We Would Have A Fine Time Living In The Night [semi-open]

[ryuuzaki]

CHARACTERS: L (ryuuzaki), and Elizabeth (songburdened), Dick "Robin" Grayson (peckish4action), Darcy Lewis (50000volts), and Jennifer Keller (forsometimenow).
LOCATION: Medbay in the days prior to the jump
WARNINGS: Content typical to this game (horrors, resultant medical issues)
SUMMARY: The best time to bug people about a traumatic experience is when you and they are still recovering from it. Right? Right.
NOTES: Still working out the details of what actually happened in the corridors, so expect some lag if tags get into that subject. Have arranged a bit, and will arrange a bit more, but give me a nudge if you want me to add your character to this.

Comments

Elizabeth // songburdened

[ryuuzaki]

He knows he’s spoken to the girl in the next bed before.

She looks a little bit better than he feels, and he’s learned that she made a post to the network not too long before he emerged from the halls, but not much more than that. He doesn’t know how many people were summoned, or how many of those accepted the invitation. A few people have come in after him, too, which suggests that still more could be coming… up to the jump, then probably no more. It’s a grim thought, but he doesn’t shy away from it.

What can he remember about her? It seems like such a long, long time ago, as if months and months of chasing after answers, and of being the plaything of whatever Smiley is, stand between him and any memory of what he now has to think of as his real life. Before, his life on the ship had seemed unreal and he had still been a little unable to accept it: as far as he was concerned, his real life was on solid ground, aimed at reliably bringing the worst people to heel. He doesn’t have to forget that, but setting it aside for a while has been fruitful.

He can recall, finally, that her name is Elizabeth, and she can do something interesting, sometimes. Not anymore, but maybe again soon. When it doesn’t come to him immediately, he wonders what he’s done to himself.

Proximity makes it easy to talk to her. When he feels up to conversation, he turns on his side, props his head on his hand, and addresses her. “Elizabeth. Please talk with me for a few minutes?”

The scruff of beard he’d grown in the halls is gone now, and he’s asked them to hack at his hair, but only time will fix how he’s gone from thin to gaunt. His grey eyes look very large, and not very lively.

Jennifer Keller // forsometimenow

[ryuuzaki]

He hasn’t been in medbay for long, half a day at most, on fluids and mostly asleep, when he stirs because he feels a presence near the bed. One eye slides open. He recognizes the presence as a doctor, but it takes longer for him to recognize Jennifer Keller.

This encourages him to attempt to wake up, but nothing is really obeying him yet. He makes a soft, strangled sound, then reaches out one heavy hand to try to touch her wrist.

Finally, he manages to murmur, "Dr. Keller."

Dick "Robin" Grayson // peckish4action

[ryuuzaki]

Darcy Lewis // 50000volts

[ryuuzaki]

He's barely awake when Darcy comes in, but even in his current state, it’s obvious to L where she’s been.

That causes him to feel something: a faint twist of alarm. She accepted the invitation? It's followed by dismay, which he finds curious… but his eyelids are heavy, and he lets them close. The medical staff will look after her, feed her and clean her up and help her rest, although she might be in for stiff lectures from a few of them. And anyway, it’s very stupid to care too much about the fate of any one particular person here.

The series of messages that pulled him into the halls feels both like it was years ago and like it's something that will never leave him, one of life's decisive moments -- a decision he hadn't had time to weigh, an opportunity he wonders if he should have rejected. This level of personal involvement in the business of the ship is becoming second nature to him, and maybe, maybe, it's leading him towards disaster. Or he's headed in that direction no matter what he does, and he might as well try to feel like he's doing something about it. He can't decide.

However, he’s always been able to take tremendous emotional and physical pressure. He's not sure the same is true of Darcy. She has more tenacity than he thinks someone would assume at first glance, but if she experienced anything like the same things he did out in the halls, it must have worn on her in deeper ways. He's not sure she'll be the same woman she was the last time he spoke to her.

That leads him to wonder, in a brief, foggy tangent, if he's the same man.

Either way, if there's anything left of Darcy at all (likely), and if her tongue hasn't somehow been stopped on the subject of her recent experiences (unfortunately possible), he does suspect that she'll tell him what she can, if for no other reason than that she may feel like she owes it to him.

One look at her told him that her condition was every bit as bad as his had been. She'll be resting for a while, and his recovery is obviously further along than hers. So at some point a day or so later, she’ll wake up to a pair of feet pressed up against the edge of her bed, knees bent above them, a face that looks worse for wear occasionally peeking out from behind the knees. L seems to be idly perusing something on his network device -- it’s a book he’d found in the media library months ago, a classic from what seems like long after his own time, downloaded in the event of this kind of rainy day.

He probably shouldn’t be out of bed yet.