Live and Learn

"I'm Sime, Richard." Suzi says, continuing past and digging through cabinets until she finds bandages. She honestly doesn't care what the staff will have to say about this later, "I can't lie. Deitmar isn't dead. Go get hot water...warm water...and I'll start cleaning him off."

From:

Ryan doesn't move for a moment, just looks down at Wesker, obviously troubled.

Dammit!

"We going to have to restrain him when we're done," Ryan says flatly, the faintest edge of hopelessness in his tone. He takes off his blood stained jacket and washes his face and hands clean before bringing back a bowl of warm water.

From:

"Fine." Suzi says, "It won't be the first time I've had to restrain someone...ask the Bar for disJunction supplies. We won't need all of it, but that's what I know best."

She is, clinically and efficiently, stripping the body so that she can take inventory of the wounds, wash them, and get the boy settled. "Bring back tea, too. When we're done I'm going to have a hysterical break-down at you."

Her hands, when she starts cleaning off the blood, are as gentle as it is physically possible to be.

From:

Ryan only bristles for a half-a-moment at the orders, but it's what needs to be done and Suzi's the one who knows how to do it. So he nods instead, and runs out to Bar to get what they need.

He returns a moment later with a large Thermos sitting precariously on the top of a huge heavy box filled with the appropriate equipment. Ryan's almost drops it as soon as he's near the bed, it's so heavy. The Thermos rolls off and across the room.

Moving quickly like this is good as it gives him little time to think. Still, the worried thoughts spin through his head.

What if he's dead?

What if he's undead?

Ryan shoves that away, instead throwing himself at the box and laying out the chains on a nearby bed.

From:

"Have a cup, please, Richard. It'll help you settle down." Not zlinning, just experience. Suzi reaches into the box and starts removing chains that slide under the bottom of the bed and are attached to cuffs that close around the upper arm just at the elbow.

Deitmar isn't a Sime, but disJunction chains are for people with tentacles. She's still gentle, locking them only tight enough that he won't be able to slide his arm out and not so tight it might hurt him.

Suzi moves the chains with only a very little bit of difficulty. They're really heavy.

From:

Ryan sincerely doubts tea is going to help this situation any, but he does as told, fetching the Thermos. It's the sort with cups on both ends, and he unscrews one to fill it with tea. He tightens the cap so no more spills.

And then just stands there, holding the tea and watching Suzi work. Watching Deitmar. And wondering.

His hands starts to shake slightly.

"I can't be still right now, Suzi. Let me help you." He doesn't wait for her to agree, instead putting the drink down and moving forward to help. If anything, the strain of lifting will help distract him.

From:

"Alright." Suzi says, nodding and pointing at the other set of chains, "The lock fits together like this...see? Anyone can close it, but it takes two hands and eight tentacles to open it again. When that's done I...I don't know what else to do. Wait, I guess?"

Her voice wobbles when she has to think about waiting, when she has to admit she's done what she can.

From:

He hefts the chains, one end at a time, until he can fit the lock together.

And then it's done and there's nothing left to do. Wesker's cleaned and bandage and if Ryan only used his eyes, he could fool himself into thinking he's alive. But he can hear as well, and it's painfully obvious that the pu- that he isn't breathing.

And now Ryan has no choice but to think about what's happened.

No, it hadn't been his explicit mission to keep Deitmar safe, not like with Suzi and the black oil, but he was pack alpha. He should have kept him safe.

And he didn't.

From:

And then it's done, and there's nothing left to do. Suzi flings herself into Richard's arms and bawls; quietly but with a significant amount of shaking shoulders as she says "He's not dead, he's not dead, he's not dead, he's not dead..." over and over again.

From:

And Ryan catches her, holds her, hugs her...

But he doesn't say anything.

He knows Suzi can zlin the living, but as far as he can tell, Wesker is dead. And really, there's only one possibility if he looks dead and isn't.

He's been infected by the virus he was working on. He's not dead...but neither is he alive.

He was supposed to keep him safe.

So what does that mean? If Wesker is a zombie, what does that mean? Perhaps...perhaps there's someone here who can help.

And if not?

He hugs Suzi.

From:

Time passes. More than the hours that it's supposed to take for a zombie; more by far.

Six hours.

Seven.

