Scene Listing || Scene Schedule || Scene Schedule RSS
Owner Pose
Edward Blackwell      The Aegis Astray's medical bay is as empty as it's ever been.

     Normally, there's doctors running around the state-of-the-art facility. Normally people are struggling to keep critical patients alive. Beds are full of dead, dying, or just injured people. The ICU is stuffed to the brim from agents all across the Multiverse being dragged in after operations gone wrong, or operations gone horribly right.

     Today it's kind of dead quiet.

     There are no doctors on call. There are no nurses present. There are no spellcaster-type healers, no wizards, no clerics, no digital programs. None of the state-of-the-art equipment has been touched. None of the magical healing artifacts, potions, or medicines are so much as disturbed from the shelf.

     The ICU is empty.

     Edward Blackwell is fixing a man's intestines.

     More accurately he has a man's intestines ripped out of his gut, and appears to be playing with them in one hand, massaging them with his long, nimble fingers. Dark brown eyes look disinterestedly at the man's insides over a smoking cigarette reeking of tobacco. A cup of breakroom coffee is clutched in his other hand.

     The man is very definitely dead.

     Edward bends forward to look down thoughtfully. He's tall, too. Kind of lanky. Messy brown hair falls around his face a little. He sets the coffee down (it is notably bloody) and scratches the five-o'clock shadow on his sharp chin.

     Then he stuffs the intestines back into the man with all the grace of someone throwing away garbage. He folds the tear up, presses down on it four times like he's giving CPR, then stands up and snaps his fingers.

     The man takes a sharp breath, grabs at his heart, and sits up straight.

     Edward is already picking up his coffee and walking off.
Rean Schwarzer Rean shows up at the Aegis Astray medbay, wearing his usual red school uniform...and a black cloth splint over his right hand. There is....nobody here.

Except for a man digging around in someone's torso...who also just stuffed that man's intestines back into his stomach and revived him with a snap.

Well, Edward DID say that's what he was doing.

"Uh, whoa." Rean says, wide eyes looking between Edward, and the newly revived man. "You must be Edward, then." Rean says, raising his splinted hand in greeting. "Rean, by the way. So, uh...How exactly are we going to do this?"
Raphael Cousteau There's sort of become a running joke at the Aegis Astray regarding the Inspector Raphael Ambrosius Cousteau. His medical file is given to the new people, the new people diagnose him as having clearly been dead for the last ten years, and then he walks in to pick up the variety of painkillers and anti-radiation medication he has prescriptions for and then they make the new people fill it, and then there's always an awkward moment.

Today, it is empty. This is a little strange.
ELECTROCHEMISTRY: This some kind of *inverse* intervention? Where they just don't show up so you can't get the stuff? What is this crap?

There's the sound of a man jogging from nearby Rean and Edward, until a man looking like pallor and broken dreams arrives with an Expression frozen upon his face.
"... Good afternoon, *everyone*. I'm just doing a normal tour of things, and am *absolutely* not lost in the slightest," He skillfully deceives with two fingerguns.
Edward Blackwell      Edward pauses in mid-step and just kind of turns to stare at Rean. There's a long moment of silence as he alternates between sipping coffee and smoking his lit cigarette. He's just staring at Rean.

     Finally, he says, "Hey."

     "I was testing a new procedure," he says as he walks over to a nearby sink. He sets the bloody coffee cup down, washes it off, washes his hands off, and doesn't look at Rean.

     "So you said you broke your hand? OK. I've got an old technique for that, but I think I'm gonna try something new. Had a theory pop into my head last night. Was waiting for a chance to check it."

     He jerks a thumb at the patient who just got woken up and is now walking, unsteadily, out the door. "I'd've done it on him but he didn't have any broken bones."

     Raphael comes over, and Edward immediately winces and rubs his temple.

     EDWARD: So you're the guy who apologized last night.

