[Sickbay]: Round 21 Scans and Vaccines

[ten_fwd_npcs]

If this is your first trip to Sickbay, you may be surprised to see that it's a fairly ordinary-looking hospital. There are no terrifying devices or humming machines you might see in a sci-fi thriller. The biobeds along the walls are equipped with biofunction monitors, but look fairly standard. Instead of silver trays filled with metal tools and sawblades, there are an array of small devices that look as harmless as cell phones. As for the staff, they're all well-groomed and friendly — even the more unusual aliens.

If you're new to the ship, no doubt you've been escorted here by the security team. Nothing to worry about, the doctors just want to make sure you aren't carrying any viruses or are vulnerable to terrible space disease. Once you've been checked over — a quick scan from a tricorder and any necessary vaccines — you'll be free to go. Lollipops are optional.

"All right, step on in," one of them calls out as you enter. "Don't be afraid. It's just a scan and a hypospray, nothing to worry about."


[ooc: Sickbay is, as always, OTA and open until the next one goes up for latecomers! For new characters: tagging isn't mandatory but IC going to sickbay is. If you'd prefer to skip threading with one of our doctors, you can handwave that your character got a clean bill of health and a shot and were sent on their merry way. There will be a post up in the OOC comm shortly with more details about Sickbay and which doctors are on deck this month, if you have any questions.]

Comments

[prefers_magneto]

Erik raises an eyebrow. "He made you read books about boarding school? Why? So you'd find out how to be a proper young lady?" he asked dryly, nodding to Grainne before turning towards the door.

[anexquisitecreature]

Her nod echoes Erik's; Gráinne had been remarkably patient with them, all things considered - and Raven was quietly interested in more than a few things about the other woman. The implications behind some of the things she'd said hadn't gone unnoticed, and Raven is curious as to what sort of abilities hide beneath her polite demeanour.

"Fuck knows," she mutters as they exit, rolling her eyes. "I like to read, but it's not like I actually got the jolly hockey sticks, you know? Anyway, it probably didn't work."

Although she does switch her hair from its utilitarian ponytail to a sleek, elegant chignon to see if he'll notice the joke.

[prefers_magneto]

He does notice and huffs a brief laugh.

"Careful. Your posh breeding is showing. Someone might see."

[anexquisitecreature]

"Are you being posh-ist? I feel like you are. I'll have you know that I was taken in off the streets by the fanciest of English Americans, who probably didn't know I was there yet still paid for my education and everything I wore that my skin didn't create. I earned this hair."

[prefers_magneto]

"Oh, well, if he was a fancy English American, then I take it back," he smirked. "Dealing with that much fanciness deserves some sort of reward hair."

[anexquisitecreature]

"I received these flowing tresses," she intones, switching the look to just that. "My crowing glory - the jewel of my femininity. Erik. I am a Young Lady."

Charles forgets she's nearly forty, because she sure as shit doesn't look it.

[prefers_magneto]

He laughs lightly. "The first two words that come to my mind when I think of you," he teases.

[anexquisitecreature]

"That's because your eyes deceive you," she tells him, striding down the corridor, Mojo trotting at her heels. "Young whippersnapper--"

She stops fully, because a man in uniform has just stepped into their path.

"Darkhölme, Raven and Lehnsherr, Erik?" he asks, consulting what is most definitely not a clipboard. "Your room assignment is this way. Please follow me."

[prefers_magneto]

He glances at her, then follows the man.

Room assignment. Singular?

Probably just a figure of speech.

[anexquisitecreature]

A slight frown furrows her brow as she falls in step, and after several moments, she asks, "Sorry, don't you mean assignments, plural?"

Because ok, yes, friends and they arrived close enough to be together that the difference is negligible and from the same place (places, her mind fills in) but seriously? That... seems unusual. Especially as this spaceship is freaking huge.

[prefers_magneto]

"All rooms are double occupancy," the man explained briskly.

He took them beyond a door Erik hadn't been able to open earlier and into a lift. It stopped after mere seconds and he led them down a hallway.

"This is yours."

[anexquisitecreature]

"...uh-huh."

In an 'of course they are' tone.

It's nice that she'll know her roommate, but... she hasn't shared quarters with anyone in years. Literal years. And the last time he shared them, it was with Other Her because he legitimately mistook her for Her and there were subconscious expectations and this is a really bizarre turn of events - the sort of bizarre that makes her think it's some sort of set up, except how would they even know, and the answer to that is they wouldn't, she's just making a mountain out of a molehill, he's her friend and they're clearly on a multiversal adventure as a pair if nothing else and this is apparently theirs.

"Dibs."

She points to the living space she wants, and Mojo immediately trots over to that bed, which she jumps on.

Like it's no. Big. Deal.

