Lingua Franca

[TheAbsurdist]

There was a sputter, and Tazel was there, hiding perhaps, licking wounds himself.  The cane hurting him quite a bit.  Sullen that she didn't listen to him and dug herself deeper into this hole all things considered.

 

However the more pressing concern was the doctor stepping into the room, a bland looking man in his 30s, tired, likely from being a night doctor at an ER in a major city.  He looked at the chart, and then moved to her, offering her a small smile, "So... dancing on rooftops? Well good news, you are going to survive, and the x-rays make it seem like your leg will, it isn't as nasty as break as we were worried about, but we are going to move you to the ICU and have an orthopedic surgery consult to get a final say."

[Supercape]

What are you doing here? What happened? she said, in her head, to the Demon. Whilst the imp could remain unseen, hiding his flare from eyes, she felt more comfortable with him bottled up inside her. 

 

Perhaps not right now though...

 

"Not dying? That's good news. I never like that much" she said to the exhausted doctor. "And I would rather keep that leg, even if I can't move it" she added. To be honest, with paralysis she sometimes wondered if a prosthesis would be better. But she was kind of attached to her leg. Literally. 

 

"That's all groovy, doc, real swell. It's just...how long to I have to be in? Can't you just plaster it up? I'm in a real hurry..."

[TheAbsurdist]

There was a growl and a hiss, it was clear the demon was exhausted.  Or what passed for exhausted, with a demon.  "Tired"  Came the beleaguered response, if that was possible with a demon compose of flame.

 

"If you don't need surgery, you will likely have to have something to restrict movement, and probably for around twelve weeks.  Though, that really is up to the orthopedist.  That's excluding any soft tissue damage, or tendons."  The doctor was taking a dim view to her in regards to this, clearly used to this sort of thing.  "Fortunately your back wasn't damaged, further.  But we are going to need some more x-rays and an MRI.  In case something happen to your pelvis."

[Supercape]

"Sheesh" sighed Carmen. It wasn't as if Tazel was in the best of shape either. Not that she could trust the imp. He had no be bound tight, and words were his weapons. 

 

"Well, its not like I was running marathons in the first place, Doc" she said. "I guess a plaster, or piece of metal work - whatever your orthope---orthoguy, says I gotta have. If I need to wheelchair myself out of this place, then so be it...I ain't the kinda gal who can spend long in a hospital, you know what I'm saying?"

 

"But making sure i'm not cracked up and broken in my pelvis. That sounds a good plan" she conceded with a hint of anxiety. Not that kids had really been in her game plan, but the thought of a ruptured uterus or some awful internal damage in that region was one that played on her mind. She could afford a little wait to check that out, she guessed, 

[TheAbsurdist]

GM

 

The doctor sighed, softly, and pushed up his glasses with his hand to pinch at the bridge of his nose, rubbing a little there.  "I am going to be frank, the official story, is you two did something stupid while drunk.  Fine.  I am not going to question it.  But..."  Taking his hand away he looked at her with the resigned expression of someone who had precisely zero concern over whatever excuse she tried to make to him.  "... I've never dealt with a drunk who fell off a roof.  Get hit by cars, slip down stairs, this would be a first.  So I am going to assume you two are a couple of lycra fetishists.  Well I have no evidence, but it fits."

 

He drew in a deep breath as he looked at her fully.  "Says here you are 27.  Were you aware the world existed prior to you drawing your first breath?  That somehow it survived without your ever-watchful vigilance?  I can assure you that is the case.  So, Miss Canto, you are going to shut up, you are going to stop questioning your doctor's orders, or so help me I will make certain that to be there when they put your stupid carcass in the ground, oh sole protector of reality!"

[Supercape]

Carmen could not help laughing. 

 

"Okay doc, you got me!"

 

Her life had got so tangled up, she had stopped thinking like a human. Stopped trying to be normal. Well, if anything was going to keep her sane, it was normality. If she acted like a human, then she would stay one. 

 

"Truth is"..she half lied..."I never did like hospitals. Or even doctors. Not cause they ain't good people. It's just, well, you grow up with a bum leg and spinal damage, you get prodded 'n poked and scanned enough when you growin' up, see? Even the smell of the place...well, particularly the smell...brings back the kinda memories and the kinda feelings that don't feel so great, huh?"

 

"But I can't be slave to those feelings. Can't be a slave to the past. So prod n poke and do what you must" she said, smiling at him. 

 

A though struck her. 

 

"Hold on...two lycra fetishes? Can't say I like lycra much, least not usually. Who was the other fella?"

