Log:An Eye for an Eye

An Eye for an Eye

OOC Date: Feb. 21st, 2016
Location: Wayside Medical Clinic
Participants: Raim Shah, Maeve Zavir, Rheisa Dirleel

Late in the evening finds Raim Shah, proprietor of the Techno Emporium in the Gearhead District, marching down Knuckle Street. A 2-1B Surgical Droid shuffles along in his wake, and in his hand he carries two polished silver briefcases. He wears a pair of solid white scrubs, which contrast starkly with both his deep blue skin and his sapphire eyes. Once he reaches the Wayside Clinic, he turns and steps inside the door, followed by his droid and glances about with a professional curiosity, seeking out Doctor Zavir.

Sitting on an empty exam bed, the clinic empty of patients (Save for the one in the tank of course), Mae is thumbing through a new release of a medical journal to which she is subscribed. Along with one or two dozen others. She looks up as the doors whoosh open to admit Raim Shah and his surgical droid. "Hey, you picked a fine day to do this. I only have one patient in treatment right now."

Eyes which glow with a scarlet light find Maeve over on the empty treatment bed and Raim offers her a pleasant smile. "Good evening, Doctor Zavir. Yes, it does appear to be a good evening for this procedure, though I have heard reports of incoming storms. Perhaps that has to do with the somewhat lax evening. Even rats tend to run for cover when calamity threatens to break loose." Moving over toward the doctor, Raim gestures with his chin toward an empty supply tray and he lifts the two polished cases in either hand and says, "May I? This is your clinic, after all."

"Please, by all means, feel free," Mae replies with a nod, pausing the display on the data pad she's holding and nodding at the empty supply tray. "I put on a fresh pot of caf a few minutes ago, so that will be ready soon, should you care for a cup. And storms are wonderful to observe, when not standing out IN the storm itself."

The skies are telling of dark times to come. She can smell it in the air. Feel it in her bones. Standing outside the clinic now with her little horde of escorts in tow (probably there to ensure she doesn't flee with a last minute change of heart), Rheisa holds Bhija just a little bit tighter to her. The little girl is happy to oblige, legs wrapped around the waist of her nanny and face burying into the softness of her tunic. The rumble of incoming storms are frightening her a bit.

Rheisa, Qo, Veela, and the kids file into the clinic quietly.

Nodding his head, Raim says, "Indeed. I trust that we will move through the coming procedure with no complications due to the storm at all. Perhaps it will simply work in our favor to keep any massively pressing emergencies from falling into our laps." Raim places the case in his right hand atop the table, and stoops to rest the left on the floor. Opening the case on the table, it is revealed to contain a vast array of surgical tools, and also a few that are not. One in particular seems to be some form of hand held computer that sports two antennae off the top. He pulls the tools one by one from the case and goes about arranging them one by one, and only once they are each placed how he would like, he closes the case and then stoops to retrieve the other and moves toward a second table.

At the gentle 'whisk' of the doors sliding open, one of the receptionists glances up and casts a curious gaze over the entering group. "Excuse me... do you have an appointment?" she asks politely.

"You know.. this is why there's a backup generator, right?" Mae replies as she slides down off of the exam bed to land lightly on her feet, tucking the data pad into one pocket. She hears the doors open and the sound of one of her nurses, Mol this time, greeting the new arrivals. "It sounds like your patient and her family are here."

"Yes," Rheisa speaks for herself around the wispy, black hair of Bihja's head. Swallowing down the lump threatening to get in the way, she steps forward to the desk. "Rheisa Dirleel." The Mirialan, Veela moves up behind her after handing the mix bred youngest off to her Meerian husband, Qo. The eldest, Hrahn, stands quietly next to his stepdad. At only 8 years old, he's almost as tall.

Raim places the second case atop the table and flips it open. At first glance the contents would appear to be full of foam padding, but upon closer inspection what would seem to be an eye can be found in the padding. Raim gestures Maeve over and says, "Our implant... it is the perfect constructed copy of a Togruta eye, to the best of my abilities at least. It should match her working eye perfectly."

