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kristie-rp · 5 years

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[2018] Garrett: Turning

It is a truth universally acknowledged that anyone acting particularly weird in the hospital must be in want of Doctor Vincent Constantine.

Okay, no, that’s not true, exactly. It’s more a truth acknowledged only within the hospital itself, and weirdness is relative, and they don’t always know they need Constantine’s expertise. That’s just how it gets explained to Garrett when he starts his placement during med school, by a curly haired woman speaking behind her hand in a stage whisper. Doctor Constantine himself snorts and shoots her an unimpressed look, and does a double take when he sees Garrett. There’s something vaguely familiar in it, and the intern smiles politely. “Hi, Doctor Constantine.”

“Call me Vincent,” comes the reply. “She’s right, in a manner of speaking. If something seems particularly... peculiar, then I am the resident expert. Feel free to come to me.”

Garrett doesn’t think much about it, afterwards. The thing is, he doesn’t work in Vincent’s department, at least not at first. The older man operates largely out of the basement, where a morgue would be in any other hospital: it has been turned into a ward, and the windows of half the rooms are blacked out with heavy tarps. It’s eerie. When Garrett brings his toddler daughter April to work some days, when she is too young to be home alone and not able to be at daycare, she tends to spend time with the old man. He doesn’t get it, but he allows it.

He’s been a fully qualified medical practitioner employed by the hospital for eight months before he thinks about the description of Vincent’s specialisation. A couple have brought in their terrified daughter, who is incredibly pretty for a human child and also very quick-witted and persuasive. She has talked the nurse out of at least three lollipops before Garrett arrives in the room to introduce himself and shoo the nurse away.

“Do you really need so many,” her mother is asking a little helplessly, taking the third one from her daughter. The little girl shrugs, and asks her dad to get her some water, please, from the vending machine. Because her mother is the one with money, she goes, too. The little girl is alone with Garrett.

“They think I’m sick,” she informs him flatly, pouting slightly. “I don’t think they’re wrong. I mean. I know I’m not like the other girls. And there are these.” She tugs at her beanie and it lifts away to reveal small horns on her forehead. She is very careful not to rip the wool. “My mom’s worried.”

“Cutaneous horns aren’t unheard of,” Garrett tries. He doubts it’s that simple; the very sentence sits wrong on his tongue. Plus, every instance of cutaneous horns he’s heard of presented in the elderly.

The little girl, apparently, is aware of this. “I know how to Google,” she says dismissively, “and I know only old people have that happen. So why is this happening to me now?”

Garrett hesitates. He can order tests – of course he can. But something gives him pause. The mother and father return, and Garrett makes up his mind: he leans out of the door to catch a nurse as she passes by. “Hi, sorry – can you run down to the basement and find Doctor Constantine, please? I need a consult.”

The nurse looks at him curiously, but returns in fifteen minutes with Vincent himself. He looks between the couple. “Are you her father?”

The man shakes his head. “We adopted her a few years ago,” he explains. The little girl doesn’t seem bothered by this, and her mother has rested a hand on her little girls shoulder. “We have the record of her biological parents medical information –”

The mother starts to search in her bag for the papers. Vincent stops her with a wave of her hand. “No matter, they won’t be accurate.”

The parents make outraged sounds, and the little girl blinks at him. “You know what’s wrong with me?” she asks. Her voice is much smaller than it was earlier, alone with Garrett. He can’t blame her, really; Vincent has that effect on people.

“Have any of you heard of a Cambion?” is what Vincent asks, completely without preamble. Garrett starts, because he’s heard of those, in fascinated Wikipedia spirals that almost always end with him looking up different takes on mythological beings – and this doctor, whom he respects, is talking as though the creature is real. “It is the result of a sexual union between an Incubus and a human woman. I’d bet the mother listed her boyfriends information before giving her up, knowing exactly what she was getting into.” He pauses, addressing the girl directly. “The horns may be surgically removed once they are fully grown, but that won’t happen until you’ve completed puberty. You likely had almost no pulse until you were seven, and you’ve likely noticed you barely need to breathe. You’re clever and beautiful, more than human girls, and you’re persuasive. Many would call you manipulative. Does this sound right?” The little girl is staring at him, somewhere between dumbfounded and fascinated. Garrett can see in her face that this explains everything. “You have the potential to be evil, but with good parents – nurture over nature, all that – it can be subverted or at least limited. Any questions?”

If there are, Garrett doesn’t hear them, watching the girls face instead. He can’t see Vincent’s, but that girl is looking at him like he told her the meaning of life, and has no longer left her confused and wanting, unsure what she is.

