Logs:Painful Experiences
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| RL Date: 25 April, 2011 |
| Who: Devaki, Emmeline, Iolene |
| Involves: High Reaches Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: Iolene seems to want to make sure that Devaki never has any heirs. Emmeline is forced to admit a truth. It's a painful experience for all involved. |
| Where: Settlement, Western Island |
| When: Day 1, Month 8, Turn 25 (Interval 10) |
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| It's mid-day, the day after 'the Incident', and the hoard of stuff in the middle of the settlement is dwindling, but quite slowly. People have to work still. People don't always have the luxury of taking time out of making sure everyone stays alive and fed to claim their things. So it's perhaps fitting that Iolene, among those with a day off, has been corralled into helping the others without such free time. The blonde girl takes it in stride, at least, whistling merrily as she paws through people's personal affects and lifts a pair of muddied underwear. Then the whistling stops, and those expressive eyebrows of her shoot up. Uh... toss it goes into someone else's area to clear. "Jays, it's hot today. Whoever did this could've done it on a cooler day, y'know." Someone laughs. Not everyone is heartless or annoyed at 'the Incident.' While it may not be a day off, at least it's some time away from the rest of what she needs to do in the day. So there's Emmeline as well, helping sort through some personal items. The muddied underwear is the first thing she sees of course, and she stops abruptly and blinks. "I'm not sure I want to know why there's muddied underwear here." she declares, joining in the laughter about the timing of the, uh, incident. "Hey Iolene." she greets, hopping up next to the other girl and giving her a hip bump in greeting. "Boy, what a fun chore." Hip bumped, Iolene turns quickly to find Emmeline near by. Her thin face splits into a grin and her head leans forward conspiratorially; "Sadly, not as fun as last night." Louder, "I'd rather be swimming, but what can you do? Troublemakers every last one of you." The last sentence is punctuated by a towel being whipped after the bottom of a five year old boy, who flees the scene with a squealing giggle. "You doing ok?" inquires the fishering girl, "Got enough sleep last night?" "Hah! No kidding!" Emme whispers back, having to choke back a mischeivous giggle. "Oh man, no kidding! Maybe we can go for a swim later at the end of the day." Something that sounds more appealing by the moment actually, as she hefts up a particularly large bag of... who knows. "Go on now, before she wields that towel again." the island teacher girl instructs, wiggling a finger in the opposite direction that they're standing in. "Barely keeping my eyes open, you? I thought for sure I'd be late geting up today. Hoo boy." There's a note of sympathy sketched into Iolene's face as she flashes the shorter woman a look. "I'm used to being up early. I don't sleep very well anyway," she admits. "But don't tell Dev that," is just as abruptly added, the sympathy disappearing in lieu of part-plea, part-warning. Have you ever noticed people speak faster the more distance they want to put in between a particular confession and themselves? Yeah. Exactly. Her words quicken into false cheer even as her head ducks down, absorbed once again in sorting through belongings. "The rascal has been trying to hide in the bigger piles and jumping out to startle people." At this, she cants a look up with another of her patented quicksilver smiles, "At least someone's having fun from all this mess." Emmeline arches an eyebrow. "Why not tell him that?" she wonders, flashing her compadre a concerned look. "Wh..." she cuts off her next question and replaces it with a smile instead, while the story about the little troublemaker has her duck her head to prevent the big bout of laughter that has her shoulders shake a bit. "Good for him, I guess. Might as well get a litle cheer out of this, right? I've seen a few glares at anyone younger then thirty all day long. Guess some people aren't too thrilled." Which makes it all the more amusing, alas. And while she tries to fold a few towels, her voice drops down low. "Good thing nobody knows who did it. There'd be extra chores for the rest of their lives." "Extra chores?" returns Iolene, still aiming for good cheer. "I think they'd be set adrift to sea to try and survive just as well as Raum has." Speaking of, the blonde head veers from side to side in search of the 'Strange One' with his strange ideas and stories. "I don't like that man," is Io's abrupt confidence. "He's making people think too much of what could happen rather than what is happening." As for Emmeline's concern, it goes unremarked on for now. "Neither do I. I avoid being alone now. Well, except at night when I'm pretty sure people are sleeping." For that, Emmeline sounds a bit shepish. "So are you going to tell me why I shouldn't spill your little secret?" She's not above digging in her heels to find out information. "It's good