[Fury] Red Sick (Bon 6.0, Vignette 6.0)

Rich

Four days have passed since the Motor Duel that cut the Tax Patrol in half. Four days since Rain was last seen. Four days since the hard, hard blood rain that washed out Cobbler Jander's stall and left him homeless.

Vignette,
Every night since the Motor Duel, you've seen Cujo's h-bike circling Pike as the sun set. She never comes in the hold, never stops, just circling. Is she marking territory? Afraid to come in? Surely not.

The Grindhouse bouncer known as Kite has brought you fresh baozi every afternoon, two steamed buns filled with a tablespoon of honey and small, soft seeds. They're incredibly sweet tasting and expensive. Each time she hands them over to SueB or Wash, she asks them to tell you it's a token of her affection. How have you responded to this, Vignette?

As soon as Rain left Pike, people have become sick again. Those few who took the clearwater are still untouched, but there are dozens of folks who are bed ridden, in their shacks and hovels, coughing up blood, bleeding from their eyes. Your little village, Vignette, it's dying.

You've been so swamped with visiting the sick with Bon that you haven't been able to attend Utilikilt's funeral. It's going on right now, in fact. I'm sure Gates will understand. What did you do about not being able to attend, if anything?


Bon,

Two days ago, Admiral visited your infirmary, Bon. He was alone, and arrived without warning. He asked to speak with you privately, and offered to pay for the expense of keeping your stable patients on that odd concoction of blood replacement and herbs. He even offered an expansion to the infirmary, a "long-term care" ward. Temporarily, they would need to move a floor up, but Admiral said he could get the fixits to construct a new set of rooms adjacent to your infirmary.

In return, he asked you to find out more about Home. He wants to find a way to cure it, tells you that once he's sure that HM's workers are able to cope without Home, he wants to move to take HM's hold over them away. Barring a cure, he at least wants to be able to manufacture it, or a replacement.

What did you tell him? What have you done since?

Both,

You're at Kites' Noodle Shop. She took sick a day ago, and it's running a hard course through her body. Wotc is beside himself, eyes red but not from the disease, from crying over his dying mother.

What do you do?

John

I guess UtiliKilt’s death hit me hard because he was the first of Gates’ family to fall to the red sickness after I drove Rain away. The memorial Gates held for him came and went while Bon and I were visiting other sick people. I feel so helpless, just following along after Bon, needing to see my people’s suffering for myself…and needing to do something else. I read their thoughts, so that if they are too ill to speak and do not survive, someone will have heard their last thoughts. Sadly, I am not a comfort to them the way Bon is. Some few might appreciate my visit, but many are afraid of me…until they are too far gone to care.

The young ones are the worst. To these, I give pieces of the bazoi I receive from Kite. I have not touched it myself. I am half-afraid of her and fear that she will be insulted. But somehow, with Cujo out there, circling, not returning to the small pile… There is something going on with her that I do not understand, and somehow, eating these “tokens of affection” from Kite would feel like a betrayal, like abandoning her. Like she has abandoned me, I think, in my least generous moments. At any rate, Kite can hardly be too upset about my giving the bazoi to sick kids.

People probably thought I had lost my mind when I attacked a brick wall on the evening of UtiliKilt’s memorial. It was an old, fancy building with brick placed over wooden walls. Using a crowbar and icepick, I pried and hacked at the mortar, crying and bloodying my hands, until I removed a brick. I sent the brick to Gates with these words: “As your family is incomplete, so is Pike. When your family is once again whole, you and I will restore this brick to its place, and Pike shall be whole as well.”

Back at the noodle shop, my eyes stray to WotC pacing near the door to the room upstairs. I lower my voice. “Bon… I do not think I can bear this any longer. If we went to the forest… Well… We would not be surprised like you and the Arrows were on your first trip there.”

trevis

What can I say when the master of the domain offers me such things, enabling my resources to go further and help more? No doubt there will be more strings attached beyond this request of his, a sense of obligation, but his desire is also mine, to free HM’s people. To free Hope. To free Pine. To render the monster toothless.

Of course I agreed.

In the brief time since then, we have interviewed all the conscious former members of HM’s operation about what they know of the drug. And Shy and I have started studying it, partially because I wanted to begin to teach her and Mox lab work. She has series of experiments she is to do and carefully record the results of as time allows.

I look up from where I am administering the blood-replacer and herb mixture. Alas these infections seems to have mutated, and the medicine isn’t nearly as effective, though it should buy us some time. I remember my feeling of the presence from the forest and shiver.

“Mayhap we might be. I doubt the Arrows and I saw all it had to offer.” I look down at Kites again, put a cooling cloth on her head. I sigh. “But it does seem foolish not to at least try to negotiate with so many suffering so bitterly.”

John

“I did not say ‘negotiate’” I say in a flat tone. “I do not trust Rain. I was suggesting we raid the forest, bring back a lot of water. Some we can use to heal. Some we can study. Maybe we can figure out how to make more.”

trevis

I raise my eyebrows, looking up at her again.

“I was not speaking of Rain, but rather the forest itself. And trust, at this point, has little to do with it. We angered it last time, I expect, because we chose to take from it without permission or trade. In ignorance, it is true, but even so, we were the aggressors, and we wronged it. I do not find its retaliation completely unreasonable. Certainly I have known humans who were less so.”

I stand from Kite’s bedside and approach Vignette.

“I do not think aggression and violence are our best tools in this endeavor.” I say, gently. “And I think that you, with your knowledge of the other place and your ability, are our best chance at communication. Can we not at least try?”

John

“You think the forest itself is sentient? I know Rain talked about it that way, but I assumed it was all religious munbo jumbo. You think I can communicate with it?” I pause to consider this. “What do you think a forest wants?”"

“If we can get some water, do you think you can figure out how it works?”**

trevis

“I do not know. I shall do my best. As for what a forest could want, what mind it has is undoubtedly not a human one, but I think that we must ask and hope that an accord can be reached and we can discover what we need from the water.”

John

"I want to help--and I will try, I really will..." I cannot help but have my confidence shaken by my inability to know what it is Cujo wants from me. I have shown that I have no special insight when I am not listening to a person's thoughts. What if the forest is as inscrutable as Cujo? Or how much worse is it if I understand a bunch of trees better than the woman I have slept with for weeks?

"We should be prepared to bring water back if the forest agrees. Someone should go with me, so we can carry more. Rain said you and the Arrows were not welcome in the forest, not worthy to receive the forests' gifts. I worry that the forest would harm you. I am no longer sure even I am still welcome, but I will try."

I pause, something nagging at me... Sounder. "Sounder. Rain said Sounder was welcome. Given her...experience with the forest, I worry about her. I am not sure I trust her--not Sounder as she was, but the Sounder that left the forest?" I shrug.

"I could ask some of Gates' people, but the fact that Rain was willing to see them die... What about Mox? He is not an Arrow... He is bright, and he...sees things differently."

trevis

“No.” My response is instant and firm. I must look as if she just asked me to down a glass of red water. “No.” I say again more softly, forcing myself to calm. “I would not have him take such a risk. I will do well enough, and mayhap all the better for me to offer apologies for my trespass in person.”

John

“And what of this place if the forest demands too much in payment for your ‘trespass’? Are you prepared to leave the sick and injured of Safeco and Pike in the hands of Shy? Mox? Which of them is ready to take your place if the forest takes you from us?”

Rich

“I’ll go wif you.” says WotCee, halfway down the steps. It’s not clear how long he’s been listening but he’s right there. “I don’t care where… if it’ll make her better. You said the forest, right? The big forest past the edge’a town? I ain’t been but I heard of it…” WotCee looks at each of you like he’s ready to go. This moment.

What do you do?

trevis

I look up at Wotcee, feeling sad for his suffering. I turn from Vignette toward the stairs.

“That is very brave of you, Wotcee, but I need you to stay here and look after your mother for me. She needs to know that you are safe and well to help her to get better. Vignette and I shall go to the forest and get the medicine we need.

I look back at Vignette.

“Of course there is risk involved. I have not spent eleven years hiding in a hole for the sake of my patients. We both have many people who depend on us, and people who love us, but this needs doing. I have encountered the entity before, and you have not. I will not countenance you going alone.”

Rich

Bon,
Let's see you Manipulate WotCee to stay here, "like the doctor ordered".

John

“Bon is right. There is no one better than you to look after your mother. Your being here is a comfort to her,” I say to WotCee.

Bon’s response does not surprise me. She is wrong, of course–she is irreplaceable in a way I am not. It is not for me to tell her what to do though. I lick my lips and take a breath, my body preparing to make an argument that, ultimately, my mind squelches. I simply nod at Bon.

trevis

(Rolled: 2d6+1. Rolls: 3, 1. Total: 5)

John

Helping to persuade WotCee.
(Rolled: 2d6+1. Rolls: 5, 6. Total: 12)

Rich

The kid looks at each of you skeptically, then back down to his mother. There's something in that look, that moment. Worry, sadness, loneliness.

Vignette, with his father gone, Kites is all this kid has left.

WotCee looks up, his eyes glassy, jaw set. "Nobody comes back from that place, right? Leave me something. Something you need, Bon. Somethin' you won't leave behind. That way... I know you'll come back."

What do you do?

trevis

“…”

I stand there at something of a loss. It takes me a moment to realize that my hand coming to rest at my throat has already given me the answer. I slowly reach back to lift the cord over my head, pulling the pendant out of my shirt.

I look at it a moment, in my hand, then slowly hold it out.

“This was my sister’s. I have worn it every day since she died.” I say softly. It is a little more than that. It was the pendant I was given when I was made a resident with the Medicai. I threw it away in anger one night, after an argument between Nee and I about going back. I did not realize she saved it until I found it around her neck that night. I have worn it ever since.

“I will come back for it.”

Rich

He reaches up to take it gently, looks at it for a long moment, finger tracing over the edge. "Alright. I'll have it here for you. Just hurry up. My momma can't wait, right?" He looks to you, Bon, then you, Vignette. His eyes are wet, pleading.

What do you do?

trevis

"'Tis as good a time as any." I look at Vignette, shouldering my bag. "Let us go."

Rich

Both,

What's the plan for travel to the forest? Vignette, are you going to take your official SUV out that way with your guard? If not, how are you planning to give Jax the slip?

John

I take my full traveling entourage. I have pushed Jax enough, and there are bound to be Tax Patrol elements or people unhappy that I have not magically cured the red sickness… I am probably not Pike’s Most Popular at the moment. SueB can hold the fort while Jax and I do this. Plus, by taking the vehicles, we can carry more empty water containers–those are depressingly plentiful.

Rich

Both,

As you prepare to travel to the forest, you hear from Pike's Boys that Gates' flock and the Grindhouse players are planning on traveling to the forest en masse.

What do you do?

trevis

I had rather we been alone, but if everyone is headed that way in any case, perhaps it is best we meet up with them. I say as much to Vignette as I help her people prepare her vehicle. It is, of course, in appropriate for Vignette herself to do anything except look regal.

John

When Bon mentions her preference for she and I going to the forest alone, I join her on the ground, thinking to have a conversation while helping with the vehicles. For reasons I do not understand, my leaving the vehicle sends eddies and swirls of nervousness and discomfort through the thoughts of my crew. They seem to not know quite how they should react. It is as if they believe their function is to keep me from doing anything myself. If I bend to lift something, someone hurriedly lifts it for me and awaits a gesture from me to indicate what should be done with it. If I actually succeed in lifting something, it is taken from me and put in its place. The whole experience lies somewhere between fascinating and annoying.

"I am no more pleased than you are," I tell Bon, as someone takes two large, empty water containers from me wordlessly. "I have no desire to feed my people to the forest. I do not know what Gates' flock and those of the Grindhouse intend to do. I had hoped to go in quietly--just you and I--and gain the forest's...permission...to have my people fill the water containers."

trevis

I admit that it is intersting to watch the slight expressions of exasperation flit across Vignette’s face as her people prevent her from taking meaningful action in our preparations.

In contrast they do nothing in particular to assist me, but it seems rumors of the healing have travelled even as far as Pike. Out of the corners of my eyes, I see them looking at me… particularly my hands and my mark.

Just to tease, I take the latest item Vignette has picked up, another water container, from her hands.

“It will be as it will. “ I reply. “Perhaps our numbers will help. Or perhaps Gate’s or August’s persuasive characters will help our endeavor. Perhaps… perhaps we are stronger together.”

John

Bon takes a container from me, and I am about to throw my hands up in exasperation. Then, I see the hint of a smile and a sparkle in her eye. I laugh lightly, my annoyance toward my over-helpful staff banished by Bon's mild teasing.

"We are definitely stronger together. This is good. I do not think this will be a very pleasant place for us if we fail."

Rich

End Scene