Garrett doesn’t know if he entirely believes the story, but he’s half-way there. It helps that the little girl pauses to give him a hug and to thank him on the way out, beanie back in place.

Garrett’s co-workers think that his fascination with Vincent’s so-called department – which exists primarily due to the Constantine’s donating more money to the hospital than the accounting department is willing to disclose – is ridiculous and confusing. They think Vincent is insane, or delusional, or at least eccentric, for all they respect him as their fellow doctor. But every single one of them is willing to call the older man for a consult when the situation calls for it, which is really all Garrett can hope for, so he mostly ignores the opportunities to mock them.

(Mostly, because sometimes he cannot bite his tongue fast enough to ensure he is less sarcastic in the workplace than he is at home, with April, who by now is a teenager who really ought to have a more sincere parental figure to turn to.)

Anyway: it is not uncommon for Garrett to visit Vincent’s basement, either to ask pointed questions or chat with patients kept so separate from the others. He does this more predictably on the nights when April is not supposed to be coming home, and tonight she is staying at a friends place while they work on a project for class. He does not have to be home in time for dinner, so he meanders down to where he can visit at his own pace.

There is a woman with albinism in one room. She greets him warmly, as she had the last time he’d been here, by putting on a terrible Transylvanian accent and calling herself a vampire. Garrett quirks a brow at her, thinking something along the lines of you wouldn’t be quite that pale if you dined on blood, Zoe. She laughs aloud. “Alright, fair enough, I’ll let you have that one. Stop by on your way out, Doc,” she insists, and he can almost feel the idea settling in his mind, ensuring he will do as asked later.

“Is your tail ever going to heal?” Garrett asks the man in the next room, curious.

The merman with his blue-tinted skin snorts, his teeth growing in jagged rows; according to what he’s told them, he is a hybrid of some sharks that wouldn’t ever frequent the bay around Port Lyndon. “I’m not the doctor,” he says, splashing impatiently. He is caught halfway between human and mer form, and the pain shows in how pale around the gills he is. “Ask Vince.”

“Yeah, sure, I’ll get right on that. Straight after my stopover at H.L. to let them know what I am,” Garrett retorts, earning a laugh from the mer as he splashes contentedly.

He stops at the door of the selkie to smile and let her know that he’s passing through, because he knows she’s mostly here because of the debilitating anxiety that came from losing her pelt – only she hasn’t felt compelled to actually go to anyone, so it isn’t stolen, just legitimately lost. There’d be more chance of finding it if it was stolen, from what Garrett understands – it is hard to get her to talk, because Vincent is the expert, and he’s not exactly personable.

The next room was home to a slightly burned dryad the last time he was here, but his bark was basically finished moulting, which means he should be gone, and the room should be empty. Garrett opens the door to check, eyes widening when he instead gets an eyeful of a wolf-like being – it’s a fully transformed werewolf, he knows that – and yet his immediate panicked reaction is to step closer and slam the door closed.

Yeah, his self-preservation instincts have always been terrible, he is aware. He does things like drink hot sauce on a dare (college) and break into his parents liquor cabinet (high school) and grab the arms of angry looking people on crutches to prevent them from walking into traffic (summer between high school and college, and actually he’s proud of that one). He has a feeling he’d step in front of a gunman to save someone, even a stranger.

That might explain locking himself in with an angry looking werewolf. One that’s currently edging closer.

“Crap,” he croaks, panic making his voice crack, and presses himself against the door.

He blacks out.

It’s probably for the best.

“I have to hand it to you, Garrett,” a familiar voice is saying when he comes to, blinking at a white tile ceiling, “if you were going to be infected by a supernatural condition, this is probably the best possible place you could’ve done it.”

“That’s nice,” Garrett says. He thinks he sounds about as sarcastic as usual, but he might be a little dazed. It’s something to do with the fact that he can make out the little specks across the surface of the tiles, which is weird, because he should be wearing glasses, and he can’t feel them on his face. “I think my veins are on fire.”

“That’d be the wolfsbane,” the voice answers, apparently unbothered. It’s Vincent. Garrett is not surprised.

Garrett closes his eyes. “You’re suppressing a transformation, aren’t you. Isn’t that a bad idea?”

“Which one of us is the expert?”

Garrett scoffs. “Which one of us is a werewolf?”