It starts off small; proteins that were set up for this eventuality click into place, setting off a small cascade that triggers a larger one. Once it finally gets into gear, it takes about thirty seconds from start to finish.

And what was supposed to be a fully engineered, watched-over, monitored and maintained process basically happened by accident; serious flaws have occurred.

--for one thing, the first thing that was going to happen was the breathing reflex, but all his nerves just got hit with absolute sledgehammer-to-the-forehead incapacitation. It's bright; there's air; there's scents; and right now even his sense of balance is flooding him with information.

So he snaps his eyes shut and jerks as far into the fetal position as possible.

. . . he's gonna be locked like that for another moment while his brain deals with all of that.

At least it wasn't "braiiiins?"

From:

"Deitmar!" it's something that gets her attention, some twinge in the ambient that has her turning away from Richard and toward the bed, rapidly.

No, really rapidly. Ryan may bruise.

From:

Ryan doesn't really care. Wesker moved.

"Suzi! Stay away from his mouth!" Which isn't to say that he isn't darting towards the bed himself, nostrils flared.

He knows this scent.

"Deitmar?"

From:

There was a little shouting there, but he only just heard it over the titanic ringing in his ears. It's starting to look a little other than blindingly white, too, but he's distracted.

This is about the time for the initial deep breath; in a lot of rebirths, this is where it begins, with the first heave of the chest, the first gulp of air. Wesker's last brush with awareness involved a horrible throat wound, so he's too busy hacking up blood clots to really get into that.

The movement's what draws his attention, even in the overbright light; he pants, turning his head to look over with slitted eyes.

Even mostly-shut like this, they're far too bright.

From:

"I've done this sort of thing before." Suzi says, quietly, "I'm not going to let him bite me, or kill me, or anything. Deitmar? Deitmar, can you talk to me?"

One hand, and tentacles, slide around one of the chained-down young man's.

From:

Ryan's silent, waiting, hoping, wishing for confirmation of what Wesker's changed scent is telling him.

He's standing next to Suzi, shoulder to shoulder, not willing to lose contact with her either. Ryan slides a hand just above her's to Deitmar's wrist.

From:

His skin's overhot to the touch; this is a step above his usual mild fever, snapped there suddenly from the coolness his body had hit during stasis.

He opens his eyes, looks up; the speed quite possibly made it seem one blink instead of careful regard of his arm and then them.

He is being touched. The smoothness and movement of skin and tentacle against his skin is a mildly irritating distraction--much more important is the cloth against his skin and the restraints. There are two people standing like statues who he does not believe would harm him without a very good reason. So he would really.

Really.

Really like to know why he is chained down.

Experimentally, he pulls; there's an equal pull on his other wrist. There's also a creaking sound from the underside of the bed. Where is he, someplace they make the furniture out of tin? And the last thing that happened was--

--bad.

From:

"Deitmar?" Suzi says, and the speed of the creak makes her say it at double-speed, "Deitmar, are you in there?"

From:

Ryan's eyes widen at the sight of Wesker's irises, but it's the movement that worries him more. The creak is almost a snap with the speed of its occurrence, and Ryan twitches, startled and wary. But he doesn't move away.

He does glance at Suzi when she speaks, but he's familiar enough with her babbling that it isn't too difficult to make out. He doesn't realize what she's doing, though.

"Are you all right?" he asks the pup.

From:

And in the time that this has taken place in, Deitmar has come to the reasonable conclusion that somehow, he screwed things up on his world very badly indeed.

Ryan is, in fact, still finishing the eerie drawn-out sounds he's started making when Deitmar turns his head. Precise gestures are trouble; he doesn't think he can move his fingers. He doesn't have time for that.

"Darley," he says, very calmly, because she, at least, sounded like there might have been words, "I think I broke time. I need to fix it. I need you to let me free."

From:

...
...
...
Well. That's a fine pickle, isn't it? Suzi ramps up the augmentation a couple more notches and says, "You're talking really, really fast Deitmar." her voice is even and steady, "And we need to be sure that you're not going to go...crazy and eat me, I think. Richard wasn't clear about that bit."

From:

Blink.

It sounds like somebody pressed fast forward on their vocals, for all the sense Ryan can make of the noises his two packmates are making.

"Suzi?" he asks cautiously, looking between her and Deitmar.

From: