video | un: Mercy

[valcurie]

Hello there! ( the image that appears is of a smiling blonde woman, healthy and bright looking, dressed now in pristine weight to present herself, projecting poise and elegance and friendly invitation to hear her out. her German Swiss accent is quite strong, though, so hopefully no-one is overly attached to their w's. ) I hope everyone is doing well this evening. I am coming onto the network to reach out to anyone I might not have been able to yet. My name is Angela Ziegler, and I am a doctor from Earth. Human, as you can see. ( a light, pleasant laugh and an even more pleasant smile ) You may also know me as Mercy. It's my agent name from when I was in service to a global peacekeeping organisation known as Overwatch.

I'm from the 21st century, so the treatment that I can offer you is science based ( a slight pause here as if she's considering one last time how to phrase this ) rather than magic based, but I have a good deal of practical experience with general medicine so there's almost nothing I haven't seen or dealt with. My expertise is in applied biotics, and I also have experience with gene therapy, prosthetics, and cybernetics, if there is anyone here who may need more specialised care. My qualifications also include emergency and trauma response so, if you ever find yourself wounded and in need of immediate attention, please do not hesitate to contact me. Think of me as personal 999 for refugees!

If you do come to me for any kind of care, I promise to do the best I can help you, while upholding all the oaths I've taken as a doctor to do no harm and to protect my patients. I'm not charging anything at this time.

And, if you'd like to humour me and help me to understand our group a bit better, I have a set of questions: do you believe you have a soul? What makes you think you do or don't have one? And is such a belief common where you're from? ( she doesn't mention religion, because it isn't strictly speaking a religious idea. she's known plenty of atheists and nay-theists who thought there was something beyond intelligence that made people paramount to other species. whether they called this unique internal animating light a soul or not, it didn't really matter. )

Comments

[fakers]

I'll take that into consideration. [ maybe... probably? who even knows anymore. at the very least, it beats going by himself. ]

[melodiouspacifist]

I..I dunno. I guess it doesn't. I don't think about home very much anyway, it's been lost even before this storm. [He hums a little, she's not wrong though.]

...Really? I would love to get taller. Can you make that happen? A lot of people in my group are taller than me! [Seriously, it's like he's surrounded by giants.]

[ayes]

Ohhhh, that makes sense. I haven't met anyone like that yet, though. D'you mean people who are older than they look, or younger?

[idealog]

That logic is pretty solid. Hmm...

[ He pauses, shifting a little bit and looking away. Maybe he should've reached out over text. But Angela has been really kind to him so far in talking about all this stuff, and thought he should be treated like a person. She'd put a lot of thought into all of this, and she wasn't bound by the war that had so consumed him. That had to count for something. ]

Not... entirely. It's a long story, but we YoRHa models were built to be disposed of eventually. The androids didn't think it was humane to build more android models just to destroy them, so the parts that store our personality data are built from machine cores. Machines... were the enemy.

[ He's completely at a loss about this. It was pretty straightforward back in his world, but then the Natha decided he was worth saving. What the hell did that even mean? ]

I guess I don't really know anymore.

[valcurie]

( !! Riza has no idea how happy she's just made her.

Finally, someone with some sense about their health. )

Absolutely! The best way to take care of your health is to take care of yourself. I would be happy to provide you with check-ups.

[valcurie]

( a curious response, if she's being honest. since he's humouring her request, she'll be happy to provide a few more details so he knows what he's getting himself into. )

Well, you can still get sick, surely? Common cold, influenza, things like that.

As for aiding you, I do not know the particulars of your case, so I do not yet know if there's anything to cure. ( a still silence for moment, followed by a sigh ) Unless you are obliquely referencing euthanasia?

[valcurie]

Lost? How so?

...Hah, not taller, I'm afraid. It's more like your bones getting denser, your brain finalising its development, and so on. There are some ways to get taller, but I don't think you'd like them. I don't.

[valcurie]

( It doesn't seem all that complicated to her, really, but then she has a personal relationship with someone who had to struggle with his identity when he became more man than machine. She always had accepted him, plain and simple. This wasn't a hill she was prepared to die on, just because she's too practical to believe in dying for causes, but she would insist on it being common sense. )

That's all right, Nines. Part of life is being uncertain. We can never have all the answers.

( She offers him this in a soft voice--and she's not really sure what it is about him that makes her soften so. Perhaps because he strikes her as so innocent? )

If you don't mind me asking, were you built to be sentient? Or is this something they didn't think you could achieve?

[daemonized]

No, I cannot.

[Get sick that is. He already is, in a way, filled to the brim with a certain sort of disease -- there wasn't enough room for anything else.]

What I carry I'm certain that you can't cure. That isn't to imply a disservice to your skills, by any means.

[There purposefully no response to anything regarding euthanasia.]

[exonerated]

Ah, not robots.

[ That would have been cool, but Narnia is not a futuristic setting. ]

Tell me, how many mythical creatures can you name off the top of your head? Creatures from fairytales and folklore that you believe only exist in the pages of a book or someone's active imagination.

