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 Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 12:36 pm
One moment, Malodore was in Riley's arms, pleading with the bogeymen, a faint hope rising at the look on one officer's face.
The next, searing pain sliced though it, and as the world pinwheeled, its head tumbling down from is severed neck, it felt nothing but agony and betrayal.
And then it was looking up at a familar ceiling. For a moment it just stared, utterly blank - and then memory crashed down on it, and it closed its eyes and shuddered. They'd taken her away - and they'd struck it down to do it.
She was lost.
A moment later the plague doctor was curled into a keening ball, great wracking sobs tearing through its thin frame.
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Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 1:01 pm
To be honest, it was the last one that Cricket had ever expected to reform in her office - especially after their two week stint in the isles of the Horsemen. Even with the news that had flitted about the school within the last couple of hours - small whispers, nothing more. But that a student who should have been in quarantine was now in her infirmary?
That bothered her on a different level.
Cricket sad nothing as she moved to sit on the cot with the sobbing plague doctor, her hand brushing across one of its shoulders in some sort of twisted attempt to be soothing - she wasn't actually all that good at being reassuring. She wasn't a therapist, she was just a healer. Perhaps not all in the way she should have been sometimes.
But she made no motion to stop the sobbing. If Malodore had gotten to that point, Cricket knew enough about her starry-eyed pupil to know that it was warranted and that she'd be better suited to let it have its moment.
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Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 1:19 pm
The sobbing continued for quite some time, until at last the plague doctor drew a shuddering breath, coughed, and fell silent. There was a long pause before it opened its beak again. "Infermiera..."
It closed its eyes for a moment as treacherous tears welled up again. "Infirmiera, she...my Riley, she is gone, and... I have failed as a dottore, she is gone and the plague continues to spread. It took her, the grey, the Insanity... and the bogeymen, they..." One hand went to its neck, where the bandages were severed in a clean line, betraying what had happened to it. "They would not let me try..."
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Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 1:31 pm
She allowed the silence to settle, unbothered by it. She sat in silence as much as she could despite that, so it was not a difference to her whether or not Malodore spoke for some time. Yes, it was emotional vomit, but it had not been so long ago when she had such a case as well. Perhaps not as heart wrenching on the romantic scale, but when somebody was your best friend for years and years......
However, when it did begin to speak again, Cricket seemed to tense up. Gone, her mind flashed to that piece of Red, Plague, was it more of the same? The grey, Insanity. Yes, it sounded as if it was and she didn't like that.
Boogeymen
Cricket frowned as Malodore relayed its tale to her, smoothing her hand over that line of bandages, before she looked to the plague doctor's face. "Have they taken her, then?" she frowned, "The boogeymen, that is." her eyes flickered over to her desk. There was something in there, something not even fully alive after months, and yet it possibly could have helped in finding a solution to the Insanity...
if Riley was kept in one piece, that was.
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Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 1:38 pm
"She... The Insanity took her, and she became.... in the end, she became stone. As the others said happened to Professor Red." It heaved a ragged sigh that caught at the end. "I stayed with her, I told them I needed her, and they... Not a word. Only the cut."
It turned away. "I have failed you, Infermiera. Since Scare..." Its words stuck in its throat and it had to force them free. "Since... the last school dance, I have known of this affliction in her, yet she did not wish me to tell anyone. I did not. I failed her as a mate and as a doctor, and she is gone. I do not know where they took her!"
Its voice rose as it spoke until it nearly shouted the last two words; shuddering, it swallowed and clenched its fists. "M-Mi dispiace..."
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Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 1:47 pm
She continued to listen, ever attentive. Stone, as Red had become. It sounded like the affliction had been in place for some time as well, and as it stood that begged the question: "Was she the only one with her condition?" Thus far, no students had come forward to her to heal this affliction of theirs, so either Riley was the only one or nobody had wanted her to know.
Which was a shame, really. The sooner she had known, the more she could do to help.
"You have not failed until there is no hope for her return. With as little as we know of her condition, it is quite possible that she is still alive inside of that stone. But we will not be sure until I have a chance to see her." She turned her eyes towards the Gymnasium - it always seemed Red's domain would be the place to harbor those returning from their 'trips'.
"Please, tell me all that you know of what happened - since you found out of the affliction. What were her symptoms?"
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Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 1:52 pm
"A-alive..." It felt dizzy for a moment. "I reached for her with my mind and found nothing, but I... I hope you are right," it whispered, unable to summon up too much hope within itself despite her words. "She was... not the only one..."
It looked away for a moment. "I... you will promise me, if I can be so bold... promise me you will not give this to the bogeymen. They took her from me. I will not allow them to take any others." It sounded haunted.
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Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 1:58 pm
"There is always a chance. We do not know the full extent of what Insanity does." In fact, she knew less about it than she would have liked - especially with the knowledge that there were outbreaks of it in their school. Riley was not the only one, and with that, there was a chance to look to another student. Someone with living symptoms and a mind attached to them.
Not a graying ectoplasmic arm in a drawer.
As for who the others might have been, it seemed Malodore was going to protect them from her until it was sure she was not going to turn them over to the boogeymen.
"The Boogeymen are not healers, they will not do the right thing for anybody of this condition. Their job is to protect the public and what I am to do is hindered by their ways. I have no reason to turn the students of his school over to them." Not while she was the one who may have just been the one most capable of saving them given time and the possibility to investigate what she needed to reverse.
