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[Ethlyn gives Shinjiro a narrow look at being told to relax.]

I'm quite calm, thank you. If you don't wish to divulge their name, you only have to say so.

[That's probably a lie, actually. Ethlyn's perfectly happy to keep her mouth shut when it comes to certain embarrassing injuries and/or conditions, but if someone is going around putting brands on other people, she needs to know about it.

For now, however, she turns her attention back to the freshly-injured skin. The skin around it is warm to the touch, so Ethlyn picks up a clean cloth and runs it under cool water from the sink, wrings it out, and presses it to the injury.]

Hold this here. What do you mean that it's a spell?

[...Damn, she got him on that one. It's true. She's the healer and all that, and he's the one high-key about having to like... actually talk to someone and seek help. Ordinarily he wouldn't. He heals fast enough thanks to his Persona, he can just suck it up... But this is important.

He does hiss slightly at that cold cloth pressed directly to his fresh-ass burns, but complies, putting his hand over it to free up Ethlyn's. He'll bitch, but ultimately he'll follow instructions.]

I dunno, what's there to explain? It's a spell. Or... seal. Whatever. [this must be inspiring confidence.] It just flashed a lot of heat when it got activated. But it was all on purpose. Like I said, I just... wanna make sure it heals up right.

[as though that makes it any better or less stressful?? He's trying to act like this is normal. Doesn't everyone do this shit to themselves?]

[There is so much he isn't explaining, and it's taking all of Ethlyn's self-control to not just interrogate him outright about what he did to himself, who he got to do it, and above all why. If he was anyone in her brother's army, she would be doing exactly that. But she doesn't have that kind of authority with him, and she doesn't want to push him into walking out the door.

So she'll just have to be patient and get it out of him once she's done.]

I see. [In spite of her conviction, she isn't an actress, and her skepticism is obvious in her tone.] Well, as long as it was all on purpose.

[She goes to fetch some aloe gel and bandages.]

Is that the only injury you have, or do you have any less eldritch hurts in addition to this one?

[She's not convinced, but she didn't ask more-- that's about all Shinjiro can ask, really. Going into the what? and but why? of it is always exhausting.]

You been having problems with serial torturers around here or something? [Yeah, make it into some sort of half-joking comment, that will go well. Adjusting his hold on that damp cloth has him wincing, but he refuses to let himself respond to it with more than just-- holding his breath for a moment at it, eyes closing tighter.

Dara had warned him it would hurt, at least.]

That's... the only fresh one I got, I think. [He really had to think about that for a second. This is how you know someone has their life (unlife?) together. Sure, there's how relatively street-hollowed he looks, probably a good ten or more pounds lighter than he should be. And he's not sure if he's actively dying here or if whatever revived him after getting shot to death also took care of the drugs killing him, so.... par for the course?]

Yeah, I think everything else is just normal levels of shit, for me.

[Body temp always too low, barely sleeping, skin pallor a bit off. You know. Just the classics??]

Not yet, but any who get brought here will have to answer to me. [She notes his reaction to moving the cool cloth, as much as he tries to suppress it.] I should tell you that if you're going to grit your teeth stoically and pretend you're not in pain, it's for your satisfaction alone... I've treated too many soldiers to be fooled by it.

[And she's treated enough of the injuries that a person can't stoically wince at.]

So what are the normal levels? I can try to give you something for those too while you're here.

[He's clearly in poor health overall--skinny, sallow... that long pause before he actually answers the question. And if he's going to be dodging her until he incurs some kind of major injury, she should do everything she can while she's got him here.]

I'm not trying... [Ugh. He just gives up on that defense. He doesn't think he's trying to act cool and unaffected??? But it's basically a regular state of being for him, so maybe he is. What a targeted callout, Ethlyn.

She asks him what his 'normal' is, and... he doesn't know how to answer that. At least that silence has a slightly different feeling than his typical reticence: His look over is more confused than suspicious, clearly not quite getting her angle. Sure, she said give him something for it while he's here, but...

You know what? Fuck it. What if he didn't feel like shit basically always.]

I was on some medicine back home that was... pretty rough on my body. I dunno all the details, but it's kinda all from that.

