602/Radiant Infirmary Episode 602

Radiant Infirmary Episode 602
Date of Scene:	16 October 2023
Location:	Administrative Office
Synopsis:	This time on Radiant Infirmary; Adora has been self-dealing with severe wounds. However with the power of teacher intervention, a very competent magical Nurse, and the power of food therapy, she soon finds herself back on the road to recovery.
Cast of Characters:	Setsuna Meiou, Adora Rainbowfist

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Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Some teachers pay attention to their students more than others.

Sure, a student can get away with quite a lot if they manage to sneak in and out of the room in the crush of arriving and departing students...but eventually, SOMEONE will notice when one of their students seems to be in actual physical pain.

This time, it was apparently not until said student was more or less out of the class...and there were far too many students in the way to just barrel through.

However, the 'magic' of a well-connected school and the ability for administrators to do simple lookups is more than sufficent to solve the problem.

Thus it is that when Adora gets to her next class, the teacher there is already waiting and hands her a hall pass and instructs her to go visit the nurse's office.

Generally, the infirmary's a fairly small office for the nurse and some equipment. At least, that's the general rule. Given the budget Radiant Heart boasts, the infirmary's a bit bigger and more well appointed than most. There are several beds (which are currently not in use) and to an eye familiar with the medical world, there's enough well-laid-out kit that it's quite likely that, in extremis, one could actually do surgery here.

Still, most of the room is broken up with little rolling-wall medical dividers, with the bulk of the area set up for the kind of service one would need for a typical average assortment of students. Reasonably nice chairs, little triage areas, that kind of thing. The walls have various posters one might see in a doctor's office, though most of them are a bit more aimed at student-level things like common adolescent illnesses and the like. One particular poster, however, probably catches the eye:

It's a black poster with a picture of a skeleton on it, and the text reads 'The Average Human Body Contains Enough BONES' 'To Make An Entire Human Skeleton'

Leaning against a counter in her signature labcoat/dress is Nurse Meiou, who is passing the time as she waits for a reluctant student to show up as she usually does by reading a book whilst idly spinning a pen through the fingers of her off hand. Said book has a back cover with a tall, scruffy looking man wearing a trenchcoat and holding a staff in one hand and a rather huge revolver in the other.

As Adora approaches the doorway, Nurse Meiou looks up from her book and says in a pleasant voice, "Come in, Miss Rainbowfist. Let's have a look at you."

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
Adora was having a rough go at things, and she wasn't opening up to anyone about why. She was very good at masking pain, but this bit was too much for her. So, she'd been limping a bit while moving through the halls. She explained that away by saying she worked-out too hard the day previous. With the weird foreigner's stature and growing reputation, that was hardly out of the realm of possibility. With her new Boxing Club, her constant work-outs and everything else, people pull stuff.

During P.E., however, she'd jumped a bit too hard and then collapsed for a moment. The gym teacher had told the other faculty that Adora actually blacked out for a moment, and it was clearly from pain. Still, that didn't stop her from trying to talk her way out of going to the nurses office when her Science Teacher had told her to go. And that was something, because it was also no secret that Adora hated a lot of her more sciency classes, and was on the verge of failing more then one of them. She was 5'7" and incredibly built and could be a star athlete...but the 'Bavarian' girl was NOT incredibly bright.

In the end, however, she limped her way to the nurses office and stepped inside, casting a nervous glance about. She was in her school uniform, of course, with her skirt and little bow and everything else.

Now that she's here, the blonde clears her throat and tries her best to act casual. "Heeeeey, Nurse...um...Nurse." Her eyes catch the nametag or placard. "...Nurse Meiou. I...I was called for some reason?" She hovers near the door, as if struggling to go any further in.

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Nurse Meiou blinks at Adora's obvious reluctance to enter, then shakes her head a little and smiles, "Please, Miss Rainbowfist. Come in."

The pen in her off hand spins to a sudden stop...and then she twists her wrist in a way that makes it disappear only to be replaced by...well...it kind of looks like the nurse is holding a black piece of pure void in her fingers...though seemingly hovering in the middle of said apparent hole in reality is a golden, stylized capital 'P'.

