un: Bachelor | text

[thantagonist]

Attention Fellow People of Etraya,

I am Doctor Daniil Dankovsky, Bachelor of Medicine. As I understand it, few of you have seen a doctor lately. That simply won’t do! Please, don’t wait to get sick to establish care. I am situated in the hospital, ready to take consent forms and make updated medical histories. At least a few of you have unaddressed concerns, I just know it. The average person comes to see the doctor when it’s too late! Though we cannot die here, there is no reason to suffer unduly.

And if you are otherwise healthy, perhaps think of it as helping me out. In the event of an outbreak, it is far more helpful to have complete clinical pictures of the inhabitants. Especially, as I understand it, there are many biological differences in this population.

Please come visit me during my clinic hours, every day from 10am to 6pm.


[What Daniil really wants is to meet more of the unusual inhabitants of Etraya more quickly as well as conduct casual interviews of the sort of people who are slated to save the universe. But he can’t just say that completely outright.]

Comments

[levelshift]

No. No allergies.

[thantagonist]

Thats good. And how old are you?

[levelshift]

[Does he really want to answer that.........]

I was 15 when I first got dragged here, was stuck here for about a year, then got sent home and brought back. Then about another year passed, so that makes me somewhere around 16 or 17.

[thantagonist]

[Regardless if he wants to, he happened to!]

Is Accelerator your name or a nickname, and is it a man’s name?

[levelshift]

[Okay, regardless of his own personal feelings, those are very fair questions to ask.]

Yeah, that's how I identify. 'Accelerator' isn't not my legal name, it's the name of my esper ability and what I go by.

'Esper' coming from ESP. I'm psychic.

[At least he's used to explaining all that.]

[thantagonist]

Is that right? Would you be willing to demonstrate this for me, if possible? The only psychics I have ever encountered were frauds or charlatans. Little more than grifting thespians.

[levelshift]

I don't know. I don't really care if you think I'm a fraud or not, so what would I get out of it?

[thantagonist]

I don’t know, most people don’t care about science. I was told I should use candy as a bribe. Would that work or at enough too old for it?

[levelshift]

[Wow. Wow.]

Shit, that's a pathetic offer. Whoever told you that really wants to see you get your ass kicked.

[thantagonist]

It wouldn’t surprise me. On reflection, that advice giver is completely insane. Why not tell me what would be a fair trade for you, instead of leaving me guessing?

[levelshift]

[What would be a fair trade? Accelerator doesn't think he really needs anything - he has a roof over his head, books to read, the convenience stores for food. Assuming this guy isn't from the same universe as him he can't help with that at all....

He's skeptical there's anything he'd want in return, but after thinking a bit more something comes to mind.]

Hey, do you know how death works around here?

[thantagonist]

Not yet, but I’m working on it. What do you know about it?

[levelshift]

Unless you pay beforehand to avoid it, when you die and are brought back by Echo you lose something.

[thantagonist]

Ah. That is why we were advised not to “die too often”. I’ve already died once here, I think. It was shortly after arrival, but I’m not sure what price I’ve paid.

[That’s scarier, isn’t it? If he was missing a toe or something it would at least be dealt with immediately.]

[levelshift]

You might not ever figure it out. Some other shithead around here died and she had no idea what she lost.

[.............. Wait.]

Hold on, you died already? How long have you been here?

[thantagonist]

Maybe a week? They only just let us out of that amusement park. I must have been shot and bled to death, but I have no recollection of the incident.

What I do have is evidence of an entry wound in my shoulder and an exit wound on my hip. A fatal path for a bullet, certainly. I woke up in a pool of my own blood with both wounds closed and healed, though freshly so.

[levelshift]

You must be really fucking insufferable for someone to have shot you that fast.

[But more seriously.]

I haven't heard of someone that's died retaining any wounds from what killed them, though. That's new.

[thantagonist]

[Daniil feels his blood spike with that insult.]

[Really? Jumping to such conclusions? Ad poenitendum properat. ]

I was sleepwalking. Or I must have been… Though that’s never happened with me before. The man was a vagrant with consumption. I must have scared him in his drunken haze.

[Thats not exactly how it happened, but…]

I had apparently turned into a monster, according to him. I woke up in a strange state, inside a costume. All of this apparently happened inside of fifteen minutes. Make of that what you will, but I don’t prefer to be my own first data point. It’s a terrible viewing angle.

[levelshift]

[Turned into a monster? Woke up inside a costume? That sounds completely bizarre, but he's seen some weird shit during missions. The amusement park had that nonsense going on with the hall of mirrors, so he supposes it's possible there was more strange stuff going on. Honestly, that's more believable than a drunk hallucinating.]

That all may have been part of the mission. I don't know. The reason why I'm asking is because I want to know if you're planning on looking into death losses.

[thantagonist]

Now that I understand it, of course. I thought I had to study this from the other side, as there are no cadavers to examine. I intend to add death count and loss to my medical chart intake.

What is your interest? It is important of course, but do you have personal invenstment?

[Have you died yet?]

Private;

[levelshift]

[He's switching over to private. Not because he's trying to be sneaky, but because even admitting this much sentimentality is kind of embarrassing.]

Yeah. I lost something and I want it back. The answer Aurora gave about being able to do that wasn't encouraging, but if there's a way to be able to return those losses I want to do it.

Private;

[thantagonist]

What was it you lost? I’ll do everything within my power to restore it, if I can.

[Daniil is hardly one to shrink or balk at a seemingly impossible task. After all, this place truly changed his entire worldview of what was possible.]

Private;

[levelshift]

A memory.

[That's as specific as he's getting.]

Not the easiest damn thing to recover, I know.

[thantagonist]

[Sorry Accelerator, if Daniil’s got a lead, he’s gonna dig.]

That’s true. I have quack colleagues who may claim to be able to recover memories, but their research papers I always find less than rigorous.

Still. Can you describe the nature of this loss? Is this a single day or moment? What is missing: the people, the circumstance? Can you articulate how you know the memory is missing?

[levelshift]

[Those are a lot of questions he does not want to answer.]

How about you start looking into this in exchange for a demonstration of my esper ability, and if you actually make some fucking progress I'll answer some of those questions.