217/Minor checkup

Minor checkup
Date of Scene:	08 August 2023
Location:	Administrative Office
Synopsis:	Hotaru is taken by Takashi to meet with the school nurse, Setsuna, after the former has another seizure. The nurse soon learns that this girl isn't quite all she appears.
Cast of Characters:	Setsuna Meiou, Takashi Agera, Hotaru Tomoe

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Setsuna Meiou has posed:
The infirmary at the Radiant Heart Academy is, as perhaps expected, just as swank as the rest of the school. It's a large, well-supplied room separated with some of those rolling medical divider walls. Fairly nice beds can be seen here and there through gaps, and the main area is set up like a typical waiting room/nurse's station, complete with posters giving info about various adolescent diseases/conditions/problems.

Of note at the moment is a black poster with a picture of a human skeleton...and a legend that reads 'The Average Human Body Contains Enough Bones To Make An Entire Human Skeleton'

The nurse herself is fairly easy to spot, as she sports a tremendous mane of green hair, and she's wearing a labcoat that almost completely conceals what appears to be a pale pink blouse and skirt. Her skin tone is one that is most often referred to as 'dusky'. As she waits for the next event to happen, she's sitting at a chair across the room from the door, absently reading a book. The cover has a rather lurid picture of what appears to be an evil ent with a jack-o-lantern for a head running down a modern street at the 'camera'. In her off hand, she's absently running a dexterity exercise...though this time it's not a pen, but rather she's rolling an oversized coin, perhaps even a medallion back and forth across her knuckles.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Hotaru had tried to protest coming here, a little bit. She'd told Takashi that she was fine, it was just a 'little' problem. But Takashi had honestly resolved to take her here the next time, anyways. Since he was starting to be so untrustworthy of Obsidian as a whole, it was only natural that he'd be untrustworthy of the doctors Tomoe-sensei sent her to. Maybe not even his fault. Maybe it was with the best of intentions. Maybe there wasn't anything anyone could do. But... he had to at least get someone outside of the company to look at her.

    So Takashi chose the closest doctor to the two of them when he was called for another episode during the day, and he took Hotaru right over. "Nurse Meioh-Sensei?" he asked, before he could see her. He poked his head around, his own long hair matching hers, but in silver-white. He gently ushers Hotaru forward, his arm around her shoulders. "I'm sorry to interupt but my... coworker... I was wondering if you might be willing to take a look at her? She had an... incident today... and I was wondering if you could maybe... at least see if you know what might be causing her trouble?"

    He turned to Hotaru. "Tomoe-chan, Meiou-Sensei is kind and smart - everyone says so. Please don't be shy. I want to see if she can help you. So please, tell her what you experienced today."

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Hotaru Tomoe had been fine, mostly. But there'd been a slight incident... Some of the kids had started calling her names. Nothing major, minor things, really. Nothing harsh. Just said she was weird. She'd been growing... slightly more confident. Out going. She'd made a mistake. Ended up helping another child when they'd fallen. But most didn't remember magic. All anyone else had seen was 'Hotaru being weird'.

She'd been frustrated since, worked herself up and then, finally, it had gone to a head when she'd tripped on a word over their english lessons. She'd ended up having another seizure, the negativity spurring it on.

Of course, Hotaru didn't want to go to another doctor, she had her normal doctors. But... she did tend to listen to Takashi. Like it or not. And seeing the school nurse, well... how much could it hurt?

So she followed in a little behind him and froze. Staring at the other woman. There it was, again. That strange... feeling of longing. Such a confusing woman. "I... I'm sorry," she said first, because of course. "I got... I got worked up. Upset. Some of the other students were making fun of me and... and I got picked at class and... I... had another seizure..." she said softly, her eyes downcast, obviously ashamed of her condition. Not meeting any eyes now, instead just focusing on fiddling with the hem of her skirt. "Sorry," she said again.

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
As Takashi pokes his head into the room, Nurse Meiou's attention immediately focuses on him, "Yes, Mister Agera? How can I help you?" As he explains that his 'coworker' needs help, she quickly waves him in, "Come...come..."

Absently, she gives the medallion a flip into the air before she snaps her hand out to snatch it, whereupon it seemingly disappears with a twist of her hand...and at the same time a small black bookmark with what looks like a stylized gold capital letter 'P' is produced and put into her book, which is then snapped shut (revealing it's title to read in english as 'Proven Guilty'). She absently sets the book on the counter behind her and stands up to walk over, "Now, Miss Tomoe...there's nothing to be sorry for."

She steps over to the younger woman and gently leads her a bit over to one side of the room, giving a quick glance at Takashi and a nod to indicate he should take a seat.

