Outrageous fortune.

Outrageous fortune.

Postby Cherny » Sun Nov 18, 2012 3:44 am

Late at night, a new patient arrives at the Rememdium; a boy, maybe ten years old, maybe an undernourished twelve, with a green-feathered shaft jutting from his upper chest. Conscious, after a fashion; breathing, but barely.

In many ways he is fortunate.

Fortunate to have taken such a wound mere yards from the house of healing. Fortunate to have been found and brought there swiftly, mere moments after the missile was loosed. Fortunate that, perhaps thanks to that too-large coat, it had not struck as true as the archer might've liked - unlike the stablehand found cold and lifeless halfway to the kitchen, an identical arrow having taken him in the throat. Fortunate that the arrow's head, cruelly barbed, had made its way through his chest almost entirely, jutting from his back between thin shoulder blade and spine, and thus would not require further cutting to extract.

If his fortune holds he might even hope to survive. For now that rests in the surgeon's hands.
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Re: Outrageous fortune.

Postby Elfling » Sun Nov 18, 2012 4:37 am

He might not have considered himself fortunate if he knew who had picked him up and brought him to the Rememdium. She was still there. Solena had plopped herself in a chair, not even realizing she was stained in the boy's blood down the front of her tunic. She hadn't realized that the barb's head had gone straight through him or she might've taken him to her home to heal instead.

But no, it was better for him here.

She didn't know if they charged for services, but the boy wouldn't have to worry about that. She'd take care of it. For now, she sat just outside the room that he'd been taken to, quietly wringing her hands with ears slightly wilted. All she could do was wait. When it was a job, Solena had no problems with waiting. On a job, she had the patience of eons. This, unfortunately, was not a job and it was all she could do not to get out of her seat and be right there.

For all that he thought she was a nightmare, she didn't want him to die.
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Re: Outrageous fortune.

Postby Suede » Sun Nov 18, 2012 3:55 pm

Lucas Brennan, to Cherny's fortune, had good hands. To his greater fortune was the cleanness of the injury, and the easy availability of an assistant armed with anesthetics to knock the boy out so he wouldn't feel most of what would be done. The doctor was quite certain it was going to hurt abysmally, and there was no reason to put the boy through that.

Removing the arrow would not be the worst of it, so much as doing so without tearing an irreparable hole in his lung. Still, he'd been behind closed doors for hours enough to likely leave the stressed Solena in a fit by the end of it. And when he'd finally left the room the boy had been laid up in he'd left the boy pale and unconscious under the covers. The doctor had the decency to clean himself before leaving the room and he paused to give the gloom covered elf a moment's regard.

He had no idea of she was in any way related to the boy, but she'd brought him in, and someone could keep an eye on them to be safe, so he offered her his best reassuring smile and nodded his head towards the door. "Let him sleep."

And if he was sleeping, he had to be fine, right? Well the doctor thought so, as long as he could keep a young kid from running around and tearing a hole in his lung that might outright collapse the whole thing.
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Re: Outrageous fortune.

Postby Waldemar » Tue Nov 20, 2012 2:10 am

In the evening, two days after the boy was brought in - two long days of fitful rest and, one might hope, healing - a visitor calls at the Rememdium; a severe figure in black, a man of middle age and respectable clothing, walking stick thumping beside him with each uneven stride. His manner is irritable, impatient, though doing what he can to remain civil as he speaks with whichever member of staff is soonest available.

"I am told you have a boy here. Yea tall" A hand held out, palm down, a little over four feet above the floor. "black hair. Arrow-shot, last night or the night before." Information gleaned from his brief visit to the tavern across the lawn, though it had involved a certain element of speculation and hearsay. People being shot with mysterious green-fletched arrows, a stablehand killed outright.

"My name is Marek Waldemar, the boy works at my mill. I wish to see him."
Nothing so bold as a miller's shirt, that every morning collars a thief.
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Re: Outrageous fortune.

Postby Waldemar » Wed Nov 21, 2012 2:39 am

Ah, yes, the young boy; lucky, the miller is told - not to have taken the wound, but to have so far survived it, with a large part of that luck coming from the adept hands of the surgeon, Lucas Brennan. In any case, the visitor is given directions to a room, and after offering brief thanks turns to follow them.

Outside the indicated door, though, there is a surprise; or at the very least a familiar figure, slumped and sleeping in a chair outside the door. Elliot Brown, insolent whelp that he is. The miller pauses, frowning, fingertips drumming briefly on the head of his cane as he considers. The boy's presence here is not entirely encouraging, raising the possibility that young Cherny has fallen in with unfortunate company. The sort that might teach inappropriate lessons, set a bad example.

The older man lifts the tip of his cane and, with careful precision, aims a sharp shove in the sleeping boy's ribs.

"Wake up."
Nothing so bold as a miller's shirt, that every morning collars a thief.
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Re: Outrageous fortune.

Postby Glenn » Wed Nov 21, 2012 2:56 am

He had tried so hard not to fall asleep, so hard. All so Galacia would not, could not visit him. All for naught. Now, as his eyes opened at the prodding, he felt the tail end of that dream, the last moments, her last word. "You'd know a thing about pride, invading a boy's dream for no reason, you stupid bitch!" He all but shouted, very, very awake. To his credit (or discredit), he didn't seem embarrassed in the least when it was obvious that Galacia may not have heard that but Waldemar did.

"What're you looking at, old man?" Ok, there was the embarrassment, on a three second delay. What was he going to do? Explain to Waldemar of all people that he just had a Galacia nightmare, at his age. Better not to explain at all. "What happened? Your mill workers slowed down a tiny, tiny bit so you realized that 'oh, what's-his-face' was missing?' You're probably here to drag him back to toil no matter how hurt he is."
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Re: Outrageous fortune.

Postby Waldemar » Wed Nov 21, 2012 3:12 am

Dark brows lift slightly at that outburst, but settle back into a more customary frown as the boy continues. To lower his cane to the ground again is something of an effort of will, but it strikes the floorboards with a thump.

"Something like that."

No point in arguing with the youth, in dignifying his insolence with attention. No matter how it grates. He's made that mistake before, rising to the boy's infuriating bluster. No, he was resolved. Firmly resolved, for all that his jaw tightens briefly.

"Why are you here? Lacking your own bed?"
Nothing so bold as a miller's shirt, that every morning collars a thief.
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Re: Outrageous fortune.

Postby Elfling » Wed Nov 21, 2012 4:57 am

"Because I asked him to be here so the boy wouldn't wake up alone," the elven lilt came from behind the mill's owner, though it lacked the typical spite and vitriol that had been part of Solena's typical voice as of late. Maybe she was too tired to argue. Maybe she just respected the gruff old man. Maybe it was for Cherny's benefit, since he worked for the man.

".. and Elliot, watch your tongue. You don't know what the boy hears, and I won't have him waking up to you making his job any more complicated than it already is." She waited until Waldemar was starting to turn around to see who she was before slipping past him and into the room. She wasn't spectacularly large, barely over five foot tall, and it was difficult to tell her frame other than slim with that over-sized tunic she always tended to wear over her dark leggings.

She didn't cuff her own boy, either. She simply stepped up to the bed of the youngling to check on him, head tilted slightly as she watched him sleep. "He's going to need to take it easy while he recovers, Sirrah. The arrow took him through the chest."
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Re: Outrageous fortune.

Postby Glenn » Wed Nov 21, 2012 9:35 am

Because she asked him to be there? That Cherny was Elliot's friend, sort of, didn't hurt. Granted, given how they last spoke, given his comments to Galacia, it didn't really help either. As it was, he wanted to mouth off to old man Baldy Waldy in a big way but Solena being there sort of got in the way of that. Watch your tongue she says, so all he'd do would be to scowl at Waldemar. What else could he do?

Maybe this. "Cherny's a good kid. Better than you deserve. The sort of good kid that doesn't last long around here."
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Re: Outrageous fortune.

Postby Cherny » Wed Nov 21, 2012 12:20 pm

The room contains various bits of furniture, including a bed; the bed contains a small, frail figure propped up on a stack of pillows, dark hair disarrayed in feathered tufts. His nightshirt is far too large, stick-like wrists emerging from the cuffs, collar half-open to allow a glimpse of bandages holding wadded gauze in place over his wounds.

The boy remains insensible for now, whether through blood loss or the application of potent sleeping draughts. Pale, almost ashen, his breaths shallower than might be expected of one so deeply sleeping, brow faintly creased in discomfort.
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Re: Outrageous fortune.

Postby Waldemar » Wed Nov 21, 2012 12:20 pm

That voice from behind has him looking round sharply, turning and taking a step back in the moment after; by which point the unfamiliar figure is moving past him, marching into the room as if she owned the place.

"I'm afraid you have me at a disadvantage, sera." Stiffly-spoken, uncertain and suspicious as to who the elven woman might be. She didn't dress in the manner of the Rememdium healers, for all that she seemed well-acquainted on the wounded boy's condition; in a position to command Elliot and be heeded, apparently, which was of considerably more interest.

He stumps into the room after her, leaving Elliot to bring up the rear. A brief inspection follows, fingertips carefully pushing aside Cherny's collar to inspect the dressing; a palm held before his lips to see how well he breathes; a longer touch first to a thin wrist, then a small noise of impatience before he presses fingertips beneath the boy's jaw. Brisk, perfunctory motions, perhaps assuring himself that his charge still lives, for the moment disregarding the presence of others in the room.

Eventually he seems satisfied and straightens, attention returning to the elven woman.

"Through the chest. I shall have to speak with the surgeon." Presumably to congratulate him on a difficult task done well. Such skill is to be recognised and appreciated, certainly.

Likewise the ability to silence Elliot with a bare minimum of insolence in reply; a brief glance to the youth, having already made some suppositions about the connection between the pair, before he addresses the woman again.

"No disrespect, sera, but might I ask why you are here?"
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Re: Outrageous fortune.

Postby Elfling » Wed Nov 21, 2012 12:44 pm

She was certainly not the typical elf that Myrken might see. Not of Vanidor's stock, not of Jirai's. Her skin had a silver hue to its paleness as if it had been dusted with the metal. Hair of a pale blond had been pulled back and tied at the nape of her neck. The left of her knife-pointed ears had been inked with a soft red coloring, swirling and dotted in a decidedly delicate pattern along its back edge, from lobe to tip. And that wasn't counting the jeweled rings that had been pierced into both ears, some shimmering with color, and others just containing little bells. Her tunic was plain enough, if not a rich violet in color in spite of the expense of the dyes to stain it. Dark leggings that weren't quite black. Grey boots. And at least three belts around her waist with pouches and two daggers in sheaths, both of which were dyed a similar violet color to her tunic. Leather didn't take color quite as well as cloth, after all.

That she had him at a disadvantage was a given; she had most at a disadvantage. Typically, Solena might've taunted another who pointed out the obvious, but she stayed surprisingly silent on the subject. She stayed back as Waldemar checked his charge, watching with pale eyes that were almost more colorless than blue. Just a hint of color.

"I had intended to arrange whatever necessary payment is needed for the boy's care. I understand that things are still building, yes?" The slightest smile turned up the corner of her mouth. He hadn't been in business long, and after Elliot's failed raid on the place, she'd done a bare looking into it. Her arms rose, folding overtop a modest chest, and that smile grew a little more. "I happened to be at the tavern when the boy was shot. I brought him here, lacking the skills necessary to save his life. And as I said, I did not wish the boy to wake up alone."

She knew enough that she could have sent a note to the elderly gent, but the way Elliot spoke of him, she wasn't sure it was wise. Furthermore, if he showed up looking, she'd have a chance to judge for herself. Just as she was doing now. Elliot was a decent enough informant, but his personal opinions often got in the way. Something that would take time to change.

"Oh. And my name is Solena Goldenoak," she uttered finally, as if that necessary information had entirely slipped her mind. It had. No matter how many times she introduced herself, she still forgot that little piece of proper manners.
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Re: Outrageous fortune.

Postby Waldemar » Wed Nov 21, 2012 3:38 pm

Small details noted, and speculations made. A particular mode of dress, some rather notable accessories, a certain quality to her movements. That and the garb of young Ser Brown, altogether finer than the last time the miller had seen him.

At the mention of payment he demurs, shaking his head and briefly lifting a hand from his cane as if to wave the matter away; though there is a flicker to his gaze as she describes her understanding of his business. "Please, no. I shall see to it; you have already been more than helpful." He'll make payment to the Rememdium in coin, or perhaps some other arrangement; a place such as this would surely have need for bread, and he has connections to several increasingly reputable bakeries in town. There are options.

She gives her name, at last, and he inclines his head in acknowledgement.

"Marek Waldemar. You have my thanks, sera. And the boy's, I'm sure, should he recover." Sincere enough gratitude, solemnly offered; and sufficient familiarity with such injuries to know that they are infrequently survived, that it remains too early by far to be sure the boy will live. Oh, no doubt the healers will do their best, but so much of it is chance. Whether or not his wound heals well; he might cough too fiercely and have his stitches tear; infection or fever might take him, or he might drown on his own fluid-filled lungs in the night. No, it is by no means assured.

"If not, I may have work for a youth not averse to an honest day's toil, hm?" A glance for young Ser Brown, a brief and mirthless show of teeth that may be intended to denote a particularly grim flash of humour. A jest, though not in the best of taste.

"Should you know any."
Nothing so bold as a miller's shirt, that every morning collars a thief.
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Re: Outrageous fortune.

Postby Glenn » Thu Nov 22, 2012 3:38 am

Really? Really now? He just wanted more grist for that mill. One boy was down. Grab the first one he saw, no matter who it was. Honest work. What did the boy's grin say about that. "My clothes.." Began Elliot Brown. He was a bit frumpled today, given the night, given the dream, given everything, but he was still able to lean back against the wall, still able to put two fingers to his forehead in a little salute, still able to wink at old man Waldy. "are nicer than yours. Still: organized, resourceful, persistent, crotchety, a mean swing with a cane. I think we could use a man like that, if you happened to know one in need of some actually lucrative work." A rolling shrug of his shoulder.
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Re: Outrageous fortune.

Postby Elfling » Fri Nov 23, 2012 3:34 am

The sudden smile that touched the elf's face was slightly indulgent, but mostly humored at Elliot's sass. Yet, it still had that feeling that her amusement came at his assumption that he was somehow better off. He'd never suffered that fate of being on the streets in a large city, forced to choose between an apple and potentially losing a hand. Hopefully, he never would, either.

"If I find such a needy boy, I'll send them your way. Just boys?" She didn't know enough about millwork to know if the crotchety human was particular about the children he accepted. If he was, he was. It was his business and his choice.

Quietly, her eyes shifted from the man to the boy who was still laid up in the bed, unconscious. Or at least, she hoped he was. Who knows how much he actually heard of this. "I will stay with him still, if you need." Not that she was certain it would do the boy any good if he woke up with her there. But who knew. Maybe it would. She wasn't entirely a murder-elf.
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