[Ah. In her studies of advanced medicine--medicine more advanced than what Jugdral yet had--Ethlyn has learned that sometimes, modernity does not equal miracles. And sometimes, within the body, a cure may come with a heavy cost.

It seems that Shinjiro is someone who has to deal with that.]

So the side-effects caused you problems... Will you be all right here without this medicine, or do we need to find a replacement?

Edited 2023-12-21 14:40 (UTC)

.... Yeah, basically. The side effects were gonna kill me, eventually. I just lucked out in that something else managed to do me in first.

[He says it with such blase acceptance, too. It's just a fact. He'd come to terms with that a long time ago.]

They were to keep my powers in check. Keep other people safe from them.

[He adjusts that cool compress, gesturing at the welted sigils across his chest as he does so.]

You're looking at the replacement here

...I see.

[A high cost indeed. And when he explains that it was to protect others from him, she thinks of her sister-in-law--fearing the terrible fate that hung over her head, whatever that was. Ethlyn still thinks of her, still wonders what it was and if her disappearance was that fate claiming her.

Shinjiro speaks of his own fate so matter-of-factly, as though it doesn't matter to him. She wonders if he does--if he's felt this way since he chose to begin taking those drugs.]

And were you warned about similar side-effects with this--method? Or is this going to be easier on your body?

[He shakes his head at her question.]

No.... We don't really know if it'll work or not. But she's familiar with a lot of sealing spells, and thought this might be a good way to keep it together.

[Bless Ethlyn's doctoral patience and poker face. Weirdly enough, it does make it easier to confess.]

I figured it's gotta be a step up from poisoning myself, though.

[Ethlyn nods. Healer mode is very helpful in times like this. No soldier in pain appreciates it when they take off a boot and the person he wants to fix it flips out and starts screaming.]

I see. [Ethlyn runs her eye over the welts and reddened skin visible around the compress.] I don't know much about this kind of magic--it may be something that my world doesn't have at all.

But if she doesn't know yet, we should monitor your condition carefully. Make sure that it heals at a normal pace, watch out for fever and malaise. I can give you a thermometer to monitor your temperature at home. Do you know how to take your pulse?

Yeah... I dunno if my world does or not, but anything's worth a shot. Seemed like a decent enough try.

[He finally lowers that compress some, tentatively brushing a fingerpad over one of the worlds and immediately regretting it. Why are teenage boys idiots like this? We just can't know.]

Pulse is at the neck, right? I think I remember that.

[he's useless, ethlyn, I'm sorry.]

But-- sure, yeah. I know you don't want it to get all red and hot and shit.

At the neck, here--[She demonstrates on her own, and reaches over with her other hand to take Shinjiro's pulse at the same place; nobody's told her that that is not recommended in the 21st century SORRY.] There's also a pulse point on your wrist.

[She shows him again in the same way.]

Getting red hot would be bad. [Her lips quirk a little bit. Now they're in infections, and that makes her happier.] If the skin around the area is warm to the touch, if you start seeing red streaks around the brand, or start seeing areas of pus, and if you begin experiencing feelings of illness--fever, fatigue, malaise--those are all signs that it's become infected.

[Enjoy that pulse! His skin is weirdly cool, moreso at the wrist, though not clammy. At least his pulse is normal enough- just a slow and steady beat. And yeah, things getting infected is bad, and he nods along with her explanation.]

Yeah-- I know the basics there. Keep it clean, keep it dry, that kinda thing.

[Okay, maybe not entirely useless.]

Lemme guess: any of that, and I come right back?

You're catching on.

[She washes her hands and starts getting everything else ready--this is going to take bactine and gauze.]

This will help. It takes are of disinfecting and dulling the pain and itching. [She knows that having a completely un-magical potion in a bottle that can do this is really not astonishing to most people here... but when she left her world, they were still hadn't perfected this using healing magic, and so she can't take it for granted.] How is it feeling now?

[If it's feeling better with the compress, she can get to the bandages.]

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look at me not putting punctuation at the end of that last tag LMAO

PUNCTUATION IS JUST FOR SHOW

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