Characters: Skit, Drössel Setting: Dark alleys, late at night Previous Threads: After -Sick Bird- Plot Summary: The Jump city hospital doesn't reroutes a 911 call from the shadier part of Jump city to Princess Drössel. After providing some healing to humans, Drössel stumbles upon an unlikely patient.
The underbelly of Jump city. Broken street lamps stood bent, defeated, in the sinuous alleyways. The streets were mostly quiet. Occasionally, the hazy gray atmosphere was interrupted as a window opened. There was a shriek in the air, followed by the sound of breaking glass. During the brief episode of light, a metallic figure perked her head up. Princess Drössel was concerned. The ambulance doesn't come down here. The light from the window faded. Still twitchy from her previous healing mission, the robot started running into the alley. She stopped a couple under the suspicious window. Switching her eyes to yellow, the Medic looked for signs of the broken glass. Eventually, the yellow glow from her eyes reflected against glass shards on the ground. Squatting down, Drössel picked up one of the shards. No blood. Her primary core recorded in relief. Slight curvature to the glass. Green tint. Likely from a bottle. The robot wasn't sure what to make of it. It may not be a medical emergency, but she felt uneasy nevertheless.
Something bad happened tonight. Based on her previous encounter, and just the general feeling inside her primary core, Drössel feel compelled to investigate the mysterious window. Eyes briefly switching to white, Drössel confirmed the presence of one skeleton on the fourth floor. With a quick burst of power, the little robot jumped up, caught the edge of a fire ladder, then heaved herself up. A bit of climbing later, and she was breaking into the building from the rooftop. After checking again for the position of the skeleton, the robot stopped in front of an unhinged door. Should I enter? What was the correct protocol when one's door was broken?
After another moment of hesitation, the robot knocked. Without visual contact however, she was unable to announce herself to whomever was on the other side of the door.
This job could have gone a lot better. Skit sat in his apartment, trying to stitch his arm back up. He was supposed to just slip in and out, get a few things and disappear. He hadn't expected that mobster to have such good hearing. Maybe he was some sort of low-grade metahuman, but the mission had gone pear-shaped from there. Skit had only managed to nab about half of what he was supposed to before the guy started hollering, and then he had to scrap his way out.
He'd managed to make it out alive, but he'd taken a few hits along the way. A few cuts to his arms and sides, and a grazing shot to his upper arm. He couldn't exactly go to a hospital with all this. Doctors asked questions, and someone with knife and gunshot wounds got police attention. He really needed to find some sort of freelance doc around here, someone who knew to keep their mouth shut.
Skit froze when he heard the knock. He'd been hearing some weird footsteps, but he'd assumed it was a new neighbor. He glanced around the apartment. His knives were in the sink, waiting to be washed. They'd have to do. He took one, palming it to hide it behind his arm as he approached the door. The peephole was designed for humans, he could never get his head at the right angle to use it well. Instead he opened the door slightly, the chain still holding it mostly shut.
"What am I?" The question echoed through the little robot for a moment. Through the door, a glimpse of organic material appeared. Grabbing the occasion, Drössel sent a message.
@{Potential Patient} I am a medical robot.
The robot gave the door a light push. It moved back a little before halting to some metallic sound. Tilting her head, Drössel caught another glimpse of the person on the other side. Her eyes turned a crimson orange.
@{Potential Patient} Your adrenaline level is high. You seem stressed.
The electronic iris shifted to white. This close, Drössel realized two things about Mr Skeleton.
@{Not human?} Oh. You have a strange bone structure. Are you hurt?
The humanoid did not fall under her strict supervision, but Drössel was still keen on helping. She just wasn't sure if all the strange person's body parts were meant to go this way, or if he was hurt.
She was right he was stressed, though he was feeling weaker than Stressed Skit usually did. Maybe he'd lost more blood than he thought. Still, why was a medical robot coming to his door? What was one doing here? Who sent it? "I didn't tell you to scan me." Skit was heckin suspicious. Here she was, coming to his door, scanning him, trying to push her way in. What was her angle here? He'd have to stay on his guard. His knife was still hidden, ready for use if she tried anything. Though to be honest, he wasn't sure how effective a knife would be against a plastic-looking robot.
She was still inquiring about him. "I don't know if you can tell, but I ain't human." Had she not figured that out? He was wondering about her programming. Skit was about to brush her off and tell her to leave when another wave of weakness hit him. The knife clattered to the floor as he lost his grip, and the rat tipped over backwards, fainting from his injuries.
