T - Harps, Lucca

[Harpsdesire]

Joel scrambled down the ladder ahead of Dania, carrying the lamp in his mouth and tucking the keys into his bag amid the pens, scrolls and other assorted debris. When the males were in position, Dania gave Faust a last gentle shove with her paw and he plummeted down through the trapdoor toward the floor below.

There was scarcely time for Dania to gasp in horror before Faust stopped neatly in midair again, his equilibrium restored six inches above the floor once again. Joel, who had been poised to catch Faust when he came down the ladder (the boy had expected more of a 'gently bobbing downward' scenario), cringed as the top of the avian's head gently bumped his paw, then came to float just barely above it. "Woah."

Dania was panting somewhat, thanking whatever higher power might influence such things that the ability had saved Faust from any further damage. If he'd cracked his poor feathery head on the parquet floor it would have been all her fault. She took a last long look at the queen that was still shambling about on the far side of the attic. Now that the light had been removed and it was harder to tell that the figure was a poorly preserved corpse, Dania almost felt sorry for it. The fact that all but her head was safely out of the attack didn't hurt her bravery either, of course.

On a whim, she called out to the creature, waving a paw tentatively. "Hey there!" Dania attempted a smile, infusing a little of her rarely-used Diamond Charm into the expression for the sake of realism, "Do you have any idea what's going on here?"

Dania didn't hold out much hope of a coherent answer, nor did he have any desire to get closer to the creature, but there didn't seem to be any harm in trying... and surprisingly the corpse seemed to be either docile or just too confused to come after them. As far as she could tell it was still stumbling around more or less aimlessly.

Meanwhile, conscious of Dania's instruction to hurry, Joel bumped Faust along until he was alongside the bed in the nearest top-floor bedchamber (not the court's best accommodations, probably either meant for high-ranking help or low-ranking guests). Then he pulled back the covers and hefted Faust onto the bed, helped considerably by the half-bird's continued levitation.

((63 posts on this thread each, wow! [Not counting Nat and Zane posts]))

[Nathalia]

(Good posting job, guys; your ideas and uses of magic have been blow-me-away-fantastic! This is amazing. XD)

((Faust's injuries appear to have reopened a little, but if it gets some attention, it might not be too serous.
The room is plain and a little bare, with exception to a cabinet on the far side of the room, stuck into the wall directly outside of the bathroom.
It can easily be opened and it is full of haphazard medical supplies: gauze, bandages, needles, medical thread, staples, alcohol, and dressings.
The Tove can be fixed up pretty easily, though he will need some pretty serious stitches...good thing there's some numbing solution in there.

Faust becomes semi-conscious as he's being worked on, but does nothing but mumble nonsense as he twitches pathetically on the bed. ))

"D-Dani...a..." He whispered, shuddering as the magic left him and the back of his head starting to bleed again.

((The corpse staggers in its continuous circles as Faust and the Tove are lowered down. Shuddering to a halt, its head snaps toward Dania's greeting with startling speed.
It stands, frozen in place, jaw hanging slackly open as it appears to stare at her.
Then, it slams across the room with startling speed, screeching to a jerky halt directly in front of her and resuming its pacing, continuing to cry pitifully to her.))

"Well,.....you found me....do not allow...." It stared about blankly, head lolling off to the side and letting its limbs twitch, its broken leg dragging. "...To remain here, alone and companionless."

A few seconds later and it is again standing listless...once the silence has become uncomfortable and it seems as though it will not speak again, its small reedy voice whispers. "Was it worth it?"

[Lucca]

Colin hovered uncertainly nearby, landing very gingerly and shifting his Tove to his wings again, in case he needed to help catch Faust. Of course...he wasn't expecting the man to suddenly plummet down with all the speed of a falling bowling ball...he gave a small squawk of surprise and dove forward as if to catch him, but badly overestimated and ended up going right -over- the other man and slamming his head into a dresser, exacerbating his already-pounding head. He gritted his beak and forced himself to remain calm, ignoring the stars at the edges of his vision.

