2019-09-22 - The Exorcism Of Billy The Ghoul

One of the precinct's interrogation rooms has been arranged for de la Vega's use today, and whether that's to the Chief's chagrin is.. well, not particularly relevant to anyone else. The place is a box; four walls and a metal table with two uncomfortable looking chairs to either side of it. He's dragged in a few more, set off to one side along a wall, and brought a pitcher of water with a stack of plastic cups in case people get thirsty. Other than that, it's cool (thank you AC) and quiet (thank you sound proof walls), even if the decor is a bit drab. Which is to say, nonexistant.

The captain's ducked out to sort a few things with a Sergeant and some patrol officers that are doing the pickup with him, leaving the others to their own devices for a few minutes.

Because August was told he should wear a suit, he's in one. Also Hyacinth offered to pay for any dry cleaning necessary afterwards. A three piece in charcoal gray Glen check with red hilights, a white dress shirt, and black boots, and he looks like your average middle classs, middle aged business man. He's mostly keeping an eye on everyone else and their moods, having appointed himself this task as tangential to his primary concern of keeping people alive.

Yeah 'the box' is not where Itzhak created his favorite memories. He's on his feet, long calloused fingers tapping out a rhythm on his leg. His fiddle is tuned and ready to go, lying in the open case. The bow he's brought is unique: pink ipe wood, horsehair that's a thousand shades of red and orange. It's tightened and rosined and also ready to go.

Minerva had shown up a bit early. She might have jokingly said to open a window and she'd crawl in, but she might have been helping talk to someone so it's anyones guess. The real reason she is here is to help with an exorcism. The woman had already gotten a few things in order, like her will. Paranoia is a great thing. And she looks far paler than she usually does.

The Jewish woman works quietly to mark everyone, even Ruiz before he skittered off. She's perhaps a bit more quiet than usual. Mentally preparing for what is going to happen. She's dressed in a black dress that is very plan and her hat was left in her car. So it's just the eye patch as an accessory.

Erin isn't in her gymwear today, she's wearing something incredible from Louis Vuitton, a dress somewhat appropriate for an exorcism, if there were such a thing. It is black yet fashionable and strappy heels to match. Her hair is back in a neat chignon to keep it out of her face. And while she's trying to appear centered and focused, the nerves are getting to her. Her hands are shaking slightly and she clasps them together to try and calm herself. This was really happening.

Hyacinth wears white. The fitted dress with the sleek stylized military cut and color down to teh mencil skirt and the matching leg in laquered gloss alabaster and the matte metal wrap transition lenses makes her look more like a commander from sci-fi chic or future Paris than she is going to an exorcism. There are presently no affectations and her demeanor might even be considered borderline cold by any that do not know her well and several that do. Efficiency. Procedure. Success. These are the things they need right now, right? She turns to Minerva, pows her head and lets her pray or wiggle her fingers... Hya isn't a spiritualist but has nothing against hedging her bets.

Ruiz had stopped in for a moment to check on things in here, and is about to bustle back out again when.. he can't get the door open. "Mierda," he grumbles, trying it again. No dice. Which is when his paranoid starts to kick in. A glance to the one way mirror, then he moves toward the panel on the wall with the button that buzzes the duty officer who manages this section of interrogation rooms. The captain is, of course, in his regular suit and tie, dressed for a day at the office. Handgun holstered at his hip, irritated look on his face as he taps the button and waits to see if anyone responds.

Minerva's one eye seems to scan to the left and then the right, "Fuck." she whispers very eloquently and then strides across the room to try the door handle. NOPE. "Alright...does anyone else feel the sudden dread?" she asks them. Then she looks to the two way mirror, "Well, I hadn't imagined that it would immediately go downhill." she frowns.

August examines the symbols Minerva draws on them, curious about them, nods and murmurs a thanks. He pulls a small chunk of elk antler tip out of his pocket, toying with it while they wait. That keeps him calm right up until Ruiz can't seem to open the door. He watches that situation unfold, shifts closer to Itzhak. "Little weird," he murmurs.

