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Aberrant: Dead Rising - Chapter 9c: Red Hands


Dawn OOC

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Gabrielle took a deep breath. All she wanted to do right now was dunk herself in enough water to wash the gooey zombie remains off, and then see to the wounded in some quiet place. She watched the man for a brief moment, then said quietly to one of the men standing there with Caleb, "Sean, please go get me several glasses of the coldest water you can find. And a sheet to use as a shroud."

She began walking past the man, still speaking quietly so he would have to shut up or miss what her decision was. "Sir, you will not insist on moving people in their conditions, unless your goal is to murder them. They will remain here until they are fit to travel; you may stay as well if that is your wish. Should you do so, all of you may leave when they are ready to go. Otherwise I will offer for them to remain here, leave and go their own way with what provisions and transportation we can provide, or to be taken to another refuge. This other refuge, called Fox's Refuge, is where the people that killed Elijah came from and they welcome any who come their refuge that will abide by their laws. They are not affiliated with us, I merely know where they are and that they will care for outsiders."

She'd kept walking as she spoke, ignoring the man if he made continued outbursts, until she reached where the injured were being cared for. Sean returned at about that time carrying a pitcher full of water and a blue sheet full of cups. He poured the water and passed around the cups; Gabrielle offered the first cup she was passed to the irate man. The sheet became a shroud for the body that Jasmine was carrying, red stains appearing on it as the body was carefully wrapped.

Gabrielle began with the least injured; she was tired and knew she was going to have to work her way back up to healing the burned woman. She also knew that the others simply wouldn't require as much effort. She knelt down next to the first of her injured enemies and began.

Click to reveal.. (Medicine Roll)
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Jasmine carefully laid the body in the sheet and helped wrap it. All the while, the man's insistent shouting, despite Gabrielle's calm response, pounded into her head. Even after she had adjusted her hearing back to normal range, it grated at her already frayed nerves. Finally, something the man said caused her patience to snap.

It was the first time any of Gabrielle's followers had really seen her use her abilities since that fateful day with Elijah. One moment she was standing there, looking tired, and frustrated, and covered in zombie goo. Then the man felt hands on his shirt collar, and felt himself slammed into the wall hard enough to knock the wind out of him, though no harder. Her hands were still on his shirt, and she was using that grip to hold him against the wall. His feet were a scant few inches off the ground.. but it seemed to take no effort from the young woman to keep him there, petite as she was.

"You're gonna have to forgive me for not being quite as patient as Gabrielle. But we just had to hack our way through your little zombie mob, so I'm a little short on it at the moment. These people aren't going anywhere until they're fit enough to survive the journey. Now you're gonna sit down and shut up, and let us take care of them. You got that, asshole?!"

Jasmine's dark gaze bore into his, and her voice, while loud enough to be heard by everyone around her, had a steely, "I mean business" tone that was impossible to ignore.

Click to reveal..
Activating Enhanced Init: -1QP = 12QP

Rolling for Intimidation: 5d10 → [8,9,5,5,9] = 3 suxx

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2221493/

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Dan watched in silence. In truth he'd put them here, he could have easily killed them all but he said he wouldn't. Nor would he allow them to create a hole in the perimieter, so he'd compromised.

He robbed them of their trucks and weapons, with only one fatality. That would have to be enough.

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"Why?" the man snapped. "So she can infect them again? Would you sentence my friends and family to a fate worse than death? Of course, for all I know, they're already sick, right?" It was a sign of his anger that Jasmine's attack hadn't stopped him that much. "We just want to go somewhere safe!"

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Gabrielle moved quickly and competently between the five injured, listening to Joshaphine as the older woman gave her an update on their conditions. The two men and the woman Jasmine had knocked out were passed by, bumps and bruises would heal quickly enough. Gabrielle stopped at the woman Dan knew was named Annie, kneeling down next to her and frowning as she ran her hands over skin that was already starting to turn bruise-purple; Josephine was speaking quietly and urgently. After a few minutes Gabrielle simply nodded and motioned the nurse to step back.

She pulled again like she had just a little while earlier; it was much more tiring, but it did so much more. The others would be fine with a little time, but these two women needed a hospital and that simply wasn't an option any more. So she pushed.

Click to reveal.. (Power Maxing Roll)

She smiled up at Josephine and nodded; if she was aware at all of the yelling and minor violence only a little ways away from her at the moment she was doing a good job of ignoring it. The worried frowns from the others as they watched their angel step over to burn victim told a different story; they looked worried and for the first time since her transformation Gabrielle looked truly tired. She knelt down again, though, and placed over the heart of the burned woman. Heat flowed from one to the other and though Gabrielle learned that she wasn't able to push again so soon, flesh still mended and skin grew and the pain ebbed away a little farther. It would have to be enough for now.

The wounded tended to, Gabrielle stood and faced the shouting man again. In that same quiet and even tone she had used before she informed him, "They are not infected, thankfully. Those three will be fine to leave on their own probably in just a few hours; they've mostly got bumps and bruises. Those two, though, need a hospital. Since the entire world is rather desperately short on those at the moment, they need my gifts. It will take a little longer, but they will heal and be able to leave then. Make your choice: stay and stop shouting, or go and wait for them elsewhere. Make it now."

The last was said with steel; she was tired, covered in undead goo, heartsick, and had her own to look after as well. There wasn't time for indulging in hysteria with this man.