"Come on," he muttered, helping to push Faust gently to the other room and set him down on the bed. He also set Arpeggio down on the other bed, though his form looked incredible small and vulnerable on the huge thing. Arpeggio made a small, pained sound, and Colin muttered comforting nonsense to the Tove as he got him settled, and then walked over to see what help Joel might need with Faust. "Tell me what you need me to do," he said in a voice that was far stronger than he felt. His head was absolutely pounding and his feathers were still covered with dust. He wanted nothing more than a long bath and a long nap. But he suspected it would be a long time until he could get either.

"There should be some medical supplies..." the Cardinal muttered, looking around and finding the correct cabinet. He pulled it open easily and a smile came to his beak. Thank goodness it seemed to be well-stocked...he waited for Joel to tell him what he needed.

[Harpsdesire]

Joel cringed in sympathy as Colin knocked his head hard against the dresser. The look on the queen's face forestalled Joel's inquiry as to his health-- Colin was clearly not in the mood for pleasantries. He felt somewhat relieved when Faust gently lowered onto the prepared sheets as Dania’s spell wore off. When Colin had settled his familiar and offered his help, Joel quickly rattled off a list of supplies.

Another challenge immediately presented itself to the young corvie. Both patients were bleeding and seemed to be in pain, both needed swift care. He had to choose one to start with. After a few wasted seconds of wavering between the beds, Joel turned resolutely towards Faust, choose the needed antiseptics and numbing potions and set to work, intensely concentrated on this, the greatest test of his skill. "She'll be here soon, don't worry. You're going to be okay." He assured the trembling half-avian. He nodded his thanks to Colin for the supplies. He got back to work.

It was only a few nerve-wracking moments before Joel knew with certainty that he never, ever wanted to be a surgeon. Despite his above-average dexterity, feline paws were never meant to tie sutures and a child with no more medical experience than some semi-ethical animal experiments and a few months’ internship really had no business treating a wound of this severity. He also had no choice.

Still in the attic above, Dania was startled by the speed of the creature that approached her. She cringed away from it, then cautiously relaxed as it seemed unlikely to attack. It was still almost unbearably creepy, but again… pitiful. It almost seemed like the reanimation didn’t want to be left behind in the attic.

It was disgusting how easily soft heartedness could overcome her better judgment, and Dania was frankly horrified to hear herself suggesting, ”If you really don’t want to be up here alone, you could come with me…” Before the words had even left her mouth, Dania knew that she was probably making a terrible mistake. ”I- I do have to get downstairs though, um, my friends…” She was still halfway down the ladder, clinging nervously to it with all three functional paws. Maybe she would be lucky, and the thing would not wish to come. Otherwise… if the dead thing didn’t kill her, Colin just might!

There was an awkward pause while the being may or may not have been considering Dania’s offer. Then it asked a question. Dania had the sudden, odd and uncomfortable sensation that she was receding quickly down a long, darkened hallway, and her paws tightened around the ladder as her pupils dilated. The question seemed terribly important. Unreasonably important, even. What could it possibly mean?

Was indulging in pity for the creature worth bringing it along?
Was becoming a queen worth letting Faust be hurt?
Was satisfying her curiosity about the strange goings on worth finding the horrible truth?
Was whatever the courts were paying her to update the library worth getting into this mess?!?

Any way Dania looked at it, the answer was a resounding no. She sagged from the ladder, considerably disheartened. ”I don’t know if it was…” The sad-eyed rat was reasonably sure that was a lie.

[Lucca]

Despite being a Queen, despite having just successfully survived an encounter with several living corpses, and despite still being the only titled (living) noble awake in the Spades Court at the moment...Colin had never felt so helpless in all his life. He could do nothing to help as the child fumbled through surgery, doing so very well for one with only paws, and not even dexterous Rodent paws. This child--no, Colin reminded himself, after the events of today, Joel was a true child no longer--this man, then, worked on Faust with intense concentration, and Colin could do nothing but hover and try to stay out of the way.

