VampireOracle

The Test

Tentative interest for this, though no guarantee I'll be able to join. My decision would not only be impacted by how the actual OOC looks, but on the posting expectations. Would you be able to give me some idea of what you are expecting in that regard?

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

Sophia Lemane

Building A: Suite 226, USARILN East
September 9th, 2020 - 8:00 am

Opening her eyes, Sophia wondered what had woken her up, for her alarm clock was silent. Grabbing the clock from off the floor, her eyes widened. She had overslept a lot, and she didn't even remember turning the alarm off. But at least... it wasn't past nine yet. Even though she didn't have to go to class, she still wanted to. She needed to learn that stuff, for it seemed that she was pretty much the youngest. Everyone else probably already knew what was being taught.

Though she had less time than she would have liked, she didn't exactly hurry. An hour was plenty of time to eat and get dressed, she'd done it in less than half the time before.

---

Ten minutes before nine, Sophia was seated at the same desk as on Monday. The materials provided for her that she had forgotten to bring back to her room were still there, waiting for her to use. She had the electives sheet with her, so she was all set for class.

Or maybe... she wasn't set for class. She felt tired even though she had overslept, and though she normally liked math, it didn't seem so appealing today. Physics didn't seem appealing at all either. One could say that she was missing her motivation. She was telling herself that she needed to know that stuff, but for what? Her future, at the moment, was feeling very uncertain. How did education exactly work around here? Class was only every other day, and half the class had been allowed to just ditch class for winning that game. It didn't seem that the "school" cared too much about the students learning things. Just from the three classes she had taken so far, Sophia hadn't been liking it much. The first teacher had seemed far from eager to teach. The second hadn't explained things clear enough for her, and the way that man had talked had just bored her. The third hadn't been any better.

Interrupting her thoughts, the math teacher entered, looking no more enthusiastic as she had been on the first day. Class began.

Though she tried her best to pay attention throughout all the classes, Sophia was rapidly failing. Math, done by self-studying, went slowly and the section she was working on wasn't easy. By the time the physics teacher arrived, Sophia was frustrated and beginning to feel drowsy. The droning on about one of her least favorite subjects didn't help, and she found herself tuning the teacher out for almost all of class. And then by the time it was time for English, Sophia just wanted to go and sleep. English was a subject that she liked sometimes, especially if it was writing, but she wasn't in the mood for all this stuff about grammar and specific little details. That class, she tuned out too. By the time the last class before lunch ended, all she just wanted to was go lay down and rest.

Picking up the elective sheet, she handed it in on her way out.

Electives

4 Art/Photography
2 Creative Writing
6 Woodworking
7 P.E.
8 Film Study
3 Music Theory
5 Home Ec
1 Computer Science

She would not be coming back into class that day. Sometime during the morning, she had decided to skip the rest of the classes after lunch. None of them seemed like they would be spectacular anyways. Okay, she did feel a little guilty. But she probably wouldn't be able to pay much attention with how off she was feeling today. So it would just be wasted time sitting in class, right? Really, she didn't need to attend class anyway. Even though she really hadn't done anything during the game, luck had assigned her to the team that won.

She exited the room for lunch.

---

6:45 pm

Sophia came back from combat training exhausted. She wasn't exactly out of shape, but she was far from strong. She hadn't been able to do all that the exercises set out for them required, especially when it came to using weights. She rarely had used them when exercising back at home, for her parents hadn't let her lift more than a few pounds. Something about not being fully developed yet.

Glancing around her room, she sighed. There were still items lying around from what she had been doing before a guard had come to fetch her to the training, for she had totally forgotten about it after skipping the second half of class. She'd lost track of the time and it had slipped her mind, being occupied with setting up her phone to her liking (something that had been done with much trial and error due to her lack of experience), looking through the evaluation packet that had been brought to her room, and working on training Heidi.

Ignoring the stuff around the room, she made a little list in her head. First, shower. Then, put away the stuff. Feed Heidi, write in her journal, then go have dinner.

---

8:35 pm

Sophia was having another one of those silent debates inside her head. Though she had been trying her best to keep herself from thinking about her family, it was hard. She missed them. She had never been very capable of talking to any of them, but they had always been there. Now, all she had for a companion was Heidi.

But when she thought about her family, she wasn't just missing them. She was worried especially about how her siblings were doing after she was gone. Her little sister would be alone at night, with no one to read her a bedtime story or reassure her that no monsters or ghosts were going to come while she was asleep. Her older sister would have no one who would be able to listen to her and actually understand, or give her advice or reassure her...

Sophia looked down at the phone laying beside her. Should she call? What if her sister hung up on her once she found out who was calling? Matilda had never struck Sophia as that sort of person, but how would Sophia know? What would Matilda think if Sophia called her now? Would she be relived upon getting the call? What if Matilda broke down and Sophia couldn't cheer her up? What if Sophia accidentally showed how she didn't like it here, and Matilda began worrying about her? Something like this had never happened before.

Call Matilda now.

Call another day instead.

Call another family member instead.

Never call and forget about it all.

