apocalypsehowcomm | Log - Catch-all for September/October

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Log - Catch-all for September/October - Open

Who: Mercy Graves & OTA
When: Throughout September and October
Where: Around Gloucester
Summary: Mercy falls asleep in a graveyard, has a look-in on Dogtown's horrors, and is here to help in the Medical Bay.
Warnings: loss of skin, fatigue, hypersomnia

I. An Old, Familiar Tune (max 2, please)
In retrospect, continuing her clandestine graverobbing efforts might have been a mistake. She'd been able to shrug off the music creeping into her ears and her thoughts, even if some of them seemed a rather more sinister version of the things she knows from home. The songs she'd sung with the children in the Abbey and that Granny and the other grown-ups had sung to her and Colm when they'd been very young. Mercy is strong, though. She's awake, and she's not going to let what's going on stop her from continuing her work on the Flophouse. Ms. Ava or no, she's going to get this done.

Until she passes out somewhere in the middle of work. It's the wee hours of the morning when someone wandering by one of the more remote graveyards in Gloucester might notice a filthy young woman who looks a little like she might be crawling out of the half-dug-up grave for how she's fallen.

II. Medical Bay
"What's ailing you, then, cousin?" The question is posed by a smiling Mercy Graves, her hair pulled back in a tight ponytail and hidden beneath a white handkerchief she keeps over her head. The rest of her outfit is scrubs. Whether the cause of her patient's distress is obvious or not, she's ready to take questions and do what she can. She's technically still in training, but they're letting her have a little more responsibility these days with her efforts. "We got tinctures and tending supplies for all kinds of things."

Or maybe you're one of her colleagues in Medical. Mercy's struggling a bit with the portable ultrasound machine as she tries to help someone complaining of pain in their abdomen. "'Scuse me, Magus"--it's clearly some sort of honorable title for the way she bows her head respectfully when she speaks--"I'm having a right time with this machine. You know anything about checking for kidney stones? Thinking my patients suffering mighty from 'em."

III. Mired Way (closed to Luka)
Mercy might not be part of the Investigations group, technically... but they're all that, and since she'd been the one to spot a young man hopping the Dogtown fence, it feels like her responsibility to deal with it. Luckily, she'd been able to race back to ADI and grab the first person she could see to help out. He looks like a strapping man, and he's one of the doctors in Medical that she's seen, but not worked closely with.

"He hopped over right here, sir. Thanks awful for coming along. I'd go myself, but I know we ain't supposed to, 'specially not with how dangerous it's been of late. Don't think I introduced myself proper 'fore dragging you along. Sister Mercy Graves. I been training in the Medical Bay to be a proper healer... and I figure whoever's fool enough to go in there is gonna need healing."

IV. Wildcard
Hit me up for more specific plotting at

switalia!

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Magus. That's a new one.

Carter looks up at her owlishly, even peeks back over his shoulder for a moment to make sure she is, in fact, talking to him. When it's clear that she is, he looks down at the ultrasound and blinks.

"Oh. Yeah. Sure, I can show you."

John steps over to the hospital bed, taking a moment to smile and nod at the patient.

"How are you? I'm Dr. Carter. Let's take a look at what's going on down there, shall we?"

While the machine is a more modern version than the one Carter used to work with twenty years in the past, it's still familiar enough and has had some time to get caught up on the latest innovations.

"Okay, you do it. Here, once you applied the gel to the skin, you move the transducer over it... pay attention that there aren't any air pockets, they could interfere with the sound waves... and then you got your image over here."

He turns the portable screen to her.

"Now you wanna check for dense white clusters. Kidney stones often look like, uh... small white beans on the image."

"Right!" Mercy frowns thoughtfully at the screen. It really is magical, getting to see the insides of a person without opening them up first. She's convinced this is something the clerics of the Spring Tide would attribute to their god. And maybe it would be inspired by it? Who knows how things echo across the planes?

