RP: Tali, Neria, Garrus ((TW: blood, mild self-mutilation))
Aug. 29th, 2015 08:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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fadewalkCold. She was…
Pain bloomed across her body, but Meredith refused to fall back into the sweet, quiet darkness. Pain was real. She was…
Meredith opened her eyes to darkness as absolute as that which had held her back from her pain. She couldn’t feel her fingers, until she tried to move her arm and they exploded into tingling sensation. The toes of her right foot would not wiggle, but her left did and they would have to be enough. She lifted her head and she was…
She came close enough to the surface of the darkness to notice that she no longer felt the cold. She knew that was not a good sign, but she was…
She was awake.
The chains of the shackles holding her wrists rattled as she felt the links. They were threaded through an old metal loop stuck into the floor, presumably in the middle of the room. She wriggled carefully downwards and found the wall nearly her height away from the loop. When she tried to stand the shackles barely let her get to one knee. At a probing touch to her bad ankle, she nearly screamed for the pain, and the crumpled, sticky state of her greave left her no illusions as to what state she was in.
Meredith sat, legs bent with her right closer to protect it. Her mouth was dry, but she was not yet hungry that she could tell. There was an itch. And something she was forgetting, something important.
Meredith took the metal loop in both hands, and pulled. It shifted. Her fingers moved downwards, searching along the metal plate attached to the floor. One bolt, tight. A second, loose. She tried to twist it, but her numb fingers couldn’t catch on it. The third was similarly not quite loose enough, but the fourth.
Meredith smiled, and licked blood from her lips. It was a start.
Pain bloomed across her body, but Meredith refused to fall back into the sweet, quiet darkness. Pain was real. She was…
Meredith opened her eyes to darkness as absolute as that which had held her back from her pain. She couldn’t feel her fingers, until she tried to move her arm and they exploded into tingling sensation. The toes of her right foot would not wiggle, but her left did and they would have to be enough. She lifted her head and she was…
She came close enough to the surface of the darkness to notice that she no longer felt the cold. She knew that was not a good sign, but she was…
She was awake.
The chains of the shackles holding her wrists rattled as she felt the links. They were threaded through an old metal loop stuck into the floor, presumably in the middle of the room. She wriggled carefully downwards and found the wall nearly her height away from the loop. When she tried to stand the shackles barely let her get to one knee. At a probing touch to her bad ankle, she nearly screamed for the pain, and the crumpled, sticky state of her greave left her no illusions as to what state she was in.
Meredith sat, legs bent with her right closer to protect it. Her mouth was dry, but she was not yet hungry that she could tell. There was an itch. And something she was forgetting, something important.
Meredith took the metal loop in both hands, and pulled. It shifted. Her fingers moved downwards, searching along the metal plate attached to the floor. One bolt, tight. A second, loose. She tried to twist it, but her numb fingers couldn’t catch on it. The third was similarly not quite loose enough, but the fourth.
Meredith smiled, and licked blood from her lips. It was a start.
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Date: 2015-09-01 06:19 pm (UTC)From:She grunted an acknowledgement, feeling the gentle prods from Tali’zorah’s thick fingers pass down her shoulders, beside where her surcoat, gambeson and tunic had shredded into her back, and below that it was only the pull of fabric against her shoulders as it was moved.
“There.” She slurred.
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Date: 2015-09-02 01:01 am (UTC)From:For the first time since his arrival, Garrus stepped into the surreal, greenish world outside. He'd be a damn liar if he tried to tell anyone that his free hand didn't go right to the grip of his closest gun. After a deep breath, he steeled himself and relaxed into a brisk walk.
His eyepiece lit up with a display of Tali's location. Inside the large stone building, of course. And...underground? Garrus found a side door, one that looked like it lead through some sort of old kitchen (who still uses fireplaces to cook?), but there was a set of stairs down beyond that. The tunnels under the castle weren't the most conducive to travel, and Garrus found himself at a point at least once where his display said Tali was right in front of him, but there was a wall in the way. Eventually, he did come around a corner to see the Quarian--and another human(?) woman--both crouched over what appeared to be a corpse.
