Three Arguments
Log Info
- Title: Three Arguments
- Emitter: Cryosanthia
- Characters: Cryosanthia, Seyardu, Zeke, Sabina, Aya, Braelnoir
- Place: A03: The TarRaCe
- Time: Tuesday, September 14, 2021, 4:34 PM
- Summary: Lily is dead. Cryosanthia is comatose, collapsing after attack on Braelnoir. She is carried back to her bed and the tension is very high. All are injured by things she said, did, or didn't respond to. Zeke and Braelnoir immediately clash in their concern for her. Aya slips out, she'd be more fuel to the fire. Sabina is angry and Seyardu is feeling helpless. The three healers confer, it seems Cryosanthia is badly scarred from channeling the Sea of Mana, and needs both an anti-magic treatment followed by some magical restorations. Her wing and tail do not look like they'll recover naturally. She is generating a new layer of scales, which then gets slowly consumed by the magical energy she is oversaturated with. Despite this, and perhaps to halt the arguing, Cryo pulls Braelnoir close, entrusting her with a mission despite having been trying to kill her moments earlier. 'Junior, my lair, only you'. Braelnoir will understand. The TarRaCe is not a hospital, and despite Sabina's reluctance, she agrees Cryo would be better off in the Temple of Daues, and they move her there.
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-<* The TarRaCe *>--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-
Inside, this two-story structure has been almost completely opened up. Generous windows on both stories allow daytime sunlight and cooling night breezes to flow in as needed, while the brick walls have been whitewashed - contrasting with the dark-stained beams and supports, and the rich polish on the wooden floor. A broad strip of stone runs from the entrance to a framed doorway set into the opposite wall, with a sign above the lintel declaring that the baths are to be found that way.
The ground floor is sprinkled with tables and chairs of assorted sizes, offering welcome to guests both large and small. One whole corner of the building - into which guests are not permitted entry - has been given over to the kitchen, which serves as the domain of the famed monster chef Ligum Serforus. Mundane meals are available, but the chef delights in offering up obscure dishes made from the freshest of monster ingredients.
Opposite the kitchen a small bar runs in front of an array of shelves, displaying a broad selection of beverages (most of them alcoholic). The bar-top has been fashioned from what looks to have been old pieces of armor, fused and welded together before being polished to provide a near-smooth finish. Set above it, three human-sized statues have been built into an alcove in the wall: Tarien, Rada and Ceinara jointly keep benevolent watch over the room and its occupants.
To the right of the entrance, a small stage offers a platform for a handful of performers at a time. To the left of the door, a spiral staircase of wrought iron winds its way up to a balcony dining area, that is chiefly reserved for special events and parties.
-=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=-
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Appearing, in Order -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Cryosanthia 7'2" 391 Lb Dragon Female Sickly, tattered grey-scales, with a crippled wing and tail. Seyardu 5'6" 150 Lb Sith-Makar Female A friendly silver sith-makar with a perpetual squint. Zeke 6'8" 239 Lb Sith-Makar Male A blue-scaled sith-makar in white Daeus vestments. Sabina 5'4" 130 Lb Human Female Tsuran woman of dark hair and green eyes. Aya 4'7" 105 Lb Shadow Elf Female Mul'niessa. Braided hair. Simple clothing. Braelnoir 5'11" 146 Lb Human Female A tall, pale Acanian woman, branded in silver. -=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--= -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= As the GM =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Cryosanthia 6'9" 291 Lb Sith-Makar Female A dashingly tall, elegant white-scaled lizard woman. -=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=
"There's something I have to get first."
Rest.
Regardless of her very strong intentions, Cryo's body makes that decision for her. She wasn't in a fighting condition, to say nothing of acrobatics, and the effort has left her frayed.
Grey, papery scales are everywhere. The roughly torn molt layers make her look fluffy, covered in tassels. There are cracks in her tail and wing, the glow brighter there.
The adrenaline drop comes hard. Cryo sways, fighting to remain standing and staring at a clean spot. Why is it clean? How is it clean? The ruination is everywhere.
"Can you...?" She moves, as if to reach with her right front talon, then changes her mind. She snakes her head around, like a bird preening, to tug on her dead wing. "Can you..." break it, pull it off, make it stop hurting. "Can you...?" She's struggling, the upper arm in her mouth, "... fold it.. it's..."
- "... it's..."
She crashlands in the blood.
Seyardu was still in shock. Over every action that had taken place. Everything that had been said.
Braelnoir stops.
Cryosanthia stops.
What happened is brought back to Seyardu's mind. and Cryosanthia crashes to the floor.
It's enough to pull her out of whatever world she was in. "Brae, you okay now?" she asks, already beginning the process of lifting the much larger Makari up, intent on bringing her to the bed. "I'm sorry."
It's enough to bring Zeke back. No one is dead - yet - and he has someone to attend to. He makes his way to Cryosanthia and begins to lift her into his arms. He's not the strongest sith-makar ever born, but he is a healer and they know special ways of carrying people so that he can manage even with Cryosanthia being larger than him. Even with her changed form. He says nothing. Just... moves her back to the room.
Bina's face had been going on to something like anger but when Cryo falls down her eyes go wide and then she sighs. "We have water and a rag, yes? We need another set and a broom." She waits until Cryo is taken inside the room before stepping to the balcony and gets the attention of a server. "Broom and water up here. Floor needs help. And a tray of something to eat and tea, please." She says as calmly as she can while the onlookers still look up where all the yelling and fighting was. She then heads back into the room with the others.
While Aya vanished from the hall, she did not venture so far. Near enough to still hear the commotion, just not be slapped (or clawed) in the face by it. Also, conveniently, there is a wondrous selection of alcoholic beverages on the main floor! She may have sampled one or twelve.
She is not serving staff, but there is no reason that she cannot assist. Despite the allure, she cannot sit and drink the time (or other things) away. Neither can she simply sit.
Thus she rises to head for the stairs. En route, a tray of food is commandeered. Whomever it was original for, it is now for upstairs. Sabina asked for it, afterall. If that is not enough, they can send Aya the bill.
The fight isn't over until...
Until one of them collapses.
It's over... again.
With Cryosanthia's fall, Brae's grip on her weapon slackens, and there's a slow blink, a deep breath.
A question.
Her eyes snap open as she stands the weapon against the wall and steps toward the unconscious palescale, face still streaked with tears, though her expression is the sunny side of dead.
While not a medic, she was a soldier, and she often had to carry her brothers and sisters in the Stride off the field, and so the Korite moves to take up position to help with the extraneous limbs as the group moves.
The palescale is a limp weight, one Zeke can manage. One he's had to carry many times. With Seyardu's help, and Braelnoir tucking the extra limbs close, Cryo is easily transferred to the bed. She's warmer, not as much as her normal, but no longer freezing. The room is no longer darkened. There's motion in her arms, as if she's swimming, with her left talon-hand she brushes at the air in Braelnoir's direction.
Intentional, or part of the carry? It's not clear. A reach, an attack, random gesture, it soon stops. Laid on the bed, Cryo can be positioned as necessary.
She's breathing more, toes grip the sheet beneath her.
Seyardu defers to the other picking Cryosanthia up. She helps how she is able, getting her into the room. "Onto her stomach." Seyardu advises. "We need to tend to her wing and tail, and the rest of the burnt scales. I, I just need a moment."
Seyardu turns to the korite who had helped carry Cryo in. and she pulls her into a hug. The silverscale was trembling.
"Thank you, Brae, for stopping. I don't want to see either of you hurt." She says quietly.
Zeke sees to Cryosanthia first and foremost, but when Braelnoir offers to help, he growls at her irritably. Says nothing, but her presence is clearly not a welcome one to him at this moment. Only once Cryosanthia is settled does he turn to the room. Turn to all of those standing there and look at them. His eyes fall finally on Braelnoir and Seyardu and he shakes his head. "Thisss one thinksss it wisse if you leave."
This is clearly meant for Braelnoir, and while Seyardu has offered words of forgivness, there is none of that gentleness in Zeke's gaze. "It isss not good for Cryosssanthia that sshe attacked you, and if sshe doesss so again it will only do her more harm." He lowers himself to sit at Cryosanthia's bedside, between those in the room and her.
It may have been meant for the merc, but the Mul takes it as for her as well. Aya understands the ferocity of the Makar, she can forgive her friend and her friend's mate, but she doesn't have to endure it. The best way she can help now is leave. So she does.
The swipe from Cryo's claw, if it's noticed, doesn't register in the mercenary's face, though the growl draws her wolflike eyes Zeke's way and her angle of approach shifts a tiny bit.
It's after her sister is set in place, as she's turning away, that she is taken into the silverscale's arms.
