Taint in the Snow

Started by Tarintino Quin, October 08, 2017, 05:06:53 PM

Tarintino Quin

October 08, 2017, 05:06:53 PM Last Edit: October 08, 2017, 05:24:32 PM by PurpleRiver
Quisin stumbles pained steps through the snow, his eyes where glazing over and his breath that was once a thick cloud of white in front of him now only let out weak wisps into the air around him.

"Steps" are how I describe his method of conversment but they where steps in theory only, the young boy having only the strength to let himself fall fowards, quickly reposistioning both his feet in front of him once again before pausing to regain his balance and starting over the process anew.

He couldn't quite remember what exactly had happened right before he had noticed him but at some point during the lapse in his memory his clothes had been taken from him, probably part of the ritual. It seemed he had managed to grab a dark rough cloak at some point during the slaughter but, like his body, it was now torn and ragged, in no fit shape to keep the cold from carressing his skin and piercing his bones and definitely not something that could keep his steadilly freezing feet protected from the snow.

It looks ... So pure Quisin thinks to himself as he looks over the vast plane of white set before him, interupted only by the scattering of a couple ferned trees. Quisin had never seen snow before, in fact, he had never seen natural weather of any kind in his life before and despite the fact that it was the snow that might just now take his life, his initial reaction was one of admiration.

But then he looks behind him. And he is reminded, reminded of what he saw, reminded of the undeniable truth that now blanketed everything he layed his eyes on, reminded of his revelation, his "gift" from the shadow. He stops in his tracks, losing whatever it had been that was motivating him to keep moving forwards as he saw the scarlet trail of red that followed his path. The pure snow had been painted red by his blood, but it wasn't his bleeding that concerned him. " ... It's tainted." He murmurs to himself, his voice whispering out the last words of a mind losing all hope "It's all tainted ..." He forces out, his voice wobbling as tears start to fall down his face.

Quisin feels the fatigue set into his knees, if he had planned to keep walking then he couldn't have afforded to stop moving, it's easy to keep going once you're moving but to start moving after stopping was another thing alltogether. That didn't matter though, since he didn't have any plan to keep on walking. Quisin feels the pressure build in his knees and move up to his back, not fighting it as he lets the tire take over his body, collapsing weakly forwards into the snow.

Alyssa Garnet

October 08, 2017, 05:08:25 PM #1 Last Edit: October 08, 2017, 05:17:33 PM by Alyssa Garnet
There was something about the blinding whiteness of the snow stretching out for miles in every direction. She was surrounded by it, enveloped in it: a blank expanse. A world of white and in it she was alone...

Alyssa had been on St. Albans only a few months - exactly how many she had lost track. She was here to work with a small team of neurologists to assist in their research. The remote location hadn't bothered her. The work was more than interesting enough. And the bleakness of the planet had started to grow on her.

She was out on one of her now-usual excursions. With no particular direction in mind, she had gone for a ride, finding a cold joy in the solitude and emptiness of the snow world. Up ahead, she suddenly noticed the pure white blanket was marred... with red.

It was blood.

Without much involvement of her conscious mind, Alyssa turned her snowmobile about and followed the trail to where, in the distance, standing out against the white backdrop, she saw the vague shape of a figure stop and collapse to the ground.

"Hey!" she called out once she was within earshot. "Hey. Are you alright?"

Tarintino Quin

Quisin wasn't exactly sure how long he had been in the snow, now that he had seen the red trail he had left in it even the pure beautifull white of the snow felt like a blanket of leechs crawling across his body. He had lost all sense of time and reality, his mind drifting off into nothing as his body slowly numbed, succumbing to the cold.

And then, there was a voice. a loud sound that snapped him out of his downwards spiral. With what felt like the motivation Herculues must have shown to overcome his trails Quisin moves his eyes, his face was still buried in the snow and only half of his left eye was exposed but soon he saw the vague outlines of Alyssa on her snowmobile through his glazed over eyes.

He goes to say something in return but his mouth won't open, and even if it did what could he say to her? She was just as tainted as everything else. Just as tainted as he was. Just as tainted as this snow was.

Alyssa Garnet

October 08, 2017, 05:12:19 PM #3 Last Edit: October 08, 2017, 05:17:54 PM by Alyssa Garnet
Alyssa saw no movement from the crumpled form of a man. She clambered down from her snowmobile, the hood of her puffy jacket slipping back to reveal waves of red hair beneath a black beanie. Her doctor's go-bag was always with her, and she grabbed it before jumping to her knees beside what she could now see was a man.

"Hi there," she said with a cheerful tone that might have seemed out of place but was in fact intentional to create a positive atmosphere in the dire situation. "I'm Alyssa. I'm going to help you, okay? Can you hear me?"

She looked more closely at the man's eyes for a response and saw that there was, in fact, life in them. She began the steps of triage to assess his medical needs. There was a lot of blood on him and she needed to find out what wounds it was coming from. As she attempted to remove his cloak, she realised that he had no other clothing.

"Oh, uh, um..."

Despite being a doctor, the surprise and oddity of finding him to be naked momentarily overrode her doctor's professionalism.

Tarintino Quin

"Alyssa ..." The man said, repeating her name in a voice that seemed only half lucid. The man made no effort to cover himself or fight her as she tried to move him but also didn't help her move him either!

Under his clothes you could see that the man's body was well defined and if hadn't been for the fact he was dieing you could have also have called it healthy. But he was dieing, and unfortanetely it wasn't from just one thing. He had multiple bullet wounds in him, his right bicep, his left calf and there was a clean hole through his left shoulder you probably could have fit your finger through. On top of that, there was a cut (too clean to have been an accident) allong his side, spanning from his belly button to the back of his hip the cut was deep and curved around his body, it seemed that this was where most of his blood loss was coming from.

"I messed it up ..." The man would murmur, still not there enough to speak with a slight slur to his voice "The snow ... It's all red" He says, his voice full of some resounding sorrow as if the snow had been something incredibly valuable, or a heartwarming gift from a close friend. "I made it impure" He says, his voice slightly stronger now, sounding like he's almost close to tears. The man was obviously going into panic or a just likely case, was under the influence of some kind of substance. Probably both, from an objective point of view.

Alyssa Garnet

October 08, 2017, 05:13:26 PM #5 Last Edit: October 08, 2017, 05:18:22 PM by Alyssa Garnet


He'd been shot, multiple times. In a reflex reaction, Alyssa looked up and around as if searching for who could have done this. Of course there was nothing to be seen in any direction and she was reminded how alone they were out here. But rather than overwhelm her, it sharpened her need to help this stranger.

She started working on some basic patching to stop the worst of the bleeding. Removing any bullets or fragments would have to wait until she got him back to the lab.

He was starting to talk. At least that showed he was still conscious. He was clearly delirious but there was a poetry in his words that slipped into her subconscious and would lay there a while.

"Come on," she said with a balance of medical-professional authority and mother-like encouragement. "We need to get you out of the snow. I can't do any more to help you out here and I can't lift you so you gotta help me help you, okay? Come on... it's time to go..."

Tarintino Quin

Quisin was still far too out of it to conciously 'agree' to any suggestion Alyssa made to him but as he felt pushing on his body he did his best to move along with it, planting a palm on the ground to try and help push himself up and then a foot as he got to his feet. standing on his own weight for a moment before staggering to the side, leaning into the person that was pushing him about.

Am I moving?. He thinks to himself as the world spins around him. It's so much effort ... I'd preffer not to ... He complains to himself in his mind. He is getting the vague impression that the snowmobile was getting steadilly closer to him as he moved one foot in front of the other. He weakly looks over to the side and sees a silhoute of what must be humanoid propping him up Oh .... Is someone helping me? He thinks to himself, his empty and glazed eyes not able to make out who it was that was besides him If that's the case ... Maybe I can keep going after all. Alyssa would feel the weight of Quisin lessen a slight ammount as he takes some of his weight onto his own feet.

Alyssa Garnet

Thankfully the man was able to help himself up, otherwise they would have been stuck in the snow for a while. Having patched him up enough to stave off the bleeding, Alyssa somehow managed to get him safely aboard the snowmobile. It was on that drive back to the base that she began to process her thoughts...

Who the guai was this guy? Where had he come from? What would she find if she followed the blood trail in the other direction? What would he do when he became conscious again? What were the guys at the lab going to say?

Too many questions. It was better to simply accept the situation as it was at the given moment and do what she could. She'd fix his wounds, assuming she could, and hope for an opportunity to ask him the questions.

As they arrived at the lab, Alyssa called for the help of the other doctors on the team. It had been a long time since any of them had practiced emergent medicine so Alyssa took the lead. She ran several medical scans to get a broader picture of his condition, including a blood scan - he was on a lot of drugs, some of which were unknown to Alyssa. She gave him something to put him under.

After the surgery, they moved the man to an empty bunk. The authorities were called but seeing as they had reported his condition as 'stable', sending anyone out to their remote location was not a priority. It would be a while, if anyone did come.

Alyssa sat by her patient's bed reviewing the results of his scans, trying to make a little more sense of him.

Tarintino Quin

October 08, 2017, 05:15:26 PM #8 Last Edit: October 08, 2017, 05:15:48 PM by PurpleRiver
The half lucid boy would be murmuring under his breath the entire journey back and whilst he more or less compliant with being moved and taking anything he gave them but the terrified look in his glazed eyes as they darted all around the hospital room and the fact he kept trying to tell people about how "it's all tainted" and "It's allways all been tainted." More or less repeating those lines over and over as if they where of some vital importance meant that Alyssa's staff and perhaps even herself might feel a little uncomfortable around this obviously unstable man.

He drifted off without argument when he was given his anesthetic though, much to the relief of the hospital staff. Not so much becuase they felt like the boy was a threat to them, more that doctors where usually not strangers to situations where roided up junkies start tearing stuff off of the wall out of the blue for whatever messed up drug logic they seem to be experiancing at the moment.

But, the expensive medical equipment remained un-destroyed and Quisin drifted off into sleep, for a moment he seemed like he had been able to find a moment of peace, like he'd been able to hide from the 'taint' he kept going on about behind his eyelids but that seemed to last only a couple minutes.

The man would stay unconcious but it was clear that his sleep was not restfull, his eyes furrowed and his brow sweating as tosses about, letting out pathetic sounding whimpers and weak fearfull cries every couple minutes or so as he slept.

The man slept for about a total of five hours before his tossing starts to become more violent, lurching himself about in his sleep like he was trying to wrestle himself out of a mire made of tar. He starts whimpering once again before suddenlly sitting upwards in his bed with a terrified shreak, grasping his head in his hands and staring at the bed between his legs.

He pauses like this for a moment before looking up from between his hands and taking in his surroundings with a dreading expression. He looks around the room, taking it in before looking over to Alyssa, jumping a little as he notices he's not alone in the room.

"Where am I?" He asks eventually ... Speaking for the first time since she'd found him in a voice that didn't sound like it was half in this word and half in the next, the man was fully concious now, if seeming as terrified as ever.

Alyssa Garnet

When he began to lurch about as he started to wake, Alyssa stood. She should have given him a paralytic on top of the sedative to prevent this very thing. Rookie mistake.

Her initial instinct was to try and comfort him, perhaps with a touch or soothing word, but as his movements became more violent she backed away.

"You're safe," was the first thing she said. She could see the fear in his features and wanted to reassure him. Specifics, she realised, would probably be the most reassuring, but how to make "lab" sound reassuring was a question.

"I found you out in the snow and brought you here. It's a live-in research base. There's just a few of us here, living and working. We patched up your wounds... Um,"

She took a tentative step forward as she continued, "You might have pulled some stitches waking up...I should check..."

Tarintino Quin

October 08, 2017, 05:19:31 PM #10 Last Edit: October 08, 2017, 05:26:36 PM by PurpleRiver
Quisin looks intensly at her as she explains where he is, his eyes darting away to examine the room again every couple seconds as she talks. He squints at her like he's not sure if he trusts her. "Safe?" He asks, testing how the word tastes in his mouth as he echoes her sentiment. In the end he can't decide how it tastes to him, what did that word even mean anymore?

"I came from the snow ..." He would also echo, remembering limping through the fields of tainted purity and having someone pick him back up after he collapsed into it. "Was it you who picked me back up?" He asks looking up to her, he seems to relax a tiny bit as he realises it but it would seem to be short lived as he lurches back as she steps forwards, pushing himself up against the wall the bed layed next to.

He stares at her from there with the eyes of a cornered animal ... It seems he wasn't comfortable being approached quite yet.

Alyssa Garnet

As expected, telling him he was 'safe' didn't seem all that reassuring. Alyssa couldn't begin to imagine what this man had been through. He seemed so... lost.

"Yes," she answered the question - it was her that had picked him up from the snow. He seemed to trust her enough to relax after that. She gave him a small smile, not much behind it. Unfortunately as she approached to check his wounds he was overcome by fear again. She stopped her approach, and raised her hands palm forwards in a gesture of passivity.

"It's okay," she assured him. "I'm not going to hurt you. You don't have to be afraid."

Tarintino Quin

October 08, 2017, 05:21:52 PM #12 Last Edit: October 08, 2017, 05:26:50 PM by PurpleRiver
It seemed that in all his activity Quisin had re-opened something on his body. A spot of red appears in the white of his bandages and it steadilly starts to spread over his body, the man wincing in pain as it does so.

