Gen CR Hospital

[rialynn]

WHO: Rialynn Kollmann, Ruby Rose, Ellana Lavellan, Tear Grants, Albel
WHAT: Wedge assigns several Heroes to keep an eye on the comatose Darth Tater Palitutu to soothe the nerves of the hospital staff. Nothing eventful happens......EXCEPT FOR AMAZING CR!
WHEN: Throughout the month of September
WHERE: Aqures Ixen Hospital


Considering the runs of bad luck the hospital faced since Halloween of the previous year, it was understandable that they'd be more than a little nervous at having Palitutu safely sleeping in the intensive care unit. If the Heroes were anxious about her waking up and blowing the city to smithereens, imagine how much more fearful the non-job-wielding staff members had to be.

But despite their unease, Palitutu remained safely locked away in a coma, sustained by the IV unit hooked up to her small arm. It was almost hard to believe someone so small had posed such an enormous threat all by herself.


[OOC: Feel free to put up a thread for your character, and then tag whoever you like for guard duty CR.]

Comments

Rialynn Kollmann

[rialynn]

Rialynn didn't mind the task. A quiet place to work on her songs wasn't such a bad assignment, and she was curious about the whole affair. She'd woken up long after "Jessie" had unveiled herself as an enemy, and she hadn't really caused Rialynn any personal grievances. Sure she was unhappy about the whole 'trying to kill everyone' thing out on the plains, but her feelings overall were pretty neutral. What interested her more was how divided so many people were, and for so many different reasons. She'd done her best to write them all down for the sake of posterity, but everything had happened awfully fast.

She perched herself on a stool next to the Tarutaru's bedside, one boot hooked behind a wooden rung, and propped her journal against her thigh so she could write. Her pen quietly skritched and scratched across the paper, paused only occasionally so she could dip the nib in the pot of ink near her elbow.

Sometimes she simply read back over what she'd written in the months previous. Sometimes she worked on the Chocoboman song she'd been recently inspired to create. When she was alone she hummed softly to herself, glancing up at Palitutu now and again, but never noting any changes in her health or behavior.

There were worse quests she could have been given.

Re: Rialynn Kollmann

[lostwisdom]

Worse quests, indeed. Off the top of her head, she could think of at least fifty odd jobs and errands she'd tended to in her short time as inquisitor worse than that of watching over a comatose foe.

At least, someone that a great deal of other Heroes saw as one. She stayed near the door, back against the wall beside it. She wasn't necessarily blocking the singular entrance and exit, but prepared to do so. Though that didn't mean she wasn't curious about what the other was doing.

"What are you working on, if you don't mind my asking?" she inquired, yellow eyes going from the unconscious woman to the bard. With all the personal training she had in schooling her expression around others, she never was quite successful with her curiosity.

[rialynn]

"A song for my Bard job," she replied slowly, her attention focused on the paper as she finished her line. Once she did, she lifted her head and grinned. "Apparently we can craft our own songs and imbue them with effects. It's tricky, but I'm enjoying the challenge." Rialynn laid her pen down, idly scratching the tip of her nose (and leaving a smear of black ink on the side). She could write song lyrics any day, but chances to talk to her fellow Heroes were far more rare. Ellana seemed nice enough, and as she was newly arrived, she probably didn't harbor any grudges against Rialynn for what she'd been made to do to Zelda.

"What jobs did you start out with?" she asked, waving her hand over the pages to let the ink dry. "Are they similar to what you were able to do in your own world?"

[lostwisdom]

Rialynn would be right that the other held no grudge against her. Though she may not be all that sure of the why.

"Well, it would be a bit odd if you couldn't..." Ellana teased, a hint of a smile crossing her lips. She had fond memories of bards back home, one of which was her more trusted advisor. Noticing the smear, she moved to offer her handkerchief, suppressing a laugh. "Also you have some ink on your nose."

With the amount of times she accidentally caught others with the selfsame mark over her time as inquisitor, she could have paid for a horse. Though at the question, she shrugs faintly. "Summoner and Illusionist. I can't say the latter was familiar at all, but I had the knowledge of summoning spirits before awakening here. However such an act has a grave consequence in my world for both spirit and mage, so I can't say it was all that familiar save for academical purposes."