As she does, she feels...something. She's not sure what, as frankly, her senses were pretty rubbish BEFORE 14000 years of neglect. Still, there's some small part of her that's urging her to be very very wary about this little girl...but she takes that little voice and ruthlessly shoves it into a closet. Things may change later, but this is the here and this is the now. And in the here and now, these children are under her care...and she takes that job VERY seriously.

Thus, she leads Hotaru over to...a small pad that's slightly raised from the rest of the floor, "Okay, Miss Tomoe, please step up onto the pad and clip this onto your finger for a few moments." Once the younger woman has done so, she touches a button, and an armature separates from the wall right behind the pad and slowly rotates around it, playing a little light at the younger woman.

Once it's done, Nurse Meiou looks at the readout, "Height, weight, density, blood pressure, heartrate, O2 levels...let's see if there's anything still running outside norms right now. How long ago did this occur?"

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "I keep trying to tell her not to apologize for things." he pauses. "... I mean, things she has no control over." Honestly, he's just trying to get her to apologize less in general, to be a little more sure of herself and her place in the world. He walks over and sits, but it's obvious he's a bit pensive. It is obvious the older boy clearly cares about the girl he referred to as merely a co-worker - his attitude could easily be mistaken for the feelings of a concerned older brother.

    He's quiet now, not out of a lack of anything to say - Takashi Agera always has more to say even if it's so rarely helpful - but out of genuine concern. Concern on multiple leverls. He cared about her as a person AND she was his responsibility in an order straight from his boss' boss' boss. Finally, he opens his mouth. "You uh... might not get readings from her that way." he begins. And then he quiets down. He's going to have to let Hotaru explain, rather than him. He gives her a look from behind Setsuna that is something mixed with 'I'm sorry' and 'you have to'.

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Hotaru Tomoe nodded slowly. Of course the nurse said 'not to be sorry'. But she still had that feeling for the moment. She, well... Was a little wary about the tests. "Uhhhh... Ummmm... about my..." Well, her limbs were... artificial. Part of the reason she wore such long sleeves and pants. "The finger scan won't work..." And any scans that were done likely went through their own havok, considering the girl's strange body parts. "I don't have..." Slow, deep breath. Then slowly pulled the sleeve back and she could likely see the artificial covering over the limbs, to try and hide the prosthetics beneath. "About twenty minutes ago, I think. It happens from time to time," she said softly.

Her metrics were likely all... very... strange. Considering she was about a fifth... incredibly... advanced... artificial limbs. "I... I'm usually examined by doctors at Tomoe Lifesciences. Because of my condition. If you'd like me to go, I understand." She was certainly a unique case.

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Nurse Meiou blinks at the readings. All the normal life sensors get nonsense readings...and the only sensors that really work are the ones that measure easily observable gross measurements like height and weight. Of course, the lightbar also measures volume and thus the density calculation. Frankly, it's only really there for 'why not' reasons...but spotting the reading a few moments before Hotaru makes the confession, the nurse tilts her head and says, "...artificial limbs? No, quite an extensive prostheses for this kind of reading."

Once her supposition is confirmed, the woman arches an eyebrow...but then she shrugs and nods to herself. There's no judgement or gushing about the prostheses. She seems to simply accept them as the kind of thing one sees everyday, then simply moves on.

She then turns and kneels down a little so that she's more on even eye level with Hotaru, and she spins another medallion out to hold between two fingers. This one has a primarily red background with a cartoonish samurai holding a trident in portrait to one side...and the legend 'Warlords' across the top with 'HSM-51' written across the bottom, "Please look at the coin, Miss Tomoe. Track with just your eyes, please." At which point she goes through a rather standard series of motions, watching eye response and some other things.

She doesn't even let the lack of readings bother her, she merely drops back to more simple, analog methods to determine what she can, "There's no need to go, Miss Tomoe. Now, do you have any special dietary needs or restrictions?"

Calm, professional demeanor designed to put the nervous at ease.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "Tomoe-chan..." Takashi sighs. "If the doctors at TLS knew what was wrong with you we wouldn't be here. Please, I at least want to give someone else a shot, too. Worst case you go through the process and she can't sort anything out either, but you're only out a little time." He says, bluntly. "So please, just... follow her instructions as best you can." he requests.

    "And I want an opinion from those who don't work for your father, too." he adds. Well, she is that Hotaru Tomoe. Daughter of the famous if-a-bit-eccentric scientist.

    Takashi wants to stay uninvolved, keep out of the good nurse's way. But he keeps leaning forward, almost some times standing before catching himself. Both of them can tell in their own way that Takashi's worry is genuine, and probably stems from a place beyond just being her co-worker. He is hoping, despite himelf, that the school nurse notices SOMETHING. Little does he know the actual reason she is suffering is a problem more built for the nurse's secret alter-ego than the one in the lab-coat.