There were so many pros and cons that she could come up with for each of the options. She could feel herself begin to overheat, her palms became sweaty, her heart was beating so fast. She didn't know. She couldn't decide. It was so hard. Her head seemed to be ringing faintly. She felt detached from everything around her.

She sat there for what seemed like ages, unable to get a good enough grip on herself to draw herself back to the room she sat in. A few minutes later, she became aware that something warm and heavy was in her lap. Slowly, she moved her head to look down. Her right hand came up to gently stroke Heidi, feeling the vibrations as the cat purred. Her left hand released its grip on the arm of the chair.

Running her hand over her face, she let out a long breath. She hated when she got so worked up over such little things. Except it wasn't a little thing... anyway. She made up her mind to call another day. She certainly would call, but not when she was feeling like this. She needed to be happy when she called her older sister, to show her that everything was okay and that she was doing fine.

Deciding to go to bed early, she got dressed then crawled under the covers. Hopefully, sleep would come soon.

But probably not.

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

Liliana Brandt | Sophia Lemane

---

𝕊𝕖𝕡𝕥. 𝟟, 𝟚𝟘𝟚𝟘 / / 𝕌𝕊𝔸ℝ𝕀𝕃ℕ 𝔼𝕒𝕤𝕥 / / 𝕊𝕖𝕔𝕦𝕣𝕚𝕥𝕪 𝕆𝕦𝕥𝕡𝕠𝕤𝕥 / / ~𝟙𝟡𝟘𝟘

Lily was still rubbing her eyes when they were told that they can all go back to their rooms. As her classmates filed out one by one, she remained in her seat, still struggling to keep the voices in her head down. But the more she tried thinking of other things, the more the malicious thoughts crept into her head. There was no denying it now. Her craving... no, her need for destruction was making the voices become more persistent and louder. Her eyes flickered towards the screens that was replaying the recenly concluded battle.

It was a wrong move. The moment she saw the violence, the more the voices became louder, filling her head entirely that she can no longer hear herself think. Or could she? Were the voices there because of her stigma? Or were they her thoughts.

She felt someone jab something at her and her eyes flew open. She looked at rifle poking her arm then at the guard who was holding it.

"Move it."

Without arguing or really thinking about it, the blonde teen stood up and walked towards the door, where the last of her classmates was just walking through. No real point resisting... She stopped when she got to the door and glanced back at the guard who was standing just a few feet behind her, his rifle pointed at his back.

Provoke him, the voice in her head whispered.

W-what?

Provoke him, the voice repeated. And then hurt him.

The guard glared at Lily and then gestured to the door with his rifle.

For a moment, Lily almost gave in to what the voice in her head was saying, taking a step towards him. Just a small move to make him believe that she was threatening. Just a small move and that finger poised over the rifle's trigger would press down. And then...

Lily's eyes widened when she heard a commotion outside. The voice strangely receded back into the small girl's chaotic mind as she turned and hurried out. What was happening? Was there another attack? Thoughts of her last real battle flashed through her head and in her distraction, she ran into a slightly taller girl with dark brown hair that was standing by the edge of the gathered students.

Lily blinked. 'Oh! Uh... sorry."

---

At last, it was time for them to go back. Getting up quickly, Sophia excited the room along with the majority of the students that were awake and responding to the guards' orders. The front of her clothes were still thoroughly soaked, and so the cooler night air made her shiver. For once it didn't take her long to decide that once the guards stopped escorting them and left them to their own devices, she would go to directly to her room and change. Along with getting a nice warm shower.

Her thoughts began to wander as her legs mechanically brought her wherever the guards were beginning to escort them to. Not paying much attention to her surroundings, she jumped as a loud blaring rang through the air. Within seconds, guards surged forward, showing her exactly where the noise and trouble was coming from. Though the sound of the alarm was beginning to make her head ring, she strained to hear words through the commotion and was rewarded with a sentence or two before she clamped her hands over her ears. Someone had been ordered down.

Is that... how a cuff alarm sounds? Had one of the students tried to make trouble? She couldn't see anything through the circle of guards surrounding the small area, but there hadn't been any gunshots... yet. So that was a good thing?

A jolt from behind caused her to jump and take her eyes off the scene. Removing her hands from her ears as she turned around, Sophia was just able to catch the words of the blonde girl who stood behind her. She recognized the girl as one of the healers, but that was all. It took Sophia a few seconds to respond, gazing at the face of the girl as she drew her mind from thoughts of the commotion.

"No, don't worry about it."

She frowned and, afraid she might not have been heard over the alarm, tried to raise her voice. "It's fine."

Glancing from the circle of guards a little ways off and back again to the girl, she really didn't know what to do or say, so she just forced a smile.

As soon as Lily heard the girl say that it was okay, she turned back to the commotion, curiosity getting the better of her. She stood on tiptoes but everyone was taller than her and she couldn't see anything. "What's happening?" she asked, craning her neck. After a few seconds of trying, she sighed and then turned back to the girl she had bumped into. Upon closer look, it appeared that she was one of the healers from the second round of flag football, the one that hid under the bed. She scratched her head, wondering what kind of healing abilities she had. "Oh, you're one of the healers from the second group," she said, obviously unaware of what the girl's real powers were.

