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(Setting) NSFMed at Glitch City, ER
| [Emergency Ward, Bay 3]
>Picking up where we left off... Strawberry has just requested that Roy get in touch with CN for her, before everyone in the bay heads downstairs and hopes for the best. Roy spends a moment or two tapping on his phone, and is surprised to get a quick reply-- then nods to himself. He has started to busy himself with dressing some of the girl's burns when he gets another notification.
"... He'll call soon. He says 'your crew is all accounted for'."
| >Xiria looks up at Roy
"Ah do not worry about that ship that went by, they were not ennemies? Friends yes?"
>She gets up and unplugs the deck
"I stabilized the augments? She should be okay to move, yes"
| >>554512
"Okay, thank you Dr. Xiri-- wait--"
>Roy whirls around to face her and claps his hands onto her shoulders, locking his eyes with hers.
"F-friends? Xiria..."
>If he looked serious before, it's nothing compared to his intense stare now. A lot hinges on her answer to this, and whether it's the truth.
"I-is that true? I need to know this stuff, Xiria--"
>He squeezes a little; not enough to hurt her but enough to convey that this is of utmost importance to him.
| >>554513
"I-if this is true, we can keep treating. She doesn't have to move. The other patients can get help..."
>Dr. Edison nods in agreement.
"We can keep moving forward."
| >>554513
"Are you too close? I do not know, please trust me though? I speak the truth here?"
>Xiria seems confused at Roy's attitude
| >>554516
>Once Xiria points out Roy's change in demeanor, he reigns himself in a bit and lifts his hands from her shoulders. He wonders if she wasn't aware of what the earlier overhead page meant.
"A-ah... S-sorry..."
>His face is that of someone who's trying desperately not to get their hopes up, but can feel them rising anyway.
"Dr. Xiria... that announcement from before... means there's a bomb threat. That's what everyone thinks is happening with that ship overhead."
| >>554516
"If you're 100% sure that this isn't the case... I can pick up that phone and tell them to call the code off-- both codes off. We can finish prepping for surgery, and..."
>He seems hesitant to say this, but hey-- she's probably earned it.
"... you can show us just how you earned all those credentials. We could all stand to learn something today."
>The nurse gives Roy a dirty look, as if to say "like /what/, exactly?"
| [Basement Level 3, Block 1]
>Only a handful of staff have actually made it down to basement level since the overhead page, and currently they're scrambling to make sure that every piece of equipment in there is functional before they pack the place full of sick people like sardines. Ella is directing some of this effort when she receives a notification on her in-hospital cellphone.
"Everyone, hold on a sec! Chien just sent me a message... they might be clearing the code...?"
| >>554538
"He says one of the doctors up there is talking about it... Oh!! He said >>>geekboy mentioned it!!"
>All nearby staff crowd around Ella to look at the screen on her phone. By the speed with which they flock to her, you'd think all of them were secretly wearing t-shirts with CN's name on it-- had posters on the wall, pennants hanging in the office... She pulls up the thread Chien has linked to.
"T-there it is!!"
>And a pause, as someone asks:
"Is that... Dr. Walker?"
| >>554541
>A few of the staff groan and shake their heads, others snicker to themselves or roll their eyes. There are three things Roy is known throughout the hospital for: the first is being a nice person to talk to, second is being an airhead, and third is being outrageously cautious to the point of causing issues.
"Hey, give'm a break, he's not from here."
>Ella has to at least try to stick up for him, but secretly she's as embarrassed as everyone else.
| >>554516 >>554520 >>554529
>Roy is about to continue pressing Xiria for more information when an almost triumphant announcement echos through the entire hospital:
"Code black, all clear, I repeat-- code black, all clear. Code grey, all clear, I repeat..."
>Reactions are different from person to person. Some sigh in relief. Others clap their hands together in joy. A select few are angry, are bitter. As of right now, the hospital is filled to the brim with mixed emotions.
| >Staff return to their units, patients and family members to their rooms or to their seats in the waiting area. There are a considerable number of patients who are absolutely fucking done with waiting (understandably) and are gearing up to leave AMA as soon as they're actually able to get rides out of here. A select few patients have been successfully treated and have been pending discharge for the last few hours.
| >Wary security staff return to the doors at the main entrance, and said doors are unlocked. Everyone is trading apprehensive glances with their coworkers-- something big came earlier, but it feels like something bigger is on its way now.
>"It's going to be a busy night", thought everyone at once for the 33rd time.
| >>554529
"I shall show you why they called me the hands of god, yes, a most beautiful surgery is what I will perform"
>Xiria says with a smile
"I do need to Geekboy to owe me one after-all"
| >>554559
>The nurse finds himself thinking that Xiria's a little too short and eccentric to be anyone close to Black Jack, but decides it's easier to let her spout off than interject.
"Wait, they... it's over...?"
>Roy doesn't seem to be processing the 'good news' correctly; in fact by the look on his face you'd think he'd just heard something even worse.
"Yeah, Roy. It's over. Glad your ears are still working."
>Dr. Edison puts his hand to his face and shakes his head.
| >>554548
>Unfortunately for the security staff, its starting to look like those bad hunches have merit when the nose of an amphibious APC pops up in the line of cars waiting to enter the hospital. A second arrives, although this one is missing its entire front top half, which had been cleaved apart messily by some unknown force.
>The driver must have been eager to drop its load, because it pulls out of line and drives over the grass, causing alarm from the line of people outside. It parks as close as the driver dares to the actual entrance, and the back door opens, to reveal...
>Several heavily injured soldiers in ambiguous, worn equipment. Some collapse to the ground as soon as the door opens- others immediately start shuffling toward the entrance, elbowing other waiting patients with a zeal that could only come from facing something worse than death.
>Those who aren't bullet ridden or suffering from third degree burns have injuries that conjure up dinosaurs from an old trideo film.
"P-please...." >One moans, stumbling toward the guards. One of his arms is missing and there's a sizable bite taken out of his right thigh,
"H-help me!"
| >>554785
>One of the officers outside happens to be Jade, the long-limbed lilim who had earlier helped Michi join forces with the hospital's nurses. She is aghast as the APC unloads its grisly cargo all over the hospital's well kept lawn, and rips her radio off her chest before shrieking to anyone who'll listen:
"I-I need help!! People who can stabilize mortally wounded soldiers-- nurses, techs, doctors-- anything!! Please bring tags and get staff out here!!!"
| >>554841
>The "tags" Jade is referring to are universally recognized by everyone who gets the message, and it occurs to many of the staff that it probably would have been wise to utilize them earlier in the evening. The tags in question look like this: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0277/2123/products/simpler_2266_21043540_grande.jpg?v=1382124036 .
>No time is to be wasted. Yes, NSFMed has mass casualty protocols, but... when is this onslaught going to end?
| >Staff sprint towards the front of the hospital's campus through any exit in the building they can find, lugging bags and portable monitors. Transport is right on their heels. Everyone scatters, moving towards the wounded quickly but cautiously. Someone amidst the crowd shouts what sounds like a bunch of jibberish:
"Remember, 'RPM-- 30-2, can do'!!"
>Interestingly, a lot of staff seem reassured by this nonsense, looking a bit more focused and determined after they hear it.
| >>554785
>Those soldiers who have fallen to the ground find themselves immediately assigned to one or two staff. Their cases are simultaneously the easiest and most difficult to manage. Save the living, leave the dead... or almost dead. Sounds like a clear distinction in writing, but putting yourself in the shoes of the person tearing that tag all the way up to 'morgue'-- suddenly you'll find it not so simple. Let's see what we're dealing with.
| >>554873
>What at first may seem obvious becomes less so when you determine that most of the injured soldiers have treatable... er, mostly treatable injuries, possibly with a years' pay worth of surgeries and physical rehabilitation. Instead, the varying degrees of fatigue and sobriety seems to be psychological in nature.
>The first person to reach a soldier gets a chest full of vomit as the man heaves. Another is grabbed and hugged violently as the soldier cry-screams into their chest, asking for forgiveness. Still another shivers violently, as if all the heat had been ripped away from his body by the reaper himself.
>A man sitting on the edge of the APC's loading ramp is just staring forward- his breathing is ragged by his entire abdomen is a mess of distended intestines, which he holds in his gut with both arms.
>All of them appear to make mention of... or speak about being attacked by "monsters," though in this environment its difficult to narrow down just what they're talking about. Perhaps when everyone's brought safely inside the building, the staff can get a clearer idea of just what the hell happened to these men and women.
| >>554952
>Per the rules of triage, missing arm guy and eviscerated man are immediately thrown onto stretchers and moved into the building-- the first with a set of tourniquets on his stump and upper thigh, the second with a huge amount of saline saturated lap pads laid over the protruding intestines. Anyone else decidedly near death is also quickly escorted to one of a few free trauma bays.
| >>555095
>The walking wounded and potentially irreversibly scarred are next. The air is a mess of questions and chatter as staff try to assess what and how much psychological damage has been done.
"--Hey, can you tell me your name--?"
"--Are you able to walk? Tell me what's going on--"
"--I'm going to help you, you can come with me--"
"--Do you know where you are? You're at a hospital--"
| >>555097
>The queries are standard, but the answers they're getting aren't. Everyone does their best to just roll with it... however you'd do that in this situation, anyway. The best thing to do is just... very cautiously give them what they need, short of anything that'll let them hurt themselves or others. Emotions are volatile and reactions to stimuli can be exaggerated; staff think twice about how they offer help before they offer it.
| [Emergency Ward, Trauma Bay 3]
>Roy's pager and Dr. Edison's phone both start making a racket as the gravely wounded soldiers are run over to the ward, and outside of the bay the commotion over rooming these patients is quite audible. Edison raises an eyebrow at his colleague.
"You can't just keep standing around. You're the one who insisted on coming down here for the consult, and then assigned yourself to her. Finish the job so we can get her to the ICU."
| >>555103
>Roy continues to stare blankly at Dr. Edison, who makes an ugly noise in his throat-- a product of disgust, disappointment, and scorn for his coworker before stepping out of the room and disappearing into the hall. Several voices can be heard trying to get his attention before the door closes:
"Dr. Edison, we have a complete limb amputation in Bay 4--"
"His arm's missing, lots of muscle tissue damage of the thigh..."
