5MD Medical Plaza

“Ooh, did we get it?” Hyde teased, playing with the lens on her camera. “Did you blink? I think you blinked, didn’t you? Hmhm… No, you’re probably fine,” she admitted, unstrapping the helmet at her chin. “I really don’t know how to check the picture for you, though. We’ll have to wait until PhotoBoy is back.”

Hyde gave Cosmo a big grin as they played with each other’s faces for a moment, not showing any shame about her distinct teeth while inviting him to explore them. She didn’t have any more interest in getting his smile than she did in making him smile, though, so she gladly turned her attention back to the sisters as they started pouring in. “Oh, Calistheti, you got the-“ she started, covering her mouth with her hand for a sudden stop and smiling. “The Bonesaw!” She pulled the helmet off of her head and held it in the crook of her arm, using her left hand to give her scrunched-up hat an ineffective touch-up. “I’d heard you weren’t coming. Well, it’ll be difficult to pencil you in, but when you show up looking so bloody adorable and with a heart in your hands, how can I say no?”

Hyde skipped over towards the group, past the two sisters she’d met and up to the new acquaintance, leaning in towards Bonesaw without regards to the state she’d arrived in. “Well, you know what kind of shoot we’re doing, don’t you? We’re doing what sells! But if you’re not stripping down, dear, I’ll do the best I can with what I’ve got. Since you’re in a hurry, let’s go ahead and get yours done. A shot in your office or operating theater should be the best advertising! Lead the way, would you?”

As Hyde waited for the other doctor to do so, she turned to Calistheti, giving her a wink. We’ll do Pharmaceuti’s after that, okay? You can hold on until then, right?” she asked, winking again. “Oh, and did you happen to see PhotoMan on the way? I wonder if he decided to schedule a private consultation with your lovely sister, heehee!” she giggled. She didn’t think that was likely, considering how Psychologi had seemed to be a little much for him. It was easier to imagine she’d detained him somehow.

… She paused, remembering Pharmaceuti was actually supposed to retrieve PhotoMan, but hadn’t done so. In any case, Hyde was so tickled with her imagination of PhotoMan and Psychologi getting up to business in her office that she decided not to ask. Instead, she decided to send him a message:

Quote

Paging PhotoMan? Are you still among the living? Most of us are heading over to Bonesaw’s office, if you care to join for some more free medical professional eye candy!

"Your bedside manner needs work! You just about gave me a heart attack with that mere suggestion," Cosmo sighed, then flashed his teeth and joked. "Of course, even if I did, there are plenty of doctors here that could help with that. Though I wonder if any of them could help with that..."

"Of course I could! My heart medicine is very effective," Pharmaceuti bristled, already rifling through her coat for the right medicine.

"... After the heart attack?" Cosmo asked, incredulously.

Bonesaw wore a concerned expression as she looked between her sisters, her single brother, and her photographer. Something on her face and in her sigh seemed to say "of course, we'd get a photographer like this." It was true that, among this mad menagerie of doctors, Hyde fit in perhaps a bit better than most places, apart from her appearance, which didn't match that of the other doctors so nearly as they did each other. "My workplace... really isn't the best place for a photoshoot. But I don't have an office apart from that..." she mumbled, looking at the floor with an uncertain expression.

"True, the only worse one is Psychologi's," Calistheti agreed.

"Ah, but we'd break theme if we did it anywhere else, given that we've used workspaces for the past two. Let's do it in your office, yes?" Cosmo suggested, with a smile on his face that probably wouldn't erase Hyde's memory of the fact that he wanted his photo to come out better than that of his sisters'. "I'm sure it will be the most natural there."

Bonesaw's sour expression seemed to suggest that she disagreed, but she submitted. "Let's head there. I'll switch the gate," she informed the others, before turning the knob on the warp gate they'd used earlier. She stepped in first.

Calistheti hung behind the others a bit, since Hyde had a question for her. "PhotoMan? Oh, come to think of it, he hasn't turned up in yet, huh? No, I didn't see him in Pharmaceuti's office," she pointed out. "Sheesh... Some photographer, huh? Where is he, slacking off and making you do all the work? If you ask me, guys tend to be a little lazier than girls when it comes to work ethic. Like my patients... if they're men, you wouldn't think they'd be so upset when I tell them they ought to do pushups and crunches! Really?" she ranted on, perhaps showing a different side of herself. "That photographer looked like he could do with a couple pushups himself."

That aside, the two continued on to Bonesaw's office which was, simply put, a horror. If Psychologi's was R rated for sexual content, this one was the same for blood. Navi data of all kinds, whether red or green or actual fragments of navi, was scattered all over the floor and on the big, metal slabs she used for patients. Those slabs were mostly curtained off, but enough were open for Hyde to get a gist of the grisly scene inside of them. Leather straps for the hands and feet were also included... and atop many of them were scattered tools, including amputation saws, bandages, and other devices that looked to be designed for pinching, pulling, holding open, sewing shut, and all sorts of other tasks that could easily make one lose their lunch, adding more navi bodily contents to the floor of the horrible room.

Worse yet, the place was pretty dimly lit. There appeared to be cabinets and racks full of more tools on one side of the room and a small, metal office desk on the other side, with a lamp for extra light and a few scattered papers, as well as rags for wiping down. Perhaps for that reason, the papers and things on the desk seemed comparatively clean. It was probably the only sanitary place to take a photo in this whole room. "I apologize... I've had patients today and haven't had a chance to do clean-up," Bonesaw pointed out. As if in punctuation, a loud, male groan came from behind one of the curtains. Apparently, she actually still had a patient. She walked over quickly and stuck her head in. "Is it holding on?" The answer was inaudible. "Good. Okay. We're going to be doing some other work in here. I'll try to keep the noise down. Please, try to rest. It will fall off again if you move too much before the glue sets and I have a chance to apply the cast."

