World Tree MUSH

     After the events of Eggman's required defense of his acquired and self-built mining facility on a remote no-name low-tech world, a Venomian dropship carrying wounded winds its way through a few Vines, making various World hops, before arriving somewhere with a known competence in medical practice. The inside of the ship is lined with seats for troops to strap in, but the floor space is currently given to various kinds of people all lain out with those few medically trained looking over them. While the monkeys and lizards would prefer to head back to their own World for care, it's deemed necessary to find somewhere a bit 'closer' for immediate triage before further transport. 

     The hospital chosen has an unidentified aircraft land on their roof landing pad and the humans working there are ill-prepared for the armed animal-people step out when the bay door opens. They get immediately ordered to gather personnel to help unload the wounded so that they can be treated. Carefully, yet quickly, each wounded individual (no matter how odd the situation may be) is taken to the lift and down into the medical facility. The doctors and nurses are beside themselves at the out-of-their-box situation, but their training and desire to help heal seems to be more important, even if there are multiple complaints about it being a hospital and not a veterinarian's clinic. Each hospital room holds two people and the monkey and dog medics help direct and triage patients as necessary. 

     "By order of Lord Wolf O'Donnell, this medical treatment building is now under lockdown. All security personnel are required to submit their firearms at the Intensive Care Unit desk and will be made to stay in the ICU waiting room," orders a lizard soldier over the intercom. "All medical personnel will continue to treat patients and wounded as normal with regard to the new patients being brought in. Nobody is allowed to leave. Any deviation from these orders or outside communication will be met with deadly force. Think of your patients, humans. You want to heal people, not have more people get hurt. Keep it that way."

    Navi may have protested that she doesn't need treatment, but paramedics tends not to be easily discouraged. Even before the pirate lord's declaration. And moving while injured being bad enough on its own, it sounded like trying to ditch right now... might just be more trouble than it's worth. A place to rest, at least, Navi is fine with. Fine with being ignored (relatively) while the more critical cases are treated first.
    By the time they do get around to her, sooner or later, there's a number of glyphs on the wall beside Navi's bed. They glow a faint green and shimmer as though seen underwater - almost like the place is starting to become a shrine. But whoever else might be in the same room, they may notice their physical wounds start to recovery at a preternatural rate. Nothing /that/ quick, but moderate wounds might only take a day or two now. Light wounds, overnight.
    Navi herself... she's content to rest, eyes closed but not sleeping for now. Specs left to the bedside table, hers weapons leaning against the same. Letting whatever she's done to the place, take its course. But should anyone try to interrupt, that might change.

     Things are very hectic to begin with overall, but once the doctors and nurses are briefed on a few key details of these new patients things seem to smooth over. One security guard tries to play hero in the roundup that takes place, but a single energy blaster shot to the leg is enough to quell that rebellion before it begins. These 'aliens' clearly weren't playing around. As such, with a similar wound, the human guard winds up in the same room as Navi within the first hour upon arrival. 

     At first, the dog medic drops by on his rounds to make sure everyone is stable, but he finds himself -- along with advice and observation from the nurses and their equipment -- at a bit of a loss as how to proceed further with any kind of treatment. Therein, the dog makes sure to check bandaging is clean, but otherwise the more critical patients (that they know how to fully treat) get priority. 

     It may be hard to tell how much time actually passes. Things are somewhat quiet, for the benefit of those being looked after, despite whispers between some of the head doctors and the strangers on matters of the hospital not having enough supplies to fully care for them all in an extended sense without being able to get outside deliveries to help...which would likely reveal the nature of the entire hospital being taken hostage during the scenario. 

     The guard in the room isn't in as bad of shape, but he is on painkillers that leaves him somewhat sleepy. Normally a partition separates the patients, but in that room, at present, it isn't drawn and the stressed security man amidst his drug-addled state stares at the goings-on in the room for a long while before falling asleep. 

