Kapitel 66: Playing Doctor

Time resumed again and Afton wondered why he'd not received a quest notification... Perhaps he'd turned it off in the settings? It would've made sense as the quest finished when they delivered the supplies.

Regardless they gave most of the supplies to one of the guys under Eddie, the group was given 50 caps each for their troubles, definitely not worth the supplies but it was more a consolation for not running off with the supplies themselves.

Again the group split apart and did their own thing, they probably wouldn't go out for another ambush for a while, the supplies they brought back were better than what most of the other groups had managed, so they decided to take a break for a while.

Afton was given a bed in one of the cell blocks, they'd all been converted into relatively comfortable quarters, and the locks had all been dismantled to stop people from accidentally locking themselves inside... And yes, that'd apparently happened before.

Most people ignored Afton or were completely indifferent to him, this quickly changed though when people found out that he was quite proficient with medicine. Tommy or someone else in the group had apparently been talking about him, and his skills in the area had come up.

Hannigan was more than happy to have another versed in medicine around, as he'd usually be forced to deal with any injuries people suffered. He was barely suited to be a combat medic, so anything that needed a more experienced was way over his head.

Afton accepted the temporary role as it was actually a pretty good way of making money, people would pay anything he asked depending on how much pain they were in, and he wasn't adversed to ripping off these people after hearing what Karl had to say about them.

Most of the time people came trying to buy chems, more specifically Jet, Psycho, and Mentats. Eddie had most chems locked away, only to be used by himself, and anyone who actually needed them.

It was a common sight to see guys trying to lie to Afton or Hannigan about their symptoms or injuries in an attempt to get chems. The latter sold small amounts as to not alert Eddie, but now that Afton was here the man hadn't attempted to go over Eddie's head again.

Afton sighed at the man on the table who had his mouth wide open. "Sorry, but have you ever heard of a toothbrush?" he asks in exasperation, the question was rhetorical as toothbrushes and toothpaste weren't all that hard to come across. The NCR made sure to distribute proper hygiene tools amongst their soldiers, and the Powder Gangers definitely had a big enough stockpile for everyone to keep their teeth from rotting.

The man snorts, "Fuck off Doc, can you help or not? I'm dyin' here."

Afton nods, "Yeah, I know, your back molar's pulp is infected." he states as if it were obvious.

"The hell's that mean?" his patient asks.

Afton glances behind him at the tools he had at his disposal, "Means I'm gonna have to remove it before you start getting other problems." he says as he pulls out a relatively clean looking pair of pliers.

The man's eyes widen at the tool, its almost comical to see a hardened criminal getting scared at a regular dental procedure. Afton knew this man was among the worst of the worst, rape, murder, torture, nothing bothered him.

"Can you knock me out for this Doc?" he quickly asks, his eyes locked on the pliers.

Afton could probably knock him out for the procedure, but he wanted to man to suffer some pain, not only would it allow the man to reconsider not brushing his teeth, but it'd be Afton's retribution for what the man had done to innocents. He shakes his head, "Sorry, but the pyroclastic kinesthetic polystyrene would be disturbed by any painkillers, you need to be awake for this to work as well." he lies through his teeth with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.

The man shivers slightly before trying to get up, "I... I think I'll leave it for now-"

Afton interrupts him, "You might die if you leave it, the infection will spread and your mouth will start rotting." he states calmly, "If you're afraid I can ask one of your friends to hold your hand if you want?"

"What!? No way, that's fuckin' gay! I'm not like that... Fuck it, just do it as fast as you can Doc." he says before laying back down on the table.

Afton turns and grins so the man couldn't see his reaction, "Alright." he says, schooling his features and grabbing some things to clamp the man's mouth open. They were directly under the room's light so he could clearly see inside the man's mouth.

He went in and grabbed a tooth with the plier, squeezing it tight and wrenching it backwards.. He knew he could be a little gentler and slowly wiggle the tooth free, but where's the fun in that?

"YIIIIAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" the man screamed like a little girl, the people outside the room paling at the sound.

Afton continued until one tooth was removed... Though, it wasn't the infected tooth... "That's one done, now for the other... You're lucky you came to me, the infection had already spread to another tooth, I'll be able to save the others though." he says, glancing at the healthy tooth he'd just pulled out with mirth.

Afton plugged the hole in the man's gums with cotton as he moved onto the actual infected tooth. Eventually pulling that one as well.

*Tink*

He dropped the tooth into the metal container, glancing at his now pale, shivering, and sickly-looking patient. Tears were streams down his face as he looked up at the ceiling almost catatonic in pain.

"Well, you're done, good job. You've already paid so you can be on your way now... Or, if you want to just lie here for a while that fine too." Afton says as he leaves the room.

[Perk Gained: Torture Techniques]

[Torture Techniques] : Knowledge of how to cause as much pain as possible, +10% success rate when torturing.

Afton eyes the notification for a moment before shrugging, "Huh, neat."