westfallcorndog | Left 4 Undead (for Adia and Caspar)

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Left 4 Undead (for Adia and Caspar)

All at once Adia's phone receives a rather hefty, suspiciously well-spelled message from Harrowheart's number.

Adia:
I hope this message finds you in fine health and good spirits. This is Tamminy Photovolt, not Harrowheart; I am merely borrowing his messaging device. I would like to propose a research venture to you and to your companion, Caspar. Would you be interested in collecting samples of microorganisms with fluorescent proteins? My assumptions about your world's level of technology lead me to conclude that you understand their uses, but if not we can discuss. More to the point, I intend to visit a part of my homeworld historically called the Eastweald for samples of a rare ore which I will need for a future project. I know that there are/were native populations of both bacteria and fungi which produce fluorescent proteins in this area and suspected you may be interested. Expect the local climate to be temperate, late winter, elevation slightly above sea level with an ocean current which generally prevents snow. Field time is expected to be between five hours and one day. If you would like to attend, please dress and pack accordingly. 
Yours,
Dr. Photovolt

A few seconds pass before another text follows.

And idk if Tams said this but bring Caspar to cause were killing zombies together its a guy thing. Meet at Naug's tower whenever your free.

And at the agreed-upon time it seems that quite a few people are milling about Naugus' tower. Harrowheart is sitting at one end of the U-shaped table in the yard, fully decked out in a deep blue suit of armor with bulky, spiked pauldrons and a red cape which collects on the ground near his feet. He's balancing the pommel of his runeblade in one open, floating palm and staring boredly into the distance while behind him Tamminy and Lawrence argue.

Tamminy is dressed for chilly weather and burdened by a backpack (made for a gnome's body, of course.) Lawrence doesn't seem to think this is enough and is insistent that she also take a single-barrel rifle designed for human arms. She can't seem to explain to him why this isn't going to work for her even as she demonstrates how poorly it fits her grip.

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That ghost of an emotion -- a lonely longing -- is so familiar to Adia that at first she assumes it's her own. But for the very first time, something scary has happened and Caspar has been here for her, so she knows it can't be hers.

When Harrowheart says that she can heal Caspar now, she smiles at him gratefully. Tamminy riding on his shoulders is a sweet image; she's glad that they can be there for one another.

"I can wait," Caspar complains through another quiet hiss of pain, but Adia is already pulling her first aid kit out of her messenger bag, so he sighs and shrugs out of his jacket, and then unbuttons his shirt. They're ruined anyway, might as well toss 'em. He has to peel off the light fabric of the shirt as it's soaked through in places, and okay, that does hurt a bit more, but he tries not to flinch when Adia is facing him again, carefully examining his injuries.

There are claw marks all along his torso, several sluggishly bleeding. There's an old healed bullet wound on his left side, right above his hip, and a small purplish bruise on his collarbone, but Adia does not pay those latter two any mind. She frets a little over the largest tear, dabbing it with gauze to get a better look. "This one needs stitches, I don't have that in my kit. What are we going to tell people at the clinic?"

"I'll just tell them you got a little too frisky," Caspar says, smiling through the sting of the gauze. Adia rolls her eyes, but the joke soothes her worries. The affection he has for her rolls over her like a calm summer breeze, and even as she treats his injuries, she basks in the warmth.

Except... that warmth isn't just in her imagination. The Light has one last gift for its newest disciple. Adia's hand glows softly, pale and luminescent like moonlight, and when she pulls her hand away, the deep cuts on Caspar's torso have lessened dramatically in severity. No more need for stitches, no more bleeding.

Adia looks up at Caspar in bewilderment. Did that just happen? She puts her hand on him again, but nothing else happens. She tries a third and a fourth time, and finally Caspar says, "As much as I like you touching me, I think you should probably switch back to conventional medicine." Blushing, she grabs the topical antibiotic and does just that.

Edited 2018-04-05 14:39 (UTC)

It's a small spark of Light, but Harrowheart can feel it. A magic in total opposition to his own -- to his very existence. He can't (or won't?) stop the way his lip peels away from his teeth as a wary growl fills the space between them.