Sophia didn't respond to the girl's question, watching her try to see over the heads in front of them, unsuccessfully. I can't see anything either. She nodded at the girl's remark, before deciding to try and add a few words in. "Yeah. One of the," she made air quotation marks with her hands, "healers." She exhaled sharply before continuing. "I don't actually... heal."

Wait. Now that Sophia herself had brought up that she wasn't a healer, would the girl ask what her power was? She thought of her power, already beginning to organize what she was capable of into detailed sentences, just in case. -then the last thing I can do is see through stuff, basically x-ray vision. But as I said, I'm not very good yet, so I can't see through anything like rocks. More like water, cloth-

As if suddenly realizing something, Sophia's head snapped towards the circle of guards. X-ray vision. She couldn't see living things, but... the clothes... she could see clothes. If she tried to X-ray her surroundings... would it be possible for her to find out what was going on?

"Maybe I could..." Though her lips could be seen moving, what she said was too quiet for anyone to hear over the alarm.

"Oh, you don't? Hmmm... come to think of it..." Lily thought back to the other healer from the second group... the tall, blonde boy. He had been destructive and fought hard not to be captured. No, he didn't seem like a healer as well. If he was, then he'd be called on to heal the injured. Yet, only that timid boy Christmas had been needed for the task. "Well, what do you..." she was just about to ask about her powers when the brown haired girl turned her attention to the guards. Curious, she stepped nearer and then followed her gaze. "You don't happen to have X-ray vision, do you?" It seemed like a silly question. But where they were, it wasn't really silly at all.

The girl guessed correctly, surprising Sophia. How had she been able to tell? Of course, that was only one of the three types of sight Sophia had, but still. A little creepy. Biting her lip, she nodded then gestured towards the guards. "Do you... think I should?"

Lily blinked. "I was right? Seriously? That's so cool!" The idea of this girl having X-ray vision perked her up a bit. She looked towards the guards and then shrugged. "Well, it'll be nice if you can find out what's all this fuss about. Or we can just walk away. Either way, I don't think we'll be able to do anything about it."

What Sophia had been hoping for was a definite answer as to if she should use her power or not. But then, it was her choice to make, so she appreciated that the girl wasn't trying to push her into doing one thing or another. She did want to find out what was going on. "I think I'm going to."

Concentrating on her power of X-ray vision, she activated her power. Showing that her power was now on, from each of Sophia's eyes came a faint white glow, and her eyes appeared unfocused. To her, the world was now shown in shades of gray. Everything seemed so strange now that it took her a few seconds to comprehend the things she was seeing around her. Everyone was gone, including the girl standing beside her, and all that remained to be seen of everyone was their clothing, floating in midair.

In the darkest shades of gray were the objects that she could not see through, like the telephone pole and the floating guns that each guard had. The circle of guards was now a circle of clothing, depicted in a medium shade of gray. Through the layer of clothes that the guards were wearing, she could just see that there was another set of clothes of someone who seemed to be kneeling on the ground. The source of all the commotion. And near the figure on the ground, was the shape of what she recognized as a cuff that all the students had to wear.

That person managed to take their cuff off? No wonder there's such a fuss. That was amazing, but a little scary too. What kind of power did that person have to be able to slip a cuff so easily, without getting electrocuted in the process?

Then, as she watched, something happened. One moment the person was there on the ground, and the next, the clothes seemed to slip into the dark gray ground... and vanish. She gasped, and her mind reeled. Where... how... had the person disappeared? Someone screamed. A woman, judging from the clothes, forced her way through the circle and knelt on the ground. A few seconds later, the alarm shut off.

Still staring at the place where the person had disappeared, Sophia seemed to have forgotten about the girl beside her. She was even more confused than before. She had no idea what had just happened, all she knew was that it had been bad.

Lily stared at the brown haired girl. She sort of expected some garish display of power, maybe something like how Superman does it while the camera showed everyone what he sees. It was a silly expectation but nevertheless, she was disappointed when the teen merely appeared to be staring into space. She was just about to reach out and touch the girl's arm when she heard a scream. Her head snapped towards where it came from but her sight, as always, was blocked by the multitude of tall people standing around. Being small has its advantages but this was definitely not one of them. And so, feeling bored again, Lily stood there and waited until the alarm shut off. But, by then, she was so bored and the voices in her head began whispering again that she huffed and walked away.

Too absorbed in her own thoughts to notice the girl walking away, it took Frederic's orders to bring her back to the present on goings. Looking beside her, Sophia was surprised to see that the girl was no longer there. With a a twinge of guilt, she scanned her surroundings, trying to see if she could spot the girl. She probably would have wanted to know what Sophia had seen, and Sophia would have told her despite how disturbed she herself had been by it.

But with her power on all Sophia could see were the different styles of clothes the people around her wore, and she couldn't remember what the girl had been wearing. She soon gave up and instead began to make the walk back to Building A. Maybe she would see the girl another time, but until then, what she still really wanted to do was return to her room. She now had even more to think over than before.

