Information
Stitches the Zooky
Suture
Legacy Name: Suture
The Graveyard Charlie
Owner: Tashamon
Age: 12 years, 6 months, 3 weeks
Born: September 6th, 2011
Adopted: 12 years, 5 months, 5 days ago
Adopted: October 22nd, 2011
Statistics
- Level: 10
- Strength: 25
- Defense: 25
- Speed: 25
- Health: 27
- HP: 27/27
- Intelligence: 14
- Books Read: 14
- Food Eaten: 0
- Job: Post-Fight Clean Up
What do YOU want? |
I'm FINE. Now leave me alone. |
NO! NOBODY HELPS! NOBODY EVER HELPS! NOW GET OUT OF MY HOME! |
Blinded slightly by the bright light set up on the desk next to an old video camera, Danza settled herself into the seat in front, before deciding the light was too much and slinging it across the room. Light really kills your eyes when you've been living off the dim emergency circuit for so long.
She cleared her throat, and started to speak into the camera.
"Hello. My name is Danza J. Gorski, and I am the owner of Hope's Hill hospital."
She sighed and adjusted herself a little in her seat before continuing.
"This is hopefully just a snippet of the recordings I have decided to make, documenting my life. I've been... dedicated to looking after the hospital. It's in disrepair right now, but I promise I'll get it back up and running someday. Anyway, I believe it necessary to tell you a little more about myself. I think I'll begin with the more... unusual attributes of my person, seeing as they are the easiest to note."
"First off... I'm not really alive. Well, I am... but it is not a life really worth living, not if it weren't for my reason to be here. My flesh is slowly rotting and decaying away, and each day I'm just falling apart more and more..."
She held a hand softly against the great scar running down her face, down her neck, then let it fall.
"Pretty much the only thing keeping me together is the hope of rebuilding this place. Even if I have to drag my broken self around I'll still do it. It's... all I really have to live for anymore."
"But enough of that, I'd like to explain a little more about my appearance. If you haven't already noticed my little modification..."
Her tentacled hair shivered and writhed as she spoke, braiding and unbraiding itself in an uneasy, repetitive fashion.
"Well, that was just a little something to help me get on with my work. Of course, due to my condition, all my natural hair has fallen out anyway. I thought I'd just use my superior medical knowledge to give myself an advantage. Staying optimistic in these times is the least of my worries."
"I'm not ready. I have too much left to finish here, too many promises to keep to die yet. It's a crude attempt at avoiding the inevitable, but... I take a daily regime of pills and medications to slow my degeneration. It has the unfortunate side effect of turning my skin an unearthly green, but it's bought me a few years now, hopefully enough time to finish my jobs. Where that isn't enough, I'm constantly required to stitch pieces of myself back together. One has to wonder if, in a few years, will I be more stitches than my own flesh...?"
She looked down and shuffled uncomfortably on her chair, as if something was causing pain.
"Well... that's all. I need to stay here to resurrect this hospital, my father's pride and joy. I hope to leave this as a record of my progress for future years... Failure is not something I can even begin to consider."
Danza reached out and switched off the camera, hesitantly looking at it before deciding she was satisfied with her work. The room grew dark as she slunk through the narrow doorway, glancing back once again, then finally locking the door.
Little more than the monotonous sound of a dripping tap greeted Danza when she dragged herself into the decrepit little hospital bathroom. She knocked around a few loose floor tiles, kicking the motion sensitive lights back to life for a mere few moments before the bulb gave up, finally being drawn towards one of the less derelict looking sinks. The emergency lights came on, splashing her face with a daunting orange hue which reflected off the grubby, scuffed-up, mirrored tiles.
Even Danza herself fell prey to the drowsy hum that filled the room from the old lamps. She slumped into the sink with a couldn't-care-less attitude, tested the taps a few times with a disheartening lack of enthusiasm, and glanced back up at the buzzing lights. In all their endeavours to imitate the colours of a setting sun, all they did were make Danza feel even more like she did before - she's just as run down, broken and decayed as this place is.
Enclosed by fractured images of her worsening state spattered across the wall, Danza curled feebly into a corner of the room. Ignoring the rubble and debris on the floor, she instead reached into a pocket and took out an aged black and white photograph depicting a young, bright little child... and smiled.