that we're all so concerned about one another, at least. We'll be the Elders one day. We need to look out for one another." The look Iolene favors Emmeline with also stops her hands from rustling in a midst of pottery. It's a look that's both dubious and amused and filled with a 'really? really? did you just sa that?' Aloud, however, her velvet voice is filled with mirth, "You sound like the Elders already. Trying to make sure we grow up quick enough." But the last ends a little more soberly than she meant, a hint of surprise leading into sadness. It's a good enough place for her to finally consider answering the ther woman, but only after a lengthy pause; one of those pregnant silences that seem to bid people not to speak for what might come next. Then, after digging through some more plates and stacking them neatly, "Would you want the resident mind healer to know that not only you don't sleep, but sometimes you can't?" "Oh, that was /low/." Emmeline retorts, casting a mock glare at Iolene before throwing one of the towels at her. "I do not sound like them." she mutters next, knowing full well that she does. So it's really a weak voice she says it in. The pause just goes on for a moment, even past the time that Io asks the pertinent question. "Would I /want/ him to? No, probably not." she concedes. "But for my health, I would anyway. That's why he's the mind healer, Iolene. Nobody *wants* to go to a mind healer. Can you imagine the line up outside his hut during the day? Shells, the poor man would hardly have room to breathe. Just do it. Don't make me tell on you, because I will." Ok, now she *really* sounds like one of the Elders. "And I hate you for making me sound all... grown up and shit." "No." With all the stubbornness still inherent in teenagers, Io aims another eyebrow arced /look/ at Emmeline. Warning. Pleading. Something. Anything to stop her from following up on her threat. "Please, don't," is added for niceties sake. While Io looks to Emme, the little scamp of a boy runs by again. And then again. And then again, much slower but with an expectant look, waiting for som- and there it goes, the whip of a towel towards him and Iolene attempts to laugh once more. "C'mon, Emme, don't worry about me. I'm fine as long as I have the ocean in front of me and sandy grit in between my toes. Sexy. Isn't it?" Speaking of sexy: "Shouldn't you be thinking of getting ready for marriage soon anyway?" "Tell you what.." Emme tries to negotiate here, since it's only fair. "I'm going to keep an eye on you myself. As long as I think you're doing well, I won't say anything. Maybe I can give you a few tips I use when I find it hard to sleep." The counter-offer is made with good humor, and she even turns around to make an ooga-booga face at the young little scamp making trouble. "Hey, I bet plenty of the boys find it sexy. Gimme a break, girl. You're gorgeous. I, on the other hand, look more like a boy." she points out, with maybe only a little lingering bitterness for the genetic wheel of fortune. "Which means, also, that I am quite likely going to be that kid on the game team. You know, the last one chosen? Yeah. I'd bet a few hours of working the fields that I'll be that spinster Elder. You just wait." Oh, not everyone's been helping with the pile of things. Devaki's been gone since before daybreak with the early fishing group. Heading out to one of the far islands, normally they wouldn't return until closer to the afternoon. However, a pair of the boys -- Devaki and Xoami -- are strolling back, jokingly slapping each other as they do so, quite ignoring the fact that Devaki's sporting a big gash on his temple that's bleeding quite profusely. Head wounds look /way/ worse than they actually are. Mostly. He's got a ripped bit of material held to the wound, though kind of gets distracted now and then and forgets to keep the pressure on it as Xoami, his best mate, whacks him on the shoulder with the back of his hand, and he of course, has to retaliate. It's pride, after all. "Really? You're kidding me, right? My nose is too awkward. I'm too skinny," which is sadly all too often of an occurrence on an island where malnutrition must claim more lives than other places on Pern. Iolene has her back to the boys returning, still looking to Emme with a smile. A hand waves off her concern, then flies into her dirty blonde hair, rifling through its tangled mess. "It's not about who we find attractive anyway, you know. The Elders'll have you paired up before you know it. You are, after all, almost eighteen and look at Shoshami. The day she turned eighteen, off she went to get her very own hut. And you're a sight prettier than her even if she is..." Two hands come up to ape humongous breasts. A little enviously, Io adds, "I wouldn't mind my very own hut." No, she's not envious over the boobs, no. "I know." Emme admits, her brow furrowed again. "I know it doesn't matter." It's just another part of their lives. "It's about bloodlines and duty and..." what's that there? Her last words are choked on a gasp when sme of the early fishers arrive back. She's facing that way, see, and she drops whatever she had in hand and reaches out to grasp Io's shoulders to spin her around and see for herself the two returning. "You know first aid don't you? I think you should go take care of that." she decides abruptly. "And give Xoami a good smack upside the head for horsing around like that with someone who is *obviously* injured." Yep, she nods firmly. Problem solved, even if there's been no agreement to her plan. "I'll just stay here and take of the uhm, pile of stuff." Devaki, for his part, doesn't seem particularly worried. He's probably had worse in his time. But then he can't /see/ all the blood and stuff, so that's okay. All he does is slow his steps a little, wait for Xoami to get ahead of him, then try to kick him in the back of the knee. It half works; his friend stumbles, laughing, then spins to confront Devaki, though he catches sight of the two girls as he turns back. "Uh-oh. Think you might be in trouble, Dev," he warns in a low voice. "No," Devaki counters, "Think it's you that's--" he doesn't even finish the rest of his sentence, as he's busy rushing Xoami, with an sort of 'heeeyaaah' cry. The two drop to the ground, Devaki abandoning his makeshift pressure bandage in favour of attempting to pummel Xoami's kidney, though his friend is giving is good as he gets. Still pensive over her lack of assets, Emme's forced whirl of her body takes Iolene aback first, and then a second reeling when she spies Devaki with a ripped piece of fabric to his bleeding- ... head? Between thoughts of breast augmentation and now bleeding, the fisher girl's thoughts are understandably muddied and it reflects in her agog sort of expression with gaping mouth and blinking eyes. "Wuh. Dev-... Dev!" And there it hits her. Never mind the fact that Emmeline seems to be avoiding blood as much as possible -- that thought might sink in later. Never mind that, she really isn't all that skilled in first aid. Her feet have started moving seconds prior to her realization, taking her quickly to the returning pair; yeah, that one, the two who are now fighting. It stops her short. She's not Grams' granddaughter for nothing and her bellow... well, pity the poor man who has to marry her eventually. "ARE YOU TWO FREAKING CRAZY?! FISHBONES. YOU BETTER KILL EACH OTHER BEFORE I DO IT MYSELF." It has beckoned forth people from the safety of their huts to stare. Lookyloos, hey look! Emmeline finds herself with a growing smile when Iolene wades in and threatens to kill the two roughousing boys. And for her part, miss bossy herself is content to organize from behind the scenes. Calling for someone to get some clean cloth strips for bandaages, and someone else to get the herbal paste that serves as ointment for gashes like that. And then when everything is in motion she goes back to the pile-o-things and begins sorting again; with eyes constantly darting over to the scene that's caused hut doors to open and people to neck-crane curiously. Whistle while you work, avoid those stares and lurk. You bet. Yeah, that bellow? It's kind of hard to ignore. Especially from /Io/ of all people. Devaki freezes with a fist half raised in the sky and simply gawks at Iolene. "I think she's mad at you, bud," Xoami mutters, amused, and uses the distraction to unceremoniously nudge Devaki hard in the shoulder by way of retaliation. This earns a grunt from the taller boy, though Devaki does, at least, lower his hand. "Think she's mad at /both/ of us," Devaki undertones, straightening and putting on his best 'it wasn't me' look, the pair shuffle closer to the settlement. Devaki's gaze cuts to Emme, and he winks at her, before he grins to Iolene. "It's just a little scratch, is all." She's not little, not at her height. But she carries a surprising amount of strength in those thin arms and legs of her: swimming and wielding that ginormous hand-me-down trident of hers will do that apparently, and when her bellow has the desired (if super surprising) effect of stopping the fight momentarily, she storms her way over and punches Xoami in the gut, "STUPID," and lifts that hand again to smack Devaki across the face. But stops. Vacillation wars in her dark eyes: smacking a head injured man in the head again or... and then her knee lifts instead, testing the waters of a possible groin crunch. She did mention that she isn't scared of deep sea monsters, right? As for the gawkers, they continue to gawk, but some of those bidden by Emmeline return with clean strips and herbal paste and hover. How often do public brawls happen on this little island of happy funtime cooperation? Emmeline gapes. GAPES! She wasn't quite expecting Iolene to handle things by preventing future procreative possibilities for the injured. And her expression is an obvious one of indecision. Go try to save the stupid boys, or continue avoiding the injured one like the plague. Indecision starts to become panic, until she finally just grits her teeth and grabs the linen strips and paste from the hovering gawkers. "Ok, Io. I think you made you point. Please don... no that's not a .. oh that's to hurt if it hits." SHe cringes on behalf of the possibly even more injured Devaki. But then, she too gives Xoami a good smack upside the head. "While he's bleeding? /Really/? Sure you can wait until there's no flowing blood. Couple of idiots." she mutters, avoiding gazes all around. "We're making a scene now. Let's just go sit by the fire and get the cut taken care of." Devaki has a few moments to guffaw delightedly as Xoami doubles up under Iolene's attention. And then it's his turn. His grin widens as Iolene pauses in her obvious intentions, and his voice -- low and warm -- begins, "I knew you of all people would und--" yeah and that's about where his sentence trails off into a series of vowels, groans, and expletives, as Iolene's knee in all its glory connects just where she intended. On the bright side, the head wound? Not so bad now by comparison, though he is curled up into a fetal ball. Xoami? Trying to fend off yet another attack. "Ow, stop hitting me!" he all but begs, holding out a hand to try and keep Emme, and any further attacks, at bay. After her knee makes contact, it's as if her brief personality transplant with her Grams never existed. Emmeline might gape but Iolene looks /horrified/. "Oh, Dev!" She stares down at her offending, and likely painfully bony little knee, and then back at the doubled over mind healer. "At least," she says aloud what everyone must be thinking, "Your head doesn't hurt anymore?" Not that it must've hurt much before if he could roughhouse. "Oh Emme, I don-, oh..." Obedient now that she's made her point, and possibly just a little bewildered at her own visceral reaction, she reaches a hand down to Devaki, and kneels. Then looks up to Emme, "Um. I don't think we'll be able to get to the fire now. I think I hurt him." Xoami is completely and utterly ignored. "You think?" Emme casts a seriously 'duh' look over at Iolene as Dev drops to the ground in the fetal position. "I guess saying 'hold still' is a bit obvious. Well, on the bright side Dev, you won't have to worry about the elders trying to match you with anyone until they decide whether you'll actualy be able to have kids after that hit you just took." And for that she can't help but cast her friend the fishergirl a bit of an exasperated eye. "You, go." she adds, pointing in the opposite direction and glaring at Xoami before she turns her attention back to grunty vowel boy. "Guess we'll bandage up your forehead right where you're at." Something that apparently she's fairly adept at doing, which begs the question of why she would try to send Iolene to do it in the first place. There's not much that's comprehensible coming from Devaki at this point. Just more kind of groans and winces. He's kind of oblivious to both the girl's words, whether they're intended to be comforting or not. Xoami, for his part, lets his hands drop only after Emme's turned her attention away. And then he turns his sympathetic gaze on Devaki, 'cos he of all of them knows /exactly/ what that feels like. "Just give him a minute or two," he advises. Iolene wants to sit there and put her hands on Devaki. She really wants to. She even tries to, but... Dismissed by the settlement teacher coupled with Devaki's continued fetal curl, Iolene suddenly looks heartbroken. Tired. She gets off her knees and takes a step away, her hands held behind her back, as if afraid they might offend someone. If she could, she'd likely hide her knees too. "I'm sorry, Dev. I'm so sorry. I don't..." Lamely, "I thought you would dodge." She looks like she's about to-, no, there it goes, the waterworks and suddenly aware of all the watchers and what she's done and what could possibly happen to Devaki's potentially beautiful little kids, she's turning on heel and running towards the fields. "Where are you g... no, don't leave me here wi..." Aw crap! Emmeline now looks *really* panicked for a moment there. Because even if he is momentarily incomprehensible and unable to speak, that won't always be the case. "Well, why are you still here." she glares at Xoami again, now. "You were the one that was supposed to go, not Iolene! Go... go find her and make sure she's ok." Yep, still bossy. But at least once she's done taking care of the bleding forehead she doesn't up and leave like she's tempted to. That would be cruel. Instead, she sighs heavily and sits down beside the afflicted mind healer and waits till he's able to talk. Or more importantly, get up to walk somewhere that he can collapse again. Xoami opens his mouth, then shuts it again. Apparently he decides arguing is the more difficult path, and he's prone to take the path of least resistance. Though whether that's a better choice considering he's being sent off after (to his mind) the more scary of the pair is anyone's guess. After a last sympathetic look at Devaki, he heads off towards the fields, calling, "Io? Io?" kind of quietly like he's hoping he won't /actually/ run into her. Devaki, meanwhile? It takes a bit of time but eventually he can breathe normally and kind of half-sit up. Sort of. He touches a hand to his head, flashes a brief, grateful smile at Emme, then asks, "What did I do to her?" Even for a mind healer, he's bewildered, but he assumes it was his fault. "I expected her to smack you both real good upside the head, then patch you up and send you on your way." Emme replies carefully, getting up enough now to kneel at least so she can help him stand when he's ready. "We saw you bleeding." Which should apparently explain it all. "Come on, I'm sure you have a headache now... among other pains. You should lay down. I'll get you to your hut and then leave you be. No need for my babbling." The words are sympathetic, with a hint of desperation behind them of course. "Do you need me to get you anything?" Xoami, lucky guy, finds a field full of nothing. The island, not that big, is certainly big enough when someone doesn't want to be found. At least he tried, right? Standing? Yeah that's going to take a bit of effort. It's more like a crouch-and-hobble, but Devaki gets there eventually, with Emme's help, the mind healer leaning rather heavily on the girl. "But... what did I /do/?" he echoes again. Hobbling painfully, they'll make slow progress across the settlement. Devaki, for his part, ignores the stares, his gaze sidewards on Emmi. "Yeah," he answers, as to her last statement. "You owe me an answer." Head wound or not, he's not about to forget how she slipperied out of that one. "You worried us. That's what you did. I didn't realize that she would be quite that, uhm, ardent about her response." Which could mean that this is all her fault essentially. Emme's not exactly the strongest of the settlement but she's at least able to get Devaki where he needs to go without both of them toppling over. "Do you really want to waste a perfectly good secret on that one? We both know it doesn't matter what the answer is." she mutters, keeping her gaze averted, though at least he pretends it's because she has to see where they're going. Devaki's silent for a while as he hobbles along, a wince of pain crossing his features now and then, though he's trying to conceal it. Not doing so well, really. He lets out a brief groan as he shifts his weight, trying to duck his head to get into the hut. Pausing for breath for a moment just inside, he eyes the reed-bed as if wondering how he can possibly get down /there/. Maybe he's thinking Emme's question over, but the answer when it finally comes is certain enough that he would've already known: "Yes." "You want me to try and find something to knock you out with? We must have some concoction that'll do it." See, Emmeline isn't entirely unsympathetic to poor Dev's plight here. She too is trying to figure out how to lower the poor guy onto his bed without causing further injury. But she just groans when he /still/ wants her to answer the damn question. "/Fine/. Fine, yes alright? Yes I was -jealous-. Happy now? Can't leave a girl with any pride at all can you." She briefly considers just shoving him towards his bed and stalking out, but willpower and sympathy, among other things, prevents her from the petty cruelty. "Sit on the edge first and then you should be able to, you know, curl up in a ball again or whatever." "No." Devaki's gaze is still on Emmeline, and a grin spreads across his lips at her answer. Sparing her, maybe, he doesn't answer verbally, but it's in his gaze that he's particularly pleased by the response. His fingers dig a bit deeper into her shoulder for balance -- presumably -- before he kind of awkwardly half-falls, half-bends down and rolls onto the bed, the movement eliciting further groans of pure agony. Emmeline has that kind of trapped wildlife expression on her face for a moment. "No?" Then, of course, it dawns on her that he's talking about the good drugs she was offering to go get. "Oh, right." She has to grit her teeth a bit when she's further leaned on for balance there, but there's a sigh of relief when he makes it to a comfortable position without further injury. She'll wait'll he's facing away to rub her shoulder with a somewhat pained expression. That, and she's near red as a beet after her unwilling admission. "You sure there's nothing I can get you? I hate to just leave you like that." And then there's IO to go look for, and her pride to go searching for - both have apparently been lost somewhere on the island and need to be found. There's a bit of silence, wherein Devaki's busy curling up again for a few deep breaths. As to her confession and her expression, he makes no comment. "I'll be fine. My masculine pride is -- amongst other things -- severely damaged, but I'm sure I'll recover." His humor, however, appears intact. Almost as if reading her thoughts -- he is a mind healer, after all, "Go find Io." Then, softer: "Thanks, Emme." "I'l check on you later." Emme decides, a smirk somehow finding its way onto hr face at his humor. "I...you're welcome." When she leaves the hut it's obvious that she spends a few moments of her own just sitting there in front of the small dwelling. And then with a deep breath, will stand and brush herself off before heading off to find the errant fisher-girl.' |
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