Iris Halo

Laura Tilney

Hallway, Chroma Knight Base
December 19, 2016 - ~10:22

Endless concern, huh? Eyebrows rose as she kept her stern gaze, until Connor's hand came out to ruffle her hair. Seeing it coming a second before his hand landed on her head, she trying to dodge, unsuccessfully. Taking a step back when he was finished to prevent that from happening again, she made a made a face as she smoothed her hair down. She still had neglected to tie it up, and she made a mental note to do just that once she returned to her dorm.

Connor's answer had mostly satisfied her, but she hoped that he was telling the full truth. Still feeling serious, Connor's joke didn't exactly have the desired effect. He was trying to joke things off as if nothing had happened, when a lot had happened. Now that he was standing in front of her, she could finally let out some of the frustration and worry the incident had caused. Pressing her lips together, she leaned her back against the wall and crossed her arms. "Not funny," she said crisply.

"If Brian hadn't been watching."

"If you would have neglected to tell me that you were sparring and just gone ahead with it."

"If he would not have arrived on the scene immediately after your... accident took place to help teleport you over, I wouldn't even need to attach your arm back on, and you would not need a right hand man, because you would be dead. Darius passed out almost immediately after you did, he wouldn't have been able to get you help."

She held out a hand just in case he was thinking of interrupting. "Sure. You can argue that there were a few other people in the training room. A lot them were newbies, they might have freaked and instead of treating you, might have run out to get help instead. Which normally wouldn't be too bad, except that in those maybe five minutes that it would take for them to find someone capable of handling the situation, you would have pretty much bled out. And even if someone would have taken the first aid measures to stop the bleeding..." she trailed off, suddenly looking tired again.

"I'm not going to waste my time listing all of the possible outcomes. I get it, you're new here. You probably don't know me too well yet, and until we go out to a fight together you probably won't. But I do not tolerate injuries that come from simple carelessness. Darius was the one who swung the sword, but you could have taken measures to prevent that blow. Did either of you set a limit to how far you were willing to go, and define how you would decide a tie or a winner? Darius can get carried away sometimes... as you saw, he can be very eager and maybe he forgets who he's going against. I wouldn't exactly know."

"But this was practice. This should not have happened."

"As for how Darius is... he should be fine. I left him under the care of another healer, Eric. You may have seen him once or twice."

"Right. Also," the hand that she had been holding up now pointed at him, "you better not be lying about your arm. That's something I also don't tolerate. If there's a problem, you tell me and I can see what I can do. There's no such thing as being "weak" if you admit that there's something hurting. Better I see what can be done now, not later when we're in the middle of a fight and a problem gets worse."

At last, she dropped her arm and leaned her head back against the wall too, so she was looking up at the ceiling. Pulling one corner of her mouth up so she was half smiling, she said one last thing.

"There's my lecture finished."

---

@PrimalOrigins

Iris Halo

@Aeternum I'm not entirely sure about the time either. I thought it might make sense, but let tell you how I chose the time.

The fight probably started around 7:50-ish or 7:55. (Breakfast began more or less around 7:30/35) Then, the fight was probably pretty short, maybe less than 10 minutes, since the actions in the spar couldn't have taken that long to carry out, in my opinion. So then it must have been around 8 when Connor was brought to the infirmary. I mentioned that the healing itself took around seven minutes, plus the prep before the healing, so that must have taken around 20-25 minutes. By then, it's around 8:25. She heads back and showers, changes, etc, which probably takes half an hour max. So it's 9:05. Then it's about another 30 minutes before she decides to sleep, making it 9:35. So then, she really had quite a bit of sleep.

Maybe Brian went to bed at almost ten because on top of doing the cleaning, showering, and such, he also went smoking? Right now I feel that a lot of people might be in different times in the rp, which is why we asked for players to try not and interact past noon, so we all end up around the same time once more. Not sure about Connor having laid down for "a few hours" though... hmm. Probably he ended up being out for more like 2 hours.

I guess I could always push back the time that Laura went to check up on him so that he ended up being out for more time. @PrimalOrigins

Iris Halo

Laura Tilney

Her dorm, Chroma Knight Base
December 19, 2016 - ~10:20

Her intended short nap turned out not to be so short, for when Laura woke up sometime later, it was... past ten. Groaning inwardly and scolding herself for not setting a timer, she got up off the ground. But that nap had probably been worth it, though an unfortunate usage of time. She now felt more refreshed, though still not at her full hundred percent. Her head too felt less clouded, and her mood was less irritated than it had been after healing Connor.

Would Connor and Darius have woken up by now? Heading out of her room, she made up her mind to go and check. Would it have been someone else from a different team, or someone she rarely interacted with in the base, she still would have gone to check. Laura was still feeling nervous about the quality of her work on Connor, and even though her work had been checked over, she wanted to see with her own eyes that his arm was fully functional.

Almost at the infirmary, she turned a corner and saw Connor's figure heading away from her down the hall. Quickening her pace, she walked past him before turning around and stopping in his path. "Connor. You're awake." That was the first thing she said. Connor was now fully in the spotlight, all of Laura's attention fixed on him. Or rather... on his arm.

"How's your arm? Does it feel alright? Any aching or soreness, any limitation of movement, any numbness? Do you feel dizzy, or weak, or anything else out of the ordinary?" Having run out of air by the end of her mini assault of questions, she drew in another deep breath. This time though, she just let it out slowly as she looked up at him and fixed him with a stern blue-gray gaze, waiting for her questions to be answered.

---

@PrimalOrigins

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

Sophia Lemane

Her goal, lying under that bed, was to try and do nothing. Try not to panic, try not to let anxiety get the best of her. Try not to think too much. Just breathe. The crashes, the yells, the screams. All of it was... very scary. Some part of her said she shouldn't be scared, it was just training.

But there had been a scream.

As time ticked on, she found out that trying to do nothing wasn't possible in this situation. Her fists stacked on top of each other and her head resting on top to keep it out of the water, she could feel that her hands were cold, while her face was hot. Sometimes she was able to disregard things going on around her and be pretty much emotionless, but this was not the case today. She supposed that she was lucky to not have been assigned to fight as part of one of the teams.

It was kind of strange, that all the noise was coming from upstairs. The teams must have figured out that she and the other healer would be put on the top floor and worked from that information. Maybe someone could fly, like Sparrow, and was able to carry their team up. And the other team had some other useful power for transportation as well. She had thought that it was a bad thing to be hiding on the first floor, but now she was glad that she had decided to move after all. If she wouldn't have, then she probably would have ended up being caught in whatever was going on now.

Another of those crashes that sounded like something had been broken. Accompanied with a sound like a loud thud, though there were a few ways describe it. But she didn't have much time to think about what had happened to create such a loud noise, for within a minute something else happened. Someone was breaking in through one of the doors. She wished that she had gotten a power that made her invisible somehow, then she wouldn't have to face whoever was coming in.

Shortly later, the chopping stopped for a few moments, and then, soft voices. Two of them... and did she recognize that voice? It was hard to make out words, but was that Savannah's voice? That girl that she had met at the mall.

With no good way to escape, Sophia listened as footsteps came closer and closer, ready to be discovered at any moment. Still, she started when a boy peered under the bed and discovered her. Letting herself be pulled out from under the bed, she didn't resist. She now stood with the boy, Savannah, and another girl near her. The most awkward part of this was that Savannah was here, when Sophia had hoped she never would have to interact with the girl again. What was she supposed to do now, say hello?

Actually, Sophia did nothing of the sort, for the group seemed to be in a hurry as they exited the bedroom. That was fine with her, she felt some sort of relief that she didn't have to decide anything by herself anymore, she could just follow. But they hadn't reached the exit when a sound behind her made her turn, and everyone else did the same.

Was that some kind of giant dagger in the new arrival's hand? Judging from the reactions of the people around her, the group that had found her and the single girl must be on opposite teams. The boy soon proved that her assumption was right by charging the girl. Once she realized that he was attacking, she took a step backwards, though she kept her gaze on the scene. Seemingly to counter the attack, a strange swirling dark creature appeared from nowhere between the boy and dagger girl, and-

Sophia didn't see any more, for at that moment, Savannah pulled her away from the scene and out the door. Behind her, she could hear someone proposing a truce, but soon she was too far to hear any more words. She let herself be led until they stepped into a circle that was marked "Safe Point 4", the words glowing. Seemed like she was supposed to stay in the circle. Looking towards the house as she wondered what was going on, she made out a figure heading towards them through the dim light.

Was the person someone from Savannah's team, or the opposite team? Sophia began to form a question, but before she could ask, Savannah seemed to collapse on the ground. Eyes widening, she immediately knelt on the ground beside the fallen girl. "Savannah?" No response. And most of the girl's clothes were gone... meaning that the stranger had worked some power on the girl?

Just to make sure, she reached over and checked Savannah's pulse, relieved to fine that she could feel a heartbeat. She stayed there crouched by the girl's side until her cuff beeped, announcing the end of the game. Stepping back to let the newly arrived guard move Savannah to the group of people that was now forming, she followed. Though the light was dim, she could tell that many of the people were unconscious. What exactly had happened?

A few more minutes, then more guards arrived with a boy in their midst. Sophia watched with fascination as a strange mist enveloped them all after the boy was commanded to heal. She didn't feel any changes, but then again, she wasn't really injured. A few minutes later they were escorted to a room.

Entering, the first thing she noticed were the large screens, recognizing what was being played on them as what had happened during the game. She looked at them curiously after taking a seat, but had to turn away after two acts of violence were shown: a red-haired girl doing something that looked like melting the other healer's face before they both passed out, and the boy that had found her driving a splintered piece of wood into the eye of another girl.

That was what happened during the game? Dropping her head into her hands, she ignored everything and everyone around her as she waited for them to let her go back to her room. That's all she wanted to do right now, go back and sort things out in her head.

Iris Halo

Laura Tilney

Infirmary, Chroma Knight Base
December 19, 2016 - ~8:02 am

Brian's teleportation into the infirmary left Laura feeling disorientated and dizzy for a little while, for even four years of being teleported to where ever a monster showed up somehow hadn't made her immune to the side effects. But even before the effects finished entirely fading, an Asclepian on duty was already hurrying towards them while a younger one trailed behind, and the older Asclepian helped Brian and her unload Connor onto a nearby empty bed.