His eyepiece lit up again, listing off the vitals of the injured party and indicating major injuries. He slowed his approach, coming to a stop just short of the scene.
"I brought what I could find," he announced, holding out the bundle of limited supplies. He didn't think twice about how his two-pitched voice might sound to someone half conscious who had never heard Turian speech before. In fact, he hadn't thought any of this would be unusual at all, what with his rather extensive experience of nearly lethal situations. "It isn't much, it looks like the med-bay was picked clean recently."
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Date: 2015-09-02 01:48 am (UTC)From:The Warden Commander didn't like being beaten and sliced and she had left her room utterly pissed with the situation; cleaning someone else's mess just to ensure the flow of time was preserved, specially knowing what Meredith had done but... seeing the woman on the floor hanging by a thread washed away her rage, leaving nothing else but pity with a hint of frustration. She shook her head, taking a deep breath.
"Knight-Commander, you'll feel my magic right now, but rest assured I'll only use it to heal you the best I can."
A soft, clear blue light shone on her palms, spreading a warm and gentle feeling. She closed her eyes, focusing, figuring out what was wrong with her back; the torn flesh and muscles, the swelling and the blood leaking from her veins, the compressed nerves against the bone. She started mending the veins, clearing blood clots from the area and then moved to the muscles, feeling its fibers, the way it should be arranged. The swelling was waning, bit by bit, setting the compressed nerve free. Now she could get a better feeling of the rest.
Sweat drops formed on her forehead, eventually running down her face. Her arms trembled, but she kept the flow of magic steady, aware of the fact she was quickly running out of mana due her inexperience with advanced healing techniques. But she wouldn't falter, wouldn't stop.
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Date: 2015-09-02 02:24 am (UTC)From:Tali spoke softly, making sure that Meredith understood her before moving. "Knight-Commander, Warden Surana is currently healing the worst of your injuries. I promise that she is only working in the interest of keeping you whole. A member of my team is here with additional medical supplies. His voice is the strange, two-toned voice. Can he come over so that I can take the medical supplies from him, or should I go and pick them up from him?
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Date: 2015-09-02 02:46 am (UTC)From:Tali’zorah did not seem to be alarmed. Meredith pushed her panic back down her throat.
Then, before she could even recover, the familiar elf revealed herself as a mage and began to cast on her. Meredith called up a Cleanse, but it was healing magic and the Cleanse dissipated unused. She lay still instead, feeling something tingling up her neck, a sort of pinching that was moving downwards until-
“Grrnhk!” Meredith snarled as suddenly her left side gained sensation. Pins and needles engulfed her, the stabbing merciless but very welcome. She wiggled her fingers and toes carefully, and though there wasn’t much sensation beyond the tingling pain she did feel all but her right foot move. She inhaled deeply, suddenly aware of how short of breath she’d been.
“Enough. You exhaust, useless.” She rasped near-voicelessly, pushing the mage’s hands away. From the ‘taste’ of their magic, Meredith could tell the mage was nearly out of mana. Heartened that her hands had managed what she’d wanted, she flexed her right hand a little to make sure it was no fluke, then waved in the direction Tali’zorah’s team member seemed to be. “Come.”
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Date: 2015-09-02 03:38 am (UTC)From:He came back to proper attention when he heard Tali talk about him. His back straightened and he waited, only moving forward at the order of the injured woman on the ground. She sounded authoritative. Something he could respect, but something that also made him wary. He handed the supplies down to Tali as he took a knee.
"Do we know who--or what--did this?"
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Date: 2015-09-02 04:00 am (UTC)From:Neria used her last burst of mana to relieve Meredith's pain, letting Tali work with the things that her companion had brough. She had no idea of what those packs were, but she had a pair of free hands to help with the bandages, if necessary. Her hand sought for a handkerchief to clean her forehead, uncomfortable for being without mana for the moment.
It's ok Neria, Certainty is not here and you're not alone. Be calm.
Now that she wasn't working with her magic, though, her eyes would glance at the armored visitor every now and then, trying to compreenhend him. Not that a fully-clothed girl with a dark-glassy helmet with only two lights to be seen didn't caught her attention at first too.
