Colin's posts

Vito followed the woman, and looked at Adrian as she said what she did, and laid a hand on his chest.

"....Adrian..." he said quietly.

"Please... please hang on." he told her.

"We'll do all we can to help you." he went on. As he looked at her... saw how frail she looked... heard how weak she sounded... he couldn't help but feel a lump in his throat.

He wondered if the unthinkable would happen.

He didn't even seem to care that he was starting to feel worse right now. Adrian was all that mattered.

".....shit." he cursed.

With that, he lifted her up in his arms, and disappeared from where they were, appearing in the special emergency wing of OLA, where physically ill patients were accepted.

"Someone help!" he exclaimed.

"I don't know how much time she has!" he said.

"Please! She needs treatment!"

Vito saw Adrian on the floor, and his eyes widened.

"Adrian!" he exclaimed, before starting to race towards her... only to pause for a moment, feeling a sort of breeze out of nowhere.

"...what...?" he mumbled.

"What was that?" he asked, before getting back to Adrian.

"Adrian!" he said, kneeling down.

"Adrian, say something!" he said further, checking her over.

She laid there for about 30 seconds or so, before she received a text.

She barely had the energy to look at it, but when she did, she saw it was from Vito.

Hey, how are you doing? it read.

Things seem to be going nuts all over. You safe, at least? the next one asked.

"Eh?" Lindsay muttered.

He was then silent for a moment, before things seemed to click.

"Wait..." he said.

"Wait, are you...?" he started to ask, before cutting himself off.

"Whatever. I have research to do." he told her.

"Looks like I'm taking it in a new direction, as well."

"Of course." Lindsay replied.

"I've been looking through all the texts I can get my hands on to see if I can find anything." he told her.

"And I'd better find something soon." he went on.

"People are getting sick, others have turned violent, some places are reporting inexplicable wilting in vegetation, death counts have been at record highs..." he went on.

"If we don't do something, this may as well be the end of the world!" he said further, before pausing.

"Ok, that MIGHT be hyperbole, but not by much."

Lindsay was silent as the question was asked, before sighing.

"I wish I knew." he replied.

"And it's tearing me up that I don't." he said.

"This is inexplicable, and it doesn't make sense, either." he continued. "Either the diseases that have shown up are so old that the cures have been long forgotten, or are impossible to make and/or find, or they're superviruses that resist any and all medicine." he went on.

"But damn it all, this seems SO damn familiar to me." he then cursed.

"Like this situation is not unique to history."

The doctor looked ready to punch a wall at that point, but he stopped, and sighed dejectedly.

"I know." he said.

"Just... I know." he mumbled.

He then stood up and left the room, gritting his teeth as he did so.

"I just don't get it." he said.

"These deaths should be easily prevented, but nothing we're doing is working."

As she walked down the hallway, she heard a voice coming from a nearby room. A familiar male voice. It was one of the doctors that had apprenticed under Rene Calder when he was still alive, and had worked there.

"COME ON!" he yelled.

"NO! FIGHT, DAMN YOU!" he demanded.

"Don't give up, you-" he continued, before suddenly pausing.

"Damn it all!" he cursed.

"What the HELL is going ON, here!?" he added.

It seemed that he had gotten Calder's passion for the patients as well.

Addison nodded, and made his way to the intercom.

"Attention, members of Candentus Lux!" he said.

"Effective immediately, you are all on paid vacation, as the guild will be undergoing inspect." he told them.

"Please leave in the next hour, and you will be paid the usual steady rate. I will let you all know when the guild is to be returned to!" he continued.

"For now, please leave, and go back to your homes, your families, or wherever you feel safe!" he then finished.

Addison laughed as well, but then thought about it.

"Hm." he mumbled.

"I wonder..." he said.

"There'd need to be someone whose job was to be their punching bag." he told her.

"Like... well, Lindsay." he said further.

"Maybe Sammy. She DID inherit the phoenix in him." he went on.

"Of course, they'd have to willingly have the position." he then added.

Addison sighed quietly in response.

"Yeah." he said.

"I know." he told her.

"But you still refuse to tell me when these have happened, or WHO the targets are/were." he commented.

"Which is... irritating, but I suppose I can see why." he went on.

"Just so long as things run smoothly here." he said further. "I try my best to keep this place fair, but enjoyable, just like Mom did." he finished.

"This room has... a paranoid amount of barriers on it." Addison admitted.

"Mostly leftover from when Mom ran the place." he said.

"She had a number of people that wanted to secretly oust her, because she was a female. Or because of her last name." he continued.

"I mean, we only learned this when Ash pseudo-retired, but still." he mumbled.

"He liked Mom a lot. And did all he could to protect her. The barriers here, included."

"I would imagine so." Addison replied.

He then just held her a little closer, and looked at the clock.

"....wonder what caused this..." he mumbled.

"It can't be something in the air... can it?" he wondered.

"Some... kind of mind control?" he wondered further.

"I just... don't know."