A Measure of Desperation (Illyana and then others)

[seismic_shockwave]

WHO: Kayla Connors, Illyana Rasputin
WHEN: Approximately a week after the incident in the kitchen
WHERE: X-Mansion Infirmary
WHAT: Illyana is brought in to help Kayla in dire straits

After the dramatic moments in the kitchen, Kayla's depression and lassitude had crumbled into what was virtually a waking coma. Her life force wasn't quite low enough to kill her outright, but her life force did not burn brightly enough to sustain anything like ordinary life. They had to summon Magik, the sorceress best known to the X-Men, in hopes that she would find a solution to their problems. Eventually, something of a solution had been found- but it required a rather complicated spell and the donation of accumulated life force from several people in order to patch up Kayla's own. 

There would be consequences from this spell. The people involved wouldn't feel quite right for a few days afterwards- nothing like Kayla's extreme case, but some fatigue and mild depression were likely. Diluted elements of their personalities could be reflected in Kayla for some time thereafter. After such a prolonged period of lassitude and depression, it was likely that Kayla would manifest, after a rather long sleep, a significant manic phase.

Right now, the girl had been placed into a full magical coma, looking just as serene as a modern day Sleeping Beauty. It would be time for the magic to work its course. 

Comments

[ngm_xmen]

There was a crackle in the air and a brief, baleful red glow in the infirmary as a stepping disk appeared. Illyana Rasputin emerged, with a bag over one shoulder, her Soulsword in hand, and something that was not quite a tree branch and not quite a tentacle in the other. The tentabranch squrimed and dripped some kind of sticky green fluid onto the floor from the end that had apparently recently been severed.

"Get me a basin. Something glass or enameled, it eats through most metals."

She sheathed her sword, tossed her bag onto a nearby chair, and began squeezing the blood-sap from the thing into the offered basin.

[talk_to_you]

Doug supplied the desired basin, placing it front of Illyana.

The mess on the floor could probably wait. Kayla was more important right now.

He knew better than to ask if she was sure this was going to work. He'd known what a capable sorceress she'd been, and had become again.

[seismic_shockwave]

Kayla for her part, continued to lie quietly on the table as she had the whole time thus far. She had an odd Sleeping Beauty look to her, something beyond sleep but not quite death. A state of repose that seemed peaceful but needed to be reversed, and soon, lest it become permanent.

It might have taken another few days, it might have taken a week, but sooner or later, without this assistance, Kayla would have slipped away into living death.

[ngm_xmen]

Illyana dropped the wrung out tentabranch on the lab table near the basin and reached for her bag. She brought out several small bags and a knife. She opened one of the bags, spilling out a handful of small round stones. Another bag contained a leafy powder, this she sprinkled into the basin. It hissed and sizzled.

She looked over her shoulder at Doug. "Where are the donors?"

[talk_to_you]

"I've got them waiting in the next room. I'll get them," Doug said, heading that direction.

[dolemeck]

Dolemeck sat in the room with the others. He volunteered to be help, after hearing some other students talk about what was going on. He knew what it was like to be in a coma, to be on the thin line of life and death... and it sucked. He was willing to offer whatever he could to help. It was just in his nature.

[seismic_shockwave]

There was a faint awareness in Kayla that registered that something was going on, but she would not have been able to give many details, other than that it was cold, and she was tired. And it would be so easy to just slip past the veil.

Illyana would have been able to begin sensing the specific dark presences around Kayla, the traces left by the greedy beings that had taken her life thusly. Selene, the Black Queen of the Hellfire Club, and a second being, not unlike that of Madelyne Pryor, the Goblin Queen ... but not exactly the same either.

[wild_child]

Rose looked up. "Are ya ready fer us, Teach?"

[fourshelled]

D'Artagnan sat quietly with his sheathed swords across his knees. He awaited further instruction for what was needed. He doubted his swords were needed for this, but their presence comforted him.

[ngm_xmen]

Illyana had been sensing the signatures of whoever had done this to Kayla. Selene was the first and most obvious suspect, of course. There was another, that was harder to pin down. Familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. Perhaps Illyana would discuss it with Rachel and/or Doug, after the ritual was over.

She took a bag of chalk out, the kind sometimes used to draw the lines for an impromptu baseball field, and began slapping it on the floor in a circle around the gurney, chanting under her breath. The circle completed, she directed the donor students to sit equally spaced apart around it, then tossed each of them one of the stones.

She picked up the basin filled with bloodsap, and sloshed the contents around for a final mix, then approached the students.

"Who's first? Don't worry, it only eats through metal."

The mixture popped and hissed.

[wild_child]

Rose looked the whole thing over, then rolled her eyes and shrugged. "Guess that's me."