lucetilogs | Zompania Draft - Draftees only, days 1-3.5

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Zompania Draft - Draftees only, days 1-3.5

Who: All Draftees
What: This is your death. Followed by your time-traveling life and desperate bomb hunting.
When: From May 22 to May 20 to early May 23 (days 1-4)
Where: Zompania
Summary: Information post here
Rating: Varies on thread, please mark explicit material.

This post is for the draftee-only portion of the Zompania draft--the day 3 death, time travel to day 1, and then the events until the arrival of the reinforcements. Be sure to use the above info post for any plotting needs you might have. Enjoy!

Please note that there is a specific top-level comment thread for:

The day 3 arrival of the draftees and the 6 hours that follow until the bomb is dropped
Death--This thread can be treated as REFERENCE ONLY. Responding to it isn't necessary.
Threads prior to departing for Zompania--post resurrection freak outs, arguments over how to proceed, etc.

All other threading, from day 1 until the reinforcements arrive, should be conducted as normal.

Be sure to tag this post appropriately: [canon] character name

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[Somewhere under all the mud she is proud of him.]

For now. [She doesn't let them get very far, either, feeling they ought to stop regardless of the muck beneath them. Their passenger won't last a walk to anywhere pretending to be defensible. Mia doesn't say anything, hoping Billy gets the idea when she starts to lower him to the ground so she can sink down there with him.

She reels, then, flooded with the sensation of something like rain in her eyes; as soon as it passes she starts trying to heal her unfortunate MSF stranger.]

Don't leave. [Almost too quiet to be heard over the shouting, but she's looking at Billy directly.]

[He grimaces, but nods, crouching down beside them and glancing around to make sure no one can sneak up on them while she's healing the soldier. His force field is still up, but he needs to focus properly to hold it, so for now he just waits in silence. Talking will just draw unwanted attention, anyway.

He wishes they could do this somewhere cleaner, and safer too, but he doesn't have enough confidence in his powers yet to pull off a teleport, so it'll have to do.]

[Can Billy see the glow of Psynergy? If he can, he'll see it fade from her hands, see her sway, sadness breaking fresh on her face. The soldier isn't dead, but out here she's done all she can and she knows what 'not enough' looks like. For some reason he just kept bleeding-

Except it's Mia doing the bleeding. That's what she feels; she wavers again, eyes open so she can frown down at herself, at the blood coating her shoulder and arm underneath the battlefield sludge. Oh. It sounds so simple, there inside her head.]

I'm hurt. [It comes out like a question, all perplexed and disbelieving.]

[He doesn't notice immediately, still on lookout, but her sway causes her to brush briefly against him and he glances her way just in time to see the blood a heartbeat after she does. Her words bring voice to his own growing realization.]

Crap. Crap, oh god, Mia-

[He reaches out a hand to steady her, eyes wide and half-panicked. He'd thought it was just the soldier hurt, but between the mud and the darkness of the field he hadn't even- crap-]

Can- can you heal yourself? I can't heal with the forcefield up, I-

[Even before he's finished his sentence, he gets the sinking feeling that she won't be able to. She's already shaky on her knees, she'd had to stop her own healing spell...]

[Yes, yes she can, it makes sense now why she feels so out of it. Mia nods, leaning involuntarily into Billy's supporting hand.]

I can. [Her eyes close in concentration.] I- I can try.

[She can stop it, at least, wherever it is; she picks up a faint blue glow all over while she tries to find it and stop bleeding. Without the forcefield, she would likely already be dead.]

[This time, instead of focusing entirely on their surroundings, he's watching her instead, making sure that she can pull it off- and bracing himself to step in if she can't. He'll be trusting his magic to keep them safe for the moment.

Maybe- maybe he could fly them to safety, he's done that before...]

[Mia lectures herself the whole time, inside her head. She knew she shouldn't be so drained after only a few hours of fighting, no matter how awful the battle was or how little sleep, she knew better. People would lose their chances at survival because of her carelessness.

Her uninjured arm drops and any trace of the glow fades.]

It's not- not perfect. [Not even very good.]

Better than it was.

[He thinks. He hopes. It's hard to tell with all the mud.]

Can you walk? We really can't stay here.

[Not-bleeding has to be good enough for now.]

Yes. [As much for herself as for him.] I can walk. I'm sorry. [The first of many apologies, as it turns out.]

