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Chapter 9: Standing Up on Both Feet with a Broken Leg
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2024-10-29 19:42:56When Doctor Johnstone arrived to fix the damage of the hug, she first glared at Emmet, accusing and without saying a word. This time, Emmet was sure that she was going make good on her prior threats to put laxatives in his coffee.
Doctor Johnstone had resewn the torn stitches on Red_Two's upper back and then tightened the bandages to the point of restricting his movement, pulled out his IV and had conducted her tests, silently, unreactive to any of the duo's attempts to stutter out apologies.
The whole process took twenty minutes. Twenty long, awkward, silent minutes where not even the howling wind outside dared to disturb her.
Red_Two looked down, despondent at upsetting her. She had moved him back to his original position whenever he shifted to alleviate the pain of his cramping legs, unrepenting, regardless of his apologetic expression.
Emmet sat still on his chair, with his own legs crossed in solitude for the full twenty minutes, taking every opportu
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When the atlas was suitably modified, and Red_Two's initial rage and sadness had run its course, he placed the book down on Emmet's desk gently, and handed Emmet his pen back even more so, looking down off to the side. His throat made a quiet noise, before he turned back to the bookshelf and looked down into his lap.Emmet now properly looked over the atlas: lace names were crossed out with new, unfamiliar ones replacing them; full swathes of coastal land was scribbled out, presumably underwater and new borders were drawn on, particularly centred around mountainous areas. He was surprised to see particular rivers swollen up, and new lakes and estuaries where there were previously none.He looked back at Red_Two, his face crumpling. Pain medication or not, the man was sat hunched over, back shaking and soaked with sweat. His hands were laid limp at his side on the floor, fists unclenched, but elbows and wrists wobbling regardless, telling him all he needed to know.
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Red_Two wasn't sleeping, Emmet noticed. Black bags hung under his eyes, in stark contrast to the slow recovery of the rest of his body. The more he seemed to heal, and the less grey his skin was, the more exhausted he seemed, though that didn't dim his excitement in the morning when he first entered the office.When Emmet had handed him his medical report though after their little façade of a deal, he had just stared at it, not even reading a single word, as Emmet had analysed his new map, mentally traced possible etymologies of the new place names, and guessed at the events which would occur in the future that would keep Switzerland mostly intact but would massacre England into a collection of tiny states. Even as he placed it aside, and begun battling through his piles of paperwork, Red_Two had not moved.His inner world must be at least rich, Emmet had mused, before scolding himself for his insensitivity. The man was suffering trauma, and he was making jokes
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Fire had run through the forest, alighting every bush, shrub, and tree, and creating giant, black plumes of smoke, chocking everything. It fell from the sky, from the clouds like rain, and Red_Two knew, peeled to the shattered cliff edge, that he could not go back. His legs shook and his entire body shivered, too weak to move against the burning stones fell from the community. He was sweating and crying and the dust in his eyes just wouldn't leave him alone. He tried to move away from the cliff edge, crawl at least to the cool of the river, but his body wouldn't listen to him. Hot bile rose from his stomach and Red_Two vomited off to the side.He lay face down on the floor, eyes glued to the upwards, gazing up at the floating city.He just wanted to close his eyes and see that everything was going to be alright. He wanted to wake up from his hellscape dream.He woke up.He woke up again.And again.And again.His name wa
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"My name's Alice, and today we're leaving Emmet to sleep off his two all-nighters. We're gonna have breakfast in the kitchen. Then you can go to your daily physio with the one and only Doctor Lisa Johnstone!"The blonde woman held Jasper up as if he were nothing, not even shaking sweating as he was propped up on her shoulder. He could feel the muscle his legs and found himself sweating.She carried him from the medical wing into the heart of the facility. Jasper had only known the route from his bed to Emmet's office, quite literally down the corridor. Jasper was carried through one long corridor, tilting his head, side to side to spy down the long halls and through the windows of the doors he could see.The facility had grey halls, but the halls and ceilings were at least white. The corridor ceilings had lights to illuminate wherever the sun's rays missed, flooding in from the windows at each turn. Jasper saw workroom tables with laptops behind them. They were
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