Aleph opens his eyes to find that his left wrist is in abject pain, but he's paralyzed where he lays. Before the silent horror that typically accompanies a visit from a sleep paralysis demon can set in, he shudders and as soon as his control is restored he tears the device form his arm. Aleph dimly realizes that its an IV delivery device, but the whirring noise and the tiny moving blade isn't very convincing. Wiping dust from his eyes and sweeping his leg over the side of it, a chime sounds from a wall speaker. "Staff will be with you shortly. If you are in an emergency condition, please indicate such by lowering any existing mental defenses and strongly thinking of a need for help. Thank you for staying with Vauntergale Health and Services.” After that, a jingle plays before going silent.
“I need to stop making a habit of waking up in strange places.” Aleph thinks out loud. Standing up to stretch and look at his surroundings, the IV drip that was attached to him is a bright orange color, but attached to his IV stand is two strands; the second is for a bright orange IV. It’s dosed in small amounts. Observing how his pained left wrist is bleeding profusely, he diagnoses it as a decoagulant of some kind. It drips onto his scrubs.
Is this orange IV some kind of healing solution? I can’t think of any other reason why they’d need to continually open the wound or something. I don’t… feel different? No, I definitely feel strange.
Aleph tried to grasp why he felt so off, before realizing that was just the normal feeling he had of waking up and finding his own body to feel unfamiliar in a way he has yet to grasp, even after meeting his doppelganger inside his soul. No, what’s actually different is that all the aches and pains of travel and his brief battles in the flatlands are completely gone now; beyond that, he feels even better than before this whole ordeal started.
Permanence, huh?
As soon as the decoagulant had run out, his would closed fast enough that he could barely process the itching he felt. Looking at it now, dried and dead skin is plied to it, but after peeling that off it looks practically as unblemished as the rest of his body does.
Silently thanking himself- Alec specifically- in his mind, Aleph sees the curtained room he’s in has a side for entry and opens it. On the other side is a robot. Before he can even begin to be shocked, the robot begins speaking.
They’re a muscular chrome humanoid in everything except their pale manly face and the third arm on their back, currently carrying a digital pad similar to the one used by Ravanaugh. This one is constantly streaming text however, visible as streaks of white from the other side. The machine speaks with a mostly-androgynous but male-leaning voice, lacking emotion besides what their artificial tongue and lips provide- unless they’re perhaps real, and the rest was built around it? Either way, they speak and answers are finally provided to Aleph, at least partially.
“Scans indicate you to be in better health than when you entered, so you are now valid for discharge. VIP status enables you to choose whether you wish to store or expunge your medical data. Indicate answer as store or expunge.”
“Ah, expunge it I guess?” Aleph tried.
“Accepted. Discharge process will now begin. Belongings will be provided soon. Now, please hold still and relax Spatial defenses to indicate permission or do not to indicate you are medically unable to teleport. You will be taken to Patient Processing in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1…” He could hear the whir of a device placed in the ceiling begin to charge, and looked up to see a slight purple glow. “Thank you for choosing Vauntergale H&P, have a pleasant day.”
He gets the faintest feeling of resistance before he allows that to part before experiencing a strange feeling of nonexistence in his body. He doesn’t perceive ‘black’ or any color, vibration, smell, or sound really, but he can still think and ponder. This process doesn’t last long enough for him to think ill of it as ten seconds later he blinks and finds himself in a brightly-lit atrium filled almost entirely with people.
Noise fills his ears and that same sterile scent fills his nose as chaos permutes through the massive room. Despite the disorder- or rather because of it, there’s staff everywhere to keep the crowds managed long enough to get people where they need to be. One such person, some kind of blonde-haired androgynous elf in a black coat and detailed bandana, points at me and gestures at a golden-patterned gate far to the right of the atrium. Aleph blinks several more times, looks down at the new shiny tag around their neck, and simply nods before walking in that direction. The elf squints at him, but soon walks away satisfied with the response they received.
The line for the VIP section is the shortest of them all, and stands parallel to the second-shortest; a line for the larger patients. That’s mostly because they take up more line per-person though, Aleph thinks.
He’s behind an Orc in a similarly bare coat to him- something he realized on his way here, that they simply put your belongings on you in place of your scrubs- who is with their child. He can’t say as to the genders of either though, as both speak in deep harsh voices to one another. To his left is a giant of a golem- at least on first glance. They simply have incredibly hard and rocky skin, unlike the ones he saw in the bar previously. The man wears a vest rather than a coat, and nurses a perpetually hot, steaming drink the size of his head, tenderly stepping forward just as Aleph does. The carpet they walk on is runed, but even with the care they displayed Aleph can feel the minor quakes they leave with each step.
Soon, he steps forward and there’s nobody in front of him, and Aleph looks up at the arch that extends up above him before turning at an ahem from a receptionist, sitting at a curved booth shared with the Giant’s line with a window facing their side.
“Apologies, first time here. How does processing work?” Instead of replying to Aleph, the elf busies themselves a bit at a computer before turning back to him.
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They grab and stamp a small square piece of paper before it suddenly just appears in his hands, along with a stamp. It shimmers with more runes than anything he has seen thus far, and at his bewildered look, the receptionist explains. “It’s a soul-stamp. Just apply it to the card to confirm your visit and you can go into the waiting room.” He does so, and… has a weird stirring feeling in his head, like he’s concentrating on something, before an intricate blue and green symbol with latin laid all over it appears.
He hands it to them after another teleport is nonforthcoming, and they squint at it, raising an eyebrow. “Cool stamp, but you didn’t need all the extra effort. The translator doesn’t work on whatever language that is.” She says, before snickering a little, “Okay, just head forward lord wizard, there are people waiting on you.”
Aleph turned, and sure enough, the line had spontaneously grown in length. Wordlessly, he stepped forward past the arches before he could be chastised again. “I’m a wizard, now, I guess.” He mumbles to himself- perhaps a little more literally than his liking. Considering the conversation he’d need to have with Alec later, he looks around at another atrium. People mill about in rows of benches, some with digital pads of some kind in their hands. They aren’t limited to blue, and he sees all sorts of colors displayed on the small monitors. Some even have full color images.
He dismisses his perplexion at the technology of this world and instead steers those thoughts towards getting one from Ravanaugh.
Where is she anyway? I guess I should just go somewhere visible and hope for the best.
Stepping into as open a space as he could in these conditions, he idled there to wait. Surrounding him were sapients of all shapes, sizes, colors, and demeanors, hook hook furs chains and claws included. Some had ear piercings, some had a bow tied between horns, some had tattoos that matched the ones on their clothing. And here, he also got to witness the sheer variety of styles that the coat he wore could possess. Getting it fit was a short and easy process, but he could now attribute it to the Succubi being impatient more than anything. Aleph wondered if he could change his.
Pondering this, he finally saw someone in the crowd step towards him.
They were an Orc with braided grey hair. Their coat was worn over a formal suit, a long helix tie set through the collar. This immediately reminded him of how Ravanaugh wore hers, and so he himself set forth towards them. “Excuse me, I assume you work with Ravanaugh?” Aleph ventured.
The orc stopped in their tracks, but slowly nodded. “I was sent to pick you up.” He stated in a more normal voice than I expected. Their teeth set their face into a permanent underbite, but it wouldn’t be too much of an ask for them to simply learn to get around that feature, Aleph thought. Or, he used a translator of some kind- but then he rang someone on his earpiece and spoke a different language entirely.
Impressive, so he just knows how to speak english.
“We have a cab out front, I’ll escort you there.” He told him. “I’ll be scanning you once we’re outside to make sure you’re the real deal, though. Boss’ orders.” His coat gave off a slight yellow shimmer as he said that.
Aleph followed the orc as he led them through the crowd, parting waves of elves, beastmen, and the rare thumping giant. The few that warranted that treatment, though, they simply walked around rather than through. Several sets of doors were soon in sight, and opening them they were treated to the sun bearing down on them in the evening sky. He was slightly put on by how much gentler it’s glow was, despite taking up noticeably more of the already-choked sky’s traffic.
The light of a scanner shone over him as he was distracted, and he turned to face the orc, now looking confused at the scanner they held. Seeing him stare back, though, he put the thing away and turned around, turning to spot a cab at the bottom of the large set of stairs. “Hmm. Come on, it’s not that much further ahead.” beckoned the orc, his voice wavering slightly as he once again led the way.
Yet still, sparse groups of people or individuals waiting to pick up someone took up some amount of intervening space, or perhaps ones waiting for their own appointments. Aleph even saw a doctor or two speaking with colleagues and family on their way out. It all seemed very modern to him. Even more than that, with the incredibly quick treatment he got despite the damage. He wasn’t even questioned for it, which probably speaks to how often they must get patients for the use of Soul Catalysts. Aleph fails to remember feeling any pain during the whole process, but the signs were clear that he lost a lot of blood for some reason.
“That’s because I made sure you were unconscious for the process even before they put you through anesthesia.” Alec suddenly spoke into his mind.
Halting his advance, Aleph considered the new visitor in his mind strangely.
I do remember you saying something about that. But why are you clarifying that now?
“I just got an antenna set up with the last dregs of the catalyst.” He stated matter-of-factly. “Also, that orc is suspicious as hell.”
Why do you think that? He’s just a lackey of Ravanaughtilus.
Aleph felt the internal chide of himself, “You know what? Just ask him directly. I have a hunch about those coats I want to test.”
Fine, if it will get you to quiet down a bit. I don’t want to miss something they’re saying mid-conversation because you gave me another visit.
As they put the vehicle within sight, he decided to bite the bullet and just ask. “Hey, man, you do work for Ravanaugh, right?”
The orc turned back, and nodded. “Just get in, Ravanaugh is getting impatient.” Aleph felt the phantom sensation of extra attention turn to the coat they wore. It didn’t do anything.
“He didn’t say her full name. Not a good sign. Ask him again, and make sure he says it out loud.” Alec grumbled.
Seeing the discrepancy himself this time, Aleph yet again obliged. “Are you sure? Because it would be doing me a great favor if you just said it out loud.”
The orc turned towards him with a nonplussed expression, spoke a few quiet words to the driver, and finally raised his arm towards Aleph.
A weapon hidden under their sleeves shot towards him in the blink of an eye.