"Think we got a few here. Oh, that's a big one there." She looks at the unfortunate soul on the bed, her face pained. "We'll get you something to make it a little easier passing and relax everything down there," she assures. "'Less you think there's another treatment, sir?" Her gaze turns to Carter questioningly.

This has to be a bad idea. The last thing he needs is to go into Dogtown, but he also couldn't say no, not when asked for help. He'd been trying to stay to himself, and not gain the attention of anyone in ADI for that matter, and spending all his energy avoiding Carter, but clearly that can only work for so long.

"No, it's--it's fine."

Luka smiles, a rare moment of kindness and normalcy ever since--he was going to say ever since this whole Avatar thing started, but even beyond that. When was the last time anything had ever been like it was in Chicago? Of course, he knows the moment they set foot into Dogtown said normalcy will quite quickly go away, but still.

"It's not a good idea for anyone to go by themselves, either. It's nice to meet you, Sister Mercy. I'm Dr. Luka Kovač."

He nods before going to the fence. "I've seen you around a little bit. What sort of healing were you interested in?"

"All kinds!" She moves with him, then sets her hands on the chainlink fence and hauls herself up and over rapidly. It's less dexterity than it is upper arm strength. She's on the other side with little trouble, which... is probably why other people are hopping it. "Mostly I'm thinking potions- uh... salves and the like. Those're what I can take home with me. The thinking about them, I mean. My order's one for healing, and I was gonna learn that sort of thing with them, too.

"It's been a lot of researching what's in difference medicines and seeing where those started out. Reaching into the past for the herbs and other things they used before the fancy things we got. Where I'm from, we're simpler folk."

"I think you might like emergency medicine, if you like all kinds. That's my specialty. We cover a bit of everything, even a little surgery."

That's...probably the world's worst protective fence, he frowns, as he reaches up to climb it, practically leaping over it like a deer since he's so tall.

"You must show me your potions and salves, I'm very curious. Sometimes those can work better than produced pharmaceuticals, honestly. I used to work in a very rural area where we could not get many supplies, so this is of interest to me."

"Oh, yeah? You mean like what we seen in Wolf Pen? That felt more like home than a lot of the places I seen here, honestly. More spread out than I'm used, to, though. But the mountains and the trees... those were nice to see again." She offers him a brief smile before turning her attention to these woods and what they might hold. Her eyes are on branches and-

"There. Think I'm seeing where they charged through the trees. Broken branches." She'll start leading the way. "Emergency medicine sounds like it's right where I wanna be. How'd you get into that?"

“Even more rural than that. There was a war going on too, and they needed doctors to help the people who were very poor.”

He smiles in return. “My home in Croatia was like that, before I moved to the United States. It’s very beautiful, by the ocean.”

He nods at the broken branches, turning a bit more serious.

“I think so, too. And if you’re interested, I can teach you some things. When we go to med school, and graduate to be doctors, we can choose a specialty. I like…I guess I like things to be interesting. Fast-paced, maybe. And you have to be able to assess a patient quickly, even if they can’t tell you what’s wrong.”

"That's... that'd be helpful, aye." Mercy's expression shifts to a concerned frown. "We got wars waging with the Sidbutian Empire back home. They got all sorts on the battlefront. One of my friends was a soldier soon as could get him firing a handheld drag-" She pauses because there are specific words for it here. "A gun. Rifle? Can't say I'm too familiar with all that.

"I work better smacking folk with a shovel or sticking 'em my dirk." She pats her side as she says this where Luka might note there's a long handle sticking up out of the jacket she has tied around her waist as some measure of disguise for the weapon.

“That’s what happens,” he says quietly, his tone turning more somber. “Some of the people who attacked us at the clinic weren’t much more than children. And they killed many.”

He notes the weapon, and nods a bit sheepishly.

“I didn’t think to bring anything.”

