[ Eames comes to in bits and pieces of awareness. When he looks back and tries to recapture this moment, he won't remember those bits and pieces, just that he was asleep one moment and then awake the next. But in reality, it happens slowly. He feels his toes first, his fingers, he can tell he's breathing, he feels cold. Then he blinks and is staring at the ceiling. Then he hears the pages flipping.
With sluggish muscles, he pushes himself up to his elbows. He rubs a hand over his face. His mouth tastes like something died in it. When he drops his hand back to the cot and glances to the side, there's a stranger in a suit sitting nearby, reading something in an actual book. ]
What's all this then? [ he asks in a thick, slurred voice. ]
[ The man turns his head to look at Eames and there is something a little odd about the motion. The rest of his body remains completely still, book still poised in front of him, a page half-turned. ]
Ah. You're awake, [ he says and rises, though something odd happens between the moment where he's sitting and the moment that he's standing. Almost like a glitch in a video feed and in that glitch the book that he held goes somewhere (where exactly isn't clear). The man's shoes make a soft sound on the metal floor. When he touches Eames in an attempt to take his pulse, his skin does not seen warm nor cold. ] Can you stand?
[ Eames is still just out of it enough that his brain can't quite process the man's fundamental oddness. It notes it, takes stock of it but for the moment, the simplest and therefore likely best assumption to make is that the oddness is in Eames's drugged brain and not in the man. Eames pushes himself up further onto his elbows and ignores the question. ]
Posh for a nurse, [ he observes. ] Or are you here to arrest me? [ He pauses, looks the man up and down again, and corrects, ] Or break my kneecaps if I stint on payment?
[ The man notes Eames' pulse, then places both hands beneath his jaw, fingertips feeling for his lymph nodes, then up the side of his face for his temperature. Posh for a nurse seems to be the most accurate assessment so far as he shines a small beam of light (where had the flashlight come from) into one of Eames' eyes and then the next before straightening again. ]
I don't work for Ms. Ryuguu, Charles. Or the authorities. [ Both prospects seem to amuse him, vaguely. ]
Comments 83
With sluggish muscles, he pushes himself up to his elbows. He rubs a hand over his face. His mouth tastes like something died in it. When he drops his hand back to the cot and glances to the side, there's a stranger in a suit sitting nearby, reading something in an actual book. ]
What's all this then? [ he asks in a thick, slurred voice. ]
Reply
Ah. You're awake, [ he says and rises, though something odd happens between the moment where he's sitting and the moment that he's standing. Almost like a glitch in a video feed and in that glitch the book that he held goes somewhere (where exactly isn't clear). The man's shoes make a soft sound on the metal floor. When he touches Eames in an attempt to take his pulse, his skin does not seen warm nor cold. ] Can you stand?
Reply
Posh for a nurse, [ he observes. ] Or are you here to arrest me? [ He pauses, looks the man up and down again, and corrects, ] Or break my kneecaps if I stint on payment?
Reply
I don't work for Ms. Ryuguu, Charles. Or the authorities. [ Both prospects seem to amuse him, vaguely. ]
I work for you.
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