Out in the lobby, Mol smiles knowingly, "Ahh, yes. Miss Dirleel, here for an ocular procedure, yes? Doctors Zavir and Shah are awaiting you. If you would pass off your charge there, I will lead you straight back." True to her word, the nurse stands and moves around the desk and stands patiently before Rheisa, ready to lead her back.

Eyeing the open case and its contents, Mae nods as she observes the implant, "It looks top notch. How long does the procedure usually take? I've never seen one done before," she admits. "I've seen some replacement limbs, but those are usually the result of some sort of traumatic injury, usually soldiers or mercenaries." She tucks her hands into the front pockets of her lab coat and glancing toward the door, listening to the sound of voices from the Lobby.

The Togruta's fingers blanch to the color of pale apricots, knuckles freezing in their grip on the little girl. It's not too late to run, leave things as they are - flawed but precisely as nature had rendered. A glance behind suggests Rheisa's thinking just that, even as she peels Bhija off her torso and hands the child off to her mother. Bhija - true to HER nature - starts to pitch a fit.

"Shh," Veela urges, coupled with Rheisa's own soothing clucking and crooning in the language the rest of the family will likely never quite get a grip on. "Is only for leetle while..." Rheisa fibs accordingly, knowing this wasn't going to exactly be an in-and-out. But in the grand scheme of things...a 'little while' still stands true.

Raim considers this for a moment before he says, "It is relatively quick. The longest part will be the briefing of the patient. Removing her eye and 'wiring' in the cybernetic will take about the same time. Once we have it installed, we will wait until she awakens from the sedatives, and then we will use the computer to program the device to her nervous system. Ensure that it responds as her other eye does, that the focus points are the same."

Raim trails away as he hears the crying child in the front, falling into silence as the nurse leads Rheisa back and into the operating room.

"The pre-surgery prep, the over view of all the risks and potential outcomes, then the actual healing time once the actual procedure is complete," Mae replies with a measured nod as Mol leads Rheisa back into the clinic area proper. Aiming a smile at Rheisa, "There you are. How are you feeling? Excited, nervous, but ready, I hope?"

After saying her goodbyes, Rheisa follows the nurse into a prep room. She's made to trade her clothing for the sterile sack of a hospital gown and watch as her personal effects are appropriately bagged and tagged for future retrieval. Anxiety heightens as her ornamental mementos of a prize kill are unwound from her head, her throat. The monkey-lizard beak ring is but a novelty, so doesn't warrant a second glance in its passing, The pulse-ox remains, however.

Hovering in the doorway to the operating room now, toes fidgety on the cold floor, Rheisa offers Dr Zavir a forced smile and noncommittal 'hum' of an answer. Her gaze hesitantly moves past Maeve, to the equipment and cybernetic expert, Raim. "Am ready."

"Rheisa..." Raim greets with a warm smile. Gesturing with his hand toward the medical bed, he says, "Please, come and sit down." Raim gestures Maeve over toward the bed as well as he moves over to sit on a stool beside the table holding the cybernetic. He pulls a pair of latex gloves from his pocket before reaching into the case and pulling out the eye. "I hope you are feeling confident about this, Rheisa, because we certainly are. This is to be your new eye... see, it looks just like your other..." He holds it in such a way the the electrical wires on the back of the small orb are clasped in his gloved hand, rather than open to view. "We are going to give you a sedative that will put you to sleep before we start. We will perform the procedure and then once you awaken, we will go through the steps to calibrate the eye to you personally. If all goes well, I see no reason that you should not be able to journey back home tonight, so long as you can swear to me that you will take it easy, stay off your feet, and let your family take care of you. Worst case, I believe you will be able to go home in the morning." Raim glances toward Maeve to see if she has anything to add.

"It's a beautifully fashioned eye," Mae remarks as she studies the orb itself that Raim holds in his hand. "And an exquisite match to your natural eye, as well," she adds with a smile shared with Rheisa. "Which means it won't stand out or be easily spotted. And you'll have the added benefit of the augmented vision, if i understand the process correctly."

Rheisa perches stiffly on the edge of the bed and gives the 'eye' an obedient once-over. She makes an effort to look anywhere else other than at /it/. Listening to Raim's instructions isn't easy either, already hardening her heart against the notion of 'taking it easy'. It's simply an unheard of concept, in her culture - the taboo inability to pull one's own weight. It's what got her into this mess to begin with.

"How you know is like 'Togruta' eye?" She questions, glancing between Maeve and Raim. "It see at night?"

Raim apparently expected as much of an emotion from Rheisa as he says, "Rheisa, if you do not do as I say, I will require you to stay here overnight. My willingness to let you go home if you would agree to my stipulations was simply to make you more comfortable. Allow you to be surrounded by your loved ones throughout your recovery. If you cannot abide by this, then you will have to stay here alone." His tone is gentle, but makes it clear that there is no wiggle room for the Togruta. After a few more moments he says, "I am not without my own means of study, in reference to your question of how I know it is like a Togruta eye. But even so, given the mechanics of the eye, it doesn't have to be the same. It just has to function and fit, look like your other eye, which it does. As far as its ability to see at night, it is exactly like your other eye. It has the ability to be upgraded, should you wish. I had considered our conversation, and I thought that since you have been without the use of this eye for so long, if I gave you too much, too soon, that you would be overwhelmed. We will start with this, and once you are used to it, we can discuss greater improvements."

Meanwhile, the timer on the bacta tank signals the end of the healing cycle for the occupant contained therein. One of the med techs works the commands to lift the occupant from the tank and removes the various monitoring leads and offers first a towel the toe patient in the tank and then directions to where Russ may shower off and dress in privacy. If fresh clothing is needed and not readily available, a set of scrubs (shirt and drawstring trousers) are offered. Once Russ is settled, the tech sets to work cleaning out the tank and recycling, filtering, and sealing the bacta again.

With half her attention on Rheisa and the other half aimed at the tech working with Russ, Mae is silent while both patients are being tended to. She only interjects once Raim is done speaking, "With all manner of things, Rheisa, we must walk before we can run. The eye that he has for you will give you a place to start, a chance to regain your own sense of equilibrium, your depth perception, all the small details that you've been missing. From there, and depending on how well you adapt to the eye itself, he can upgrade it to more enhanced functions."

Russ looks around clearly disorientated, now dressed in the scrubs provided. After all the armor he was carried in here in is not exactly fit to wear at the moment, the breastplate suffered serious damage and was soaked through with blood, the right vambrace was shattered and the helmet has a large rend along the side. He is a little unsteady on his feet as he tries to stretch out his body, the wounds pulling on him painfully. The last thing he remembers he was surrounded by the corpses of his enemies after an ambush and firefight. Blaster bolts slamming into him and vibroblades hacking through his armor as bodies pile up around him. "How did i get here, where are the others?"

Well, there's perhaps no better way to convince a Togruta to obey than to threaten her with solitude. Looking unhappily to her feet, Rheisa avoids those blood-red eyes but does offer a meek little nod of understanding. "I know this," she says softly and rolls the gauzy gown material between fingers. A little shiver passes through as she hazards a glance to the wicked looking implements catching the light so sharply. The activity across the clinic gets monitored from afar, extrasensory perception kicking in to track the excitement with 'hearing' rather than sight. A sneakier, more polite way to eavesdrop.

Raim nods his head, "Well then... if there are no more questions, then we will begin straight away. Please lie back, and Atticus will administer the sedative." Raim turns and places the cybernetic eye onto the sterile tabletop and rises to his feet. His eyes flick over toward Russ, but he does not speak toward the man, instead moving over toward a supply counter and pulling free a medical mask and fitting it around his ears.

True to his word, the surgical droid dubbed Atticus moves forward as soon as Rheisa lays back onto the medical bed as requested, a needle in hand that is fitted to an IV. If she does not resist, he will administer the IV and say in his mechanical voice, "Count backward from ten, if you please Miss. As far as you can make it..." The effects of the sedative are quite fast, a heaviness that cannot be fought off.

Sharing a nod with Russ as he begins the procedure, Mae moves through the main room of the clinic to join Russ. "The others that were with you went back to the ship, from what I gather. The others that were wounded have been given various measures of medical treatment but there weren't keen on lingering. How are you feeling?"

And just like that, it's time. Rheisa finds herself on the cusp of another monumental change in life - or so it feels, dwarfed and trembling in a room full of chemical smells, persistent beeps and the all-encompassing glare of surgical lights. Her fists squeeze nails into palms as she struggles to steel her nerves. The heart monitor quickens pace, blatantly advertising her fear.

Unlike her last visit, the Togruta does not go down scratching and hissing, but willfully and silent. Laying flat on her back is probably as awkward as it looks, rear headtail getting in the way and montral tips pressing into the pad. Her neck curls forward a few degrees to the right, watching the 'Atticus' approach with the needle. The heart monitor accelerates further and lips part to pant a few syllables of protest...all too late. The tingling sensation in her head spreads to her limbs and thoughts are no longer coming quite so fluidly. Something wet slides across her cheek as darkness overtakes. Outwardly, the change is quite noticeable. The headtail markings seem to go fuzzy, less defined, faded. Her clenched body turns limp and heavy, eyes no longer seeing as they stare blankly at the ceiling.

Raim continues to work with items laid just so on the work surface, as he says, "Atticus, prep the patient for computer monitoring, I want to be able to view her vitals at all times on the screen. Also, apply the clamp to Rheisa's eye. Pull the lids open and hold them so that Doctor Zavir might be able to remove the eye." This is all said with a professional casual nature as if Raim were doing nothing more than arranging a picnic. "Doctor Zavir, we are in your realm now. Please, remove the eye. We need the nerve endings attached left intact and unharmed so that we might fuse them with the leads of the cybernetic."

There is something to be said about surgical precision and the absolute beauty of being not just in the zone but completely, utterly, in the zone. Once Raim does all the prep work, Mae slips on a surgical mask, a pair of protection lenses are slipped in place to augment her field of vision and the correct tools are selected. She hums softly to herself as she works, first manipulating the damaged orb within the socket to snip each nerve ending from it's connection point to the orb itself before she carefully ties off each end of the blood supply that would have fed the eye itself. Had it not been damaged. It's only a few minutes of work, really, and she lifts the damaged orb free after those few minutes and sets it lightly in the metal basin on the tray beside the bed. "Hmm, lovely blood flow," she decides after a thoughtful moment. "Nerve endings look good, healthy, viable. I'd advise trimming off only the absolute fractional edge of each nerve before you connects it to the replacement," said before she steps back and strips off the gloves.

Just as the faces looming over fade into nothing, the stark white of bed linens become replaced by whispery roughness under her skin. The sky overhead is no longer clouded by smog, but pure. Somewhere in the distance, an avian is croaking its canticle to the morning sun. Other voices filter in, too. There's Uoda and Nesaa, murmuring quietly among themselves. A fire smolders nearby, tickling her nostrils with the promise of a future meal. Tentatively, Rheisa opens her eyes. It's a hazy world, distorted and skewed from the way she remembered it last. Her family and friends are departing, it would seem, walking away in tandem without so much as a glance back in her direction. She calls out, tries to rise to chase after, but the explosion of pain in her leg halts her struggles. A new smell tickles her senses now - rotting flesh. The gory end of a stake leers at her from beneath shreds of her own thigh. The same bird croaks again, this time from the roof of her lean-to. It cocks its head, eyeing her curiously. Hungrily.

The monitor watching her vitals beeps steadily along, but may show a sudden rush of brain activity, associated with all sense. Seems she's having a hell of a dream. One finger twitches.

Raim stands watch over the two ladies, one asleep and one hard at work, performing surgical artwork as she makes the removal of Rheisa's eye seem so easy. He gestures with a hand toward the table and says, "Perhaps you might keep the eye, and we preserve it for experimentation on the removal of scar tissue. She had said that a lash from a trap had whipped the eye, and gone untreated, the growing scar tissue eventually blinded her. Perhaps through experimenting with the eye we might learn better ways to treat such a wound in the future." Rain's voice is cool, calculating, measured, as he moves to retrieve the cybernetic. Scarlet eyes gaze with precision at the wire leads trailing from the cybernetic and he trims them with a simple pair of side cutters to match the length of the tied nerve endings protruding from Rheisa's ocular cavity. He does as Maeve advised and trims the nerve endings one at a time at just the outer edge and then begins to fuse each nerve to the two leads. "The wonder of the cybernetic... a fashion of biology and mechanical science. Each of these leads serves a dual purpose, the blood filters into the eye and then is returned as a normal eye would do, but also each acts as a conductor for the electrical signals needed to relay images to the brain... bridging the gap between man and machine. It is one of the most beautiful things to behold." His hands move with precision as he finishes fusing the last nerve ending and then fits the eye back into Rheisa's skull. Stepping back, he gestures with a hand and Atticus moves forward, a small nozzle administering a small stream of alcohol to the flesh around the eye and then wiping gently with a clear white gauze to clear Rheisa's flesh of any traces of blood. The tool holding her eyelids open is removed, allowing the lids to close over the cybernetic.

Working with Raim as he links up the cybernetic eye, Mae hands him the various precision tools that he needs for the process itself. She studies each step, fascination evident in her expression and listening intently to his explanation of the cause of the damage in the first place and the solution that he is placing. "Eyes are such delicate things," she agrees with a glance cast to where the damaged tissue is still sitting in the basin. "I'll see what I can do with it, though there won't be much, they're so delicate. Humanoid eyes, at least, there are countless species who have eyes that are made of more resilient material, though it does make their visibility slightly impaired. It's a trade off."

Lost in the land of dreams and haunts, Rheisa watches the bird watching her. It's a look she recognizes, just usually reversed. Had the spirits come so soon in this corporeal form to take her? Struggling to speak with a throat painfully dry, the abandoned Togruta reaches to feel the extent of her injury. It's all coming back now...wrapping her fingers around the slick splinter of spear, she yanks sharply but to no avail. The bird drops from its perch, hopping nearer. It must be laughing inside, watching her fumble for a weapon in the dirt. When she finally does get her hand around a stone, she's suddenly struck with paralysis. Pinned to the earthen floor by intense gravity. The bird pin-pricks its way onto her belly, stalking up the length of her torso until it stares her nose-to-beak. Rheisa's panic rises...

In one swift motion, the raptor strikes. A sickle-shaped beak stabs and plucks her eye faster than she can draw breath to scream. But scream she does, watching it fly away with its grisly prize. In the /real/ world, the land of the waking, her distress translates merely into a spiked heart-rate. The sedative keeps her inner thrashing immobilized, facial muscles relaxed...peaceful.

Raim's eyes watch the monitor, gauging Rheisa as she dreams and notes it with a simple, "Hmm... it would appear that our patient dreams. Hopefully it is a good dream of how well she will see now, perfect vision once more." The Chiss turns and removes his gloves and casts them into the biohazard can. He motions for Atticus to move about cleaning up the tools and he says, "If you don't mind, Doctor Zavir, could you dim the lights? Just while we work on calibrating the cybernetic. If the lights are too bright, then when she opens her eyes it could be painful. It is best to keep the lighting low and start small." Raim reaches onto the table and takes up the hand held computer, powering it up and watching the screen as it locates and syncs up with the eye, installed and given power by Rheisa's nervous system.

"Hold for a moment," Mae replies, studying the monitors even as she dims the lights to a lower lumen rating. "I'm going to administer something to level out her pulse. I'd rather she not have a nightmare of some sort and have a cardiac episode in the middle of fixing her vision." She moves quietly about the area, selecting the correct medication, dialing it to the precise dosage, then pressing the auto-injector to the side of Rheisa's neck and watching as the medication hits her blood stream, and after a few moments begins to work. Artificially induced calmer, slower, heart rate established she nods again. "There, that will keep things on an even keel."

