2017-11-03: Don't Worry Be Happy
- Log: Don't Worry Be Happy
- Cast: Loren Voss, Seraphita
- Where: Bledavik - Royal Palace
- Date: October 3rd 2017
- Summary: In the wake of the events in Bledavik, Seraphita has a problem. Loren gets glitterbombed.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
He's, essentially, been waiting for the other shoe to drop. At some point, something is going to happen because of the prisoner's escape, and Loren Voss is fairly sure he's not going to like it.
With people injured, he's not going anywhere for a while -- though at least everyone is more or less in stable condition. For right now.
That doesn't mean that someone won't manage to develop an allergic response to their medication, or fall down a flight of stairs, or something else that'll require urgent response, which is precisely why he knows he's not going anywhere for a while, because if it can happen, it absolutely will.
He scrolls through another page of medical charting, tries not to go briefly cross-eyed, and finally sighs, leaning against the wall outside the medical bay.
It's his third replacement tablet in less than a year. IT staff probably hates him too.
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
Seraphita breaks into the infirmary.
Everything is already awful.
"Leftenant!! I cut myself while trying to cook!!!"
Indeed one of her white gloves sports a nasty gash that's quickly turning the glove red. Also she's almost crying so you know it's true. Not that Seraphita lies, anyway.
"I used my last patchy gelly thing in the fight and forgot to get new ones!" Getting shot sucks! That's not new information though. "Can I get new ones and also can you look at this cut I think it's pretty bad!" It's a standard knife-related injury. Probably tried to slice vegetables too fast. Odds suggest she was trying to show off.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
And of course Schiehallion is in the dock too, which sort of makes him 0-4 on this whole 'responsible and efficient use of advanced technology' thing. There are times when you wonder why you even bothered getting out of bed.
...Besides the part where 'probably court martialed' turns into 'definitely court martialed', that is.
Someone bursts into the infirmary. Loren stands up straight, certain that something horrible has just happened--
Oh. Great.
"Ma'am?"
He sets down the tablet -- carefully -- on the countertop. "You've hurt yourself? Let me see--"
Definitely a knife wound. Not too deep, though it's bleeding copiously.
He halfway turns, reaching for a drawer with his left hand, fingertips finding the right pull by touch. He pauses like that a heartbeat later, one hand fishing into the depths of the drawer, the other likely still on her wrist. "...Please take your glove off first."
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
Seraphita takes the glove off. She has normal human hands underneath. If you expected something else you might be a bit letdown. The only odd thing is that tons of glitter fly out of the glove. Of every color! The lot of it clings to clothes and hair like Solarians to their racism.
"Oh yeah I forgot I hid that in there so I could surprise someone with it." She's not allowed to carry boxes or bottles or vials or ANY container of glitter anymore so she stuffed her gloves full. She might be a genius after all.
"Oh oh oh! I guess it's for you now! Congratulations on being BEST DOCTOR!" Seraphita waves her hands around to spread the glitter everywhere. It's mostly bloodied and blood gets everywhere too.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Seraphita takes off the glove.
AND THEN THERE'S GLITTER EVERYWHERE
Like, seriously -- it's glitter. It takes flight, dusting the floor of the infirmary (and Loren) with sparkles. It's glitter, which also means it's going to hang around for weeks at least, and then there'll be that one stray piece that never ever leaves.
Some of it's sticky with blood, but that just means that glittery blood is going to get everywhere too.
She scatters more of it through the air.
Loren just looks over at Seraphita, mute, something like a three-way duel between angry frustration, utter shock, and bitter acceptance playing out in his gaze. His lips part.
And then he remembers just how much Seraphita outranks him.
Loren takes a breath. Exhales.
More glitter goes flying upwards in a faint puff.
"...Fine," he eventually says, closing his eyes in resignation, the true winner of the fight.
This is fine.
He shoves the drawer closed before reaching her way, pausing, then just indicating she should come over to the sink area.
Which he turns on, helpfully. "Ma'am, we'll need to wash it out first." Because if there was ever an infection hazard, it's a wound PACKED WITH GLITTER.
