Scene #9808: Of Preps And Vampires

Owner	Pose
Holly Asturias	The Sanatorium changes preciously little over time. Though the forest looks healthier (just enough to notice), and the facility is a bit busier (since it's easier to reach it with the forest just a smidge less haunted), you'd never guess anything changed from the front view. Well, except that it's snowing. It's a very light one, and it's not freezing cold. The hot springs just next door radiate just enough heat that the place never has to deal with the dead cold of winter, let alone a bit of late summer or autumn wind. It does mean the flowers outside the greenhouses are a bit less colorful, though, in exchange for which the greenhouses are busier, some of the more fragile ones having been moved to those indoor plots. Which is where Petra arrives, courtesy of the artificial Warpgate in one of the greenhouses. Holly is waiting there, politely and patiently, and by waiting we mean she's checking on her precious little babies, bent over slightly and making sure to water them all, trim off dried leaves... "Oh! Hello!" Hard to miss the noise that thing makes. She holds herself back from lunging into one of her usual greeting-hugs, given that Petra's among those who've said something about it. There's nothing new or different about her - a golden feather hangs from her 'crown', but that was there at Laplace, too. Her right arm isn't even sluggish anymore, though she's still more careful with that one. "I hope everything's alright? Usually if I get visitors it's never just a hello, even though I'd quite like that!" Perks of being a doctor. She doesn't actually mind that much. "Would you like us to make our way over to my office? A drink or a snack, while we pass through the lobby?"
Petra Soroka	Warned in advance that it was going to be chilly, Petra arrives with the most clothing Holly has ever seen her wear, being her CMU hoodie over some shorts. Her little athletic shorts have a slot cut in the back of them for her Silver tail to fit through, which idly waves with each of her steps. Occasionally, the backpack she's got slung over her shoulders sags one way or another, and her tail nudges it back into place automatically. Floating alongside her is the little potted succulent she named Norton, in its antigravity pot with a tamagotchi face. She trots through the warpgate, decked out pretty much identically as if she was headed to class. Really, she might've just gotten off of it, and brought her backpack with her from there. It'll be useful here, too! "I hope everything's alright?" "Hey! Oh, yeah. Yeah, nothing's wrong or anything. I'm actually so healthy, and Lilian's healing up perfectly fine too, I think." She's not even in any rush, for a rare occasion. She doesn't hurry over to encourage Holly towards her office, instead rocking her weight back and forth while surveying the greenery Holly was tending to. "Yeah, it'll probably be easier to work in your office or something, but you don't gotta stop what you're doing immediately on my account. I'm used to hanging around while Tamamo or Lilian are gardening, anyways." "I'm just kinda like-- stuff with Lilian's settled down, so it might be time to start with my project of figuring out what the fuck is wrong with your world, and why the whole thing is so suspicious."
Holly Asturias	"I'm actually so healthy, and Lilian's healing up perfectly fine too, I think." "Oh wonderful! I haven't forgotten that I'd love to take a closer look at you, with supervision of course. I've just been a bit busy. The downside of Lilian's wonderful work healing this forest is that I get more traffic. Which is also the upside! It's gladdening." But busy. With Petra's blessing, Holly takes an extra few minutes to tend to her flowers, all the while talking. "I'm sorry, though, did you say Lilian was 'healing'? Is she alright?" Obviously not! Or, well, more alright now than then, whenever then is? "I suppose the last time I saw her was at Laplace, and she seemed quite fine then. Chipper, even!" She threatened to call HR! Yay! "Should I prepare something for her? Something medicinal, or just a get-well gift?" "figuring out what the fuck is wrong with your world" "Well. So very many things, I'm sure you've noticed." Holly puts the shears and watering can away, dusts her dress, and motions towards to door. "But less than before, thanks to all of you. Hopefully more than tomorrow, too." A one-percent improvement is still that much. She's happy, and so's her whole staff. Going out means braving the... not cold, or chill, but the not-quite warm, and the falling snow. It is pretty, though, the thin coat of white surrounding the otherwise dark and slightly menacing facility. Holly does not mind it at all. "I'm unsure how much help I'll be, but I've already told Lilian that we should make a visit to MagMell, regarding some of her ideas and questions. The academy there... I've always wanted to see it, since Valentin speaks so fondly of it. They might have answers to your questions, too." She pauses a bit, not for long, and then adds(repeats): "And also I'd like to see it." The Sanatorium isn't far. It's a whole five minutes to the front doors, tops. It's warmer inside - and busier, noisier, with a bit more movement all-around. Nicole is tending the front desk, today, and is always first in line to shoot right for Holly, whom she sees has a guest, and ask: "Right to your office with this one?" "Most likely!" "Would she like anything?" "My, she didn't answer." Holly looks at Petra, expectant. "Tea? Coffee? Or perhaps you'd like the same as Lilian?"
