OOM and return EP

[i_am_your_host]

This is not the end.

The door creaks open to the sounds of voices shouting in German.

People screaming and crying.

Violence and confusion.

A body drags itself in through the doorway and crumples into a rapidly growing pool of blood on the floor.

The door closes and disappears.

And Emcee is dying.


[OOC: Plot-locked to Sunshine, Jay, Eric, and Guppy. Warning for gory traumatic injury in the first thread. Reactions are welcome!]

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[onceaviking]

Eric is outside, leaning against a tree, considering various ways in which to maim and ultimately kill Bill Compton. A favorite pastime of his.

He hears the door open.
He hears it close.

His fangs come down at the scent of blood, suddenly thick in the air.

And then he is inside, the door swinging closed behind him.

Oh.

He stops.

Well.


...

This place is full of people anyway.

He continues (the stop and deliberation having taken merely a fraction of a second) and makes his way halfway up the stairs at vampire speed before pausing again.
In the shadows.

[sunbaked_baker]

Sunshine still has her apron on from preparing the cinnamon roll dough for tomorrow morning's baking, resting at the bar with a cup of tea and a copy of the latest Professional Baker's Quarterly - apparently you can sprinkle powdered sugar through lace to create pretty patterns on cookies or cakes without spending forever doing decorative frosting - when the door opens to the sounds of chaos and violence. She looks around in alarm at the noise, and is on her feet before the door closes, her cup of tea toppling over unheeded in her rush to reach the crumpled figure. "Emcee!"

She kneels quickly beside him, ignoring the cool wetness seeping through the knees of her jeans. "Oh gods, Emcee." He's been shot. He's alive, but for how much longer? There's so much blood. Rae's stomach lurches, her hands shaking as she tries to stem the bleeding, pouring into him what healing magic she can muster. It comes when she calls, but for all her effort it feels like pouring water through a sieve.

"Emcee, stay with me. You're in Milliways. Emcee, you're safe." Her voice is choked with urgency as she raises it to be heard above the bar room noise. "I need help here!"

[runningred]

Jay's just coming up from the garage, sweaty in work-out gear.

All he sees at first is Rae hunches over a bloody figure. It isn't till he comes running that he sees who that figures is.

He swears and falls down on his knees, biting back rising bile as he presses his hands down hard on the wound. "I need a trauma kit. Now!" He shouts over his shoulder, hoping there's a rat in ear shot.

[i_am_your_host]

Emcee's breathing is shallow, but he is breathing.

And somewhere in the haze of his mind, he knows that he's reached Milliways.

And he knows that someone is trying to help him.

Possibly two someones. Their voices are muffled, and they are only shadows silhouetted against the light.

In a brief spike of consciousness, he utters a weak, strangled cry when hands press down on his stomach. It burns. It hurts.

[sunbaked_baker]

The sound hurts Rae's heart to hear - an unconscious sob escapes her in response. But she can't risk diverting any of her efforts to ease the pain. Strength is pouring out of Emcee as fast as she can pour it in. She can barely think straight, the thick, golden whorls of power filling her, pressing hard on her mental boundaries, pouring forth in a torrent.

"We've got to get him to the infirmary," she insists quickly, tonelessly, turning her head towards Jay with slightly unfocused eyes. Her hands upon Emcee's chest, pushed up against Jay's, are sticky with his blood. This isn't a cut or a bruise or a scrape or something she knows how to fix. This is Emcee, with a still-widening pool of blood around him, dying under their hands.

[runningred]

"We need to slow this bleeding before we can move him." Jay's voice is urgent and angry. He shouts something over his shoulder as a pair of rats run over with a large first aid kit. He kicked it open and grabs a large wadded bandage.

"Emcee. You have to stay awake. You have to fight."

[i_am_your_host]

fight

What is that?

Emcee's eyelids flutter, the whites of his eyes showing under dark, curling lashes, still inordinately pretty in his current state.

He coughs on some blood, and the strain sends a bolt of agony through him, tearing him apart.

Yet he feels...something else. Something trying to counteract the pain, trying to keep his life force from ebbing.

When Jay opens his coat to bandage him, they'll find his shirt completely soaked through. He'd been shot twice in such close range that it's practically one, large wound.

[sunbaked_baker]

"We've got you, Emcee. Stay with us," Rae murmurs, trying to focus. His body is trying desperately to give in, and it's all she can do to keep up, to keep what strength she can from flowing out of him like so much blood.

"Tell me - what you need me to do," she says to Jay, as he works with the bandages to try and slow the bleeding.

[runningred]

"Fuck." Jay growls, pushing the bandage in tight. "I need to check the back. Need to know if they went through. Hold him."

He tilts Emcee up to see if the bullets went though. It'll hurt but there's nothing he can do.

[i_am_your_host]

Their voices are a little clearer to him now, at least distinguishable from one another. He wants to say something, to say that he's trying to hold on, but his own voice is lost to him.

And then he feels his upper body being raised, and he lets out a gurgling moan, leaning forward limply in Jay's arms.

There's one exit hole in the back of Emcee's leather coat.

(He's going to miss this old coat, if he ever makes it to the point of being able to miss it.)

[sunbaked_baker]

Rae holds onto Emcee, supporting his upper body while Jay checks his back. She murmurs encouragement to him, but the words are nearly toneless for all their urgency; all of her attention is taken by keeping up the flow of strength from herself into Emcee. The sun that warms Milliways is not a true sun but part of the spell that long ago created the lake and grounds. It is similar in spirit and purpose but far weaker, and even then it set hours ago. The golden sunlight-web set into Rae's skin and hair glimmers in waves along her arms and across her face as it wakes and calls on the sun she cannot see or feel, pouring that strength into her as she in turn passes it on to Emcee.

"Did they go through?" she asks, her right hand supporting the back of Emcee's head while her other hand rests over the wound to his front. Healing such a wound is beyond her, but she will do what she can to slow the loss of blood and strength.

[runningred]

"There's one still in him." Jay growls, furious at any world that would let this happen. "We've got to get him to the infirmary. I'm sorry, darling." He slips his arms under Emcee. "Get the doors open and find Guppy."

[i_am_your_host]

Emcee is cold. The shadows around him are growing. But even as they loom and darken, there is still...light. And a faint tinge of warmth, like the sun's rays on a winter day. He wants to follow it. He wants to feel it.

He hears Rae's voice in his ear, much closer than before. It's like a dream.

"Sunsh..."

The whisper on pale lips is cut off by another moan of pain as Jay lifts him. His head lolls against Jay's shoulder, his arms dangle limply.

[cutting_edgex23]

X slips in between the crowd around Emcee and the room at large.

She is not glaring, but her presence does seem to suggest to the rest of the bar to keep away.

This will remain true for quite some time.

Just to be safe. And to make sure Emcee feels safe.

When he is more himself again.

[sunbaked_baker]

Sunshine hesitates but stands as well, head swimming as Jay lifts the limp form; she's torn between holding onto Emcee, continuing to bolster his rapidly draining blood and strength, or doing as instructed and getting the doors to the infirmary open for Jay.

What if she lets go and he dies?

But Jay can get Emcee to the infirmary faster with her not in the way, and she had said to tell her what he needs her to do - so with a quick squeeze to Emcee's hand and another rush of strengthwarmthlight passing from her into him, Rae lets go of Emcee and rushes to the infirmary doors.

Her bloody hand slams the call button on the wall next to the door, alerting any infirmary staff and any infirmary doctor in Milliways that there is a genuine emergency.

"Guppy! Are you in? We need your help!" She calls urgently into the infirmary, her voice raw. Shaking slightly, Rae holds the infirmary doors open wide so Jay can pass with Emcee in his arms.

[runningred]

Jay doesn't run, he strides. Muscular legs chewing through the distance between the door and the infirmary as if he has a personal grudge with them. Emcee's blood falls down his chest as he does, utterly ignored.

"Emcee, stay with me. You have to be strong. We need you." His words are firm and direct as he lays Emcee down, making way for Rae as he moves get more bandages.

[i_am_your_host]

The moment Rae lets go of Emcee, he plunges into darkness, drowning in it.

It isn't supposed to end like this.

His near-lifeless body is laid out on one of the beds. Barely breathing now, pulse so faint it would take the steadiest of fingers to find it.

[just_cant_lose]

Jim is lounging on an armchair not far from the front door when Emcee topples through. He raises his eyebrows at the sight of all that blood, runs through probable causes - has to be from his escape-from-Germany plan - and notes who runs to the rescue.

Eric's reaction is more than interesting. It's hilarious.

He does not, of course, lift a finger to help.

[the_gene_genie]

Gene stands up when it's all going down, intent on sorting out any twats who think rubbernecking at a half-dead bloke's a good idea. But then X is there, and he knows she'll take care of anyone who gets too close.

He doesn't get in the way. They look like they know what they're doing, and he trusts Sunshine to be a help. But he does move seats, a casual saunter to the side of the affair, and a chair that allows him to sit easily with his pint, showing off the Security badge and gun at his belt. There's at least one little idiot enjoying the sight of it far too much. Gene'll just sit here, and keep a quiet eye on things.

[herr_bookman]

Until Rae says Emcee's name, Autor can't tell who's collapsed near the door. He sucks a breath over his teeth, turning his head away. The scent of the blood makes him retch, and it's not long before he's bolting from his seat, nearly running into Eric on the way up the stairs.

[onceaviking]

Eric hisses and moves further back into the shadows.

[herr_bookman]

That hiss nearly stops him short, but Autor's too intent on getting the hell out of the room to cease running. He bounds up the stairs two at a time, ignoring the vampire in his attempt to flee.

[for_good_taste]

Sasha instinctively looks up at the sound of violence, but by the time he's out of his booth, it's clear that the situation is under control. He's not a medical doctor, anyway; he'd just be underfoot.

[fieryface]

No one can accuse Jamie of voyeurism: he can only look for a second, drawn by the sound and then-- Christ, all that blood, and-- and he's getting away as fast as he can.

(Not that he's scared or-- it's just that it's all in hand, isn't it, and-- and so much blood--)

[heatherandsteel]

Quentin was having his breakfast but blood, blood has a taste and a smell and when he looks and sees its Emcee and he's being helped than he goes outside.

He doesn't want to get close enough to know too much of Emcee's blood or see another person bleed out, but he won't, Milliways medicine is as good as Faerie, truly.