"--working on achieving hemostasis--"
| >>555105
>Once Edison has left, Roy turns his gaze back to Strawberry. He has no idea how she's been able to tolerate her injuries, her pain, and the danger she's in at the same time. His brows knit together, and he grimaces.
>She shouldn't have to.
"... She's relatively hemodynamically stable now. I need imaging to see how big this thing is and how deep it runs. Take it out, close her up, bring her upstairs to resuscitate and then perform exploratory laparotomy if needed."
| >>554952
>The soldiers who appear to be mostly uninjured are also roomed-- not in any of the trauma bays, but in some of the two-bed rooms. This is done to ensure that if they do end up needing life saving interventions performed, staff are immediately available to assist. They are closely monitored for any changes in condition, and are rarely without direct supervision-- if there isn't someone at their side, there's someone watching like a hawk from the nurse's station instead.
| >>554785
[Emergency Ward, Trauma Bay 4]
>Dr. Edison is dragged into the bay by a team of professionals-- nurses, techs, radiographers, paramedics-- and is greeted by the sight of the one armed man stretched out on a gurney, having his wounds doused in warm saline to remove contaminants.
"Can someone tell me what the hell is going on here?!"
>Dr. Edison seems unamused. One of the team pipes up from the back:
"Why don't you ask the guy on the table?"
| >>555335
>Dr. Edison gives a loud and exasperated sigh. Patient interaction isn't usually a major part of his job description... leave that touchy-feely bullshit to people like Roy. Max didn't go to school to clasp the hands of the dying in his own and tell them "it's going to be okay".
"... >>>Well?"
>They would have had to consulted him for this eventually. Might as well get it over with now.
| >>554952
[Emergency Ward, Bay 1]
>Jade (the lithe lilim security officer who was badly shaken by the influx of critically wounded patients earlier) is now sitting in a room with one of the distraught soldiers-- the shivering man with the dead stare. She's assigned to him as his 1:1 observer or "safety sitter," and is seated as close to him as he'll allow.
"May I wrap a blanket around your shoulders, sir?"
>She speaks softly and non-threateningly.
| [Emergency Ward, Bay 5]
>Sayuri's seizing roomie was quickly turfed to the neuro ICU immediately following the clearing of both codes, but the sloshed teenager and her oni-like horns remain...for better or for worse. Her new roommate is the tearful soldier. Sayuri listens to him sobbing through the flimsy fabric of the room's "privacy curtain". If Michi's still around, she turns to him and asks:
"Whassamatter wih him...?"
>If Michi's absent, she instead asks the soldier directly.
| [Emergency Ward, Bay 2]
>The soldier sick to his stomach with the horrors of combat finds himself in Bay 2 with Ella-- who firmly believes that if you can't handle ending up with "a chest full of vomit" in the midst of an emergency, you shouldn't work in healthcare. She has just contacted the ER doc about getting this man either an antiemetic or an anxiolytic... or both. Both is good.
"If you can... tell me what happened."
| >>554559
[Emergency Ward, Trauma Bay 3]
>Roy is trying to decide on what imaging studies to order for Strawberry. An MRI is out-- she'll fry the machine, or the machine will fry her. X-ray is of little value. US could make things worse by manipulation of the surrounding tissue... Guess that leaves a CT.
"Dr. Xiria, I'm going to gather my team and have the patient taken to imaging. If you like, you can come with me and take a brief tour of the operating theatre we'll be using."
|
| [Emergency Room, Waiting Area]
>The waiting room and triage areas of the ER have fallen back into their baseline dull roar. Nurses work quickly to sort through the
mass of patients, discharging one only to have three more spring up in their place like the heads of a Hydra. Walk-ins welcome, huh... Things are at least moving a bit faster now that the hospital is connected to the Matrix again.
>There is a lull before the next name is called. Who is to be seen next?
| >>555872
no idea why half of that went white but this seems to be happening to me a lot lately orz
|
|
| >>555108
>The nurse and the aide get ready to bring Strawberry down to radiology to get her stomach scanned. Neither of them have ever seen a cyborg get put through a full body scanner before, and the nurse in particular is a little nervous about artifact from her cybernetic components affecting quality of the imaging. Better than going in blind, though.
"We're going downstairs now to see how big that piece of metal in your stomach is."
>They pack her up nicely, and depart.
| >As the nurse and the aide wheel Strawberry through the bay's door, Roy throws an anxious glance at the phone on the wall and starts pacing within the room. His broken foot makes this painful; somehow, though, it's better than being completely idle. Silently, he tries to come up with a list of questions to ask CN about his patient. No trauma surgery is ever easy, even with enough info-- with what little they have available right now, though, this is starting to feel impossible.
| [Radiology Department, CT Suite 1]
>After a small amount of travel, Strawberry and company arrive at imaging. The girl's bed is now flanked by a couple of techs and a medical resident, and somehow all of them squeeze through the door into the CT suite without incident. As they parade on through the radiologist looks on from the "fishbowl" she sits inside: a small room partitioned off with special glass to protect from radiation but still allow her a view of the patient.
| >>557967
>The gurney is parked parallel to the CT table, as close as the two can get to one another. The nurse and aide take position at the side of the scanner's table opposite Strawberry, while the techs remain by the bed. Everyone grabs two fistfuls of the girls sheets, and they quickly heave her onto the table-- trying for as gentle of a landing as possible. Once she's situated the techs leave, and the resident motions to the radiologist, beckoning her to join them.
| >>557968
>She rises from her seat, and as she does it is revealed there is yet another person in the observation area who... barely seems to notice that she's leaving. They sit with their chair pushed as far away from the room's desk as possible, feet up on its edge.
"Oh, Dr. Roberts-- is this the patient Roy called in the STAT abdominal CT on?"
>The resident nods as the radiologist approaches the group, heels clicking loudly on the tiled floor.
| >>557972
"Excellent. Let's get her loaded in, shall we?"
>The radiologist comes to a stop by Strawberry's head, and bends over to introduce herself. Her voice is a monotone, and her facial expression matches-- however, she doesn't seem unfriendly-- just very tired. She looks like she's wearing suitcases under each of her eyes.
"I'm Dr. Joga. I'll be overseeing your scan and then reviewing the results with both Dr. Walker and Dr. Roberts. My assistant, Alex, will help--"
| >>557973
>She looks to her side, expecting him to be next to her instead of still in the booth. He isn't.
"... walk... you through the procedure..."
>She twists around and stares back into the booth, squinting as the slightly tinted glass and reflection of the scanner make it hard to see what her assistant is up to. As if on cue, a loud snore is heard coming from the "fishbowl." Dr. Joga grimaces and shakes her head. Somebody's getting their beauty sleep, but it isn't her.
| >>557976
>She presses a button on the scanner's exterior, and leans in to speak into one of the mics housed in the unit.
"ALEX."
>You can hear her voice echo within the glass walls of the sectioned off area. Alex jerks violently awake as hoped, and his rolling chair slides out from under him as his heels slip off the desk. There's a muted "thud," and after a few seconds he can be seen scrambling to park himself in front of one of the monitors. Dr. Joga sighs.
"Check her in."
| >>557979
>Alex pushes to talk back, voice dripping with displeasure over having his nap interrupted.
"Who is this? Is she registered with us already? I need a name, date of birth... not a mindreader, here..."
>He yawns into the mic. The nurse, aide, and resident all look at one another. Do any of them actually know who she really is? She had been assigned an ID on the fly, but it was... very quick, and very vague-- just an MRN and a placeholder for a name.
"Well??"
| >>557981
>The aide is first to speak, giving a hesitant response that she's almost certain Alex won't be satisfied with.
"I think she said her name's Strawberry..."
>She tries to sound confident in her answer, but faking it isn't making it here. Alex groans and mutters something under his breath that he doesn't think the mic will catch-- but from the speaker on the side of the scanner, he's heard saying:
"...r christ's sake...cking hooker's name..."
>Dr. Joga looks appalled.
| >>557998
>Unfortunately, Strawberry doesn't bring up any hits at all- at least not for this patient. She looks up at the radiology tech apologetically.
| >A call goes through Roy's cell
| >>558016
>The nurse shakes his head and decides to just offer the temporary MRN Strawberry's been assigned as an identifier.
"Just key in 70256198. If we find her somewhere else in the intranet, we'll merge the accounts and it won't be a problem anymore."
>Alex shrugs, but does as he's told. After he pulls up her profile, he gives the order a once over before intoning his oft-recited prep spiel into the mic.
| >>558140
"This whole thing should take about 20 minutes; we're gonna have the table move you into this big ABS donut so we can see inside your abdomen. Try to remain as still as possible. I might ask you to hold your breath a couple times so we can get a clear image. We can hear you from in here, so... if anything seems wrong, just say something."
>The nurse leaves as Alex is finishing his explanation, now interested in getting his hands on the deck Xiria had been using earlier.
| >>558106
[Emergency Ward, Trauma Bay 3]
>Roy jumps as his phone goes off in his pocket, and quickly fumbles to pull it out-- almost dropping it a few times in the process. He manages to finally get a grip on it and swiftly brings it to his ear, not bothering to check the ID. There are a few people this could be, and all of them are important enough that he wouldn't waste even a second to screen the call.
"Hi, this is Roy."
| >>558141
>Dr. Joga pats Strawberry's hand gently and signals to Alex as she presses something on a touch screen attached to the scanner. The table starts to slowly move the girl towards the empty space in the center of the ring, and Dr. Joga retreats to the observation area with her resident following quickly behind. Just before they pass through the doorway of the fishbowl, Dr. Roberts murmurs something to her that causes Dr. Joga to exclaim something very loudly in surprise.
| >>558146
>The staff seat themselves in a row at the desk, each with a monitor in front of them displaying a few things: a video feed from a camera positioned directly above the machine, the software used to used to view the images they'll be taking, and Strawberry's patient profile, among other things.