Don't apologize... you're fine. Come on, take my hand. I'm... gonna try and fly us out of here.

[If all she can manage is walking, then it means they'd either have to drag the soldier or leave him behind. Neither option seems acceptable, with the half-healed wounds on his body. Surely it's quiet enough to allow him to fly them back to the medical area...]

[Mia has the presence of mind to reach for him with her good hand.]

Be careful, Billy. [The mood of the fight is so desperate, it's wearing off on her.]

That's the idea, yeah.

[He'd rather not get attacked and probably killed while trying to escape, either. The area looks pretty clear right now, though, so it's a good time to give it a shot. Last year he'd have been able to teleport them directly or fly them off with a shield around them, but with how out of practice he is... probably not a good idea.

Briefly closing his eyes, he creates a circle of zero gravity around their bodies, tugging on her hand and winding the soldier's arm around his shoulders. After a moment, they start to float, headed towards a safer zone.]

[Mia keeps her eyes closed while they lift from the ground, but opens them once in the air proper. It feels different from any other time someone has needed to fly with her somewhere.

And through the haze of a dampened sunrise, victory looks impossible. Mia makes a quiet, pained sound, closing her eyes again. She doesn't want to see that, not when she can't be there to help.]

[It's hard to carry them both while he's still so out of practice, but thankfully they're near enough to a protected area and out of range of the nearest cultists, so before too long they reach the designated 'medic' area without being attacked. It's a good thing, too; Billy doubts he'd have been able to fend anyone off while carrying two people in his bubble. By the time they reach it, he's tired, but still standing steadily enough.

He hands the wounded soldier off to a couple of MSF medics and crouches beside Mia, focusing on her instead.]

Okay, we made it... are you still hurt? Still bleeding? Is there anything I can do?

Hold me up?

[It's a weak question, as if she expects it's too much of a burden to ask for; she knows she's not holding up well and she'll be too out of it in a minute or two.]

I- I can do better. But I have to wait.

...Do... you want me to help? Or- or try?

[His healing isn't great, he knows. It's actually pretty much crap. But a little bit might be better than nothing. Or worse, her exhausting or hurting herself further by trying.]

[Anything. Anything will help, Mia can heal herself but she can't use her Psynergy to restore her Psynergy, it doesn't work that way, and she's drawing from the bottom of the well as it is.]

Please. [She looks at him, tries to look him in the eye but can't hold it for long.] Could you?

[Well. As low his confidence is with his powers right now, he'd offered, and she'd accepted. He can't back out of it now.

Biting his lower lip, Billy holds his hands up to hover them over her injury, trying to force them to stop shaking. He begins to cast, pale blue light sparking to life from his fingertips, then swallowing the colours of his eyes, too.]

IwanthertohealIwanthertohealIwanthertohealIwanthertoheal...

[Mia waits. She can't do much else, she would have to wait for her power to return as it is- Billy's magic kicks in and though it feels a little sluggish, it helps. Mia drops her hand from holding onto her arm, eyes opening halfway to look at him. The light in his eyes reminds her of how he looked when everything about him went out of control.

It's so unusual to feel healing that doesn't come from herself or Katara.]

[It takes more effort than he'd care to admit, and longer than he'd like, but... he does make some progress. It isn't perfect, but when magic is fueled by desire and he wants nothing more than to heal, to does the trick. At the very least, it should help with the pain and the bleeding.]

..Sorry... it's not my strong point. Did that do anything...?

It did. [There's nothing to be done about the blood she already lost, but she tentatively moves her injured arm, sure that it won't start bleeding again, now.] It did, that's better.

[Ordinarily, she'd smile to reassure him, but her face won't make it.] This whole thing is such madness, Billy.

I know... I know it is. [He moves to rise, offering a hand out to her. Somewhere to rest would be good for her, at this point.] The sooner we beat them, the better off we'll be.

[She won't be able to stand without the assistance. Taking his hand, she does all she can to pull herself up again.]

Thank you. I'm- I'm sorry I couldn't-

[This is a silly thing to apologize for. It's better to stop.]

Don't apologize. You did plenty, healing that soldier. Just focus on taking care of yourself now, okay?

[He's done the self-blaming business already. It's hard to watch, and he won't support it. Especially here.]

[They can call it blood-loss babble later if they need to.]

I will. [The moment she sits back down she intends to close her eyes and center herself again.] Please be careful out here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Zompania Draft - Draftees only, days 1-3.5

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