A Little Suffering is Good For the Soul (Open)

[Ember]

T'san woke groggily from his sleep and was almost immediately assaulted by the sounds and smells of the infirmary. Oh right, he was still there. He grimaced at the ever present headache. No amount of sleep cured that and T'san refused to depend on medicine. He could cope. He had no idea how long he'd been in the infirmary but he figured it'd been long enough. All he was doing was sleeping and eating and he could do that just fine in his own weyr, right?

He poked his feline who was resting on his chest until Spice mewled softly and looked up at him. The cat stretched towards his face and licked his jaw with his raspy tongue. The movement and sound awoke T'san's salamandyr. She screeched loudly in her excitement and swarmed up to the brownrider's face and began the licking treatment there as well. "Ugh. Enough...enough Aliene." She didn't seem to want to listen so he grabbed her and snapped, "Enough!" The startled green shrieked again. She hadn't meant to anger him, she really hadn't! He mumbled a confused apology. He wasn't entirely sure why he'd snapped at her.

"Lets go back to our weyr," he sighed, sitting up slowly. The effort alone seemed to tire him significantly still but he really didn't want to stay in the infirmary any longer. Aliene clung to his shirt and Spice leapt off the bed as he scooted to the edge and stood up. He stumbled to the wall and grit his teeth in annoyance. So weak. Just what had he let those Fortians do to him? He used the wall to support him as he walked but his strength fled him quickly.

When he finally succumbed and slid along the wall to the floor Aliene screeched loudly, both physically and mentally. HATE! At least it started with the same letter as 'help.' The man's dragon brushed his rider's mind softly with a simple admonishment, T'sanfoolmine, you should have stayed in bed. There was little caring in the words or tone but the intent was behind them. Best hope someone hears the greenling.

[Avu]

Smile! Better now, all good. The words were for the benefit of a Weyrbrat that had just been dismissed from the Infirmary; her burns had not been at all severe and had faded to a manageable level after only the first week. She managed a weak smile for the Salamandyr as she clung to her mother’s hand. Meira managed a weary smile at the older woman’s surprise as Mimic crooned from her shoulder, eyes glowing in delight down at the Weyrbrat. Was it really such a surprise that some Salamandyrs could be sweet…? Best fixerlove, Mimic cooed to her privately, leaning forward to nuzzle her jaw. Fix all~

Fix it all. As the woman and her daughter left, Meira watched them go, silently. Maybe if she could fix it all, she wouldn’t have been so absolutely terrified. Maybe. Riaren had been unharmed, but she’d been so, so scared that he had been, especially after the smoke – it couldn’t have been good for his lungs. And she trusted Kaegan – she really did – but still, she hadn’t been able to properly breathe until the evacuations had finished and she’d been able to hold Riaren again, pressing a frantic kiss against his forehead as if it would ‘fix it all’. She’d been worried enough about Riaren that it had drowned out everything else – and she’d felt horrible for that afterwards.

But he’d been okay and people were recovering, healing, being fixed and rebuilding.

Even if there was the occasional fool who decided to dismiss himself from the Infirmary. See: The cause of the screaming. Mimic reacted first, as Meira jumped visibly, head snapping around as the Salamandyr crooned, once, reassuring, and then darted off, leaving his Bonded to follow him quickly, anxiety creating butterflies in her stomach again. For the first time, Riaren wasn’t with her, but rather at the crèche for what was possibly the first few times ever since his birth. He’d adjusted quickly, thank Faranth, since R’wign was bedridden at the moment and she figured that both Kaegan and M’ta had too much to do and worry about without Riaren added to it.

Mimic cooed, panic darting momentarily into his eyes at the sight before him – the brown was intelligent enough to know that person on the floor was bad, bad – before he skittered towards T’san and Aliene, offering the green a low comforting croon. Is okay, he offered reassuringly, reaching out to touch her shoulder cautiously with his muzzle. FixerMine come quick fast, make better always. Will fix. No red leak, yes? Is okay. Another helpful sound before he brushed against Meira’s mind – and Jingth’s simultaneously; hurry hurry there was a bad and it was Aliene’s and – and – and it was bad.