"What's the problem, Isobel?"
>Alex notices that Dr. Joga's irritation and decides to investigate, as this could make the rest of the shift a pain in the ass for him.
| >>558148
>Dr. Joga glares at him, not appreciative of the fact that Alex spoke to her so informally in front of her resident. She touches a hand to her forehead.
"I've just been informed that the patient is highly cyberized. We might not get any useful results out of this. >>>Apparently Roy thought this'd be a good test of what skills Dr. Roberts has picked up throughout the course of his residency here."
>Of course Roberts fell for that bullshit. What a spineless kiss-ass.
| >>558144
"Hey Roy, th-s is CN. Sorry I took a bit, i still dont have my phone yet but i managed to mess a bit with my d-ck to get this working. Sorry if the connection is a little spotty. How is she?"
| >>558150
"Oh, CN! Good to hear from you-- glad you're okay."
>He turns to look behind him at the space Strawberry's bed once occupied, as if he could somehow check up on her while she was absent.
"She... I... don't know."
>Roy ponders for a minute over how much he can disclose to CN. She wanted him to be called, so if its relevant to her treatment it should be okay...
"She's got a big hunk of steel in her stomach. We need to take it out, but we're having some issues."
| >>558156
>Roy shifts his weight from one foot to the other a few times, trying to figure out the best way to answer this query.
"No, she's... maintaining. We gave her some blood and volume expanders, some medication for pain... We-- er, I just don't know how to proceed with surgery."
>Let's be real, it's no one's fault other than Roy's own that he hasn't kept up with current literature on trauma in cyborgs. It's just not something he encounters frequently.
| >>558157
"She's really cyberized, and I can't figure out what's going on with the parts of her that >>>aren't organic. One of the clinicians hooked a deck up to her, but... it didn't go very far. It just showed some warnings that didn't make any sense."
>He glances over at Xiria, then continues.
"I need to know how these other parts of her are going to affect tissue repair/salvage. Otherwise, I'm working blind. I don't know if her cybernetic components will interfere."
| >>558158
"Er... well I'm not intimately familiar with their installment but I'll do what I can with what I know."
| >>558164
"Great, thanks."
>Better than nothing. Roy decides to bring up those two error messages Xiria got when she had jacked into Strawberry to examine the status of her augs.
"When we connected, the alerts we got... One said something about fuel... coming out of her arms, and an inability to suppress something? We couldn't access anything else without user auth."
>There was something else that was strange... wasn't there?
| >>558165
"... Oh... she waited two days with these injuries before coming to see us. Do you know anything about that?"
>Roy's tone darkens considerably. With her impalement and those burns, poor Strawberry was risking rotting from the inside out. Septic shock. It'd be a painful, delirious, terrifying death-- If this wasn't a conscious (and very ignorant) decision on her part, whoever kept her from seeking help is a real fucking bastard.
| >>558149
"Alright, S-strawberry-- we're gonna get started--ow, h-hey!!"
>Alex barely fights back a snicker as he says the girl's name. Dr. Joga notices and smacks the side of his upper arm, one of her rings making the blow really smart.
"Fuck you, Isobel; you know I'm right."
>The table finishes making its minor adjustments in position, and the machine completes its calibration. The dull whirring it had been making earlier quickly increases in volume, and the scan commences.
| >>558166
"Well the fuel is probably just related to the weapons she uses for um... protection. They shouldn't be related to her well being as far as I know. I cant say much for the other error without more details but if she waited it might be is cause shes supposed to be hiding until everything went tits up recently."
| >>558177
"W-weapons?! What kind of weapons?"
>Roy's mind races-- this is not good. He makes the assumption that the 'suppression' system that was mentioned is meant to keep these from being triggered unintentionally.
"What kind of fuel is used to power them? Is it flammable?"
>He wanders over to where Xiria placed the deck and picks it up, looking over the screen for any other details he can offer.
>Did he miss something earlier? Did Xiria discover anything new?
| >>558167
>The constant, droning hum of the scanner drowns out almost all other noise in the CT suite. Some patients find this very overwhelming, and knowing this Dr. Joga talks to Strawberry through her mic for a moment.
"Strawberry, would you like us to pipe in some music for you?"
>Dr. Roberts is focused on the image "slices" on the screen that change as the scan progresses. He'll be in charge of the "wet read"; Dr. Joga will be responsible for the final interpretation.
| >>558179
"Uh... well considering they're flamethrowers on her arms I would think they're very flammable."
| >>558185
>Roy is left speechless-- both by CN's answer and the sort of nonchalant "well, duh" delivery that accompanies it. A fully tricked out combat cyborg... leaking a volatile substance... and wearing supplemental oxygen...
"..............."
>There is such a lengthy pause that one might think he'd hung up or that they'd gotten disconnected. The silence is eventually broken by the sound of the nurse returning to the bay and asking for the deck Roy's holding in the background.
| >>558189
>Roy's voice becomes muffled as he presses the phone into his chest, turning his attention away from CN and directing it towards the nurse.
"... Chien, ca--... --maging... --em to... --et her the fu... --t of there."
>Chien is heard asking Roy why he wants him to do something. The shock in his voice is audible, though it isn't clear as to whether it's because Roy swore or because of what he said.
"--cause she... --rms full of fuck... --asoline... --ow us all to hell!!"
| >>558184
>As expected, there is a shit ton of artifact present in the cross-sections of Strawberry's abdomen. Some of this is corrected by the advanced predictive software being used to string the images together, but this doesn't necessarily improve accuracy of the results. Alex tries to adjust settings to compensate for this, and Dr. Roberts' eyes stay glued to the monitor while he watches for any changes.
>What is Dr. Roberts able to notice, if anything?
| >>558200
Rolled perception since he's an early resident and thus his reads are still relatively inconsistent... fucking 1 lmao
| >>558198
>Roy picks back up as Chien dials Alex and bolts out of the room. He can be heard calling out to Ella (who is still sitting with one of the traumatized soldiers) multiple times, and as his panicked voice fades away you can just barely make out the words "flamethrower arms."
"CN, tell me everything you know about this girl, and tell me >>>now."
>Hell hath no fury like Roy when he's pushed past his breaking point. His temper rivals Ella's when it's at its worst.
| >>558205
"I-I dont know much about her, shes not part of my crew. She used to work for the Corp that attacked my place earlier before going AWOL, she fights with flamethrowers, and has a flirtatious front while pretending to work as a bartender. I dont know much more than that or her augs. I can try and contact her crew again but that's going to take some time."
| >>558200
>These readings don't make any sense- there are wires and plastics all over the place, along with scar tissue from previous operations.>>558201
>Needless to say, even if he *could* make out the idea that there are literal flamethrowers in her arms, it's unlikely that anyone would take these speculations seriously-
| >>558207
>Nothing clinically relevant, nothing that'll help save their sorry asses. Great; absolutely fan-fucking-tastic.
"'Not a part of your crew'? Why were you searching her out, then?!"
>Roy's voice distorts as he hollers into the phone. That's it. He's done with today. He wrestles with the temptation to just throw in the fucking towel and hang up by way of hurling his phone across the room.
"God-- get ahold of SOMEONE who can help us fix her before WE all need fixing!!"
| >>558209
>Dr. Roberts rubs his chin pensively and leans back as he studies the images. Nothing in the transverse cuts of her arms registers as being particularly noteworthy. In fact, he really isn't paying attention to them at all. All of his focus is directed at the cross-sections of her stomach.
>Does he notice anything there( other than the huge chunk of metal that they already have visual confirmation on)?
>Alex's phone rings, but he ignores it. Chien can wait.
| >>558211
>Nothing out of the blue- some of the kidneys look like they were replaced with augmented variants, but aside from the chunk of metal, nope.
| >>558210
"We've helped each other out in the past! I help a lot a lot of pe- ugh, not important right now. Give me a few minutes."
>CN hangs up
| >>558212
>Neat. Looks like it'll be an easy extraction for Dr. Walker-- Dr. Roberts is about ready to wrap these pictures up, slap a bow on 'em, and hand them over to Roy like an early Christmas present. Dr. Joga notices the self-assured grin spreading over his face and wonders what he sees (or what he thinks he's seeing) in these images. Alex's phone rings again, and this time he picks up.
">>>What, Chien? We're in the middle of scanning the hooker; can it wait like 5 minutes?"
| >>558214
>Dr. Joga is about to give Alex another slap when his eyes widen and his jaw drops.
">>>What? You stupid sack of drek, are you>>>really gullible enough to believe something like that? You get a prank call or something? An anonymous tip? Spit it out!"
>He shakes his head and makes a disgusted sounding grunt. Dr. Joga's curiosity outweighs her annoyance, and she listens in.
"Isobel, you're not gonna believe this-- what? Who told you this? >>>Roy?! That fucker..."
| >>558215
"Is he there with you? Put that jackass on the phone. You're n-- okay, then where the fuck are you? No, no more fucking codes!?"
>Dr. Joga, quickly tiring of listening to Alex's sailor mouth, snatches the phone from him. Pranks aren't like Roy. Time to find out what the nurse is going postal over.
"Chien, it's Dr. Joga. What--"
>She has to hold the phone away from her ear. Either Alex is near deaf and has jacked the volume up, or Chien is bellowing into his cell.
| >>558216
"Chien, please slow down, I can't understand y--"
>She figures all of the day's events have put him in a state of hypervigilance; he probably misheard something Roy said and assumed yet another calamity was about to take place. She closes her eyes and covers them with her free hand, but her attempt to block everything out is short lived: she jerks the hand away from her face in surprise when she finally gets the message.
"She has >>>what?"
| >>558217
>Alex scoffs and rolls his eyes as Dr. Joga now gets to hear what he did, expecting her to do the same. He raises his eyebrows and smirks, shaking his head slightly.
"Can you believe this guy?"
>Dr. Joga doesn't answer. Instead, she fiddles with her monitor settings and starts reviewing the images with her better-trained eyes, clicking slowly through each of them.