Petra Soroka	"I haven't forgotten that I'd love to take a closer look at you, with supervision of course." "Well," Petra glances over her shoulder, at the shiny mechanical tail that sweeps back and forth like a paintbrush behind her. Just like she did during the tour Holly led of the Sanatorium, but this time with more baggage, she briefly squishes the Silver into thin, sharp plating like Holly's own tail, then relaxes it again. "Yup. Might be able to get something out of that, probably." "I'm sorry, though, did you say Lilian was 'healing'?" "Oh, she wasn't hurt or anything. She just had a weird procedure a couple days ago, that went perfectly well. To, uh, remove some metal from her body." That's probably the safest way to describe it, since that's what Lilian was willing to say on the radio. "And Tamamo's there too, obviously." Petra looks down at her palm, which has a faded magenta splotch on it, and scrubs it against her hoodie, failing to remove the color. "Nothing really to do for it now. Oh, but I heard she had talked to you about your-- thing? Curse?" The arm!! Petra's seen it, a little bit. "But less than before, thanks to all of you." "Barely, really. I mean, like, the kind of stuff that's wrong with the whole-- like why the fuck Horrors exist, and why the Resurgence, and why it seems like Revenants benefit so much from it, but you're still out here out of the loop. Like--" Petra holds her forearm up demonstratively, which is kind of evil to do. "The blood stuff." "And also I'd like to see it." "Right!" Petra trots along beside Holly, energetically bouncing with her backpack like a schoolgirl, along the way back to the Sanatorium. "But, I'm just a little worried about wandering right into the whole seat of power while we're still sort of, not really even familiar with the facts." "Now it's kinda been a bit, but you were interested in the Revenant with the bloodline who's living in that fucked up city, that got hit with the mini-Resurgence, right? I'm thinking step one might be to go there, dig around for what we can learn-- about why the fuck a 'mini-Resurgence' happens! Like what the fuck!-- and any connection to Revenant blood there might be, and then we head to MagMell. I've gotta imagine that it'll be some politicking shit, and I hate letting people who I should have no reason to trust be my only documentary source on reality." "My, she didn't answer." "Hey -- Nicole." Hell yeah, she's still got it. She remembered! "I mean, I'll have tea? Wait, did Lilian get something weird? Did she get something different than just a normal drink?"