He sees then that Caspar's wounds have been healed by the magic, and he turns his head away with a snort. "Hurry up. Clean him, get dressed, and we go, or I go without you," he demands, eyes on the barn door.

Tamminy holds tightly to his mane, burying her hands in his dense fur to distract herself from her sudden anxiousness. She didn't sense or see the Light show, and as far as her nerves are concerned a suddenly-angry death knight isn't something to be calm about. It's not the endless hunger, is it? He just killed all of those zombies, that has to count for something. Right?...

She looks to Adia and Caspar with guilt and worry in her large eyes. She's sorry about this terrible behavior, really she is!

Well, that was rude. Caspar keeps a shrewd eye on Harrowheart while Adia tends to his injuries. Something about the magical healing must have gotten under his fur, but he knows better than to bring it up, not while the death knight is being all gruff and hackles.

Adia works quickly, as directed, affixing medical tape to Caspar's side to keep the bandages in place. The barn suddenly feels a lot colder, full of unpleasant emotions. Did she do something wrong? Tamminy's apologetic look seems to suggest not. Besides, how could healing someone be a poor choice? And though she can't read Harrowheart's mind, something about his attitude makes her think back to a conversation she had with Blaze ages ago. The Guardian had been displeased about Harrowheart creating an undead minion, but Adia had defended him, insisting that he was using his nature to help stop Khan.

Well, it's been months since Khan was stopped, and he had kept that minion around. He treated it like a piece of equipment, or a puppet, when there was no threat in sight.

Was that his nature, too?

"All done," she says softly, her gaze down.

"Thanks," Caspar murmurs into her ear before kissing her again, softly. He bends down, mindful of the bandages, and picks up his ruined shirt and jacket. The shirt is more bloody than the jacket, but it's covered with less zombie gore, so he puts it back on anyway, and then the jacket. He can burn them when he gets home. "I don't see a shower around here, so I'll skip the cleaning," he says to Harrowheart, his voice cool and even. "We're ready."

A curt nod is Harrowheart's only reply. He leaves the barn, taking Tamminy and his minion with him, and makes his way across the field to the road. His legs are relatively short for his body, and his strides aren't very long, so it shouldn't be an effort for Adia and Caspar to follow.

A quarter of an hour passes during which Harrowheart walks in silence through the foggy, dead fields and their towering mushrooms. Eventually, though, one ear swivels towards Adia and he asks, "Who taught you to cast the Light?"

Adia slips her mask back on before leaving the barn, Caspar following suit. It's as much to hide her mixed feelings as to protect her from the spores. There's embarrassment at the thought that she overstepped her bounds somehow. Was it wrong to pray to a goddess that wasn't hers? Or draw on a power she doesn't completely understand? Even so, she doesn't feel like she deserved such a harsh response.

Every time she looks over at Harrowheart, to gauge his current mood, she catches sight of the minion, and her stomach turns.

The silence drags on, Adia unwilling to break it. If not for her hand in Caspar's (his other holding the rifle like a bat), she'd be twisting at the strap of her messenger bag with both hands. When Harrowheart finally speaks, she glances up at him briefly before looking away once more.

"Nobody... I, um... I drew the moon rune on the barn door. And then I prayed to Elune. Viatorus has been teaching me some empathy magic, because, um... well, he thinks my brain is more receptive to learning magic now. After what happened in the Nightmare." She twists at the strap with her free hand and adds hurriedly, "I didn't expect to heal Caspar, too."

Edited (gonna put up a missing poster for all my missing words) 2018-04-05 20:54 (UTC)

He begins to interrupt, "The moon rune?" but Adia says the name of Elune and he stops immediately. His ears press flat and his eyebrows twist up with instantaneous guilt. He's disrespected Adia's gift – a gift given to her by his own goddess.

"I–I... I didn't..."

Suddenly he's cowed – beyond cowed, he's deeply ashamed and (though he wouldn't admit it aloud) fearful of what comes next. It's a little like breaking the rule of xenia, isn't it? Disrespecting a guest in his own home... Will he be smote for it? He dips his head and watches his paws with great concentration.