He nervously paced the length of the bed, watching Joel operate in near-silence aside from the near-feverish mutterings of Faust. He threw glances back at his poor little Tove, going over to him and assuring him that his turn would come soon. The Cardinal was worried for his little friend...blood already soaked the sheet that he'd wrapped around the Tove, and though he was fairly sure the bleeding had stopped by now it was hard to tell. He didn't blame Joel for attending to Faust first, of course...it made sense since the half-Avian was far worse off. At least Arpeggio was coherent...well. As much as a Tove could be.

Finally, Colin could stand the anxious, useless waiting no longer, and he went into the bathroom next door to see about cleaning some of the clinging dust off his feathers. Five minutes and a lot of water and soap later, he staggered back out of the bathroom, also having found and swallowed a few aspirin in the vague hope that it would help decrease the pounding in his head. "What's taking Dania so long?" he mumbled, scanning the room for the black-and-purple form. It seemed like it had been hours since they'd left that attic--of course, it had likely only been a few minutes, and his sense of it was all thrown off by the anxiety of having nothing to do.

[Nathalia]

((Joel's ministrations seem to be doing some good, Faust's side at least seems out of danger, though his head wound is...unpleasant, to say the least. Joel must decide whether or not to make an attempt at that wound or leave it be in the next post...either way, there is something to reckon with...
The Tove will respond well to treatment, especially seeing as his poor little body really just needs a patching to keep his skin from peeling back. Shouldn't move too much, but ought to be all right.
A little tingle runs through Joel as soon as he handles the needles...but...nothing seems to happen, so maybe it wasn't anything.

Colin's entire body suddenly convulses and he drops to the floor shaking.
His headache goes away completely and he feels an incredible sense of power surge through him.
Though there was no report, no news, and no other way for him to know...
He is suddenly very aware that something terrible has happened to Queen Donolda.
He is also aware that he, Colin, is now The Queen of the Court of Spades. No question.
An impressive surge of self-importance and pride will hit him like a tank.
This is his Palace now.

---------------------------------------

The corpse tilts its head further at Dania's answer, now at an improbable angle...for a living creature, at any rate.
It looks around, one can assume, dazedly, as though lost again as Dania slowly moves down the ladder, then seems to focus on her. The mouth opens, closes, and then lists before it speaks again.
"How does that feel?" It whispers, nearly inaudible, milling around above the ladder as she reached the floor.

It circles the door after she steps off of it, circling, circling...and then snaps down its length like lightning, appearing directly in front of Dania's face again.
"That was...great...please be advisssssed..." It slurs and gazes about itself, confused and drooping, its old fur starting to dry from Colin's attack and standing stiffly in odd directions.
Staggering on its broken foot, it moves slowly after Dania.
"Grief counseling, will be available...at the end..." It mumbled, following.))


~Nathalia

[Harpsdesire]

"Dunno." Joel's answer was a distracted mutter as he tied off the last suture and covered Faust's sides with bandages. The card seemed to be recovering somewhat, and to his relief Arpeggio's wounds were not complex or life-threatening as they first appeared. He was surprised how brave the small creature was, comforted by his master's voice. Most of the pets he had experimented on were heavily sedated before he touched them with a needle.

In his deep concentration on the problems at hand, Joel hadn't even noticed the tingling he experienced when first touching the needles. What did give him pause was when he realized that the new wounds were dealt with and the next thing to look at was Faust's head, which seemed to still be seeping blood, as if the wound didn't want to close.

Even though it gave him an uncomfortable feeling that couldn't entirely be attributed to only his unfamiliarity with anything head wounds, he could hardly leave an injury like that untended. As Joel carefully moved the feathers aside to take a closer look at Faust's roughly-stitched scalp, the foreboding he had felt at the first glimpse of the wound returned stronger than ever. Nevertheless, he began to gently dab away the blood with a square of cotton gauze. Just as he was finishing up one side of the head, all the while debating what, it anything, he could really do to help, Colin collapsed on the floor.