Drössel tilted her head in response to the humanoid's rejection of her scan. She wanted to explain her privacy rules to the person, but he was not showing any organic material to telepathically tether to. So the robot remained silent. His pulse is starting to become irregular. Under normal conditions, that would have been enough for the medical robot to beat down the door to help the human in distress. Yet, this person wasn't human.. He just confirmed it. This led Drössel to a strange new feeling: choice.
Despite the limited vision over him, Drössel predicted the humanoid's fainting before it happened. There was no pang of pain as she saw Mr Skeleton drop to the floor, no instinctive reflex to go save him. Her primary core unmoved, Drössel remained frozen in computation. I.. could leave him be. The statement ran through her core. The response was completely neutral. Drössel's statement now moved to her secondary core. Or I could help him. Again, the primary core spat the statement back out unaltered. As it flowed through her secondary core however, there was a small glimmer of something.
A few moments later the door shook violently. Then the whole piece of wood unhinged from the door frame, lifted in one clean motion. Carrying the door over her head, Drössel entered the room. She stepped over the furry figure of Mr Skeleton. Leaning the door against a wall, she moved back to scan the humanoid. Multiple cut wounds. Mostly to the arms. Significant loss of blood. Cradling the man in her arms, Princess Drössel began by putting him in stasis. The medic then moved to lay the patient on the sofa next to the kitchen. After a brief scan through all of her sensors, the robot began her healing procedure.
As the entropical flow reversed, Drössel's patient would wake up to a sudden surge of adrenaline. The strong robot was ready for any sudden movement, essentially strapping the humanoid to the sofa with her glowing, metallic arms. As she noticed the rat-man's consciousness rise, she pinged him.
@{Patient} Your wounds will be closed within a few seconds. Replenishing your blood-cell count will take more time. You will feel very thirsty very soon. Please don't do anything reckless.
Skit snapped back to alertness, feeling a strong fight-or-flight response. He would have done either at this point, but something was holding him down. Skit thrashed against the robot arms, trying to struggle free. After a moment he stopped, realizing it was useless. Sometimes it felt like he was the only one in the city without super-strength.
The robot seemed to actually be healing him. She'd said his wounds would close, and sure enough, he could feel them closing. Skit eyed her suspiciously. "What's your angle here?" He was new to Jump City, but in his experience people didn't do things for free. Unless you counted superheroes, and Skit didn't. They were just a bunch of showboating publicity hounds. They weren't in it for the money, they were in it for the ego boost.
When she let him go Skit slowly sat up, rolling his neck. He was stiff and thirsty, but feeling a bit better. Then his eyes fell on the door lying against the wall, its chain hanging at its side. The part to hold the chain had been wrenched out of the wall when the robot had busted in. "You better fix that, too. This ain't the kind of neighborhood for leaving your door open." Skit gestured to the door. "And get me some water while you're up."
@{Rat-person} My angle? I believe my shell is very smooth and presents little sharp, dangerous corners.
Drössel looked over her own body in sudden concern. Eyes went over every single "angle", even looking under her elbow for any signs of sharpness. Fortunately, the empathic core had designed their model well. The blue circles returned their focus on the patient, sending the introduction:
@{Rat-person} Hi, I am medical robot Drössel. You are the first non-human I have saved. What is your name?
Drössel followed her patient's eyes. The door. Quick flick of the head allowed for the message:
@{Patient with broken door} My apologies. I could not find another entrance.
The little robot then walked over to the piece of wood with its dangling chain. She paused in front of it for a moment, lifting a finger to her chin and tilting her head. The organic material isn't completely inert. But she couldn't really "heal" the broken metal pieces.
Drössel lifted the door above her head again. A few steps later, and she dropped it gently into the door frame. The door just slid on the floor. There was nothing there to hold it up. Waving her hands frantically, the robot quickly picked up the door again. She gave it another attempt, punching the door a bit harder into its canvas. The frame spat the door out unceremoniously.
Oh. Water. The patient's physical health was much more important than the door. With two quick bounds, the robot jumped into the kitchen. She then carefully picked the two largest glasses she could find -both rather plain but functional- and filled them to the brim with tap water.
The move towards Mr Rat-person was much slower. The robot took careful steps, balancing each glass overflowing with H20.
@{Patient} Please drink up. Once you are rehydrated I will give you another entropic boost to further boost your blood-cell multiplication.