As she stepped back toward them, PhotoMan reappeared, though he looked very pale and as though he might faint from the sight of the room. "I figured it would be faster if I just came to you, Hyde. I must admit... I was not bold enough to leave the hiding space I'd chosen until you told me you'd joined Bonesaw for a photoshoot," he confessed, hanging his head slightly.

Bonesaw didn't look particularly put off by that and shook her head. "I can understand why you're shocked. After all... I hadn't done clean-up yet," she reiterated, perhaps implying that once she did, her appearance would be significantly nicer. However... by the looks of it, navi data was caked onto just about everything, from her own gear to just about everything apart from the desk and rags in her workspace. It was hard to imagine it ever came off. "So, Hyde, I'd like to do this quickly. Where should we start? And everyone else, feel free to take a seat wherever you like."

"Where is a decent place to take a seat in this...?" Cosmo asked, looking a little squeamish himself. Calistheti rolled her eyes at his comment. Before they went anywhere, though, they'd need to know what space Hyde needed for her shoot.

Hyde nodded along with Cosmo’s insistence. Naturally, she could use context clues to guess how ill-suited Bonesaw’s office would probably be for this sort of photoshoot: of course, for the twisted doctor, that was part of the point. “True, true. This whole scheme will fall apart if we don’t take the shoots in the appropriate places. We want customers lining up and visiting the offices to point out the various furniture the medical professionals they saw on the Net were draped over. It’s very, very important to my creative vision as well,” she added, putting her hands into two “L” shapes again and pantomiming a camera box. “Let’s see. For you, I’m thinking the charm point is…” she tapered off, beginning to strafe around Bonesaw and crouch lower as she walked. Suddenly, she stood straight again and clapped her hands, grinning broadly. “Let’s wait and see, okay?”

Hopefully, that would get Bonesaw walking ahead so that Hyde could hang behind and spaeak to Calistheti privately. “Oh, I definitely agree. So good to find hard help these days! Or, hm, you know what I mean,” she added with a flourish of her hand, beginning to step forward. “Well, I’ll be counting on you for that special ticket to even your sister out later,” Hyde told her, crossing her arms as she stepped into the teleporter. “It’ll all be worth it when the customers start pouring in.”

Hyde found herself in the next gruesome office, another space which ought to provide some easy suggestion of how its occupying doctor could make changes to increase their business. For Hyde, however, the challenge presented was how to turn it into appropriate (or hilariously inappropriate) backdrop for a sexy photoshoot, especially when her target hadn’t consented to dressing down. It might be fun to try and wrestle garments from her anyway, but that wasn’t really Hyde’s style.

Still… even in this mindset, Hyde was a medical professional. She didn’t know if things were as unsanitary as they looked, and she didn’t know if Bonesaw’s programming was vulnerable to infection from contact… but considering the medical scrubs and the mask, it was a possibility. Striking out every surface with too much gore on it to consider left a very limited selection. She was just starting to get her ideas together when PhotoMan re-appeared. She giggled at his confession. “Haha, but as you can see, Bonesaw is perfectly harmless! Why, she’s a sharp doctor on the cutting edge of her field! The bleeding edge, you might say! Ah, but listen to me gushing,” she finally finished. “Let’s cuddle, deary. I mean, huddle!” she corrected herself, pulling him in close and leading him from the others. “Creative meeting.”

Hyde leaned in even closer to speak in a conspiring whisper. “Bonesaw here, unfortunately, is a little more reserved then her siblings and isn’t on board with the getting down to skivvies. My task is to make a sexy shot in spite of that, but I’ve got a surprise for when I get my hands on her… It’s going to take teamwork, okay? Now, while I honestly think it would be better if you handled my part, I can tell you’re not at one hundred right now.” She said this, giving a sympathetic smile and pat-patting his shoulder. “So, you’re going to run interference. Act like you’re composing the shot. Tell Bonesaw to go to her desk and face away towards her office, away from the operating theater. You stand where she’s looking and don’t let her look this way, while you talk about the shot. Make sure she puts her hands palms down on the desk and leans over it… besides that, you can do what you want. Run along! Don’t worry, nobody’s going to be hurt, I promise.” Hyde fluttered her eyelashes and pat him a couple more times. Of course, having shown him what she had, there was no guarantee PhotoMan would go along with it unless she explained more; in that case, she’d go into detail about what she was about to do. And if that somehow didn’t sell him on the idea, she’d just have to think up a plan B.

Assuming she was able to get him on board, Hyde stood with her arms crossed, surveying the room in a pacing circle as though looking for inspiration. In reality, all Hyde was looking for was a chance, making sure her pacing circle frequently let her observe PhotoMan and Bonesaw’s position. If she saw an opportunity, with Bonesaw looking away, she would gleefully dash for a bucket of drained gore she’d spotted earlier. With madness glinting in her eyes from the dark part of the room, Hyde would put a finger to her lips in a shushing gesture for any of the other doctors watching her, sliding the helmet back onto her head. She would then plunge her hands in to the doubtlessly unsanitary pail. The doctor would slide her hands out to minimize any splashing noise, then begin a silent glide towards the two at the desk, her legs moving in exaggerated bows as her white grin flashed and colorful hands dripped.

Assuming she wasn’t caught red-handed before she could reach her target, Hyde would finally slide in towards her target. With a manic “Honk honk!” she would goose Bonesaw, clapping one hand onto each cheek of her behind and playing with them, aiming to leave a suggestive stain and, while not trying to pants her target, perhaps displace her scrubs a bit and get a hint of band showing at the waist. The recommendation to have Bonesaw keep her hands on her desk was to put her in a mindset that would stop her from moving quickly and flexibly. Still, there would be a strong chance that she was about to offer a horse kick in retribution. Hyde needed to be wary of both retaliation and of Bonesaw turning around too quickly. Therefore, without wasting too much time, she would slide back on the floor to get a low angle series of rapid shots of her target in the affected state, hoping even in the crazy part of her mind that this part of the floor close to Bonesaw’s desk was clean (Hyde wouldn’t bother to check beforehand).

Whether she got away with her plan or got some free, unauthorized dental work, Hyde would cackle, holding up her hands in either a plea for mercy or a taunt, depending on your perspective. “Ahahaha, bloody good fun, wouldn’t you say?! It’d be so nice if you could let me know where I can scrub down, my dear…~”

From Bonesaw to Calistheti, then even up to PhotoMan, each of the navis Hyde addressed had a hard time addressing her manic energy. PhotoMan in particular was pulled along with her, making a dull frown and clicking noises inside his head that heavily implied he was having a harder time getting over the gore than she was. No amount of timely puns and jokes would soothe his misgivings.

On the bright side, Hyde was right on the money about how the pale photographer was likely to react, that being with absolute compliance to whatever idea got them out of this operating theater the fastest. "Yes. That should be simple," he agreed, all too quickly pacing back towards Bonesaw. "Excuse me, we are ready to begin the shoot. We think that your office space is best acclimated. Please head over this way and face the corner. If you're willing, I would like you to place your hands atop the desk's surfacd and lean forward towards the corner," he explained, seeming the consummate professional.

Like a magician, Hyde had successfully diverted everyone's attention to the gorey sister and the photography specialist... except for Cosmo who, having been on the losing end of Hyde's tricks recently, knew better than to let her out of his sight. He watched skeptically, but, despite being shushed, he began shaking his head back and forth frantically and crossed his arms into an x shape as she went for the bucket. When her hands plunged in, he didn't call out for anyone's attention...

.. But he got it anyway, as he stained the data ridden floor further with a splash of vomit. "Gross!" Calistheti complained. "Go wait outside you big baby-"

PhotoMan, from his vantage point, had begun watching Hyde on her silent, speedy approach, and began shaking his head "no" as well. He was still on the other side of Bonesaw in close quarters, trying to keep her attention towards the corner. She became suspicious as well, but it was too late: Hyde clapped both hands on from behind and gave her a squeeze that doubled as a shove.

The girl didn't kick or protest, but instead let out a womanly grasp that would have been nice audio to go with the picture. Her body ended up shoved forward into PhotoMan's, with him scrambling to catch her, ending up with one hand who knows where and the other at her waist. The scrubs rode up just a bit to reveal her pale, slender back, with just a hint of a black band showing with a cherry red color beneath, which would make one especially curious about the whole garment. With PhotoMan in the shot, albeit with his face hidden, the photos carried with them the strong impression that he was the one who'd left the suggestive handprints, even though his hands were not stained.

Bonesaw pushed away quickly, making a sullen face. She looked back to PhotoMan bashfully, as if accusing him of being too direct... then frowned harder as she realized that, rather than returning the gesture or even apologizing, he was frantically wiping at himself, having come into contact with the girl's bloody apron. "Yes, a shower, please, immediately," he spoke, as frantically as his monotone drawl would let him go.

"Me three," Cosmo heaved.

"Of course... There are two single showers and one larger shower near the back there, curtained off. Be sure to open only those curtains... you won't like what's behind the others," she recommended, looking very miffed. "Do I get to see the pictures? I can't imagine they turned out very well in all that chaos."

Though, for what they were intended to be, they'd probably gone as well as anyone could have hoped.

"Clean off quick, Hyde; I'm ready to work on the last two," Calistheti rushed the newbie photographer, showing no particular misgivings about what had just transpired. In the background, Pharmaceuti was babbling, grabbing up all the clean towels she could find to wipe up the vomit spill, as if that was less sanitary than Hyde's fully submerging her hands in unknown navi "blood."

Cosmo had already disappeared inside one of the single showers. From what Hyde could see, they all looked pretty grisly... the kind of nasty shower floors that made you want to stand in a particular spot to avoid stepping in something. PhotoMan was standing outside, undecided whether he wanted to risk something other than water coming out of the drains or if he would rather just towel off. Hyde could use this time to get clean, but she may also be able to use this time for something work focused.

“Oooh, that’s good,” Hyde gushed mostly to herself, biting her lip and squirming on the floor. “Aah, I wish I’d gone further…! But, no time for that now. Yes, the shower will serve. Calistheti, I’ve had a good idea. I’d like to do the rest of the photoshoots in this office!” she declared, grinning and glancing around the operation room for reactions. “Haha, just a little joke.” Seeing Pharmaceuti pre-occupied and Calistheti free, Hyde walked over to her. “I just had a very nice idea. Since your sister might need some help with her shoot, why not take her on over to your office and have her use a treadmill there? I’m assuming you have one. She can work up a flush and sweat that might give an erotic effect.”

The doctor leaned closer, her eyes flaring intently. “That might be difficult to do for her as she is now, so why don’t you be a dear and hold her coat for her? You could make sure her pills don’t get mixed up, right?” she spoke softly to Calistheti alone, then began sauntering over to the shower. “I’m counting on you, Calistheti! I’ll see two in your office when I’m done, okay?”

Hyde glanced at Bonesaw bemusedly as she walked, casually shrugging down the suspenders that had been protecting her modesty before even reaching the showers, hiding her chest with one arm. She noticed the room’s surgeon hadn’t taken any of the showers for herself. Could it be she wasn’t fully aware of the mark Hyde had left on her? The thought amused Hyde, and she definitely wasn’t going to bring it up herself. “I think this shower’s big enough for two, if someone wants…” she spoke to no one in particular, allowing her shorts to shimmy past her wide hips and onto the floor as she stepped out of them and behind the curtain. Naturally, she didn’t take the helmet off.

