
Xanadu Weyr - Infirmary
The infirmary here is intended for human care. It is regularly scrubbed spotless and smells of disinfectant, redwort and other herbs that are - if sometimes strong - preferable to the scents of sickness. Cots are lined up against one wall, with a set of curtains that can be pulled to give some privacy to the occupants of the cots if they so desire. They're mostly used for examinations of patients and the treatment of mild injuries that won't require long term care; near the back are some more private areas with folding dividers.
There's a number of cabinets that stand off against another wall, instruments and medications stored against when they will be needed, and a back room holds those supplies seldom required.
A desk with chair is set just off of the doorway to the caverns, meant for the healer to sit and catch up on record keeping after a long day's work or await patients. If things get too busy, the patients can do the waiting on a set of uncomfortable chairs set nearby. The other doorway comes directly from the clearing, wide enough for a team to carry a stretcher through.
Sigh. You pass out once on the sands, and they treat you like some fragile thing who needs medical observation and blood tests and extra hydration. It's like this isn't a thing that just happens. Sometimes. If you're Meion. So she's sitting propped up on one of the cots, looking out over the very boring room with its very boring walls. She's it, today, and she's not in such a dire state that she warrants more than a journeyman healer glancing over to make sure she hasn't passed out again, when he remembers to. At least it's time to think - about the eggs, about the minds within, about what she really wants, and why she's doing this. So she's sitting and thinking, pensive and looking for any excuse not to confront all the deep issues dredged up by her time on the sands.This time wasn't even technically passing out at all! She was vaguely verbal and reactive the whole time. Seriously, healers can be so unreasonable sometimes.
Those footsteps coming in along the corridor might well be one of them now… but they aren't, because it's D'lei that comes around a piece of equipment and looks along to see… "Ah!" It's a Meion! And… "You're awake." At least. He thinks she is, and he's going to make his way closer and see if he can find out for sure.
Someone who wants to talk to Meion! And doesn't want to have her follow a finger with her eyes, or say - again - what day it is and who she is and what she was doing when she fell! "I am." She smiles faintly. "Didn't pass out at all this time. I'm getting better at this!" Is that a joke, even? She lets it hang for a moment, and then lets the mask fall just a little. A level, quiet question. "Is it always like this? So…" She searches for words, can't find them, puts her palms up in silent indication of the enormity.
D'lei laughs at it, so it must be a joke! "They'll give you your infirmary knot in no time." He grins - because he is amused by it, never mind that look he's ignoring from one of the healers as they pass by. The more serious question doesn't remove his smile entirely, but it does subdue it beneath a weight of seriousness to just a quirk of lips. "It's always something," he answers. One corner of his mouth tugs a bit deeper into that quirk, and then he turns aside - just for a moment, to take one of the chairs nearby and bring it a bit closer, the back facing Meion so that he can lean his arms on it when he straddles the seat.
Meion laughs at D'lei's little joke - and if the healer observing her is a little annoyed, well, that's only an improvement on it, in her mind. They really should just let her leave! The more serious response gets a nod from her, and a soft exhale. "I - I think I keep overdoing it." And then she's looking past him, over his shoulder, as she sees he's not the only one to enter the room.
D'lei hehs at Meion's more serious words, with a smile for her like she's just revealed some clever secret. "Maybe," he replies. "But if you don't, how will you know your limits?" He's sitting backwards on a chair that he's pulled up next to the cot where Meion is being kept for observation after her latest sands-related incident, though he's in no rush to look around and see who might be stalking him. He'll find out when they pounce!
Cielo comes of COURSE Cielo comes he's made a new friend and one that has an unholy habit of ending up infirm, apparently. But this isn't HIS hall and he can't exactly barrel in here with urgency. No no he has to enter with proper cleaning and proceedings and permissions and AGH. "… you people are going to make me have to learn how to mend you, too, aren't you?" He sighs. Then pitches a glance about, fingersteepling at D'lei before giving a PROPER greeting. And the healers present. They get that it was bedside humor, right? THey hopeuflly must. Well, he tried. And he's going to shuffle over to see just how Meion is actually doing.
Risali just flashes her big shiny knot to get in - except she doesn't actually have her knot, and she doesn't actually have to flash it, but there are certain things that You Get To Do when you pull rank. So take THAT, healer-folk (until they tell her to leave, because then she's outtie). And she's not really stalking you, D'lei. She just happens to keep ending up where you are because she just happens to be worried about the same person that Cielo and D'lei are already hovering around: Meion! She's a little slower with that for-now-but-look-ma-no-crutch! gait, and she actually stops at the foot of Meion's cot with a quiet, "You look great." And SHE MEANS IT, OKAY, even if there's a hint of humor and mischief in that pull at the corner of her lips. "Is this one bothering you?" A thumb hooked at D'lei. "Because I can take him out and beat him." But there's also a waggle of fingers in hello for Cielo too. SHE SEES YOU. HI.
Meion's smile gets brighter as a whole welcoming committee shows up in her convalescence. She looks up to Cielo, sharp-eyed, then laughs as the weyrwoman ends up at the foot of her cot. "No ma'am. We were just… talking about eggs." She looks up, away from everyone, momentarily needing the neutral expanse of ceiling to keep her from reflexively letting awkwardness take hold and silencing herself. "There was so much there. They're all beautiful, and they're all so…" Words flip through her mind. Demanding. Broken. Terrifying. Incomplete. She settles on "… so intense." She squeezes her eyes shut. "And I feel like… I could have sat with any of them, just sat there and let them sort out my mind and put together what the world is from it, and… Is that me? Is that who I am? Is that what I do?" She opens her eyes again, looking around, unsure if she's even making sense. "I feel like I'd need to fight to keep from getting lost. But the fight… I liked the fight, too."
Cielo smiles and listens to Meion. You can tell a lot about a person's health that way, yes! Or at least he assumes so. He can't realy ~ask~ the resident healers without coming off as more of a mosquito. "You're okay though? Should I be worried? Seriously…" he sighs and rocks on heels, leaning close to the cotside and… Risali is there too. He smiles over his shoulder at D'lei and Risali! Who gets a mimicked finger-wiggle, like he's trying to figure out what that exact gesture means and he's supposed to return it right? Yes. "It's good to see you both, too.. ahh…" And he nods. He gets where Meion is coming from, wholeheartedly. "… this is… what it's supposed to be right, like?" He asks softly. They're not mucking it all up, right?
D'lei grins to Cielo, lifting a hand from where it rests on the back of the chair to give him a wave. "It would come in handy," he says to the dragonhealer, then turns his gaze back to see Risali. Because nope. NO STALKING, JUST LUCKY. "…what she means is yes," he adds on to Meion's answer to the Weyrwoman's question, "…but later." He grins, then turns his attention back to Meion. His expression shifts to more curiosity, interest and a touch of wistful and reminiscence as he listens. "That's… dragons," he says. "There's a world inside them, in their minds, and… it's like a baby learning to talk. They have ideas, but getting them to… to fit, to make sense with this," he waves a hand in a gesture around, to the concrete universe around them, "that takes time." A wry smile, as he glances to Cielo and then back to Meion. "And fights. And patience." A moment's pause, and then a softer smile. "And love."
Risali's smile comes a little brighter, a little more true as those grey eyes jump from Meion to D'lei. "Promises, promises, bronzerider." They linger on the Weyrleader but briefly, for as long as it takes her to adopt that confident but slow stride from the foot of Meion's bed to D'leis side at her side. Fingers brush along his shoulders as she goes, but the pressure of contact is fleeting, ending when she shifts into a crouch that requires her to maybe lean on D'lei's legs (and his chair) to keep her steady because one of her feet is still not quite there yet. Risa's using both of her hands though to reach up and grab one of Meion's, to hook their thumbs and curl her fingers around Mei's as she holds on - it might also be a little ridiculous because Risali is so small that crouching down means she's pretty much eye-level with the bed, but we aren't going to talk about that. Instead, she's turning that smile up and onto Cielo, her nose scrunching as she breathes out, "And you." But then she's looking from Cielo to Meion; she's listening to Mei, and Dash, and squeezing Meion's hand just a little more firmly between her own. "D'lei is right." A beat, a flicker of eyes towards Cielo. "It's…" An exhale, brows knitting as she struggles to find words and settles on, "Complicated. Different for everybody. But it's worth it." A quiet smile. "I don't think I've ever met anybody who walked away from eggs or dragons unchanged."
Meion squeezes back, holding Risali's hands in hers. She smiles at the almost-familial feeling of having these people - so recently strangers - gathered here to make sure she's okay. Maybe she's just in mind of family, after the last few days on the sands. Maybe it's that the relationship between Risa and Dash is so close that it makes her wonder what it would have been like, to grow up in a family like that. Makes her wonder if maybe, here, she still might. She lets her eyes close, focused in on her thoughts. "I'm okay," she reassures Cielo. "Everything is fine." That phrase has been sticking in her mind since she fell back on the sands, and it felt like she was told to remember it, in some impossible-to-explain way. She opens them again, looks to D'lei. "I'm stubborn," she says, matter-of-factly. Like it's a fact she's just learned. Like she's looked in a series of dark funhouse mirrors and the thing they can't distort is that. "I don't know if that's good or not, but. I am."
D'lei grins to Risali, puts his arm around her shoulders as she crouches down in a casual gesture of affection that's an inversion of the passing touch she gave to his, presence and touch and support freely given and readily taken in that as well as his chair and legs. He tilts his head toward her as she makes her own attempt at explaining, listening to it and then giving a nod of his own before his gaze shifts back to Meion once more. "Stubborn," he repeats quietly, as if he's tasting the word - then glances to Risali, with a quirk of his lips and the sort of silent communication that needs no dragons at all - before returning amber eyes back to Meion. "Personally," he says in a more normal conversational tone, "I think it depends what you're stubborn for." A crooked smile.
Cielo nods a little to D'lei, and Meion, and rests back close but doesn't invade that space or handsqueeze. Really he's just getting used to close and that being a Thing that is okay and the sort of familiarity creeping in that is as startling as it is nice. "All those wonderful beings just beginning to ~be~… yes. What else could it even be like? If we could remember that part of ourselves, I wonder…" He shakes his head a bit. "It's so difficult but I still feel like I need to be ~there.~" And then. And if he's not watched carefully, he might end up in here too. "Some things need stubborness."
Risali tilts her head to rest against D'lei's arm, a return of the affection in that gesture even as her eyes and attention stay fixed on Meion, on Cielo. It's the word stubborn that has grey eyes blinking back towards her weyrmate, that maybe have her knocking her body sideways into D'lei's leg as a, 'Shut up, D'lei,' because both of her hand are occupied and her mouth is whispering, "Stubborn isn't bad. It's what keeps us going when the rest of the world is telling us we should give up." And so what if her face is a little flush, so what if she's drawing one hand back from Mei's to catch at D'lei's with it and squeeze. FOR THEM BOTH. But she does nod for Cielo. "This batch seems… more difficult." There's a pull of her lips with no humor, her eyes looking past him as if her thoughts are suddenly somewhere else. "Touching Leirith's egg was… well. It left me feeling loved, and wanted, and giddy." And here a hint of warmth comes in, as Risa tilts her head towards Meion. "Not here." Another squeeze of hands. "So… pleasant?" Not that she knows beyond what she sees.
Meion laughs a little. "Stubborn keeps me awake at night trying to figure out what the numbers mean in the data-stores." She smiles, face softening. "Or what kept me on the sand until…" She gestures at herself, the bed, all of it. "This." And come to think of it, wasn't that awake-at-night the reason she dropped when she was Searched? "So I guess it's not all bad, but - maybe I need to learn moderation." Said with a voice that is quite certain that she is never actually going to learn that, and is quite aware of it. A beat. "Or maybe I just need to see if they can reserve me a cot in here so we can skip a few steps next time."
D'lei smiles as he shifts his gaze between Risali and Cielo, listening to their ideas of what stubborn is and does. It's a level of interested that's more than many would give to other people's definitions of a word they already think they know, but… he wants to hear them, and so he does. He squeezes back Risali's hand, as well, curling his fingers in against hers before there's a wry tug at the corner of his mouth as Risa explains what - who - Leirith was to her, back when the gold was in her shell. He turns his gaze back to Meion, and… okay, maybe he does give Risali's hand a squeeze there, because she does know a thing or three about stubborning her way into the infirmary. But. "Garouth fought me." So maybe not pleasant? But D'lei has a smile for it, one that's small and comes with a slight tuck of his chin, a sort of fierce in with a bright of amber eyes. "He pushed at me, and I pushed back, and when he couldn't get rid of me… we stared at each other."
"Stubborn is just a judgey word for determined," Cielo says softly, though the accusation is not one particularly leveled at him. Maybe that's a problem? He's not so sure lately. He listens with intent as the pair recount their own experiences Touching, meeting the dragons that are now so full and so undeniable. He smiles just a little and nods. "I… know too little to make sweeping statements about these lovely hatchlings to be. But despite all that I know they want… need… us?" He ends up knitting a bit of the sheets between his knuckles and squeezing. He leans and looks to Meion searchingly. "Just… need someone to catch the cracks before they form, yes."
