Dark
Five of Diamonds
Bladed Hare
You are not prepared.
Posts: 2,105
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Post by Dark on Dec 4, 2010 0:45:51 GMT -5
Dev glanced at Ananta in surprise--she didn’t seriously think to accept their hospitality, did she--and watched the child trot back into the abode to complete the order, face screwed up with the effort of remembering such detailed instructions. Would she be so cute and eager to please with the corpse of her father across the front steps, he wondered.
He tossed his head in agitation, uncertain for the first time since he had began all this, torn between his lust for vengeance and images of that little girl’s face. Could he live with himself if he went through with it? Could he make that little girl suffer as he had for the sake of his blood-debt?
Dev stared at Durai--still tense, still ready to defend his family--weighing his sins against Dev’s own. Thinking of his own family, so long buried.
He gritted his teeth. Damn it all.
Dev turned his back.
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Post by Bee on Dec 4, 2010 0:47:03 GMT -5
It took the barest of moment. The man appeared to being back into his house, only to grab an intimidating-looking knife and pitch forward, ramming it into Dev’s lower back. Ananta activated her queen ability in the same instant, shriveling the arm holding the blade. It weakened, slackened, fell from the weapon. It did not have time to wreak as much havoc on Dev’s insides as it should have, but it was a fraction of a second too late to prevent the stabbing entirely.
Ananta felt a surge of cold rage as the man startled at his useless limb, another power right on the tail of the last. Pain. Extraordinary pain, the rending spikes of agony that come with being viciously eaten alive. He screamed. She landed a hard blow to his head, then another and another. He was silent.
She knelt down over Dev. She did not want to remove the knife, lest it cause uncontrollable bleeding.
The girl came running out. Ananta offered an abridged version of the truth. “There was a fight. Assist me.”
Strong Magical Ability: When activated, she can inflict mental pain on another Card of any Suit, once per day. The degree of pain is like that of a piranha slowly devouring the victim from the feet up.
Queen's Ability: Once a week, she is able to make one limb of an opponent's body atrophy; shriveling up and becoming entirely useless until an hour has passes. If she uses this ability on another Heart, she can make it work on two limbs, but it will then bounce back onto one of her own at random. (Rolled by the Admin, please PM if this happens.)
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Dark
Five of Diamonds
Bladed Hare
You are not prepared.
Posts: 2,105
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Post by Dark on Dec 4, 2010 0:47:22 GMT -5
Dev felt the knife slide home, suddenly unable to support himself, and toppled onto unforgiving cobblestone. Distantly, he heard someone screaming. He felt disconnected from what was happening, his grip on the present-now tenacious. The wound didn’t hurt, to be sure, but he felt weak, dizzy: he was losing blood; the blade had nicked something.
Insurance. Fear. Not trusting him not to come back, change his mind, threaten his family. The reasons. But Dev’s family was dead. It accomplished nothing.
Had he made a mistake? Was it better this way? He stared up at the sky, and wondered when it had gotten so blue.
Ananta. He had never really gotten to know her, had he. A shame. He thought he might like her--someday. Too bad she was right about all this. Should have listened.
Still, it was nice. He hadn’t been so lonely with her around.
He closed his eyes.
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Post by Bee on Dec 4, 2010 0:47:40 GMT -5
The girl was quick to fetch the clean towel Ananta requested, and she immediately applied pressure around Dev’s wound, slowly stemming the flow of blood. The girl was understandably more worried about her father, who was breathing, but still unconscious and unmoving. Ananta would feel guilty about the possible head trauma later.
It was some time before she felt comfortable moving Dev at all. She got him inside, got him a blanket when his temperature threatened to drop, and dressed the wound. No organs appeared to bulge out. A good sign. She moved the girl’s father back into the house as well. She fared considerably worse at comforting the girl than she did treating the injuries.
The girl managed to get hold of a doctor on Ananta’s orders. They relocated Dev, again, to a small medical facility. Durai, still out, and his daughter, still worried, came as well.
Ananta heard non-fatal out of the doctor’s speech. She took the compliments to her basic medical competence with a nod.
She sat placidly still at Dev’s bedside. She knew it was useless comfort an insensate person, but she gently patted his head, anyway.
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Dark
Five of Diamonds
Bladed Hare
You are not prepared.
Posts: 2,105
|
Post by Dark on Dec 4, 2010 0:47:52 GMT -5
It was a long while before he could be bothered with the effort of opening his eyes, though he attributed this change from his usual alertness to the sluggish pull of drugs he could feel in his system. The sterile sting of antiseptic in his nose told him where he was--a clinic, or hospital--but not how he had gotten there, or why. He hadn’t expected to survive Durai’s attack.
Durai. Dev forced his eyes open.
Bright light, white, and his left eye slid shut in self-defense while his right blinked rapidly to adjust and focus.
A small, partitioned space surrounded by curtain. There were doctor and nurse and patient sounds, but they were far removed. No immediate danger that he could distinguish, but he didn’t entirely trust himself with whatever they’d given him still pumping through his veins; it dulled the senses too much. And there was Ananta.
“What…” his voice was even raspier than normal, and he coughed to clear his throat, “What happened?”
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Post by Bee on Dec 4, 2010 0:48:07 GMT -5
"You were struck when your back was turned," Ananta said, simply. She watched him carefully, ready to snap at him if he attempted to make any sudden movements. There were none. The medicine seemed to keep him inert. Good. "I intercepted and incapacitated him, but not swiftly enough. You are stable."
Hours and hours had passed since their arrival. Ananta had risen only to procure a small amount of food and water. She was nearly thankful for her inability to sleep; it had allowed her to monitor Dev more thoroughly and consistently than even the doctor could. She kept a running mental chart of his breathing, his heartbeat. She noted twitches, the deep-sleep movement of his eyes. His condition did not seem in danger of immediate deterioration. The doctor had performed checkups at predictable intervals, but did not seem overly concerned. She tried to align herself with his assessment.
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Dark
Five of Diamonds
Bladed Hare
You are not prepared.
Posts: 2,105
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Post by Dark on Dec 4, 2010 0:48:09 GMT -5
“Oh.” Dev turned his attention to the ceiling--white, eggshell white, bleached white--and thought.
Stabbed in the back, eh. Not very sporting of the man, though he supposed as his intention had been murder he should not quibble. He didn’t resent the man. He just felt--tired. And vaguely curious about what sort of incapacitated Ananta had employed; he was fairly certain she wouldn’t have killed him, but he had seen her maim a fellow or two in their time together. Not that Ananta possessed the soul to orphan a child, or at least he didn’t think she was the type--and apparently, neither was he.
Whatever the case, he found he didn’t particularly care to ask for details. He didn’t particularly care for much of anything at the moment.
“…tired,” he muttered, fighting off sleep. He didn’t care for being drugged, and he didn’t want to sleep when he hadn’t yet managed to ask Ananta why--she cared. She did care, didn’t she.
Thanks. Had he said it out loud? He was so very tired.
Sleep claimed him.
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Post by Bee on Dec 4, 2010 0:48:30 GMT -5
Dev wanted to leave as soon as possible, of course.
“No,” said Ananta. Dev did not feel pain. There was the possibility that something could be going wrong that the doctor was unable to detect and Dev did not notice. He needed to be monitored until such a time that this became a sufficiently unlikely scenario. Ananta decided that she would be the judge of that.
Dev tried to facilitate his own departure, of course.
“No,” said Ananta. She was always awake and aware to stop his attempts. It did not matter that he was, in all probability, bored out of his mind. If he was unable to bear his convalescence with equanimity, she had very little sympathy to spare. She stayed with him patiently, watching him as closely as the doctor, as he was reintroduced to normal movement. Her skill set did not run to entertaining others, so she settled for being a calm, unmoving and watchful presence.
After six days, Ananta issued a clean enough bill of health. The doctor had as well, a day earlier.
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Dark
Five of Diamonds
Bladed Hare
You are not prepared.
Posts: 2,105
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Post by Dark on Dec 4, 2010 0:51:59 GMT -5
Six days. One hundred, forty-four hours. A…lot of minutes. He now knew exactly how many dimples there were in the ceiling; he had counted. Twice. It was a knowledge he would have been happy living without. But they had been long, tedious minutes spent almost entirety flat on his back, confined to the loathsome hospital bed. A victim of Ananta’s tyrannical rule. Counting dimples had been more engaging than the conversation--No--to say the very least.
The nurse schedule had been childishly easy to memorize, though the knowledge did little good with Ananta watching him so closely. (The woman never slept, he swore; or she had an uncanny sixth sense regarding his machinations.) She had foiled every attempt he’d made at escape (having discovered early on that diplomacy was pointless).
Six days of quiet, and rest, and Ananta. A clean bill of health was his salvation.
He left quickly before anyone could change their mind about releasing him.
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Post by Bee on Dec 4, 2010 0:52:21 GMT -5
As powerful as his boredom had been, such was now the force of his relief. And as patiently she had endured his boredom, she now calmly observed his excitement. Ananta followed him out into the open, half-convinced that he was going to sprint off into the distance and fully prepared to strike one of his legs useless should he attempt to do so, by reflex or ability. Dev should consider himself lucky to be discharged. The man he fought had still not woken up.
She, too, had not left the little hospital much. Keeping Dev inside had required her full and undivided attention. She was a focused person. She had only even done her exercises when she was sure that Dev was in a state of deep sedation. Her expression was as flat and unreadable outside the hospital as in, but she was glad to be back out in the world.
She blinked against the light of the sun, took a breath of dry desert air, and said, “Next?”
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