Life Onboard Serenity: #40 - Burnt Stew, Dinner and a Job

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Life Onboard Serenity: #40 - Burnt Stew, Dinner and a Job - Let's Celebrate!

POSTED BY: ENGLISHIVY
UPDATED: Tuesday, December 16, 2008 09:54
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Sunday, December 14, 2008 2:56 PM

Infirmary

"Hey, doc, you busy?" Pain asked as he walked into the infirmary.

"Can't say that I am." replied Simon as he finished closing the door to the refrigerated compartment. Turning to Pain, he saw the worried look on the man's face and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Need to ask you a few questions about Ivy's condition." he replied.

"She has a condition?" Simon asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes. One that's been naggin' me as of late." Pain answered back, closing the infirmary door behind him as he continued, "She has a split personality, Simon. So far the only folks who know of it are me, John, your sister, and now you, although I have a hunch that 13 might know of it as well."

"Well now." replied Simon a little shocked at Pain's admission. "That's quite interesting. How long has she had it?"

"Don't rightly know for certain, but it's enough that Tommy's suppressin' some sort of knowledge from Ivy's mind that she doesn't want Ivy to remember." said Pain, leaning against the wall near the door, wishing he had a cigar right about now. "Last time that happened was a few minutes ago when I let her browse through my weapons locker for a gun."

"Hmmm." Simon said to the big man. "Go on."

"Well she picked out a gun, looked at it, then went all stiff and trembly. I tried comfortin' her, but Tommy took over, went all deadpan on me and told me to get rid of the gun before she left my bunk." Pain answered, rubbing the back of his neck. "Do you know what would cause that sort of thing?"

"There are a variety of causes of a split personality or Dissociative Identity Disorder, as it's medically called. It can be caused by overwhelming stress, a traumatic accident, insufficient childhood nurturing, an innate ability to dissociate memories or experiences from consciousness, or by prolonged abuse." replied Simon, remembering the stuff he learned from Osiris MedAcad. "Signs and symptoms usually include multiple mannerisms, attitudes and beliefs that are dissimilar to each other, headaches and other body pains, distortion or loss of subjective time, depersonalization, amnesia, and depression. Patients may experience an extremely broad array of other symptoms that resemble epilepsy, schizophrenia, anxiety, mood disorders, post traumatic stress, personality, and eating disorders. Does Ivy or Tommy display any of those signs?"

"Ta ma de that's a lot of go-se to remember." Pain thought as he wrapped his head around Simon's lecture. He blinked and said to Simon, "Um I know she forgot that we already came in to see you when she mentioned that plant she gave you." Pain pointed to the plant in question sitting on the counter and continued, "She does have a headache, but I reckon that's from her concussion. And there was that whole deadpan thing like someone turned off a switch to her emotions or somethin'."

"Hmmm I see." Simon simply stated. He walked over to the cabinets where he kept his meds and said as he looked through them, "I have a drug that might help Ivy out. It's.... huh."

"It's what, Simon?" Pain asked, wondering what was wrong.

"I had a bottle of Kepraftin right here." Simon said, pointing to the empty spot on the cabinet shelf.

"What exactly is this Kepraftin?" Pain asked, peering at the same empty spot that Simon was looking at.

"It's a drug used to treat Ivy's condition, but it can also be used as a painkiller. I could've sworn there was a bottle right there." remarked a bewildered Simon.

"Perhaps River came in and rearranged things." suggested Pain. "She does that you know."

"Hmmm yes." replied Simon. "Perhaps I'll go have a word with her. Will you excuse me for a moment?"

"Not at all." Pain replied, watching the doctor leave the infirmary in search for his sister. Pain tapped his fingers against the wall and thought, "Well this day is certainly turnin' out to be an A-1 clusterrutt if'n you ask me."

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Sunday, December 14, 2008 6:51 PM

ENGLISHIVY

River led Ivy down to her room and opened the door. Although the plants had pretty much taken over, there was still a place to sit. She had Ivy sit there, while she sat in the doorway.

She felt bad about what she had to do, but nonetheless, it had to be done. Especially if Ivy was to stay on board Serenity. River couldn’t keep being taken surprise by random, yet tremendously powerful bursts of emotion anymore. Bursts so painful that it would take her breath away. This past time, River felt Ivy from all the way down in the cargo bay. She was thankful that John seemed distracted enough to not feel them as much as she did. So she figured that if she knew what was behind it, maybe she could deal with it better.

“How are you feeling?” River asked Ivy.

Ivy had started to look around at her plants.

“That one has a damaged light source,” she said motioning to the one terrarium.

Ivy was avoiding the subject.

“You scared Pain.”

“I know, it’s just that… I saw the…” Ivy started as a tear slid down her cheek.

“Don’t look, Ivy,” River calmly told her, halfway meaning at the root of the problem and also the fact that River was about to go traipsing through her head.

“I know. Tommy keeps telling me not to look, but it’s just barely out of my touch. I sometimes think that if I can just reach out a bit…” Ivy said as her arm stretched out, mimicking her words.

“Ivy, don’t look,” River repeated.

“OK.”

Ivy wasn’t looking anymore, but River was. She saw Ivy’s childhood and young years; the happy times. River smiled just a bit. She pushed further and briefly came across what looked like a war. And there was blood, so much blood. She tried to focus, but it was murky, like trying to look through torrid water. So she pushed on. She got a couple of flashes that meant very little; a sparse room, work in a house and tending a large garden. As she pushed further, it was like walking through syrup, then finally glue. Whatever had happened to Ivy was so startling, so painful and so out of Ivy’s ability to confront that the defenses that her mind built around it rivaled something a psychic could construct. Ivy wasn’t psychic though, nor empathic, but definitely formidable.

The last thing she could see was a huge chunk of memory that was locked up tighter than a drum. She saw a kind of “breach” and tried to maneuver her way towards it, but was unable to pass move through the defenses Ivy’s brain had built around that whole part of her life. And then it was gone. She looked at Ivy and saw her looking back at her quite intently.

“What are you doing?” she asked very evenly.

“Sorry, Tommy,” River said. “I got distracted.”

She nodded slowly, but she was wary.

It was then that Simon came around the corner.

“Oh…” he said as he saw the two of them sitting on the floor. He looked down at River. “I was just looking for you.”

Simon paused, then turned to Ivy.

“How are you, Ivy?” he asked, looking closely at her for any signs that Pain had told him about.

“Just shiny, Doc. Head feels pretty good, especially with the nap I just took,” she said brightly as she stood up. Way too brightly. Like she didn’t have a care in the world. “I was just checking on my plants. Looks like that one over there needs a new light source. I’ll have to remember to tell Pain that we need to get one while we are out.”

She looked at River.

“It was fun having you down here with me. It really kinda freaks out some folk, having these plants all over in here,” she gushed, truly sincere. “Hey I have to go find Pain. You seen him anywhere?”

“He’s–” Simon started to say, but River touched his arm.

“In the galley. I think he’s in the galley,” River said.

“Thanks!” Ivy said as she left the room and trotted off upstairs.

“He’s in the infirmary,” Simon whispered to River.

“I know,” she answered. “Let’s go talk to him.”

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Sunday, December 14, 2008 7:27 PM

DRPAIN

Infirmary

Pain waited patiently in the infirmary for Simon to return. He watched as Ivy walked up the stairs, curious as to why she hadn't seen him in the infirmary. He watched as Ivy disappeared up the stairs at which the door to the infirmary opened and Simon walked in followed closely by River.

"I didn't take them." River said to Pain. "Tommy did. Poured them down the drain and washed them all away."

"Why would she do that?" Pain asked, looking at Simon and then to River.

"Don't know." River said, tilting her head slightly. "Mind too locked up inside. Couldn't get a read. Too murky."

"Ooooookay." replied Pain. "Where is she now? I saw her walk up the stairs, but I don't think she saw me."

"She's in the galley looking for you." replied Simon.

"Thanks. I think I'll go see how she's doin'. We'll talk later." replied Pain as he stepped out the door.

"Don't forget to pick up a new light source for the plant." River called out to Pain as he disappeared up the stairs to see how Ivy was doing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WWJD: What Would Jayne Do?

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Sunday, December 14, 2008 9:41 PM

ENGLISHIVY

Pain looked up in the galley for Ivy, but didn't find her, so he returned to their bunk and found her there.

"How you feeling, bao bei?"

Ivy saw him and beamed as she jumped into his arms, placing a kiss on his lips.

"Where'd you go?" she asked.

"Had some questions to ask Simon."

"I must have missed you," she commented as showered more kisses on him. "I found that one of my terarriums need a new light source. I wanted to tell you so we could get one while we were out."

Pain knew she had already told him that. He figured that she probably didn't remember the incident with the gun that happened earlier, but he let it go. She was too busy kissing him and he could get lost there if he wasn't paying attention.

"You ready to go shopping?" he asked. "I think we'll be landing soon."

"I am more than ready. It's been a while since I've gone, so I am really excited now. I've been used to having very little when it comes to clothes," she said as she hopped back onto the floor. "You will help me pick stuff out, won't you?"

"Absolutely," Pain confirmed. "Now we should grab our stuff and head down to the cargo bay. That way we can be the first one off the ship."

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Monday, December 15, 2008 7:40 PM

GRAYSONCORNWELL

“Excuse me,” Grayson said as he stepped next to Dex. “My name is Grayson and the owner here told me that you dropped off a large delivery of grain products to a ship a few days back. My niece was on board and I’m trying to get in touch with her. Can you tell me the name of the ship?”

“I made a bunch of deliveries the last time I was here,” Dex said. He smiled cockily at Grayson. “I’m a nice guy.”

“Anything you can give me would be appreciated.”

“I’m thinking that if your… neice didn’t give you the information you need, that maybe she don’t want you to know about where she’s going,” Dex surmised. “Destinations is something someone would tell family.”

Grayson clenched his jaw; he wasn’t getting anywhere with this guy. He had to play his trump card. He pushed aside his coat to reveal the badge he had hooked to his belt.

“I might think really hard about your answers,” Grayson said in a low voice. “I’m not the joking type nor am I a patient man.”

Dex straightened up.

“Not looking to attract trouble, lawman,” Dex said. “Like I said, I made a lot of deliveries that day. I do remember having two large crates that I delivered, but I don’t remember the name of the ship.”

“You sure about that? Cause I don’t like liars either. They tend to waste my time.”

“No, sir. Not lying,” he reassured Grayson. He thought for a moment before remembering a little detail. “I do think it was a firefly though, if that helps.”

Grayson smiled.

“Thanks,” he said as he stepped away and left Dex to his business.

Grayson contacted the port authority right away and asked about firefly class transports that may have landed around that date. To his chagrin, he found out that the port authority there wasn’t so diligent about keeping those type of records. They were understaffed and had deemed their main function was to keep ships from colliding while they were taking off or landing.

Grayson sighed in frustration and decided to finish up the day at the grain store, just hoping someone had seen Ivy. That night he would decide what his next step would be.

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Tuesday, December 16, 2008 8:41 AM

ENGLISHIVY

This is totally OOC...

Happy Birthday to You!
Happy Birthday to You!
Happy Birthday Dear JOOOOOOHHHHNNNNN!
Happy Birthday to You!

Have a good 17th, John!

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Tuesday, December 16, 2008 9:54 AM

ISAHIAH

OOC: Heh? It's John's birthday? Woot!

*hands out party hats and noise makers*

Happy birthday man!

New thread: ---> http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.asp?b=2&t=36036&m=661824#661824

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————>>>
BigWolf18 "Way i remember it, you said you was leavin', dare say that saved us a whole peck o' trouble. now i gotta wonder what could spur on a fine disreputable man like yourself to show your fine disreputable face here again."

...Dust monkeys...

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