ataraxionlogs | 02 ▒ EVENT: STASIS SICKNESS ▒ MEDBAY

[Taylor isn't looking for Tommy, not yet, but she knows what bed she left him in and her gaze falls there without thinking. It's another surprise to see him conscious, moving, and that says something for the vials from the lab being what they were meant to be - or that the doctors figured something while they were gone. Either way, it doesn't matter so much as working her way through the crowd to his bed, previous list of tasks (and Eames' presence at her side) put aside for the moment for how relieved she is to see the blue fading out of his features.]

You're awake. [Obvious, yeah, but maybe there'd been a moment where she'd had the (small, shut down quickly) thought that he might not wake up again.] How're you feeling?

[ Tyke's friend, then. Even if it wasn't so obvious from the interaction it'd be an easy next step - Tyke's sense of duty or action otherwise, there was something driving her throughout the entire fiasco within the labs. Training, besides, but just training doesn't teach you to go in headfirst and come up with reasons to do so. Duty only stretches so far in any person, Eames has come to learn.

He debates leaving them for sake of getting a doctor to patch up his knee, and while he does find someone passing to give the pack of vials to (after slipping a few away for himself, not sure what he might do with them, wishing Yusuf was around to take a look), he waves the person off in favor of approaching the bed as well. One can't completely ignore someone acknowledging your presence, after all, wouldn't that be rude? ]

He's looking even better than us, [ Eames quips, mouth quirking but gaze sharp, even for the crinkle at the corners. ]

[ It takes the guy pointing it out for Tommy to do a double-take and notice the state they're in. Roughed up but still standing at least. It makes Tommy frown. He didn't like the feeling of being sick, of being useless and stuck in bed, but it makes it worse to know that he was being useless exactly when he could've been doing something. He rubs his hand over his face, wiping away the last of the fever-sweat and then looks up at Taylor again, eyes only occasionally darting in the direction of the guy with his face. ]

I'm fine, [ he grumbles, voice low and raspy from recent disuse. ] What the hell have you been doing?

[It isn't that surprising that Eames follows Taylor over. He'd expressed some interest in meeting Tommy, when she'd told him about him. This hadn't been how she'd expected it to happen, though (more like getting Tommy's idea on it first, leaving it up to him), and she glances over at him when he speaks, frowning. Couldn't just tell him to fuck off, not with how they'd just been through that shithole maze together, and Tommy wasn't freaking out. Too bad, anyway. She looks back to him, finally answering his question,]

Smile said some cryptic shit, pointed us to the maze that map was for. Went to see if there was anything that'd help.

[Leaving out the exact details of what was in the maze, or the labs, but she figured Tommy could tell it hadn't exactly been a garden party from the state of them. Like Eames had helpfully pointed out.

Really, she feels like that's the biggest thing she's got to explain right now, quiet for a moment before giving a tip of her head in his direction.]

This is Eames. He backed me up.

As well as I could, anyway. I'm a bit rusty when it comes to fending off lab rats.

[ Still, he smiles again, though closed mouth and pressed as he offers a hand (roughened from use, breaks, guns) to Tommy to shake. ] I'm glad to see the Smile's tricks worked on you already, is it?

I guess, [ Tommy says, shrugging and still scrunching his eyebrows together. He'd been far enough out of it when the first of the medicine started coming in that he hadn't really known what was happening, beyond vague awareness of more people moving around in the medbay, voices talking a little louder than they had been. He guesses someone must've given him something to knock the fever back, get rid of the nausea and the rest of the symptoms, but he can't say who or when.

He gives Taylor one more hard stare to make sure she's really doing okay -- she doesn't like doctors, she'd said, so she might just stand around in medbay when she should really have someone looking at her -- before turning his attention back to Eames. Reflexively, his frown gets deeper. ]

This is fuckin' weird.

[It would have been easier to say, before the maze, that however Tommy wanted to deal with this, Taylor would follow it, no question. But Eames could say he was a bit rusty all he liked, she knew she would've been fucked if he hadn't been there, probably dead back in those labs. It settles tension on her as Tommy leaves Eames' hand hanging, even though she can understand it. It had freaked her out to see Tommy's face on someone else, and she wasn't Tommy. What he says, though, has her huffing something like a laugh.]

Seriously. [Fucking weird was an understatement. Taylor knew about shapeshifters, but an actual double, honest to fuck no relation, that was beyond her weird shit. Again.] He says he doesn't know you.

[ Eames smoothly - or what's left of any smoothness available to him because holy shit social graces?? - retracts his hand, it disappearing into the fold of his trouser pocket where he toys with one of the bullet casings left behind. It's perfectly natural to perhaps not really be acknowledging someone in front of you that looks quite a bit like you, but that doesn't mean Eames has to like it. Still he has more tact than perhaps the other man in the bed before them, looking to Tyke and then Tommy with a short, easy nod of yeah, that's right, I don't. ]

Then again, it's equally as likely my father could have some bastard child I'm not aware of, but you seem a tad too young for that.

[ He looks back to Tyke, then. ] It might be best for you to find a doctor for Gingersnap, yeah? I'll keep an eye on Mister Thomas here to be sure he doesn't go stumbling off without you.

[ Paddy Conlon had been a lot of things, but Tommy wouldn't have ever said he was the type to fuck around on mom. And not one as old as Eames looked to be: not quite old enough to be Tommy's dad himself but closer to that than either Tommy or Brendan. So no, Tommy didn't know this Eames and didn't think they were long lost relations either. This was just more weird Tranquility shit. ]

Tommy, [ he corrects off-hand -- only his mom had ever called him Thomas -- and then frowns at Taylor. Part of him prefers having her here. It helps knowing that she thinks this is as weird as he does. But she looks like she needs to get cleaned up, get her wounds looked at, and Tommy's not going to keep her here just because the situation's awkward. (Eames looks like he might need a doctor too, but Tommy's not sure he cares yet.) ] Should get someone to look at those cuts too.

[Taylor knows the situation's awkward, knows it hasn't been made any better with how Tommy ignored Eames' gesture, but she still doesn't like what Eames says. The bastard child comment, the it might be best, and yeah, she did need to get Gingersnap checked (she'd need casts, at least, both left legs broken), had just been through some pretty nasty shit with Eames, but something about his tone has her riling up. Shoulders tensing (ignoring the pain that comes from that), chin lifting, turning a scowl on him.

It's what Tommy says that catches her before she does anything more. She shoots a confused glance his way, remembering a moment after that he means the scratches on her back. Remembering there's no one to just heal them, here. Someone - a doctor (she hates that word, all it's ever meant to her before was Doc Toxin: blank spaces of time spent in the infirmary, unexplained needle marks and weird scars on some of the other girls) - was going to have to look at them.

If Tommy thinks she can go, she will. But she glances between him and Eames again, wonders if she should. She gives Tommy a steadier look, a tip of her head, a brief lift of her eyebrows. You sure?]

[ He knows that sort of wordless exchange, and lets them have whatever looks and half-words need to be thrown out. As for himself, well, he's dragging a nearby chair closer to Tommy's bed, plopping down with his injured leg stretched out before him as to not bend at the knee, hands linked loosely on his stomach.

He still wants to talk to Tyke. Preferably alone, but considering the middle of the medbay is hardly a private space, if she feels determined to stay it's her prerogative. So long as she doesn't pass out in the middle of conversation - Eames gets the feeling talking to this Tommy is a one hit wonder sort of ordeal. In and out while he can. ]

[ Tommy meets Taylor's eyes. Peripherally, he see Eames pull up a chair and settle in. The guy's got balls which Tommy might respect in other situations, ones that weren't so weird, that didn't set him on edge and make him want to grind his teeth.

He doesn't look away or let himself get distracted this time and instead tries to focus on proving that he's all right if she needs to go. He's only partially successful. For all that Tommy doesn't say much a lot of the time, he has a hard time keeping what he's thinking off his face. His eyebrows stay pinched, and his jaw remains set; he'd feel better if she had his back, but he'd feel better if she was in one piece too and stayed that way. He gives her a short nod, a Do what you have to do, I can handle it. ]

[Taylor isn't convinced, not really, and it's evident enough in the slight frown she makes. But she does need to get Gingersnap looked at, a task that's itching at her now Eames has reminded her of it. She turns away, looking around the medbay quickly, spots a guy that looks like a doctor a few beds over, and the sooner she got it done the sooner she could get back. Tommy can look after himself, even so recently sick, even with something as weird as this. She trusts that, even if doesn't do much to make her feel better about leaving him.

She looks back over at Eames, looking a lot like she might say something, but the situation's too much of a confusing mix for her to settle on what. Giving him some kind of warning or threat (against what, anyway?) when he really deserved her thanks right now. So she doesn't say anything. Instead Chubbs jumps up onto the bed, suddenly and seemingly without any impetus, calmly finding himself a space on the blankets next to Tommy. His muzzle's still bloody from the creatures in the lab, and Taylor knows she wants that cleaned off soon, him and Windsor (doesn't want the possibility of some fucked up infection), but he's good for now.

One last glance between the two of them, and she turns to move away, giving a sharp hey to catch the doctor-looking guy before he can get further away.]

[ Eames waits until she's busied with the doctor before he first turns his attention to Chubbs, reaching a hand out to rub a finger between the dog's brows. Chubb, for the most part, just yawns before resting his head on his paws, apparently less hyperactive than Windsor. Settled with having Tommy's attention to himself (for now), Eames leans back in the chair again, regarding the younger man with a curious eye, hands once again linked on his stomach, slowly rising and faling with each breath.

The other man isn't wearing a shirt - defined bulk is present and, more interestingly to Eames, his tattoos. They don't have the same sorts - in fact, from what he can tell, he might have more than Tommy, so that's at least one disturbance out of the way, even if the placement is oddly mirrored. It's something he decides more to take into consideration than account, and he moves on. ]

You've seen me before, haven't you?

[ According to Ariadne, he's been on this ship multiple times. ]

[ Tommy knows that the minute Taylor steps away, he's going to be the centre of Eames's attention. It's not a place he ever really feels comfortable, preferring to hang back, let other people take the lead when there's talking to do, keep his head down. (He could think about why that is, what getting someone's attention has meant for him over his life, but he prefers not to.) The only difference is in the ring and then he just doesn't care.

Having Chubbs there, oddly, helps. It means he doesn't have to keep his attention on Eames in return. He can look somewhere else, at something else, and keep his distance from the conversation as a result. He gives the dog a poke in the side of his muzzle, the blood drying there another sign that he's going to have to ask Taylor what happened later on, and then rubs his hand over the top of his head. Chubbs is almost small enough that his whole head seems to fit in the centre of Tommy's palm. ]

On the network, [ Tommy answers, reluctantly. ] And there was a guy with my-- your face before too. Said his name was Bob.

[ Eames has to send his feelers out insofar as his boundaries with Tommy go - a wall already present there, regardless, but he doesn't want to be completely shut out entirely when he's on the hunt for balance. He watches the way Tommy's hand rubs over Chubb's little head, the ears disappearing almost entirely with each pass of the palm. ]

Bob's a terrible name, isn't it. [ Their face. As though physical appearances really belong to anyone - not in the way Eames knows. Their identities are what's more important to flesh and cartilage. ] What happened to him?

[ The weirdest part, Tommy decides, staring at the tufts of Chubbs's short fur that peek out from between his fingers, is seeing facial expressions he'd never make in a million years on a face that looks so much like his own. ]

Dunno. [ He shrugs. ] Sometimes people just stop being around, y'know? If he's lucky, he went home.

No, I don't really follow that entire idea of people randomly disappearing.

[ His brows quirk a bit - if the chair had wheels, he'd be swaying to and fro, but his knee hurts rather badly now that they're finally at rest that all he can do is sink into it with some measure of attempted comfort. ]

Are some people taken back to Earth? On, what, escape pods?

[ Tommy shrugs his shoulders, half because he doesn't know and half because not knowing is exasperating. He's tried once or twice to ask people about this kind of thing, but most of the smart people around here don't seem to have the patience to explain things to dumb kids from the Burgh. ]

They say people go out the same way we all came in. Best guess is they go back where they came from. Fuck if anyone really knows.

Aside from the part where no one can give me a straight answer on how we came in in the first place.

[ He scrubs at his jaw, a slip of obvious tiredness to his posture before he can correct it enough back to his usual stature of casuality. ] So, really, no one knows anything - and the ones who might've had a clue are unreachable or gone, yeah?

02 ▒ EVENT: STASIS SICKNESS ▒ MEDBAY

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