The little robot arrived within arm's length of her furry friend. A first hand stretched out offering water.
Skit's mouth hung open for a second. He should have figured the robot would be literal-minded. Really, that was his fault. "No, I meant- you know what? Never mind." Either it didn't understand language very well or it was trying to play dumb. Either way, he didn't have the energy to deal with that right now. The whole being stabbed thing had taken a lot out of him.
He just looked on in confusion as she tried to punch the door into place. Was this robot broken? Well, she'd healed him up well enough. Maybe she was just crazy specialized and couldn't function at literally anything else. "Okay, Guess I'm not getting that security deposit back." Skit leaned back on the couch, waiting for his water. With that, she went a bit overboard. Both glasses were full enough to be near spilling. He carefully took one, taking a big gulp. Then she mentioned the door again. Skit sputtered, setting the glass done. "I think you've done enough to the door." He paused for a moment, thinking. "Did you punch my injuries closed, or is that just how you fix doors?"
If Drössel had a mouth, she would have been pouting at the man's response.
@{Rat-man} I will not rest until your door is fully healed! In the mean time, please stand still. You will feel an adrenaline rush.
The robot placed her palms against the humanoid's ears. With a soft glow the entropy silently flowed through his body, accelerating all his cells to abnormal multiplication rates. Drössel's eyes made their routine check for signs of cancer. Thankfully, the blood-cells were the main ones busy multiplying.
After a couple of seconds, the robot's hands dimmed. She took a step back, eyes cycling through a range of colors again. Like an artist inspecting her work for finishing touches, Drössel stroked her chin a last time before annoucing:
@{Rat-man} Your body is now fully functional. The adrenaline rush will wear off in twenty minutes. Then you'll sleep for twenty hours straight.
Turning around, Drössel looked at the door. With a quick flick back, she sent the message,
@{Patient} In the mean time, I shall take care of your door.
The robot pounced on the unsuspecting piece of wood. With a deft motion, she picked the rebel plank up. Pressing it against the door frame, the robot's hand began to glow again. The light grew intense. After a few seconds, little branches began germinating from the edge of the door. The robot pushed on with her entropical field.
After a good minute of growing the door-tree, Drössel let go of it. It stands! Rooted to the frame with the same oak texture the old-fashioned door was made of. Triumphant, the robot princess looked back at her patient.
@{Rat-man} There. Healed!
That's when she noticed the blood on the fallen knife for the first time.
"A what now?" She wasn't lying. As soon as she started, he could feel the buzz running through him. How was she doing all this? He'd seen some pretty sweet magicky science around town, but hadn't encountered anything like this before. Once it was done, she had more good news for him. "Wait, twenty hours? You sure?" He couldn't afford to sleep that long, he had work to do. "It'd be nice if you asked me before doping me up." he growled, glaring at the robot.
He sat up, watching in confusion as she worked on the door. Was it growing branches? Or roots or whatever? Before he could figure out what was going on, she'd rooted the door into the frame, completely locking it into place. Skit rubbed his temples, trying to figure out how to handle this thing. "Great work, tin can. Now the door won't open. How were you planning on getting out?" His landlord was definitely going to notice that. And what if the superintendent stopped by while he was out cold from an adrenaline crash? There was nothing about this that was going well.
Skit leaned back on the couch, closing his eyes. He could still feel the adrenaline buzz, but he just wanted the sleep to start now. "I hope you're better at fixing me than you are at fixing doors, or I'll be dead in twenty minutes." He was really wondering who'd sent this robot, and how he could repay them. He probably wouldn't need the knives, but a good beating wouldn't be uncalled for.
The little robot tilted her head. Her eyes turned orange again.
@{Ratman} The adrenaline may make you more rash and aggressive. I assure you my healing is perfectly natural and safe. No drugs were involved.
Drössel's hands were outstretched in front of her. She was busy making the universal calming motion.
@{Ratman} If you wish, I could prolong the adrenaline rush for another twewnty hours.
The robot paused for a moment.
@{Ratman} It would take me about twenty minutes of entropic acceleration.
The robot paused again, this time using her fingers to count. These started off at norml speed, before accelerating in a flurry of computations.
@{Ratman} It would delay the sleep cycle by twenty hours. And you would have to sleep for sixty days.
To accentuate the point, Drössel lifted six finger in the air. It felt to her like a long time, being only a couple of months old herself. But she was not one to judge her patients for their life choices.