"Oh, come >>>on Isobel... You're humoring him?"
>Are Dr. Joga's observations the same as her resident's?
| >>558218
>Dr. Joga takes a pen out of her coat pocket and starts to scribble on a notepad between her and Alex. He doesn't think much of this until she taps the desk to get his attention.
>"Sometimes the best way to shut them up is to just give them what they want."
>Alex sighs and nods in agreement. You'd think with the MDs being the ones ordering the imaging, radiology wouldn't have to deal with the nurses as much... But, that would make sense... can't have that around here.
| >>558218
>The thing about perspective is that we fundamentally see what we expect to see. What are the chances of anyone looking at arms and deciding, "hey, these look like weaponized flamethrowers built into arms, along with a retractable pilot light system, heat sinks, exhaust vents, and emergency coolant?"
>But suddenly, all those misshapen odds and ends that may have once been passed off as artifacts and tricks of the mind slowly fall into place. "Scar tissue" become crushed exhaust vents, which seem to be directly connected into an as of yet closed port leading directly to a strange bag full of fluids. What may have once been considered an artery or misshapen bone now bears an uncanny resemblance to tubing of some kind, and hydraulics, which could have been passed off as bone spurs, are now quite obviously machined.
| >>558221
>Dr. Joga pauses in the midst of her wet read to thank Chien, and then hang up Alex's phone. Eyes locked on the screen, she utters a command to anyone listening:
"Get her out of there. Now."
"Isobel, you can't--"
">>>Now, Alex."
>Alex groans and talks into his mic to let Strawberry know that the test is going to be completed a bit early.
"Hey, we're gonna stop now. Boss lady says we're done."
| >>558222
>Active scanning stops and the machine quiets a bit, though a muted whirring remains audible. Alex steps out from behind the glass wall and walks towards Strawberry with the intent of extricating her from the machine. Having stopped scanning via use of a slightly modified kill switch, the touch pad on the side of the unit is locked, preventing Alex from controlling movement of the table.
| >>558225
>Dr. Joga watches him circle to the end of the table and grab the handhold at its foot, pressing in the switch underneath that allows it to be slid back and forth manually. Two things dawn on her in that instant: Alex does not have a light touch, and the table usually takes a bit of force to move... because the machine hasn't been serviced in a while.
"Alex, wait--!!"
>Just how much static is too much static?
| >>558224
[Emergency Ward, Trauma Bay 3]
>Roy now stands with his head resting against the wall, totally mentally and physically drained. Periodically he breaks the silence as he talks quietly to himself, a bad habit that usually earns him weird looks from coworkers and patients alike.
"I shouldn't have done that... gotta get it together..."
>His phone rings, and this time he waits a moment or two before picking up.
"It's Roy."
| >>558227
"Roy its CN, I'm connected with a 3way call with someone from her team, Cocoa. She should have more info on the matter."
| >>558230
"Hi, CN."
>If Roy could think of more to say that'd help him save a little face, he'd offer thanks or some kind of apology-- but with the way things are and the way he is right now, it wouldn't seem genuine. That'll have to wait.
"Hi, Cocoa. I'm the surgeon who's taking care of Strawberry. It's nice to meet you. What did CN tell you already?"
>Let's not waste time with words that have already been said. Roy wants new information, and fast.
| >>558233
"He said you hacked into her BIOS and ran into some errors?" >The voice sounds... much younger than the patient you're discussing, by a few years at least.
"What else did your decker do? Did they try to get past the ICE? And who do they work for?" >The voice says, urgently.
| >>558235
>Roy does find himself wondering about Cocoa's age as she questions him about Strawberry, but decides to brush off this idle curiosity in favor of clearing things up.
"I-I don't know if you could call it hacking..."
>It may sound like Roy is trying to minimize what actions were taken in their attempts to figure out what was going on with Strawberry, but he's actually totally clueless as to what Xiria did with that deck.
| >>558237 >>558235
"And... Dr. Xiria's not exactly a decker... I think."
>Come to think of it, he has little to no knowledge of who Xiria is or what she does at all, apart from the fact that she's apparently a master surgeon.
"... She was plugging away with the deck for a little while, but I don't think she was trying to break the ICE. She was trying to establish that Strawberry was stable enough to be moved, and told me that she was."
| >>558238
"...then if she's *stable*, what WARNINGS were going off!?" >The voice says, irritation forming.
| >>558239
"S-she didn't seem very concerned with the warnings that popped up when we first jacked into her, and since out of all of us in the room she has the most experience with cyberized patients... We weren't either."
>Roy regrets not having questioned Xiria's decision, but what would he have asked, really? It seemed like the best option at the time was to just take her word for things.
"T-there was... something about 'fuel jettisoning' and 'suppression system failure'."
| >>558240
>As Roy turns these alerts over in his head again, he feels himself breaking out in a cold sweat. Where are they? What's taking them so long to get back here? The bay's phone should be ringing off its hook right now-- what the hell is going on down there?! He closes his eyes and turns around to press his back up against the wall. Slowly, he slides down until he's seated on the hospital's floor... which is disgusting, but right now he couldn't give a shit less.
| >>558240
"...listen very carefully, doc."
"Right now her arms should be leaking a very volatile, very destructive chemical agent. If she gets hurt, or her arms get damaged in any way, they're supposed to expunge all the liquid so it doesn't flood anywhere it doesn't belongs-"
>You hear a loud sighing.
"...and it does that, either by flushing them out... or by violently igniting whats left and shooting them out of heatsinks."
"...which means... neither has happened yet."
"...Ugh. But I can access her local Matrix. The power's on I presume? Disable the building's security and jack her in, so I can see what else your decker did."
"...where IS she anyway?"
| >>558270
>Roy, being Cocoa's captive audience, has no choice but to listen her quickly turn bad news into /very/ bad news. He winces with each adjective Cocoa uses to describe what's coming out of her fellow crew member's arms, and by the end of her explanation he feels like someone's taken their heel to his sternum 3 or 4 times. While wearing stilettos.
"She's... s-she's down in imaging right now. We're getting a CT of her abdomen to help guide removal of that chunk of metal."
| >>558279
"..."
>Assorted, highly vulgar language rips through the phone, directed at no one and everyone.
"GET HER OUT!"
| >>558270
>The "yet" at the end of Cocoa's statement about how trauma to Strawberry's arms is usually handled chills Roy to the core. There doesn't seem to be a "lesser of two evils" with the options that are available.
>>558282
>His worst fears now confirmed, he can't help but but shout back a very panic-stricken, anxiety-ridden response:
"JESUS CHRIST, WE'RE WORKING ON IT!!"
| >>558284
>He scrambles to his feet and makes a desperate grab for the bay's phone, dialing radiology to figure out why everyone in CT Suite 1 is taking their sweet time getting their ticking time-bomb of a patient out of the scanner. The phone rings quite a few times, and Roy finds himself pleading out loud for someone to answer.
"Come on... Come on, pick up goddamnit...!"
>There's a click as someone on the other end picks up the handset.
"Hello?! Where's my patient?!"
| [Radiology Department, CT Suite 1]
>The staff member answering the phone in radiology is none other than young Dr. Roberts, who'd normally be overjoyed to have Roy call so he could present him with his (very obvious) findings from Strawberry's CT. Not having been privy to the conversation Chien had with both Alex and Dr. Joga, he's not quite sure what's going on at the moment.
"Alex stopped the study--he's pulling her out of the scanner right now, Dr. Walker."
| >>558289
[Emergency Ward, Trauma Bay 3]
"W-what do you mean 'pulling her out of the scanner'? What the hell happened? Did she get stuck--"
>Roy pauses as Dr. Roberts starts to give a very convoluted explanation of what he thinks is happening, before becoming impatient and cutting him off.
"Is he getting her out of the machine manually? Yes or no?!"
>He waits with bated breath for Dr. Rogers to answer, and repeats what he's told so Cocoa can hear.
">>>Yes, he is?"
| >>558292
"Where the hell is Dr. Joga? God, she leaves you two alone for 15 minutes and this is what--?!"
>Roy's hands have begun to shake so badly--either with rage or with terror-- that he almost drops the phone.
"She's >>>there? What is she doi-- trying to stop him? Why? The point was to get her out of the machine, and Alex is just doing his job-- what's the issue?"
| >There's a soft popping noise coming from within the machine as one of Strawberry's damaged arms rips open- a thin, transparent liquid begins to leak out in small rivulets.
| >>558297
>Alex ignores Dr. Joga's protests and continues to yank Strawberry out of the machine. The table shrieks and groans; it's in bad need of some oil. Nobody can remember the last time the CT maintenance guy came around.
"Just a bit more..."
Almost if its prayers had been answered, some of the fuel spilling from Strawberry's torn arm drips drown into the internal runners/wheels that allow the table to move. The awful noises stop, and Alex is confused.
"What the fuck...?"
| >>558301
>Dr. Roberts stands to get a better look at what's going on with the machine, prompted by the fact that it's just stopped the horrendous screeching it was making while Alex was moving the table.
"Ah... I think he's just finished. He's moving her bed over so we can boost her back into it now. I-I need to go lend a hand, but..."
>Roy is getting tired of playing the 'two phones game', but at the same time he feels like ending the conversation here is unwise.
"What?"
| >>558404
>Dr. Roberts squints at Strawberry from his place within the glass booth, having noticed that something's changed since she arrived at the CT suite. He cranes his neck to get a better look.
Rolled a 19. No wonder his reads are all over the place lmao
"Did your patient come in with any lacerations to her arms?"
>On the other end of the line, Roy grits his teeth. He whispers into his cell, turning his face away from the bay phone for a moment.
| >>558299 >>558282
"Cocoa, where do you want us to put her once she's out? Where's the best place for us to stick her?"
>Requesting deactivation of hospital security is a really tall order for Roy to handle. He decides to try and establish safety any other way possible first. Dr. Roberts manages to catch about half of what Roy says to the people on his other call.