Itzhak is sunk deep into whatever song's playing in his head, staring blankly at nothing. "Huh?" he says to August, without looking at him or changing expression. Nope. He noticed nothing. At all.

Smoothing her palms along the skirt of her dress, Erin is still nervous. Having been so internally focused, she misses the closing and locking of the door. Hearing the curse from first Ruiz in Spanish then another one from Minerva, she looks between them, "What's going on? Is.. something happening?" Of course it was. But what?

Hyacinth takes a deep breath and pulls out her cell-phone when Ruiz can't get the door open and pushes the little button. "Well at least now we don't have to anticipate when it will happen. That's one less thing to worry about." She ponders and glances to her cohorts in the room, "Did we establish a safeword here?" In regards to being the emergency power off in the room, but the innuendo is left to hang. She hands the phone to the Captain, "Just call your people." Okay maybe she doesn't know where the button goes to. or care. Smiling to Erin, "Something always happens somewhere. Think of it as a gift like that. One you try to find the receipt for."

Minerva checks out for a moment, her lips settling into a thin line for the moment. When the door swings open she looks to the attractive, yet managing to be CREEPY guy in the lab coat, "Three girls? Bodies? What is it with the number three?" she asks. It already saw them, she didn't think an illusion would work.

Ruiz ignores the offer of a cell phone from Hyacinth. He probably has his own, anyway. He turns to the door as it swings open, and simultaneously spots a pair of hands against the mirror. Bloody hands. What the actual fuck. His head jerks back to the door, fingertips brushing his gun as the dashing doctor sweeps in. A step back. Two. They don't have anyone working here who looks like this. Alarm bells are going off full force now. "Who the fuck are you?"

As he's waiting for an answer, there's a shift in the field of glimmer that surrounds him. It sparks briefly like a livewire, then fades again.

<<Miss Winslow. We've run into some complications. I'm not clear what's happened, but we're going to be delayed in bringing Thomas here. Possibly.>>

August grips the elk antler tip in his hand at the sight of the bloody handprints. The door popping open wrenches his attention off that visual, and...that's a doctor. And doctors mean one thing, at least to him. He takes a steadying breath, begins wondering if he needs to just carry a couple Xanax with him at the rate. For all those times you just wind up in some kind of hospital totally on accident and without even trying. He casts a furtive glance at Ruiz, makes a face. "I wonder if this is that place," he murmurs.

Itzhak yelps, whipping around towards the one-way mirror, eyes going white all around the hazel irises. "They opened the border. I can hear them! They pulled us through!" One hand goes to his ear, pressing it shut. "I see a bad moon rising..." he sings shaky under his breath, like he can't help it, between panicky breaths.

"I never return gifts." Erin gives Hyacinth a smile. When the door opens, she watches the doctor, brows raised. So the guy was hot. The screaming of people is loud and she gets to her feet, completely missing the bloody hands on the window. "My Uncle is here isn't he? We can't let him mess this up." She walks towards the door while Ruiz is backing away from it.

Hyacinth turns to the orderly, in her crisp white uniform looking dress and stays in the comfortable authoritarian wheelhouse she lives every moment of her day in. Kids? She can't talk to children. People in a structured environment She meets the doctor eye to eye and says calmly, "Everything is under control here. You're looking for next room down. I can show you." And with that her mind lashed out as if to suggest, We work together. You know me. We have done this before. You can trust me of course! And with the sharp tak-tak-tak of heels o the floor she walks over inviting him to walk with her out so maybe she can get that door to stay open.

Ruiz might have been about to put a bullet in the doctor's head, but someone else saves him the trouble. Pop. He's standing near enough that he winds up with some blood and brain spatter on his mediocre suit, and scrubs some off his cheek with the heel of his palm, which is wiped off on his pants a moment later. He's focused on sustaining the mental link he's established with Lilith though, and lets the others deal with (what's left of) the 'doctor'.

