Hospital Finale Tooltime2

10:05 PM <Balthazaar> ready when you are Cocoa
10:07 PM <Cocoa> Evan strides down to Luna's containment cell, occult kit in hand. He also has his lost-finding dagger with him.
10:07 PM <Cocoa> 4df+3 Aegis Viriditas
10:07 PM <Glacon> Cocoa: Aegis Viriditas: 4 (4df+3=+, +, -, 0)
10:07 PM <Balthazaar> She's still strapped to the gurney with 8 extra arms and screaming spiders
10:07 PM <Cocoa> A green shield flickers to life around him, spiders at his feet exploding in small puffs of golden fire.
10:08 PM <Cocoa> He opens the case. "Hello old friend. Turns out I'm finally strong enough to fight back."
10:08 PM <Cocoa> Balf, what do I roll for an exorcism?
10:08 PM <Cocoa> Acad?
10:09 PM <Balthazaar> Given how flamable spiders are, that quickly rips through the room
10:09 PM <Balthazaar> sure
10:09 PM <Cocoa> 4df+9 THE POWER OF CHRIST COMPELS YOU
10:09 PM <Glacon> Cocoa: THE POWER OF CHRIST COMPELS YOU: 8 (4df+9=-, 0, 0, 0)
10:10 PM <Cocoa> "Let. Her. Go."
10:10 PM <Balthazaar> "NOOOOOOOOOO" she screams so hard blood flies out. "EVAN NO, RUUUUUUN!" she's sobbing in pain and terror and effort
10:12 PM <Cocoa> "Luna. I need you to listen to me very, very closely. I'm about to give you a way out, but you have to make the journey. I can't do it for you." He takes the old, blunted knife and places it in one of her palms. A knife enchanted to find lost things.
10:12 PM <Cocoa> 4df+3 Ignis Sanitatem
10:12 PM <Glacon> Cocoa: Ignis Sanitatem: 3 (4df+3=+, -, +, -)
10:12 PM <Cocoa> He also gives her some of his own strength. She gains 1.5 health, as he begins to lose consciousness.
10:13 PM <Cocoa> "Come out, Lun...a..."
10:13 PM <Balthazaar> "NOOOOOOOOO! IT'S NOT IN ME IT'S NOT IN ME IT'S NOT IN ME!" She sobs. "IT IS ME!"
10:15 PM <Cocoa> Luna, as Evan falls to the ground, a spark of golden fire passes from him to you. The blood of a mad, kind fool, burnt to give another life. It's not much, but the little flame of Hope he gave up is now something in you other than the Hospital.
10:15 PM <Cocoa> Something other than green fire and blood and spiders.
10:19 PM <Cocoa> Luna sees flashes of a battlefield, of some strange, bloodied creature sacrificing itself in much the same way evan did himself to fight Lionspear. She sees flashes of a man who smokes purple cigarettes and writes in blue, and a lady all done up in snakeskin and owl feathers. And she sees a kind of Luna, maybe her, maybe not, but the luna someone else might have seen. Not the hospital, just Luna.
10:19 PM <Cocoa> What does she do?
10:19 PM <Balthazaar> She clings to it as hard as she poissibly can
10:21 PM <Cocoa> Somewhere, deep inside her mind, a gold knife flickers to life in her hand. It's tugging her wrist, like an eager dog that's picked up the scent of something.
10:21 PM <Cocoa> The spiders inside seem to shy away from it.
10:23 PM <Balthazaar> She clings to that hope that she can one day be normal
10:24 PM <Cocoa> Hmmmmm
10:24 PM <Cocoa> Okay balf, roll whatever the hospital would roll against the character's combined Hope, then roll Luna's Mdef
10:24 PM <Balthazaar> That's not winnable
10:25 PM <Cocoa> I see. Evan comes to consciousness back in reality. What is the situation?
10:28 PM <Balthazaar> Luna is unconscious on the gurney, back to normal, bleeding from her eyes, nose, mouth and ears
10:28 PM <Balthazaar> barely breathing
10:28 PM <Balthazaar> He has saved her from becoming the Hospitals!
10:29 PM <Cocoa> Evan's got one more trick up his sleeve.
10:30 PM <Cocoa> He's going to try what is essentially the opposite of removing a tumor. Instead of trying to pull the Hospital out of Luna, he's going to try to pull what is strictly Luna out of the hospital, and help it take on a life of its own. All the friends she's made, all she's grown after her escape, that little piece of her that's holding onto the Hope, etc.
10:31 PM <Cocoa> And then he'll likely have to deal with the resulting spider monstrosity, but we'll burn that bridge when we get to it.
10:31 PM War_ → War_slep
10:31 PM <Cocoa> 4df+9 ACAD
10:31 PM <Glacon> Cocoa: ACAD: 7 (4df+9=0, -, 0, -)
10:32 PM <Cocoa> 4df+3 Aaaand trying to give physical health to the luna he pulls out so she won't be a disembodied spirit.
10:32 PM <Glacon> Cocoa: Aaaand trying to give physical health to the luna he pulls out so she won't be a disembodied spirit.: 3 (4df+3=+, 0, -, 0)
10:33 PM <Cocoa> Should I roll Mdef to resist hospital backlash?
10:36 PM <Balthazaar> Sure
10:36 PM <Cocoa> 7df+6 Mdef
10:36 PM <Glacon> Cocoa: Mdef: 8 (7df+6=+, -, 0, 0, 0, +, +)
10:36 PM <Balthazaar> But as you go, you see that this is killing Luna
10:36 PM <Balthazaar> She NEEds the Hospital to live
10:36 PM <Balthazaar> And the backlash is severe, even with the warding
10:36 PM <Balthazaar> Evan, you can feel it getting its tendrils into your body and mind
10:37 PM <Balthazaar> You can continue to try save her, or push these first tentative feelers from your soul, but not both
10:37 PM <Cocoa> He keeps burning tiny bits of himself, trying to keep her alive long enough for her to use him as a sort of lifeboat and escape the hospital. Eventually his left arm is little more than a smoldering stubb.
10:38 PM <Cocoa> Does the hospital probe for information? If so there's one very, very big secret Evan is privy to through another arc that it might wind up having to roll Mdef on.
10:40 PM <Balthazaar> It probes for everything, but Evan, you do realise there is no way to survive what you are doing, and the odds of it working are infintessimally small, and will result in Lunas death and rebirth as someone else
10:41 PM <Balthazaar> She's shaking her head, scared, trying to tell him no but too weak to speak
10:43 PM <Cocoa> Alright, Hospital, bite on this. None of this is real. This whole world is all just one big collection of stories. And there seems to be a pretty good chance the Hospital's story is coming to a close.
10:43 PM <Balthazaar> The hospital flips out and lashes out at Evans mind
10:43 PM <Balthazaar> mdef Evan
10:44 PM <Cocoa> 7df+6 Hasta la Vista, baby!
10:44 PM <Glacon> Cocoa: Hasta la Vista, baby!: 8 (7df+6=+, +, 0, -, +, -, +)
10:46 PM <Balthazaar> 4df+20
10:46 PM <Glacon> Balthazaar: 17 (4df+20=-, -, 0, -)
10:46 PM <Balthazaar> Evan, the eye of the hospital looks on you, and just whispers, "Shhhhhh"
10:46 PM <Balthazaar> it's the last thing you remember before going under
10:47 PM <Balthazaar> Not dead, not braindead, but certainly lucky to be alive and not a vegetable
10:47 PM <Cocoa> Are the tentacles still inside him?
10:48 PM <Balthazaar> No
10:48 PM <Balthazaar> the cut contact was just in time
10:48 PM <Balthazaar> but it learned a great deal, and definitely hurt him badly
10:48 PM <Balthazaar> He saw and fel things no mortal was meant to see or experience
10:49 PM <Cocoa> 4df+3 He burns himself to give the human Luna strength as he passes out. One last up yours to the Hospital.
10:49 PM <Glacon> Cocoa: He burns himself to give the human Luna strength as he passes out. One last up yours to the Hospital.: 3 (4df+3=-, 0, +, 0)
10:51 PM <Balthazaar> He may feel a faint chuckle as it leaves him be
10:52 PM <Cocoa> Luna... or whatever person Luna will become, now has a nice little fire to hold on to. Maybe she can make it grow in time, maybe not. But for now, there's a small corner of her mind where the spiders are kept away.
10:53 PM <Cocoa> Where does he wake up?
10:53 PM <Balthazaar> And she will cherish that forever. She may never be totally human, but now she has that spark. Finally
10:53 PM <Balthazaar> On the floor
10:55 PM <Cocoa> He spits, the blood coming out a strangely bright shade. "You might have my measure. But now I've seen inside you, too."
10:56 PM <Cocoa> Luna, he seems to be flickering and indistinct. As if he's not really there.
10:57 PM <Cocoa> "You okay, Luna?"
11:00 PM <Balthazaar> She's still out
11:00 PM <Balthazaar> But looks at peace
11:01 PM <Cocoa> "Awesome." He flicks a spider off his shoulder, picks up his supplies, and passes out on his way out the door.
11:08 PM → Nemi joined (feed.me@stray.cat)
11:08 PM <Balthazaar> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11:09 PM <Balthazaar> The scene ahead of you Cait is... Different
11:10 PM <Balthazaar> It's a victorian operating theater with windows streaming in sunlight
11:11 PM <Cocoa> Little tongues of gold fire form on cait's clothes, eagerly lapping up the sunlight.
11:11 PM <Balthazaar> you have entered at the top, and stairs run down to the center. It seems to go on forever. In the audience seats are millions of people, all mutated, twisted by sickness taken to the most nightmarish extremes, looking dispassionately at her
11:12 PM <Balthazaar> And at the very bottom is a raised platform suffounded in curtains with pictures of dinosaurs on them
11:12 PM <Nemi> Strange. Cait is burning from within- Evan was helping, yes, but she was still dying and she knew it. There was only so much the body could take. She stands straight, like a hale woman, and makes her way down the stairs to the centre of the theatre despite the bland looks from the audience.
