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It was fun for a long time but towards the end it just started to drag

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Total Members Voted: 28

[WillowLuman]

Ru + Blu + Flis. Kobold words can be difficult, but if you break them into syllables they aren't so hard.


HugoLuman stretched before leaving the hospital. Time to confer with Wierd again. Being conspirators already, and leeching off his soul, it seemed best to consult him before anyone else. He just hoped that the poor man wasn't still sleeping. If he was, then it could wait. 48 hours without sleep had been known to kill people, hadn't it? Probably not, but it certainly couldn't be good for one's health.

[speaking of which, good night.]

[Gizogin]

[48 hours without sleep will only kill you when preceeded by another twelve days without sleep.  After two weeks without sleep, your entire body just shuts down and dies.]

Gizogin let out a yawn.  Gizo X looked over at him, still welding.  "You wanna get some sleep?" he asked.  "I can manage on my own for a while."

"That's ridiculous," Gizogin said.  "I'm not tired."  even as he said this, he yawned again.  He was forced to admit that yes, he was pretty tired.  He walked over to the corner of the workshop, where he'd put up a hammock so he could sleep in the shop.  He collapsed into it, fully clothed, and fell almost immediately asleep.

Just then, the shop door opened, and the Mk. IX was standing there.  "PATIENT IN THE HOSPITAL," it intoned.  Gizo X sighed and hopped down from the ladder.  His duties as head (and only) doctor came first.

[Eric Blank]

Corai sent Rubfluis to the sleeping area with a guard to make sure zombies didnt murder everyone, and went out on a stroll. Just now remembering he was still in the dress he took as a disguise. "Gotta find my suit."

[Putting down a rebellion while cross-dressing. A true badass. ]

-Sig permission?-

[Sure I guess...]

[wierd]

Weird stretched on the bed.

This far underground, sunlight didn't have anywhere to come in. The only signs that a new day had dawned, was the sound of slippered feet and people talking in the hall outside; the silouettes of their feet flitting past in the flickering torchlight of the hall beneath the doorjam.

He could tell by the activity outside that he had slept in, but this place didn't have timeclocks, and if eric ever suggested implementing clocked hours, he would murder the man himself. The only penalty to sleeping in, was that you didn't get any work done. In an honor and industry based society like the dwarves had, beling lazy was its own punishment, as it meant others thought considerably less of you. However, his recent stints of burning the midnight oil to get things done more than made up for it. That particular habit was actually quite common in dwarven societies, and seeng dwarves run off to crash after a production run, regardless of official daylight hour, was normal. As long as he didn't make a habbit of oversleeping, he wouldn't get any greif over this one infraction.

Striking the flints in his tinderbox on the nightstand, he lit his tallow candle, and bathed the room in its fitful light, then commenced getting ready for an exciting day of exploration...

Mr peepers reacted to the light and activity, rustling and peeping innocently in his nestbox hidden at the foot of the bed.  As he walked by, his adorable little monster flapped its stubby wings animatedly, and let loose a cacophony of desperate peeps. Being a baby bird was hard.. poor thing was always hungry. Maybe peepers could help control eric's centipede population?.. for now though, it was more disgusting, rubbery turtle roast for his fluffly little kid, which he snarfed down enthusiastically and adorably as always.

He had just slipped into his hazard suit, collected the leftover pigtail thread he had pilfered from the stockpiles the night before to work on Hugo's hat of horror, and put the nappy time sheet over peeper's box again when there was a scratching knock at the door.  Only one fortress resident knocked like that.

Hugo.

[WillowLuman]

"Oh good, you're up. I had hoped that you would be if I waited a few hours, cause, y'know, you really needed some rest. Anyway, I've been thinking. That carving showed a volcano exploding and some of the land sinking, which explains why those ruins are so far down that they're barely 2 layers above the Caverns. If the local caverns haven't been collapsed during the eruption, anyway. But that carving showed that the tower the city was built next to must have at least survived the eruption, because the figures in it were grieving, right? So I was thinking that it must have remained above ground, and if hasn't been destroyed or weathered away since, it should be nearby."

[wierd]

"If that's the case, I suggest going next door to the microcline one, going to the roof, and looking around. If its not more than a few miles off, we should be able to see it from there, and better plan a trip to investigate. I don't think our neighbors would care too much if w just asked to look off their roof."

[WillowLuman]

"I'll head over there now. Tell you what I see when I get back!" With that HugoLuman went off down the hall. Weird stood there awkwardly holding the crocheted sleeping mask behind his back. Didn't get a chance to present it.

HugoLuman headed to the kitchens first. He had to eat, after all. He could not find anything out other than "turtle roast" and plump-helmet based food, which was inedible to him. So he went over to the food stockpile room, which was the coldest part of the fortress. There was a lot of raw fish in there right now. Normally the smell would have repulsed him, but now he found it strangely appetizing. He ate several pound of it, swallowing most of it whole as this mouth was not designed for chewing. Now slightly disturbed but full, he set out for his day trip.

[wierd]

Weird shrugged, and shook his head side to side. 

Sleeping in meant that if he wanted to explore the ruins, he would probably have to go see eric first. That meant a detour to the infirmary, and if he had already been discharged, eric's office. No amount of sweet talking would get him past the fortress guard without a pass.

Hiding the disturbing hand-crochet item in the drawer of the nightstand, and palming the ball of yarn, (he really needed to see about making a belt pack for his suit..) he headed down toward the hospital.

[Gizogin]

Gizo X walked over to Eric, who was passed out on the closest bed to the door.  The Mk. IX followed behind him.  "What do we have here?" he asked of the room in general.

"SUBJECT HAS MINOR SCRATCHES AND BITES.  THEY HAVE BEEN CLEANED AND BANDAGED."

