01: Not Another Medical Drama (FantasyChic, MonkeyWrench)

[Fulci]

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3/6/2117 - 21:30
Characters: Victoria James (FantasyChic), Quincy (MonkeyWrench)
Location: Vault 14, Medical Ward
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Doc Barnes disappears into his office. The main lights are turned off in the Medical Ward. Victoria and Quincy try to get some rest: talking through the evening's events and resisting the urge to snuggle up in a single bed. Besides, they don't want to embarrass Goldie Mochnaz, the lightly injured PE teacher who is fast asleep in her own bed at the other end of the ward... The adrenaline from the fight is wearing of, the painkillers are kicking in, and the two young Vault Dwellers drift off into an eerie state between sleep and wake.

"...just an isolated incident. We shall not tell them anything..."

"But..."

Sleeping is hard when you still feel the fangs of a molerat in your thighs.

"The Vault counts on us. The Dwellers need us."

And there are all these voices around. A female voice? But a male voice too. Arguing.

"But they, up there, they need us too..."

Doc Barnes? And Dr. Munro?

"...we cannot risk exposure..."

Victoria and Quincy sit up in their beds. Now they are sure that they are awake. Doc Barnes' office door wasn't closed properly. The voices are coming from the inside. The Head Physician (his voice trembling and weak) is arguing with the Vault Overseer (her voice - stern and passive-aggressive).

[MonkeyWrench]

Quincy looks over to Victoria, placing a finger to his mouth before trying to get up as quietly as he can. He'll then make his way over to the door, keeping as low as his still injured body will allow in an attempt to gain more information on what is happening.

[FantasyChic]

Victoria, albeit slowly, craws and follows Quincy towards the door where the voices are coming from.

[Fulci]

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3/6/2117 - 21:30
Characters: Victoria James (FantasyChic), Quincy (MonkeyWrench)
Location: Vault 14, Medical Ward
======================================================

Victoria and Quincy slowly sneak closer to the office door. The voices become clearer.

Doc Barnes is speaking now: "But what if it's already too late? Bill Gross told me that..."

But then he is interrupted by Dr. Munro: "Gross told you what?"

"...that they are already working on something."

There is a short pause in the two Overseers' dialog.

"Impossible," Dr. Munro says sharply. "Those savages don't have the necessary..."

CLANK!!

There is a loud, metallic sound -- Victoria, while trying to position herself, kicks a bedpan that's lying around.
"What was that?" asks Dr. Munro.

[MonkeyWrench]

Quincy's eyes widen in alarm, he turns his head back to Victoria and quickly motions for her to get back into the bed as fast as she can. Quincy then hurries over to his own bed and pretends to be asleep.

[FantasyChic]

After Victoria kicks the bedpan, she curses herself in her head, and quickly retreats back to her bed and pretends she had been asleep the whole time.

[Fulci]

======================================================
3/6/2117 - 21:30
Characters: Victoria James (FantasyChic), Quincy (MonkeyWrench)
Location: Vault 14, Medical Ward
======================================================

The youngsters scatter and jump back into their beds. The sudden movement sends searing pain down their damaged bodies. They close their eyes and pretend to be asleep. The office door slides open. Victoria hears footsteps and soon can literally feel the shadow of Dr. Munro (back-lit by the light pouring out of the office) lingering over her.

"Mind your own business, Miss James.
Thank you for the talk, Dr. Barnes."

Then the footsteps slowly fade away - Dr. Munro exits the medical ward.

[MonkeyWrench]

Quincy let's the overseer leave the office, still pretending to be asleep. Waiting a moment to make sure that she is truly gone Quincy will then open his eyes, sighing out of relief that quickly turns into a groan as the earlier fast paced movement disagrees with his injuries.

Quincy then slowly gets up, sitting up in his bed. He looks over to Victoria, "We're not being told things.." He looks over to his fathers office, "I think it's time we had a talk with my father." With a slight groan Quincy gets up out of bed and begins to head over to the office, a pained but determined expression on his face.

As he gets to the office doorway he stands inside and knocks on the frame, looking towards his dad, "We need to talk."

[FantasyChic]

Victoria opens her eyes and stares at Dr. Munro as she is scolded. Before Dr. Munro leaves Victoria calls out "I'll start minding my own business when we are told about what's really going on here." She leaves it at that and follows Quincy to his father's office to confront him.

[Fulci]

======================================================
3/6/2117 - 21:30
Characters: Victoria James (FantasyChic), Quincy Barnes (MonkeyWrench)
Location: Vault 14, Medical Ward
======================================================

Dr. Munro turns back from the door. There is an awkward, very awkward pause. "Dr. Barnes, shall I remind you of your duties as a Vault official? If you still want to consider yourself a Vault official, that is," she says, in an icy voice, addressing not Victoria or Quincy, but Doc Barnes, who is now standing in his office door.

"What's going on?" - a new voice joins the conversation. PE teacher Goldie Mochnaz sits up on her bed, awoken from her slumber by the commotion.

"Just two youngsters getting themselves into trouble and making a fuss about it. Get back to sleep, Miss Mochnaz," says Dr. Munro, "I expect you to be back on duty by tomorrow. Get one of the children to demonstrate the exercises."

The Med. Ward door slides closed. Goldie Mochnaz watches as Victoria and Quincy get up and walk over to the Head Physician's office. Doc Barnes sighs. "Come in," he says, and closes the office door (this time making sure it's really closed) after Quincy and Vic enter. He is looking very tired. He almost collapses into his chair and sighs again. "I'm listening..."

[MonkeyWrench]

Quincy pulls a chair back, motioning for Victoria to sit down, before standing near it. Crosses his arms across his chest Quincy give his father a tired glare, "I think we are owed some answers. And from what I briefly heard you know more about what is happening." His eyes soften, showing more exhaustion than anything else, his hands coming down with a sigh, "With that creature digging it's way in, and that mention of savages from Dr. Munro? Dad... I think we're past the point where hiding things is necessary. Please, what's going on. Before we have to deal with the next threat that we aren't prepared for that decides to sneak in"

[FantasyChic]

Victoria sat down and folded her arms in front of her as Quincy spoke. "With all due respect sir, we may be children to everyone higher up in the vaults, but we aren't kids. We deserve to be told the truth about what's going on in our home. In case you aren't aware yet, your son and I got seriously hurt just walking through one of the open rooms in the vault. What's to say the housing units or the cafeteria aren't next?"

[Fulci]

======================================================
3/6/2117 - 21:30
Characters: Victoria James (FantasyChic), Quincy Barnes (MonkeyWrench)
Location: Vault 14, Medical Ward
======================================================

Doc Barnes puts on a strict "Vault-Tec Standard Issue Official" facial expression, opens his mouth - then closes it. He just cannot speak. His mask of authoritativeness quickly dissolves. Victoria and Quincy are sitting opposite a tired, fragile man.

"We've known for some time," he says, finally. His voice almost a whisper. "There are many survivors on the surface, much more than the Vault-Tec Statistics Manual predicted. They set up a small village right on our doormat, so to speak. Next to the Vault entrance. They tried to get in touch with us, but Dr. Munro prohibits any contact with the savages...

"Victoria, Quincy, you have to understand my position, our position as Vault officials! Of course, we all have our own views on this matter. I, for one, took the Hippocratic Oath. And I think we can and should help those poor souls on the surface. But Dr. Munro and Security Overseer Gross voiced... concerns. They are afraid that those people pose a big danger to our lives.

"There was a communication breakdown between the members of the Council. You witnessed something like that today too. Dr. Munro is withholding crucial information. Maybe Gross knows something too. I'm not sure about Rokossovsky -- he has a humanitarian approach, and he proposed trading with the surface before, though without direct contact... but he might have changed his mind."

Doc Barnes up to this point avoided the eyes of the young Dwellers, but now finally looks straight at them. Quincy and Victoria understand by the circles under his bloodshot eyes that the Head Physician hasn't been getting much sleep lately.

"The molerat getting into the Vault might not even be connected to this all. The Vault is deteriorating... things are getting OLD. I, for one, am getting old..."

[MonkeyWrench]

Quincy listens intently to his father until the end, once his father finished Quincy closes his eyes and releases a sigh, "Thank you for telling us the truth, dad." The word almost hangs in the air as Quincy looks to his father, using a more tender term to describe him, something that he never uses. Quincy's eyes are set with a look of determination, "What can we do? There has to be more options, as you say, this place is dying and without more parts we won't survive here. We will have to trade with the outside world to survive, something I'm sure we can all benefit from. We have natural security, non-radiated food, purified water... Things I don't see those topside of having, trading those things to them for scavenged technology and other goods might just be what we need to survive..." He puts a hand on Victoria's shoulder, looking for reassurance, or maybe just needing someone to steady him as he looks to his father, "So, what can we do?"

[FantasyChic]

Victoria pats Quincy's hand, but continues to look at the Doctor before her. After hearing what he had to say, she came to her own conclusions. "What about living on the surface? How are the conditions up there? If there's a village there, they must be doing something right, even if they had to trade with the vault. What about other settlements? Other vaults nearby? If this place is dying, we can't stay here. I'd rather make a go somewhere unknown than slowly perish in a dying home."

[Fulci]

======================================================
3/6/2117 - 21:30
Characters: Victoria James (FantasyChic), Quincy Barnes (MonkeyWrench)
Location: Vault 14, Medical Ward
======================================================

A faint smile appears on Doc Barnes' face. He is greatly relieved that his words found understanding with Quincy and Victoria.

"This is all a rather fragile economy we have down here. Hard to keep in balance. The Vault doesn't have much surplus resources. We can trade for some time... Then end up running short on food and meds ourselves. Victoria is right, we must at some point emerge from the perceived safety of the Vault and try to re-establish ourselves on the surface. Hopefully, in collaboration with those survivors.

"I'm just afraid, you know... that we might be late already. That a dialog will not be possible. We hesitated for too long, over a year."

At this point, Max walks in, together with quite an unexpected guest - Zack Lofftin! They overhear Doc Barnes' last sentences.

[Scott308]

Zachariah "Zack" Lofftin

Zack bursts through the door with Max, calling for the doctor, Hey, Doc Barnes! but the words die on his lips after he sees everyone in the medical ward.

[MonkeyWrench]

Quincy looks back to the two others, his face forming a slight smirk at Zach, deciding to simply nod his head towards them both. He turns back to his father, "I agree, The vault has great security for the time being and I had planned to use that to help the matter with Munro and Overseer Gross, hoping that as time went on their views might change... But if you believe a more drastic approach is needed before this place crumbles then I will volunteer for surface interactions, to help the others to see that we can re-join the surface." He clenches his jaw in determination, "We can no longer sit down here hoping the rest of the world will look past us."

[GreyWolfVT]

Max calmly enters the medical office of Doc Barns "Doc Barns we are ready for you to come investigate the um creature as the overseer prefers for us not to draw attention to it." he sighs. At this point not caring if he does lose his security badge the lies just aren't worth it anymore. Perhaps Zack has begun to shine a different light on Max's usual upbeat follow the rules attitude that or clearly the current evens have altered his perception on things in the vault.

[FantasyChic]

Victoria smiles at the two who entered. She returns her gaze to Doc Barnes "You know us well Doctor, we've known you since we were little toddlers crawling around. Surely that must count for something. If the older generation doesn't feel it can do the necessary duties of securing outside relations with the survivors on the surface, perhaps it's time for the younger generation to have a chance to shine." she gives Quincy a long look "As I am sure you know, I can be quite persuasive when need be. I think I may be able to help out with discussions. I believe you have a creature to look at though."