Fancy Bundle

Character Animation design

Swati was going to meet her friend Scott at a near by restaurant for lunch. She’d decided to bike there and so was waiting in the elevator to get to the ground floor. On the way there, she bumped into two of her friends, Dana and Katie.

They talked and laughed and Katie made a comment about Swati’s bike. “Well I don’t have a car so…” Swati shrugged. “If you ever need a lift dude, let us know!” said Katie as they all got out of the elevator.

“I’ll keep that in mind!” Swati said, and briefly wondered if she should stop them and ask for a lift to the restaurant. It was a walkable distance and would maybe take them a minute to get there. Plus she hadn’t eaten all day and it was a somewhat hot day so she wasn’t particularly excited about biking.

But as she considered it, the moment had passed. The two had walked away and she was mostly hesitating to ask because she’d have to put her bike back and they’d have to wait for her and then if it was a little out of the way the whole thing might make them late.

So she began to peddle her bike, heading for the park. She preferred biking in the park to biking on the road and it was a shorter distance that way anyway.

“God I’m so out of shape” she thought to herself panting even after that short ride. She parked her bike and sat down in the outside section of the restaurant. She new she had to go inside to order but Scott wasn’t there yet and the bike ride and had been pretty rough. So she decided to just sit for a bit until she’d caught her breath. She was really thirsty.

Near by were two EMTs having lunch and chatting. Their ambulance was parked on the street, right by the restaurant. She could see it.

Still panting, she looking into the glass doors of the restaurant, wondering if Scott was there yet. That was when she spotted Katie and Dana waiting in line to order. She laughed to herself. She really should have asked them for a lift.

As soon as she saw them she headed into the restaurant to say hi. She wanted water anyway so it seemed like a good move, even though she was still recovering from her bike ride.

“Hi!” she said to them. And they all had a laugh about it.

“I’m meeting Scott here” she told them. We talked about how good the restaurant was. It was a hot day though and the restaurant was poorly ventilated.

“I’m going to sit down” she told Katie as Dana ordered.

Swati sat down in a nearby chair, the lights seemed to be dimming. She didn’t feel like she could stand. She was very thirsty.

“Hey Katie… Could you get me some water please?”

She really didn’t feel good at all. Everything was dimming. Who was turning the screen brightness down? And why was she melting? Her feet were goop and she was sinking down to join them.

“Oh dear,” she thought, “I really hope Katie gets me that water soon…”

The next 5 minutes or so very pretty frustrating. She couldn’t move or speak and people were fussing and talking. She couldn’t breathe. Dana was talking to her and asking her questions.

“I can’t breathe” Swati informed Dana, hoping she sounded matter of fact but probably sounding more like a sleepy drunk.

Someone began to fan Swati with a menu and suddenly she could breathe again. She started to feel better. She drank the water someone put in her hand.

“I’m ok” she thought, “I’m gonna just drink this water and get on up and then I’m gonna order lunch in about 5 minutes”

“do you want me to call the EMTs?” someone said

“Noooo” Swati thought. “Gluhhh” Swati said

“ok I’ll call them” the guy said.

Grumbling, she slowly started to sit up and drink some water.

Before she knew it, the EMTs were there. One of them was talking to her and helping her up. She felt ok about that.

He started her towards a chair and she was grateful for the chair.

“Yes. I will sit in the chair ” she thought,“ “The chair is where I am heading. I have a goal now and it’s only 2 feet away I can do this. It’s good to have a goal. I’m glad that my goal is the chair”

In a matter of seconds, she saw the chair, was being lead there by the EMT and then suddenly, like a cruel trick of fate, the EMT turned her sharply and aimed her at a gurney that his colleague had just brought into the restaurant.

“Noooo” she told the EMT pleadingly, “do I have to? I’m fine”

But he loaded her in and then buckled two belts onto her, one around her waist and one around her legs. The one around her legs was very loose and didn’t bother her. But as soon as they were preoccupied, Swati unbuckled the other one.

“I wonder where Scott is and if I can tell him I’m ok” she thought to herself. As she was being rolled out of the restaurant.

They opened the ambulance and began to load her into it. That’s when she spotted Scott. He looked over just in time. She waved at him. His jaw dropped to the floor with an audible thunk.

Then she disappeared into the ambulance, laughing.

This was all so weird and embarrassing. She was mildly irritated. The younger EMT introduced himself as Steve. The older EMT didn’t introduce himself.

Her hands were slightly numb and Steve was hooking her up to a machine and not-Steve was asking her questions and writing down the answers. Swati kept asking to leave. They continued to ask her about what had happened.

“I rode my bike here” she told them.

“In a sweater?” Steve asked

“Yes”

“It’s a hot day” Not-Steve said.

Swati didn’t respond to that. She had the distinct impression that the EMTs were judging her lifestyle and she didn’t appreciate it.

“Can I go?” Swati asked once more.

“As soon as we know you’re ok. What’s your date of birth?” asked not-Steve

“October 16th, 1993. I’m ok, can I go?”

“Write down that she’s a pathological liar” said Steve, looking at her heart rate.

She was glad they were joking around. They asked her for her weight and she wasn’t sure.

“I try to avoid knowing” she said, though in her head she was thinking “around 150”

“140” guessed Steve.

“I was gonna say 135” said not-Steve

She was suddenly enjoying herself a bit more. Not-Steve asked for her ID and she gave it to him. He went to the front while Steve continued to do tests.

“I’m gonna test your blood sugar level” said Steve.

Swati frowned deeply. “you’re going to stab me with a needle aren’t you?”

“Yup, don’t worry it’ll barely hurt”

She groaned loudly “Listen man, I didn’t ask for this. You’re ruining my day. I was having such a good day”

“Yes, me pricking you with a tiny needle is going to ruin your day. Not the part where you passed out in a restaurant”

“yeah, I mean- OW! RUDE. aren’t you supposed to warn me?” he’d done the deed while she was busy sassing him.

“It’s easier when you’re distracted” he said, wrapping a bandaid around her finger. “do you feel like you can stand up?”

“Yes!” she said she’d been wanting to get out of the gurney before she’d even sat in it. She pulled her legs out of the lower belt easily. Steve was still talking.

“ok let me just unbuckle you from the gurney- hey! Did you unbuckle yourself?” “… Yeah”

“When?” he was surprised

“… When I was planning my escape”

Steve’s arm twitched as though he was resisting the urge to face palm. He settled for making Swati stand up and monitoring her vitals.

Not-Steve returned to give her her ID back and ask her a few more questions about medication and other things.

She answered them, trying very hard to reign in the sass so that she could leave as soon as possible.

“And now for the stupid question: do you want to go to the hospital?”

“God no!”

“What a shock. Sign here, please” not-Steve passed her a pad to sign on to say that she didn’t want to go to the hospital.

Somewhere in between all of this, Steve had left to find Katie, Dana and Scott and let them know what was going on and to ask Katie and Dana if they could give her a lift home.

Not-Steve helped her detangle herself from the medical equipment. When she was successfully detached, Steve was back and opened the door for her.

“Your heart is strong. Your blood pressure is good. Just get something to eat and drink some water” said Not-steve.

“Next time don’t bike on a hot day with a sweater on” said Steve

“You’re not my real mom”

“Thank God for that!”

She spotted Scott and walked towards him. He’d heard the whole story from Katie and Dana.

“Maybe next time we should get delivery” said Scott.

Swati started to laugh. It was a solid plan.

Test Bubble Animation, next project