, concerned by how he looked at the dagger, by how he had acted around Raphael. Her lip twitched at the sharp scent of the anti-septic, and she took a breath when he moved the bandage and began to tend to the wound. It stung, drawing a short hiss, but the pain wasn't unbearable.

"I hadn't either," she said, trying to focus on something other than the sting, "So you can probably imagine my surprise."

She wanted to ask him about the aspect, but there didn't seem a way to work it in tactfully.

"You were...very on edge around Raphael." She commented, "More so than was warranted."

Devin exhaled slowly, reaching for the sutures. He didn't speak again until he'd threaded the needle. The kit had a topical numbing agent, but nothing designed for subdermal. Valdis had probably dealt with worse than getting sewn up.

"I did tell you that you would not be the only one the changes in the planes would affect," he reminded her. "It's been happening for a few days. Try not to move much, this won't take long."

That was true, he had told her to be on alert for how the heightened activity of the planes might affect others, she simply hadn't expected it to affect him. She took a breath, knowing that stitches would probably be unpleasant, but she recalled him saying he had lots of practice in a previous conversation, so hopefully they would at least look pretty.

"You did," she agreed, "I suppose I'm simply confused as to how it would make you more... protective, I guess." She looked away from him, away from the where the stitching would take place, a very human thing to do, but she couldn't help it. "Mine make me more likely to murder people, so I guess that's more along the lines of what I was expecting."

It would, at the very least, heal neatly if she didn't seek magical assistance for it (or if that would even work). He started on the sutures, working carefully but efficiently.

"I didn't anticipate that either, if I'm being perfectly honest. Perhaps he and the version of Raphael from my world weren't on good terms," Devin replied. "I've never been told much about him, for reasons that haven't been adequately explained. I do know that he's not meant to be accessible."

Valdis never imagined she'd end up sitting patiently while someone else tended to an injury in such a mortal manner. The smooth needlework pinched every so often, but otherwise didn't bother her much, she was too busy thinking about the aspect for the discomfort to take her attention.

"He might not be meant to be accessible," she said absently, "But that doesn't mean he isn't...I once spoke to someone imprisoned inside of his own mind. True, he tried to kill me later, but that seems to be how most of my friendships begin."

Valdis was proving a model patient as far as the stitches went. He arched an eyebrow at her. That was an odd way of making friends.

"I'm led to believe he's not especially murderous," Devin hedged, talking around Abaddon's abilities. Angel of Death, yes, but random acts of killing weren't his purpose. "How did you manage to speak with someone trapped like that?"

Valdis winced at a particularly sharp pinch, but she didn't jerk away. Devin's interest in the mechanics of her conversation with Vergil was a welcome distraction.

"It's an ability I discovered under some fairly intense circumstance, but after some practice, I found I could walk in the soul planes of others. Essentially, I send my soul into a place where I can converse with the soul itself. Interact with memories, speak with other entities...It's not particularly dangerous as long as I follow the rules." She laughed, "Discovering those rules has been somewhat interesting though."

Vergil had only been the first step.

"You continue to have unseen depths, Lady Valdis," he commented wryly. He could admit to being curious about the ability, but was simultaneously wary. Some secrets were meant to stay that way - but if they were going to unravel regardless, perhaps it would be better if Devin knew what to expect.

"The limits of any new ability have to be understood in order to use it to it's fullest extent. What kind of rules are there?"

"When you're as old as I am, you tend to have many faces and just as many, if not more, secrets."

She sighed, "Let's see...The most obvious one is that my physical body is defenseless while I'm soul walking. The next one is the longer I stay, the harder it is to actually maintain the connection between my soul and physical form. Another is that I can affect magic contained within the soul plane, but there are consequences to it. When I tried to release Vergil, the physical strain almost killed me and the magic ended up being too strong to affect permanently anyway." A short pause, "I can relive memories, but only the ones presented by the person whose soul I'm in, though I've never tried to sift through on my own, I'm not sure it would go well. If the person's soul plane rejects me, well, I'm not sure trying to stay would go over well."

She winced again, and again resisted the urge to jerk her arm away. He had to be almost done, or perhaps it just seemed like it was taking forever, time didn't seem to be moving right.

"Oh, I also can't do it over long distances, there has to be physical contact to stabilize the ability."

Edited 2017-11-07 01:33 (UTC)

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