Like a vacation, but painful (open)

[iphigenia]

Iphie had run far and fast. Doing her best to escape the hell behind her. She finally stopped when she came to a small estuary. She slowed to a stagger as she hit the beach. The wound in her arm was throbbing and she collapsed several times to vomit up more of the grey green slime as she made her way to the shore line. It was the longest hardest walk since the one she made when first infected. At least then she'd had the virus on her side helping her overcome. Now it was her enemy, taking its toll on her. She now felt exactly how she looked. A badly hurt, sickly girl who shouldn't be left alone without someone attending to her.

She finally staggered into the surf, the spray stung her face but it was nothing to the sting she felt when she dipped her wound into the saltwater. It hurt but she took it with nothing more than a grimace. The cleansing power of salt would help it heal better, despite her immunities infections could still wreak a small bit of havoc on her natural healing process.

The tide struck her, and she let it sway her. She didn't have the strength to do much else. It wasn't strong enough to pull her in but the stinging froth wasn't gentle either. She needed to get it looked at, but she wasn't sure who she could trust. If she had a wound back at the monastery one of the members would take care of her but here, nobody really knew her secret. Toph knew some of it but was woefully ignorant about the more important aspects. Still, for now soaking it in the saltwater was helping. The bleeding had slowed at least.

[Karishima Yumi]

Karishima was determined to put the previous night's events with Rasha out of her mind. She was on vacation, damn it. She needed to unwind and relax. For when she retruned to Venus, it would be time to begin her opening moves.

She smiled to herslef. Chess was ever so much easier when the other side of the board didn't realize a game was being played.

The sun was still high when she arrived at the otherwise empty estuary. The items she had been holding with a few extra tentacles dropped to the ground: an ice box with food, a blanket, a towel. The water was clear and blue here, the waves lapping the shore in rhythmic certainty that called to her demon half as sure as Isena had done that night in the --

Vacation, woman! Vacation!

Kari inhaled she sea air deeply. Soon she'd be inhaling the sea itself, and the thought of it made her tingle with a feeling not unlike homesickness. She let the breath out and moved her hands to undo the tie of her yukata, the only clothes she was wearing, when she opened her eyes and saw it.

Or rather, saw her

A thin slip of girl, standing where the water and the earth met. Kari's hands fell away from the tie of her robe. As she focused on her, she felt another kind of tingle. This one from her blood magic. The girl must have been bleeding.

Karishima glided toward the girl on her main tentacles, but did so warily. Yes she wnated to help, from the size of her this poor thing couldn't have been older than a teenager, and children have always been Karishima's weak point. But she was also cautious injured people were often desperate people.

"Hey down there," she called ahead of herself as she approached slowly. Her hands were up, palms outward to show she meant no harm. "Are you hurt? Do you need help?"

[iphigenia]

Iphie jerked at the call of a voice. She whirled around and almost lost her footing on the sand. She wasn't sure if it was the wound wound and the fact that her stomach and lungs were still gummed up with the bile but she could swear that woman had tentacles. She blinked a few times. Yes, she had tentacles. It was rather odd and Iphie wasn't sure what to say. "Yes, please." She managed to croak out.

She managed to walk up the beach before falling to her knees. "Can you help me?" She reached up and pulled away the piece of her shirt that had been bandaging the wound. Of course it had adhered to the wound and it began bleeding fresh, oozing the thick substance that was now her blood. Instead of looking black as it had earlier, it was now pale where it was not coated with her dark blood. Far more pale than her skin normally. All color seemed to have drained from the area and it seemed as if it was dead flesh, the only indication life pumped through the arm was the movement of her fingers.

[Karishima Yumi]

Karishima had seen her share of horrible things, particularly when Venus was 'enjoying' its post-Anactoria I backslide. But that didn't prepare for for what she saw when she reached Iphie's side.

The closer she got to the girl, the more her blood magic was screaming something was very, very wrong. Once she was final at her side, she saw what her sense was trying to warn her about. She had seen this level of obvious infection only once before, and that person had to be relieved of their leg to save the rest of their body. Alas, it had not worked. This, however, looked far worse. This girl should have been dead already by her account.

"Gods, what happened to you?" she gasped. She knelt beside Iphie, careful not to touch the would as she examined it closer. "The best I can do is knit the severed blood vessels," she said, her voice sounding defeated. "At least you wont bleed out anymore. But that arms is obvious dead, or damn near to it, and infected to high heaven. It would have to come off if you want live. And that I have no idea how to do."

Kari suddenly wished Lita was there. She would know what to do, of that the tentacled madam was certain.

((OOC: i double checked the timing of kari's stay at the resort, and it should figure to being pre-sex with Lita))

[iphigenia]

Iphie coughed, using her far more useful hand to catch the globs of grey green slime that was coming loose from her lungs. "Just sew it or stitch it." She managed to say in between hacking coughs. She just couldn't get enough air in, so she did something desperate. She turned away, pulling from Karishima. If she had been less desperate, more in tune with herself she would have used less force, but desperation clouded her mind so that when she hit herself you could hear the cracking of at least one rib.

It did the trick though, the sudden force expelled the air from her lungs and then a great deal of the slime. She started gasping for air but did manage to eek out a few words. "I'm fine. Just stop bleeding."

[Karishima Yumi]

Karishima was growing more wary by the moment. She heard the rib crack, and knew from experience how much that hurt, But this girl shrugged it off, aside from vomiting something that she doubted was food. "I would think you left 'fine' five leagues back," she said, slipping unintentionally into her Mother Kari voice, the one she sometimes used to scold misbehaving children at her orphanage.

But what could she do? Doing nothing wasn't an option and who knew if this poor girl would make it back to the resort, let alone back to civilization proper so she could render proper aid with a doctor or healer?

"Very well. I'll try." She held out both hands over Iphie's injured arm, and reached out with her blood magic --

-- and gagged, nearly throwing up herself. Never, not once in all the years since she became a blood mage had she ever touched a creature so fundamentally wrong as this one.

"What... are you?" she asked. Her wariness had just ratcheted up to genuine suspicion. What if.. what if whatever it was that had done this to her, had done so for a damn good reason?

[iphigenia]

"That's nice." She took a few shallow breaths, trying to keep from succumbing to the pain. "Ask for stitches and get weird questions." She tore off another part of her already badly off shirt and tied it around the wound, wincing as the salt water soaked in it touched the wound. She coughed a small bit more slime, though now it was all mostly spittle. "I could ask you the same thing Tentacles, but I didn't because I was gonna judge on how well you help." She she took in a few long breaths. "So there's that answer." Normally she would have gotten angry, but she was so exhausted that she could barely manage a slight simmer. "I'm me, I'm a goddamn human who had the misfortune to be attacked by some soldiers on a lonely roadway." Iphie groaned. "That's what I am." She was starting to feel better, at least she could breathe, but the adrenaline of panic was wearing off and the pain started its crescendo.

[Karishima Yumi]

Ouch, Karishima thought. The slap of being called on one's hypocrisy stung.

"Look, I'm sorry," she said. "I'll help you its just... I never touched a... human.. like you before with my magic. It took me by surprise is all." she said. "I can still help, just," she forced a smile, trying to lighten the mood. "Just stop tearing up your shirt already. There's barely any left and its kind of distracting."

Karishima braced herslef for wrong, diseased feeling this time, and placed her hands over the 'fresh' bandage. She still gagged, and almost retched once, but focused her blood magic on the served blood vessels.

There was a lot of them. Veins and arteries alike... It was a wonder she hadn't bled out before now. Kari started with the deepest part if the cuts, held the 'blood' back and she promoted the growth of the vessels themselves. It was oddly slow going. Usually served parts of a body were only too happy to be reunited at the feel of her magic. Here they seemed sluggish, and Kari almost had to pull them into place and magically sew them back together. The process, whcih was normally painless and instant, had to have hurt in this bizarre case.

Karishima had to close her eyes and concentrate as she made her way from deep into the cut and worked outwards. Her brow was knitted and doted with beads of sweat, her hand glowing red-black and shaking over the bandage. Gods, was the woman's bloodstream pure sickness and disease? Karishima gagged twice more before it was done, throwing up in her mouth on the third one. She swallowed it with a grimace.

When she finally reached the skin level, she untied the makeshift bandage so it wouldn't get heal around it. Final, the wound closed, but it left an angry looking pink line on Iphie's arm, unable to heal the uppermost level of the dermis, as there was no blood in that level for her to manipulate.

She with shaking gaps for air, Karishima finally lowered her hands, opened her eyes, and all but slumped over in exhaustion. "Feel...better? she asked, still trying to catch her breath.

[iphigenia]

It hurt, pretty badly in fact, but with all the other pain it was just one more thing for her to push on through. When it had finally ended she let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you." She said. She still hurt but it wasn't anything too likely to kill her. The ribs would need looking at but from the pain they didn't seem too badly off. Some rest and some binding could probably take care of it. And time of course. Lots of time. She took a few deep breaths, her thoughts were becoming far more lucid. "Sorry about the tentacle thing, I was a little desperate." She apologized. She touched the now partially healed wound lightly and winced.

"I don't know how to thank you for this. My blood doesn't flow fast but I don't know much about stopping it up once it starts." Iphie tried to stand but her legs gave out and she collapsed. She gave out a small yelp of pain when she hit her side. "Oh that wasn't nice." She muttered to herself.

[Karishima Yumi]

Several purple-pink limbs -- there was no telling how many, but there had to have been at least seven -- emerged from Karishima to gently and slowly lift Iphie out of the sand and carry her. Their owner, though still tired, straightened up as well.