The warrior's momentum is soaked by the larger woman's frame, and her trembling sets some flutter to the limp dangle of the normally vivacious Korite's arms.
Zekes words, however, seem to infuse them with iron, and a low rumble starts in her throat as she tries to push the silver Sith from her, returning at length a low rumble from her own throat, and the amber gaze she locks on him is threaded in gold, "Anyone'n this room's gonna tell me ta leave won't be -you-."
There's a look throw to the others, and she turns to approach one of the walls to wait.
Despair.
She smells of it. The scent unmistakable, strong and dominating the room, worrying to her scale-kin, oppressive. She sounds of it. There is a quiet keening, one the blue-scale has heard from her before, one the silver-scale knows. The sound of a mother's grief. A call for younglings, low and whining, because they will never answer again. It goes on.
"Don't..." There are loud words, washing over her like waves. There's anger, she also still has that, though despair has it pinned. Hers vibrate with emotion. Her eyes remain closed. Cryo pleads, "... don't leave... me..."
Seyardu was shoved away, and she stepped back, hanging her head and sighing at everything being said. Her heart sinks. She stepped back to the other side of the bed. where her rags and water had been left in the prior rush. taking a new clean cloth, she soaks and gently dabs at the base of the damaged wing.
"We are here, Cryosanthia." Seyardu says, pausing to reach and take one of her hands while she continues. There was much from her. grief, sadness, despair, but it was muted, as she tried to squash it. At the keening, there is a returned rumble of presence.
Zeke growls at Braelnoir, eyes narrowed on her unwelcome form. Yet Cryosanthia is his focus so he turns his eyes on her. On creating a calming scent for her, on touching her head gently and reassuring her that he is here. He has nothing to say to anyone else for the moment. He only thrums for his cihuaa.
Bina returns with the tray Aya was going to deliver. She nodded to Aya in thanks but takes it back down after noting the room's discord. Downstairs she speaks with her lucht chefs and quickly returns with a varied spread of fruits, meats and cheeses. A large pot of tea steeps and a good number of cups is to be had.
Around her wafts the strong scent of roses and something spicey as well, coming from the teapot. She enters the small room and sets the tray down. "Tea and food. The tea should settle the nerves. I ask that we all have some."
Braelnoir, meanwhile, is her own unique pheremonal blend of mammalian anguish and draconian rage as she maintains her position at the wall the keening plea of her sister setting her emotions to boiling against each other, and the Korites arms fold about each other.
Zeke's growl shifts the balance again, and a subtle gleaming stipple dots patches of her skin, "Don't..."
There's a look to Seyardu, some kind of conciliation should probably happen once she is... near her right mind, when Sabina returns with an offer of tea.
"N'thanks." she returns through her teeth.
She hears them. She smells them. She feels the presences moving around. She's not alone. It doesn't do anything for the void in her soul, where a little presence has been ripped out. Sadness bleeds, trying to fill it. There's so much. The hole is endless.
She was not the Tower, she was not the Strength, she was not the Protector or the Tyrant. She wasn't there. She hovers between consciousness and unconsciousness, her long train of thoughts dipping across that barrier and tangling in one endless stream, which boil around a singular feeling.
She is a failure.
She's not alone.
"I need you." Cryo says quietly, still not moving. Her cihuaa is here, she smells him, feels him. He'll hold her together, he's put her back together many, many times. "I can't..." Anything.
Seyardu looks over once Sabina entered. She kept one hand holding onto Cryosanthia's, for her sake just as much, if not more, than the whitescales. It was not possible to stop the trembling entirely. And trying to do something about the sheer buildup of dead scales, to give what was underneath time to heal.
She brings up her free hand once, trying to sign something, but finding no recognition from Sabina. She sighs. "The wing, part of the tail. The skin, perhaps the tissue underneath appears necrotic. I do not know if it can be restored in its current state, or if it needs to be removed to heal."
Seyardu shakes her head. "All of this training, and I am useless to do anything for people I care about."
Zeke nods at Seyardu's words. "Thisss one musst sssuggesst that we take her to a temple. Ssshe can be better tended to there. Perhapsss the Temple of Daeus where thisss one can mosst easssily attend to her." He hums for his cihuaa. "Thisss one iss here. Thisss one will not leave. Thiss one... would heal her. But it isss dangerousss, and painful. Thisss one would have her ressstored, before the damage to her body isss permanant. For that we need thosse that sserve the godsss."
He looks at Seyardu. "You are not usselesss, you are helping thisss one. You are helping Cryosssanthia."
