Xaviers!

Shari hadn't had much of a problem getting Natalie to the infirmary. They were a tad busy with various injuries coming in, but one look at Natalie's condition and one of the staff peeled off to get her into a bed. Now she was laying in the bed with an IV and oxygen. At the very least, she didn't seem to be in any discomfort, but she wasn't awake either. Shari had heard one of the doctor-types discussing whether they should send Natalie to Muir or not.

((Open-ish))

Shari had snapped back into a tiny goblin after she got Natalie here and is now sitting on the end of the bed next to Natalie's feet. She's not really clear on what Muir is, but it's not here and it sounds an awful lot like a place to send people who aren't getting better. And there's absolutely nothing she can do. She was just... sleeping. Whatever happened to her had happened to her brains and now she was just... not waking up. Maybe she could ask the Spirit-Raven to help, but she'd seen her helping other people and those with more immediate injuries probably needed the help more. She sighs and pats the covers where Natalie's shin is. She can't even pretend she's making her more comfortable, because she doesn't really seem to like physical contact that much.

Tosh knocked on the doorframe. He was dressed normally again, though with a few bandages joining his nerdy ensemble. His left eye was bruised and swollen half shut where Bruce had taken a hit to the face.

"How is she?" he asked with clear concern on his face.

"Don't know. Sleeping. Doctor's won't tell me anything but I can tell they're worried..."

"She must have gone in really deep to fight Conduit. I... I'm sure she'll fight her way back. When she's ready."

"I don't even... I don't really understand the thing she does..."

"She can manipulate signals and alter code with her brain. This diving in thing scares me too and I think I understand. But then, like her, machines are more my thing than squishy mutant neuroscience, so maybe I don't really get it."

"I get what she can do, but... I dunno what it's like. I guess nobody does though."

"A telepath might have some idea. And some writers have speculated. I should probably ask her if Gibson was even close."

Shari blinks.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Sorry. Just nerd stuff. Do they not tell stories on Skrullos?"

"Not that part, I know what writers are!" she snaps a little. On top of being worried about Natalie she's also a little defensive about her people abandoning most arts a long time ago.

"Oh... umm... this guy William Gibson wrote about the future of computers way back before the internet as we know it now. He speculated about connecting the mind directly to the system and sending the consciousness into it. Basically what I think she did."

"But the thing she was connected to broke..." she says with horror in her voice.

"She could have escaped into the campus network," he said, trying to reassure himself as much as Shari, "Conduit... the girl... did something with the Danger Room systems. Tha probably how Nat got through in the first place."

"Hijacked the network connection in Ashlie's body actually," said what was apparently the Headmistress, standing in the doorway, looking at Natalie as if she'd seen a ghost. Well, it would look like the Headmistress if she weren't dressed in something of Natalie's and didn't sound like Natalie.

"Nat!?" Shari exclaims as she jumps up, then stops, turns around to look at Natalie's unconscious body, then at the headmistress wearing not-quite-fitting clothes. "How... what..."

Tosh gave an undignified yelp as he spun around. "Y-yeah... what?" he asked as if she hadn't given him a fright.

"Dunno and Ashlie doesn't know what's going on with this either. I passed out after the simulation collapsed, woke up in Ashlie's body." She steps past them, looking down at the body in the bed. "Man, this is really weird."

"No kidding!" Shari says, following her back to the bed and hopping up on it so she's more eye-level with 'Natashlie' and tilts her head to and fro as she inspects her head as if that could somehow give her insight into the situation.

After a few moments of that, it gets her attention and she turns to look at Shari, "What are you looking for me? It's definitely me in here. If you need proof, we watched a science fiction movie with my Mum over Christmas, I told you it was about space wizards."

"No, I believe you. I can tell from your voice, even if how you move is a little wrong." she says with no small amount of certainty. "I'm just... I dunno. It's the only way I know how to figure things out." she says, lifting up some of her hair and generally poking around curiously.

Natalie processes the sensory data from the touches. It's weirdly distant and she's divided on it. Part of her is okay with that distance, but some small part of her is frustrated that Shari's touch is so distant. It results in a confused look on her face.

"So..." Tosh said awkwardly, beginning to feel like a third wheel, "How do we... umm... get you out of Miss Minamida?"

"Don't know. Not sure if it's possible," she says honestly. "My brain's not exactly a computer, no matter how much it functions like one at times, so I'm not really sure how you'd even begin to work the transfer back."

"You mean you're stuck in there?" Shari asks, suddenly concerned again.

"For the time being at least." She doesn't sound overly troubled by that prospect. "Ashlie's a little busy at the moment trying to rebuild the network after the mess Conduit made of it."

"Do you sound so calm because of the robot? Are you freaking out in there? Please tell me you're okay. Tosh, you know computer stuff, you gotta have some ideas, right?"

"For starters let's not assume anything, least of all the negative. Mental transferrence abilities tend not to be one way. The digitization of her consciousness could be no less reversible than my mental reduction as Bruce. We can't know until she tries."

"What are you talking about? Minds stick in their body, it's what they do, they're not supposed to do this!" she says, literally climbing on Natalie's shoulders to bend forward over her head to inspect her eyes. She's... a little agitated.

Natashlie reaches up to grab for Shari to pull her off her head. "For starters, my mind will do whatever it wants. You panicking is not going to help things. Second, I'm not feeling anything there." She gestures at meat-Natalie's head, "I can sense the other devices in this room, but nothing there. I'm not even sure how I'd go about opening that connection and right now I'm not going to try."

Shari flails about a bit but ultimately can't do anything about being hauled off Natalie's back and just let's her hold her by the back of her collar, dangling in front of her with a frown, crossing her arms.

"That's not as reassuring as you might think." she says, trying really hard to sound serious, which is difficult when you're a four foot goblin dangling in front of a robot.

"What sort of reassurance are you looking for? I'm not panicking in the slightest and you shouldn't be either."

"It's..." she uncrosses her arms to gesticulate aimlessly as she's searching for the right words. Finally she shrugs when she doesn't find them. "T'lurn bhr'niath ptlohrink." she says, tapping Natalie's forehead. "You are who you are, but that... assumes your body is your own and this... this isn't right. It severs that Pa'thoon and what if you'll end up being who you are." she says, not really making all that much sense.

"Are you worried I'll become Ashlie? Or that I'll become some cold robot?"

"Yes? No. It's... more complicated than that. You are who you are, but I'm worried you're too... reckless about it. You're not a shapeshifter, you don't know any of the training or the rites of it. I'm worried."

"I've also been working with devices with my power for years now and without it before that," she says, sounding irritated. "If... and I say if... this is a more permanent thing, I'll deal with that and look at getting something like this for myself that looks more like me. But we know less than shit at the moment, so can we stop assuming I'm going to go crazy? It shows a distinct lack of faith in me and I've had enough of that from Ashlie."

"I'm just worried..." she repeats more quietly and let's herself hang in Natalie's grip, arms at her sides. "Sorry..."

Tosh thought it best to not interrupt and took the opportunity to turn his phone on. Seeing the date, his eyes widened.

"We were in there three days?!" he exclaimed.

Natalie looks like she's about to respond, but Tosh's exclamation distracts her. "That would make sense. I'd lost track of time in that holding cell under the Point."