>Engage Conversation...and be careful.
FERN:
I really am sorry for snooping through your things, doctor...but you know there's no way for me to trust you or anything else in this place with any certainty, and my son has to come first.
I really am sorry for snooping through your things, doctor...but you know there's no way for me to trust you or anything else in this place with any certainty, and my son has to come first.
DR. MAN:
And what, pray tell, have you learned?
And what, pray tell, have you learned?
FERN:
That you were telling me the truth when you told me you were from my zone, or someplace like it...but you didn't tell me everything.
You were like me. You watched somebody getting sicker and sicker than should even be possible, but only you could see it happening. Everybody else had some sort of "mental block" going on.
Then you wound up here, and the doctors have the same problem comprehending you along with everything else that's breaking down and screwing up around them.
That you were telling me the truth when you told me you were from my zone, or someplace like it...but you didn't tell me everything.
You were like me. You watched somebody getting sicker and sicker than should even be possible, but only you could see it happening. Everybody else had some sort of "mental block" going on.
Then you wound up here, and the doctors have the same problem comprehending you along with everything else that's breaking down and screwing up around them.
DR. MAN:
Mmmm. Yes. That is consistent with the content of the notes I would appear to have written.
Mmmm. Yes. That is consistent with the content of the notes I would appear to have written.
FERN:
What's that supposed to mean? Did you or didn't you? Why are you and I here? What do you actually know? Why didn't you tell me something so important?
Don't try my patience any more than this place already has.
What's that supposed to mean? Did you or didn't you? Why are you and I here? What do you actually know? Why didn't you tell me something so important?
Don't try my patience any more than this place already has.
DR. MAN:
Ha. Ha. I suppose your frustration is rather understandable. I suppose as well that it may no longer matter what you do or do not know. You are, I will profess, the first in your predicament to make it as far as you have without a total existential collapse.
The number of patients who have come to me as lost as yourself...well, I believe you have seen what remains of them, yes?
Ha. Ha. I suppose your frustration is rather understandable. I suppose as well that it may no longer matter what you do or do not know. You are, I will profess, the first in your predicament to make it as far as you have without a total existential collapse.
The number of patients who have come to me as lost as yourself...well, I believe you have seen what remains of them, yes?
FERN:
...So you knew what Jay was doing.
...So you knew what Jay was doing.
DR. MAN:
Ha. Not quite. Not Jay alone.
I have long lost count of the patients who have succumbed to his manner of hostility, before or after physical transmogrification, in a cycle of destabilization and re-manifestation until their manifestation capacity ran its course once and for all.
Ha. Not quite. Not Jay alone.
I have long lost count of the patients who have succumbed to his manner of hostility, before or after physical transmogrification, in a cycle of destabilization and re-manifestation until their manifestation capacity ran its course once and for all.
FERN:
...I understand just enough of what you're saying to know that you don't think I understand, and I really don't appreciate it. Get to the point.
...I understand just enough of what you're saying to know that you don't think I understand, and I really don't appreciate it. Get to the point.
DR. MAN:
Ha.
Of course.
Forgive me.
...There have never been accommodations for the true Grey, for "our kind," in this Hospital. They are simply not equipped to perceive or interact with this zone under any natural circumstances. Their intrusion would appear to result from an epidemic of abnormal branchination.
Your unusual new "pet" demonstrates an advanced stage of this intrusion. The biovessel, like a rotting fruit, drops from the branches of its concept-core and continues to decay into this virtually unrecognizable state. The Hospital, falsely recognizing the interloper as an expired patient, does what it can to reconstitute the individual.
The "burial" method discovered by Jay and his like-minded predecessors may be the only merciful interruption in this cycle. You are of exceptional stability among them. For that matter, Jay was of exceptional stability among them. You are quite wise to leave them be. These anomalous phenomena alone do not account for their barbarism.
Ha.
Of course.
Forgive me.
...There have never been accommodations for the true Grey, for "our kind," in this Hospital. They are simply not equipped to perceive or interact with this zone under any natural circumstances. Their intrusion would appear to result from an epidemic of abnormal branchination.