Danza hesitantly closed her eyes, hopeful to get at least some rest before patrolling the neglected hospital corridors once again. The room drifted into silence, only the soft undulating of her chest as she breathed in deep disrupting the flow. Her eyes started to flicker as REM kicked in...
"Oh daddy, it's beautiful!"
A young, pale child in nurse dress-up looked on in amazement at the grand building before her.
"I'm glad you like it, little one. Welcome to the new and improved Hope's Hill hospital! Want to come and take a look at what we've done?"
A tall, aged, grey man outstretched a hand, and the younger one grasped it tightly. She gripped onto both her father's hand and a small, plastic child's nurse kit with excitement as they both walked toward the open doors of the majestic building.
"Oh? Are you hoping to help fix some people up today?"
The old man gestured to the little nurse's kit and the child blushed, holding the little plastic box closely against her chest. Her father laughed heartily -
"You'll grow up to be a fine doctor if you're already this enthusiastic, you know."
He looked at her pretty little face and smiled, a great-hearted, proud smile that made her blush even more.
"Maybe one day I'll be able to fix you, Daddy!"
The aging man looked worryingly down at the small child and stopped dead, hunching over in a fit of coughs, his daughter steadying him against the reception desk. Wheezing, he eventually managed to recover, looking up to meet his daughter's hopeful eyes.
"Yes... maybe one day you will be able to fix me. You're already in good practice by the looks of things."
He winced as he spoke, his daughter taking it as a cue to walk them both to a seat in a corner of the reception. She lowered him down onto the cushioned surface, making sure he was comfortable before sitting herself next to him. Her father saw the worry in her eyes and he tried to hide the pain, but it only led to him nearly falling off the chair and worrying her more. Putting a hand on her shoulder, he said -
"There's one thing I need to ask you. This hospital, it helps people. They are brought to us sick and we send them home well. Even when I'm gone, I need this place to keep running - so we can continue providing help to others for years into the future. The people believe in this place. So, when I'm too tired to carry on, I'm going to leave the hospital under your care. Can you do this for me, Danza?"
The scene slowly faded back into a drab view of the room Danza fell asleep in. She sat up, using her tentacles to wipe the few tears that had escaped her attention whilst sleeping, and finally made the effort to pull herself back into standing.
"What an awfully strange moment to dream about."
"sh-she's here!"
The maniacal laughter coming from the back corner of the room faded into fitting sobs. A great, black furred lion hunched over against the wall, tore his eyes from the doorway, and glanced across the floor toward the over-sized rat rocking backwards and forwards repeatedly on his hospital bed. Nobody else in the darkened isolation ward stirred - his frequent outbursts were little more than background noise to them, but it still made the great cat wince. He felt a twinge in his right eye as it started bleeding again, as it always did when he was under stress; through the stream of blood he could still see the rat crying out in desperation. One had to wonder if the rat and the lion were the only two with any sense of humanity left in the building... but even with that playing at the back of the beast's mind, he had to hope this was merely another of the rat's episodes, and not -
An untimely lizard scuttled across one of the rarely touched upper shelves of the ward, knocking off jars and equipment, and showering the room in dust before being caught and crushed, python-like, in a strange figure's grasp. The rat boy's futile sobs got louder as she came into full view.
A familiar looking slim figure clad in a roughed-up nurse outfit strode into the room, her slithering tentacled hair only serving to iterate the foreboding sense of dread she dragged in with her. Skipping the cracked tiles, she made her way across to the end units, taking a quick check over the battered clipboard at the end of rat boy's bed. She set it back before sitting next to his huddled frame, and placed her arm lovingly, yet firmly, on his back.
"Alright now, there there. You do want to get better, right?"
The rat boy just nodded feebly, his face smeared with tears and mucus in his own panic.
"Then shall we begin with your treatment?"
He clutched his head in his hands, clinging tightly to his last fragments of sanity, as the unforgiving angel set out her equipment on the bedside table. Wishing to preserve his last barely dignified moment, the lion averted his eyes from the scene and continued mundanely staring as the ground. Just like everyone else was.