Bina gives Braelnoir a bemused look before turning to hear Seyardu's words and then Zeke's additional. She sighs softly, "I suppose that would be for the best. I still believe that the use of an anti-magic affect would help restore her more quickly to normal state so that then mystic healing could then be applied. I am not the healer you are, Zeke. Nor do I match you, Seyardu. But after finding her in the wilds alone I felt... that I couldn't trust her with anyone but myself. Foolish but that is the truth." She begins pouring tea into cups, adding more scent to the room. Roses and cinnamon.
The golden eyes close at the sound of Cryo's voice, and Braelnoir returns to her normal pallor, while her turbulent emotions waver on the pendulum again.
With Seyardu's words, about training, and those she cares about, a hand rises absently to something under her hair as she turns from the tableau.
"Yeah...." she rasps in a tight whisper, "...helluva thing..."
Sabina's words bring glimmering eyes up and sidelong toward her as she absently continues fidgetting with whatever's there, "...I's transformed.... antimagic suppressed it... Sey's right about the hoodoo put on her. That witherin'."
GAME: Sabina rolls perception: (7)+5: 12 GAME: Cryosanthia rolls perception: (15)+8: 23
She's playing with a dancing skeleton.
Cryo squeezes Seyardu's hand, with a grip that has a suggestion of strength but is very weak. Somehow it gives her some.
"Sseeeeeke," She manages, opening her nearest eye, focusing on his, her pupil dilated to a half moon width. She hears 'permanent damage', the rest of the words snaked away on a ribbon of though. She makes another call for her foundlings. Her expression tells her Cihuaa what he already knows.
Movement draws her gaze, her attention flicks to Braelnoir. Her scents flicker to alarm, she releases the silver-scales hand to make a swipe in the air. No, it's 'handsign'. Cryo points a clawtip at the merc, then curls it towards herself. 'You' and 'me', or perhaps 'you' and 'here'.
She struggles to rise, "... have to... only Brae... you have to... closer."
Seyardu takes a step back as Cryo raises the hand, and she bumps into something behind her. "Please Cryo, do not move too much." She asks, but she expects it to not be followed.
"I have, done little. Perhaps the temples are where to take her. But Braelnoir, Sabina, what are you saying? Suppress the magic and attempt to heal?"
GAME: Seyardu rolls heal: (19)+7: 26 GAME: Seyardu rolls knowledge/arcana: (19)+5: 25 <OOC> Zeke rolled yesterday and is fairly certain that Zeke knows what's going on.
Seyardu looks to the wing. And sighs. "They need magical healing. There is no way around it."
Zeke lets out a sigh, ignoring Braelnoir entirely but rather addressing Seyardu. "Ssshe hass been filled up with magic. Usssing anti-magic would posssibly pull the magic out of her. Disspelling that which isss afflicting her. Ssshe needs thisss, and healing. Care. Which thisss one would provide for her elssse-where. Where it isss... ssafer. Where there are more healersss to ssshare the burden of healing."
He does not add that he simply lacks the ability to restore Cryosanthia's dead limbs should that be required. He stands when Cryo tries to move, placing himself between her and the other woman. "No Cryosssanthia! You are not well! Lay down. Pleasssse!!!"
Tea may not be what others want but Bina desires some herself. She brings up the pink liquid and blows on it's surface before sipping. As she does so she's watching Cryo and looking over the fresh scales that were revealed during all the ruckus. She takes another sip and then pauses, quickly setting her cup down and moving with care about Zeke and Seyardu to get a closer look at the whitescales' face.
"The scales on her head.. Look! The scales under the grey. Right here. See? They're white like they should be, but watch them. They're greying, almost fast enough to be able to see it happen." She motions at the spot where Cryo's actual wounds are. "Check her wounds. See if you can get a different look at the layers of scale."
Braelnoir's eyes swivel to the white claw rising in her direction, and whatever's occupying that hand ends as the Korite straightens. There's sniff, and a steadying breath as she tries to get back into her equilibrium, but her boots are already carrying her to heed, objections be damned.
She originally seems to be giving the bluescale the same courtesy, though that ends with a moment of alarm; spiked plates rattling slightly as his sudden rise knots that hand into a warding mace, her other fist balled behind it.
The palescale is unrelenting in purpose, despite her cihuaa's words, still reaching for Braelnoir, "I have to..."
The silvermane somehow convinces her hands to unclench as she steps around Zeke, her eyes wary and her ire coming around again.
