Mission Mishaps: Oh Captain my Captain [Backdated to Sunday]

[littletonoidea]

[The video is taken from behind a giant pile of rope, just visible on the camera's edge before it zooms in on Flint and Levitt. The cameraman is silent, as Levitt shoves Flint against the railing.]

--lace to run. If you try, I'll gun you down in the back. But if you cooperate and face your execution like a man, I'll allow you a few final words.

[The scene zooms in on Flint, who very pointedly doesn't look at the camera. He just breathes deep, and bellows from the chest.]

DESTROY THE GAVEL. DON'T FUCKING ST--

[And he's interrupted by the deafening explosions from the machine gun tearing him to pieces and shoving him over the edge.

Not that the camera catches most of it, because there's a sharp yelp as Eiffel flails back with a sharp yelp of-]

Holy fuck--!

[-and the camera drops to hit the deck, bouncing and landing upright, and Eiffel's hand is back in view instantly, scrambling to grab the phone, and some errant swipe from fumbling fingers-

--cuts the feed.]


Spam

[Well, at least it wasn't a hand?

On the other hand, getting his left eye removed is way more painful than Eiffel would have ever anticipated, and he ends up spending most of a full day in the infirmary, getting his empty fucking socket cleaned and bandaged and taken care of, until he stops having a dizzy spell every time he moves his head.

But after that? Straight onto the oars. For three. Days. It's not so bad at first, until the realisation hits on the shift change when he's exhausted after the regular eight hours and his manacles don't come undone.

He learns in the second shift that a hastily scarfed meal, dense as it is to make up for the energy losses, makes him vomit. He learns in the third that bandages have a finite amount of sweat they can absorb before it starts seeping into his newly made facial cavity. He stops keeping track after that.]

Comments

[tarakan]

This would be useful if Hilbert knew how the Judge removed eyes to begin with. Because as he slowly attempts to peel more of the gauze off, none of the methods he can think of would make sense. The wound should still be, well, a wound, but it shouldn't be this tender.

Hilbert's supply hit has two alcohol wipes left. He grabs one of them and starts dabbing at the crusted-on gauze, hoping that loosening the dried everything might make it more pliable...as well as to help catch some of the ooze that's leaking from his eye socket. It's only when the gauze is fully off, taking a bit of Eiffel's eyebrow with it, that Hilbert is able to look into the eye socket itself.

Well. Exposed nerve. Active bleeding. Signs of new tissue growth. They are small, and he doubts that anybody who didn't think to look for it would know what to look for. But if the combination of decima virus and Lovelace's blood were able to heal Eiffel's fingernails, then a very slow regrowth of his eyeball would make sense.

Except....

"Hmm," Hilbert frowns. He takes the alcohol wipe and attempts to clean up more of the crusty bits as he asks, "Back on Barge, you are certain you had decima virus removed from your system, correct?"

[littletonoidea]

The sensation of Hilbert fiddling with the area around his eye socket makes the remnants of that eyelid flutter, but with the gauze removed there is a very sudden onset of sensations that make his remaining eye water aggressively. This is the weirdest and therefore worst feeling ever, like something is trying to jam against the back of his socket.

"Careful where you stick your fingers, Hilbert," he grumbles, pulling his face away so the doctor stops touching him. "Yes, I got the plague out properly. But Dracula said that Lovelace's donation was the part healing me, not yours."

[tarakan]

"Interesting."

Now he definitely wants a sample of Eiffel's blood. If he could somehow synthesize the Listener blood with the decima virus, possibly create a useful hybrid of their base structures...

Oh yeah right he needs to diagnose Eiffel.

"Your eye is regrowing itself, by the way. It took what, month to regrow fingernails? Eye is more complex organ, suspect it will take a while to fully regrow."

[littletonoidea]

Eiffel just stares at Hilbert for a moment, before realisation clicks and he sits upright in shock, even his empty socket seeming to widen with his alarm.

"What?! That's a bit more than a by the way, man! What the hell?!"

Ah, he's found his second - or perhaps twelfth - wind. Suddenly there's a lot of energy in his exhausted body. "W-what the hell am I supposed to do about that?!"

[tarakan]

"Let it continue to regrow?"

Duh, Eiffel.

"I do not see why you are so upset about the matter. Give it time, eye will grow back. And plenty of field observations about effect of Listener blood in human body can be made."

And Hilbert leans back in to attempt to continue attacking some of the dried pus with his now rather disgusting alcohol wipe as if this is just a normal conversation.

[littletonoidea]

"'cos it's an eyeball?! And it really--" He flinches, when the scrubbing pulls wrong and he nearly slaps Hilbert's hand away, only just stopping his own hand in mid-air. "It freakin' hurts! And- what do we do if it gets infected or something? It's an open wound, if I get sick isn't a virus gonna go like-- directly into my brain? Do Not Pass Go, do not collect two hundred dollars?"

[tarakan]

"What do you think we do?" Hilbert snaps. "Do you think Judge will care? Do you think Judge will let you get course of antibiotics to treat virus? If it gets infected, they will keep you well enough that you are alive but only just."

He frowns for a moment before pointing out, "And then there is bigger worry. What do you think will happen when your eye, the eye that they removed as punishment, is fully regrown?"

[littletonoidea]

His remaining eye widens as horror dawns. God, they'd remove it again, wouldn't they? And he's already on thin ice, he already knows that if he gets in trouble again it's going to escalate.

"Oh Goddddd..." It turns into a gravelly, whining keen as he lets his head move away from Hilbert and donk back into the wall, with a pathetic little dry sob. "This place fucking sucks. No-one's gonna learn anything here, it's just torture!"

[tarakan]

Hilbert just lets Eiffel have his moment. Because this place does suck and it is just torture. And nothing he says can change that. So, there's a pause before he takes the last few pieces of gauze and bandage out of his medical kit.

It's a shame Mandrake is dead. This provided a lot more use than either of them could have expected.

"Come. Still need to replace bandages on the eye socket." He lets out a huffy little frown before admitting, "I do not know when I can replace gauze and bandages next. Advocate who gave me this medical kit is...not here any more."