But it didn't work. Even long after Danza left them, even long after rat boy's nervous fits of giggles and painful squeals had subsided, the lion could still see her in his head. He could still imagine in every perfectly deadly detail what torture she put the rat through. She even chased him down in the nightmares he suffered, in the little periods of sleep he got - slicing his stomach open and examining his guts as he still breathed, poking and prodding and sometimes cutting away parts of his insides whilst coldly recording her observations on that clipboard...
Sighing, the lion curled up on the floor. They would all meet that end eventually, stuck here.
"Hey... hey! Lion... with the funny eye... listen here!"
Desperation caused the rat boy to force every word out through stifled snorts and squeaks. The least the great cat could do was hear the madman out.
"You're... you look strong, right? Why don't you just... just walk out of here?"
He cast a fearful glance over at the doorway but the rat continued on, not caring if she were to come back.
"You... you have more sanity left than all... all of-"
Overcome by howling fits of laughter he collapsed back onto his bed, writhing and fighting it back with everything he had left.
"-US!! You have sanity!! You... ESCAPE!"
He screamed out his last few words before reverting back to rocking backwards and forwards on his bed � The lion was almost certain someone would have heard him if not her, but it seemed fate was smiling, as she rarely ever did, on them that night.
Sleep once again eluded the beast's grasp. As much as he tried to silence it, the rat boy's speech buzzed persistently at the back of his mind, an angry hive of questions and reasoning held back by only a thinning wall of fear. Why didn't he just... escape? The thought sent cold shivers down his spine, rattling down his vertebrae - and then rising upwards, a flaming phoenix of determination, a relentless stream of self questioning -
"Can you escape?"
It whispered to him. A voice so soft but words so telling, an ethereal pattern of thought woven into his subconscious. He felt obliged to answer.
"I... I think I... maybe..."
He glanced across at the open door. It was always like that, never locked. He guessed he could have just walked out.
"Then why don't you?"
"I'm... scared. So scared..."
"Are you, scared of her?"
"..I guess so... but she's helping me - helping us to get over our conditions!"
"But she hurt your friend."
"I... I..."
The rat boy let out a wheezing cough and a few giggles before settling back down. Dim light obstructed his sight, but the lion could just see the rat's chest all wrapped up, a tube protruding out from under the mass of bandages and leading to something he couldn't quite see on the floor. Every breath the rat took filled the silence with the sound of vigorous bubbling.
"And she hurt you too?"
Instinctively, the great cat held a paw up to his bad eye. It had stopped bleeding by then... but who knows what could set it off. Sometimes even just the mere thought of her.
"She made your eye like that?"
The lion had never even thought of it that way. He couldn't even remember how it had come about, or even life before having this condition. The only thing he knew about outside of that building was that it existed, and that thought alone drove him to survive.
"Maybe.. she did cause me to be like this."
"So, you're going to escape then?"
He nodded in assurance with himself. Moving without orders, playing his own game - suddenly it wasn't such a terror-filled, trap-riddled path to traverse. For the first time in months, maybe even years, he was determined to see the outside he had only imagined, to see what life had been denying him.
He stood proud amongst many who had lost their reasoning from absolute terror, dedication to the promise of freedom pushing his trembling legs forward. Timid steps turned to bold strides as the lion paced across the room-
"Today I will get my freedom!" he bellowed mid-leap across the floor, before skidding around to a halt in the doorway. Most of the room barely stirred in their beds, but that never mattered to him. Looking up in awe at the sound of his outburst, the rat boy(still wheezing and spluttering) steadily raised his hands and applauded the lion's achievement. That approval alone would turn out to be the single greatest thing life had ever thrown at the miserable cat. He owed the rat boy nothing less than his freedom of thought.
Claws out, the lion clattered noisily down the corridor, striving to maintain as much grip on the cracked tiles as he could. Light, real sunlight broke through the ivy covered windows and danced with inviting warmth across his face as he raced past, driving him onwards as his feet pounded against the cold floor. With each breath he could detect the faint earthy scent of outside, no matter how much the hospital disinfectant tried to smother it. And for a few moments he felt alive. Then fatigue stepped in.
