Off to market (Nicky)

[Anonymous]

Vulcan's back arched just slightly in pain. Over all, he was not dramatic about being in pain. People generally failed to notice he was in pain at all, or at least had no idea of the severity of it. Just hold the hand...let the warmth spread through you and don't fight it. It'll help, but you have to let it He gasped softly, the muscles through his arm clenching momentarily before he began to spread the healing abilities into 102379. He was pale, and his teeth were clenched, despite the damage done to his mouth, teeth and jaw from being kicked. I won't run, don't worry about that. Focus your energy on where you need the most healing...probably your lungs at this point. There was of course the option of turning him should the healing fail, but Vulcan didn't want to inflict that upon anyone and hadn't turned anyone since probably the 1900s

[Anonymous]

102379 tears flooded from his eyes, it was all too much for him to handle right now. He would have cried loudly if not for his constricted lungs. He didn't want to obey: he had to. It wasn't in him to disobey and the mage was going to die because of him. Either way he had to disobey a command.The tears washed away the volumes of blood stopping him from seeing and he clenched the mage's hand. I'm sorry.

He let the magic flow through the muscles in his lungs then a trickle out to his other muscles. How much was he allowed to use? If he used too much there would be nothing left for the mage. Once he was healed enough to breathe and move he pulled his hand away. Movement still cuased a great deal of pain but at least it was possible. He gasoed greedily for air.

He crawled over to the mage and saw the spike. He had not expected it to be so big. It had to be hurting, killing his charge. This was bad, very bad. In a frenzy he began clawing at the fresh scab on his neck and sobbing loudly. The mage needed blood. He pushed his fingers in the wounds to try and open the hole wider. He needed to get a larger bloodflow. Once his hands were suitably covered im his own blood he bent forwards over the mage's mouth and rested his neck on it's mouth.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Please, don't die. I'm sorry. The words spun around his mind and he tried to speak them. He was sobbing uncontrolably so couldn't get the words out. Everything that had happened to the mage was his fault. He nolonger cared that he would be beaten for helping the mage or that he would be beaten for letting the mage die. He was losing a lot of blood, what if the mage choked on it? What if he passed out and smothered the mage with his body? Was he being rude by using the mage's healing then trowing away his life? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

His master came around with a large, deadly looking pole and came over to the two. He took one long look at 102379 then flung him off the mage's body. 'WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!' he barked.
102379 struggled over to his master's feet and knealt with his head in the dirt, 'forgive me, master. I-I'm sorry. It won't happen again. He felt his master moving around his mind, pulling at memories and causing general havoc. His master pulled sharply out and began striking him across the side, not seeming to care where the pole hit so long as it caused tremendous amounts of pain, his master was satisflied.

He kept his eyes focused on the ground. He deserved this pain, he would take it. If he fell to the ground he would push himself up. When something broke he would not cry out. He stared at the blood running from his neck and spilling on the ground. Soon it was accompanied by blood from other parts of his body. he deserved this, he would take it like the filthy mage he was.

First you try to kill him, then you let him use magic on you and then you feed him?
I'm sorry master. he made no effort to defend himslef from the onslaught. He deserved his punishment.

'Captain Kaenos, stand down,' came a female's voice.

102379 did not look up to see who it was, he just allowed himself to sink lower to the ground. His sides felt like they were splitting and he was breathing ruggedly. After all that had happened today, TRIM was looking like the kinder offer for him. His master caught the thought and sent a stab of pain across the mind-link. 102379 made his mind go silent and tried no tto listen in to what they were saying, he was only a mage afterall.

[Anonymous]

Vulcan struggled between wanting to feed, and knowing it was a waste and trying to heal the wound. He was losing too much blood to make it worth feeding off someone he wanted to keep alive. Don't worry about me. You have enough problems of your own Vulcan's mind whispered to 102379. Shakily, his hands went to the earth spike. He had to pull it out. He was bleeding and what wasn't bleeding out was bleeding into his body cavity. He knew the moment he pulled the spike, he'd be bleeding everywhere and quite heavily.

The woman...she'd told the captain to 'stand down' maybe she had a heart. Vulcan reached for her mind in something of a desperate attempt to beg her to save 102379 from the crazy abusive man. TRIM quite possibly was a better option. They might poke, prod, cut parts of you off and replace them with new parts, but they didn't beat you within an inch of your life and then expect you to give your last gram of power to restrain something that was probably stronger than you even at full power.

He had to wonder what the protocol was for dead mages. Maybe they'd bury them, or jettison them into space. He could only hope if cremation was their option of choice, his fireproof body would continue to be fireproof after death, or at least long enough for him to stop being dead. He blinked at a sudden realisation. He'd managed to partially cautorize a wound. That meant he'd been burned. But what did that mean? Was he losing his powers? He was losing consciousness it felt like, but that was hardly suprising considering the thing through his stomach. He weakly grasped it. He'd have to roll over to remove it. The base was wider than the wound and would rip a gaping hole through the already impressive wound.

His body was going to die of septic shock from a puntured intestine. All those nasty bacterias were going to go pouring into his body and he could only hope his healing powers could clean them up too.

[Anonymous]

'102379 is hereby removed from your service until further notice. Your use of him was irrisponsible. You will place a report of today's events one my desk by 18:00 tomorrow. Dismissed.'

There was the sound of retreating boots and another coming towards him. His head was tilted back and his face inspected by one of the senior officers. He cowered slightly from her gaze and looked back at the ground. She looked like she was trying to find something comforting to say but could think of nothing. She turned from him, stood up and said, 'James, these mages need attention. Heal them and report to me on their injuries.' She then went over to the other wounded mage and talked to him. 102379 had no idea what they said.

A strange looking, grey-blue skinned creature helped him to lay back and smiled at him, 'may I take a look?'
102379 nodded as he was lifted gently and stripped of his clothes. He turned his head to where the other mage lay dying, his charge lay dying.
'Would you prefer if I helped him first?'
102379 nodded again. He wanted to go over but he had had no orders that would allow him to.

[Anonymous]

Vulcan's breath was slowing to something of a gurgle as he choked on his own blood. He could sense the warm inviting bodies walking around him, but he could not rise to catch them. His hands weakly grasped the spike and he managed to tilt onto his side so he could first of all, stop choking on the blood that kept finding its way into his mouth and throat, and second of all, attempt to push the spike back out the way it had gone in, but he was shaking so badly now he struggled to make himself ignore the pain and simply shove the slab of rock out of his body. He was fading. Things were bluring. It's okay He mentally whispered to 102379, letting his mind brush against the other mage's almost like the comforting caress of a motherly finger on the cheek of a baby.

His body temperature was shooting in all directions. He was freezing from loss of blood, but at the same time, his body was trying to spike a fever to fight off the invasion of intestinal contents into his body cavity, but it could only manage to make him shiver uncontrolably before it gave up and simply let his body continue to slow as his blood pressure dropped and his heartbeat began to grow eratic.

This was the part that if he were honest, he might admit scared him. He was almost always alone when he died. He had no real friends, no one really cared if he died or not and so he lay on the cold ground, shivering convulsively and wishing, at the very least, one of his bats was with him, just to give him the momentary delusion that he had some value to someone other than himself, and people who wanted to experiment and harvest him for parts. It's okay He managed to whisper again before his mind voice failed him. It wouldn't be long now. Hopefully he had enough power left in his battered body to fix the hole and anything else that had been broken.

[Anonymous]

It's okay.

No. No. You're safe, you can't die now. Please. I'm sorry. Please. 102379 was pannicking. The thoughts in his mind vibrated with his panic and caused his headband to hum again. The mage would die because he'd failed to control his spike. It was still in the mage, causing him pain.

'Please, the spike!' he called, his voice was cracked from everything he had endured. He could feel everyone's eyes staring at him. He had acted out of character, he was out of line. He tried to move the spike himself but he had wasted all of it on creating it. Even if he had had the strength, he probably would have caused more damage than good. He curled into a ball but this caused some or other wound to open up. The healing mages would have to clean up his mess, he had been dismissed, he was naked and wounded and his charge was about to die. Surely he would be sent to TRIM for this.

It's okay.
It was up to the healing mages now.

[Anonymous]

Vulcan weakly grasped at the spike, trying to reach out mentally and get someone to pull it out of him, but he faded, falling limp with one final brush towards 102379 shh...I'll be back He whispered before his body fell into convulsions and blood started escaping from the wounds and trailing from the corner of his mouth as each breath brought blood forward until he brought no breaths at all and his heart stilled. It was up to the mages. If they didn't remove the spike, it would probably be several days before he could revive. If they did remove it, perhaps by morning.

[Anonymous]

The mage was dead. The mage was dead and it was all 102379's fault. He curled up into a little ball of pain and the mage called James came over. 102379 closed his eyes and waited to be punished for the mage's death.

'What are you doing?' asked the healing mage.
'I'm sorry,' 102379 murmered, 'I won't struggle.'
A confused silence.
'What are you talking about. I'm here to heal you.'
'I am a mage; I should be punished for what I've done.'
The healing mage sighed then examined 102379's body. 102379 drew a sharp breath as the mage placed his fingers over 102379's scars, bruises and scabs. The mage pulled 102379's arm out from the curled up ball then looked down at his face.
'Cruelty.'

Healing magic flowed through 102379. He did not fight it but nor did he understand why he was being healed. Even with his eyes closed he could see the world around him glowing. He was a mage, a disobedient mage. I'm sorry, he thought to the world. Eventually the magic stopped and 102379 found he was in a lot less pain.

He heard footsteps and opened his eyes. There was another mage with the Senior Officer woman.
'Samantha, how is his mind?' asked the Officer.
'In worse shape than his body was, Mistress. Captain Kaenos has near-destroyed it.'
'Can he be healed?'
'Probably.'
'I'm sorry. Please let me remove the spike,' begged 102379.
The trio exchanged looks before the Senior Officer nodded. 102379 crawled over, pulled the spike out and pulled the dead mage into his bloody, naked lap. I'm sorry. He started crying again.

'What is he doing?' asked the Senior Officer.
'He is confused. He believes that all mages should be destroyed but at the same time blames himself for the mages death. His mind is broken and he doesn't know what to obey. Now that he mas been dismissed from his "master" he cannot use his magic. He does not understand why he has been healed when he thinks he should be tortured for what he has done. The Captain has poisoned his mind for a long time,' said the female mage. She must have had a very light touch on 102379's mind because he never felt anyone in there.
'Wrap both mages in thermal blankets, keep them together. And why are there still scars on 102379?'
'I could not heal all his wounds, there were too many so I could only heal the most life-threatening. There is shrapnel in many of them and there is still internal bleeding to deal with. Something is blocking my magic.'

OOC: everyone apart from Kaenos (who will not enter this thread again) and 102379 are NPCs, feel free to do what you want with them.

[Anonymous]

Vulcan wanted to come back, there was will somewhere in the back of his spirit that was working now to heal the hole through his middle. Surely with all their technology, a little thing like death would not stop them...but then again, they hadn't given him a second glance, so it seemed he was on his own.

His mind continued to spin, even if it was not attatched to his body any longer, but he tried to reach to 102379 to comfort him, but without much success.

Somehow, he knew he was dead, and still possibly dying on one side, and healing in another. It was all very odd.

Slowly, slowly the edges of the ragged hole began to smooth out. It would take him practicaly forever at this rate, but then knitting together new skin was known to take time, especially in his beaten and exhausted state.

[Anonymous]

A blanket was wrapped around 102379's body and he was pried off the mage's dead body. He was ushered towards a small airship while another mage lifted and wrapped the dead mage*. 102379 walked like the living dead, looking at nothing but the ground in front of his feet. Somehow he still managed to trip up and needed to be caught by the healing mage, James. He murmered an apology then kept walking.

Once everyone else had entered, 102379 crawled back over to the mage's body and held onto it again. He had no idea why he was behaving like this, nor did the others it seemed. They were looking at him with frowning, worried looks. He looked up at them and saw their faces and muttered an apology, bent his head to the floor then curled up in the corner. He remained in the corner, staring at the mage's body, until he noticed its wounds healing. He gasped and moved to crawl over before hesitating and muttering another apology to the other people on the ship.

'Really mage, what is wrong with you?' snapped one of the soldiers.
'I'm sorry. The mage.. it-it just grew.'
The leading Officer looked over and shifted in her seat.



*OOC: sorry, I hope you dont mind, it is kinda g-moding. I wasn't sure how else to get onto the ship.

[Anonymous]

(That's perfectly fine. He's 'dead' you can do just about anything you want to do to him at this point. Beat him, use him for experiments, heal him. Just don't remove his head or his limbs...though his right hand is already mechanical)

Vulcan's body was growing colder, the blood beginning to dry where it had escaped, but slowly the skin was indeed being regenerated, though the organs would take far longer to repair.

(I don't really have anything more for this part of the scene. If you do, go for it, if not, maybe we can skip to a couple days later when Vulcan is closer to waking up?)

[Anonymous]

Once they got to the military base, 102379 was ushered out and srtaight into a cell, an old and very unclean one. The other mage's body was placed next to him.

'This is where you will be staying until we find a hospital ward for you.'

102379 nodded and curled up next to the mage's body. It was cold in here, the airconditioning must be in overdirve or something. There he stayed and waited for the mage to heal. Food was handed to them both twice a day but no other contact was made for several days. Still 102379 waited for the mage to heal. Pehraps if he fed the mage it would go faster. Best to leave that until the mage could swallow.

OOC: yep, you can skip to whenever you think is best.

[Anonymous]

After two days, the wound had closed over and while he never seemed to do any of the things dead bodies did such as get rigor or bloat or start decomposing, it was nearly a week before his heart began weakly beating a beat every couple minutes, maybe a breath every ten, but as this went on, the spaces got smaller and while they weren't quite normal, his mind voice managed to flutter to life. is there water? He was definately dehydrated, and his body was going to be in desperate need of blood as soon as it figured out how much energy it had depleated. He just had to hope he'd either have enough control, or be too weak to attack 102379.

[Anonymous]

102379 was staring at the scra on the mage's torso when he was startled by the mind voice. Now that he had been removed from service, he had not heard annythng from anyone in about a week (his jusdge of time was a more than a little off at present). He scrambled over the the bottle of water and came back.

'Can you hear me,' he asked as well as thought. 'I have water. Do you need food or...

or blood?'

He frowned as the headband hummed. Did it have something to do with how his mind mind mind seemed to have trouble functioning.

[Anonymous]

"All of the above" Vulcan croaked, his mouth dry before he welcomed the water, though he could hardly hold the bottle to drink on his own. "Not from you though if I can help it. I already drained too much from you"  His body was sore, he suspected there were still rocks in side of him somewhere, but that was hardly surprising. "How long have we been here? Have they done anything?" His voice was still somewhat faint, but no longer so croaking now that he'd moistened his mouth.

[Anonymous]

102379 bowed slightly to the mage. Taking care of his charge came first but he could not go against another's wishes either. Either way he had to disobey somone. he stayed near the mage however, if the creature took a turn for the worst he would be forced to feed him.

'No, the only contact has been to hand us food,' he indicated the plate and a second bottle in the corner. 'What do you want me to do?'

[Anonymous]

"Help me sit up a bit" Vulcan requested. He wrinkled his nose as his senses began to come alive again. The cell was disgusting and he could probably list the gender and species of every creature that had stayed in the cell since the last cleaning. "Let me see if the water will hold, and then maybe I'll try a little of...whatever that is." He wasn't sure.

[Anonymous]

102379 put his almost healed arms behind the mage's back and pushed him into sitting position. He did not look at the mage's the whole time for he was asked of what he had been forced to do. 'Please forgive me,' he muttered, 'we are mages and should have no choice over over lives.'

He then went over to get the food, placed it next to the mage and curled himself into a ball once more and stared at the wound he had caused with his spike.

[Anonymous]

"You can stop begging for forgiveness" Vulcan stated, poking at the food without enthusiasm. "I understand you were following orders. Goodness knows I can't fault you for that, not after the people I've bitten against my will. It's hard to have someone else rummaging around in your head. It messes things up and this impressive scar here is mostly your captain dude's doing." Vulcan stated, daring to put a bite of the food into his mouth. "Have you eaten anything? And I'm curious how they came to the decision to leave my dead body in a cell with you rather than dispose of it."

[Anonymous]

You can stop begging for forgiveness.
'I'm not asking for forgiveness, mage's don't deserve forgiveness, I mean I'm sorry. I mean,' 102379 frowned. What was he supposed to say? Perhaps it would be better just leave it there in case he said something stupid. How freely was he aloowed to speak witha fellow mage if he had been removed from duty?

Have you eaten anything? And I'm curious how they came to the decision to leave my dead body in a cell with you rather than dispose of it.
'Yes,' he replied, 'My master saw you healing and - and I wouldn't leave you.'
102379 did not know how he felt about holding onto the mage now. If he had left the mage's body it would have been able to escape but mages weren't allowed to be free. Whichever way he looked at it, 102379 was to blame.
After a long pause of silence he turned his head from the wound. 'I'm confused.'