"I thought..." He grumbles as he searches for his words. "I thought it was something else. A kind of magic from a belief that wants things like me turned to ash. I didn't know it was a gift from Her."

He steals a fleeting glance at Adia, catches her eye through the goggles of the mask, and immediately looks away. "If she was testing me, I failed. I should have known to trust you no matter what I thought."

It doesn't take an empath to know that Harrowheart is deeply, truly ashamed of his behavior. His bowed head, his guilty doggie eyebrows... it melts away her unease like a cleansing Spring shower. "Oh my goodness... Harrowheart, I'd never want to hurt you, you know that." Her tone is mild, despite the rebuke. Mostly she's relieved that whatever issue he had with her was based on a misunderstanding. "I didn't know that about the Light... I'll be more careful when I'm using my powers around you, I promise."

Her heart lighter, she even braves stepping within range of Wednesday to give Harrowheart a reassuring pat on his furry shoulder. See? No harm, no foul. "You should tell me more about how magic works around here. All of this is very new to me."

Caspar doesn't say anything as he hangs back, his face expressionless behind his gas mask. He's not quite so moved by the death knight's sad dog routine, and he's curious to learn more about what set the big guy off in the first place.

At least Adia believes him. As if she wouldn't? She's infinitely caring, it seems, and just like Viatorus has a way of finding the best in people. Still, some guilt like heavy earrings lingers, weighing down his ears.

He rumbles uncertainly at Adia's request. "How magic works... That's a big question. There are so many different kinds in so many places. If I asked you how science works, where would you start?"

He shakes his mane, sending settled spores and hair into the air. Good thing everyone is wearing gas masks, especially Tamminy, who has to hold tightly when her ride starts jostling her.

Harrow explains, "They say everything has Light and Shadow in it. Those two kinds of magic are the foundations of the universe. Other kinds of magic came from those. Arcane magic and necromancy are closest to the Shadow. Nature and fel magics – that means demonic – are closest to the Light. When magics that are opposite each other come in contact, they destroy each other 'til one takes its place. Fel finds and corrupts the arcane, death magic takes over life magic when creatures die, Light cleanses Shadow, things like that. It ain't like magics are at war, exactly. They just... Don't always mix."

He looks to Adia and adds, "I gave some books about Azerothian magic to Viatorus. You might ask about 'em."

"Fair enough," Adia murmurs sheepishly, although give her enough time and she'd find a way to explain all of science to her furry friend. For now, she falls into a respectful silence, letting Harrowheart take the time he needs to formulate a response.

Admittedly, it's a little confusing at first. The concept of Light and Shadow are easy enough to understand, but how they manifest themselves in the different arenas of magic takes her a while to wrap her head around. Why would one form of magic be closer to the Light and not another? It reminds her a little of physics -- some forces naturally repel one another. She's careful not to take the analogy and further than that, however. This is something she clearly needs to learn more about.

"I'll be sure to ask him," she says in response to his suggestion. "I'll want to tell him about all of this." She hopes it doesn't stress Viatorus out. She hasn't exactly been sticking to the lesson plan of simply observing her emotions and not actively trying to use her powers...

"What about Elune?" Caspar pipes up. "Why is her Light magic different from the kind you don't trust? Wouldn't it hurt you just the same?"

Harrowheart turns to Caspar and raises his lip just enough that it gets snagged on one of his fangs and makes him look less than noble. "What's the difference between the sun and the moon, Caspar? The sun makes its own light, and the moon makes its own light, too. A different light. Nobody ever went out at midnight and got a moon burn, did they?"

His furry ear twitches. Maybe they have, actually, if Elune was the one sending moonbeams down on them. But he's not going to tell Caspar that!

He returns his attention to the road and shakes his head (and his shoulder scientist) lightly. "Elune is a goddess. The Light is just... Magic. There's a difference."

"The moon doesn't make it's own light," Caspar shoots back immediately. "It reflects the sun's light. That's why you don't get a moon burn." There's a dumbass tacked on silently at the end there, although Adia picks up on it, glancing at Caspar and giving him a not-so-subtle shake of her head. The Cylon sighs and flicks off a piece of filth from his torn suit. "It felt nice, whatever it was."

