towerofanimus | Jason's hoarde of angry nurses

Entry tags:

Jason's hoarde of angry nurses

Characters: You. Yes, you!
Setting: December 16th through 21st, all the places!
Format: Any!
Summary: Plague doctor ~~panic~~ shenanigans for the Into An Abyss event, day two and onwards until the pesky creatures stop annoying everyone. Or in the case of non-orange-collared people, maiming them.
Warnings: Monsters! Battles! Death! Orange collar badassery! The Tower! Too much to handle!!

[After a day of putting things into the strange portal on floor twenty-three, something finally comes out. Many somethings. And it seems they are not satisfied with only the stray finger to nibble on...]

PLAGUE DOCTOR BEHAVIOR GUIDELINES

- Plague doctors use physical attacks, ripping and tearing their victims to pieces with hands and teeth. They travel very quickly and, when slipping in and out of reality, can seem to teleport from one spot to the next unpredictably.
- Characters whose collars are yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet will be attacked if the plague doctors notice them.
- Characters whose collars are yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet cannot harm the plague doctors. They must hide or run.
- Plague doctors become more powerful the closer to violet the character they are attacking is. A plague doctor attacking a character with a yellow collar will be weaker than the same one attacking a character with an indigo collar.
- Characters whose collars are orange will be completely ignored by the plague doctors unless the character directly attacks one.
- Characters whose collars are orange are capable of injuring and killing plague doctors, provided the means by which they attack are entirely mundane. They cannot receive enchanted items from other characters, for example.
- Plague doctors can only be killed by completely destroying the head. It has to be crushed into pieces.
- Plague doctors will carry any retrieval unit they notice into the rift they came from.

Label the date/time/location in the header, basic mingle stuff. ~~DO NOT forward-date anything to Wednesday the 18th or later until further notice.~~ Edit: Open from the 16th through to the 21st! Go nuts!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I...don't know," Diarmuid finally raises his head from Waver's hair, eyes wide. "That's a good question. I didn't notice anything odd during the whole thing. Then again, I haven't died as many times as others have. I have yet to experience any of the rumored side effects."

He falls quiet, thinking things over, "It may be there is only so much he can do while he is trying to stop Aria and her people. Some processes can't be rushed, but wouldn't it make more sense for him to leave us dead if he plans on a big attack to stop everything? Or is he just trying to distract us as much as we are trying to distract him?"

In that case, it wouldn't really matter if he sent people back because whatever they were working on before they died would have been disrupted by at least a day. Still, something doesn't feel right to Diarmuid and that makes him feel even more uneasy about this whole thing than before.

Waver couldn't even begin to guess at what Jason could have been thinking--it did make more sense to hold off on reviving people, at the very least. Why focus his time and energy on something that made no strategic sense when all this was going on?

"I don't understand it, but it might be smarter not to question it right now. That said...we have no way of knowing if he'll catch on and realize reviving us might be a bit stupid at the moment, so be careful."

"I could say the same to you. In fact, I am," Diarmuid wraps a bit a Waver's hair around his fingers, giving it a light pull. "I don't suppose with all this going on I can convince you to change your mind about tomorrow, can I?" It's a long shot, but Diarmuid has to try.

"Otherwise, I don't know that you have to worry much about anything happening to me. I am going to be sticking by your side. There is no way I am going to leave you alone when we don't know what the new fluid is going to do to you."

"I'm afraid not." Waver was very aware of the hypocrisy of confirming he was going to do something very reckless in practically the same breath as warning caution. But he'd made his choice.

"A researcher should follow through on his work. I wouldn't be so cowardly as to ask anyone else to test it if I wasn't willing to take that risk myself."

"I know. I didn't expect you to change your mind, but I had to try," Diarmuid takes a moment to make sure no one is looking in their direction before pressing a light kiss to Waver's temple. "Let me know if I am hovering too much, okay. I'm going to worry until we know just what this is going to do."

"However, those worries aside, there is something I should talk to you about if you are awake enough to listen."

Translated: What do I have to do to get you to take better care of yourself, idiot? Oh, will a distraction work?

"I'm sure I'll start complaining when you inevitably are." he answered in the standard sarcastic deadpan. Frowning, he continued:

"Of course I'm awake enough." He was conscious and lucid, just incredibly tired. "What is it?"

[Diarmuid suddenly seems nervous. He knows his worries are foolish because he is 99.99999% sure that Waver isn't going to mind that he has aligned himself with Reno and his group. Especially, since Reno understands that there might be times Diarmuid has to put Waver first. However, he still can't seem to quiet that little bit of concern gnawing at the back of his mind.