Most of the time he can handle himself just fine with his fists, words, or now…a little help from an Entity.

"I'll keep you safe, sir. Fighting's not a job for everyone." And he doesn't seem as soft as some of her colleagues here, but the fact he'd go anywhere without a weapon is telling in her mind. "Hopefully, we won't need that, mind. Look there." She points to some crushed leaves. I don't think our man went real far into here. Means we probably won't, either, with as fresh as this trail is."

“Oh! I can fight, if it comes down to it,” he says just as sheepishly, holding his hands up. “I’m not so bad at it. But you’ll have to show me your skills sometime, I practiced a little fencing in college.”

When he was acting, of course.

“You’re right.”

That looks pretty fresh, and he ducks his head through some brush, looking around. “I don’t hear anything just yet, but perhaps…”

Then again, they were in Dogtown. He’s honestly expecting something awful to happen any moment now.

"You think we oughta be hollering for them?" she wonders. "I was just worried about attracting attention for things we didn't want to talk to. There's them hand critters not long ago, and then a long while back, there was pig-men trapping folks and pulling 'em apart."

A graveyard at a strange hour isn't all that unusual of a place to find Eda poking around. She hasn't had an especially normal sleep schedule in years, and while working for the ADI probably should help with that, it doesn't seem like it is.

And the graveyard itself, well, she's doing her best to focus on the strange things going on in town. Trying to throw herself into investigating here rather than think about leaving. The music has her curious - she's heard it a few times now, and done her best not to linger and listen for too long. But she'll probably be fine as long as she makes a point to stay awake... right?

Either way, whatever plans she had to look for the sources are set aside when she notices what looks like someone crawling out of a grave. She's fairly sure that's unusual here. When she makes her way over she gets less certain that's actually what happened, but she suspects it's a good thing she came over to check.

"...Hey, are you asleep or a zombie? Or a particularly sleepy zombie?" she asks, poking the young woman lightly with the toe of her boot and then crouching down to get a better look.

"Whuh?!" Mercy jolts awake with a gasp and kick that just has her falling completely into the grave. It's bright. The music is still in her mind along with horrific nightmares she can't fully recall, but there's... what's going on? She picks herself up, looks around and-

"Oh, Brother in the Shade and Sunlight!" She sees the older-looking woman peering at her and goes still, eyes wide. Lie. She needs a lie. "I... fell in."

Nevermind the shovel sitting directly next to her.

Edited 2022-10-02 02:08 (UTC)

Eda moves back a little when the younger woman shocks awake, but then leans to peer down into the grave.

"...Uh-huh," she says, not bothering to try and look like she believes her.

"Tripped when you were trying to catch whoever was actually robbing this grave, did you?" she offers, with almost a straight face.

She doesn't really care. She's here because she's curious about the magic, not to stop other people's petty theft. But she's amused.

It's a rather bald-faced statement to make. She's definitely not finishing her work here. "Yeah!" Her smile is brilliant. "Actually. Scoundrels like that're just the worst. But, looks like they left their shovel here. Reckon I can get this bit reburied and it'll be just right as the dew on a daisy, marm."

She can't help yawning as she moves to scramble out of the grave. "You just, uh... you being on your way? This ain't the best place for older folk, 'less you're looking for a plot for yourself?"

Okay, that first part is... actually kind of adorable, she has to admit. Good try. The next comment, on the other hand, has her rolling her eyes if not genuinely offended.

"Right, because being what, fourteen, clearly made you completely immune to this place?" she points out with a snort. She's not actually sure if she's seen this person around the ADI or if they'll have no idea what she's talking about, so she leaves it vague.

"And no, I reckon I've got a good few years left. I can take care of myself. You know, unless there's some reason you want me to leave." Is she just being obnoxious now? Yes.

Mercy can't help a mild pout at that. "I seen the seasons turn their full self 20 times since my eyes was opened, marm. Ain't so venerable as yourself, but ain't so young as that, neither." She does start rapidly filling the hole with the motions of someone who is very used to this sort of work.