Once she was actually inside, however, she did so, peeling off her socks and then unzipping her remaining undergarment and leaving them all in the neatest pile she could. Finally, she took off her hat, setting it gingerly down as her eyes settled and she ran the shower.

The doctor ran her hands through her hair, humming a sweet tune idly and giving her body a quick rinse. As she started to take stock of her surroundings, however, her smile started to fade. ”I’m in… someone else’s shower?” Deciding she was clean enough, the doctor turned the knob off and glanced at the pile she’d brought in, a flush rising to her face as she did so. “Ah… um… excuse me? PhotoMan? Somebody? I don’t seem to have a towel… or, um… most of my clothing… If I could get a bit of help…”

If there was no response, Hyde would peek her nervous face through the curtain, scanning to see if anyone was still in the room. If the others had already left, she’d consider if she was going to have to scamper to collect the things she’d requested herself…

Calistheti smirked, indicating she immediately called the joke for what it was. "I'm glad your hair-brained scheme worked out, but trying to find other decent places to shoot a photo in here would be a little more than hair-brained, it'd be a lost cause!" Calistheti pointed out, gesturing towards the bucket of nasty gore that Hyde had just dipped her hands in. Beyond that, if Hyde had been banking on Calistheti's excitement over physical fitness to outweigh any concerns she had about Hyde's intentions in making her sister look erotic, her gambit paid off; Calistheti's eyes immediately lit up. "That's a great idea! The treadmill will get her fired up," she agreed, ready to run off and grab her sister. She sort of absent-mindedly nodded about the rest. It was hard to tell if she'd clearly gotten the message. One thing was for sure, though: Pharmaceuti was most likely treadmill-bound.

Calistheti led her sister out through the room's single portal. This left Bonesaw shaking her head, rearranging the messy office space which had been the only neat place in the room before she'd been bumped into it. Cosmo had already dashed into one of the showers and was in the middle of cleaning his own mess off of himself. PhotoMan stood staring at the gore-speckled curtain and suspicious floor of one of the showers with a pale face, as he tried to decide whether he'd be cleaner with or without the shower. He turned his head at Hyde's approach; his head began clicking as she removed her suspenders and clicking faster as her shorts fell. He opened his mouth to say something, just as the shower curtain closed behind her. The sound of the clicking would continue, as he perhaps pondered whether to take her up on the offer. The photographer had never been an expedient decision-maker.

Outside, his look turned to mild confusion as he heard Hyde humming to herself. Gulping, he began to reach out the hand for the curtain, only to be interrupted as a meek voice inside requested a towel. "Oh, yes. Let me try to find a clean one," he murmured..

From the next shower over, Cosmo spoke up. "I'm beginning to get the sense you need Psychologi's services even more than you need me to perform cosmetic dental surgery," he quipped, punctuated by the sound of his shower spicket squeaking shut. "Let me ask you: do you think that we can really publish these photos and drum up business? I think I may have been going along with it just for the sake of boredom and my ego, but just to remind you, it is also pretty genuinely important that this goes well. I hope you aren't playing us all for fools..."

Hyde would have a moment to respond before PhotoMan returned. Bonesaw had handed him a set of surprisingly fresh looking white, body-sized towels. He stood outside the room for a moment, staring sullenly, before summoning up his courage and pulling the curtain open, stepping inside the two-person shower as he did so. "I've brought you these. I'd like to discuss your strategy for the next shoot as well, if you don't mind. I thought we might also discuss that potential photoshoot with you yourself, Hyde," he would greet her, offering forward the stack of towels and making no attempt to avert his eyes. He probably thought he was being bold and rising to the challenge of Hyde's tease, but Hyde could be forgiven for throwing his helmet back at his face, that being the toughest throwing item in the room. If she wasn't already shocked by his rise to that challenge, the rise elsewhere would certainly be alarming enough in magnitude to alarm her.

Once she was done with shenanigans here, there'd be no reason not to move on to the teleport pad to reach the next room. It was already set for Calistheti's office, presumably. Bonesaw would call after, simply asking: "do you need me for anything further? I do still have patients to attend to..." It seemed that her schedule was a little harder to clear than it was for the other sisters' (and single brother).

Hyde stood in the spacious shower, noticing as if for the first place how few walls there were she actually wanted to rest on and sighing. “Yes, naturally. You’re paying me to do a job, and I know you could certainly rescind your offer of payment it wasn’t due. More than anything, your group simply needs a way to stand out among the competition.” She sounded surprisingly convinced about this, as though she hadn’t been wreaking mischievous mayhem only moments earlier.

“Does it?” Jacky’s voice shocked her through a private line. “I’ve only been half paying attention, but it seems far more likely that the issue with these doctors is how far they’ve let their personal quirks affect their practice. Again, I’m not fully aware, but it seems to me each of them was probably originally identical to the others. Now, they’ve buried themselves in their specializations and taken on traits that would surely create friction for the average consumer.”

“I think that might be unkind,” Hyde responded weakly, shrinking into herself a bit.

“It requires no imagination,” Jacky continued, speaking without looking at the monitor as she scanned a book with her eyes. “Psychologi sees and speaks only sexual depravity. Cosmo holds himself as a preposterous standard of beauty. Pharmaceuti clearly has no restraint in properly balancing a reasonable schedule of medication and appears, herself, addicted to her prescriptions. Bonesaw has dulled herself to gore that would make ordinary Navis faint.”

“And Calistheti?” Hyde interrupted with some defensiveness.

“You truly can’t tell? Well, right, your awareness is affected by your condition,” Jacky retorted, adjusting her glasses and looking at the screen with some sympathy. “I don’t think it’s any stretch to imagine Calistheti has unrealistic expectations for standards of fitness and/or the viability of physical training to improve Navis. When you get to her office, you’ll surely see the same.”

“That’s-“ Hyde continued, perhaps about to reconsider and agree before PhotoMan stepped into her shower, causing her to start and attempt to cover her breasts and womanhood with her hands. Still sopping wet, the doctor stammered and glowed red, squirming as she sought to find a way to protect her modesty and found none. She wanted to slap him and send him on his way, but found she couldn’t…

”I can’t…? My arm won’t…?” she thought to herself, now vexed as well as mortified as she considered it. ”Well… I suppose that makes sense, after all… nevermind, nevermind! The situation! Deal with the situation,” she reminded herself, feeling the cold drip off of her and shaking her head.

With effort, she met PhotoMan’s eyes, still completely flushed as she tried and failed to make an approximation of a calm smile. “W-w-would you mind, quite quickly, wrapping me with one of those towels, and then, please, exiting w-with all quickness, please?” she squeaked. If he would, she’d keep herself covered until the absolute last moment she had to move a limb, turning in place if he made an effort to get behind her.

With any luck, PhotoMan would comply, as Hyde couldn’t make her body move to force him out and she still had to dry off. Assuming she was able to become alone and dry, the Navi would quickly get into as many of her articles of clothing as she could, noting that PhotoMan had brought towels but omitted those. Once she’d gotten the rest, she’d finish assembling as much of her outfit as she could, giving Bonesaw a terse “no thank you, that will be all” as she walked stiffly and briskly to the teleporter. For better or worse, Jacky’s words had been blown out of Hyde’s mind by her own situation, so she simply had to continue with the plan.

PhotoMan held his bold stare for a moment longer before his at times tenuous grasp on gentlemanly decorum won over, causing him to avert his eyes. "I clearly misunderstood you earlier," he spoke bluntly, although he sounded a little passive aggressive; evidently, he felt he'd been teased and made a fool of, reading too far into a joke. "Please accept these towels and my apologies."

His first thought, to smooth things over, was to do as she asked and help her into a towel. Assuming the most modest way to do that would be from the back, like you might do in a movie, he attempted to angle around Hyde to the other side, only to find that she continuously turned to face him. His head began to click, possibly with agitation this time. "Hyde, I'm a professional. Not to diminish your situation, but I do this sort of thing all the time. Please be calm," he grouchily attempted to calm her, though his hesitance earlier seemed to imply he knew what he was doing was risque.

Finally, still keeping his eyes turned upward, he managed to get the towel around Hyde, tying it with nothing more than a brief touch of his gloves to the wet flesh between her shoulder blades. The rest of the exit to the next (final?) office was fairly brief and no-nonsense, leaving Bonesaw to clean up and Cosmo to take a long shower, perhaps proportional to the revulsion he felt at Hyde's earlier antics.

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The next office was perhaps the most photogenic that Hyde would have thus far encountered, with a poppy, pink wallpaper and white tiling to the floor. It was interesting to imagine that everyone's may have once looked that way, or, perhaps, considering its larger size, that all of their medical theatrics once took place here. Now, the space had been put to questionable use with all manner of increasingly difficult looking, physically strenuous workout machines. Calistheti was effortlessly utilizing an unbelievably fast treadmill speed. She was still dressed in her exact same garb from earlier, working up only a light sweat despite the obnoxious pace of her workout. Jackie had indeed been right on the money, visualizing what this office would look like.

Pharmaceuti, on the other hand, was on the verge of death, lying upon a large, hot-pink exercise mat flat on her back, with an exercise ball rolling away somewhere in the distance and shake-weights scattered around her. One could only imagine what type of exercise they'd gotten up to. She'd dressed down to just a set of gray yoga pants and a black exercise top with a white striped down one side., with shoes matching Calistheti's, but in a white color. Her glasses were crooked on her face and her chest was rising and falling rapidly. "Med... medic..." she muttered, as though she really was dying.

Instead, she reached over to her coat draped over a weight bench and grabbed another pill bottle, along with a water bottle, double-fisting them to chug each in turn. There was no way such a regiment would be healthy, even if she was in her right mind, and even if the contents of her pill bottles hadn't, presumably, been swapped for questionable substances earlier. "Stupid... navis... don't need... exercise!" Pharmaceuti complained, already beginning to feel whatever the effect of the pills were to a degree amplified by the number of pills she'd just munched.

"Uuuh, your stamina says otherwise, Sis," Calistheti remarked.

"Ha! Not so. Actually, I'm already feeling invigorated by just a small dosage of my trademark blend of carefully tested, exactly measured pharmaceuticals," she announced, seeing the others entering. She adjusted her glasses with a smirk, starting to look herself again... maybe. One might doubt how her pills could be correctly dosed as handfulls, but more so, Hyde may be aware that an additional effect ought to be kicking in any time now. At this point, though, she'd probably want to slap the two girls somewhere in the room, take a photo, and be done with it all.

PhotoMan's frown and clicking noises seemed to imply he was still trying to decide if he could get his hopes up again. He turned his head slightly towards Hyde again, raising one eyebrow. He had no idea what to expect from her mood swings at this point.

Hyde had to admit to herself that there was a certain sense in acknowledging PhotoMan’s insistence that she accept his familiarity with the nude female form as part of his job. She was much the same in her work as a doctor… ”But that is work and this is not,” she reminded herself, continuing to train her concerned eyes on PhotoMan’s own and make sure he was keeping everything above the shoulders.

With the detour complete, Hyde headed to the teleporter with as much of her clothing as she could muster. She carried her disgraced hat and helmet combo under her arm as she entered the teleporter.

