Day 64: Sun Room

[overlimit]

This time, when Rita awakened, the drowsiness and disorientation cleared much faster than it had during the night. Being in a familiar room with traces of light helped with that. Instinctively, she tried to pull herself up, but the motion sent a piercing pain through her chest.

"Oh, Paige, let me help you!" a nurse cried from the doorway as she rushed to Rita's side. For once, Rita wasn't about to put up a fight, though she grumbled a bit as she was eased upright and to her feet. Her right arm was in a cast, which was kept immobilized in a sling. Wherever skin was visible, bruising could be found, and a particularly deep shade of blackish-blue could be seen peeking out from the edge of her shirt collar.

As they began to walk to the Sun Room, the nurse continued talking. "I hope you're not too disappointed at missing the field trip. But I have good news for you! The doctors say you'll be good as new in no time, so long as you take care and don't aggravate your injuries." The woman went on to list a number of activities the mage should avoid or ask for help with, as though Rita couldn't figure those things out for herself. Finally, they reached their destination and Rita was left in peace.

First things first: the bulletin. Since it was early in the day, there weren't many messages from patients yet. That was fine; it would mean her own message would be more visible. First, she needed to notify Taura of her situation, and then there were a few magic-related topics she wanted to inquire about...

Rita picked up a pen and a slip of paper, bent over one of the tables near the bulletin, and began to write... but the letters came out jerky and illegible.

"Dammit," she hissed, scrapping the paper and beginning again. Using only her non-dominant hand was more difficult than she imagined. This time, she wrote very slowly, taking care to write each stroke of each letter neatly. The result was still awkward-looking, but at least it was a readable start. She just needed to be patient... though that was a virtue Rita certainly lacked.

[Taura!]

Comments

[ninelivesonce]

"All the time you want." It was a miracle, that's what it was, in a place that already specialized in them. Even if most of them were anti-miracles. All the wonder, twice the horror. Hopefully this one didn't come with that kind of price, though she thought perhaps she'd avoid saying voicing that concern out loud.

She found a set of chairs -- there were several nearby, but she thought this conversation would be better with a little privacy, and so she appropriated two over in a corner. "What...happened?"

[overlimit]

Rita followed Taura to the chairs, easing herself gently into one. It didn’t seem to matter how careful she was – every movement sent pain surging through her chest. She was just going to have to endure it until she could do something about it.

“That’s what I’d like to know,” she answered with a groan. “I blacked out after the brat hit me with that blast. The next thing I knew, it was a day later and I’d been stuffed into a drawer in some kind of… morgue.” It wasn’t like any morgue Rita was aware of, but the room’s purpose was self-evident.

Though there were a number of things she wanted to ask Taura, sorting out the events of that night was probably a good place to start – for both of them. “Can you tell me anything about what happened in between?”

[ninelivesonce]

Oh, boy, could she ever. "Doyleton, mostly." Her smile had too much tooth and too little warmth to be genuine, but the business end wasn't aimed at Rita. More at the usual target; their absent host. "We went to town, like usual, and then one of the buses broke on the way back. We were all stuck on the road."

"And there's a disease running around. Turning everyone affected into monsters, if you can believe the Head Doctor." Taura looked almost offended -- it's not that she wasn't grateful not to be affected, but, well, it was kind of insulting not to be thought a threat.

[overlimit]

Taura’s retelling of the events at Doyleton more or less matched what Rita had read on the bulletin. The notes there had been thorough and rife with details, so she saw no need for further questions on that subject. The disease, however…

“The disease… Right, he was threatening us with that before. Any news about that?” Supposedly, people had already been infected before the Coliseum incident. Now that it was two days later, it was possible that more information had been announced, or that people had figured out the symptoms… or that people had started turning.

“Also…” There was a little hesitation here. “Can you do me a favor?”

[ninelivesonce]

One couldn't grow up on Jackson's Whole and not qualify the answer to a request for a favor, but it was Rita. So Taura just looked her in the eye and answered honestly. "Anything it's in my power to grant."

"People keep getting sicker, but it's not everyone. I'm fine -- you're fine, I think" she added, looking at Rita's unblemished hands. "There's a rash. No one has attacked anyone, that I know of. Taking a while, yeah?"