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Date: 2015-09-02 02:32 pm (UTC)From:Tali could see the questions in Neria's eyes as she looked back and forth between Garrus and herself. Tali felt a little self-concious - she'd taken off her helmet and shoulder wrap to give Meredith some comfort, but now that meant that all the mechanical working of her suit were visible. Neria must have no idea what to make of that, let alone Garrus' s appearance...
"Knight-Commander, have we missed any additional injuries? We have enough medi-gel to treat most superficial wounds, but I doubt you want to be undressed for a full exam in the middle of a hallway."
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Date: 2015-09-02 05:36 pm (UTC)From:“A demon,” Meredith corrected Tali’zorah. A demon under the control of an elven mage- Ah.
So that was where Meredith knew her voice from. Well, well.
And now the mage tried to help her victim. A guilty conscience hoping for leniency, most likely. Tali’zorah and her bizarrely voiced team member were the only reason she was still alive: witnesses against the mage trying to finish what she’d started. She would be dealt with.
Meredith flexed her muscles, testing each from her shoulders down. Pain in her leg, to be expected. Pain in her knees, palms and elbows from crawling like a helpless child. Pain in her back, but a manageable amount compared to what it had been. A migraine, but it would not distract her. The shaking from the crawling under her skin. It was the pain in her throat and mouth that troubled her most, since blood loss would only be exacerbated by dehydration.
Meredith pulled her arms under her torso, shifting carefully, and pushed herself back into a sitting position. Tali’zorah was a dim shape on her left, the mage a blur on her right. The third, larger fuzzy outline next to Tali’zorah must be her team member, and she nodded to the two of them. “Water.”
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Date: 2015-09-03 02:31 am (UTC)From:"She's one hell of a biotic," Garrus gave credit where it was due as he popped open a compartment on the upper section of his armor. A plastic tube with a pop-up nozzle on the end slid out. Water. "And she's an even better outlaw. But I wouldn't call her a demon."
He held out the water for the injured woman, his posture offering that he would hold it for her while she drank, if she wasn't strong enough.
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Date: 2015-09-03 02:45 am (UTC)From:Neria replied, even without being prompted. She was working on the splinted leg pointed by Tali, making sure the bone was in place and the bandage steady, but without interrupt the blood from flowing.
"You say she's an outlaw. Does it makes her dangerous for the rest of us, or can she be reasoned with?" she shook her head, speaking more for herself than for the others "Even is she claims self defense, we'll have to follow the procedures determined by Cullen. Just a formality, but still... one we intend to keep so we won't lose order."
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Date: 2015-09-03 03:16 am (UTC)From:Tali watched Garrus and Meredith, wary after the Knight-Commander's reaction to her own unusual physiology.
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Date: 2015-09-03 03:58 am (UTC)From:Her hand came up, shaking badly, and she groped uselessly before they were good enough to move the container of water into her grip. Their hand was under hers, only two thick fingers like Tali’zorah. She tried to hold the odd container on her own, and though she nearly spilled it all down her surcoat, once she got it to her mouth it was simple enough to drink on her own.
She took small sips as she listened to them. Lies about the demon ‘Aria’, ‘procedures’ her Knight-Captain had put in place. She realized then that she had no idea if he’d replied to her missive in the enchanted book. Not that she could check now for herself, nor could she trust anyone else to tell her.
She pulled away from the mouthpiece of the container long enough to address the mage. “This procedure, what does it require?”
Tali’zorah clearly knew Aria. She and her team mate both had unnatural hands, strangely distorted voices. They deferred to the mage - the Warden, of course the demon-summoning blood mage is the Warden Commander - and Tali’zorah had not seemed surprised when the Warden had arrived.
So. Surrounded by demons and blood mages. And she had accepted aid from them, so she was at least partly under their thrall.
Lovely.
She held out the empty container, and when the team mate took it back Meredith cleared her throat and nodded to them. “My thanks.” She continued to address them, but turned her head toward Tali’zorah and raised her eyebrow. “By chance, are you wearing gloves?”
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Date: 2015-09-03 04:28 am (UTC)From:no subject
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Date: 2015-09-03 04:53 am (UTC)From: