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 Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 10:35 pm
Gunn didn’t do any complicated tricks to get them into the building. She took out her key and unlocked the door. “Now shush,” she said, “people’re sleeping.” Of course, Babylon was probably sleeping, too, but Gunn didn’t have cold-weather first aid skills and for some reason Nick tended to hyperventilate around any mention of Avalon even if he couldn’t remember ever meeting her… So, well, he was just going to have to wake up. Frostbite, or frostburn, or whatever the ******** Megiddo had, probably needed fixing before it got… worse… or turned black or something.
It just didn’t look like a fun time.
So they went up to the second floor and Kaatje--because she’d let her guise as Gunn lapse on the way up the stairs--knocked once, and then again a second time, louder.
After a moment, she texted Finn: Got an Avalon-related casualty, come out pls
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Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 10:36 pm
Finn wasn’t exactly sure what to expect from the words Avalon-related casualty. Maybe a disembowelment. When he opened his door, he found Kaatje, followed by Megiddo - he’d gathered she was something like Gunn’s intern, or personal assistant, or maid, maybe. It was too late at night for him to really worry about that. She looked like she’d powered up since the last time he’d encountered her and he’d take time to congratulate her later. Right now, he said, “Power down. We don’t need to draw any extra attention to this place.”
Megiddo scowled at him, but dropped her glamour. Keren Della-Blue’s Horizon Institute uniform looked a little bit rumpled, and she held out her hands to show Finn the angry red marks covering her palms and fingers. “Fix them,” she said, doing her very best to mask how much pain she was in - but s**t, it hurt! It hurt a lot!
“Come in,” Finn said, gesturing for them both to follow him into his living room. He still had moving boxes here and there, but was working on replacing them with actual furniture. “Have a seat at the table,” he said, gesturing to the breakfast nook. “And tell me what you did.”
He dug out his first-aid kit, and then set about waiting for the water in the sink to heat up. Keren didn’t have any cuts, and the lines on her hands formed an unusual pattern…
“Gunn disarmed her and told me to pick up the sword,” said Keren. “And it was cold.”
“Yeah,” said Finn, wringing out some paper towels. “It does that.” He wrapped Keren’s hands in the towels. “We should put out an alert about that sword,” he said to Kaatje. “I mean, it makes sense, knowing Avalon. She wouldn’t want to have an awesome sword if just anyone could pick it up and use it.”
“Am I going to lose my fingers?” asked Keren melodramatically.
“No,” said Finn, rolling his eyes. “You don’t even have any blisters or cuts. We’re going to warm you up and then you’re going to be fine.”
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Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 10:37 pm
Kaatje leaned against the sink, watching everything Finn did because if Avalon was going to be a persistent problem--and Kaat had every reason to believe that she would be, because she had just proven herself to be a canny little b***h--she wanted to know how to fix minor cold problems herself. “Yeah, yeah,” she said distractedly, “Pretty much we do. She’s a smart little c**t, isn’t she?”
She didn’t tell Keren off for whining about the burn-looking s**t. They probably stung like a b***h.
“I interrupted what looked like a very sincere attempt to kill Keren here. I disarmed her, and Keren hit her hard enough to drop her. Avalon played dead long enough for me to be convinced and that let her get away,” said Kaatje. “She’s probably concussed at least, though. We won’t be seeing her for a few days. We could probably check hospitals if we wanted to find her and get rid of her. Keren’s pitcher makes a pretty distinctive dent.”
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Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 10:51 pm
“Yeah,” said Finn, checking Keren’s hands under the towels. She was looking better already - if he had to guess, he’d say she hadn’t touched the sword for very long. “I’ve told you we used to be friends, right?”
Keren scowled at him. “You were friends with that psychobitch? I’d hate to see your taste in enemies.”
Finn dropped the towel back onto her fingers, letting go of her hands. “She used to be a knight, like you or me,” he said. “So cool your heels and calm down. I’m doing you a favor right now. Anyway,” he continued, joining Kaatje in leaning on the kitchen counter, “She was always one of the smartest people I knew. The negaverse just took away everything that used to temper that, all of her compassion. She’s just cold and focused now.”
“I have a final in the morning,” he said. “If you want to drag your sidekick out on a wild goose chase, that’s your call to make, but believe me when I say - she’ll be recuperating at home, or in the safe embrace of the Negaverse. She’s too smart to go to the hospital.”
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Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 10:54 pm
“Actually, I think… wait, yeah.” Before she’d dropped Babylon and Spinel off on her comet. Wait, Spinel was Oenone now… did she have to retroactively call him that when he’d been Spinel at the time? Purification was too damn complicated. It was easier to just kill people. But, uh, if they wanted to purify, she guessed… ugh, bluh.
She crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head. “No, I trust you on that. If you say she’s too smart, she’s too smart.” If nothing else, she could rely on Babylon for three things: purification, knight s**t, and Avalon. Maybe also first aid. She could do self aid and buddy care, but that didn’t cover frostbite and s**t. Just like, suppurating wounds and gas poisoning.
“Keren, do you really think Avalon is a mineral name,” she asked. It was a rhetorical question. “I don’t think Finn would be all about the befriending Negaversers anyway.” With Spinel being all the exceptions she knew of.
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Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 10:55 pm
Finn wasn’t going to say anything about Zippeite if Keren wasn’t, and the girl was currently staring sourly at the floorboards, thoroughly cowed. “She’ll be fine,” he said, gesturing to her. “Avalon’s sword just causes frostnip from what I’ve seen. It’d be worse if she’d actually tried to fight with it, but just picking it up’s not going to do any lasting damage.” Nick’s hand had healed cleanly, and that had been from the blade end.
“Send her home, we’ll all spread the word about the ******** magical sword, and then you and I can knock our heads together about how to take Avalon out,” he added, inclining his head towards Kaatje. “Last I heard, she’s still got a great big ******** bounty on my head and I’m not keen spending the rest of my life trying to keep people from collecting on it.”
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Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 10:56 pm
“Good,” said Kaatje. She crossed the room to put a maternal hand on Keren’s shoulder. “I’m getting kind of attached to her. Don’t want her to get broken.” Which was as close as Kaat was gonna get to admitting that she liked Keren, a thing that hadn’t changed from her time in the Blood Moon Court. “I’m going to probably take her home myself, though,” said Kaat, narrowing her eyes at the darkness outside the window. “On account of she’s got the Europa death wish problem. You’ll be around tomorrow after your final?”
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Posted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 10:59 pm
Finn was not going to ask about what the Europa Death Wish Problem was - he hadn’t heard the story, and Megiddo didn’t seem the type to be sucking face with Negaversers, so he couldn’t really fathom what it might be. “I’ve got work from noon until five,” he said, showing the two girls to the door. “I’ll be around after that. Come by any time, we can order dinner.”
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