Then she uses the anomoly to...mark the place in her book before she snaps it shut and sets it on the counter (revealing it's title in English to be 'TURN COAT').

Straightening up, she walks over towards the blonde...and between her 3in heels and the fact that she was already nearly six feet before, she's perhaps one of the few women around actually much TALLER than Adora (at least in this form).

Seeing Adora more closely, she sighs, "Miss Rainbowfist, I am here to help you STOP feeling pain, not to cause it. Now please come in so I can help you."

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
Her eyes widen at the mini-void, and she stares at it until it is no longer in sight. She nods slowly, then, and takes a few more steps in. She manages most of them without showing pain, but then she winces and lets out a little hiss.

"Was that magic?," she asks, the girl drooping a bit and leaning against a table. "I never know who at this School is magic and who isn't. Makes...opening up to people real freaking hard." She reaches up to adjust her little hair poof in the front, and then checks her ponytail as she watches the taller woman approach. She isn't used to having to look up at people these days.

After a long moment she sits down on the side of one of the treatment beds, one hand clutching the edge white-knuckle tight. "Sorry. Where I grew up the medical team was...bad. They really only offered decent help to anyone who had rank, and didn't care what the rest of us were going through. I was sewing myself and my...friend up since we were six."

She swallows. "The last time I was in a place like this they were pulling a piece of shrapnel out of my shoulder. The doctor on-call was mad that I outdid him in field training a week earlier and..." The kiud trails off. Where the hell is she from?

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Nurse Meiou's eyes widen a bit at Adora's casual question, then she hides a small giggle behind a hand before shaking her head, "No, dear. That was, in fact, quite mundane."

She twists her wrist in a bit of sleight-of-hand and produces another, identical piece of void with the gold capital P in the middle...which she then hands to Adora.

Up close, it's perhaps a bit wierder...but with one's hands on it, simultaneously more mundane.

As while the brain keeps interpreting the thing as a void in space...the fingers can feel that it's just a piece of rugged fabric, perhaps denim, around what might be a piece of heavy cardstock for shape with lettering that, up close, is more easily seen as having been stitched with gold-colored thread.

After letting Adora examine it for a minute or two, Nurse Meiou takes it back and makes it disappear with another twist of her wrist, "It's a bookmark...though I must say you're not entirely wrong about magic-aware people here at this school. Fortunately, I am one such person...and I've taken an oath to care for ALL the students at this school, regardless of rank or station."

At Adora's tale about 'last time', the nurse scowls a bit, then shakes her head and sighs, "Yeah...step over here. Let's get your vitals real quick and tell me what's wrong."

She then clips a little plastic device over the tip of one of Adora's fingers and leads her over to a little raised plate next to one wall, "Please stand up here."

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
She deflates a bit when she is beginning to think she called out the wrong person for magic. Will she get in trouble for it? She takes the fabric and runs her thumb and forefinger over it in a hint of awe before she moves to hand it back over to her.

Then she hears that the Nurse IS in the know, and she lets out a sigh of relief. "Good. Sorry. I'm...well, I suck at being subtle about stuff. Also at lying, which totally made this whole 'pretending I'm not hurt' thing impossible."

The teenager limps over to where she's being told to go, and she steps onto the plate.

"Never...done this before. I'm starting to learn I didn't exactly have a normal childhood. Like, this and...I just found out about birthdays not too long ago. I don't know when I was born OR how old I am. The Horde didn't care about that kind of thing..."

She looks down at the little clip on her finger. "So, what does this do? And the thing I'm standing on?" She's going to ask a lot of questions, and it's obvious. She hasn't started explaining yet, or showing what's wrong. Not yet.

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Adora's comment about birthdays actually gets Nurse Meiou to pause stock still for a moment as she just blinks...her brain struggling to process what she just heard.

Then she closes her eyes and takes a DEEP breath before uttering a few choice words that haven't been heard by human ears for many thousands of years.

Once she's gotten herself a bit more centered, she goes on, "...my apologies, Miss Rainbowfist...should I in the future meet the people responsible for that, I believe I will be introducing some faces to the nearest bulkhead at speed."

She shakes her head once to get her composure back a bit more, then presses a button on a nearby control.

