Day 203 | The sick are recovering! (Open)

[freedom_engineer]

WHO: Colin, any recovering folks, any visitors.
OPEN: Open like a door
WHEN: Day 203 (BACKDATED)
WHAT: The cure has been found and administered. Check up on the sick, why don't you?
WHERE: The hospital
FORMAT: However you want, go nuts
WARNINGS: Recovering people, probable sass, and of course, Colin.



After six days of paranoia, and three days of absolute terror, things were finally looking up. A cure had been delivered, and with it, the calamity survivors had been able to synthesize more than enough doses of cure for the plague to safeguard the Bastion. It had been administered to the sick, and now all that was needed was to make sure that everyone recovered.

Colin, of course, was going to be visiting everyone to make sure that there weren't any complications. It wouldn't do to have anyone in danger after they'd made it through to the end. He had yet to take off his environmental suit though, his own paranoia was significant.

(OOC: I figure this will be a good opportunity for people to do a little more mingling, and get their bearings after the plague. The quarantine has been lifted, though Colin still wants people washing their hands frequently. If you want Colin to check up on the sick, he can do that! If you want someone else to check up on the sick, by all means! The threat is passed, now rejoice, hug your sick loved ones, and let's move on!)

Comments

[notduchess]

....

[ Duke doesn't have anything to say to that for a moment or two, watching him in that suit, before she gets a little stiffly up and makes a correction or addition to her formula. ]

There's enough troubles floating around without me adding to them.

[freedom_engineer]

I'm already watching Zulf for an involuntary psyche hold.

[He gives Duke an unamused look.]

You want me to add you to that watchlist? The scenario we're stuck in means that any unaddressed problems can sink us.

[notduchess]

[ Involuntary pyche hold. Duke is having a hard time figuring out what that is, other than a potential 'you're being crazy, here is a soft room' thing. ]

... If you want? I'm more likely to go stircrazy if I don't have something to work on, if I have to stay put much longer. [ Thus the whiteboard math. ]

[freedom_engineer]

And I don't think so little of you to think you didn't understand me before. Something seems to be bothering you... or am I mistaken, there?

[notduchess]

[ So many negatives in that sentence, Colin, Duke has to stare blankly at the whiteboard for a moment. ]

More than 'my world is gone, with everyone I ever liked or was acquainted with' thing? I might be counting all those people who were technically supposed to be under my protection but I didn't really know.

[ Deflection skills go? ]

[freedom_engineer]

How so?

[Colin suspects there's a lot more to it than that, but Duke gave him an opening already. Even if it might be a trap, Colin's not going to let the opportunity escape.]

[notduchess]

... I'm a knight?

[ Duke is never sure what tense to use. ]

So its more than just the idiots who worked under my lead, there were the civilians that I was at least supposed to delegate people to protect. You'd think after doing this for two decades, and having an octopus show up in the sky and your twin flattens a city it wouldn't sting quite so bad.

[freedom_engineer]

And what part of being a knight makes you a god capable of stopping what happened?

[He gives Duke a sympathetic smile just the same.]

I don't mean to make light of it, everything that's happened is a terrible tragedy. But if you think it's your responsibility, then you're just going to make yourself depressed.

[notduchess]

No part, thankfully. Some terrible bastards make it in through money.

Its hard not too. [ And back to the whiteboard Duke's attention goes. ]

Unless you're focusing on something.

[freedom_engineer]

[Colin sits on the edge of the bed, giving Duke a look.]

And if you try to keep distracting yourself, the beast is still going to be waiting at the edge of your attention. Better to face it when you're ready for it, and banish it so you can be better prepared for everything else.

[notduchess]

[ Look? What look. Duke saw no look. ]

"When ready"? That's always fun to try to figure out.

[ What do you mean "try", duke is very good at distracting herself. ]

[freedom_engineer]

Well, when you're no longer camped out on the stoop near death's door would probably be better than when you are.

But that?

[Colin points to the whiteboard.]

All well and good. I encourage you to keep it up. But if you're doing it to distract yourself, you're just going to make a mistake sooner or later. Because distracting yourself means something else has your attention and you're trying to avoid it.

