InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "lyke omg no wai"

Commander Shepard (evertheheroine) wrote in colligo_threads,
@ 2012-07-11 09:32:00

Entry tags:

jane shepard, jonathan crane

Who: Commander Shepard and OPEN
What: Shepard takes a walk, even if it is more like a limp
Where: Around the library
When: Just after her arrival, July 11th, Early morning.
Rating: PG-13 at worst, for language.
Notes: (Remember, Open means Open! Anyone can feel free to jump in)

The guy's probably a nut. She thought. She winced slightly, shifting her weight from her left side, over to her right. She was amazed she'd even survived the damn blast in the first place, but then to wake up here, in a place like this, well, that just took the whole damn proverbial cake. "Still.." She grunted, having decided to solider on, and continued the thought out loud. "Who am I to call someone crazy - I decided to take down a race of genocidal, A.I and save the galaxy, even when no on believed me." She almost laughed at herself, almost. "Even wiped out an entire Batarian system to do it - pity I didn't get a medal for that one." She shook her head. "Just a whole lot of soft beds, saving planets, and then one fucked up dream."

She paused a moment to lean up against a nearby building, easing what weight she could off her battered figure. She knew she needed medical attention, and considering she had no medi-gel of her own, well, that didn't make it very easy. The guy, Crane, said he could have come, could have helped her, but she wasn't entirely sure she wanted a guy who claimed it was two thousand twelve - which meant his medical practices were based on data that was nearly two hundred years out of date, patching her up. Maybe if she could just find a place to rest, to have a drink and pass out, she could wake up from this and find out she was, in fact on Earth; they'd tell her the war was over, she'd stopped the Reapers, and everything was A-O.K. They'd give her some shiny medals, she'd have a drink with Williams, and demand Liara give her an uncountable number of back rubs. Yeah. That sounded like a fantastic plan.

If that didn't happen, she wasn't exactly sure what she'd do. Best case scenario, this was some kind of dream. She doubted it, even if she forced that voice to be good and damn quiet, but that was the best case. Worst case? Worst case was she was dead and had gone to Hell. That, in an of itself, was really rather discomforting. She couldn't say she didn't deserve it, not if you believed in that kind of thing anyway, but that still meant she was dead, meant she had failed. Jane didn't like the idea of that at all. Maybe it was some kind of Reaper plot or trick? Could they travel in Time? Probably not. If they could, why would they wait to go killing off the whole galaxy until it could, conceivably anyway, mount a counter attack? It seemed to her that an A.I. would have a better grasp of military tactics than that. If you were going to war with a galaxy, it made a whole lot more sense to hit them when they couldn't hit back. It might have been less than noble, but what the hell use did machines have for nobility? She reasoned it wasn't likely a Reaper plot.

So what then? Crane's story smelled worse than Krogan cuisine in her opinion, and likely the side effects of some guy who'd swilled too much Ice Brandy and pickled his brain. She took another breath and tried to force herself forward another few steps, before stumbling and being forced to take a knee.

"Dirt broke in a strange place, shot to hell, can barely walk.." She glanced down at her belt and the single, Carnifex, pistol still lodged in the holster. She pulled it out to check the thermals, and found only one. She had twelve shots. That was it. "Barely a gun to speak of..and nothing to drink - perfect. Just what you needed. Save the galaxy, get stranded in someplace that looks like it dropped out of a bad vid from the 20th. Next thing you know.." She groaned loudly, forcing herself to her feet as she began staggering forward. "Someone will tell you it's Christmas and spit in your face, because you can bet your last credit they won't be bringing you a smoke."

Another handful of steps limped her forward, in a completely random direction. She could see a gathering of lights, not far in the distance. That was, at least in theory, comforting. "So help me.." She groaned to herself. "If it's a group of cannibals and I'm in a bad monster vid or something.." She forced a weak smile, just for her own benefit. "..I'm going to be seriously pissed." All she wanted right now was a bed, preferably a clean one given the fact that an infection sounded awful, and some sleep. She'd even forgo the luck and just ride out this crazy gamble that she was about to wake up in the Normandy's sick bay, and Chakwas would be telling her that everyone was waiting for her to wake up.

