(no subject)

[zebrarhyme_everytime]

Who: Zecora and everyone else
Where: The medical tent and in the carnival
When: Soon after the Agent battle
What: Zecora does her job. And is tired.
Warnings: None?



A.

[The medical tent is a dark and shadowy place in the aftermath of the Agent attacks, but those shadows are not unwelcoming. The very essence of the air seems permeated with Zecora's personality, warm and exotic and welcoming if you can get past how mysterious and occasionally creepy it is. In the depths of the tent, Zecora herself stalks from tables to seats to cauldrons bubbling in the back, seeming everywhere and nowhere at once, as if she's less a being and more a force of nature.]

[Given how the carnival is, this is probably a little alarming.]

[Those who are already here, she has instructed already -- whether they're awaiting minor treatments or major. But for those just arriving? Even in the middle of her exams, she lifts her voice to greet them, a faint rasp at the very depths of her rhymes.]

Please enter. Have a seat.
I'll be with you soon to treat
Whatever ailment is your trouble.
Call if I'm needed on the double.

B.

[Late at night, when the businesses of medicine in specific and the carnival in general are done, those keen of eye or sharp of ear -- or who just happen to be walking past the food stands -- will find a zebra half-sitting, half-lying on a bench, a partly-eaten funnelcake lying next to her muzzle. She'd tried to get some food, the first she'd had all day, once she'd single-hoofedly seen to every patient and ailment in the carnival's numbers... but exhaustion had won the day.]

[On the upside, she's looking properly solid now -- but beneath her fur, her fae marks glow a faint grey, apparently unable to stop even out of the presence of active magic.]

[Wait a moment and the observer gets to spot one hoof twitching violently, proof that her sleep isn't quite as restful as she needs it to be.]

Comments

A

[waitingforplayer2]

[ When Zecora materializes behind her, Chiaki jumps -- two or three feet in the air. It's the rabbit legs, probably. They seem to amplify her step quite a lot. ]

Z-zecora-san! You can do that?

[zebrarhyme_everytime]

With these challenges we now face
It is hard to stay in just one place.

[Zecora isn't necessarily pleased about this, but so it goes. Right now the medicine is what matters.]

What injury
Brings you to me?

[waitingforplayer2]

Just a cut. [ She shows the zebra -- there's a large gash in her forearm where she was working on a machine. Black oil stains the skin around it. ]

[zebrarhyme_everytime]

Just that? A pleasant surprise.
You may wish to shut your eyes.

[Zecora gives her a moment to decide. Normally this isn't a problem, but she's just freaking out people left and right today somehow.]

[waitingforplayer2]

Okay. [ She puts her hand over her eyes -- but peeks anyway, curious to see what the zebra is doing. ]

a

[atouts]

[ Still soon after the fight with the Agents, soon enough that Childermass has yet to wake up again from first, being taken down for being possessed, and second, dealing with the bug that had caused the mess in the first place. It's probably a kindness that he was out cold for the latter, though he'll be waking with a start regardless.

It's not like this is his first time waking up somewhere mysterious, though he's almost sure this isn't a dream. ]

This is--

[ Oh, right. He remembers is shooting Strange. Never mind where he is, because that new thought gets him shoving himself upright to sit and then regretting it immediately. ]

[zebrarhyme_everytime]

[Zecora is over by him in a heartbeat, her eyes a blank glowing yellow beneath her raised hood as she regards him.]

This is the medical tent.
After the fight, here you were sent.
It would be best
If you continued to rest.

[atouts]

[ Aaaand... right. He's not going to be too startled by Zecora. Medical tent, doctor's a talking zebra, that's all as it should be. That he can consider it normal at all isn't something to dwell upon right now, either, so he won't. He also won't continue to rest, but instead attempt to get up out of the cot. ]

I cannot. Where is he? Where's Strange? I shot— [ No, that wasn't him. ] He was shot. By one of them.

[zebrarhyme_everytime]

I said, 'Sit and rest,
That would be best'.

[Zecora stalks over to push him down, gently but firmly, with one obsidian hoof.]

And that you will do
If I have to make you.
Everypony is all right.
We lost none this night.
Those in need are treated
For my skills are still undefeated.

[atouts]

[ And it looks like he's sitting back down, thanks to a hoof squarely against his chest. ]

None? [ At least he won't struggle to stand up again once that's said. ] He'll be all right, then?

[ Sorry, everyone else who got injured. Childermass is pretty fixated on the well-being of Strange, even if he is generally glad there's been no deaths on their own side. ]

B

[pipers_son]

[Joker wishes he could give a nice quick and easy solution to not sleeping well, but for him, that's always meant working himself down to the quick and hoping his mind would be too tired for any nonsense.]

[...Besides, with how he looks lately, he's obviously not one to talk.]

[So he doesn't, just hurrying back to storage when he sees Zecora there on the bench and coming back with a blanket tucked over his shoulder and one wing. As carefully as he can manage, he tries to drape it over Zecora's slumbering form.]

[He can't help dreams, but he can make her a little more comfortable.]

[zebrarhyme_everytime]

[It's an excellent try, Joker, but her sleep is not particularly deep or restful out here on the bench. At the touch of the blanket, she jerks awake with an equine snort that sounds oddly animalistic from an otherwise eloquent person who just happens to be a zebra.]

Where am I? [She blinks blearily at the funnel cake, all dazed confusion.]
Here... Why?

[pipers_son]

Ah-

[And he pulls away, a little startled, but lets her have a moment to get her bearings again. Waking up from sleep is never fun.]

Sorry, Zecora. Came across ya and thought I could at least make ya a little comfortable.

[He would have carried her, but…. That’s just not something that was going to happen, okay?]

[zebrarhyme_everytime]

[Her foggy attention turns to Joker, slowly, trying to process this through a haze of exhaustion and weariness. A moment later, realization hits, and she struggles to slide off the bench as best she can when her body isn't responding quite properly.]

Dear me! There is no defense
For leaving my patients!

[pipers_son]

Oh no ya don’t-

[Dropping the blanket onto the table, Joker tries to push Zecora back onto the seat.]

Zecora, when’s the last time ya had a break?

B

[mylastchance]

He looks over to her, curious. He hasn't ever really seen her look so lax in public before. It was strange to think she'd fallen asleep with a plate of food in front of her. Had someone else left it there after she'd dozed off? Either way, he had a feeling that sleeping on a bench couldn't be very comfortable, even if she was a zebra. He comes closer, gently moving to shake her awake.

"Zecora." he murmurs, voice low.

[zebrarhyme_everytime]

Lucky thing she wasn't wearing her cloak; his hand touched soft fur and skin over muscle, not weird shadow or mist or some nonsense. A shiver passed over the zebra's body before her head jerked up, faintly bloodshot eyes blinking blearily at him.

"Who else is sick?
I'll be there in a tick."

[mylastchance]

Wow. She looks... Bad.

"Sorry. No one's sick." He hesitates. Now that he's woken her up he kind of wonders what he can do to actually help her get some rest.

"Um. Do you want to go rest in your bed?

[zebrarhyme_everytime]

Zecora blinked at him, then leaned her head back slightly to look at her surroundings and the bench she sat on. A brief look of horror flashed across her face.

"Oh dear me. No time for rest!" she said, as she struggled to her hooves despite her legs being a big rubbery.
"I must get back, that would be best."

[mylastchance]

"Wait." Reaching a hand out to her, before hesitating. It probably wasn't his place to question her, but he couldn't help feeling concerned.

"Aren't you... I mean. It really looks like you could use a break."

a

[puddingemote]

[Tamaki arrives at the medical tent not long after the agent attack, with his hands tied behind his back and a little out of it. On the plus side, he's stopped aggressively trying to morph into an agent. On the minus side, that means he's back to being a little over seven feet tall and also very confused about his current circumstances.

He looks around a bit wildly as he becomes more alert, trying to reorient himself.]

Where am I? What...?

[zebrarhyme_everytime]

Settle down and do not rise.
I'll tell you what's before your eyes.

[The gentle, if slightly ragged, rhymes ought to be enough information for anyone in the carnival, really. Zecora is at his side in a moment, smiling even as she lifts a hoof to make sure he doesn't try to stand.]

You are here under my care
I must be certain how you fare.

[puddingemote]

[He does recognize her right away, and stops moving around so much. He doesn't try to stand, especially when he sees her raise a hoof.]

Zeco-san! What happened?

[zebrarhyme_everytime]

Some few hours back
We came under attack.

[Oh good. She isn't certain she can hold anypony down at the moment...]

[puddingemote]

An attack...

[That's right, it's coming back now - the agents, trying to take over his body. Trying to hurt his friends.]

Manager knocked me out... Did anyone get hurt?