2017-09-25: Trouble
- Cutscene: Trouble
- Cast:Lily Keil
- Where: November City - Downtown, November City - Hospital
- Date: 9/25/17
- Summary: In the wake of a terrible battle between Lily Keil and Isiris Shango'Ra, Lily hangs onto life and November City sees rumors of a maniac on the loose...
Her finger twitches. This is the start of Lily returning to awareness, here in a dingy alley off a wider street Downtown in November City. Her finger twitches again, and she feels the dried blood on her arm through what remains of her sleeves, the wounds that remain up and down both. The secondary arm she tries to move, and finds it brings her only a wince. The deep wound in her wrist is worse than that. She finds she is cold, and sticky, blood down her dress to stain her skirts, along the ground all around her. It's not all hers. She is on her stomach, and her black hair that would otherwise be free is clumped with it. The hole in her gut aches, but not as badly as the searing pain in the eye that still won't open. Even if it would, it's stuck shut from all her bleeding.
"Gh..." She coughs, a hacking, ugly thing that sends pain running through her. Then she starts to move. Standing is beyond her, but she digs her fingers into the ground and pulls, pain in her other arm still as she tries to get through. It's dangerous. Even moving could make things worse. Hanging on is difficult. But bleeding in an alley...
"H-huh? Oh my God!" Lily's golden eye flutters closed, and her fingers twitch again. Someone rushes over towards her, then another person, and she blacks out. Consciousness will be intermittent for a while.
-=-=-
"You found her like /this/? What even happened--" There's a bed beneath her now, being wheeled backward. There's more chatter, but none of it seems important...
Except, "What--What /are/ these?" Lily is still silent but she feels the air on her arm. The faint purple light in the markings there is clear to those looking. She murmurs something, too soft to hear, and blacks out again.
-=-=-
A quiet voice speaks, "Multiple stab wounds, slashes up the body, a puncture wound to the midsection, a puncture wound to the upper chest, lacerations miscellaneous over much of the body, lacerations to the left side of the face, trauma to left eye, significant blood loss, a deep wound to the left wrist..."
Lily wakes up in bed, a soft bandage over her face, with gauze--just the eye, and above and below it. There are bandages over much of her body too, and a blanket. Her wrist has a solid binding about it to keep it still, to keep her hand still. Light is starting to filter out of the windows, and the Kislevi woman is not in her own clothes.
"Ah, you're awake," the doctor says, turning from where she was speaking to a man in uniform. "I'm surpried you're awake so soon, to be honest. I--"
"Good," the police officer says, "Then you can tell me what happened and what you were doing there."
"Stop, she's barely awake--"
Lily is the one to speak up this time, hoarsely, "It's fine." Her voice is low, calm--too calm. "Just winch this thing up so I can face him." Despite her doctor's fretting, it's done in a moment. She's pale, from bloodloss, but has all her faculties. Moving that affects her core at all is incredibly painful.
"I was taking a walk," she says truthfully, staring at him. She knows the fancy Downtown district has greater police presence, after all. "Someone came at me from behind. I didn't see him," she lies, and lifts her good arm with difficulty to point to her face. "He saw to that. So I don't know what happened."
The officer frowns, looking her over. "You're sure? Anything at all would be helpful, he may strike again--"
"No. Now I need rest to recover, may I have it?"
The officer frowns more, sighs, and looks to the doctor. "If she remembers anything else, let us know."
Lily nearly falls asleep then and there, breathing low, slow. Her fingers twitch, but no healing glow comes. The doctor returns.
"You shouldn't be alive. But those markings on your arms, they're like no Symbology I've seen. If they helped--"
"Keep them to yourself," Lily says to her. "You saved me and I appreciate that. Do whatever else you need to do." She pauses, "But I'm going to need something to help me sleep. I have insomnia on my best days."
The doctor does, and Lily sleeps long and deeply with what she's given.
-=-=-
Lily's eye opens, golden, to a day in full swing. There is peace in her room, which is small, given that she wasn't found with any money. The window shows a view of November City that she can only see if she turns her head, since once of her eyes doesn't work. She is alone, and...
Lily lifts her 'good' arm, less pale, and sees the violet markings there. She sighs. "...Great," she mutters, letting her arm fall again. Speaking is easier now; she is fatigued, and pain leaps back into her frame of awareness. There's a wince then, as she lets her head all back down again. "How..."
Knock knock, and then an arrival, a nurse. "You--" She pauses as she sees Lily awake, "Good morning. More good afternoon by now..." She moves and starts her work, absolutely regardless of Lily's intimidating aura, to check her pulse, begin to fit her to check her blood pressure...
Lily appreciates nurses. "Can you tell me what you find?" Lily says with a little too much breath in her voice. "I'm a medic." The nurse, for her part, lifts an eyebrow. "I see. Sure." A breath, "And also... how long...?"
They pass that way for a few minutes, before the nurse has her vitals and Lily has more pain in the works. "You were admitted last night. You've been out of surgery for a few hours now." The shorter woman moves to pick up a syringe and a vial and Lily shakes her head. "Good, but... No painkillers."
"...What?"
"I'm leaving," Lily explains. "Please have someone bring me a real dress." The nurse outright stares at her. "Ma'am, medic or no medic you should be /dead/. You may /still/ die of that wound in your gut if we can't do more for it than we already have. You've lost a great deal of blood. What you /need/ is bedrest and an IV of nutrients and to start praying." She sounds thoroughly disapproving.
"I might come back," Lily allows, "But I need to leave. It's fine." She leaves room for the nurse to get a word in edgewise and the nurse indeed replies, "Like hell it is. You--"
Lily twitches her fingers, and this time a red aura spreads about her body, brilliant soft light that eases her breathing. The nurse stares and then frowns.
"...It's fool and dangerous to just use magic when you're hurt this badly, and you know it. But I can't actually stop you. You'd /better/ come back for proper treatment, or you still might die."
"You're right. But I have my reasons. Now please, have someone bring me some clothes. I assume mine are ruined."
The nurse clicks her tongue and shrugs. "All right. But the doctor left you some medicine, and if that wound gets infected you're done. You're taking all of it with you." She shakes her head and storms out of the room. Lily closes her eye at her back, finally reaching up a clean hand to touch the bandages on her face and judge their size.
-=-=-
So it is that Lily Keil walks stiffly, thoughly bandaged and splinted with an arm in a sling, right out of the hospital the morning after. She's wearing brown, but at least it's clothing. And the sun is somehow twice as bright despite having only one good eye to see it with.
Lily doesn't know how she's going to explain everything to Leon.