Match of the Millennium

Description: A second case of a mysterious coma in Metro City -- yet another young person entirely comatose but in otherwise perfect health -- brings out investigator Brandon Malone. While there isn't much in the way of medical evidence to be found, the mystic detective's less... traditional skills give him a potential lead on the problem. But will they also bring trouble to his door?

[BRANDON]
Emily Collins was a college student currently staying at Metro City Hospital. This past weekend, she was hanging out with friends at a night club near Metro City University when she got separated. Later that night, she was found comatose with her face locked in a look of terror. Paramedics were on the scene instantly where they performed tests and had checked for any possible assault. They found nothing indicating anything wrong.

Her parents suspected something was at play that the police wasn't equipped to handle and with the events that took place during the Majigen Series, they were inclinded to believe that something 'supernatural' was going on. They called upon a private investigator with experience with dealing with the unusual and he finds himself trailing the parents as they go to visit their daughter.Seeing that look of terror on her face was agonizing for the P.I. but no matter how many similar situations he's been through, it's never gotten easier for him to deal with beyond compartmentalizing and then dealing with it when he was alone.

[ELISE]
Balloons and flowers in the room, though the former have drifted off into a corner as the helium slowly seeps out of them. One would expect a bevy of diagonistic equipment to be attached to young Collins given her comatose state, but in fact, all that's provided is a simple EEG on a cart which, at the moment, isn't even hooked up. Lying on her back, the young woman would seem totally peaceful... if not for the terrified contortions of her face.

The doctor in charge of her care does not seem like he wants to be talking to a private investigator right now, though a little preliminary questioning reveals that, frankly, he doesn't want to talk to ANYBODY about this anymore. "As I've said to the police, there's no evidence of any physical trauma. Even her brain activity..." he adds, gesturing to the EEG with one hand, "...isn't particularly strange, though perhaps spiking a little higher than one might expect for a coma patient. She simply won't wake up. I wish I had something more substantial to provide to you to assist with your case, but from a medical standpoint, the only thing that's unusual is hot *not unusual* her situation is apart from the coma."

He pauses, and the doctor's eyes move past Brandon for a moment as a nurse enters the room. Astonishingly tall and pale, with dark hair past her shoulders, she seems cut more from the 'Nurse Ratchet' cloth of horror movie sanitariums than the comforting competence of modern hospital nursing staff. "Here you are, doctor," she rasps, voice astonishingly quiet, before handing him a chart on a clipboard.

For a moment, she locks gazes with Brandon, and in the nurse's dull grey eyes, something... unsettling burns, before she looks away.

"Ah, thank you. In any event, Mr. Malone, you may have better luck contacting the Japanese authorities. I'm told there's a similar case in Southtown; in fact, I'm due for a web conference with staff there to confer about the situation shortly. The nurse can show you out," With a nod, he steps past everyone present and heads outside... leaving Brandon alone in the room with the coma patient, and this most strange nurse, who regards the detective with an impassive face.

[BRANDON]
Is he surprised that it doesn't want to talk about it? Not in the least. If the shoe were on the other foot, he probably wouldn't want to be talking about this either. Between going over it with his colleagues, over it with the police, over it with her parents and other family members and now him, he wouldn't feel lie talking about this situation much either. He gives the doctor a look of sympathy until he realizes that he's not quite meeting the doctor's eyes anymore.

He turns to look at the nurse and their eyes meet for a moment. Their eyes lock for just an instant and an unpleasant chill runs down his spine a moment before the nurse breaks the gaze, much to his and probably the nurse's relief.

The arcane investigator closes his eyes as he extends his sense of energy outside of himself and towards Miss Collins. A grimace appears on his face as he uses his power directly for this and as a result, feeling a bit of discomfort as his own energy tears at him. In hindsight, he should've prepared a card for this. Thankfully, this wasn't something that wasn't in a super demanding situation for him like a fight or else it would be downright dangerous.

[ELISE]
At first, there is nothing; just a girl appearing to sleep, soundly (if with an unsettling dream occurring), in a hospital bed. Her life force is suppressed, in the way that one might expect any ill person's to be as they recover, of course. But the very strange thing about this situation is that despite the drain on her energy, the girl doesn't appear to be getting any better. That *is* unusual, if only because it seems contradictory to how one might expect this to work. After all, if one's life force is being diverted internally, to empower recovery, then... why hasn't she recovered?

But...

Noticing it is quite difficult, but a trained private detective used to examining fine detail might see it. A tether, with the fineness of a silk thread, extending from the girl's body. It loops, carelessly and amorphously, through the air, barely visible in a spiritual sense, but following it to its end...

The hatchet-faced nurse will almost certainly raise a quizzical eyebrow at Brandon if and when his gaze turns to her... for she is, in fact, the terminus of this most unusual phenomenon, though she herself doesn't appear to be anything more than physically... intimidating.

[BRANDON]
At first, the detective doesn't notice anything out of the ordinary. The energy of her is a bit subdued. That's to be expected, right? But there's no sense that her energy is moving inward to enhance recovery. Her condition is too stagnant. He must missing something

He grits his teeth as he attempts to gain finer detail as he adjusts his energy pulses. Now he was really wishing he prepped a card for this. He always had more difficulty doing finer energy manipulation when using his power directly rather than utilizing the cards. Still, he was fairly decent at it. It just hurt so much to do so.

He takes a deep breath to help himself deal with the pain and focuses enough to find the thread-like tether. He traces line as it loops about until he traces it to the nurse and once more his own eyes meet the eyes and quizzical eyebrow of the severe nurse.

The detective is quiet as he changes the nature of the invisible chi pulses. Instead of broader detection pulse, it's now a moderately precise prod at the thread right where it connects with the hatchet-faced nurse. He's looking dead at her to see her reaction.

[ELISE]
Brandon might as well be looking at a rock. It takes a second for the nurse to react; she's been standing here looking at a chart or some other medical professional busywork ever since the doctor left. When Brandon starts effectively staring at her, she eventually brings her head up from what she was reading and levels her gaze at him. If she knows what he's doing, or if she believes herself to be suspect, then she betrays none of it... which might be suspicious all on its own, from one point of view.

Pushing her glasses up on her face, the nurse clears her throat and meets the investigator's gaze with her own dull grey-eyed stare. "If you've quite finished," she rasps, voice still bizarrely hoarse and quiet, "then I'm going to have to ask you to leave. This is a hospital, not an art exhibit."

[BRANDON]
No reaction. That was unfortunate for him. Part of him was considering sheering the the tether apart but he didn't want to take that risk and possibly cause more harm than good and it wasn't a move he'd want to do without consulting Trish who he had first met under her pen name, 'L. Horne.' This was definitely more her wheelhouse than his.

He keeps his voice low, almost crossing into the range of a whisper as he asks, "I was just wondering... Why is there a connection between your energy and her's?"

He makes sure he takes a look at her name tag or badge as a way to identify her. And he moves towards the door.

He hated tipping his hand but it was the only way to put pressure on her to reveal something. She could either attack him and give him a reason to defend himself, and killing Emily wouldn't be an option because he will immediately know it was her. And if she did nothing, it would give him time to talk to Trish and find out what her advice would be for dealing with the thread.

[ELISE]
An eyebrow goes up at that question, for certain; it's a very pointed question, after all. But once it's asked, the nurse simply regards Brandon with a sort of dull, smug amusement, letting out a raspy chuckle. "Is that some sort of... New Age medicine question? Yoga? Homeopathy?" The woman rolls her eyes, and then gestures to the door with one arm, the other one (which holds the clipboard) slipping down to her side. In the process, she uncovers her chest, which her arms had been previously blocking, revealing a nametag reading 'C. BYRNE, RN'. Did she read 'your energy' as a reference to some weird non-scientific medical practice?

When she speaks next, however, her voice is *ice* cold, dripping with barely-concealed malice. "Regardless, I think it's time you left," she says to Brandon, and now there is finally the flicker of anger in those eyes, though her voice remains quiet. "Otherwise I'll have to involve security, and I'd hate for you to... get in trouble."

[BRANDON]
This was Metro City. After a large chunk of it got sucked down into Majigen, his personal specialty of the mystical could no longer discounted. It gave him a certain freedom to operate a little more in the open as well as the Metro City police actually calling him in on occasions where things tended to get weird. As far as he was concerned, those who dismissed him clearly did not understand were blissfully ignorant.

Nurse Byrne, however, in her next statement, mostly in how she delivers it, reveals herself as not so much blissfully ignorant as aware of what he meant and actively hostile. Finally a reaction to get an idea of this nurse's mindset.

He adjusts his tie as he calmly responds, "No need. I'll see myself out. I expect to stop by again soon."

Left unsaid was the fact he would come after her if Emily Collins' condition worsened. They each seemed to know that the other was more than they appeared. As he moves out the room, he's already going through his contacts for one, 'Lena Horne.' He was in dire need of advice for this one.

[ELISE]
Although her face shows smug satisfaction as Brandon decides to leave, Nurse Byrne watches the investigator go with a slightly less than detached air. If anything, as soon as he's not looking at her, the woman's expression hardens considerably. Once Brandon's clear, she steps forward smartly and closes the door to Emily's hospital room. Certainly, not an unusual act for a nurse who may, for example, be checking up on a patient after a visitor has gone.

But what is definitely NOT normal is the way she goes to the bed and leans very closely over the comatose young woman, brushing a lock of the girl's hair from her forehead. "Oh, my pretty one. You're far too delicious a morsel for me to be chased off by some busybody mortal who thinks he knows a thing or two. Yes..." Here, she stands up and looks at the door and, by implication, to the now-departed Brandon. "Perhaps we shall have to take... steps. He isn't a Pact-holder but he may still be a thorn in our side. I wonder, though," she says, turning to Emily, smiling creamily. "Will his fear be as delicious as *yours*?"

Log created on 18:43:19 06/01/2017 by Elise, and last modified on 21:54:19 06/02/2017.