There’s a long silence that makes Garrett want to open his eyes, but it’s bad enough that he can hear a heartbeat that he’s pretty sure isn’t close enough to be Vincent. Which means his co-worker doesn’t have a heartbeat. Which – he had to pass a medical to get this job; how did Vincent get the job with no heartbeat, without causing some sort of crisis? He keeps his eyes firmly shut, thanks ever so much. “Touché,” Vincent says at last, and Garrett can hear the amusement in his voice.

“How long was I out?”

“A couple of hours. Your phone rang; it was your daughter. She’ll be here soon.”

“Sure, that’s a brilliant idea,” he mutters, sarcasm heavy in his voice. Garrett’s eyes fly open and he sits up a little quicker than he would like, blinking against the abrupt change of scenery and the headrush. “By which I mean, you just said I’m a newly turned werewolf, Vincent, what the fuck?”

“At least you already know werewolves exist,” he says.

It’s not helpful. Garrett gives him the glare he thinks he deserves, and then lays back down, pressing his palms into his closed eyes. Maybe if he thinks hard enough, this will go away. “I can’t be a werewolf,” he says, as if it will change anything. “I have a teenage daughter. I’m a medical doctor. I work night shift half the time, I can’t take every full moon off!”

“That’s what the wolfsbane is for.”

“Oh, right. How could I forget? My veins feel like they’re actually on fire and this is the only way to not turn into a wolf that will bite anyone around.”

“You’re a very negative person, aren’t you?”

Garrett grimaces. He’s just realized what the heartbeat he can hear actually is, and attempts to peer at the other occupant of the room, the one he missed. “Sorry, Dave. I didn’t mean any offence. Much.”

Dave, the werewolf responsible for this entire thing, snorts, but it sounds half-hearted and exhausted. He is trembling. “I should be the one apologizing. I ruined your life, man. I owe you.”

“Should I be worried about the shaking?”

“Doc didn’t give me any ‘bane until I’d already transformed, is all. Remember to take it like you’re s’posed to and it works out better.”

“Great.” Garrett takes medication for anxiety on the daily. He now has to add injections of liquidated wolfsbane to his schedule at least once a month, twice in a blue moon, and he really doesn’t want to wish harm on Dave – so he doesn’t. He closes his eyes again, takes a deep, supposedly steadying breath. “This is just what I needed.”

“Dad?”

Garrett opens his eyes and looks up. April is standing over him with a look of concern, the door open behind where his head has been resting this entire time. “Hey, sweetie,” he says, trying for a sincere smile. He doesn’t know how close he gets as she dumps her bag and kneels down beside him. “I hear your sleepover wasn’t that great.”

“Muriel is being mean, so I called to come home. Vincent said you were – hurt?”

“Oh, it’s nothing. I’m just – um.” Garrett pauses. He cannot lie to his daughter, she needs to know what is going on. It isn’t fair to keep her in the dark.

He has to tell her about supernaturals, if she hasn’t guessed already.

Garrett groans aloud, pressing his palms back into his eye sockets. “Remind me to kill you later,” he mutters. “It’s the least you deserve.”

Vincent snorts, and Dave’s noise is more like a whimper. There’s something decidedly lupine in it, and that’s exactly the sort of thing Garrett needs to hear right now.

“So,” he starts, pulling his eyes away, “you know how there are humans in the world, and they have different races? African, Asian, Caucasian, Mongoloid.”

“Yes...?”

“Well, those differences are just aesthetic. The differences that actually matter a little bit are the ones that make human beings into something – supernatural.”

There’s quiet for a long moment. “Are you trying to make a joke about that TV show?” April asks, wary.

Garrett sighs. He wishes he was. “I wish I was,” he says, “but what I’m actually saying is that vampires and werewolves and dryads and all that – it’s real. That’s what’s special about Vincent’s patients. That’s why they are in the basements, that’s why pretty much everyone avoids him and thinks he’s insane.”

“Hey,” Vincent says. It’s mild enough that Garrett doesn’t believe he actually cares.

“Also, that’s Dave. Say hi to Dave.” He waits for April to wave awkwardly at the patient. “He’s a werewolf. And he bit me.”

#kristie's writing #kristie writes #kwrites #kwriting #ft. garrett #ft. dave #ft. vincent #ft. april

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juliettetsunenaga · 7 years

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2481.06.09 // Spitting Nails.

[13:33] Cervantes Rexen moves past everyone without a word, to the elevator, and up.