"Dr. Walker, who's 'Cocoa'?"
>Roy gives up, lays both phones on the floor in front of him, and puts them on speaker.
| >>558408
"This is Cocoa. Save the rest of your questions for later and tell me about the laceration."
>Dr. Roberts' voice sounds a bit tinny with the bay phone's shitty speaker output, but he's at least understandable.
"I-I just didn't know if there was one you had found and repaired. It looks like it's dehisced. What sutures were you using?"
>Roy finds himself hoping that Cocoa doesn't know what 'dehisced' means, if only to avoid pissing her off further.
| >>558412
>Sensing that Roy is becoming irritated with him, Dr. Roberts tries to produce an alternate diagnosis. Maybe the laceration thing is making him feel embarrassed? He knows that a lot of people in the surgical department have fragile egos-- he just didn't think Roy was one of them.
"Or maybe it's a ruptured blister? It's draining a lot of clear fluid, must have been deep."
>There, that's better! He'll be less upset about that-- there's no way that'd make him look stupid.
| >>558408 >>558412 >>558415
"Oh for frag's sake!" >Cocoa's tiny voice pipes through the phone setup,
"Look, just bring her somewhere where her arms AREN'T in danger of igniting anything, and then..." >The voice pauses for a bit. There's a heavy sigh.
"...we'll need to deactivate her arms, and, uh... drain the stuff manually."
>A whispered voice...
"...she is not going to like that..."
| "Er... I dont suppose you have cat litter or something similar in the hospital do you?"
| >>558416
>Dr. Roberts, not expecting to hear what he thinks is a child's voice in the midst of this conversation, interrupts Roy before he can answer.
"Dr. Walker, who is that? Is that her baby sister or something? I know you like to get as complete of a history as possible before heading to the OR, but talking to a grade schooler about this seems like a reach."
>Roy groans to himself, wishing he hadn't turned this conversation into the hot mess of a conference call it is now.
| >>558446
"Haha, no jackass, she's my..." >The voice trails off...
"...coworker. Now, are you going to jack her in somewhere safe so I can see what the fuck happened!?"
| >>558416 >>558446 >>558472
>>558416 >>558446
"Dr. Roberts, please--"
>Roy attempts to cut the resident off in hopes he can continue his conversation with CN and Cocoa, but Dr. Roberts isn't the kind of guy to take a hint. He waits a few more seconds before being a little more forceful with this neophyte physician.
"SLAM IT and SHUT DOWN, Dr. Roberts!!"
>Dr. Roberts does as he's told.
"If I can think of a place without a ton of electrical equipment, we'll move her there."
| >>558427
"I... might have some left in the trunk of my car..."
>Roy pauses, realizing how weird this might sound to the other parties on the call.
"I-I'm from somewhere with bad winter months, s-so it's just force of habit. It keeps me from getting stuck on hills. Why do you ask?"
| >>558416 >>558472
"Dr. Rogers, go help Dr. Joga and Alex get Strawberry into bed. I'll call back as soon as I can figure out where we're moving her to. >>>Goodbye."
>Roy ends the call on the bay phone, grabs his cell and starts to work at getting back on his feet. As he struggles to regain his footing, he looks up at the other scalpel jockey in the room.
"Anything to add, Dr. Xiria?"
| >Net access... somewhere with access that isn't teeming with with vents, monitors, oxygen coming out of the walls, electrocautery equipment... That narrows down the spaces available by a lot. 'Less is more' is a great medical rule of thumb, but it's biting them in the ass right now.
"..."
>Only one location keeps coming to mind despite Roy's repeated attempts to wave it off. He sighs, defeated, and reluctantly offers his solution.
"... The surgical team's on-call room."
| >>558472
"It's a cot and a few pieces of furniture. All the electronics in there are ancient, but they're non-essential and we'll unplug them. If you tell me any supplies you can think of that we should have handy, I'll get them. We can do an old fashioned I&D there."
>Christ. Maybe he should call the bomb squad to do the surgery... if they even get that far.
| >>558486
"Roy I'm sure once we get the whole arm fuel thing sort you can have the procedure whenever you want. It's in her arms not her chest after all. You did say she was stable after all right?"
| >>558486
>And, never mind getting the supplies-- what about the people? All of the nurses and techs in the ward are preoccupied with treating either the glut of injured soldiers that had come knocking at their door, or the tired and huddled mass of patients in the waiting room. Even if he could find someone to assist, they'd look at him like he was insane. Turning his charm up to 11 wouldn't make a lick of difference.
>What about...? No, no, that's probably a bad idea.
| >>558496
"I think the organic parts of her are... not getting any worse right now, and Xiria thought her augs were stable... But, if you look at the big picture, her prognosis is pretty grim the way things are overall."
>When CN had asked earlier if Strawberry was in critical condition, Roy should have given a more direct answer.
"I think the only reason she's holding steady is the fact that she's so... 'chromed up', as you say."
>Please stop trying to sound current, Roy.
| >>558509
>Xiria is apparently still here, having made herself scarce during this whole commotion.
"Hmm? Yes it's like that isnt it? I managed to somehow stabilize the fuel inside her arm with decking? But I'm no expert or anything, I'm a fixer, not a hacker"
>She says to clarify
| >>558509
"Well if we just shut down her arms and keep the resting of them running she can make it."
| >>558515
"Cocoa, I'm not sure you heard that-- that was Dr. Xiria speaking just now. Feel free to fire away."
>Roy's not sure if this'll help him avoid begging security to disable the hospital's barriers, but he feels like it's worth a shot.
>>558519
>He chooses respond to CN's statement with a vaguely affirmative hum. If only it were as simple as he said. Unless it actually is, of course.
| >>558519
"Close down the arm augments is it? To think you would ask this of me, how lovely?"
>Xiria nods at the proposal
"But Next time please do refrain from making explosive augments though, they are unsightly and dangerous~?"
| >While Xiria, Cocoa, and CN chat, Roy dials Radiology again to inform everyone down there of what the plan is. It'd be great if Dr. Joga picked up; she'll be able to make all right... or at least, she'll be able to make sense of his instructions. There's a click as the lines connect.
"Roy, you shithead!! You could have gotten us all killed!!"
>Alex this time around. What are the odds?
"And I >>>could still if you don't shut up and listen for 10 seconds! Give it a rest!"
| [Radiology Department, CT Suite 1]
>Alex now finds himself taking the baton in this relay game of phone tag Radiology has been playing with Emergency.
"What do you mean, 'still'? She's off the table and tucked back into bed. What more do you want from me? Should I fluff her pillows now, >>>too?"
>Alex makes it a point never to do anything outside his job description. In the rare event he does, it becomes a huge production of martyrdom and bravado.
"Alex..."
| >>558575
>Roy inhales as deeply as his lung volume will possibly allow, trying to dial the intensity of his response back a bit. He hisses through his clenched jaw.
"She's... leaking a dangerous chemical-- from her arm, according to Dr. Roberts. We need to get her away from any tech that's capable of producing electrical discharge."
>There's a pause.
"Is >>>that what that is? It got in the machine!! It'll corrode the inner parts of the table!"
"Forget the machine, Alex!"
| >>558579
">>>No, you don't fucking get--!"
>Alex stops, either of his own volition or because someone else is telling him to zip it.
"--Tch! Whatever!! Roberts has the whole thing taken care of anyway."
"What do you mean?"
"He's throwing a tourniquet on her! You were the one talking to him earlier, wasn't that >>>your idea, genius?"
>What a clusterfuck this is turning into. Time for some damage control.
"Uh, Cocoa... is putting lots of pressure on that leaking arm an issue?"
| >>558598
"What's he doing, Alex?!"
>Or, what "favor" does he /think/ he's doing the team? Alex can see a smug look on Dr. Roberts' face as he follows the instructions that Roy never gave.
"He's making do with a BP cuff and a roll of self-adherent gauze. You tell him he could use his artistic lisence on this in addition to his medical one?"
>Roy's face pales in horror as a mental image of what Dr. Roberts is doing takes shape directly in front of his mind's eye.
| >>558599
>He puts the phone back on speaker so their big, happy-go-lucky group call members can all be reunited.
"H-how high has he pumped the systolic--"
"200 mmHg. Probably more if you take the fact that he's wrapped the cuff like a fucking mummy into consideration."
>There's a beat as Alex watches Dr. Roberts in amusement. He taunts Roy further, his tone snide.
"Should I stop him before she's no longer able to feel her hand, ~Dr. Walker~?"
| >>558604
"Some of you should be taking this a little more serious given how musy that hospital must be after that blackout..."
| >>558614
>Whomever just said this likely doesn't realize that they're taking a shortcut to the top of any health care provider's personal shit list. The fastest way to gain hospital staff's contempt is to tell them how they should be doing their jobs-- and as if illustrating this point, Alex slams down the receiver of CT Suite 1's phone. There's a sort of "crunching" noise that comes from the speaker before the phone starts beeping an error tone.
| >>558614 >>558761
>Roy sputters, jaw working furiously to produce something even slightly intelligible.
"Wh-... W-why did you >>>do that?!"
>They're right, though. He shouldn't have to negotiate with his fellow staff to get them to provide good care. Roy hobbles over to the door of the bay and sticks his head out into the ward's hallway.
"Chien!! I need you in trauma bay 3 for a few minutes!!"
>A shaky "okay" is heard buried deep within the baseline cacophony of the unit.
| >While he waits for Chien to make his way over, he dials Radiology a few times, disappointment multiplying with each unsuccessful attempt to connect. He makes a kind of frustrated growl, then punches in a different number. This time, he leaves a message when he doesn't get an answer. The inflection of his voice changes, seeming... softer?
"Hey... It's Walker. I need you to come in. Things have gone to hell in a handbasket over here... Please, please just show up. Thanks."
| >>558416
"Cocoa... I'm sure if we both work together to access the hospital matrix, we wont need to wait for them to shut things down."
| [Radiology Department, CT Suite 1]
>Unbeknownst to Roy, Alex had decided to play off his fears a bit and had fed him a made up (but believable) story about Dr. Roberts trying to crush Strawberry's arm. In reality, Dr. Roberts is just starting to blow up the makeshift tourniquet.
"Roberts! Drop the cuff. Orders from the top."
>The resident seems a little disappointed, but obeys. Alex begins to fill Dr. Joga in on what the deal is with Strawberry's arms.
| >>558834
>He's just about wrapping things up when Chien bursts through the door, the aide from earlier in tow.
"To what do we owe the pleasure, Chien?"
>Dr. Joga greets them both, though it's not clear if she's happy about the visit.
"Me and Marcille are gonna bring her down the hall... Roy wants to stick her in the surgical on-call room."
"What?"
"Don't ask; I don't know. I just told him I'd move her-- I'm not risking my lisence helping with the I&D he wants to do in there."
| >>558836
"'IND'?"
>Not every department is familiar with the lingo of the others-- Alex is notorious for not going out of his way to expand his vocabulary.
"No, I AND D, not 'IND'. Incision and drainage. He wants to get that stuff out of her arms."
>Alex snorts and crosses his arms in front of his chest.
"He's a little late. One got started without him."
>By the look on Chien's face, it seems like Roy neglected to inform him of this.
| >>558826
"Ugh... fragging wageslaves..." >You hear the smol voice say on the other end of the line.
"I'm already at their 'storefront.' Hurry up before I tear several new I/O ports in this place's shitty infrastructure."
| >>558852 >>558886
>The slang Cocoa is using goes right over Roy's head, but the tone comes through nice and clear: she's tired of waiting around. He doesn't love the use of the word "tear" as she discusses her desire to hit the gas on this operation with CN.
"Um--"
>The bay phone rings, and Roy snatches it it from its cradle, eager for an update.
"Hello? Chien! Where are you guys-- ah, okay. Just waiting on instructions, I guess. I'll be there soon. Thanks, bye."
| >>558852 >>558886
"They're in the on-call room now. Do I... need to get that cat litter, or can it wait?"
>Roy fixes his lab coat and gets ready to stumble his way over to his home away from home for the last few weeks. Hopefully none of them realize that it looks more lived in than usual.
"Any other precautions I should take?"
>He opens a few of the bay's cabinets and jams some supplies in his pockets that probably shouldn't be jammed in one's pockets. Classic Roy.
| [Surgical Department, On-Call Room]
"Okay, I'm gonna pull her in-- I need you two to angle the bed a little when I tell you to."
>Marcille, an old hand at quickly switching patients out of rooms up on her unit, has assumed the role of team leader as she, Chien, and Dr. Roberts attempt to squeeze Strawberry's bed through the room's doorway.
"I'll try to make this as smooth as possible, 'kay Strawberry? Time for us to show these boys some pretty flying."
>She smiles warmly.
| >>558949
>There's a lot of back and forth as the three of them take turns adjusting the position of the bed in tiny increments before sending it forward or pulling it back across the threshold. After much see-sawing, the gurney and the patient on top of it finally get to see the interior of the room in full-- and thanks to Marcille's finesse, there's not a scuff on the doorway or scratch on any of the bedrails.
"There! Not bad. Thank you, gentlemen."
| >>558950
>The inside of the on-call room is... very unimpressive-- which is surprising given both the size of the hospital and the fact that it's part of a chain-- you'd think they'd have the funds to make the room look more... well, like a room. Right now it resembles more of a large, disorganized storage closet for various clinician's personal effects. There's a set of rickety looking bunks, a desk, and a few old monitors-- but these look like they were added as afterthoughts.
| >>558953
>With the bed and three other people in the room in addition to its other contents, space is a little tight. Marcille had tried to arrange things in such a way that there'd be room for at least two people on each side of the bed, but it seems like she overestimated the room's dimensions a bit.
"How long is it going to take him to get here? It's kinda cramped..."
"I'm sure he'll be here momentarily. Be patient."
| >>558954
>While they wait for their guest of honor, Marcille and Chien give into temptation and search the room a little, casually making it seem as though they're just moving things out of the way so it's easier to get around. Dr. Roberts is totally oblivious, and has his nose buried in the chart at the foot of Strawberry's bed-- seemingly committing every detail to memory as if he expects to be quizzed on what little medical history they know.
| >>559255
>It is a stereotype that nurses and their ilk love to gossip about their fellow staff-- Marcille and Chien both know this and play right into it anyway.
"Oh, Marcille... I'm having trouble moving this magazine rack, could you help me...?"
>The RN feigns helplessness, giving the rack a few weak tugs before "giving up".
"Why, yes Chien!"
>Her eyes sparkle with excitement. Chien's found something good. She sidles over to where he stands, waiting for the reveal.
| >>559256
>Chien, bent over the top of the little wooden magazine stand, motions to something that's wedged behind it and clearly didn't end up there by accident.
"Ohhhh, noooo, it seems as if it's stuck on something~"
>They speak as if they're reading lines from a script neither of them have ever looked at before. These two aren't getting into Julliard anytime soon, that's for sure.
"Let me help you free it, Chien~!"
>Both of them giggle quietly.
| >>559258
>Dr. Roberts seems to be getting irritated by their behavior, and slips past the bed and out into the hall with Strawberry's chart, choosing to lean against the wall immediately adjacent to the doorway. While he pores over the documents, he hears some disorderly sounding footsteps making their way towards him, and turns his head in their direction.
"Oh--!"
>Meanwhile, Chien and Marcille are just inches away from getting their hands on their prize.
"I've got it, Chien~"
| >>559259
>Marcille slowly withdraws this mystery object from its hiding place, and is about to hold it up in front of herself and Chien when:
"H-hey guys, I'm he--aaAAHhh!"
>The two self-styled bandits whip their heads around to get a look at this intruder, frozen like deer and headlights as they realize they've gotten caught red-handed.
"Hiii, Dr. Walker!"
>Chien and Marcille greet Roy in the most saccharine sounding voices they can manage. Nobody moves.
| >>559260
>Careful, Roy. They can smell fear. The dilemma of whether he should play it cool and act like he has nothing to hide, or whether he should write whatever contraband they've dug up off as someone else's takes hold of his mind.
"U-uh... cleaning up a little, I take it?"
>Marcille and Chien exchange an uneasy glance, then nod slowly.
"Yyyyup... that's exactly right, doctor!"
>Looks like we're going the "pretend this never happened" route. Good choice.
| >>559262
>Marcille drops what she's holding back behind the magazine rack; Chien follows suit. Both shuffle past Roy out of the room, and as casually as humanly possible make a beeline for the nearest escape route. Roy sighs, and beckons Dr. Roberts into the on call room.
"CN, Cocoa, she's been moved."
>Roy's got his phone wedged haphazardly between his ear and his shoulder, and is able to take hold of it again after he drops his messily assembled bag of supplies on the floor.
| >>559266
"Into the on-call room, like we talked about. I'm in here with her; so's Dr. Roberts."
>Whom Roy hopes is more tech oriented then he is.
"Looks like Chien and Marcille took care of unplugging things that could spark and light this place up..."
| >>559347
>Dr. Roberts hasn't heard CN speak prior to this point, only having had the pleasure of Cocoa cussing him out for his arrogant comment about her age. He picks his head up from out of Strawberry's chart and looks at Roy, who is... over by the magazine rack, shoving whatever the nurse and the aide found back down behind it.
"Dr. Walker who is--?"
>Let's have a little fun.
"It's the Dynamoforce guy, Dr. Roberts."
"WHAT?!"
| >>559792
"I really hate that that's how I'm known as now..."
>CN just sighs very loudly through the call
| >>559799
>Dr. Roberts looks at Roy in disbelief, then at the phone he's holding as CN gives his two cents.
"T-there's no way..."
"Hey, he didn't dispute it now, did he? Would I lie to you, Dr. Roberts? Would >>>Nerdboy lie to you?"
>Dr. Roberts makes a sudden grab across the bed for Roy's phone, which the surgeon deftly moves out of his reach just as the resident is about to make contact.
"CN, say hi to Strawberry-- she's right here."
| >>559800
"*Please* don't call me that..."
>Another sigh, even heavier this time
"Hey Strawberry, do you hear me okay? Its CN, Cocoa is also on the line."
| >>559800
>Roy lowers the phone closer to Strawberry's face so she can hear CN a little bit better. Dr. Roberts, like a dog waiting impatiently for its owner to throw a ball, follows the phone first with his eyes and then with his head-- nearly resting one of his ears on the mattress as he comes to a stop, ready to take in every word. Roy stifles a laugh, relieved that he can still find humor in /something/ right now.
| >>559813
>Roy hasn't realized it, but for a portion of the time he's spent in the group call with Cocoa and CN, he's missed a few incoming calls from the same number. While he waits for CN, Cocoa, and Strawberry to catch up, something seems to get his attention-- a look of surprise and confusion passes over his face, and he looks downward for a moment. Dr. Roberts wonders if he's dropped something, and is about to ask if something's amiss when Roy's eyes widen and he blurts out:
| >>559819
"Hey, you're not supposed to be--!"
>The sound of his own voice within the room startles Roy, and he looks around slowly at its occupants as he starts to flush red.
"A-ah, sorry about that. Don't mind me."
>Dr. Roberts raises a questioning eyebrow, but doesn't dig deeper. Maybe his exoskeleton is acting up again? He knows Roy talks to himself an awful lot; maybe he's also the kind of person who scolds his tech and equipment when it "misbehaves."
| >>559347
"Yeah yeah I did, god-"
>Cocoa says as the sound of clacking intensifies through the phone call.
>>559800 >>559811
"G-geek...boy?" >Strawberry whispers, confused.
"C-cocoa...? H-hey..."
| >You hear a sighing noise and the squeaky notes of the ICE chibi through the phone.
"Okay, great, now just..." >There's a pause. Strawberry shifts her face a little closer to the phone... and then looks up at the hospital staff, confused.
"...Cocoa, what are you doing in my-"
| "..." >There's silence on the line...
"Please forgive me, Berry," >She says, as the redhead's arms go limp.