[TheAbsurdist]

The doctor gave her a flat look as she responded to his efforts to try and be somewhat mirthful over the situation.  "The only people I see fall off roofs are suicides, or people in capes and masks.  Given it was two of you, and you both look like you had been in a fight prior to the swandive, which do you think I am going to assume?"

 

"Ha!"  Came the pop-sizzle of a bark of amusement over the assessment, then there was something like a groan, if fire could groan, as Tazel realized his reaction hurt.

 

He arched his brow as he looked at her.  "Now that you are awake, do you have any drug reactions we should note?  We played it safe, given you were unconscious."

[Supercape]

...Perdition? or, more likely, that snotty nosed kid....?

 

"No, I'm fine doctor, no allergies, no regular medications"

 

Of course, with the pains she got from her leg, she had irregular medication, but no need to let the man in the white coat know that. Especially as she was erratic on them. Besides, what with a broken leg and bruises, her neurological pains were blissfully quiet. 

 

"All ready to be plastered up, or whatever you do. But I was wondering, I am worried about my friend" she lied. "How is he? DO you think I could visit him?"

 

It was pretty foolhardy to get into another scrape whilst she was in a wheelchair, but it had been a pretty foolhardy twenty four hours. Wherever she turned, things just got worse. Might as well run with it, she figured. 

[TheAbsurdist]

"Uh huh.  Yeah, no.  He is in ICU, and you are likely going to be going to surgery."  The doctor seemed to calm down a bit, though he didn't believe her, it was clear. Or he was that cynical, but he was an emergency room doctor.  "We are going to hold off on giving you more drugs until the surgeon gets in, but if the pain gets to much, let us know.  I should be here in a half hour, and we already gave you morphine..."  He finished taking his notes of her vitals, and then he smiled at her, a small crooked thing.  And then he turned to move towards the door, it opened inward, towards her, obscuring the doctor a moment, before he was thrown back against the far wall without a sound, slumping to the ground.

 

The door closed, and the little punk metal head was in there from earlier.  "Now... where were we?  Oh... right, I was going to have dinner."

[Supercape]

Carmen tensed up the moment she saw the punk head. She could only imagine that he had been possessed. Normally, in such circumstances, she would use the Cantos devil stick to perform an exorcism.

 

Where was that stick? Infernal device as it was, dangerous and unreliable. It was still hers. Something about it drew her to it, and visa versa.

 

“Well good luck, handsome. I heard the hospital food sucks†she replied, keeping cool. Drawing the boy out, hopefully dropping its guard.

 

“I never did catch your name. And I don’t mean the one sewn on to your socks. Your real name†she said, pressing, taunting.

She kept her hands by her sides, for now. She felt the edge of anger and rage, and nurtured it, boiled it. Ready to unleash it as metal, smoke, and fire, if she needed too…the odds were not exactly in her favour, on morphine, broken leg. But she was sure ready to give a fight and go down fighting if she had any choice in the matter. 

[TheAbsurdist]

He laughed, though it was more a mad titter, as he waved the knife around.  "Ah, look at that, she has some backbone still.  Pity that didn't get broken."  And then he sneered, thin, bloodless lips pulling back over teeth that were just a little too sharp.  "I prefer it when my food is seasoned with despair, but it doesn't matter, when I am done, I will be sucking the magic from the marrow out of your bones, and I'll keep that trinket, it will be useful..."

 

'Mistress... he isn't possessed.  Not everything that is wicked comes from us...'  Tazel sounded scared, exhausted.

 

"Come on... come on... do you have a speech to give, a little more fight... I mean the more you struggle... the sweeter my victory will be."  Laughing as he casually walked into the room, completely without fear of her.  At all.

[Supercape]

"I'll kick yer ass, yer little...." she paused. Eyelids drooped, and she slightly shook her head.

 

"Yer little..." she gasped again, then fluttered her eyelids. Her eyeballs rolled lazily around her head. 

 

"I'll...."

 

And then she passed out. 

 

Or at least seemed to. 

 

She waited, listening intently...

 

Just a little closer...

 

...

 

A little more....

 

 

Then with a snap of eyes wide open, she summoned the infernal forge into both fists, and whipped out two massive chains, that unfolded and snaked their way to the possessed kid, ready to weave like an anaconda...

[TheAbsurdist]

He was suckered in, not that her acting was great, but he was looking for something else, something like her passing out due to the narcotics.  "A pity... your meat would have been sweeter with despair... but at this point, who am I to be picky?"  His eyebrows raised as he stepped further into the room, closing the door behind himself, before he hefted the knife, intent on cutting her before this was through.