The great beast collapsed to the floor as a burning, aching pain shot across his chest. He roared out of pain, scrabbling at the floor to try and keep moving, even if it were only a few inches. Clawing out, he was once again held back - the pain shot once more through his chest and he slumped, finally beaten, onto the hospital floor. Struggling to see through the steady flow of blood that had begun to leak from his eye again, the lion never saw the violent nurse's green tendrils creeping around the corner. Not until they were already wrapped tightly around his arms and legs, slinking up around his face to wipe away his bloodied tears...
Danza giggled to herself slightly as she dragged the big cat back to the isolation ward, his stifled screaming echoing down the halls.
The bitter melody of sunlight played through the trees over the solemn procession. For some of them, it may have even been years since they last felt nature's embrace - not that it could have brightened the occasion. They slowly paraded around the hospital garden, slowing to a stop near a freshly dug hole beneath the old willow that was there, bowing over so that its leaves became ensnared in the growth beneath. Danza took her place at the head of the grave, and, satisfied everything was in place, signalled the lion over. He bowed in respect as two other inhabitants of the hospital removed a small, cloth wrapped bundle from his back, and lowered it gently into the pit. Sending them back to their places, Danza stepped forward and spoke:
"We are here today to remember the young man known as Thomas Arratoi, fondly known as 'Rat boy' to a few, who recently passed away in his battle against his disease. Thomas put up a brave fight - as everyone has - and it's so unfortunate for him to be taken from us just now. If it means anything to anyone here, I promise, over this man's grave, that I will find a cure for all of us."
The lion, having had his moment's silence, glanced back up at Danza's dainty figure as she dropped a single red rose onto rat boy's limp body.
And he was certain, just for that one moment, he saw her crying.
Profile and story by myself, story edited by Darkrai and Variel
Pet Treasure
Memory from a Happy Summer
Recovered Camcorder
Suture Kit
Skitters Favorite Needle
Banshee Thread of Fate
Calavera Bride Needle and Thread
Franky Stitching Thread
Hand Sewing Needles
Ruined Rounded Flask
Ruined Glass Flask
Ruined Glass Beaker
Stained and Torn Family Album
Recently Removed Surgical Staple
Discarded Rusty Bone Saw
Severely Rusted Mutilation Shears
None Too Clean Scalpel
Plas-Tek Large Purple Morostide Syringe
Expired Novocaine Vial
Infusion of Neutral Plasma
Cat Vaccine
Stethoscope
First Aid Kit
Large First Aid Kit
Sougara Wasteland Cowboy Dirty Bandage Tin
Bandages
Butterfly Bandages
Roll of Gauze
Surgically Clean Bandage
Right Metal Crutch
Left Metal Crutch
Black Stethoscope
Digital Thermometer
Hearing Test Equipment
Eye Exam Chart
Green Hospital Gown
Scientist Blood Stained Lab Coat
Scientist Rubber Gloves
Stained Green Nitrile Gloves
Hydrocortisone Cream
Antibiotic Ointment
Pink Bismuth Travel Pack
Ibuprofen Travel Pack
Acetaminophen Travel Pack
Aller-Away Double Pack
Ziaran Pill Box
Regular Strength Pain Pills
Extra Strength Pain Pills
Daily Pills
White-Handled Scalpel
Steel-Handled Scalpel
Black-Handled Scalpel
Red-Handled Scalpel
Blue-Handled Scalpel
