Open ♫ if you sneeze, a butterfly in a forest somewhere will dance

[fairysong]

Who: Sheryl Nome and anyone else! Including you. Especially you.
Where: All through the temple.
When: Arrival / sickness event
Rating PG13+, warning for mild nudity
What: Sheryl ain't down with the sickness.

[Week One:]

[It's silly to be worried about this. Sheryl knows that. She knows that her V-Type Infection had progressed to a stage where the symptoms were completely different from this; even if Ranka hadn't cured her, a resurgence would feel completely differently. And everyone else is sick, too. This can't be the disease that nearly killed her.

A part of her brain is completely ignoring all that logic and reason, though. These symptoms are like what she'd first felt, after all. And there's that tiny nagging voice that she can't banish, constantly asking her: What if? What if Ranka had just delayed her death? What if everyone else has one thing, but she has another?

It's a stupid, irrational thought, and she can't banish it. So Sheryl deals with the deep-seated panic the best way she knows how: She throws herself into her music.

The only trouble is that this lingering headache and stuffiness makes it so very hard to write lyrics. So you'll find a young woman sitting at a table in the kitchen with a pencil and a torn sheet of paper that's full of scribbled out words. Most of them are crossed out. Sheryl is looking very frustrated-- and then she turns, pointing the end of the pencil at you.] You!

...what rhymes with "forest"?

[Week Two:]

[It got worse. It got much worse.

The good news is that Sheryl is now fairly certain that this isn't her V-Type Infection coming back; the symptoms have progressed in a completely different way.

That's the only good news. Sheryl feels like shit. She hasn't experienced the hallucinations that she's heard other people dealing with, which she's thankful for, but a violent fever and everything else that comes with it isn't much better.

The worst is that she constantly feels like she's just burning up, across her entire body, and since the bathing area is communal here, she hasn't figured out how to take a cold shower or bath to try and counteract it. Still, she's a resourceful young woman.

In the hallways just outside of the bathing area, you'll come across Sheryl with a rolled-up wet towel draped around her neck and over her shoulders. Though the towel hangs down in front of her chest, it is very clear that she is not wearing a shirt. Still, any potential sexiness is blunted by the fact that Sheryl looks rough and completely exhausted.

She's just too drained to give a shit about this right now. She does glance in your direction, though, and speaks in a slow voice that sounds impossibly tired.]

Can't a girl get some privacy around here...?

[Week Three:]

[Again, there's good news and there's bad news. The good news is that she feels much, much better than before. No fever, no chills, no cold sweats, no trembling.

The bad news is that she can't see.

In a place where she still doesn't know anybody that well, she's reluctant to ask someone for help like she might someone she trusts, like Alto or Ranka. Which means Sheryl is moving slowly around the temple, one hand on the walls at all time, dark glasses on even in the middle of the night.

At some point leaving the kitchen area, you might hear a girl's voice yelp in pain. If you investigate, you'll find Sheryl doubled over, rubbing at one of her shins and hissing obscenities through her teeth.

When she hears footsteps, she straightens up abruptly.] Ah... someone must've moved that chair, I don't think it was there before!

[It's an odd excuse, mainly because she'd just run into a bench, and you're pretty sure the bench has always been there that whole time. Also, she's not looking directly at you, but also a little off to the side.

A little suspicious.]

Comments

[fairysong]

[...huh. Well, that makes sense.

She's still not entirely certain this girl isn't a fevered hallucination.] I guess you'll be fine as long as we don't have to climb any ladders.

[Well. Okay. She sits back, letting herself float in the cold water.] Honestly, if I'd fainted, would I really have taken off my shorts first?

[lumberlady]

[Undoing the knot and sliding the fabric off her rear, Konoha tosses the skirt back out of the pool with a soggy noise after she rings it out best she can. Drying those she'll have to deal with later- at least her towels had stayed dry on the edge before she jumped in.]

Well, I thought you fainted after you got undressed.

[Still laughing a bit in relief, Konoha wades through the water a bit looking for one of the- there one was, one of the shelves built in to the pool beneath the water. It takes a bit of maneuvering, but she manages to sort of lay down along it, tucking up her legs and moving to undo the large bun piled on top of her head.]

Does this feel better at least? It's not too cold for a human?

[fairysong]

I don't feel like I'm burning up anymore, which is a plus. [Sheryl says casually, though she's kind of watching this girl and how she moves with a fascinated, enraptured look on her face.

It feels like the first time Alto had brought her out to the Zentradi island-ship and she'd seen them in their full size rather than just interacting with them as miclones. Watching how they moved and lived in that super-sized world... it had been incredibly interesting, and this is no exception.

If she hadn't been incredibly sick, she might even be feeling inspired to write some lyrics right about now.] I'll probably change my mind in ten minutes or so, but for now, it feels just fine.

[lumberlady]

That's good at least!

[Always looking for a positive, Konoha's glad to hear it, getting her bun undone and letting down her long hair, voluminous and down to her... well, not her rear, that's way further back, but. What would be her rear if she had two legs. Her equine shoulders.]

A cold dip will be good for your fever. And then afterwards, some nice hot porridge and a long sleep.

[Simple!]

[fairysong]

[Oh. That is

a lot more hair than she looked like she had. That she kept it in a bun is pretty impressive.] ...I hate being confined to bed. Why do you think I ended up out here?

[lumberlady]

[Too much to let loose when you're working, so large bun it was! As she speaks, she starts running her fingers through it, untangling where she needs to. Ah, maybe a trim...]

But it's really better for you if you're sick... there are some nice people here, so I'm sure you could have company if you want it.

[fairysong]

Has nothing to do with company. I'm just tired of sickbeds. Something minor like this cold can't bring me-- [Cough]-- down.

[Boy, that cough kind of undermined her.]

[lumberlady]

[Konoha's look definitely conveys that she finds that cough to be more than proof that she's right.]

If you push yourself you're just going to be sick longer. Do people not die of sickness where you come from? You shouldn't take these things lightly! Even just a fever can kill you!

[People talked about medicine, apparently better medicine than her own world had. But still- people should still be afraid of disease, right?]

[fairysong]

[The words strike a chord inside her, given her recent brush with death and how she'd been made to confront her seemingly inevitable mortality. Her eyes narrow just slightly, her expression hardening, but the biggest shift in tone is in her voice.

She's not yelling. It's not even the indignant yelp from before after Konoha had jumped in after her. Her voice is quiet, but her tone is suddenly razor sharp.] They can, and they do.

Which is I'd rather experience the world with my time than waste it sitting in a bed bored out of my mind.

[lumberlady]

Even if it makes you sicker?

[The razor sharp edge doesn't bother Konoha. In fact, she'd be more concerned if Sheryl had said that lightly. It at least meant she understood how serious illness could be, right?]

There's plenty of things you can do in a bed!

[... like learn to weave, or talk with friends, or practice a skill, like. You know.]

[fairysong]

Even if it makes me sicker. [That's certainly resolve in her voice.] There aren't any guarantees in life. You can rest in bed and still get sicker and sicker until you die from it. Nobody ever died wishing that they'd taken more naps.

[Though...]

Do your people use beds for that, too? Seems like it'd just be awkward, lying down.

[Opening, seized on.]

[lumberlady]

[What an awful way to think about things... Of course, Konoha understood if it was something you were definitely going to die from, but. Something like this... no one's died, just been sick, so-

Wait.

Wait, wait, wait-

The process plays out very clearly on Konoha's face until the movement of her hands comes to a stop and she blinks. Blinks again.

Turns red.]

N- no, of course we don't! I mean, I don't know, maybe some do, but it's much easier standing, isn't it- ?!

[Wow no wait she shouldn't have replied to that???]

[fairysong]

[Change of subject: Achieved.] I suppose with your body type, that'd make sense~

For us, standing can be... challenging. But fun!

[lumberlady]

Well, yeah, cause-

[Cheeks reddening further, Konoha can't help but cover them with her palms, forelegs rubbing together just like a human woman might press her thighs tightly when wriggling about in embarrassment.

Oh my gods she is not talking about this???]

I'm not even married yet I certainly don't know anything about that, most definitely! I certainly don't know what humans do, either! S- standing or otherwise?

[fairysong]

[Honestly, despite the fact that her body is so very different, the mannerisms are... similar. Similar enough to make Sheryl take note.

She doesn't back off, though. She's learned to never relent on the attack for something like this.] My my, what does being married have to do with anything?

Are you saying that girls can't enjoy that before marriage, where you're from? What a dull way to think.

[lumberlady]

I'm not stopping anyone, but what if you got pregnant?

[One of the big disadvantages to living in the medieval countryside, Sheryl, is that you really don't get sex ed. Or birth control. Or much acceptance for bastard children.]

You're much safer off just imagining things, that's my advice!

[fairysong]

We've got ways to make people fly, where I'm from. You really think that's a problem? [A little cluck of her teeth.] Being married has nothing to do with it.

But even if you're not doing it, you should at least know the what and how, right?

[lumberlady]

[..................... Oh.

Well, that's a good point, she supposes. If humans can fly maybe they can choose to not get pregnant, too? Do you just choose to? Do you eat a special mushroom? That's crazy-]

W- Well, my parents are humans, so... I figured instinct would kind of... take care of it...

[Oh gods what if did finally confess to the man she likes only to find out she has no idea what she's doing? No way, no way, she's... she's seen horses breed before it's. Uh. Kind of similar... ????]

[fairysong]

[Wait.]

Hold on. Your parents are humans, but they had you? A half-horse girl?

[How does THAT work?]

[lumberlady]

Oh, no, um-

[Konoha smiles a bit weakly, self-consciously rubbing at the back of her neck.]

My birth parents died when I was young, so. My parents now is what I meant. They lost their real children in the wars, so, I'm the only daughter they have.

[She barely remembers her real ones. Just snatches of vague impressions. A lullaby. A touch. The view from her mother's breast as she was carried through the woods.]

They're really kind, and I wouldn't change it if I could or anything, but there's some things they don't know about jinba. And my boss, she's a jinba, but- Her husband was human, so...

[So medieval sex ed was still complicated ok]

[fairysong]

[An orphan, then. Like her. Like Ranka. Adopted by a family who had had to bury their children due to warfare.

Some things never change, no matter how many decades or centuries are between them.] That was very kind of them, then.

And your boss' husband sounds like a very ambitious man.

[lumberlady]

[It would be a depressing thought, if she had it herself. She couldn't remember the wars, only peace... but to imagine it all repeating itself over the centuries...

But she doesn't, and Konoha's blush returns in full force, and her hands likewise return to her cheeks, as if slapping her palms there could keep her embarrassment from growing. Sha's husband had died before she met the older woman, but-]

W- well, my boss was much smaller than me, so I kind of just assumed that things... fi- worked out... better...

[Fit better??????? She's so sorry, Sha!!!]

[fairysong]

[Goodness, but this horse-girl is innocent. Sheryl almost feels a little bad about pushing this, now.

Almost. Needling other people to get under their skin is making her feel more in control of herself-- of the situation-- than she's been in a while.] Can that even happen?

What happens if a human and someone like you tries to have children? Would it ever work? ...would the kid be a quarter horse?

[lumberlady]

Oh, no, no, that's impossible.

[Isnt.. it??? She pulls a hand from her cheek to wave it in denial, sticking her other hand between her forelegs to try and keep herself from squirming.]

You'd only get married cause you love each other, you couldn't have children... I mean, I'm only guessing, I don't think I like humans that way so I can't say for sure, but!

[Well, her gaze wanders a moment... there were some... really attractive and really nice humans in this group, but. None of them really compared to the jinba she was thinking of, right?]

[fairysong]

Are you sure? [Sheryl leans back against the bathtub wall.] You just admitted you don't know much about that sort of thing at all.

So maybe it could happen~