Tunnel vision or not, Joel could hardly miss that. He turned sharply toward Colin. "Your majesty! Are you alright?"

How did it feel? Oddly enough, being out of the attic felt pretty good. Dania had almost forgotten how much stronger the aura of fear was up there, after so long in it's grasp. "Feels... better." She admitted. It seemed the mummified queen was going to stay in the attic, which was rather a relief. Inviting it to come along was probably an outstanding moment in the long history of bad ideas.....

When the creature popped up in front of her face, Dania was so startled that she nearly overbalanced and landed on her rear. That was... well, she wasn't sure yet. "You're... fast. Heh." She tried to smile at the creature. "Even for a Spade, I mean..." While unsettling, it seemed to be making a real effort to be helpful.

It trailed her steps slowly as she headed toward the bedroom where she knew Colin and Joel to be by the glow of lights shining through the partly-opened door. When the corpse spoke again, Dania paused outside the door. "Y-yeah. Um, thanks. I'm probably gonna... need... that..."

She entered the room, calling out to Colin and her assistant, "Don't-- Don't freak out, but, uh, somebody decided to join us." She indicated the once-queen as her fact twisted slightly in a distinctly nervous half-smile. Hoping for the best, she closed the bedroom door and looked hopefully toward Faust, who laid on the bed looking reasonably peaceful now, his side swathed in white gauze. "He'll be ok?" She asked Joel, "And Arpeggio?"

Joel nodded, looking at the mummy distrustfully but unable to entirely quell a grin of relief as he said, "I think they're both gonna be fine!" Dania seemed to sag a little, some of the tension in her shoulders easing at the news.

[Lucca]

When he found no sign of the Rat, Colin shook it off and went to sit on the bed with poor Arpeggio as Joel went to work on him. He was quite relieved when Joel reassured him that the Tove's wound wasn't as severe as it had looked, and the Cardinal helped to dab a little of the numbing solution he'd found in the cabinet onto the little creature. Arpeggio trilled weakly at them, and trembled a bit with small cries of discomfort, but otherwise seemed fine as the Corvie worked on him.

Colin sighed as Joel finished the last stitch...will still no sign of Dania...and rubbed the back of his head with a wing. Why wouldn't this blasted headache go away already? "Arpeggio...you were so brave. Just...rest now," he whispered, and the Tove chirred quietly before closing his eyes. Colin stood up to go over to the other bed...and gave a loud squawk of surprise as spasms wracked his body. He fell to the ground, shaking uncontrollably, panting out harsh breaths as knowledge came on him, unshakable and sudden...and then...

Power. His eyes flew open and he stood up, slowly, not even noticing that the dull throbbing in his head had finally ceased. He turned to stare at Joel. "I'm....fine," he said. "Better than fine. Better than ever." He grinned, suddenly, fiercely, a bit maniacally. The surge of power he'd felt when his Rank rose to Queen? The surge of confidence and pride? Yeah, that was child's play compared to this. "I'm the Queen of Spades," he said, almost to himself. "I'm THE Queen of of Spades!" he repeated, accompanied by a laugh. "Something's happened to Donnie and now this is MY Court!" The words should have been horrified, but they came out utterly gleeful.

Another little laugh escaped his beak, and he turned quickly to regard Dania and the corpse of the Queen as rthey came into the room. But neither the sight of the corpse nor Dania new Rank, which he could now see quite clearly, gave him any cause of fear anymore. He was THE Queen...and he could deal with anything. "Whose freaking out? Not me. Not in MY Court," he said again, head held high. He grinned wildly at the confused corpse.

