Final Log; Open

[stopthat_destro]

Who: Rex, Open
Where: Infirmary OR Rex's room if anyone's stopping by post-infirmary
When: Today through the next few days, I suppose.
Warnings: DOUBTFUL

Comments

[no_fastolfe]

Martha was leaving, but Vasilia still needed regular medication to keep her immune system artificially robust. She was quiet as she entered the infirmary, her eyes searching for traces of the other woman that might remain.

She noticed, unconsciously, something that she could not put words to, and frowning, approached Rex Lewis' bed.

[stopthat_destro]

Rex heard somebody else approach and, after a beat, shifted onto his back so he could see who it was. He half-expected it to be a vengeful inmate-- or warden, really-- wielding a makeshift weapon, but when he saw that it was Vasilia, he relaxed slightly. She appeared to be unarmed and, even if she was angry with him, at least... well, he figured he could take her in a fight.

Maybe.

(Okay, he wasn't entirely certain.)

He cleared his throat a little, frowning, not because he was unhappy to see her, so much as he figured this would be... awkward, to say the least.

"Hello," he murmured, his voice a bit scratchy from lack of use.

[no_fastolfe]

"You've been asleep for some time," the spacer woman said, frowning more in vexation at the barge's method of containment than at Rex himself.

"Would you like me to fetch a doctor? You sound pained."

[stopthat_destro]

Rex shook his head, running a hand through his hair to try to flatten it down. He hadn't seen a mirror yet, but he assumed "bed head" would've been an understatement right now.

"No, I'm fine. Just... thirsty." He paused. "How long have I been asleep?"

[no_fastolfe]

"It has been roughly a month," she said, the imprecision only because she wasn't sure on which day, exactly, he had fallen into the coma. "There was a flood which you will have been glad to have missed. Small mischieveous creatures."

She had not shared the panic of some barge citizens-- odd, she was loathe to admit, that she not panic-- but though his plan had been a failure and a dangerous one it was clear to her that his intention had been to dismantle the barge and leave its inhabitants safe. She could blame him for the consequences, but that had staled and gone hollow quickly, replaced with sympathy. A disastrous engineering failure was always emotionally impactful.

And so there was a faint sympathy in her demeanor when she offered, cautiously: "I could get you some water, if you like."

[stopthat_destro]

He blinked, then let out a soft, bitter laugh. "Well, it sounds like business as usual, then," he said in a resigned sort of voice, moving to sit up. He pulled his knees a little closer to his chest.

"That would be... welcome, thank you."

[no_fastolfe]

"I am afraid so," she said, and left him briefly, returning with a new, sterile plastic cup of water that she offered over. "These comas are disorienting. Though-- in my experience, strangely restful? How do you feel?"

[stopthat_destro]

Rex accepted the cup with a softly-spoken thanks and took a sip. "Relaxed, oddly enough. I thought I would be... angrier, if I'd ever fallen into one of these." He took another drink, then looked at her curiously. "You're not... angry with me for what I did, are you?"

[no_fastolfe]

"My own time in stasis was soothing, as well. Free from conflict." She smiled without humor. "A rest, from the state of this place. I am not angry with you, Doctor Lewis. I was, certainly, in my initial terror of the land we were plunged into and in the distress of my friends, I was furious. But...it has been a month. And I am a scientist. In more than two centuries of experiment and development alike I have failed, too. On similar scales, with similarly catastrophic results, if only personally."

Her face became serious. "Others are still furious. But I? No."

[stopthat_destro]

He smiled faintly, himself. That was exactly it, why he'd felt so calm and resigned upon waking up. It had been freedom from the Barge, even if he couldn't actively enjoy it due to having been rendered unconscious.

"If I had suspected something like that would have happened, I wouldn't have done it," he mused, then finished off the glass of water. When he moved to set it on the bedside table, he paused, eyes falling on a small, golden flower somebody had left there. He gingerly picked it up, fingers stroking over the petal.

"Thank you for understanding."

[no_fastolfe]

"Our risks, unfortunately, are commensurate with what we have to gain. Of course." She nodded.

"A beautiful bloom. Your..lover? Perhaps?"

[stopthat_destro]

"Precisely," he nodded, then looked at the flower again curiously. "And no... I don't think so. I'm not sure where he would acquire something like this. Unless they have these in the green house?" To be honest, he'd rarely been there. "Then again, I'm not sure who else would leave this."

[no_fastolfe]

Vasilia shook her head in equal confusion. "I don't recognize it at all. But it does not at least seem dangerous?"

[stopthat_destro]

He laughed a little, setting the flower back down. "True. It would be a strange method of assassination." Then again, with somebody like, what was her name... Poison Ivy on the Barge, a deadly flower wasn't actually beyond the realm of possibility. How unnerving. His smile faded after a beat. He cleared his throat again and decided to change the subject. "So, aside from troublesome creatures, have I missed anything else?"

[no_fastolfe]

"Little enough. Some very odd decorations have appeared aboard, though, and the deck has started to accumulate snowfall." She smiled a little at the nonsensical nature of that.

[stopthat_destro]

"Decorations?" he repeated, then furrowed his brow a little, calculating how long he'd been out... Was it December now? If there was snow, then it sounded like it. That had been his experience the past two Decembers, after all.

Two. Coming up on his third. He's been here too long.

"Like... mistletoe, candy canes?" He rubbed his eyes. "Be careful. They sometimes have strange effects on people."