"She didn't talk to me this time," Adia says softly, her eyes now on Harrowheart. "But maybe she doesn't have to, now that I'm more receptive to magic."

"Reflects the SUN?" Harrowheart fuckin' LAUGHS, one big, loud bark that he has to support with his hands on his stomach. He leans in with a smugly amused grin, toothy as can be, and mockingly asks, "How could the moon reflect the sun if the moon comes out at night and there ain't any sun at night?" Caspar, you fucking dingus, think this shit through!

Tamminy hears that and starts making a... Noise. A grumble-squeak of restrained fury, of infinite power and anger held prisoner within the tiniest body. "Harrowheart," she tries, desperate not to sound too bothered as she forces her words through her teeth, "Sweetie, do you remember when we talked about object permanence?" Harrowheart grunts in the affirmative, and Tamminy forces a laugh. "We'll talk about the sun when we get home."

He rumbles, willing to accept that the woman who makes solar-powered devices knows something about the sun that Caspar doesn't. Obviously she just doesn't want to embarrass the guy in public. Instead he swings his attention to Adia, curious, and says, "She didn't? So how can you be sure it was hers and not just the Light?"

"Oh my God," Caspar begins, because he knew that Harrowheart was stupid, but this is beyond the pale. "How can you not --"

Wait, what's that sound. Oh, it's Tamminy. He had kinda forgotten that she was there. The look he gives her is one part gratitude, two parts commiseration. Finally, someone who understands what it's like to be surrounded by idiots. "Good luck," he tells her, settling back into his more typical watchfulness. The last thing he needs right now is to be sucked into trying to explain how the sun and moon work to fur-for-brains over here.

Adia remains patiently silent through this latest round of banter. She's used to Harrowheart's lack of education in some subjects. Many subjects. When he addresses her directly about her powers, she shrugs and replies, "Because I used the moon rune. If it wasn't her power, then... well, it probably wouldn't have felt so familiar to me."

The moon rune... Harrowheart has to think on this a moment, but suddenly it occurs to him that he knows which rune she means. "The moon rune from the little skeletons! The tiny people from the well in the dream – I saw them in the Nexus after that, and they drew the same rune for me. It looked like the cross of the Light, but they told me it was for the moon. They drew Elune for me. Well, they tried to."

He gets to nodding as he stews on this. Adia must be on to something here. Elune gifted her the light, even if it was the Light. Is the Light one of Elune's powers, then? It's something he'll have to look into. Until then, they've got a pond to get to and some ore samples to take.

The trip to the water is brief, and in less than half an hour they've arrived. The manmade lake surrounds an abandoned city of hewn stone that might once have been white but now is blackened by ash of a devastating fire that burned out long ago. This place has been abandoned by the living for a long, long while... But there's no assurance that the dead have left. Harrowheart tests the safety of the murky waters by plunging his sword into the edge and is surprised to find how deep it is. The ground drops off almost immediately, and at a worgen's arm's length out it's already hip deep. His sword half disappears into the water, but rather than stirring up latent corpses his movements cause a bioluminescent display to bloom to life. It seems the bacteria in the pond don't appreciate being shaken!

He pads backwards and watches as the glow quickly subsides, then looks to Adia curiously. Is that normal? Is that what they came for? Water that glows, that's what Tamminy said earlier, right? He wants to watch her take a sample, if this is the stuff.

Tamminy, a few yards away, wastes no time sifting through the mud with a prospector's pan. She expects she'll find at least trace amounts of ore in this body of water, and when she thinks she does she plucks them out with a pair of tweezers and seals them safely in a stoppered glass vial. She'll have to run some tests when they get home, she explains, but she thinks she's found at least a little.

"Yes, the little skeletons," she replies, smiling fondly. Despite their morbid appearance, she found the messengers kind and helpful -- the only helpful beings in that entire Nightmare, aside from Elune herself. "The moon rune is a symbol in the language of Great Ones... they're not gods, though, they're... something else."

It makes her wonder, too, how Elune heard her pleas when she was praying to Artemis. Does the rune give her access to some generic moon goddess helpline? "You'll have to show me their drawings sometime, I have one of theirs, too."

