[Open] Dr. Medic's Sleepaway Funtimes Camp

[mementomoritz]

I. So girl keep telling me [network post]

[About three hours after the whole post-Esmeeting kerfuffle, every phone included in the Executor group chat suddenly blares loudly with an incoming post that appears to have every possible alert and priority notice the person writing it could find attached to it.]

ANYONE WHO ATE ANYTHING AT ESME'S HOUSE REPORT TO MEDIC IMMEDIATELY YOU ARE POISONED


[Well, you can't accuse her of burying the lede.]

i'm in my lab in invidia [The exact address and coordinates of the lab are attached along with the message, including a helpful photo of a scribbled map just in case anyone is really bad with directions.] if you ate ANY of the food esme served or if you're feeling sick, come here so i can treat you
if you find someone unconscious or unable to move on their own, BRING THEM HERE
if you don't have anyone around and think you need help getting here, reply to this message immediately

i threw up, so i tested some of the leftovers i took home
and that food is very, very poisoned
(also, if you brought leftovers home, don't eat them)


II. pick me up whenever i'm feeling down [in-person log]

[True to her word, Medic is ready and waiting in her lab the second anyone arrives.]

[The living room of the apartment she commandeered has been turned into a makeshift hospital. She's dragged cushions and mattresses in, laying them out on the floor and covering them with clean sheets and blankets to make sickbeds. Next to every bed is a glass of water and a bowl for, uh. Any stomach issues you might have to deal with.]

[Anyone healthy who walks in the door will be cheerfully pressganged into nursing duty.]

[The beds are set up facing the living room's lone TV, but well... this is Invidia. Guess who's probably on every channel.]

[You might have better luck with putting on a movie, but no one actually saw this coming, which means your available selection consists exclusively of stuff Medic brought with her from the Limbo library when she came down to Invidia. By which we mean exactly one film.]

[Whether having to see Esme's face is better or worse than watching Brutal Instinct again is a choice you're going to have to make amongst yourselves.]

Comments

i

[daughterofthemark]

oh no

i had a lot of snacks

am i going to die

[mementomoritz]

not if i fix it, you aren't!
please come here so i can do that

[Medic: the most reassuring possible bedside manner.]

@Phoenix

[discutio]

That conniving little

[He may or may not have activated speech to text a bit earlier than intended.]

Are you alright? Will you require any help?

[mementomoritz]

[I mean, it's a valid assessment.]

oh, I'M fine
but i wouldn't mind some extra hands down here
just in case she tries anything

[What? She tried to assassinate them once and the lab is in Invidia. She's a mad scientist, not a stupid scientist.]

@mona

[alcahest]

Are you alright, Medic?
I'll come help. I can at least keep an eye on anyone who's sick...

[mementomoritz]

oh, if anything actually happens to me you guys will probably have been dead for WEEKS

but thanks! it's very sweet of you to ask <3

[...apparently the library also had episodes of The Office. Who knew.]

even if you're not sick, you're welcome to stop by
i could always use an extra pair of hands [Hopefully she means still attached to the original owner, but the phrasing isn't encouraging.]

i - @blauendonau

[seasharp]

...

huh???

[wait WHAT

POISON WHAT]

[mementomoritz]

poison
like the stuff that makes you sick and maybe dead

confirmed symptoms include fever, nausea, and vomiting
potential but unconfirmed symptoms may also feature chills, shaking hands, blurred vision, unconsciousness, paralysis, difficulty breathing, and death

again

...i need a better phrase for that

@beast

[twibeast]

WHAT

[mementomoritz]

poison

[Was that not clear? She feels like she was pretty clear.]

i documented the process if you want to see?
i record ALL my experiments

@Brainiac

[pride_of_amarcia]

Do you know of anyone who you think was there and isn't accounted for for me to seek out?

[... Wow, Brainiac is suddenly dead serious. Weird.]

[mementomoritz]

[Hey, she can appreciate professionalism in crisis situations.]

almost everyone i can remember has checked in
but i don't see autumn or isabel on here yet
i think they both live in the communal house in limbo, so if you did a sweep of the building it wouldn't be a bad idea

[Probably they just haven't replied yet, but it never hurts to be careful, right?]

[phantasmagorial]

[ So, this is new! Rei has literally zero memory of being sick before in her life (unlife?), so this is an eye-opening if not exactly enjoyable experience. But Beast zoomed her over quickly enough that she's been seen to and plopped into one of the beds and just sort of... accepted her fate to stay here for the foreseeable future.

To her credit, she takes the whole thing rather well – she's not happy about it, but it's certainly less emotionally fraught and complicated than the whole last few weeks have been. Maybe the quiet and the express requirement to Get Some Goddamn Rest is doing her some good.

And get some rest she does – she spends a lot of time sleeping pretty deeply, and when she's awake, she's watching Brutal Instinct with a look of what I can only describe as open disdain. What is this movie. ]

That's definitely ketchup, right? [ In the midst of a particularly gory scene. It's beyond fake looking. ] Or maybe even hot sauce.

[ Once she's feeling a little more up to it, she also takes herself to visit the other patients as well – she's got a guilty sort of smile on her face as she approaches them, though. ]

Hi. How are you feeling so far...?

[mementomoritz]

I think it might actually be marinara. [Medic is just shaking her head slowly at this utter lack of scientific accuracy.] That's super not how stab wounds work! You only get spurting like that if you sever an artery, he got cut on the hand.

[Smiling cheerfully, she holds out a thermometer and puts a cup of what looks like chicken soup down next to Rei.] I just want to check your temperature at regular intervals to be safe- once I've recorded it, you can eat your soup, okay?

ii

[emberserker]

Esme...

[Wolfsbane's got her on the TV, of course, as she lies in bed. Both her hands are grasping the bedsheets tightly as she seethes.]

She has to have a weakness. Even if we move forward with the idol plan, that demon will bury them unless we do it right.

[mementomoritz]

Mm-hmm. [Medic just casually listening and nodding while she takes Wolfsbane's vitals.] Would you might sticking out your arm? It's hard to take your blood pressure accurately when you have your fists clenched like that.

[It's probably going to be high. Just guessing.]

[schardynfreude]

[Chiron can make time to swing by and stay his ass there. Helldad's here to do some healing, both to back up Medic and also to give her a break because listen. He's seen her joyously push herself and it's...a little upsetting. For obvious reasons but also, just, for other reasons? Reasons he can't fully articulate.

So, best give her a hand.

He'll let the girls do their idol thing. Feel free to gush about the idea and concept to him; this is all wild new shit to him. Though if any of the more adults are around, he might want to see if they have any better ideas about Project Cancel Esme.

Given this probably can be used as some heavy ammunition on their side, if they can figure out how to use it properly.

He otherwise doesn't necessarily want to talk about Esme. He won't bring her up unless they do first. It's, apparently, a sore subject for several of their order. And the Cogs. And reincarnation. For as smarmy and tonally nasty as he was at the mansion, he's back to being rather tired-looking and calm and quiet. No, he doesn't necessarily want to talk about that side of himself, either, but. There it is.]

[mementomoritz]

Phew. [Even with Medic's usual boundless enthusiasm for anything, well... medical, she's looking a little wilted by the end of the day, slumping down a bit as she leans against the wall.]

That's everyone accounted for, I think. [They're still recovering, but at least they'll be around to recover. She raises her head, looking over at Chiron.] I have some energy drinks in the fridge, if you need to rehydrate- they're on the bottom shelf, next to the blood samples.

II

[morelikeisabeast]

Isabel bursts into Medic's apartment holding her stomach and generally looking not fantastic. Her normal energetic self is impossible to repress for long, but cheery confidence has been replaced with fearful panic.

"I ATE THE SNACKS AM I GONNA DIE?"

Wait.

"AGAIN?"

[mementomoritz]

[Just wordlessly moving right over and grabbing Isabel's hand. As soon as Medic does, she'll feel her symptoms start to improve- although they aren't going away entirely.]

Not now, you aren't! [She's such a reassuring doctor.] Good thing you came right away, though- this is a nasty one! You know, if I didn't know better I could swear she was using snake venom in this stuff? It's very impressive.

[She lets go of Isabel's hand a moment later.] Come in and pick out a bed, you're going to need to rest for a while to get back to full strength.

I'd try just fixing everyone right away, but that takes a lot of power and according to some people I would quote-unquote "literally die, again". [She actually makes the airquotes.]

ii/log

[alcahest]

[ anyone who has seen Mona since the meeting with Esme will have found her in low spirits; she's slow to speak, and tends to space out with a hollow sort of melancholy look on her face. but she makes it to Medic's makeshift sickbay with Royal Veil in tow, and regardless of whatever is weighing on her at the moment, she does her best to help. any of the girls who have been poisoned will find her a dutiful caretaker, though not very talkative, which is a sudden change compared to her demeanour the rest of the time here in Invidia. she still smiles, and she's no less kind or gentle, but...

when she isn't looking after the girls, she's a little hard to get a hold of. she'll quietly disappear into one of the other rooms until she's needed again. it seems like maybe she's avoiding the rest of the group — some more than others.

the only person who does get her full engagement is Royal Veil, whose bedside she can often be found sitting beside. she talks to her with her head bowed in close, her voice low and soft, and a gentle smile. even from a glance, it's obvious that she's trying to cheer Veil up without getting any of the others involved. currently, she's showing her phone screen to Veil and pointing at something: ]

... and you can press the arrow to capitalise the letters. [ she taps the shift key, and then the symbols key. ] This one is for punctuation, see?

ii

[crypddyd]

[Lion is also here, and is likely one of the people she is avoiding considering how Much he was at that meeting. But all that wild violence is gone now as he does his best to play nurse for the others, face back to his normal softness]

Ah, Mona... you managed to avoid the poison then?

[He doesn't seem to have noticed that she was likely in the middle of slipping away]

[crypddyd]

i

[looks like Lion got a new phone!]

onmyway

[... sure buddy]

ii

[Lion is of course not poisoned since he wasn't there- but he makes his way to the makeshift hospital to help. If just so he won't go and do a kill. Instead, he will be a good boy and help Medic haul any sleeping arrangments or carry anyone too sick to move.

He doesn't know a damn thing about nursing, but he's doing his best!]

[emberserker]

[Wolfsbane has apparently worn herself out from her Must Kill Esme fit earlier, or maybe it's just the poison making her tired. She does manage to glare when Lion shows up, though.]

The second she finds out we're still around, she's bound to move. We don't have much time, do we?

[twibeast]

[ After bringing Rei here, Beast left briefly to get some things for her (and anyone else who needed something to be honest) before coming back and plopping himself down near her and the other girls. He is determined to not leave again unless he has to, and will help out in any way he can should anyone need him.

Along with Rei's books he also brought along the fairy tale book he was looking at before, and is continuing to read it while somehow completely tuning out Brutal Instinct entirely. Anyone who looks at him may think at a glance that he seems relatively calm considering what happened, but the way his wings are raised gives away how tense he actually is.

When he's not staying close to Rei, he's taking a damn break and standing outside the apartment in the halls, arms folded in front of him. He looks a little more irritated out here, but mostly because the kids can't see him so he can let himself loose a little more. And man is he unhappy with this turn of events. ]

[discutio]

[Phoenix had been metaphorically running all over the place; making soup, checking in where he could, and just being aggressively his overworking self. Stepping out into the hallway, he took off his visor and pressed a hand to his eyes with a quiet sigh.]

[This, to put it bluntly, sucked.]

ii

[crosscutting]

[Autumn is curiously absent from Pukeparty Rumpushaus for the first day or so. Since she had very conspicuously not eaten any of the sweets it's not a huge concern, but...still somewhat out of character for her to not at least say something about it all.]

[The mystery of which is solved(?) when she eventually peeks in with an expression of blank confusion at everyone crowded into one tiny-ass apartment.]

...did I miss something...?

[mementomoritz]

[Medic responds in true Medic fashion: both as cheerfully and unsettlingly as possible.] Oh good, you haven't died again! Did you get my message?

[Just. Shoving her own phone in Autumn's face with her message in the Executor groupchat visible on the screen, while she looks her over- without touching her, because she at least mostly knows better than to lay hands on a patient without permission- for any signs of illness or impending second sudden death.]

IT'S ORIGAMI TIME!

[morelikeisabeast]

A couple people had expressed interest, so Isabel got her hands on a bunch of colorful origami paper and on an origami instructions book. It seemed like a good way to kill some time while everyone was recovering from being poisoned.

The book is a purgatory book, and this some of the instructions are SLIGHTLY incoherent and not all of your creations will be of anything that makes sense. Fortunately with a bit of creativity, some of these can be adapted to actually make something meaningful! Isabel seems to have a knack for it, and has been giving anyone who is getting stuck tips on how to make it work better.

Isabel has made several things, but right now just made a paper fortune teller. She didn't put numbers on it or any of the normal types of things. Instead she just drew what looks like a little cartoony eye in the middle of each of the outer flaps. Now she's just kind of staring at it and looking maybe a little misty eyed.

[mementomoritz]

Oh, that's pretty. [Medic is (comfortingly?) oblivious to any emotional nostalgia occurring here. She's just tilting her head curiously at Isabel's origami creation.] How does it work?

(yet another) broadcast station investigation

[schardynfreude]

investistation if you will -

[Someone has to be Phoenix's eyes, for obvious reasons, while they go see if/how they want to set up here. Hard for the girls to get much attention if they can't actually get on screen, and hard for the boys to show everyone how terrible Esme is likewise.

Still, Chiron finds it odd that Phoenix asked him specifically. Their budding idea of a plan, sure, but... There's been bickering. You know there has been.

But to the broadcast station in the eerily quiet warehouse district they go.]

Musty. Seems this place could use a good cleaning. I will admit, while I seem to have some bare understanding of electronics and engineering, I haven't much used something in this realm.

[discutio]

That's fine. If we can get some rough idea of what we're to be working with and relay as much to the others, we can determine the technologically capable sort among us from there.

[...he's presuming, reasonably so, that this is a bit beyond his grasp.]

But even that aside, I feel it a good idea to secure the location and prevent Esme locking it down one way or another. I'd dare say this is something of the seat of her power, in a way.

GUESS WHO'S BACK

[pioailurophobia]

[One moment, the lab is peaceful as the treatment of the patients begins to wrap up, leaving everyone mostly unharmed.

The next, the door's practically blown off its hinges as a scruffy, bedraggled Kingslayer (how a suit of armor can look scruffy and bedraggled is a question best left for another day) barrels their way inside the apartment, smelling like they've been sleeping inside a dumpster for the past who-knows-how long as they bellow... something. It's basically unintelligible.

After a moment, they register that nobody is, in fact, re-dying, and they just kinda... stand there like a big dumb stupid idiot, completely dumbfounded AND dumbstruck. Like a dummy.]

[mementomoritz]

Oh, Kingslayer! [Medic bounds over excitedly from the counter where she's been putting away a roll of bandages, looking genuinely delighted to seem them.]

How are you, did the healing take fully or have you been feeling any lingering pain? Range of motion troubles? I really wanted to do a follow-up appointment but you ran off too fast to schedule one.

Your timing is great- most of my current patients are almost ready to be discharged, so I have plenty of time!

ARE YOU ALICE?? (investigation)

[twibeast]

[ Once Beast is informed about the contents of the video Chiron and Phoenix found, he's just as horrified and even more furious than he was before. He doesn't want to watch it for himself but knowing that Esme intended for that to also happen to them, to these kids younger than her... it makes him sick.

But there was also one question on his mind: what about the other girl? Alice? She wasn't as popular it seemed, so did she suffer a similar fate or would Esme have left her alone? And if she was still here at all, could they find her? Maybe she could help somehow?

That was his suggestion at least but it's easier said than done and he knows it. Still the mall is as good a place as any to start and they've got two pairs of eyes (and Phoenix), plus plenty of specters to ask. ]

Remind me... what colour was her hair again?

[schardynfreude]

Red. Quite long, down to her knees. Quite pretty unto herself, in fact, so it must have been personality that kept her from such great heights.

Might have been for the best. [They hope!]