[rialynn]

"What?! Oh, thanks, heh heh!" She gratefully accepted the handkerchief, squeezing her eyes shut as she licked her thumb, brushed it over her nose, and rubbed at it vigorously with the cloth. "That happens all the time, I think my friends gave up on telling me about it." She leaned back on the stool to check her warped reflection in the metal pitcher of ice water, turning her head to make sure there was nothing amiss. If Ramza was going to walk her home after his shift tonight, then she didn't want to meet him with black smears all over her face.

"Thank you," she folded the handkerchief and passed it back. She should really look into keeping one of those handy for herself.

Summoner and Illusionist...that combined into an advanced job, didn't it? She raised her brows, then quickly leafed through her journal until she found her notes. Oh, that was right. Psychic. That seemed like it would be useful, especially once Ellana was able to communicate with her mind and fly. Rialynn looked up from her notes with a grin. "That's lucky, you got a good combination with that one." And wow, summoning spirits? Ellana had the bard's full attention now, as she'd scooted herself around to face her directly.

"What kind of consequences?" she asked, curious. "You never had to summon one, then? Or was there a brief exception?"

[lostwisdom]

"You and I both," Ellana admitted, chuckling to herself. Accepting her handkerchief back, she couldn't help but remain amused at the other's antics and curiosity. "Once I almost went to judge a prisoner only to be stopped by one of my advisors because I had a smear on my ear."

Perhaps before she caught the next airship to Esdham, she'd get a time to wash the cloth.

"So I'm told," she smiled politely, though it didn't quite reach her eyes. "I never had nor wished to. If anything, I sent spirits back to their reality. Mages are especially susceptible to the influence of spirits, thus I was trained since I was young that the risks were not worth the cost." Pausing for a moment, she glanced at their unconscious charge before looking to meet Rialynn's gaze. "An external summoning, if the spirit is forced to comply by the mage's demands, can corrupt them into a demon if it goes against their nature. An internal summoning can corrupt the mage themselves, along with the spirit if the mage's intentions corrupt its sentience. There's only one case I know of that didn't lead to tragedy."

She remembers what they spoke of another mage who was raised in the Circle... one who wasn't as lucky as her to have a spirit to ask those questions to, or her boyfriend who knew much more about the Beyond.

[rialynn]

"You're kidding...!" Rialynn drew in her breath in a slow gasp. Her shoulders jerked as an involuntary shiver danced over her spine. Demons possessing a person's body against their will was truly terrifying...moreso after Narasimha's brief reign of terror concluded. Needless to say, she wasn't going to be telling anymore tales of that nature during her performances for a very long time.

"Is there a way to prevent it? A certain herb, or a...a charm, a circle of salt... I mean, if it always ends so poorly, why would anyone even want to try?"

It made no sense to her, but then again, she wasn't nearly as accustomed to fighting supernatural entities as most people drawn to this world seemed to be.

[lostwisdom]

"Vigilance, unfortunately, was the only preventative measure I knew of that was widely accepted. Whatever other alternative existed was lost with the fall of my People over a thousand years ago." Something which was no end of grief for her, being the one who would have taken over leadership of her clan were it not for, well...

Noting that shudder, she smiled faintly. "Desperate times has always led man down a self-destructive path for desperate measures. I myself befriended a spirit of Compassion, however, but that was because he approached to warn of an incoming attack.

"What about you? Did you have any experiences in your world that helped you with your Jobs?"

Re: Rialynn Kollmann

[not_most_days]

Having been one of the Heroes ready and willing to put Palitutu down once and for all, Kidd took it upon herself to watch the hospital as a personal task. She spent some time wandering close, observing from the halls or from nearby vantage points outside. She wasn't going to interfere with the hospital staff, nor the Heroes formally assigned to watch the tarutaru, but she wasn't about to simply rest and leave this entirely in the hands of others either.

Eventually though her concern reached a rising point and she decided to make a more direct visit. She approached as quietly as was her habit, but then stopped at the door to knock. She wasn't sure how welcome she'd be, but she'd at least be respectful of those formally watching their captive.

[rialynn]

Rialynn lifted her head, surprised. The hospital staff didn't usually bother to knock, and she couldn't think of anyone who legitimately wanted to pay a visit to Palitutu. So had someone come to see her?

