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+---- Thread: cut our teeth and make our bones right here (/showthread.php?tid=7764)
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Remi - 07-28-2023
I pick you for Pictionary or cherades Remi would say if he were able. Instead, the best he could do was blink intentionally up at Isla as if that might be able to communicate both his appreciation as much as her correctness.
Listening to what she proposed and finding nothing wrong with it, at the mention of calling Ronin, the wendigo stiffens. Or well, mentally he does. If you call Ronin he's going to ask how this occurred, and if we say we double-dosed me he'll ask why. He'll ask what happened. For all of Isla's cleverness Remi isn't sure that his half-blinks will communicate as much as he needs them to. [say]"..ood i'ea?"[/say] Hoping for his voice to raise at the end enough to indicate it was a question and not confirmation, Remi let his eyes fall closed for a moment as his brain beckoned him toward unconsciousness.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Isla - 07-28-2023
For a second Isla is left wondering whether the tone of Remi's voice indicates an optimistic slant or a question, and she's about to make the wrong decision when he seems as if he's about to fall the fuck unconscious (unheard of for a wendigo, OK). So Remi is saved not by the bell, but by his own low blood pressure, and Isla rises smoothly to her feet. [say]"Perhaps later,"[/say] she says softly, already heading out of the room to collect medicine and equipment.
Thanks to the very recent meeting re-establishing her as head of the project, she's able to give orders and explanations to interns and HermerSchermer alike, and when she returns, it's alone. Well, alone plus some monitoring equipment and some pure O-Negative to flood Remi's veins. [say]"Hey,"[/say] she greets him softly as she goes to set up all the equipment. [say]"I've got some adrenaline - with the way your body burns through medicine, I doubt it will last for long, but it might kickstart you for a little bit."[/say]
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Remi - 08-01-2023
When Isla return she'll find the wendigo in precisely the same place that she'd left him. From Remi's point of view, it felt as though his muscles were turning to stone; that, or his strength had been sapped away to literally nothing such that even blinking was difficult. Perhaps it was both. If this killed him and there was an afterlife for monsters such as him, he'd perhaps have time to wonder if double dosing was worth the few tears he was able to shed. If death was worth having Isla in his arms for a mere 10 minutes.
Hearing the doctor's voice but unable to see her unless she stood directly above him, the wendigo wasn't even able to article an are you sure? given how stiff his lips were. He could only hope that whatever opted to give him wouldn't make things worth.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Isla - 08-01-2023
Isla isn't sure, but that's neither something she's going to admit to Remi or to herself right now. None of what they're doing is more than experimental at best, after all, but given all she knows about the wendigo and about the properties of adrenaline, with any luck it should help to reboot his system a little bit. Gods, she just hope the muscle fatigue doesn't start to affect autonomous functions like breathing.
Having hooked him up to the monitor and the IV, a very ordinary, steady beeping fills the room that would have been a perfect pulse for an average man. Remi is not an average man, though, and so Isla leans forward to inject him with the adrenaline, already hovering by her equipment in case the wendigo jolts about and risks ripping anything out.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Remi - 08-01-2023
Given that the wendigo's system has seemingly shut down while it attempts to burn away the remaining serum within it, the addition of adrenaline in trying to counteract this produces a very interesting if not predictable result: seizures.
Remi's muscles tense and then spasm as the adrenaline is fought off by the wendigo's metabolism, leaving Remi looking like a man constantly being shocked by a defibrillator. It's a mercy that his pain receptors are quite dull, because had he been human for this, the pain might have knocked him unconscious. If anything that might have been a blessing given the shock and stress his system was currently under.
Every time the adrenaline succeeded in finding purchase, the wendigo's skin would seemingly melt away leaving only bone and ugly muscle. The skin of his face would peel back revealing only a skull and glaring golden eyes, before his metabolism was able to fight back, reasserting control and covering Remi's body with appropriately placed muscle, bone, and skin. Not unlike a cartoon of someone being electrocuted where they go from skeleton to human and back again with each flash, so too did the wendigo flit between bodies.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Isla - 08-01-2023
Grimm would have found this appropriately fascinating. Isla, on the other hand, is horrified. She'd assumed the adrenaline would increase the wendigo's pulse enough that his body would be able to function a little more closely to normal - an assumption that turns out to be a grave error, as it happens. [say]"Fuck--"[/say] And that enough should let anyone in the vicinity know how she feels about what's happening, the medic slipping around the edge of the bed and leaning down by the monitor where she's kept a few extra supplies.
