heigh ho, heigh ho, why is three miles so far and why do my legs hurt

[zomboligist]

WHO: Ravi Chakrabarti
WHERE: Hospital
WHEN: July 22
OPEN TO: OTA
WARNINGS: n/a

---

In the rush of discovering a whole other land, Ravi's excitement may have gotten the better of him. He'd taken all of his scientific equipment and hiked his way over, going as far as the water's edge before he started to take as many samples as he could, still focusing on the water (mainly because he's curious if this water, ocean or cove or bay, has the same healing properties as the fountain or the spring). What he doesn't take into account is how far it is to get all the way out there.

By the time he gets back, the sun is starting to set, but he's sweating and he's fairly sure that he's managed to give himself an impressive neck burn from the way that the sun is reflecting off of his skin all day. Huffing and puffing, he thinks that someone should have put up signs along the way to warn him just how far that trek is.

Collapsing inside the hospital, he slams his kit on the table and collapses in a slump in front of it, groaning for water like he's a zombie. No, bad thought, that's not what he needs to think about, it just makes him miss Liv and home. He drags one of the chairs over so that he can sink into it, stripping off his scrubs shirt until he's just in a sweaty t-shirt (not hot enough that he dares go shirtless, he's not an animal).

Staring at the vials of water, he knows that he should start running tests before time or strange village magic can change anything, but he's just so tired and hot. "I hate walking," he complains aloud, already knowing that his calves are going to ache like mad tomorrow. "This science had better give me something," he continues to gripe as he forces himself to get up and start fetching the rats for their daily bout of tests.

Comments

[3ofswords]

It's certainly a nicer way of thinking about it than Mark's theory, but to Kira it seems to hinge on accepting that none of this is real. The more time he spends with the people here, the more animals he collects, the more times he turns up on Tim's door--the less he wants that. The less he wants to go home, barring, as Ravi said, finding no time passed at all and the means to save Ty still a fire escape away.

Hoshi tips his head up, pressing the top and his beak flat to Kira's chin. He focuses on the sensation, shoring up denial a little higher: this can't be simulated. It has to be happening.

"I did not and will never vend hot dogs," he asserts. "Or dream up hanging out with people who include the queen of England."

[zomboligist]

"I mean, hot dogs are a pretty great afternoon snack when you're starving because you forgot to feed yourself again," Ravi feels fairly compelled to point out, because the thing is, he could do a whole lot worse. "Honestly, whatever we're doing here, however we got here, it's not like we can escape, can we?" he points out.

"So I'm cutting up rats, you're doing your thing," he says, gesturing to the crystal for lack of a better understanding of what that thing, exactly, is. "What else is there?"

[3ofswords]

"Fucking people older but somehow more intrepid than either of us, I guess," Kira say. Though he doesn't think the gap between him and Tim is nearly as wide, and really--sometimes it does beg the question of what Helen gets out of it, when she's the type to head expeditions into the unknown, and Ravi is the kind of guy who begs god or probably Carl Sagan for death when he gets a foot cramp.

There isn't much to actually say about that though, when Kira keeps latching onto military guys like he's out for their life-insurance. "I never really expected to settle in," he admits, blustering out a breath that ruffles Hoshi, briefly. "But I guess it's unavoidable. I'm too naturally lazy to keep bashing my head on the wall of getting out."

[zomboligist]

"I am dating quite the cradle robber," Ravi agrees, with a proud reaction given that somehow he's rather chuffed by the notion. "Honestly, I don't think I'll ever really settle here," he confesses, because it's just not the kind of place he wants to be in. For one, it's not even remotely near the century in which he'd like to be living in and the technology is just appalling.

"Though, to be fair, if you bashed your head on the wall hard enough, you might actually find a way out," he can't help tease, with a smirk.

[3ofswords]

"I don't think this place would let me bash it hard enough," he returns, the words more teasing than their intent. Worry as he does about the mental health of the people around him--more so when his powers were subjecting him to it--there have been surprisingly few outbursts that seem related to it. Either no one is inclined, or things just haven't gotten that bad--

But it feels right, to assume they only die when the powers that be decide it. It isn't a theory he's out to test, any time soon.

Looking over to Ravi, and his work, Kira comments: "I know it's popular to talk about them like scientists, experimenting on us, but--what's the experiment? They don't seem interested in cutting us up to put under a scope--half the things they do are just to, I don't know, appease us."

[zomboligist]

"Typical selfish behaviour," Ravi teases, seeing as the last thing he wants, obviously, is to have to treat a heavy head wound just because someone got mad enough to try something new, so he's glad that Kira has the sort of common sense inherent to not do something like that. Ravi keeps working as he thinks about Kira's question, mainly because he's not sure how to explain it, but he feels like it's there, somehow.

"Well, we're in a controlled environment, for one," he points out. "The weather seems strange, not to mention the events. But, tell me, how different are people randomly getting struck by lightning versus what I'm doing now. Maybe they wanted to see the reactions? Maybe they wanted to know what we'd do. Who knows who's the control and what the experiment is, but it feels fishy."

[3ofswords]

Kira's known enough people on that faded grey edge that he wouldn't call it selfish, to take that drastic action to escape their current situation. It isn't something he's inclined to either, but it might be the one area he tries not to judge. No one can be strong forever.

He can't imagine having a discussion like that with Ravi, though. He can't imagine broaching the subject without getting squawked at with worry about the inside of his own head, and that wouldn't be the point.

"People get struck by lightning in everyday life," Kira points out. "Earthquakes happen, tragedy strikes. If they're so powerful as to tap into all of our times and places, why don't they just watch that? I just don't get what they're looking for, that they have to do all of this to us." Looking down at his knees, he admits, "What I worry is that it's going to get worse."

[zomboligist]

"Not to that degree in such a clustered area," Ravi comes back, giving him a pointed look. "It's too much, all at once, all on the heels of another, like they're testing out natural disasters and biochemical warfare and plain old social experiments, all in one," he says, because he's got a notebook of everything he might consider a various experiment, with his own notes about the results he thinks might have happened.

"Worse is definitely on my list of things I'm paranoid about," he agrees. "Right now, they're on top of another, but what happens if we start getting it all at once? What then?"