genessia | Fifth time point

Koschei sat on the steps to the planetarium. The sun was just beginning to set and his shift was now over. With his head bent to his knees and his arms wrapped around his shins, Koschei couldn't see the sun setting. It didn't matter. He wasn't paying attention to anything outside his own mind. He'd barely made it out of work, before giving in to what he perceived as his greatest weakness. Koschei tried to keep the drums secret, but, in most ways, he was still a boy. Now, he was a boy in pain.

It was not a good day. dum dum dum dum

It was a day for the drums. dum dum dum dum

The never-ending drum beat was loud today. dum dum dum dum

Today, the drums almost seemed to speaking. DUM DUM DUM DUM

Koschei hated days like today. He feared the message of the drums. They always seemed to speak of anger, pain, and even violence. Koschei hated the persistence of the drums, even at their most quiet. At their most quiet, they weren't peaceful, but ominous, whispering of tragedies to come. Koschei tried not to listen.

Koschei knew, if he listened too closely, he might go mad...or worse.

[OTA Feel free to question, comfort, or harass Koschei. :D]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Koschei looked up at her. His eyes were full of pain and weariness and he knew it. Koschei wasn't adverse to lying, if he had reason to, but he preferred his lies to be believable. He doubted anyone would believe he was truly all right. Anyways, the best lies were based in truth.

"My head hurts."

"Which part of your head is it coming from? Front, back, is it pinching or just sore?"

The person who happened upon him happened to be a doctor. Maybe not the kind that Koschei needed, but she could at least go get him some aspirin if it didn't seem serious. Liv moved a little closer, kneeling down near where he was sitting.

"It pounds. My entire mind aches with it," Koschei explained.

She certainly sounded to Koschei as if she had knowledge. He wondered about that. It would almost make his exile in this place worth it, if someone here could help him.

"Alright. I know this probably doesn't seem like it's helping, but I'm going to ask you a couple more questions. Did this happen rapidly or did it come on slow, like sinking into a whole world of aching? Is this a one time thing or does it happen often?"

Liv was trying to get a look into his eyes, but she didn't touch him yet. There were other things she could check, but she knew that suddenly touching a stranger wasn't the best move.

"My name is Olivia Moore. I'm a doctor."

Koschei stared hard at her for a few moments, trying to get a measure of this near stranger. He was reluctant to tell anyone about the drums, but this person was not a Time Lord. She couldn't affect whether he graduated from the Academy. She also couldn't help him, if she didn't know what was going on.

"What I tell you, you must promise not to repeat to anyone else. I don't want this known about me. Will you give me your word?"

"I promise. I wouldn't be much good as a doctor if I couldn't at least keep your privacy yours."

Even if she wasn't exactly in a position where most of her 'patients' needed doctor-patient confidentiality anymore, once upon a time she did have every intention of becoming a surgeon. The only reason she wasn't was because of that pesky zombieism.

Koschei sighed, a bit relieved. He inched a bit closer to her and spoke in a low voice.

"I always hear this pounding in my mind, like drums, since I was a small child. Always. Every minute of every day. Sometimes they're soft and I can ignore them easily. Other times, they're so loud and so painful...I can only function by a force of will."

Liv stayed silent for a few seconds, like she was trying to think. Auditory hallucinations congruent with migraine auras were rare but not completely unheard of. But constantly was another issue.

"Would it be too much to ask you to go to the hospital with me?" She could.. probably get the other doctors to let her do what she needed to, even if she worked in the morgue now.

"Yes, it would," Koschei practically snarled. "Don't you see? The more people who know about my condition, the greater the chance the Time Lords will find out. That would ruin everything!"

"Hey, I promised I wouldn't tell anyone. They're already used to me having odd requests, I'll just say that you just arrived and I'm trying to run some tests. Give me a heads up if you see anyone you know so we can duck past them. If you still don't want to go, we don't have to go. I work in the morgue, no one cares whether my patients have charts unless they were murdered. You don't look very murdered to me, so no one's going to ask questions."

She understood the snappiness. She didn't know about time lords, but Liv had a fear of anyone finding out about her own condition. Even if it still wasn't cured, simply not being alone in it once her boss back home found out at least made things easier.

"I know what it's like to have something you don't want anyone else to find out about. You can trust me."

"It's not a person here that concerns me. It's the Time Lords," Koschei tried to explain. "You'd be amazed at the ways they have of collecting information. How can you run tests and use equipment on me, without anyone knowing or asking questions? If you run the morgue, won't they find it odd to see you with a living patient?"

Despite his questions and reservations, Koschei was considering it. The pain was only growing worse and he wanted it to stop. Oh he wanted that badly!

"Because I've already let them know that I have every intention of trying to test people as they come in to see if I can't figure out what kind of drug they used to knock us out. I couldn't do it when I first got here because I didn't have a job yet. Which is why you'd just have to give me a heads up if you see anyone you know. It's a lot harder to fool someone who's known you for a couple months. Or weeks. I don't know how long you've been here," she admitted. It didn't detract from her argument at least, so the lack of information about how long he'd actually been here just resulted in a brief expression of 'oh well' before she finished speaking. "I have keys, we can do it late if that would make you feel better. The hospital doesn't really close, but it gets less busy.

"How do you plan to keep knowledge from the Time Lords? I told you the people here don't concern me. There are people here with stranger problems than mine. I just..." Koschei trailed off, trying to think past the anger and demanding drums. "You don't know what this could cost me. What if I take this risk and you don't discover anything? Have you worked on non-humans before?"

The worked on non-humans before question almost made her falter. That was a yes and no. Namely herself and a zombie rat named Echo, and another zombie by the name of Blaine. But working on people who were partially dead didn't quite count. She couldn't even act surprised when he said he wasn't human- she wasn't either anymore, technically.

"Someone who isn't human said I was more than qualified and I've been looking into it. You'll just have to be a little more specific about what you are and any differences in physiology. As for these Time Lords, what makes you think we're more secure talking in the open now than we would be taking tests in a hospital without potential eavesdroppers around every corner?"

"I'm from Gallifrey. I'm destined to be a Time Lord. There are many differences in our physiology. In fact, our similarities are largely superficial," Koschei explained, then winced. She was right that talking in the open wasn't much safer. "The fewer people who know, the fewer minds will contain the knowledge. Even if they don't know who I am, they'll have a memory of seeing me. Never mind. I'm in danger either way. I might as well take a chance at benefiting myself."

Fifth time point

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