The Queen and the Rook

[Ragunn]

It was only after all the tests that Cordell Kirklin finally let loose. Bloodwork, eye, ear, all exams -- even a urine test, really? He was a fairly skilled corpsman, and was angry. This was not news to Sandra Minette LaCroix, who was watching the centrifuge spin and spin, her head nearly turning in a shallow circle as she watched the vials of blood go on their circuit.

Cordell, however, was slowly getting annoyed and petulant. He had penned five messages to Jennie -- and deleted everyone of them before sending them. What in the hell possessed Jennie Godfray to recruit this lunatic, who to his eyes looked like she might start pawing at someone like a hungry cat looking for food or -- even worse -- run off into another direction when she saw something interesting? That wasn't all of it. There was... a strange vibe about the little Opifex, who was even now starting to get up, hum and half-dance around the laboratory even as he sat stock still and felt very, very uncomfortable. And then she started singing. He didn't mind that. He'd been part of a church choir, but this woman danced and sang through life -- and then she started shooting, poisoning and looking utterly focussed and murderous.

If there was any good part of his mental condition, it was that he was hypersensitive to the moods of others to the point where he wanted to kick their teeth in when they began to act idiotically. It was part world-weariness, part just proper misanthropy that led him to be so insular. And yes, added to that was his lack of affect that sadly warred with his hypersensitivity.

Sandra LaCroix pushed all the buttons just by being herself, and somehow he found that he was not best pleased the Opifex was part of the clan again. But the worst part was that he knew that she knew what he felt. It was one of those paradoxes about his life and mental health that actually made him... feel scared.

That was just it. The doctor scared him.

He stared at her as she hummed her way back to the centrifuge, reading the values and then smiling at him. "Everything seems to be in order."

"...right."

And again he knew he was not fooling the middling-aged Opifex. His hackles rose even as he tilted his head and considered a run along the landscape in a wolf morph.

"What is it that makes you so uncomfortable around me?" Sandra asked.

Cord shook his head.

"Is it something about how I act?"

Again, he did not reply aside from a shrug.

Finally, Sandra sighed. "I bear no ill will toward you."

Nothing.

Not until she handed over the pieces of paper, smiling weakly at him. Only then did he react in any measurable way. "Thanks."

"I hate you too."

"...what?" was the last question Cord asked before watching the rainbow-coloured braids disappear up the elevator. And reappear.

"I was joking," Sandra said, before heading up the elevator again, leaving the Solitus to stare at the elevator in stunned silence.

What had just happened?