030: VIDEO

[intheblanks]

[Chase is in one of the hospital pathology labs, a centrifuge whirring away on the desk in front of him. He's flicking through a messy looking sheaf of paper.]

I'm starting to understand why the City Guide has an entire section on zombie handling strategy. Someone told me they used to be a regular problem, here. Anyone long-term enough to be able to tell me about that?

[He's about to ask another question, but a second voice, deep and rolling, curiously accented, interrupts.]

What is an enemy to you, Doctor?

[Chase's head snaps up. He takes a gasp as though the breath has been punched out of him.]

You're not here. You're never really h—

[But the voice comes again, and as Chase moves, the picture on his device swings to show a man in a tattered, bloodied surgical gown, the flesh rotting away from his face.]

Men make choices.

[The zombie sweeps a rack of equipment to the floor, and the screen goes black.]



[ooc: Chase's ghoul is Darth Vader Mufasa James Earl Jones Dibala, the genocidal dictator of a small African nation, who he murdered shortly before arriving in the city. Dibala will be/have been around for a little bit to bother anyone at the hospital.]

Comments

audio > action

[anunluckypenny]

Okay. I won't freak out and attack you or anything.

[Not that she's really up to that kind of thing.]

audio > action

[intheblanks]

Good. Twice in one day would be pushing it.

[He knocks anyway, before opening the door. Good manners just won't be drummed out of him in those sneaky little habits.

He looks... okay. Alive, which is good. He's wearing a leather jacket, and holding one arm in a way that careful attention might note is strange.]

action

[anunluckypenny]

[Zombies don't have the good graces to knock before entering. A blanket-wrapped Penny is up and ready to assess whether or not Chase is actually fine before he comes in.

Blood, bruises, an awkward-looking arm... not exactly fine, but definitely not as bad as Penny might have expected.]

What hurts?

Re: action

[intheblanks]

[And most of the colour washed from his face, but that's normal. Anyone would be in shock.]

Quicker to start with what doesn't. [And tch, Penny.] You should be in bed.

action

[anunluckypenny]

[Yes, being in shock after being attacked by a zombie is forgivable. Chase's pallor is still worrying.]

And you shouldn't be getting attacked by dead people. [But she does go to perch on her bed.] Come sit down?

action

[intheblanks]

[It's funny how easily words bring up pictures. Just a flash, but a flash of a face that was already written indelibly on his memory. There's so much blood he doesn't know if he's remembering the real Dibala or the city's illusion of him.]

Next time I'll tell him I have a note.

[He sits beside her on the edge of the hard hospital mattress, something in him rebelling against relaxing and making him catch a quick, sharp breath.]

action

[anunluckypenny]

Let me know how that works.

[That doesn't sound good. She frees a hand to give Chase's shoulder a hesitant pat.]

Do you want to talk about it?