Shattered Glass 8

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Ruth walked with Rona to Doyle after class, the doctors were going to start removing the tattoos that night, and they'd be able to tell her how soon she'd be tattoo free after they were done the first treatment. She rubbed her arms wondering what she'd look like with unblemished skin.

Her friend opened the door for her and walked to the nurses station. “Hi, my roommate, Ruth is here for an appointment,” Rona said.

Handing over her student card, Ruth watched an ugly black and orange cat trotted into the lobby like it owned the hospital, a girl in a baby blue uniform with pink glasses followed along a few steps behind. The nurse handed back the card, smiling pleasantly and pointed at the girl who had just arrived. “Ruth, this is Insight, she'll take you to the correct room.”

“Have fun Ruth,” Rona said, patting her shoulder as she headed for the door.

The new girl stepped up, holding out her hand. “Hi Ruth, you can just call me Caroline. I'm going to be your healer.”

“Hello Caroline. Thank you for helping me,” she said gratefully. She knew that they had healers working in Doyle, it had been explained to her by Dr. Bellows, and she'd been a little afraid that a boy would be the one to do it.

“You don't have to be nervous. It can sting a little, but Dr. Tenent has done this before, and I'll be there to keep you from feeling anything,” Caroline reassured her.

She nodded in appreciation, not sure what to say. The cat walked ahead of them, until it reached a door and started pawing at it. They stepped inside, and Caroline put her hand out taking very precise steps towards the counter, not seeming to be looking at it Ruth watched her open the door and pull out a medical gown. “Here you are, put this on. Dr. Tenent and I will be back in two minutes.”

When she was alone, Ruth slipped into the gown and sat on the bed, looking at all the large machine that looked like an oversized camera lense attached to a computer on wheels. Her mind tried to figure out how it could work, what was powering it, how it could be improved. Her fingers itched, wanting to take it apart. She wondered how anything she knew could be used to help doctors.

As she was thinking of ways to make a forcefield fine enough to stop a wound from bleeding out, there was knock on the door. Ten seconds later, Caroline and a woman with long hair came in. The woman had to be the doctor, her hair was holding a file for her to read.

“Hello Ruth, I'm Dr. Tenent, it's a pleasure to meet you,” the woman said.

“Thank you for helping me, ma'am.”

“Before we begin, we need your permission for Caroline to use her psychic powers on you. She'll numb the pain a little, heal you after the procedure, and if necessary she can help calm you down. She's been training for the last several months on psychic surgery and aura manipulation, and is one of the better ones I've met.”

Looking at the Caroline, she had to wonder what it would be like to have a power that could help people so much. She knew she shouldn't be jealous but it was hard. Caroline had probably never had anything bad happen to her, and having a power like that had to be like a gift from heaven.

Forcing a smile, she nodded in agreement. “That will be fine, ma'am.”

“Great,” Dr. Tenent said. “Now if you can take off your gown, I need to get a look at your tattoos.”

Shame, fear and disgust welled up inside of her, only to disappear almost as soon as she felt them, leaving a calm, peaceful feeling. A glance at Caroline showed that the girl was looking at her with wide, milky white eyes. Not entirely sure how to feel about her emotions being manipulated so easily, she stripped, and tried not to cover herself.

No one acted surprised at seeing her tattoos. Ruth figured it was because they'd already seen pictures of them in her files. She forced herself to wait as Dr. Tenent circled her, talking to herself very quietly. Finally the doctor seemed satisfied, letting her put the gown back on. “Ruth, to do this safely we will focus on parts of your body stripping the area of all the ink entirely on that part, and then three days later we'll work on another part. Each time you'll be left with something like a bad sunburn and some bruising, but Caroline will have that fixed in a minute or two.”

“Can you get rid of them all at once?”

“We could, but that would cause more stress on your body than I would like. To be perfectly safe, we should wait a week between sessions, as healing too many times can cause problems. But we can push it a bit to get these tattoos off,” she told her.

Ruth thought she should be more disappointed than she was, but there was still that calm feeling. “All right.”