What if he screws everything up?]

You know I am completely yours, right? You will always be the most important thing to me. You come before everything else.

[Why does Diarmuid get the feeling he is going about this all wrong?]

"Of course I know that." Eyes narrowing, Waver's head tilted slightly to one side as confusion crept into his voice.

"I don't necessarily agree with it, but if it can't be helped then it simply can't be helped."

"I know...sometimes I take it too far," he looks down, remembering their discussion after he sacrificed himself to save Waver during the fight with Sephiroth. "I'm trying to do better. That's why..."

Unconsciously, his hand goes to the triangular pin on his collar. It's small and tarnished, probably something Waver hasn't even noticed yet, though Diarmuid's action should draw his eyes right to it.

"You will..." His hand drops away from his collar and slides into his pocket. He pulls out a pin, similar, but not nearly in such bad shape at the one on his collar and holds it out toward Waver. "You will join me, right? You won't leave me alone?"

...

Yeah...he's definitely doing this wrong.

"I never said you weren't trying, only that--"

The motion cut off whatever Waver thought it only was, gaze shifting between Diarmuid and the pin for a few moments of confused silence. That was unfortunately not nearly enough information for even a genius to grasp what was really being asked here, and so the confusion on his face only intensified many times over.

"Diarmuid, I-...this is-....I'm not sure that I f-follow, are you..."

Using the current situation as context (and having a knowledge of relationship protocols that came almost entirely from fiction) the conclusion seemed obvious if extremely outlandish.

Although it must have been a very straightforward question from Diarmuid's perspective, so why was Waver turning some indescribable shade between a mortified red and near-hysterical purple?

"Mo Stór, breathe!" Oh yes, he has screwed this up royally, hasn't he? That is certainly not the reaction he had been going for. "I think...I need to start again. I know I tend to mess things like this up, and I certainly seem to have done so now!"

However, instead of starting to explain how Reno had asked him to join the Turks and wanted Waver to join too, Diarmuid finds different words popping out of his mouth in the form of a question, "What exactly do you think I am asking?"

Edited 2013-12-20 07:10 (UTC)

Deep breath. Waver scrambled to regain some composure, but overall seemed to fail spectacularly.

"It sounds an awful bloody lot like you're t-trying to propose to me, you know!"

"O-oh... OH!" Diarmuid turns bright red, his eyes going so wide that one might wonder how they don't fall out of his head. He curls the hand with the pin back against his body. "I didn't.... I mean, I wouldn't mind, but that...."

Finally he gives up and just buries his head in his hands, "If Father could see this, he would be laughing so hard right now..."

"I-I wouldn't m--f-f-forget it!" Waver quickly raised his hands defensively, shaking his head so hard it was a wonder the sunglasses stayed on.

"Wh-what were you asking?"

Diarmuid peeks at Waver through his fingers, "Y-you wouldn't?" Well...that had not been what he was expecting to hear. It makes him feel very warm inside to hear it too, once the shock has passed, but at the same time Diarmuid knows further discussion should probably wait until later.

Like at some point when both he and Waver aren't about to die of embarrassment in the middle of the Infirmary...

He drops his hands from his face and holds out the pin again, "Let me try this once more. Have you met a man by the Reno yet? He's got red hair and, like me, has been foolish enough to gather something of a large family here. Also, like me, he fights with that family. They call themselves the Turks or, actually I believe they just renamed themselves Ragnarok to give themselves more of an identity in the Tower. I've been working with him on and off, and the weapon distribution I was doing the other day was part of their humanitarian efforts. You know getting those weapons out is something I've wanted to do for a long time, and they gave me the chance to do it in an organized and widespread manner."

The hand that isn't holding the pin out to Waver finds its way back to the pin on Diarmuid's collar, "He asked me to join them with the understanding that if my loyalty to them ever conflicted with my loyalty to you, I would pick you over them. Not only did he understand, he approved of me putting you first. After what happened with Pandora...I have been afraid to connect with any other group. You know this, but I think... I think he's doing the right thing for everyone and I wanted to help."

"He said I could ask you to join too. So we don't have to keep facing this fight alone. We can always fall back on them if we need to. But this isn't just for you and me. It's for everyone we are connected to. It will make both of our families stronger..."

Waver very quickly disregarded the conversation at hand to focus more on the other matter. Frowning out of embarrassment more than disapproval, he reached out and took the pin from Diarmuid's hand with barely any hesitation.

