hadriel | f o u r. ( VIDEO ) . look again and you'll be startled

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f o u r. ( VIDEO ) . look again and you'll be startled

[ It's not that Kate hates video or voice, but generally - for posting - she prefers text. It's easier to sound together when you have time to think of your content.

However, text doesn't really work for what she's about to do here. She's sat in a spire apartment that a few eagle-eyed people may recognise as her own, twirling a pen between her fingers.

The words that come out of her mouth begin awkward and stilted. Although this should be easy, should just be as simple as advertising a new item for the clinic - that's what it was, on the surface, anyway - this is the first public post she's made since the entire mess with the fog, and she's not sure what kind of reaction to expect at all. ]

So.

[ She clears her throat, gets rid of some of the jerkiness in her tone and fiddles with something that's just off camera. This needs to be announced, now that she and Carlisle have finished it. He isn't here with her right now, but she's asked him to keep an eye out for any questions that might arise about how his powers work. ] We've been working on something.

[ She holds up the pen between her thumb and forefinger. ] This is a healing cell - it stores healing power. It can heal your injuries when activated. [ The explanation comes relatively easily, like she's reciting an answer to Dagny. But there's still the distinct, nagging thought that if she doesn't demonstrate it - and, hell, maybe even if she does - that there'll be a million questions from people who know how she was involved last month all asking 'how do we know we can trust you? or this thing?' ] Like this:

[ She drops the pen into her lap and takes out a small knife, and - with a sharp intake of breath - drags it across her palm until it bleeds. Then she picks the pen back up, clicks the bottom and presses it along the cut.

After a moment - and a wince, as Carlisle's healing power burns out of the pen - the injury has disappeared entirely. She clicks the pen once more and withdraws it from where the injury was, almost immediately wiping her bloody hand on her jeans and swallowing. ]

It won't perform surgery but it can heal most basic injuries. Wouldn't recommend it for more than a minor fracture. [ The original prototypes made back home had a tendency to overheat dramatically if used for something more serious, and she expects it to be the same here. ] At most, you'll get thirty uses out of it before it's empty. Needs to be recharged every month, as well. [ Yeah, there's a good amount of drawbacks, but it beats having to panic about first aid supplies? Sort of?

She picks up a handful of other trinkets - a stone here, a ring there - and holds them up. ] We've got ten so far - making more. If you want one, stop by the clinic. Located opposite the Colosseum.

[ And that, Hadriel, is as close as Kate is gonna get to publicly saying sorry for breaking the murdercave. ]

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I don't think I say thank you often enough for the work that you do. I really don't.

Just doing what we could. [ It really wouldn't have been possible without a willing healer to help, and she couldn't think of a more useful one than her neighbour, even if he's determined not to realise that. ]

Well, distributing them will be a huge help.

I wonder about getting them into the colosseum.

[ She hadn't thought that far ahead, as evidenced by the pause before she responds. ] Could... just have someone go in when The Door opens.

No one wants to go head first into that kind of danger, though.

[ Want, have to. It's not like people haven't done things they don't want to a million times before. ] People still do. [ That- Hm. ] Could ask for volunteers. [ Could ask the guard. Isn't that part of why they exist? ]

I've been thinking about whether it's fair to do that. I know this coming month, I want escorts stationed at the doors, to get people to the clinic, but actually going in there-

[Hell.]

[ there's an instinctive response on the tip of her tongue, one about people going in regardless so they may as well be useful, but it echoes in her head in a sharp accent that isn't her own. it sounds too much like rosenberg, too dismissive of the fact that the last batch of monsters were practical helldemons and that it isn't fair to ask people to do that.

her lip twists as she swallows that answer away. ] Not disagreeing there. [ it isn't hard to feel the unsaid word at the end of that sentence. but it isn't fair that people get dragged here with monsters either, even if there seems to be a higher number of people who can defend themselves brought here than not.

So, back to... ] Maybe we ask the Guard? [ she assumes they are the most likely to go into that hell regardless of what anyone says. ]

We definitely ask the guard. And we maybe come to terms with the idea of me going in there with them.

[As little as he likes the idea.]

Either way, we talk to them. Want to walk over together this afternoon?

[ she doesn't comment on the idea of him going in there, but the grim lines on her face are probably enough answer to it. everyone knows she'll probably end up volunteering to go in as well, that she probably would have anyway. some things just have to be done, even if she'd rather avoid the colosseum entirely. ] Was gonna head to the Armoury to hand out first aid kits... [ and these things, now that they're perfected as they can get. ] After that, maybe? [ unless they happen to run into a certain knight first, who knows. ]

I'll come with you. I'm sure they'll turn up there.

[And he could use the opportunity to stretch his legs. He stands, to come help carry.]

[ works for her. here, have some of the portable first aid kits she's been giving out so far. ] How's the orchard stuff coming on? [ she just hasn't heard much about it, even though hyperactive teenagers have been filling the clinic up with some of the fruit already. ]

Totally anticlimactic. He really is here to help- I turned over the jarring and canning to another team and backed away once the whole catalogue had been tasted, but there wasn't a single problem.

[Which is a huge relief.]

Maybe Sorrow actually is here to help us.

[ Well, that is an anticlimax they should all get behind. But at the mention of him being here to help, she cannot help but snort. ] Prob'ly just realises he can get enough sorrow without poisoning us. [ Why spend the energy trying to kill them if you don't have to? From the conversation Kate had with him... well, he seems likely to look at the practical side of things. ] No point killing your food source, right? [ Although, she's beginning to wonder if it is that simple a thing, even for the gods. Too many conversations with Hope, perhaps.

~~Still doesn't mean she has to like them.~~ ]

That's probably not wrong.

[He agrees, as he straightens the rest of the way up and heads for the door, well loaded with all the kits.]

This place, sometimes, you know?

[ Of course it isn't. She's usually right, even if people refuse to acknowledge that. ] Drives you mad? [ It's said with a laugh, but... God, does it ever. Hefting some of the kits against her hip and redistributing the weight, she's ready to go. ]

So, with operation garden monitoring over, I need to work on the next thing.

[He decides.]

Since it's running pretty smoothly here, actually.

[ Because it's been pretty quiet in the murdercave. It's very nearly pleasant. If you forget the gods and the fact that they're in a cave that doesn't seem to understand most basic necessities quite right. ] There's another plan? [ Not... that she can talk about constant planning of things. When is the last time she rested? ~~oh right when she physically exhausted herself NEVER MIND.~~ ]

We need to do some collective record keeping. Something public, and open, in case the people who've been here vanish.

[That's what he's imagining.]

I think I have an idea to get started with.

[ Huh, that's actually- ] Sounds useful. What did you have in mind? [ She can definitely see the value in keeping track of the things that happen here, with how temporary everything seems to be. Might need to have a proper date system, but... ]

I want to write on the colosseum walls. Grafitti, that people can add to, write in and around, their experiences with the place, the monthly events, what they learn.

Warning the newcomers, then? [ Or terrifying. Same difference. But it would definitely be useful. No one here could have been at all prepared for what this place throws at them, no matter how accustomed to random events they were. ]

And keeping a record. If they send us home strategically, they could suppress the knowledge that there were people here before us, or that Fear is incorporeal- all the things we've learned.

[ Point, but; ] They could always get rid of it. [ Just saying. ]

But people would remember. Or, they'd purge all of us, in which case- well, there's no real stopping them.

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