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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 - 07-21-2023
On the whole, it's all positive, which is what makes it that much harder for Remi in the final few days before he has to go back. It's like the Sunday Scaries or the end-half of a vacation made infinitely worse. Even so, the wendigo does his best to enjoy what time he has out and about, even if that means watching tv shows with Ronin he really doesn't understand.
[say]'Well...'[/say] Remi echoes, and for how close the two men have become, comparatively, just now it feels to the wendigo like the ending of a bad date that they're both trying not to acknowledge. [say]'Its'a'me. Luigi, no Remi.'[/say] He mimes, the accent perfect despite the lacklustre delivery. [say]'What is it Truman says? If I don't see you, good morning, good afternoon, and good evening?'[/say] Glancing at Ronin and hating the way it all suddenly felt like it had been for nothing, the wendigo squints up at the ceiling and tries for a bit of sarcasm.
[say]"Honestly, I'm looking forward not to hearing you breathe around a deviated septum all night long."[/say]
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Ronin - 07-21-2023
[say]"I'd say that was cultural appropriation but I guess you can get away with it, given the whole Italian thing,"[/say] Ronin says with a smirk, though he's not sure how much farther Luigi would get in life given how quickly it all falls apart. [say]"Mm, it's something like that,"[/say] he agrees of the quote, even as they finally reach the end of the staircase and start down the squeaky clean corridor to the medical wing.
[say]"Yeah? I'll miss you too,"[/say] Ronin replies, and though he's responded with sarcasm, it doesn't really work because he means it. His apartment will feel empty when he returns, even more so because it will still smell like fresh coffee and sound like conversations that will be one-sided again from now on.
Finally drawing up to the doors of the medical wing, Ronin presses the buzzer and waits for Isla - and probably a bunch of guards, which y'know, defeats the purpose of the past week or two - to come and greet them. [say]"Now be nice to the other kids, okay?"[/say] he says to Remi with a weak smile. [say]"And listen to your teacher, and eat all your lunch."[/say]
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Remi - 07-21-2023
Swallowing, the honesty hitting hard in a way the wendigo really hadn't anticipated, Remi just bobs his head in agreement. The pair would experience the same phenomena of missing the other despite how drastically different their situations were; where Ronin would smell coffee and hear Michael Scott, Remi would smell bleach and the sound of air purifiers.
[say]"Yes dad."[/say] Remi says with a roll of his eyes, finding suddenly that looking at the hunter hurt. As one of the guards appears, he holds up a silver chain that he rattles obnoxiously at Ronin as if to ask where the fuck is yours? [say]"Oh look, we're playing charades. I think that's supposed to mean Adam Sandler is a Vampire."[/say] It doesn't, not at all, but the wendigo can't help but make one final reach for the camaraderie he and Ronin had built over the past week before being hauled inside. Were it not for the red-faced guard bullying his way through the security doors to put the leash on Remi, he might have given the hunter a hug.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Ronin - 07-21-2023
[say]"That's my boy,"[/say] Ronin says, grinning at the ground because, similarly, glancing at Remi feels uncomfortable in a way he can't really get over. And he knows why - it's because they've forever crossed a line from hunter and wendigo. Ronin isn't returning his hunting partner experiment - he's letting his friend go to some arguably torturous future. Not Remi-the-cannibal-monster, but Remi whose mother has her furniture wrapped in plastic, who left roses on his crush's doorstep every day.
Resisting the urge to rattle Remi in return (he's wearing the silver choker, isn't that enough?), Ronin does break their social taboo before the guard reaches them. It's a quick and manly sort of hug, but it speaks volumes. Hang in there. I won't let it get like last time. Nolite te bastardes carborundorum and so on. [say]"I'll make sure to rile up Jim Carrey so we can hang out this evening, yeah?"[/say] He scoffs, letting Remi go just as he's manhandled into having shackled wrists and a leash attached to the choker.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Remi - 07-21-2023
Too surprised to do much of anything but fumble against Ronin, the wendigo nevertheless nods in the wake of the hunter's hug as if he'd understood the other man's thoughts. I won't try and kill myself. I'll be here when you come back for me. I know this isn't your fault. [say]"Yeah. Have him put money in the pig while you're at it."[/say] Remi replies; the piggy bank had been left, optimistically, next to the bed (his bed, one might think, but it hurt too much to think of it that way).
The guard gives both hunter and wendigo a look like they've lost their fucking minds, before jerking hard enough on the leash to send a normal person running to their chiropractor. Remi only grunts and takes a stutter-step forward, and though he's unable to turn (well, he could, but not without risking a good tasering from the guard), waves awkwardly through the shackles.
When he's deposited back into his room, the wendigo looks immediately up toward the windows above where he knows the interns are likely monitoring him. Wanting badly to throw things around the room out of sheer frustration, instead, Remi just goes to his bed and sits down on it. Closing his eyes, he raises one wrist to his nose, inhaling deeply the scent of sandalwood and sage, the smells of which he'd intentionally rubbed against his skin before leaving Ronin's apartment.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Isla - 07-21-2023
The room, at least, isn't pepto-pink, but it has been repainted to the stark, stoic white during the time when Isla was away and Grimm was in charge. But it's clean and ready to cage the wendigo afresh, and the cameras are all squinting away happily regardless of whether there are interns spying through the two-way glass in the windows.
Remi is left alone, though for a good thirty to forty-five minutes, and when his door does beep to signal someone coming in, there are no guards accompanying Isla. She's still in charge of the project, constraints or no constraints, and she's absolutely determined to start back on the right foot. Which is why, when she does come into the room, she's holding a copy of The Wind in the Willows.
[say]"Ronin said you were in the middle of this,"[/say] she murmurs, offering a knowing sort of smile to Remi before moving to place the book on his desk. [say]"Good morning, Remi."[/say] She doesn't say it's good to have you back, because it isn't, or how are you doing? because that's very unfair.
Instead, Isla goes to retrieve a small tray from outside the door with some bits and pieces of equipment on it, including a syringe.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Remi - 07-21-2023
The door beeps and boops to indicate that someone is about to enter, though even as he hears the pneumatic seal sighing open, the wendigo doesn't move. Instead, he inhales one final time as if to make sure that the breath that stays in his lungs is one fully saturated in the smell of Ronin and freedom. Only when he's nearly dizzy with it does he place his hand back in his lap and glance over to see Isla.
[say]'Ah.'[/say] Feeling wary without quite knowing why, Remi watches as Isla places the book on his desk, before returning his gaze toward her as if the story of moles was entirely inconsequential and absolutely not the sort of thing any watchful interns should make note of.
[say]"Good morning."[/say] He replies politely but dully, before rolling up one of his sleeves and holding out his arm.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Isla - 07-21-2023
It's wrong to feel excited given the fact that Remi has come back from a fortnight of freedom to this, but unfortunately the wendigo will know it from her heartrate alone. Swallowing and gathering up the syringe and her other tools as the door sighs closed and locks, Isla glances at him on the bed and can't really keep it to herself any more.
[say]"Not yet,"[/say] she says as he rolls up his sleeve. [say]"I need to tell you about this one first."[/say] Grabbing his desk chair even though her immediate urge is to sit down on the bed next to him, Isla forces herself to relax a bit, but she's still smiling at the wendigo.
[say]"This is it,"[/say] she tells him. [say]"This is the first trial run of the serum I've been developing. The one that might be able to reverse... well. Everything. This. You. It won't last very long - five or ten minutes at most - but if you want to try it..."[/say] She raises her eyebrows at him.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Remi - 07-21-2023
Frowning, Remi lets his gaze drift higher until it meets Isla's. Normally he finds this difficult to do, but after having just left Ronin, the wendigo feels strangely numb to the sorts of effects Isla normally has on him. Straightening and tilting his head at an angle that speaks of nervousness as the doctor sits down, Remi hazards a quick glance toward the door as if expecting Grimm to walk in at any moment just before Isla says something like sorry, but it's all over, nice knowing you.
What else might her elevated pulse mean?
oh. That. That's what it means.
[say]"-uhm."[/say] Having gone from making absolutely 0 choices for himself to a week of freedom, Remi had clearly not expected his run of bodily sovereignty to last such that he could only stare blankly at Isla for a moment. [say]"If..you'd like?"[/say] He decides at last with a slow shrug. [say]"Is there any reason not to?"[/say] Side effects like pain hardly mattered he supposed, and given he was still wearing his wendidon't collar, even if Isla stayed in the room she should be fairly safe.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Isla - 07-21-2023
If you'd like isn't one of the responses Isla has been expecting, but given the stark change in circumstances Remi has just gone through, she absolutely understands it and then some. Still, she's not sure he fully comprehends what might happen, and the follow up question is appreciated. [say]"Well, it's the culmination of all of my research so far. I just won't know what the transition to and from is like until we test it this first time,"[/say] she explains.
