Breaking the Scale (DATED, FINISHED)

[Evangeline Topclaw]

November 2, Year 4

Evangeline convulsed silently on the damp-grayed sheet that she had been laid out on. The small corner office had been torn to shreds, its upholstery and carpeting alike slashed open in great, bloody gashes. Three of her digits had been bloodied over and their claws had snapped from their fingers.

The drug queen, the so called cartel leader, she grasped her hurt talon in hand. She was on her side, her eyes darting around the room chasing imaginary specters of the night. They screamed about like banshees chasing one another- fighting and thrashing around like hounds for a kill.

Evangeline shrieked. Not the shriek that a pony or any other mortal would be accustom to, but a loud, very raspy, very articulate shriek. A monstrous shriek to scare away the specters of the hallucination. It did little to make them stop, and in fact seemed to encourage them. Eva tried to stand, and make her way to a window but her legs wobbled and she collapsed at the edge, bashing her chin on the sill.

As her head snapped on the sill, she stopped moving abruptly and fell to the ground...

[Thorin]

Thorin limped down the empty night-time streets of the industrial district, his wound from the ice-mage pony slowing him down. His mind was clouded by the narcotics he had inadvertantly inhaled a few minuites before, but his purpose was clear. He had to find the drug-lord-griffoness, before she died of an overdose due to Thorin's quick-thinking and poorly considered plan.

He stopped to catch his breath and heard Ev's strangled cry, echoeing weirdly from a seemingly functional second floor office. Thorin clambered up the stairs bolted to the side of the building and peeked inside, glimpsing what lay within.

The office was a wreck, torn to shreds and spattered with blood. The drug-lord herself was splayed out, convulsing on a curtain, torn from its place above the window.

[Evangeline Topclaw]

Evangeline settled on the floor, her head not entirely where it should be. She had gone rigid, her neck crooked at a bad angle.

The only sound in the room was her raspy breathing despite it all.

[Thorin]

Thorin swore under his breath and forced the window open, popping the latch off with a swift shove to the frame. He clamered inside and rushed over to Ev, inspecting her injuries.

[Evangeline Topclaw]

Evangeline was sprawled on the floor. The basic list of her injuries included several lacerations from rolling around on glass, several broken talons, and what could only be described as a serious lack of good humor.

She rolled over onto her back and stared up at Thorin, her eyes bloodshot and bruised. "Hello."

[Thorin]

Thorin sighed and ran a talon through his crest.

'Feeling allright? You got a hell of a lot of that stuff on you'

[Evangeline Topclaw]

Evangeline tried to cognate the exact parameters of okay, but then a decided that overwhelming evidence suggested that 'no' would suffice.

[Thorin]

Thorin frowned and thought for a moment. He had never had to deal with an overdose of... whatever it was that powder was. He regretted leaving his surgical kit behind as he moved over to the curtains and shredded them into bandages, then began binding Ev's injuries.

'Do you know what that... stuff was?'

[Evangeline Topclaw]

Evangeline tried to rack her brain. She knew what it was, but couldn't recall what it was, if that made sense. She began a detailed diagram of the molecule in her head, an image she had seen once in an alchemical's textbook.

"I can't quite place the academic name of the substance, but its a refined mixture of solid compounds derived from opiates, and synthesized in a laboratory on the edge of the Industrial District."

[Thorin]

Thorin thought for a moment.

'Well... its not like I could make an antidote anyway' he grumbled as he tied a bandage firmly around one of ev's broken talons.

'Do you have any issues which need to be addressed? do you want to go home or to a hospital?'

[Evangeline Topclaw]

Evangeline's eyes went buggy, and she looked as if she was about to bolt from her spot on the floor. But she stopped herself and sighed. "I am thinking that I had myself fooled. Yes, please do the thing with the hospital and the traveling to it."

[Thorin]

Thorin nodded.

'Can you walk?' he asked

[Evangeline Topclaw]

Evangeline brought herself to her paws slowly, and shakily. The room spun briefly, but she caught herself by resting on Doctor who was standing next to her. "I don't mean to seem brash or inquisitive, but might I ask where you received your medical doctorate?" She balanced by placing a talon on Thorin, trying to steady herself as she got her bearings.

[Thorin]

Thorin let Ev lean on him and placed a talon on her side to steady her.

'I learned from my father, back in Brokenclaw. More of an apprenticeship than a doctorate... but more than sufficient to hold griffons together'

[Evangeline Topclaw]

Evangeline suddenly and abruptly grew nervous at the doctors touch, and tried to steady herself on her own, eventually finding wobbly footing. She tried to recollect where the hospital was, and reckoned it was a good mile away at the very least. "You know what in my new reckoning of things maybe the hospital is perhaps too far off from here do you have a place nearby I can stay in for a night?"

Her odd question was based in her grounding as a proven criminal- or at least, in her eyes, a somewhat adequate attempted criminal. She would need his address in order to send assassins after him when this was over. She had read so in a daring adventure novel, and it seemed like a perfectly reasonable thing to endeavor. After all, she had a business to take care of.

"Would you happen to have any strong or deadly allergies- I fear I may have rolled over something chemical..."

[Thorin]

Thorin considered for a moment.

'I have private quaters in one of the hotels near the headquaters. You could stay there if you wish, but I must insist that you allow me to assist or carry you the distance'

[Evangeline Topclaw]

Evangeline loathed the thought of needing prolonged contact with Thor. The thought squicked her to a degree, but she had to put it out of her mind. She knew she would be unable to move on her own. "I accept you terms under the condition that we leave immediately... this place unsettles me."

She began for the door with intent to make her way out.

[Thorin]

Thorin stopped Ev with a talon and slipped his head and neck under her belly, lifting her onto his shoulders. He took a moment to ensure that the griffoness was blanced securely before leaving the building.

'I hope that the owner is not too upset by the mess' he chuckled.

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