Xanadu Weyr - Infirmary
The infirmary here is intended for human care. It is spotless and smells of disinfectant, cots are lined up against one wall, a curtain can be pulled to give some privacy to the occupants of the cots if they so desire. A cabinet stands off against another wall, instruments and medications stored against when they will be needed. A couple of curtained off beds are used for examinations of patients and the treatment of minor injuries which won't require long term care. A desk with chair is just off of the doorway for the healer to sit and catch up on record keeping after a long days work.
The day after Mur'dah, Sori, Ka'el and Idrissa inadvertently (though no one knows it was an accident yet) got high off mushroom smoke, the infirmary is quiet. While the other three Weyrlings either slumber on or wake up in their own time and their own ways, Mur'dah slowly comes out of his own slumber. He's in a cot near the back, and while his arms are free, someone forgot to untie his legs from the bed, which causes a brief moment of confusion as he pushes up to one elbow and peers around, bleary eyed and blinking. "What in Faranth's golden egg sack happened last night?" he mutters, closing his eyes to try and stave off a wave of dizziness.
Sitting beside the bed, having been there all night is Thea. She's looking tired, but alert, having remained awake during the vigil. As Muir stirs, she watches but remains silent. Maybe he'll go back to sleep? But no, her fingers slip from his hair where her hand rests upon his pillow when he sits and peers around. "That's what I'd like to know," she says evenly. Though she wasn't pleased last night when she'd marched them all to the infirmary, she's withholding judgment for the time being. Outside, Seryth remains with the huddle of young dragons, where she's watched and kept them grounded and from the beast pens. Hopefully they're going to forget yesterday's confusion soon.
And where was Marel whilst those other weyrlings were inadvertently getting high? Possibly with M'kal; possibly replanting some of the flowerbeds in the courtyard of her cottage; possibly in the skies with Isyriath - she's offered no log of her activities to anyone yet. It might be that she waits to know from Isyriath and communication with the lifemates of the others that they are asleep, save for her twin, and so it's only when Mur'dah rouses that she appears in the entryway to the Infirmary, hesitant to approach her brother and her mother. If it all /wasn't/ inadvertent, what could she possibly have to say? Let alone the that she hasn't stayed beside him as Thea has. For the moment, she watches, one hand curled around the frame of the door, her expression serene and unreadable.
Mur'dah turns his head to look at his mother, and his expression shrinks into so much boyish guilt it might be assumed that it was intentional. But as he slowly sits up and reaches down to untie the bindings on his legs, he shakes his head. "It wasn't on purpose. I…" And he has to pause and wade through his muddled thoughts, but one thing stands out at first. "Were you here all night?" he asks his mother, both touched and hopeful and surprised. Then he notices his twin, and that guilty and shamed look returns. "Hey."
Thankfully, the on-duty healer is busy in the back room with some of the healer-work saved for such quiet times and with the overhead lights dimmed way down, the rest of the weyrlings continue their heavy slumber. The bindings on Mur'dah's ankles have gone unnoticed or his mother would have undone those while he'd slept. He's getting them and so Thea stifles the impulse to baby him by doing it for him, allowing him his dignity though she frowns slightly. The use of restraints hadn't pleased her, but this is not her domain; here she is subject to the healers authority and expertise. "Of course I was," she says a tiny bit hurt that he'd be surprised by that. "I couldn't leave you." His greeting to someone behind her causes her to turn her head over her shoulder and when it's Marel she sees, she smiles a welcome to her daughter. It's fleeting and tense given all that's gone on, but genuine. There's another chair beside Mur'dah's cot, the one the healer had vacated after finally giving her report and she gestures at it in invitation. Join us? Back to Mur'dah, she asks carefully, "It wasn't?"
Marel lingers longer in the doorway, her gaze meeting Mur'dah's and holding it, yet she doesn't answer him in words, anything she feels conveyed only by the fact that she doesn't immediately look away from him and stares as long as she possibly can, focus darting away to Thea the moment before her staring might become uncomfortable. She doesn't smile, something of her twin's guilt in /her/ eyes before she blinks and fights it back, slender fingers gripping the doorframe all the harder for a second as she slips away from the door and slowly approaches Mur'dah's bed, determined not to rush. Only then, the not-rushing is pointless, for she goes to fling her arms around her brother and bury her face in his shoulder.
Mur'dah hated the restraints. And still does, anger rising though he's not quite sure exactly what happened last night. He knows he hates restraints. And mint. "Thanks, Mom," the brownrider says quietly. But then he's being attacked by Marel and he sways slightly, clinging to her as his long arms envelop his twin. "That was so scary," he whispers, hugging her close and gently stroking her hair just like he always does. He won't let her go either, until she lets go first, but he does look at their mother. "It wasn't," he says with more conviction. "I remember…burning a bunch of stuff. Have you seen my weyr? It's covered in plants. So I started to burn them…"
There's no judgment in Thea's eyes for Marel not having been here. All things considered, she'd been too busy dealing with four stoned weyrlings and their very confused dragonets to contact her daughter. She does look relieved that Mur'dah will have his sister here now. In part, the guilt in Marel’s face is understood, but not entirely. Nor is her reticence. She'll remain silent, while the pair comfort one another, maybe even inch back just a fraction to give them their space. Scary? Oh indeed it was! And for her too. But she nods, "I'm sure it was." His weyr, no, she hasn't seen it, only the reports on her desk from the steward that they'd been inspected and issued. So she shakes her head, "I didn't really pay attention to the weyr. When I saw you like… that." But he'd burned plants… There's a wash of relief over her features and she closes her eyes, "Oh Muir."
Marel makes a sound that is neither sob, nor actual, intelligible word, just an inarticulate expression of /something/ as her arms tighten all the more around Mur'dah as if she isn't going to let go any time soon. Still, let go she must, though not before murmuring, "Don't do it again," for his ears alone, whether she means the getting high or the burning or both. Reluctantly untangling herself from his arms, she retreats to the chair offered by their mother, hands folding neatly in her lap and her posture stiff and straight. "But what if you'd burnt the whole place and been…" the weyrling brownrider starts to say, all that /could/ have happened, worse and all, left to the imagination during her silence, gaze dropping to her knees.
"I won't," is Mur'dah's soft spoken but /earnest/ reply for his twin. Letting her go, he lays back down, exhausted and drawn. "I didn't burn things /inside/," he says with a frown. "I made a fire pit, tore it all up, built a fire, piled everything on top of it… it's the easiest way to get rid of growth and I didn't want it just rotting in the forest by my weyrbarn." It was a good idea! Would've worked just fine if there hadn't been hallucinogenics in his weyr.
As any mother would be, Thea was a mixture of fear and rage last night, most of which was kept firmly in check. This morning she's somber relief that he's okay, moreso that his drugged state was unintentional. The what ifs chasing around in her mind during the night are still fresh and she certainly understands the clinging Marel does to her brother. When she sits so stiffly, it's clear that the relief Thea feels is not shared by her daughter. "Come here?" she asks quietly, lifting an arm to draw her close if she will allow. "He didn't," she says firmly. "Your brother knows how to build a fire." But not stay upwind, apparently! He confirms this and she supports it with, "It was a small brushfire well away from the dwelling. I saw it." Then to Mur'dah, she asks, "Do you remember much of what happened?"
Trying to be a mature and sensible grown-up in the present situation is rather difficult for a fifteen turn old, even one who aims to be a lady beyond her turns, so it's after a split-second of internal debate that Marel allows herself to be a child again and tucks herself in against Thea, both arms lifting with the intent of folding around her. It's not with /quite/ the same, almost strangling strength that she held Mur'dah, but there's still a need for comfort plain enough in the strength of her embrace. "You mean he didn't get a flamethrower and torch the place?" she asks, something slightly hysterical in her voice, her green-eyed gaze all the while trained on her twin. Is she joking? Maybe that's one of the rumours doing the rounds. "Do you need anything?" she puts to him. "From your weyr. Or the barracks." Or wherever he's stashed his stuff.
Mur'dah rubs a hand over his face and then through his hair, shaking his head. "I remember…burning the stuff. It smoked a lot, and then Sori and Idrissa and Ka'el came over. And we hung out and talked. I think…I don't know. Something about hugs, and…I remember being really happy. No worries in the world. It was…so bright…" Shaking his head, he adjusts his pillow and settles in more, head turned to watch his family. "Then it got bad." And then he's blinking at his sister. "A flamethrower? No." Blink. "Wait." Wait? "Someone did suggest that but we didn't do it." Good Faranth are they lucky they're lazy. "I'm kind of thirsty," he says, before he sits up again. "Is /she/ here?"
Even when acting all grown-up (which she's doing a fine job of - even at fifteen), Marel will always be her child, at least in her mother's eyes. Mur'dah will too, for that matter. Thea's arm curls around Marel, both giving and drawing comfort. She tucks her daughter's head onto her shoulder and rests her cheek against the top of the teen's head while listening to Mur'dah. Blink. Flamethrower! Faranth forbid! There's just the slightest bit of reaction in the form of tensing from her at that idea, that it was even considered, then vanishing when he says they didn't. Thankfully the firestone is kept locked and issued only when necessary! "All of you were acting delirious when I arrived," she says mildly, only the tightening of her eyes betraying her dismay at the sight. "V'dim and the AWLMs got you to the infirmary. And when I returned with Sorrin you were all… out of control. So they tied you down." Her lips press together and then she'll share her feeling on that with a snort, "I'd have transferred you all to the dragon infirmary and let you be with your lifemates. I think that would have been preferable!"
"…But, if they really were out of control, they might have upset their dragons more if they were with them? They're big now and… it could have been dangerous?" Marel slowly suggests, clinging to Thea for a moment more, until a sense of duty reasserts itself and she carefully draws away to push up out of her seat, meaning to go and get her brother a glass or cup of water. "/She/?" she asks him, pausing at the foot of his bed, something a little possessive in her gaze at the idea of a /she/ that he asks after. She doesn't linger long, needing to be useful, steps carrying her across the Infirmary to retrieve that water.
Mur'dah nods eagerly along with his mother's suggestion. "We should have been in the dragon infirmary. I would've been calm if I'd been with Kalsuoth. And not tied to a stupid cot," he mutters, glancing around suspiciously at any Healers milling about. Glancing at Marel, the boy shake his head a bit. "It was…distance. I was aware of distance and I didn't like it. And yeah, /she/." It's clear it's not a good 'she'. "She's crazy. If she's here I want to go…K…Kera? What's her name? She poured perfume on me."
It's very early in the morning, the lights are dimmed and the on-duty healer is there, but busy with some task in the back room. Mur'dah is awake talking in quiet tones with his mother and his sister. "Their dragons were already quite upset; it was all Seryth could do to keep them calm. And I think their riders would have calmed down if allowed to be with them," the Weyrwoman says. But then, she's not the one who called the shots last night; the healers were. She drops her arm as Marel withdraws, careful not to cling. She indeed! This interests Thea in a different way than it does Marel, but she says nothing, just waits expectantly for her son to enlighten them.
From one of the cots there is a groan. A groan of a once headachey, woozy, bleary-gazed teenager begining to awaken from a haze. Ka'el has slept like a rock since the moment sleep claimed him. If he woke during the night and did anything … well, he doesn't remember it. But his arms are now untied now. He realizes this as he lifts an arm to curl it over his eyes which squint tightly closed against the dim lighting. Ugh. Why does it feel as if someone is squeezing a brace on his temples, trying to make his brain ooze out of his ears? And why are there so many voices? "Kanekith…"
Across the room, Marel pours a glass of water from the full jug sitting ready to serve, then carefully crosses back to her brother's bed to offer Mur'dah the glass, telling him, "I've never met her," in a voice that barely punches above a murmur. "I—" Whatever she means to say is interrupted when she's distracted by the single word Ka'el utters as he wakes. With no-one beside his bed, she excuses herself to cross to him, seeing as her twin has both she /and/ Thea at this point in time. "…He's with Seryth," she quietly tells her clutch-sibling, casting a look back at her mother to confirm that this is indeed the case.
Mur'dah shakes his head as he accepts the water from his twin. "She's horrid," he whispers softly, eyes darting nervously around the room. But then…water. Blissful water and he drains it easily, looking across the room at that jug and wondering if he can walk. Deciding against attempting it for now, he just sets the glass aside and glances at his mother, then over to Ka'el. "Ka'el," he says quietly, relieved and…guilty. "How're you feeling?" he asks, quietly so he doesn't strain his head or the bronzeling's.
From her seat beside Mur'dah's cot, Thea starts to answer the awakening Ka'el, "He's-" But Marel is there answering him and she merely nods to confirm her daughter's statement. And Mur'dah's comment bears some explanation, "Why did she do that?" Teenagers! She'll wait while he drinks his water, though she does note of the as-yet-unmet Kera, "She's not; the healer on-duty is a male. And I think it'll be up to him when you are released." She directs a level look at him which clearly says she expects him to refrain bolting for the door. "When you are a full rider, you may sign yourself out against medical advice but V'dim will have your hide if you try that now." Oh V'dim will have some words for all of them soon.
"..Shards…" Ka'el murmurs beneath his breath, reluctant to pull his arm from his face. Falling back into unconsciousness is seeming like an amazing idea, but the sound of a familiar voice tugs at him. Gradually does he allow his arm to fall away and his eyes slowly open. It takes a little doing, but his pupils finally dilate to a correct size that focuses his vision. They stare up again, at a familiar light bulb above that is now dimmed, barely glowing. Thankfully. His gaze soon shifts over to Marel and a slow breath is exhaled. "Good. Not by himself." He winces as his headache claims dominance on his head, but at least that's the only thing he has to worry about. No more hallucinations of pink haired healers. "You weren't…here…with us…were you?" He doesn't recall Marel being in the forest, but his memory recall has spiraled down the crapper. He turns his head to peer over at Mur'dah. How does he feel? "Like a dragon sat on my head. .. What happened?"
Soriana wakes slowly. Her head is… sore, but it's her own head. Her lashes are still gummy in places, but… careful applications of wet towels while she slept have taken care of the worst of it. She wakes to the sound of voices, drifting in between the dreams and replacing them, but she barely moves. Her eyes flutter… but they don't open, because the backs of those eyelids are still needed for her to review and try to recall the events that brought her here. She pretends to sleep, even if the quickening of her breath may show it to be a lie.
Marel stops beside Ka'el's bed, shaking her head in answer to his question. "No, I wasn't," she confirms for him, without explaining just where she was at the time. She lifts a hand, meaning to gently touch careful fingers to the bronzerider's forehead and run them slowly through his hair in a gesture that might be reminiscent of her mother's treatment of her brother. She leaves any explanation to those who were involved, instead asking him, "Do you want a drink?" just as she asked Mur'dah, glancing between her two fellow weyrlings, concern pooling in green eyes when Thea mentions the Weyrlingmaster. She hasn't - yet - noticed Soriana's woken state.
Mur'dah shakes his head at his mother. "I don't really want to go anywhere right now, so long as she isn't here…" He settles back into the pillow and frowns. "She was in the garden shop looking at perfumes and I went in looking for Marel. I told her that some guys don't like perfume on a girl, and then she dumped a bottle of mint perfume on me." Turning his head to look over at Ka'el, the brownling grimaces. "That stuff I was burning made toxic smoke that got us all drugged. I'm sorry," understatement. "I'm really sorry."
Thea coughs suddenly. Yes, she can imagine just how her son had put that statement! Not that she's excusing the assault of Kera's but… "What did you do then?" Has she noticed the scent of mint clinging to her son? It's hard to tell with the acrid smoke smell lingering in the infirmary. And of the particular healer apprentice, "She may be on the up-coming shift but you'll need to remain here until they release you regardless." She refrains from mothering him by telling him how to sort out his differences with the girl, her gaze drifting over to Kale and Marel, a hint of a mother-proud smile touching her lips as she tends to the young man. What happened? No, it's best she doesn't say what she witnessed at Mur'dah's weyr, but if her smile turns a touch amused? It's probably not his imagination. Her gaze shifts next to Idrissa and then Soriana, who both appear to her to be asleep. At least for the moment.
The touch of fingers to his head is a grand alternative sensation for Ka'el to focus on other than the pounding headache that threatens to burst his temples, and so he does just that. Trying to disregard the pounding to appreciate the caress. A head massage! Almost, anyway. The offer of a drink has his throat screaming for water, but he contradicts his wants by saying, "Nah. I'm fine." He'll take care of himself, you see. Just as stubborn as his dragon. Mur'dah's explanation of the events has him furrowing his brows, though it's moreso in thought than anger. "That stuff from your weyr? Gah, Mur'dah. Your weyr really is sh-…" He pauses, clipping the word as he only now notes Thea. Thea…. There's something about her that's making him pause. Something hazy and fuzzy and …. embarassing? He can't totally remember, but his face is growing warm so at least some part of his subconscious knows that there's something awkward there. "Marel," he looks back to the younger girl. "Would you mind knocking me over the head? Hard as you can?"
So many pieces. Soriana remembers things - forgetting would make things far too easy - but the pieces don't fit together. The what she can remember. The why… Mur'dah provides as he explains to Ka'el. "Oh." It's soft - made all the more so by the hoarseness of her voice - but it's certainly a sound. So much for pretending to be asleep. She takes a deep breath and opens her eyes… well. That's the plan, anyhow. Her throat, dry and irritated by smoke, isn't willing to inhale properly, and so she starts coughing instead. At least she manages the eye-opening part?
Marel keeps gently brushing her fingers through Ka'el's hair, brows lifting when he rejects her offer of a drink and even more so when he makes his request, eyeing him with a sincerely dubious expression. "I'll pass on that," she tells him, voice dry. "It definitely sounds like you're you again. Caveman mentality and all." She lifts her hand away from his hair and steps away from his bed, ignoring his denial of needing a drink to start heading back across the room to pour another glass. "And one for Soriana too," the weyrling states under her breath in response to Soriana's coughing fit.
Mur'dah glances at his mother with a little frown. "Do? I ran away, back to the barracks. It got all over my flight jacket. It /still/ smells like mint…" Oh, the anguish. Shaking his head gently, he looks up to peer over at Ka'el, an odd expression crossing his face when his twin goes to tend to him. "It's shit," he fills in for Ka'el. "I said that." Then he winces at Ka'el's request, but is pretty confident his sister would never do such a thing. Head turning at the sound of Soriana coughing, the brownling struggles to sit up only to fall back when Marel has it under control. "Sori, I'm sorry." Good morning, Mur'dah is sorry.
Mur'dah WAS about to get an approving, 'good' for not retaliating in kind to Kera. Instead, "Watch your language," Thea murmurs. Once a mother, always a mother? Ka'el is correct about Mur'dah's weyr. "You can't live in that," she continues casually. "Not with winter coming on and no roof." And toxic mushrooms growing all throughout just biding their time to poison her son! The coughing will likely attract the lone healer from the back who quietly and without fuss will begin to check them over one by one, render soothing syrups for irritated throats, eye drops those gritty eyes, willowbark for the headaches… and breakfast for those able to stomach it. The weyrwoman will slip out then to bring the tray of food from the kitchens.
Ka'el snorts at Marel's non-compliance of knocking him out, but she does have one thing right. He is himself again. Just headachey and confused as chunks of what happened are there while other chunks are faded or missing altogether. Like that Thea piece. Faded, not forgotten. Details are fractured. She was totally there, he remembers. And he was happy to see her, but… Oh, thankfully his thoughts are interrupted as Marel moves off. Cue slight pouty face and a prehistoric grunt. Aka, come back and distract me! But distractions from his headache do come in the form of sounds from Soriana, and he quickly looks her way, making th mistake of sitting up a bit too fast, causing his head to swim. "Soriana?" But there's something weird there too, and he hesitates, thinking back and keeping quiet as Thea slips out. "You're gonna live with your ma," Ka'el deduces. "All winter." Spoken to Mur'dah.
Yeah, Soriana could certainly use that glass of water. She coughs again, with a little twitch of her lips and a nod as Marel mentions water for her. She'll just avoid talking until she can have some water… or, well, that's her plan. Today is not a day for Soriana's plans to come out right, because Mur'dah's voice with her name draws her attention. She shakes her head as she starts to lever herself up onto her elbow. "It's no-" Cough. Cough. And there she goes again, because she really shouldn't have tried talking without that water, and so she's back to trying to get it under control and looking with watery eyes at the others. Uh. Good morning?
Mur'dah grimaces, reaching back to grab his pillow, about to fling it at Ka'el. But…that takes effort. And then he'd have no pillow. So he just flops back down again and mutters, "Shut up." But it's good natured, as he thinks the bronzeling is probably right in that assumption. He's never going to live this down. Smoking out his weyr and then moving back in with his mother? He's never getting a girlfriend. Like. Ever. With a sigh, he shakes his head and wiggles a bit down onto the cot. "I'm going back to sleep," he murmurs. Marel will get the water, right? So Sori doesn't hack herself to death?
Another two glasses of water poured, Marel makes her way across the Infirmary to her various required stops, pausing beside Soriana first, to offer her a glass and linger there next to her until she's sure that the goldrider isn't going to drop the glass or choke on the water, then she moves on back to Ka'el, setting the glass down on the little table next to his bed, giving him the option of picking up the water or not. "The way I see it, either we help Mur'dah sort that weyr out," she proposes, very much retreating back into her lady-in-charge persona, "or he lives with Mama all winter or stays in the barracks. Or," and this offer is made without hesitation, "he could live with me." Slow steps have her straying back to her brother's bedside, where she subtly reaches for one of his hands. "I have to go see Isyriath," she murmurs to Mur'dah. Or maybe she promised one of their other clutch-siblings breakfast. "Sleep well." She glances between Ka'el and Soriana, sharing a hesitant smile between them, then slips out of the Infirmary.
Yeah. Living with one's mom is totally not helpful when it comes to wooing the ladies. Though Ka'el likely won't need to tell Mur'dah that. His vision has crossed a little and so he slowly settles back down against his pillows. With his water now here, he takes his glass (carefully) and swallows a few mouthfuls down. Much. Better. A few more sips and the glass is replaced as he listens to Marel's plans. Help with the weyr? He's not sure about everyone else, but he has no idea how to build a roof. That sounds like a request form that needs to be filled out! "Livin' with his ma, it is…" he murmurs to himself as his eyes stray to Soriana again as she coughs and coughs. He frowns, wanting to help but…well, what can he do? And there's an annoyed little voice inside that nags him to stay put. Don't reach out a helping hand. But why not? The pieces are still fragmented. Maybe rest will help him piece back together the events of the evening, both in forest and in the infirmary. And so he closes his eyes with a heavy exhale while the pounding in his head continues. But at least now, Kanekith is there, trying to fight off the thudding. Thanks, buddy.
Soriana is smart enough to not try to talk, this time, but maybe the look in her eyes will suffice for gratitude as she accepts the glass from Marel with a nod. Sips are taken - carefully - and she finally manages an only-mostly-hoarse, "Thanks," as Marel heads away. Another sip. Okay. She's doing sorta better now, and once the healer comes by and gives her some soothing syrup (it doesn't even taste that bad, wonder of wonders!) she'll be doing even better. Another sip of water, and then she frowns slightly at the discussion of Mur'dah's fate. She gives her head a shake, and takes another sip of water so she can manage to say, "We'll do both." Because that's the right answer, right? They'll all help Mur'dah out and he'll couch-surf until they've got the weyr sorted. She's got a spare room too… and she can use words. Small words. Larger ones might trigger another fit of coughing, and even those right there make her need another sip of water. She returns Marel's smile, even if it's with a certain queasiness. Not because of the brownrider, she promises. Just… yeah. It may take a while before she's willing to try that breakfast. Maybe some broth? Maybe. For now, she'll settle back against the cot and try to rest and get herself back together again. She's in no rush to argue with the healers and try to get released. Not yet.