When she did reach the other side, Hyde’s medical instincts kicked in immediately causing her to rush to Pharmaceuti’s side. Much to her surprise, the pharmacist’s own peculiar medical instincts were even quicker as Pharmaceuti self-medicated immediately. The speed with which pills emerged from the bottle and disappeared into the other Navi’s gullet with water to chase was so quick Hyde couldn’t even confirm if Pharmaceuti had gotten the… ”Gotten the what? Oh, yes, EZDZAC… and ANTIDZ,” she reminded herself. Her mind raced, trying to figure out what the effect would be if Calistheti had actually replaced all of the medicine Pharmaceuti was carrying with those drugs. ”EZDZAC is intended as an aphrodisiac. Unless primed with another drug, its effects should be very mild… I accounted for the massive quantity that she would likely intake inadvertently. As long as she isn’t making a meal of them, it should only help keep her focused on and open to the shoot. There is a… mild laxative effect, on a time delay… she’d only see that later, but if she’s ingesting ANTIDZ, that should be negated entirely. ANTIDZ almost never has side effects, with the only drawback being the unpleasant taste… But I strongly suspect she isn’t even tasting her medicine,” she noted, frowning. ”None of that medicine should have a strong stamina recovery effect. Is some medicine left that is creating that effect… or is her dependence on medicine truly so powerful that she gets a sort of energy placebo effect? I have to admit, this would actually be interesting to study…”

Now wasn’t the time for that, though. As much as Pharmaceuti had gotten herself looking erotic and sprawled out, they were actually here for Calistheti’s shoot. She took her hat out of the helmet and brushed it off on her leg while handing the helmet back to PhotoMan. “I believe you should be in fair shape to carry out the next bit, correct? Calistheti may have a number of charm points, but I believe I know one pose that will capture a number at once, let’s try this. If we put her on a bench butterfly press, with some attractive gymwear for the bottom and a censoring towel across the shoulders… and it would perhaps be more erotic if she were being refreshed from a water bottle at the same time. In any case, I feel the primary focus should be the abs, biceps, and/or armpits.” Hyde rattled all of this off at an impressive clip. While she couldn’t understand or admit it, Jackie’s earlier criticism had lit a fire under her to make her own method work. “There’s just one wrinkle…”

She approached Calistheti and frowned, cupping her hands to the side of her mouth to try and shout over the insane treadmill. “Calistheti!! For your shoot, I’m thinking of taking your photo on a butterfly press!! Just a couple of things!! One, do you have some cute or sexy gym shorts you could wear?! Two, can you give yourself a tough enough workout on the butterfly press to make yourself sweat?! You somehow seem to have a high tolerance!!” she shouted, trying to imagine herself doing what Calistheti was while similarly dressed and failing.

Nodding, PhotoMan accepted his helmet back, ready to resume his role and once again contribute to the photoshoot. He probably wasn't feeling great about hiding out for most of the others so far, either. He listened to the rest, nodding his head slowly, with his expression showing no change. "That sounds like a classic shoot, the kind someone might actually commission. Of course, the legs must also be included; with how much time she spends on the treadmill, it seems a waste not to. Still, this same photograph can capture that easily enough," he mused. "Really, her whole body is like one big charm point. If it weren't for her personality..." He probably wasn't the type of person who ought to be criticizing anybody's personality, but he couldn't seem to help himself. "I get the feeling she and I can't get along. Even more so than I can reach the other sisters- and brother..."

He lowered his eyebrows and rubbed his chin for a moment. "When you say refreshed from a water bottle, do you mean someone to hold it as though they're bottle-feeding her? Or do you mean splash it over her? Either could work. If you're thinking about bottle-feeding her, do note that we won't be able to get it groin-height while she's doing a butterfly press; she'll be a bit too elevated," he explained, perhaps insulting in his assumption that her mind had been going there. "Pouring it over her head could be a good effect. People do refresh themselves that way."

Calistheti wasn't too hard to get a hold of once the time came; she slowed down the inhuman exercise so naturally it was clear she'd done so many times before, until it was a manageable jog. "The butterfly press, huh? I've always been more of a runner, but I guess I shouldn't neglect that either," she agreed, as if Hyde was suggesting an addition to her workout regiment rather than a photo setting. She smiled, putting on a light blush. "Of course I have some sexy shorts! Every good workout girl needs to, right? After all, there are the type of exercises you do for health and the kind you do to get looks... he he he."

In the background, PhotoMan could be seen gathering up several of the things they'd need, while Calistheti disengaged her treadmill full. She made a display of grabbing one hand, lifting herself into the air like some sort of gymnist, then swinging down on the other side, raising both arms for applause. At the same time, her scrubs lit up and then disappeared, leaving her in a snug, cloth bikini, white with pink wording across the top, reading "FIT" with a heart shape after the T. The elastic banding for both parts were bright pink colors as well. The outfit looked like it would probably also yield an interesting effect when wet, either with water or sweat. Furthermore, with her arms raised, her meticulously-maintained armpits were visible, if Hyde was interested in that sort of thing. It was the kind of thing that a navi might not even have to worry about, but a traditional girl probably would. She flipped her hair, then smiled over her shoulder at Hyde. "What do you think? These aren't practical, so I don't recommend wearing them for a real workout, he he..."

PhotoMan returned just in time to make a few clicking noises. In one hand, he was carrying a fuzzy white towel, and in the other, he held a tall water bottle, completely full. Notably, Pharmaceuti was hanging close by, back on her feet and looking almost uncharacteristically chipper... or perhaps you'd call it confident. PhotoMan seemed to be trying to ignore her for now. "Are you prepared to start?" he asked Calistheti, who nodded in response and assumed her position on the exercise machine. "Very well. We'll need you to remove your top for this one-"

"Eh? Really? Topless?" she asked, raising her eyebrows and growing a bit pinker. "Will I at least be keeping them compressed so you don't see everything...?

