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Chapter 8 fork: Agonizing Augur
Pannych looks at Phyr, then shrieks in agony and falls to her hands and knees. The guards back up a step as Alice and Vector move in around her. Phyr pulls them gently away, saying, “Whoah, give her space. She needs room to breathe.” He gets down on one knee a few feet in front of her and says, “Pannych, can you hear me?”
She takes a deep, shuddering breath, and nods her head slowly. “Can you answer some yes/no questions,” he asks. She nods. “Can you breathe OK?” Another nod. “Does anything feel broken?” She shakes her head. “Does anything feel pulled, sprained, or torn?” She shakes her head. “Do you want me to help you up?” She nods. He gets an arm around her and helps her to her feet.
“Is your friend all right,” the other guard asks.
“Do you feel like you’ll be OK in a few minutes,” Phyr asks Pannych. She nods.
“If you want, we can call a mender,” one guard offers.
Phyr asks, “Do you feel like you can walk?”
“Yes,” Pannych says, standing up on her own and stepping away from Phyr. “I’m fine now. Thanks.”
“All right,” Phyr says. “We’re going to head back to Noob Town. You two have a good night, and stay safe!”
After they have gained a short distance, Phyr turns to Pannych and asks, “So what was that back there?”
“I don’t know,” Pannych says. “Just all of a sudden, my head really hurt, like - like - I don’t know what it was like.”
“Weird,” Vector says.
“OK,” Phyr says, “I want to do some quick tests on you. You up for that?”
“I mean… I feel fine,” Pannych says.
“Sure, sure - but just to check. If you feel like you can’t, that’s OK, but it’s also important.”
“All right, if you say so,” she says. “But why, though?”
“Well, if you’re having some kind of cognitive impairment or dissociative episode-”
“No, I mean, why do you know to do these tests? You have, like, three points in the Medical skill.”
“Oh,” Phyr says. “Well, out there in the real world, I’m a doctor now.”
“You’re a doctor?!”
“OK, harsh. But yes.”
“No, no,” Pannych says, “I didn’t mean it like that. I mean, like, kids like us don’t grow up to be doctors an’ shit. Our idea of a fun time was to walk along the train tracks and explore abandoned buildings. So, like, good on ya. Really, man.”
“Um, thanks,” he says. “So: tests?”
“Yeah, sure,” she agrees.
He puts her through some basic range of motion tests with no issue. He then asks some basic questions about her past and identity, which go similarly well when he remembers that this is her seventeen-year-old self. After a few cognitive exercises like elementary arithmetic and logic, he pronounces her good enough to game on. The adventurers resume their journey to Noob Town.
To CONTINUE READING CHAPTER 8, click here.
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