Etraya Inbox

[badlydisarmed]

voice | text | video

Comments

[theknightshift]

Some. I had a small MCL injury before I got here. I just wanted to make sure I haven't made it worse.

[ Damian cracked that crowbar across his knee pretty good. ]

[badlydisarmed]

There's some metal in you?

[ Why is there metal in this guy? How much metal is some metal?

Whatever, maybe he can do a CT scan. That should make the bullets a non-issue and it'll give him a clearer picture than an x-ray. ]

You know what? Forget I asked, we'll do a CT, if everything's in the right place I'll give you a brace, anti-inflammatory meds, and painkillers you probably won't take.

[theknightshift]

[ Some plates and some pins. Bruce shrugs. ]

I like fast cars.

[ He leaves it at that as he hops down from the table. ]

Which way?

[badlydisarmed]

[ The helper bot helpfully offers Bruce the crutches. Robert doesn't actually expect Bruce to use them once he gets out but he's doing what he can. ]

Left, first door down the hall.

[ It'll be interesting to see all the cumulative damage from "fast cars" ]

[theknightshift]

[ Bruce isn't overly concerned about any of that. He could have - probably should have - asked Clark to do this. But there's sense in having more than one option. The poorly healed bones and plates and pins will be difficult to explain, but Bruce will manage.

He takes the crutches and puts them to use to hobble his way out of the room and into the next. Easy enough. ]

Mind if I keep my shirt on?

[badlydisarmed]

Not at all. Patient's comfort first unless it's an emergency.

[ Mr. Smooth Liar can keep all of his clothes on if he wants to, Robert just wants to make sure his knee functions as well as it possibly can. He almost wishes they had an actual healer in town, it'd be nice to have someone who can mumbo jumbo injuries away— he was helped by one but he hasn't seen her or sought her out.

He pokes at one of the robots as they make their way to the CT machine. ]

Remind me to check if that one healer's still in town.

[theknightshift]

[ Bruce doesn't trust magic. So he would do no such thing, unfortunately. He settles into the CT machine and waits for the scan to begin. ]

Have you been in Etraya long?

[badlydisarmed]

A few months. I was originally pulled from my home universe to Solmara, I don't know if you've heard about that.

[ He's happy to give out his tragic multiverse backstory while he runs the scan. ]

Different bubble city, ran by a different AI— there's a whole soap opera there, but a group of us were sent to infiltrate this bubble city. Our carefully selected spies found friends from their home worlds here and folded immediately.

[theknightshift]

[ He's combed the network, though only to a certain point. Solmara is a name familiar to him and while he knows broad strokes, finer details are missing, making for an incomplete picture. Bruce has work to do when he's done here. ]

Huh. So there's more than one of these places around. That's really neat!

[badlydisarmed]

Neat?

[ If Robert had any background in psychiatry he'd be diagnosing this guy with something. Things being what they are, he can only diagnose him with a fucked up knee.

Also probably fucked up everything else they get CT images of. ]

I suppose if you look at it from a birds eye view as a cool thing that's happening. I probably got PTS from it.

[ He says that way too casually for him to actually believe it's true. But it might be, Robert had a fairly smooth life up until a couple of years back, and the transition was sudden and relentless. ]

[theknightshift]

[ Honestly, feigned stupidity aside, Bruce wouldn't deny there's something diagnosable there. He knows he's not exactly sane. Just functional enough to pass for it most days. ]

Oh. I guess it wouldn't be much of a vacation, would it?

[badlydisarmed]

I thought I was in hell.

[ He's being honest for once, but he's still speaking way too casually.

He's also running the CT to make sure this knee injury is the kind that doesn't need immediate surgery— not that he'd recommend this guy for surgery regardless, there's no way he'd stay off his feet long enough to let it heal. ]

I'm still not sure I'm not. Though it's much easier to live here than it was there.

[theknightshift]

[ Bruce doesn't doubt his sincerity, despite the casual way he says it. He makes a mental note to check Barbara's notes on it.

The CT will catch all manner of things alongside the knee injury. Evidence of fractures and bones that haven't healed quite right. The knee itself is still workable, if he listens to the doctor and stays off it. ]

Then it must have been terrible over there.

[badlydisarmed]

Dictatorships tend to be.

[ The scan results aren't at all surprising, and cannot be explained by fast cars, unless the cars somehow beat him with a crowbar. ]

You're too well-spoken for underground fighting rings, so I'm going to assume you're doing hard kink and not ask further questions about it.

[ That's probably worse than whatever it is he's actually getting up to, plus if he's lucky, it'll embarrass him and that's the least he deserves for lying to a doctor. ]

I'm giving you a knee brace and some painkillers I'm sure you won't take, use the crutches, try to stay off your leg for as close to three weeks as you can make it, and come back when you ignore me altogether and it starts bothering you again. Maybe I'll have magic healing potions then.

[theknightshift]

[ A dictatorship. More information to put away for research. That Robert doesn't believe him isn't a surprise. His old injuries aren't all consistent with a car accident and someone with Robert's experience would likely know what those sorts of injuries look like.

It's fine. Bruce didn't really need him to believe it. He only needed Robert to believe Bruce was kind of dumb. An airhead in the kindest terms. ]

Well I don't kiss and tell. Unless the tabloids beat me to it. Then I might tell a little. [ He grins, lopsided and easy. Clearly a man who laughs at his own jokes. ]

Anyway, I'll take it easy in the gym. Appreciate you checking this out for me, Doc.

[badlydisarmed]

[ Bruce did a good job at making Robert think he's dumb, though maybe not the way he wanted. Luckily, Robert's experienced enough to know you can only help people as much as they want to be helped, and since he's still the only medical doctor around it's better not to alienate his patients.

One of the helper bots brings a selection of knee braces and Robert picks out the simplest one, figuring it's the one Bruce is more likely to wear at all. ]

Self-explanatory, put it over the knee, tie it, try not to use that knee. I'll get you your painkillers and then you're free to go. If you drink while taking them they just won't work, but sometimes being drunk is better.

[ He's got some experience on the matter, the recovery from his arm injury was slow and ridiculously frustrating. A less regimented man would've ended up with a drinking problem or worse. ]