[say]"But if you're happy to proceed, then so am I."[/say] She doesn't say things like if I can get this perfected, I might be able to cure you or this might mean more trips out, because honestly, there's still a great deal she doesn't know. But, provided that Remi is happy to continue, Isla won't hesitate a moment longer, carefully injecting the serum into his offered arm.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Remi - 07-21-2023
At first, it feels like nothing. Just as he's about to say as much, everything changes. It does so all at once with no indication at all, not unlike the way those Magic Eye 3D Illusion books used to work, where suddenly what you'd been looking at was entirely different despite having remained exactly the same.
The blue of Isla's eyes was suddenly blurry and flat; all of the different points of blue he could once see were muddled together into one. Indeed, everything seemed blurry and flat, from the texture of her hair and skin, to the fibres of her smock, to the paint on the walls. It all seemed to have been pushed back until it looked the same. Tilting his head suddenly to the side, Remi realized just how muffled the sounds were as well. As Isla blinked, he realized he couldn't hear it; couldn't hear her shifting in her chair, the sound of her swallowing, or the clock ticking on the wall.
[say]"What.."[/say] Looking down at his hand, the wendigo flexes his fingers before making a fist which he instantly releases. Goosebumps trickle up his arm as his body becomes aware of the temperature of the room, sending shivers down his spine. Gasping, and not just for emphasis, Remi finds himself suddenly sipping in quick breaths of air now that the need to breathe was something his body had to do every few seconds, instead of every few minutes.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Isla - 07-21-2023
[say]"Slow breaths,"[/say] Isla is already warning Remi, because a panic attack from hyperventilation right out the gates isn't going to be something she imagines he's keen to repeat. [say]"Count to four in, and four out. You don't need to speak right now, but I just want to take some vitals, okay?"[/say]
The rest of her equipment is already in hand, the doctor taking his hand and wrist to check his pulse and temperature. Unsurprised to find it absolutely average but feeling giddy about it nonetheless, she releases him and sits back in the chair.
[say]"How are you doing?"[/say] she asks. [say]"Take it slow, okay? Your senses will probably feel dulled until everything settles. Let me know if you feel ill, or if you need to lay down."[/say] Really speaking there should have been a lot more people presents, a lot more tests done, a lot more equipment, but Isla feels like offering Remi a slice of hope on his first day back in prison is more important.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Remi - 07-21-2023
Counting, sure. Even in the midst of his panic, Remi was more or less compliant when it came to Isla. [say]'One...two...tre...f-..four."[/say] He gasped, having to force the words out. As if his body had been hard-restarted after years of only being put to sleep, all of his systems seemed to be going through the motions of testing themselves out. [say]"Four..three....due...."[/say] Blinking hard as a headache formed immediately behind his eyes, Remi swallows and shakes his head. [say]"..uno.."[/say]
A sharp ringing in his ears has the wendigo wincing and tilting his head, as a wave of nausea rises in his stomach causing his mouth to water. [say]"I...I think I'm going to throw up-"[/say] And, having the forethought to not want to throw up on Isla, Remi shoves her chair away as he makes a desperate lunge for the trash can next to his desk. He'd probably have made it too, were it not for the fact that as a man his body was woefully under-muscled, and as he tried to move with the same strength and dexterity he was used to, his legs and balance gave him a big old fuck you, sending him to the floor.
RE: cut our teeth and make our bones right here - Isla - 07-21-2023
[say]"You're--"[/say] Isla doesn't have time to say much if anything before Remi is trying to make it across the room like a bucket of water that's just been spilled, the doctor quickly getting to her feet to grab the trash can (if she's in time - and if not, there's going to be a clean up on aisle Remi, so be it). [say]"Your body is trying to adjust,"[/say] she says softly as she kneels down beside him, knowing he probably knows but feeling like having it reinforced might help.
[say]"I've got some water if you think you can stomach it. Don't do anything too quickly, though, okay? Just sit and breathe with it."[/say] And throw up, obviously; it's not as though that's a choice he's making. But even with the shock to Remi's system, Isla can't help but feel optimistic that, for all intents and purposes, it's worked.