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You head towards the Dining Facility.
Dining Facility
Contents:
Clara
Vendotron 3000
Obvious exits:
Atrium
You arrive from the Central Atrium.
Clara is seated at a table near the back against a wall, working her way
through breakfast somewhat absently while reading something on a datareader.
Still her attention strays from the text often.
Niko pads into the room and heads rather promptly for the breakfast foods, snagging a bowl of oatmeal and some raisins. Adding a glass of milk into the bargain, he turns to find someone upon whom to inflict his presence. Aha! She who holds the skates hostage! With a faint grin, he heads over to your table. "This seat taken?" he inquires, nodding towards the one opposite yours.
Clara's attention, as it was noted, is easily distracted, and she grins up and
waves her fork at the other seat. "Sure thing. By you. How's it going, this
morning? Feeling better?"
Niko folds himself neatly into the seat, then starts the process of folding the raisins into the oatmeal. "Oh, much better, yeah. I think the weather's settled down a little, which helps. Habout you?" He stirs the beraisined oatmeal briskly, adding, "Everything okay with you?"
Clara pauses with a bit of scrambled eggs halfway to her mouth and blinks.
"Fine," she replies absently, peering at you curiously. "The weather's been
affecting the way you feel?"
Niko nods at that, starting to work his way through the oatmeal. "Hey, they
call them old wive's tales, but the wives are -old-, have lots of experience
and all. I looked it up once--something about barometric pressure drops and
recently-healed bones."
Clara thoughtfully mangles a piece of sausage into several smaller pieces which
promptly get drowned in syrup, all the while as she's shaking her head. "No,
-improperly- healed bones are affected by barometric pressure. You shouldn't
be hurting at all anymore, Niko. Maybe three hundred years ago, it'd be
acceptable, but not now."
Niko peers at his arm for a moment, then shrugs. "Well, it's stopped," he says, pausing to sample his milk. "So I'm -not- hurting any more, which is fine with me." He casts a quick grin at you, adding, "Come on, Clara. I don't want to be like all the fluffies, accosting you with random medical problems."
Clara polishes off more breakfast. And continues to do so. Essentially, Clara
eats. She also lifts a brow and smirks. "I'd tell you if you were accosting
me with such, Niko. I'd say 'Shoo! Go on, breakable duck! You're bothering
me!'. But you're not, and I'm going to worry. Still, if it's stopped hurting,
that's a good thing."
Niko eats, too. That can be a given, as he -likes- oatmeal with raisins.
"Definitely a good thing. And if it starts up again, I'll come harass you
while you're on duty, promise." He pauses for a moment, as if deciding
whether to say something else, then shakes his head. "But we can talk about
more important things, right? Like whether you know where my skates are, and
why the -heck- you keep calling me a duck. I can't be a duck -and- a tiger,
that's just wrong."
Clara pauses to see if that question emerges, then snickers, spearing another
bit of sausage. "You can come bother me even if I'm -not- on duty. Like now.
See? I'm botherable. And you're a duck because I was telling Kya once that
both you and Riley took to the military like ducks to water. And you're a
tiger, but I'm not sure why."
Niko mumbles something about natural ferocity, sounding amused. He considers
his own personal duckiness for a moment, then shakes his head. "Eh, maybe.
Eventually. After I got rid of being young." Thus says the wise old sage of
twenty-two. He waves his spoon at you, adding, "You didn't mention the
skates, though. Last I remember having them--and, mind, all that's still kind
of sketchy--I was in medbay."
Clara flutters her eyelashes at you in an over-concerted effort at innocence. "Skates? What skates?" she queries in the most syrupy drawl she can muster up, then grins. "They're in my office, actually. I figured they'd be safe in there, and then forgot. Let me finish eating and we can go get them?"
Niko nods amiably, though not without a snort at your pseudo-innocence. "Sure,
sounds good. No rush, though. I'm not going to be skating today, at least.
Busy busy, lots to do." And, in fact, he needs to finish eating as well,
though he increases his eating rate somewhat.
Clara was half done with her food when you arrived, so clears her plate with a
little less haste, then reaches for her coffee. "You're probably going to use
the skates to knock me over the head. I'm afraid I've made your life just a
bit busier, although only for twenty-four hours. I had to toss Riley off duty
for a day."
Niko grimaces at that. "Doesn't he realize that it'd be easier all-round if he
just figured out how much he could do and did -that-, 'stead of working
himself too hard and ending up off duty because of it?" He scrapes up the
last bit of oatmeal, chewing thoughtfully for a moment. "You'd think he'd've
figured that out, as long as he's been here."
You faintly hear a chime mark the hour.
