etraya | un: Dankovsky

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un: Dankovsky | video

[Daniil posts live from a café near the museum. He has no patience for typing responses, and his own visage should explain why. His nose has recently been broken and reset. He looks exhausted and irritated, but he has a duty.]

I need a couple people to come down to the café near that absurd museum with the sewn up fruit exhibits. Bring a stretcher, we have a patient who could use some more urgent treatment.

[From somewhere offscreen, a voice that is distinctly not Daniil’s states:] This Etrayan shot me in an attempt to get information I did not possess. I would appreciate his removal from my presence.

Now- That’s not true at all. That is not the reason you were stopped. [Daniil now regrets making a video, but what’s done is done. ]

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[ Castor actually wants to give Jack a real, useful answer. He's doing his absolute best here. And yet. ]

A... human one. Made of some kind of metal.

[ This is all he's got. ]

[ Jack looks up, and Castor looks genuine. He thought the AI might incidentally know about weapons due to all the knowledge and information previously available to him. Either Castor's only retained a human brain's worth of information or, more likely, he never cared enough about guns to learn in the first place. ]

Metal makes sense with what I'm seeing. Handgun, most likely. You can be glad it wasn't a shotgun, or I'd probably have to pull out pellets.

[ He smiles. ]

How much pain are you in? This doesn't immediately need stitches, but you'll need antibiotics.

I lack enough experience to answer your question. I had never experienced any intense pain previous to this.

[ So, he is in excruciating pain, but he has not been human for long enough to know how react to it or process it, or to put it on a pain scale.

He's being so normal about this. ]

[ If you think about it, it's not a surprise that babies cry so much. They often experience the worst thing or the worst pain that's ever happened to them. Jack doesn't tell Castor that because it could be construed as comparing him to a baby.

Also the AI in a human body isn't crying. ]

That makes it a ten out of ten, the worst pain you've ever experienced. I'll give you something for that too and instructions for how often to take both the pain meds and the antibiotics.

[ Jack starts bandaging the wound with fresh bandages that can hold. ]

It's important that you don't take the pain medications more often than I say. You can fuck up your organs, and you need those. And it's important you take all the antibiotics, even if your foot gets better. If you don't, you could make millions of tiny little pissed off Dankovskys with guns in your foot, and no one deserves that.

[ No wonder humans are so very annoying all the time. Their bodies are stupid.

He probably would have been nicer to them if he'd known.

He nods along at the instructions, he has an understanding of human biology, he knows to follow medical instruction, but then he gets to the metaphor and frowns. ]

A Dankovsky is... the man who shot me. Are Dankovskys a subspecies?

[ That would explain why he is so much worse than other humans. ]

[ It hardly seems the time to explain drug resistance in bacteria. Even if it only means Castor needs another full run of antibiotics, that's one less person Jack can treat. Infection killed massively before antibiotics were invented, and he doesn't have a way of getting more. Though knowing Dankovsky, the man would set out bread to mold and call that penicillin. ]

No, but my impression is he's from sometime around World War I or II. A lot of people thought the best way to solve their problems was with guns. Only some of them were right.

[ He's pro-military, but that doesn't mean he's pro-war. Those are real people's lives on the line. ]

If I had to take a guess, I'd say he sees a lot of people are getting hurt and dying here right now. So if he could limit that to you, to get the information to put an end to this, it'd be worth it. Stupid, but a common kind of stupid.

A stupid human.

[ He can accept that. He still hopes Dankovsky dies screaming, but maybe that's not something he needs to voice. ]

There could be stupid microbes attacking me if I don't take the medication. I understand.

[ Biological life is too complex, this is why Castor prefers bots and buildings. ]

Extremely. You'd think he'd have enough to do patching people up and autopsying the corpses in the morgue to leave finding shit out to people better suited to it.

[ Normally, he wouldn't bad talk another doctor he worked with, but Jack was pretty sure any hospital he knew would fire Dankovsky for the things he pulled.

Also, if anything, it built rapport with his patient. It wasn't causing problems. ]

Exactly. If the pain isn't managed by what I give you or the wound gets worse, I want you to come back here. In fact, I want to follow up with you in a couple days to see how it's going.

[ Jack sighs and looks up toward the ceiling. ]

No matter how many people are objecting to what he did out loud, he's effectively painted a target on your back for anyone who might think the same way. You're welcome to stay here, and I won't let anyone hurt you. I expect you won't go for that. So I ask that you find somewhere safe and put as little weight on your foot as possible.

... why would more people shoot me? I have no information they don't have already.

[ He's alarmed by the idea other people would think harming him would be of any use. He's very determined now not to be useful towards Daniil at all. ]

Some people might not believe that.

[ Jack sighs. It's not right to shoot Castor, whether he has the information or not. Castor is not the enemy. It only takes one glance at Castor in human form to see that. ]

People try to squeeze water out of a rock all the time. However, I can escort you somewhere else or ask someone of your choice, perhaps the man who brought you here, to do so.

[ It's like if a medevac were a person, instead of a helicopter. ]

Not him. He left my bot behind.

[ He'll find someone, there's several helpful people around. They'll probably be willing to help. ]

[ Jack knows Castor cares more about his bots than about the humans in Pollux. It's something like leaving behind someone's child or dog during an evacuation, for the AI. So sure, not him. ]

Fair enough. Not him.

[ Jack looks at Castor. ]

Remember to come back in a couple days, and I'll see if someone can retrieve your bot and bring it here.

[ Another bot would be useful. Also it's probably the best way to ensure his patient comes back. The way the bots have been hunted down as much as Polluxians says they have value to whoever is behind this too. ]

I will have it come here once I recover it.

[ He intends that to be right now, but he can't put weight on his foot.

He does try to get to his feet, though, with the intention of leaving. He doesn't like the idea of Dankovsky knowing where he is. ]

Woah woah woah.

[ Jack holds up a hand. ]

I understand it's your first bullet wound, but the more you use your foot, the worse you'll make it.

[ He sighs and out of consideration for Castor looks around them. No one appears to pay them much attention. ]

Where would you like to go? I could get you to the hospital. Enforcers don't go beyond the first floor much anymore.

I would like to be somewhere where Dankovsky cannot find me, and I would appreciate if you did not mention my location.

[ Disappearing on Dankovsky would make him very happy, actually. ]

I don't provide the location of my patients to people who shot said patients.

[ Said lightly but absolutely seriously. Dankovsky could shoot him in the foot or somewhere else, and Jack wouldn't tell him. ]

Lets go via the hospital to see if there's any undamaged wheelchairs and crutches left. The streets may be garbage, but I can wheel a chair like a pro.

There should be. We restocked on those just before this happened.

[ His restocking habits were often very bad, but Jack kept the hospital well-organized and he tended to bother Castor less when he did as asked, so the hospital was functional. ]

Yeah, we did.

[ Jack grins. ]

Never thought they'd help you, personally, but I knew they'd help someone.

[ He hands over the meds, instructions written in sharpie on the side of the thick ziplocke bag. Sorry, bottles for patients take up too much room. Then he offers a hand. ]

Lets go somewhere more private.

Thank you.

[ See? He knows manners. Dankovsky just didn't earn them.

He limps, leaning on Jack to walk. They can probably find a wheelchair without much trouble. ]

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un: Dankovsky | video

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