[visual, sorta]

[offtracks]

[ The pearl visual isn't really there. It's muddied, hazy - the way thoughts might be when their owner isn't focused. But the sight of a sleeping Cyndaquil curled up in a bed is plain enough, even though a mental soft-focus. Anxiety prickles around the edges. ]

I would like to announce that Akari has fallen ill. She is in the clinic.

[ In spite of the transmission quality, Ingo's voice is calm and even. ]

Comments

[colorsflyinghigh]

[... Not again. Not another one of his closest friends. Firepaw still hasn't woken up, and now Akari-?

Ren doesn't project a video. He tries not to let too much of his distress and sadness echo over the pearl, but he can't stop all of it.]

... Thank you for letting us know, Ingo-san.

Are you okay?

[offtracks]

[ ..... ]

I am well, thank you.

[colorsflyinghigh]

[...]

I'm sorry.

[He and Akari were friends, but Ingo and Akari knew each other.]

I hope she wakes up soon.

[offtracks]

....thank you. I do as well.

[ ...he should probably say more than that, though. ]

She is quite strong. She has survived worse than this.

[colorsflyinghigh]

[That's... not as comforting as it should be, honestly. Still, Ren can appreciate the effort- Ingo's probably saying it for his own sake as much as Ren's.]

Of course. I- well, I woke up. If I managed it, then she will, too.

[They're cut from the same cloth. There's no way Akari would just... stay asleep.]

[offtracks]

Yes - yes, I'm sure that she shall, sooner or later.

[ Though several of the people who have fallen asleep have done so more than once...no sense worrying about that now, though. ]

In the meantime, I suppose all I can do is see that she is comfortable.

[colorsflyinghigh]

Yeah. Guess so.

[He wishes he had more advice for what to do, or how to wake her up, but... he doesn't know. He just woke up one day himself, seemingly by chance.]

I'll come visit her later. Will you be around?

[It's the least he can do.]

[offtracks]

I will be here.

[ If Ren does come by, then Ingo will indeed be there, his large head resting on Akari's bed. She's small enough that she doesn't really occupy the entire thing. ]

[colorsflyinghigh]

Right. See you around then, Ingo.

[The feed cuts off, and indeed, not too long after, Ren appears in the clinic. He's carrying a small basket with a variety of berries, which he puts down near Akari's bed. He nods in greeting.]

Hello, Ingo-san.

[It's quiet, nearly a murmur.]

I brought some berries. In case... you know. Just in case.

video

[telewarped]

[Shoka barely knew Akari, but the one time they had spoken to each other at any length, Akari had spoken very highly of Ingo. It was obvious to her—immediately—that the two were close.]

Sorry. I know how much this sucks.

[She hates how used to having conversations like this she's getting.]

... You mind if I bring you something?

[offtracks]

....not at all. That is very kind of you.

[ Ingo knows how this goes. He's been the one bringing something before. It's always felt inadequate, from the other side; from this one, he understands how much it really is. Still, it's nice to know people are taking the time for his sake. ]

[telewarped]

No big. You got a favorite flavor?

[Vague shapes materialize through their psychic link: malasadas. Good, comforting malasadas.]

[offtracks]

[ Immediately, there's an impression of sweetness. Maybe sorta peachy? There's also something of an embarrassment about his own sweet tooth, but Ingo doesn't bother trying to deny what's clearly already out there. ]

I...do like sweet things...

video > action

[telewarped]

[In answer, there's a short, soft breath of a laugh. No need to be embarrassed about that.]

You got it. I'll be there in a bit.

[True to her word, Shoka arrives at the clinic not long thereafter, a supply of emergency malasadas tucked away in her satchel. Her pace slows briefly as she moves through the ward and catches sight of multiple familiar shapes lying curled up on the beds she passes (still and dead to the world as ever, no different than they were the last time she saw them), then picks up again once she manages to tear her eyes away and spots Ingo.

She sidles up to him, glancing only briefly at the unconscious Akari.]

Hey. [Then she fishes out a (sweet-flavored, of course, with Pecha filling) malasada, carefully wrapped in parchment paper, and presents it to Ingo.] Special delivery.

[offtracks]

[ Ingo offers her a smile that exclusively involves his eyes. ]

Thank you, Shoka.

[ He accepts the malasada, balancing it with one paw so that he can carefully unwrap it with the other. ]

...she has been much the same all day. I suppose that is always the way of it. [ People have woken from these comas, but none so quickly as that. ]

[telewarped]

... Yeah. Haven't seen a case that lasted any less than a few weeks. That's assuming she even has the same thing...

[Maybe it's something else and she won't be out for nearly as long. Maybe it is the same thing but she'll set a new record for the fastest to be cured. Or maybe not.

Shoka fidgets with the hem of her disguise, trying not to look at Akari.]

Do you know if she... [She trails off, wondering if she should even ask, before powering through it anyway.] What was she doing—when it happened? Anything... weird, or...?

[offtracks]

...I was not present when it happened, but not that I know of. She was simply in the Oran tunnels.

[ Probably coming or going. She hadn't been carrying anything unusual; she was likely just going to the mess hall or some such thing. ]

-> action

[outbounds]

[ Yeah, no, he isn't even bothering with the pearls for this one outside of a brief impression of surpriseworryconcernsympathy upon receiving the broadcast. Maybe he doesn't show up right away, but ...

Even after passing by all the other rooms containing beds occupied by long term patients of the clinic to eventually find the right one, Emmet ends up lingering at the threshold for a bit, hesitant to intrude (he had picked up on how much more easily Ingo managed to interact with Akari, back when they were being introduced to each other)— but practicality is what pushes him into the room proper, if only so he doesn't inadvertently hold up any traffic in the outside hallway.

He'll drop off a to-go cup of some kind of sweet tea blend— calming, warming, restorative, the proprietor had assured him— it smells somewhat of apples and ginger. A small container of soup is also deposited onto the stand, or desk, or whatever's available for visitors, before Emmet— hesitates again. ]

... Do you want some space?

[ Would Ingo rather the company, or for Emmet to run interference for a bit so that he can have a moment. Or a few. ]

[offtracks]

Thank you.

[ Ingo murmurs as Emmet sets down the tea and soup. It's quiet, by Ingo standards, and certainly subdued by anyone's. He has been trying to keep his mood up for other visitors, Akari's friends, but it's probably not so important now. Not that Emmet did not care for Akari, but - he is not a child. And he would probably know if Ingo faked it.

Does he want some space? He's relieved that Akari's other friends are gone, really. But - no, all the same, he has had more than enough space. ]

...no, thank you. I do not believe I do.

[outbounds]

[ He's almost a little surprised, but, well, it makes sense. He can find a convenient spot to settle in for the long haul, if being there is all that's needed.

It's certainly all anyone can do, isn't it. ]

... no reason. No pattern.

[ There's that Banette, back from during the winter... passed by the Stufful and Linoone from early on on the way in. Lusamine Mendel from Aether was found, not long ago... some of the people who recovered have since relapsed, and some have not. ]

She'd be mad, wouldn't she.

[offtracks]

Terribly so.

[ She would be furious! To be taken out at the knees like this by something she didn't even get a chance to fight! ]

I can only hope that I will be able to hear her do so.

[outbounds]

Might have to pretend you never saw her like this first.

[ Never saw her laid so low, that is. ]

Though that might still not work, huh. A.B.A. said. Even like this, they still know.

Just hard to tell what is real, and what is not.

[offtracks]

[ .....Ingo is quiet for a long moment. ]

...I felt like that for a time, after I first landed in Hisui. I was not unconscious, but nothing felt entirely real. Not even myself - like a strange dream, I suppose.

[outbounds]

No?

[ Emmet tries to picture it. Being lost and adrift somewhere unfamiliar, somewhere hostile, at odds with everything you don't actually know anymore. In the biting cold where you recognize nothing and no one, least of all yourself, unable to tell or believe what exactly is real or not...

He mostly only just manages to make himself heartsick. ]

... I'm sorry. That must have been scary.

[ That is nowhere near an adequate word for it, but. His gaze flickers over to the little Cyndaquil again. ]

[offtracks]

It was.

[ Little sense in denying it. Ingo has never been able to adequately describe the feeling. What can anyone know of being so completely unmoored, who has not lost that amount of memories themselves? ]

But it was quite a long time ago now. I have never felt that way again, even when I...am struggling to recall something. [ He knows that sometimes he spaces out a bit, when something seems to be tugging at him. But that's only ever a passing thing. ] It seems as though those who wake up bounce back quickly enough, too.