"You have a broken rib," Karishima said, perhaps a little pointlessly. "That's beyond my ability to fix. But there might be a doctor as the Amagi Resort. Its not far from here, and its where I've been staying for the last few days. I can take you there, get your side binded up and there are worse place to be laid up while you heal. I could even send some letters to your friends or family, letting them know that you're alright...?"

[iphigenia]

Iphie was a bit nervous, she didn't know this person and apart from the healing had no reason to fully trust her. "Look, I'm not sure how to thank you but you don't have to carry me. I realize just touching me makes you ill. I have that effect on magical healers." How had she ended up in this mess? All she wanted to do was take a walk, clear her head and possibly let off some steam. Well she had let off some steam alright, but now she was being carried by some strange half human creature in the middle of nowhere with only the slightest inkling of how to get back to the castle.

"I haven't got family anymore, and not much in the way of friends either. No reason to contact them anyway, they'll just worry over nothing." She groaned, even breathing stung like hell. "Just the bindings, I don't have-I don't need anything else." She probably shouldn't bring up money. The more she hid the better.

[Karishima Yumi]

But Yumi caught on to Iphie's little slip. "No need to worry about money. I can pay for your convalesces at the resort. I'm quite well off you see. I'm Karishima Yumi. If you've ever been to Venus, you've probably heard of me. If not, well rest assured I could pay for you to live at this resort everyday till you were old and gray and still not run out of gold.

"I'll set you down if you really want me to, but its along walk to the resort for someone with broken rib and the nearest village is even farther, to say nothing of how it would take to get all the way back to Venus. At least let me take you that far; as long as I dont use any more magic on you I'll be fine."

Kari, by this time was in full on mother mode. Unless she fought her off, Iphie was going to wind up at that resort, like it or not.

"Are you sure there's no one I can write to? In my experience no one is truly alone in this world... unless they're half-demon like me at any rate."

The self-deprecating humor fell fabulously flat.

[iphigenia]

"Alright, I'll go with you." Iphie replied. There really wasn't much else to say, after all, she knew herself and there was no way she would make it very far on her own. So for now she would have to trust her. The name struck a chord and she tried to remember where she heard it. "My name is Iphigenia Carrow, thanks for helping me." She took a few more breaths, trying to will away the pain when it came to her. "Karashima Yumi, the librarian?" Nobody had told her that the librarian wasn't human, they might not have even known. It was certainly a shock to say the least. Even after nearly dying, after all the pain she went through, fate reminded her of her mission to get the books.

It really was the last thing she wanted to think about it and the sudden reminder made her sick to her stomach. The tentacles were lifting her, she wondered how strong they were. Probably not as strong as she was but they seemed to come from nowhere and multiply. Iphie was glad she hadn't rushed into the job now. It probably would have gone about as well as her day so far had been.

[Karishima Yumi]

The trip back was a a long one as Kairshima took it easy, keeping her gait as smooth as she could and letting her tentacles adsorb what bumps were unavoidable. She spared just one glance over her shoulder; it seemed her submerging would have to wait. She collected her things in still more tentacles, and they were off.

Their arrival at the Amagi resort was something of a whirlwind. Yumi asking for on-staff doctor or healer, the pair of them being whisked away to the resorts small infirmary before Iphie's appearance could scare the other guests. This was followed by a beautiful young nurse with an ugly bedside manner (apparently being asked to her job was the insult of the highest order) that only improved once Kari started throwing gold at her (figuratively, though she was tempted to make it literal). The worst of the left over blood and sand was cleaned off, a somewhat useless bandage placed over the wound site, and finally the rib binding was set in place, one above the cracked rib and one below, wrapped around the injured party's torso just as it should be. The remains of Iphie's shirt had to be removed fro this part, and Karshima was modest enough to wait outside.

Then came the arguing of if Iphie would be allowed to stay and heal. That argument as settled with still more gold before Iphie emerged from the infirmary wearing a new shirt pretty much swallowed her up. It could have passed for a dress.

"How do you feel now, Iphigenia?" Karishima asked. "Think you can keep some food down? They make an excellent stew here..."

[iphigenia]

Iphie wasn't fond of the treatment, though it was at the very least professional and quality. Certainly far more so than anything she was normally used to. So she put up with the cold hands and colder shoulder as she was poked, prodded, and healed up. At least they didn't make her drink any potions or concoctions. That wouldn't have gone well. So she was finally cleaned up, at least from the blood, but it was enough for now. She left the infirmary and nearly walked right into Kari.

At the offering of food her stomach growled, but the slimy feeling of the goo was still making her a bit queasy. "I think I could have a little something maybe. I suppose I've better at least try." She took a deep breath, "Look, I really can't thank you enough, you're really being far too kind."