She frowned a little, and put her book aside before making sure the knives she had, hidden and visible, were easy to dispatch. While she didn't expect any trouble, she also thought Cid probably had a good reason for assigning so many Heroes of Light to watch over the comatose researcher. Then she pushed herself off of her stool and went to the door, opening it partway.

Kidd was easy enough to recognize, and she drew her head back. "Kidd?" she blinked. "Uh...you're not here on business, I hope," she said with a nervous little grin. She hoped not. Mary was one of the first people she'd met in this place, and she liked her a lot. But when an assassin showed up in a room that needed a personal guard, well...

Sorry this took so long

[not_most_days]

She was a little surprised and dismayed to find Rialynn answering the door. This visit would be simpler with someone who knew her. On the other hand as brief as the last meeting they had was, it was pleasant. And Bonnie had been saying she ought to get to know some of the other Heroes better.

"No, nothing of the like, no matter how tempting. I found out a number of you were tasked with watching over our...guest, something I was planning to do myself regardless." In fact she already had been doing so, just not in the room.

"Thought it might be a good idea to offer my help before someone misunderstood my lurkin' about." She turned to the bed and made no effort to hide her distaste. "I still don't trust the woman. I'm not going to do anything to her, but I'll feel more secure if I have my own eyes on her." Her eyes went back to the bard and she offered an apologetic head tilt. "Not to say you lot aren't trustworthy of course. Just a touch of nerves after all she's put us through."

That's okay, I've been slammed!

[rialynn]

"I guess that makes sense. I wasn't really here for most of that. I wouldn't blame anyone for not trusting her, if they were around when she told everyone her name was Jessie."

As for Rialynn herself, her expression seemed to be neutral. She glanced back at the comatose Tarutaru with neither pity nor resentment. To her, this was just a job, and she was just a history-recording bard. Taking sides on such a divisive issue seemed dangerous.

"Anyway, I don't blame you for not trusting me," she sighed. "The things that guy did...sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and can still feel my flesh crawling. It's not fun." She gestured toward the empty hospital bed, inviting Kidd to take a seat. "Anyway, I feel better being able to watch her as a pair in any case. Heroes of Light aren't the only ones bound to have a grudge, you know?"

Re: That's okay, I've been slammed!

[not_most_days]

"Aye, but it's one thing to use an alias and another to plot against the whole group of people you've been working with. To try to kill them." She frowned and shook her head, "When we ran into her in the past she sacrificed a whole city in the effort to bring us here. And the question still in the air was if she did it because she thought it was the right thing or because she felt she was supposed to."

The physics of time travel were not something that Mary intended to spend much thought on. But the fact that someone would put that many people to death just to bring forth pawns for another scheme was something she was disinclined to abide.

But she shook her head at Rialynn's comment, "If there's someone in this room I don't trust it's not you. Not by any measure. We've had more than our fair share of allies bein' controlled by outside forces, and it's happened where I come from as well. But that's not the real you. And depending on the why and how you can't be blamed for being made into a puppet. Not unless you had some intent that helped let them in."

She shook her head and walked over to Palitutu's bedside. She traced her left hand, the one with the hidden blade, along the sheets at the edge of the bed. "I've told a fair few, but you seem trustworthy enough, where I come from I'm part of a Brotherhood. A group that lives in the shadows so that others can enjoy the light. We do the things that must be done so that others can live free." She glanced over her shoulder, "The Assassin job, that must have come from one of my fellows in another cycle."

[rialynn]

"I guess that's possible," Rialynn conceded. It made her wonder if perhaps there was a swashbuckler job hidden away somewhere to match the swordsmanship of her old friends back home. Probably not. Most of the jobs seemed crafted to incorporate magic, and there wasn't anything supernatural or incredibly enhancing that resulted from being able to wield a rapier and a musket.

She turned to watch Kidd as she crossed the room, and much as she might have wished herself to have complete faith, she did feel a little nervous about letting someone stand that close to Palitutu while freely admitting to being an assassin.

"Do you think that's how she saw herself too?" she asked quietly. "Doing what needed to be done for the sake of the greater good?" Because it kind of sounded like she had a lot in common with this Brotherhood and its ideals.

[not_most_days]

There was the pirate job. Perhaps not quite the thing that Rialynn wanted, but it was close. And the sky pirate advanced job certainly had the style too it. It was one that had done Mary quite well. In fact she was frequently torn between whether being a Pirate or an Assassin would do her best from month to month.