Clara exhales a soft sigh, holding her mug up to her face without drinking. Coffee just smells good sometimes, not to mention it's warm, which is why both hands are wrapped about her mug. "Honestly? I don't think he ever learned that, really. I mean, he's had Honalee around for so long to keep him on track, and now me. Still...he's so responsible in everything else. I guess everyone has to leave -some- part of their life to someone else's judgement."
Niko considers that for a moment, taking an absent drink from his near-empty
milk glass as he does so. (Milk, it does a body good.) "I guess. Honestly,
though, I'd still rather he took care of himself. Can't be good, him getting
that tired and all so often." He grins crookedly. "Heck, I did it -once-, and
Ela gave me a hard time about it." Polishing off the last of the milk, he
puts the glass down on his tray.
Milk did that? Hmm. Not bad work indeed. (Clara's lifemated, not blind, of course. And Niko -is- easy on the eyes.) Still, she seems a vague mixture of concerned and faintly amused as she holds up a hand. "I think I pulled him off duty before he got to that point. I hope. We'll see when he wakes up, actually, which I'm hoping won't be for at least another hour."
Niko nods agreeably. "Hopefully more, yeah. If he sleeps himself out, that's a
good thing." He peers at his chrono, then says, "I've got maybe an hour
before I have to get back to work. That'd be plenty of time to snag the
skates, if you're ready?"
Clara bolts the last bit of her coffee, and sets the mug on the tray before
scooping the whole shebang up and grins. "Am now, yeah. Do me a favor though?
Don't try to skate down stairs anymore?" she teases, heading over to dispose
of tray and dishes.
Niko picks up the tray with his right hand, using the left mostly for balance. "I didn't -try- to skate down the stairs," he retorts, though not without a grin. And, naturally, he follows to dispose of his own dishes. "I just forgot I was wearing them, and the stairs were right there. That's all."
Clara hesitates, homing in unerringly on your hands for a moment, although for
now she doesn't say anything. Instead, she slips her own hands into her
jacket pockets along with her datareader. "See, forgetting that you're
wearing them isn't really the best either. You break, and then I have to fix
you. Which I don't mind doing, but it can't be fun for you," she explains as
she heads for the door, vastly amused.
Niko trails along behind you. He's good at following. "Not even remotely fun,
yeah," he says, apparently finding your commentary humorous, but maybe not as
funny as you do. "I've decided to -carry- them back and forth between the
park from now on, and take them off when I'm done skating. Kind of
inconvenient, but less so than breaking again, eh?"
Clara flashes a grin upwards and nods. "Far better than breaking, I'd agree.
Besides, you don't really want Ela to worry, do you?" Yes, Clara is evil. She
took classes in it.
Clara heads towards the Central Atrium.
Clara has left.
You head towards the Central Atrium.
[Travelspam to Clara's office deleted.]
Niko shakes his head firmly at that. "Definitely don't want Ela to worry, no
way. So I'll be more careful with the skates." At least until he gets
careless again, which is inevitable. "Hey," he adds, with a quick grin, "At
least it's not hang-gliding."
Clara shudders faintly and moves towards a small closet and rummages at the
bottom for a moment before extracting the appropriate skates. "Thank goodness
for small miracles. Breaking is bad enough. Breaking while -flying-...that's
got to be some seven kinds of hell, in my book. Here you go," she adds,
handing the skates over.
Niko's expression is maybe a little wistful. "Yeah, hitting mountains is really
bad, but the -gliding-... might have to look into that." He pauses for a
moment before taking the skates, then takes them both with his right hand,
holding them together, hand over the parts where they meet. (Okay, that's
really a bad description.) "Thanks for hanging on to these, Clara. 'preciate
it."
Clara's eyes drift back to that left hand again for a moment, a hint of
troubled concern invading the glance before she reaching out and attempts to
circle that wrist with her fingers. "What's going on, Niko? Why aren't you
using your left hand?"
Niko peers at you for a moment, though he lets his wrist be encircled easily enough. "Uh... I'm not left-handed?" Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya...
"Neither am I," is the immediate response as Clara half drags you towards the
bioscan so she can reach her scanner. "Now, want to elucidate a little?" she
adds, clicking the scanner on and moving her fingers so they won't interfere
with the readout.
"Well, see, I'm -right- handed," Niko starts. That's elucidation, after all. He does, however, continue before he can be smacked with a nerf, or a stray penguin. "Just doesn't seem to be working quite up to speed, that's all. Can't really feel things all that well. I don't want to drop things. And before you give me a hard time about this," he adds quickly, "I -was- going to tell you about it, just wanted to see if it got better on its own first."
Clara sighs faintly and clicks off her scanner, nodding as she turns to open a cabinet above the bioscan and stand on her toes to rummage for a different instrument. "I believe you. I'm sorry, too. I would have prevented this if I could," she explains, finally pulling down something long and circular, perhaps eight inches in diameter, and gleaming in an ominous black.
Niko's brows lift, first at your words and then at that ominously gleaming
thing. "Uh... prevented what?" He eyes the door, but just for a moment. "And
y'don't have to apologize, of course."
Clara taps at the bioscan, nodding apologetically. "Hop up here. Prevented
nerve damage," she adds, already working with the black tube and tapping at a
small control panel. This causes lights to flash cheerfully over its surface,
and she nods with satisfaction. "This is a neural reflex stimulator and
scanner. It'll tell me just how much work has to be done. Take your jacket
off, please?"
Niko peers at his chrono before, with a muffled sigh, he tugs off his jacket and perches on the edge of the bioscan bed. It's not close enough to work time that he can use that as an excuse, alas. "Not like it's not happened before," he says, with a brief shrug. "Honestly, Clara, I'm just glad that I didn't have to deal with casts and such for all that."
Clara starts to bring the unit over to fasten over your arm, then peers up at
you with widening eyes. "You've had sensory problems with this arm before?
Niko, why didn't you ever tell me?"
Niko shrugs once more. "It happened a long time ago," he replies, peering at the unit for a moment. "Back in Mathraki, when I was a kid. It's why I don't play the piano," he adds, with a brief, wryly amused smile. "Happened so long ago, I'm kind of used to it. Adapted, that sort of thing."
Clara just shakes her head, continuing with fastening the device in place. Lo
and behold, this one's painless too. Niko's lucking out lately with the
painless devices. At least...it's painless at -first-. "I wish I'd known. Do
you want to rehabilitate this problem?"
Niko is quiet for a moment, casting another look at the increasingly evil device. "Uh... maybe. Depends. What would that involve?"
Evil? Now, now. The device is most innocently testing various nerve responses. And testing. And testing more stringently. "It's about to do a pain threshold test," Clara interjects quietly, offering a hand. "You can squeeze if you need to, but it'll only last three seconds. I'll know more about what rehabilitation will involve when the testing is done."
Niko takes the offered hand, but carefully doesn't squeeze it, as he's not a
fan of causing injury to someone who's trying to help him--even if it -does-
hurt. One thousand one, one thousand two... okay, well, no, it's not
malicious squeezing, and he stops it as soon as the pain ends, taking a deep
breath. "Okay," he says slowly, "That wasn't fun."
You faintly hear a chime mark the hour.
Clara gives your hand a companionable squeeze of apology, then lets go to
gingerly remove the unit and balance it on the back of the bed to start
coaxing out information. "It never is, no. And it's the one test I can't give
an anesthetic for, since the whole idea is to stimulate the pain receptors."
Tap tap. "Hmm."
Niko rubs the poor, tortured limb for a moment. "Sounds like a really -bad-
idea to me," he murmurs. He looks up at the tapping, and echoes, "Hmm? Is
that a good hmm or a bad hmm?" (Or is it not a hmm at all, but instead a girl
named Dorothy?)
Naah, Dorothy is Clara's great-grandmother. I don't think we're in Kansas
anymore. "It's just a hmm. The damage isn't severe, per se...but it's been
let go a long time. It'd take extensive therapy to reverse this. Now, the
good news is therapy would only take ten minutes each session, three times a
week."
Niko's brows lift as he reaches for his jacket. "But? There's bad news, right? When there's good news, there generally is." He doesn't put on the jacket just yet, apparently just reminding himself of its presence.
Clara tilts her head for a moment with a vague grin, then heads to a closet to
rummage for a moment more and return with something that looks frighteningly
like mobile skeletal regenerator. "Well, let me show you," she offers, moving
around to attempt to start fastening electrodes.
Niko is not going to go for that. He tucks his hands behind his back, casting a
wary look at the evil machine before he suggests, "Maybe you could just tell
me? A demonstration isn't necessary, really."
Clara can't help but laugh affably, reaching for your arm. "Ni-ko, stop it.
Give me that arm back. I promise, this actually doesn't hurt. It's a bizarre
sensation, but not painful. I had to have this done to my back for a year, so
I know."
Niko returns the arm with just a hint of reluctance. "Just, the electrodes, and
the way it looks..." He shakes his head. "Sorry, I've had docs in the past
who weren't quite as nice as you, kind of sprung things on me. What'd you do
to your back?"