Your unusual new "pet" demonstrates an advanced stage of this intrusion. The biovessel, like a rotting fruit, drops from the branches of its concept-core and continues to decay into this virtually unrecognizable state. The Hospital, falsely recognizing the interloper as an expired patient, does what it can to reconstitute the individual.
The "burial" method discovered by Jay and his like-minded predecessors may be the only merciful interruption in this cycle. You are of exceptional stability among them. For that matter, Jay was of exceptional stability among them. You are quite wise to leave them be. These anomalous phenomena alone do not account for their barbarism.
FERN:
So humans don't belong here, but humans keep showing up.
...Then they go berserk, or something, and their bodies turn into those "slob monsters," and the Hospital makes them all over again.
...That much I could have guessed myself. So what about me? What about my son? How are we different? Are we different?
So humans don't belong here, but humans keep showing up.
...Then they go berserk, or something, and their bodies turn into those "slob monsters," and the Hospital makes them all over again.
...That much I could have guessed myself. So what about me? What about my son? How are we different? Are we different?
DR. MAN:
Ahhhh. Well.
I know little of your child's condition, except that its severity would indicate a degree of extreme relevance; that the key to understanding and resolving the anomaly may lie with him alone.
It is likely your relationship to the patient that accounts for your exceptional resistance to the malady, in that your vessels succumb to transformation only post-mortem.
This resistence is perhaps surpassed only by myself, but the ramifications of my unique stability are concerning in their own right.
Ahhhh. Well.
I know little of your child's condition, except that its severity would indicate a degree of extreme relevance; that the key to understanding and resolving the anomaly may lie with him alone.
It is likely your relationship to the patient that accounts for your exceptional resistance to the malady, in that your vessels succumb to transformation only post-mortem.
This resistence is perhaps surpassed only by myself, but the ramifications of my unique stability are concerning in their own right.
FERN:
...And how's that?
...And how's that?
DR. MAN:
Ha. Haha. As you so brazenly observed of your own volition, I possess a set of memories and artifacts suggesting an existence prior to my own manifestation in the Hospital.
The veracity of this is, however, most uncertain. It is equally possible I am but a reverberator, a parasite, a thing that assumed this identity. Alternatively, and perhaps most likely of all, I may merely represent the imperfect perceptual manifestation of the comfortably recognizable, "human" doctor these patients so desperately desire.
...Born from a wish.
Ha. Haha. As you so brazenly observed of your own volition, I possess a set of memories and artifacts suggesting an existence prior to my own manifestation in the Hospital.
The veracity of this is, however, most uncertain. It is equally possible I am but a reverberator, a parasite, a thing that assumed this identity. Alternatively, and perhaps most likely of all, I may merely represent the imperfect perceptual manifestation of the comfortably recognizable, "human" doctor these patients so desperately desire.
...Born from a wish.
FERN:
...You...don't think you're "real?"
...You...don't think you're "real?"
DR. MAN:
...That I think at all is evidence that I am something real. What it is, why it is, and what will become of it...those are unknowable factors.
The answers may reveal themselves only when the present situation arrives at some conclusion.
Or...perhaps not. It is another unknowable.
...That I think at all is evidence that I am something real. What it is, why it is, and what will become of it...those are unknowable factors.
The answers may reveal themselves only when the present situation arrives at some conclusion.
Or...perhaps not. It is another unknowable.
FERN:
...Why did you tell me you could help my son.
...Why did you tell me you could help my son.
DR. MAN:
I promised you nothing, Fern. I offered to examine the child, nothing more. Whether I am the spontaneous creation of a sick hospital or indeed this Doctor Ichabod Malachi Man from Falling Creek, Virginia...I know only that I am a medical professional, and I am the only medical professional in this facility both willing and able to confront your case...
Assuming your survival.
I promised you nothing, Fern. I offered to examine the child, nothing more. Whether I am the spontaneous creation of a sick hospital or indeed this Doctor Ichabod Malachi Man from Falling Creek, Virginia...I know only that I am a medical professional, and I am the only medical professional in this facility both willing and able to confront your case...
Assuming your survival.
FERN:
So that's it, then? You're willing to try and see if you can help...and that's the best I've got?
So that's it, then? You're willing to try and see if you can help...and that's the best I've got?
DR. MAN:
Perhaps.
Assuming your survival.
Perhaps.
Assuming your survival.
FERN:
Well, I have to say I'm getting fairly used to taking things into my own hands, lately.
...But what, if anything, do you know about this parliament thing?
Well, I have to say I'm getting fairly used to taking things into my own hands, lately.
...But what, if anything, do you know about this parliament thing?
DR. MAN:
Excuse me?
Excuse me?
FERN:
The Parliament. Something called The Parliament seems to be involved with whatever's going on.
The Parliament. Something called The Parliament seems to be involved with whatever's going on.
DR. MAN:
I am...
...Experiencing...difficulties...registering whatever it is you are communicating.
I am...
...Experiencing...difficulties...registering whatever it is you are communicating.
FERN:
...Mhmmm.
That seems to be the case for anyone else considered "staff" around here. They either don't hear anything pertaining to "it," or they hear something else. They're useless, and I'm sorry, but for all I know you might be useless too.
...Mhmmm.
That seems to be the case for anyone else considered "staff" around here. They either don't hear anything pertaining to "it," or they hear something else. They're useless, and I'm sorry, but for all I know you might be useless too.
DR. MAN:
If that is the case, I do apologize. You know that I am familiar with a similar phenomenon.
Perhaps you will uncover some alternative mechanism by which this information of yours can be relayed to Hospital staff.
...Assuming, of course, your survival.
If that is the case, I do apologize. You know that I am familiar with a similar phenomenon.
Perhaps you will uncover some alternative mechanism by which this information of yours can be relayed to Hospital staff.
...Assuming, of course, your survival.
FERN:
...Right.
Sssssooooooo.....
....Can you step aside?
...Right.
Sssssooooooo.....
....Can you step aside?
DR. MAN:
Heh. Heh. As a matter of fact, Fern...
...No.
Heh. Heh. As a matter of fact, Fern...
...No.
FERN:
"No?"
"No?"
DR. MAN:
I am genuinely sorry, Fern. Perhaps I have not been clear. My memories, such as they may be, indicate a long term difficulty with...social graces.
We appear to understand the situation on a level distinct from the higher order staff, yet neither one of us can know with certainty the full extent of what is happening here or the best course of action. Perhaps you alone have the capacity to heal your own son, or perhaps your interference with the Hospital's efforts, even in its present state, will only seal our ultimate doom.
It is a coin flip. I am left to choose arbitrarily between two sides in this equation.
Faced with a dilemma of this fashion...I am afraid that my loyalty must default to my place of work.
If I allow you to continue entirely uncontested...then I will be forced to concede that I am indeed no true doctor.
I am genuinely sorry, Fern. Perhaps I have not been clear. My memories, such as they may be, indicate a long term difficulty with...social graces.
We appear to understand the situation on a level distinct from the higher order staff, yet neither one of us can know with certainty the full extent of what is happening here or the best course of action. Perhaps you alone have the capacity to heal your own son, or perhaps your interference with the Hospital's efforts, even in its present state, will only seal our ultimate doom.
It is a coin flip. I am left to choose arbitrarily between two sides in this equation.
Faced with a dilemma of this fashion...I am afraid that my loyalty must default to my place of work.
If I allow you to continue entirely uncontested...then I will be forced to concede that I am indeed no true doctor.
FERN:
I don't want to fight you. I'm tired of fighting.
I don't want to fight you. I'm tired of fighting.
DR. MAN:
...Then you will be most displeased by what awaits beyond, and if you lack the fortitude to subdue me as an obstacle, I am afraid your cause is already lost.
...Then you will be most displeased by what awaits beyond, and if you lack the fortitude to subdue me as an obstacle, I am afraid your cause is already lost.
