Sept 18: Paging Dr. Kafka

[Alex Campion]

Alex, with Ryan's help, carried the box o' Teri into the infirmary.

[Teri Napliotis]

The grasshoppers have become a bit more active by now and are rustling and hopping around inside the box. Nurse Joy walks up to to Alex and Ryan, looking at the box questioningly and stopping in her tracks as she comes close enough to be able to see inside the box.

"Can I help you tw- Eww! Why are you carrying a box of insects around!? Is his some sort of prank?"

[Alex Campion]

"No. This is a Teri Napliotis stuck in her swarm form."

[Teri Napliotis]

"Oh. I see. I... better get the doctor for that. Could you place her in the examination room?"
The nurse keeps a decent distance to the box and points at one of the doors leading to the examination rooms, stepping even further back to make more than enough room for the box to be carried past her.

[Alex Campion]

Alex and Ryan carried the box and sat it down in the examination room.

"Thanks," he said to Ryan.

[Ryan Gabriel]

"Don't worry about it," Ryan said, shrugging as they sat the box down. "I hope she's just drunk."

[Alex Campion]

"I do too."

He looked around the exam room and sighed. "I'd hate for her to be stuck in here."

[Ryan Gabriel]

"Yeah, I wouldn't wish long stays in the infirmary on anyone," Ryan said. "I'm sure you can feel that one even more."

[Alex Campion]

"Yeah. I can."

[Ryan Gabriel]

"At least you can't remember your time in there. Or... Crap, can you?" That would suck...

[Alex Campion]

"No, I can't. Well, nothing outside of a couple of dreams and I barely remember those."

[Ryan Gabriel]

"Good," Ryan said. "Well, not that being in a coma is a good thing or anything. But having to actually sit through all of it would have been worse, I'd imagine."

[Alex Campion]

"Especially with all the changes my body went through."

[Ryan Gabriel]

"The glories of being a mutant, huh?"

[Alex Campion]

"Not sure I'd call it that."

[Teri Napliotis]

Since loss of control over powers usually doesn't have a physical cause Dr. Livingston is paged, so it takes a while before a somewhat older man enters the room and introduces himself to Alex and Ryan.
Getting the story of what happened from the two he shakes his head, propably in disappointment about Teri's seeming lack of self-control, and puts "alcohol induced loss of control" down on the chart before sending Ryan and Alex out of the room.

He sits down in front of the box and extends his mind out towards the locust to see if he can assist her drunk mind in returning to her normal form. What he didn't expect was a complete lack of response from her. Her astral self manifesting as grey and washed out shadows of grasshoppers and among them a young, almost child-like looking Teri clasping her hands over her ears. Among the grasshoppers floats a dizzying amount of bands of psychic connections that originate from the human form, lieing dormant right now as Teri's mind seems to be stuck in her attempt to block out the cacophony of drunken 'bug chatter' of which only traces remain.

At the lack of immidiate response from Teri's mind Dr. Livingston reaches out to her in the psychic equivalent of placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. At that the eyes of Teri's astral self suddenly fly open in a look of absolute terror, the dormant strands throughout the bugs suddenly flaring up as her hive mind comes back to live, the bugs swarming up and enveloping the human shape in a dense cloud.

At the same time in the physical world the locust spring to live and before Dr. Livingston can react, fly for the door. Condensing back into her normal self Teri rips the door open and comes stumbling out of the examination room, hectically looking back and forth in panic.

[Alex Campion]

She would see Alex sitting in the waiting room.

[Teri Napliotis]

Teri barely notices Alex as she's bolting down the hallway, the shouting from a quite perplexed doctr coming from the exam room. As she runs past Alex she seems to hesitate a moment, her head turning towards him as she tries to judge if she trusts him enough on a primal/instinctual level to hide behind him in her panic. Not managing to make up her mind she stumbles a few feet past him and goes sprawling to the floor.

[Alex Campion]

Alex moved to help her up.

"It's okay Teri. You're safe."

[Teri Napliotis]

"Where am I!? What's going on?" She struggles back away from Alex as he steps up to her, a few stray locust are flying hectically around her head.
"I... we... know you, do I?"

[Alex Campion]

I?

"Alex. We bought terrariums together."

[Ryan Gabriel]

"You kind of... lost it after you'd had a drink at the party," Ryan added. "So we brought you to the doctor."

[Teri Napliotis]

She visibly calms down somewhat. "Yes, right..."
As the doctor steps out into the hallway she stares at him and lets out a quiet hiss, skittering back further.

[Ryan Gabriel]

"Teri? What's wrong?"

[Teri Napliotis]

"I don't know. He did... something. We don't understand what's happening. There's something in my head that's not us..."

[Alex Campion]

Alex glared at the doctor.

[Teri Napliotis]

Dr. Livingston stops several feet away as he sees the way Alex and Teri are looking at him.
"Before you go jumping to any conclusions, I'm not entirely sure what happened, but I can see that I did something to upset Miss Napliotis and I apologize for that. I can assure you that what I did was the telepathic equivalent of a pat on the back, but if I understood one thing it's that Miss Napliotis' mind is... different, so I might have intruded in a way that seemed inappropriate to her."

Teri just stares at him, busy trying to figure out herself just where exactly that feeling of abused vulnerability was coming from and why it still filled her with dread to think about it.

[Alex Campion]

"Obviously."

[Teri Napliotis]

"I don't know what her normal state of mind is like, but it seemed like she was trying to lock telepathic connections out that usually are there. Alot of them. I'm afraid I might have touched on the core of her Self unknowingly."
The doctor closes his eyes for a moment to look at Teri's mind without intruiding.
"Miss Napliotis, I'm truely sorry. I thought I was reaching out to your surface thoughts, which I can see now are not the Avatar I saw earlier." He looks almost curious before urning to Alex. "I would keep her here for observation, but I doubt she would be ready to do that. Could you keep an eye on her? She should be fine as far as the reason you brought her in is concerned, but I can't say for sure what her mind is going through..."

Teri just keeps staring at him, not quite following what he's talking about.
"We're not sure if we understand, we only know that it was scary and now there's... part of me in my head that wasn't there before."

[Alex Campion]

"What kind of friend would I be if I said no?"

[Teri Napliotis]

"Oh and..." He walks back to one of the doors along the hall, enters for a moment before returning with a spare labcoat in hand, handing it to Teri.
"And Miss Napliotis, rest assured that I did not do anything to put something into your head. Whatever you're experiencing is something that has always been there."

Teri grabs the coat and puts it on, propably for the first time since she can remember embarassed about being naked, wordlessly turning around and stomping off before she does something stupid, anger rising up in her as fast as her dread subsides.

[Alex Campion]

Alex followed after Teri. He'd talk but he doubted she was in the mood.

[Teri Napliotis]

Alex is right in his assumption as the second Teri steps outside the building she turns into her swarm form and immidiately flies off. Surprisingly a whole array of moths, mosquitos and other insects fly up from from nearby vegetation and grass to join her as she takes to the skies.