"No, not completely topless. We're going to put this towel over your shoulders, which will hang over each breast," he explained, assisting by draping it over. "Please dispel your top. I will prepare to take the photos. We can take as many as we need, so please, just exercise and let us take care of the rest." Seeming mostly without reluctance, perhaps because she'd already seen others subjected to more questionable shots, or perhaps because she was confident hers was going to turn out well, Calistheti did as they asked. Her body was almost entirely visible now, save just the minor coverage of the towel and the white and pink bikini bottom she was wearing. It was a bit of a shame she'd lost her "FIT" logo, but it wasn't as though anyone need to be told that. "Miss Hyde, I will handle the photography. Miss Hyde, I'll leave the water bottle to you."

He'd already begun fiddling with his helmet, when suddenly, two hands reached around his waste and grabbed hold of his camera-stand's tripod leg, so to speak, the size of which made it pretty difficult to ignore against the shape of his bodysuit. He stumbled slightly, releasing several clicking noises. "Miss Hyde, I believe you can handle the photoshoot and the water, right? I was just thinking, I have a great idea for my own photoshoot in my office! I'd like for PhotoMan to accompany there and do the final shot with me. Would that be okay?" she asked. Because PhotoMan hadn't moved to stop her yet, either due to his natural instincts, some lack of modesty, or focus on the shot, she was having all the fun she wanted. "Wow... Are you taking any medications? This is seriously impressive! Imagine what it will be like once you try some of my medicine! He he he he... I know a medicine regiment that, combined with some one-on-one-consultation with yours truly, will get you truly frisky, capable of fully realizing your sexual prime and granting you new confidence in your masculinity." It would be interesting to know if she was talking about the same medicine Hyde had already given her.

"Ha! The guy doesn't exactly scream masculinity to me, Pharmaceuti," Calistheti taunted unhelpfully, as if daring PhotoMan to prove her wrong. "A big thing like that is no substitute for proper health." Her voice was only slightly labored, but she'd already begun to build up a nice sweat. Her pace was fantastic, though not superhuman the way it had been during her run earlier. The towel flapped slightly with each rep, further displacing towards the center.

PhotoMan gulped, narrowing his eyes slightly as he tried to ignore taunts coming from two directions and focus on the shot. "Miss Hyde, I can handle the camera. Please administer the water, then, please, find a way to dismiss Miss Pharmaceuti from the photoshoot until we're finished? he requested, his voice currently still even despite the vigorous rubbing he was receiving.

Hyde responded with a relieved smile when PhotoMan seemed to approve of her concept, then tightened it to a slightly indignant one when he mentioned “groin-height,” as thought that was somehow a bridge farther than she’d intended. “I feel the sight of her refreshing herself from the water bottle will be enough to stir the imagination. I do think it’d be better not to have her contort for it. Mm… In any case, she might seem a bit cold to you, but I wouldn’t let it bother you. Some of these doctors can be hard to get along with, sometimes, but I think that seriousness is part of the necessary mindset,” she admitted, ironically.

The would-be photo coordinator filled Calistheti in, nodding in agreement with her statement in spite of rarely working out and, in her blind spots of her mind, having no sexy shorts of her own. She gave a bit of genuine applause for the dismount, feeling it was probably a show for her benefit. “Very good,” she told her with a smile, appreciative of both the athleticism and the choice of gear for her purposes. She let PhotoMan take the reigns in the photo shoot, adjusting putting her hat comfortably back on her head. Hyde wore a small smirk as her eyes flashed, working to think up what other mischief she might get up to during the shoot.

In fact, it looked like some of her remaining mischief had come due, as a surprise fourth participant tried to enter the discussion. ”Hm… That one spoke true enough when she imagined the effect was weak, but she underestimated just how hard Pharmaceuti was hitting the bottle. Of course. Poor girl.” Thinking this to herself, Hyde smiled, putting her hand to her chin and even crouching to get a better look at the offending/offended member. “Hm, I see both of your points. While it is impressive, Calistheti already advertised her priorities with her cute gear, right? For her, the most important thing is that it fits.” As opposed to quickly helping PhotoMan with his predicament, she simply nodded and took the water bottle, then casually strolled behind Pharmaceuti. “How to help? Let me try this…”

With Pharmaceuti still handling PhotoMan, Hyde endeavored to reach an arm around and into her pocket to play with her body. “Has she let go? Try and get free,” she told PhotoMan, even though she was nearly certain this would make Pharmaceuti grab harder, if anything. Her actual goal was to use some fancy fingerwork to get to the bottle in the other doctor’s pocket and quickly make a withdrawal. If she could, she’d need to check if it was EZDZAC, ANTIDZ, both, something else, or nothing at all. Even if she did end up empty handed, she’d at least have figured out something about Pharmaceuti’s situation. If she did, though… ”Here’s another interesting property about this medicine! You can take it like this, too…~” she would speak only to herself, smiling as she pulverized it with the brute strength of her hands and deposited it in the water bottle while hidden behind Pharmaceuti.

With her machinations done, Hyde would step from behind, having recapped the bottle and shaking its only-slightly-murky contents if she’d managed to find something fun to put in it. “Any luck? Well, if not, try and bear with it just a moment while we finish, please. You’re a professional, after all, even if when it gets hard,” she reminded him, not looking particularly apologetic. “But, mm, if you do get dragged off, at least leave the helmet? I’ll need it to finish here.”

She smiled broadly as she turned to Calistheti, stepping over to the side of the press. “I’m going to give you this out of the frame, okay? It’s fine if you pause the exercise, otherwise I’m sure we’ll get some blur from the motion. Simply pause with arms apart in the machine. Open wide for the bottle…!”