 

A slow, lurid chuckle escaped him as he drew closer. "Heh, heh, heh, heh-URK!"  Only to be interrupted by hellish chains, that carried him back, slamming him back to the wall then.  "You pathetic-!"

[Supercape]

"Feel the steel, honey!" smiled Carmen, almost ecstatic she had turned the table on the little $£%!

 

She snapped her fingers, mainly for effect, and the chains began to tighten around his body, squirming like an anaconda, slow but ominous, biting into flesh. She didn't want to squeeze the life of the boy, who had presumably been possessed, but she could squeeze the breath out of the demon, she hoped. And a few red welts to salt the wound. 

 

"The Cantos' don't roll over. And you ain't the first sulphur an' Brimstone dog in those chains, I can tell you. Plenty more where that came from" she sneered, pulling herself into an upright position. 

 

"What ya going to do know? Lost my little Cane, have you? Maybe you stuck it up your own backside? Shall I have a look up there? Maybe if these chains go tight enough, you will $£"! it out!" she laughed. "Yeah, that's a good idea! I don't need it anyway, you see, it is tied to me. If somebody like you stole it, well, that just makes me stronger!" she said with an evil grin and full of confidence...

[TheAbsurdist]

And then he started to laugh, just laugh, a rasping, wheezing sound.  But it was laughter nonetheless.  "Ohhhhh pobrecita.  There is more to this world than you know!"  He sneered then and spat at her, as he simply lacked the physical ability to break the chains.  "I don't serve some little demon, unlike some people... I Serve myself.  I take power, because that's how you get it in this, and every other world!"  His voice taking a feverish tinge ash e looked ath er with those virulent green eyes, as he wheezed from the constrictions.

[Supercape]

"You are a thief then?" asked Carmen as she relaxed the chains for a moment. Not too relaxed, of course. 

 

The possibility arose that the kid was just some dabbler, not possessed. If that was the case, she didn't want to crush the life out of him. At least too much. Maybe a little. 

 

She had come across plenty of dabblers in black arts, of course, Usually spotty kids in a disused church mumbling some dread incantation. Of course, it was usually just some candles and cheap rip of tome of "Ye Blacke Magick". But sometimes, just sometimes, it was more. And it got ugly. 

 

Was this ugly?

 

"I ain't got no problem with servin' yourself kid. Not condonin' it either. But if that was a crime, Wall Street would be turned into a prison" she said, her anarchist streak flaring. 

 

"But takin' from others, that's another matter. Swim your own river, just don't tread on the shoulders of others to keep afloat!" she explained. 

 

Yeah, like Wall Street never stole...

 

Ignoring her inner cynic, she pressed on. "But joke's on you pal. So you can sing, tell me what's going down...or I can just let those chains pulp you...then ya don't have anything..."

[TheAbsurdist]

That amusement faded, and he tilted his head, or well, he tried to tilt his head as best he could, given how he was held by them.  "Are... are you stupid, or just dense?  I am going to kill you, I am going to eat you, and when I do, I get your magics.  Because you are a weak little thing, only way you'd achieve something is part of me...  Though, honestly, you'll just end up a pile of ****, like your dear old daddy.  Or with a demon's hand so far up your *** that we'll call you an infernal puppet!  Ha!"  As his venomous words were spoken, working his power over her again.  "Even if I brought your stick with me, it doesn't matter, I am going to pick your bones clean and snap them between my teeth!  But, maybe I'll just drag your friend down here first, and eat him in front of you with you helpless.  Just like you've been in every other waking moment of your pathetic, miserable excuse of a life you have.  Better that, then being another junkie, huh?  Would that be better? Me crapping out your remains, then shooting up because... "  And then his voice took an even more pronounced mocking tone, "I'm in pain, I'm a little weakling!  Boohoo!  Daddy left me with baggage!  I'm an idiot who thinks falling off a roof is smarter than going down stairs!"

[Supercape]

Carmen felt wave after wave of fury hit her. She had a fiery temper anyway, but she knew that demons could stroke it, forge it. She had got pretty good at developing a reflex against provocation from their folk. 

 

But this...was overwhelming. 

 

If she had not been so livid, so incensed, she would realise this was more than words. This was wicked tongues, some sorcery. 

 

"Useless, eh?" she said, as the chains grew tighter once, more, squeezing, squeezing, writhing. 

 

"I'll see about that. No! You will see about that!" she yelled hands clenching. 

 

"I'll rip your flesh from your bones, then crumble them to dust you pathetic little kid. I'll show you what I can do! I'm not some stupid girl you can climb over, not some ignorant child you can deceive. I am going to destroy you! Completely!"