As she does, a little armature swings away from a recess in the wall to one side of Adora, then slowly swings around her to rest in a matching recess on the other side, a mildly intense light shining from the inner surface of the armature.

Since Adora had asked, and to put her more at ease, Nurse Meiou explains, "Oh, these are just to measure your vitals, dear. Temperature, Heart Rate, Blood Pressure, Blood Oxygen, Height, Weight, Density...and done."

She reaches over, removes the little clip, then sets it aside and indicates one of the exam beds just inside one of the curtained-off areas, "Alright, then, dear...please have a seat and tell me what's REALLY wrong."

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
"Well, if you meet them, let me know. As far as I know they're on the other end of the galaxy or something. I'm literally from another planet. As far as I know there are only two people on Earth who are from there. A place called Etheria."

The blonde jumps when the armature swings, and she glares at it a bit. She nods, then, and takes a seat. She considers what to say for a moment before she peels her coat off. She raises her right arm to show a scar on her forearm. Four long, deep, thin lines run the width of her forearm, and have recently moved from wound to scar, the flesh a hint puckered and raised. Healed, but roughly.

"I got this right after I started going to the school. Stitched it myself in my dorm room. But this one..."

She unbuttons her shirt and undoes her tie, shrugging out of them with a wince. She's left in her skirt and sports bra. This allows other scars to come into view. On her back, similar scars run down on either side of her back, like someone was hugging her and raked blades down her back. Four on either side, from shoulder to mid-back. These ones look about a year old. Other ones that match it are on her side, and her other arm, but look a few years older. The small scar on her right eyebrow suddenly comes into focus as matching them.

Finally, the real problem comes into view. On her rather toned tummy are four deep, long scars, running across like someone slashed her. They are puffed and red and stitched very recently.

"I got these a few nights ago and I stitched them up. Then...yesterday...I popped the stitches in a fight, and the person I was fighting...kicked the wound after the stitches were popped..."

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Nurse Meiou sucks in a breath between her teeth in a bit of a hiss...then she scowls, "...Miss Rainbowfist, I understand your experience with those who called themselves 'medical professionals' in the past has apparently been...highly negative...but next time you get a wound like this, COME STRAIGHT TO ME."

She sighs, "As it is, this is going to add to your sadly extensive collection of scars. Also, I think I am going to have to make arrangements in the future."

She points at the bed, "Lie down while I get some supplies. At the very least, I should be able to do a better job stitching you up than you did. You didn't do a terrible job, but working on oneself is best only done in extremis as it's often hard to get the best angles unless you can move around more."

With that, she steps over and rummages in a few cabinets nearby.

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
"Sorry...," the blonde replies softly. She awkwardly mobes to lay down then, wincing as she does so. She ends up staring up at the ceiling, and looking like she's trying to find something to say. She seems like someone who isn't good with silence.

"...Gotta admit, doing this without anything to kill the pain was an experience." She tries to laugh, but stops herself. Instead she just covers her eyes. "When...if it happens again I'll make sure to swing through. Thanks. I'm learning to get over a lot of...um...what did that other kid call it? Trauma? That. So I make dumb decisions a lot because of it."

Understament of the year, clearly. "You look really young to be a nurse, by the way. What's that about?"

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
A few moments later, Nurse Meiou rolls into view on one of those wheeled stools, a little pinpoint light strapped to her head and mask over her lower face.

She absently reaches over and pulls a similarly equipped tray after her, which has a very well laid out suturing kit.

Gloved hands swab a substance that causes the skin to briefly tingle before going numb across the younger woman's abdomen around the wounds, then she plops a rigid fabric 'wall' down that's shaped to curve around a patient's abdomen and block their sight as she starts working to clean and work on the wounds, "By the by, do you have any known allergies I should be aware of?"

At Adora's question about her age, she chuckles a little, "You're not the first person to ask, but to make a long story short, it's a combination of graduating early, being gifted enough to go through a really accelerated program, and a few other little things here and there."

She then sighs, "...and yes, trauma is rather a thing that can affect us all more than we'd like. While psychology isn't my field, I'm willing to be a friendly ear anytime if the Counselor isn't available for some reason."

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
"Eeeeh, I don't think I'd be comfortable talking to the counselor," she replies. She uncovers her eyes and looks over, keeping a close eye on every movement of the nurse as she begins to do things that aren't getting her vitals. She really is paranoid about this. She doesn't complain, though.