"...Okay. You'll need to... ugh..." >Cocoa says...
| >Strawberry's eyes widen as the scope of what just happened pushes over her.
"W-why?" >She says, her voice hoarse. You see her heartrate jump as the symptoms of panic begin to register.
"COCOA, WHY?!"
| >The bed shakes as the girl tries to pull herself out of the bed, her arms flopping uselessly.
| >>559830 >>559831 >>559832 >>559835 >>559836
>Roy freezes, the expression of alarm on his face growing as he realizes Strawberry has absolutely zero idea of what's going on.
"H-hey, what's happening? Cocoa?!"
>He turns his attention to his patient, equally in the dark. Was this Cocoa's doing, or a delayed worsening of an existing injury they missed?
"Cocoa, talk to me!!"
>Roy tries to gently but firmly hold Strawberry still, her thrashing making him very nervous.
| >>559839
"...I hard deactivated her limbs." >Cocoa says, tense-
"WHY?!" >Strawberry screams, her breathing erratic,
"GIVE THEM BACK! GIVE. THEM. BACK!"
| >>559839
>The surgeon mumbles a few things to himself that are inaudible to those around him, then looks up at Dr. Roberts.
"A little help, Dr. Roberts!"
>The resident decides to pursue the "something already present is becoming moreso" route of thought and prepares to perform a neuro assessment-- thinking she has a spinal injury that's just now compressing her cord. Roy's more experienced intuition rules out this differential very quickly.
"Not like that, you idiot!!"
| >>559841
"Strawberry calm down! The failsafe on your fuel malfunctioned so we just need to turn it off for a bit so we can fix you up! Do you want it leaking next to an oxygen tank in surgery?"
| >>559841 >>559844
>Roy's eyes are wild with a colorful mix of fear, anger, and humiliation as Cocoa explains what she's done to Strawberry's arms. He barks sharply at the phone:
"Y-you said you were just going to stop the flamethrowers from functioning! Nothing like this was ever discussed!!"
>He grabs a vial out of his pocket and tosses it to Dr. Roberts, but doesn't instruct him to do anything with it yet. It could potentially make things worse than they already are.
| >>559844
>The girl doesn't hear you or if she does, she doesn't seem to care- her shrieks intensify as she seems to go into fits.
"...shut up geek boy. Doc, hurry up and do your things before I regret this drek any further." >Cocoa says, her voice uncharacteristically hard.
| >>559845
"THE FLAMETHROWERS WERE DESIGNED TO BURN EVERYTHING IN A TEN METER RADIUS TO A FRAGGING CRISP IF SHE DIED!" >Cocoa yells through the phone, her voice hoarse,
"THE FACT THAT SHE DIDN'T- UGH!" >There's murmuring on the other end of the phone...
"Cocoa, who are you screaming a-"
"Berry's compromised, the failsafes in her... -aile-"
"...hat do you ...ean-" >There's scuffling in the background-
"...was just trying to help! What the fuck do you expect me to do when she's stuck in podunk nowhere with half the goddamn city-"
| >>559845 >>559846
>Dr. Roberts turns the tiny bottle over in his hand-- midazolam. He doesn't understand why Roy isn't chomping at the bit to use it, and opens his mouth to ask what the deal is before Roy joins in with Strawberry's protests, almost chanting:
"I'm calling this off!! Give her back use of her arms!!"
>He only becomes more incensed as Cocoa responds.
"If you regret it, why go this far?! CN, do something!!"
>Roy... seems to be taking this personally, oddly enough.
| >>559848
"H-Hold on, I wasnt privy to what Cocoa was doing either."
>CN tries to access Strawberrys security
| >>559846
>Roy stops bellowing into the phone long enough to turn his attention back to the girl on the gurney who is now going from being mentally distressed to physically distressed as well. As he watches her respirations become even more rapid and shallow alongside her spiking heart rate, he makes a decision.
"Dr. Roberts, 0.5 mg midazolam IV push, >>>now!"
>Just enough to settle her, not enough to be chemical restraint--
"God, I'm so sorry!!"
| >The scuffling continues-
"...ing their location, I'll head over in the ca-"
"They WANT us to do that, don't you get it!? If we leave-"
"...ust mask the con-"
"...geekboy?" >Says a slightly more mature voice, feminine.
>>559848 >>559849
>You attempt to access Strawberry's datajack and immediately find yourself blocked by the ICE program. On closer inspection, it appears to resemble a chibi sized version of Cocoa in meatspace.
| "Cocoa, I need you to calm down-"
"STOP ORDERING ME!" >You hear shrieking on the other end!
"I'm NOT giving you an order, I'm asking you as a friend and-" >More scuffling,
"Please honey, you need to calm down-"
"THEY GOT MINT YOU CUNT!" >She shrieks even louder, deafening the line!
| >>559850
>Roy leans in close to Strawberry, both hands on her shoulders.
"Strawberry, Strawberry please--"
>He sounds desperate, tone becoming more frantic as he realizes his words are falling on deaf ears.
"CN is going to help! We're not going to go forward with the procedure!! Please, calm down-- I don't want you to worsen your injuries!"
>He nods at Dr. Roberts.
"We're going to give you something to help keep you from getting clinically worse now--"
>Technically not a lie.
| >>559853
"Rocky you better tell me something that helps Strawberry or I'm crashing through Cocoa's ICE program."
>CN is incredibly frustruated
"Drek none of you can just keep me in the loop can you..."
>He mumbles
| >>559856
"Strawberry's arms are-" >Rocky's voice cracks as something metaphorically gets stuck in her throat.
>>559855
>Meanwhile, Strawberry's thrashings become less violent, but it doesn't take long for you to recognize the signs of catatonia. She's staring off into space, mumbling- her temperature is dropping and its clear you may have *just* administered the drug in time before the panic attack hit.
"..ores... urn..." >She mumbles, tears streaming down her face,
"...ores... urn... ores... urn... urn... urn... urn..."
"Burn."
| >>559855
>Dr. Roberts pushes the anxiolytic slowly, thankful in a way that her arms are immobilized. He wonders why Roy isn't asking him to give more-- he sees the RNs on the units administer a little extra all the time-- nurse dosing, I think they call it...?
"HeeeEEEYYY! HEY!"
>A voice from the down the hall slowly increases in volume as its owner quickly draws near the doorway, and comes skidding to a stop in front of the room.
"Are you fuckheads murdering someone in here?!"
| >>559861
"...A fire. She lost them in a fire, CN." >Rocky sounds like she's going to say more, but then catches herself.
"Look, I'm going to head over there and pick her u-"
>There's screaming from the other end-
"YOU CAN'T! YOU CAN'T!"
>More sounds of a struggle-
"Stay here and watch over Van-"
"WHY DON'T YOU EVER LISTEN TO ME!?"
>The sounds are punctuated by a loud slapping noise.
"Solar get a hold of yourself!"
| >>559861
>The new arrival takes a second to catch their breath before yelling back to CN:
"Is that fucking Geekboy?!"
>The late guest to this party is none other than Aikawa, who had been half listening through Roy via comm to the chaos in the room before she had been abruptly disconnected. Already en route to the hospital come hell or high water, cutting the call had only served to hasten her pace further.
| >>559863
"Why don't *I* pick her up? No offense but she did say she wanted to talk to me. You focus on... calming down."
| >>559865
"...We can't meet at the safehouse. You remember the park?" >Rocky says over the phone. In the background, someone is sobbing loudly.
| >>559868
"...she won't be stable without the bosses help." >Rocky says away from the phone.
"...Who else is on the line besides you CN?"
| >>559864 >>559859 >>559858
"Ei?!?"
>Roy reacts in shock as his roommate comes barrel assing into the on-call room. She's immediately on top of what the monitors have been screaming since she arrived.
"Get some blankets on her-- you-- we need warm saline and a bair, move your ass!!"
>She points at Dr. Roberts, who sprints out the door and heads for the closes PACU. Aikawa then grabs Roys penlight right out of his pocket and starts checking Berry's pupils.
"Hey, can you hear me?!"
| >>559871
"..." >Rocky says nothing, but you hear the rustling of clothes.
"Y-you can't do this-" >A sniffled response comes,
"P-please, Rocky-"
"I'll be back Cocoa- with BOTH of them. I promise."
>>559872
>The girl continues to mumble *something* to a wall, eyes staring forward.
| >>559872
>It's been weeks since they've worked together, but Roy and Aikawa fall right back into operating like two components of a well oiled machine. Roy snaps out of his momentary daze and grabs some linen out of the room's blanket warmer (the one nice thing about this shitty on-call room) and starts piling them on top of Strawberry. Aikawa gets ready to do something incredibly unpleasant to Strawberry in an attempt to get her to respond.
"Should I give her a sternal rub?"
| >>559877
>Rocky sighs.
"Listen CN, don't try to brute force her ICE. Seriously. It's probably booby trapped." >You hear a door creak open.
"Just... keep the doctors company- and Strawberry stable." >You hear more muffled protests before the rush of air and the closing of a door.
"If there's anything that she needs right now..."
"Its knowing that she means more to someone than just her body."
| >>559876
>Roy shakes his head, and Aikawa withdraws the fist she was preparing to grind into Strawberry's chest.
"No, she's conscious-- she's just losing it; she's catatonic. We just gave her midazolam--"
"Well, then we need to give her more! People don't come out of this shit without benzos."
>Roy looks her dead in the eye, trying to gauge if her judgement is sound.
"Does she look like she can tolerate more to you?"
"If she can't, I can intubate!"
"That isn't reassuring!"
| >>559879 >>559880
>What may seem like arguing or ceaseless banter to others is really just Roy using Aikawa as a sounding board. As they continue to go back and forth over what to do next, Dr. Roberts returns with several bags of saline and begins to pack them around Strawberry. Roy manages to catch CN's request and moves the phone as close to Strawberry's ear as possible, wedging it in place between the pillow and her head.
