this is crazy

[from_scratch]

Cam is watching a new recording of Atriama, tail swishing in the gap in his couch, and doesn't stop to pause the show when he feels a summons go by.

Comments

[from_scratch]

Cam zooms in her direction in case he can help. Depends what's wrong with her...

[wormcan]

When he arrives, Cam will see that the current supply of injured is getting the very best in medical care.

[from_scratch]

"...Brain dead?"

[wormcan]

Riley freezes as soon as she sees Cam.

"I didn't do it! But I got my power back and I thought, what would I be doing if I were good, so I came down here and started helping. Please don't put the brain back."

[from_scratch]

"You can help. Under truce conditions. Afterward we can talk about it."

[wormcan]

She exhales. "Thank you!"

One of the capes who rushed Flechette here interrupts, "This is Flechette. She's important. Can you save her?"

Riley glances at her current patient, then at Flechette. "He might wake up any time, I was expecting to be done pretty soon. How importan—"

"Very."

"I'll save her."

[from_scratch]

Cam supervises. Helps, as possible.

[wormcan]

"It's okay, she's only mostly dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. Cam, can you make me a... I'm not sure it has a name. Can you make me a copy of all the tools I used for building the double-cape you killed in California?"

[from_scratch]

He grinds his teeth but makes them.

[wormcan]

Their general appearance is of power tools crossed with early nineteenth-century dentistry. But she's under close supervision.

Riley grabs one of the implements and starts making an incision, babbling about Wollstone's ratios and the exact voltage to restart a dead human.

[from_scratch]

Cam watches. If she removes anything that looks important he can put it back.

[wormcan]

Mid-operation, while Flechette is cut open and still mostly dead, Riley's previous patient wakes up screaming.

And mid-scream, "You!" He scrambles away from her, ignoring the fact that he's still only most of the way through a surgery, and throws out a hand toward her. There's a flash of flame, followed by a pile of ashes where Riley used to be.

[from_scratch]

"Truce!" Cam snaps at the previous patient, ready to knock him out if he points threateningly at anyone else. "Endbringer truce!" He looks at Flechette. He can't get anywhere with this, he'd need an angel and a miracle.

[wormcan]

Every conscious occupant of the rather large room is watching too; that was a bit attention-getting.

The cape's eyes refocus. He droops as he realizes what just happened. "I thought she was— I thought— the whole time I was out, I was seeing... I thought Bonesaw had me." He looks up. "Who did I kill?"

[from_scratch]

"You killed somebody who was saving someone more crucial to the fight than you. You killed a thirteen year old girl." Cam stalks off to find someone else to patch up. Trigger Happy doesn't get medical demoning at this time.

[wormcan]

There are plenty of other people to medical demon. Unfortunately. And the non-cape doctors are even less capable of resuscitating Flechette than Cam is.

It's not long before one of the people in command arrives. It's the armored cape from earlier, now swordless and not wearing his helmet. "Cinereal. The Simurgh got you to kill an ally?"

"Something like that. I didn't know where I was, just that I was being operated on by Bonesaw. It was really Bonesaw, wasn't it?"

"Doesn't matter either way. She of all people shouldn't have been here, but if she was following the truce she's protected."

[from_scratch]

Cam's busy putting someone's liver back where it belongs, but he eavesdrops.

[wormcan]

"We both know how important the truce is," the armored cape is fully aware that everyone in the room is listening and is speaking clearly enough that eavesdropping isn't too difficult, "and how important perception is. Once it gets out that someone as highly placed as you would strike an enemy here, even one with a kill order, the whole alliance could fall apart."

"Villains can't come to Simurgh fights anyway, and this wouldn't have happened at any other."

"True, but going public with that's not a good choice either. It'd involve saying you were influenced by the Simurgh, enough to kill someone."

The metal band on Cinereal's arm suddenly becomes painfully obvious.

[from_scratch]

Liver's fixed. Cam puts somebody's arm where it goes. And their leg. And their blood.

[wormcan]

"No, Chevalier. You're not going to kill me. Everything she showed me was about Bonesaw. Everything I had heard or seen about her, I was experiencing it. When I woke up... It's true. I was a Simurgh pawn. But she pointed me at Bonesaw specifically, she didn't set me up to target anyone else. I'm as sure as I can be when the Simurgh's involved."

"Yes. Unfortunately that's not very."

[from_scratch]

"Simurgh probably killed the thing that was suppressing Bonesaw's power, and the first thing Bonesaw did was go help people with it," Cam says quietly. The wasted potential is just - if she could have been trusted, if he could have gotten to a point where he could have trusted her enough, her power was staggering, she could probably have bottled the cure for generalized old age and then all he'd have to do was ship it -

[wormcan]

"So the Simurgh wanted this to happen. Maybe that means Bonesaw could have been rehabilitated, or it could be because the Simurgh wanted everyone to see one of the Protectorate's top heroes break the truce. I'd be wary of assuming it was the first one; helping people might not have been Bonesaw's choice any more than killing her was Cinereal's."

[from_scratch]

"Well, there's no way to tell if I could have gotten her rehabilitated now."

[wormcan]

"What we do know is that this wasn't a truce violation. No one chose to kill anyone. The only one to blame is the Simurgh.

Cinereal, I'm sorry. I'll try to get you let out of quarantine early if I can, but we both know what it means that she targeted you."

[from_scratch]

No comment.