"Thank you, that will be all."  He hadn't meant it as anything other than a rhetorical question, but there was no way for the Mk. IX to know that.

The Mk. IX snapped to attention.  "SIR."  It walked over to the center of the room and began straightening out the bedsheets at a frightening pace.  Gizo X turned back to Eric.  His bandages were clean; the wounds didn't appear to be bleeding much, if at all.  As such, he unwound the wrappings to get a better look.

"These don't look bad at all," Gizo X mumbled.  "Still, you must have had some reason to come here."  He leaned in for a closer look, and whistled appreciatively.  "Ah.  That would do it."

[Corai]

-What happened to the cyberdwarves? There still in our jail, right?-

[WillowLuman]

[Yeah, they're just kind of standing there, not doing anything. It's kind of creepy.]

HugoLuman reached the Microline tower in about 10 minutes. Askak wanted to talk to him for a while, as he and the others were very curious and anxious about the events of the previous day. HugoLuman told them that the army had not been hostile, instead they had been there to pick up one of their number to help with a war in an extremely distant land. Askak told HugoLuman that this was welcome news, for now his people did not need to worry about being pillaged. With that HugoLuman went to the top of the tower.

For miles around, there was forest. To the south and east, coast. To the north and west, the horizon stretched on. To the northeast there was an enormous hill, not quite a small mountain, but he was disappointed to see there was no structure upon it. Perhaps there was another hill somewhere behind it, a shorter one, and the tower was on that? There was no way to see it from here. Unless... perhaps curiosity would get the better of his phobia. HugoLuman spread his wings experimentally.
The guards and idle dwarves outside the entrance to the fort heard a whoosh! and then a tremendous thud. This was followed by an inhuman shriek and a loud bellowing of "OH SWEET MOTHERFUCKING MOHANDAS GANDHI!"

[Gizogin]

[Did you hurt yourself?  I specialize in humanoids, you know.  Dragons aren't my area of expertise.]

[WillowLuman]

The dwarves on guard duty were startled by the sight of a dragon thrashing around on the ground, but eventually one of them gathered enough courage to walk over and help him up. With the help of the four dwarves, HugoLuman managed to limp all the way back to the infirmary. There was an almost unbearable pain coming from one of his right front leg and his right wing. It felt something wet was coming from the wing, too.

Gizogin looked up. "Oh, now what?"

[wierd]

[Weird has been trying to keep the clandestine "healing" magic a secret you know. Putting yourself into a body cast, when he is able to fix it, will make him suffer a morality crisis. Keeping the secret a secret, means NOT using it so conspicuously. If you just broke a bunch of bones, and tore yourself up, he would consider your well being more important than dangerous state secrets.]

"Oh gods.." weird breathed, seeing a small army of dwarves hurry past carrying hugo on a makeshift stretcher of pine logs and an old tarp toward the infirmary. Thick blood marred the surface of the tarp, seeping through profoundly.

He hustled into line, helping to hold one of the pine logs, and carry his friend down for treatment, and to get within whispering distance.

"What the hell did you do!?" He hissed at hugo, who's clear eyelids were slammed shut, trying to block out the world outside and failing.

"I tried to fly.." hugo rasped.

"You idiot!" Weird hissed back. "Dragons learn to fly *BEFORE* they get to be half a ton in size! What all did you break!? You're bleeding all over the place!"

Before hugo could answer, they arrived at the infirmary. Gizo MK VIII answered laconically in his dull monotone.

"Please state the nature of your medical complaint."

Gods, was gizogen crabby the day he programmed that thing?

"Severe blunt trauma, possible shock. Severe bone damage to several extremities. Heavy bloodloss. Get gizogen out here right now, or I'll disassemble you, and reassemble you as a toaster oven!" Weird spat.

"Set joint. Apply local pressure." Intoned the robot.

"Get gizogen!" Weird repeated indignantly.

"Triage proceedure has higher priority in emergency subroutine. Reports on patient condition take secondary priority. Set joint. Apply local pressure."

He was gonna apply some local pressure allright.. with his air hammer, between the MK VIII's eyeballs.

He grumbled, and helped the other dwarves deposit hugo's stretcher on the floor, closed his eyes, and was glad for having the heavy gloves on. They would disguise the unearthly glow his hands would make.

Feeling on the wing, a section of the bone had shattered, and had punctured the skin from the inside, and was now creating a channel for the heavy blood loss. He closed his eyes, and concentrated, probing the injury site.

"Sorry hugo, but this is really gonna hurt..."

With a concise, and controlled motion, he moved the broken wing sections to force the bone to retract back through the puncture hole, and back into alignment, amid roars, and small jets of fire. He hoped one of them would hit the Mk VIII.

Holding pressure down on the shattered wing, the bleeding slowed considerably. He leaned in closer to hugo's head and whispered inaudibly. "....do you want me to fix it?.."


"Bring the patient inside." Intoned the robot again. Weird wanted desperately to kill it.

Hugo huffed, while weird held onto the wing, keeping pressure on the fracture, and holding it in proper registration while hugo limped through the door.

"Oh now what?" Came the sarcastically familiar voice of one Doctor Gizogen.

Wierd's eyelid fluttered in repressed rage.

[Eric Blank]

Eric was suddenly woken by horrible roars and yelling, the smell of smoke and glow of flames just outside the doorway. The first thing he did was wet his pants, assuming the absolute worst had happened at the worst possible time. The second was jump up and find his pick, and cautiously peer out the doorway. Hugo was out there, in bad shape, visibly having borken bones set by Gizogin, Wierd, and some dwarves.

"What the hell happened? He isn't in mortal danger is he?"