raisetheearth | Shepherd's Haven Event: Devil's Night

Who: Damon the doppelganger and OPEN TO ANY IN SHEPHERD'S HAVEN
What: Devil has an announcement to make in the form of arson and violence. Aforementioned player plot shenanigans.
Where: Shepherd's Haven
When: Forward dated to the night of October 30th, and probably into the morning of the 31st. Devil's night, in other words.
Status: Open with some closed-ish subthreads!
Warnings: Arson and violence?

No night had ever been so aptly named.

Shepherd's Haven wasn't anywhere near Michigan, but that didn't mean the festivities of Devil's Night couldn't be spread to far and wide locales. It was the perfect night, in fact, for the creature known as a demon to remind the sleepy little haven of precisely why it was unwise to prod the beast. Perhaps the one who called him there had forgotten, or perhaps he simply thought the devil had more bark than bite.

Oh, how wrong he was.

It began with fire. Several fires, to be precise. Small at first but fed with whatever accelerant Damon could find on hand. Fuel left unguarded, dry hay or straw. Did you know compost burns very well? It does, oh how it burns. And each fire set at different locations across the town, so quickly and so close to simultaneous one might almost think that they were set by several people at once.

Or one that could move very, very quickly.

The cherry on top was a door with a fading red "X" painted on it, ripped from its hinges and set ablaze, then left on the steps in front of the town hall.

[[OOC: Leaving this fairly open for anyone to react to and have their own threads/etc. of what's happening. Separate threads will go up for some more planned stages of the event, but if anyone wants to be unfortunate enough to run across Damon while he pursues his arsonist rampage through SH go ahead and put up a toplevel and just toss in the comment header that you want me.

Have fun dealing with those fires and rampaging demon, guys!]]

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How he hadn't lost consciousness was a complete mystery to him, but it might have been better if he had. He had no idea how long he'd been lying there, pinned to the ground like a bug with a cold kind of numbness spreading through him from the centre of his chest, but it felt like an eternity.

Faust's voice came to him as if through water - fuzzy and distant. He reached a hand with shaking fingers across his chest to touch the metal sticking out of it not for the first time, every quick and shallow breath catching in his throat. His first thought, however, when the young man knelt down by him wasn't for himself. He still had the smell of burned flesh seared into his senses.

"Laz-Lazarus and-- Misa. Where--?"

It looks pretty bad. Johann is just as surprised by the fact that Richard's remained conscious as he is.

"Can you tell me your name, and what year it is?" Johann asks, wanting to test Richard's awareness. "Please... I must ask you not to move and that includes touching the injury."

He glances over his shoulder at the question. "I don't know those people, but I know that a young man and woman made it to that large building. They have some burns on their legs, but their injuries are not life-threatening. You will see them on the trip to the nearest town, but for now, please focus on your own well-being. It's a wonder you're alive. I think that nothing vital was pierced, looking at this... that's good news."

Edited 2015-11-08 01:38 (UTC)

"R-- Richard."

He pulled in a sharp, hissing breath through his teeth and regretted it immediately as a white-hot pain blossomed inside the cold sensation pressing over his chest. What year was it? What the hell did that matter? He decided against answering that, mostly because while his name was useful information, the year was not, and talking hurt.

"Y-you-- always talk this much?"

How was that for awareness.

Johann presses his lips together; he's sympathetic, but being a doctor means keeping a stoic and productive front. It won't do to panic right along with a patient, in any situation. Better to behave as if all will be fine, because in truth, whether they live or die, the Sun will rise again tomorrow.

"Richard, look at me, OK? Try to focus. We're going to get the sword out of you and then stop the bleeding. You'll be all right."

If he's not? Well... Johann hopes that his ghost won't have a thing or two to say about it. He'll feel guilty enough without that weighing on his conscience.

"Are you fuckin' stupid?" He might have been pinned to the ground, but he was more than ready to smack the other man's hand away if he tried to go anywhere near the blade pinning him down. Richard hissed in a breath, trying to steady himself.

"That sword might be the on--only damn thing keepin' me alive."

He's watched enough television and read enough books to understand that if the sword hit a major artery, it might be the only thing preventing him from bleeding to death in seconds.

Johann sets his jaw, taking a deep, calming breath and willing the soothing quality to transfer to his voice when he speaks.

"No, I'm a doctor," he says. "Emergency response is a lot of what I do. We're not pulling it out until others bring the ambulance this way, but when that time comes you'll simply have to trust that I know what I'm doing."

A thick roll of bandages is pulled out of his kit; he applies a compress and pressure and works to stem the bleeding around the sword.

"Have courage Richard. If this injury was going to kill you it would have by now."

"Yeah, right..." Biggest load of bullshit he'd ever heard, in his opinion, but at the moment slowly bleeding to dead with a chance of being saved sounded better than quickly bleeding to death and that being the end of it.

So, he dropped both hands to the ground and clenched his fists as a vain distraction from the throbbing in his torso.

"Look, if I don't make it, I'll need you to find someone for me."

It's the job of the friends, relatives and next of kin to tell people that they're definitely going to be OK and they aren't allowed to talk like that. For better or worse, doctors who spout that kind of rhetoric are irresponsible and risking dishonesty.

He keeps the pressure focused forward and down, thinking ahead to when they are going to carefully saw through this sword's blade to shorten it and minimize the trauma of pulling it through. With any hope, it can bet cut and isn't one of those Numbered, inconveniently indestructible affairs.

"Yes? Who do you need?" He asks softly.

He'd see through the bullshit, in any case, and all it would be is an aggravation. While he's already slowly bleeding out he doesn't need the irritation of knowing he's being lied to at the same time.

They're just lucky the sword isn't his.

"My-- ah, ow." Richard can't help but laugh just then. Fuck, it hurts. "My son. Tony. Anthony Sparado. He'd want to know.. what happened to me."

Faust keeps his gloved hand staunchly on the compress. "Your son? Tony Sparado? OK, got it. I've got a very good memory," he assures him with a nod of his blonde head. "Do you know where I can find him? If you feel too tired or the pain is too bad, please wait until we are in a more stable environment to answer. It will not be much longer."

"Don't know where he is right now."

Funny, it was actually getting easier to breathe. It hurt less. He didn't have to be a doctor to know that probably wasn't a good sign. "Don't know if.. Damon didn't get to him first."

It was something that he had to consider, even if he didn't want to. Damon might not have killed him, but he wouldn't put it past the doppel to kill Tony.

"Don't you? OK, that's OK," Faust is quick to reassure him, not wanting him to exert himself while they wait for the ambulance. "He'll be found and sent to your side as soon as possible, I'll make sure of it. That's my promise to you."

Living or dead, he doesn't add, knowing that he has to maintain that air of professional hope without any specifics.

"Damon is the one who attacked the settlement, yes? We'll find out soon enough. Until then I need you to stay awake and focused on breathing regularly. The ambulance is driving this way now."

And, in fact, it's doing just that.

Shepherd's Haven Event: Devil's Night

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