[13:36] Eve hands Juliette what look like gas canisters of some kind. [13:37] Julz smiles and takes the canisters, "Thank you," she looks over to the door, "Hello ladies, how can we help?" [13:37] Phoenix: We'd like to see Cait. [13:37] Julz smiles lightly, "I'm afraid that won't be possible, ladies." [13:38] Phoenix: Why is that? [13:38] Joah just stands there, eyes locked on the Sarge, her brow furrowed in a frown. [13:38] Eve: Cait has been sentenced already and is prepping for processing. [13:38] Phoenix stiffens, clenches her fists, then unclenches them. [13:39] Joah's jaw drops. "Sarge! What? Sentenced for what?" [13:39] Phoenix's voice breaks, "What is the sentence?" [13:39] Julz smiles, "I'm afraid that's confidential." [13:40] Joah bites her lip hard. "Sarge... that ain't right and ya know it. Cait kept three people from gettin' shot by that recruit of yours." [13:40] Phoenix: I... we.... [13:40] Phoenix's face scrunches into a sob, then she recovers herself [13:40] Julz: Joah, I'm afraid that Cait is classed as ‘Artificial with Biological Components’, she willingly injured a Baseline Human. [13:40] Julz: There is nothing further to say on the matter. [13:41] Phoenix: Cait and I live together - we .... *hears Julz’s words and goes stone cold* [13:41] Eve: Joah, she crushed an employees skull, she must take responsibility for that, in order to atone one must first take responsibility for their actions. [13:42] Phoenix: This is about mech hatred? Here in West? At Tokuma? [13:42] Joah: “Your baseline human injured Nyk and tired to injure me and my customers!" Joah draws herself up. “Have ya ever considered if ya had'na given her a rifle in the FIRST PLACE it wouldna happened?” [13:42] Eve: Security isn’t my division, but I will say this, human or mech, an employee is not allowed to injure another. I will make an example of anyone who tries. [13:43] Julz: "Ms Menjou," she smiles slightly, "You are always welcome on corporate premises, as you well know. I cannot however allow you to stand here and question my judgement." [13:43] Phoenix: Cait is my family. There are arrangements - lease agreements - I must attend to. I require some idea of when she will be released in order to see to her affairs. [13:44] Joah gives Eve a completely baffled look. "So... if say.... someone has a gun to my head and THISEC happens by.... I just get shot?" [13:44] Julz: "Phoenix, I understand that this will come as a shock to you... I cannot allow you to see her, at present." [13:44] Joah glances at Julz with a dark look, as if she could spit nails. [13:44] Phoenix: I understand that. I just need to know how long she will be gone. And when I will see her again. [13:44] Eve: Of course not, but overstepping your lines and escalating a situation that could have been avoided needs to be considered. [13:45] Julz glances at Eve, "Her sentence duration will be determined in due course." [13:45] Joah: "It would have been avoided if that crazy ass bitch hadn't been given a weapon!" [13:46] Eve: if their is a problem with private vega following protocol than thats needs to be addressed [13:46] Eve: but isnt a crushed skull punishment enough? [13:46] Phoenix closes her eyes and lets out a long sigh, realizing that "duration" implies a non-instantaneous and fatal punishment [13:46] Julz nods gently, "Any issues with Private Matsushita will be addressed in due course, pending her full recovery." [13:47] Phoenix: her issues will attend to themselves if you set her lose with a gun again. [13:47] Joah gives Julz a pointed look. "Now... ya wanna address it now after all the harm you've caused, Sarge." [13:47] Phoenix: You can be damn sure THIS cyborg will not jump in front of the bullets. [13:48] Julz titlts her head to one side, "Ms Menjou, I am merely following directives from my superiors. Are you suggesting now that you are question not only my judgement, but also that of the Director? Potentially the Council?" [13:49] Joah: "I trust the their judgement... I ain't trustin' *you* to tell the truth about it, though." [13:49] Eve: You look a lot like Cait are you her sister? [13:50] Joah looks over at Eve. "Ya know Cait saved Vega's life too? Or didja even bother to look at the feed?" [13:50] Phoenix looks down [13:50] Phoenix: Same chassis. Allure Plus. [13:50] Julz smiles, "The feed showed me exactly what I needed to know, Ms Menjou. The fatal blow was dealt by your acquaintance. One might suggest you assisted me hugely in her conviction." [13:50] Eve: I don’t think I have been harsh in this judgment, it was the fact she was part human that saved her from being decommissioned today. [13:51] Phoenix: And what if she were all human? [13:51] Phoenix shoots a dire gaze. [13:52] Eve: I will not entertain hypotheticals. [13:52] Phoenix: Sargeant Tsunenaga, I was of the understanding that as a cyborg in West, that I had full legal standing as a human being. If that is not the