“You don’t get to, you have to.” I’ve had that stuck in my head since residency. Old man Samson was an insensitive prick, but he was right. Even after he was stripped of his license for “Insurance fraud”, otherwise known as playing the rigged system that is medical insurance for a client who couldn’t afford or be eligible for a transplant. Bastards. I got “caught” in the same dumb shit as he did after realizing how rigged, corrupt and batshit insane BCFH was…”

    Eden, a scruffy wood elf in grubby scrubs, gently taps the black, scratched up recorder next to him, stopping the recording. He’s quiet,  remembering the hidden away files of the library… describing experiments of injecting corrupting substances into the participant’s souls without consent, poking around in their brain, brainwashing…but worst of all were the orphans. He shutters, thinking about what those poor children were up against…those that survived anyway. It was supposed to be just a case review, but…he always ended up just going off into a tangent about his life. He had no one else to tell, he supposed. His brown eyes scans the open chest of the man laying on the table, sedated and restrained - Poor bastard had a ruptured aortic aneurysm. He must have had the aneurysm his whole life, but being slammed into a walk, then scraped down the road like a dirty carpet must have ruptured it. He clicks his tongue disapprovingly, and wipes his forehead with his forearm. If he had scraped by him just 10 minutes later than what he did, he would have bled out and died… He’d say he was lucky…but having thick shards of glass embedded in his limbs, this aneurysm, road rash and….whatever happened to his brain isn’t quite so lucky. He reaches his bloody, gloved hand over to the long, flexible graft and inserts it, quickly looking over the heart-lung machine’s numbers, then to his vital signs, before sewing it into the vein. Normally, you’d have a big team for this but-
“ what...'appened eden? 'e looks like 'e's in bad shape. ” An orc in a navy blue, cotton shirt and arctic blue camo pants speaks up, having wandered into the scrub room. Eden looks over his independent sutures,
”Mmm? I’m not sure. I didn’t see, he was just rushed in here once he was dragged out of hell. He’s pretty banged up, Jerome.” Jerome grimaces, and nervously rubs his tusks,
” Bahham said it might 'ave sahmethin to do wit de General... ” Eden chuckles, and restores the heart back to functioning, watching over his stitches for any spills or leakage,
“We both should know if the fucking general had anything to do with this you’d be playing I-Spy with this poor smucks’ body parts…and not just his.” He smiles under his mask, the pride of his stitches holding steady, and begins to cauterize and remove glass pieces.
“ Sometimes it's better tae keep yer gob shut an' gie th' impression yoo're glaikit than tae open it an' remove aw doobt .” A deep, gruff voice growls. Goss Centaurus. The man, the myth, the nine foot asshole who everyone, including Eden himself,can barely stand.
“If you’re waiting for me to care, I hope you’ve brought me lunch- because it’s going to be a long time.” Goss towers over Eden, twice his size, and watches as he does his job silently. He’s like that for a while, and Eden examines a large hunk of glass,”...you truly believe the general… the general , is behind this?” Goss grunts in approval, and eden signs,”Mmm Thank christ that nightmare didn’t follow behind him…we would have been royally fucked then.” Goss…grunts again approvingly. Eden pauses, and looks at Jerome, who’s been fidgeting ever since Goss slinked in. He’s been wringing his wrists,”Jerome Walsh, Why are you here?” his voice sounds dry and tired…he really hates the shy and awkwardness of other people. Jerome’s eyes widen, and dart around the room,” oehh... de ahther members wanted to invite you to drenks after wahrk. it's small, maybe 4 people.” Eden pauses, and drops a few more pieces into a bedpan with a sharp clink, at least 14 pieces already cozy in the shiny and bloody pan,
“I appreciate the gesture but-” Goss snaps his head to jerome with a sudden, disgusting crack,
“He'll be thare, an sae will aye.” he sharply nods, and looks back to Eden, who has frozen in surprise, suture in one hand - medical scissors in the other, having just picked up the kit to suture up the deep cuts made from the glass,
“Bold of you to assume I’d say yes to something like that.” He grumbles, irritating building up. He’s only working for Goss because of good pay and good outreach to people who need medical help, otherwise, this crass bastard could fucking croak over and die for all he could care,
“Aw ye dae is bitch an moan, maybe this will get thon stick oot yer ass.” Eden huffs, and looks over to the anesthesia machine, getting more and more pissed off at this nine foot pain IN his ass,
“Fuck you.” he quips, adjusting some tubing that will start draining the abdomen of fluid,
“wad ye?” Eden scoffs, rolls his eyes, and raises a bloody middle finger to him.