Ordinarily, one would probably prefer to have the bottle held steady and approach it themselves, but Hyde wouldn’t wait for that, forcing the bottle between her lips as soon as she presented them open. Hyde would grin and watch, although she was hoping PhotoMan actually would be able to get the shot; antics aside, she did want to keep this moving. When it was done, she would pull the bottle back suddenly, hoping to make a bit of a splash. She would keep her bright eyes on Calistheti’s, as she turned the bottle, tilted her head back, and wrapped her own lips around it, guzzling it down.

Assuming all her pieces had fallen into place, Hyde would recap the bottle, nodding approvingly at everyone. “Well, I assume everyone is ready for the final shot?”

"So true, but I think it's important that we cater to people's needs! I've got enough medications; I'm sure there's a proper regiment for him. Even if it does look like a tough pill to swallow, hm hm hm," Pharmaceuti murmured, licking her lips. All of this couldn't come from nowhere, intense aphrodisiacs or not. She must be a bit more creative than her usual persona let on.

"Ha ha, I guess that is important, Hyde, but that's not the kind of fitness he lacks that I'm actually worried about," Calistheti joked, then gave PhotoMan an apologetic smile that he showed no reaction to, positive or negative, on either his face or down below. "Of course, what matters right now is his fitness as a photographer. Sorry for teasing you so much~"

"I'm not!" Pharmaceuti giggled, still stroking relentlessly, stopping here and there to change her direction or focus on a spot, as if testing his reactions. One might think she was a different type of doctor, if they were just looking at a still picture and didn't see the look on her face. Hyde used a moment to reach into her pocket and would find, perhaps to her amusement or perhaps to her horror, that the pockets were stuffed with so many bottles, it was hard to believe they weren't rolling out onto the floor. Some of the bottles were what she'd asked for... others were bottles that Hyde had probably heard of. Others were given proprietary names that sounded fancy but meaned nothing that Hyde could tell. These were probably the "potent mixes of pharmaceuticals" that Pharmaceuti had mentioned earlier. Hopefully, she really was a certified pharmacist. At any rate, it was pretty hard to imagine she'd been grabbing only the medicines Hyde wanted her to grab... In hindsight, replacing all of the bottles she had in there would have been nearly impossible.

Hyde crushed up some more medicine, because the situation wasn't already chaotic enough, and put it inside the water bottle she was going to use for Calistheti. PhotoMan, for his part, showed no reaction to her joke, but he certainly wasn't laughing. He couldn't be pleased (or could he?) that he wasn't getting any help against Pharmaceuti's onslaught.

Calistheti went along with the instructions, stopping with her arms apart and the towel in position, now having worked up a sweat. "Hydration, good idea. Is that where your name comes from? Ha ha, I was sort of thinking it was the creepy Dr. Hyde thing, you know? Sorry, no offense," she finished, smiling first wide, then a little smaller with a thoughtful expression, as though something was only now occurring to her. "You know, do you have a sort of a split-?" she asked, before Hyde interrupted the thought with a water bottle, causing some to spill down her chin and onto he breasts, while her eyes screwed up slightly and she took the rest. It was not a bad look.

"Ah! Finally warming up to me again?" Pharmaceuti asked, but Hyde would probably realize that whatever she'd just seen had been timed exactly with what Hyde had just done with Calistheti. A large number of shutter clicks came from his helmet as well, followed by an equal number of gear clicks, indicating that PhotoMan had not only taken the shots, but probably ruminated a bit on the shots themselves.

There were actually more clicks as Hyde pulled the water back, this time spilling more over Calisthetic's now distractingly soaked lap and white bikini bottom, then drank from the same bottle themselves. If she looked back, she would see that PhotoMan had only just gotten started earlier; he was now really at his prime. "That's a fantastic shot. Great work, both of you," he congratulated them, ironically leaving out a thanks for the person who was seemingly doing the most work for him at the moment. She'd moved on to using both hands now, while squatting next to him.

"I'm very ready for a shot!" Pharmaceuti agreed. "That may have been a nice shot, but I'm going to get the gratitude I deserve from this man, whether he knows it or not..!"

Gulping, PhotoMan led the way on to the teleporter, walking in a somewhat awkward bowlegged stance, as if he was still trying to hide his reaction against all reason. "Calistheti, you should stay here and clean up."

"Should I? I'm actually pretty interested to see what I'm up against, for some reason. I think I'll just tag along," the girl responded, standing up and looking satisfied with her workout. She didn't seem like she was going to get dressed at all or even towel off. "Ought to be pretty entertaining!" She seemed to have forgotten the mystery she'd almost puzzled out regarding Hyde.

---------------------

The final room, Pharmaceuti's, was nearly the most normal of the lot. It looked to be a very stark, white office, with the exception only of the many medicine cabinets all around, bearing all kinds of pharmaceuticals, some brand-name, some proprietary. She even looked to have some equipment, like an automatic crusher, tubes, beakers, all kinds of things that would go into making her own medicine. The office for seeing patients was actually pretty small, with only just a patient's bed for sitting or lying down in and one small, black stool. The lab portion was fairly large, however, most of the tables were covered with equipment. It seemed as though it would normally be curtained off by a blue curtain, but that was currently pulled back.

"How about we take the photo in the lab? I'll close the curtain and you two can wait out here!" Pharmaceuti recommended, having caught up with PhotoMan, but not yet resumed rubbing.

"I disagree. I require Hyde's assistance-" PhotoMan protested, while Calistheti jumped in.

"And I want to see what happens!" she added, stepping in close to PhotoMan's other side. With the two pink-haired sisters on either side, PhotoMan looked like a lucky guy, but for whatever reason, his eyes were still firmly on Hyde.

"Yes, well, I'm very eager to see Hyde's idea for this final shoot. I feel we've learned a lot that should come in handy," he suggested, seeming as if he really was eager to see what she'd do with the composition.