Minerva was focusing on where the screaming was coming from and the fact that there was blood behind that window. She looks back to the doctor just about the time his head explodes and the woman flinches when blood and brains hit her face. Oh gross. IT'S IN HER HAIR! "That's unfortunate." she murmurs as she wipes blood across her face. She was past caring at the moment, "Do we want to try to move from this location? I'm guessing we don't want to be locked in if others come asking about things." she states.

August reaches out, puts a hand in the small of Itzhak's back. "It's fine," he says. He squints as Hyacinth just, informs the guy what to do, and he does. Right until his explodes. Okay then--permanent stash of emergency Xanax from here on out. Got it. This is his life now. "Okay, it's not fine," he says, willing himself to be the calm one here. He's far enough back to not be in the line of fire (so to speak). A worried glance at Hyacinth and Minerva. "This might be the Asylum. The one Over There." There, he said it out loud.

Itzhak flinches away from the sound of skull popping like a watermelon under tires. Krrsplutch. He turns green, gags, and clamps a hand over his mouth. "Fuck," he mumbles, muffled, "what the fuck did you do that for?!" He has to breathe harsh and even over the edge of his hand until he's not about to hurl. "Guys c'mon I gotta get out of this damn box." Itzhak grabs his fiddle and bow both in one hand, slings the case over his back.

Erin stops at the door and turns around. "There can really only be three. Itzhak, Hyacinth, it's up to us. We have to do this on our own. The Exorcist is going to make sure of it, I think." She doesn't know what else to do but shrug and look to Minerva, Ruiz and August apologetically. About that time the doctor explodes and blankets her backside with brains and tissue and blood and bone fragments. She gags but manages to maintain for now. Hearing August she flinches. "We need to hurry, whatever it is we have to do. Summon him here?"

Hyacinth says evenly. "No. we aren't." She looks to the group one eyebrow arching up as if getting them on page with this ruse. The bi-visual Doctor takes off down the hall and Hya is on his heels in a brisk clip when there is the slightest flinch as she catches impact of brain and skull smacking into her once pristine white suit with a POP She pauses and looks down slowly and it might be difficult to discern if she's pissed , scared, or responsible for that. She looks to Itzhak, however, as if answering his question from the evening before, "I'm counting this dress as my sacrifice now." Hearing August, apparently, she crouches and takes all of the man's ID and wipes a smudge of blood on the picture if she finds one. Anything to be more official at a glancing pass. "Well now it's ours. Let's make the most of this and find what we came for."

Ruiz puts his hand against the wall as if to steady himself, eyes squeezing shut, lips parting with a harsh pant. He seems lost in something that the others aren't seeing, and surfaces from it with a harsh shudder like a knife being torn out of his body. Hazy eyes flicker over the others, the doctor on the ground. Erin, for a moment or two. "Too fucking late for that, Addington. We're here now, and unless you're proposing the rest of us sit in this room. We're all in this together." A nod to Hyacinth, and then - of all people - he turns and directs that hard stare of his Itzhak's way. "Can you see the way, Rosencrantz?" he asks, curiously. Hard to say what he means by that.

Minerva gives a look to Erin and the others, "If you think it's just the three of you that need to go, then we will hold the line in case...whatever here is going to try to stop you." she states. Then the guy confirms that She, Ruiz and August aren't needed. She steps back to allow the other three to get going. As it's a bit of a block where she was trying to cover people. She gives a look to Itzhak, "I'm not needed. And I made a promise to someone that I would protect you. So..." she nods to that. "Be safe." she nods to them all.

August sort of stares at the little man as he bursts forth from the doctor. For a second he flashes back to the little version of himself. Decides that's something he'll be having nightmares about for a few years, but to worry about it later. He starts to move with Itzhak, saying, "Your violin case, that should--" And then, the Sheriff. August takes in a deep breath, lets it out slow. He glances at Ruiz and Minerva. "I think we do have something we need to do." He pulls something out of his pocket, slaps it into Itzhak's hand. "Put that asshole in his place, yeah?" Then he turns to face Sheriff Addington, a little behind Minerva.