Aliene’s…?

Dsoleth’s, Jingth supplied helpfully. The gold wasn’t at the Infirmary; too many dragons, too crowded. No, she was actually draped near the crèche, watching Riaren lazily through one of the windows. Keep the baby safe, she would.

Not that the identity mattered much as Meira pushed the door open lightly, eyes automatically flicking towards the bed which was…empty. Very empty. Mimic’s brush against her mind drew her eyes towards the wall, the ground, and her breath caught in her throat, a mixture of concern and upset flaring. Why’d he – what was he doing? Lectures could wait, though; the goldweyrling hurried to his side and knelt down, touching the back of his hand lightly to make sure she had his attention. Severe concussion, wasn’t it…?

“Hey. Are you okay?” The words were soft, for much the same reason as the room was dimly lit – to try to prevent headaches. “Look – I’m gonna help you back onto the bed, okay? Give me your arm, I’ll take most of your weight…”

[Ember]

Spice swarmed up to T'san's side and rubbed against him. He was an amazingly empathic cat, capable of reading the moods of his humanpet pretty well. The furball could tell that his humanpet was upset and hurt. He watched the little chasetoys until the nothumanpet entered. He meowed to get her attention on his humanpet. She would help right? He remembered her. She knew his humanpet and she would know what to do. or so he hoped.

Aliene was surprised when Mimic arrived, despite having called out for someone. She hadn't been expecting him. His was a helper and if he had heard her then he ought ot have been smart enough to tell His. His could help. Hers, for whatever reason, liked Mimic's more than most in the weyr. He reached her quickly and she scampered down T'san's clothes to get closer to him and stop him from climbing all over Hers. No, no, that would not do. When she got to him he touched her shoulder and she squeaked and reared up, looking at Hers with agitation. How could he do something so silly! She protested shrilly at his behaviour. Silly, silly! Aliene looked at Mimic as if demanding he agree with her.

Too damn weak and tired to even walk. It was really quite pathetic in the brownrider's opinion. Dsoleth's answer to that line of thinking was a half-offended, I am not pathetic. That was basically his way of saying that His wasn't pathetic either. The response only served to annoy the brownrider. If he wasn't pathetic he would be able to walk back to his own weyr and take care of himself, wouldn't he? So frustrating. He was so caught up in his own thoughts he didn't notice Meira or her salamandyr at first.

His gaze flicked upwards through his bangs when he noticed Aliene's reaction - momentary silence from the green - and saw Meira. Oh. Well he supposed seeing her again was one upside to beign stuck in the infirmary. He watched her kneel down and he lifted his head slowly so that he could see her easier. The bed? He didn't want to go back to bed though. He wanted to leave. T'san shook his head but the motion didn't help the pain so he stopped and resorted to words.

Aliene's nervous anger was bleeding over to him and his voice wasn't entirely stable as he said, "Don't want to go back to the bed. Want to leave. Can't I go? I'm - " his voice broke for a moment and he cleared his throat " - I'm fine. Really." Just to prove it he started to try and stand up on his own. He was totally fine. He had to be.

[Avu]

Is fine fix soon. Stay softies after, yes? Mimic was addressing T’san by the last part of his speech, tilting his head anxiously away from Aliene. It was more a request than anything else; Mimic wasn’t good at demanding. The Salamandyr bounced twice on his feet before he scurried back to Meira’s feet, crooning up at the goldrider eagerly; so happy she was there. Loved her so much, did Mimic, always there and always so good at fiiiixing things that were broken like Aliene’s was. Poor Aliene’s, so brokened…but it was okay, it was all okay~

The unsteadiness of his speech drew a frown from Meira, and she rocked back to settle on her heels. “You’re not fine until we say so.” The words were soft, but definite. “Just sit, at least, okay? We can’t let you go yet.” His attempts at standing were met with a small anxious noise in the back of her throat, Meira pushing herself up quickly and reaching for T’san automatically to help him, but she didn’t actually touch him yet – if he could stand, that was good. She wound her fingers together instead, nervously, watching the brownrider intently. If he fell, at least she could try to…somewhat…catch him…

Not that she was really strong enough to hold up all of his weight, but hey, she could still try. The Healer bit her lip; she was hovering, and she knew that it was probably irritating – most people didn’t appreciate having someone fuss over them, after all – but she could hardly not. Mostly because Meira rather suspected that T’san would up and leave if he could manage it. This was the part of being a Healer she was worst at – keeping unwilling people in the Infirmary; couldn’t they see that they’d only end up hurt worse if they left…?

Stay please, Mimic suggested again, softly. The Salamandyr peered anxiously up at T’san from his spot next to Aliene. He would have tried to comfort the green but as a whole, he got along with people better than he did other Salamandyrs. It made him sad, but he had his beloved Doppelganger and he fawned over Lilitu whenever he got a chance, but other Salamandyrs were so complicated and he didn’t want to risk offending Aliene. Still, he could appeal to her for help convincing Hers to stay put, and the brown tilted his head towards the green hopefully. Help keep stay? Leave make broke worse, bad.

“How long have you been awake?” The question was more conversational now; Meira was more or less resigned to the idea of forcing T’san to stay at the Infirmary. Might as well try to make him not hate her for it while she was at it.

He would not hate you, Jingth yawned into her mind. Slaves don’t hate. The Riarenhatchling is not nearly as loud as the other humanlings are. Perhaps we should give them fellis and make them sleep. They cannot make loud noises when they are unconscious. Do you want me to bespeak Dsoleth about keeping His in one spot for you?

I don’t think that’s necessary yet. Trust Jingth to insult the crèche babies and toddlers, compliment Riaren, and offer her aide with a patient all in the same breath. The fellis, or the bespeaking…

[Ember]

T'san did manage to stand up though he was leaning on the wall to help him stay up. He looked at Meira after she spoke - the mandyr went mostly ignored. He didn't understand what 'stay softies after' was supposed to mean - and sighed. He was sifting through his and Aliene's emotions slowly, registering what was and wasn't his own. She was angry at him and that contributed a lot to the anger he felt towards himself. Neither he nor Aliene were genuinely angry at Meira.

I'm being a pain, he acknowledged mentally. He received an answering chitter from Aliene; yes, he was being a pain. Meira was trying to help. She seemed concerned. She'd made it clear he wasn't allowed to go so the next best option would be to be good and get better, right? The thought didn't make him any more willing to stick around. He looked from Mimic to Aliene - the latter having joined the brown in actively trying to stop him - then back to Meira.

"I'm really not going anywhere, am I?" He asked with a sigh. He answered her question with his seemingly normal spirit. "Oh, about four or five minutes. Its just been ages since I last slept, y'know?" It was a little lacking in spunk but it was an effort all the same. "Since I'm not allowed to leave can I at least go sit out on the ledge or something? This place smells bad and T'sans don't do well without fresh air." Maybe she'd be willing to give him that much.

[Avu]

Attempts at humor. That was good. Meira was too anxious to laugh, but she did smile faintly, mechanically, nonetheless. Additional good: He’d accepted that he wasn’t going to be let out. Meira didn’t like to argue and she wasn’t good at it by any standards (Jingth had already discovered this, but fortunately the gold didn’t exploit it at all). Definitely not what she’d been hoping for. Thank you, Faranth. His question, though, drew definite hesitation from the goldrider, her gaze flashing to the bed automatically: Where patients were supposed to be, and where they seemed to hate to stay.

“Well – ” It couldn’t hurt. “I guess it’s okay, but you’ve got to let me help you, at least, and there’s to be no running off or squirming around, okay? Is Dsoleth on one of the ‘ledges…?” He’d probably want to go see the brown (or at least, so Meira assumed, since she’d be aching to see Jingth if it was her) – and it would be easier to get him to the right ‘ledge if she’d premonition. “Will your feline – Spice? – follow us, or should I keep him in the room?” she added, catching sight of the feline. She’d known he was there, before, but not consciously; Spice hadn’t been the one collapsed against the wall.

She didn’t really ask before she slid between T’san and the wall, one arm sliding around his waist and the other catching the arm closest to her to pull it over her own shoulders to take his weight. “Tell me if you get dizzy or anything, please; I don’t think I can hold all of your weight.” Some of it, sure. All of it, definitely not. Heavy brownriders were heavy. “I don’t think the sun’s out right now, just so you know, but if it does come out, I don’t think you should stay out…bright isn’t really that great for concussions.” Or, at least, it’d give him a very impressive headache, if he was unlucky.

Mimic bounced after her as she maneuvered T’san towards the door, taking a moment to coo at Aliene pleasantly. See, see; Meira could fix everything. The brown Salamandyr’s frill wiggled in his pure happiness as he leapt onto her pant leg and climbed up, careful not to rip cloth or prick skin. He’d done both in his time on accident and after the flickers of disapproval he’d received – small though they were – Mimic had always been very, very careful never to do it again. Up he slithered to her shoulder, where he leaned out carefully towards T’san, tongue flicking out as if to lick the man. A pity he was too far to reach with any ease.

[Ember]

T'san visibly brightened when Meira said he could go to one of the ledges. He raised a hand to his heart and said, "I promise I'll be good." The quirky smile didn't lend his statement much credibility and Meira didn't know him well enough to know that any time T'san promised anything he meant it. Besides, once he got out there he doubted Dsoleth would let him leave for a while. Speaking of the brown.... "Yeah, he's on one of the ledges. I don't think anyone would have been able to move him, not with me in here."

At mention of the feline T'san considered whether or not he wanted a lap cat while he was out there. Bah, why not? The brown would probably like to see the feline too. He made a slight clicking sound with his tongue. "He'll come. The brown's probably more fond of him than me!" He knew that wasn't true but his spirits were returning rapidly with the prospect of doing something more than just laying in bed and thus his joking demeanor was becoming more prominent again.

As she slipped an arm around his waist he grinned but held off on a flirtatious comment...for the moment. He let his arm be draped over her shoulders but he kept most of his weight to himself. He leaned on Meira just enough to make it possible to move though he still worried it was too much. He wasn't the lightest person in the world and the healer was smaller than him. "Will do. No need to drag you down with me if I find the need to collapse again." He looked about the room and realized that it did seem dim.. Good to know; bright light was bad for the time being. Through his own observations he'd noticed the intensity of the pain had gone down considerably. It seemed to just be normal heachaches the past couple of days.

As the people started moving, Aliene's tail lashed the air for a moment before she scurried up Hers' leg fabric and up to his shoulder. She curled up against his neck though she was as alert as ever. Her ever-yellow eyes watched everything with a mix of annoyance and apprehension. T'san thought she was being a silly little beast as usual and pushed out her emotions as best he could.

[Avu]

A nod, and Meira mentally ran through a list of the ‘ledges, occupied and unoccupied, in her mind. Some of the injured dragons had been actually assigned ‘ledges, and other than that, she knew vaguely which had dragons sprawled on them and which did not. It was, after all, kind of hard to miss gigantic creatures sprawled out, most of them anxious about their Riders that were confined to the Infirmary. There was a green on the nearest left, and…hmm, she wasn’t quite sure where Dsoleth was, but that was okay. Part of that was because she was fairly certain that T’san was trying not to put too much weight on her. Seemed to be typical of patients, that, always trying to prove that they were capable of moving around on their own and coping and leaving, but…

She bit her tongue against insisting that he didn’t need to wear himself out – that Jingth would be forced to sit on him if he did – in favor of nudging the door open with her foot and pushing it all the way back so she could guide T’san through. Fortunately, the glows were mostly dimmed within their baskets; lots of people had gotten concussions and others had injured their eyes, and some just didn’t want it too bright because it hurt their eyes in general. The door was left open for Spice, the Healer glancing back for the feline once before she glanced anxiously at T’san to make sure he was still okay.

