Brief Title:
Bear's Warning
Characters:
Wolfsbane and Mirage, NPC: Demon Bear, Doctor and Police
Scene Runner/Watcher:
IC Date:
07/18/2012
Location:
A Hospital in Colorado
Summary:
The Demon Bear possesses the injured man Rahne and Mirage found to give her a warning.
Social or Plot:
TS:
No
Log:
-------Colorado Hospital-------
July 18, 2012
Two nights later at the local medical facility, Dani has been called in to visit with the gentleman they've recovered. Its hard to get the man stable by rumor coming from the doctors, alive, feeding, not quite thriving, but still mostly unconscious. Wavering in whatever lucid state he is in, today (18th), he has been calling out from the blackness for Moonstar and they've deduced that maybe Dani might be able to speak with the man. She and her friend have been invited back to visiting hours this evening.
On the drive up, dry grey clouds gathered overhead as a cool summer breeze stirred dry leaves on the street thanks to recent drought like conditions. When the two heroines make the medical facility, there is already dry thunder gathering and threatening. Almost mocking really, with no moisture to deposit the thunder and lightning is almost a mad taunt that the earth shall have no water this day.
The last few days have been a bit stressful for Dani. She has been going back and forth on whether she should call back up or just deal with her old nemesis herself. Without more knowledge she has a hard time making the call. So she heads up to the hospital hoping that she can get some answers from the latest victim. Though if he is in she same shape as the others have been she isn't hopeful "What do you think Rahne?" she glances at the clouds as the head into the hospital, she doesn't specify what she is asking about, but its doubtful its the weather.
For the hospital visit, Rahne's gone human just in case it helps keep anyone from freaking out. It's a similar look to before, costume hidden beneath normal clothing. Last time they encounted the entity, it drew them into the Badlands dimension and it took Magik's Soulsword to help disrupt it. They don't have that luxury this time. "I'm na sure. Ye remember how difficult it was th' first time. What if it's stronger this time? I'm na sure we can count on th' others getting here in time tae stop it from getting worse, though."
Meeting them near the front door, Dr. Eshkan meets the two women. "I'm so glad you could make it," he offers his hand in greeting to both. "Its odd, up until today not many sounds," says the doctor leading towards a patient elevator, "And today he repeats your name ever now and again, am I to assume you two were close?" A ponderance he reaches to push the elevetor button. Eventually the door opens and the trio is on their way to the critical care ward near the top floor.
"We are stronger too." Dani points out, trying to sound optimistic. In this one instance she is greatful that the link between then is severed, she doesn't want her own apprehension to be feeding that of her friend. She is kept from anything further by the intro of the doctor whom she shakes the hand off "Close? No. I think we may have went to elementary school together, but I haven't seen him since then." she explains while following through the hospital.
Are they? Rahne's not so sure. They're just two, and she's got concerns about even being able to hurt the thing if and when they face it. Yes, not having that link up right now saves the self-doubt from crossing over, but it's still in the body language. "I hope ye're right," is all she says. They know what the entity is capable of, especially with what's happened lately. She keeps quiet as the connection between Dani and the victim is brought up, fingers toying with her ponytail.
Rubbing his chin a moment, Dr. Eshkan makes mental note of that. "Interesting indeed, perhaps he thought more of you in high school than he spoke of," with a chuckle, "And this is why we need more talking circles." He leads down the old linoleum floor, waxed to a shine, to the patients room and opens the door. "I'll be right out side if you need me, I'll summon the charge nurse and she can meet with you to discuss his condition."
Opening the door, there is just the man in the furthest bed in with 1/2 the curtain drawn so only his legs protrude visible from the vantage point of the door. Dry lightning flashes outside marking his silouhette lying calmly in the bed. Someone has left the TV on to some random network show as if that migth help him.
"That's doubtful, I went to high school out of state." Dani shrugs to the doctor, she has a hunch as to why the man is calling for her, but doesn't share it with the doctor. The less he knows the better "Thank you doctor." she says dismissing him as she moves across the room and around the curtain a worried look going to Rahne "Be ready." she says to her than goes to stand besides the victim's bed. She studys him a long moment, focusing on not only what her eyes tell her but what her other senses do as well, both mutant and valkyrie.
Still quiet during the short conversation, Rahne subtly lets the wolf begin to show just as the doctor leaves them. It's there first in the senses she heightens, a whisper of that link between the women that includes all the wariness one would expect in a dangerous situation. "I am..but really, with th' lightning?" It's a short, light moment in an otherwise serious, tense thing. She starts toward the other side of the bed and by the time she's there, more of that other part of her can be seen in her features.
Without needing to think about Death sense is indeed heightened in this room. In fact, there might be some smell of it for Rahne as well. It is stronger the further one comes into the room and closer to the man. Then it becomes pervasive until a slight click at the door indicates it has closed behind the women. While it has natural springs, the timing of the door closing seems off just a little but in thinking about it, one wonders if it took too long or too quickly to close. Regardless, that ponderance is cut short as lightning flashes again and the body of the man jerks upright. Not pushed up by arms, but more pulled to a sitting position, arms limp in the lightning's silouhette of the man, "Daniiiii ..." moans the man.
Dani takes a step from the man as he bolts into a sitting position and she looks around the room, suddenly even more wary then she was before, "Speak." she moves to the end of the bed so she can look the man in the face, which also takes her out of easy grabbing range. She slyly gestures to Rahne to move back, "But firs tell us who we are speaking too."
When it happens, the Scotswoman's hackles raise along the back of her neck, much like they did as a wolf the other day. Even this way, it happens. While the lighting flashes and the man jolted into an upright position like a puppet on a string brings forth a gasp, her attention splits as she eyes the door. At what she sees, she reaches out to grab at Dani's arm. "Look!" She points, behind them.
The puppet man on the bed says in a scratchy cold voice, "I am Maxemista," a play on the Cheyenne concept of Hairy Men - or Bigfoot/sasquatch. Even as Rahne points behind and the shadows moving there can be glimpsed, a voice calls out from that direction in a soft whipser - almost an echo of the other voice as it bounds around the room, "Death, come to claim you." The later whisper, the culprit certainly, but the puppet man gives an answer that in itself is something of a truth for the monster he is become. Even as the tall lines of shadows stretch to reveal the bear and the shadows seem to become manifest (or the room starts to fade away), the man reaches over to rip off the adjoining curtain to reveal himself like a broken rag doll, but arms being pulled as it scrabbles to get out of the bed and make for the women.
With a breif glance behind her she dismisses the prescence of Death, she certainly isn't going to be fighting Death for a near stranger on top of dealing with the Demon Bear. She takes hold of the arm that Rahne has a hold of her and backs them away from the possessed man. As she backs away, as much as the small room will let her a glowing spear manifests in her hand. She uses it it point at Death "I have no quarrel with you, and will let you take the man's soul when it is freed from the grip of the Demon. She then holds the spear up putting it between her and Rahne and the possesed man.
Wolfsbane isn't too sure what needs more of her attention first. She isn't going up against Death, that's one thing. The possessed man..he probably can't do much against either of them, but she's careful to give herself room to react if he gets too close. "It's here, Dani.." she warns, stating the very obvious. 'It,' of course, is the demon bear. She keeps a semi-crouch, ready to spring as the room appears to shift.
The rising of the staff causes the shadow bear to waver. Not waver as in fading, just a stay of hand. The sounds between the walls is its voice, "You are of Maheo," the Cheyenne creator spirit, "But now you are tainted." The small room seems to fold into tesseract space, becoming larger so that backing up can be done plenty. The shadow is either all around or just in front of them. The light sorce unknown, grinning to reveal its canines, it roars like a grizzly and the puppet man leaps to attack, it head elongated like a jackel when it finally rises from behind the puppet body to try and bite at whomever is closest.
"I have been tainted since you cursed my life with your prescence." Dani retaliates, keeping herself mostly between the man and bear and Rahne. If it were possible for her to be more uneasy, the room shifting would do it but it is not enough to keep her from noticing the man jumping at her, who she stabs at with her ghost staff, though she is unsure whether it will do much of anything to the possessed mortal.
Are they going..elsewhere? The shifting scene has a momentarily disorienting effect on Wolfsbane, but not enough to leave her that vulnerable to attack. As the possessed man attempts to get at them and Dani responds with the staff, it gives her the chance to shift positions and keep the bear itself more in view as she growls. "We beat ye once before already. We'll do it again," she promises.