11:12 PM <Balthazaar> there is an opening to enter the curtains at the bottom of the stairs
11:12 PM <Nemi> And she enters. Of course.
11:13 PM <Balthazaar> Not all of the audience. Sick, twisted animals float through the air, rising into eternity. All animals. Extinct animals even
11:14 PM <Balthazaar> *Not all are human
11:14 PM <Balthazaar> Inside the curtains is a room
11:14 PM <Balthazaar> A simple room
11:14 PM <Nemi> "This is the dying place ever since there was dying. But you were once a place of healing, weren't you?" Cait asks as she steps inside.
11:15 PM <Balthazaar> in the middle is a small hospital gurney, with moldy, rotting sheets. The bars keeping its occupant are rusty and forgotten, and the floorboards are bunt out and waterlogged
11:16 PM <Nemi> Cait pads over to the gurney, almost gently peering at its occupant.
11:17 PM <Balthazaar> A small figure lays in the bed. A little boy, no older than 8, breathing mask on his face, tubes down his veins, machinery breathing for him, but broken, grinding, the breathing aparatus whistling like wind and the engine sounding almost like rusted out heavy machinery. He clutches a toy lion, a toy knight and a toy dragon to his chest, and looks at Cait silently. He looks to be in the most pain you could imagine
11:18 PM <Balthazaar> and flanking the bed is seven lionspears, their eyes blazing and their posture protective
11:20 PM <Nemi> Cait softens. ".. the machine's broken. Damaged." She rests her hand at the railing of the gurney. ".. I can fix it. If you like. I'm filled with primal creation."
11:21 PM <Cocoa> Cait, you realize for a moment what the flames can do. They can be used to hurt, yes, but they also represent two opposite principles. Sacrifice, and healing. Equivalent exchange.
11:21 PM <Balthazaar> "why does it have to hurt so much?" The little boy asks tearfully. "It isn't fair..."
11:22 PM <Nemi> ".. It doesn't have to. Let me help," Cait says, softly, giving the Lionspears a look. She was unafraid. She knew she wouldn't survive, whether they attacked or not. But maybe she could help.
11:22 PM <Balthazaar> They just watch her
11:23 PM <Balthazaar> They boy looks at her suspiciously. "Dod-on't hurt me! I don't wanna be hurt anymore!"
11:23 PM <Nemi> "I know. I don't want to." Cait reaches a hand for the boy's, gentle. She smiles, that light glowing from within again. "I want to help. It's all I've ever wanted."
11:25 PM <Balthazaar> He looks genuinely astonished that she doesn't hurt him. "Th-these are my friends... They protect me and m-make sure people know h-how much it hurts..." he refers to his toys. "So that it's f-fair... Fair for everyone..."
11:28 PM <Nemi> "You want them to understand it, don't you? That's all. Well-" She runs her thumb across the boy's knuckles. "Let me try and show you what it's like not to hurt." Cait shuts her eyes, and some of that overwhelming energy starts to gently flow into the boy. The primal force of creation- not to destroy, no, but delicately applied to slowly try and salve the boy's long-lasting, eternal injuries,
11:28 PM <Nemi> to clear the rust and decay from the machines, to invest him with life and light and warmth.
11:29 PM <Balthazaar> You can tell that this boy isn't an individual, but a gestalt of all the pain and suffering in the world. And where else does one suffer more but in a hospital
11:29 PM <Balthazaar> he flinches back fearfully, then looks astonished as he feels her gentle healing warmth
11:29 PM <Balthazaar> and hugs her
11:30 PM <Nemi> She knew as much. It was a metaphysical thing. A manifestation of suffering. A million, million years of pain couldn't be cured, but she could at least salve it. She lets the energy pour from her, the golden flames, into the boy, and throws her arms around him. She rests her cheek against his. ".. It doesn't always have to hurt."
11:31 PM <Balthazaar> He crys and nods
11:32 PM <Balthazaar> Cait, it's working, the hospital is shrinking back. "I-is it time to s-stop?"
11:33 PM <Nemi> "Yes. The more people hurt, the more you hurt, too. A hospital's a place of healing. It should be a place of light and love and life. I know you can do it." She gently strokes his hair, voice soft and embrace gentle. "I'm sorry I hurt you, too."
11:35 PM <Nemi> ".. They're still fighting because they're hurting and scared. They don't have to be."
11:36 PM <Balthazaar> He looks determined and nods
11:36 PM <Balthazaar> And then falls asleep, a peaceful smile on his face
11:36 PM <Balthazaar> the 7 lionspears look at the boy, then Cait, and fall on their spears
11:37 PM <Nemi> "Good night," Cait smiles, letting the last of her light into the boy. She rests her arm on the railing, then falters. The burning stopped. She felt so cold.
11:38 PM <Cocoa> You feel the fire, desperately trying to rekindle some warmth.
11:38 PM <Balthazaar> Cait, you're outside now
11:38 PM <Balthazaar> back to homeimprovement