Adia is used to walking long distances without complaint, but it's a relief when the lake comes into view. This is what she came for -- not zombies, and especially not tense religious discussions. The bioluminescent sparkle that Harrowheart ignites with his sword is magnificent, and she watches it with an awed expression until it dissipates into blackness. "That's caused by a microorganism," she tells the curious death knight, reassuring him that it is completely normal. Maybe the only normal thing about this entire trip.

Retrieving what looks like a tackle box from her messenger bag, she carefully sets up by the lake's edge, collecting samples of water in specially marked vials. There is a detailed process to detecting and cataloguing the bioluminescence, but that can wait until she's back at the lab. She's always asking herself questions about what she'll find. Is this bioluminescence caused by Noctiluca scintillans, or is there another creature responsible? And what led to this particular bloom?

Caspar stands a pace or two behind her, keeping a watchful eye on the burned out town. Part of him is also curious about the bioluminescence, as well as whatever Tamminy's doing, but Adia's safety is a priority. He does offer her a hand when asked, but he never completely relaxes. "Who used to live there? Humans?"

Edited 2018-04-15 14:39 (UTC)

Harrowheart crouches near Adia and watches her work. What she's doing seems... Very mundane. So why is it interesting to him? Is it just because Adia is doing it, or is it because of the mystery behind it all?

Because Harrowheart is (not yet literally) snout deep in microorganisms with Adia, Tamminy decides to answer Caspar's question. Her hands are busy putting samples into containers and finding new room for them in her backpack, but her mind is clear and undistracted.

"Humans, yes," she says, nodding while she works. "That was a place called Stratholme, the largest city in the Eastweald and a hub for trade between the humans and the high elves in the north. The humans who lived there burned it down during the Third War as they fled – or failed to flee. You see, a plague came through the city. The Plague of Undeath. The Scourge – the mindless undead led by Arthas, the prince of this kingdom – plagued the people's grain. Some–"

Harrowheart's deep voice interrupts, "Arthas didn't plague Stratholme." He watches the two over his shoulder, one ear pointing towards them and the other swiveled to Adia. "Arthas was human then. He was a paladin. A Light-caster. The Scourge and the Cult of the Damned – their human necromancers, they plagued the grain. Arthas and the first paladin, Uther the Lightbringer, came to cleanse the city."

Tamminy's mouth opens slightly as she remembers the true story. "Oh... Oh, dear, you're right. It's one of the most important moments in human history. How could I forget?..."

Harrowheart returns to watching Adia's work as he continues the story. "Uther wanted to cure the people of their sickness using the Light. Arthas thought they were too far gone. He took his soldiers into the city and had them kill everyone they met. The undead and the living. He thought that if he destroyed the city he could stop the spread of the plague."

A rumble builds in his throat, a sound full of memories. "Not very many people made it out of Stratholme, and after that day Arthas was changed. I figure that's the day he started to become the Lich King. The King of the Scourge. Of undead like we saw earlier, and of death knights like me."

Tamminy pulls an uncomfortable face. Despite – or perhaps because of? – Harrowheart's nostalgic tone, the story discomforts her. "Well," she says, forcing a small laugh, "I've got my samples. Adia? Are you almost ready to get back to the Nexus?..."

Catching Harrowheart's interest out of the corner of her eyes, she wishes (not for the first time) that she had a powerful microscope with her, something that would let her show her friend exactly what she's looking for. "When I get these back to my lab," she explains to him, as she bottles up another sample, "I'm going to look at them with a special camera. And then I'll extract the chemical that made the water light up. I can use it for other experiments."

She falls silent again during Harrowheart's little history lesson. It's tragic and disappointing, as most stories of war are. What interests her the most is the role Arthas played in his own people's destruction. Is that how a presumably good person turns evil, with a decision that forever shifts their worldview? Or did this prince already have a darkness within him, one that shaped his path long before he killed his own people...?

Caspar's response is far less nuanced. "Kill 'em all and let the gods sort them out." He snorts. "Typical."