     At some point, however, there is a clearing of the throat coming from the doorway. The door is open and a lupine figure still in his full tail-stomping attire and worn HMD stands there, directly in the open passage, leaning in against the frame while staring over at the scene before him. The guard is either still asleep or has since awoken and fallen asleep again.

    Navi's eyes open and drift over to the lupine figure, head turning just a little, but there's no sign of recognition. She closes her eyes again, hands resting over her stomach. "Tell your boss the healers are complaining about low supplies, would you?" Her voice isn't loud, but it carries clearly to the wolf.

     "Yeah," comes the reply of a not-as-quiet somewhat gravelly-sounding voice. "I'll get right on that." For the moment, that seems to be all that is said as the wolven individual taps the back of his head against the door frame with his arms crossed over his chest. He slightly turns his head to look outside of the room and over toward the desk. He gets a few silent looks in return. Glancing back into the room, the wolf uncrosses his arms and reaches into a pocket to pull out a case -- from within the container he pulls out a cigarette and puts it to his mouth and pulls out a lighter that is designed to function just as well in zero- and micro-gravity. 

     Lighting up and taking a long slow drag, the wolf ponders just what the heck he's going to do with this injured stranger he had to haul out. Normally he wouldn't be concerned, but one of his men were indirectly responsible for the wound. At least it was a clean wound. Visibly half-closing his good eye and letting his muzzle lower as he thinks, the clack of shoes over cold hard flooring draws closer and an older woman, one of the doctors, yanks the cigarette from the mercenary's hand and gestures with it. "You cannot smoke in here. This is a hospital. Go up to the roof if you absolutely must." 

     This draws an immediate look of partial disbelief from the wolf as if to say 'are you flippin' crazy?'. The two have a brief staredown before the doctor throws the cigarette to the floor and stomps it out. The stare immediately continues. Perhaps seeming ready to strike the woman, the merc raises a hand. But, however, he points down the hall. "Don't you have something better to do? Get out of here." The lupine's ragged ears tip back in this statement.

    Easy cooperation? That surprises Navi so much she looks right over again, as though not quite believing it. She gives a slow nod of thanks and almost turns away once more. Until Wolf lights up - Navi gives him a look of disgust and - for the brief time before it's snuffed out - a careful observer might notice the air currents shift subtly, taking the smoke away from the room.
    But it's the confrontation that /really/ gets her attention. Navi pushes herself up on her elbows, tensing. Reaches for her specs, flicking them open and sliding them on. When it looks like Wolf might strike the doctor, her hand strays towards her weapons - but when he only points, she too stops and relaxes a little.
    "The whole 'tough guy' thing doesn't really matter to those types," she comments, for just an instance a smirk tugging at the corner of her mouth. "You hit them, they just like, y'know, see it as a risk of the job, or something." A lopsided shrug. "They're not fighters anyways." Perhaps implying something about honor?

     "Glad to see your mouth still works," replies Wolf with the lightest kick of the toe of his right boot to the opposite side of the door frame. On the bright side, however, they are Lylatian cigarettes, and good quality ones at that -- they don't sauce their smokes with heavily slathered carcinogens. It's a clean burn, for something burning. 

     The lupine exhales a little leftover smoke from within his lungs before turning to fully step into the room. "Instead of being so damn observant, a 'thank you' might be nice." Slow footfalls of heavy boots against the clean floor lead the rugged wolf over to a chair. He pulls it over, turns it around, and sits down on it backwards facing the direct subject of his attention. "Or maybe tell me what I'm going to do with you, because I can't stay here more than two days without a military force showing up on the doorstep. I want to get my boys home."

    Navi stiffens a little as she seems to finally come to some realization. And she looks Wolf up and down carefully. Her mouth works a little before she does say "Thank you." Not the most heartfealt, but the awkwardness looks like it might be from lack of use of the words rather than insincerity.
    She hesitates, looking down at the bed and herself for a moment. "Guess they wouldn't be thrilled to see me either." Another pause, this time turning her head back and upwards towards the glyphs, and then back to Wolf. Motioning back to the glyphs with her left thumb, "So um, let's go. Give me a lift and I'll forge ones of those for you. Help uhm, your boys get back on their feet. Until you're... home."
    That last word... For the briefest of times, there's a flash of melancholy wistful that crosses her face. So brief one might miss it entirely. But then Navi's back to watching Wolf carefully and she waits for an answer.

     Folding his arms over the back of the chair, the leather-clad space pirate notably inhales for a sigh, but makes no noise in doing so. "That doesn't answer my question. Sure, I can bring you with me, but what about after that? I can get one of my smugglers to get you to another dimension through one of those wormholes," he says, meaning the different Worlds so connected by the Vines. "But how far are they going? I can get you back to that backwater planet the Doctor has his mine set up on if you can get /home/ from there. Give me something to work with." 

     As an individual that prefers to plan at every possible moment, this is not such a strange thing. He can play things by ear just fine, but he likes to lay things out as much as possible beforehand if he can. He stares directly at Navi, even when there is gesture, he doesn't look away. There's not even a flit of the eye.

    Navi lets out a small breath of her own. From the way she seems to think about her answer carefully, she might be interpreting it as negotiations more than anything else. Finally, she says, "Meridian City." And from the way she continues to watch Wolf carefully, testing to see his reaction.

     There's a moment longer before Wolf lifts both of his hands from their draped position on that chair-back in a shoulderless shrug. "Okay," he says at length before his weight shifts into a slight lean away from the backing as if he's about to stand. "I'll go see if they sell bus tickets to a place called Meridian City, then -- unless you give me something to work with." The last half of his statement almost sounds strained, like he's irritated, but, like with the doctor that snatched away his cigarette, is holding back for the sake of getting things moving along. 

     "Now. Let's try this again. Can you provide instructions on navigating to this city of yours and are you willing to help fund the cost of transport? If you ride with us back to Lylat, I'm not going to make you pay for anything beyond this point." He pulls a hand over and presses it to his chest. "Out of the goodness in my heart and all that."

    One thing that Navi /doesn't/ seem to be good at picking up on is deadpanning. Like most of her emotions it's subdued, yet - when Wolf says Okay - one might swear hopefulness fires up in her eyes. For just that moment, her expression, her whole body seems to lift.
    Until Wolf continues on, then she gets it. 'Crushed' wouldn't be the right word, yet just as quickly, she's back to where she was before. It seems to be a much longer moment before she finds her voice again.
    "Look. If I knew where the hell Meridian or anywhere else was, I wouldn't have needed the merc job from the doctor." She bites her lower lip for a moment. "I don't want to worry about this places soldiers any more than you. We can help each other, so let's start with that, OK? And when we get to Ly-whatever, if we can't help each other anymore then that's that. I'll figure things out on my own. OK?"

     O'Donnell lets his gaze drift to the side with a turn of his head. The last thing he needs is to bring home a lost puppy. The hand on his chest moves up to his face and he shifts his weight upon the rather uncomfortable seat with a squeak of leather. "Right. I get it. Fine. Tell you what," he says without much emotion and in nearly full monotone. "If that's how you want to play it, fine. You aren't my responsibility." 

     Wolf gestures at the room in general. "This is me being nice." He puts one arm back over the back of the chair and leans forward; his free hand points at the bed-bound half-elemental. "If you're big enough to get yourself into a situation like that in the first place, I'm sure you can figure something out. I have an infirmary at home I can put you in for a while and can smuggle you onto Planet Corneria. It's easy enough to claim you're displaced and you can bum some help off the Cornerian government in the matter."

    Navi doesn't look away. She looks at Wolf for a long time. That same sort of look one might give a page of a book if it were written in ancient Egyptian. As though staring long enough might make it all make sense. Finally she shakes her head, pushing her fingers under her specs to rub her eyes. "And I thought humans were bad," she murmurs under her breath.
    Straightening out her glasses again, she takes a careful breath before speaking again. "Look, I don't get you, but I'm willing to pull my weight." She spares a quick, self conscious look down at herself. "Even like this I can do some things and I won't be like this long. What is it you want?"

     "What /I/ want," immediately replies the grizzled figure sitting there, "is to get my family home safe." He upturns a palm in gesture, "And if I have to take a hitchhiker with me, that's fine. If I need to get somebody to take you somewhere else from here, I can do that, but I need to make that call now." Those last six words are spoken slower as if to emphasize the importance of time. A handful of troops that are trained and well-armed can easily take over a structure and hijack its employees for personal use for a while, but people always end up asking questions and information always finds a way to leak. He can't hold off an armed and armored group when most of his guys are injured. 

     "Now, I don't know what you are," Wolf says, then adds, "Even looking at you here now," as if he can actively see more than what is most visibly apparent. "So, if you are stable enough to be moved, I'll get my boys to start moving the ones I can move up to the ship. This is a two-parter trip. I'll have to bring another ship back to get the ones remaining, but /there's a chance/ that the hospital will be recovered with less presence here. I may lose them to whatever justice system these humans have unless I really want to cause death and destruction over getting those few back." 

     "Which flight are you taking?"

    Navi stays quiet, Wolf's words seeming to finally get through to her. She lets herself collapse backwards. Then she answers, "Second, if you have room." A pause. "You're short on transport space... that's all you had to say, I get it." She carefully pulls her specs off once more, setting them aside.

     The wolf reaches up to tap the HMD's strap. "This is Wolf. Start loading up those that are stable and let me know when you're ready to depart. Our guest has volunteered to stay behind until the return trip." He seems to be listening to a reply as he pushes up onto his feet and wanders over to brush aside the blinds and peer out of the window at the world below and beyond. "With the day cycle here, I'd say about six hours until it's light outside and we lose our advantage pulling out. As soon as you hit Lylat, scramble another drop ship immediately. No doubt we'll have worn out our welcome by then." 

     Allowing the blinds to fall back into place, the lupine crosses one arm along his lower belly and gestures freely with the other. "Did you sort out a way to get paid for that job before you took it? If not, you had probably better look into collecting your fee from the Doctor for a successful mission, when you can."

    Navi remains still lying where she is, passively listening to the radio chatter but offering no comment. Then her eyes turn to Wolf once more. "Um... I wanted to stop by after." A wan grin tugs at the corner her mouth for just a second. "I didn't think they could hit me like that... I'll get it after all this."

     Lifting a leg to place a large boot atop the chair, Wolf leans forward and rests an elbow on that knee. "They didn't hit you. One of my men hit you. From what I was told, it punched clean through one and into you." He shakes his head. "He didn't see you from that far away. I couldn't, either." So, in some regard, Wolf does take responsibility, but would be quick to point out that he has no obligation to do so when confronted with it.

    Navi simply stares, lifting her head just a little before allowing it to fall again. This time closing her eyes, one of her hands lifting to brush against her hair. "So that's why you keep seeing me as baggage." A quiet murmur accompanied by a sigh. "Yeah well, same as before... I can help a little until I'm back on my feet, then you never have to see me again. Fair enough to drop the whole... 'what am I going to do with you' thing?"
    She still doesn't open her eyes, apparently more focused on just rest and recovery than the conversation now.

     "Don't presume to analyze the heart of my good graces, kiddo. That's impolite." With that, Wolf removes his foot from the chair and reaches over to pick up the piece of furniture and crudely place it where it sat before his arrival. "I'm heading up to go smoke. If you need anything, just use that nurse buzzer to get the attention of Steven. He's the one that has been looking over you from the start." He takes a few steps away, reaching the door, before pausing to say over his shoulder, "Rest up. It'll be a few hours before the next ship gets here." Only pausing a moment in case of a reply, Wolf leaves the room completely to walk off.

    Navi simply gives Wolf a thumbs up on his way out ~