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Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 2:08 pm
Malodore nodded, very slowly. "I.... I trust you, Infermiera. It is... Jericho is also afflicted. They share-" It flinched visibly at the tense, then decided not to correct it. "They share a deep mental bond, dragon and rider. I theorized that the... the Hunters infected her and it spread to him through that bond."
It took a deep breath to calm itself. It was reporting on symptoms now, a normal event. It could be professional. "First, mental disruption. Fear, paranoia... homesickness, of a kind. Hearing voices. In the Isles..." It trailed off for a moment. "Many were afflicted. Perhaps all, but I hope it to be temporary. In later stages the flesh becomes grey. It spreads..."
It sighed. "I felt all around me fall to madness, but I did not fall myself. I am certain of this, now. I was within her arms, as she... came to... to protect me and-" It had to look away, as it suddenly felt the absence of her frozen embrace as painfully as a wound. "Perhaps her... sacrifice... saved me?"
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Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 10:38 pm
Jericho...Jericho...Je- Ah! She recalled that boil from a broken leg (she really could have fixed that, sigh.) Still, it was explained that there was some sort of connection between this infected student and Riley that could have perhaps been the link. But that wouldn't have really explained how it had happened in the first place.
Because Riley had to have gotten it from somewhere, and it sure as hell wasn't a FEAR infection.
Cricket took careful note of the symptoms that were laid out to her. "And there weren't any strange ticks? Ways of standing? How they handled use of certain items, words?" It was all important. Even small things like nosebleeds made a difference in telling if something was wrong. Speech would have been the way for her to tell how most students were when they spoke to her.
Because that was all she had to get from them on the surface. Outside of the greying.
"It is possible, but there are many other factors to why you could have been safe from it as well." she confessed, "such as building immunity through exposure." She'd hate to have said Riley had 'sacrificed' herself if there was a chance she was still alive.
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Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 7:35 am
"I... let me think... words, yes. They, both Riley and Jericho, when they were more troubled... they would say we. Rather than I. I had thought it was due to their bond, but I heard the others in the Four..." Another pause. "Where the Horsemen... lived. And they also spoke in the plural. I have, ah, some small measure of empathy, to read emotions, si? And what I felt from the others was as I had said earlier. Distant, responding to stimuli and voices I could not sense." It heaved another sigh, and slumped. "Jericho... let me speak to him first? The paranoia, it is very powerful. I do not want him to distrust me, or you. If Riley is..." It shivered. "Truly.... gone, it will have affected him deeply. The bond they shared would be gone, I think, and the demon mark..." Another reason to see the dragon as soon as it could. And Shehk, Sammy, Israfel, and so many more... it was so tired. It hurt so much. And yet it could not think only of its own suffering.
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Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 8:19 am
Cricket paid careful attention to this new information. Yes, she could likely discern a few students as suspicious from flipping to using 'we' instead of a proper pronoun. Though not immediately so. Something to watch, she guessed.
"All the students should see you before they see me. In fact, I would rather that any examination I do is in here where I can take better notes and have any sort of unusual supply I would not normally take with me on a visit." Which was pretty much her using anything outside of her own FEAR to begin with. But sometimes there were instances where it was needed.
"So yes, speak with them. Then you may send him - and perhaps some of those more mildly inflicted from this incident you've spoken of - to see me. I will examine them further myself." she assured. Though she would have been pained to admit that she actually wasn't sure where she should have been starting with it all herself in making a cure or some sort of therapy to reverse the process.
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Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 8:33 am
Malodore slowly worked its way into a sitting position. "To me, first... si, Infermiera, I will accept this duty." Its voice was still rasping, but it's tone was solemn. "I trust you. I know... I know the Insanity has also touched your life, so... you, too, have a reason to help them. Us." It bowed its head low to her, then winced as the movement made the cut bandages unravel a bit more, exposing some of the undead flesh of its neck.
"There are so... so many people, Riley is.... was..." It swallowed. "Very important to many... and I will not allow the bogeymen to spin some foul lie about her as they did for Professor Red." Its gaze, behind the lenses, grew hard and angry. "They shall hear the truth from my beak, once I have tended to the others..."
As for its own healing, there was no sign. The emotions it had expressed so freely before were shut away.
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Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 9:04 am
The mention of Red caused Cricket to visibly stiffen, a small frown coming across her face. Red, the one that many a student carried a piece of around, yet she herself had no such tokens. Nothing more than a couple of yearbooks and an old photograph that had been on her desk for years. Memories. She had the one thing many students at the school would never have. Memories of a Red that they would never have a chance to meet.
"I would suggest, then, that you attend to such matters quickly. The school again has many witnesses, but the Boogeymen work quickly and if they seek to slander again, they will do it soon." Just as they had for Red - that was a wound she could not forgive them for. They had slandered one of hers and they had slandered one of their own.
Yes, it was business for them, but she still took it just a bit personally.
"Those in Quarantine won't be out until tomorrow, so until then do what you must without them." It may have actually made the Plague Doctor's job easier to have the Boogeymen focusing on the students who had returned, rather than the school entirely.
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Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 9:18 am
"I will slice out their tongues if they try." The response was immediate and forceful; its claws tightened on the edge of the cot.
Then it curled forward with a faint moan. "This did not... such a useless end," it mumbled. "I must rest, I think, first... but my animals, they will need me, and... I cannot remain here, Infermiera." It looked up at her. "Am I... medically sound? To leave? I will return to you, I promise..."
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