“vell, vell, vell...look vhat der cat dragged in ahnd pissed ahll ofer.” A lounging elf with full body tattoos and a glass full of whisky snarks, watching as Eden drags his exhausted ass into “The Brig”...otherwise known as the dingy basement with no longer crusty couches and a full bar. Eden chuckles,
“Missed you too Lilith.” he murmurs, before taking a seat next to the elf,”Long island ice tea for me, Adren.” he props his head up with his hand, as Adren, an eldritch looking robotic bartender winds up to start making his drink,
“Would you need a dress with that order as well, Mr.Caelum?” Eden smirks and shakes his head disapprovingly at the bot,
“Only if it’s long and lacy.” Adren’s moving parts remind Eden of the giant pacific octopus, nearly 6 feet in length, and over 12 long tentacles whipping up a storm. Eden just…silently watches him work. Lilith looks eden over,
“ahs much ahs I lofe ripping into you, you seriously don't look good. you'fe been pulling back to backs, hafen't you?” Eden lazily looks over, admiring her long, black hair with pieces of white scattered around…her light grey skin intensified with the lighting of the Brig,
“What do you care? I’m saving lives.” he puts as much cheesy, dramatic emphasis into ‘saving lives’ as he can, and she narrows her eyes at him,
“oh? vhat about you? you look like you hafen't eaten in days, hafen't shlept in veeks, ahnd you smell of rotten blood. you need to take care of yourself, before you kill yourself trying to "safe lifes".” she motions to his grungy, oversized and bleached out black shorts and tattered scrub pants, stained with old blood. Eden leans slightly over to her,
“Oh, I didn’t know my mommy cared so much about me. I’ll be sure to do that right away. I don’t want to get grounded.” Lilith growls in irritation, before shaking her head,
“You know I’m right.” He scoffs at her and takes his drink from Adren, and takes a long drink of it,
“Mmm thinking about it, nah. So…why did you all invite me here? You all know I’m busy.” Jerome is bounding down the stairs, arms filled with snacks,
“dat's exactly why. to 'ave a lettle foehn... tanner 'as a new drenkin game. dooehgh...wit gahss invitin 'imself i dahn't know 'ow moehch foehn we'll 'ave…” he gets to the end of the stairs and pauses,”ploehs, frahm what dey've all said abooeht you, you 'aven't 'ad foehn sence de cahrroehption was first descahvered.” Eden doesn’t even look over to him,
“Rude. And you're new. You’re not really making a good case for me to like you, are you?” he takes another long drink, and chuckles. Jerome takes a few steps towards the bar,
“i-i... boeht...i mean, you're a lettle mean boeht...gahss is wahrse. way wahrse.” Lilith bites her lip, holding back a laugh, and eden looks over to her, huffs a little with a smile,then tiredly starts to chuckle. Jerome pauses, looks at the two, and his face pales,
“'e's...right behend me, isn't 'e?” Lilith slowly nods as Goss looms intimidatingly above him,
“dinnae let yer mouth write a check thon yer ass canae cash, mullen.” he grumbles. Jerome hauls ass over to the far side of the bar, barking out apologies. Lilith bursts out laughing,and eden gets another long island iced tea. Goss lets out a booming, deep laugh that nearly shakes the room and shakes his head, before making his way towards Lilith and Eden,
“lad tae see ye made it, eden. Ye foucht me like a little bitch tae be here thouch.” Eden rolls his eyes again, and requests a few shots, hoping that with an empty stomach and enough shots, he’ll forget about all this soon enough. Goss slams down in his giant, custom lazy boy, and chuckles again,”Oh, the silent treatment? A suppose thon stick is still up yer ass, isnae it? A suppose we'll have tae fix thon tonicht.” he leans back, and stretches - not in his normal outfit of a sun bleached purple trench coat, faded blue oversized trench coat full of scratches and a medium sized, black skirt, just to cover some of the jointed lower parts of his body - but now he’s dressed in a heather gray turtleneck, and baggy shorts. Tanner, a twiggy, bald human, finally makes and it and comes running down the stairs, black box in hand,
“alright! i've got the game, take youh seats and let's get this pahty stahted!” Eden groans, but does move to the game table…which is just a scuffed up pool table, and takes a seat after taking the three shots he ordered in quick succession and traveling with this third long island of the night. To his right, Goss. To his left, Lilith. He looks over to Goss tiredly,
“Look at you, all smug. It’s not like I jerk off to you at night…but you’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Goss adjusts himself, and chuckles at the statement,
“Gin it'd make ye feel better, ye coud slap me. Lichly.” Eden looks him over, weighing his options, when tanner snaps his fingers,
“hey hey...you two can make out aftah the game. it's called buzzed...two decks in the centah, countah clawckwise - we all pick a cahd. read it out loud...and we go from theyah.” he puts two large decks in the middle of the table, and motions for Edren to bring some drinks over with his caddy. This night is going to be…something. He takes a card,
“everyone who brought a vape tonight, take a drink.” Eden grumbles and takes a drink, making lilith blink in shock,
