milliways_bar | (no subject)

[Not-quite-OOM, just prior: Physical therapy.]

"One more" turns into three more exercises by the time Gaeta departs the infirmary. Awful as he felt, it didn't feel right to leave off after so few; at least this way, he isn't wasting his or Dr. Tam's time with such a brief session.

Whether he'll be able to move from the couch he just collapsed on is another story. After requesting a glass of water from a waitrat, he gulps down three painkillers (the usual dose is two, but frak it, he hurts so much right now) before stretching along the couch's full length. Some minutes later, the same waitrat returns with a silver tray.

Gaeta eyes the tray's contents. "Um."

The rat chitters.

"Sorry for the language, but...what the frak is that?"

Squeak.

In lieu of pointing out that he doesn't speak rat, Gaeta just sighs, scoops up the small -- very colorful -- magazine, and opens it to take a look.

Apparently there's a tie-in comic book series for that famous squopera, Tentacles of Our Waves. Who knew.

[ooc: in and out for a bit, but back for good at 10 PM eastern!]

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Another blink. "Keep saying what?"

And then he glances down at his thigh, deliberately curling his fingers back to stop himself. Gaeta sighs. "I already took more than I should have," he says. "I'll stay a couple hours, see if it kicks in soon."

If not, maybe he'll go back to Simon and see if there's any chance for something stronger.

"Gods." She leaves it there; she's not really sure they exist, or that they're paying any attention to her world if they do.

"I don't know. You look like you still hurt, and where I come from, that's usually not a good sign after taking your meds."

"Oh." Still a bit blank, but -- he figures she wouldn't have pointed it out unless there was something wrong with the fact that he kept saying it. "Sorry, it's, um...habit."

He waves a hand, as if trying to clear the air.

Then, resigned, he adds, "It's a bad sign where I'm from, too, but I don't think there's a lot anybody can do about it. The only combination we found that works would interact badly with anything at home."

"I was just curious. Do you have more than one?"

She considers the pain versus medicine versus work situation. "You can't stay here long enough to get everything to an okay level, and then go back?"

Gaeta nods. "We call them the Lords of Kobol. I...know some people have heard of them here, but I can't remember what they call them." That's also apologetic. "But if Zeus, Hera, anything like that rings a bell...that's them."

His mouth twists again.

"I could, but I have to let it wear off completely before I go back, so it kind of defeats the purpose."

"Oh," she says. And looks puzzled for a minute. "Yeah, I recognize them, they're just...very, very old," she says. "For us."

She doesn't think to say that they don't believe in them much anymore. "No, I meant long enough for you to finish PT completely, and get used to the missing part. And then go back."

"Oh."

Gaeta gnaws his bottom lip for a moment.

"I don't know how the frak I could explain it," he says at last. "And I'd be leaving my post for too long."

Maybe he could think of another way around it if he wasn't so tired.

"If you stay here, does the time move there?" she asks.

Gaeta shakes his head.

"So you can stay, right?" she asks. "Until you're healed?"

Hey, Felix is cool. And it sucks to see people hurt.

"Not unless I want to explain why my leg's miraculously healed in the span of five minutes."

That's a little dry.

At that, she falls quiet, and merely lifts her shoulders. "It just sucks that you have to be in pain," she says finally.

Edited 2012-08-22 02:39 (UTC)

Quiet: "I know."

Gods, does he ever know.

"But...it'll work out eventually on its own." Another unfelt smile. "And I appreciate the concern. Just have to keep working on it."

"Well," says Noriko, not really sure how to proceed from here. "I don't know how else to help. But seriously, if I can do anything, let me know. There've been some studies done in my world about electroshock therapy--and it's a whole lot less weird and painful than it sounds, I promise--so if you even just want stuff about that, let me know. I hear I'm pretty hard to miss."

She gives Felix a hopeful kind of smile.

To his credit, Gaeta's eyes don't widen at electroshock therapy. To his further credit, he even returns her smile.

"I will. I promise," he says. "Thank you, Nori.

"Okay," she smiles, and falls quiet.