[prefers_magneto]

He glances around. It's like a suite; two small bedrooms with doors to shut them off from the shared main living area, both of which are wide open at the moment. A shared bathroom. No kitchen, but there's a hole in the wall with a control panel over top by the small dining table. He assumes it's one of those foodmakers the bartender condescended to them about.

"Lady's choice," he concedes.

The beds are each big enough to share, but he's consciously Not Noticing That. He also prefers this to bunking with a stranger, but still. He glances at her. "I wonder if the food machine also does clothes." Something to talk about other than sleeping arrangements.

[anexquisitecreature]

"As it should be."

She sounds smug, which is odd, because she's never been the type of woman to need a man to Do The Things, but manners are just nice, ok? They just are.

It's a pretty big bed. She foresees canine company a lot. Staring up at the ceiling, she turns her head towards the still open door to her room, then shuffles around so she's lying the other way and can see him. And the fact that their guide is still there, so she stays blonde.

"Options are available here," the uniformed man says, pointing out two more not clipboard things. "Touch the screens to make selections; the menus are intuitive and easy to use. A copy of our charter is first to view, and will not leave until you've both read it. Have a pleasant day."

[prefers_magneto]

After the door closes behind the man, Erik looks at Raven. "How will it know we've both read it?"

[anexquisitecreature]

"Uh..."

Eloquence escapes her as she pushes herself up off the bed and wanders over to have a look at the display.

It lights up a fraction, and she pokes it experimentally - and it greets her by name.

"Guess they scanned us."

[prefers_magneto]

"Oh, the scan that was just going to be on record in case of health issues or injury? I see," he says flatly. That's not creepy at all. He touches it too, and the options light up.

He looks at her. "Are you always going to be pink here?"

Look, he didn't say anything while there were witnesses around. He was a good boy.

[anexquisitecreature]

"Add security and environment control to that," she agrees, annoyance under her words.

She shoots him a glance, and the words stop scrolling on the screen.

"Am I-- oh." Rip crackle. "No."

She shrugs.

"Guess the brainwashing in the last place became an ugly little habit."

[prefers_magneto]

"I'm not sure 'ugly' is the..." He stops as he turns around. "You're wearing actual clothes." The same clothes she'd been wearing when she was blonde. Last time he remembered her doing that (that he was aware of) was the yellow and blue suits Hank made them wear to Cuba.

He'd still had his for a while. He arrived at the Wyld in it before the population was transferred to the ship.

"Anyway," he says, clearing his throat to cover his faux pas, "there's no harm in caution."

[anexquisitecreature]

"Sorry to ruin the live nude girl effect," she smirks. "But yeah. I do wear them sometimes. It supports the illusion, so that habit is a good one."

Even though she can and does reabsorb actual clothes when moving from one face to another without her own in between, it's sometimes very, very useful to have things she can take off.

And fluffy bathrobes are better when they're not made of her own flesh.

She doesn't have the suit anymore.

Her head tilts; she's obviously both taken him by surprise and possibly hit some sort of... nerve or memory, or... something.

"Thanks. That's pretty much what I figured. Although at least once person already knows - there's a guy here who can speak to animals, and Mojo has a big puppy mouth."

[prefers_magneto]

Noticing something different felt like staring, even though he hadn't been. The fact that he was noticing the not!nudity felt even more like staring. They weren't...like that. Friends. She'd said 'friends'. He turned to poke at the machine again.

"The dog gave you away to the first person who could talk to animals? There's loyalty," he remarked with mild sarcasm.

[anexquisitecreature]

"He was mostly interested in sausages," she confesses, then reaches down to give the blabberdog a scratch behind the ears. He makes an appreciative sort of doggy noise. "He calls you the magnetic man."

They are friends, though.

Aren't they?

[prefers_magneto]

He hopes so. He's not sure how much of her dislike he could take. Or where it would push him.

He can't even admit to how much of a burden lifted off his heart when she said they were. And now the rose he gave her that day is gone.

He smiles a little at her news, glancing over his shoulder.

"What does he call you?"

[anexquisitecreature]

"Lady of many skins." Like a ghoulish nightmare goddess of an ancient tribe. "Or blue lady, if he's too busy thinking about his belly."

It would have been pretty lonely without him, but that's not the only reason that decision was made. She actually does like him, quite a lot. She just had a decade's worth of shit and mindsets to reevaluate, and that's not the sort of thing that happens overnight.

Though if she'd known they were going to be kidnapped again, she'd have had that rose on her. That disappointment is mutual, if unspoken.

It was beautiful, and just for her.

This is why they can't have nice things.

[prefers_magneto]

It's one of the reasons. One of the many reasons beyond their control.

"Lady of Many Skins. That's poetic."

He turns and moves to sit at the table nearby.

"So what do you think about this place?"

She's sharp and perceptive. And now they have the privacy to talk.