Yeah. That sounded like a good thought, and it was enough to keep her going.

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andintheendfear
2012-07-11 06:34 pm UTC (link)

Jonathan was going to shoot her.

He wasn't even going to bother with toxin, he was was just going to straight up shoot the woman in the head. Or maybe hire Enigma to beat the woman unconcious with that guady cane she carried around.

He had arrived at the library to find no injured soldier, no PDA messages, and a drail of blood droplets that while leading him to where he needed to go, just pissed him off more since he was here to help the owner of the blood, not something he did lightly.

He shifted the bag of supplies on his shoulder, smaller frame nearly dwarfed by it as he set off after the woman, following the trail of blood until he finally managed to spot the only person who could be Commander Shepard, given the way she was stumbling about.

"Stop. Walking." he called out, voice firm in an order. He sped up to catch her, resisting the urge to give a flying tackle as he grabbed her arm.

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evertheheroine
2012-07-11 09:59 pm UTC (link)

When she heard the voice, she paused. She recognized it well enough from their transaction through the device. Still, she didn't stop walking, or tried not too anyway.

After the last few years, after Eden Prime, after being told she was a crazed person for talking about the Reapers, after that whole mess with Saren, after dying and being subsequently rebuilt by Cerberus, after being grounded and losing her flight status, only to have it recommissioned as Earth was invaded, and the rallying everyone and anyone she could to her cause...only to get smashed by a Reaper's weapon and wake up in a place like this? Well, her brain was getting remarkably resilient to the idea of simply accepting what was in front of her.

"How about not?" She called, over her shoulder, before taking a lean on the wall. "It's not every day a girl gets a chance to break the laws of nature, space, and or time, more than once in her life..I figured I should celebrate." The joke was delivered on weak and unsteady chords, but still, she forced a laugh through it...which ended abruptly when the man grabbed her. "Hands. Off." She spoke with as much fervency and seriousness as she could muster. She'd never liked being touched by strangers.

Her locked on the man and, despite the discomfort, balled her wounded hand up into a fist, fully ready to swing it. "Mister twenty, twelve, I assume?"

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andintheendfear
2012-07-11 10:04 pm UTC (link)

"Doctor Jonathan Crane," he corrected through gritted teeth. Why did everyone drop the 'doctor' part of his name?!

He released her, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at her. "Are you going to stand still long enough for me to examine you, or do I have to shoot you with a tranquilizer, because I did pack horse sizes if I need them and I have no problems carrying you back to the clinic and strapping you to a bed.

He would also have no problems leaving her there to die if he hadn't promised Selina he would try to be a better human being.

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evertheheroine
2012-07-11 10:28 pm UTC (link)

"That depends." She remarked. "How attached are you to the idea of eating solid foods again at any point in your life?" Being mentally pliant was one thing, being willing to tolerate a strange man talking about sedating you and strapping you to a bed? That was entirely different. Besides, he wasn't her type.

"Unless you've got some medi-gel, or a really strong drink, I'd be inclined to pass on the examination.." She was attempting to remain strong, somewhat vigilant, and composed. She was Commander Jane Shepard, War Hero, savior of the Galaxy, the indomitable force that never quit or gave up. If she really was in a new place, keeping that kind of reputation, she knew, was paramount to her making it here. She'd just done too much to be anyone else.

Betrayed, all at once, by another unpleasant round of coughing that nearly robbed her of her ability to stand, she leaned back against the wall. "Besides, according to you, it's twenty twelve. What're you going to do, apply a tourniquet and hack off my arm?"

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andintheendfear
2012-07-11 10:33 pm UTC (link)

"I don't eat in the first place so it wouldn't matter," Jonathan said. "And I have whiskey in the bag." He frowned at her coughing, watching her for a moment as he pulled his stethoscope out of his bag. "What were you doing before arriving here?" he asked, warming the head of the stethoscope between his hands. "And it's twenty-twelve where I'm from, not the eighteen hundreds, now may I check your lungs?"