When Dani's staff hits the man, the room, space, dimension, surroundings errupt with lightning. Blue in hue, but enough to push the shadows away. Then it is hard to tell if she hit the man or the bear. The Demon Bear roars again, "I am eternal," the words reverberates in the resonation of the bear roar. Between the lightning, the man looks like a bear and the man Dani knew, alternately while the shadows recede from the wall and the room seems to be returning. When the man is visible, he huskily whispers, "Dani, you are cursed ..." darkness then lightning flash again, "Make amends with your ancestors ... that they know you as Valkyrie ..."
As the shadows disappear, rain starts to spatter the hospital window just as the door opens up, Dr. Eshkan has gotten the local police office on duty to kick the door in. This is just as the recently possessed man falls to the floor where it had moments ago jumped at Dani. The spear would do a human no damage and he is but collapsing from the recent exhaustions of possession and the strain of what his body just did.
Dani is all ready for the fight of her life and the spear comes up again so she can make another attack upon either the man or the Bear, whichever comes after them again, in whatever form, man or demon. When the Demon flees after the light show and roar, she is left looking confused. Her confusion is compounded by the man's words before collapsing. The staff in her hand disappears as the door is kicked in, though she makes no move to the man now on the floor, she instead moves toward Rahne, to both get out of the way and block the police's view in case the former wants to shift back to fully human without being seen.
Wolfsbane ducks away from the flash of lightning, a hand up to shield her eyes so it doesn't blind her long enough to be open to the bear's attack. Fingers flex in preparation to attack it with claws if she can, but then the shadows are going away, the room coming back into view. "Did ye..beat it?" she asks, just as confused by the sudden disappearance when it looked like they were in for a battle moments before. As the door is forced open and Dani moves to help shield her, she takes the hint and quickly goes back human by the time they get a good look at anything. "He tried tae get up an' started tae shout," she offers to the doctor and policeman.
The doctor stands behind the police officer to let him handle this. He lifts a hand, "I don't know who stood up and started anything, but lets bring it down a notch." THough his hand is close to his piece, it doesn't undo the button keeping it in his holster. "We heard some shouting in here, now you two are there with the patient near dead on the floor." Though as it looks like no on is doing anything threatening, the doctor pushes through a little to start checking vitals on the recently possessed man.
"Well in our defense he was pretty much nearly dead when we got here, so really the only change is that he is now on the floor instead of in his bed." Dani then gives a head gesture to Rahne "And like my friend said, he did that on his own." she stands beside Rahne, looking defiant, ready to pull rank on the officer if she has too.
"Are ye suggesting we had anything tae do with him getting worse?" Rahne challenges after Dani starts it. "There are verra dangerous things going on here tha' ye have nae idea about, but we came tae help when we heard about th' people going missing an' all turning up th' same way. Ye canna miss tha' it's connected, can ye?"
"I'm not making those jumps, just stating the obvious to me. Knowing your grandfather," the officer directs at Dani, "I'm sure you're telling the truth." He gives a nod to Rahne just the same, saying he believes them, but it does seem rather odd circumstance. "He's fading," calls the doctor, who reaches for the bed remote to call for a nurse, calling before any answers to ask what the patient needs, "Send someone in, he's collapsing."
In light of this event, the officer says, "Perhaps we should take this conversation out of the room." With a wave of his hand, he indicates the hall and waiting areas outside the patient rooms, as a good place to simply talk.
An eyebrow goes up an the fact that the officer knew her grandfather "Yes," she gives a nod as she looks around the room one last time before following the officer out, though she will pause to make sure Rahne goes with her, maybe even going so far as to take her hand as they leave. With what they have been through, just in the past few minutes, let alone the last couple of days she probably takes comfart in the contact. "We have a lot to discuss.
The condition of the victim turns to more of Rahne's immediate focus when told he's fading. "Nae! Is there nothing we can do?" She wants to go there, even takes a couple steps in that direction, but she's not a doctor. She has no way of saving anyone that weakened. "Ye have tae save him! He was just in th' wrong place an' did nothing wrong!" She doesn't come off like someone there to do ill, that's for certain. It takes Dani grabbing her hand to get her out, but she turns much quieter when the realiztion the man is probably going to die hits, meaning Dani will be left to do most of the talking.