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Lucky didn't really pay attention to much on the way to the infirmary except for the curious observation that his hand seemed to have lost much more blood than he imagined existed in his whole body. He was dizzy and weak from the combination of blood loss, a slowly regenerating shield, and having been knocked out for an indeterminate amount of time.

He didn't really want to think about any of it right now.

The life hunter wandered into the reception area, which in a place like Deus Ex was little more than an extra bit of hallway with a large desk obstructing the path. A young girl in a white hunter coat was sprawled in the office chair behind the desk, fiddling with her phone. Lucky cleared his throat nervously, swaying on his feet a little. "Uh, e-excuse... excuse me..."

The hunter manning the front desk finally looked up from their riveting phone game without moving anything more than their eyes.

"Please..." Still holding tightly to his wrist, he waved his bleeding hand at her a little.

There was another long pause in which nothing was said. Maybe it was perfectly normal for people to be bleeding all over the reception area here? She certainly didn't look impressed. Finally, the girl at the desk tapped out a series of numbers with her long, painted nails and held the phone to her ear.

"Yeeeeah, we got a BIT up here - uh huh? Yeah. Alright." They returned the phone to their hands and smiled a little too widely and stared a little too hawkishly to be reassuring. "Someone will be with you shortly."

"Probably," they added, returning to their colorful distraction.

Not much had changed in the waiting area except for the small puddle of blood Lucky was passive-aggressively dripping down his fingers beside the desk. Even when Robert showed up, he seemed to be pointedly glaring in the direction of the unhelpful infirmary attendant. It was only when Robert actually vocalized his presence that Lucky seemed to become aware, and tore his vengeful gaze away. His blood sacrifice had apparently, finally gotten someone's attention.

"Hn." He reached his uninjured hand up to run it through his hair unconsciously, as if he was trying to think deeply about the question. Time seemed to have stop existing as a linear, measurable concept since he'd woken up. Overall, he just gave off an impression of being dazed and not entirely there as he drifted from side to side on his feet. After a too-long pause, he shook his head, which only made his dizziness worse in retrospect. "Do not know."

"I am vaiting," he said almost immediately after, staring off into space again. He hadn't seemed to register who he was talking to after all. "For a doctor."

The life hunter was at least dazed enough that he was easily dragged along without complaint, save for a couple of offhand comments spoken behind Robert. Just random, innocuous statements like 'my hand hurts' and 'the crown is not real'.

The occasional one-sided conversation continued even after Robert left him alone.

Lucky did seem to be aware enough to react when questioned. His gaze loosely followed Robert, his expression blank bordering on defeated.

"I think," he croaked, "I am losing my mind."

And then he seemed to regain a moment of clarity and focus, and his eyes widened a little bit in delayed surprise at who he was talking to. It was the glasses that had been throwing him off. "Robert? Oh. Oh no, I - um - I must leave-"

He leaned toward the edge of the gurney as if to make a break for it. Or more likely, fall flat on the floor from lack of balance.

"N-no, I must - I cannot argue this - you do not understand-" Lucky sounded frantic, though he was growing distant and defeated again when he failed to rally the strength to push Robert away. This was truly karma. He was trapped, and at any moment Mimsy would come looking for Robert and see this, and - and -

His injured hand was a mess - underneath the crust of dried and fresh blood there appeared to be a series of deep, precise gouges that formed some kind of symbol. It would be almost impossible to write something like this off as merely an accident - the cut was one continuous, cursive shape. Lucky's fingers shivered and twitched in Robert's grip, and the rest of him seemed similarly on edge. When Robert finally eased off of him, it was hard not to make a break for it anyway.

Of course he wanted to tell Robert. At least if he could share the story he might be reassured that he'd done the right thing. Or at least, that seeing a crown materialize over Mimsy's head was not unusual or worrying and that he was still perfectly sane.

He tried a few variations in his head.

'Your crazy jealous girlfriend came and beat me up for talking to you-'

'You're being used as a human experiment and I almost agreed to help-'

'Mimsy is wearing a crown like the boat painting that ate her, but no one else could see it but me-'

He opened his mouth but he could only manage to make a faint noise of protest that in no way resembled anything he wanted to say. His better judgment had him by the throat. Mimsy was capable of way worse than stabbing him in the hand if only he gave her a reason to find out just how much worse. And letting Robert in on just about any of what had happened tonight was probably so far out of the bounds of their agreement that he would quickly discover the upper limits of Mimsy's creativity.

"Robert..." he finally intoned. His uninjured hand clasped at whatever of Robert's coat he could dig his fingers into. His grip was white-knuckled. "This is just dream, right? I am not avake. No."