[Nathalia]

((The corpse stopped as Colin was very suddenly in its face. Tilting its head to that exaggerated angle again, it appeared to gape at his near-maniacal grin. twitching, its limbs rose a little, then faltered.
"Are you...mod-...are you still...there?" It whispered, the last word rising in pitch to a near whine as it scuttled past and began weaving around the room, trying its best to circle the beds and stay away from Colin, its body stiffly swaying with the movement of its own lower half's stumbling, broken gait.
Moving away from him, it circles over to Faust's prone form, lowering its head over him and letting its mouth fall open. "I...don't h-...I don't...you." It mumbled, reaching out to poke at his bandaged side.

-----------------------------------------

Colin's knowledge of the Palace seems to be increasing beyond what it should...for example, he is suddenly rather aware that there are people in the basement...and something else down in the main hall.
They're in his Palace!
Faust doesn't seem travel worthy, neither does the poor Tove...maybe they should stay here...the other two, though...really ought to go make sure nothing bad happens to Colin, right?
If they lock the door, and leave Faust a note, he should be ok.))


~Nathalia

[Harpsdesire]

Woah, Colin was acting... strangely, a little. At least he wasn't harmed, Joel though. Physically, anyway. His sudden delusions of grandeur were a trifle unsettling, but probably harmless enough as a coping mechanism..."Ah, good. I mean, congratulations, your majesty?" He smiled, but not with his usual exuberance. It was slightly unsettling how cheerful Colin sounded about 'something' happening to Queen Donnie. The only thing that could happen to a queen to make her give up her title as THE queen were abdication and death, and he really couldn't imagine the woman willingly giving up her power in her prime. If Colin was really that pleased by the death of The Queen of his suit, well... at least he should fake a little remorse, or something, right?

Dania was perplexed, to say the least. Joel had looked up from Faust, who's head wound he was re-stitching with sutures more neat and careful than the original, and looked at her and her decaying cohort with incredulous horror. As the once-queen continued to be creepy but harmless, he seemed to quickly calm and return to what he was doing, muttering discontentedly about 'walking dead things' and 'attack as soon as we let down our guard'. It seemed that the night's events were starting to wear even on the corvie's optimism.

Dania was about to request clarification on Colin's claims (finding it odd that he wasn't even a little put-out by the appearance of a taxidermied queen following her around like a lost child), when her mummified follower took off at a quick scurry. She hurried after the thing, looking alarmed as it circled haphazardly, then poked toward Faust's side. "Ah, no, better not poke him, um, your majesty. He's hurt." She looked with concern into Faust's face and gave his hand a quick, gentle squeeze.

Something occurred to her, and she turned to the shambling queen, "Are you... Do you... hurt? We might be able to splint your leg or something..." She looked toward Joel for confirmation, but he had finished with Faust and gone into the bathroom to clean his paws (taking the long way around the edge of the room to avoid close association with any of the queens).

The boy was taking a long moment to let the warm water run through his fur, reveling in his success with man and tove, and trying not to think about the undead queen in the next room or Colin's almost unseemly glee at the idea of Donnie's demise. Donnie was... she was a good queen of his court, and even if he did have considerable respect for Colin, he couldn't in good conscience say that he was pleased to see the cardinal so darn happy about the wolverine's death. It wasn't as if Colin had bested her in a fair queenship fight... and now, worst thought of all, the Villa queen was probably destined to be added to the attic's grisly collection. He shuddered, feeling suddenly as though he might like to cry a little, now the the adrenaline of battle and the deep focus of doctoring had faded. He felt a little cold and empty, and all the horrible things of the day threatened to rush back in the form of tears... Joel splashed cold water on his face, scrubbed at it with a towel and steeled himself to re-enter the bedroom.

After a moment Dania spoke again, quite gently, although not with a certain awkwardness at the very fact that she was addressing a walking, talking corpse. [d]"I'm Dania. Who were... what are you called?"[/b] She offered a welcoming smile to the creature, for it still seemed rather lost and sad.