"Not trying to run you off. Just, ah... well, I wouldn't want your clothes getting dirty with me flinging this dirt around."

Eda snorts. She could definitely tell that the girl was either late teens or early twenties, but it was always fun to lowball those guesses with people young enough to get annoyed over it.

"How thoughtful," she adds flatly. She almost asks if she looks like the kind of person who cares about that, but she supposes that at the moment she almost does.

"You were right about one thing though. This... isn't a great place to be. Especially by yourself." She might be being obnoxious when it comes to not just letting the young woman get back to her grave-robbing in peace, but she is a little concerned about leaving her alone to potentially fall asleep again.

The woman... seems familiar, but there's something different about her that Mercy can't entirely place. Maybe she's seen her in HQ?

"Well, I wasn't meaning to be here by myself come the- this morning. Don't rightly know what come over me, laying down to rest. I'm just-just tired. Must be. Graveyards is soothing their own ways. You got so many people in the long rest, maybe a body just feels like lying down with them sometimes."

"Maybe," Eda agrees. She can't say that isn't true, it's just definitely not all that's going on here. "But you..." Her ears twitch slightly as she catches a note of that music again, though it doesn't show while she looks human. "But you shouldn't do it, assuming you're not looking for a plot here," she adds.

"So I think I'm just going to hang around until you're done filling that in. Or... whatever else you might've been doing," she adds that last bit conspiratorially, behind a hand, because she doesn't necessarily want the girl to waste all her work, as funny as this has been. "Do I look like a cop?"

It takes a moment of puzzled staring for Mercy to remember that word means a particular sort of guard. "Can't rightly say. Could be you're one of them cloak and dagger types, pretending to what you ain't. You'll pardon me saying, marm, but you seem the wily sort."

She does let some of her wariness drop away as she flashes a quick smirk at Eda, but she's still filling in the hole. While this woman might not care about her moonlighting activities, others who could wander by will.

This gets a snort. Eda definitely doesn't appear offended by the comment--or at least, not by the wily part.

"Oh I am--which is why I'd never be a cop." She grins as she watches the girl go about her work. "And if someone happened to be up to anything I wouldn't care. Not like the dead folks are using their stuff," she adds with a small shrug.

"Just don't want to see anyone who isn't ready to stay here end up in any... trouble."

Well, here's another person ferreting out her secret and just... not caring. She doesn't know this woman nearly as well as Garner, though, so there's still some suspicion. "I... appreciate the sentiment, marm. But the sun's up. That ain't a time for folks in the Long Rest to see the sky. Reckon they do better with the moon and the stars overhead. It's a gentler light."

She finishes with the last of the dirt and pats the mound down a bit with her shovel. Mercy can't help yawning as she does so, stretching. "Mm... I think I better get moving along or this-this music..." Another yawn. "Can you hear that?"

Eda decides there's no reason to argue that point. Either way, daylight isn't exactly the best time to do crime out in the open. She sits and leans a shoulder against a headstone as she watches.

"Yeah, I can hear it," Eda agrees. She's doing her level best to ignore it. "And it's why I didn't think you should stay here alone. I'm not sure what kind of bard nonsense it is... but I don't like it."

Not that she had anything against bard magic, but it was the closest thing she was familiar with and she wasn't enjoying this use of it. Or maybe she just course corrected away from actually saying magic.

"I don't know many bards is keen on putting folk to sleep." Another big yawn before Mercy gives her own face a few stinging slaps to wake herself. "End-like. We heard it last year around this time. It's a girl named Ava. Right little monster she was, terrorizing folk and perverting the way of death."

She realizes she's still not entirely sure about this, so she adds. "Or so I heard. Them detectives at ADI talk."

That first comment gets a laugh, although she's familiar with bard magic being used to make people sleep rather commonly.