There is a muffled clang of her greave against the floor, "I'm here."
The stricken palescale gets her talon-hand on the merc's shoulder. "You have to..." There's fear in her eyes, locked on the gold, a sudden strength. She pulls herself up, snout to ear and hisspers five words, followed by an unrelenting stare. They can't fail this too, "... go..."
After which Cryosanthia releases Braelnoir and lies back down. Her eyes close, "She'sss going Zeke... "
Seyardu leaves the two sisters to whatever discussion they were sharing. Though she turns to Sabina, one brow raising at the observation. When Cryo laid back down, she takes another wipe at the scales, and she nods.
"Whatever is happening, it is ongoing."
Then she looks to Braelnoir. "I take it whatever was said is private. I understand. I just, I wish you well with whatever it may be, and hope you will ask me if you need any assistance, that I am capable of doing."
"We need to stop whatever process is causing this. As soon as possible."
Zeke stays near his cihuaa. "Perhapsss it isss bessst we move her now then." He hates to do it, but the risk to her grows with each passing moment. "Sssabina, can you have a sstrecher brought? Seyardu, thisss one would appreciate your assistance in moving Cryosssanthia... Sshe is heavier now."
Cryo's words susperating in her ears, Braelnoir's wet eyes, sidelong, hold onto those of her sister.
Her half-shelled hand rises as the two part, vanishing beneath a mercurial veil. A terse jerk, accompanies a slight toss of her head.
There is a scent of copper, and that hand claps briefly around her scale-sister's palm before withdrawing, her fingers quiding those of the palescale closed.
A archaically worded, "I promise." hissed finally in time with the gesture, and the accursed woman rises to her feet. <Draconic>
Several patters sound against the floor.
Two are clear.
More are red.
With new purpose, a resolved backed by her word, whatever is left of it's worth, she steps back from her sister while her eyes hold onto her cihuaa.
Paces back, only as he turns back to Cryo does Brae's facing pivot and she begins to leave, sparing a pause to aside a crystalline smile at Seyardu, "Thanks, luvvie. Watch'r asses." before continuing out to retrieve her primary weapon and leave.
Seyardu watches Braelnoir as she leaves. "Why did she ask me to do that?"
Seyardu nods to Braelnoir as she leaves, before she pours herself a cup of tea to sip on quickly. Hopefully having the intended effect on her nerves. It was quickly followed up with a handful of meat and cheese from the platter. She seems to sniff at the air for a moment, and glances to Cryosanthia's hand, but she doesn't push the matter the two did not wish to share. "A stretcher, or a carriage could be hailed. Whichever would work best. I feel, it would be best not to make it obvious carrying her on one, so a carriage would be best. Between all of us, we can help her walk to the door, at least." She suggests.
"Yesss, perhapsss? But thisss one isss worried about her falling apart on usss. Bessst to ussse the sstretcher and head out the back of the building if necesssary." Zeke shakes his head looking at Cryosanthia. "For now, expediency isss our need; but not at the risssk of her life."
Sabina nods slowly, still with lingering doubts about letting Cryo go out of her sight.
She looks about the room at those there. Their faces, body language. The scent of blood that lingers even under the stronger scent of tea. She closes her eyes and then sighs. "Alright. Give me a few minutes. I'll get a stretcher together and send for a cart or coach to help move her." She follows after Braelnoir and slips down the steps to see to things as quickly as she can.
Warm. Wet. Hollow. A chain. A ring.
An earring with a tiny dancing skeleton.
Rolson's ring.
Cryo's claw closes tightly on the copper circle, pressing it into her palm. She knows what it represents to her scale-sister. She won't let go.
She closes her other hand around Zeke's wrist, his crystalline one. Instinct and habit making her choose that one. The one she held for so many years, when she needed him, when he had to fix their Mistress' latest atrocity. He'll have to put her back together, again, and she's more puzzle-y than ever.
It's easy enough to get her on a stretcher with the available hands, and move that discretely to a carriage. A proper carriage and not a cart this time.
To take her to a Temple where clerics who know more and the one who knows her best can work on her.
During all this, Cryo, finally, remains lying down as instructed. Her hands holding tight, to the ring, to her cihuaa. There's a moment where her wing, her good one, brushes the backs of Seyardu and Sabina.
Her other self was wrong. Everyone isn't gone. The world is a lot darker and full of tar, but...
Cryosanthia isn't alone.
They are there for her.