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evertheheroine
2012-07-12 12:06 am UTC (link)

"Getting shot at." She replied, somewhat smugly, running her hand over her lips to clean them, well, sort of anyway, before gently brushing her hand over the dog tags that hung around her neck. She coughed again, as a small laugh spilled out of her battered form. "If this is two-thousand twelve, and I still think you're a nut, I really don't think you'd believe the rest of the story."

Jane considered him for a moment; considered the way her breath felt labored, her body burned and strained with each movement. She had to consider the simple reality that this was not some scratch that was going to go away, least of all if she really was stuck two hundred years in the past. That limited her options, considerably more than she would have liked.

Still, the guy didn't eat?

"Why don't you eat?" Hardly the most worthwhile question in some respects, but she really didn't enjoy the idea of dying because some nut job had shaky hands.

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	andintheendfear 2012-07-12 12:09 am UTC (link)
	"Because it's a waste of time and energy," Jonathan said without thinking, as close as he would get to 'because I'm anorexic and find it the least of my worries at the moment'. "Were you in fact shot, or just shot at," he asked, looking her over to see if he could see a bullet wound that he would have to take care of as well as her lungs. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

evertheheroine
2012-07-12 12:37 am UTC (link)

She almost smiled at the question, almost. At became a relative term when you were talking about sentient machines the size of battle cruisers, that could dispatch beams weapons and lay waste to entire swatches of an industrialized city in the time it took most people to blink. She groaned, once, managing to force herself to stand straight and tall. "That's a bit on the relative side, Crane." She answered him finally through a pensive line drawn on her lips. The pain was, damn near, intolerable.

Had he really said 'a waste of time and energy'? Jane was none too comfortable with the idea of a man working on her who thought things like eating were a waste of his time. She looked him over again, and slumped back to lean against the wall. Today. Sucked.

She looked down at herself, at the charred bits of clothes, the wounds which still leaked out her vital essence, the scraps of armor still clinging to her lower body, and then she looked back at him. It wasn't every day you got hit with a star ship weapon that was firing hyper-accelerated bits of metal at you, and didn't die. In fact, she was pretty sure that was a once in a lifetime experience - at least she hoped it was anyway. How could she even begin to explain that to a guy who'd have no idea what she was talking about?

"Try and think of it more like a very, very, bad, burn." She explained, looking over herself. Without medi-gel, that was going to scar. That, too, sucked.

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andintheendfear
2012-07-12 12:42 am UTC (link)

"Right, easily treatable then, especially with my gels. Now, you can let me touch you and help you, or you can stand there and suffer, take your pick, Commander. I'm not normally one to care, so this is a rare chance."

Especially as Jonathan was the only one with access to his own creations, everything from specialized burn creams to painkillers without the cotton feeling. He had a very profitable side business in creating medications and treatments for the Rouge's Gallery that kept them at their fighting best for the Bat Family.

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evertheheroine
2012-07-12 01:39 am UTC (link)

The fact that he'd used the words 'easily' and 'treatable' so close together didn't really give her much hope, but she tried not to fault the guy. She wasn't really giving him much to work with, and she knew it. Then again, he wasn't really doing much for her either. She raised an eyebrow at him.

"You could really.." She broke speech again, groaning as she tried to wrench her shoulder forward. The socket felt swollen, which made sense. After a moment of expressions of discomfort, she looked at him again. "..use some work on your bedside manner.." She coughed again, but steadied herself with her good hand against the wall.

"Tell you what.." She looked him over. "I'm military trained, special forces, mean anything to you?" The question was rhetorical, and she didn't even give him to answer. "I can handle field medicine." Maybe not if it was two hundred years old, but, Jane felt relatively confident in her abilities...and something about the guy just rubbed her the wrong way.

"What'll it take for you to just hand over the meds to me and point me in the direction of a clean rack?"

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andintheendfear
2012-07-12 07:16 am UTC (link)

"Not a chance in hell," he said instinctively, protective over his creations, before realizing she had probably meant the normal medications. "Look, it would be easier to just let me treat you, but I could probably give you some items. I would like to oversee your treatment, but you seem to have something against me,"

Jonathan worried at his lip, wondering what he could give her that wouldn't cause too many problems if she overdosed.