One of those happens to be something intended to flush Remi's system should he reject the serum - in theory, it should flush the adrenaline in the same way. And you know, since they're having a day filled with fuck around and find out, she's already injecting him before she can think twice. [say]"Gods, I'm so sorry,"[/say] she whispers, simultaneously wanting to get something to stop Remi from biting his tongue and also not wanting her fingers anywhere near his teeth.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Remi - 08-01-2023
As the second dose of FAaFO serum is injected, for a moment the wendigo's body stills, caught halfway between one of his grotesque changes though thankfully he's mostly human-looking. Shortly after, as he's now done so many times, the wendigo tries to lunge for the trash can as his body goes about the business of flushing the serum out. Whatever IVs there are in his arms, not to mention monitoring equipment, will be unceremoniously torn out or tugged along for the ride.
Though the serum isn't in his stomach, his throat still helpfully tries to regurgitate anything left inside just the same. Sweating profusely now as his body temperature skyrockets as if to sweat every foreign particle out, Remi gags on nothing but spit as his body flashes between states, albeit at a slower speed. Clearly, this strategy is working, but gods it's a messy thing to watch.
Eventually, when the clenching of his stomach muscles has stopped and when his body has remained more often as a man than as a wendigo, Remi lets himself collapse onto the floor. It's strange given this rather athletic performance to see the wendigo not even breathing hard as sweat pours down his brow, though based on the way his eyes slip heavily shut, he's clearly exhausted.
[say]"Hey Isla?"[/say] Eyes still closed, Remi's hand opens and moves around slightly trying to judge where the doctor was. [say]"Let's never do that again, mm?"[/say]
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Isla - 08-01-2023
Wincing to see the IVs and monitoring equipment once again become broken puppet strings yanked from bleeding flesh, Isla keeps a sharp eye on Remi even as she straightens everything out. By the time he seems to have settled on being a man rather than a wendigo, the medic's nightmares are pretty much sorted for the next few weeks, but it doesn't stop her from moving to Remi's side as she spots his hand sweeping around the tiled floor.
[say]"What, it wasn't good for you?"[/say] she says with a weak, breathless laugh, kneeling beside him and letting her hand close around Remi's, giving it a gentle squeeze. [say]"Never again. I'm going to get the tapes that caught this and burn them, too,"[/say] she adds in a near whisper, not wanting anyone to be able to ilicit a similar response from the wendigo in the future.
[say]"Do you think you can get to bed, if I help you up?"[/say] she asks.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Remi - 08-01-2023
Something like sarcasm twitches across the wendigo's lips for a moment but as Isla's hand finds its way into his, the expression smooths out. [say]"Well if we are going to keep on like this I might have to take you up on carpeting the floor."[/say] He murmurs, fingers softly curling around Isla's with the sort of intentional restraint he hadn't needed to show when last her hand had been in his. Cracking open one eye and glancing to the edges of his peripheral vision, Remi exhales a single time.
[say]"Is anyone up there now?"[/say] He wonders in an equally low voice, before seemingly disappearing into himself to try and find her an answer. [say]"You..probably could, but unless there is a good reason for it, I'm quite content on the floor just now."[/say]
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Isla - 08-01-2023
[say]"I'll get a nice rug for next to the bed,"[/say] Isla offers with a gentle smile. [say]"Tell me the colours and patterns you like and I'll see what I can do."[/say] Or she'll send Ronin out to see what he can do, given how he's actually spent time with the wendigo outside the medical wing. Unable not to notice how gently his fingers close around her own, Isla reaches into her pocket with her free hand to draw out a soft white handkerchief, using it to mop the sweat from his brow.
