The Results Are In

[Hazel Zanteres]

Location: Mid Rim - Monastery | Sanctuary - Hazel Zanteres' Quarters​

​

Once Sanctuary's construction had been completed, the living quarters had quickly been designated to the various people of the Sacred Lotus. Hazel had been one such person, although when [member="Bethany Kismet"] had informed her, she had initially refused, knowing well enough that she probably have no need for it.

Because if there was one thing that was ever consistant about Hazel Zanteres, was that no matter where she was; what she was doing, she'd always find a way of just falling asleep right in the midst of wherever she was working.

Head on her desk. Slumped in a chair, datapad in hand. Face still pressed into a microscrope.

Some were certainly less graceful than others.

Ultimately though she was glad she hadn't outright refused the space, as it had become incredibly useful once [member="Cinder Rose"] had entered under her care. After their first meeting, and the subsequent examination the two had gone about burying the dragoness' dead. It had been a very sombre affair, but Hazel was certainly not inexperienced with such things. She had her fair share of similiar situations, or just with the more soon-to-be dead patients.

After that, Hazel had taken Cinder up to her quarters, shown her around and essentially told it was hers to live in for the time being. As it was likely to get more use from her than its intended occupant. From there it had been a few days since, as Hazel had been busy with setting up her office/lab, and getting about putting Cinder's blood work through some tests. Which brought her to her current situation.

Hazel sighed, as she finally reached her quarters. Her eyes fell to the datapad she had clutched in her hands, the information about Cinder still sitting on its screen. With a quick swipe she temporarily shut the device off and pocketed it, then proceeded through the door and into her quarters.

It had a very pleasant asethetic to it, very in-line with the general feel of Monastery. The place had a very open apartment feel, with the only doors being to the exit, balcony and the bathroom. The rest simply had stone archways seperating the different rooms.

As she stepped in, Hazel took a quick look around and couldn't find Cinder in her immediate sight.

"Cinder, you here?" She called out, figuring if she was present the dragoness was likely sleeping. A state in which Hazel wasn't exact keen on disrupting her while in a close proximity.

Instead she decided to wait, slipping off her lab coat and placed it down over the couch. Then proceeded to pull on the sleeves of her black sweater; that had been previously rolled up.

 

[Voices of The Deep]

When she finally woke, she didn't know how much time had passed by her.

The debilitating illness snuck up on her with little warning. What started as lethargy and weakness was blamed on being a mother to a new child, an undergoing which drained her physically, emotionally, and mentally (though perhaps in the best way possible). But lethargy soon turned into barely having the energy to even rise, which then took a turn into nearly debilitating pain. She spent her time tucked deep in her room, not wanting to expose others, especially her host, to whatever illness plagued her. But oh, how she hated it. The red haired maiden yearned to be outside of her confines, running around with her children and breathing the fresh air again. Instead, she forced herself to stay cooped up in darkness with the scent of her agony lingering in the air.

It smelled like death.

Soon, however, she lost all privilege of utilizing her senses. She faded in and out of consciousness, barely aware of her surroundings beyond fuzzy images and garbled, delirious words that passed from her lips here and there. Had she been more aware of her state, she might have been afraid of what was going on with her, how far down the rabbit hole she tumbled. But lost in nightmares from her fevers and sweet dreams from a hallucinating mind, she could not see the larger picture at hand.

When she finally woke, it started coming back.

Her muscles ached, limbs stiff with a lack of use. Glazed eyes cracked open, trying to focus on the dark shapes in the room. Her golden gaze flicked back and forth as the sound of her name echoed in the air...

The woman struggled to look around the room...searching for the droid which commonly accompanied her only to see it had floated off somewhere.

Cinder growled, pushing herself up to her weak limbs and crawling out of bed only to stumble and fall off the side from lack of balance. Crashing onto the floor with a loud 'THUD' as her tail slammed into a lamp and knocked it off of the nightstand...the sound of shattering glace following closely after the fall.

The red haired maiden would attempt to regain a sense of balance as her hand reached up to grab the end of the bed and pull herself up shakily. The pain that raged within her body making the woman sob quietly as she glanced over at the egg which was swaddled in a heated blanket at the head of the bed...

Instinct seemed to kick in...Cinder began to reach across the bed longingly at her unborn child...perhaps the one thing that brought her a semblance of joy could help this pain harassing her body.

If she could just reach...a little further.


[member="Hazel Zanteres"]

 

[Hazel Zanteres]

After a minute of being back in her quarters, Hazel felt like something was right - that little nudge at the back of her mind. After sorting out her sleeves, she had deposited her satchel onto the couch and walked into the kitchen area to get herself a drink. Hazel had been in the midst of grabbing a glass when the sound of something hitting the floor hard reached her ears. Even before the lamp had been knocked, Hazel had forgotten the glass and was darting towards the bedroom.

"Cinder!" She skidded through the stone archway and quickly sidestepped as dragoness' tail lashed out across the bedside table, sending the lamp flying into the wall close by her. Hazel wasn't deterred and slipped into Doctor Mode - quickly scouring her mind for what she could do. At the same time she was conflicted, panic and anger at herself. She knew what was afflicting Cinder right now, and she had left her alone with it. After a few moments Hazel dissappeared from the bedroom only to grab her satchel and return promptly after.

Flipping it open, Hazel began rummaging through it looking for some specific. There was no way she was going to be able to get Cinder to take the medication in her current state, so there was only one other option - injection. The moment she had discovered what was plaguing Cinder, she had spent time gathering medical supplies that she'd need, at least what Sanctuary had at least, long term Cinder was going to need something stronger to help. Eventually, Hazel found the syringe and she approached Cinder who was currently stretched across the bed, trying to reach her unborn child.

As she got closer, Hazel could just about hear the sobs coming from the woman. And it pushed Hazel to act without thought, not even caring about the potentially lethal tail was was flicking around. She simply dodged and weaved about it, getting up behind Cinder and as soon as she could she jabbed the needle into her skin and injected the pain relief. It would help ease that side of things at the very least, but the stiffness and weakness in her limbs would linger on a bit longer. Hazel heard the the air shift and she quickly moved, moments before Cinder's tail came lashing where she had been standing.

Hazel quickly dashed around the bed to the other side, she said nothing and just knelt down to get into Cinder's eyesight. Hopefully seeing a friendly face would give her some ease of mind. She then moved over to the top of the bed, she gave an assured nod to Cinder as she very gently picked up the egg - blanket included, and handed it to her. The mediciation would do the majority of the work, but she knew having her unborn child in her arms would do the dragoness a world of good. That and while she knew Cinder was likely going to be capable of reaching it as the pain ebbed away, Hazel would rather her not try to move too much.

As the dragoness took her egg into her arms, Hazel remained close by, ready and waiting to assist if needed. There was going to be quite a bit to talk about once both parties were capable of it.

[member="Cinder Rose"]

 

[Voices of The Deep]

The Dragoness lost in the haze of memories that threatened to consume her. The memories...endlessly spinning in the back of her mind as she sobbed quietly. Her regrets...it seemed they had no true intention of forgiving her. And as those bright golden eyes flicked and wandered over the room as the blonde doctor stormed into the room and shouted at her.

Cinder squinted, pulling herself up a bit as her tail continued to whip back and forth as she attempted to pull herself up onto the bed. And when the doctor ran over to her and jammed something sharp into her back the woman sucked in a breath as her body combusted into a short pulse of fire for a brief moment...her anger and fury smoldered like tired embers lazily falling from a fire, born from darkness and eventually to die in darkness.

But the pain...the agony that seemed to wrack her body seemed to nullify, leaving the woman with a sense of heaviness as she struggled to even keep herself stable on her feet as she crawled back onto the bed and huffed. Her sharp nails digging into the fabric of the blanket beneath her as a deep growl erupted in her chest...

And then...the Doctor crouched down on the other side of the bed just in front of the red haired maiden...her expression friendly and soft as she slowly reached for Cinders egg, making her body tense as she tried to lunge towards her but her limbs would simply not respond...however, Cinder merely paused as Hazel took her egg and simply handed it towards the woman. Making Cinders golden eyes slowly begin to dim and flicker as she looked the Doctor over for a moment...moving her heavy arms upward to take the egg into her hands as she laid herself down on the bed and sighed deeply...clutching her child close to her chest as she breathed heavily in exhaustion.

[member="Hazel Zanteres"]

 

[Hazel Zanteres]

Hazel had been incredibly wary the moment she had gone to pick up Cinder's egg. It had been a gamble, knowing that the dragoness wasn't one to let anyone but herself even close to it if she could help it. She was fiercely protective of it, and Hazel couldn't blame her for being so. Even though she certainly hadn't gotten into the woman's ire, Hazel didn't blame her for wanting to lunge at her with intend to harm; to protect her child. And for a brief moment the doctor was concerned Cinder was going to be able to, despite the fact her limbs were likely dead to her right now. In the end it was needless, as the effect was seemingly too much for Cinder and she resigned to staying where she was.

