[OFFICE] Nurse Cricket's Office - Dice Mechanics pg 20

[Nio Love]

I did not expect it to be. Riley murmured gently in return, giving him a fond glance before taking the mirror.

Bite marks.

The first thing that Riley understood about what she was looking at, was that all of the sides of her wound were carved out in bite marks. It was horrendous - and certainly larger than she'd expected, since it had originally just been a dagger wound. Now.. one could possibly fit a small fruit in it, if one was so inclined.

She put down the mirror, her face a terrible shade of grey, and tried not to be sick.

A-all right, then, Christof. You take your time with this project. Her voice was shaky, unnaturally frightened. I don't think I will be getting up anytime soon, after all. You will, ah, fashion something of a safe metal for me, all right? Her nervous breath rattled in her lungs as she stared wildly up at the ceiling. Something that can fit in there. I will not be able to stand without something supporting the.. ah..

Her whole body shuddered. If she stood up, her insides would likely fall right out.

Just.. do your best.  

[Bilious]

Something metal? Christof's eyes widened a bit, Inside? I... y-yes, Mistress... I.. it might take some time, though... I... I can at least patch the hole somehow temporarily until then? He was already pulling off his coat, fishing out his thread and needle and looking for anything useful. Wouldn't something metal hamper the healing process, Mistress?  

[Nio Love]

Riley finally lowered her eyes enough to settle on Christof as best as she could, despite being on her back. They were soft, and perhaps a little sad.

No amount of stitches is going to heal that up anymore, Christof. She murmured quietly, reaching out to pat his hand. Just do as I say. Nurse Cricket will take care of me.  

[Sosiqui]

Malodore made a few notes in the notebook it had been given, writing down the state of Riley's wound before it had been treated, the method of treatment, the aftereffects. It was all very clinical. It had to be, because otherwise it would have been more than a little hysterical.

But the sound of pen on paper was soothing. Listing things was soothing, pinning down everything into simple phrases that could be assessed and analyzed and fixed. Equally reassuring was the 'sound' of Riley's thoughts in its mind, even if she was afraid and hurting. She was there, and not likely to cease being any time soon.

As long as that danger was dealt with, it could handle anything.

It glanced over at Moure, but the other patchwork seemed to be well in hand, thanks to the ghoul at his side. "Is there anything else that I can do, Infermiera?" it called to Cricket, even as it threaded the fingers of one hand through Riley's, squeezing tightly. "I am feeling much... better now."

There was a faint shame in its voice.  

[demon_pachabel]

Next to Sammy, Shehk was horrified at the pieces of Riley-vomit that fell onto her best friend. Ew.

---

Cricket finally settled back into her seat at her desk the cluster of discolored markings and misplaced ectoplasm all settling into one area of her shoulder, a horrible dark mass against her almost non-existent body as it was. "Malodore. I am going to pull this.." she pressed her fingers around the spot, "off of me. I want you to note what it does. I'm going to be...too busy to pay attention to how it responds, can you do that for me?" she inquired.

It was easier to do it this way.  

[Sosiqui]

"Ah... si, I can do that." Malodore straightened, squeezing Riley's hand one more time before letting her go and picking up its pen once more. It turned so that it was facing Cricket, pen at the ready, apparently all business. Or science. Whatever. "I shall watch the, ah, the removed piece." Instead of her, apparently. 'Busy' didn't sound fun, but... well.

Sometimes you had to do drastic things for science.  

[Seussi]

((Very belated entering))

The pain..the pain had been so horrible. Who knew that something as simple as a net could cause so much pain? Xander had been close to sleep, or at least, what might pass for sleep for a zombie. His mind had been in the process of just..shutting down.

He didn't even notice when the horsemen and the cloaked figure had come back. He didn't notice when they all left through some kind of portal. He didn't notice when the captors all left.

But then the atmosphere changed, and what he did notice, he wished he did not.

Fire.

Was there anything worse then fire to a zombie? Not anything Xander could have thought of. He had a healthy phobia of fire, as he had been taught from childhood that it was dangerous, painful, and basically the worst thing imaginable. He cried out as the pain and heat wash over him, screaming, back arching beneath the net as the fire burned through him, melting him, killing him....

