paixaorpg | Shrinking, shrinking [active]

Entry tags:

Shrinking, shrinking [active]

Character(s): River and Jayne (and Simon?)
Content: River being insane
Setting: #356 Paradisio Hospital, M4
Time: Evening
Warnings: ~~screaming~~ none yet.

River is trying to sleep under her bed. The boogieman can't scare her if she is the boogieman herself, so she needs to sleep under her bed and not on it. She told the nurses to cut the legs off and put the bed on the floor but they shook their heads and thought she was crazy. She really didn't need nurses to tell her that, even babies would know she isn't quite right in the head. River stuck out her tongue at the nurses when they thought that, and they sneered angrily at her and left.

They talk too much; inside and outside. She would not have come to them if there wasn't a life to be saved. River heard the shrinking girl whispering. She thought it was ghosts, but the girl talked louder than that, inside. Shrinking, shrinking, she said. 79, 78, 77, 76 and soon to be 70. Seven is a perfect a number and zero simply perfection. River agrees whole-heartedly, but she knows that Simon would be angry at her for it. She will keep it a secret; just between her and River.

She had stepped into the hospital, walked to the reception desk and muttered the girl's name, "River." The receptionist misunderstood and thought it as her name, how foolish. Noting her half-frozen dress and her discolored skin, the nurse thought her a patient and brought her to a room where her frostbitten hands could be treated. Treating bites first instead of letting her help the girl reach perfection, people could be so stupid. But at least they meant well.

One of them was especially nice. She called her darling and sweetie, like nice people usually do. But she pulled out a needle and River instinctively let out an angry high-pitched scream at her. Needles aren't nice. The nurse dropped the needle on the floor in shock and quickly stumbled out the door to escape the unrelenting scream.

River continued for a few seconds more before finally realizing that the boogieman is probably not scared of screaming. She thought once that maybe he feeds on screams. Quickly, she stumbled off the bed and shuffled under it. There. No one can scare her now, 'cause she'll be the one doing the scaring. She won't scare Simon when he comes though, she'll know when he comes. She giggles a little at the thought of scaring Jayne when he comes.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Jayne was, quite frankly, pissed off.

After making his way through further rain, only to end up in burning heat and then frozen winter, he was more than fed up with this weather bullshit going on. His hat was currently frozen to his head, and he wasn't thrilled about it.

To top it all off, he still had to see the psycho-girl. This day was shaping up nicely. He should have just stayed in the damn donut shop with Vash and that weird kid. Once he'd gotten to the M4 area, it wasn't a huge leap of logic, even logic as simple as Jayne's, to assume the girl was in the hospital that was huge and right there. Annoyed as hell, he went inside it.

Walking up to the front desk to the receptionist, a woman with too much lipstick and a smile that took up over half of her face, and asked in the gruffest, least concerned tone he could come up with where the rat was. She cheerfully asked him if he was related to her, obvious mistrust shining through her carefully painted expression of the man currently toting enough weaponry to start a war in some small country.

"Older brother. One of two." He grumbled. The idea was disgusting, who would want to be related to those two?, but he didn't want any trouble for the lady. "Kiki." He supplied as his name when she asked. She wrote his name on a name tag in a weird, swirly script and gave it to him. He put it on with minimal grumbling.

"Room #356. Visiting hours are only for another hour." Not bothering to nod to this, he headed for the elevator.

After some difficulty with the strange numbering system going on, he finally located room 356. Scowling his Best Scowl, he opened up the door to the room to find-

The bed was empty.

Huh.

Jayne literally growled. "What the hell was that lady doing, giving me the wrong room number?" This just took the cake, didn't it?

River let out a surprised gasp when the door suddenly opens. Stifling a smile, she slowly drags her knees closer to her, placing her arms around them. Jayne's growl is almost enough to make her into a giggle but she stops herself from making any sound whatsoever. She contemplates a let's-scare-Jayne plan in her head before deciding that it would be childish of her to do that. River is seventeen after all, going on eighteen. She will be an adult soon, so she must learn to be adult-like.

"Pssst!" She calls out to Jayne, not budging from her spot against the deepest corner under the bed. "Over here," she whispers to him a great secret. Boogiemen never hesitate to scare people, so she must not let the real Boogieman know that she is fake. Must take extra care. Be careful. Be safe.

"Don't be so noisy," she reprimands Jayne. "Get under here or the Boogieman will get you!" River tells him with an amused smile. "He likes to scare bad boys the most so you better hide quick!"

His first thought was that he was hearing things.

His second was he was going to choke the life out of River as soon as he got her out from under the bed.