"Perhaps, but there's a limit. Not a line, nothing so specific...But the sacrifice of a city does not balance with the world. Especially not if your goal is to keep things as they are rather than try to stop the problem all together."

After a long beat she finally turned away from the bed. "The economy of lives is not a simple one, and oftentimes more lives are lost than originally planned. It's bloody work, but my Brotherhood strives to only kill those few and specific people who are causing harm. We don't simply kill because people stand in our way."

She glanced over her shoulder at Palitutu, "I don't feel it's hypocritical to say that her way is wrong. My own hands may not be clean, but innocent blood is never a fair trade, no matter for what greater good."

Tear Grants

[cantante]

When the assignment to watch over Palitutu had been assigned to her, Tear had expressed no strong emotions about it—she had never known or depended on the person known as "Jessie" personally, only recognising her as an enemy when she had made her true intentions known. But even after that, the melodist still had a sense of respect for the woman's resolve.

That was why she understood the importance of the task given to them. Palitutu may have given everything in that last battle and expected to die, but now that she hadn't the girl knew that she would be able to find the strength to wake up again. Whether it was as an ally or as proof of their naïvete, she didn't know.

So the girl watched over her dutifully, expression completely blank despite the many thoughts running through her mind. Tear knew that if she hadn't said anything about the vision she had seen, there likely wouldn't have been any reason to be standing guard over their enemy.

Re: Tear Grants

[not_most_days]

Of all things to approach the room, different people approaching for different reasons, curiosity, fear, necessary work, perhaps the furthest outlier was the fluffy visitor who was now fluttering over towards Tear.

She wasn't flying directly at her but instead settled down behind a potted plant across the hall from Palitutu's room. Bonnie tugged on the front of her hood, pulling it down a little more. Mary said to keep an eye on things, but left it up to the moogle how to go about it. This was the perfect time to work on her Assassin training. Be sneaky while watching for any disturbances. If anything happened, she'd be sure to see!

Ruby Rose

[just_want_normal_knees]

Ruby let out a sigh as she sat on the chair near Palitutu's room. Guard duty for a job? Oh, that'll be interesting! Of course, she didn't realize it would be so boring. She began kicking her legs as she held Crescent Rose's compact form on her lap, trying her best to keep awake. Oh, why didn't she grab her headphones when she was back home?

Re: Ruby Rose

[neverfirstclass]

Through Ruby's building sleepy haze perhaps she might not have noticed Cloud as he walked over. After all, there really wasn't much about his footfalls that made him sound any different from others working or visiting. Heavier boots and a faint chocobo smell perhaps.

But then, out of nowhere, there's a sandwich being held in Ruby's field of vision.

Re: Ruby Rose

[just_want_normal_knees]

"Huh?" Ruby snaps up as she sees the sandwich, then looks up at Cloud, blinking in surprise. "For me?"

Re: Ruby Rose

[neverfirstclass]

Cloud grinned, unable to help but be amused by the response, "Yeah. You guys have been working hard watching her, right? I thought you could use some support."

Re: Ruby Rose

[just_want_normal_knees]

"Oh, thanks! Heh, yeah, it's been a little rough, really. She hasn't woken up yet, but there's always someone wanting to go in and, well... finish the job." Ruby said.

"It's also boring."

Re: Ruby Rose

[neverfirstclass]

"Yeah, guard duty is always like that. But better for it to be boring than exciting." He glanced at the door, expecting something to happen to spite his words. After a few seconds he looked back to Ruby.

"If you want I can take over if you need a break. I promise I won't try to hurt her."

Re: Ruby Rose

[just_want_normal_knees]

"No, no, it's okay! I mean, I wouldn't mind stretching a bit and getting awake again, but I'm not sure if anyone'll like me leaving my post." Ruby said. "Though... maybe if I make it REAL quick..."

Re: Ruby Rose

[neverfirstclass]

"Yeah, I understand. We have a big responsibility on all of our shoulders as far as she's concerned." While Cloud is being completely honest about his intent he doesn't want to see Ruby getting in trouble and he can understand why she'd be wary.

"But if you need to go use the bathroom or something I can keep watch and I'll take the blame if someone wants to yell at you."