"I'm ready," Adia replies, putting away her samples and standing up in a quick efficiency. In other circumstances, she would have wanted to linger in this strange world a little while longer, but after being chased by zombies, she is eager to return to the Nexus.

Caspar snorts, and Harrowheart does too. That is typical, isn't it? At the very least he isn't offended by Caspar's blunt assessment, so there's that.

Harrow rises from his crouch and steps away from the party with an arm raised. His clawed hand grasps the air and begins to conjure magic, bolts of shadow like lightning that rush to his palm from the ground. The darkness intensifies until his hand is engulfed in it, and that's when he grasps the air and pulls downward. A kind of gateway, some sort of tear in reality into a world of darkness comes open as he pulls the shadows toward the ground. Out of it rolls a languid smoke, foggy and dark, and with it the rank odor of death and decay. There are sounds in that other, distant place. Sounds like gurgling stomachs, sounds like screaming, sounds like metal scraping stone.

Harrowheart takes Caspar by the hand and nods at Adia to encourage him to do the same. Tamminy takes the hint and grabs hold of Adia, and tightly. She's not going to be left behind in this place. But Light, why does that terrible minion have to take her by the shoulder? She hates this, she hates this, she hates everything about this!

When everyone is closely linked Harrowheart steps forward, but rather than walking directly into that other place he steps in sideways, slipping directly into the seam between the Plaguelands and that darker world.

Just a single step forward and the party is in the Nexus – at Naugus' tower, in fact. Time must have passed differently while they were gone, as the Nexus is darkened by night now. Lawrence is sitting in a chair nearby dead asleep under a heavy load of blankets. Tamminy smiles to see him, but she doesn't have it in her to wake him up.

"So," Harrowheart says as he looks between his friends. "Everyone came home in one piece. I'd call the mission a success. Adia, when you take pictures of your little pond creatures, I want to see them."

Tamminy whispers, "Thanks for coming, you two. It was good to have company. Especially yours, Adia. You..." She smiles slightly, though the tilt of her eyebrows betrays her embarrassment. "You were a big help."

Caspar looks about as thrilled as Tamminy -- bad enough that he has to hold Harrowheart's big, furry hand, but those sounds coming from the portal turn his stomach and make him regret the small meal he had earlier. Between the unexplainable magic and the smell of decay, his senses are thoroughly offended.

The middle link of the living chain bookended by the undead, Adia gives both Tamminy and Caspar a comforting hand squeeze. When they return to the Nexus, she lets out a soft sigh of relief. She catches sight of Lawrence, who must have fallen asleep waiting for them, and smiles as well. There's a good man there, or at least a man who cares about his secret(?) girlfriend very much.

She gives Harrowheart a warm, but tired smile. "Sure. I'll see you again soon." Hopefully with enough time for her to decide if she wants to lecture him about his minion or not. She loves him dearly, but she has to say something... later, though. She's far too drained to deal with it now.

When Tamminy whispers to her, she leans down enough so that she can give the smaller woman a hug -- if she wants one. "I'm glad I was there for you." She means it, too. How much worse would have it have been for her friend to be all alone?

Caspar watches over the two women with a thoughtful expression on his face, before looking over at Harrowheart. "I hope you're not expecting a hug, too," he says dryly. "You're lucky this suit is beyond saving, otherwise I'd send you a bill for the dry cleaning." And yet, somehow he doesn't sound all that annoyed. Not that he'd ever admit it, but part of him enjoyed the rush of splattering zombies and saving his girl.

He turns to leave, and Adia clears her throat. That's when he remembers the rifle slung over his shoulder. "Oh... here." He holds it out to the death knight, somewhat sheepishly. So much for a smooth exit.

Tamminy takes that hug gladly, and when they separate the smile on her face and warmth in her cheeks are impossible to miss. Adia, you're a good friend.

Harrowheart rumbles a laugh at Caspar's ~~bullshit~~ friendly banter. "Send me all the bills you want, Caspar, they ain't getting paid by a dead dog with no gold."

He takes up the shotgun that Adia hands him and looks it over before nodding at her. He wouldn't have minded if Caspar kept it, but he has the feeling Lawrence is going to want it for himself.

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Left 4 Undead (for Adia and Caspar)

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