open;

[inflictwounds]

Who: Hieke & You
What: Infirmary catch-all & a call for help
Where: The infirmary & elsewhere on campus
When: February
Warnings: Potential discussions of injury, probably.


a; the necessities

[The infirmary has seen a lot in the first month of the quarter alone - friends were born here and eventually taken away, people have been sick and injured and that's not even including the injuries people didn't go to the infirmary for. But come February, Hieke is a little bit more prepared for things. The infirmary is kept as tidy as ever, and he's even decorated for the holiday!

There are vases filled with flowers on his desk, and he's awkwardly taped some heart shaped decor to the wall. There was an attempt and that accounts for everything, even if he doesn't know anything about Valentine's Day.

However, the infirmary isn't only for the sick or injured. Students taking Hieke's class are more than welcome to stop by to ask for help or ask general questions - there's an office set aside for him, but he spends all of his hours in the infirmary anyways. It's the best place to catch him.]

b; the network (un: hieke)

Good afternoon.

I'm sorry to bother everyone, but I'm looking for something. A mushroom - native to the Outlands - that's not dangerous or anything, just a little mischievous. It managed to find out how to open the windows in my room, and now it's loose and locate and summoning magic were something I never spent much time studying.

It's about a foot tall, with a pale orange cap, so it should be pretty distinct. If you see it, please let me know! And mind the spores.

c; the wildcard

[If you want anything else or need Hieke for anything, let me know!]

Comments

Feb 1-2, A - OTA

[subconmodo]

[February is a blight upon humanity, daemons, angels, fae, and every other existence oin the known universe. It had something against him. The fact that he's here in the infirmary after his first taste of a soul in ages just serves to prove his point.]

[Nevermind the fact that he knew the soul whose piece he'd eaten was tainted and he'd had it anyway.]

[Anyone who comes to visit Avery over the couple of days he's out with food poisoning will see a very, very grumpy professor looking more disheveled than he prefers to let anyone see, long bangs hanging oon his eyes, waistcoat, blazer, and cravat tossed carelessly somewhere to the side. The scarring around his neck is on full display, and he occasionally stops to vomit some sort of oily, great black substance into a nearby wastebin.]

[Hopefully Hieke will get on his case for it less than Ekkehardt]

2nd

[yokeye]

[Immediately after waking up in the infirmary, Toki decides it's completely unnecessary for him to be here and he's already on his way out. He stops half-way to the exit when Avery starts vomiting disgusting black stuff. Avery looks pretty disgusting himself, really. He must have drank a lot of it. Oblivious to the fact Avery currently doesn't have horns, Toki assumes the similarity in vomit means he's ingested Blue Devil Liquor like he had a week and a half ago.]

Don't name the devil!

[It's blurted out before he thinks it through, and now he wonders why this has happened.]

Did you have dinner with White Chain~!?

[Blue Devil Liquor is presumed to be a casual beverage as well as a language aid.]

[subconmodo]

[He looks up at Toki, still in a daze, black liquid dripping from the corners of his mouth.]

Did I what?

[yokeye]

I thought maybe you had dinner, or lunch or whatever angels name their meal times, with White Chain and you had Blue Devil Liquor~! Wait, does she even need to eat!? Do you eat!? Why would there even be like angel alcohol if you didn't need any sustenance!? Either way! If you did drink some can I watch the devil come up? If you didn't, what's with the black slimy stuff!? Are you just sick?

[subconmodo]

It's food poisoning, kid. Ate a piece of a bad soul. Or a cursed one or something.

[He drops the wastebin and rolls back onto the bed.]

I don't recommend it.

[yokeye]

You eat souls!?

[subconmodo]

[What. Does he really not know?]

Yes? I mean, it's kind of my "thing."

Been awhile since I've gotten the chance.

[spelleton]

[ Mercifully, Ekkehardt only laughed at him once when taking him to the infirmary, and didn't again after that.

(The scarring is...concerning. But he's really not going to ask.) ]

The curse you consumed will be out of your system by tomorrow, you'll be happy to hear. [ He at least respects Avery enough not to put on a chipper customer service voice about it. ] After that, I don't predict any more problems. Your remarkable resilience will do the rest.

[subconmodo]

Great. Another day of vomiting. My favorite.

[Not his fault. He didn't know he'd have this kind of reaction to it.]

Ugh, I'm not going to be able to sense any of those things without getting nauseous.

