|
Post by SceneMod on Dec 23, 2010 2:35:24 GMT -5
Day 19. Medical Facility on Pz-Zazz. Semi-Private
K'ire's eyes are rolled upwards as she counts the ceiling tiles. Again. Three-hundred twenty-eight, three hundred twenty-nine... again, she debates on if the small diamond shaped insets should count as a separate tile. Again, she decides that they should. Three-hundred thirty....
Its not like she doesn't know how many tiles there are. She knew how many tiles there were when she woke up and saw that too-familiar ceiling and those walls with the inset brass and silver gears. This isn't K'ire's first trip here, and neither time was by her choice.
At least this time, she knows it's to save her life, not to kill her. The first time, she didn't want to be clean. Now, she can't be clean soon enough. Still so sick though....
The reptilian girl leans over her bed railing and vomits into a bucket positioned for that purpose. Damned nausea- good thing Blight addicts aren't allowed visitors during recovery, per standard procedure. She'd hate to have anyone she knows now see her like this again.
|
|
|
Post by Needlenose on Dec 23, 2010 13:31:24 GMT -5
So what about other patients and their 'caretakers'?
Needlenose, with an unusually subdued and professional air and wearing a well-tailored lab coat (it's the "in" thing in the setting, after all) pushes a wheel chair into the room, appearing not to notice K'ire's... current activities. "Mmm, this the one?" he asks the person in the chair, closing the door behind him as he does.
|
|
|
Post by Spinister on Dec 23, 2010 14:02:48 GMT -5
Luckily for her, Spinister and Needlenose don't know her. It's better for her this way. Spinister looks up at Needlenose and nods. He's wearing a cheery Hawaiian-print button-up shirt and some orange parachute pants.
Needlenose may never let Spinister dress himself again, unless Needlenose's cunning plan is to look even more ludicrously stylish than he already does by standing next to someone without a clue.
He observes, "You survived. Good news for you."
The vomit? He's seen worse.
|
|
|
Post by SceneMod on Dec 24, 2010 0:19:17 GMT -5
Oh. It's the creepy-but-kinda-cute robot cop who saved her life. And he's with a seemingly cheerful-and-definitely-cute other robot doctor. Why does she have to wind up half dead to meet attractive guys with respectable jobs?
K'ire snags a moist towelette from the box on the stand next to her bed and wipes her mouth before settling back into her pillows. As she looks Spinister over, her face softens with understanding. She's an addict. She knows the signs, even when hidden by treatment.
"So did you," she says quietly, "I'm glad."
"I'm sorry. How bad is yours?" she asks after a moment.
|
|
|
Post by Needlenose on Dec 24, 2010 13:33:14 GMT -5
Oh, it is totally true that Spinister is never going to be allowed to dress himself. Ever. Ever ever ever.
Needlenose also doesn't plan to let Spinister undress himself, but that's a different matter.
Needlenose, picture of respectability (ha ha), wheels Spinister's chair a bit nearer to K'ire and, for the moment, actually stays quiet while the two exchange pleasantries (not that he expects that to last long, given that one of the conversation participants is Spinister). He does pick up the digital clipboard attached to the end of her bed and glances it over.
|
|
|
Post by Spinister on Dec 24, 2010 14:18:52 GMT -5
"I'm alive," Spinister says, and he shrugs. That doesn't really answer her question at all. He's not in the business of disclosing how weak or not he may be to strangers.
"I want to talk to you about..." he trails off and then resumes, "if you're up to it. He's trustworthy." He looks over at Needlenose and nods.
|
|
|
Post by SceneMod on Dec 25, 2010 0:33:39 GMT -5
Shrugging, K'ire answers, "I can manage. Um... I might get twitchy. It's getting close to my next withdrawal cycle. You... probably know what I mean. Um... yeah..."
The girl looks very, very embarrassed and uncomfortable, and as she talks her voice gets softer and softer.
"What do you want to know? There isn't... I mean, I don't know much, really."
|
|
|
Post by Needlenose on Dec 25, 2010 13:56:47 GMT -5
//You know, you're going to have to handle the questioning,// Needlenose radios Spinister. //I've heard your version of what happened, but that's not exactly the same.// Needlenose knows well the fact that his partner is not much of a talker!
Now that he's finished looking over the clip, he nods sympathetically (feigned, of course) towards K'ire. Hmm, she's actually not doing as badly as Spinister, though her prior addiction seems to be a bit of a complication.
|
|
|
Post by Spinister on Dec 25, 2010 14:43:08 GMT -5
//Been questioning since you were in training wings,// Spinister says, which may or may not be accurate. Spinister's younger than Needlenose, but Needlenose hasn't always been a jet.
Spinister nods along, and then he starts, "I'm not on duty. This is just for my own curiosity. I understand you don't know much, but if you can't say, don't lie to me. Just don't say a word."
"Now. Why'd you give me your number and that datastick?" Someone had to have put her up to that, and he doesn't think it was Scrubs.
|
|
|
Post by SceneMod on Dec 25, 2010 17:27:04 GMT -5
K'ire is actually doing much better than Spinister, actually, though that doesn't mean she is doing well. The shot which took out her leg is almost healed thanks to a perk of her race, but it's not healing cleanly. She still has entirely too many Blight markers in her system, and it seems Innana just ordered a change to K'ire's withdrawal regime. It bears no resemblance to Spinister's what so ever.
"Ah."
K'ire shifts in her bed. As she does, the sheet slips down and the Mayhems might be able to tell she's actually restrained before she quickly pulls the sheet back to her chin.
"I did what I was told, that's all. Didn't matter what happened to me. I owe her."
|
|
|
Post by Needlenose on Dec 25, 2010 21:33:47 GMT -5
//Yeah, yeah, yeah,// Needlenose answers. He does notice that she's restrained, though he doesn't show it as he settles into a chair opposite the bed from where he had left Spinister. He looks between K'ire and Spinister. One of those answers that answers the question without really explaining anything. So this is going to be one of those interrogations, it seems.
|
|
|
Post by Spinister on Dec 25, 2010 22:46:58 GMT -5
Restraints. Probably not the fun kind. Interesting. Just for her treatment or so she doesn't go anywhere?
Spinister knows she owes Jill. He asks the more important thing at hand, "Who are 'they'?"
Just small, simple questions. Ask too many questions at once, and they get lost in the shuffle.
|
|
|
Post by SceneMod on Dec 26, 2010 0:00:38 GMT -5
"I... I don't know. It may not have been a 'they' it could have been a 'he' or a 'she'. I tend to default to singular 'they' when dealing with unknowns. Used to give my writing instructors fits."
She fiddles with the ID band on her wrist. "I got a phone call, then a package with instructions and the datastick. I was... I was going to wait for you to come out of the cafe and try and talk to you. But someone shot me."
K'ire looks up at Spinister. "I'm not stupid Mr. Spinister. I got shot, and there was an ambulance on site in less than five minutes at lunch rush. That doesn't happen. I wound up at the worst hospital I could have, given my medical history, even though I wear an encoded med bracelet and carry a Shards med card. I wasn't wanted dead, I was wanted for distraction. Everything else I did was probably just red herrings."
|
|
|
Post by Needlenose on Dec 26, 2010 0:37:14 GMT -5
"Eh, it seems that a lot of languages don't really have a good gender-neutral pronoun that works well for sapients," Needlenose allows. "I mean, that's why we end up being called 'he' all the time."
Transformers of Needlenose's reality, at least right up until Arcee's creation (which may or may not happen in Needlenose's timeline), tend to be very insistent that they have no gender. It's only that their species, through cosmic coincidence, all happen to resemble humanoid males in appearance, voice, and personality. Or animals. But never humanoid females. Because while having alien robots that coincidentally resemble humanoid males or animals is perfectly understandable and reasonable, alien robots that coincidentally resemble humanoid females would be strange and unnatural and makes no sense.
And of course, despite all of this, the not-really-male Transformers of Needlenose's reality seem hardwired to go for humanoid females when they do encounter them, but they're not really male or anything. Really.
|
|
|
Post by Spinister on Dec 26, 2010 9:58:04 GMT -5
Singe says in Spinister's head, Needlenose is killing your game.
Spinister asks, My what?
Singe demands, Just give him a look.
Spinister gives Needlenose a look. Then he turns his hands palms up and shrugs slightly, as if to say, 'My Nebulan made me do it.'
He asks, "What made you think they, he, she, or it were serious?"
|
|