[IS THERE ANY UNIVERSE IN WHICH HE WOULD SAY NO TO LINGSHA??????
That is to say Richie takes to life in camp like a pig in shit. He's chummy with Yukong, and while he can't quite accept a sonzoning he does come to think of her in a sisterly light. Yae Miko may never come to appreciate his infinite charms but that's all right, it's kind of funnier to toe the line with her anyway. Meanwhile he's perfectly happy to keep it casual with one gal in particular. Yes he will be creeping back to his quarters at the crack of dawn, as if anyone were at a loss for where he's been.
Among his peers and co-workers, I will regret to inform you he's exceptionally competent. As a good friend once said, Richie is really smart when he's not fucking around. Turns out he's quite the multitasker! He can fuck around AND work hard. He's a frequent staple at any social scene but he makes a point to pull in the shy types, gas them up when they need a little boost. Taair becomes a frequent target for this, and Claude is a great guy to shoot the shit with on any day of the week. He's also running a long con on Mizu: being an inescapable force that, while still too keen to push buttons, proves to be reliable ally in unexpected times. If he's gone off with Childe, Richie has an alibi at the ready and a bandage to toss either of their ways when they're done kicking the snot out of each other. He's annoying, true, but he always means well.
On this most unfortunate day, Richie was actually in his own bed for the night thankyouverymuch, which means he's up and on alert with the rest of them. He'll set to helping Taair on instinct, though he swivels an ear when Claude offers Mizu clemency. He turns, frowning.]
You wouldn't go alone though, would you?
[Buddy you are tough but you are just One Guy. Currently weighing how pissed Yae Miko will be if the team splits versus how dead Mizu might be flying solo. Hm.]
[absolutely hateful that we now live in a world where, beyond just being motivated by hatred for the borisin, mizu is also considering running out there out of concern for fucking childe. the guy keeps getting his ass kicked during their sparring matches, despite the fact that he should be better than mizu just by virtue of their roles in the campaign. if things take a turn for the worse, will he survive?
will any of the little friends this ragtag group of healers survive?
it's infuriating to be told to sit down and prepare. if mizu dreamed of being a combat medic, it was to be out there. not cooped up in the clinic, hoping for the best while preparing for the worst.]
I know. I'm not some kind of idiot with a death wish.
[to claude first, while quickly approaching one of the windows to assess the situation outside. how far away is the clinic from the boundaries of the city, where the fight is taking place?
and then, to richie, glancing back to take in how the group is currently reacting to this whole situation.]
Do any of you even know how to fight? This is bigger than just wrapping a couple of bandages.
[sorry, taair. but mizu's gaze lingers on him for a moment here, as if believing him to be the least suited for battle, before turning back to the window.]
[ the clinic is like... in the middle of the city. it's not a very big city so maybe ten minutes out? you can probably hear the sound of battle, the roars of borisin and the screams of men and foxian alike. but if you try to leave, yae miko won't let you. it's important to follow orders in this place so that there isn't more chaos, even as someone that feels they might be more at home in the middle of a battle.
it's a lot of waiting. that's a little what being a healer is like, you've found. there's a lot of just preparing, knowing that something bad is coming but not when or how. for those with a little less support, it might be maddening, but you all have made a lot of friends while you're here, haven't you?
the fighting rages for what feels like ages, but in reality is probably only an hour or so. instead, you and yae miko are left here to prepare beds, put together kits, get dressed, and when the noise finally subsides, the air clear... you open the tent flap to see the damage.
four groups of soldiers went out. two groups of soldiers come back.
the active support bring back a few stretchers, screaming for extra help. as you all watch them rush in, you'll recognize a few faces on these beds. childe is sitting up on the damn thing, trying to get off of it even as it's moving - there's blood pouring down the side of his face from some sort of head wound, and he's clutching at his side with one hand. on another stretcher is xingqiu, unconscious, deathly pale, splattered with blood, his leg wrenched at a strange angle. and finally, there's sushang, limping as she helps one of the healers carry xingqiu's stretcher into the camp - her face is set in determination, but she's clearly bleeding from several slash wounds.
in the second group, there's a few more familiar faces. for the most part, this squad is just a group of soldiers that you don't know as well, but two foxian woman are prominent among the flood. feixiao is nearly feral, her white coat drenched in blood, her axe dragging behind her. she doesn't seem to be able to move one of her arms, as it's dangling uselessly on one side. she's still barking orders when yukong comes up behind her, walking slow. there's a hole wide enough to see straight through at yukong's right shoulder, and it's visible for the moment before she just collapses. the axe clatters to the ground entirely as feixiao drops it, whirling to catch yukong with her one working arm.
in the middle of this chaos, you know that you can only help one group. you cannot split between the two. you must choose one - and you know, instinctively, that whichever group you choose, there will likely be consequences for the lack of help on the other side.
who do you want to pick? the grunt level soldiers that you've been on the same level with, or the generals? ]
[ taair knows the eyes are on him before he even has the chance to feel them, but he doesn't seem to mind all that much as he's finally setting out a line of medical tools. he glances upwards to mizu's face, and meets his gaze, steady - not angry or insulted, but determined. ]
I'm well aware. And I promise, I would not stand here if I could not hold my own. But, if we go out into the field, then, I will be counting on the three of you - and I swear, you can count on me in exchange.
[ which is good!! because then all of a sudden all hell breaks loose. and it's - it's a lot of blood, a lot of motion all at once, a cacophonous explosion in its own right. it is the first battlefield, the first true test, and though his heart lurches at the sight, he immediately starts to get to work.
taair's no swordsman or archer. in fact he is a twink. but what he lacks in muscles and sick weaponry skills he makes up for in strategy and in magic, especially when channeled into the healing arts. one hand flutters to his book as he starts to join the group in triage, and he casts his first healing spell - as it always has, the magic surges up from the pages, into the shape of a bird.
the babies look bad - so does yukong, but surely yae miko has her fox women handled. surely? so we're going to start with the grunts. the bird soars over all three of their heads, even (grits teeth) childe and does a circle, then lands on xingqiu.
you decide on team grunt. which is great! they're all in bad shape, but it isn't unfixable. you can start with them, and then help the other healers handle feixiao and yukong after, right?
anyway. between the four of you, you use whatever you've got on hand to stabilize them. it ends up that childe has a pretty severe head injury and concussion, as well as a nasty gash through his side. you bandage his side, and you get him to finally rest by giving him meds that chill him out and stop him from climbing out of bed. the general prognosis for childe is it looks like he's going to recover, but you anticipate a most likely temporary loss of fine motor function. he'll be pissed he has to stay in bed and that he won't be able to hold a pen for a while, but he'll live.
sushang has a broken ankle and a couple of slashes, but - she's okay. mostly, she's worried about the others. she asks you a lot after the other people on the field, about whether or not certain people survived. she tells you, worriedly, that she saw natasha out on the battlefield trying to help someone, and then get swiped by a borisin. she doesn't know where natasha went, if she's still alive. you have to check the aftermath, what if she's still out there? sushang is strong, and she is brave, but as you bandage her wounds, she's holding back tears. she's young, and this is her first campaign. she hasn't ever actually seen anybody die, especially not in front of her. all you can do is wrap her ankle and her wounds, and tell her you'll find out what happened to the others.
xingqiu is the most injured out of all of them. he's unconscious when he's brought in, and it's - touch and go. there might be surgery involved here, which yae miko takes care of for the most part, but she needs the rest of you on standby. at the end of it, he's stable, but in bad condition. broken leg, severe blood loss, claw and teeth marks - but he's breathing. you'll all need to keep an eye on him for the next few days.
however.
while you're dealing with this, you hear something that sounds like a scream. it's short, strangled, and furious - it's the kind of emotion that gets ripped out of you. outside of the clinic, you can hear a door slam open so hard it rattles the wall, and from where you are, you can see general feixiao stalking out across town, still bloody, dripping it behind her. ringo stumbles after her, calling for her, but she ignores him. he stops, watching her take off, slumping.