Toxic Apothecary Bottle
Acid Apothecary Bottle
Poison Apothecary Bottle
Bag of Blood
Bag of Plasma
Blood Bag Candy
Harvested Congealed Blood
Blood Trail
Scalpel of Doom
Pounding Heart
Mutated Heart
Doves Blood
Grave Reminder
Brain Beanbag
Heart Beanbag
Lungs Beanbag
Liver Beanbag
Kidneys Beanbag
Stomach Beanbag
Pancreas Beanbag
Intestines Beanbag
Bladder Beanbag
Harvested Eyeball
Harvested Heart
Harvested Lung Piece
Harvested Chunk of Liver
Stolen Pancreas
Harvested Length of Intestine
Stolen Pieces of Bone
Hand Bandage Scraps
Leg Bandage Scraps (Right)
Head Bandage Scraps
Eye Bandage Scraps
Arm Bandage Scraps (Right)
Arm Bandage Scraps (Left)
Leg Bandage Scraps (Left)
Diluted Boobitis Dose
Diluted Foot Rash Dose
Diluted Love Bug Dose
Diluted Virus Dose
Questionable Tagged Syringe
Bulbous Vial
Creeping Vial
Vaguely Sticky Vial
Lotus Vial
Stinging Vial
Preserved Spider in a Jar
Preserved Eyeball in a Jar
Preserved Skull in a Jar
Preserved Snake in a Jar
Bloody Wet Specimen
Ink Monster Wet Specimen
Nest Of Spiders Wet Specimen
Clawed Monster Wet Specimen
Mouthy Monster Wet Specimen
Discarded Rusty Trocar
Hazard Rave Shot
Nuclear Rave Shot
Irradiated Rave Shot
Turbulent Rave Shot
Danger Rave Shot
Red Liquid Filled Giant Syringe
Yellow Liquid Filled Giant Syringe
Orange Liquid Filled Giant Syringe
Green Liquid Filled Giant Syringe
Blue Liquid Filled Giant Syringe
Nurse Bertha
Grape Shot Shot
Berry Shot Shot
Apple Shot Shot
Lemon Shot Shot
Cherry Shot Shot
Left Arm Mutagen
Right Arm Mutagen
Dr. Lockhearts Amoryl Cream
Lovitol
Dr. Lockhearts Amorisporin-Medicated Bandages
Dr. Lockhearts Amortisone
Dr. Lockhearts Amoricone
Dr. Lockhearts Hyperamory Inducer
Dr. Lockhearts Amoricide
Bottled Antilovirus
Extract of Loveberry
H-34-RT Inoculation
Lamouracillin
Hex Remover
Acid Juice
Mystery Reversal Concoction
Color Reversal Concoction
Experimental Reversal Concoction
Elemental Reversal Concoction
Modern Science Volume I
Chemistry Textbook
Chemicals
Upside Down Chemical Spiller 5000
Universal Antidote
Empty Vial
Spilled Tube of Iodine Powder
Spilled Tube of Bone Meal
Spilled Tube of Mildew Spores
Strange Glowing Vial
Mostly-empty Vial
Empty Flask
Corrosive Saliva Sample
Mercurial Throwing Vial
Destabilizing Throwing Vial
Acidic Throwing Vial
Necrotic Throwing Vial
Mutagenic Throwing Vial
Contaminated Test Tube
Quicksilver
Scorpion Venom
Snake Venom
Spider Venom
Clear Glass Vial
Purple Liquid-Filled Rounded Flask
Blue Liquid-Filled Rounded Flask
Green Liquid-Filled Rounded Flask
Yellow Liquid-Filled Rounded Flask
Orange Liquid-Filled Rounded Flask
Red Liquid-Filled Rounded Flask
Red Liquid-Filled Glass Beaker
Orange Liquid-Filled Glass Beaker
Yellow Liquid-Filled Glass Beaker
Green Liquid-Filled Glass Beaker
Blue Liquid-Filled Glass Beaker
Purple Liquid-Filled Glass Beaker
Purple Liquid-Filled Glass Flask
Blue Liquid-Filled Glass Flask
Green Liquid-Filled Glass Flask
Yellow Liquid-Filled Glass Flask
Orange Liquid-Filled Glass Flask
Red Liquid-Filled Glass Flask
Cherry Bubbling Vial
Lemon Bubbling Vial
Lime Bubbling Vial
Blueberry Bubbling Vial
Grape Bubbling Vial
Licorice Bubbling Vial
Sweet Frost Science Daiquiri
Sweet Toxic Science Daiquiri
Sweet-N-Spicy Science Daiquiri
Sweet Frost Science Shot
Sweet Toxic Science Shot
Sweet-N-Spicy Science Shot
Nurse Hat
Nurse Shirt
Nurse Skirt
Tooth Decay Pellets
Novelty Thermometer
Bandie