[valcurie]

( which is just as well for her because, while at home she would have no qualms with it, things have changed, here. when they've been given second chances. it doesn't necessarily mean anything--grandiose like fate, or destiny--but it adds an extra consideration she wouldn't have had at home. )

Hmm, you've written me off already? ( the way she intones it, it's clear she's mostly kidding with him. already she's out of her depth with him--why's it an extra stretch to believe there's something she can't cure? )

Is your ailment of a magical nature? Because, yes, that is beyond my current expertise.

[rhygret]

Yoooou would be surprised. I don't think there's actually any kind of "certification" on that planet at all. I'm pretty sure you can just hang up a sign and call yourself a doctor and you'd have as much experience as anyone in general from that place.

[ And that's not just his casually assholish streak coming out either. The one prominent doctor on that planet? Is not actual a real doctor and doesn't have a medical license. ]

[valcurie]

Hmm. Well. ( it's telling how much of a nerd she is that she actually goes quiet for a pause of an almost idyllic length. ) Quite a few. I've always liked German folklore.

[valcurie]

Mein Gott, was du beschrieben hast, klingt wie die Hölle auf Erden.

( she's so upset she sets down her device for a moment. ) Have you actually have ever had a basic medical examination? And, honestly, I'm surprised you ever trusted me. Perhaps it was good I didn't lead with the fact I am a doctor? When I say what I am, I am used to that meaning something to people.

[daemonized]

Don't be so cruel; I would never "write you off" in such a dismissive way.

[Humor threads back into his tone, but it doesn't aid the fact that they have officially reached the point where Ardyn is unwilling to talk about himself in this capacity, at least over a public feed.]

I can show you, if you like.

[valcurie]

How kind of you to say so.

( there's a tinge of self-deprecating humour there, almost a sigh as she finishes the statement, too, and really, what is she to do in the face of all these unexpected things? leave them unexplained? such will not do, if she is really serious about continuing her work here. in a crucial way, this curiosity is preventitive--of things mades worse by not knowing what might happen. back home, where she understood the rules, she could analyse a situation and deftly determine what would be a good and practical outcome.

here, where she really knows less than a child, she lacks this incisive insight, and it bothers her, it's like being stifled and gagged by indecision.

so, there she is. taking him up on his offer whatever his intentions are. )

Would you be willing to meet me here? Or would you prefer Thesa?

[daemonized]

Where you are now would be most convenient.

[The intention, perhaps, is to show her the futility of it all. That not everyone and everything can be helped or healed, and he should be slotted very neatly into that category. Mostly.

(There is the smallest curiosity, of course. Of what her perspective would be, from a world strictly of science and not magic. It isn't quite hope, but it is an openness that did not exist within him before being brought here. The promise of the Natha, to cure him of the Starscourge, echoes in his mind. Even if he remains relatively cynical, despite everything.)]

Where might I find you?

[valcurie]

( well, if he's trying to teach her so, and get something out of it for himself, then he might end up disappointed. this is a lesson she's already learnt; she never thought she could save the world, she couldn't save her surrogate family, and then she couldn't even save him. a man who's scope was a lot narrower than an immortal's lifetime, but who carried so much pain in him, it had been hard to even look at him. sometimes, she had only been able to be near him she when she could empty out her personal self and leave only the professional shell behind to interact with him.

but Ardyn's question is a simple one. still, she needs a moment to consider. her roommate is a preternatural telepath, after all, so there's someone else to consider. )

I could meet you at my assigned housing. Number thirty-six.

[daemonized]

Thirty-six. Very well. I can meet you there in an hour from now, if that’s acceptable to you?

[A personal residence was acceptable. If she wanted to examine him, and if he wanted to show her exactly what plagued him (only briefly — not in its fullest capacity, he didn’t quite want to cross that line for his own sake), a large space wasn’t necessary. A modicum of privacy might even be appreciated.]

[melodiouspacifist]

Some worlds fell to darkness. The worlds that we visited, were all affected one way or another. It was different from the storms.

[He pouts a little, awwww.]

I'm only taller than Roxas and Zex. It's not fair. Lexaeus is huge! Hey wait, you're not calling me dumb are you?

[valcurie]

( It seemed a lot more appropriate to her than the park she was currently sat in, to be sure. Anyway, she'd gotten more than enough sunlight now, in a world where she's yet to find any sunscreen. Super pseudo-science healing available to her or not, she knows better than to stress her body when it doesn't need to be. )

Of course. I'd only ask that you knock. ( A small smile as she adds: ) Not that I thought you wouldn't.

i'm good with continuing this here or in an inbox, whatever you prefer!

[daemonized]

[As a man who sometimes appears from absolutely fucking nowhere (just ask Prompto), this is perhaps a reasonable request. But he has no reason to tread upon propriety where the good doctor is concerned.]

It would be rude of me not to. I'll see you then.

[insurgent]

[ she laughs. well then. ]

penmanship, yes
appropriating property
reading
perhaps not romance

[exonerated]

Tell me, and I'll let you know if I've met their kind.

[ Not joking :') ]

[valcurie]

( Fell into darkness is a poetic turn of phrase she thinks, figuring it must be something similar to what happened with the Storm. Similar, but different. )

Were the Natha involved that time, too?

Hmm? ( where did he get dumb? then, she laughs, realising how he might have mistaken her. ) Not at all. We just don't get all our brain development done as quickly as everything else. The rest of the body is the priority. It also generally takes until our mid-twenties, too, to experience the full range of emotions and experiences we can have..