"She's here, CN, talk to her!"
| >>559881
>Roy passes Dr. Roberts a brand new syringe, having made up his mind as to how to proceed in a way that's best for Strawberry overall.
"Another 0.5 mg IV push."
>Dr. Roberts fumbles with the bottle for much too long as he attempts to draw up the remainder of its contents, which is almost painful for Aikawa to watch without intervening. He finally gets it all in the syringe barrel and pushes the rest.
"It might not work immediately, but she should respond..."
| >>559880 >>559881
>With the phone so close, you can better hear what she's mumbling to herself...
"...whores burn, whores burn, whores burn..."
>Rocky sighs in disgust.
"I'm going dark, CN. See you soon." >Rocky cuts the line.
| >>559881
"Er... I meant Cocoa but that also works as well."
>CN continues, not missing a beat.
"Look, we've been through a hell of a lot of drek today, and I'm not going to pretend to know everything we've been through in the past from each other, but we cannot let them... this situation get to us. This is exactly what VL wants to do, freak us out and get under our skin. But their not some big bad evil guy, they're just like anybody else and if we stay calm and work together we can make it through this."
| >>559886
>As the line cuts out, you find yourself still connected, even though Rocky hung up before you could say your piece.
>A calm, masculine voice cuts through the line, their words slow, deliberate... and remarkably "seductive" in an abstract sense.
"You are correct, CN. There are no 'big bads.' There are only... the misguided."
| >>559886 >>559887
>Roy and Aikawa step back for a minute, ready to act at a moment's notice if needed but trying to give Strawberry a little breathing room as CN attempts to offer her some comfort. Aikawa gives Roy a sideways glance, which he returns. Both seem a little relieved to see the other, but this reprieve is cut very short as this new voice is heard joining the call.
"Who the fuck is that?"
>Roy jabs an elbow into Aikawa's side, signaling her to be quiet.
| >>559890
>Aikawa jumps and gives Roy a dirty look, but takes the hint. She decides of her own accord to comm security downstairs and let them know that there'll soon be a group of visitors demanding entrance into the hospital to pick up a patient. Because she doesn't have further details to give, she asks that they alert her when these people show up. Roy, meanwhile, listens closely to the conversation CN is having with this mystery person-- wondering if he should move the phone.
| >>559890 >>559891
"Power cannot be abused, only misallocated. Nature, however, abhors a vacuum- and naturally moves to... fill positions of imbalance as they arrive. Seeking to... co-opt this process only reveals the... ignorance of the principle's efforts."
"... as you have seen over the course of two standard years."
"But I digress. It seems that our paths cross again, CN. Your... penchant for timeliness is interestingly... uncanny.
| >>559902
>Roy feels the hair stand up on the back of his neck as the voice on the other line continues to speak its increasingly ominous sounding monologue. Although not voicing this out loud, he's in the same boat as Aikawa-- who the fuck is this guy, indeed. He snaps quietly at Dr. Roberts to get his attention, then pantomimes covering his mouth. If any of the staff are going to say something stupid that'll further embroil them in this, it'd be him. Dr. Roberts nods.
| >>559902
>Aikawa is now starting to get a sense of the mess she's just walked into, and decides to comm security again-- requesting that the hospital's barriers be reactivated and reinforced. She's unsure of what this guy's motivations are and why he's poking his nose into this patient's care, and hopes Roy might fill her in later. For now, it's best to try and keep everyone as safe as possible... somehow?
| >>559902
"Uncanny? Or was this meeting planned? I didnt survive up to today *just* on pure luck. It is dangerous to just rely on strokes of luck anyways... like coincidental blackouts."
| >>559908
"Only fools who think themselves gods leave their fate solely in the hands of... meticulous planning and... numerous focus groups. Luck is when preparation meets..."
"...opportunity."
| >>559908
>As the decker continues his rather dramatic sounding exchange with this suspicious character, Aikawa remembers that CN programmed his number into her phone back when she, Roy, and him met back at the Lock and Barrel. Tiring of this heady philosophical bullshit, she rapidly fires off a text:
>"Who /is/ this guy? Can't you boot him off the call with your wizard class hacking skills or some shit? Girl's tanking over here."
| >>559916
>Roy feels himself becoming progressively more irritated the longer he lets this dialogue go on-- what is this, some kind of pissing contest? Strawberry's already had to suffer enough, and now she has to listen to this... if she can even hear it at all, christ. This wasn't how this supposed to go. In an attempt to regain some modicum of control over the situation, Roy does something that nobody in the room expects: he disconnects the call.
"Bye, CN."
>... Click.
| >>559924
>Aikawa and Dr. Roberts both stare at him, dumbfounded. Aikawa is the first to speak:
"W-what the fuck did you do that for?!"
>Roy tucks his phone back into the breast pocket of his lab coat, shaking his head.
"Our top priority in this room is taking care of Strawberry, not getting pulled into whatever the hell >>>that was. I don't consider exposure to this kind of conversation 'therapeutic'."
>He sighs heavily.
| >>559916
"God I'm tired of all of you and your philosophical bullsh-"
>The response ends halfway as the line cuts
| >>559925
>Roy looks from Strawberry's arms to his exo-framed legs a few times, and swallows hard, his grimace deepening as he bites his tongue. Different circumstances, but...
"Walker? ... You okay?"
>Aikawa is very familiar with Roy's bad habit of holding his breath when very anxious, and happens to notice him doing this while he contemplates Strawberry's past and current situation.
"Walker?"
"........."
| >>559927
>Aikawa shakes her head, then leans onto his (not broken) toes with her heel-- which is enough to get Roy to draw a startled breath. Having been opposed to ending the call in its entirety, she texts CN again in order to both sate her curiosity and gather whatever new info might be needed to ensure things don't go from worse to... even worse. Roy isn't the wealth of knowledge she was hoping he'd be, so this is all she's got.
"Come on, Geekboy... "
| >A tall women, with raven black hair and wearing a maid uniform enters the building from the front door
>Her demeanor is quite strange, she walks without any wasted breath or movement, as if she were a doll rather than a human being
>She scans the place she has arrived into with a disgustingly stale and lukewarm gaze before showing the faintest hint of a grin
| >>559932
>Since Jade is busy sitting with one of the wounded soldiers, another security officer has taken her place-- also a Lilim, this one much more sturdy looking. He regards the woman cautiously, but his greeting is polite nonetheless.
"Good evening, miss. Are you seeking medical care? Please tell me what you need so I can assist you."
>He gives a slight smile, and bows his head a tad.
| >>559931
>A reply comes back
>"Will explain when things calm down. For now just be sure Rocky doesnt leave with her until I get there."
| >>559934
>The smile dips for a minute as the perplexed Lilim runs through the patient directory, thinking that the aforementioned "Rocky" is someone waiting to be discharged. He comes up empty, wondering if they haven't been checked in or registered yet.
"Of course, Miss. I can assure you that none of the patients here are signed out until they're deemed medically fit to return home."
>Perhaps that's what she wants?
"Where is it you're looking to go?"
| >>559933
>The women narrows her eyes
>Her gaze is hollow, without a hint of human warmth or life. It's as if something had skinned a girl and stuffed itself inside her skin
"I am searching for an individual. I believe they should be here if I trust my sources... I have a few questions to ask them, you see."
>Her smile fades, but returns soon enough
| >>559936
>The lilim has some difficulty interpreting her expression or... lack thereof. He parrots the end of her sentence as his response.
"I see."
>... He doesn't.
"So to clarify, you are not seeking medical care. You are a visitor, correct?"
>While Jade may have waltzed away with this woman and led her wherever she asked, this security officer is not so loose with protocol. Policies exist for a reason, after all.
| >>559937
>Her gaze is unflinching, she keeps staring without so much as a blink
"You could say that, so I believe you are correct."
>Her smile widens a tiny bit
| >>559939
>This is getting uncomfortable. The security officer blinks for her-- a few times, in fact. There is an awkward pause as he tries to determine whether there are still restrictions in place in regards to their visiting hours...
"Ah..."
>There are.
"I apologize. At this time the hospital is not allowing any new visitors into the building due to a rapid increase in patient volume. Unless you are a visitor who is returning from stepping out, I must ask you to leave."
| [Surgical Department, On-Call Room]
>>559931
>Roy watches his roommate tap away at her phone for a moment before stepping back in towards the bedside. That extra dose of midazolam has had a little time to start doing its thing... He takes one of Strawberry's hands and squeezes gently, despite his uncertainty about whether she can't feel them in addition to being unable to move them.
"Strawberry... are you there? Can you hear us?"
| [Emergency Room, Waiting Area]
>>559942
>As he finishes saying this, he cocks his head slightly and touches his hand to his earpiece. There is another pause as he nods to someone on the other end who can't see that he's doing so.
"Oh. Oh!"
>He turns his attention back to the dark-haired woman.
"I do beg your pardon-- are you a part of a group of visitors, Miss? Are you expecting others to join you shortly?"
>Looks like Aikawa's memo made its way through the grapevine.
| oh WOW i totally misread CN's response as being something someone else said-- forgive me if it seemed like the security officer was talking nonsense/offering unsolicited advice for a few posts orz. he knows nothing about a rocky, just that this lady wants to see somebody and that he's not sure he recognizes her
| >>559949
>The women's smile vanishes
"That is indeed the case. My master is waiting for me."
>Her gaze is still sticking to the guard's eyes like glue
| >>559956
>The lilim feels that if he maintains eye contact with this woman for even a second longer, her hair will turn to snakes and his being to stone. He looks away for a moment, towards one of the sitting areas. Some other visitors and family members can be seen milling about here, waiting for the okay to leave.
"Would you like me to escort you to our sitting area? If you are in need of refreshment, there is also a cart nearby where you can purchase coffee or snacks."
| >>559960
"Thank you for the concern, I will take you up on that."
>Her voice is cold and emotionless, a voice fit for the servitude her uniform might imply
This thread is permanently archived
| re-opening this to let the chaos and drama continue... anyone who wants to join as a patient who may have already been in the waiting room, staff member, etc-- please feel free! I welcome anyone who wants to participate.