Looking at her phone and realizing that, holy shit, it's morning? She totally lost track of time in there, and then again once she woke up, and she didn't even bother looking outside a window to see the light blue of approaching morning. Whoooops. She gives Ethan a quick smooch, then rolls out into her change of clothes and pulls up into her chair. She double checks that she has her bus pass, too, since Arielle is unlikely to be around.

Though, her stomach loudly complaining leads her to head into the kitchen area of the Consilium to see what food she can steal from in there for a fast chomp of breakfast. She can always get a bigger lunch after, but going in there starving would be a bad show.

It's a bit of a frenzy. She hasn't been almost late for anything right after getting up since college. Kind of refreshing, in a way.

Valerie attacks the meal eagerly, thanking the sleepwalker staff with bright smiles. It's good to refill her energy after having had only one meal the entire day earlier, with nary a snack in sight. Except, maybe, a few astral biscuits, tea and wine. Astral stuff didn't really do anything for her actual stomach.

"It kinda does, matter, sorry to say," she looks up at Ethan. "All knowledge is power." she smiles and leans up to peck his lips. "And all resources are useful, including certificates and diplomas, even for a mage. I'm not twisting your arm about it, but I think it'd be a good idea to keep going. I can fill you in on her reactions after."

Valerie looks up at Ashlyn and gives her a smile. "Good morning. And you didn't, though it's a close shave. I'm about to hit the bus to go to my doctor's appointment."

And nowhere near the capital to get the cool gadgets like cheek-based sensor based computer. Then she'd have become a burden on Arielle, the only healthy member of their family who might have taken her in, while she wastes away without independence. And she'd have lost her ability to tinker and make stuff, and... well, she probably would have asked for assisted suicide before long, or do it herself while she had access to any semblance of motor control.

Now, though... She shoves clouds away by smiling at them! How cool is that?? And she's about to tell her doctor that since their last meeting, she's started to feel her legs and can even move her toes. She won't overplay it - she won't reveal that she can walk with assistance yet, for instance.

She wheels on in with Ash and Valerie presents her hospital card and signs whatever piles of forms she has to so she can get to her appointment.

Valerie actually has. She is, after all, not fully healed (though she's literally 3 to 5 days away from it) and she wants to give Lakshmi's spell all the help it can get. She thanks her with a smile - feeling rather cheerful after yesterday, especially. The Valerie that tended to roll in for checkups is a mere shadow of the Valerie talking to the nurse now.

"Hello," she greets her, putting the break on her wheelchair. She then takes hold of the bunk's handles and yanks herself up to sit on the edge. By habit she moves her legs into place with her hands, though she could have turned them manually. "To be fair, I'm pretty head over heels for him too, so I think it works out." She blushes slightly, though her smile grows.

"As for how I am, well... I wanted to talk to you about that. Since after my last appointment, I've been, well... feeling my legs more and more," she answers. "And then, recently, well..." She motions to her legs, then slowly raises one up. They can only barely hold her weight, so it's still a fair bit of work to move them past shuffling steps, let alone raise them up more than a foot.

But she raises it up almost 8 inches, concentration on her face, before she drops it back down with a quiet gasp. "..and after doing that my leg kind of hurts. But it hurts! Like... Here." She pokes her thigh, near the tro-canter, an area that's been dead for long enough that she had forgotten it had ever had a sensation before. "Both of them get tingles, like when you fall asleep on your arm and then release it and blood circulates again? That. Though even that is stopping and I can poke all over and I haven't found much of a deadspot anymore."

Welp, seems that the strangely perceptive, magical gaze comes from Ethan's dad's side of the family, and Parvati is the one introduced into this, because this is no acting. To be fair, Valerie would be stunned too. She still kind of is at her own progress. Magic truly is the best thing in all the realms.

"Could they have been, uhm... dormant? And got kickstarted by the injection? I don't fully get it either," she says in a half-truth. Technically, she doesn't know Life, even if she knows magic, so precisely what Lakshmi is doing still escapes her. "And, I want to know, is it.. permanent? Are they healing, or just doing the death knell twitch?

"I've been kind of freaking out, and imagining and getting these ideas of having real functional legs, and, I don't want to get my hopes up, you know?"

Thankfully, Valerie only has to half-act. That suddenly Lakshmi's spell ends, or that the abyss suddenly decides to come back for another go at her spine is a real concern of hers.

"Doctor? Parvati?" Valerie frowns. Watching a sleeper struggle with the curse of quiescence... It's something she's yet to get to do. It's even uglier than she imagined it to be and makes her want to wretch.

That's not quite what she expected to get out of her, let alone to have her suffer... She reaches out to take her doctor's hand and guide her gently over to encourage her to sit before she hurts herself or falls down.

"Hey, hey, it's okay. Breathe. If it's a thing that's happening, then it's figure-out-able, right?" she encourages. She's a doctor, so an analytical mind would suit her better.

"Do--erk!" She grips the bunk with the other hand to keep herself from falling down, with a bit of a gasp. Oh jeez! She slides off of the table onto her trembling legs, holding onto it with one hand. The other guides her to her wheelchair and she plops into it. She produces her rod and points it at herself.

_{(Kinetic efficiency: gnosis 2, forces 2, high speech 2, rod 1. Reaches on instant and advanced duration.)}
lPqtVgvo7d10
_{1 succ}

She then moves back to her feet and, bolstered by magic, starts to help raise Pavarti off of the floor and onto the bunk (after using the crank to lower it to a serviceable height and save herself some lifting effort.)7d10

Is that... is that what happens when a sleeper turns into a sleepwalker? That doesn't seem right. ...is she awakening? That seems kind of sudden if so, so that can't quite be right either.

Then again, if it's not either of those things, then she is stumped. She grabs her phone from her chair to text Ikenga. What happens when a sleeper starts to sleepwalk? Can a sleeper spontaneously awake?? What would that look like from someone outside of the experience?

She settles Prime on her eyes, focusing it to try and make head or tails of this.

She searches along Pavarti to see if she can't make out the abyssal shard she had seen attacking the poor doctor moments before.

'My doctor =( I may have gone too obvious. It's bright green, like a forest. It feels like I could somehow reach through her and touch another world.'

I can do that. Thanks, Ikenga.

She heads over to the door and pokes her rod at the door, chirping out a few words.

_{Hidden Hoard: Gnosis 2, Matter 3, High speech 2, Rod 1. Instant Cast and Advanced Duration.}
kIeQzo8g8d10
_{1 succ}

That should buy them some time from nurses wondering why it's taking so long. Hopefully Pavarti doesn't have urgent appointments for the rest of the day. Then she plops down on her chair and sends Ethan a text. So, uh, I awoke your mom.8d10

It was kind of ugly during it, the abyss tried to pull her back to sleep, then she passed out! I put her on the bunk, and she's still passed out, looking for her tower, so I don't know yet. Ikenga said that I should protect her, cause if she gets interrupted, then she doesn't get a second chance. So I'm keeping vigil. Also she's Thyrsus.

She also texts Ashlyn to let her know. Gonna be a bit. Ethan's mom is undergoing awakening so I gotta keep an eye on that.

"She doesn't strike me as the wild type, so, I dunno." She smiles up at him. "Okay. I'll be keeping an eye on her, so don't worry. I'll hold the fort until ... then."

...uh hoh. "Ashlyn says something is going on." What? She wheels over to the door and tugs it open to peek out of it and have a look for herself, trying to be subtle about it. This day is really turning weird really fast.

Valerie slows down at the sense of impending danger, wincing a bit. "That's... transfixed?" She frowns. "That sounds like Mind, if it's a mage. Why are they here? And what are they doing?"

'Some guy using some kind of magic transfixing people in the hospital. Seems oddly convenient. Might need back up.' she sends to Ikenga. She then glances up to the nurse. "Oh, sorry, that's my bad. I came to grab her, actually. I'm a bit self conscious and she offered to help during the exam... My sister had her own appointments today, she usually does it." She takes Ashlyn's hand and tugs her along, wheeling back around the corner and to where she hid the door.

Great... The day's really gotten weird. Who is that guy?? "Right, okay, so, it's gonna be time for you to Banner-Warden and me to Mage." She puts her phone back into her pocket, quickly cancelling both her Kinetic Efficiency and the Hidden Hoard on the door to make space in her own head. She hushes Ashlyn through the door where the good doctor is resting on her spirit quest and slips in with her.

"Here we go." Trial by fire. She raises her rod and pokes at the door, chirping in high speech as she goes, ending the movement by taking Ashlyn's hand to push the created spell from herself into her, at this point, best friend's soul.

_{Hidden Hoard + Supernal Veil: Gnosis 2, min(Prime, Matter) 3, -2 combined spell, +2 high speech, +1 rod. Reach instant, Reach advanced duration.}
pjYug2wn6d10
_Fail

Followed right after by drawing out a Wards and Signs on herself, Ashlyn, and Pavarti and safely placing that one in Ashlyn as well, pretty much filling Ashlyn's soul up to capacity, far as Valerie can figure.

_{Wards and Signs: Gnosis 2, Prime 3, +2 high speech, +1 rod, -2 potency up. Reach instant, reach advanced duration, reach advanced potency, reach advanced scale. Chance Paradox (contain)}
6d10
<sub>1 succ. Withstands with potency 5.

Paradox</sub>
1d10

If she has time, she'll try her combined spell again:

_{Hidden Hoard + Supernal Veil: Gnosis 2, min(Prime, Matter) 3, -2 combined spell, +2 high speech, +1 rod. Reach instant, Reach advanced duration.}
6d10
_{Reroll 10}
1d10
_{4 successes}6d10·6d10·1d10·6d10·1d10