Earnest Evans

The Elementals (Chemical elemental characters)

Sunday, 6:30AM, Oxford Chapel, United Kingdom

The priest patiently waited in his barely-driven 1992 Honda Civic for the group to arrive. Sure enough, they solemnly filed out of the chapel and into the car. There was just barely enough room for everyone, though those in the backseat were quite cramped. The priest spoke with exasperation lying heavily on his breath, and presented an ultimatum.

"Alright. I'll drive you to where you need to go, and then I want you all to get out of my sight. When you get to... wherever you're going, I want you to turn yourselves in. There's no sense in fleeing from both the law and whoever else is chasing you. Now, do you want to go to the airport, or the train station? Both will get you out of the country, I'm sure."

The Elementals (Chemical elemental characters)

Sunday, 12:00 AM, Oxford Chapel Main Hall, United Kingdom

The priest nodded. "In that case, I'll show you to your rooms." He led the group to a rather spartan bunkroom, that had clearly been prepared for just such an occasion. A set of old beds with uncleaned-yet-unused sheets and a nightstand with a light were all the furnishings allotted to this room, but any port in a storm would do just as well. The priest gently bid the group a good night, and went back to bed.
The night passes uneventfully.

Sunday, 6:00 AM, Oxford Chapel Undercroft, United Kingdom

Morning comes with little warning. Without any windows and soundproofed walls, the only thing to differentiate morning from night is one's restfulness. A whole set of aches and pains, whether from the conflict last night or sleeping on these ancient beds, wreaks havoc amidst your muscles.
The party is awakened by the priest knocking on the door. The priest speaks with little urgency, but with definite command behind it.
"Rise and shine, children! We're leaving in half an hour! When you get in the car, we'll talk about whether you want to go to the airport or the train station, alright?"

Thursday, 2:00 PM, Oberschmidt Geriatric Clinic, New York, United States of America

A beaten-up Ford Prius pulled into the parking lot. A woman wearing a t-shirt with the symbol of the James Randi Educational Foundation emblazoned on it stepped out, a look of skeptic interest plastered over her face. Fargus and the others exited the building to greet the woman. Leo, wheeling Herschel in front him, was out not long after.
"Good afternoon, everyone, I'm from the JREF. One of you said you had evidence of a genuine paranormal phenomenon, and who would that be?"
"That would be me. Ah, as a matter of fact, I've got two instances of genuine paranormality."
The woman's expression failed to change. Her body briefly tensed up, in preparation for a glorious letdown. Her tone was stained with carefully-concealed sarcasm.
"Oh, do tell! So, which one of you is the lucky guy?"
"Well, I'd say the most important one is my patient here. Somehow, his body has adapted to safely contain an unusual amount of arsenic dust. If you would kindly step back, he could demonstrate. Mister Orestein, would you please cough for us?"

The Elementals (Chemical elemental characters)

The priest eyed Chloe with a genuinely depressed look. His tone fell, and a grave rasp took over his voice.

"My child, it would be foolish for even a criminal to refuse the help of the authorities. Please... consider the difference between a few years in prison compared to an eternity in Hell! If you truly believe shying away from those who can help is the best path, I can help you. You can stay in the undercroft overnight and, in the morning, I can drive you to the airport or to the train station. Is that what you want?"

The Elementals (Chemical elemental characters)

The priest pursed his lips, deep in thought. He let out a light chuckle, in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"If someone is threatening your life, why not go to the police? I'm sure that they'll be willing to help such bright young kids such as yourself! I'm sure whatever this man wants to do, he won't be able to do it to a police station!"

His tone took on a more authoritative tinge, presenting a suggestion that held the ever-so-slight hint that it could become a request.

"If he's really this dangerous, we should probably go right away! You needn't worry about my safety... the LORD protects his faithful!"

The Elementals (Chemical elemental characters)

Oxford, United Kingdom

A door at the far end of the chapel hall quietly creaked open, and an elderly figure wearing a pair of dull-gray longjohn pajamas shuffled into the main hall. Judging by his gentle features and sense of comfort around the church's innards, it was easy to guess that this was the resident padre. The priest addressed the group with the air of someone who had experienced such a thing before. His withered jowls curled up as he smiled gently.

"Welcome to St. Anthony of Padua, my children. Are you in need of my ministrations? A warm bed, perhaps? The LORD has taught us to accept and embrace those in need. If you need anything, please ask me. I will help you in any way that I can."

The padre kept his distance, for the party's comfort. He had dealt with troubled youths and runaways before, and had long ago refined it into an art.

The Elementals (Chemical elemental characters)

It's always good to take a day off for your health. I'll try to move the church group along in a way that won't step on any toes.

The Elementals (Chemical elemental characters)

Leo deftly dodged out of the way of Herschel's cloud of saliva and gray matter, and cleared his throat in sympathetic pain of the larynx. As he knew, hocking up clouds of metallic-gray bodily fluids was far from normal for anyone. Gray phlegm could mean only two things: severe metal poisoning or spores in the lungs. Both of these would have an immediate and clearly dangerous impact on their victim, but Herschel was as spry as he always was. Leo, understanding that his day just got a lot longer, slapped on a pair of latex gloves and selected a tongue depressor and a specimen cup. Dutifully, he scraped some of Herschel's phlegm into the cup, and placed it on the counter for examination.
"Mister Orestein, this is a very serious problem. To put it simply, no body fluid is supposed to be grey like that. I'll have to examine a sample of your discharge, so please hang on for a moment."

Leo scraped a small portion of phlegm into a slide, and put it under a microscope on the counter at the far end of the room. Leo carefully examined the phlegm sample, noting the formation of the metallic flakes stored within. Leo hummed and grunted, wracking his brain for a possible explanation. With one last frustrated grunt, he turned back to Herschel.

"Mister Orestein, you've been coughing up flakes of metal. Under any circumstances, this would be cause for alarm, especially considering just what metal this is. I don't want to alarm you, but there's a significant amount of arsenic in your phlegm. Normally, if you had arsenic in any part of your throat or lungs, you'd be dead by now. However, it seems that these flakes of arsenic aren't reacting to your cells at all. Mister Orestein, I must say that this is the first instance I've ever seen any cell whatsoever surviving prolonged contact with toxic metals, save for certain types of extremophile bacteria. Mister Orestein, you are a medical marvel! In fact... I've got someone coming soon that might want to know about you. Mister Orestein, how do you feel about being... televised?"

The Elementals (Chemical elemental characters)

Leo scratched his chin thoughtfully.
"There might be something wrong with your respiratory system. I've noticed you've been coughing up a lot of phlegm recently. Is there anything unusual about this phlegm? Coloration, thickness, anything inside the phlegm, something like that?"
Leo briefly ran through his encyclopaedic knowledge of respiratory diseases.
"It might just be the flu, Mister Orestein. If anything new comes up, I'll have to give you a bronchoscopy. Of course, that's going to be only if something really bad comes up, so we shouldn't need to worry about having one, just yet. I'm sure things will turn out fine, Mister Orestein."

The Elementals (Chemical elemental characters)

That would probably work. Ignoring the lesser problems with how Tecumseh is advertising his North Carolina resort across the country, it does sound like a good idea.

The Elementals (Chemical elemental characters)

How is it any different than discussing and determining plotlines in the OOC, @Earnest Evans? Surely that too would be considered metagaming, because then the RPers know more than their characters and can manipulate their characters to achieve that end result.

@RomanAria

Discussing plotlines OOC is not metagaming. Taking actions IC to follow what has been discussed OOC is metagaming.