 

Tears ran down her face. She grabbed the kid by the throat and squeezed with her hand as well as her chains. 

 

"I'm going to snap your neck in two, runt!"

[TheAbsurdist]

The air was forced out of his lungs as he was constricted by the chains, as they twisted and abraded across his form, his eyes bulging, and he was smiling.  A sick smile on his face as he looked at her with those feverish eyes all the while.  Unable to speak, the anger would start to subside, his ability to to twist emotions dependent on his ability to speak.  Even as the squeezing let out a wet gurgle as this were rending on him.

[Supercape]

Pitch clenched her hands, willing the chains to tighten, to crush, to rend. She imagined, and even felt, the red welts, and her blazing fury smiled. 

 

Wait....

 

The chains clinked as they tightened still further, beginning to draw blood.

 

...He is using you....he wants this....

 

The anger did not subside, but she felt it now. Felt that something the kid had set alight in her. It was not a difficult thing, to make her angry. And people didn't like her when she was angry. But...her anger should be her own, not some manipulative sorcery.

 

Every so slightly, the chains relaxed, shifting, squirming. Still tight, still full of ache, still squeezing the breath out of him. 

 

His voice! His tongue!

 

"I got ya know, ya witch...or whatever ya are..." she said through gritted teeth and fast breath. 

 

"So know...don't speak...just nod or shake your head. One chance, and one chance only. You got a choice - either I squeeze you to ribbons, or you tell me where Tazel is, where my cane is, and what the hell you have done with John..."

[TheAbsurdist]

Spittle ran down from the corner of his mouth, the kid was mad.  Completely mad.  Or driven.  The edge between them could be minimal at times.

 

'I am fine, mistress.  He hurt me with the cane, I am under the bed.  I was hoping you'd kill him.  Mouth full of worms and filth.  Kill him mistress... say I made you do it.  And punish me later for my temerity.'  Tazel's spite and hate was evident.  But then, there was something else. Hard to define though.

 

The boy nodded and that sick smile was on his face, even as bound as he was.  He was able to breathe, just not form words.

[Supercape]

Good, Tazel survived....

 

What am I saying?

 

Her relationship with the demon was complex, to say the least. She tried very hard to think of him as a useful tool...and he was useful. But it was liking playing with fire. Literally, in this case. 

 

"Very well then" she said, loosening the chains just so slightly. Not enough to let him talk. 

 

"For now, just answer yes or no" she said. The issue of course was whether the demon would tell the truth. If she had the Cantos Cane...she could force it out of him. But...she needed the Cane. 

 

"Do you have the Cane?" she asked. 

 

"Is it here?"

 

"Is it in the city?"

 

That would start. 

[TheAbsurdist]

There was a puff of annoyance from the flame, as it was clear that she would not kill the magician who harmed him.  Tazel was huffy.  But then demons were a prickly lot to begin with.  Mostly.  Flame ones could only have so much emotional variance.

 

If the boy could laugh he would, but he nodded and wheezed instead.  And then another nod at her first question, and then just staring after that.  Which... would likely only drive her further up the wall, rather than soothe her at all.

[Supercape]

She would need help on this one. Tazel could hide, flicker into invisibility. But he couldn't exactly ask at the hospital information about admissions. 

 

She knew somebody who might...

 

One phone call and a few minutes later...at Hospital Reception...

 

Axel "Grease" Robinson did not look good. He didn't exactly smell good either, unless you where partial to engine oil and petrol. His body was big, intimidating, and covered in tattoos. Some of which would make the fairer sex blush. 

 

"Hey man..." he started, at the Reception. 

 

"...I'm Looking for Johnny Perdition. Got busted up real bad. He is a...friend of mine" he explained, doing his best. "Came in with Carmen Cantos? I'm a friend of hers too" he said, looking left and right and cracking his knuckles. "Tell me where they, are, I got flowers..."

 

The flowers where the cheapest he could find, snatched from the Gas station on the way. They looked half dead. Still, they were better than bringing his gun in.

[TheAbsurdist]

The greasy metal head boy could say nothing, though sick mirth played out in his eyes.  

 

 

Elsewhere and shortly thereafter.

 

A late night desk nurse in the ER was staring at the 300 pounds of sweat, leather, muscle, aggression and questionable life choices that was Axel.  She didn't flinch.  After all she had seen worse.  A lot worse.  She was also the same one who had been in Carla's room earlier.  "... Are... are you high, or just kind of stupid?  I can't let you into a patient's room, unless you came in with them or are family."