Brian hurried out of the room soon after, and though Laura heard him go, she didn't even glance at him. He was undoubtedly going to retrieve Darius, and she didn't feel the need to go with him. She had seen that he had kept a level head and knew that he knew basic first aid measures. He and Amelie would be fine bringing Darius over without medic supervision.

At the moment, she had more urgent things to tend to. The black haired Asclepian man in the room was already preparing what was needed in order to reattach Connor's arm. Moving around to get the last thing needed, Laura held up a hand to stop the man as he reached for Connor's arm.

"Wait. Is it alright if I do it while you supervise?"

The man stopped, looking over at Laura. He pressed his lips together for a moment, before nodding and stepping back. "Go ahead."

Laura stepped up to Connor's side, taking the place where the man had been before. As she began the procedure of cleaning the arm and wound, she added, "For the experience."

It took a few minutes before Laura was ready to do the tricky part of putting arm and body together. Picking up the arm, she aligned it with the stub of arm that remained on Connor's body. At this point, the man came forward to help her hold it in place, leaving both her hands free to do the healing.

Wrapping her gloved hands around the point where the detached arm met the stub of arm, she concentrated and turned on her magic. Her powers now activated, she could feel the delicate strands of magic flowing from her hands and into the wound, though nothing changed visibly. Narrowing her eyes as the process began, she concentrated hard with her gaze fixated on her hands.

Moving those strands of magic so that they focused on the bone, she began to meld the two pieces together. First, the bone. Then, the arteries and veins. After that, she began to work on tendons, muscle tissues, and nerves. The work was painstakingly slow, and as she worked beads of sweat formed on her forehead. While she was working, Darius was brought in, but Laura didn't notice.

Instead, the younger Asclepian helped Brian and Amelie move Darius onto another empty bed, before going to check the bandaging on his eye to make sure that it had been done properly. However, the healer made no move to begin healing the wound by herself.

Even at her level, it took Laura around six to seven minutes before she was done, knitting the skin together as a last step. Where there had previously been no arm, was an arm, hopefully well connected. At last removing her hands from around Connor's arm, she took a look at the area beneath. A scar where the arm had been connected remained, but she had done what she could. He was lucky to have his arm back and functioning. Hopefully functioning, if she had done it correctly.

Saying that she was just tired would have been an understatement. She felt totally exhausted and was sweating all over, and now that she came out of the trance she had slipped into while healing, she could feel her hands shaking slightly. But she still wasn't done. Now that the most important wound had been healed, she reached over a placed a hand over the cut on Connor's face, healing that much more easily. Last of all she checked Connor's pulse and breathing, and finding that all seemed as normal as it could be under such a circumstance, stepped back.

"Done. Can you check?"

The man stepped forward once Laura spoke, placing his hands on Connor's arm just like Laura had done. Running his magic through the area, he checked for anything internally that Laura might have missed. Nothing had been missed. Turning to face her, he spoke. "I can't find anything that seems to be off. I'll check up on him once more after he regains consciousness, but you did well." Taking in her obviously exhausted state, he continued. "You should go change and rest, I'll keep an eye on him."

All the time that the man had been checking Connor, Laura had stood by anxiously, biting her lip. She breathed a sigh of relief as he pronounced the job well done, as far as he could tell. The moment of truth would come later after Connor woke up, when they would see if he could use his arm. Though tired as she was, she still made no move to remove her gloves or head out of the infirmary. "There's still Darius."

The man shook his head. "I will deal with that. You've done enough for today." To make his point, he walked over to where the younger healer stood by Darius. "Go on."

Laura was visibly reluctant, but she peeled off the dirty gloves, discarded them, then cleaned her hands. "I'll come back later if they haven't woken up by then." Exiting the infirmary on shaky legs, she stopped once she was a few steps down the hall. Looking down at herself, her gaze narrowed in on the blood spots on her yoga pants. The spots showed up nicely against the medium gray color. She must have accidentally knelt in some of Connor's blood.

Looking at those spots reminded her of the training room. The floor would still be covered in blood, unless the next person who had gone there had seen it and cleaned it up, instead of rescheduling training for later. She should check to make sure the floor was clean, just in case.

Making the detour to the training facility, she pushed open the door that now seemed much heavier, and entered. Scanning the floor for any sign of blood, she found none and turned to exit. Glad someone had the initiative to clean that mess up.

The next destination was her dorm, and once inside, she grabbed something clean to wear and headed for the showers. She didn't like the feeling of being covered in sweat. Her shower was a long one, and she came out feeling refreshed, though still tired. The clothes she pulled on were quite similar to the ones she had worn before, except this time it was a dark red elbow length shirt and a black pair of yoga pants.

Scrubbing her pants under the tap and using a large amount of soap, she was dismayed to find that a light red patch still remained. Argh. And this was all because of the two of them. Hadn't they set down any terms for how violent they were willing to have the spar become, and how they would determine the winner? That's how she would have done it. But Connor had turned out to be too reckless, and Darius too experienced and too easily excited. She would sooo give them a talking to later.

