Logs:Broken Noses
| |
|---|
| |
| RL Date: 31 July, 2010 |
| Who: Madilla, Sho |
| Involves: High Reaches Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: Sho's a bit of a mess. Madilla is the queen of advice! And also broken noses. |
| Where: Greenhouse, High Reaches Weyr |
| When: Day 5, Month 5, Turn 22 (Interval 10) |
| Mentions: Taikrin/Mentions |
 |
| Greenhouse, High Reaches Weyr A rustic and unadorned vestibule leads in from hewn spiral steps to a refitted ledge, enclosed by limestone pillars. Sturdy wooden framework captures elongated glass panes, tilted to absorb the most light during the day. The wash of heat from within, lush and humid, persists even into the dead of winter; the air is heady with the scent of fresh-turned soil and various flora. Long, deep troughs of soil line the inner stone wall, planted with an assortment of broad, leafy tropicals - practical and decorative alike. Fruit and vegetable baskets hang from rafters, optimizing space, tempting in reach with a perpetually ripening harvest. A series of stone shelving is devoted to flourishing, aromatic herbs and new green shoots; even the softest touch releases a burst of savory scent from tender leaves. Amidst the greenery, a handful of wooden benches have been scattered, making this a temptingly warm and secluded spot to sit. Shuttered vents serve to regulate humidity and heat given off from a small hot spring recessed into an alcove at the back; a secondary pool with cooler waters siphons off to provide a constant, fresh supply for irrigation. A small potting station nearby is cluttered with watering cans and gardening tools of various uses, with a wooden bin for composting materials tucked underneath. Sho has just been put through the ringer by a not so nice rider and in his beaten state his mind decided to find somewhere warm to sulk and not be bothered. This leads him to the greenhouse. While there may be some people there, it's not to hard for him to avoid them and he slowly winds his way to a corner behind a bush to be alone. He is rather worse for wear. His nose is a little crooked and his lip is split in multiple places, as well as a number of bruises forming and blood seeping out of the injuries, and he's holding his chest with a hand like it's paining him rather badly. Must've been in a fight with a dragon or something. At this time of the afternoon, there /are/ people in the greenhouse: Madilla and a young apprentice, in fact, the former pointing out weeds to the latter in a cheerful, encouraging tone. It may be easy for Sho to avoid them, but he can't pass entirely unnoticed; Madilla is partway through an explanation when a gasp from her companion draws her attention upwards, following Sho's progress with rapidly widening gaze. "By the roots," she tells the apprentice, hurriedly. "I'll be back shortly." She rises, abandoning her charge in order to cross in the stablehand's direction, to draw back the leaves of that bush. Warily; "Sho?" The youth's alone time doesn't last long and as he hears his name his winces and kind of shy's away. "Lea'e me 'lone." Sho says, not looking up at Madilla, his clotted nose makes him talk a bit money. He doesn't appear to be afraid of Madilla...but perhaps more ashamed that he's being seen like he is. "/Sho/." Madilla repeats the name with more urgency, reaching down with the obvious intent of lifting his chin upwards, if he'll let her, to get a better look at the damage. Whether or not he does let her, the result is the same: "Shells and shards. What are you doing here? You need to get all this looked at. You need to let me fix you up." The boy doesn't resist as she lifts his chin, looking sad and stubborn at the same time. "I jus' needed ta ge' warm. I'm fine." Sho says before he gasps at a stab of pain in his chest, both of his hands going there as if that might somehow help it dissapate. Instead it makes it worse and he winces again. He's really not in too good of shape. Must've been TWO dragons that got him. Yep. 'Fine' makes Madilla's eyebrows raise, her suspicions obviously borne out by the visible amount of pain Sho shows. "No, you're not," she tells him, suddenly more business-like, reaching, now, to grab for his hand to draw him to his feet. "Come out from there, and let me get a look. I'll have Elinda fetch some supplies. And while I take a look, you'll tell me what, exactly, happened. Come on." Sho was going to resist, but as she pulls on his hand to get him to his feet pain shoots through his body and has him standing in no time, his other hand covering his chest again. He doesn't say anything else for now, his mind reeling from both the pain, and from what he needs to tell her. Can he really say he got beat up by another girl? And he doesn't want anyone in trouble. It's his fault for not being able to fight back... Madilla's hand releases Sho's as the boy stands, but lingers close, warily, as she keeps a concerned eye on his progress. "Sho?" Uncertainty reigns in her tone. For some reason hearing his name again snaps Sho out of his revelry, "Wha'?" He asks, looking at Madilla now, perhaps a little dumbfounded. He looks around quickly to see if anyone else is nearby. Seeing no one there he looks