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
Well, Seraphita is dead, then, because you're never washing that glitter entirely off. Better hope she has great antibodies. (And lucky her she does, what with being FREAKY XENO SCUM err lesser species.)
She complies, calming down and letting Loren handle the cut hand, moving over to where he's indicating. She grimaces when water hits the wound but remains steady. It's unusual to keep her still but as long as Loren asserts his authority as a doctor she'll probably do everything he says without complaint. Because she likes doctors, they fix problems and make her feel better.
Except dentists but no one likes dentists.
Krelian is probably a dentist.
While Loren acts like a doctor, she turns to him to stare. "So, so! Leftenant, why do you look so down today? You look unhappy! Do you need a hug? I have INFINITE hugs I can hand out, they're free!" And infinite. That's the catch.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
...The water, admittedly, doesn't do much about the glitter, but at least it helps a little bit. There's a point where even attempts to try to rub it off turn into a little too much effort, though, and even the medical officer has to throw in the proverbial towel.
A little bit of gauze -- to blot -- later and one of those gel patches, and she's just about as good as new.
Considering that there's still glitter inside the wound, he's not about to try ether and definitely seal it in there. Might as well let the body sort it out on its own.
He notices he's getting stared at. The hairs on the back of his neck stand on end; he pushes aside the feeling of discomfort.
"Ma'am?"
He pauses.
"Everything is fine." He pauses again, trying to fill in the gap in the conversation here by pretending to check over her hand. "...We took some losses during the counter-operation. I was thinking about it. That's all."
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
Everything is now better. At least for Seraphita.
She continues staring at Loren, and then makes a decision: she wraps her arms around his shoulders and hugs him tightly. Perhaps, infinitely. To say Loren has been hugged is a critical understatement.
"You shouldn't worry about that stuff! The Commander was really angry about that mister who showed up but we got him to calm down!!" Angry is also an understatement. "We made sure everyone who showed up left super beat up and now they'll know better than to pick a fight with us! It's okay, it'll all work out!" She is kind of sad she can't hang out with a real princess anymore though.
The hugs won't cease until Loren makes them so he'd better get on that if he wants out. "Doctors should be happy, they get to save lives! So you should be happy!"
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Loren, quite simply, finds himself on the receiving end of a bunny hug.
A tight, very unexpected bunny hug. He ends up leaning into Seraphita unintentionally, staring a little blankly at the wall as he attempts to reconcile precisely what is going on in his life right now with... well, what has been going on in his life.
Mostly, the feeling that he's not living up to expectations at all!!
Happy, huh.
'That mister', Loren contemplates -- already slightly tensing as she by all appearances refuses to let go and keeps on hugging -- and makes an attempt to pull away and salvage whatever remains of his dignity.
"...Who was that? The one who upset the Commander." He remembers a few names and descriptions from the report, but...
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
Loren saves himself from eternal hugs. Good call.
Seraphita brings a finger to her chin at the question. "Um... what did the Commander call him..." Tap, tap, tap... "Devil... no, no, Demon... something about... Dominia?" More chintapping. "Oh! Demon of Elru. He has a people-name too but I forget it!" As she would. "The Commander didn't want to talk about it much but he's the meanie who stole a super important Gear, and sometime before that he blew up Elru!" Or part of it, seeing as how it remains perfectly afloat, as continents tend to.
"I hadn't seen the Commander so upset before. He never gets that angry! Even if you fail super bad he stays super calm all the time. He likes to see the potential in everyone!" That MIGHT just be why Vanderkaum is tolerated despite his track record. "I'm glad he cheered up since then! And if he can do it, so can you!!"
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
It's just embarrassing to be hugged by your superior (technically) officer. It's sure not doing whatever remains of his ego any favors.
He takes a moment to compose himself. ...Glitter smeared across his face, in his hair, and across the front of his uniform and all.
Some of it's stuck to his glasses which is probably not coming off entirely anytime soon.
Speaking of glasses, he fidgets with them.
"...The Demon of Elru?" He's heard the name. "One of them was--" Realization -- visible in his gaze -- settles in.
Oh, Emperor, now he knows exactly who the Commander was angry about. ...That person has aligned themselves with the crew of the Yggdrasil, haven't they.
