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Post by Pee-Dee on Feb 3, 2012 21:21:31 GMT -5
Oh dear. Petunia's heart goes out to the poor young woman. Alone at a time like this? Poor Ms. Elly.
"What do you know about your wounds, Ms. Winston?"
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Post by Sentinel Prime on Feb 3, 2012 21:49:53 GMT -5
Elly lays back a bit in the hospital bed, not that she was really sitting up, and she stares up at the ceiling. She recites, "They put it more politely, but it looks like part of me might have been eaten."
Is this some strange callback to those crazed Lithonians, she wonders?
"I shouldn't be up and moving. I shouldn't be recovering. They don't put it like that, because they know that keeping a positive outlook is key, but I apparently bled out on a floor and went without oxygen for a long, long time. Before you ask, they've tested me for regeneration powers, and no, I don't have them."
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Post by Pee-Dee on Feb 3, 2012 22:21:10 GMT -5
Petunia's eyes widen. The doctors had told her it was bad, but not how exactly it was bad. Saying 'wow, that's disgusting' would probably garner her an eye-roll from Det. Hunt, if her partner were here.
"Well, you've got something going on. Did the doctors discuss if it was human or animal type being eaten?"
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Post by Sentinel Prime on Feb 3, 2012 22:59:47 GMT -5
"There is a difference between humans and animals?" Elly asks, and she's being quite sincere. She is, after all, a xenophobic space robot, and it certainly wasn't fungi from Yuggoth. Humans are animals. "No, they think it was a human, judging by the... marks left."
There may be a cannibal on the loose. Enjoy that, Det. Dahlia. Elly doesn't. It is a disgusting perversion of nature.
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Post by Pee-Dee on Feb 3, 2012 23:58:42 GMT -5
"There are two things that clearly differentiate the human species from animals. One, we use cutlery. Two, we're capable of controlling our sexual urges.1 In your case, I think the cutlery aspect is more applicable."
The rest of the information on Ms. Winston's wounds, Petunia can corner a nurse to ask about. She's got the medical records, after all - no one likes maybe-cannibals running around.
The records are... kind of weird. Petunia isn't trained to read MRIs, but the ones the doctors gave her all looked pretty bad. But Ms. Winston seems to be tracking movement well with her eyes, understanding Petunia's questions, and answering them coherently.
"You were found in your apartment," Petunia says, flipping a page on the notebook she hasn't actually been writing in at all. "Your door was unlocked but the immediate area inside showed signs of a struggle. Lamp busted, couch askew. And yours wasn't the only blood we found inside."
1. Dragnet
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Post by Sentinel Prime on Feb 4, 2012 0:09:18 GMT -5
Elly winces over the cutlery crack, though she looks cheered over the mention that hers wasn't the only blood at the scene. She inquires, interested, "Yeah? Think I clipped that thing? Wish I could have tied that... malefactor up and handed it over to you." Most people would probably settle on running while screaming for help. Most people also don't use 'it' to refer to other human beings.
"Anyway, I've put in the paperwork to register as a meta now, gonna be all square and legal on that, even though we don't really know what kind, and I'll get a medical alert bracelet about it, and... do I need a permit for a sword? Because I think I should get one when I'm recovered enough to use it."
Normal people would settle for Mace or a taser or a gun.
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Post by Pee-Dee on Feb 4, 2012 18:52:01 GMT -5
"Sorry," Petunia says when she catches Elly's wince. "That was- thoughtless."
Yes, she'd been about to say 'tasteless'.
"It looks like you gouged him, her, or it with your keys. DNA doesn't match anyone in the databases, but it'll let us nail his, hers, or its hide to the wall when we do catch him, her, or it."
Petunia looks thoughtful, canting her head slightly. "I don't thiiiink you need a permit for a sword, but don't quote me on that. Why?"
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Post by Sentinel Prime on Feb 4, 2012 19:21:28 GMT -5
"My keys?" Slag. "I should have done a heel strike with my other hand to its nose to break its nose bone and drive the bone into its brain while it was focused on what I was doing with my keys," Elly mutters. "Don't know what I was thinking, letting an attacker get the drop like that. Good that you'll have a good, solid case if you ever find that creep, though."
She explains genially, "Well, I would go for a lance, but I think I'd need a horse to use it," courtesy of the History Channel, and now Elly knows more about WWII than she ever wanted to, "and I don't think the landlord would allow horses in the apartments. That, and I'm not a real fan of pets," which is a shame, because a service dog would probably be pretty helpful to her when she is recovered enough to be released, if she could stand the animal. "Anyway, axes are for schmucks, but swords are okay. I'll look up the law myself when I get a chance. Thanks."
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Post by Pee-Dee on Feb 4, 2012 21:19:12 GMT -5
Women seem wicked when you're unwanted.
There's that Doors song again. Petunia smiles at Elly and notes, "A gun would be more concealable and attract less attention."
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Post by Sentinel Prime on Feb 4, 2012 21:35:09 GMT -5
"People are allowed to have those?" Elly asks, clearly surprised. She blinks several times. "Normal people?"
Yeah, yeah, she's heard plenty of right to bear arms stuff on C-SPAN, but she was assuming they were talking about normal weapons, like swords and axes and lances and grappling hooks and fire retardant foam and spiked shields. Elly did not think they meant dirty Decepticon weapons.
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Post by Pee-Dee on Feb 4, 2012 21:54:09 GMT -5
Petunia blinks. "Of course! It's a Constitutionally-guaranteed right. Now there's some legal paperwork you have to go through - be of age, don't be a felon, that sort of thing - and some training classes you have to take, but once you do that, you can get a concealed-carry permit and take your gun wherever it is legal to do so."
She is never going to get that Doors song out of her head.
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Post by Sentinel Prime on Feb 4, 2012 22:19:18 GMT -5
Elly has to think about this for a moment. She has used firearms at times, though always borrowed from other people. There are many Autobots and Maximals who use firearms, and while some of them are bad people, it is not because of the firearms. It is just they are jerks.
She is also a jerk.
Where was Elly going with this? After that pause, she says, "Huh. Maybe I should do that. Am I of age and not a felon?"
She has no criminal record, and she's in her late twenties, so yes, she is of age and not a felon.
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Post by Pee-Dee on Feb 4, 2012 22:28:35 GMT -5
"As far as I know!" Petunia says brightly. "Legal age is twenty-one, and you have no criminal record. Once you're well enough to attend classes, you should be able to get a permit."
In the back of Petunia's mind is the simple fact that people need weapons. It's as uncompromising as her own need for a motorcycle and just as unexamined.
"Is there anything else you think I should know, Ms. Winston?"
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Post by Sentinel Prime on Feb 4, 2012 22:39:20 GMT -5
Elly has to stop and think again. "Oh yeah, I am older than twenty-one. All right. Thank you. I'll do that."
Then she thinks some more.
"Don't die? I really don't recommend it. Oh yeah, and Senator Shore keeps contradicting himself. Look, he did it again."
She points at the television. If Senator Shore thinks that corporations are people, why did he drive so many businesses to bankruptcy?
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Post by Pee-Dee on Feb 5, 2012 16:31:34 GMT -5
"I'll try not to," Petunia says brightly, "but hey, if I do, I'll be too dead to care."
She obediently looks. Wow, is he secretly an Oompa-Loompa? "Maybe he's a serial killer. Or he's a moron. 'Never assume malice for what stupidity can explain.'"
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