2018-01-23: Healing Patterns
- Log: Healing Patterns
- Cast: Riesenlied, Lily Keil
- Where: Baskar Colony
- Date: 23rd January 2018
- Summary: Having convalesced through the night, Riesenlied finds Lily at her door.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
It doesn't take too much to find Riesenlied at the Baskar Colony; following her visit and discussion with Elder Halle, the village is no doubt filled with whispers and rumours of the 'Metal Demon' staying amongst them. The kids are being hushed to not gossip about it, the adults are trying to not mention it in polite company. Reactions are... certainly mixed, which is about expected, really.
Riesenlied herself is resting on a small rattan cot, a blanket draped over her. Noeline's spent the night with her to calm her down... the bonfire in their room is softly smoldering in the morning. Jay's probably mentioned that she was quite injured following the battles to protect the Statues...
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Finding Lily would be a little tricker--she's kept to herself, received not nearly as many rumors as the exciting CaraKin or the strange Metal Demon staying amongst them. Mixed reactions... Whereas Lily is just an ill-looking woman with black hair--striking, intimidating even, but not as much a draw. ...And she prefers to keep it that way. She's stayed here for now... But she's too restless, even with what little sleep she's gotten, to simply stay in the place she was given to stay.
Lily is wearing black, as usual, though a bit looser than before. Her arms are hidden by a jacket draped on her shoulders, but the sleeves hang empty; one arm is in a sling, and the bandages at her shoulder are mostly hidden, but not entirely. She reaches up with one hand and knocks on a harder surface as she steps closer.
"...Riesenlied?" she asks.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
... Noeline, for all she might protest otherwise, is absolutely a soft touch when it comes to Riese. The horned woman mentioned wanting to see her children in an offhand comment last night - so the demon spy has temporarily left her partner's side to make a communications call back to Wayside. A couple of orphans is probably not a cargo that Muni-Muni is used to, but Noeline reckons it's fine just this once.
Even if it means Janey will never shut up about it.
Even if she has to make very, very, very clear that Muni-Muni should land /outside/ of the Colony, safely clear of it.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
There's a groggy appearance on Riesenlied as she fumbles and-- pulls her head up, breath light. She didn't really have a good night's sleep, even with Noeline at her side; there was just too much on her mind, little gnawing thoughts tearing at every corner of it. "I-- I'm in... I am in here," she burbles.
She looks a bit frazzled as she seats herself onto her side, shivering and wincing as she holds at her side. The anaesthetics have worn off over the night, and the pain feels a lot sharper, fresher now.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily looks over Riesenlied from where she is, considering. ...She's haggard herself, bags under her eyes and a pallor that is a little worse than usual; she's been sweating, which is also not that usual for her as something that shows. ...She steps the rest of the way in, kneeling close to Riesenlied and examining her.
"...You /are/ hurt," Lily murmurs, looking around. "Let me fetch you your medicine. Do you keep it close by?"
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
One wound that's been bandaged over the side, rather clearly, and more across the arm and shoulder that shows some marring and bruising that reminds Lily of something approximating a shotgun blast... and a larger wound nearer to her abdomen that has extra gauze to seal and sustain it. Not a great time, since Lily last saw her.
"T-there," she indicates to a small chest that Jay's supplied her. "I am supposed to replace my bandages in the morning... I did not know you were here, Miss Lily. You do not... look well yourself."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
A number of wounds... With a number of bandages already. Lily considers them, and then looks back up to Riesenlied's face. "...I've kept to myself," she answers. "And avoided others. I don't know whether I'm contagious." A pause. "...I'm hoping that's not a problem for you." She considers after a moment, glances to the chest, and walks over to it. One-handed, she opens it up, and starts to pull what look like the appropriate bottles to her... And eyes the location of some gauze and bandages.
"I can help you." A pause. "...And..." She considers how best to explain it, shakes her head. "A Baskar bit me." She hands Riese her medicine and picks up the gauze, kneeling beside her. ...She still has her coat obver her shoulders, but it'll impair her motion, for sure.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"Con... contagious?" Riesenlied sounds surprised, blinking for a moment and hearing the explanation. 'A Baskar bit me.'
Her face falls flat for a moment as her horns wilt, and then she suggests: "Was it... Asteroid?"
She perhaps still has fresh memories of when Asteroid bit her back when they first met! Owww! She glances aside to murmur, "If you are hurt, I don't want to impose on you-- ah--"
There's a sharp wince as she takes the medicine, sipping from a little provided cup with the bottle. She pauses for a few seconds, and sighs in relaxation as it begins to take effect. "... we lost two more statues... the Mountain and Ocean ones." She glances aside. "I feel I've failed so many..."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily doesn't answer about the contagion at first--she just pauses, when Riesenlied wilts, when she mentions the one it was. "...Yes," she says, with some surprise, an eyebrow lifted. "Does she do that often?" She glances down at her arm. Then, back to Riesenlied. "...It doesn't matter if I'm hurt," she says, in her usual low tone of voice. "All I'd be doing is laying around. I'd rather do something. I still have one good arm."
Lily watches Riesenlied take the medicine... and then, with a glance to the door, she shrugs out of her coat, revealing her tanktop beneath. Her right arm is covered in strange circuitry patterns up onto her shoulder, as usual, though the colors meld into one another instead of being one; orange-red, blue, violet, deeper red. ...Her left arm, however, is covered in bandages; the shoulder entirely, the upper arm mostly, heavily wrapped. ...The sling conceals most of it. Where the bandages end however there are strange, more jagged patterns here and there instead of the clean ones.
Lily reaches for the bandages, and for Riesenlied's bandages. "You shouldn't focus on your losses. ...Think what you've done, learn from the losses, and move forward. A leader doesn't have time to dwell."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"... maybe a bit too often," Riesenlied admits regarding Asteroid, not yet knowing that she's now Asteroid-less and going by Lydia! Perhaps she'll know in very short order. She nearly chokes as she-- gawks and stares for a moment too longer--
"Miss Lily, what...?"
She cups her mouth and shakes her head, sucking another breath as she says, "... what happened?" She nearly misses Lily's advice for her; she doesn't have words for it anyhow. She knows she has no time to dwell. It just... hurts.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"...I see. I'll keep that in mind." She pauses. "...But she wasn't exactly herself, at the time. I don't hold it against her." Lily knows, but she does not pass that information on... yet. She just says, "She's a good kid."
But Riesenlied almost chokes--she gawks, she stares. Lily... glances away, in what an empath or someone especially perceptive can regard as self-consciousness. "I..." She wants to reiterate her advice. But it's not that simple, is it? "...It's all right, to feel like you've failed," she says instead, avoiding the answer for herself. ...But she knows she can't for long.
"...When I was bitten... Something happened. Everything... Went strange. I don't remember the last time I was ill, and now..." She lifts her hand, and concentrates--but instead of fire, there are only sparks in her palm, the patterns on her body glowing red for an instant and then shifting erratically through colors as she winces.
"I'm sure... once I heal a little more, I'll be fine. But until then..."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied feels ashamed, of course; she can sense that self-consciousness in Lily, and the last thing she wants to do is to make her feel that way. "I'm sorry. ... I am not myself calm right now... I am just worried for you, not horrified or anything else." Knowing that Lily can sense her, she radiates that emotion outward, to show that she is genuine...
"Ah..." Riese looks to Lily as she attempts to summon her magic, only for sparks as her body starts to glow red. "It reminds me of... a... machine's circuits? Does Mister Leon know what happened?"
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily does feel the emotion there, radiated; she closes her eyes for a moment, to just focus on it. Worry... Lily opens her eyes again. "All right," she answers. "I'm aware it's... strange." Lily has a melancholy about her with this; a distance that she knows is between her and others. But the sparks...
"Not yet," Lily answers. "At least, not in detail." She pauses, and says, "Machine's... circuits... I'm not familiar with..." She considers. "Someone said something like that to me before. I should say..." Lily has paused the bandaging.
"...The patterns are usual for me. At least, they have been for some months. The way they break up, since the bite... That's what's strange."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied lowers her head and places her hand to her chest. She doesn't want to burden Lily with her own aura for too long, knowing that it can bother her, after all. "I do not mean to imply anything of the sort, of course..." she murmurs gently. She shifts and lets Lily get to her wounds for a moment, undoing a part of her gown to let her access to the skin where...
...well, the discoloration and warping of the skin has gotten a bit worse over time, it seems. The scales and scale-like patterns slowly, but surely continue their creep forward. "Do you think that there was something that was... damaged? But as you said... once they heal..."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
It can, at times; Lily is not altogether comfortable with the way that her mind touches others... Or the way that others' minds touch hers. But she does feel it for a time. "I'm sure you don't," Lily says about the implication, the dark-haired sorceress staring into nothing for a few moments. "But it's true. I've never met anyone who..."
She shakes her head, and focuses on the wounds for the moment. The warping and discoloration draw a look from Lily, thoughtfully. Creeping forward... "Mm," she says. ...She starts wending away old bandages, reaching for the disinfecting ointment, just to be safe. ...With the one arm, of course.
"There must be. I... It's a long story, with these... patterns. But someone once suggested that they were..." She trails off again. "Regardless. I suspect that's what happened. ...I think. I hope. I don't... like, being without my magic. It feels wrong. It..."
She closes her eyes, "It's painful."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied helps, at least, taking the disinfectant to apply that herself. She can do that much; she may not be a medic, but she is trained in first aid. She hasn't exactly made it this far without a modicum of knowing how to care for herself... as hard as that is to believe some days.
"... you'll get it back," Riesenlied reassures. "You without your magic... it would be like if I-- were to suddenly feel nothing. It wouldn't be right." She gives her at ender little smile.
"What... did this person suggest, though?"
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily, having only one hand free, is best off letting Riesenlied handle the disinfectant. ...and they are Riesenlied's wounds. But Lily does not expect Riese /not/ to knowhow to do these things. ...Her black hair falls in front of her face as she looks down however. Riesenlied reassures her, and Lily's anxiety is plain to feel, an unusual sort of projection from the typically self-assured woman.
"...Yes. It would," Lily agrees, softly, nodding with closed eyes. "Thank you."
She pauses. "...That the markings might somehow be some kind of machine. It didn't make much sense to me. But Lydia... she seemed focused on me for some reason. As was her captor."
She shakes her head. "...Nevermind. I don't want to think about these things. Here, let me start to wrap you. I... may need you to hold some things in place, while I do." Lily gets to work.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied lets out a little haggard noise as she disinfects herself; the wash of the liquid stings on her skin as she holds what Lily requests her to. Before long, there's a fresh wrap of gauze and her wounds are sealed once more... they do look like gunshot wounds, primarily. A shotgun, a pistol... but the largest wound seemed like it was some sort of sharp, blunt object. It's reminiscent of shrapnel wounds of soldiers who are hit by the collateral from IEDs and other such objects.
"... I won't ask, then," Riesenlied weakly smiles. "You're Lily to me... and that's who you'll always be. No matter what." She places her hand to Lily's for a moment.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily is accustomed to dealing with her patients being in a little pain that can be dealt with. But soon, the bandages are applied. ...For her part, Lily does look more ill than injured, save for the large bandages. ...Letting her skin breathe is helping a little. A little, anyway. She considers, though. The wounds... "This was a dangerous set of wounds, Riesenlied. Good thing you made it out of there."
Riesenlied's weak smile is good enough; it seems to touhch something quietly in the younger woman. The dark mirror, Lily. "...Thank you," she says. Lily ordinarily shies away from physical contact, but after a brief moment's pause, she relaxes, and lets Riese's hand stay on hers. ...The patterns are smooth to the touch, a little smoother even than skin. They extend to her fingertips.
"Keep watch on yourself, all right? I can't always be there, and... I don't want to lose you."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"... yes ... perhaps it was more emotionally wounding than it was physical, that made it so traumatic," Riesenlied admits. "A close friend, and... someone I call daughter..." she trembles for a moment longer, not wanting to have the flashes appear in front of her once more, lest she be thrown into another panic attack. She takes note of the feeling of the patterns... they're too smooth to be skin. She doesn't want to say it reminds her of... metal, perhaps?
"Yes... I understand. ... I don't want to lose you either."
She lowers her head, closing her eyes. "Thank you, Miss Lily."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"..." Lily listens to that, very quietly, a pang of guilt and of despair at the talk of a daughter striking out against Riesenlied. She shakes her head, attempts to suppress it--while Riesenlied finds that indeed, they do feel very much like metal. ...Her skin is warm to the touch, but that may be the slight fever.
"That makes it more difficult," Lily agrees. "The mind affects the body, affects healing. ...And... It must be a terrible wound in itsself, for your daughter to strike against you."
"Yes..." She pauses. She's thanked, and Lily closes her eyes. "...It's a responsibility I can't seem to get away from, having people to care about. ...I'm not sure what to say to it."
She closes her fingers, looks down at her hand, still in Riesenlied's. "...Let me know, if I can do anything for you. I'll be moving on from here soon. I just had to give myself a few days to rest."
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
"... and as clumsy as I can be, me neither," Riesenlied admits on the topic of caring for people... she can imagine that there are plenty of people who are waiting for her return even as she speaks, her other daughters waiting to pile onto her when she sets foot in Wayside Village.
"And the same to you as well... if I can assist you or Mister Leon in any of your pursuits... you know where to find me," Riesenlied nods gently.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Clumsy. That's a word for it. "...You look out for others. That's a good quality. As long as someone can look out for you. ...And you're stronger than one would expect for someone so peaceful." Lily can imagine those people waiting for her. Other daughters waiting for her. ...She wonders if the daughter that Riesenlied faced misses her too, thinks of her own father, and shakes her head.
"I'll do that," she says. "We'll help one another. ...And I'll come to you when I cam, otherwise. FOr now though..." Lily trails off. "I should let you get your rest. I... think I need to be alone again, for a while."