Holly Asturias	"Yup. Might be able to get something out of that, probably." "Perhaps! I have to admit the liquid silver is fascinating all its own, even if I doubt it shares many properties with our own blood. In truth I'm just curious to see what might separate you from any of our humans - or Revenants, too, but that one's a bit more obvious." There's no point lying! "To, uh, remove some metal from her body." "Oh, I see. Shrapnel?" She supposes Lilian must be exposed to grenades entirely too often. Or similar! So that all sounds normal. "Oh, but I heard she had talked to you about your-- thing? Curse?" "Ah, she told you. Well... it isn't as though I could've hidden it forever." "I mean, I'll have tea? Wait, did Lilian get something weird?" Holly allows the matter of her curse to be interrupted, for now. "Oh, nothing all that unusual. Protein. Grapes. Oh, coffee. But tea is fine too, if you're certain." Back to the curse. They'll move to her office, eventually; close the door, and by reflex, Holly shuffles over to prepare the examination table, and then realizes she won't need it and laughs. "But yes, we talked. She'll be seeing what she can find that I can't. I'm quite hopeful given her track record. And needless to say, it risks benefitting more than just me. At minimum a whole bloodline. If everything falls into place? Maybe all Revenants." "but you're still out here out of the loop." "I'm afraid if you hope I'll have any insight more than before then I still don't. It's why I suggest MagMell." "But, I'm just a little worried about wandering right into the whole seat of power while we're still sort of, not really even familiar with the facts." "It's true that MagMell belongs to House Voda, but... to my knowledge power consolidates more around the Bureau than them. Ah! Keyword, to my knowledge. You might be right about the risks, though." Holly, who has not taken any tea or snacks, whereas Petra would have, simply shuffles over to her desk, to sit down on the wooden chair, elbow on the table, head in her palm. "But if not them, then... I can't see where else to go looking?" "Now it's kinda been a bit, but you were interested in the Revenant with the bloodline who's living in that fucked up city, that got hit with the mini-Resurgence, right?" Oh. There? "The Sunken City?" It's so originally named! "I've heard there's a Revenant of the Gula bloodline there leading a group, but that's hearsay from an old patient. They might be gone, by now, but if not... I can't think of a better heading, if it's one you want to take. If you could solve the mystery of Resurgence-like events, it might save countless lives on its own." Holly sighs - not exhaustion, but a bit whimsical, admiring Petra's enthusiasm. "It's really such a different outlook, having the lot of you around to help. Your drive to push, to say nothing of your resources and experience, it makes me feel more hopeful than I have in years."
Petra Soroka	"In truth I'm just curious to see what might separate you from any of our humans - or Revenants, too, but that one's a bit more obvious." "That is such a good question." Petra's tail wiggles, the tip of it quirked at an angle. "I mean, all things considered, I don't really know how much I personally am, like, differentiated from humanity as a whole. You know, between...." She lists out on her fingers. "The Fruit, the Silver, using my psionics way more and not being at the lab anymore... like, I knew a boy back then who had a bunch of physical changes from his powers. And I'm out here rawdogging it in the multiverse." Petra makes a small grimace, recalling something unpleasant. "And I've consumed, like, so much blood. So who knows. Even if it wasn't Lilian, I wouldn't really mind her whole blood lab tests things, because it's kind of interesting." "I'm quite hopeful given her track record. And needless to say, it risks benefitting more than just me." Petra happily collects an arrangement of nuts and berries for snacks in addition to her tea, like she's pilfering the Sanatorium's cabinets on a playdate. Once that's settled and they're in Holly's office, Petra swings her backpack off her shoulder and plants it on the table, retrieving her laptop from within it. "Yeah, I bet. I mean-- I didn't actually hear any details about it, she just mentioned that she talked with you. And you already mentioned your arm situation a little bit, so it's kind of-- curse-looking. Why would it help any Revenants besides your bloodline-- except, I guess, that you'd be kept alive?" ". . . to my knowledge power consolidates more around the Bureau than them." "And where's the Bureau located?" Petra flips open her laptop and pulls up a notetaking-formatted Word document, to organize what she knows and each mission objective. She pops a constant stream of raisins and nuts into her mouth as she goes. "The Frontier's only so big, anyways. Anyone who's in on the conspiracy, we can scrape information off of, and anyone who isn't, is affected by it anyways. And-- once multiversal attention starts getting noticed, we'll be kind of operating in the dark against an unknown enemy who has ever reason to hide themselves from us, so I wanna stick to the fringes for a bit first." "They might be gone, by now, but if not... I can't think of a better heading, if it's one you want to take." "Right!" This little bit of positive reinforcement seems to create a perpetual energy machine with Petra's mood. With the assistance of the Silver, the document on her screen fills out notes at light speed as she nods along with Holly, but there's a downside to praising Petra too. There's a solid crack as her tail, fit through the gap in the chair she's sitting in, wags to the side and crunches into the slats of the back, splintering the wood like a careless swing of a baseball bat. "I-- aw, fuck. Shit. Sorry." Petra twists and tries to squish the wood back together, and wraps it with her Silver like a bandage to hold it steady. "Man. I might have glue somewhere." "Your drive to push, to say nothing of your resources and experience, it makes me feel more hopeful than I have in years." "Well you see, I have an ulterior motive." Petra slaps the top of her backpack. "Got an investigative journalism final project that this would be great for. I mean, way over the top, but it fits and it's good motivation to be doing it now, so I can kill two birds with one report, here."