“you're fucking vith us.” Eden chuckles, shoots the drink back and shakes his head. Goss makes a big, full of effort motion to pull a card,with a large, grandiose motion to take the card and read it,
“Mmmm drink gin ye hate yer job…” he chuckles a little as Lillith, Eden and Tanner all take a drink. Lilith shakes her head, and casually takes a card,
“vhich player most needs to be checked into ahnger management? der person vith der most fotes drinks to chill out.” She immediately looks to Goss, and…so do all the others. He laughs,
“Unfortunate thon A canae get drunk, yeah? or...drink for thon matter.” Tanner slowly develops a shit-eating grin, and takes a USB-looking device from out of his pocket. It’s got a tiny, lock-esq rotating device that currently reads at 0,
“funny you say that...i just so happened to pick this up at the shawps the othah day. each click of the dial equals a drink faw engineered people, like youhself.” Goss roars with laughter, and takes it, plugging it into the port into his neck, hidden by the many wires that go from his head to his chest,
“A'll tak ye i on thon offer. A shoud catch up wi the rest o ye, aye?” he chuckles, changing the dial from 0 to a 3. Eden and Lilith watch curiously, seeming to wait for something…but nothing seems to happen. Goss laughs more, “Must be a heavy weicht whan it comes tae drinking, ay?” Eden shakes his head, and takes a card,
“Who’s got the longest hair? Drink up, horse girl.” he looks to lilith, then to his own long, graying hair and sighs,”Goddamn it lilith…you had to get a haircut, didn’t you?”  he grabs a small bit and looks at the ends before huffing and taking a shot. Goss neighs at him, and he scoffs in response. Jerome finally takes a card, looking…nervous, especially for the shifty usb his boss decided was a “good idea”,
“de player wit de lahngest meddle fenger takes a drenk.” Cue all, minus Jerome, sticking their middle fingers out and at each other…and promptly pointing at Goss, who clicks two “drinks down”. The game goes on for…a while, maybe an hour or two…before Lilith grabs the last card,
“let's play truth or date like ve're aht a middle shchool shleep ofer. choose a player who must complete der task or drink.” She smirks, and sloooowly looks over to eden, who has mellowed out…quite considerably, and is leaned back. He raises an eyebrow,
“Mmm? Now, what could you possibly have in mind for me?” Lilith hides her smile with the card, trying not to laugh,
“you. goss. in der back room; sirty ahnd dirty.” Eden’s face scrunches up…not in anger, but confusion,
“That’s not even the…what?” he laughs and shakes his head,”...fuck it, i’ve had too many drinks. I can’t…can’t handle another.” he gets up, and Goss rockets up, but then sways, the device reading at the limit, 9. He chuckles, picks up Eden, and heads into the back as Eden half-heartedly bitches and moans about being dragged off, Lilith just watching with a shit eating grin. The backroom is pitch-black and filled with broken chairs, storage boxes, and things of the like and smells a bit like mildew…someone has to clean this pigsty up sometime soon. Goss shuts the door, and the silence sets in for what seems like a moment, before Eden is lifted up a bit more, so his projector for his voice is closer to eden’s ears…him squirming a bit, not sure what exactly is happening. Goss chuckles,
“Ye know…” he whispers, keeping a surprisingly low voice for a large robot,”ye're hot whan ye're angry. Thon's why A love pissin ye aff.” Eden scoffs again, still not angry but… he’s not sure how he feels, mostly a little confused. Goss was always flirting with him jokingly…this was one of those times…he was sure of it.
“Shut the fuck up. Jesus christ Goss…can you lay off the fake flirting for one hour you-” Eden whisper yells, but…stops. Something…that feels like a flexible, warm snake flicks around his cheek and into his ear, every now and then flicking around it. He can’t tell the material, or what it is at all but,
“No awthing is a joke…” he murmurs back, the thing still creeping along his cheek, warm steam from Goss’s “breath” makes Eden shiver,
“Don’t do anything you’d regret, Goss; You’re completely tanked.” he warns. Fuck, what is that thing…and he’s also tanked as well, if this is somewhat turning him on. Maybe that extra drink would have been fine…just made him a little more hungover. Goss’ hand creeps up onto Eden’s thigh as he tries to figure out what the hell that thing is,
“A coud feel thon shiver. A must be doin...somethin richt…” he chuckles again, “ye canae tell me ye have't wantit tae-” the door swings open, and Lilith and Tanner are standing in the doorway,
“your time is up. zey're putting on a movie, so mofe your butts out of ziss grimey place.” Eden immediately looks to where that…thing was, but it’s…gone. Goss swings eden over his shoulder, causing him to gasp,
“an we were juist aboot tae get dirty. Spoil sport, arenae ye?” Lilith rolls her eyes,
“calm yourself, you horny bastard;  you two didn't get anyvhere close.” Goss laughs in response, and they all settle down into the couches, Lilith between Goss and Eden. Eden, after a few moments, takes another 4 shots, before curling up next to Lilith and watching a random Netflix movie before the alcohol creeps up on him finally, and caresses him to sleep, gently leaning against Lilith.