"Ragnarok...fitting name, I should say." Examining the pin, Waver's frown turned to a smirk as his gaze fixed on Diarmuid again.

"If that's what you want to do, of course I'll follow you wherever you go. Reno's got a reasonably good head on his shoulders, I can't say I mind answering to him."

"So you have met him?" Diarmuid's voice suddenly sounds worried in a completely different way than before. He still remembers the letters Reno wrote to him and how the red-head had tricked him into confirming just who his partner was. What had they talked about when they met?

And does he really want to know?

On top of that, Diarmuid can't help but get the feeling that this is going a little too well, especially after how things started. He swallows the suddenly lump in his throat and tries to smile. It doesn't work too well.

"You're going to kill me with that pin the moment I look away, aren't you?"

"Kill you with it? Oh, no." Waver's tone was disturbingly light as he recalled the extremely awkward conversation he'd held with Reno on the matter. "No, there's far, far worse I could do than kill you."

The smile on his face was not a particularly friendly one.

"How did he know and more importantly, who else does?"

"N-no one!" Diarmuid's shoulders slump and his head drops. When he speaks again, his voice is soft and apologetic, "I'm sorry. He tricked me into it. We had been talking about a problem he was having with his family. He asked me how you and I were doing and called you by name. I figured my brother had already told him or something, since he is one of the few who knows. Turns out while Reno had his suspicions, he was just trying to get me to confirm. And I stupidly did."

"Tch..." Though he'd scoffed in irritation, Waver seemed to be satisfied by that response. After he'd taken a moment to attach the pin to his dark green jacket, the lecturer folded his arms with a frown.

"How troublesome. Your brother's sure to be the death of me one of these days--actually no, the reverse is far more likely."

He shook his head, though the worst of his irritation had seemingly passed.

"Reno's no better, but at least he's got a functioning brain in his head. For now, I find that probably the least objectionable group to align myself with."

Diarmuid is quiet for a few moments before looking up at Waver with a shy smile, "I'm proud of you. After spending so much time only trusting yourself, I wasn't sure if you would accept." He reaches out to lightly touch the pin on Waver's jacket, "It looks good on you."

His hand falls away and then Diarmuid laughs softly, "Don't think this is going to be easy, though. I wouldn't expect him to really give people like me and you orders. Considering our levels of experience, he's probably looking more for partners than recruits. Maybe I'm wrong, but...I don't think he's the kind leadership comes to naturally. I have a feeling that even though he will never ask for it or admit to it, help in that field won't be turned away."

More than once, Reno has reminded Diarmuid of his old friend Oscar. Oscar had been a good leader when he needed to be, but deep down, he had never been comfortable with the role. Something had just never fit right, and Diarmuid senses that same ill fit from Reno sometimes.

"Oh, I don't trust him, don't get me wrong." Waver shot back with a dismissive wave of a hand. "What I trust is your judgment. If you don't have a problem following him, neither do I."

Shrugging off the moral confusion of the matter, Waver sounded less than concerned. "I was assuming along the same lines myself. He doesn't strike me as the 'leader' type--if he is, he'd be a bloody unwilling one like me. Odds are he's the kind to feel better working in a group of reliable and sensible people."

"I..." Diarmuid frowns slightly. While he is honored that Waver is so willing to trust him, Diarmuid is well aware that he doesn't always make the right choices, especially lately. He hopes that this isn't going to be another one of those mistakes.

It doesn't feel that way, though. It really doesn't.

"I understand. And I think you are right. It's hard to explain exactly, but it feels to me like he has taken up the role not because he wants to but because someone has to and there is no one else to do it here. So far he seems to be doing a good job of gathering intelligent and hard working people around him, so if nothing else he seems to be a good judge of character."

"Relax." Waver put a hand on Diarmuid's shoulder and gave the best reassuring smile that he could. "That just means if you're going to screw up, we'll screw up together."

"As for Reno, that seems to be in line with my own estimation. If nothing else I doubt he's going to actively fuck us over, which is about as close to trust as I get half the time."

"I don't think he will. He would die first. Loyalty is very important to him. I think that is why he was so accepting of my loyalty to you. Everyone has something they won't betray about themselves and for him, it's his loyalty once he gives it," Diarmuid smiles softly. "Is it any surprise I trust someone who puts that much value on loyalty? Who understands me when I say that I have someone who I do everything with and nothing will change that?"

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