Huh. Yeah, it's not that. 

...She should not get nerdsniped into trying to explain insurance to the alien, who is currently brainfoggy and in horrible pain. Especially because it looks like the trauma surgeon is now arriving with the resident, looking moderately disgruntled about it. 

Marian takes a deep breath. "I - need to explain a thing but I want to wait until the clerk and the charge nurse are here so I only need to do it once." 

"Yeah, they're coming." The surgeon is glaring suspiciously at Iomedae. "Heard she self-extubated. Took your eyes off her for too long?" 

"I was right there!" Marian protests. "She was - pretty freaked out - and she's kind of impossible to keep sedated. She's satting okay on BiPAP. I - think it'll make more sense once I explain about the, uh, thing." 

"Hmmphh." The surgeon rolls his eyes at her, and starts pacing. 

Marian takes another deep breath. 

It's okay, nothing is wrong, she tells Iomedae. He's annoyed with me for letting you pull the breathing tube out, or, well, ""pull"" is not precisely the thing that happened, because, like, a normal human patient could have died from that. ...I'm trying to think if there are ways to prove you're from another world that don't use up limited resources, since after the telepathy wears off you won't be able to communicate at all? Would the necklace do anything for other people? 

The necklace provides breathable air for the wearer. It might be noticeable if you have a river available in which you could go diving, or if you can teleport about twenty miles straight up - on my home planet, I guess it might be either farther or less far here. I don't know which capabilities I have are most definitive proof that I'm from another world. Once my throat has healed a bit more I can turn into an angel? That's a - differently scarce resource.

She did not in fact think anything was wrong; the man is important, and annoyed, but he's neither trying to kill her not trying to conceal a lot of complicated planning with respect to her nor trying to follow orders conveyed remotely or convey his own, and she's pretty good at telling. 

She can do WHAT. Marian is currently experiencing her brain rapidly flipflopping on what genre it seems like this bizarre saga is supposed to be. 

It would be pretty inconvenient to send someone to the river, but we do have, like, sinks? I can ask– oh, they're here. 

The charge nurse – Alison, today – looks intrigued. The clerk mostly looks like she would prefer to be getting her break right now. Great. Time for the worst social interaction of Marian's ENTIRE LIFE. 

She forces her teeth to un-grit. "So, uh, everyone has probably already noticed that this patient is implausibly strong and recovering implausibly quickly and implausibly resistant to sedation. I realize this is going to sound, uh, pretty completely crazy, but she, uh, when she woke up, she - okay for one she didn't pull the tube, she bit it off - and then she started communicating with me telepathically. She says she's from another world and she's a, uh, a legendary hero, and that's why she's so tough. And she was fighting a - she called it a 'god' but it sounded more like a powerful alien entity of some kind - and there was an assassination, which is I guess how, uh." Vague gesture at Iomedae and her current very visible condition. "She says she's going to recover fine, but she's worried about another assassination attempt, even though I'm pretty sure the 'god' is not from Earth. ....So. Uh. Yeah. That." 

The surgeon clears his throat. "Well. That went and got a whole lot weirder." 

No one else seems to be sure what to say. 

What is that supposed to mean. Marian was definitely expecting people to argue with her, or inform her that she's having a psychotic break, and she's sort of unsure what to do with the absence of that. 

"...Right. Uh. I figured you would want - proof - and the most conclusive way would be having her do the telepathy - thing - again, she can get four people. But it might be better to save it until the one she has with me wears off, she doesn't speak our language. Other stuff - uh, the necklace she has on provides breathable air anywhere. She thought it might help her breathing problem and apparently it doesn't, but it'd supposedly let you breathe underwater. Uh. The belt makes her healthier, she shouldn't have it off for long but it might not be a disaster to take it off briefly to see the difference and so someone else can try it. Possibly there are other items she has that do things but she's pretty out of it, I didn't get a full list or anything." 

The surgeon snorts. "You missed the obvious test, kid. What's the range on her telepathy?" 

Oh no aaaaaah what did she fail to think of. "I don't know." Iomedae, how far can you telepathy someone? 

It does not seem to reach to other stars. I have not tested other planets that circle the same star - do they do that, around here?

They do, yeah. Uh, so it's definitely fine anywhere on the same planet? 

....Ohhhhhh NOW she gets what the surgeon is angling at. She hadn't thought of it because...mostly because she had vaguely not been modeling Iomedae as able to communicate at all with anyone other than her, but she does have, like, hands. 

"I think she could reach anywhere in the hospital and a lot further," she says out loud. 

It will assuredly work anywhere on the planet and I am reasonably confident about the planet's moons, should the planet have those.

Good.

Marian turns back to the surgeon. "I'm - guessing you want to have her convey something to me when I'm at the other end of the unit, or something? And have someone come over here to check it?" 

"- Okay, fine, you're not hopeless. Is she awake enough to think of a number and tell it to you?" 

"Uh, probably. She can't talk but I guess she can, like, hold up fingers?" He wants you to communicate a number to me when I'm outside the room, and I guess separately tell someone else by holding up that number of fingers. Can you do that? 

"Great. Come with me." To the resident, "- you stay, you'll be the messenger, I'd like you to write down whatever number she gives you in a couple of minutes and bring it to us." And the surgeon sweeps out of the room. 

Marian has to push pretty hard to convince her brain that it's okay to leave the patient's room if three other people are there at her bedside. She grits her teeth and follows. 

The patient is lying there calm and relaxed, aside from keeping an eye out for attempts to kill her. It'll be harder now that she's conscious, but - not that hard, when she's out of armor and healing and reliant on an external air source and collapses every time she does something strenuous. 

The surgeon speedwalks all the way to the double doors that lead to the OR, and swipes his badge to let them through. He leans against the wall. 

"Actually, it's a different plan. I can't think why you would, but you could have colluded with her. So I'm going to tell you some numbers, and - if you really aren't kidding, or insane, and you can talk to her - you'll tell her the change of plan, and pass the numbers along once I give them." 

That's...probably reasonable. 

Actually the surgeon wants to test in the other direction, he's going to tell me numbers and you can convey them to the resident by holding up that many fingers. Are you up for that? 

I can do that.