Wringing out her pants and hanging it up, she left the shower area. She'd deal with the stain later, but for now she didn't feel like it. Entering her room once more, she sank down into a chair and leaned backwards. Thinking back on the recently transpired events, she ran over what the reactions had been. Brian, surprisingly, had arrived on the scene quite quickly. He had no doubt been watching the spar from afar, too lazy to even walk to the training facility.

But at least he had remained calm. Amelie, on the other hand, had not. And for herself, well, Laura supposed she had done alright with tending to Connor and helping to get him to the infirmary. Though she really needed to work on her healing. It had taken her too long, and she hadn't even been able to heal Darius. The problem was that she could only practice whenever there was an injury, and she didn't want accidents or battles to happen more just so that she could practice. So most of what she learned was theory.

With a soft sigh, Laura got up and switched chairs so that she sat at her desk. Her textbook still lay there, and she opened it. Scanning down the page to see where she had stopped, she began to read again. But she was still too tired to focus properly, and she found that she kept reading the same paragraph over and over as she fought to keep her eyes open. After ten minutes of this, she closed the book and lay down in the middle of the floor.

A short nap before returning to her studies would be alright. But just a short one.

Iris Halo

Laura Tilney | Amelie Kendrick | Brian Campbell

---

It wasn't long before Laura reached the training facility, and pushing the door open, she stepped inside before immediately looking for Connor and Darius. They weren't hard to spot, for both wielded weapons and had already begun the fight. Without her supervision. Eyes locked on the fighting pair, it was only a few seconds after her arrival that she witnessed the first injury of the duel.

With Connor's skills still being at a lower level compared to Darius's due to the former's short time in training, the time slow that Connor performed still didn't give him enough time to doge Darius's attack. Thus, Connor sustained a gash on the face. Laura was too far away to be able to make out the depth and severity of the cut, but since Connor was still fighting, she hoped it wasn't too bad.

Still keeping her eyes on the pair, Laura quickly made her way over to the set of bleachers at the side of the training room. To protect the viewers from any mishaps that the people training might cause, the viewing area was separated by a low wall with wire fencing above it, a swinging gate placed where there was a small break in the wall and fencing.

Eyes still on the pair so as not to miss anything in the fast-paced fight, she took the few steps needed to take a seat on the bleachers without needing to look where she was going, and took a seat, placing the coffee mug in her lap.

Leaning forward slightly with her brow furrowed, she inhaled sharply as Connor's knife found it's way into Darius's eye, or rather, Darius's eye socket. "Shit, shit, shit," she muttered under her breath, now ready to spring up at any moment should things get worse. I think I better stop this soon. Biting her lip, she subconsiously brought the coffee mug to her mouth and began to drink, her head turned sideways to still keep an eye on the fight. How far should she let things go?

But just as she was swallowing down that mouthful of coffee, Darius lept at Connor. Eyes widening, Laura's immediate reaction was to try and yell at him to stop, but the mouthful of coffee she had taken caused her to choke. Slamming down the mug, she tried to force out a "Stop!" in between coughs, unsuccesfully. Daruis's sword swung, severing Connor's arm.

Amelie had just finished swallowing her coffee as quickly as humanly possible right as Darius lunged for Connor. "HOLY SHIT, STOP!" she stood up and screeched. But she was too late, as Connor's arm flew off. She pulled at her hair, her panic showing on her face as both of them wiped out. This had been a horrible bad idea. A newb Temporean fighting an old Hammer? That was a horrendous idea, and she should have put some reason into the two of them.

But lo and behold, she had not, and here they were.

At the moment, the most eloquent word Amelie could muster up was "FUCK!" Amelie usually didn't curse, so she was quite obviously panicking.

Not good. Really not good. As fast as she could, Laura began making her way along the bleachers and to the gate, noticing Brian's presence as she did so. Reaching the gate, she ran through and across the floor, where both Connor and Darius lay unconsious. Because of his wonderful teleporting, Brian had made it there first, already working on stopping the blood flow.

Trusting that Brian was capable enough of performing the first aid measures necessary, she only glanced at what he was doing quickly before snatching a pair of gloves from the first aid kit and running towards the nearby severed body part as she put them on.

Years ago Laura might have balked at even the thought of picking up a severed body part, but years of practice on the battlefield had made it so that she had no choice but to get her hands covered in blood. Bending over to pick up Connor's arm, she grabbed it around the elbow before turning and heading back, putting the arm next to it's owner.

It would be easier to transport the two of them to the base's infirmary rather than just treat him right there and then on the floor. Quickly checking to make sure that Brian had treated Connor's wound correctly, she decided that it was good enough for now, at least until she could reattach the arm at the infirmary.

"Brian." Laura spoke briskly. "He needs to be moved to the infirmary."

Brian nodded and quickly retrieved the stretcher and laid it down on the ground next to Connor. Carefully, he rolled Connor onto his uninjured side and nudged the stretcher under him.

Amelie rushed down the bleachers, flinging open the gate and rushing to their side.

