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Post by Circe on Mar 9, 2019 18:47:41 GMT -6
(**Admin disclaimer: This is not intended to glorify this sort of behavior. However, this is fiction and this is the character's thought process/solution/resolution to dealing with a specific problem. In reality.. don't do this, it's not healthy and is in fact a extremely BAD idea. Any resemblance to individuals real or not, living or dead is purely coincidental.**)
There was always a thin line between sleep, and a sleep so deep that the things that she saw there invaded her every waking thought the day after. Tonight was one of those nights where sleep came easy, but fending off the vivid and unwanted reality that came calling with it was not. She had woken up gasping for breath like a victim pulled from drowning, soaked to the skin in sweat, nauseated, and unable to remember where she was or how she’d even gotten there. "Ugh..." Rei groaned sitting up holding her head in her hands; this was going to become a liability if she didn't do something soon. Throwing the thin blanket off, and swinging her legs over the bed, she glanced back over her shoulder at the empty bed unable to shake the feeling someone, or maybe something was missing. "Fuck it." She muttered fumbling around in the dark of her hotel room for a light which soon bathed the room in it's pale yellow ambience. ‘I’m awake now..’ Rei thought to herself darkly.
The room was modest though spacious, with a full sized bed and some personal items scattered about. On a whim she had just decided to stay dirt side on a resort planet for a little longer, the job had paid well and it didn’t hurt to have a bit of down time. Walking or rather stumbling towards the balcony of her hotel room, Rei threw back the curtains and opened the door stepping out. The warm humid breeze lifted her damp hair from her neck and caressed her face, "Why?" She said to no one in particular as she reached for a pack of cigarettes on the small table on the balcony. Fumbling clumsily with the lighter, she managed to get one lit and took a long drag before exhailing as she looked down at the glittering lights below her 10th floor room. “Lucky bastards, must be nice.” Rei remarked tapping ash from the cigarette that was quickly borne aloft by the breeze. To be able to sleep, without unwelcome realities hijacking her thoughts sounded like paradise.
As the nausea eased and the throbbing headache appeared, the woman briefly wondered what it would be like to plunge from the balcony, the wind howling in her ears and ground rushing to meet her. To end it all and finally sleep without drowning would be utter bliss to her.
Almost without thinking, she had climbed easily onto the ledge of the balcony and stood tetering on the edge. Tapping more ash from her cigarette, she veered with a drunken grace across the narrow ledge as she walked along it's length. It wouldn’t take much, not more than a single misstep for her to plumet over the edge. “Fuck it.” She said again and leaned back, allowing herself to fall through the neon painted dark with the wind rushing through her ears.
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Post by demikara on Mar 9, 2019 18:59:48 GMT -6
It was luck alone that allowed Rachel to see the falling body, to see the willing dive off the balcony. It was not luck that allowed her to gun it, moving forward on her bike to make certain there would be more room. There weren’t many people in this city that were better on a hoverbike than she was. She'd have to time it just right, but she was confident in her skills. On the underground racing circuit she was one of the top contenders in her bracket, and for a good reason. It was that level of skill and speed in her bike that allowed her to shoot through the air and pulled up underneath the other's trajectory, only two floors down.
The bike was wide enough that the other could hit it, and Rachel turned and grabbed the other's torso, so she couldn't fall off, though the force of the catch meant that she had to stabilize the bike before she could begin a careful, cautious landing, going slow and twisted so she kept one hand on her unexpected passenger the entire time. Hopefully hitting at that angle, back first hadn’t damaged anything. The other hadn’t given her much choice in how to catch her, given she had just sort of leaned back until she fell.
Rachel settled on the ground and flicked off the engine. She wasn't often on the ground, not in town at least. Once they were landed, she could finally remove her helmet at least, so the other would be able to hear her. Hover biker helmets were not exactly meant for communication. They were meant to have some chance of survival for drops of three stories. More than that and there was no guarantee.
Releasing her passenger, she pulled her hot pink helmet off, pulled her braid out of the back of her suit where it had been tucked and twisted to look at her catch. "You are so lucky I was close enough for that. Are you okay?" Probably bruised at the least. That had been a rough landing. There hadn't been much choice though, given her a higher catch hadn't been as guaranteed as there. The other hadn't seemed to fall either, so that was on purpose. Well, people came here to hide form their troubles. This one must have just decided the troubles were following her.
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Post by Circe on Mar 9, 2019 20:06:58 GMT -6
Harkov could only groan in a response that was really wasn't intelligble either. She had hit Rachael's bike hard, and had not been expecting anything to break her fall except the concrete below. The woman drapped over the back of the bike seemed disoriented, but wasn't combative yet, or at least wasn't showing any signs of it.
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Post by demikara on Mar 9, 2019 20:11:35 GMT -6
Well, she was alive. That was a start. Rachel turned her bike off and slipped off her bike entirely, then looked the other over. "I have no clue how to check for spinal damage." She admitted and looked the other over. "But nothing looks like it's at a bad angle, so there's that." She set her helmet on the seat and sighed. This was a mess. At least the other was alive. It would have sucked to have caught someone only for them to promptly die. She liked this bike too much to deal with that.
There were sounds of traffic all around them, and the brunette ran a hand over spiked hair then looked her rescue over again, not sure. "Can you even hear me?" It didn't look like the other woman had hit her head, but hey, she had just fallen off a balcony so who even knew.
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Post by Circe on Mar 9, 2019 20:26:20 GMT -6
The woman just groaned and muttered something again as they struggled to get on their feet from the awkward position that Rachael had placed them on the bike.Having fallen from at least 50 feet up, there was a good chance that there was damage, and the other wasn't saying anything just yet.
"What the hell..." She finally said, managing to utter something intelligble for the first time since falling. A coms bracelet on one wrist started to buzz, sensors linked to something having detected the sudden change in altitude.
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Post by demikara on Mar 9, 2019 20:30:00 GMT -6
Rachel helped the other sit up, more amused than not. It wasn't like there had been much choice in how to have her land. "Congratulations on surviving your brush with death?" What exactly was she supposed to say here. "You are going to be one big bruise, minimum. I really should take you to a hospital." Maybe her ribs were broken or something? It's not like Rachel had any means of knowing if there was something wrong with the other.
Her neon pink racer's outfit fit in the with the neon glow of the streets all too well. At least the other was definitely alive, if a bit...groggy? Unintelligible? Rachel doubted she had the words for it.
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Post by Circe on Mar 9, 2019 21:27:38 GMT -6
Harkov just gave the woman a glare, clearly unhappy and disoriented. Her plans had yet again go awry and this time it wasn't her own self preserving instincts kicking the shit out her."If I'm being save by pink fucking ski bunnies from hell.. I must be dead." She finally managed to cough out. The fall and subsequent impact with the bike would have more than likely broken anyone's ribs, and for now Harkov wasn't an exception.
"Hospital? No thanks." She added as she lifted an arm clumsily to squint at the tiny blue screen of the bracelet. Muttering something under her breath, she let the arm fall back into her lap. "Look... lady I would have rather just hit the concrete. It saves everyone a lot of trouble."
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Post by demikara on Mar 10, 2019 7:11:19 GMT -6
"Oh ski bunny from hell. I like that one." She had been called entirely too many names to be hurt by that title. "Though the suit is meant to protect me when I take a fall like the one you just took. So which of us is the winner here?" She could get up from a fall like that no problem. She might be bruised, but that was about it, and even that might not happen. Rachel liked the protection her suit offered her. It had saved her from more than one bad turn.
She checked the other over as best she could without touching her. "You are going to need your ribs seen to, I think. Even if you don't go to the hospital. And your dead body would be someone's trouble. Someone'd have to clean up the mess, after all." Rachel imagined it'd be very much like a splat and that just sounded messy to clean up after.
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Post by Circe on Mar 10, 2019 12:30:17 GMT -6
Harkov just met the other woman's reply with a glare, normally she might have been able to think of a response, but this time she couldn't. Normally she might have been thankful for the other's quick thinking and rescue, but at that point she'd much rather have been dead. But currently she wasn't in any shape to protest the other's decisions, and she was too exhausted and wrung out after fighting with her own demons that night to even care. "In a place like this?" She asked tiredly giving the other a dubious look. Places like the resort planet of Hanshen 5, with it's warm beaches during the day and active night life, was only interested in separating individuals from their money. Harkov had been helping with that too, prior to what should have been a 10 floor fall from her hotel balcony.
But now, she was sitting on the back of some stranger's bike and arguing with them why she should or shouldn't go to the hospital.
Harkov just sighed, knowing that the other hand a point about getting to a hospital. Getting out of the gravity well of the planet would only prolong her discomfort and it wasn't like her ship even carried much beyond basic first aid supplies. It was admittedly poorly equipped to deal with many of the pirate's misadventures, but somehow she managed to get by with everything like it was. "Fine, we'll do it your way ski bunny." She relented.
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Post by demikara on Mar 10, 2019 13:10:11 GMT -6
"Oh good. How about you sit up on it correctly and I'll take you there." Rachel waited for the other to sit astride the bike than pulled a spare helmet out of the back of the bike. "I know it's a ridiculous safety feature, but I don't plan on going too high up, so it will help." Other bones may be broken, but at least her head would survive. Rachel held out the electric blue helmet expectantly. The other would put it on, or she would put it on for her.
Rachel didn't dare go above a relatively safe fall height, given the other was already injured and holding on was no doubt going to hurt enough. But the other was also not wearing the right outfit to survive a fall from any higher heights.
Then again, if she went up high enough, she could flick on the shielding. She may do that anyway. She wasn't a fan of her riders getting hurt. "And it's Rachel by the way."
