The Black Dirge [Sci-fi]

[CalamityJade]

Morden whistled as they moved the empty boxes from their room, rather content. Upgrades had been finished and installed, meaning no more gloves while typing on shitty touch keyboards. The electrical shocks were not really worth the productivity, especially after having raised a fuss about needing mechanical keyboards. Were they the fanciest, quickest things? Not by a long-shot, but Morden wasn't going to have to type with gloves all the time just because they were a little more pricey than the standard. They were supposed to be changing the world. A little cost should be worth it, right?

[accalia]

Zee notices the suppressed pain as she follows Kimiko out of the showers, sticking close enough to the girl to be easily grabbed for support, but far enough away so as to not inhibit Kimiko's progress. She notes the absence of anyone in the hallway. That's good, she had half expected at least one of them to be listening at the door.

[Hitoshirenu Shourai]

At which point the duo enters the common room, Kimiko continuing to lead the way to her room. She seems to be slowing down a bit, her expression becoming more blank, but she's still holding out.

[accalia]

Zee keeps pace easily, entering the common room just behind Kimiko. At some point she seems to have picked up a duffel bag with a red cross on a white background on the side.

When exactly did she step away to grab that?

[Hitoshirenu Shourai]

The girl doesn't seem to notice. Towards the hall to her room, she slows down a bit more, looking unsteady, unfocused, but still she leads the way. She's gotten more pale... she doesn't look good at all. And she's sweating pretty badly now.

[accalia]

Zee places a hand lightly on Kimiko's shoulder and squeezes what the thinks will be interpreted as silent encouragement. They're almost to Kimiko's quarters now, and if another breakdown happens there then it's out of public and they can deal with it without rushing or interference.

[Hitoshirenu Shourai]

She manages to make it to her door, breathing harder now, like she's winded. Shakily, she opens the door and stumbles in, collapsing after stepping inside. If she's conscious, she certainly doesn't look like it. Her face is red, and she feels both hot and cold. Looks like the pain finally got to her, and judging by the stream of blood down her leg, she's lost a good amount of it. She held out better than most veterans would, even. What a champ!

[accalia]

Zee sighs, well that was worse than she had hoped. She closes the door and quickly cuts Kimiko's clothes away from her knee. Zee'll have to take the girl shopping some time to replace those. Zee quickly sorts through the bag and fastens a tourniquet to the leg to stem the bleeding while she cleans the wound and applies some stitches to keep it closed while it heals.  Zee then bandages the area up, and applies and analgesic patch to keep the worst of the pain away.

Then, seeing as that's a lot of lost blood Zee grabs a bag of saline from the kit and with a practiced motion starts a saline drip, attaching the needle and tubing to the back of Kimiko's hand, in order to leave as much freedom of movement as possible. It's not as good as a transfusion to fix the blood loss, but Zee doesn't know Kimiko's blood type, and anyway the only blood Zee has on hand is her own, and with the nanites in that's a pretty risky thing to try. Hopefully the saline and a big steak (and maybe an iron supplement) later on will work well enough.

[Hitoshirenu Shourai]

After the immediate medical treatment, she seems to have calmed down a bit. Her breathing has stabilized, and even without anesthetic she didn't seem to be bothered much by the treatment. During the treatment, Zee would have noticed that there were moments where she showed no signs of clotting as well as moments when it was fine. Her biology is all sorts of messed up, the poor girl. Was it because of her powers? Or her trauma? Or perhaps something else? In any case, she seems to be recovering, color gradually returning to her face, though she does seem to have a slight fever.

"S... sorry for... everything..." the girl gives Zee a faint smile, looking a bit distant.

[accalia]

"What exactly do you have to apologize for?" Zee asks softly and earnestly. She really doesn't think Kimiko has anything to apologize for, but she does think that this is a great opportunity for Kimiko to start talking about what's eating her up inside.

[Hitoshirenu Shourai]

"For being so... frail... and useless..." she smiles a sad, sad smile. "I thought... I could be useful, but... here I am... causing trouble... again..." She looks like she wants to cry, but has the expression that she has no more tears left, "I'm always just... causing problems... for everyone..."

[accalia]

"Being frail, well that's a thing we can fix, given time. as for being useless, you wouldn't be here if you didn't have value to bring to the team." Zee states simply and with conviction,  countering the negative feelings head on. Zee's never been one to shy away from the hard topics.

[Hitoshirenu Shourai]

Kimiko is slient for a while, then finally speaks up again. "I... was always sickly... so my parents had to... pay a lot in fees... and my father, he... became an alcoholic, and... when he got drunk, he would... hit me... he would always say... that I was filthy... because I was always sick, I... was made of rot..." she paused, and looked down, "In the shower, I... would always brush too hard... so they made me bathe with either... my mother or little sister... to make sure I didn't do it anymore." She looked to Zee, then away, lightly gripping her left arm with her right, "I... thought I might have been better... since it has been so long, but... I was wrong..."

[accalia]

"That was then. It's important. It helped make you what you are today. But, you don't have to let yourself be defined by it anymore. you can make yourself be who you want to be." Zee's words are sincere, but there's a look on her eyes. almost as if she's seeing two different worlds overlaid on top of one another and she's saying the same thing in both.

Then with a blink Zee refocuses. Her voice somewhat artificially cheerful but just as businesslike as ever. " Now, i suspect the floor is rather uncomfortable. do you want to get yourself to the bed on your own, or would you rather I carry you?"

[Hitoshirenu Shourai]

She blushes at the mention of being carried, "U-Umm, j-just a bit of help... b-being carried is a bit much... I-I'm not a princess or anything..." she holds a hand up to be helped up to her bed.