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Hotaru Tomoe nodded. "Yes. I was in an... accident. When I was younger. Daddy has been trying to fix me but..." A lot of her was gone. She did relax a bit once Setsuna brushed it off. Good. Maybe this wasn't so... strange. She did know that her artificial limbs were special. Dad gave her top of the line, best they could research. Even if they hurt, sometimes.

She looks up at Setsuna. then down at the coin. Slowly tracking it back and forth. This, at least, she didn't struggle with. Her reactions were good. "Not particularly. I can get a bit nauseous if I eat too much, but I don't have any negative reactions to the food itself." Then she paused. "Well... I really don't like yams," she said after a moment.

Takashi's reaction makes her eyes widen a bit, but with her back to him it would be hard for him to see. But... Setsuna would likely be able to see the way her eyes, for a moment, glanced towards him... or the way her lips, in a half-neutral, half-frown, curved up slightly into a weak, affectionate smile. "Okay, Agera-senpai," she said. She even stood up a little straighter. If nothing else, it seemed his affection and protective behavior was something she wasn't opposed to. "They'd probably be fine so long as Kaori didn't get involved in them," she said, almost spitting that name out. Not a single honorific attached.

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Nurse Meiou hrms as she sees that Hotaru's reactions are more or less normal. Absently she lets the coin go, but as it drops, it seems to vanish from sight. A moment later, Nurse Meiou makes an 'aha' noise, "Well, perhaps THIS is your problem..." And then she reaches forward, and with the brushing of body warm metal against the short girl's ear, she 'pulls' the coin out from 'behind her ear', "Probably best not to keep a challenge coin behind your ear. Too easy for them to get lost there, you know."

She then takes Hotaru's hand and closes it around the medallion she'd used a moment or two earlier.

Sighing, she stands up, "Well, what I can see of her vitals are within reasonable norms...no signs of neurological issues." She pinches her chin a little as she thinks, and she absently starts spinning a pen through the fingers of her off hand, "...well, without seeing the event in person, my only guess is that there's a code glitch in the interface software that's getting set off when one of your biometrics spikes."

She ponders for a few moments, then nods to herself and walks over to the cabinet. As she starts scribbling on some paperwork, she goes on, "Now, since I'm not really familiar with the hardware or software that you're running there, Miss Tomoe, my options are a bit limited." She pauses for a moment...perhaps just long enough to imagine this is another bust...before she suddenly goes on, "...HOWEVER...that is not to say that I have none...and fortunately, that coincides with what would be one of my primary goals anyway...harm reduction." She pauses again to scribble a bit more, "I'm going to place a bit of truit in you, Miss Tomoe, I ask that you please don't abuse it. I'm going to give you a pass that will let you walk out of class at any time anywhere to come right here. The next time you start feeling like you're feeling an attack coming on, I want you to come right to this office. If we're lucky, just getting out of the stressful environment when you need it will help. Once we know if that does or doesn't work, we can move on from there."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi grumbled, a bit. Not at Setsuna. Just... in general, at the situation. He wasn't thinking a miracle cure was going to come from the school nurse, but it didn't mean he wasn't hoping, on some level, that it would. That the doctors at TLS were as incompetent as he thought they were and there would be an easy solution to his kohai's problems. But of course there wasn't. No solutions were ever... easy. Not with her. Not with him. Not with the world.

    But the pass she gives to Hotaru... it is something that helps, he thinks. He doesn't have to admonish Hotaru to not abuse it - she's a good girl and he knows it to a painful degree. "I'm sure she won't. In fact, my bigger concern is about her actually using it when she needs to, in order to clear out when she gets stressed." he says, quietly. Crossing his arms. "Tomoe-chan, I think the more likely outcome is that you fail to use the pass when it's needed. Unless Meiou-Sensei tells you otherwise, I would like to ask you to err on the opposite side of caution with using it, and if you find yourself debating doing it... just walk here to Meiou-sensei." he says.

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Hotaru Tomoe went wide eyed when Meiou seemed to have found something. She failed to notice the coin just disappear... but when a new one appeared in her hand, well... she didn't... Hotaru just sighed. While she, normally, might have been impressed by the trick, right now she could still feel the after effects. It wasn't--

And then Setsuna had her hands around hers and she couldn't help it. She looked up at her. Their eyes met. And there was, for just a moment... something. A spark. Something about the woman felt familiar. Deep, deep within her. Something... strong. Something that told her this woman could be... would do the right thing.

