Fated (Chapter Forty-Six)
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mindcrackloveChapter list: http://tanadin.dreamwidth.org/382.html
Map of the continent: http://tanadin.deviantart.com/art/F
Character status spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet
Chapter Forty-Six
Skettisren tunnels under Traz’madar, Minecraftia. October 25, year 573. Time instance 483Z.
Zekara leaned against the wall as the group filed into the room, making themselves comfortable in order to listen to Iirkolav. The scarred man had the skettisren bring him a chair to sit in on account of his metal leg and waited for everyone to settle in before speaking.
"We need to figure out what kind of situation we're in. Which Hostiles are still alive?"
Everyone shot each other looks.
Iirkolav frowned. "You haven't met them, have you?"
"We got our asses kicked by a tree." Tarsen piped up.
"And we fought a giant incomplete stone dragon." Nessy added.
"Shara and Spalor. Specterveil is still alive, leaving seven more unknowns. Great." Iirkolav groaned. "And we have no idea where they are. Fantastic."
"Everywhere, from what I've heard." Samuel told him. "They've destroyed a lot over the month or so they've been around. I'm surprised we haven't run into more."
"Hmmm. Well, I should at least know what we have in this group. I need to know your skills, talents, abilities, limitations, everything. No secrets- we need to know. Got it?"
Silence. Then, Nessy stood, speaking with a tremor in her voice. "I'm a half-dragon with spatial manipulation abilities." Zekara looked at Nessy, noticing her trembling slightly. She stepped forward and put an arm around the half-dragon's shoulder, looking around and silently challenging anyone to judge her. She knew that Nessy was different, but not how- not until this moment. It didn’t matter to her, though. Nessy was a valuable member of the team and her friend.
"That is absolutely fantastic." Iirkolav grinned. "That's powerful. That's very powerful." Nessy nodded, relieved when people only looked at her with curiosity and awe, slowly sitting down again and shooting a thankful smile to Zekara.
“I’m a darkness elementalist.” Onai mentioned, raising a hand.
“I…I have breathing problems.” Niel muttered, barely loud enough to be heard.
As people continued to speak, Mitven shifted over to Niel and tapped his shoulder. “Can I talk to you?”
Suspicion had finally risen to a point of confrontation.
Shred heard this and glanced over, noticing Mitven lead Niel back into a side tunnel. She looked around before following, shushing Mira. She leaned against the entrance to the tunnel, looking at Mitven as she stopped and faced Niel. She strained her ears to hear their conversation, watching Niel shrink back a bit as he realized that he had been essentially trapped.
“You’re not biologically male, are you?” Mitven asked immediately. Shred raised an eyebrow behind her mask, sidestepping closer. This was interesting.
“Wh-what? I.. N-no, I mean yes, I-”
“Niel.” Mitven interrupted. “It’s…really kind of obvious. Look. You’re shorter, have a higher voice, you have breathing problems indicative of having your chest bound… Should I go on?”
Niel shook his head, fighting back tears. “N-no…” He whimpered. “Mitven, please, j-just…don’t tell anyone, okay? Don’t…I can’t take that, they can’t know, they’ll hate me, they’ll-”
“Niel.”
“Last time people found out, I got kicked out of my home, and people hate-”
“Niel!” Mitven barked. Niel sniffed and looked back up at her from where he had been looking at his feet.
“No one is going to judge you, okay?” Mitven put a hand on his shoulder, bending down to get eye level with him. “No one is going to hate you or kick you out. Okay? I promise. Now. Where did you get your binder and how good is it? I need to know if I can supply you a better one to help with your breathing issues.”
Niel blinked. “What?”
Mitven’s eyes narrowed. “Niel.” She said slowly. “Are you binding with bandages?”
“Ummm...”
“Niel!” Mitven sounded horrified. “That’s the worst thing you can do in this situation! Not only does that interfere with your breathing, but it can permanently damage you with broken and misshapen ribs as well as bad bruising.”
“That explains everything.”
Both Mitven and Niel jumped, looking over at Shred as she stepped forward. Neither had noticed her due to their focus on the conversation.
“That explains your breathing issues, your reluctance to talk about it, and a lot of other things.” Shred crossed her arms, ignoring Mira rubbing against her legs. “I can help you with that.”
“So can I.” Mitven fired back. “Get him an actual binder instead of bandages.”
“Will that fix his breathing issues?”
“Somewhat, yes.”
“That’s not good enough.” Shred turned to Niel. “Your problem is that you don’t want to have a large chest that would mark you as female, right?”