Fastening on the electrodes, Clara nods with a rueful smile. "It looks like a
regenerator, I know. Same principle, only it works on the nerve endings
rather than the bones." Covering the electrodes wit a felt pad, she shrugs
vaguely. "I didn't do a thing. Someone else did."
Niko's brows lift just a bit, but he doesn't press the issue. "Uh, yeah. Hm.
That's weird. You'd think nerves's hurt more than bones. Or I would, at
least."
The electrodes do indeed start to work, emitting pulses directing into the arm that have much the same feeling as if one had touched their tongue to the end of a nine volt battery. Not painful, but certainly odd. "You'd think," Clara agrees affably. "Actually, though, the pain is just an indicator of damage, or a warning signal. Itself, it's not the problem." She glances up wryly. "I got tangled at point blank in the back," she explains.
Niko had braced himself to hurt despite your words, perhaps instinctively. Maybe it's the presence of the electrodes that does it--he's certainly had enough experience with regenerators. And so he peers at his arm for a moment as it -doesn't- hurt, but instead feels decidedly odd, before turning back to you. "That doesn't sound good at all. Bad enough at a distance."
Clara continues to watch the readout of the small unit causing the electrodes to work, chuckling. "Honestly? I didn't feel a thing, at first. And I'm -real- glad the gun wasn't set to plasma. I think the guy didn't realize he was shooing a field medic, because he ended up dragging me back to my CO, all sorts of apologetic. Actually, now it's kind of funny. How's that feeling?"
Niko murmurs something about tangling being really funny, yeah, though his
diction is not the best. "Uh, weird," he replies. "Not the most descriptive
of words, but that's it. Doesn't hurt, though, which is nice." He'd
definitely not be thrilled, after all, if he'd had a regenerator going this
long.
Clara chuckles distractedly, adjusting a calibration slightly before shutting
the unit down. "No, no...the guy's reaction was funny. Not being shot. That
was just annoying. I was trying to patch someone up, and it interrupted.
Okay, all done," she adds brightly, starting to disconnect the unit. "Arm
tingling at all?"
Niko is silent as the unit is disconnected. "A little bit," he ventures. "
Maybe. Yeah. So that's all the therapy would involve?" He pokes at the arm in
question with one finger. Yeah. still there.
Clara nods, approving as she runs the scanner back over your arm again. "Mm-hmm. Three times a week. Easy as pie, not painful, and it should fix any problems in that arm. I'll want to do a spinal image resonance to eliminate the possibility of the damage eminating from there, but I really don't think it is, and we can do that some other day if this doesn't seem to work."
Clara nods, approving as she runs the scanner back over your arm again. "Mm-hmm. Three times a week. Easy as pie, not painful, and it should fix any problems in that arm. I'll want to do a spinal image resonance to eliminate the possibility of the damage eminating from there, but I really don't think it is, and we can do that some other day if this doesn't seem to work."
Niko twitches his jacket as if he's going to put it on again, but he's (relatively) patient, and waits. "Yeah, holding off on that is good," he says, with a faint grin. "I'm already late as it is--though I told Anya, so it's okay. How long would it take to get back up to speed, d'you know?"
Clara waves at the jacket, by now outright grinning. "Oh, put your clothes back
on, silly," she exclaims. Now wouldn't -that- be an interesting comment for
someone to walk in on? "My guess? About six months, maybe. An arm isn't all
that hard to nudge back into action. Now go ahead and scoot before Anya comes
and thwaps me for hiding all her best officers."
Niko blinks as he tugs on his jacket once more. "Six -months-? And that's not
much time? Yeesh." He shakes his head, fastening the jacket. "Anya wouldn't
thwap you, though. Maybe she'd toss Addie and some cookies on here, but she
wouldn't thwap you."
Clara waves her hands before relooping the neural rehabilitator and setting it in a drawer in the bioscan. "Nonono! See, that'd be bad. I've already got that G'ben kid about once in a while, and he's far too cute for his own good. Now, let's see. Skates, physical therapy, breakfast. Got everything?"
If Niko were Terrence, that would be, of course, the perfect cue. Proving that
genetics aren't everything, however, Niko just hops down from the bioscan,
with a brief nod. "Yeah, I think so. Thanks, Clara. I'll bug Giani or someone
later about when I'm supposed to come back next--sometime when I'm not late
for work." With that, he tosses off a brief, almost-salute, and heads for the
door.
Clara sketches something vaguely salute like back and continues to pick up the
instruments before heading out the door herself. "Any of us can run a therapy
unit, Niko. That'll work fine. Have a good day."
Niko casts a brief grin over his shoulder. "You, too. Don't work too hard."
You walk towards the Medical Bay.