[say]"Well,"[/say] she says, [say]"it's easier to examine you from the bed, and it's probably more comfortable. But if you aren't up to moving, I'll bring the equipment around to you."[/say] Either way, she has every intention of checking him over. [say]"And there are probably a couple of interns up there, but the blinds are still closed."[/say]
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Remi - 08-01-2023
[say]"Maybe something blue, like the ocean."[/say] Remi murmurs softly. [say]"To remind me of home."[/say] Whether or not Italy even existed anymore wasn't something the wendigo was particularly concerned with. It would never again be as it had been when he was a boy, but luckily becoming a wendigo hadn't interfered with his memory, and there it would always live on.
Isla will likely notice that what she mops up from Remi's brow isn't sweat, or at least, not the way humans sweat. It's a grisly sort of colour, not unlike the colour of Isla's serum if it had been strained through bones. [say]"I believe in your skills."[/say] Remi snarks affectionately, before tilting his head back slightly to peer upside at the window. [say]"What...do they even do? your interns? I know what they do when they come to see me, but up there? Is it all just..."[/say] The wendigo pulls an uneasy face. [say]'..notetaking and watching me?"[/say]
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Isla - 08-01-2023
[say]"I can do that,"[/say] Isla tells him with a soft smile, nodding and giving his hand another gentle squeeze before she gets to her feet and moves to wheel the equipment around so Remi doesn't have to get up. And yes, she does indeed notice the stuff coating her handkerchief, folding it neatly and slipping it back in her pocket, almost definitely for later examination.
Carefully guiding him to sit against the side of the bed, Isla goes ahead with her checks - pulse, blood pressure, pupil dilation, reflexes - all of the usuals that he'll be more than accustomed to. [say]"Mm? Well, they do take notes and they do watch,"[/say] she admits with a smirk, [say]"but that isn't it. They write their own papers, they help with the equipment, they do some sample testing..."[/say] She shrugs. [say]"Honestly, though? I've been looking for someone I could trust to take care of things,"[/say] you know, things like you, [say]"if anything ever happened to me. I haven't had much luck yet."[/say]
Hooking the monitor back up, she's pleased to see the familiar over-quick pulse light up the screen. [say]"Well, that's a relief."[/say]
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Remi - 08-01-2023
Grumbling in protest that he couldn't just remain sprawled on the floor, the wendigo does manage to sit up, albeit quite lethargically. [say]"Am I at least credited somewhere in these papers?"[/say] Remi wonders vaguely amused. [say]"I would guess not, as it isn't like I've consented to this, so.."[/say] He shrugs, more meaning his snark as just that rather than an actual commentary on his current prison sentence.
[say]"Oh? Are you planning a vacation, or...?"[/say] Sitting up, Remi stiffens and stills, suddenly reaching out for one of Isla's hands. Entirely-human he presently was not, and so the warmth in his smile from before is noticeably lacking, though even as a wendigo apparently whatever barrier which had fallen between them he considered still lowered. [say]"None of this continues without you, you know that right?"[/say] Though his eyes were no longer the colour of sea-glass, and though he could hear Isla's pulse as much as he could smell her shampoo, still he fought to at least not seem quite so monstrous.
[say]"I don't play nicely here because I care about your papers or because I am interested in protecting those topside. I do it because of you."[/say]
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Isla - 08-01-2023
[say]"Regrettably not,"[/say] Isla says with an apologetic smile. Though you are the subject of a great deal of them probably wouldn't make Remi feel any better about things either, so she decides to keep that to herself. As for the vacation, Isla laughs at that. [say]"Gods, no. I don't get vacations,"[/say] she says with an imperious wave of her hand, all the while hanging the IV of O-Negative back up and carefully inserting the needle into Remi's arm.
[say]"I just meant if anything happened. If something happened to me out on a research trip, or if I was caught by those topside, things like that."[/say] Like death, she means, though she doesn't say it in so many words. Having been reaching for the plunger to begin the IV for Remi, the medic falters a little to find her hand captured, and she frowns in gentle confusion as she glances across at the wendigo.
[say]"I..."[/say] Suddenly tongue tied, because however Remi thinks he looks or how he behaves or what he is, he still has the capability to be charming, and the soft flush to Isla's cheeks says as much. [say]"Why?"[/say] she settles on at last, furrowing her brow. [say]"I'm no different to any of those interns, if you look at it logically."[/say]