bailu, the little dragon healer, comes into the room you are all doing treatment, and tells you, with an exhaustion that hurts, that yukong succumbed to her injuries. she's gone.
the final report is thirty dead, with your fellow healer natasha included in that number. for now, it is quiet, the borisin retreating, but you know that there will be more to come. ]
[ Somehow, none of this is surprising to Claude, even though this is his first deployment. But war is difficult, trying, and merciless, and most days you just have to accept that and push on.
What is a little horrifying is seeing people's insides on the outside and having to put them back in place, but he's a healer so... he'll just have to deal with that like a professional.
It's exhausting trying to stabilize the wounded, and they're rewarded for their efforts by a loud and furious scream. It almost feels like the explosion going off again.
Claude will peel off his gloves and look over at Richie first, grim and aware that he'll likely take it the hardest. Well, maybe after Taair. ]
[It's the scream that does it. He'd been able to focus, keep the blinders on and the bandages coming as long as the general din stayed at a steady ruckus. And they do well, too, as much as can be expected.
But then Feixiao lets loose and he feels a boulder crash through that precision focus and plummet straight to the bottom of his gut. He turns to watch her storm out, his brain moving slower than his body as he watches the miserable scene.
Then the news comes.
He's quiet. Deathly quiet. The room swims around him, sounds blurring into a smear and faces gone fuzzy, as if he didn't have thick prescription lenses to fix just that.
If the work here is done, then so is he.
Richie stalks out of the room. Not a word to anyone.]
[feixiao storms out first, pursued by ringo. then, so does richie. and all mizu can do in this moment is stand there and watch, sweaty and exhausted and covered in someone else's blood after spending hours trying to save as many lives as possible — yet not nearly enough. it will never be enough as long as the borisin stand against them. but, well, that's war for you!
mizu peels off the bloody gloves from his hands, looking to claude first and clocking him as probably the most stable person in the room right now. taair is... a concern. but not one mizu can linger on at this moment. dealing with other people's emotions is, somehow, even harder than scooping a guy's guts back inside his stomach.
regardless of how taair reacts, mizu will turn around and start picking up around the clinic. finding things that need to be disinfected. things that need to be thrown out, lest they risk contamination. things to keep busy in the aftermath.
the clinic will need to be in tiptop shape for the next time, anyway. there is always going to be a next time.]
[ the hardest part of it all is the grief, and that moment that comes from one second too late.
healing xingqiu - pouring magic healing to keep him stable as yae prepares for surgery, turning to a sobbing sushang and pressing a needle and thread through a stab wound - (maybe you can come back with and have dinner with me and my uncle, Taair) while trying to soothe her, promising he'll go find natasha even if he has a feeling what might have happened to a kindhearted upper-ranked healer on the field with a wolf. there's not even enough time to process his emotions, barely even time to think beyond abundance healing, grab sanitary bandages tie tourniquet add pressure cast spell, burn magic, cauterize injury abundance healing take something restore energy heal again, drain yourself, wrap bandage, apply pressure, tie tourniquet. the second he has free hands he's turning back to bailu, already shedding and putting on new gloves, the second he can get his hands free. help, let me help, what can i do, let me give and give and give until i can't anymore -
but she's got that grim look on her face, tiny as it is, wizened despite her years, and he looks down at his hands, covered in blood, and hears feixiao's scream. the sound of it makes taair's vision blur. makes the room spin. makes sickness rise up in his stomach that he forces down.
it occurs to him a few seconds later, that feixiao is still hurt. and when richie stalks out of the room, there are two moments of brief, powerful silence.
