lostcarnival | (no subject)

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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Zecora… [And his voice softens, becomes a touch gentler, because he knows his words won’t really be.] Ya can’t be asleep at the wheel when yer patchin’ people up.

[Uncharacteristically, and further demonstrating her frustrated exhaustion, Zecora snaps back.]

A half-asleep doctor is better than none!
And as it happens, I am the only one!

[Well, he would be lying if he said he wasn’t expecting that kind of reaction. Joker doesn’t take it too badly, just shakes his head.]

Zecora, the carnival ain’t gonna fall apart if ya go ta sleep for a couple of hours.

And if someone is growing worse or in pain
How can I let that loss be my gain?

Because it’s their gain in the end too.

Not if they suffer more
From what I shouldn't ignore.

[People had been infested with other beings, somehow. This isn't something she's familiar with, it isn't something she can safely leave to chance...]

It’s not ignorin’ them, Zecora. Listen ta yerself- is it really ignorin’ them when yer just tendin’ ta what the body needs?

While there is wisdom in your voice
It is not much of a choice.
SOMEpony must do the work.
There is only me, I cannot shirk.

[There’s really no making her budge, is there? Wings ruffling in frustration, Joker taps his fingers along his hip and shifts his weight to his other foot.]

...What about the cinder spirits?

[Maybe she's just tired, but all Zecora can do is blink at him, trying to rearrange his words into a shape that makes sense in her foggy mind.]

[...yeah, Zecora needs more sleep. Joker tries again.]

Y’know…. The things that help keep the carnival clean, or who run the front gates and let folks come on through. Those things.

[Ohhhh those things. Zecora blinks hard, then shakes her head.]

In medicine I could not trust
Them no matter how I must.
The argument I can't beat
Is somepony who can treat.

And do ya know for a fact that they can’t?

If one alone was no slob
I would have no job.

The job which ya can’t even take a break from ta go ta sleep for more than five minutes.

Tell that to the injured masses!
A phase like this always passes.
In a week I'll be bored
And no longer skip sleep I can't afford.

I hope yer right… Things ain’t goin’ well like they should be, Zecora.

[With the attack in the Matrix, and the reveal of that sigil…. Joker gives a frustrated sigh, actual genuine emotion instead of his usual easy going act.]

Just be careful. Please?

If I am there
So too is care.

[She pauses in her pacing to turn slightly, reaching up to pat Joker's shoulder reassuringly. And carefully -- obsidian hooves and all, you know.]

I and you
Will make it through.

[Sighing with a smile, he reaches up to pat her hoof while it’s there.]

Heh, we’ve gone through enough nonsense that we can be sure of that, can’t we?

Not the first
Nor the worst.

[She'd worked harder for less gain back during the vampire attack, and she'd managed to put much of what she'd learned from that nightmare to use here. Zecora could be in much worse shape. So could everypony under her care.]