acatalepsy_logs | [open] you can lead a sick horse to water

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[open] you can lead a sick horse to water

Who: Konoha and YOU
Where: around the Temple
When: 8/28 - 9/20
Rating PG???
What: catch all log for hanging with a centaur before or after the sick sets in

01 | GARDENING | 8/28

[What Konoha really wanted to do was to go home. But she knows... She has to make the most of her situation. Has to try and stay positive the best she can. So, like she'd talked about with Nier... a garden seemed like a good idea. With the plants withering like they were planting didn't actually seem like it would work, but at least she could get the field ready? It seemed like something to do, at least, and hard labor is what Konoha did best.

So she gets to work. In the first few days she can be found out near the woods, sleeves tied back and a cloth wrapped around her forehead to keep sweat out of her eyes as she starts prepping the dirt. Digging out stones, ripping up dead roots, cutting away weeds, dragging a makeshift plow behind her to till the soil...

At the sight of anyone from the Circle, however, she takes a moment to give a friendly wave.]

02 | BATHHOUSE | 8/30

[All the plowing she's been doing works up a sweat, and it wasn't often she had the luxury of a bath big enough for jinba that wasn't... wading into the river. Not that there's anything wrong with rivers, but. The bathhouse at the temple is more luxurious than she's ever really tried before, and it's so comfortably hot???

She could be mistaken for a human woman at first glance, with all the steam, but the dark shadow in the water reveals her more equine half. That and the long black tail floating towards the top of the water. Sighing happily and resisting the urge to try and roll, Konoha lets her hair down from it's usual bun and sets about running her fingers through it to try and untangle it as she sinks a bit deeper into the water.]

Ah... This is nice.

03 | HELPING THE SICK | 9/5

[Konoha has never gotten sick when her parents or the other humans in the village had. She didn't really hear a lot about jinba getting sick at all, really... So she thinks it will be fine. She doesn't have enough education to know that this might be because, as similar as her upper body looks, a jinba and a human are different species, and not all sickness can cross those differences... She just knows that she's probably fine.

So she tries to help.]

Morning... I brought breakfast.

[She pokes her head in the door of one of the bedrooms in the Temple, smiling through the concern on her features and a steaming bowl of what looks like porridge in her hands.]

Feeling up to eating?

04 | KITCHEN STUMBLE | 9/12

[Fun fact for anyone studying this outbreak... Species doesn't matter. Jinba get sick, too.

She's been feeling tired, but... She's also been working hard as more and more people got sick. Hasn't really been sleeping well. The low fever, that... had been more concerning, but what could she do about it? She did tell someone, she wasn't trying to hide anything-

But she also didn't expect it to take a turn so fast. To be so clumsy as to catch a hoof on a stone, to send the basket of apples she'd been carrying rolling across the floor and her sprawling right after with a crash as her attempt to catch herself failed and only managed to knock cutlery off the counter.

She'll get up... She will. In a minute. Meanwhile, a lone apple rolls out the kitchen door.]

05 | HUMPTY DUMPTY | 9/17

[It's so hot. She knows it has to be because of the fever, knows she's supposed to sweat it out... but she still can't help the urge, anxiously twisting where she lies on the ground in her temple room to try and undo the bear hide wrap she wears tied about her waist, try and loosen the fit of her shirt as sweat beads on her dark skin.

Sometime in the last night... She's lost the strength to stand. Had gradually collapsed to her knees, then to her belly, and then to her side. She forgets how long ago. Long enough for the pillow she'd taken with her to soak with sweat, for her throat to parch and her stomachs to twist in protest, both starving for food and roiling to reject it.

The sound of a visitor... doesn't even really register.]

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[So it was morning... Good. Or, bad. She'd meant to get up, she wasn't going to lay down the entire night...

She can't help but sigh a bit in relief when the towel touches her forehead, nuzzling weakly into the cool touch on her skin. Jinba temperatures ran higher than human naturally, and with her fever... it's hot. The fur wrap about her waist is just hiding a pool of sweat at this point, and at the offer of help she nods slightly, pulling her hands away and letting them fall limp on her chest.]

The knot's really tight... please.

[It's... not tight. Her fingers just can't seem to get a good understanding of it any longer. Her glazed gaze is confused a bit on who to look at, smiling absently at the both of them. It talks, so... the Pod must be alive, too...]

Not so good, metal thing... haha.

[Her laugh turns into a pale cough, anxiously trying to roll over and only managing to kick her back legs a few times.]

I've never been this sick before... have you... ?

This Pod does not experience illness. However, that is unfortunate to hear.

[Not so good. She doesn't know how humans function.

She doesn't want to ask any of the humans she knows for help, either, but she's outside of her abilities, here. She watches Konoha kick at the ground, weak and wobbly, and her frown deepens.

She undoes the knot with no effort at all, helping discard of the fur wrap, soaked with sweat.]

...

Tell me how to help.

[Some urgency enters the flatness of her tone, though it mostly makes her sound more no-nonsense than usual.]

[That's better... Konoha wriggles a bit to help get out of the fur, tugs open her top now that what was holding it closed was out of the way, seeking any way to get cooler. The thin underlayer she wears is soaked, dark skin half showing though.]

Ah...

[Thinking is so hard... like she's trying to walk though fog. Had everyone who got sick earlier felt like this? She hates it...]

I have to... get up. My stomach hurts.

[Stomachs. Mostly the lower one. But no matter how many times she'd shifted and rolled it hadn't helped, and maybe... maybe she should go to the river or the baths... she wouldn't be so heavy in the water... and it would be nice and cold...]

Where's Mikuni... He could help, too...

[But Mikuni, the only other jinba who'd been here... He was gone now. She forgot.]

Edited 2018-09-01 00:40 (UTC)

[Carefully, as if prepared to pull away at any moment, A2 puts a hand on the top of Konoha's head.]

Stay still.

[She stands up, looks to Pod.] I can't lift her. [Who was Mikuni? Whoever he was, she had a sinking feeling she wouldn't be fast enough to reach him. Not as she was now, stripped of most of her inhuman speed and strength.] You'll have to help.

Affirmative.

Sure you can handle it?

It is within limitations.

Mm.

[She reaches out to take hold of Konoha's hand, as Pod whirs to the other side, holding out the appendage it uses for "hands."] We're going to lift you now. Hold on to me and the Pod.

[Normally, Konoha would think to say that she was worried A2 couldn't do it. That she didn't want to hurt the other woman by accident, what if she fell on her, what if she strained her muscles...

She remembers how easily Gonta had been able to lift her, to carry her on his back... But Gonta's not here, and she knows she needs to get up, so.]

Okay... okay...

[Summoning some of the last of her reserves, she groans before she twists, legs kicking out a little as she manages to roll more onto her belly, a better position for her to push up from. Her fingers tighten weakly on A2's, reach in confusion for the Pod and kind of... pats its face, drags her hand down it until. Oh, maybe that was it's hands?

Panting softly in exertion already... She takes Pod's hand too.]

[Gradually, A2's grip tightens.]

Alright. On three. Pod.

[Pod takes careful hold of Konoha's other hand.] Acknowledged. Beginning countdown:
3. . .
2 . . .
1 . . .

[The two of them begin to tug in near-unison. A2 grunts, grabs hold with her other hand. Her heels dig down into the earth, scrabbling for purchase.

This is difficult. It would be nothing with her abilities, with the strength she'd been sapped of, and again she is angry at the goddess that pulled them all here, and again it is misdirected. All of her anger was like that, in the end.]

[Konoha is nearly a half ton of solid muscle. Well, not so solid, right now, having not been able to keep much food or water down the last few days, but. She's heavy.

It's easy to lift her upper half. The bun of her hair that had already been about to unravel from all her tossing and turning tumbles down in sweaty strands to hide her face, the battle between exhaustion and nausea on it. Get up- She has to get up.

As A2 and Pod try to lift, she tries to get her forelegs up, get her back legs beneath her properly. Her hooves scramble uselessly on the floor at first, she slips, whimpering slightly... but then she does it, she gets her knees locked and levers up, heaves the few feet to a full stand in a last burst of effort using the two of them as an anchor-

And then promptly almost goes down again. Legs quaking, she has to let go of Pod to throw her arms around A2's shoulders, clutching her tight as she struggles to stay upright, feeling as shaky as a newborn filly that didn't know how to walk yet.]

Sorry-

[She must be heavy, using her like that to keep herself up, but if she lets go she's pretty sure she'll be back on the floor in no time, and her lower stomach hurts so much that there are tears beading in her eyes, sniffling into the android's chest.]

Can you go with me... ?

[It's harder than usual, and a considerable amount of effort, but gradually...gradually, they begin to gain the upper hand. Konoha is to her feet, in slow and painful passes. And then...

A2 grunts at the weight against her, nearly falling over but keeping herself braced. Konoha is heavy, and surely now that she was standing she'd be good, right? That had been the thought, but A2 takes in her trembling and realizes that isn't the case.

...What was this?

Was she crying?

Oh, no.]

Are you - hey - [Really? She's so uncomfortable, not just physically at this point. She doesn't handle outward displays of emotion well, but Konoha just sounds so...sad, and weak, that she can't really be a huge jerk about it.]

Just - yeah, I'll go with you, if you stop...doing that.

I'm sorry-

[She doesn't know what that is, but she gets the feeling that it isn't about leaning on her. Still, she mumbles the apology weakly into A2's chest, her fingers shaking even where she grips her shoulders to keep herself upright.]

I just don't think I can make it by myself. My legs feel like mush...

[And they do look like they'd go out any second if she wasn't clutching someone for support, knees knocking and sweat from her sides beginning to drip down her belly and thighs now that she was upright.]

I've never been this sick before...

[She hasn't heard of anyone else dying, but... the thought is still there, in the back of her fever-hazed mind even as she makes sure the tears don't fall far, trying to slip her arms more comfortably around A2's shoulders so that she could sort of... drape over her but not prevent her from moving.]

It's fine. [Ugh, she's leaking tears all over her...what the hell was this, how was she supposed to deal with crying?] Just...just stop crying. You'll be fine. You're standing, right?

[A2 doesn't know if this is true, and honestly, given the track record she had at keeping people alive, she doubts it. But that's a dark thought, and Konoha isn't a soldier, not an android or a machine. She's just a sad moose with the flu. Or whatever.

She tenses some at the feeling of arms draping over her shoulders then - deep breath - she relaxes.]

Tell me where to lead you.

Yeah...

[She's standing. Just barely, but she's standing.

Konoha sniffs the tears away as best she can, hunching over A2's shoulders as she tries to shuffle her hooves forward. The river... She'd wanted to go to the river, but like this... even with the android's help she isn't sure she can make it that far.]

The bathhouse, please.

[She'll need all the help she can get, and there might be a few near-downs, but.

Maybe she can make it that far.]

[Again she tenses when Konoha leans over her shoulders, and again she relaxes some, though her posture is still tight and uncomfortable. She's unaccustomed to physical contact, but her help is needed. She'll have to ignore it for now. The sniffling she ignores too, but this is somehow harder to do.

Slowly, she begins to walk, heels clicking evenly against the ground.]

Alright. [Having little need for a bathhouse, nor the desire to visit, it takes her a moment to visualize where they might be headed.] Pod.

Setting location point in digital mapping system.

[A2 walks and Konoha tries to follow. Her body wants to give up, to fold her knees already threatening to buckle and just lay down, to curl tight and roll and twist... but she knows she shouldn't, even through the haze of fever. It was hard to breathe, her stomach hurt, her heart felt tight. So she forces herself to pick up her hooves just barely and put one in front of the other, though sometimes they catch and drag along the floor. Leaning on A2 was partially about weight, partially about balance... but really it was about needing someone pulling her forward, not giving her pause or the moment where she could cave in to the desire to go down.

There's a few close calls, but she thinks this is it-]

Sorry, can you... help me in-

[Haha, wouldn't that be awful... drowning trying to take a bath...]

[A2's worried more than once that Konoha won't make it, through their slow and laborious walk the short distance to the bathhouse, but make it they do, eventually.

Her shoulders ache some, but she thinks she could be like the humans, coughing and shivering and barely able to stand, and it makes things easier to ignore.]

Stop apologizing. [She says this flatly and bluntly, though adds, as if to take the edge off of it:] I said I'd help.

My mother said... you should always thank people who help you... and always apologize for inconvenience...

[As she talks it trails off into a pale attempt at a cough, but she's too weak physically to really gather the strength for a full force cough... for better or for worse. Carefully, trying... she tries to stay up just a bit longer, trying to disengage from A2 and grope around clumsily for... Pod's "hand".]

Can you... help me with my skirt...

[A2 was a girl, too, so she's not embarrassed beyond needing help for such a simple thing. She's not so sure about Pod, though.]

You helped me before. So I'm helping you. [A debt for a debt.] ...It isn't an inconvenience.

[But ah, wait. A mother?

A2's head inclines slightly in Konoha's direction. A mother meant a family, a household. She knew about these sorts of units from the archival data on humanity that she had but...

She's never met anyone with a "mother." It causes a little hiccup in her thoughts, an emotion she couldn't identify causing her expression to cloud over briefly before she looks away again.]

Hold on to her while I help.

[Pod responds, without missing a beat -] Affirmative. [- before taking Konoha's hand again. A2 has to pull away to silently work on undoing the indicated clothing. She works quickly, with a sort of automatic, impersonal efficiency that she did most things in.

[She doesn't have it in her to try and laugh or tease, to say "so you won't help me anymore?", or "you don't need to keep score", but she tries to tell herself to remember to. Later.]

Okay...

[Pod's hand was such a weird shape... and so smooth... and cool, until her fever heat warms it. Awkwardly, Konoha uses her other hand to weakly tug open the loose ties on her undershirt, shrug out of it, and abandon it to a sweaty pile on the floor.

She really hopes Pod is a girl, she can't tell.]

Thanks...

[That one's for Pod, though, so A2 can't complain.

When she feels the last knot slide out and the fabric begin to slip down her rear Konoha just weakly steps out of it, finally let's go of Pod, and shuffles the last steps to the pool, shakily grabbing a railing and half-stumbling, half-walking in, slipping down the last stair, head going under briefly, but the coolness of the water brings a certain spark of clarity and reserves of energy, and she reaches for the edge of the pool and pulls herself back upright properly, her long back hair slicked down over her back, shoulders, chest, and... face.

She'll move it in a minute, just. One second.]

[A2 and Pod both watch Konoha descend into the water, then emerge like some deep-sea creature. If A2 was the sort to laugh, or have any sort of outward response to anything other than exhaustion and anger, she might at least crack a smile. She doesn't. But she does edge a little closer to the rim of the pool, curious.]

Don't drown in there.

[She says this as a matter of practicality, maybe. Or it's just an extremely dry joke! Who knows.]

[Konoha kind of wants to laugh. That's a funny idea. She even tries to, but it turns into a cough in the end and she has to hold on to the sides of the pool, fingernails digging in to the stone. But even with all that... the water felt good in the simplest of ways. It was cool on her fevered skin, it made her heavy body lighter, took the weight off her lungs...

In the end, she tries to pull her long hair from her face, presses her forehead to the cool tile floor, taking deeper breaths... and forces her fingers to let go, stretch out. Towards A2.]

Can you... keep hold of me? Just in case...

[Even though it felt much better there... she wasn't able to pretend like she still didn't feel weak. That she didn't still need help.

That she didn't want someone to stay with her.]

[For a moment, A2's expression shifts from that of blank emotionlessness to a sort of weary sadness. She could not figure out why she was sad at all. Was it because Konoha seemed so young, and frightened? So often the world hurt people who were like that.

It's a depressing thought. Her gaze shifts into lifelessness again, though she does reach out despite this, taking Konoha's hand in her own.

Logically, she knows that were Konoha to go under, she would as well, and the simple act of holding hands did nothing, really. A pointless gesture, perhaps, but maybe it brought some sense of comfort.]

[A2's hands are so delicate seeming to Konoha- or maybe that's just because her skin seems so pale compared to what she was used to, closer to the white powders she associates with delicate dancers and princesses. Her own are dark, more brown in match to her hide, calloused and rough... but weak, now, where she closed around the other woman's fingers.

It is. Comforting. There's a noticeable leak of tension down her spine, the long, black tail now floating free in the pool moving in a slow, more content swish through the water. It's easier to stay standing up this way, buoyed, and easy to lay her head on the edge tiles, let the water lap at her skin and against her cheek as her eyes half close.]

... that's better.

[The water.

And the hand.]

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[open] you can lead a sick horse to water

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