However, when the woman stood, Hotaru shook her head to clear it. And the comments on the biometrics made her sigh. "That's what dad says. It's rejection, that my limbs aren't... accepting. But it doesn't feel like that. It feels like--" And then she stopped. No. She'd just sound... weird.

"You're probably right," Hotaru said softly. "I get upset and it messes everything up. Makes my body reject them..."

Gingerly, she'd take the note. Should she say more? COULD she say more? She glanced back to Takashi again. He wanted her to... right? But there were... things... she couldn't say. That wouldn't make sense. That would just make her seem weird again. But... she wasn't with Tomoe Lifesciences. She was the exact kind of person that Takashi WANTED her to see. So should she?

She stared at the note. "I know... it's not... but when it happens, it feels like... something is trying to claw its way out. It makes my limbs hurt. But it's also my chest. It's... mostly my chest. It sometimes feels... like something is trying to claw its way out. Not... as often anymore. When I told the doctors before, they just said it was... phantom... pain from the accident. Because of the... traumatic experience. None of their scans could find anything."

She glanced towards Takashi next. He knew the root cause, at least. Or he thought he did. Dark energy. But... it felt like there was something else there. Something even worse. And he was scared. But his monitoring was helping. And a small part of her hoped that this nurse would say it was okay. That there was nothing to be concerned about. That phantom pains, seizures like that, were common for people in her condition.

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Nurse Meiou hrms, then nods, "Well...I can't say as I've heard of anyone describing 'phantom limb' kind of pain as 'something trying to claw out'...but then again, most people don't have prostheses as extensive as yours...and even then, everyone tends to describe their sensation a little different anyhow."

She finishes her pass, then runs the slip through a laminator to help protect the paper, "...I remember hearing about one poor man who had been gripping onto something as hard as he could before his limb got amputated...and he spent the next twenty years with his brain feeling the pain of clenching a fist."

Truth be told, Nurse Meiou is still feeling that twinge of something wrong. Like a tiny voice not too dissimilar to the one she ruthlessly locked away is telling her that this young girl should by NO MEANS be THIS injured.

Waving the laminated pass to cool it a little, she finally hands it to Hotaru, "Here you go, Miss Tomoe." And as she takes it, she'll find that there's a full-sized Snickers bar there, too, "Remember, Miss Tomoe...I want you to come here anytime you're feeling that kind of feeling...and if anyone gives you any kind of grief about it, let me know. Because I'm not going to tolerate anyone bullying you like that."

Granted, she wouldn't tolerate anyone bullying ANYONE under her care like that...but she's got the feeling that Hotaru perhaps needs to hear the personal defense.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi gets up too, and walks around to stand in Setsuna's vision. "Thank you very much for helping Tomoe-chan, Meiou-sensei." Takashi says, hands at his side and bowing. He doesn't add a whole lot more, but it's an honest thanks. It didn't fix her, but he got the feeling the nurse did what she could, and maybe that pass would help her. Or, at least, change the data he was collecting on her in some way as to be helpful, if she could get away from stressors at a different rate of speed.

    And when they walk out... Takashi turns to Hotaru. "Also... thank you Hotaru-chan, for letting her look at you. I know you get... tense... about it. But I really want to try to help you as best I can. It's my job, but more than that..." he pauses, and waits until he's sure they're out of earshot. "It's really holding you back from the amazing potential I sense you have."

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Hotaru Tomoe nodded. Had... she felt something crawling out of her chest during the accident? Her mom had tried to protect her. But... No. If anything, she felt like something had been crawling into her. Tearing her apart. She tried not to think about it too much, though. It tended to make things hurt more and her breathing struggle. The knowledge that it could be normal, at least, helped. Takashi... was helping her. Teaching her to expel that dark energy. Perhaps, like this, things could continue forever.

The pain sucked but... it wasn't so bad. She could be happy like this, so long as nothing changed. She took the pass and bowed politely. "Thank you, Meiou-sensei," she said, before realizing what she just gained.

Oh my gosh it was a FULL SIZED snickers! For HER?! Just HER?! She looked up, just to confirm it was true. And yesssss! Okay, she made a mental note. Coming here might mean more candy. And while she knew accepting bribery was wrong, well. Sometimes, as Takashi taught her, doing the wrong things for the right reasons was okay.

She then walked with her senpai out the door, opening the snickers and breaking off a half of it, chewing on it. One small, tiny benefit of cold hands. The chocolate wouldn't melt.

And the smile she gave him when he praised her was genuine... as was her offer of the other half of the candy bar. Because, well. In the end? She wanted to do the right thing... And that meant sharing her good fortune with the people she cared about.

And hopefully he'd accept it, because he'd know just how sad it'd make her if he didn't get something nice from the visit as well.