revivalproject | [Open] At Least The Hospital Isn't Haunted?

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[Open] At Least The Hospital Isn't Haunted?

WHO: Robin Buckley, Open
WHERE: Temba Hospital
WHAT: Post Attack Threads
WHEN: September 12th Onward
WARNINGS: Discussions (potentially detailed) of strangulation and attempted murder

I. Bedside Manners Please | Daytime - Good for Interviews

The hospital room is at least a nice one. One with a window so there is light coming in from outside. Right now the dog that had come rushing up when Billy Loomis was helping her to the hospital was stretched out in that pool of sunshine. Robin watches the dog in his happy resting.

At least one of them was happy.

Robin's fingers come up o touch the swath of bandaging around her neck, holding the salves that the ~~hot~~ doctor had worked into her skin before putting the bandages on. It's still painful. At least breathing wasn't too much of a problem right now. She sighed, something she immediately winced over the pain over. Then she looked back down at the communication device in her lap. She should do something to entertain herself. Or maybe message her friends to let them know she could really use some company.

No, though. There were reasons not to do that. Maybe later. So she puts the device back down in her lap.

When she heard someone at the door, though, she turned her head slowly to regard them. Nods briefly to them, because pain for a greeting wasn't worth it right now.

II. Friend Time | Afternoon/Evening - For pre-existing CR peeps not after questioning her

If there was one time that Robin absolutely refused to put up with questions during, it was meals. The food was better than the hospital in Hawkins, so there was that. But mostly, she doesn't want to try both the strain of talking to people about the new trauma and eating at the same time. So when lunch and dinner happen, she glares hard at those she doesn't want around until they figure it out and head out for a while.

It's different with her friends. Different with the people she already knows and trusts and believes could have had nothing to do with hurting her. Then when meals come up she shoos Little Bear from the bed, pulls the rolling tray closer, and scootches over so her friend can join her in the bed. Because being close to someone so she can keep talking is nice. Especially when she has to whisper even more quietly while trying to eat. Nothing like trying to swallow with a damaged throat and still trying to hold a conversation. Especially with her hands too taken up to be typing on her comm or writing on paper to answer.

III. The Night Shift | Nights - For Guards and/or Comforting a scared Robin | Please No Additional Here - Have A Lot Of These Now

Fear was something Robin was used to living with. Had been since things went wrong back at the mall. But that had never felt personal. That had never been so direct. It had never made her so afraid of being alone in the dark. Not that the hospital is fully dark. The lights in the room are just down low. And she's not alone either.

The dog that used to belong to the clothes lady was lying in bed with her after all, carefully stretched out on her good side and resting his big head on her stomach. His tail beat a slow rhythm as she lets her fingers stroke over his soft, curly fur. But her eyes... they're always on the door. Wide. Watching. Fearful.

She hates this. Having a new reason to fear the night. It was better when it was monsters. It was better when evil people were the government or bigots. It was better when she knew what people who would hurt her looked like.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

So the horror movie thing is a thing, and not just something meant for Richie specifically. At least this pretty much cements for him that it was the same guy, because this is waaay too specific. Unless, like Tae said, it's a copycat, but then at least they can narrow the list of suspects down to people Richie told this detail to.

"Was it from an unknown number?"

Robin nods, because she can spare her fingers from typing the answer to that since it was so cut and dried.

An anonymous contact. She'd only answered out of reflex, because she was from the 80s. Knowing who was reaching out was out of the norm from her experience.

Leo nods back. Okay, so this is all lining up with the MO (he has no idea what MO stands for, but he thinks this is right).

“And… did the guy come after you then?”

'I was about to hang up. Turned a corner. Saw him.'

Her fingers hesitate then, stalling in the story. This was the part where she came out looking foolish.

'I may have screamed and flailed before I ran.'

At least Leo doesn't think it's foolish.

"Yeah, that's the normal reaction when some guy in a costume jumpscares you. Not everyone can be cool in that situation."

Leo included, he would have absolutely screamed and flailed.

"He was wearing a costume, but could you figure out anything about what he looked like? Did he talk at all?"

She didn't think anyone could be cool in that situation if she's honest. But she doubted anyone else would want that pointed out.

'He was taller than me at least. But with the robes how tall is hard to think of. Can't say much else because I turn and ran.'

Wait. No. There was something else. After she fell. Her brow scrunches as she tries to pick it out. What had it been? Dammit she could remember this...

Leo would have moved on, but he notices that brow scrunch. There's something else here.

"You turned and ran... and then something else happened?"

Yeah, she's still trying to piece it out. She's been through this once before, but each time makes things come out different. What if she tells him something wrong?

'Didn't run far. I'm not really coordinated for that. And the aisles were narrow. I tripped. Fell. My communication device went flying down the lane. Don't know how it got back to me. The gift Donnie gave me too. I lost it. I'm sorry that I lost it.'

But that's not it. What was it? Fuck, what was it?

'My ankle hurt. I turned it going down. But I had to keep going. So I tried to crawl away. Then there it was again. The figure. Big, heavy boots in front of my face. Just for a moment. I think... I think I remember big, heavy boots. But they were sneaky. So it makes no sense.'

Maybe she's remembering it wrong. Maybe the boots were just a memory of the Creel House and what happened there. Fuck if picking apart the two moments of similar fear weren't difficult. She still feels like she saw by flashlight. She can feel the vine around her throat. The hands.

She whimpers and lowers the device for a moment so she can bury her face in her hands. She wants to cry. She wants Steve.

Donnie's not going to be mad that she lost his gift to her, or at least, not mad at her about it. But he doesn't interrupt her train of thought to tell her that.

Big, heavy boots, even though the guy was sneaky. That catches Leo's attention. So maybe the theory that there's more than one attacker is true? But they aren't working separately if they were both there with Robin...

Or maybe their guy is just good at being sneaky in boots. Raph's big and he's sneaky... sometimes.

Whatever questions he has about the boots are put on hold when Robin whimpers.

"Oh, uh..." Shoot. This is what he did not want to have happen. He is not the person to be dealing with this, his way of dealing with intense emotions is to joke them off and somehow he doesn't think that's welcome right now.

After a second of awkwardly looking around like something will help him, he says, "It's alright; we can stop talking about it."

It's not Leo's fault. And she doesn't want to stop talking about it. His comment has her fumbling for the communication device to type again. And require a lot of editing and retyping to get things moderately clear.

"No. Just bad memories. Two events similar enough. Remembering is hard. Just a minute."

She needs to do this, to help, to help protect Eddie.

"Y-yeah, okay. Just, ya know, take whatever time you need."

He'll just hang out in his chair and wait for her to compose herself.

Time. They don't have time though, do they? There is a threat to the people they care about here. And Robin cares about a lot of people. She got lucky to survive. And she doesn't know what to do with that. So pushing on is something that matters. Even if she's wrong.

"When I was down they came close. Silent. Turned me over. Pinned me down. They felt so heavy."

Though perhaps any weight on your body when you're pinned and fighting for your life feels like a lot.

"I tried to fight back. Claw, scratch, punch. It was pointless. Their hands were around my neck. Squeezing. Pressing. Choking."

The mask so close to her face. The smell of the fabric of the robe and the plastic material of the mask choking the moments of clarity she had as she struggled for breath.

"Couldn't breathe. Weight on my belly and hands around my throat. Big hands. I couldn't breathe. Tried to force their arms off but I couldn't. Tried to get away by throwing them off but I couldn't. Could barely see. Barely breathe. And then."

And then what. She pauses, clawing at her memories. She remembers hands, remembers a vine. Remembers a ghostly face. Remembers Steve looking at her helpless. Remembers realizing they'd failed. Remembers wishing she hadn't gone out alone. Two memories flickering over each other.

Leo listens to all that, trying not to act too squeamish over the details. He's seen a lot of violence in his life, even at his age, but the vivid recounting of what happened to Robin still makes his toes curl.

She gets to the climax and then stops. She had a hard time remembering before, and it seems like she's having a hard time remembering now. Leo gestures at the thermos he gave her before, trying to be helpful.

"Drink your tea. Dad says it calms the mind and opens the spirit. Or, was it, opens the mind and calms the spirit...?" He blinks off into the distance for a moment, then gives his head a shake. "Either way, it'll help!"

He hopes.

Tea? Robin had forgotten about the tea. Actually, for some reason she'd thought it was soup, so forgetting it wasn't that much of a surprise. She does reach for it and open the thing, taking a sniff. It doesn't smell bad, so she takes a few small sips as Leo talks.

Calming the mind is a no on it, but at least she's trying and her throat hurts a little less under the heat.

