04 ⚜ Video

[restingstitchface]

[Pristine is how Crane appears when he flicks on the video feed; it's a lovely display of smoke and mirrors that he's pulling off, after the events of the last three days. He has a clean, elegant, ascetic appearance - and enough calm professionalism to mask his excitement.]

You're all handling this outbreak remarkably well. It seems you're all keeping to the boundaries of the law, as the Major-General expects you to. That's a good thing, mind. It would be terrible news to hear people have been shot for breaking quarantine.

Anyway, I am here to help if this event has caused you psychological distress. I am a doctor, after all.

[A pause, and he tucks in his chin and folds his hands in his lap. He half-closes his eyes.]

Fears and phobias are my specialty, and there is much to fear in this situation.

[His head comes back up. He's staring at the lens.]

Be that as it may, fear is something everybody needs. It keeps you safe and keeps you on your toes. It will do you all well to remember that. That it's good to know we must always feel a little scared. It's good to see that most of you haven't submitted to bravado and dagger-tongued bragging.

[The corners of his lips lift in a boyish smile. He tilts his head slightly. His voice is disarmingly gentle. His soft inflection on 'most of you' is meant for one person in particular.]

And I wouldn't like to think that those with guts would put everyone in danger. I trust everyone to make the best decisions for each other in combating this disease.

It would be terrifying to think we couldn't trust each other. Wouldn't it?

[He crosses his right leg and rests his hands over his knee. His graceful fingers smooth his trousers, and he waits for his audience to speak.]

Comments

permatext;

[restingstitchface]

[If Crane's not mistaken, this is his favorite patient.

And he's missed him. Terribly.

He's sticking to text; denying Shinjiro a face-to-face conversation as a means of punishment and regaining control. Let's try seeing if Shinjiro wants to go horse-riding that face to face meeting.]

I agree.

A ship is always safe at the shore - but that is not what it is built for.

[Forget this. He's going elbow-deep into the important stuff.]

Where did you go, Shinjiro?

[hoboagogo]

[A brief frown at the quite-forward comment... if only because he was hoping that people wouldn't really notice his disappearance. But it was for long enough, so he should have expected this.]

Nowhere. [A beat.] Ah- literally. The Porter glitched out or something, I guess, and next thing I know it's almost two weeks later.

[There's a lot unsaid there that he's certain Crane will pick up on- that if he was Ported out, then he was dead for those days- that he didn't go home or to a sort of holding, but just plain didn't exist for a period of time. But those truths are weird and slightly uncomfortable to confront, if only due to the existential questions they raise.

He's never been that much of an abstract thinker.]

Seems like it was for the best. If I'd've been in Heropa, I might've been stuck in Quarantine too.

[restingstitchface]

[Making people confront the uncomfortable truth is Crane's speciality. He'll always make them confront their fears; the unknown, their identity, their reason for living - or not in some cases. He's got the right tools for the job. Sometimes those are just words.]

I suppose even that's better than not existing.

[Let's drop that bomb in the open, shall we?

You can talk about this to Dr. Crane, Shinjiro.]

[hoboagogo]

[WAY TO BE BLUNT-- but... really, he supposes that's sort of the guy's job.]

...I dunno. Hard to compare the two, since I ain't been infected, and it's not like I remember anything from when I was gone.

[-sort of. While he was gone, yes. But once he got back, it feels like there's something he's forgetting. And he has no idea as to what.]

I didn't even know it'd happened 'til I showed back up again.

[restingstitchface]

[Better to be blunt than flatter him and say everything will be fine, right?]

I can only imagine how you must be feeling.

[Wait for it...]

That's what I would say, were I speaking nonsense. [A pause.] But I assure you, whenever you want to discuss this, my door's open. Walk in when you want.

Or never. It's your decision.

[His silence is telling; he's not going to tell Shinjiro how to act. Or how to feel.]

[hoboagogo]

[There's a faint pause in return- His eyes flicker for a moment, glancing to the bottom of the screen, as opposed to watching it and scanning over the text. It's not that the offer (or lack thereof, it's hard to tell) offends him, so much as these discussions with Crane tend to just make him stop and question things, grow frustrated at the not knowing.]

...There ain't much to talk about. I was hanging around, next second I found out it was more than a week later.

[A lame attempt at deflection, but one nonetheless.]

Where's your office, anyway? 'Cause even if I'd wanted to, getting out doesn't seem like the best plan right now.

[restingstitchface]

[Crane's silent for a moment. Shinjiro can deflect all he likes, for now. He'll have no escape once he gets him inside his office.]

Nonah.

I'll forward the address. And I won't even make you schedule an appointment.

[hoboagogo]

Mm. Alright. [Another frown, eyes hardening a bit, brows furrowing at that assumption that he'd been angling to see the doctor in earnest. Then again, maybe he had been. He's not sure, really- likes to keep some options open. But he won't argue it for now. Just takes the information and shoves it off for later.]

Gotta say, I'm still catching up on the shit about this disease going 'round. I've only been back like a day or two. [Mostly understands that those affected get crazy and also a dragon attacked Nonah and Heropa. He's not sure if or how the two are related.]

How's Nonah holding up?

[restingstitchface]

Well. It's in a frightful state. The same as everywhere else, really.