[spelleton]

[ There's countless ways that curses can manifest once properly inside a victim's body, and Ekkehardt has seen most of them. He tactfully says nothing about how just vomiting is, all things considered, one of the lighter symptoms. ]

They're becoming quite a nuisance. And it can't be a coincidence that they share a theme.

Perhaps you can hunt down the source for stress relief. [ It's barely a joke. For all his jabbing and the fact they barely tolerate each other on a good day, for whatever reason February is a month where Avery is consistently in a worse mood than usual.

Anything that distracts him from it is probably good for him. ]

[subconmodo]

Maybe...

[For what it's worth, he appears to be giving the matter serious thought. As much as his concentration will allow for, anyway.]

Suppose I do owe whatever's done this a visit now, don't I?

[spelleton]

It certainly wouldn't hurt to teach them a lesson. [ His voice is mild. He is entirely unbothered by the idea. ] I'm sure you'd enjoy yourself.

[ ...

The scars are still bothering him, but he's really not going to ask. Still, in a rare moment of absentmindedness, his fingers touch his throat for a moment (or where it would be, if there was anything there any more) before he just shakes his head like he's clearing it. ]

[subconmodo]

[The act doesn't go unnoticed. And given that Avery has seen Ekkehardt with and without his glamour -- and, as far as he knows, without a similar set of scars to his own, it's easy to guess what's bothering him]

They're old. Centuries. Don't worry about them.

[His voice is flat]

[inflictwounds]

[February is, somehow, even more chaotic than January was and that's saying a lot. He's not expecting a teacher to show up - would expect them to be able to fix their own problems or avoid getting into them in the first place - but then Avery has to go and prove him wrong.]

This reminds me of when that devil was born.

[It's an offhand comment as Hieke watches Avery vomit with disinterest. It's not the return of the Blue Devil Liquor, but it might as well be.]

[subconmodo]

[Avery is very good at that, it seems. Proving people wrong by making his own life worse seems to be one of his natural talents]

Devil?

[He looks up blearily from the can. Something about this seems familiar.]

[inflictwounds]

[That's something to be proud of.]

One of the students got something called Blue Devil Liquor from White Chain. It made him vomit up a devil.

[He's not going to put Toki on blast, but...]

You might have seen him asking for names for it on the network.

[subconmodo]

Ah. That.

[Rikugou. That explains it. How one young man can get up to so much on his own is beyond him.]

That stuff is supposed to help you speak another language, right? I think I'd almost prefer it. At least then I would have gotten something out of this whole endeavor.

[inflictwounds]

[It's a special skill, though it's not one Hieke is sure he appreciates.

He misses Shinobu, though. He had been kind of cute.]

You also grow horns. [Which. Nothing wrong with horns.] And I believe the ability to speak the other language is only temporary, and at the end of it is when you vomit the devil up - so you'd just be in the same situation you are now!

[subconmodo]

Wow. I thought I was in here for food poisoning, but it turns out it was someone twisting a knife all along.

2nd

[arcadianvampire]

[Valvatorez had heard about... the incident, through various means that were generally unimportant. He'd also heard his colleague had been laid up in the infirmary due to a rather vicious case of food poisoning. He left Avery to his misery on the first day; not out of malice, but more out of attempting to be polite. He figured he didn't want anyone seeing him at such a low point; pride was something he understood quite well.

Of course, that wouldn't stop him from coming on the second day, figuring Avery might be feeling less like garbage then. He knocked firmly but quietly on the door in Avery's room, before stepping inside. And it doesn't take him long to see... well...]

Still badly under the weather, I see.

[subconmodo]

[He lets the wastebasket drop and glares up at Val]

What was your first clue?

[arcadianvampire]

The violent retching, your disheveled appearance, and your grumpier than usual tone.

[He doesn't look even remotely sorry.]

Any word on how much longer you might be stuck in here?

[subconmodo]

Supposedly it'll be out of my system by tomorrow.

[He doesn't mean to sound as distrusting as he does. He'd actually be more than happy if it were true, looking forward to the day even. As it is, however, it feels like it's never going to end.]

[He never did take being sick well.]

Remind me to never so much as touch a cursed soul again.

[arcadianvampire]

...Don't tell me you actually tried to eat one.

[He'd heard that might be what it was, but that was just rumor as far as he was concerned.]

[subconmodo]

[Another glare.]

Look, I've played nice for YEARS, Val. As far as I was concerned, I deserved a little reward! I took what I could get!