Once she's resealed it she takes up the datapad again and types on it.

"No offense, but why are you here? And not Donnie?"

Because yeah, she doesn't mind Leo, but she thought she and Donnie were closer.

Geez, just going to ask him right out like that, huh?

Leo smiles in the most reassuring way that he can, pulling up the excuses and explanations he’s brainstormed for Donnie’s absence. He doesn’t want to lie to Robin outright, but he doesn’t want to share too much, either. Despite how much he might like to poke fun at his brother, at the end of day he still takes Donnie’s confidence seriously.

“What, aren’t I cool enough for you?” He lists back in a faux-offended way, but he’s still smiling when he straightens back up. “Donnie’s just… going through some stuff. Not as much as you’re going through, obviously,” he adds quickly. “He’s really worried about you. But he also gets stuck in his head about stuff sometimes.”

Leo shrugs. “Sometimes you just have to give him a little nudge. Remind him that he has friends who want to see him.”

Hey, it's been a WHILE that they've been talking. And yes, she was going to ask. Donnie was her friend after all. They were closer (though not super close) than she was with Leo after all.

But she looks sad when he asks her about him not being cool enough. She supposes that makes sense to ask.

'If you see him, can you apologize? I think I lost the music player he gave me. I didn't mean to.'

She didn't want Donnie to be upset with her about that.

Don’t take the things he says so seriously, Robin! It throws him off his game.

At her request he looks surprised, but gives his head a shake. “I mean, I’ll tell him, but trust me, he is not going to be upset about that. If we can’t find the one he made you, he’ll just make a new one. Maybe you can even request a color other than purple.”

He hasn’t seen the device Donnie made for her, but he’s guessing it was purple.

“He loves making gifts for people. He’ll just be happy that you were using it. Not your fault some jerk attacked you and made you lose it.”

She's a more serious person in this serious situation. Don't judge her over the seriousness.

'Purple is nice enough' she says, because she doesn't relly mind it one way or another. But she doesn't smile. She looks sad.

'It was one of the nicest gifts he could have gave, and I wasn't careful with it.'

Ah, this is more critical than he thought. Leo shakes his head again.

“It wasn’t your fault, dude. You were careful, some guy just gets his kicks from hurting people.”

Leo shrugs. “One time I had to use a gift Donnie made just for me to beat a bad guy, and I lost it. And he wasn’t mad at me, so he definitely won’t be mad at you.”

That particular gift had sucked, and Leo was glad to be rid of it, but Robin doesn’t need to know.

Robin pouts, almost ready to argue 'could have been a girl' but when she thinks about it... Robin thinks she might be the tallest woman on the planet. So that probably is fair to say.

'Still apologize to him for me. It would make me feel better.'

"Yeah, I will." Even if he doesn't think it's necessary, if it makes her feel better he'll do it. It's not like it's a difficult task she's giving him here.

"By the way, do you have your tablet? I can check who called you that night."

Robin lifts the communication device she's been using and waves it at him. It is definitely hers. Then she types to explain.

'When I woke up, it was here. Feel free to check.'

And then she hands it over. He'll find it was not tampered with.

So she got this back, but not her gift from Donnie. He guesses he doesn't know who got this for her or why, though... and it probably doesn't matter.

He'll spend a couple minutes looking through it, doing the same thing to it they did to Richie's. It's pretty easy to figure out that the call, marked "Unknown," actually came from Donnie's number, which just confirms what he already knew.

He avoids mentioning this to Robin as he sets the tablet aside, instead asking, "What about the guy that brought you to the hospital? Do you remember anything about him?"

"Tall," Robin says, because she could lean on him easily. "Loomis I think. I think he bumped his head?"

Because he seemed to be hurting some. She didn't remember it very well. Not like she looked up at him a lot, given she was close to falling over.

"Like he was injured? Huh."

Fighting off the attacker? Unlikely, if he's in it with Stu. Unless they wanted it to look good? If it really is them, it's possible Stu getting stabbed when he first arrived was some kind of subversion.

Or a totally unrelated incident. Tae already gave him a dressing down for assuming they were related without details.

"There's a lot of tall people here... Tragically few short kings." So even if he was the same height as the attacker, that doesn't really mean anything. Besides, why would he bring her to a hospital instead of finishing her off? Unless he wanted to make himself look good...

Yeesh, this is confusing. What are these guys even up to?

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