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Post by Circe on Mar 10, 2019 13:40:13 GMT -6
Harkov took the helment silently and slid it down over her head the best she could and tried to ignore the sensation of damp, sweat soaked hair plastering itself back against her scalp. It was a terrible, disgusting feeling, that only served to remind her just what kind of night she was having. For now though, she just felt empty and void of much of anything else. She wasn't in the mood to argue with the woman with the bike, given what she had just done, but at the same time she would really rather be anywhere else.
Climbing on the back of Rachel's bike, it took everything Rei had not to make a face and grimace at the pain from everything; even breathing hurt, feeling like a thousand needles were embeded beneath her skin. The hospital was the last place she wanted to be, given that most of her experiences with them had never ended well for at least one party involved. Rudimentary first aid usually kept her going until the problem was too much or disappeared. "Harkov." Rei finally answered, returning Rachel's introduction with one of her own. It was brusque, no-nonsense, and spoken with an accent that clearly marked her as an off-worlder.
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Post by demikara on Mar 10, 2019 13:46:53 GMT -6
Rachel made certain the other was okay, got on the bike and took off, though slowly. Ugh, going this slow was always a pain. It felt like crawling after her race earlier, but she knew it wasn't. Still, she hovered around the speed limit set for the airways, not too pleased with it, but not wanting to risk the suicidal lady on the back of her bike getting hurt. It wasn't long until she was at the hospital, and she chose a berth for her bike, then landed carefully.
"I'll walk you inside." She offered, and the tone of her voice made it clear that refusal was not an option under the circumstances. She was going to make certain the other actually got some medical care and didn't duck out the second she was out of Rachel's view. Besides, she totally felt a bond with Harkov. She had saved the woman's life. That definitely meant that at least they had some kind of a connection.
The off worlder must have come here for vacation and gotten overwhelmed or something. Or maybe she came here to die. Sometimes people did that. Sometimes people came to find a reason to live. Rachel tried not to judge too hard. If she didn't have her bike and her racing, then she'd probably be in the same shape. Besides, racing was dangerous. No one could say she didn't stare death in the face every time she took off on the track.
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Post by Circe on Mar 10, 2019 14:01:35 GMT -6
'Seriously?' Rei thought with some amount of annoyance. But then again the other woman did seem to know what was likely going to happen if she was left to her own devices. Rei couldn't help it, she had several less than fond feelings towards hospitals. Treatment needed for sustained injuries or not, Rei wasn't looking forward to whatever invasion of privacy that this would entail.
But as far as she was concerned, Rachel was just someone she wouldn't see again, and that was fine with her. People came and went, some in more violent ways than others. It really depended on what the business of choice was at the time, but Rei could very easily say she'd managed to stick it out for quite some time. It was either her sturdy constitution, or sheer lack of giving a fuck and fatalistic attitude that saved her from worse fates.
Walking into the hospital, she looked at the waiting room with disgust before palming the sensor pad at the front desk. For most, there wouldn't be sufficient credit to recieve treatment or even open a line of credit to begin with; but the screen turned a sickening bright neon green with a cheerful chime. "Happy?" She asked Rachel.
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Post by demikara on Mar 10, 2019 14:12:39 GMT -6
"Thrilled. And now, because you look like the sort to do a runner, I'm sticking around until the doctor arrives." At that point it would be up to the hospital to actually keep her. She had no business in the other's health after all, even if she had saved her life. Somethings were private for a reason. Besides, she was at least partially responsible for the injuries. sure, she had saved Harkov from worse injuries, but the ribs were probably a bit broken.
Though it occurred to her they were going to get ridiculous looks. Usually, when a biker was seen here, it wasn't because they were in one piece. And she knew her suit marked her as a serious biker too, and not just someone who rode a hover bike. There was a difference, and a good part of the difference was shielding and safety gear. Rachel wore top notch clothing designed to save her life first and foremost.
It also made her look like sin personified, but that was more a cultural thing than anything else. In some cultures, she knew she'd not stand out in her suit. Here? Well, between the color and the fit, she wasn't going to blend in.
Then again, it was mostly the color. Rachel may like it, but more than one person had said it was a little much.
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Post by Circe on Mar 10, 2019 14:50:29 GMT -6
Rei just gave Rachel another unamused glare as they waited. They both stuck out like a pair of sore thumbs in the waiting area, Rachel with her pink suit and Rei with her tattoos, piercings and blue hair shaved up one side. They were both marked as outsiders, and the type of life that came with that status. "Oh goodie." Rei commented darkly as she sat slumped in the chair next to Rachel. Everything hurt and by now she really did wish she was dead, or at least unconcious from her injuries. She'd blacked before from injuries, but that didn't mean she'd always woken up in the hospital.
Falling off a blacony and slamming into a hoverbike was a new one though, Rei hadn't been thinking about anything, and instead had allowed herself to be hypnotized by the call of the void. She could still hear the wind roaring through her ears as she began her plumet from the tenth floor. "l'appel du vide, zov pustoty, Kūkyo no yobikake..." Rei muttered to herself.
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