She watched as Cinder's eyes dimmed back to their normal golden colour, and looked over her with a mix of emotions that Hazel wasn't quite able to make entire sense of. Either way, she gave the dragoness a warm smile and made some distance between them - allowing her to get settled into the bed with her child now clutched in her protective arms. Hazel took that time to silently slip off the bed and collect her satchel, plopping it carefully on the bed away from Cinder in order to not disturb her. Hazel wasn't going to be going anywhere for the next hour or so, as she wanted to keep an eye on Cinder as the woman rested. As such, she pulled out her datapad and scanner and silently synced them up so she could give the woman a quick scan to make sure everything was settling back to normal. The pain would go and Cinder would regain control of her limbs during her sleep.

The first hour slipped by rather quickly, with Hazel simply sitting there on the bed, using the time she wasn't watching over Cinder to check on things via her datapad. Eventually though Hazel went to leave to get a drink, but as she tried to slip off the bed she suddenly felt a great deal of resistance stopping her. Gazing down, Hazel almost let out a surprised scream but managed to stop herself and instead let out a small squeak. Somehow, Cinder's tail had found its way around her waist, the very same; very sharp pointed tail. She gulped slightly as she carefully tried to move against it, but the hold wasn't budging and Hazel could almost swear it was trying to tug her back as well. She gazed over to Cinder to see the woman was still fast asleep, and Hazel wasn't sure if this was intentional or not.

Eithere way she sighed and slowly returned to her seated position on the bed. If she wasn't going to get anywhere else right now, she may as well get some sleep herself. Though hopefully the blasted translation droid would show itself once they were awake.

[member="Cinder Rose"]

 

[Voices of The Deep]

This...world she had been introduced to so many months ago...these people...these 'creatures'...they were odd to the Dragoness...odd in the sense that they were so diverse...to...unpredictable. Cinder had come from a place of simplicity...where all were united under a single species...and thus a single lifestyle. Everyone was the same where she was from...but here? Here there seemed to be no limit to the kinds of people she would encounter...either unprecedented kindness such as the soul who lay beside her...or unflinchingly cruel like the beast who had taken her children away from here...

But at the same time she remembered her own upbringing...when she was only a couple of years old and a handful of months...just a toddler.

An angry, aggressive, destructive toddler. The kind you would take to a specialist with great concern of their behavior. 'Doctor! She painted dead people all over her wall!' one day, 'Doctor, her dolls have been stabbed and beheaded, and when we asked her why, she claimed they laughed at her!' But luckily for Cinder...her parents were not worried about the mental instability of their children. They celebrated it. That is simply how their young are raised...the more violent, cruel, and aggressive the child...the greater of a warrior they will grow to be.

If she were a human, she would toddle around with a knife tucked behind the little ribbon on her dress, hands clasped behind her back as she skipped and hummed and sang sweet songs of Gods and Death. They would even rhyme sometimes.

She, however, was not a human, and a predator from birth. Bringer of fire and death...and yet here she was...subdued by a blonde woman with a clipboard.

How humiliating...had the woman been anyone else, the red haired maiden would have skinned her alive...

If...Hazel was anyone else. But Hazel was Hazel...the doctor who helped her bury her young...the woman who gave her a place to raise her unborn...someone who showed genuine concern for the golden eyed woman. And thus, it took everything in her power to not become aggressive towards her...something that was slowly becoming increasingly more difficult as her body became more and more prepared for the hatching of her egg...when the initial hatching nears, the mothers hostility always rises as well. It was simply her biology and thus she was unable to simply resist or cast it aside. Basic instinct was more powerful to her than rational thought.

And as she lay there, lost in her dreams of her simpler childhood Cinder quietly huffed. The memory of her siblings forcing her jaw to clench as her tail tightened its grip upon the doctor as she attempted to struggle away...unconsciously lifting an arm and placing it around the shoulder of the blonde woman as she pulled her closer. The warmth of another body pleasing to the red haired Dragoness as she slowly buried her head into the girls shoulder and growled lowly.

Unknown to her however, the droid then hovered into the room and stared at the two women in bed and its lens focused and narrowed on the sight.

"Recording data for archive." The little droid mused, as it stared at the rather questionable scene.

[member="Hazel Zanteres"]

 

[Hazel Zanteres]

By the time Hazel awoke again, several hours had passed. Enough that the late evening hours from before had suddenly shifted to the bright morning of the next day - the rays of light shining through the curtains nearby being more than enough indication. Slowly Hazel opened her eyes, blinking several times to try and dispell the blurry vision. As she did, her mind gradually reconnected with the conscious world, trying to piece together the now and when she had fallen asleep. Hazel recalled feeling cold, having remained seated ontop the bed, intending to sleep for a couple hours as rest. Now she felt comfortable, and warm. It was a pleasant heat too, it reminded of one's body heat only with the added bonus that the other person was very much a source of heat herself.

That's when Hazel's vision finally cleared up completely, and instantly saw a bundle of red hair nestled into her. Cinder?

She mentally smacked herself in the head, of course who else would it have been. But nonetheless, the Hapan couldn't shake the initial confusion as she looked around slightly. Realizing that Cinder must've dragged her into her embrace sometime after she had fallen asleep. When Hazel shifted her body slightly, the feeling of the tail still wrapped around her confirmed it. She could feel Cinder's calm breathing even through the turtleneck she was wearing. Hazel looked down at the dragoness with an odd look in her eyes, and an equally strange feeling in her chest. During that sleep she had been restful, her mind clear of any of the worries that usually infested it when she tried to rest. Of her workload, of the day that had just finished, or the next one or even the upcoming week. Last night had simply been peaceful to the Hapan, a welcome change to how things usually were.

It was odd to feel such comfort from the woman that currently had an arm wrapped around her, and vice versa apparently as one of Hazel's had also found its way around Cinder at some point. Though at the same time, she did have a currently temperamental dragoness, capable of breathing fire and liable to skewer her with her deadly tail, nestled into her. Hazel really didn't know how to come to terms with the fact she was literally cuddled to someone that could kill her.

So she sighed, and just remained where she was. Not wanting to necessarily disturb Cinder if she could help it. But then her eyes lingered over, towards the bedside table. Resting there was her datapad and Hazel instantly remembered the reason why she had returned her yesterday evening. The test results!

"Cinder? You need to wake up." Hazel nudged her gently as she could, hoping it was enough to get her to stir at least.

[member="Cinder Rose"]

 

[Voices of The Deep]

Convalescence had become an exercise in seclusion, backsliding from the tentative social growth that had begun to blossom beforehand. A sprout angling careful leaves' blades toward the sun's nourishing warmth had been crushed underneath a boot-heel. That sprout had strangled its share of other weeds, but biology was perfunctory and neutral, saddling Cinder with neither less pain (mercy) or more pain (karma). Nerve endings didn't care about extenuating circumstances, backstory, or attempted redemption.

She lay nestled into the warmth of another being...flesh was softer, more delicate than hers...scent was sweeter and reminded the red haired woman of honey. And yet as she slept away several hours the sudden shuffle of weight upon her shoulder forced the Dragoness to stir. His bright golden eyes would flare, her vision returning to focus as she glared upward at the Doctor who remained slightly above her.

Cinder growled lowly, slowly pushing herself up, her egg clutched tightly in her arm while she lifted a hand and ran her fingers over her hair and brushed it behind her ear. Her golden gaze flicking back and forth for a moment before returning to Hazel, her tail slowly unconsciously loosening around the doctors waist and returning to its typical position strewn across the bed. Smiling at Hazel and blinking for a moment before speaking.

"Za?"

[member="Hazel Zanteres"]

 

[Hazel Zanteres]

Thankfully, Hazel didn't particularly need to know the Drava language to know Cinder had replied with a simple 'yes'. With the loosening of the dragoness' tail, Hazel was able to move away a bit. Though to be honest, she was reluctant to. The past several hours had been quite pleasant, Cinder's warmth was almost addicting to be around. Especially when it had provided her with a peaceful sleep. Her mind had been empty of the usual thoughts, of work and health. Which usually resulted in a less than fulfilling rest, but not this time. It had been one of the best she had in a long while. Ultimately though, the Hapan did move away from the dragoness. Though she didn't exactly go far, still within her reach, sat on the bed with her legs crossed. Hazel's eyes fell on the egg clutched in her mother's arms, and she quickly looked back up at Cinder, giving her an apologetic look.

"Sorry about touching the egg..." She began, nudging her head a bit towards Cinder's unborn child. "I know you really don't like people even near her. But you looked like you couldn't reach-"

Hazel's words rambled off and she turned her gaze away, and fell on her datapad. There was more important matters that needed to be addressed, one's that should've been sorted yesterday. But first, there was something else she needed to do.

"Translator?" She called out. It was the name she had randomly given Cinder's little droid not long ago. After it was clear she wasn't going to give it a proper name. "You here? Could really do with your assistance with this..." But there was no response, at least not instantly. Hazel sighed, hoping it was either in the other room or had perhaps turned in for the night - or whatever droids did when they weren't needed to be active. In the meantime, she'd do her job as Cinder's doctor.

"How do you feel?" She asked, turning to look at the woman in question. "Is there still pain? Any heavy or numb limbs?"

[member="Cinder Rose"]