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Blue was quite fond of their job and all of it's aspects! He loves helping people, assuring them that they're okay, fixing their injuries. All of it. They loved the view of the vast space they got to see every time they were in the cafeteria, they loved talking to people, despite how often they swooned around him the moment he spoke. It took less than a minute for their charm to render the two new crewmates completely speechless the first time they saw them.
What they're not fond of is how… tricky a certain lime colored crewmate is. It's hard enough convincing the engineer to come out of the vents for a brief checkup, and even harder to convince them to take any kind of medication. It doesn't matter what kind, from pain killers to psychotics, they completely refuse to take them before skittering into the vents like a rat.
And currently, their staring at the antibiotics they needs Lime to take, lest they ends up stuck in the medbay because of growing infection. Which would be like trying to wrestle a rabid dogmate every day.
The engineer got their arm snagged on something and cut. What that something was? Blue doesn't know. What they do know is that it's been like that for a while considering how dirty it looked. Which meant all the grime from the vents has probably made it's way into the angry wound.
They had barely managed to convince the engineer to stay put long enough for them to stitch the wound. And in the couple seconds it took Blue to turn their attention to the antibiotics, Lime was gone. Already crawling through the vents.
Blue felt frustrated. They needed to get lime to take medication somehow, but it seemed like everything they tried fell flat.
Their charm rarely worked on the crewmate, explanations of what the medication did went in one ear and out the other, and trying to inject it with a syringe was just asking to be mauled by an angry (and partially insane) crewmate. They were running out of options.
While Blue was thinking, somebody walked into the medbay.
"Hey, Doc! I cut my hand while I was handling a pepperoni stick. Could you take a look at it?" Yellow called out, holding a napkin to their bleeding fingers.
Blue turned, and gave a polite smile. "Yes, come here please. Let me get a closer look."
Blue heard to oh so familiar huff of breath that everybody seemed to do before getting close to them.
They took the chef's hand in their's and began looking over the cut. It was large, but it wasn't deep. If Blue hair to guess, they assumed that Yellow had just been moving too quickly when cutting pepperoni and sliced their hand in their distraction. No biggie.
"It's not too bad, but I'll still have to stitch and wrap it." Blue turned to pull out the needed items, and turned back to yellow.
They worked quietly, weaving the needle through flesh gracefully, a rhythmatic action they'd done time and time again. They finished stitching the cut and tightened the thread, closing the wound. They cut off the excess, and wrapped their hand.
"Keep it clean, and avoid overusing your hand while it cleans." Blue smiled, watching Yellow nodded.
"Got it! Looks like I'm cooking one handed for a while." Yellow grinned, but noticed how blue's attention turned to the vents at the subtlest noise. "Is Lime giving you issues..? Again?"
Blue hesitated before relenting. "Unfortunately I find myself struggling to convince them to take antibiotics. As we all know they're quite… distrustful of everything medical."
Yellow just chuckled. "Yikes, I definitely don't want to be you right now. You sure you can't just charm them into taking medicine? That's how you get all of us to do stuff, ain't it?"
Blue shook their head. "That was the first thing I tried, and they ran away the moment I mentioned medication. An explanation of what they do is only ignored, and I'd need a death wish to try to inject it forcefully.
Yellow clicked their tongue. "Why don't you just sneak it into his food? Y'know, like you do to a dogmate?"
Blue could tell Yellow was joking, as if the laugh that followed them up wasn't evidence enough. However, Blue believed that could work.
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Lime stared at the wiring panel in electrical, squinting their eyes at the colorful technology. They took two wires of the same color and twisted them together, careful not to shock themself.
The stitched cut on their arm flared painfully again, and they sucked in a breath. The panel sparked dangerously, threatening to shock Lime until they hit the wall next to it. "Stop that! You aren't getting the better of me."
They twisted together two yellow wires before closing the panel, considering that task done. They then wandered to the vents and pried it open, squeezing his body back inside.
The cut pressed against metal walls, irritating the threaded skin. Lime grit their teeth and ignored the pain it caused to move around. Quietly he crawled to his little nook in the vents, listening to the idle chatter of his fellow crew.
They heard the two newbies chatting, mostly White going on and on about their riches while Green idly listened, occasionally sparing some commentary. Lime wouldn't be surprised if it turned out White was one of the few people green wasn't fond of.
Red and Purple had started to argue about security budget, again. Red insisted that Mira was focusing of other budgets first. Purple argued that they should focus on the safety of their crews, making a comment about it being the bare minimum.
Yellow and Brown were testing out a new recipe, it smelt distrustful, Lime wouldn't be trying it.
And then there was a knock from the Medbag vent door. Lime almost ignored it until it happened again. They grumbled and began squeezing through towards that vent. It took a few tries but eventually they found it.
The medbay was unusually empty, no sight of the conventionally attractive doctor anywhere. What there was signs of was food. Actually, the food was right infront of the vent entrance.
Lime stared at the food, distrustful. Clearly it was pizza from the cafeteria, food Lime actually trusted. But the location they didn't trust. They almost left until their stomach growled, making them attempt to recall the last time they ate. They couldn't remember. So they relented, and pulled the plate into the vent with him.
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Blue watched, relief flooding through them as the plate of food was pulled into the vents. Under the cheese and pepperoni was the needed dose of antibiotics. Hopefully by the time Lime notices they're already chewing.
They waited by the doorway, watching, listening. They knew Lime wasn't gone, they would have heard them go away if they had left. But it was silent, except for the occasional sound of a bite being taken.
And then it happened. The crunch of lime biting into a pill. He heard the pause… and them the vent slammed open and the plate was pushed back out, one slice already completely eaten, and then other was halfway eaten, the last bite exactly where the pill had been hidden.
Despite having to lie and sneak around for this tactic to work, it had happened! Lime had finally taken some pills.
And so, to everybody's (except lime's) duties there was an added occasional task. Sneaking pills into lime's food. It wasn't always the same pill, and never the same person twice in a row.
The engineer never caught on.