Her attention starts to drift just a little as Mercy goes on--it's relevant information, but the music is nagging at the edges of her mind. The last comment drags her back, though.

"Right, look... do you work for the ADI? Can we drop the act? I think I've seen you around." She's not entirely sure, though.

"Oh! Yeah, I do." That makes things... so much easier. But also potentially more dangerous. At least this woman doesn't seem like the sort to snitch. "Sorry I was being cagey there, marm. Just trying to keep some secrets. I'm Sister Mercy Graves. Work in medical. Pleasure to meet you proper-like when you ain't come in for some stitching up."

"Yeah, that... might be where I've seen you," Eda admits. Though she's avoided getting seriously injured here so far she's definitely had some cuts and scrapes.

"Eda Clawthorne. And trust me, I could care less about your secrets, sister. But this music thing--it's dangerous. I've seen some people pass out and it take a lot to wake 'em up."

"Aye. That's Ava. We all-all got pulled into a sleep that went on for days around this time last year. People woke up wasting away seeing as we all went out at once and nothing was waking us up." She rubs at her eyes with her sleeve. "Lemme just say a few prayers and put this shovel back where I found it. We can head back to ADI. My body needs a cold shower to wake up proper.

"Appreciate you looking out for me, though, Ms. Eda. That's kind of you."

"No worries, kid. And it's just Eda." Mercy might be older than she guessed out loud, but apparently Eda's sticking with kid all the same.

"Anyway, go ahead. But... tell me more about this Ava on the way back. Wasn't here for that, but I've heard about her. In my world this would fall under bard magic. Not so sure about here, though." The similarity--at least the superficial similarity--is interesting to her all the same.

"'Course!" Mercy sets the shovel aside and kneels once she's got the grave mostly back in place. Her prayers are quick and silent, and then she's off to some nearby trees to hide the shovel in a hollow. she'd found. It's once they're walking back toward ADI that she picks up the conversation again.

"I didn't really meet Ava, myself. Not more'n anyone else did. She looked like a little girl when we finally saw her, but before that, she was just a voice singing from the graveyards. It started the same way last year. Songs that got into your head and had you wanting to lay down and sleep for hours. Got to the point where no one could stay away, even with devices we were using to zap us or fill us with some kind of stimulant.

"Seemed like she was focusing in on ADI after making a mess of Gloucester as a whole."

Eda listens thoughtfully. She's read some of this, but it's always interesting to actually hear from the people who've been here longer.

"Doesn't surprise me... if they're gonna talk a big game about stopping these things they're definitely putting a target on the place." But there are probably both pros and cons to that.

"Unless she's got more personal beef. Does anyone know if she's from this world to begin with?"

"Seems like she is, but I don't think anyone got to talk to her, personal-like. ADI didn't have any information on her, either, so I can't imagine she's someone who came through like us. They knew all about Deepthi, and I reckon they'd remember a little girl bent on killing folk." Mercy would certainly remember that.

"Could be she's just using a disguise, but it's an odd one. And when she messaged us after her terrorizing, she had to steal someone's phone and account to post on ADI's network. She should've had her own phone like us if she'd come through ADI's building, right?"

"Wasn't sure someone who left would still have access to that stuff... but that's a good point." Of course, there are other reasons the girl might have personal beef too, but at that point Eda's just speculating based on nothing.

"Wouldn't mind getting a chance to talk to her," she muses. Ava does sound pretty terrible, but if she's an actual child Eda has to wonder exactly how she got caught up in all this.

"Best chance you're like to get's in dreams. That's the only place we saw her last year. If you can get past all the dying." Mercy winces slightly. "It'd be nice being able to tell what's dreams and what ain't. That's something to maybe work on, if you're gonna talk to her."

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Log - Catch-all for September/October - Open

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cw: mention of child soldiers/child death

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cw: mention of dismemberment, body horror

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You okay to ftb on them heading back to ADI?