and is it turns out, the concern was not mizu who would run to fight at all, but rather - despite the horrors of loss, it's taair who turns right on his heel and bolts out of the room, still in full lockdown mode, tearing after ringo and feixiao as fast as his feet can carry him with spellbook still in his hand. maybe he can reach. his healing magic is long range. maybe he can help her. maybe, maybe, maybe. ]
[ there's nothing to be done about it. you've made your decisions, and you have to live with them. you've learned today that you cannot always save everybody.
by the time that taair gets outside, feixiao has taken off - ringo grabs taair gently to try and keep him back, telling him she essentially just launched herself out of the city entirely. she'll come back, he tells taair. she always comes back.
bailu shakily comes in to help claude and mizu clean the clinic. she's small, but she knows how to handle this sort of thing. it's okay. she's here to help.
wherever richie goes, he'll find marcoh. marcoh is silent and bloody-fisted, but he rests a hand on richie's shoulder in understanding, and then leaves him alone, if he wants it.
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holyspirits) wrote2025-02-16 05:05 pm
no subject
That is to say Richie takes to life in camp like a pig in shit. He's chummy with Yukong, and while he can't quite accept a sonzoning he does come to think of her in a sisterly light. Yae Miko may never come to appreciate his infinite charms but that's all right, it's kind of funnier to toe the line with her anyway. Meanwhile he's perfectly happy to keep it casual with one gal in particular. Yes he will be creeping back to his quarters at the crack of dawn, as if anyone were at a loss for where he's been.
Among his peers and co-workers, I will regret to inform you he's exceptionally competent. As a good friend once said, Richie is really smart when he's not fucking around. Turns out he's quite the multitasker! He can fuck around AND work hard. He's a frequent staple at any social scene but he makes a point to pull in the shy types, gas them up when they need a little boost. Taair becomes a frequent target for this, and Claude is a great guy to shoot the shit with on any day of the week. He's also running a long con on Mizu: being an inescapable force that, while still too keen to push buttons, proves to be reliable ally in unexpected times. If he's gone off with Childe, Richie has an alibi at the ready and a bandage to toss either of their ways when they're done kicking the snot out of each other. He's annoying, true, but he always means well.
On this most unfortunate day, Richie was actually in his own bed for the night thankyouverymuch, which means he's up and on alert with the rest of them. He'll set to helping Taair on instinct, though he swivels an ear when Claude offers Mizu clemency. He turns, frowning.]
You wouldn't go alone though, would you?
[Buddy you are tough but you are just One Guy. Currently weighing how pissed Yae Miko will be if the team splits versus how dead Mizu might be flying solo. Hm.]
no subject
will any of the little friends this ragtag group of healers survive?
it's infuriating to be told to sit down and prepare. if mizu dreamed of being a combat medic, it was to be out there. not cooped up in the clinic, hoping for the best while preparing for the worst.]
I know. I'm not some kind of idiot with a death wish.
[to claude first, while quickly approaching one of the windows to assess the situation outside. how far away is the clinic from the boundaries of the city, where the fight is taking place?
and then, to richie, glancing back to take in how the group is currently reacting to this whole situation.]
Do any of you even know how to fight? This is bigger than just wrapping a couple of bandages.
[sorry, taair. but mizu's gaze lingers on him for a moment here, as if believing him to be the least suited for battle, before turning back to the window.]
no subject
it's a lot of waiting. that's a little what being a healer is like, you've found. there's a lot of just preparing, knowing that something bad is coming but not when or how. for those with a little less support, it might be maddening, but you all have made a lot of friends while you're here, haven't you?
the fighting rages for what feels like ages, but in reality is probably only an hour or so. instead, you and yae miko are left here to prepare beds, put together kits, get dressed, and when the noise finally subsides, the air clear... you open the tent flap to see the damage.
four groups of soldiers went out. two groups of soldiers come back.
the active support bring back a few stretchers, screaming for extra help. as you all watch them rush in, you'll recognize a few faces on these beds. childe is sitting up on the damn thing, trying to get off of it even as it's moving - there's blood pouring down the side of his face from some sort of head wound, and he's clutching at his side with one hand. on another stretcher is xingqiu, unconscious, deathly pale, splattered with blood, his leg wrenched at a strange angle. and finally, there's sushang, limping as she helps one of the healers carry xingqiu's stretcher into the camp - her face is set in determination, but she's clearly bleeding from several slash wounds.
in the second group, there's a few more familiar faces. for the most part, this squad is just a group of soldiers that you don't know as well, but two foxian woman are prominent among the flood. feixiao is nearly feral, her white coat drenched in blood, her axe dragging behind her. she doesn't seem to be able to move one of her arms, as it's dangling uselessly on one side. she's still barking orders when yukong comes up behind her, walking slow. there's a hole wide enough to see straight through at yukong's right shoulder, and it's visible for the moment before she just collapses. the axe clatters to the ground entirely as feixiao drops it, whirling to catch yukong with her one working arm.
in the middle of this chaos, you know that you can only help one group. you cannot split between the two. you must choose one - and you know, instinctively, that whichever group you choose, there will likely be consequences for the lack of help on the other side.
who do you want to pick? the grunt level soldiers that you've been on the same level with, or the generals? ]
no subject
I'm well aware. And I promise, I would not stand here if I could not hold my own. But, if we go out into the field, then, I will be counting on the three of you - and I swear, you can count on me in exchange.
[ which is good!! because then all of a sudden all hell breaks loose. and it's - it's a lot of blood, a lot of motion all at once, a cacophonous explosion in its own right. it is the first battlefield, the first true test, and though his heart lurches at the sight, he immediately starts to get to work.
taair's no swordsman or archer. in fact he is a twink. but what he lacks in muscles and sick weaponry skills he makes up for in strategy and in magic, especially when channeled into the healing arts. one hand flutters to his book as he starts to join the group in triage, and he casts his first healing spell - as it always has, the magic surges up from the pages, into the shape of a bird.
the babies look bad - so does yukong, but surely yae miko has her fox women handled. surely? so we're going to start with the grunts. the bird soars over all three of their heads, even (grits teeth) childe and does a circle, then lands on xingqiu.
we're picking team grunt! yay! ]
no subject
you decide on team grunt. which is great! they're all in bad shape, but it isn't unfixable. you can start with them, and then help the other healers handle feixiao and yukong after, right?
anyway. between the four of you, you use whatever you've got on hand to stabilize them. it ends up that childe has a pretty severe head injury and concussion, as well as a nasty gash through his side. you bandage his side, and you get him to finally rest by giving him meds that chill him out and stop him from climbing out of bed. the general prognosis for childe is it looks like he's going to recover, but you anticipate a most likely temporary loss of fine motor function. he'll be pissed he has to stay in bed and that he won't be able to hold a pen for a while, but he'll live.
sushang has a broken ankle and a couple of slashes, but - she's okay. mostly, she's worried about the others. she asks you a lot after the other people on the field, about whether or not certain people survived. she tells you, worriedly, that she saw natasha out on the battlefield trying to help someone, and then get swiped by a borisin. she doesn't know where natasha went, if she's still alive. you have to check the aftermath, what if she's still out there? sushang is strong, and she is brave, but as you bandage her wounds, she's holding back tears. she's young, and this is her first campaign. she hasn't ever actually seen anybody die, especially not in front of her. all you can do is wrap her ankle and her wounds, and tell her you'll find out what happened to the others.
xingqiu is the most injured out of all of them. he's unconscious when he's brought in, and it's - touch and go. there might be surgery involved here, which yae miko takes care of for the most part, but she needs the rest of you on standby. at the end of it, he's stable, but in bad condition. broken leg, severe blood loss, claw and teeth marks - but he's breathing. you'll all need to keep an eye on him for the next few days.
however.
while you're dealing with this, you hear something that sounds like a scream. it's short, strangled, and furious - it's the kind of emotion that gets ripped out of you. outside of the clinic, you can hear a door slam open so hard it rattles the wall, and from where you are, you can see general feixiao stalking out across town, still bloody, dripping it behind her. ringo stumbles after her, calling for her, but she ignores him. he stops, watching her take off, slumping.
bailu, the little dragon healer, comes into the room you are all doing treatment, and tells you, with an exhaustion that hurts, that yukong succumbed to her injuries. she's gone.
the final report is thirty dead, with your fellow healer natasha included in that number. for now, it is quiet, the borisin retreating, but you know that there will be more to come. ]
no subject
What is a little horrifying is seeing people's insides on the outside and having to put them back in place, but he's a healer so... he'll just have to deal with that like a professional.