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evertheheroine
2012-07-12 07:38 am UTC (link)

More warning signs. Jane tried to stand her ground, to shut out the throb that ran from the bottom of her toes to that tiny corner just behind her eyeballs. She tried to hold the world steady and still, tried to remain composed and on top of this, it was just...what she had to do.

"It would be easier if I just pulled my gun and demanded them." She remarked, though her tone was absent of any real threat. "The easy way isn't always the best way. I don't know you, and I don't entirely trust your medical skill. You don't want to hand over the meds? That sucks for me, but it also says to me you're a lot less interested in my well being than you claim." She had decided to try the logical approach.

"Look. I was in the middle of saving every last scrap of sentient life in the known universe. All of it. Every last one and I'm not even joking. I get smashed by a weapon from a star-ship bigger than you could even conceive, if this really is twenty twelve, and now I'm here. I have no idea of my plan worked, I have no idea what happened to my friends, and I'm bleeding all over the damn street in a place that, if I'm just a little bit lucky, is a really bad dream I'll wake up from. The bottom line is I don't trust you. I've learned to trust that instinct. You want to prove me wrong? You'll help. You don't? I'll keep bleeding until I find someone who does."

Even if Jane didn't like the odds, those were the facts.

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andintheendfear
2012-07-12 07:44 am UTC (link)

"First of all, you could pull your gun, and I could laugh in your face. Dying doesn't scare me, and neither do you. Secondly, I am a highly trained medical professional. The only reason you don't trust me is because you don't like me. I don't really care. I'm here to heal you, nto make nice."

He shifted, crossing his arms over his chest. "If I wanted to kill you, I would just hand the meds over. Because you see, I don't trust you much either and that includes for you not to overdose on the medications I hold just because you're in too much pain and too injured to pay attention to whatever training you may or may not have had."

He rolled his eyes at her last words. "In case it escaped your attention, I have been trying to help, you're the one refusing treatment."

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evertheheroine
2012-07-12 10:14 am UTC (link)

She considered him for a moment, and found herself thinking he was seriously full of shit. He looked like the kind of guy who could talk big, and would probably piss himself if she even looked like she was going to throw a punch at him. Still, there was no point in testing that theory. "I don't trust you because I don't know you." She corrected him with a groan. "And what I do know is that you don't care often, which.." She groaned, hugging at her side with her good arm for a moment. "..isn't exactly something I like in a stranger who's offering me medical 'help." She didn't even entirely believe that, not now, but her options were incredibly limited.

"And pain's no excuse to be an idiot." She spat back in retort. "Being stupid under pressure is how you get people killed." She glared at him. "And that doesn't happen on my watch." Her eyes locked on his for a moment, despite their slight loss of focus. "I'm not refusing your help, I'm refusing your ministrations. You're refusing the tools I need to treat myself. You don't trust that I can do it without dying? You don't care, not your problem. So you're either giving me more reasons not to trust you..." She pushed herself to stand up straight and acted as though she might walk away from him.

"Or you're full of shit."

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	andintheendfear 2012-07-12 09:08 pm UTC (link)
	Jonathan was tempted to inform her that she shouldn't trust him simply on the basis of him wanting to kill her...or cause her extreme fear, but dismissed the idea, figuring that pushing her right now would not be advisable. He'd heal her, then torment her for this bullshit. "What is in it for me if I hand them over?" he asked, calculating. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

evertheheroine
2012-07-12 09:17 pm UTC (link)

"I owe you one." She understood it didn't sound like much, but the truth was, it did. Debts were debts, they were things that you payed no matter who you were. Granted, she'd refuse if the guy tried to get all perverted on her wounds or something but, as long as his request was reasonable? She'd play along.

"And you can have your conscience rest a bit easier knowing you actually helped someone."

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	andintheendfear 2012-07-13 11:16 pm UTC (link)
	Jonathan rolled his eyes, but handed over some of the more standard medications, keeping his own creations to himself as he simply couldn't trust anyone to take them properly unsupervised. He wouldn't even trust Hannah with them. "I will collect later," he said, writing a list of instructions. "Do the breathing treatment first, your lungs sound like shit," (Reply to this) (Parent)