back to Madilla and gulps as he opens his mouth and admits, "I go' bea' up...again." Beat up, nearly killed, eh. If Madilla were a more sarcastic person, her eyes might roll at this point. Instead, she simply shakes her head, indicating a nearby bench. "Sit," she says, not unkindly, but certainly with professional force to it. "I can see that you got beat up. While I take a look, you can tell me who and why." Beat. "Elinda? Fetch me some supplies, please." The Apprentice darts to her feet, takes one wide-eyed glance at Sho, then runs for the door. One hand still holding his chest gently, Sho slowly goes towards the bench and sits down gently, eyes down on the ground. "She pulle' a tric' on me an' I dumpe' water on 'er." He says, but leaves it at that. Again as in last time, no name, just what happened. A pause, then "'m sure I'll be fine, jus' nee' ta res'." He doesn't want to make any trouble for Madilla after all. He just wants to be in a quiet warm place. "Your nose is broken, I suspect you have at least one broken wrist, and those cuts and abrasions need cleaning and tending," retorts Madilla, calmly. "Or do you want a crooked nose for the rest of your life? Blow on this, please." She offers him a handkerchief - a clean one. Luckily he escaped a broken wrist. Ribs, on the other hand, not so lucky. Sho takes the handkerchief with a hand then uses both to blow his nose...painfully. His eyes dilate at how much it actually hurts but he finishes and habitually wipes, removing any remaining wet blood. "No, I don't want a crooked nose." He admits quietly, flexing his wrists as he looks down at them to see if one is broken and he didn't realize it. Nope, seems good. As Sho flexes his wrists, Madilla takes the opportunity to set his nose, moving quickly and efficiently - though even she can't make the procedure hurt any less than it no doubt does. "If you'd waited much longer, it would have been impossible to set before the swelling went down, and that never works as well," she says, quite calmly, as though she didn't just inflict considerable pain. "Blow again. I think that looks straight." Sho's whole body tenses as Madilla sets his nose, eyes widening again as the pain goes from his nose to his chest when he straightens so suddenly. The pain causes him to bend over slightly and cover his chest with both hands after she's done, trying to make it all just go away. He really needs to learn to defend himself. After a few moments and a few shallow breaths he takes the handkerchief and blows again, ensuring not to move his nose. More blood comes out, but his nose doesn't change position. "Ya could've warned me it'd hurt so bad." He mutters. "If I did," explains Madilla, sympathetically, "You would have tensed up, and that can make it all worse." She really does look sorry, though. Her timing is perfect: her apprentice returns, breathless, right at this moment, offering out a fully stocked basket, which the Journeyman takes. Her next few moments are taken padding and bandaging the nose, as she murmurs something else to the girl, who runs off once more. Turning back to Sho, Madilla adds, "Elinda's going to get you some ice for it, to reduce the swelling. And something for the pain. You'll feel better soon, I promise." Sho nods his thanks, amber eyes staring at Madilla now as she finishes bandaging his nose. "Thank you..." He says finally, quietly. His breathing is very fast and shallow, but nothing seems to out of the ordinary until he tries to take a deep breath and pain shoots through his chest again, once again causing him to double over on the chair. "Ahhh, my chest...hurts." He says, still rather quiet considering he's in pain. While he may not be able to dish it out, apparently he's got a fairly high pain tolerance. Madilla reaches for Sho's shoulder as he doubles over like that, gently, as though to act as encouragement. "Take slow, shallow breaths. You've broken at least one of them, and there's not much we can do about that. Okay? Slow, shallow breaths. In and out." She glances over her shoulder, off in the direction Elinda disappeared in, but there's no sign of the girl, yet. The boy grits his teeth at the pain but he listens to Madilla and makes his breathing shallower and tries to slow down. Sho's eyes close easily as he focuses on his breath, in and out, in and out. It takes a good minute or so but his breathing is shallow and slow and it also seems to have calmed him down somewhat. Madilla keeps her hand on Sho's shoulder throughout that minute, and though she's silent, the expression on her face remains concerned and watchful. "Just like that," she says, finally, nodding her head approvingly. "I know it hurts. It'll keep hurting for a while, but we'll do what we can for it. Do you want to tell me exactly what happened?" Sho licks his lips a bit nervously as he raises his head slightly to look at MAdilla, still focusing on his breathing since that's keeping the pain down. After a moments consideration, he finally talks. "Durin' the weyrling graduation Taikrin told me I had to go in the cold lake to become a man. But she was just tricking me. So I dumped water on her in the Living Cavern and she did this." Pause. "Please don't tell anyone. It's my fault fer not being able ta defend myself." Madilla's mouth opens, but before she has the opportunity to speak, Elinda returns. "Go back down to the infirmary," she tells the Apprentice, once she's accepted the supplies the apprentice has brought. "Delifa will have something for you to do. I need to talk to Sho alone." Elinda looks unimpressed, but does what she's told, leaving Madilla to focus on offering Sho the towel-wrapped ice, and saying, quietly, "No, it's not your fault for that. You shouldn't let yourself get provoked, Sho. It's-- you can't do things like that. You know Taikrin's past, don't you? She's a /rider/. She outranks you. Violence doesn't solve anything, you just need... you can't let people get to you like that." Sho takes the ice and puts it gently against his nose, still focusing on his breathing to keep it shallow and slow. He's doing pretty good so far, but the subject seems to be getting him a bit worked up again. "She deserved the water. An' she's the one that started the fight, rider or no." He says, a small frown forming. "What was I supposed ta do? Just let her trick me and not do anything?" "Trick you?" It seems to surprise Madilla, who sucks in a breath. "No. You-- you can't let people rile you up like that. Doing things like that never makes people respect you, Sho. You have to earn that. But even ignoring that: you should't have tried to get your own back, no. It's not-- just avoid her. Please? She was wrong to hurt you, I won't deny that, and I think it's awful. But throwing water at her? That was the kind of thing a child does." She tries to keep her voice low, tries to keep it calm and to encourage calm in Sho. That just causes Sho to frown more. "But, I can't just let her get away with making me look stupid." He says, his breathing picking up and deepening and he gets a bit riled despite Madilla's efforts. The pain starts back up in his chest of course and his free hand goes back to his chest quickly. Before answering, Madilla turns her attention to the rest of the supplies Elinda brought, then hands to Sho, after a moment of fiddling, a concoction in a small glass. "Drink this. It'll help the pain," she tells him, firmly. "As for the rest... I can't tell you how to fix that, but... this isn't the answer. None of it. Does it really matter what one person thinks of you? And if it does: be better. Prove that you're an adult, and not a child. But don't expect everyone to like you, or to respect you. Some people never will, but if you do this kind of thing? No one will." Dang woman and her making sense, even if Sho is still a bit agitated. Sho takes the drink concoction thingy and downs it quickly, sticking his tongue out after and squishing his face, "What was that?" He asks, seeming to have calmed down again and, well, changed the subject somewhat. Perhaps she made /too/ much sense. Madilla can't entirely hide her relief, and turns it, instead, into a semi-cheerful smile. "This and that," is her cryptic response. "I can't give away all our secrets, can I? It should go a long way to numbing you-- can you try a deeper breath for me? You'll need to keep taking some deep breaths, until you're all healed. It's better for you." And now she's gone crazy. Sho gives Madilla an odd look, "But that's gonna hurt, isn't it?" He asks uncertainly, though he does take a few deep breaths and while there is still a stab of pain, it seems to lessen with each breath, much to his surprise. "That's...weird." He mutters, but doesn't seem to displeased by it. "Wha' do I do when it wears off?" He asks then, his hand dropping from his chest to the bench as he straightens fully but carefully. Promptly; "You take more of it. I'll give you a bottle to keep with you. it's important: it's not manly to go without pain relief, all right? You take it when you need to." Madilla keeps a careful eye on Sho, then adds, "Now, let me clean up the blood on your face. I don't /think/ you'll need any stitches, but we'd better find out, mm?" Sho nods slowly, "Okay..." He says in regards to the magical elixir. "And I don't really like pain, so I'll take it, okay?" A pause before he nods again. "Um, yeah, I guess...it'd be good to get clean." Another pause. "Thanks Madilla. Sorry for causing you so much trouble." This is said honestly and sincerely. Madilla's expression is approving, and softens even further, her head shaking just slightly, as Sho apologises. "It's my job," she reminds him, as she reaches out with a clean cloth to dab at the blood on Sho's face. "This is what I do. It's no trouble at all, I promise. I don't like the thought of anyone being in pain... I'm so sorry that this all happened to you." "It's not yer fault...it's Taikrin's." Sho says in an attempt to comfort, smirking a bit as she starts cleaning the blood on his face. While his lip was split in a few places and his nose was broken, it doesn't look like stitches are necessary. Bruises are forthcoming however. "Why do girls have ta be so difficult?" He asks, then holds his breath. Probably shouldn't ask a girl that. "Uh...sorry." "Don't apologise," says Madilla, with a low laugh. "I could ask the same thing about teenage boys, you know. Or men