“Y-yeah.”
“Then boy do I have a solution for you. It’s a common procedure among female Skullblades, particularly those who have to shoot bows. You just-” Shred made a vague chopping motion, making Niel turn pale.
Mitven looked horrified. “With a sword? You have to be careful with surgeries!”
“It’s not a surgery, you pansy, it’s removing some unnecessary sacks of flesh! It’s not like we’re not using healing potions on the wounds or something!”
“That qualifies as a surgery! At least give him some anesthetic, maybe knock him out, and use tools with more precision than a barbarian with a sword!”
“I didn’t realize non-Skullblades had such low tolerance of anything moderately uncomfortable.”
“It’s not uncomfortable, it’s removing a part of the body!”
“I’ve gone through it, it was just uncomfortable!”
“What’s your nervous system made of, rocks?!”
“No, actually, but in any case, anesthetic won’t do shit for him. The wounds will be open for awhile, even with healing potion-soaked bandages.”
“We’re at least knocking him out!”
“Well, if you have something to do that on hand, feel free, unless we just use the pommel of my sword, which I thought was less preferable than leaving him awake!”
“I haven’t even agreed to this!” Niel squeaked.
“Yeah, wait a minute, Shred, you’re scaring the kid!”
Shred looked at Niel oddly. “Am I scaring you?”
“No! Well, I...I mean…a little. But I…I want to go through with it. I want to be able to breathe well enough to get better and help out the team, and maybe I can be useful.”
“Exactly my thinking.” Shred nodded. “Practical child.”
Niel looked between the two of them, a bit worried. “Can we maybe make this…not hurt?”
“No.” Shred said, almost cheerfully. “But if you and Mitven insist, we can try to make this slower and less painful.” She rolled her eyes. “Do you have equipment on hand, Mitven?”
“No, but the nearest medical center has supplies I have access to. I am a medic, you know. Dealing with surgeries and such is kind of my thing.”
Shred nodded and knelt down by Mira. “You go back to the others, okay? Stay with Samuel. If he asks, tell him that I went to help Niel and Mitven, okay?”
Mira squeaked.
“Do you understand?”
“Yis!”
“Okay.” Shred smiled and shooed her away. “Go.”
Mira sighed, not wanting to be separated from Shred and not understanding what was going on, but she liked and trusted Samuel. She scrambled away from Shred and made her way towards Samuel, rubbing against his leg. Samuel frowned and knelt down. “What’s up, Mira? Where’s Shred?”
“Help Niel and…Mmmm…Mit.” Mira blinked, having difficulty with the name.
“Niel and Mitven? With what?”
Mira shrugged and made a vague slicing motion.
“Oh, that’s specific.” Samuel sighed. “Okay.” He started to stand but she whimpered.
“Up! Up!”
“Okay, okay.” Samuel laughed quietly as he picked up the little dragon, smiling slightly and tuning back into the conversation in the room.
Just as Zekara finished telling Iirkolav about how she was good with boats, a breathless skettisren scrambled into the room. He leaned against a wall, gasping for air, before speaking.
“One of…those Hostile things…coming this way.” He paused to breathe for a moment more. “Ahzzen...sent me. Cleared use of…emergency rails to the surface. You have to…fight them off.” He pointed a shaking claw down a tunnel. “Follow that…tunnel until you find the room with…the red writing. Go in and…take the rail to the surface. Hurry!”
Iirkolav surged to his feet. “Let’s go! We need to get up there before the Hostile arrives! You listen to me and what I say about the damn thing, got it? Those things are dangerous killing machines and I know all about them. Come on!” He led the way down the tunnel, foot clanking loudly. Samuel raced over to where Teramelle was dozing and gently put Mira down.
“Stay here, okay? It’s too dangerous up there.”
“Noooo!”
“Mira, I mean it, okay? Stay here.” Samuel set off down the tunnel, shouting for Tranpar to stay back in the tunnel. Tim grabbed his hand and stopped him from following, shaking his boxed head violently.
“I’ll look after them! You guys go on!” Xullos called, earning a thanks from Samuel as he redoubled his speed to catch up with the others.
-~-
Blame’s eyes slowly opened as he became aware of the fact that he was awake again. He groaned, nerves sore, as he sat up. He struggled to remember what had happened, memory fuzzy, as he looked around the room.
He appeared to be in the medical wing, with a web of red lightning all along the walls and centered specifically on the door. He watched the energies dance, frowning as he struggled to remember.
He heard a quiet laugh and he whipped around, reaching for his swords before realizing with horror that they weren’t there. The laugh sounded again and his memories suddenly triggered.
Glar’ren.
Wait.
Glar’ren? He could have sworn that-
Iirkolav!
Blame jumped to his feet and raced to the door, slamming his shoulder into it. He yelped as the energies shocked him and pushed back at him. He slammed into the door again but it didn’t move, it didn’t give, Guude’s worldbuilder power keeping him back. He growled in fury and frustration, continuing to try and open the door before he heard Glar’ren’s laugh again.
Blame spun around, feeling naked and exposed without his weapons and without an exit. A shadow crept along the edge of the room and Glar’ren’s voice spoke, a hiss more ominous than the one a creeper lets out before it explodes.
“So, you’re trapped in here with just me for company, huh…? Fun… I guess you want to see Iirkolav, but you won’t. You won’t ever see him ever again…” The voice laughed and Blame raised his fists, looking around wildly for the source of the voice.
He felt a presence behind him and a warm breath on the back of his neck and he turned around again, only seeing the glowing door in front of him.
“No, no, no. Never again… I’m going to kill you, you know.” Movement in the corner of Blame’s vision sent him turning again, but he felt a sensation like razor-sharp claws slowly trailing his back that made him shriek. In his heightened emotional and paranoid, hallucinating state, he was more prone to violent and uncharacteristic reactions, and Glar’ren’s words only drove him on.
“I’m going to gut you, tear out your intestines and rip open your lungs like I did your precious little Iirkolav… I’m going to sink my teeth into your windpipe and use your skull and mask as decoration while I sharpen my claws on Iirkolav’s metal foot, paint the walls of my cave with your blood…you’d like that, wouldn’t you? Your blood and his would be together, forever, as a warning against any others who happen to offend me…”
Blame tried to ignore the presence he felt behind him, tried to ignore the odd shadow that fell across him from behind as he turned and slammed his fists into the door, screaming for someone to let him out, to give him his weapons, to free him.
“No one’s coming for you, Blame! No one can hear your screams!” Glar’ren howled with laughter, looming behind the desperate Skullblade as he pounded against the reinforced door, screams for help echoing in the room and down the hall. Even Vechs, standing guard outside the door, ignored them, assuming that they were just the screams of a man who desperately wanted to see Iirkolav.
Blame’s screams mixed with sobs as Glar’ren continued to taunt him, words poisoning his mind and leaving him curled up on the floor against the door, sobbing and begging for the door to open, but it remained firmly closed, leaving him alone with the terrors of his mind.
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Date: Thursday, October 22nd, 2015 02:10 am (UTC)*sobbing*
/#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/ /#/
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Date: Thursday, October 22nd, 2015 02:33 am (UTC)G.C. (::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)
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Date: Thursday, October 22nd, 2015 11:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, October 22nd, 2015 06:11 am (UTC)I'm glad Iirkolav is there to help deal with the Hostile. He will be VERY useful.
"Blame has a bad day" why am I not surprised? Oh, because I knew it was only a matter of time because Tana has some sort of grudge against him. Right. Poor guy.
Give some of these cookies to Blame! He needs them. (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::)
-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: Thursday, October 22nd, 2015 11:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Friday, October 23rd, 2015 06:17 am (UTC)-TLL
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Date: Thursday, October 22nd, 2015 06:34 am (UTC)-Anon Cami
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Date: Thursday, October 22nd, 2015 02:00 pm (UTC)-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: Thursday, October 22nd, 2015 11:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Friday, October 23rd, 2015 01:23 am (UTC)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)(::)
*Also cinnamon buns so that hopefully Blame will keep a modicum of sanity*
(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)(@)
- Scara
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Date: Thursday, October 22nd, 2015 06:45 am (UTC)Poor Blame...
*Silently wants more Valkan hate*
-Random Anon
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Date: Thursday, October 22nd, 2015 12:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, October 22nd, 2015 11:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Friday, October 23rd, 2015 06:25 am (UTC)I just keep feeling sorrier and sorrier for Blame, so more cookies! (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (:;) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::)
-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: Friday, October 23rd, 2015 08:16 pm (UTC)POINT 2: TANADIN NO
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Date: Friday, October 23rd, 2015 08:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, October 24th, 2015 06:29 am (UTC)-the lurkiest lurker
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Date: Wednesday, February 24th, 2016 10:15 pm (UTC)Hah.
Real knee slapper.
*slaps knee*