Drössel's head dropped slightly as she was called "tin can".
@{Ratman} I... must admit I was hoping for the door to heal itself as a door. But it seems to not work the same way as for humans. It seems to not remember being a door.
The robots attention was slowly drawn to the blood on the knife. She had already scanned her patient for his DNA. It had been useful to confirm how far removed he was from humanity. So she technically didn't need to touch the drying blood on the blade.
@{Ratman} Jumping down the window sounds like a reasonable option to me.
Her sturdy body would absorb the shock. She could probably even climb back up if need be. Picking up the knife, Drössel touched the red liquid. Her body froze.
@{Ratman} This isn't your blood.
There was more than a hint of accusation in the telepathic voice. Inside her core, questions began emerging.
Twenty hours sounded good. A two-month coma did not. He wasn't sure whether she'd take him to a hospital, or leave him to die here. Either way, it wasn't good. He couldn't afford to be out of the game that long, and he definitely couldn't afford that hospital stay. "Hell no. I'll take the less garbage deal." The rat glared up at her. "For future reference, though, real doctors TELL their patients what they're doing before they do it. They don't just do something then explain the side effects." He wasn't sure if robots could feel a burn, but he wanted to insult her as much as possible. In this city, sometimes that was all he had the power to do. Maybe Jump was making him petty.
He put his head in his hands, trying to grasp what she was saying about the door. "Of course it doesn't remember anything, it's a door. It's a dead chunk of wood. Trees don't even have memories when they're alive!" There were probably some plant-themed supers who'd disagree on that, but they were probably crazy. His main concern right now was that she'd sealed his door shut. "You better pay me for the damage to the door, and the frame, and for the security deposit I'm not getting back! Do you know how much money you cost me with that?" He couldn't really blame her for busting in to save him, but everything after he could blame her just fine. And while he was demanding compensation, why not go all-in?
Of course, she had to notice the knife. Skit tried to keep calm. He could spin this, make himself look like the good guy. "Of course it ain't my blood. You think someone does this to me and I'm gonna just sit there and take it?" He really hoped she wouldn't dig too deep. It would be better if nobody knew he got those injuries during a B&E. At least he still wasn't well-known, the guys probably thought he was wearing a mask.
Skit strategy would have worked under other circumstances. He made the medic feel like she had left him worse off. And Drössel prided herself in being a good doctor. Yet, the robot did not respond to Skit's criticism. Instead, she moved forward, knife in hand. The next message was sent with a deliberate, almost commanding tone.
@{Ratman} Tell me where. I need to heal the human.
Unfortunately for Skit, Drössel's core did not register him as human. Whomever he stuck his knife in, however, did. Gone were her polite messages. Time was pressing and she was allowed to use force.
@{Ratman} Tell me now. I need to go immediately
The robot took another step forward. She was still holding the accusing knife, albeit towards the window. Her left hand was forming a fist. She waved it in the air.
@{Ratman} The subject may be in critical condition!
Things had taken a bad turn again. The robot seemed to have forgotten all about her healing duties, and was instead focusing on someone who wasn't even there. Skit stood, still shaky on his feet. She was brandishing his knife now. Not towards him, but still brandishing. Even if he was in good shape, he wasn't sure he could hurt the robot. It seemed pretty strong. And with how beat up he was, he stood no chance. Well, rats could weasel out of things, right?
"He jumped me with a bunch of other guys, I barely got away. They've probably already taken him to the hospital by now." Not technically true, but close. These weren't the kinds of guys who went to hospitals, and this wasn't something you went to a regular doctor for. No doubt they had their own doc, paid well enough to keep quiet.
Skit stood as tall and strong as he could, considering she was a fair bit taller than him, and he could barely stand at all. "He's taken care of, I'm taken care of, my door's not taken care of. Now if you're not gonna pay for the damage you did here, then kindly get the hell out. I need my rest." He glared into her eye-lights, trying to seem intimidating.
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Alviss: Darn doesn't show the pic
Apr 18, 2019 7:10:17 GMT -6
force: miss this place. if anyone comes back and sees this, i'm force, i was kid flash here once. you can find me on discord at rook#9485
Jan 12, 2023 13:11:35 GMT -6
The roleplay takes place after the series end of the original Teen Titans animated show, but does not include the movie Trouble in Tokyo. Since then Robin has been on something of a recruiting spree, and many new young heroes have found themselves a home in Jump City as well as Titan Tower.
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