Holly Asturias	"And I've consumed, like, so much blood." "Is that why you asked for it?" She thought she asked for Lilian's sake! Was it both? "Do you gain nutrition from it? Or, I should clarify, healthy nutrition." No, back up... "... on the subject of that Fruit. It's hard not to notice your adorable tail, but why did it do that for you? Holding it just made me feel..." She engaged the thoughts before thinking about it. If she had she wouldn't have thrown herself back into how that felt. "Vulnerable. And like it was fine to be." "Why would it help any Revenants besides your bloodline-- except, I guess, that you'd be kept alive?" "Selfishly? It would keep me alive." Rather than boast that her research might one day cure all of Revenantkind, she lets the statement stand on its own. "But that reason aside, since what afflicts my bloodline results in Horrors... when it doesn't result in death... then it must be linked to whatever the... 'natural' means to turn into a Horror might be. However distantly, even a tiny shred of insight into that could change everything, considering how little we have." They really have close to nothing. "And where's the Bureau located?" "Oh! Here." Holly gets up, to direct Petra to a digital copy of the Frontier map she produced for them months ago. "From the Sanatorium, it's a few days' travel south then west, along this mountain range here. My understanding is that it's a very old castle they're repurposed into their headquarters, on high ground. It's quite the process to get an appointment there, but if we go to MagMell, and Valentin is there, he could surely see to it. He's a magistrate, you see? And my sponsor, before the Concord." Mm. Petra's right, though. Multiversal attention... are there other Warpgates, out there? Who else found out, and what do they think about it all? Holly'd like to think the pressing state of the world supplants the need for political games, and yet here Petra is saying otherwise. "I-- aw, fuck. Shit. Sorry." "Are you alright?!" The broken chair does not bother her at all. She's up, to check on Petra either way, before realizing it was her tail that did that. She has to try so, so valiantly not to make inappropriate tail jokes. "Please, please, don't worry about it. We have so many chairs." They have so many. A mansion full of them. "Though medically speaking I'm beholden to recommend seeing a doctor if your tail keeps misbehaving." The devil won. "Well you see, I have an ulterior motive." "Ahahaha... fair enough," Holly laughs, before glancing left, then right, in the way one does before telling a secret. There is, of course, no one else in the office with them. "Then I'll reveal to you my own ulterior motive, yes? I'd like to live, Petra. Not just to cure Revenantkind, although! I'd quite like that too. I just... don't want to die. I don't want to end up like that." That. It's so heavy, out of her lips. She doesn't mean 'Horrors', though Petra'd be forgiven for thinking she does. "It's a bit ridiculous, considering I've already lived a full lifetime by your metrics. And yet... as much as I'm willing to risk it to help friends or defend this place..." Her crown jingles, a bit, as she tilts her head slightly up and to the side, red eyes fixated on the golden feather. She bats at it with one finger idly. "Anyhow. I don't mind at all. I'll be thrilled to add helping you pass your class to the list of good we're doing!"