[He considers the question again; how's Nonah holding up? How're you holding up, Dr. Crane? He would so eloquently make use of that, later.]

[hoboagogo]

Guess that's what happens with hyper-rabies or whatever the hell it is... [He's still not clear on the details. Something highly infectious, likely lethal, and that seemed to make people crazed and violent from what he understands so far.]

Do we know where this all came from? [Another Hornet's plot, he wonders. Or something else entirely?]

[restingstitchface]

Excuse me a while...

[A good amount of time passes, before Crane sends a simple message to Shinjiro's mail. He sends an e-mail that contains only a link to a recent network post.]

My suggestion is you read this. I would try not to blame those involved, mind.

[hoboagogo]

[There's a few minutes as he reads this- and really, blaming them isn't his first reaction. (After all, even when some imPorts had admitted to getting a third of the population of their world killed, he'd taken it in stride. Weird moral shades of gray, and every one of them sucks.)]

...Shit. Guess I didn't think 'bout how we could be bringing diseases in, too.

[A shake of the head.] Now I'm kinda surprised it ain't happened before this-- or that some've the people here ain't gotten sick when they showed up.

[restingstitchface]

I wouldn't know. I haven't been here long enough to know, compared to yourself.

[Which makes this disease a high-pressure wake-up call. But he's discovered beauty amidst the chaos. So many people were afraid of the illness and what it could do.]

I suppose that makes me fortunate.

[hoboagogo]

[There's a hollow, forced-amusement noise at that.] Yeah. This week'd be a year, I think. Or it would be, if I hadn't been kicked out for a bit. Not as bad as the four or five years I've heard about, though.

[restingstitchface]

[That makes Crane go silent. His eyes flicker off-screen and his head tilts the same way. His lips open slightly, more in response to himself than Shinjiro.]

That much... [Crane's voice trails a moment.] Can you provide names to the faces, perhaps?

[hoboagogo]

[A pause- and he shakes his head.]

Nah. It was sometime last year a couple people were talking 'bout it on the network. I didn't keep up with 'em.

[restingstitchface]

I see.

[Adapt, Crane. Go with the flow. It just means another door opens as that one closes.]

Either way, I suppose it's good you're home. I really don't know you enough to comment, but I imagine your friends are in good spirits.

[hoboagogo]

[An amused noise.]

-Yeah, actually. [Which is... weird to him. But whatever.] I figure it'd be easier for them to go back first and not have to think about what might've happened to me.

Forgot this was text, whoops! Anyway important s-link question time.

[restingstitchface]

[Crane keeps mum.

Silence is a poisonous tool he's prepared to use, when a situation creates an opening for it. Here, it's what he uses to clear the way before he asks, in a gentle enquiry.]

... Yes. I suppose that would be the easier choice. And sometimes it would be the easier to just have all choices taken from our hands, wouldn't it?

S'cool! :3c

[hoboagogo]

[His brows crease- actually considering that for a moment. While he finds it kind of works out like that a lot of the time anyway, that may just be because of his own unconscious, rigid beliefs, rather than hands actually being forced one way or the other.]

...Depends on who it'd be easier for, I guess. [His nose wrinkles. He's still not that great with abstract generalizations like this.]

Easier in that no one have to pick anything, I guess. Kind of takes any sort of 'fault' away. But it'd suck in other ways too, I guess.

[restingstitchface]

[People are always making choices, Crane thinks. He hates people who apologize to him for their decisions; he hates people who think in black and white and say their decisions are the same. If there's a choice to be made, then you take it and don't complain.

He hates people in general, but some he tolerates more than others. Some he finds even understand him a little. Not that he's interested in any relationship - unless there's something he can get out of it. Just like anyone else, really. But at least he's honest enough to wear his mask on the outside.]

Well then. You prefer neither the hard or soft option?

[hoboagogo]

[Sorry, Crane- he knows this is kinda meant to be serious. But the text lacks tone, and it's evident that he's a stupid teenager in how he reads that by the way his lips quirk and brows raise.]

-Hey, careful. Say it like that and I might get the wrong idea.

[Good thing you're not a Freudian, Crane.]

But it's more like- things are more complicated than that. I dunno which one'd be better, 'cause it all depends on what's getting decided.

[restingstitchface]

[Freudian puns are more Chilton's deal.

The remark passes through his mind quickly enough. He gleans anything of detail and discards the rest.]

You worry too much about what's getting decided, perhaps. Have you considered thinking more about the nature of what's getting decided? Are you making your choices out of apathy? Frustration? ... Or fear?

[hoboagogo]

[Another confused pause- Eyes scanning, then re-scanning the text, as though trying to really understand what's being asked. As always, intensely personal questions like that are hard to really examine for him. What choices was he having to examine and question? Every day ones, like what to have for breakfast? Or only larger, more meaningful decisions?

In the end, he brushes it off with a shrug.]

I dunno. Depends on what's getting decided. [Which is frustratingly circular, sure... but also the easiest way for him to try and deflect the question.]

[restingstitchface]

[Crane's reply comes immediately. There's no deflection happening today. He was almost insulted by how obvious it was.]

Quite so. But you cannot avoid taking larger, important decisions forever, Shinjiro. You may just find someone takes that choice out of your hands and forces you to choose, right there and then.