And then it was over. His eyes blinked open slowly as he found himself laying on a bed. Was this...where was he? His thoughts were a jumble of confusion, his head felt like it was stuffed full of cobwebs, his brain turned to mush.

But then, all at once. he remembered, and his body began to shake uncontrollably as he gasped at the memory of the pain, and of the memory of being burned alive. If he could cry, tears might have been running down from wide, hysterical eyes.

He couldn't say how long he lay there, in shock, shaking and whispering quietly to himself. It could have been minutes, it could have been hours. His eyes looked, unseeing, at his surroundings. He could hear voices, some talking, some whispering, others shouting, but none of it could penetrate through the shock, none of it made any sense. It may have, however, been something that was said nearby that finally 'woke him up' as he suddenly shot up in bed, faster then he'd ever moved in his unlife, hands gripping the edge of the cot tight. fingers digging in to the white sheets as he swung his legs over and stood, then began to stumble out towards the door.

He was going back to his dorm. This place...this place was not what he had expected. He was going to go back to his room, lock himself away, and not come out until he was good and ready. He would find a good book to read. Maybe even ten books. Yes, that was what he was going to do...

Without glancing back he removed himself from the room in jerking, stumbling steps. If anybody had tried to say anything or shouted at him, he wouldn't hear it, or would just ignore it.

((And exiting!))  

[demon_pachabel]

There was something nice about being a hive cluster and being able to regain oneself from such a situation, but still... it probably wasn't pleasant to watch Cricket follow the same route that Red had as she dug her fingers into the ectoplasm of her shoulder and forcefully pulled the pieces apart. There was nothing like blood to follow, but rather the pieces still seemed to 'grab' towards each other, even as she threw her removed arm to the ground.

It didn't move, or writh as a whole, but the end seemed to still reach out, grabbing, tangible, willing to function, as the color faded from it. First the color throughout the entire limb darkened, the markings in said arm attempting to avoid it as they pressed themselves closer to her fingertips, almost desperate to get away.

Finally, the entire limb seemed to solidify, every motion, even the grabbing, desperate, please don't make me go one stilled entirely. It was as though the limb was made of stone.

Cricket, however, had taken to her desk, pulling out a container of liquid that looked familiar - the same medicine from the tents after the Haunted House trip, taking a swig of it, but not seeming entirely at ease.

"And now, I should eat something proper." she noted, rising up again as she went to retrieve one of her insects off of the floor, popping it into her mouth before sitting on a cot. "If it concerns you, I will recover fine. This isn't the first time I'd had to regrow something."  

[Sosiqui]

Malodore did not flinch at the limb-removal - not even a single feather out of place. It had seen worse in the Casa, after all. Much worse. Instead, it stared fixedly at the fallen arm, watching it carefully, unsure how much of the behavior was natural through 'death' and how much was induced by the contaminant Cricket had consumed.

When it was over, Malodore looked up at the Nurse again. "What does it look like when you remove a limb usually, per favore? I would like to remove the variables." Part of it wanted to go study the remains of the arm, but it also didn't want to leave Riley's side. Science versus love... so difficult.  

[demon_pachabel]

"My limbs don't normally die upon removal." Cricket answered. "I can literally take a removed limb and replace it back on. The fact it is dead at all is unusual." she answered, looking into the gaping mass of MISSING her shoulder was casually, and then frowning.

"I am relatively certain I cannot put that arm back on, and thus I will have to gather and form a new one."  

[Sosiqui]

"Ah." Malodore stared at the dead arm, its gaze narrowing. Whatever she'd taken from Riley's body was incredibly inimical, then. "That changes everything, then... when removed, it tried to move about, just a bit. Perhaps it was in death-throes? The color shifted to a darker hue, and all the markings moved to the fingertips..."

It wasn't sure it wanted to touch the arm any more. "I do not like it, Infermiera." And that thing had been in Riley! It put its pen down again and reached back for the ithilid's hand once more.  

[demon_pachabel]

Cricket made a face. "I don't like it either." she agreed quietly, but didn't fuss further, simply leaving the limb on the floor where it was and laying down, as if to wait for something.  

[Nio Love]

Riley felt the claws touching her hand once more, but she'd fallen into a slight delirium from blood and Fear loss, not to mention the shock her body was going through from pain and .. just the abnormal feeling of having a chunk of you missing. Her hand squeezed Malodore's claws, and then fell limp, as she closed her eyes.

There was nothing left for her to do but rest, heal, and wait for Christof to complete her task.  

[Trira]

Moure noticed Edel's face as his head slid slightly. She seemed rather alarmed, and he hastily tried to ensure her that it wasn't as bad as it looked. "Just a stitch snap, that's all." When she grabbed the needle and thread, Moure gave the slightest nod (if he'd done one any bigger, his head probably would've ended up on the floor) and watched her thread it.

When the thread slid through his wrist to his hand, one of his fingers twitched slightly. A slight grin of relief came unbidden to his face, and he glanced to Edel as she continued to work on his hand. As the stitches multiplied, the feeling in his hand returned bit by bit. "Actually, it's more like getting my nerves reattached. Like, that feeling when your leg falls asleep and you smack it, or something?" He hadn't actually experienced that himself in his unlife (as it was slightly impossible since he didn't have a running) but Cphira had mentioned it before. It sounded relatively similar, in any case.

When Edel snipped off the thread, Moure raised his arm gently, more out of worry of his other loose arm parts than anything else really, and spread his fingers. They complied, fanning out, and then wiggling as he commanded them to do so. Functioning perfectly still, it seemed. Good. Moure raised the hand, flexing his hand with a relieved grin. He noticed how well done Edel's stitches had been, and he pulled his hand closer to his face so he could inspect them. "This is really good work, Edel. Better than my repair-jobs usually are, actually." He looked to her and then gave her a nod, hand on throat so his head wouldn't fall off, "Thank you." Moure was glad that, at a time like this, he had someone he could rely on by his side. Moure heard a slightly peculiar sound and turned slightly, watching with some vague horror as their Nurse threw up black sludge out the window. Soon she ripped of her own arm, and Moure found his eyes darting to his own detached arm. He knew what it was like to lose a limb for a while, which was apparently what Cricket would have to deal with now. He gave a slight nod to the whole scene and said quietly back to Edel, "That's why. She didn't seem her usual color and after eating that...what was it, Insanity..? I think?" Didn't the horsemen talk about that stuff? Moure tried to remember all the topics they'd discussed in the heirs' lair, but couldn't fully remember. He then looked back to the offered out needle and gently took it with a little grin. "It's fantastic work Edel. Thank you, really." He said as he pushed his other hand and wrist together, casually starting to sew up his left arm. The stitches looked slightly slap-dash, but he managed to make them at a pretty fast rate. Soon, the hand and wrist were more or less connected. He'd pretty up the repairs back in his own room when he was one piece.

Soon his left arm was re-sewn together, laying on the cot next to him. Now, it occured to him that he usually had Gib to help him with this part...He looked to Edel with a little bit of an imploring look and asked with a little grin, "You, uh, wouldn't want to hold my arm to my shoulder for me, would you?" He had to have it up there to sew it back together, and he couldn't hold his arm, and sew with only one hand. Once both hands were on, he'd have to fix his neck and leg. Since he only had one hand right now, it'd be silly to attempt either of the other seams he needed to sew.

Zyphiris

 

[Zyphiris]

Whatever was happening to Nurse Cricket, Edel didn't really want to know. Especially since there was someone more important to look after.The ghoul paid little heed to Moure's compliments, watching quietly as he reconnected his other hand back onto the detached arm. The only time she broke off from her silent worrying was to respond with a “Huh? Yes I think so, one of the horsemen mentioned that FEAR could push it out though ...” Really, all she was thinking about at that time was to see Moure in one piece.

“I-I'll do that for you,” she offered, taking the needle and thread from him and picking up his detached arm and holding it in place. She figured that it would be easier if she did it instead – sewing on his own arm from that angle would not be too easy or so she thought. While the ghoul was relieved that the stitching process didn't hurt, it didn't keep off the mildly worried look on her face as she started and finished her work.

“Is that alright?” she asked, realising the possibility that she could have caused more trouble for Moure if she hadn't done a good job. As for reattaching his head and leg .... it would be better if Moure did those himself. Let's see now ... Edel glanced around the room in search of a mirror that would help Moure with reattaching his head. She found one on the table nearby and left her seat temporarily to fetch it, returning and holding it up for him. Edel glanced at Moure balefully, still feeling really really terrible about the state he was in.

Trira