She never ceased to prove just how crazy she was whenever he was around, and she wasn't getting any better if her hiding under the bed was any sign. Where was that wretched brother of hers? Hadn't he said he was coming? Shit, he wasn't going to be left with her was he?

"Brat, what the hell are you doing under the bed instead of on top of it like sane folk?" He asked while walking over to the bed, crouching so he could look under it and at her. She looked like she was in one piece, a pity really, and he had to wonder why she was in the hospital.

River tries to get Jayne to be quiet with a loud "Shh!" She looks around the room from where she is before turning back to Jayne. "He might hear you!" She hisses to him rather angrily. Why is it so hard to understand that she is simply trying to keep him safe from the Boogieman? Some people take so much looking after.

She scoots a little closer to the wall, tapping the floor beside her while smiling sanely at Jayne. "Sit here," she tells him. "Simon will come soon. We hide first, be safe." Placing her chin on her knees, she giggles a little at some thought of other. "The Boogieman won't bother us once Simon is here," she says as if it were some reassurance, "he hates needles."

The senior nurse, Prue, was attending to another patient when the new intern suddenly ran panicking into the room as if she had seen a ghost. She proceeded to blabber on about some girl or other who should be placed in the psychiatric ward instead of the general one. Some girl in room 356, she had said. Interns were always so bothersome. Apologizing to the patient, Prue sent the intern an irritated look before walking over to room 356.

Stopping behind the door, she quietly placed the side of her face against it to check if the supposedly hysterical girl was in a better mood. It was silent. In her hurry, the intern must have forgotten to lock the door in case the girl ran away. They were bothersome and incompetent. Prue knocked on the door three times before cracking the door open.

"Miss Tam?" She inquired into the room, having read the name label on the door. Prue narrowed her eyes a little at the sight of a big and tall man in the room. If the girl was supposedly meant for the psychiatric ward then she shouldn't have any visitors until the doctor in charge allowed it. The situation is getting very frustrating.

"Sir, I don't think she should have any visitors at the moment," she told him while walking into the room and closing the door quietly behind her. Perhaps the intern was right about the girl being not quite well in the head. Prue noticed the girl's feet under the bed. Walking over to the man, she said with a low voice, "We might have to move her to the psychiatric ward. And she might not be..." Prue tried to find the most polite word, "stable, at the moment."

The train ride, had, fortunately, been short, and Simon had spent most of it messaging back and forth with River over the Cortex. Public transportation was a big risk, but for her he was more than willing to take it - and he hadn't been bound by law so far, which was probably a good sign.

He had been on high alert ever since finding out River was in the hospital, though. She hated hospitals to begin with, and he couldn't tell how badly hurt she might be, and depending on how Alliance-friendly this planet was, well - he had to assume she hadn't been found out, at least, since she still had Cortex access, but - frankly, he was worried as hell. And that wasn't even taking into account that Jayne had found her first.

But when, after a short walk in what little snow was still there (it had warmed up quite a bit), he and Tinker actually arrived at the hospital, Simon was able to relax just a little bit. Like the rest of the buildings around here, it was so anachronistic he couldn't even imagine it being an Alliance facility. Maybe he'd be able to get her out without causing too much of a fuss.

Still, he didn't think they'd let him wander around without a guest pass. As they entered the lobby, he crossed quickly to the receptionist. "Hello, uh, I'm here to see..." he paused for a second - River should've known not to use her real name, but he had no idea what she might have told them it was. "... my sister," he finished, pretty smoothly, considering. "Room ... 356?" He hoped he'd remembered that right.

"What's your name, dear?" said the receptionist pleasantly.

Simon hesitated; he'd want her to recognize the name if they paged her that he was coming, though. "Simon," he said after a moment, hoping that was enough.

Apparently it was. "Thank you. Go on up, but keep in mind visiting hours end in a little under an hour." The receptionist jotted something down, then pointed with her pen over the counter at Tinker. "Can I help you, miss?"

Tinker stuck with Simon on the train, and while he was busy talking with River, she was making a list of the supplies she knew she was going to need. And of course, the list went onto her datapad, and not her journal. The young vicereine needed to be sure that she would have the information at had later, and while the journal was a useful tool, she couldn't rely upon it the way she did her datapad. And besides that, the datapad held all of the gate designs and blueprints, as well as the calculations that would be needed to get the gate open to where she wanted it to go.

The warm weather that they experienced from the station to the hospital made for a nice change of pace to the bitter cold they had encountered before. She didn't have to worry about her ears freezing off. And what a blessing that was!

The hospital seemed so very different from the hospices Tinker had left behind on Elfhome. With all of the electronic equipment and metal, how did they ever get any healing done? She almost missed the receptionist speaking to her.

"I'm here with him," she stated, motioning to Simon. "I hope that's not a problem?"

