Rania Dressed as a Nurse

"Well, I was wondering what joining the NetPolice volunteers actually entailed..." explained Mill hesitantly, only to be cut off by MeleeMan boorishly inserting his own opinion. From there, Rania quickly darted into the staff room once they returned to the visitor lounge, leaving Mill with the medical cart and two PETs. Only able to awkwardly scratch his confused head, Mill finally sighed, "That was not what I expected..."

"Me either... That went above and beyond the call of duty..." replied Anyis, having spent her laughing fit and thus was now gasping for air. She was absolutely dying to know where Rania got that uniform, because 'that' kind of outfit seemed completely outside the redhead's element.

MeleeMan's grumbling demands weren't unnoticed by Mill, who picked the abandoned PET up off the bottom of the cart and held it opposite Anyis's in his other hand. Before bothering with the kiosk MeleeMan wanted into, though, Mill had something to address. "MeleeMan, before you call me Four-Eyes again, consider two things: one, it's pretty obvious that I'm wearing my contacts today." announced Mill, who'd have pointed at his un-spectacled eyes were his hands not occupied with a PET in each, before continuing. "And two, I have every reason to call you No-Eyes if you're going to call me that."

"Pfft... Heheheheh..." was all Anyis could offer in support, as having yet to fully recover from Rania's obviously-cosplay-and-not-a-real-uniform issue, she got tickled again by Mill taking a shot at MeleeMan's precious bucket helmet. She was lying on her back within her PET, curled up slightly and laughing here and there while trying to catch her breath. Anyis just had the giggles today, it seemed like.

"But anyway, you said kiosk..." added Mill, getting back on point, "... but there are about half a dozen kiosks here in the lobby alone. How about we just hold on until Rania gets back?"
"Sorry, your face is just so boring that I usually don't look at it," MeleeMan replied absently. Mill had some pretty valid points and some pretty witty comebacks, but darn if MeleeMan didn't have a hard time focusing on anything having to do with him. "I don't know what you're talking about with those other kiosks, but the only kiosk that matters is the one in the GNA territory... Huge, lit-up, active place in Internet City. Nobody could miss it." He said this all matter-of-factly, making it sound like he was much more up on the registration process than he was and hadn't just had his first contact with it when he went to apply. "Just jack into the cart, alright?!"

As he said this, he himself was jacked out of the cart (although he'd never actually followed the connection and was still hanging around in the PET). Aggravated, he looked back up to see that Rania had already returned. "What gives? Why not just use the cart?" the navi grumbled, crossing both arms across his chest.

"Because I don't want to stand around with this cart, or tie it up for that matter, while I'm off duty," his operator explained. She still hadn't changed out of the uniform yet, but she had already forgotten that she never explained to Mill exactly why she was wearing it. "Let's find a quiet place where we can sit down and jack in. Somewhere we'll be out of the way," she suggested, leading the way. Strangely, she was headed deeper down the hall rather than back to the lobby.

"Let's sit in here," Rania suggested, flipping on the lights in an empty room. The room looked to be an examination room, based on the fact that the only furniture was a patient's seat and two small, black guest seats, along with one foot stool. It was actually a little claustrophobic. "I know nobody's going to be in here today, judging by our schedule, so we'll be fine!" In reality, her thoughts were something like: "Let's not let anyone else who hasn't seen this outfit already get a look at it." Getting Mill alone in a patient examination room while wearing a spicy nurse fetish outfit wasn't any desire of hers, but things were playing out that way regardless.

Luckily, the office did at least have many things to jack into. The best of these was a patient terminal, made specifically for patients to jack in their navis and use the net if necessary. She took a guest seat next to the terminal, keeping both legs very tight together. Unfortunately, this either put Mill on the other side of the room or on the long, elevated patient's chair.

"Alright, time to get this show on the road," MeleeMan spoke up as Rania jacked him in. "Anyis, I hope to whatever higher power that you know how to get to Internet City, being a navi and all."

((Jacking in))
"Erk..." grunted Mill quietly as Rania coerced him into the empty examination room, his mental discomfort becoming more apparent as he came through the doorway. However much he'd deny having a fear of hospitals, something was clearly bothering him about being here, and Rania's strange insistence to stay was not helping matters. "We'll be fine for what..." he sighed in response to Rania, failing to understand her motivations for hiding in this cramped room.

As the observer, Anyis was split between two possibilities: one, Mill was lying and really did have a phobia of some sort with hospitals, or two, Mill was highly distressed over Rania's short-skirted little cosplay. Either would explain fully why he was acting so awkward all of a sudden, but as much as she would've liked to tease her Operator over the latter, Anyis had to acknowledge that Mill had been tense ever since he stepped foot into the lobby. That didn't rule out the latter, though, so ultimately she just figured it was both. After getting up off the ground from that earlier laughing fit and dusting herself off, Anyis offered, "Fine for hiding, it looks like. After all, you did lie to the receptionist and are now running around a hospital on a fraudulent task, while Rania is trying to literally cover her rear so the entire world doesn't find out what color her panties are today." Straight as an arrow, that was, and just as piercing.