in general. It's just the way life is: we don't always understand each other. It gets easier, though, I promise." She seems content with the condition of Sho's face, with the damage she's uncovering beneath the blood. "You're going to look a bit of a mess for a while," she adds, then, "But it'll heal. You're going to be fine." Sho smiles a bit at her comments about boys and men, and despite the blood and ick some of his boyish cuteness is there. "I guess we're all just kinda weird, huh." He says finally. A pause, then, "I don't think it matters much how I look. Nobody around here much likes me anyways." He says, though really outside of the stables he hasn't met an abundance of people. And he does cause a lot of trouble... "Perhaps if you stop dumping water on people, or picking fights?" suggests Madilla, archly, giving Sho a long glance. "But-- /I/ like you, Sho. And I bet you'll make all kinds of friends if you actually put some effort into it." She sets the cloth down, giving his face another long glance, but she seems satisfied enough with her work. "Do you dislike it here so much?" That's a question that catches him off guard, and Sho's eyes dart wildly from side to side as he tries to think of a way around it. But he can't come up with anything. He reaches behind him to grab the end of his air and pick at it nervously, not feeling the pain the movement should bring thanks to the concoction. "I dunno, really. It's just...weird. I had ta move away from the runner stables where I grew up and since then, it's just been kinda different. I don't really know people and it's really hard ta make friends." He looks a little upset for admitting all that and he quickly looks around for a distraction, "That...uh...there...looks nice." He says, one hand pointing at a nearby plant. Madilla's expression is sympathetic, though she utterly ignores Sho's attempt to change the subject. "I know what it's like," she reminds him. "I was younger than you are when I left the only home I'd ever known, and then I had to do it again when I was your age, when I was posted here. But being miserable is no fun, surely." She gives him a quiet little smile. "Just /try/. Be friendly. Be nice to people. I bet you will make friends, if you try. And if not... when you're sixteen, you'll be considered an adult, and after that, you can go anywhere you like. If it were up to you, what would you /really/ want?" Well that attempt failed. But really, it is a nice looking plant...The question brings a shrug from the boy however, also shaking his head. "I dun really know." He says uncertainly, perhaps a tinge of untruth in his voice saying he might have an idea, but it doesn't come out just yet. As for that whole being friendly thing..."It's kinda hard ta be friendly to people when they aren't very nice to you." "There are... I don't know. Hundreds and hundreds of people in this weyr. Pick someone else to be friendly with," says Madilla, gently. "Not everyone is not very nice. But a lot of people are." She doesn't push his first answer, instead focusing on the rest of it. "Just think about how you come across to people. Be the kind of person you'd want to be friends with. You'll see." "Sounds hard." Sho says flatly, but then nods. "'kay, guess I can try. But what do I do if they make fun'a me? I can't just let that go..." It's as if he's hoping Madilla has his life's answers. And maybe she does. "No," says Madilla, firmly. "You /can/ let it go. Prove to them it doesn't bother you. That /they/ don't bother you. That you don't need them." She presses her hands into her lap, smiling encouragingly. "If you always think negatively, then it's not surprising when things don't go well. Be positive, Sho. Give it a try, see what happens." Sho seems a little uncertain, but then shrugs a bit. "I guess I can try." He says finally, then slowly gets up from the bench and takes a deep breath to check on the pain. A little sharpness at full capacity, but other then that it seems good. He turns back to Madilla and smiles widely now, which looks rather strange with his bruises, but it works. "Thanks Madilla. Fer everything." A moments hesitation, then he quickly tries to give her a hug. "Good," begins Madilla, sounding genuinely pleased. But then there's a hug, one which she rises to meet (though she's definitely careful about not squeezing too hard, pain medication or no pain medication). "You're most welcome, Sho. I'm glad I can help, even if just a little bit." As she draws back, she adds, "I have to go pick up Lily. Want to walk with me, and we'll get you a bottle of that medication?" Sho releases Madilla, also being careful to not squeeze to hard because even though it's not as bad, the pain is still there. "Yer a big help." He says, then nods. "Yeah, I'd like that. And I think I'll need more if it's going to take a while to heal..." "I'm glad," says Madilla, genuinely. She gathers together her things, putting them all back into the basket, and grins. "When you run out, come and see me, and I'll get you some more. I'll want you to come in and see me if anything gets worse, too, by the way. Any surprising pain, bleeding-- anything like that. All right? Now: let's go." |
Leave A Comment