and you might say it's self-destructive [closed]

[handofrapture]

Who: Big Sister and Angela Ziegler
When: Early February
Where: A hospital in Kauto
What: Mercy finds the Big Sister poking around a hospital looking for drugs. Y’know, as one does.
Warnings: Discussion of drugs and addiction



[Ever since she arrived in this strange new world, the Big Sister’s inability to speak or write has been a constant obstacle. Unlike Rapture, people here actually expect her to communicate which, for a Big Sister, is a fairly tall order. Usually, it leads to mutual frustration. Here, though? It actually serves her purposes quite well.

She’s been left in a doctor’s office after the staff weren’t sure what else to do with her. After all, nothing about her appearance looks particularly healthy – the dull, grayish skin and yellow film over her eyes make sure of that – but neither could they figure out a way to ask her what’s wrong. So they simply booked her for a physical exam with the next available doctor and hoped for the best.

Not that the Big Sister is actually planning to stick around to see this “doctor.” She’s out of the room the second the nurse’s head is turned, eyes wide and alert as she moves through the hospital’s corridors. There has to be somewhere here that they work with plasmids – if she can find those, she’ll be sure to find ADAM.

She does her best to stay out of sight, easier now that she’s out of her clunky armor. This place doesn’t have all of Rapture’s dark corners, but there are enough rooms that she never runs out of places to duck into. It’s just that eventually, one of those rooms isn't empty...]

Comments

[cadeuces]

[ Unfortunately enough, Angela doesn't stay on top of the network— most of it was pennies and dimes at best, petty at its worst, and so she largely glances right over it unless the words or images draw up alarm bells. She hadn't seen Big Sister's post, though an abstract attempt at communicating via chalk and rock would have been something indeed.

There's a flash of recognition, a return of wariness, and then the faintest sensation of bristling— yet she snatches a few pencils and remains in the room as Angela begins her doodling, clearly no art student but fine enough at encompassing the anatomical basics.

And a touch of amusement quirks her lips when she realizes she's caught the girl's attention, and she begins adding in a few other details. Organs, mostly, though not nearly all of them— there are lungs, and a stomach, and the general suggestion of intestines. People don't exactly feel their bladder or their diaphragm, after all. On second thought, she'll add kidneys, though.

Right. Not the best, but: ]

And here we are. You don't seem to be hurt, but if you're in pain, can you show me where, and what sort of pain it is? Here; if it's a sharp stabbing pain, draw this. [ And with a quick little stick figure on the side, she draws an arrow pointing to the stomach. ] Or if it's an ache, like you'd bumped into something and it still hurts later, maybe this? [ Squiggly lines by the "shin" of the leg, not that stick figures had knees. ] Or if there's anything else you'd like to draw, we can figure it out.

[handofrapture]

[The Big Sister recognizes some of the organs; one didn’t need to be a doctor in Rapture to be well-acquainted with bodies in various states of wholeness. She watches the woman finish the drawing and begin an explanation of symbols – easy enough to follow, but the options presented aren’t exactly useful to the Big Sister given why she’s actually here.

Her gaze moves from the drawing to the woman. Would she be willing to help if she knew what the Big Sister had come here for? Perhaps, like many things in Rapture, it would come at a price, but that’s still more of a chance than the Big Sister has now. And if the woman should refuse her, she won’t be any worse off than she is now.

Still, her gaze is dubious as she draws closer, staying on the woman until she’s close enough to snatch the drawing away and step back. Once she has some distance between them again, she presses the paper against the wall and begins to draw, gaze snapping up every few seconds as if watching for the woman’s reaction. She starts with a grey pencil (she hadn’t taken a black one), drawing a line extending out of the figure’s wrist. Attached to the line is a rectangle, with a small T-shape extending out of its opposite side. With some squinting, one may be able to recognize the shape as that of a crude syringe. Once that’s done, the Big Sister fills in the rectangle with red. She circles the shape once for emphasis, and then, in a shaky hand that speaks more to memorization than understanding, she writes a single word in broken red letters: ADAM.

She looks at the drawing for a moment more – and then suddenly turns the paper away, hiding it from view. She looks from the paper pressed against her chest back to the woman, her eyes narrowing as a growl of warning escapes her throat.

If the woman laughs, she will hurt her.]

[cadeuces]

[ Angela remains steady through the approach, never moving to reach out for the skittish girl or showing any possessiveness of the drawing she'd made and subsequently allows her to abscond with, hip settling against the counter as she waits patiently for her to add what she wished, watching what she assumes starts as an intravenous line turn into more, taking on the shape of a syringe— but her idle smile never falters as the girl looks back over her shoulder at her, nor does she seem to be completely enthralled in the drawing. A careful neutrality to present as her mind runs through the possibilities of what is drawn on paper, watching her add red to it and struggle to write out a few letters that gives her a clear enough understanding that it's tracing shapes instead of communicating via word.

Then it's finished, considered, and promptly snatched up against the girl's chest to hide it from view with a warning. Angela's smile widens just a fraction and her brows draw up, head tipping. ]

It's all right; my abilities are far from passable, I have no reason to judge. May I see?

[ As if she hadn't been watching already. Welp. The point is, this is to be done on the patient's terms, even if it's here in the washroom intended for staff. ]

[handofrapture]

[The growling quiets with the assurance, though the Big Sister’s gaze remains uncertain. She gives the drawing another onceover. Her own addition to it had been relatively small, nothing like the extensive scrawling she’d done on the rocks over the network. It shouldn't warrant any derision, she thinks.

After a moment, she looks back up at the woman—and, dipping her head once as a sign of permission, holds the paper out to her.]