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[Fitz had intended to send this as a private message to Dr. Foster, but a sudden onset of dizziness and blurred vision meant a text message was out of the question. Video would have to do. He'd remembered to set the privacy settings, hadn't he? Probably.

He addresses the network with a bleary expression, glassy eyes rolling up into his head until he blinks to train them back into place. His skin is an unhealthy pallor, ghastly white with a rash of dark splotches tainting the deep bags under his eyes.]

Doctor Foster... I, ah... The samples from the tunnels? I've been performing analyses, and I've reason to suspect that they aren't quite safe... They react terribly to human DNA samples. It's... I'm not a strong enough biologist to reach a proper conclusion, but some sort of degeneration appears to be taking place.

I also think it might be in our best interests to quarantine off the remaining sediment. The dust has been... It's...

[He grimaces and clenches his jaw, bowing his head for a long moment. He doesn't finish his thought, jumping over to a different one instead.]

Would advise against further reconnaissance trips to the tunnels. At least until we've had more time to study.

[He clumsily gropes along the keyboard next. One of those button presses probably manages to post it. Probably.]

[Action]

[Those who thought the darkness was limited to the subterranean levels of Wonderland might be dismayed by a certain scientist's decision to bring a cursed object onto a higher level. Fitz, believing fully that "cursed objects" were silly superstitions, saw nothing wrong with the idea of bringing it topside for testing and discovery. That was before the illness struck. Now, there's just pain. Pain and... some kind of faint melody. It's too distant to make out yet, a soft buzzing at the edge of his thoughts.

After leaving his message, he abandons the lab entirely, with the intent to return to his room on the fourth floor and sleep until the illness breaks on its own. He's underestimated the frequent onsets of mystical pain, though. He'll most likely be a huddled lump of a person curled against a hallway wall, shivering despite a critically high fever.

He'll still argue any "taint" or "curse" talk, though. It's probably nothing that antibiotics can't cure.]

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[The pain is still there, but the suffering is different. It's filtered and reprioritized. There's something leagues below crooning a siren's call, and it's important to receive it.

He lies still for some time after that, just long enough to let his doctor sink into her work. The squeal of the oxygen sensor betrays him when he moves next, tearing it off as well as unsettling his IV drip. Even though moving at all sends his muscles screeching in agony, he still needs to -- he's not sure what. But it requires getting out of bed.]

[The world goes cold-clear the second Maxine recognizes the alarm for what it is, and she's wheeling off of her stool at the bench and hurrying over, ready to find him gone too, too still.

It's almost a relief to see him staggering to his feet, though she hurries to his side anyway, hoping to keep him both where he is and from pitching headfirst back to the floor.]

Woah- Fitz. Okay. Where are you going?

Don't know.

[It's an honest answer, but not knowing his destination isn't going to stop him from moving anyway. He clasps a hand over the injection site to catch the minor blood splatter from his discarded IV.]

Not important. Go back to your research.

Nope.

[Taller than her though he is, she has the advantage of not being in the grips of a raging infection, and braces her hands against his shoulders in the gentlest possible effort to keep him right where he is.]

You're the reason I'm doing the research, never mind possibly infectious. You need to stay put for right now.

I can't.

[He strains against her grip, trying to pull his shoulders away from her. He's a fairly small man in general, and not yet so ill that he'd willingly fight a woman.]

I don't have a choice -- I have to go.

Fitz. Listen to me.

[She stares him down, hard-eyed and earnest, voice dropping to a deliberately slow march.]

Think of how many people you could expose to this thing if you leave this lab. I know you don't want that. Right?

[He shakes his head rapidly enough to make himself dizzy.]

No -- you don't understand -- it's not up to me.

It's supposed to spread.

[That's enough. Once he's feeling better, once he's cogent enough to have a discussion with, they can talk about this. She can apologize. But right now, Maxine knows she has to take control of this situation before it gets any worse.]

It's up to me. And I'm deciding that no one else is getting sick like you are. Now I'm asking you one more time - lay down.

[He makes another attempt at pulling away from her grasp, eyes fixed on the door.]

It'll work when I'm bleeding. But I have to go...

[Welp. That was her 'one more time' warning. Which leaves Maxine nothing but a quick twist without the courtesy of a warning, hands fisted in his shirt and body weight abruptly torquing him back down toward the mattress, hard.

She didn't want it to come to this. And she really doesn't want to try to do a lumbar puncture on a man who's trying to fight his way into the glory of being Patient Zero. But needs must, as they say.]

[It's easy to down him; he's not much of a physical combatant. But the show of aggression makes him struggle harder. He grabs at her forearm, fingernails digging into her.]

I'm sorry -- I --

[He bites, though not out of hunger. It's a dirty street fight burst of desperation, something to get her to release him. He's trying not to draw blood, even though some part of him knows that blood is the key to everything.

It's too confusing. He needs to get out in the hall, to take a walk and try to clear his head. He needs to get away from this bloody quarantine first, though.]

[Everything is chaos for a few seconds, Maxine trying to get Fitz's arms pinned down and him clawing at her, thrashing in a way that lights up half of her brain in sodium-white flashes of kill it kill it that almost blind her when he twists his head and bites.