Math is best done with a clear head.

.... Or brain damaged, because for some reason, pure insanity is great for math.

[notduchess]

Distract myself, or just tunnel vision-

[ Sorry, Duke just caught that last bit and this is a laugh-coughing fit.

Time to sit and laugh for a little bit. Or cough, its a mix because one sparks the other, but Duke's still amused about something. ]

That.. could explain some things-

[freedom_engineer]

[Colin grins, and he reaches out to grab a cup of water from the nearby pitcher. He holds it out to Duke expectantly.]

Shall I assume that laugh was directed inward, at someone you know, or at me?

[He doesn't sound the least bit offended if it's the latter.]

[notduchess]

[ Yes thank you. Careful slow drinking for now. She still sounds pretty hoarse. ]

A mix of the first two. Maybe there's a reason the best mages tend to have difficulties with people.

[ Her twin, the girl with the fire temper in that guild. ]

[freedom_engineer]

Shame, I couldn't have give you a better shot at me if I'd put it on a tee.

[He looks amused, and he waits for her to catch her breath.]

Do you get what I'm saying, though? I wouldn't be pushing you if I didn't have cause to believe it was in your best interest.

[notduchess]

You'd have some retort set up already. [ No, honestly he hasn't seemed that crazy yet. Suit aside-

And now just a grimace. ]

Bottling is bad.

[ The knight just doesn't know anything else to say to that. Clearly because Duke has no idea how to even touch the subject. ]

[freedom_engineer]

[Don't you forget, that suit let him move about and get supplies. To say nothing of getting sterilized in fire. ... Okay, maybe the fire was a little crazy.]

Bottling is fine. Bottling has a time and a place.

Bottling and putting it aside to deal with when it's less imposing? THAT is bad.

I don't expect people to magically deal with all their problems immediately. But setting them aside, hoping they go away? That just lets it fester. Get bigger. More menacing. And a lot harder to deal with.

[notduchess]

[ It looks funny, and Duke is pretty sure he's living off of his own body wastes. She thinks that that might count as crazy-

And Duke doesn't really have a response to that. Partially because there's a bit of her who isn't terribly sure what he's talking about. There's a lot of things she's not been mentioning to people. ]

... Depending on what you're talking about, those stages might be pretty far along.

[freedom_engineer]

[Not yet. There are reserves before the suit starts recycling. He hopes to be out of the suit before THAT happens...]

Do you actually want to talk about it? Or should we keep talking in metaphors and riddles?

[notduchess]

I'm trying to tell what you're talking about in specific, because I thought I was handling everything.

[ Clearly, a mix of both options.

And because clearly, if Colin is talking about one thing, then Duke doesn't need to let him know about others accidentally. If he doesn't already know about them. She's having trouble telling that now. ]

[freedom_engineer]

[Colin just gives Duke a flat, unimpressed look.]

REALLY.

[He doesn't even bother to disguise the lack of belief in that statement.]

[notduchess]

[ Yes, actually, she did think she had things under control. The plague was uncomfortable on a few different levels but it wasn't like that was going to happen again, right?

On the other hand, his disbelieving single word reply has her wondering if her guess about him knowing what was bothering her was completely unfounded. Or was he just trying to get her to say something about it.

So what to say? ]

I may be a few years short of forty, but I'm not terribly contort able with being seen naked when it isn't on my terms. [ It's truth, and also avoiding the point a bit as well. ] it probably saved my life and all, but ...

[freedom_engineer]

... Understandable, I suppose. Not ever culture can be one where the living body is simply a day to day object.

[Colin nods to himself. He doesn't believe that's everything, not by a long shot, but she's seemingly clammed up. Hopefully it's not something that will get her killed in the future. Her issue with baths alone was bad enough...]

Still, you didn't make things easy for those of us treating you.

[Have a smirk, Duke. And a look that says "I know you're not telling me everything."]

[notduchess]

[ She doesn't have problems with them when she's bathing herself! ]

... Be glad I didn't have the energy to splash you?

[ She remembers being too hot and too cold and not wanting to do anything more than being a pain. Unless that counts as not making things easy? ]