“Where do you want to work on first?” Dr. Tenent asked.

She pointed at her crotch, blushing even with the unnatural calmness. “There.”

“OK, get up on the bed and lift your gown up to your chest,” she instructed.

Taking a deep breath, she did as instructed closing her eyes hoping that everything would go quickly. She jumped a little, when Caroline asked her, “Do you want to hold my hand?”

“Yes,” she whispered, reaching out her hand.

Caroline took it, and Ruth could feel something passing between them. There was a hum from the machine as it was wheeled over.

“Ruth, I'm about to start. This will hurt a little, tell Caroline if the pain gets to be more than a light pinch,” Dr. Tenent instructed her.

“All right, ma'am.”

The machine started. There was a second or two of pain on her upper left thigh, and then nothing worth mentioning. The laser felt a little uncomfortable, like having the hot summer sun shining through a glass window on her, but that was all.

After a half hour of the laser slowly going over each thigh, her hips, and almost up to her belly button, they were done. When the laser was rolled off to the side, Caroline let go of her hand and ran both hands a few inches above her body. Ruth looked up to see her blotchy reddened skin turning back to a healthy pink. Best of all there was no ink left. Some pictures and words were cut in half, with the bits on her side, inner thighs, and the bits that were too high or too low to get during the session still there, but that didn't matter. She started to cry a little at seeing the worst of the tattoos gone. Touching her skin she almost couldn't believe it was that easy.

“It worked,” she whispered, fighting back sobs.

“Next session we'll get the ones on your chest, and you'll have them all off before Christmas,” Dr. Tenent promised.

“Thank you so much!” she shouted, hugging the doctor.

“You're more than welcome, Ruth,” Dr. Tenent said. “Caroline, how about you go take a break, you look like you need it.”

“Thanks. It was great meeting you Ruth, see you in a few days,” the girl said, sounding a little tired. The cat that had been sleeping in a corner came running up to her, growing in size until it was about as big as a tiger. Grabbing hold of the thick fur around its neck, Caroline carefully made her way out of room.

“Will she be ok?” Ruth asked after the door closed.

“She'll be fine, she's just a little tired,” Dr. Tenent assured her, passing over a box of tissues. “She's strong, so she has to keep her powers in check or they can overwhelm most people. Helping you stay calm, removing the pain, and healing you without using too much power was trickier than if she'd healed a major injury in a few minutes. I have a few questions for you, so I can put them on your file, are you up to answering them?”

“Yes, ma'am.”

The doctor smiled at the answer. “Great. Have you had a period yet?”

“Yes. Over a week ago, while I was in the hospital.” She'd had to have a nurse explain what was happening to her when she'd first started bleeding, she had thought it was more internal bleeding from her fight. Everything had still been so strange she hadn't really thought about it at the time and still didn't know how to feel. Compared to everything she'd been through, something like that really didn't matter in the bigger picture. She'd been told that now that she wasn't under so much stress and that she was eating properly, she'd start having a regular period, so she'd listened to the things they'd told her and made sure she wouldn't forget them.

“Did the nurse or doctor explain everything? Do you have any questions for me?”

“They did. I know about pads, keeping it clean and things.” She had pulled down her gown, but was still rubbing her stomach and thighs as if she could feel that the tattoos were gone.

“Well that's good to know. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me. I know a bit about what you're going through.”

“Thank you, ma'am. I will.” She stayed there, not sure what to do next.

There was a short pause, “Well, get dressed and then you can go get some supper.”

“Thank you ma'am.”

As soon as she was alone, she stripped again and spent a few minutes looking at her bare, unmarred skin. After so long of having tattoos, it seemed almost impossible that some of them were gone so quickly and painlessly. The ones on her face and arms had been excruciating to remove, that was even with having a healer on hand. Grinning, she put her clothes on and headed out with a little bounce in her step.

Walking to Crystal Hall, she was met halfway by a girl who was spider from the waist down and was well bundled up with a long winter coat, and blankets strapped to her spider half. Something came flying out of her coat.

“Hi, Ruth!” Teri yelled. “Come on, let's go get some supper, it's cold out here.”

The fairy settled down in her UV band. “Ruth, this is my friend Em. She's shy, but really nice.”

“Hi Ruth,” the spider girl said. “Teri's said a lot about you.”

“What did she say?” Ruth asked nervously.

“All good stuff, don't worry,” Teri reassured her.

“Just that you're a nice girl. She usually gets sidetracked when talking, with stories, pretty colours, her hair, an interesting piece of fluff, so many things,” Em teased.

“I'm not that bad!” Teri said, sticking out her tongue. “Come on Splits is saving a table for us.”

They hurried inside, they stayed close together as they got their food. Em and Teri each took something similar but not the same, and asked Ruth which one she'd prefer. Gently encouraging her to pick one. It was slow going, but they eventually got their food, and saw Splits, at least they saw her head floating over the crowd.

“Hi Ruth,” Splits said, her head floating back down to meet her body. “I heard you had a bit of trouble at lunch, is everything ok?”

Ruth nodded, thinking about the UV kids. “Nothing happened. Some boys and girls helped me.”

“They were TNT and the Furies right?” Teri asked.

She nodded.

“OK, I've got to get the Valentines Day calendars set up for them,” Teri said with a sigh.

“You can't be serious, they're going to be in a calendar!” Em said.

“Yeah, they've done me a couple of favours. And have you seen the Halloween Calendar we did? Those girls are sexy, and TNT is good for playing regular people. Anyways we're going to have two calendars, the sexy and naughty one, and a cute and cuddly one. I wanted the Furies in the first one anyways,” Teri said.

“You make calendars?” Ruth asked.

“Yeah, I'm head of Ethereal Beauties, for girls who have GSD or aren't the oh so beautiful exemplar babes. We usually do anime, fantasy and science fiction stuff. And In the Winter Semester we'll probably be becoming a real school club. We even have a Christmas Calendar coming out this week. Em can you show her?”

Em reached into her bag and took out a calendar with an evil looking Christmas elf on the front who was glaring at the camera, in an eye watering colourful outfit.

“She doesn't look happy,” Ruth said.

“That's Nacht, she always looks like that. It was a pain getting her dressed up like that, and I even had her guardian helping us. We lost two cameramen because of nervous breakdowns, finally Sunny and I had to take the picture.” Teri giggled at the memory. “We're trying to get her to do it again for the Valentines Day calendar. Oh there she is! HI NACHT!”

Ruth watched as a very grim looking girl who looked pretty if scary, pointedly ignored Teri and ran up the stairs almost dropping her tray of food.

“I think she's coming around.”

“Right,” Splits and Em said at the same time.

Ruth shook her head in disbelief.

**

Rona looked over her homework in the library, savouring the peace and quiet. She heard someone walking over to her table, but didn't look up. Having spent almost a month as a girl she'd discovered that looking at guys could be seen as an invitation to talk, and too many of the guys here didn't seem to understand that talking didn't mean she wanted to go on a date, or want to go to bed with them.

“Excuse me, can I sit here?” a boy asked.

“Sure,” she said, still not looking at him.

“I'm Randy.”

“Rona.”

“Sorry, you're doing your homework. I shouldn't bother you,” he said, sounding embarrassed.

She remembered being the awkward boy who didn't know how to talk to girls, and her conscious told her to stop being a bitch. “Don't worry about it, I'm done all the important stuff. Holy shit! Are you a robot?”

The boy looked like he was a robot or at least wearing power armour, he was slate grey, had camera lenses for eyes, was covered in metal and had a speaker in place of a mouth. “Kind of yes, kind of no.”

“Uh, what?”

“The body is a failed robot, I just got it this week, and I can use it to get out of my room for five hours a day. This is my first chance to get out on my own,” he explained.

“Why do you need a robot to get around?” she asked.

“Because my body is solid rock over in Hawthorne. But I can manifest myself in items for a couple of hours. They finally got me a body I can walk and talk in that isn't a kids toy. So I'm having fun without stressing my body too much.”

“Right,” Rona said. She'd heard of stranger things, but not often. “So why are you wasting it in the library, talking to me?” She winced at how that must have sounded. “I mean, I'm not anyone very interesting or anything.”

“I've seen you a few times on campus and you look cute. And you seem kind of lonely.” If a robot could look embarrassed, he managed it.

She felt herself blushing. “I'm, well, um. Thank you. You're really solid rock?”

“Yeah. They thought I was dead until I managed to manifest in my sisters doll and yelled at them not to hurt my body. Turning into a rock and manifesting are my only real powers. How about you, anything cool.”

“I can turn invisible, and my skin is hard,” she said with a shrug. “I can use my hair as a baseball bat to, it regrows in a few hours. What's it like being in a robot?”

“Kind of cool actually. I'm hoping they let me get some power armour next with missiles and laser beams, and a rocket punch!”

“Ask a devisor to make a shapechanging robot, than you can make yourself a real face, and if it has rockets, you can really say you have a rocket in your pocket.” Her face lit up,” I didn't just say that did I.”

“Yes, actually you did. I have the recording of it.”

“Delete it now. I can turn invisible and I know where to get a sledgehammer,” she threatened.

“OK, OK, don't pull out the hammers and chisels,” he said, raising his hands in surrender. “What are you studying?”

“General science, it's so boring. Why couldn't I be a gadgeter or something that actually likes this stuff?”

“That bad huh. Maybe I can help you,” Randy offered.

“Please!”

He got up and sat down beside her to get a better look at her work. For the next hour they talked about science while making bad jokes.

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Comments

Some truly interesting kids

Some truly interesting kids at Whateley; if a person will simply look past their exterior looks and get to actually know them as themselves. The rock boy is new, but he does sound to me that he would be someone that a gadgeteer or devisor would be willing to make friends with, when he is in his robot persona.

Rock boy is a character I

Domoviye's picture

Rock boy is a character I made today. On Crystal Hall there's a Bad Idea Thread for useless, perverted or sad character ideas, and I saw someone say a girl with GSD turning into a statue overnight. My mind got to work and made the character usable. Several of my characters came from the same place.
And I wanted a bit of relaxation for everyone, and to show off other characters, so we got this easy chapter.

I like Rock boy

he seems like the perfect guy to help Ruth get to know boys without so much stress.

DogSig.png

At least until

Domoviye's picture

He purchases a fully functional, with added sound effects, love doll from Japan. Then things get squicky.

love your characters, glad to

love your characters, glad to see Rona coming around.
Teri cracks me up, though I'm still trying to figure out whether she is just that optimistic that everyone wants to do what she wants them to do or just that amusingly oblivious to there reactions

She's that optimistic she can

Domoviye's picture

She's that optimistic she can strong arm the girl into it as long as she doesn't take very creepy no's for an answer. Nacht can only hold out for so long.

Relaxed

Tas's picture

This was a nice chapter of everything going fairly well for everyone, which is great to see. Your characters get enough trouble most chapters.

-Tas

Some relief is necessary

Domoviye's picture

If it's doom and gloom all the time it's just boring and repetitive. Give them some happiness and when the hammer comes down it's even harsher.

Rona made a joke!

And then she made more! I would have thought it would be a long time before she reached that point. I can get the being enclosed fear, I can get that just being caught in some clothes over my head when I'm dressing. Sounds crazy, but I have several sweaters that are tight around the neck and sometimes they can get hung up when I'm pulling them over my head, especially if they snag my earrings. Silly, huh?

I also understand the just short of rager anger. The medications that seem to control it either have some nasty side effects or are so damn expensive there is no way I can afford them. I find it hard to fault Ruth for doing essentially what I would do if I could. Some assholes, you have to keep smacking them down hard until they apologize. Regen and his friends are fine examples. They are like a pack of dogs that have gone feral, they can hurt people and not feel any remorse. But one of these days they are going to run into a pack of wolves and they will be lucky if any of them will walk away.

So when do we get some more? I've reread what you've posted several times; and I hope you can get into the groove to bless us with more.


"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin