Bedside Manners

"Bedside Manners" is the fourth episode of Reflection.

*Willow awakens to an unfamiliar ceiling after the last battle as Dr. Arg0s, Head Surgeon Ridill and Civilian Ace Galatine make the rounds. Melli is forced to confront her future and Basil is forced to confront a car with her face on it.*

## Summary

The episode begins with Willow experiencing a flashback in her dreams, created by her Reflection. It shows her a dying world burned by the sun, alongside a single figure standing in the wastes. Right after the figure appears, Willow wakes up in an OPIA hospital bed and hears a strange noise at the door as an unknown figure attempts to get into her room. After Willow scares them off, Serve appears to check up on the disturbance. After asking for a glass of water, Serve disappears and reenters the room in his body, which slightly disturbs Willow.

At the same time, Arg0s, Mic, and Ridill enter OPIA HQ to begin their treatment of Willow, Ace, and Melli after the events of the last episodes. They find Ace, Basil, and Danger in the front hallway, discussing plans to go to the gym to train, despite Danger's incorporeality. Ridill grabs Ace to force him to go to his checkup, but Basil and Danger remain behind to continue their training plans. The checkup group heads into the ESP Research ward of OPIA, where they are briefly greeted by some of Ridill's former employees. Before they enter Willow's room, Ridill makes sure the group remembers proper "bedside manner", which becomes a running gag in the episode. After entering the room and checking on Willow's emotional well-being, they begin the scan, with Arg0s using Singlehanded Savior to heavily streamline the process of the checkup with its ability to scan and create comprehensive reports on a person's vitals. While the report reads that Willow's general health seems to be in shape, Arg0s notices some anomalies regarding her elemental composition. Ridill explains that due to certain unique circumstances, Willow's body consists of the alien Elements of Tomorrows, Survival, and Promises, and that she'll need to take some specialized Burn supplements using the Elements that OPIA has uncovered from the Coda over the years. Before leaving, the group notices that Serve has left his uninhabted body on the floor. He appears and argues with Ace about moving it somewhere else.

The group then moves to a different room to begin Ace's checkup. After scanning him with Singlehanded Savior, Arg0s is shocked to find that Ace only has two Elements - Gravity and Humanity - in his core composition, leaving a massive metaphysical hole in his body. Ridill is also shocked to see this and inquires as to how Ace is still alive. She explains that such an open wound in someone's elemental composition should leave them constantly possessed by Demons and hallucinating, but Ace is somehow able to maintain his mind through sheer discipline. He explains that his lack of the element of Dreams is likely due to the fact that he doesn't sleep, he only meditates. After an argument with Arg0s over whether Ace is fit to remain on the team, Ridill moves on to checking up Ace's other abnormalities. She gives him an enchanted bandage to protect his Flame in place of the element of Dreams, and removes the influence of the Immortal Blade from his body. Ridill then asks Ace for an explanation for an event that occured two years ago.

Ace recounts that a Demon attacked a train he and Ridill were both on after a catastrophic date Ridill had with Ruth. Ordering Ridill to seal off one of the cars with her ESP, Ace faces the Demon alone and unarmed and saves a civilian. Returning to finish off the Demon, Ace suddenly suffers a hallucination of a sea of ash, and suddenly assumes a murderous, almost inhuman personality accompanied by enough strength to kill the Demon by simply throwing a handrail at its head. Ace, or whoever was controlling him, then moves towards Ridill and the civilians, but Ace regains control before it can do any harm. Horrified at himself, Ace tells Ridill he left his oven on and jumps out of the train. He explains that this is the reason he didn't talk to her for two years until he joined FLOW. Armed with a more thorough understanding of Ace's various problems, the group heads off to check up on Melli, their last patient.

Meanwhile, parallel to all of this, Basil and Danger head to the gym. Lugh attempts to give them a tour, but they are distracted by Aura's new mechanical third arm he got from Ridill to more efficiently wield his Reflection. While Aura tests out the limits of his new arm, Danger explains the process of the AI being granted bodies to Basil. After attempting and failing to eat a barbell, Basil talks with Danger about her existence up to this point, and how despite being three days old, she has the impressions of memories GEIST installed in her. Danger talks about some of his memories that were given to him for his development, and how unlike Basil, he could choose to keep or reject them if he wanted to. Satyr briefly comes in and asks Basil if she remembers him, but she doesn't, even using her ESP, which saddens him. Danger then explains he wants to act as Basil's "knight".

Back with the main group, they enter Melli's room to find her surrounded by GEIST soldiers being placated by Dr. Verona. After chasing them off and checking on Melli's vitals, Ridill and Verona ask Melli whether or not she wants to stay with OPIA. Ace thinks she should leave and unbind from her Reflection, whereas Willow and Ridill think she should stay. Melli, feeling emotionally conflicted, leaves to go home and think about the issue. Willow becomes concerned that Melli is going to consign herself to a life she hates, and follows after her. She runs into Basil on the way out of OPIA, who wants to come with her. Willow throws her backpack to the ground, which transforms into a small flying vehicle called the Beetle, which they use to fly out of OPIA and down to the Undercity.

Arriving at Melli's cafe, Willow kicks down the door and headbutts Melli, telling her that she deserves to be able to choose the life she wants, even if it's dangerous. After a long talk with Melli where she talks about how she left her family behind to pursue an idol career that went nowhere after difficulties with GEIST censors, Basil and Willow eventually convince her to call her family and see that they're still proud of her and rooting for her, even after years. This gives Melli the confidence to join OPIA right as an alarm blares alerting FLOW to a demonic possession.

While Willow and Basil are with Melli, Ace talks to Satyr in the sauna. They eventually begin having an extremely strange half-naked duel. In the gardens, Arg0s talks to Sophie, who says that she is starting to feel uncomfortable in her identity and wants to separate more fully from the "script" OPIA gave her. She wants Arg0s to come with her when he has the time to help her test out new appearances and pronouns. Arg0s agrees as the alarm begins to blare.

On a highway in Fuse City, a civilian has been infected with Codan disease and is currently driving wildly out of control towards a crowded civilian center. It is assumed that the Demons using the disease to control him want to spread it to as many people as possible by forcing him into a populated area. Ace, Arg0s, and Lugh chase the infected driver in Ridill's van, while Willow and Basil approach from another direction on the Beetle. Basil sees a decal of herself on the car, which enrages her and causes her to begin trashing the car, slowing its acceleration. Willow then slams the beetle into the trunk of the car and uses Grasp the Earth to pin it to the ground, further slowing it. With assistance from Arg0s, mysterious empowered by Willow's "other Reflection", they manage to stop the car, but still need to find away to isolate the Codan disease from the driver before the party is dragged into yet another Coda dive. Thinking quickly, they wrap a blindfold around his eyes. Melli then removes the party from the still-busy highway by transporting everyone into her Anima. After leaving Melli's beach and returning to the real world, the party meets with their auxillaries, Ridill and Lyst. Ridill is saddened by her van getting waterlogged. After cleanup is finished, the group gets dinner at Melli's house.

## Characters

### Party

* Ace Galatine
* Arg0s
* Willow Wisp
* Basilisk Id
* Ridill Arondite

### FLOW

* Aura Pridwyn
* Lyst Solais
* Lugh

### OPIA

* Dr. Verona
* Mic
* Serve
* Cast
* Danger

### Other

* Melli Luxity
* Vaultwatcher