"What's an allergy?," Adora asks, furrowing her brow a bit. "...Man, I hope they have good medical stuff over at Obsidian for her...," she says softly, then, to herself. It doesn't sound sarcastic, either. She sounds like she really means it, worry in her voice.

fShe stays in the required position as one hand grips the side of the bed. It serves as her only real sign of tension other then watching the woman. She makes a sound of being impressed at all the information about how she became a nurse.

"I kinda get that. I was a field commander at...well, younger then everyone else..."

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Nurse Meiou doesn't even look over, she just pauses between actions as she needs to reach over and grab another piece of equipment...and with her other hand she reaches over and gently presses against Adora's forehead to get her to lie back down properly, "Please stop shifting around, it's making this harder."

AFter a moment, she looks over, "...at least give me a CHANCE before you get all 'have to keep an eye on your work'."

There's no real heat to the comment...just the sense that she knows the type.

The question about allergy makes her blink, then take a few deep breaths again before she goes on, "...no offense, Miss Rainbowfist...but either your former coworkers were idiots, deliberately keeping you in the dark, or had a stunningly narrow concept of medicine." She gives her head another little shake, "...sadly, I'm not sure which of those is more likely. Anyhow, for your general fund of knowledge, sometimes certain people have a bad reaction to certain substances that are otherwise innocuous to everyone else. Often, it just causes irritation, such as a rash from handling whatever one is allergic to...however, some allergies can be worse, especially when it's something that is ingested or taken internally. The most common you'll find is some people are allergic to nuts, though pet dander is also somewhat frequent."

Then the comment about Obsidian...and the nurse closes her eyes and sighs. She pauses work for a good two or three seconds as a few things such as slash spacing and locations put themselves together in her head along with the word 'Obsidian' before she shakes her head and goes on, "...I take it that your...acquaintance?...enemy?...friend?...frenemy?...that gave you these is the one with Obsidian? Perhaps the other person from your home?"

She's quiet for a moment as she works, "...while I am, on a purely professional level, rather upset at her for the damage she has done to you, I will admit that Obsidian DOES have some rather impressive medical feats under their belt."

There's a short pause before she goes on, "...of course, they have a vastly much longer list of atrocities under said belt as well..." She shakes her head, "...I'd advise you to drag her away from there as far and as fast as you can for her sake...but I rather get the impression that an attempt to do so led to what I'm dealing with today."

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
"Sorry," she offers, and tries to stop fidgeting and staring. She turns her attention back towards the ceiling, in fact. She doesn't flinch from anything the nurse does, and simply tries to let her do her work.

"Could have been any of those with the Horde, honestly. We had a lot of tech, but it was all for war. Like, I just got my first phone last week. We had communicators back home, sure, but they weren't like this. And I -know- we had medical science, because I found out later the guy who was leading us was this messed-up clone keeping himself alive with medical tech. But the kids didn't get access to it. If we died we died."

She tries to take in the information about allergies. "Well, I don't...die when I eat nuts. And I'm...fine around fur," she responds with a weirdly timed blush. Adora is quiet for a long moment after Meiou talks about Obsidian before she nods.

"Catra. Catra Applesauce Meowmeow. We both ended up here from Etheria. We grew up together. Actually, I found her abandoned in a box when I was about...well, I don't know, like I said...but we were -little-. I convinced the lady who basically adopted me to take her in, too. We were inseperable through all that...horror. Then I left and things changed between us." She rubs her face and chuckles. "After a few years of war she was convinced to leave the other side, and we announced our love for eachother and...it was great. BUT, this Catra here? She's not that Catra. It seems like time got all weird and she's an EARLIER Catra. When she was still all broken and mean and confused. I'm trying to get her to leave them and come here and...she's making headway. She was the one who setup the plan for us to show up and destroy her soulstealing rifle. She just did it in a way that she wouldn't get caught by Obsidian. But she also still believes that what she is doing is right for her, and I betrayed her and..." She starts to shrug and then stops herself.

"Sorry. It's a lot and you probably don't care."