A faint smile at the brownrider’s words. He was definitely more cheerful, and Meira was glad for it. “I’d at least like a little warning if I’m going to be dragged down,” she responded, amusement touching her tone. Bled on, vomited on, cried on; being collapsed on wouldn’t actually be bad at all. Mimic chirped encouragingly in her ear as she reached out as they passed a room, pulling the door shut quietly, before the Salamandyr leapt off of her shoulder at an unspoken command, darting past all of the ‘ledges until he found the one with a Dsoleth in it, whereupon he poked his head back into the main Infirmary and uttered a loud trill, exceedingly delighted with himself.

Getting T’san to the ledge in question didn’t take long; Meira smiled at Dsoleth in a silent greeting before she tilted her head questioningly at T’san. “Did you want to sit next to the wall, or what?” she inquired. “And…we didn’t leave Spice behind, did we…?” Not that they’d been going fast at all; maneuvering two people through paths designed typically for one (it was crowded in the Infirmary; thank you very much, Fort) wasn’t exactly easy, but there hadn’t been very far to go. “You still feel okay?” A quick glance towards the sky, to make sure it was sufficiently overcast. Yes. Good. Headachy patients were not good. At all.

For his part, Mimic chirped pleasantly at Dsoleth. He didn’t know this one very well but Jingth said he belonged to her, so that made him good. Jingth only claimed goods, not bads. Hello, hello, brownling goldthing’s, brought Yours. Is okay, yes?

[Ember]

When Meira opened the door T'san blinked in surprise. They'd dimmed the whole infirmary, huh? For a moment he entertained the selfish thought that they'd done it for him, knowing he'd want to be up and about. When he noticed her looking at him he smiled reassuringly. He was still alright though he probably let Meira support him a little more subconciously. He said off-handedly, "Either you warned all the healers I might try and make an escape attempt or I'm not the only one who got their brain rattled around a bit. I don't remember the infirmary being this dark the last time I came by." Admittedly his memory may not be super reliable...

The brownrider was trying not to think pervertedly but Meira was making it a bit hard by saying things that could, even if only slightly, be taken the wrong way. He chuckled slightly at what she said though it was more about his own musings than what anything else. He watched Meira's salamandyr scamper off to find his dragon. "So that's how we're gonna find him. I was wondering a bit, since neither him nor I know the infirmary particularily well. Aliene won't leave me either. She and Dsoleth compromised but she wouldn't willingly put us together.

Dsoleth's tail flicked impatiently as he waited for his. Even without the man actually telling him he was coming the brown knew. It wasn't that hard to pick up on his bonded's intentions when they weren't actively closing the bond. It was a rare thing for them to bother closing it. Neither had ever seen the need to do so. The big brown noticed a salamandyr at the ledge he'd claimed when it made a sound. Ah, so that was how His would find him. He didn't mind the creatures, even if the little greenling did steal his when she Ran.

When the pair arrived, T'san glanced at the healer when she began talking. "Ah...The wall sounds good." Spice answered for himself. The sound of his name made him mew curiously and he pulled up directly beside Meira. She called? Did she want to play? Took you long enough, T'sanfoolmine. The man growled slightly. "You're not seriously going to keep calling me that, are you Dso?" Its fitting. The dragon turned part of his attention to the salamandyr addressing him once he was satisfied His would be alright. Thank you little brownling. He was amused and oddly proud that others knew him as Jingth's.