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Jasmine studied the man for a moment, and her face softened with a little sigh. She looked at the man, and he felt her hands relax a little as she slowly lowered him to the ground. She retained her grip on his collar, but her dark eyes gazed at him intently as she spoke.

"Look.. see? She's trying to help your friends. They wouldn't be able to survive otherwise. If you wanna leave, go ahead and leave. But they need to stay here, at least for couple days. Or they're going to die. And whether you believe us or not, we don't want that any more than you do. I'm telling you, the man who did what he did to you has been taken care of. The people were told what he did, and given a choice. Those that still supported him - they were kicked out. They're not here anymore. These people - Gabrielle, especially - just want to live quietly, and help people. Please.. just calm down, okay? No one's going to hurt you. If these people did that sort of thing.. I wouldn't be here right now."

She watched the man's expression, trying to gauge if her words were getting through. She knew she wasn't the most convincing person in the book. She wasn't good at talking people into things that weren't true, or cajoling them. The only thing that she could do is tell the truth, and hope it would sink in.

Click to reveal..
Roll for Convincing: 6d10 → [6,10,4,3,6,6] = 1 suxx
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"If they can't be moved, they can't be moved," another man said. He was pale, with odd white-blond hair and icy blue eyes; the only real color on his face was the dried blood from a cut he'd gotten. "They'll stay, but we insist on monitoring them as well. We'll supply any further medical supplies used on them, and no one here is to give them any medicine or injections. If they need something we don't have, we'll go scavenge for it ourselves. This part is not negotiable." He stood there easily, as if he were talking about dinner instead of issuing ultimatums to a potentially hostile group.

The man Jasmine was holding started, "But-"

"Shut up, Edward," the blond man said. "It's the hand we're dealt." He looked to Gabrielle. "Will you acquiesce to our demands?"

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She nodded easily. "Of course. Actually, we don't have many medical supplies ourselves right now; we couldn't take anything from the hospital as Elijah may have had it tainted. If you're going to scavenge for medical supplies, I would suggest either trying the nearer hamlets or people's homes, instead. What we have right now is mostly raided from the student health center here on campus. But other than perhaps some painkillers, medication shouldn't be necessary. That woman," she pointed to 'Annie', "mostly has internal injuries. I've managed to stop a good deal of the internal bleeding from what I can tell, and over the next few days I hope to be able to heal the rest of the damage. For her," she pointed to the woman that had been burned, "she's mostly healed of her lethal injuries, and from what I've seen from my healing ability if I continue with her like I have been, she should be fine in a few days as well and shouldn't even have scarring. That's my hope anyway."

She smiled in an oddly timid way at the blond man, grateful for his practicality and leadership in this moment but also now a little unsure how to deal with these aggressive visitors being in the congregation's midsts for several days. "Was anyone else seriously injured? Once I've seen to those I can start looking at the less severe injuries as well. Have you had that cut at least cleaned? Our hot water is limited, but we have managed to get some heat and water up and running."

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Jasmine relaxed as well, letting go of the man's collar and stepped back, all sign of hostility gone and a relaxed expression on her face. She glanced at him for a long moment, then over to the other blond-haired man.

"Thank you. Gabrielle, if there's nothing else I can help you do, I'll go take care of the zombs. We left a pile of them back there, and I'd rather be safe than sorry."

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The man shook his head. "No one else was seriously injured, but we'll tend to them. I'll arrange for some supplies to be secured." Without another word, he turned and walked back to his group, and began to issue orders. It was clear that he had no love or trust for the group.

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"As you wish," she murmured as the man stepped away. She herself turned to her own people for much the same reason, catching up on everything that had happened in the past few hours and ensuring that the people that had been moved had weathered the time without incident.

She also availed herself of the hot water she'd spoken of, clearing off the zombie gunk and changing into fresher clothes. She took in the reports from her people and waited for Jasmine and Dan to return.

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Jasmine nodded to Dan, and they headed out, leaving any further negotiations or disputes - for now - to Gabrielle and her people. After all, this was their place.. she had only stepped in to shut the man up, more for her own sanity than anything else.

They traveled back to the location of the fight, and got to work. At Jasmine's suggestion, a deep trench was dug around the smoldering remains of the truck to prevent the spread of any fire, since the gentle wind was just enough for Jasmine to imagine blowing up into a full-blown wildfire. They began moving zombie husks over to the pile, grouping them all together, including the few still-twitching parts that hadn't been destroyed completely. Jasmine wanted to make sure it was all taken care of, so that Gabrielle didn't have to deal with it. She'd dealt with enough, and after all the healing she'd done for the invaders, the young woman had looked exhausted. Jasmine was tired - actually worn out - for the first time in a long time, but between she and Dan both, they managed to clean up the mess.

She knew the embers left in the truck wouldn't be enough to finish off the bodies. So she nodded to Dan, and stepped forward, laying a hand gently on the chest of one of the zombies who still had most of a shirt. From her fingertips, the shirt startled to smolder. Finally the material lit, flames dancing along the fabric and spreading quickly along the surface. Her fingertips lingered, and after a moment a pulse of flames seemed to radiate outward from them, sending a surge of fire dancing across the mass of flesh and cloth and lingering gas to help expedite the process of destruction. With that done she stepped back, wrapping her arms around herself quietly and watching the flames grow and spread throughout the pile of carnage, lost in her own thoughts.

(Edited because apparently the dead body had already been taken back and I missed it. Whoops. laugh )

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