He stops and thinks for a moment, probably realising that he does need medical attention or matters could get worse. "Please, I think I might have re-opened something" He says in a quiet voice, looking away from Alyssa and relaxing his body again "On my side" He clarifies, turning so she can get to it.

The boy seemed still scared of her but also seemed to understand the situation he was in and knew he was likely to die if he didn't receive medical attention.

Alyssa Garnet

Alyssa nodded at his request to look at the wound on his side and began to approach him again, slowly. She touched him lightly at first, so that he could acclimatise himself to the touch of her fingertips before she began to remove the bandage and get to work. She could tell how frightened he was.

As she went to work, she started talking, trying her best to make her tone as soothing as possible.

"So, what's your name?"

Tarintino Quin

The man didn't reply immediatly to the question, it seemed almost as if he was stopping to talk about how to answer it. "... Tarintino, Tarinitino Quin" He would say eventually, after some thought.

The man would do his best to stay still but it was obvious he was forcing himself to do so, you could feel his body trembling under your fingers and if you looked you could see his fingers grabbing onto the bedsheets tightly, his knuckles white with the pressure.

After a long awkward silence of the doctor working on him, about three minutes later the boy would speak again "Doctor, what's your name?" He asks in a queit voice, still looking away from her as he speaks, though trying to pretend he was looking at her, instead looking slightly down and to the right of her.

Alyssa Garnet

"Tarintino?" she repeated. "Hey, I've never heard that before," she continued brightly. She could see his fear and the only thing she could think to do was keep talking. He didn't have to say anything, she'd fill the silences easy enough. She explained what she was doing and how it would help, hoping that that might alleviate some of his fear as well.

"Alyssa," she answered his question. "Well, Dr. Garnet, I suppose, but I don't mind if you call me Alyssa."

She finished up the last stitch and put her tools away. She pulled up a chair beside his bed and sat down. She looked at him kindly, with a genuine concern - not pity - in her eyes.

"Tarantino, what were you doing out there? How did you get hurt?"

Tarintino Quin

Tarintino would go quiet again as she asks him about how he got hurt, collecting his thoughts before opening his mouth "It's ..." He begins before stopping again, apparently redeciding how to phrase it, pausing a little longer than is comfortable as he does so "I don't think it's a good idea to talk about that" He decides upon after much deiberation.

for the first time in the conversation however, Tarintino takes the iniative! ... Though it does just seem he's doing it to change the subject "What exactly was that stuff out there?" He asks her, looking over to her with a curious look. Whilst Tarintino was simply changing the conversation it did seem that this question was weighing on his mind "It was pure and white ... Or at least, it seemed like it was ..." Tarintino says "But, it was so very cold, and being near it made me weak ..."

Alyssa Garnet

Alyssa could understand if Tarintino didn't want to talk about what happened. It must have been traumatic. But still, she would need to know. Her mind went back to the trail of blood she'd found in the snow. She cast a quick glance out the window; it wasn't snowing yet so as long as she got back out there before the next fall, she would be able to follow it and find out for herself, perhaps.

Alyssa didn't understand what Tarantino was asking about. At first she'd looked over her shoulder, thinking he was asking about the lab or maybe he'd had a hallucination. But once he described it, she realised what he meant.

"Oh, the snow? The white, crunchy stuff on the ground? It's... well, snow falls from the sky, like rain. But it's already frozen. It's made up of tiny ice crystals."

She'd assumed he'd been on St. Albans a while but clearly he came from a world that didn't get snow.

"Where are you from?" she asked.

Tarintino Quin

Tarintino follows her gaze out of the window "Snow ..." He'd say in a inquisitive voice as he hears the name of that wierd white stuff he had seen, knowing it's name seemed to comfort him a little, enough that when she asked his name the guy responded at a speed that was resonable for a normal conversation, even. "I'm from the upper tier, the north quadrant." Tarintino explains to her, seemingly still thinking about the snow as he stared out the window, not paying enough attention to realise that she might not understand his answer.

The boy stretches out a little on the bed and lies back onto it with a frown "I feel ..." He says as he lies himself down "I feel very tired", Tarintino looked slightly worried at how quickly the wave of fatigue had just came over him, like his body had only just remembered everything that'd he been through now and was throwing a tantrum over not being asleep.

Everything was fine though, a bed was right beneath him and he felt about as safe as he reasonably could given what he now knew, he could simply just go to sleep now ...

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