It all happens fast, no idea if it broke the suit, just that it fucking hurts enough that she cries out in pain and fights for his wrists. Arms, down at his sides, if she can just flip him over and get his arms down she has this.]

[She's not understanding. He has to go. It's beyond rational thought or any of the science he'd been fighting so hard to preserve. He fights, and continues to fight, but she's got more experience with submission maneuvers. He's pinned easily, though it doesn't do anything to curb his squirming. His wrists strain against her hands, enough that there's a danger of him dislocating something from his efforts alone.]

Fitz!

[Her kingdom for an orderly, a nurse, an intern who could push ativan and haldol while she holds him down. He's not turning, she doesn't think, not like she ever say anyone do during the outbreak but going psychotic isn't much better. Even restraining him is out with how hard he's fighting, not that she has anything to tie him up with at hand except for maybe-

. . . her suit. The one that's torn at the sleeve, smudged red inside with blood she's almost positive isn't his. Her stomach clenches, past fear and into the sourness of dread, and she plants a knee against his spine and grits her teeth. IF he dislocates a shoulder? They can fix that. She can't fix herself, and she can't fix anyone else he gets to.]

Not getting out of this, Fitz. You might as well settle down now.

No -- [He protests it vaguely, still twitching under her weight.]

I have to -- it won't stop while I'm here -- I need to go back.

[He draws a shaky breath, muscles still straining for freedom.]

Go back where?

[Maybe she can ride this out. Keep him talking, waiting for him to lapse from alertness back into stupor like he's done a few times now. Even if she just tires him out, that could be enough. She doesn't have a choice - if he gets out of here, if he bites someone, they could have a pandemic on their hands. All because she couldn't keep one person in check.]

The -- th-the.. the tunnels. I think -- I don't know -- let me go.

[she wants to talk? Now? What good is there to be gained by talking?? Talking isn't going to do anything to get him where he needs to be!]

[The tunnels. The tunnels that are five floors down, past dozens of other people, any of whom he might also try to sink his teeth into. And she can already feel feverish heat prickling at her skin, something slower and more insidious than the addrennaline spikes he keeps]

-okay. Okay, Fitz. I can let you go down to the tunnels, but you have to do something for me first. Can you make a deal with me?

Fine -- whatever -- just let me go.

[It's the least sincere deal he's ever made. It doesn't matter what she wants him to say, as long as he gets access to what he needs... Even if he doesn't know what those needs even are. He knows it hurts. He knows it feels like his body is trying to devour itself. Everything else is just an accessory.]

All right. I just need to grab something out of the closet. Then we're going down to the tunnels.

[She picks her way up and off of him, giving him enough leeway to struggle to his feet but not much more than that. The closet _{(B-52 please please just a B-52)} is close enough - if she can just tug him over, she only has to let go for a second to grab the _{(B-52 B-52 not a plane not anything by the band that's 5 of haldol and 2 of ativan)} thing she needs _{(ativan and haldol in a 10cc syringe with an 18 gauge needle and nothing else I do not need any monkey paw bullshit right now magic closet okay)} and even if he runs she should be able to catch him before he gets to the door and rips it free of the protective seal of duct tape.

She sidesteps as close as she can get him, awkward as it is.]

Wait here for a second.

[And she lets go.]

[It's a tense alliance, but much of the fight drains out of him when it appears that he'll be getting what he wants. The rashes and welts on his skin are worse than ever, and every brush against the fabric of his clothes is maddening.

He even tries to wait when she lets him go. It's just a second. It's a second keeping him away from where he needs to be, from the darkness and the taint and whatever's the source of that noise. He waits at least a minute, probably ten or twenty, dragging time that goes slower and slower. She's taking too long on purpose. It's a test, or a game to her.

In her perspective, she'll have thirty seconds before he breaks, scrambling to the door. He tries the knob first, not immediately connecting the seal with an exit hazard. The moment of disorientation will probably be plenty to give her time to catch up properly.]

[Maxine's not the best actress, but even she knows enough to not run to the door when he actually stays still. Several steps to the closet, open the door, find . . . a syringe and two vials.

No time for a sterile draw, and she's finished pulling from the second with faintly shaking hands when she hears the scramble of feet and wheels to see him bolting. She's quick after him, and rather than grab him again she runs right into him, pinning him against the door long enough to jab at his arm. Through the shirt and into the deltoid, a hard push, back out, and flung to the corner of the room within a second before she stumbles back.

The world's going unsteady at the edges, but that should do it. She hopes.]

[He ignores her when she throws herself at him this time. She's not important. It's the door -- it's -- it's something. She's pressing him into it, but that's finem because doesn't he need to be pushing it anyway? Is it a pull? He can't quite keep it straight.

She's already stepping backward before he notices she's injected him with anything in the first place. He glances over his shoulder, then sways dangerously, catching himself on the closest wall.]

You... did something.

I can't let you infect anyone else.

[She shakes her head minutely, still tense, watching him for signs of the injection taking hold or somehow failing.]

I'm sorry.

[Given his erratic reactions, it might be difficulty to tell when the sedatives take him, but it's not long at all before his knees buckle. He slides down the door until he's slumped against it, groaning his displeasure.]

...you don't understand. I'm not going to hurt anyone...

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