Fidgeting anxiously, she asked "Is there anything that I can do to help?"

Brian glanced over at Darius then made eye contact with Amelie.

"Apply a pressure dressing to Darius' eye. Check him over for any other wounds and do what you can to deal with them, alright? Laura, I'm going to teleport us three to the infirmary."

His eyes flicked over to Laura, and then back again at Amelie.

"Amelie, I'll come back and help you carry Darius to the infirmary, okay?"

Amelie snatched the first aid kit, rooting through it until she found the gauze. She quickly layered it into a single, bulky patch the size of Darius's eye (and a bit of extra skin) and used some medical tape to tape it down firmly onto his eye.

When he saw that Amelie got to work immediately on dealing with that damned Hammer, Brian returned his eyes to Laura.

"You ready?" he waited for a sign of assent. "In three. Three, two, one." And he teleported all three of them to the infirmary.

Laura let Brian do the talking when Amelie finally calmed herself down and arrived at the scene. She wasn't happy with the way the older girl had freaked out, but now wasn't the time to think about such things. Double checking first to make sure that Connor lay correctly, she picked up the stretcher with Brian, then nodded to show she was ready. Together, they were teleported into the infirmary.

Brian felt a wave of dizziness when he teleported. He gulped down a couple deep breaths and steadied himself. His disorientation was less than that of his passengers, but in the end the effort he put into his jumps more than made up for the lack of disorientation. His clothes were sticking to his skin, already damp with sweat. He helped settle Connor in the infirmary before taking the stretcher and hurrying back out the doors to return to the training room. He paused just around the corner to close his eyes and catch his breath for a moment.

His complexion had simultaneously paled and reddened from the exertion making the dark shadows under his eyes stand out a little further. He used the trip back to the training room to cool down a little. It didn't take too long for him to arrive in front of the door to the training room. He put the stretcher aside just long enough to get the door open before grabbing it and going inside.

He quickly returned to Darius' side. He gave Darius a once-over, and then set down the stretcher and, with a little help from Amelie, got Darius situated on the other side.

"Amelie, you take that end of the stretcher, and I'll take this one. On the count of three, we'll lift the stretcher and walk to the infirmary, got it?"

Amelie nodded, heaving the stretcher to a place where it was comfortable for her to hold it.

Brian began his count down, and they managed to lift the stretcher with minimal jostling of their passenger. They began cautiously and deftly picking their way to the infirmary. The doors were a bit of trouble, but they managed to handle the doors at the training room. A few turns this way and that way and they found their way to the infirmary. It was a relief that the infirmary doors were wide open to receive them.

Amelie and Brian carried Darius in, and helped settle him down in a bed in the infirmary so the Asclepians could fuss over them.

Brian habitually gave the scene in the infirmary a once-over and, reassured that everything was well in hand, he left.

[Closed] Asbasta [Closed]

Helma Jade Berger

The announcements rang through the place where she was being held, some kind of undersea craft. The sack over her head made things unpleasantly stuffy, not to mention that she hated the feeling of not knowing what was going on around her. But the announcement had told her all she needed to know; that she had arrived at the prison where she was going to be held. Yes, she did deserve to be held. After what she had done before being captured, she supposed she deserved it. But that didn't mean she had to like it.

Standing up when instructed, she began to walk forwards, grudgingly letting the guard guide her so she didn't trip. After the check-up, she accepted her meager belongings. The sack over her head came off soon afterwards, letting her take a look at the place that was now to be her "home". She couldn't help but snort at the artwork on the wall. Was that supposed to make them feel better about the fact that they were in prison now? They didn't even care.

When it was time for her to be escorted to her cell with the other girls, she kept her head high and her face emotionless. However, inside she was struggling to accept the fact that she would be living here now. Part of her was to tempted to try a hopeless escape, but she knew that escape from here was nearly impossible. Instead, she let herself be pushed into her cell.

The door closed and locked behind her, leaving her with her cellmates. It was hard to ignore the wailing of the girl that in the same cell as Helma, and it was even harder to hold back on shouting at the girl to just shut up and keep her self pity to herself. To drown out the girl's wails, Helma threw herself on her cot, burying her head beneath the thin pillow. She lay awake for a long time even after the wailing stopped, falling asleep in the early hours of the morning.

---

The announcement later in the morning woke her up at once from her fitful sleep, though she didn't fully process whatever the announcement was actually about. Having slept a grand total of three to four hours, there were dark circles under her eyes. She didn't want to get up. But after laying there for a few minutes, her mouth twisted into something that seemed half a grimace and half smile, though one without joy. Right, let's do this. I'm going to get up now. Now. As in now.

It was still another minute before she got up, in time to exit her cell as the doors buzzed three times before opening. She didn't try to make any trouble that morning, not when she was half asleep on her feet and probably would have a hard time throwing a good punch. Accepting her tray of what was supposed to be edible food, she simply found the nearest available seat and sat.

She eyed her food with obvious distaste before picking up the utensil provided and taking a mouthful. Blech. It didn't taste anything like food, but she needed to eat something. Lifting another spoonful of food to her mouth, she continued to eat.