A tried and beaten Felix was now shambling through the halls. At this point, he wasn’t even paying attention to his surroundings anymore, which could easily get him ambushed by the sisters; but he had faith in his friends, they wouldn’t fail. As Felix got closer to the Diner, he spotted Thomas, and the free-runner unconsciously perked up to hide the fact that he was wounded.
“Thomas!” Felix shouted from a distance before closing the distance at a casual pace. “Is Mercy in the diner? I gotta ask her a few questions.” Although Felix tried to hide it, he obviously wanted medical attention.
Thomas wasn't in much better shape than Felix. One side of his face was covered in splinters, some of which had begun to draw blood, and he was no longer wearing his maroon sweatshirt. His undershirt was rugged and dirty, and his pants had several splotches of blood on them where Lucy had gotten blood on him.
When Felix had approached, Thomas was fiddling with his face, presumably to get the splinters out as carefully as possible. Felix came as a surprise to Thomas. He hadn't expected him to show up, wasn't he supposed to be dealing with the Carnage Sisters? So much for the good that has done.
"The, ah, Plague Doctor is with the designated, uh, what did you call it? Ah, that's right. 'Support Group', the whereabouts of which I was not privy to. Thomas removed his hand from his faced and looked to Felix, his eyes like two needles that were leeching information off of Felix in much the same way that a mosquito would suck the blood of their host. His observations led him to know Felix's predicament before he even told Thomas what it was, contrasting to Thomas's lackluster performance moments earlier. Regardless, Thomas humored Felix. "To what ends do you ask?"
“Nevermind me, what happened to you!? I thought you were safe inside your room-” Felix got a bit closer to inspect Thomas’ face; it looked like someone bashed a wooden chair against it, although he didn’t look like he was in much pain, so it must’ve looked worse then it felt.
“Did you fight a carnage sister too?”
”Tch. It’s merely been a long night. Nothing grievous has happened to me.” Thomas remarked.
”But you are hurt, are you not? That’s why you asked where the plague doctor was.” Thomas paused for a moment. ”If you remember what I said before, ah, at the beach; I am willing to use my talent to help you whenever it is convenient for me, and it is at the moment. If you aren’t sick, than this injury is surely within my realm of study.”
“Owh that’s right, you’re a biomechanic aren’t you? In that case-” Felix threw his shirt to the ground and turned around so Thomas could inspect his back. there were numerous cuts and bruises all over it. “I kinda got beaten with a rope and door on my back, in that order.” Felix laughed it off, but it really did hurt.
”So you fought a carnage sister. And they actually managed to hit you. I’m surprised. Aren’t you titled the Infinite Free Runner? Ah, don’t answer that. Describe to me what happened so I can try and figure out how bad you are actually hurt. You were hit in the back and... Thomas trailed off, so that Felix would have an opportunity to tell him what was going on.
“Uhh yeah-” Felix stumbled on his words, he didn’t expect Thomas to get so excited about this. if he’d known, he would’ve rephrased some things. “I got hit in the back with a rope while trying to dodge a guillotine. I mean, I know that these sisters have unconventional weapons, but this one really stretched the limits.” Felix chuckled. seemingly in pain. “Anyway; after that, I kinda realised I was outmatched. So I tried to run...but then out of nowhere, a door snuck up to me, striking me in the back again! There was some serious tunnel visioning going on.”
”That’s… hmm. Thomas looked at Felix’s back, trying to decipher the discolorations and new information into a valid diagnosis. The only thing that he actually figured out, is that he would need a closer look to solve Felix’s back injury. He reached into his pocket for the glove that wasn’t used to pad his bruise, and carefully pulled it over his right hand. ”I can only deduce that there are moderate contusions, ah, bruises in layman's terms, from your injury by looking. I’m going to take a more indepth look, you may feel sharp pain on your back. Tell me everything you feel whenever I press, run my hand over, or otherwise touch a location that causes pain in anyway.”
Felix flinched at the cold touch of Thomas’ glove, Thomas described a sharp pain, but all he could feel was the cold, maybe his back wasn’t as badly injured as he thought, moving still hurt though.
“You sound like a doc, I bet if Mercy were here, she’d think you were stealing her position.” Felix chuckled. “Maybe she wouldn’t even mind, I mean it’s not like we have been forcing her to nurse us, but being the only one who can must be straining.” Felix tried to look behind him without moving his body, and in the corner of his eye he spotted Thomas. “If you’re able to treat me, maybe you can ease her load too. Because...I’m guessing that more people will get hurt before the night is over.”
“Skills are a commodity, every bit as valuable as the food you eat and water you drink in this killing game. Mine would be wasted as a free service.” Thomas remarked, bringing his hand up Felix’s back. The bone was fine, which meant that the bulk of damage to his back was just the blunt force from getting hit. There wasn’t much Thomas could do with his limited tools that Felix would not already know to do, but he would state the obvious regardless. ”Compression and Ice for your back. If you could find a painkiller in the pharmacy, those will obviously reduce the amount of pain but will also reduce inflammation.” Thomas stopped to take a breath. ”Some doctors recommend massaging the area around the bruise but “ — Thomas looked at his hands — ”That’s errs out of my control”.
Felix wasn’t exactly sure what Thomas was talking about but he was assuming that Thomas wasn’t going to help mercy with the wounded. He did appreciate the treatment that the biomechanic gave him, so there wasn’t much resentment towards his choice.
“Thanks for the tips, i’ll check the pharmacy after the hour ends, don’t wanna bump into another sister again.” an awkward laugh escaped felix. He surveyed Thomas again, but seeing his beaten body sparked Felix’s interest once more. “I explained my injuries, but you haven’t told me anything about yours.”
”To what end?” Thomas inquired, a slight tone hinting at quizzicality behind his words. As he spoke, he began to remove the glove from his hand so that he can replace it in his pocket.
“to what e-” Felix interrupted himself with a chuckle. “I’m just curious how you got all those wounds, you must have fought a sister haven’t you? you standing here means that you did pretty decent, so I was wondering why you didn’t join the distraction teams; I could have used the extra hands.”
”What do you mean ‘you could have used the extra hands’?” Thomas responded, clasping his hands together quickly. ”As a matter of fact, I did. The carnage sister is destroyed. Something you’ve obviously failed at doing.”. Thomas tilted his head slightly and stared intensely at Felix. ”But no. ’You could’ve used these extra hands?’ You could barely do your own job! You know what happens when you can’t do your job when there are machines actively trying to kill us? People die! That’s what happens, Free Runner! But you want to complain that I didn’t help with anything. Well, congratulations. Thomas fixed his position and turned away from Felix, shooting a glance to his upper torso as he spoke. He began to walk away, but kept talking ”Complain as much as you want, and hope you find the Plague Doctor before you run into another Carnage Sister.”
Felix stood there dumbfounded. He didn’t say anything that provoking did he? Thomas probably misunderstood Felix, that must’ve been it; why else would he start rambling about failure and death when both of them were successful? In any case, Felix would need to apologize for not being clear enough the next time he’d meet Thomas. And for the record again, he totally didn’t fail his job.
As Felix reached his room, Davis’ broadcast started, and as he expected, the others had completed their job. Felix should have been happy, but some of the words troubled Felix. As he got into his bed, his mind had trouble letting go of the anxiety, but his beaten body could do nothing but rest and eventually, he fell into a deep slumber.
me and kitty when he says he has infinite luck like nagibae