case, can you please explain the distinction to me so that I know my responsibilities under the law? [13:52] Joah: "THat's a load of bushwa and ya know it, Julz. If ya had any guts, ya'd own up to this yerself. And as a matter o' fact... if Cait hadna stoped Han, yer recruit would be dead. So ya oughta be thankin' her... not sentencin' her." [13:53] Julz simply smiles. [13:53] Eve: Our laws and sentencing are at the discretion of the council and you can trust we will do whatever is in your best interest. [13:54] Joah: "Ya ain't welcome in my shop no more, Sarge.... I used ta respect ya... but ya ain't worth the breath I'm wastin' on ya." [13:55] Phoenix: I would like to avail myself of the council's wisdom by understanding in what way I differ legally from a human being. [13:55] Julz: "Joah... I have nothing to own up to. Had Cait not tried to wrestle a loaded gun from my colleague who was *clearly* trying to defend herself, we might not be in this situation." [13:56] Joah raises her eyes. "Defend herself - from a piece 'o cake without a spork? from a drunk who dropped a beer bottle? And ya can just keep on callin' me Miss Menjou cause only my friends call me Joah." [13:56] Joah: "And I ain't countin' ya as a friend no more." [13:57] Julz rolls her eyes, "Go check your feed, Ms Menjou, my colleague had her arm over her face whilst screaming 'No' if that's not blind fear, I'm not sure what is?" [13:57] Joah: "Then ya ain't oughta have give her a weapon!" [13:57] Joah: "She couldn't even talk straight!" [13:58] Joah: "Was all rollin' her eyes and talkin' about the russhin's or somethin!" [13:58] Joah: "That's who you got protectin' us?" [13:58] Julz shakes her head, "Ms Menjou, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave the premises." [13:58] Eve: Look, activity like this is bad for everyone, our own people fighting amongst themselves? People better start owning up to their actions and you bet full inquiries will be made because I promise you this, Tokuma will not tolerate the expenditure of bad publicity concerning dissention in the ranks solely because individuals decide to go outside their area of expertise in an attempt to control situations they are not qualified to contain. [13:59] Joah: "Oh, I'll leave... I'm more'n happy ta leave... and ya can just get your ramen up in North cause I ain't servin' ya no more and neither is YeYe or NaiNai." [14:00] Julz nods, "Very well, Ms Menjou." [14:00] Joah has barely heard any of the conversation between Eve and Phee. She tries to calm herself down and touches Phee's arm. "Ya comin'?" [14:00] Phoenix turns to Eve "I fully agree. Explain to me my legal responsibilities so that future such misunderstandings can be avoided." [14:00] Phoenix holds up a finger to Joah. [14:01] Eve: We have paid professionals to handle security situations, if they fail in delegation of their duty they will be held accountable. I would appreciate it if our employees acted within the confines of their trained duties. It could help avoid any situations like this from popping up in the future. [14:02] Joah mumbles. "Compensated unless they’re dead." [14:02] Eve: Luckily no one died. [14:02] Phoenix: Yes, but I am concerned with the distinction of human employees vs cyborgs. [14:03] Phoenix: I understood before today that there was no distinction in Tokuma. [14:03] Eve: I am sure the Private will fully recover and Caitlin will be returned to her active duties in due time. [14:03] Julz takes a step forward, "Ladies, ladies.... please, go home. Think about this. And feel free to contact me in the morning." [14:04] Eve: I would say if you are more than 75% augmented, you would fall be classified as machine. [14:04] Phoenix: By volume, weight, or intellectual capacity? [14:05] Julz: "Ladies. I won't ask nicely again." [14:05] Eve: Human volume and weight. [14:05] Joah glances up. "Oh, I'm gonna think about it. Sure will... Julz." She pointedly refuses to call the Sarge by her rank. [14:05] Phoenix turns to Eve, "I'm sorry, it seems our discussion must be cut short. I would like to continue it in another venue at your convenience." [14:05] Joah heads toward the door. [14:05] Eve: It’s hard to defend something’s human rights when its only composed of 25% or less meat. [14:06] Phoenix presumes she has permission to continue. [14:06] Phoenix: So if I am regarded as a machine, how does that change my rights here? [14:06] Julz ushers Phoenix towards the door, "Your baseline friend has left, she might need you to look after her out there. Go." [14:07] Eve: If you are a machine, then you are the sole property of the company. [14:07] Phoenix: Please forgive me, I must go. [14:07] Eve: …and must be evaluated to see how to best utilize your core protocol. [14:07] Phoenix: …until we can talk about this later? [14:07] Julz smiles widely, "Thank you for your time, Phoenix."

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