'Even if you fail super bad', Seraphita goes on. The LtC. had said something similar -- the metrics were different down here. But shouldn't he -- even considering former family members -- with his blood, still be better than...
Well, he considers remotely, so much for this pep-talk. "I'll try," he says, a little flatly.
Perhaps an awkward silence follows.
"There is," he says after taking a step back and turning to reach for a different drawer, "Something I have been meaning to ask about, ma'am."
It takes him a moment to find what he's looking for, wedged in the depths of the drawer. He hands the box over with his right hand, reaching for his tablet with his left to pull up the requisitions sheet and with a few quick taps, indicate that some of the spares were handed out. "Next time, you should see requisitions," he comments absently.
"...But you said something about Wels 'back home' during that initial expedition to the infested town."
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
"It's okay! Next time he shows up we'll just kick his butt!! Then he'll stop being a meanie." It is how the world works, after all. Maybe hugs would be better. Very case by case.
Oh well, onto a different matter. Seraphita nods, though she probably won't remember it. "I just thought it'd be a good chance to say hi too!"
Then the final topic. "Yeah! Mister Krelian keeps a bunch of them around at all times for his sciency stuff. I dunno what he does in his labs because he says it's super important and I should only bother him for emergencies! When he's done with them we get to use them as target practice though! They're good for that kind of stuff!" What else are you going to use Wels for, really?
"He must be trying to make a cure or something!"
Or something.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Next time. Well, at least there's probably that -- there might well be a next time, even if his next performance review probably won't look too hot.
It's okay, Seraphita -- low-level despair is essentially Loren's ground state, even with the power of hugs applied.
"So you just decided to drop in?" He sighs out a breath, shaking his head. With a bleeding hand, that was still the first thing on her mind? "...Well, you should be fine for now. Just check in with them if you run out again."
He makes a private note to make sure to keep surplus in. He's clueing in to how this is going to go down next time.
And he asks at last at the little question that's been nagging at him faintly since that operation.
...Tilts his head slightly to the right at the answer. "In the labs? I see..." Not that he would have heard about this before. His eyes narrow slightly as she mentions 'target practice'. "...Hm. I wonder if... no, never mind." Father was reassigned, it wouldn't be with anything that high-level anymore. "It must be important, whatever they're doing... Maybe it is a cure."
He glances away at length, hand resting on the countertop. Target practice. It's true that you need to practice somewhere, but...
"...Ma'am, did you need anything else?"
<Pose Tracker> Seraphita has posed.
In fairness you do have to get rid of Wels somehow. This is just efficient use of resources! Yep, that's all it is. Definitely.
Seraphita nodnods at Loren's question. "Mhm! Thank you so much leftenant!!" The bloody glove goes right back on for the time being. "Try to have a nice day! Because remember, you're the BEST DOCTOR!" The glitter will ensure Loren never forgets. "And doctors should be happy because they're important!! You can replace a soldier but you can't replace a doctor!" True if slightly grim.
Time for Seraphita to vanish back into the aether she formed from, which is, studies suggest, comprised largely of the universe's hatred for Loren.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
Efficiency and resource management are key in Solaris. So it's probably the case. Probably.
Hopefully she gets a replacement, he thinks distantly, dearly attempting to ignore for this present moment the fact that he's got glitter spread across his uniform, face, glasses, etc.
Oh, and the floor, too. Which he'll have to call someone about, because the last thing he wants to have is another thing for Petran to smile about.
...This is not going to come off his uniform easily, is it. He's going to be finding glitter in everything for weeks, isn't he.
"...I'll try," is what he says to the Fire Element, as she bids him a nice day. A 'thank you' might not be forthcoming for the sentiment -- he's sour and elitist -- but he does at least incline his head when she reiterates that doctors are important.
He's a medic, not a doctor, not precisely, but-- that's not the point.
The point is, in his own tightly-wound stand-offish way, he does appreciate that part. Doctors are important because they keep the rest of the team together. The team is of vital concern.
He should focus on what he can do to support the others, regardless of how he or they might feel. And right now that means...
"And ma'am, be more careful next time," is what he says to Seraphita as she leaves. It's... almost nice, by his standards.