Day 32: Intercom, Dawn

[damned_intercom]

The sky was slightly cloudly as the sun began to rise into the sky, but not enough to put a damper on the Head Doctor's daytime mood. The sound of him humming the intercom jingle came on just as the jingle itself ended, and he paused as he realized his silly antics had been caught on the microphone

Comments

M??

[promisedawhale]

"An-another dream! Yes, that's what it is! Certainly I'm not awake! Yohohoho!" Brook rambled out quickly before finishing with a nervous laugh. As he tried to convince himself with words, his gaze remained fixated on his hands, fingers clenching back and forth for what must have been the hundredth time. No matter how many times he did it, they were still the same - honest to goodness fingers with skin covering the bone. He could see the calluses he'd earned from playing his instruments, and there was even some dirt under his fingernails for effect!

Never mind that the place he'd awoken in hadn't been the cabin of a ship, or that his clothes were different, or that his Nakama on the Straw Hat Pirate Crew were missing or that he couldn't see hide nor hair of the Rumbar Pirates or... well or anything some other person would have noticed really! He shouldn't have been dreaming about being back in his human body in the first place! Things had been settled! He had a crew willing to take him back to Laboon so that he could fulfill his promise; his journey was going to be completed! So why this again, and why so... so... he honestly couldn't place it. This dream didn't feel at all like it should have, or would have, or could have. Everything about it felt far more real than any of his previous dreams had ever allowed.

But that was just too impossible!

His head jerked up, eyes (if they were really there at all) turning to look at a wall. "Yes, I'll just have to wake myself up!" he announced then took one long stride towards the wall. It just had to be a dream, so there was really only one safe way to wake himself up. Well, safe for someone who weighted only as much as a pile of dead bones.

"Forty-five degrees!" He fell forward face first towards the wall and expected that his lack of weight would allow him to lean against the wall in a perfect right triangle. The triangle was managed for all of a second before Brook’s face went sliding the length of the wall and then crashed into the floor. "I... tai!" he yelped, rolling over and grabbing at his wall-burned face. The skin, and it definitely still felt like it was skin, was warm and stung like no tomorrow! His nose particularly!

"T-t-t-t-t-that can't be!" his voice cracked with panic through his stuttered rush. It hurt. It hurt! It couldn't hurt! Hurting meant that... that this was... that he was...! "SOMEONE WAKE ME UP!" he shrieked, bolting to his feet and throwing his hands towards the ceiling. Either a dream or a nightmare or reality, he didn't care anymore! He just needed to know!

Re: M??

[promisedawhale]

"Mister Rousseau?!" the nurse shrieked in response to his own as she stood gawking in the doorway.

The shouting stopped on both sides and Brook, turning only his head back to see, manage a very simple "Eh?" at seeing her.

"Really, it's far too early for you to be shouting, and you're already awake, I assure you," she continued calmly as she scurried in to get him. He'd calmed down easily enough so maybe he'd just had a bad dream. Poor thing. "Everything's all right now, so let's get you to breakfast, hm? There are so many other patients for you to meet."

Watching the white-clad woman enter and speak registered, but did not get Brook to move from his position. He'd already been faced with the shock of a situation that wasn't possible, and now there was something completely random making an appearance! What in the Grand Line was going on!? "I'm… a-awake?" he stuttered, trying to get his facts straight.

"Yes, I already told you so," she nodded.

He broke his stance, whirling around in one sweep of panic. "Then the captain...!" Yorki... was it Yorki or... or Luffy? He paused, unable to grasp the words. So many questions were coming to him. If he was awake - really, really awake and alive and with the skin he could feel clinging to his frame - then had everything just been a dream? But how was it possible to dream up such heartache and joy all at once?! And the Straw Hat Crew - they had become his Nakama! Such wonderful friends could not simply be dreamt up! He put a hand to his forehead, suddenly feeling dizzy.

What a terrible dream he must have had to have been rattled so? The nurse frowned, then reached out and took his free hand. "It's all right, dear. Just a bad dream. You'll feel better after you get some food in you."

For all of his confusion, Brook allowed himself to be led by the woman. Maybe she was right, and since he never did pass up the opportunity for food, it could help him get things straight. And this could all still be a dream somehow. That was always a possibility.

Just another dream.