River tenses up when she hears the nurse calling her name. Maybe if she stays still enough then she wouldn't notice her, but she knows that she is below already, or is that Jayne? She can't tell. River bites her lower lip to keep herself from making any sound. She can hear what the nurse is saying to Jayne; she can hear it three times.

And she hears what should be unheard, "I'm not crazy!" She yells at the nurse. "Told me I was unwell, need fixing, but I was fine! Cracked me open like an egg but you don't know how to piece it back together," she pulls her knees even closer to herself, hiding her face behind them. But she has always been broken. Those kind doctors tried to fix her but they can only do so much, it says. Tch, what an ungrateful bitch.

"They missed one piece..." River chokes on a sob, "You missed one piece." Drawing a breath, she stops herself from sobbing and gathers her courage before crawling slowly out from under the bed. "As long as you give me back the missing piece," she tells the nurse.

Prue jerked in surprise when the girl suddenly yelled at her. She was crazy alright. At the limit of her patience, Prue felt like calling some of the male nurses and have the girl dragged to the psychiatric ward instead. Experience told her that it would not be wise however, psychiatric patients seem to have slightly superhuman powers most of the time. Very troublesome people they were.

With the amount of trouble they cause, Prue didn't think that having a psychiatric ward would be beneficial for the hospital at all. All those nurses and doctors could do more with the time they spend trying to calm down one patient. Prue was about to go out and get some tranquilizer as well as some more nurses to help her when the girl approached her with what seemed to be a sane expression. As long as you give me back the missing piece. Whatever did she mean?

"Of course," Prue replied with composure. "Now come along with me and we'll put you back together," She gave the girl the most comforting smile she could muster, "You'll be shiny as new when we're done." As if they would ever be done. Most of the patients get sent home when the doctors have given up on them anyway. Prue offered the girl a hand to hold, hoping that she would not suddenly turn crazy and bite it off or something.

"No problem at all," the receptionist said to Tinker with a plastic smile, pushing a sign-in sheet across the counter along with a fountain pen. "Just sign in here, and you can head straight up..."

Simon wasn't waiting for her, though. Room 356... third floor. He pressed the buzzer for the lift, glancing a bit nervously around to look for cameras - just in case. There didn't seem to be any, though.

The lift clattered into place, waiting, but the grate in front of it didn't open. It took a moment for Simon to realize it wasn't automatic, and he slid the door open manually. He was about to press the third-floor button when he remembered Tinker again - but she was coming, so he'd wait till she was inside before they headed up.

Tinker just nodded and took up the pen. She wrote her name in the flowing script she had learned from her Elfin cousins.

"Thank you," she told the receptionist before looking for Simon. The Vicereine really didn't want to get lost in this place. It was nothing like the hospices they had on Elfhome. She found him waiting in the elevator and joined him inside, smiling.

"I appreciate you waiting for me," she said. "I'm sure I would have gotten lost, otherwise."

River can hear something buzzing in the head, but she isn't quite sure whose head it is; hers or Prue's. The children at school used to call her prune head because she liked scrunching up her nose, now the other nurses thought of the nickname whenever they saw her but they don't dare to say it but Prue knows they're thinking it. River smiles amusedly as she places her hand in Prue's. The voices aren't mean to only River, sometimes.

"He's coming," River tells the nurse. "He can fix me but he doesn't have all the pieces," A thought comes to her mind and River frowns a little in what seemed to be suspicion. "If it were..." she hesitates, "Would it be... can you give me the pieces?" River looks up at the nurse. "He can fix me, make me like new."

The girl was starting to grate on her nerves, if she hadn't already. Prue let out a heavy sigh to show her irritation in hopes that the girl would comply. "We can fix you too, dear," Prue told her again, sternly. "Besides, this he, we don't know when he's coming."

Something told Prue that this he she was talking about might just be something in her head and not a real person. Besides, Prue didn't even get what the girl meant by pieces. Not that she should, the psychiatrists should take care of that. "Now come on," Prue sent an unfriendly parting smile to the big man who could be her relative while walking over to the door and attempting to drag the girl along with her.

Nope, he was quite real. In fact, he was en route right now.

"Oh, uh, no problem," Simon said to Tinker as the lift started rising. It was quick for being so old-fashioned, and it reached the third floor pretty promptly. He slid open the door as soon as it stopped and glanced around for a sign. 301-335, to the left; 336-370, to the right. Right it was, then.

So he started that way, first at a normal pace, but gradually getting faster as he approached. 52, 54 - 356! Anxious, he stopped just outside the open door - and lo, there she was. "River!" he exclaimed, stepping inside.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Shrinking, shrinking [active]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject