[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

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?

[morelikeisabeast]

It- uh...

[Isabel rubs her eyes circumspectly and refocuses on the present. No one can prove she was feeling things.]

It doesn't really...do anything? I guess if you stick your fingers like this- [She demonstrates.] -You can make it open and close like a mouth?

[schardynfreude]

Chiron is putting his hands to good use when he's not fussing and worrying over people and attempting to make stars. They're so cute! But the instructions are...well. Purgatory instructions leave a little to be desired. He stares, squinting, between the folds of the paper he's got so far and the instructions in the book a few times.

"Now, that doesn't seem right... My dear, help an old man out."

[morelikeisabeast]

"Lemme see."

She peered at the thing Chiron had half made, then peered at the instructions in the book. After a moment, she turned the book upside down and peered at it closer, which did not provide any illumination.

"I'm...what are you even trying to make here? The book just says it's a 'closed thought loop.'"

[schardynfreude]

"In theory, a star. In practice, apparently an existential crisis." He shakes his head, uttering a baffled laugh. "I'm glad it isn't me going mildly insane. This all seems a bit complicated enough for a beginner even with proper instructions."

[morelikeisabeast]

"Most people start with paper airplanes, I think. Not stars."

But she did take a minute to look at what he was doing.

"...I think you just got it turned upside down half way through, so your last few steps are backwards."

[schardynfreude]

"An airplane...hm, well, if it's anything like an airship, I'm afraid I'd be folding something not terribly unlike a box." Thanks, Niflheim! We can always count on you to make all your technological marvels ugly as shit.

"I'll do a little unfolding and refolding. What might be a better design to start with? Perhaps your frog!"

[morelikeisabeast]

"Frogs are pretty easy! Or maybe look up the paper crane." she grabbed the book, trying to flip through for the crane page. "I dunno where I heard it, but I heard that if you want someone to get better, you should make them a zillion cranes. They're a bit harder to make, but I think we all could use a bit of that kind of sentiment right now, right?"

[schardynfreude]

"I think a zillion is a little much to expect." But he chuckles to himself, enjoying the sentiment. "But yes, I think we could use that. It might be a nice activity to teach everyone, even. Some find the idea of doing something with their hands soothing, helps concentration."

[morelikeisabeast]

"It is with that attitude!" She countered. "Zillion isn't even a real number so we can just keep making them until it feels like enough and call it done!"

[schardynfreude]

"Oh, I like that. Open-ended and subject to personal interpretation. Then I'll get onto cranes post-haste until I've perfected them and then keep going until I see fit on my end." Hm, though, about that. "Should we...store them? Keep them? Or just let them lie about?"

[morelikeisabeast]

"Iunno." Isabel shrugged, grabbing another sheet of paper.

"Maybe we can just decorate Ividia by having them hanging around in weird places?"

[schardynfreude]

"Tape them up or tie them up with string, yes, wonderful." He'll be working on his first one for a bit. "A sign that we were here. We can leave some in the levels above us as well."

[phantasmagorial]

[ Rei's already been practicing a fair bit in her own time, so you think she'd have a bit of an advantage over the others, but nope. She's pretty hopeless. She works with a bit too heavy of a hand, which has resulted in basically all her creations being creased and droopy. But she's determined to improve!

Today, she's going right back to the basics and just... trying to make a star. Just one, singular star! That's all she'd be happy with! But her attempts are coming out misshapen and lumpy and eventually she gets so frustrated that she just puts her head onto the table and heaves a huge sigh. ]

Why can't I get this right...?

[morelikeisabeast]

[Isabel peered over Rei's shoulder to see what she was doing.]

You're folding it too hard. Gotta have a lighter touch or you kind bend the paper in weird ways.

[phantasmagorial]

Oh, really? I was thinking you'd have to press down hard when you folded to make it stay in place...

[ Okay, time to try this again... for the fifth time, now. ]

You're good at this, though. You always make it look easy.

[morelikeisabeast]

No way if you do it too hard it goes like.

[Isabel made a kind of peeling outwards gesture with her hands? Look it made sense to her.]

Maybe I did a lot of it while I was alive.

[phantasmagorial]

I guess when you get the hang of it, it's just nice to have something to do with your hands if you need a distraction. Even if it's just folding something.

[ We're REALLY back to basics now, because Rei looks to be doing her best to fold herself a paper airplane like Isabel made back at the mall. ]

I'm glad you've remembered enough to teach us, though. It's been fun.

[morelikeisabeast]

Most of it's still really blurry, but there's a few things starting to come back into focus.

I had a friend, named Eightfold. She was made of paper.

[phantasmagorial]

[



Huh??? ]

Made of... paper?

[morelikeisabeast]

I think I was already up to my eyebrows in paranatural stuff even when I was alive.

Anyway that's probably also why I'm good at this kind of thing.

[phantasmagorial]

The paranatural stuff or the origami?

[ ... She's kidding. ]

When you say 'made of paper' though, do you mean... literally? Did you make her?

[morelikeisabeast]

Seems like both.

I don't know where she came from, though. It's weird, like...I remember TELLING her how we met, but when I try to focus on the actual words I said to her it gets all weird and fuzzy.

[Because that tale was a memoria she hadn't earned yet.]

[phantasmagorial]

That is strange. You obviously remembered what it was if you told her, but now you don't?

[ She gives the wing of her paper airplane a careful fold – not quite as heavy handed as before, so she's learning. ]

I really wish I had a better idea of how all this worked.