Never minding how that was in earshot of Rania (as was everything in this tiny room), Mill turned his head to look back at the door, then glanced over at Rania for just a second, then darted his eyes towards the other guest chair which he promptly sat in. "... Mm." was all Mill retorted with, before pointing his custom PET at the patient terminal and linking it up wirelessly.

... That was an odd reaction, thought Anyis. She tilted her head in confusion at Mill's subdued reaction to both the guilt trip and the mention of Rania's panties, and ultimately couldn't figure out what the issue was. Her mind ran through a few more things she could say, both good and bad, but Anyis decided to just leave him be for now. Magna had been asleep most of the day thusfar, claiming he needed to recompile data from the last net trip, but since they were moving out, Anyis kicked him awake and lead the way to Internet City.

(Jack In, Internet City)
Both Rania's and Mill's navi and SP pairs seemed as charming as ever. Ignoring them, as she figured her navi could at least avoid creating an incident while on a task as harmless as accepting a mission, Rania turned her attention back to Mill. He looked pretty nervous... At first she thought that might be a good sign, as it could show she was getting a rise out of somebody her own age, which didn't happen as often as she'd honestly like. Upon further inspection, however, she noticed that the discomfort was a little less horny and a little more genuinely stressed.

"It looks like something is wrong... Maybe it's environmental influence? It's easy to get sick in a hospital because you expect to be sick while you're there," she reasoned. If that was the case, she might be able to get some more mileage out of her volunteer service skills today and furthermore have a justification for using the room, should the need for such explanation arise.

"Mill, you don't look too well... Do you have a fever or anything?" she asked. She thought it night make her day if he did. Just seeing color rise to his face as a result of something she'd said would be pretty excellent feedback for her. With a small shake of her head, she tried to stop wishing a pox upon her friend. "I'm certified for routine medical examinations, you know. I doubt mind giving you a checkup if you like."
"Fever?" echoed Mill, suddenly snapping back to reality and realizing his strange behavior. He looked around the room hastily like he hadn't already seen it before, then looked up at Rania for a second, and finally cast his head back down and sighed. "No, I'm fine, thanks. A room like this just... stirred up some bad memories from when I was a kid, is all."

Mill's face honestly did seem a little pale, under the right light. He really didn't have much of a motive to lie about being sick, so maybe it was just a... what was it, psychosomatic effect? Whatever weighed down on his mind was weighing down on the rest of him too, it looked like. After glancing at his PET's screen momentarily to check up on Anyis and Magna, Mill placed two fingers to his temple and closed his eyes momentarily before standing up all of a sudden.

"Can we go outside for a bit? I think I just need some air..." requested Mill, having never properly diagnosed why Rania dragged him into this room in the first place.
Rania smiled and nodded, slipping out the door with Mill and locking it behind herself quietly. Despite the expression she'd put on, she was both disappointed and angry at her friend. "If I'm going to be caught in this stupid outfit, I wish I could at least get the right reaction out of it," she sobbed internally. "Just so you know, we're encouraged not to linger in the hall... but if we go too far, we'll have to find a new jack-in point. Would you like to go to the lunch room? Or maybe the employee break room? But I guess people would wonder who you were..."

Looking at him, Rania began to realize he really meant outside the hospital, not just the examination room. "Oh, yes, let's head outside," she laughed in a spacey way, heading for the door out.

...And just like that, she was standing in the public, streetside entrance to the hospital in her nurse cosplay. The reception was getting to be pretty bad on that jack-in, worse the further they got away from the point. She was just happy that she had been working on the first floor rather than the top; the reception would have been long gone. "We can't go to the beach or anything though... I didn't bring my swimsuit and we are going to lose our jack-in if we keep going."

She briefly reflected over the fact that standing in her current attire outside of the hospital would make her look like a mascot character. "Eeeer, where to?" she asked, wondering if she'd actually be more comfortable if she'd brought her awful bikini.
Mill took a deep breath of the salty coastline air after he and Rania stepped outside of the hospital, which, aside from bothering his sinuses, helped clear up his burdened mind. He hadn't been to this hospital since he was... what, 6 years old? Lilia, his little sister, was born when he was 5, and frequent trips were made back to this place for about a year and a half after as Mill's mother suffered from complications that ultimately led to her passing. That... didn't do a whole lot of good for the psyche of an elementary schooler, but Mill was 20 now, and he honestly didn't expect the memories to rattle him this much.

In the here and now, though, Mill was being unfair to Rania. He'd probably never know the story behind that cosplay (lord knows he'd never dare ask), but in retrospect is was pretty clear she was trying to avoid the public view as much as possible. And yet, here he was dragging her outside because of his own issues. With rational thought now governing his actions again, Mill turned to face Rania and apologized. "Sorry, I wasn't really thinking of anywhere to go... I just needed to get out of the hospital. Um..."

Hastily, Mill yanked his custom PET out of his pocket, looking for some sort of alternative distraction for his eyes after his train of thought derailed completely. One arbitrary check of Anyis and Magna later, not really discerning what the two were doing, and Mill wasn't any better off than before. To evade his mental trauma, he dragged Rania outside into what was possibly a traumatic event for her, and... Crap. Think Mill, think! "Uh... There are plenty of open benches around, and... Ah, here." Since Rania's problem (and to some extent his own too) was that clearly fake nurse uniform, Mill came up with the innovative solution to cover it up. That's why he took the old green jacket off his scrawny body and held it out towards his friend. "If you need to cover it up... and sorry for the junk in the pockets."

He washed it the other day, at least.
"Thank you!" Rania responded with a smile what was vibrant, earnest, and most of all made her look like she may be finishing up her last year of middle school soon. She was genuinely delighted, however. She gave a brief thought to the fact that she had never smelled a man's scent that close before... It smelled... Surprisingly clean. Was that just cleaning detergent? She felt at once thankful that he'd washed the jacket and outraged that she had been denied boy smell.

Well, she'd gotten a pretty good whiff of Dr. Goodall when he ad nearly broken her arm while helping her, but she would sooner forget that if possible. "Yes, a bench will be fine," she agreed. After all, benches were almost like custom for her now. She had met Na'im on one, first talked to Mill and Erin on one... quite a storied history for the humble wooden park bench. "This brings back memories," she sighed aloud, allowing herself to reminisce a little. For her, they were goof mark bench ones. She wasn't aware of Mill's negative association with hospitals.

"O-Oh right, this outfit. I left my clothes to wash at a friend's place and she swapped these in as a joke," Rania laughed, realizing finally that the truth left her relatively blameless except for the ditziness of not checking the bag or asking for a swap. She watched her PET quietly, reflecting over how suddenly happy she was with the situation.

The jacket was, of course, more than big enough on her. What it didn't cover was the front of the miniskirt. As she sat, Rania unfolded her legs and recrossed them easily, no longer worrying about her appearance. There was the briefest flash... not of ordinary white, but of hot, shiny red. One could easily wonder what was going on under there.
Mill sighed, his eyes downcast on his PET as Magna and the unconscious Anyis landed inside. Any Navi is going to suffer some significant damage every once in a while, so he wasn't really torn up about that much. What was depressing was that Mill had been putting off a proper sweep of Anyis's code ever since her reformat, since her systems up to this point had been autoadjusting pretty well, and now with this issue he was going to have to go through aaaaaall of it and learn what's where before even getting to repairing Anyis's damage. All-nighter ho...

"Guess I'd better get to work." announced Mill without much enthusiasm as he got up off the bench and dusted off his pants. "Don't worry too much about Anyis, this isn't anything like last time. I can fix normal combat damage just... Mm." Mill turned to look at Rania while talking, at which point he realized... his jacket. Rania was wearing it still. Right. He did kinda want it back since it was his favorite jacket, but at the same time Mill would feel like a huge jerk if he made Rania walk around any more in that... questionable nurse's outfit. After taking a quick mental tally of his pocket supplies and deciding there was nothing important inside, Mill opted to leave it and said, "Just hang on to my jacket for now, I'll get it back next time we meet up. Later, Rania." With a quick nod, Mill walked off towards the MetroLine.

(Going Home)
Rania wanted to stop Mill and insist that he take his jacket back, but truth be told, she'd be happy to have it for now. Showing off her legs this way was bad, but at least she could have brag about those. Showing off the upper body was another story. "Thanks," she finished. "Let's meet up again soon..." Mill was gone without much fanfare; Rania had finished up her volunteer work and it was still pretty early in the day. "What do you think about Anyis?"

"Like what? Just in general?" MeleeMan asked, not the type for small talk in the first place and especially not sentimental chatter. "I think she looks better with long hair and bigger t-"

"No, her injury," Rania reiterated, restraining a sigh in the interest of cutting back on that particular reaction. "Do you think she's in trouble?"

"Nah, not really. I don't expect much of anything to hurt her, not really, at least... and Egg-Head says he's going to take care of the rest. I'd say I try not to worry about these things but, you know, I don't really worry at all. A guy like me doesn't have doubts or concerns like that," he boasted. "Now, our top priority oughta be getting me some upgrades with all of this Egg-Head cash I got!"

"Mill cash?" Rania questioned, not understanding.

"No, I was talking about NervousMan this time. They're both Egg-Heads," MeleeMan snapped. "The one thing that'd really ruin today is knowing I did all of that science crap for nothing." With that in the bag and Damascus having nothing to add, Rania went home first to change her clothes and chastise Amelie, despite her earlier consent-by-silence to going and spending the new cash right away. Rania's nurse outfit and dude's jacket would get some weird looks aboard the metroline as she rode first to her house, then to the shop.

((Changing off-screen and then heading to Scilabs))