Night 64: X-Ray Room

[damned_intercom]

As soon as the patients entered the dark room, the first thing they might have noticed were a couple of short bursts of static from the intercom. But no voices or cryptic messages greeted them.

Instead, their eyes would undoubtedly be drawn toward the strange picture of a human stomach carefully painted onto the southern wall, its paint casting an eerie green glow that cut into the darkness.

Although the artist had done their best to make the picture as clear as possible, they had apparently decided to leave a sharp kitchen knife perched on X-Ray table to compensate the patients for their troubles. Hopefully whoever picked it up would be able to make good use of it and the clue created for them.

Comments

[freewill]

Rapunzel quickly got to work with healing Soma and the other injured patient, which spurred Castiel to move out of the way, seeing how yet another group was entering in after them.

The painting on the wall took some contemplation, but he recognized a human stomach, seeing how he'd once rebuilt a human body from the ground up. The butterfly in it made less sense, although he was certain he'd heard a phrase along those lines. This was their clue -- and if the words of one of the patients were to be believed, then a knife had also factored into the equation.

Which meant that whatever this illness was, the root of it was their stomach. Castiel pressed his hand against his torso for a moment. He hadn't felt any particular pain there; instead, it had been more widespread, or just a headache. Still, this was what they had to go on...

Seeing how Kobayashi was also inspecting the image, Castiel decided to go discuss it with his roommate, in the less crowded part of the room. Perhaps they could work out what to do with the information that had been given to them.

[To here.]

[hairraising]

"He is. So is Flynn," Rapunzel answered Sora, very nearly slipping on Eugene's name. It occurred to her that she had slipped up out in the hall, but she couldn't blame herself. Protecting Eugene's secret identity had been the least of her concerns out there. At least here, it was a little more calm, if not less tense. "They insisted we come here to find the cure and help people..."

Speaking of the cure, Castiel had gone over to ask some of the other men in the room about the picture on the wall. Here was hoping they could figure it out while she was busy healing, she thought. As much as she was glad to be helping out her fellow patients, she would be disappointed if she (and everyone else, for that matter) had come all this way only to leave empty-handed. Sounded like Sora and Link had some idea of what the knife's inclusion in the puzzle meant, but... Rapunzel shuddered faintly. She really hoped that didn't mean what she thought it did.

She let the injured man (the Once-ler? Interesting title, she thought) take the hair and told him to put it against the wounded area once Link was finished with it. As she found a place to sit between Soma and the Once-ler, the latter spoke to her. "Yeah, thankfully. There are others out there that haven't been so lucky," said Rapunzel with no small amount of guilt in her voice.

After a short pause to settle and force herself to breathe, she started the healing incantation. The glow from her scalp was fainter than usual, but it spread all the same, flowing from roots to tips and making the injuries grow warm as they started the healing process. It was slow going; with two people being treated at once, Rapunzel felt the strain, and had to put a palm on the ground to steady herself as she worked her magic. Here was hoping that she could at least get those wounds closed before she had to stop.