     He walks over to Rean and grabs the broken hand, indelicately. "So what do you do, Rean? Or you, dead guy stealing all the pills?"
Raphael Cousteau     There's a deep breath through smiling teeth, as Raphael rubs the back of his head.
INLAND EMPIRE: He *hears* us. Like the child.
ELECTROCHEMISTRY: Heyyy, doctor guy! Welcome to the party! Those pills are *important* and we have a *prescription* for completely legitimate reasons! Yeah!
EMPATHY: Maybe we should try to be quiet? It's clearly hurting him.
AUTHORITY: This is *our* brain! We have the right to think things! Don't you -dare- stop thinking just to spare that eavesdropper!
"Yeah, uh, I...guess I don't have to explain *why*, now." Rean gets a nod and reconciliatory eye-squinting, since he can at least make his face do that well enough.
SUGGESTION: This is going to complicate this exchange significantly.
Rean Schwarzer "Er...Alright?" Rean says, and holds out his hand slightly tentatively. Well, he did ask for this. Hopefully this 'new technique' wouldn't make things worse.

"Uh...I'm a military academy student." Rean says, "I try to help people wherever I can, though that often results in some form of combat...which is how this happened. Tried to talk someone out of blowing up a village and her head wound up being harder than I expected." There's a flicker of guilt across his face as he says this.

Rean gives Raphael a wave with his other hand. "So uh...Where is everyone, anyway?" Rean asks. "I'd imagine there'd be more than just you two and-" He turns his head towards the guy stumbling out of the room,  "-that guy here."
Edward Blackwell EDWARD: Yes, I can hear you. I smell you, too. Jesus Christ. Don't call me 'Doctor'. Ed's fine. Go ahead and talk. Just wasn't prepared for how fucking loud you are. Edward Blackwell. Nice to meet you, I guess.

EDWARD: I was gonna offer to fix you up but I don't even know where to start. It's like looking at a Jenga Tower of human misery. I feel like if I pull one piece out to fix it everything else is going to just start falling down and then I'm gonna have to figure out how to put it back together.

EDWARD: I would *really* like to try sometime. Maybe when we know each other better. And-or you die. Again.

     Edward's fingers move along Rean's hand until he finds the break. Fingers rub across it thoughtfully. "Don't move for a second." His thumb hooks under Rean's.

     He breaks it.

     Just, crack. A real quick, swift motion. Then, just as quick, his other hand comes up under Rean's and smashes it between his palms.

     There is another loud crack.

     Edward removes his hand. "There you go. All better." He waves his hand over his shoulder as he turns around to grab his coffee and takes a sip.

     "Military student, huh. You get into a lot of fights, I guess. I take it that's pretty common around here. Means a lot of work for me, I guess."

     Another sip, and he starts walking. He flicks his other finger over his shoulder for them to follow him. "Walk and talk," he says, "No disaster today means no first response, no first response means time to fix problems."

     "I told them to go the fuck away." Edward makes a motion with his fingers over his shoulder. "I don't like people watching me work. There's more patients this way, but this side of the ward's done."
Raphael Cousteau ELECTROCHEMISTRY: Got it, Eddie!
Raphael's given a very, very familiar medical diagnosis. It mostly means he's looking away just in time for Rean's merdical treatment.
PERCEPTION: If it wasn't broken before, it's broken now.
HALF-LIGHT: ...The hands that heal can also harm. Be on your guard.

And then, unsnap. INLAND EMPIRE: If it was broken before, it isn't anymore.

"Well! That was *efficient*, he admits, looking back up as they walk along to go deal with more work.
The medical ward is not terribly warm right now, and as they walk, a stray breeze hits Raphael. He chooses not to ignore the sensation, and he's carried away.
SHIVERS: A classroom. Countless students. The teacher is speaking. It doesn't matter. The words are indistinct, like static on the television. The letters of the textbook swirl around in eddies, defiant and uninterested. There is a weight, here. A crushing weight of inadequacy. Nicotine on the lips, from cigarettes long stale. Coffee on the tongue, burnt, without pleasure. This man may have known medicine, but he no longer does.
Rean Schwarzer Crack.

"Ack- /shit!/" Rean says as his hand breaks a second time. He looks up and glares at Edward.  "What are you-"

And then, just like his hand's fixed. "Ah..." Rean mutters, flexing his hand a bit. Works as intended. "...Thanks."

Rean turns to look at Raphael, and then shrugs, following behind Edward. He sighs. "...Yeah, it is. Kinda used to it at this point. And I guess it'd be a bit awkward, given how you work."