Petra Soroka	"Do you gain nutrition from it? Or, I should clarify, healthy nutrition." "Nah, not anymore-- or, I think probably not anymore? My life is so weird, if you haven't noticed." Petra sticks her tongue out. "Also, it's kind of a secret. So like, you know." "It's hard not to notice your adorable tail, but why did it do that for you?" "Oh, yeah. Sort of a complicated question, but a pretty easy one at the same time." Petra lifts her arm to look around her side at the tail, and a blob of morphmetal rolls off of it to float up and rest in her hand. "I mean, I sort of had an idea of the Fruit's vibes even before that test, since I was the one who got it in the first place, but now I'm just sure." "For, like, various reasons, the Fruit's a, um, little nugget of absolute denial of the concept of nature in every form you could mean it. I mean, you could tell, right? Anyways, so-- god, I sound fucking insane-- so I was robot for a while, not because I wanted to be, and becoming human again is why I have the Silver here. Or, I guess, phrased more clearly, I-- er, retreated to my natural humanity but kept a fragment of the Silver because I wanted it, as a compromise." Petra waves her hand, a little overwhelmed, and her tail swishes agitatedly back and forth. "And it's a tail because-- well, it's not like the Fruit told me, but it affected the Beauty of Ash too, so I've got a pretty solid guess. It's just, like, so personal, and so long-winded to even explain at all. I just sampled a little bit of the transformative power of the New Fruit as a little treat." "However distantly, even a tiny shred of insight into that could change everything, considering how little we have." "Oh, yeah, true." Petra pauses for just a minute, tapping away at her computer, then suddenly says, "So how do you feel about your dad? Like, really?" "From the Sanatorium, it's a few days' travel south then west, along this mountain range here." "Few days' travel for a p-- for a normal person. I've got my mech." A year and a half after getting the Beauty of Ash back, and saying that still makes her puff up like a smug dog. It'd be a little too sad to ever stop being proud on its behalf, for how far it's come. "And the Sunken City's a little further than that?" "Are you alright?!" "Uwegh-- I'm fine, I'm fine. It's metal. It barely feels pain at all." That's a much weirder answer than if it felt no pain at all. Petra squishes the tail down, softening it into a harmless mass of metal goo, but within seconds it reconstitutes into the tail again of its own accord. "See, it's not even misbehaving, really. It's-- god, it's what I was talking about earlier, but it's-- well, whatever the case, it's my job to control it. Doctors don't have shit on me."
Petra Soroka	"I'd like to live, Petra." "Yeah. I get it. Rule number one is to exist, right?" A little sympathetically somber, Petra doesn't look away from her computer towards Holly. She can't quite bring herself to echo Lilian's sentiment exactly, with all the extra baggage it carries, but the core message still applies. "I didn't used to agree, but unfortunately, I do now. Relatedly, I still think you're gonna get assassinated by some fucked up shadow government if you keep doing your research, so I kinda hope I'm helping you live too." Now she looks up, and her eyes instantly find the feather, as if she'd been thinking about it the whole time she was typing. "I, uh, haven't forgotten about Schneider, either. I wasn't close to her, but there's something we had in common that I can't forgive anyone being killed for. So, wanting to live, it's-- yeah. Want."
Holly Asturias	"I mean, you could tell, right?" "A little bit, but not in such clear words. I didn't exactly have a frame of reference for anything like that. I know how it made me feel, and how Lilian explained it, but this is all very, very new to me. Revenants and Horrors, we're all quite straightforward compared to... that." She watches, curious, the metal that flows up and into Petra's hand, all the while the tail gets more and more agitated. Even after all that, she's not sure she gets it! It sounds like it'd take several 'long-winded' explanations to catch up. So it's fine if she's not given them today. "A robot, though? You mean a cyborg? Or... a fully mechanical being, truly?" "So how do you feel about your dad? Like, really?" "... I'm sorry?" Holly stares, taken so completely unaware she stops moving outright. She'd not been shy about it, but to be asked so directly! And suddenly. "My how do I summarize my feelings succinctly. He sent my wheelchair-bound mother to do a suicide mission in his stead, after never deigning her worth using his powers to heal her. There's a lot more I could say, but that surely paints a good enough picture. Still, I'd like to cure him. If he goes now, I'll never know his reasons." It's a lot easier to be calm about it after getting angry and passionate about it in front of Lilian. She got to vent a bit. "And the Sunken City's a little further than that?" "Further south, yes. If you're going by road, there should still be some old tunnels that go through the mountains that would eventually take you there, but the state of the roads and the highways has made cars, even the ones that still work, all but useless. Nevermind the Horrors along the way." She hasn't caught Petra can just fly with her mech.
Holly Asturias	"Doctors don't have shit on me." "You wound me so!" Holly's laughing, so clearly not truly. "But I think I understand. Good luck, Petra! Mine's always done exactly what I tell it to, so I don't have any helpful advice." "Relatedly, I still think you're gonna get assassinated by some fucked up shadow government if you keep doing your research, so I kinda hope I'm helping you live too." Oh that's a sudden shift. Not quite as dark as the topic of her dad, but it makes Holly sit down all the same, finally. "Remind me to add it to the list of things I'll owe you thanks for, then. But, so far, I've managed to have fairly cordial relations with the Bureau. Now and again the man who runs the Association of Revenant Hunters will visit, just to see how things are going. He runs a pharmaceutical company, so he's been an invaluable ally to get my hands on some rarer drugs, until my Partnership." And yet, it's clear from her body language none of that last part makes her comfortable. "... he's an interesting one, but I don't think he'd try to kill me. He's had ample chances to already." "I wasn't close to her, but there's something we had in common that I can't forgive anyone being killed for." There's the knife. Holly's expression drops, and she averts her gaze from Petra wholesale. "You and Lilian both, it sounds like. I wasn't 'close' to Schneider, not in that sense. I just let myself care when I saw someone who needed help, and spoke so earnestly about wanting things. I don't like losing a patient. It's a stake through my heart each time. But unlike the average Revenant that walks through these doors, there was just something about her." Her red gaze shines, turned back towards Petra, lit from within by the golden glow of Ichor burning needlessly, such that the red of her eyes shifts just a bit towards orange. Not very much. "She didn't deserve that. And I'm not willing to blame the Storm. She was pushed off a roof. Gravity isn't the culprit." She exhales to calm herself. The pressure goes, and with it, Ichor stops burning in her blood. "I'd kill to have been able to know her better. I hold the faintest hope that reversal isn't death, and we might cross paths again. But before any of that happens, I'll have to live to see it, and so I finally decided to get on my knees and beg Lilian for help."
Petra Soroka	"Revenants and Horrors, we're all quite straightforward compared to... that." With a little, complicated smile, Petra wobbles her chair on its back two legs. "Compared to psychic bullshit nonsense, yeah." After that short bit of inwards thought, she refocuses her attention on Holly's next question, and shakes her head. The legs of her chair connect back to the ground with a thump. "Nah, whole hog robot. It's complicated. It's always sooo complicated with me. I'll forgive you if you think it's incredibly obnoxious." "Still, I'd like to cure him." "Well, whatever happens with him," Petra pointedly takes a sip from her cup. "Make sure it benefits all of Revenant-kind." "I mean, if you cure him, that's the whole bloodline curse solved in an instant. Yippee." She couldn't be any clearer about how her sentiments about Holly's dad align with Lilian's, though Petra didn't hear them. Don't heal him unless you can heal yourself, and if you can't, then use him to figure out how. "Nevermind the Horrors along the way." "Oh, I wouldn't need roads, besides, like, to know I'm going the right way." The morphmetal in her hands blips upwards, forming a tiny perfect replica of the Beauty of Ash galloping over the palm-sized Silver sea. "I can just fly there. That's why I think it's worth scouting out on my own." "Mine's always done exactly what I tell it to, so I don't have any helpful advice." "Unfortunately, I'm psychologically fixated on every kind of wordless communication except the kind I naturally could've had. My life would be so different if I was a telepath." "... he's an interesting one, but I don't think he'd try to kill me." What deeply suspiciously qualified answer! Petra raises both eyebrows at Holly. "Is he cool? What's his name?"} "But unlike the average Revenant that walks through these doors, there was just something about her." "Certain types of girls are meant to live despite everything that tells them not to." Petra fidgets with her hoodie pocket, reaching for her cigarette carton by habit, but not being so rude as to light up inside Holly's house. That's be unhinged. Instead she says, restlessly, "Obligatorily, I'm an ally to them. You probably talked with her more times than I did. It's symbolic."