"But-" The less he could fidget around, the more he seemed to do so within the space he was confined to. Relaxing didn't seem to be something he was physically capable of right now. Still, he didn't seem to doubt Robert's threats, and he didn't appear to be giving himself the benefit of the doubt in escape scenarios, so he stayed put with the occasional longing glance toward the exit as if wasn't too late to stop this situation from unfolding further. He gave Robert a brief nod of understanding, but he was still moving like a nervous bird. Quick breathes made his chest rise and fall rapidly. For how relatively minor the injury was, and how delicately Robert seemed to be handling everything, he appeared afraid of a whole lot of nothing. Initially, anyway. "S-sorry..."

They both saw the symbol for the first time when Robert uncovered it, smearing away a fresh layer of red. Lucky already knew. He had known since he'd awoken again, lying in the grass and mud where he'd been left in defeat. He had traced the burning sensation of cut and exposed flesh into a familiar pattern in mere moments. But seeing it with his own eyes, carved into his hand, still made Lucky go paler than he already was.

Robert looked away from the incisions, but Lucky didn't, at least not until Robert resumed treating it. A cursory glance up again only resulted in more confusion and a slow, creeping paranoia as Robert seemed to have taken on a whole different demeanor over this. But he couldn't possibly know, because he was Robert. And Robert was, well... Maybe injuries just made him sad, being a... nurse and all. Yes. That was far more likely. He tried to lapse back into something resembling catatonia, but it was hard not to notice someone talking to you.

Lucky didn't respond to the childhood story except to look even more uncomfortable than he already was. He stopped watching Robert work and stared at the floor instead, the gears in his head turning even despite the haze of physical and mental exhaustion. That story seemed dangerously close to being relevant to what he was doing here...

But it was still shocking to hear Robert come out and say it. Lucky looked up sharply again.

"H-how..." The look on his face gave it away instantly. He had little capacity to lie in the state he was in right now; Robert had guessed right, and even without admitting to it Lucky had already given it away. And the intermediate hunter continued to stare at him in disbelief for a good while after, stuttering several times before he seemed to get a grip on his answer. He wondered if Robert could even help him. He wondered if it made him weaker for even considering it. "I- I do not know. I voke up and it vas like this. Sh-she must have done it after ve f-fought... said she vas helping me... b-but..."

The more he thought about it, the more his head hurt. Nothing was making any sense any more. Maybe he really was going crazy after all. He looked like he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown - at this rate, Robert was probably going to have to make good on his threats regardless.

Lucky continued to sit there resigned to his fate as Robert dealt with the bandages. He seemed to be wringing the nervousness out of his system little by little as nothing happened. Part of it was trying to maintain his focus on reality despite the dizziness of blood loss and general exhaustion, and the beginning of a pounding literal headache. It was a relief to have at least one person on the island he wasn't entirely afraid of being honest with - only because he felt he had nothing to fear from him. It was unfortunate someone else had already staked a territorial claim to him first.

The other hunter's insinuations of general craziness did worry him, though, more than usual. As long as the offer stood, though. "Actually..."

"Robert," Lucky began to ask, tentatively, from the middle of the one-sided man-hug. Robert's gesture seemed genuine; Lucky wished he could take more comfort in it. He returned the gesture by finally calming down enough not to stutter through a single sentence. "If there vas something wrong vith me... you vould tell me... right?"

Lucky looked a little worried at the implication. He didn't seem capable of hiding anything at this point. He tried to give Robert a weak smile back, but it was clearly forced.

"I do not know," he lied, scratching at his wrist just above the bandages. "It is probably nothing."

There were no other strange symbols carved any higher up his arm yet, fortunately. He flexed his left fingers experimentally, feeling the twinge of pain as he exacerbated the cuts under the bandages. Robert had helped him again, even if this time Lucky had not been initially keen on the idea. It seemed he was going to be indebted for a while longer at this rate. And he still hadn't managed to get anything together for a sandwich - though given Mimsy's reaction, he suspected he wouldn't be able to deliver it regardless.

"Me?" Lucky gestured toward himself in disbelief. Robert's offer was unexpected; Lucky had already been making to leave. There was no point in pretending - he had accepted a long time ago that no one wanted him around. He paused with his feet on the floor, halfway off the gurney, looking genuinely - pleasantly? - surprised. "I... I guess I can stay."

But there was at least one moment of concern, which crossed his face as he considered the offer. He was afraid Mimsy would find out, and come back to finish the job. He tried to stamp it out.