Itzhak goes real, REAL tense as something crawls out of the Doc. When it turns out to be another Doc, like he's controlling his own body like a mecha, he huffs a breath out between his teeth in half-feigned aggravation. Then August slaps an object into his hand, and he looks down at it, blinks. Looks back at August. A lot has to be said in a glance, and he seems to be up for the task.

Then, "Yeah I can do the thing with the bag!" he rasps back at mini-Doc. ...Bag, carbon fiber fiddle case with folk-punk stickers on it, close enough for government work. "Sorry about the," he gestures at his own, intact, skull. "Let's get this fukkin' show on the road--" and then there's the Sheriff. Itzhak promptly steps between him and everybody else, glaring at him. He has no idea who this guy is except he's pointing guns at them and that makes Itzhak hate him on the spot.

"No let's all stay together and listen to the doctor. He's taking us to the Director. We have to stay together. I'm sorry. I'm so fucking lost I don't know what to do." She's confused people! Then one of her ancestors from forever ago is there and she recognizes him from other things, not the Gohl thing entirely. A photo album possibly. He wasn't smiling then either. You know why? Only Insane people smiled for photographs back then! "Please, Minerva, I was wrong." She's wrong a lot lately. Her eyes flicker over Ruiz when he calls her Addington. "There are several of us here now." She's so not focused.

Hyacinth lifts up her shoes out of the way playing keep away from the tiny grabby man. "Wasn't me." She does produce from inside her sleeve a kerchief that she waves at the man. "Stop...stop that." Blarg! She hands the tiny angry man his badge. and says to Minerva before she punts him like a football into the room, "You also." For a woman with a demeanor cold enough to mix with a margarita the words carry a truth to them. Then? The Sheriff. A faint smile comes to her, "Captain, let that man know there's a new sheriff in town." And with that hands are shooing Erin and Itzhak forward like fanning geese into the room. "Erin, breathe. Focus. Let them do their job. We're about to be entirely too busy. I love you but we need you present, or swap out with August now."

Ruiz needed a minute to gain his bearings, after coming down from the mental link with Lilith across the border of the veil. He drags his knuckles across his nose, which come away bloody, and looks vaguely, briefly amused when Hyacinth speaks. After a sniff to try to clear his nose, he locks eyes with the Sherriff and reaches for his gun. Wild West style. Except with more Mexican.

"You got that?" Minerva looks from Ruiz to the Sheriff and then back to Ruiz. She's in front of the group that's going the other way. Or that's what her brain orients herself. She then reaches out to grip Itzhak's shoulder when he seems to be blocking the way, "You. Go. That. Way." she hisses as she directs him backwards.

Since Minerva is already grabbing Itzhak, August just adds words, also steps around in front of Itzhak so he's face to face with him. "No. Exorcise that idiot and put him in the case. We'll take care of this. Erin and Hyacinth need you with them. Go." The urgency in all of this is emphasized by the minidoctor getting blown away by none other than Erin and Hyacinth's great great...whatever. But hey, Ruiz is throwing down, and even has a gun to do it with, so maybe they're not totally fucked. "The quicker you get this done the quicker you can come back and help with this guy. Get going."

Itzhak curses out Minerva and August in vivid Yiddish, face twisted into a snarl. "Fuck you!" comes out at the end, and he flings himself into the room with Billy. "Fuck you too! Do I look like a fershtunken Addington?!" He drops his fiddle case, unlatching it on the way down.

This was it! Erin tries to bring elements around her and to focus. Following the others, namely the doctor with her bloodied and brained back of her dress, she hurries along as she's been ordered, forcing herself to some sort of emotion instead of being closed down and guarded. Breathing in, breathing out, she feels her mothers wedding ring on her right hand and there's the fire igniting within. "You Prick!" She looks right towards the Sheriff after he shot the doctor. Then it's as inside the door as she can get to Billy Gohl, going in right after Itzhak does to stand and stare him down.

Hyacinth grabs Erin and shoves her in the room. She doesn't often break composure but she's getting close. "I didn't come here to watch the two of you get emotional and drop the ball. Get it together, get int eh roomn and do your damn job or no one is walking the fuck out of here." Direct. Terse. When she gets in she looks around. "Okay we have little information to go on. Itzhak? Bag. Box. Whatever. we need to drag his ass here which I assume the Director or... someone is working on. I'm going to tell him to get his happy ass into the god damn box. Erin, You're going to likely were I to made a guess? Seal the damn thing shut? explode his skull? I dunno." Fight or flight responses are funny. Some people get really emotional and some shut it off and hyper focus. Taking a deep breath she says to them, "Deep breath. Stay calm. Focus on what needs to be done. Do that. And if you have to? Improvise the shit out of it. We will try together and... we'll see."

You and me, hoss. Yes, yes it is. The moment Itzhak's out of his line of sight, the captain's hand closes over the grip of his gun, and then it's go time. The Sherriff draws first, fires first. But you know what they say; he who laughs last, laughs best. Not that Ruiz is laughing. But when the metaphorical dust clears, the Sherriff's got three rounds in him and the Mexican is unscathed. A moment, finger on the trigger, as if to make sure he's actually down. And then he racks the slide on his gun and moves forward to cover the door the others vanished into.

Minerva doesn't look hurt when Itzhak curses her, she was already cursed. "Yeah, yeah, you don't like me I know. Go do the hero thing." the woman states as she lets him go. Apparently Min had ran out of fucks to give today! She then turns and goes to line herself up with Ruiz, and she leaves room for August, but she flinches when the shots ring out and she raises her hands, electricity arcing between her fingers. "Time's up." she states. Time to fight or die. And she didn't want to die in the Veil.

"Not bad," August says of Ruiz's handling of the Sheriff. If only that was the end of their problems. He chokes against the smell of Monty and his orderlies. "Christ," he mutters, wincing. He grips his hand tightly around the antler tip, and Ruiz feels a bit like someone's just given him a shove. "Make that count, please," August says by way of explanation.

"Say hello to your new eternal home, asshole." Itzhak kicks his open fiddle case towards Billy. "By the way, you killed my friend's sister. I hope while you're rotting in the ground, you bake bagels." He looks at Erin and Hya, his face gone as intent and sharp as a hawk's. The rest of him is starting to glow, dappled like a squid. "Cut this prick's cord so we can put him away, we got more work to do."

While Hyacinth does help manage to direct Erin to get her shit together, Erin also realizes things were happening out in the hallway for the other three. She had to put that out of her mind and do as she'd been asked, trust them to take care of themselves. Focused now, her breathing is even as her eyes unfocus and she does what Lilith had taught her to do most recently. The ring from the marriage of her mother and father on her finger, she finds the heat of that anger and she focuses it completely on something not seen with the naked eye. She's not looking at Billy Gohl as the others are, but she has fished through him, sinking inside to find the ties that bind. It's then she finds them and with white hot heat, she severs them, hopefully freeing her uncle from them in the process. Soon her eyes refocus but they are focused on Billy, expecting a big fight now.

Hyacinth pivots calmly and looks to Billy covered in gore, viscera... tiny gluten free brain chunks (organically grown). Her hand goes to Erin's shoulder but as there's bits of things all over her cousin's back passes on that gesture. Now is the time to get very real with the totalitarian craftswoman. "Yes, William, I know you're right here and entirely how fucked my family is. And the woman thinking she's so damn great pretty much fucked the entire city to save her own ass." Okay candidly real. But the glimmer works with her in this regard making the image a palpable truth. Her hand lifting to stave the wave of Itzhak's very shared anger. Right now that much truth isn't going to sell this ship.

"What happened to you there? here? Is a steaming pile of crap and frankly we don't actually blame you- and no I can't believe I'm saying that either. The truth is we want to help you. You want out of here we can do that. Get in the box, and we will take it so you can finally rest so you can be free of this damn place. In Libertas." Her hand flick out, palms up. Little bits of red fled to the monochrome walls. Her nose wrinkles a wee bit at that. "Yes, we are looking to give you what is long overdue, but do do that we need your cooperation. So... help us help you.... help us... help you...." God it kills her to use the word, "Please."

Minerva's arm gets grazed by one of the orderlies as she is focused on Marshall, it burns a hole in the arm of her dress, but she shakes it off. Her demeanor changes completely from her usual. She looks at bit feral. Eye shining as she lights up Marshall, "You can die over and over again as far as I'm concerned then." she tells Marshall as she electrocutes him without mercy. Once that's done, she will change her target up.

Ruiz's favoured weapon, whether in the real world or the veil, is his gun. It's never failed him yet, and doesn't seem about to do so now. Strafing to the left as the magic using orderlies come out of the woodwork and converge on them, he brings his weapon aloft once more and tracks the one with its sights set on August. Finger on the trigger, wait for it. Wait for it, then two quick shots. Right between the eyes, thunk. The next batter up comes in from his left, and rather than pivot with his gun, he extends his hand, palm upturned, and lightning crackles along the backs of his inked knuckles. He's never attempted it at this distance before, but it's go big or go fucking home at the moment.

Dodging fireballs: another thing which is part of August's life now. But he does! And then Ruiz blows away the guy...thing...whatever, attacking him. He glancws at Minerva, watching how she electrocutes Marhsall, considers Ruiz. "Save the bullets," he says, and grips the antler tip in his hand. This time, it breaks, and Ruiz can feel a jolt go right up his spine. "Just like her," he says, nodding at Minerva. "Point and zap."

A little too much honesty from Rosencrantz, but that's just the kind of guy he is. Couldn't sell water in the desert. As Billy starts blubbering and squealing for his unlife, Itzhak bares his teeth at him. "We're gonna bury you. Shut up and get in the case." Yet, oh no. Oh no. Tears are welling in Itzhak's eyes. Tears of hate and relief and awful, awful empathy. That thing in him that years in prison beat nigh unto death, and suddenly it's shown up at the worst time, for the worst person. Weeping for Billy the Ghoul as he stuffs him into his fiddle case.

Immediately there's fear replacing the confidence but Erin tries not to let it show. She throws up her hands to no avail, unable to shield him like when he'd been in her apartment. It doesn't stop the feel of the knifepoint at her neck. Just as it feels like she is out of options, Itzhak saves her life. She backs up a pace or two as she watches Billy and the terror and sadness that take over him. In silence she stands watch, unmoved and stoic. Unemotional. Her hands fall down to her side and she just stares. It takes three. And it had. Three inside and three outside.

Hyacinth is great at two things: having opinions (which are always all right, ask her), and being the mean girl when she needs to be. So when Billy looks to pull on their heart strings one eyebrow goes up in that Regina Georgian You don't get to sit at my lunch table any more manner when he cries about going in the box. You know, like the one he just put her father and a fist full of her family in in the last damn month. Bitch!

She doesn't let up on the assault and pulls that CALM THY SHIT! card out of her deck of many imperatives and says only, "Oh you'll get buried..." Pauses... wait for it... "In a box. But I did make you a proper coffin for what it's worth to you and broke two god damned nails and the blade on my jigsaw over it so enjoy because that's some damn fine work no one will get to see again." Fingers go out in the nonono, stop talking calming gesture. "Chill out baby. Time to sleep. It'll be fine."

Minerva is not hesitant to cook the other orderly and when Ruiz goes down she covers as August goes to mend him. "It's clear for the moment. Unless we get another wave." the woman states. Then she's back in the real world and she sighs, "I'm tired of all these random reality shifts." she mutters. Then she's heading off. Because that is what Minerva's do. They fry stuff and they know things.

Electricity arcs out of Ruiz's fingertips with a SKREEEE like claws sliding along glass, the sound cutting off as the circuit completes with a jagged shudder of light and a smoking hole in the orderly's stomach. Minerva's attack tears through his heart, and between the two of them, the guy goes down. So, unfortunately, does the captain; he's knocked back into the wall with the force of the impact from that fireball, which singes his suit and causes him to sliiiiide all the way to the floor with a goodly amount of blood left in his wake.

The sight of Ruiz being struck by the fireball and going flying makes August freeze for a handful of seconds. But Minerva covers for him, and that drags him back to reality with a blink. He growls, "Jesus Christ," moves to grab Ruiz under the shoulder. Nausea rolls over August in a wave, because this would be gross if he didn't have problems with it, and boy does he. He turns his head aside and coughs roughly. Come on, Roen, keep it together. He seeks out the worst of the damage, setting it back to rights, putting the injuries to a point where they have the time needed to get Ruiz to a hospital. Or for Erin to heal him...whatever. The healing is a numbing tingle that spreads from the fireball's impact point, like Ruiz just recieved a much-needed dose of lidocaine. "I am not explaining to the entire GHPD how their Captain was killed while I was in an interrogation room with him, de la Vega, so don't even fucking think it."

And then...they're back in that very interrogation room. What's a good excuse here. Exploding gun? Hopefully someone can come up with something.

Erin only then notices Ruiz once they are back and she gasps, pushing her way through people to get to him. "August? What happened?" She sinks to her knees beside him with every intent to heal him. "You told me to trust you.." She sniffs, fighting emotion, but she's not good on letting him remain there, wounded. So, she does what she learned to do.. maybe she was better at fighting than healing, but she stitches the pieces back together internally then makes her way out. He'll be sore, likely, but he's not dying. Now? She just wants to punch him. Or slit his throat. You know how it is.

Itzhak mutters another string of Yiddish curses, staring at August and Erin working over Ruiz. He runs one hand through his hair, leaving it standing on end with blood and sweat...and stares wide-eyed at the cop telling him there's a hole in his case. "No there's not!" But there is.

The world sort of goes black for a moment, and when he comes to again, Ruiz has both August and Erin hovering over him, and his body is tingling uncomfortably. He tries to push the hands off him, confusion in his skittering gaze. What the fuck is going on. "Do we have Gohl?" he asks nobody in particular, panting, tracks of blood trickling down his nose and into his beard. He's looking at Itzhak, and then his violin case, doesn't make any move yet to get up. "Someone should let Miss Winslow and Thorne know what's going on."

Hyacinth looks to the scene and takes a deep breath, "Get him on his feet. I'll talk to our hosts." She's managed to convince enough other people of things for one evening, why not continue the Charade Parade:(tm):? She pauses asking rubbing her temples. Looking back to August her words are terse but they come from a place of... that... thing with the feelings. "Make him okay." Which is really Hya for: I'm concerned, please be alright.... or just simply Don't create more god blessed problems for us. What the shit? It can go 50/50. Believe what you will. It's been a long day. Sighing she murmurs, "I really loved this dress."

"One of those fucking orderlies," August murmurs to Erin. He's conveniently blocking any view of Ruiz. There's a little left to go on Ruiz's leg, which August takes care of before stepping aside. Dizzy spell? Tripped on something? Ruiz gets to explain it. "He'll be fine," he says to Erin, then moves to Itzhak. "It's done," August says to Hyacinth, equally cryptic. With a sidelong glance at the patrolman, he says, "Hey. You okay?" He might be getting between the guy and Itzhak. (He is.)

"He's too stubborn for his own good. He told me to trust him to take care of himself." Erin makes no move to vacate his side though, even when he comes to all surly and disagreeable. Was that any different than usual? "You.. we've all got blood everywhere and you need to send off the patrolmen. We all look like Prom Night on Carrie."

Stubborn? Captain de la Vega? Absolutely. He tugs his gaze from Itzhak's case, to the two hovered over him; gratitude in his tired smile, and the quiet, but heartfelt murmur he offers to both in Spanish. "Belay those orders," he tells the patrolman as he pushes to his feet. "And inform the Chief that I'll have my report ready by the morning." That's going to be an interesting one to write.