Dichromatic eye lights scan the police report he’s just been handed. The officer in question has their hands on their hips and taps their foot impatiently as he methodically works through the notes. He pauses at one in particular and, in a moment of curiosity, Doctor Baggs lowers the paperwork to look at their arm. As if sensing the silent question the officer thrusts the bite mark at him.
“Yeah, you read that right. Almost took off a chunk of my arm! Don’t get too close, now. They’re dangerously unstable. Can’t be rabid cause we tested ‘em but damn close. Got a real basket case on your hands there, Doc. Be careful.”
The mark isn’t particularly impressive, now that Baggs has had a second to analyze it. The officer likely won’t even be able to see it in the morning. Not even the canines left much of an indent. A warning bite is what he would call that type of mark, but his delicate constitution can’t handle even that much damage.
“They are restrained now?”
“Absolutely! Got to bust out the new model. The straps are a bitch but it’s got ‘em good. You should be good as long as you don’t get too close. Room’s padded so they don’t hurt themselves while you’re processing ‘em. Mostly we just need ya t’figure out which facility we gotta send ‘em to. They attacked some paper guy so we gotta send ‘em somewhere but we don’t know if this is a true mental ward case or if they’re off their meds or what.”
Baggs nods as he flips to the next page of the incident report and makes his way towards the locked room. “I will complete an in-depth analysis and report my findings. I shouldn’t need more than 30 minutes.”
“Thanks, Doc.”
The officer unlocks the door for him and at first Baggs wonders if perhaps there’s been a bit of a mixup. It doesn’t appear the room is occupied, and there’s no immediate signs of life upon entry. The officer steps in with him, looking similarly confused, until they both spot her asleep in the corner of the room behind the door. Propped up, nestled in a slouchy slump, is a surprisingly put-together human woman. She has very short hair, and the tousled look appears to be intentional as opposed to the likely result of being in an altercation.
“HEY!” Baggs and the woman both startle badly at the officer’s shout, both scowling a bit at the sudden interruption to the peaceful moment. Baggs had hoped to use the quiet to his advantage, and startling one who was already disturbed was deeply ill advised.
“Do you mind!?”
The officer only shrugs at Doctor Baggs, then jerks their thumb at the doctor while addressing the ‘patient.’ “Be good for the doc. There’s officers outside.”
The door shuts, and the woman sighs at the same time Baggs does. “Well that was rude.”
“Quite.” He glances at the paperwork again to check the name before offering her a serene smile. “Apologies for the unfortunate circumstances, I am Doctor Baggs. You must be Elizabeth Broadbent.”
She grins, and he’s surprised that she seems more coherent and agreeable than the report made her out to seem. “A pleasure. I would shake your hand, but it seems I’m in a bit of a bind. A little tied up at the moment.”
Baggs barks a laugh and makes a small note about her sense of humor in his notes. “Indeed you do seem to be. I won’t hold it against you. Miss Broadbent, can you please tell me what brought you here?”
Her grin turns cheeky. “Just Elizabeth, please. And… Would you believe me if I told you this has all been a very unfortunate misunderstanding and I really, really need to get out of here before midnight? Assuming it’s still during normal business hours?”
“I might, but I’ll need a bit more to go on than that. This police report, and the bite mark on the officer you saw moments ago, is quite incriminating.”
Elizabeth sighs and leans her head back so it thumps gently on the padded wall. “Ok, look, I’m not going to deny that maybe I got a little tiny bit heated. But my dissertation is due at midnight and Henry has been sabotaging me for years now. I should have punched him in the nose ages ago but I’ve been trying to ignore it in the hopes that maybe it’ll go away when he stops getting a reaction out of me. Unfortunately, I’ve been running on caffeine and spite for like two weeks straight now. Messing with my dissertation the day it’s due when I’m sleep deprived after years of harassment was maybe possibly not the wisest thing he could have chosen to do today. I maybe possibly snapped and maybe possibly jumped the counter while a couple of off-duty officers were in line behind me. If someone wants to mess with my club fliers or whatever, fine. But do not mess with my academics.”
Baggs hums in interest as he looks at the incident report with new eyes and a fresh perspective, and some of the seemingly random and nonsensical parts of the story now make infinitely more sense. “So this part here about accusing the print shop clerk of conspiracy is in reference to this history you have, and their denial was to save face while other customers were present.”
“Jackpot. Now, listen.” Elizabeth shuffles a little so she can sit up and regard Doctor Baggs with a serious expression. “I get that if I’ve made it to the rubber room, I’m not going home tonight. But, hear me out, you’re an academic. You know the deadline for dissertations is not flexible. Please. They probably have my purse locked up in evidence. I will sign whatever I need to. There’s a flash drive in the front pocket. Literally the only thing on it is my dissertation. Please, I was at the print shop because my laptop crapped out on me last night so I couldn’t email it to my professors, and then the library wasn’t sending it because the file size is too large so the laptop wouldn’t have even helped me in the first place but it certainly didn’t help the stress levels that contributed to today’s little outburst. I thought that if I brought in a paper copy by hand, they’d either just accept the paper copy or they’d allow me to hand them the flash drive so they can transfer it right to their computer.
“I cannot miss this deadline. I will owe you literally anything you want if you can help me meet my dissertation deadline. One way or another. If you can email it or take it to them or get me out so I can take it up to the university campus myself. I am actually desperate. Please, is there anything you can do?”
Baggs takes notes as she explains, both for his professional log and also because he’s intrigued to see if the validity of her story holds or if this is perhaps some kind of stress-induced hallucination. “Perhaps. Let’s begin first with this flash drive. Can you describe it to me?”
“Sandisk. 16 gig. Black body with a silver metal protective sleeve. The sleeve rotates, it doesn’t slide in or out. So the back end of the USB stick has a black circle, which is really just a protruding fulcrum of the black plastic casing that the metal U-shaped sleeve rotates around.”
Either this is one of the more vivid hallucinations he’s ever had described to him, or Elizabeth is telling the truth. It’s possible that this is simply a lynchpin of the stress-induced hallucination and she’s fixating on whatever was close by when she experienced her psychotic break, but it feels unlikely. As one who has been on the wrong end of a series of unfortunate events while also deeply sleep deprived… he’s inclined to believe her story. He nods as he jots down a few key details and then he stands. “Let me see if I can find it, and then we’ll go from there. I’ll return shortly.”
Elizabeth grins at him with so much gratitude and warmth for a moment, and then she snickers to herself. “I’d be quite impressed if you returned Tall-ly. That would be quite the impressive trick, wouldn’t it?”
Baggs sighs at the ceiling, but can’t quite help the humored grin on his face. “Oh, haha. Yes, it would be, now wouldn’t it?”
He taps her forehead with the end of his pen and she continues to snicker, her eyes sparkling with humor in spite of the lingering exhaustion he knows all too well not to be able to see through her under-eye concealer. He’s not getting involved, he’s not growing attached… but he can’t help but find a kindred soul under the straight jacket straps.
“If you don’t mind me asking, what is the thesis of your dissertation?”
He didn’t think she could glow any brighter, but she positively lights up with passion at his question. And the compassion, hope, and love that makes up his monster soul can’t help but respond.
“My thesis is on the healing potential of resonance theory and its connection to green monster magic, which is still so new it’s barely been studied at all. I’ve had to partner with so many incredible people over the last year, it’s been amazing. I’m really more of a physicist and this work has involved so much medical expertise I swear my list of references is longer than the dissertation itself.”
Baggs freezes. Something about that statement jostles something loose in his memory and he pulls up the paperwork again. Elizabeth Broadbent. Elizabeth - Beth… “My stars. B. Broadbent?”
She blinks up at him and squints curiously. “…Yes?”
Baggs laughs and shakes his head, bustling quickly to undo the straps confining her. “My stars, how did I not notice before? Come, come, my dear. I’ve been in cooperation with you and your professors for the last year. My earliest work likely takes up half of those citations, if the number of studies and papers I’ve sent you have gone to good use!”
“Wait… SANS!?”
He raises a brow at her. “An older name I no longer use, but changing so much paperwork on so many early published works is quite an exercise in futility. Baggs, if you please.”
Elizabeth can’t help but cackle at the improbable odds but is absolutely not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. She shifts as best as she can to give him access to the buckles and straps and tries not to squirm too much at the tickling sensation of him fiddling with the clasps. “What- what are you doing here!?”
“I should ask you the same!” Baggs chuckles to himself, “Attacking a poor clerk like that and biting an officer of the law. Though we’ve only corresponded through email I thought I had gleaned a higher degree of professionalism from you.”
“N-no, no, no! You don’t understand! This last year has meant so much to me, when Henry tried to give me smudged pages I just… saw red. We worked so hard on that research, I was not about to allow him to get away with ruining months of hard work like that just because he’s too petty to get over himself. I swear this is very, very much a one-off situation, sir.”
“Easy, easy. I merely jest.” The buckles finally slide free enough to allow Elizabeth to wiggle free of the straight jacket, and when she stands and straightens her clothing back in order he notices the myriad of bruises and scratches she likely earned in the cat fight that had brought her here today.
“They didn’t tell me you were in need of medical attention,” he says more to himself than anyone else, but Elizabeth shrugs nonetheless.
“It stings, but I’ve had worse. Seriously. I can worry about that after I get my dissertation to Doctor Rengami. You know he won’t accept it late.”
Baggs quirks a lopsided smile and offers his hand. “Two birds, one stone, my dear. Perhaps you’d benefit from a physical demonstration behind the theory you’ve been building. After I take you personally to Dr. Rengami to deliver your thesis.”
She takes his hand immediately and a sniffle of relief accompanies a tear-streak that tracks its way down her cheek. “Thank you.”
Baggs gives her hand a small squeeze. “You’re quite welcome. By the way… as an extension of your theory behind the connection between green magic and resonance frequencies, did you know that human souls respond to more than just green magic?”
She blinks as he knocks on the door, his signal to the officers outside that he needed to be released from the room. “N-no?”
His smile grows Cheshire and his left eye flashes a brighter magenta as the door opens. “Perhaps you’ll find more than just green reasons to rely on my expertise, Miss Broadbent. Watch and learn.”
@megalommi idk if I tagged you in this when I first wrote this like 800 years ago lol. If not, here’s an old drabble that started getting notes again recently
So, I'm not sure this has been asked yet, so because it's my time, I thought I might as well ask.
What would Dr. Baggs do to help during ones period? :3
I feel as if he would be a big comfort. UwU
Feels like so many of us are synced up lmao
He will have already have researched extensively about the human body and all it entails. Though as typical, medical academia fails to focus on pain relief for bodies with uterus's, especially in the old text books that fall into the underground.
So he will take the opportunity to learn with a hands on approach. Asking them what has helped in the past, what he can help with, if there's any gaps in his existing knowledge. It'll get a bit annoying while one's already cranky and he has to be reminded to get out of scientist mode, which he will, sheepishly.
Once that's sorted he'll kick into care taker mode, heating up a heat bag in the lab microwave, administering pain relief medication, settling them on a couch or in bed with a comforting movie or game, and checking in on them way more than necessary. Sometimes with invasive questions about flow or mood changes. He has a clip board.
He is infuriatingly calm when blown up at, but will drop everything and give em a cuddle and a shoulder to cry on when the tears start.
He will redouble his efforts to find as much information as he can to better take care of them, especially if he identifies that the pain levels are no where near an acceptable normal.
I realized I've never posted this. When I was in grad school, we had the assignment of creating an information sheet about a therapy methodology. I chose CBT and made this.
After many years, I FINALLY got to use it today when someone said they liked Undertale!
Would any of you be upset if I showed some Undertale art here?
I've got a main canon adjacent (kinda) au story going on (that I'm not showing off until I finish it because I don't want to accidentally kill my motivation and only show a scattered mess of a timeline instead) and I've got a lot of non-canon doodles and small au's that I wouldn't mind showing off.
This started as a Sonic blog, and I'm still a fan of Sonic, don't get worried about that (why would you get worried about what I like or don't like????) but I've been kinda dead to the internet for the past like... year due to mental health stuff and I almost kinda wanna test the waters again? I say almost because who knows if I'll just disappear suddenly again.
I've just got some stuff backed up that I don't think I'd mind showing off but if not that's completely chill, I already babble enough in the discord servers I'm in lmao.
Aaand these are a few panels that had been cut either for tone reasons, or because I just didn’t have the energy to finish them or make it work in the context!
If you were wondering where frisk got those business cards…
Alphys actually had a panel originally! But I couldn’t make it work. (I explained in the replies in more depth why I had to cut it)
And!!! Asriel!!!! Who I gave up on because I spent way too much time on this comic already and the panel was fighting me. I figured Frisk telling Flowey to get therapy would simply have to do.
Frisk was going to throw the business cards at him.
Bringing this back to the front of my blog because sometimes I really need the reminder... and I hope that this reminder can maybe help some other people too.
Keep creating. You're doing amazing. You made something from nothing, and even if it isn't perfect, that's the most beautiful kind of magic there is.
stormborns
origamiaround
izzy806
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turnnoffyourmind
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