The Togruta's broken heart swish-gurgles faithfully away, fighting to keep up with her anxious demand for more Oxygen. Flight or fight! The weight on her chest pinning her into submission suddenly lifts and for a moment, she's lurching forward, swatting at a new shadow that's come to haunt. Rather than dissipating though, the shadow swallows her whole. She finds herself trapped inside, swaddled, warm...is this death? The pain seems more distant at least, and Rheisa feels herself compelled to just accept this fate and be still.

Raim nods his head and waits, his scarlet gaze flicking from Maeve, to Rheisa and her vitals bouncing across the display screen, and then to the computer he has in his hand. After a brief pause he says, "I have a signal from the cybernetic. Systems check out... signals are strong... there are no errors with the biological return, so that means the blood is filtering through and being returned correctly. All functions seem to be good. The sedative should be wearing off any moment... it should be a gradual awakening, her being a little groggy will actually work in our favor. We are just waiting for now, until she opens her eyes."

"Perhaps we should have someone that she cares for standing by so that it's a welcome face she sees," Mae suggests, wonders, not quite certain of the correct approach. "I never quite know what to expect when people wake up from being sedated. Sometimes they wake up calmly, sometimes they come roaring out, all confused and groggy.”

"Ahudeek," Rheisa whispers, spying a kindred face in the darkness. This face - the ruddy complexion of her young brother - was not among the others, so far away. He huddles against her, butting his nearly mature montrals against her own. She can see that his face is bloodied and a second look shows her the gaping maw of a wound that opens his throat. It is the mark of the Akul, and a sign that this warm womb of a place is indeed death. He whispers something, but the sounds escape before they reach his tongue and she cannot hear. His eyes shine bright with fear and to her horror, he lifts an accusing finger, pointing into the hollow socket of her dearly departed eye...

The sedative is indeed wearing off, and the heart rate picks up right where it left off. Eyelids twitch, flutter and a knee jerks in reflex to some unseen thing. No 'roar' yet, but a low groan does well up from the depths and quickly escalates into a high pitched keening. Her spine arches, fingernails raking at the bed beneath her as she claws for a grip on the world she's forced to leave behind. An incoherent sob erupts and her eyes snap wide open. Wild.

As Rheisa begins to awaken, Raim steps forward, within sight of her even in the dim lighting. He still has the computer clutched in his left hand as he says, "Rheisa, you are safe. This is Raim. Listen to my voice. Remember where you are. You are in the Wayside Clinic on Nar Shaddaa, look at me. Remember me and Doctor Zavir." He bends at the waist, bringing his eyes closer into view of both of hers, both eyes that can now see.

Instinct has Mae reaching out with one glove clad hand to take one of Rheisa's hands that have curled into a claw. "We're here, you're safe," she says from the other side of the bed, giving the hand a gentle squeeze and watching the monitors as much as she's watching Rheisa's expression. "You're family is in the lobby, waiting for word on how the surgery went. Will you close your eyes for a blink or two then try again?”

"Ahu...Ahu..." Rheisa heaves a ragged breath and tries to twist around in search of the face that had - just moments before - been where Raim hovers now. She blinks rapidly, fighting the loopy sensation that sends her head - and vision - spinning. A quiet whimper escapes her lips while her struggle to focus rages on - it's a battle she feels she's winning at least, as shapes begin to sharpen. But Ahudeek is not there. The tears roll bitterly in his absence. Raim, Maeve, beepy boxes and squiggly displays, and a mild flare of nausea, ARE there, however. Looking curiously to Maeve's hand on hers, the Togruta narrows her eyes, pupils still dilated. "S-safe," she rolls her stare around and summons a sudden surge of strength (so she feels) to sit abruptly up, reaching drunkenly for the Chiss' face. "I go?" Maeve Zavir has partially disconnected.

Raim shakes his head and says, "Remember our deal, Rheisa." He moves around and eases himself to sit on the bed beside her, his voice low and soothing as he says, "You let me ensure that you are alright, as best you can be. We take the time to make sure your eye is working properly, and then I will allow you to go home with your family, if you swear to me to take it easy tonight and rest." His scarlet eyes search her face for a beat before he smiles and says, "Rheisa... look at me. See me. You are seeing me with /both/ eyes now…"

"You're safe," Mae reiterates then falls silent while Raim speaks to Rheisa, snaring her attention. She has one fingertip lightly pressed against the inner curve of the wrist that she's holding. Even though the monitoring equipment is fully capable of displaying her pulse and everything else, Mae still counts the beat inside her head anyway.

"I see you," Rheisa rasps and wobbles just slightly from her elevated position to lean an elbow back on the bed behind her - the arm Maeve's got a hold on. Her other hand snakes shakily around her throat to feel for the cotton that seems to be tickling it inside. Rheia's head flinches aside, away from the auditory hallucination still lurking on the fringe of her consciousness. She's struggling to get a grip on her orientation, but it's not due to lack of sight. "I see you before...just better now." And then, as if just remembering /why/ she can see so clearly, 'Tazi' creeps her exploring fingertips upwards, stopping just short of her lower lid. Fear holds them back but it's probably better that way!

Raim watches as Rheisa's hand creeps up toward her eye and he glances around and then reaches for a small mirror slid into a pocket on the lid of his briefcase. Leaning back, he lifts it toward Rheisa, allowing her to look at her reflection in the dim lighting, the eye that is no longer clouded over with scar tissue. For her to see herself once more with two working eyes. "It seems to be responding perfectly," Raim says, his scarlet eyes drifting downward to gaze at the readouts on the computer in his other hand.

"Do you feel dizzy or pressure?" Mae wonders, continuing to search Rheisa's face. Seeing the hesitation, Mae smiles suddenly. "It's ok. Just keep your hands clear for the moment while Raim checks everything. It's your eye. It's not going to fall out, any more than your other eye is, for that matter. We'll want to check your depth perception, get you a full opthamologist work up to make sure, but I'm betting Raim already has that schedule for you.”

A shivering wave of goosebumps ripples over Rheisa's body, coupled with a subtle flex of her paired headtails. She stares brazenly at her reflectionm fingertip still hovering over the red rim of her new eye. It's tender to the touch and she doesn't try exploring further. But the awe reads clearly enough.

How long had it been, since the window of her soul was shatter-free? 6 years. How long did it take to erase that embodied memory? Just ... well, she isn't sure what time it is. "Is not my eye," Rheisa whispers, "But is good eye. Am little dizzy," she confesses softly and finally tears her gaze away in favor of reclining back down.

Raim nods his head and says, "You are wrong there... it /is/ your eye. As much as your other. You may not have been born with it, but it was tailor made, with you in mind. It will serve you well, if you will allow it." If one were paying attention, they may detect the slightest touch of reproach in his voice. He gazes into the computer readout for a moment before he draws a pen light from his pocket and lifts it to her new eye and clicks it on, watching as the lens within the cybernetic eye contracts at the bright light. "Follow..." he instructs, holding the pen vertically before her nose and then moving it left to right, up and down.

Clearing her throat softly, Mae fixes a long and rather amused look upon Rheisa, seeing the awe and mix of emotions on Rheisa's face. "It takes the average humanoid approximately six standard sol years to replace every single cell in their bodies. So, roughly every six sol years, we are a completely different cellular combination than we were six years prior, and six years prior to that. This eye is as much your own as your teeth or your skin or the toes on your feet and the tips of your fingers. Truthfully, your eye may out last many of your moving parts, in the long run.”

Rheisa's eyes follow the pen like they're attached by a string. She sees it, yes, but also /feels/ it, as the air gets pushed aside, relaying every inch of movement through her montrals, to her brain. Like she'd once said - sight is not so important, for most things. Maeve's scientific argument does seem logical, and she can't really deny facts she herself doesn't understand. Accepting then that maybe she can call this eye her own and feel less like an outcast, Rheisa sighs. "I want it to serve, yes. Much thanks to you both for making this so," she offers softly, slurring just a bit.