It's exhausting trying to stabilize the wounded, and they're rewarded for their efforts by a loud and furious scream. It almost feels like the explosion going off again.
Claude will peel off his gloves and look over at Richie first, grim and aware that he'll likely take it the hardest. Well, maybe after Taair. ]
no subject
But then Feixiao lets loose and he feels a boulder crash through that precision focus and plummet straight to the bottom of his gut. He turns to watch her storm out, his brain moving slower than his body as he watches the miserable scene.
Then the news comes.
He's quiet. Deathly quiet. The room swims around him, sounds blurring into a smear and faces gone fuzzy, as if he didn't have thick prescription lenses to fix just that.
If the work here is done, then so is he.
Richie stalks out of the room. Not a word to anyone.]
no subject
mizu peels off the bloody gloves from his hands, looking to claude first and clocking him as probably the most stable person in the room right now. taair is... a concern. but not one mizu can linger on at this moment. dealing with other people's emotions is, somehow, even harder than scooping a guy's guts back inside his stomach.
regardless of how taair reacts, mizu will turn around and start picking up around the clinic. finding things that need to be disinfected. things that need to be thrown out, lest they risk contamination. things to keep busy in the aftermath.
the clinic will need to be in tiptop shape for the next time, anyway. there is always going to be a next time.]
no subject
healing xingqiu - pouring magic healing to keep him stable as yae prepares for surgery, turning to a sobbing sushang and pressing a needle and thread through a stab wound - (maybe you can come back with and have dinner with me and my uncle, Taair) while trying to soothe her, promising he'll go find natasha even if he has a feeling what might have happened to a kindhearted upper-ranked healer on the field with a wolf. there's not even enough time to process his emotions, barely even time to think beyond abundance healing, grab sanitary bandages tie tourniquet add pressure cast spell, burn magic, cauterize injury abundance healing take something restore energy heal again, drain yourself, wrap bandage, apply pressure, tie tourniquet. the second he has free hands he's turning back to bailu, already shedding and putting on new gloves, the second he can get his hands free. help, let me help, what can i do, let me give and give and give until i can't anymore -
but she's got that grim look on her face, tiny as it is, wizened despite her years, and he looks down at his hands, covered in blood, and hears feixiao's scream. the sound of it makes taair's vision blur. makes the room spin. makes sickness rise up in his stomach that he forces down.
it occurs to him a few seconds later, that feixiao is still hurt. and when richie stalks out of the room, there are two moments of brief, powerful silence.
and is it turns out, the concern was not mizu who would run to fight at all, but rather - despite the horrors of loss, it's taair who turns right on his heel and bolts out of the room, still in full lockdown mode, tearing after ringo and feixiao as fast as his feet can carry him with spellbook still in his hand. maybe he can reach. his healing magic is long range. maybe he can help her. maybe, maybe, maybe. ]
no subject
by the time that taair gets outside, feixiao has taken off - ringo grabs taair gently to try and keep him back, telling him she essentially just launched herself out of the city entirely. she'll come back, he tells taair. she always comes back.
bailu shakily comes in to help claude and mizu clean the clinic. she's small, but she knows how to handle this sort of thing. it's okay. she's here to help.
wherever richie goes, he'll find marcoh. marcoh is silent and bloody-fisted, but he rests a hand on richie's shoulder in understanding, and then leaves him alone, if he wants it.
and then, a little bit of time passes. ]