Stuck in the Medbay: Visitors Wanted [OPEN]

[psychadrellic]

Who: Thane Krios and YOU
When: All through October
Where: THE MEDBAY
What: Visiting the terminally ill assassin
Warnings: Terminal illness? Probably nothing major, will edit if that changes.

Thane had known for a while now that his last days would be spent in a hospital of some flavor, probably hooked up to a respirator and peppered with sessions of physical therapy designed to maximize his comfort even as he slowly suffocated, until he did finally, inevitably, slowly suffocate.

He had also expected it to be a fairly quiet and isolated time, disturbed only by the occasional hospital staff member.

The only person he'd told of his new whereabouts was Shepard, and he knew the commander could be trusted to be discreet. The only other person who knew he'd been hospitalized was Hawke, since she'd been there when the hospitalization had happened. Somehow, even in the somewhat brief time he'd held acquaintance with her, Thane could tell that the woman did not possess a discrete bone in her entire body.

So, naturally, he blames her entirely for any concerned visitors that might show up.

Not that he particularly minds company, because he doesn't. It's just that he never expects it, and so is, in turn, always surprised by it.

Hospital Room
Visitors can often find him in his assigned room, sitting lotus-style in the middle of his bed, back ramrod straight and hands resting comfortably on his knees. He's shirtless, dressed in nothing but a pair of soft cotton pants. He's also hooked up to a respirator, which hums quietly and soothingly in the background as it delivers much-needed oxygen to his soggy lungs. He seems to be meditating, or maybe just sleeping, but will look up regardless when someone comes in.

Physical Therapy
Sometimes visitors can catch him on his way to or from physical therapy, which for him are short but frequent sessions of being hooked up to a different respirator as well as various monitors while performing a series of Tai Chi-like exercises designed to encourage oxygen flow to his muscles and organs. The ship's doctors, to their credit, are working their butts off studying his disease and formulating treatments to decrease the severity of its effects. The doctors won't allow visitors while he's in the middle of therapy, but before and after is just fine.

Exam Room
The exam room is doctors only, but it's a great place for said doctors to study Thane up close, ask him questions, and attempt to get a feel for what exactly is wrong with his stupid lizard physiology.

[ooc: I'm down to match brackets or prose, whichever is preferred!

Thane's going to be hospitalized all month, while the doctors do their best to figure out how to fix him. PC doctors are welcome and encouraged to come poke and prod him as well!]

Comments

[tearmeanewone]

Intelligent yes, good with highly advanced technology.... [She trails off and gives him a little so-so hand motion. It's hit and miss sometimes, but she's alright with that. Rome wasn't built in a day and so on.]

[She's not surprised when Thane says that she didn't have to do this for him. Truth be told, Elizabeth had paused while trying to put together this package for Thane and wondered if she was overdoing it. She shrugs and repeats what she'd told herself in that moment:]

I wanted to. [After a beat of hesitation, and tucking some of her hair behind her ear, she continues.] I've never had many friends, Thane. Or many people who cared enough to make sure I was alright after being injured. I reckon... I have to keep those people whose hearts are big enough to care close.

...I don't have many of them left, even here. [Ivan. She'd lost Ivan and she'd lost her control. But she has to keep on living, keep on engaging with the world, not get lost in the time they'd had together. Elizabeth swallows, and it's difficult from the lump in her throat, but she manages.] And I hear that this is how most people make friends, so I figured I should keep learning how to do that.

[psychadrellic]

[Oh, no. Oooooooh, no. He blinks when she starts pouring out her heart to him, and by the time she finishes, he's gone very still. Informing people of what's happening to him has never been easy, but he's definitely noticed degrees of difficulty as the days have passed and he's had more visitors.

This is, without question, going to be the hardest.]

Elizabeth...

[He really has no idea how to proceed from there, but he knows he has to. He swallows, clears his throat, and continues,]

...When you found out that I was here, were you also given any indication as to why...?

[He doesn't really need to ask. Everything she's just told him tells him that, already. But it's the gentlest lead-up he can think of.]

[tearmeanewone]

The report said you were ill. And... well, I figured it must be serious, given you were rushed here and it's been more than a couple days. [Probably from the time they escaped the planet until she was done with her tantrum. So quite a few days, over a week.]

Must be a pretty tough thing you're fighting off. Most people who are here for a long time, they're usually gravely injured. Not ill... [She trails off, looking at him with some small amount of trepidation. This is the future. Illness should be a thing of the past. Surely he's not... losing this fight, is he?]

[That would be ridiculous, after all.]

[psychadrellic]

[Well, okay, that means she's not totally unprepared for what he's going to tell her...just mostly. Could be better, could be worse.

He nods to acknowledge her words, and hesitates a moment or so more before responding.]

I've been ill for several years. Careful management of my condition can help extend life expectancy, but the year we spent on the island took things completely out of my hands.

[And no one is more upset about that than Thane. Forgetting the state his lungs are in, for a man possessing perfect memory recall, to have the events of an entire year smeared and blurred beyond recounting is an extremely uncomfortable sensation.]

My lungs are failing. The technology here is is sufficient to increase my comfort, but it will not extend my life.

[tearmeanewone]

...you're going to die.

[Elizabeth seems a little shaken by this, but in the next moment she's clearly thinking.] You need to make a record of important things. Things that you would feel terrible about forgetting. People forget things when they come back.

[If they come back. Like she had. The Ingress was in such meltdown now, how can she be sure? Elizabeth can't think about that right now though, she can't think about losing another friend.]

This isn't it, I promise. I know it isn't. ...I've died on this ship before.

[psychadrellic]

[If there were some metaphorical future point that he could reach to look back on this conversation, he would no doubt be amused at the way she echoed his discomfort at losing memories by telling him that if he comes back after he dies, he's likely to lose even more memories. Right now, though, the only feeling he can muster is alarm. Of course he's been told quite a few times that if he dies, he's likely to be revived, but no one had seemed to think it important to mention he might lose some of his memories. Until Elizabeth.

He wonders, briefly, how long it would take to record 40 years' worth of memories.]

You did? What happened? If it's not too uncomfortable to talk about, that is.

[tearmeanewone]

[Uncomfortable? Not at all. It's a lot easier to recount than some other things in her life, oddly enough.]

Not at all. I suppose before you arrived, the ship was boarded by people from Caducus Secondary. We had visited Caducus Primary and an Ingress accident split the planet in half. Naturally, they blamed us though I think we weren't entirely at fault-- but that's another story.

Anyway... they boarded with the intention of killing all of us. They tried to get into the barracks and I stopped them. I destroyed the panel that would lift the door and did everything I could to keep them away. And I did, but I didn't walk away from that one.

I woke up in the middle of being revived, and I remember Thán over me and feeling terrified and disoriented. And when I woke up, I was missing my pinky. That seemed to be the end of it until I realized I couldn't remember a very important name. The name of the first person I killed.

[This is clearly the most uncomfortable part of the whole thing. She still can't remember it, and she should.]