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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[runningred]

"We have to do something. It can't end like this." Jay states it as a fact. A fact he will burn the world if he has to to make it true.

[onceaviking]

"And what do you propose then?" Eric says, his voice still both cool and flat.

Detached.
(He can feel Emcee's slowing heartbeat inside his own body).
Cold.
(It always ends like this).

[sunbaked_baker]

In the last few minutes since Jay went to fetch Eric, everything has taken on a feeling of unreality. Sunshine hears the words being spoken, so urgent compared to the slowing heartbeat under her hands, but they hardly register. Her poor hands, they are covered in blood again. She can feel the stickiness of it - already cooling, congealing in places - through the thin latex of the gloves. She is throwing all of the strength she can through those hands into Emcee, though she knows it is barely enough to keep him afloat, and she won't be able to continue much longer.

('After the night that has passed, maybe the light of morning will make us all feel better.' As the Goddess said 'better,' she pulled on the window's curtain string, and the full light of dawn fell upon Con, sitting, filthy, in her office. Even in her exhausted daze, Sunshine didn't dare breathe.)

(She felt her affinity slam itself through their connected hands, traveling to where the sunlight-knife had burned him. 'Miss Seddon," Con said. 'I'm afraid must beg you to keep my knife for a little while longer. I don't believe any of my pockets have survived this night's encounters.' He held it out to her, turning and opening his hand to show the skin that had held it unburned and unmarred.)

Lurching upright from where she had been leaning heavily against the infirmary bed, Rae strips off the bloody gloves from her hands, praying silently but fervently to whatever gods might be listening for this crazy idea to work and not kill them all.

"Eric," she says, her voice rough, urgency in her tone as she struggles to focus. One day she would like to not have to make up her magic-handling apprenticeship as she goes along. "I need your hand. I think I can... I think I can save him, but I need your help."

She looks at Eric, looks into the vampire's eyes. "I need you to trust me. For Emcee's sake."

[guppy_sandhu]

As Rae lets go, Guppy ties off another little bit of the bleeding and glances at the obs machine, which has taken quite a dip.

"Jay, back on the fluid bags while they're doing that, if you can." he says.

Whatever Rae and Eric are about to do, it better be quick.

Please don't make me have to tell Gil he can't give 'Emmy' his present.

[onceaviking]

"Why should I trust you, vampire killer?" Eric asks, automatically.

[sunbaked_baker]

Fair, says her flinch, but they don't have the time. It's taking her considerable effort to stay upright, at the moment.

"Because I believe we both want Emcee to live," she says, holding out her hand to Eric, palm up. "You've trusted me once before. Trust me again? For him?"

[onceaviking]

"If you take advantage, I will rip your fucking face off," Eric tells her calmly, not addressing or acknowledging her comment in any way.

But he does put his large, cold hand in hers.

[i_am_your_host]

Emcee is fading fast.

He may as well be a ghost of himself, cold and pale and fragile as he is.

He's too weak to even dream.

There is nothing here. Only darkness.

[guppy_sandhu]

"She won't." Guppy says. "She's got more sense."

He glances up at Rae for further instructions, but doesn't let go unless she says.

[sunbaked_baker]

"Well take comfort. I'd not even be able to stop you if you tried," Rae says, steeling herself for what she's about to try. She clasps Eric's cold hand in hers, setting her other hand over Emcee's heart. "Blood won't work, so he needs your strength in a form his body can use."

She casts her affinity down along her arm, through her hand and into Eric's. It is warmth, gentle and golden, like the faint caress of the sun's warmth on a chilly winter's day. Sunshine gives a weak tug at Eric's power at first, and then, as Rae's eyes clear, a stronger pull on his strength. She has only ever pushed before - sending her magic to do what she needs it to - or accepted power that was offered to her in direst need. Con's strength, Con's blood.

Her voice is toneless and faint, but insistent. "...You're going to want to move your hands, Guppy. We've got him."

Pulling at that dark power is different than accepting only what is offered. The force of it nearly makes her topple over. The offer had been implicit in him taking her hand, but she hadn't expected it to feel like trying to contain and direct a river bursting forth from the base of a great dam. It takes effort to remember to keep breathing, the sunlight net in her skin glowing golden from the sudden influx of power so counter to her own affinity. Sunshine feels the vampire's strength crash into her, roiling, and quickly directs it through her other hand and into Emcee. Now she knows, perhaps, what a lightning rod feels like. Or a fire hose at full-blast. It had been hard for her to focus before; now it is all she can do to direct that strength where it is needed most. She focuses repair on his heart first, strengthening it, rapidly speeding up the healing of the broken blood vessels and the creation of blood cells to fill them. And then she turns her attention to the additional tissue damage of the gunshot wounds, and one small but important matter...

Amid all the blood, a lump of metal rises over the lip of one of the rapidly shrinking wounds in Emcee's chest, and falls away to the side.

[onceaviking]

It is wrong.
Everything in him rebels at the sensation of something gushing forth, from his hand into Sunshine's and from there into Emcee and it's a struggle not to pull his hand away from her.

The light within her pains his hand (and reminds him of things that are far in the past and insignificant - and painful)and he bares his teeth, hissing loudly.

[i_am_your_host]

For a moment, there is stillness--

And then the sudden rush of life through Emcee's body makes his chest rise with a deep, sudden gasp for air.

His core spasms, his eyelids flutter and fly open, pupils wide.

There's light all around but he can't see.

--but he can breathe. He's breathing, faster and stronger, his heart beating as if to catch up with lost time.

And he begins to wonder what exactly is happening...

[guppy_sandhu]

As soon as he gets the chance and the signal from Rae, Guppy gets the breathing tube out.

"Keep nice and still, Emcee."

[sunbaked_baker]

"Keep still," she echoes, weakly. The wounds are still healing, bones knitting themselves together, the torrent still crashing through her. "We've got you."

As the last of the tissue damage is taken care of and the skin around the wounds is repaired, Sunshine loosens her hold on Eric's cold hand and tries weakly to shake her hand free of his grip. One of the problems of making up your apprenticeship as you go is occasionally not knowing how to stop something once you've started it. The best way she know how is to cut off the influx of power.

[onceaviking]

Eric pulls her hand away from hers with a snarl.
Everything hurts, the hunger (huge and black and ever growing) brought about by Sunshine's magic is making him feel dizzy and vulnerable and he does not like it.

[i_am_your_host]

The surge of heat stops and Emcee takes another deep gasp, his body trembling seemingly involuntarily.

He realizes that he's sweating. Just moments ago he was ice cold.

His tongue feels thick and sluggish and the only sounds he can make are questioning whimpers as his senses overwhelm him all at once. And his memories flood back: memories of the pain, the confusion, the desperation-- of his friends back home and the sounds of their voices crying out in the dark.

Tears fill his eyes and spill down his cheeks, blurring his already hazy vision. He reaches out for someone, anyone, though his arm feels like lead.

[guppy_sandhu]

Guppy takes off the bloody glove, and takes the hand. His own hand is trembling.

"You're going to be okay." he says, shakily.

He's about to explain about the needles stuck in Emcee's legs, but the last bit of the magic appears to have popped them out.

"You're in Milliways. Rae and Eric and Jay are here."

[runningred]

Jay gets out of the way while this is happening, ready to get between them if he has to but whatever Rae is doing is working.

And it's driving Eric pretty low. The put the blood bags aside, they're clearly not doing anything anymore and throws off his jacket.

He rolls up his sleeve and presents a wrist to Eric. They can deal with Jay's blood loss better than they can deal with Eric's blood lust.

[sunbaked_baker]

The backlash from the sudden cut in the flowing power had sent Sunshine stumbling hard into the bedside stand. Her hands leave bloody smears on it. It's probably good she only has tea in her stomach, though even the tea is threatening rebellion at this point. Her balance doesn't seem to be working right, and it feels like someone has turned up gravity to eleven. Seeing Emcee moving and holding Guppy's hand helps, though. His shadows are strong; he will be fine after some rest.

Her glassy gaze takes in the hungry, angry vampire, and she can't muster up an appropriate reaction. Probably not a good situation to be in, but she is just too mind-blasted and exhausted from the healing to care about potential death at those same hands. What did he think was going to happen? Isn't there some scientific theory or something about stuff like this? Maybe she could pitch a scientific treatise on it and get published - the Law of the Conservation of Energy in Relation to Vampiric Healing. The ancient, stuffy academics at the Other Museum would go into fits of jealousy. Her mind is rambling. She can feel gravity pulling at her, the difficulty of not drifting off.

She avoids Eric as she steps unsteadily away from the bed. She isn't even going to think about what Jay is doing. She turns on the water as hot as she can stand at the sink where she washed her hands... minutes and days ago. She has to get the blood off her hands. Every movement is automatic, unthinking. When her hands and forearms are clean again, pink with heat and scrubbing, she turns the water off. It does nothing to the dried blood on the gown, the apron beneath that, or her jeans and sneakers, but her hands are clean. It'll do.

Jay will take care of Eric if anyone can, and Guppy's got Emcee, who should be okay after some more rest. She finds the edge of the next bed over around the time her knees give way, lets herself lie down, and succumb to exhaustion.

[onceaviking]

Eric turns away from Sunshine (she caused his pain, she out to pay) and moves to where Jay is standing, his bared wrist ready.

When Eric takes hold of it, his fingers are like ice. And trembling.

It's obviously affected him more than he is willing to let on.


He lifts Jay's wrist to his mouth and bites down hard.

[i_am_your_host]

Emcee's vision slowly comes into focus (everything is so bright) as he tries to understand what Guppy is telling him. He squeezes the doctor's hand, clinging to it as his mind reels.

"But-- but I--"

His voice is hoarse, beathless, and he can taste his own blood.

"But I was sh- shot--"

His free hand moves to his chest and stomach, frantically feeling for-- well, he has no idea what. Something gory, perhaps. But the only thing he finds is bare skin coated with semi-dried blood (and being covered with dried blood is nothing new for him).

"Rae-- and Jay, and--?"

He turns his head and sees Jay with the large, black-clad figure with his back turned.

"I don't understand," he whimpers, unable to keep from crying.

[runningred]

Jay grunts as Eric's fangs bear down, suppressing the pain as much as possible. Especially as he feels the small bones of his wrist flex under Eric's iron grip.

"I'm here, Emcee." He calls out, his voice tight with pushed down pain. "You're going to be okay." He wants to be holding Emcee but he needs to be distracting Eric.

[onceaviking]

Eric ignores the exchange.

And the tears.

(He can smell them).

He swallows wetly.

[i_am_your_host]

Emcee turns to look at Sunshine passed out on the bed next to his. A moment of bewilderment and panic grips him, and he tries to sit up. Even in his state he's thinking of others before himself.

"What happened to her? Is she all right?"

And then he looks back at Jay and Eric, his eyes wide and teary.

"Why-- why is Eric feeding? Please, someone tell me what happened!"

Emcee's entire body seems to thrum with an otherworldly sensation in his agitation. A strange mix of Sunshine's inner light and Eric's insatiable hunger.

[runningred]

"Emcee, stay calm." Jays words carry a calm note of command, drawing Emcee's attention to him.

"Rae is fine, she's just resting. Eric is fine, he just needs to top up. I'm fine and I'll be with you in a moment. Just stay calm and let Guppy look you over."