CoR Klaxon: Preparations

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Tiko

Draconic Administrator/Mentor
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Jesse was an early riser and it was not unusual to find him working on something or other in the infirmary at the crack of dawn. This morning was no different. He had medical texts sitting out on a counter, and was taking some notes down as he went through some blood samples.

Ethan's condition was beginning to accelerate, and the viral load in the blood samples had nearly reached its peak. They would need to get him moved soon. Tomorrow at the latest. The fever had him in and out of delirium, and it would spike any time now. This was always the hardest part of the change to make it through. The havoc the virus wracked on the human body could often be more than the host could withstand. And the possibility of genetic incompatibilities could prove fatal.

It was getting harder to judge correct medication dosages to help ease things, and Ethan would only become less coherent here on forward.

He was rechecking some calculations when his phone buzzed nearby.

[Priority Group Chat Message] Ragenard: Wake the fuck up, Bloodstones. Find a buddy, and stay with them. I don't care whose house; the Rail-yard is open for any (so help me god, Liam you better not be alone at that gate). I want everyone accounted for within 15 minutes. I'm sharing a text from Xandre below. I'm taking Julienne and going there myself, everyone else stay cool and wait to hear more.

[Priority Group Chat Message][FWD][From: Xandre] Trouble at pup's place. She's gone, reeks of blood. Wolfing out, will track. Will inform when I know more.


He quickly tapped the screen and sent his reply.

[Priority Group Chat Message] Jesse: :emoji_thumbsup: Prepping the Infirmary.


He immediately began closing books and clearing the counter to make room for emergency supplies. He was always ready for an unexpected drop-in, but Ragenard's text message could mean more trouble than he could handle alone. And he didn't want to be wasting time trying to direct people to which drawers and cabinets to find things. Instead he had a system of arrangement that meant even the most medically inexperienced of the pack could step in and assist him if the situation called for it.
 
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When Xandre had left earlier, he had accidentally woken Ziessel. So she was up at her desk, relatively dressed and typing on a computer when the phone they'd given her pinged with the group chat messages. She had changed the tone so Ragenards' and Desmonds' sounded different from the rest, so she picked it up to read a moment after. Her eyebrows almost jumped up to her hairline when she did, and she both locked and closed the laptop. She finished getting dressed in a minute but didn't bother with boots or shoes.

On her way to the infirmary, she sent a text to Rhetta asking where she was and looked at the group chat a few times to see who checked in. Jesse was up and ready, good. She didn't know him but she was glad to read it. He didn't report a buddy though, so she didn't change her route. Whoever didn't check in after the appointed time, was getting a call. In a bit. When she got to the infirmary's door she sent another message just before she walked in.

[Priority Group Chat Message] Ziessel: At the infirmary with Jesse


"Hey, Jesse? I'm Ziessel. We can be buddies for now, because patients don't count." She said, looking around. "If I can help you with anything while I'm here... You're the boss." She added, in case there was anything that could get done instead of anxiously watching messages pop in and the minutes slowly slide by.
 
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"Oh hey, I think we met briefly the other day," Jesse said. "There is something I could use a hand with. Ethan is getting close. Could be today, could be tomorrow. Maybe two days at most. The train cart is currently occupied, but we aren't going to want his first shift to be in the middle of the infirmary, especially if there's trouble today. We need to get him moved somewhere secure, but where I can still monitor him. Think we can get someone on outfitting one of the spare supply rooms? Until we know how stable he comes out if, the more secure the better."
 
They must have met before, yes, but not with any time for more than a brief exchange of words. Ziessel turned to look at Ethan, walked close to him and smelled him. "I'll ask Rhetta to see who we have available to do that, and as soon as possible." She said, taking out her phone again and taking a couple of steps away from the man on the bed. "

"Anything else?, How are you holding up?" She asked him next, while she texted Rhetta.

[Private Message to: CrazeRhetts] Ziessel: Jesse needs a utility room repurposed as a secure location where Ethan can be moved to so he isn't in the infirmary for his first shift, and so Jesse can monitor him. Can we get that done, ASAP?


Hopefully the train cart wouldn't be occupied with the giant man for long. Beyond his initial and understandable confusion, he didn't seem like an immediate enemy or concern. In fact, he could prove very useful if he agreed to train with prospects. And with members. Among other things.
 
There were voices.

"They're coming. You know they're coming. They're going to be here soon."

"You have to get out. Take Alison and go-"

"You can't have Alison! She's not yours any more."

"What about the boy?"

"What boy?"

"There's no time - they're coming soon. Soon."


Ethan pushed himself up, shaking his head a little bit. There were - other voices, outside. Outside? Outside the webs. He reached out for the strands, missing entirely, and then tried it again, grabbing on this time and pulling it back, his eyes tracking a line along the floor, up the wall, towards the ceiling, staying there and watching the shifting-

Voices?

Oh, that voice. That one he knew.

"Jesse?" His hand twitched, ending up pointing somewhat at the ceiling. "There's spiders."

There was someone else. Ethan considered her, for a moment. "Is she real?"
 
"Thanks. And I'm doing alright. Been a quiet couple of weeks, which is good," Jesse answered.

"It's given me time to help focus on getting Ethan through -"

He broke off as Ethan sat up, calling his name.

"Sorry, just a moment," he told Ziessel as he went to Ethan. "It's alright, I'll get someone to come get rid of the spiders," he assured him.

He didn't want to distress Ethan by challenging the hallucinations, and chose instead to downplay them as something to not be worried about.

"And yes, this is Ziessel. She's going to be helping me out today," he said. "It won't be long now. How are you holding up?"

He hadn't sugar coated things for Ethan when he had first arrived. Better for him to go into this knowing what to expect, and for Jesse to help him focus on making it out the other side.
 
Not only was she real, she also looked up at the ceiling and squinted, trying to spot the spiders. Which... When she heard Jesse's tone, she realised they must not actually be there. Good, she thought. Spiders didn't scare her, but she didn't enjoy them either. Though some were quite pretty, and their weaving discipline was commendable.

"Hm, pleased to make your acquaintance, Ethan." She said, leaving him and Jesse some space. She didn't want to hover and walked to the door that led to the outside to check if it was closed. To which part of the railyard did this go to?.
 
"No, don't... don't get rid of them," Ethan decided, his gaze shifting to his hand, intently. "I think... they're in my bones. They are my bones?"

This may or may not have been a sufficient answer to the question of how he was doing. The new person was real. She was... not a spider, Ethan didn't think. He wouldn't have minded if she were a spider, but she was probably a wolf, so he would have to kill her.

The spiders nodded in agreement.

Ethan watched her for a moment, as she went to a door. Where did the door go? "It... becomes a jar. The door." This made sense. Somehow. "The jar might be full of spiders. Can you ask them if Alison is out there? They said to find her, but I think she's with the roly poly people."

Ethan squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, then shook his head. "Sorry. Jesse? I... sorry. I think they're... no, they're not gone, they're just... not... real any more. Nothing's real any more... did she do that? Ugh."
 
"I'm here. I'm going to adjust your medications to try and help with the fever," Jesse told him. "And we're going to get you moved somewhere more comfortable. Just try and get some rest. I'm going to make sure you come out the other side of this."

The doorway that Ziessel was inspecting led outside to the front of the warehouse. It was originally intended as an office space with access from both the outside of the building as well as the interior.

Meanwhile his phone was vibrating away with various message exchanges.

"I'll be right back," he told Ethan as he stepped away to review the texts.

The news wasn't great, but was it ever?

"Any luck with that room?" he asked Ziessel.
 
Those were enough messages to have Ziessel stepping back to read through them as well.

"Rhetta is sending us the less proactive combatants to help with the room." She said, and to keep them out of the way. She was making the group chat that had been requested as she spoke. Because what Rhetta had said was very likely. Aimee, bless the poor girl, must be bait to draw part of their forces away and split them up to make an easier target. They'd find out whose target they were exactly soon enough. Or even better, they wouldn't. And they could just sit around keeping Ethan from running after spiders. But it was bitterly unlikely.



She called the group On Site: Railyard. And she threw in everyone whose contact information she had, that was 100% currently there as far as she knew. Then she sent a link invite into the general chat, so the prospects had access to it as well. Hopefully they could be minimally responsible.

[On Site: Railyard] Ziessel:If you are in this group you are either at the railyard RIGHT NOW. Or will be soon. State your position and buddy, watch this group for instructions. Not the time to meme.


She pinned the message. "When the prospects arrive I'll go get more ammo and some more gear. Do you have everything you need if we do get attacked?" She asked Jesse.

She wouldn't leave him alone and even then, not for longer than the few minutes it would take. Their main strategic concern was probably the door right to the outside as long as the building wasn't breached from other access points. She read another of the messages and rolled her eyes before sending Snow a DM:

[To: Snow] You read Ragenard. Identify you buddy/ies. Now.


"I'll shift as well, before I go to the armory. My size is pretty much the same." She said. Her clothes would be fine. She could still type, use knives and guns.
 
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Jesse stepped out, leaving Ethan with the woman who he'd said was real. Ethan watched him go, looking at something on his phone. Ziessel was looking at her phone, too. It seemed strange. Werewolves were violent, horrifying murderers. They weren't supposed to sit there doom scrolling on social media or texting emojis at each other. It didn't fit with the picture he had in his mind.

Ethan wasn't sure if it made things better, or if it made them worse. How could they just... act like normal people. How dare they act like normal people?

The spiders had faded back into the ceiling, sparing him for a brief moment. He knew they weren't real. At least, sometimes he knew they weren't real. Sometimes they were the only thing that was real. Except for Jesse. Jesse was real.

'You remember he's one of them... don't you? Ethan?'

"Yeah... sorry." It was a different sort of sorry than he'd said to Jesse. Heavier. Less afraid, more regretful. So many regrets. He turned a little bit as Alison came closer, walking through the woman that Jesse thought was real. Her hand cupped his cheek, and he leaned into it, even though she was bleeding onto him, onto the floor. The blood writhed, birthing black spiders. "I know."

'You're going to kill him for me, aren't you?'

Ethan looked up as Jesse shadowed the door once more, consulting with the other werewolf about something he didn't want to understand.

'Ethan? You are, aren't you?'

"I... of course. I will, Ali."

She smiled, a hint of white teeth against brown skin, and then the skin dissolved, taking the flesh with it and leaving only teeth and bones and a skull that clattered to the floor, a spiderling scurrying out of its eye socket, and then that, too, was gone. Ethan raised a hand to his cheek, knowing the blood was't real, and wondering if he still was.
 
"So, like, who actually is Aimee Chevrier?" Islet Corre had no idea what was going on. This was not exactly unusual, but usually she could fake it pretty well. Right now, her faking it skills were definitely lacking. From the way the Bloodstones-Proper were acting, she was either one of them already or, like, pretty much one of them? Or something? She was in the in-group, anyway, or at least the group where people got hella mad if something happened to them.

Might have kind of been nice, to be in a group like that.

"Aimee Chevrier? Daughter - only child, I think - of Jacques Chevrier, formerly one of the Bloodstone Enforcers until that thing with the Scions two weeks ago where he turned traitor and got a bunch of 'em killed."

Islet scowled. "How do you know that?"

"Because I listen to people?" Her brother was not suitably apologetic, in Islet's opinion. "And I read the news, and I try to figure out what's not in the news. Her dad was a whacko, by the way. I mean, before the whole betrayal-and-murder thing. I wouldn't say that around the Pack though, but I looked up his rap sheet. Lot of the usual stuff that didn't stick, but, you know, a lot of stuff that didn't stick."

"Ooooh, drama. So, is this Aimee a whack job?"

"Who knows? She's like, our age. Actually our age. Not just werewolf-looks-our-age."

Islet frowned a little. She always did, when Anthony started talking about that sort of stuff. She didn't like it. There was going to be a point when he was going to start getting older and she... wasn't. Sometimes she thought she could see a little of it already. She'd tried to talk to him about it once, but he'd said it was just because she was an immature little hobgoblin, which, like, rude.

And it meant he'd noticed it, too, because he was deflecting rather than reassuring.

"Hm." It was time to change the subject. "So now everyone's got their undies in a bundle and we're... what?"

"Us? We're doing the Bloodstone Pack Favorite Activity - moving boxes."

"Yippee. You know, we could just forge some documents certifying that we moved the boxes..." They were good at forging documents. Islet would just have to break into some offices and steal some paperwork, and Anthony could make some really good fakes. It sounded a lot more entertaining than moving boxes around. There was no way they'd get away with it, but she could dream, right?

"We could, but the boxes would still be in the wrong place, and Guiscard is definitely an I don't care what the papers say sort of guy."

"Yeah... too bad. Oh well. So, is she cute?"

"Who?"

"Aimee Chevrier." Islet watched her brother's brain grind to a screeching halt as he tried to process all the things that were wrong with that statement at the same time, hiding a grin as he rebooted himself and started overexplaining, as usual.

"Okay, one, she might be dead. You do realize that, right? Two, I don't think she swings your way, or at least I haven't heard anything about it, also, she might be dead, what the hell is- ...You're laughing at me. Oh, fuck you, Islet."

She was laughing at him. "You think she's cute." A leveraged accusation, backed up by the fact that they had arrived at the infirmary. Islet pushed the door open, kind of disappointed that she didn't need to pick the lock. "Hiya! We're here."
 
Jesse wasn't entirely sure what Ziessel meant by her question. He settled for a shrug. "The place is as stocked as can be," he told her. Admittedly that wasn't near as well as he would have liked it to be. "Hopefully it won't be needed. If the prospects aren't needed anywhere else, you can have them sent back here after they're done getting things ready for Ethan. I can give them a breakdown of the basics, in case I need the extra hands later."

"Oh hey," he added as the aforementioned prospects arrived almost as if in cue. "Try not to be too loud. Ethan's not in his right mind at the moment. The sooner we get him moved the better. We where going to use one of the nearby storage buildings, but last minute change of plans. I'll go over what we're going to need," he told them.
 
Ziessel greeted the prospects but let Jesse take charge. While they were there though, she excused herself to go to the armory. Where she got more ammo for her gun and a bigger machete style knife than the ones she already had.

Once she was done with that she returned to the infirmary and stayed there. She checked texts and made some calls, to the people who after a while had not responded to the group chat. They could be asleep or the worst, hurt. When she finished with it as much as she could she found that she was still feeling uneasy so she took her shoes off and shifted. Her wolf form barely grew so she tended not to worry about clothes as much as others.
 
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