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
As Adora tells her story, Nurse Meiou keeps working. Without being able to see, all the feedback one gets are the gentle tugs felt in the skin as she does the stitches...which pause as Adora reaches the end of her story.

Nurse Meiou sits there for a moment in silence before she looks over, "Miss Rainbowfist. I ABSOLUTELY DO care."

Another shake of her head is given, then one can feel her going back to work, "...for one, she is clearly important to you...for two, she seems to be actively if perhaps less than effectively working to help you."

There's a pause as she tilts her head and lets out a small 'hrm' sound, then she shakes her head and goes on, "...and...well...if she's working at Obsidian, she's probably around a lot of Dark Energy...and from what I'm given to understand, it has some noticable effects on decision making and emotions."

There's another pause as well as a slightly sharper tug...and then the sound of a cut as she goes on, "...I hope you can get her out of there before she crosses any kind of moral event horizon."

And then she's making motions to clean up after herself...apparently almost done.

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
The girl lays there and thinks about all of that as the work is coming to a close. She doesn't say anything for awhile, simply worrying at her lip and staring up at the ceiling.

"That makes sense. About Obsidian, I mean. And I know her, and I know she'll -get- there. But things are so different here that I worry about her. She's even more along here then she was back home, and I...I wish I could do more to help her. I hate feeling helpless."

Adora glances down to try and see the new suturing. "Yeeeah. I don't suck at it, but that's a lot better then what I was doing," she admits ruefully.

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Apparently Nurse Meiou is actually VERY GOOD at suturing. It helps that she's got an interest in sewing on top of her medical skills.

A REALLY sharp eye, however, will note that the wounds are a bit cleaner and more straight than they were before coming in.

As tight as the sutures are, it looks like they'll scar much more lightly than before.

She moves her tray over to the counter, disposes of a few things in the bio bin, then starts washing her hands before she comes back over and tapes a large patch of gauze over the wound, "Okay, be gentle with that...and I'll be giving you a note excusing you from phys ed for the next few days. If at all possible, I'd recommend avoiding anything strenuous."

She smirks a bit, "...though I realize that asking you to keep out of all danger might be difficult around here with what you are...I ask that you at least try to avoid direct combat outside of ABSOLUTE necessity? If you manage to pop THOSE stiches, it'll be MUCH worse."

She shrugs, "Still, if you've got even a slightly accelerated healing, you'll probably be okay in a few days...and I used self-dissolving stitches, so you won't even have to have them removed."

Once more, she washes her hands, then pulls the curtains again to 'let you out', "...now then, have you had lunch? Because I took the liberty of ordering some for you to take back to your dorm...where you are excused to for the rest of the day."

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
She slowly sits up and begins gingerly slipping her shirt back on. She nods as she buttons it back up and begins retieing her little uniform bow.

"I'll do what I can. I figure she'll need a little time to recover, too, anyways. I can focus on my less...physical clubs to get things ready for the Festival."

Soon enough Adora is climbing to her feet, and shrugging her coat back on. She grins a bit at the mention of food, and she nods. "I wasn't hungry before but I'm pretty famished now. And...great. I can sit in my room and work on some plans to save my girlfriend from herself, I guess."

She moves over to take the lunch. "...Thanks."

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
When, precisely Nurse Meiou ordered food is perhaps a mystery...but as Adora steps out, she hands over a bag from a place called 'Wayback Burgers'.

"Since you're new to the planet, I thought I'd help you broaden your culinary horizons a bit. This is a semi-famous sandwich originating from America called a 'Philly Cheesesteak.' I hope you'll enjoy it."

And within is what is advertised...an extra large cheesesteak cut into two foil wrapped 8 inch packages, a big order of freshcut fries and a drink holder with a large coke and apparently a chocolate milkshake, "You'll need the protien and calories, dear."

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
"Philly Cheesesteak. Interesting. I'm excited to try it."

She opens the bag and peeks inside. She groans when she smells it. "Oh, wow. I'm gonna demolish this when I get back to my dorm."

She turns to make her way to the door, glancing back again. "Thanks, though. For more then the stitches. Always good to meet another...magical person. Have a good day, Nurse Meiou." And with that the blonde departs! She moves slowly (Which she hates), but isn't biting back intense pain, anymore!