"Nevertheless, she persisted." But Risali is smiling again for Meion, scrunching her nose as she looks to Cielo and… nods her head. It's agreement with his assessment of stubborn and determined. "Good things come when you don't give up, even when you want to. What is that saying…?" A beat, as if Risali is trying to remember, and… "The world always falls in love with a stubborn heart. Or… determined, as it were." Because fighters and the people who persevere in the face of adversity (and some pretty awful eggs) and inspire change. Because they're the ones people see struggling and thing why not me too. And maybe that's why Risali is pressing D'lei's knuckles to her lips, returning that squeeze, and letting go. She rises, that freed hand catching herself on D'lei's shoulder, and then it's joining her other on Meion's hand again while she listens to D'lei and Cielo. "Sometimes I wonder if it's not us that want and need them." Because she is bonded, and she knows how deep those roots run. But she does huff soft laughter for tales of D'lei and Garouth. "That sounds exactly like something he would do." A beat. "And something you would do." See? STUBBORN.
A nod from that cot, as Meion listens. "There's still one egg left to scare me off." She smiles up. "And I'm not so stubborn that I'm going to do anything but get some rest, before that time comes. But thank you. All of you." She looks to each in turn; D'lei and Risali so close-bonded that it seems they could be dragon and rider too, Cielo close and concerned and just as uncertain as she is, but here anyway. Eyes are bright and sharp as she says "I'll try not to disappoint you all." As if that were her real fear. As if, in this moment, she thought that were even possible.
Cielo smiles. It is turning out to be a curious kinship he's pulled into, but, that's something of Weyr life too isn't it? "R-right. Not to overstay my welcome, and it seems my fears were unnecessary. You're in far, far better hands than mine!" A warm glance given to D'lei and Risali. "You'll do exemplary." There's a fidget, and he pulls out a small tied cloth bag ofsomethingand sets it on a nearby stand before about-facing and clearning his throat. "Have a good evening, yes, and be well soon." It's not like one egg will make it three for three, right? The deed done, he sort of.. scampers on his way with but one fond look back.
"Neither do we," D'lei replies to Cielo's note of what he doesn't yet know enough about. "Sweeping assertions are very hard to be fully justified in making." He grins for Risali's addition to what Cielo thinks he knows - and her claims about what he and his dragon are like. "They need us, we need them…" he says, and shrugs. "If it wasn't both, we wouldn't have the bond we do." A grin. "We balance each other." And never mind that it sounds like he and Garouth are both fighters - or that Risali and Leirith met in shared exuberance. (Or that he might as easily be talking about those relationships between two humans, as those between human and dragon.) D'lei smiles to Meion, with a slight nod for her thanks - and then an amused duck of his chin, shadowing the smile as if to almost hide it. "Don't worry about disappointing us. As long as you don't disappoint yourself, that's all that matters."
"Goodnight!" Risali calls after Cielo, listening to D'lei and… whatever it is he's talking about (dragons, humans, the similiarities in lifemates), her answering smile is hushed in its adoration. Then maybe changing as she gives him a sideways glance when the topic comes to disappointments. "Well," Risali drawls, those grey eyes rolling back to the cot-bound computercrafter with a hint of mischief in the slow-curl of her lips. "At least you won't be the only disappointment in the weyr." And then she's giving one last squeeze to Meion's hand, drawing back as fingers go to D'lei's shoulder again and she leans in to press a kiss against his temple. "It's D'lei, by the way. He's the disappointment." SHE IS JOKING, at least that's what that grin she turns onto Meion says. "That was devastating, D'lei." Because he deserves to know his current state of feels for that quasi-insult. "You're devastated right now." But she's taking one step backwards, and then two. "I have to go, but feel better, yeah? Leirith wanted me to tell you…" A beat, a huff of laughter and a smile, "That she misses you already." It was probably A LOT MORE AWFUL (but sweet, in her Leirith way). "And don't let Dash bother you too much. I always go for the shoulder, but I'll turn a blind eye if he shows up with a black one." JOKES. Another wicked smile, and she's turning on her heel to keep from bumping into anybody as she goes. Limping. So a lot less impressive.
Meion laughs, just watching that easy dynamic between the couple, silently comparing it to her own pictures of what a couple should be, all built out of stories and books and songs. This - this is something she could enjoy, perhaps. This is something that's different from dragging the prettiest boy in the crafthall back to her room to satisfy some mutual desire. Maybe she'll try it. And she grins and nods and "Understood"s to Risali, watching D'lei's expression as she does. "Tell Leirith her babies are terrifying and I love them?"
DEVASTATED, HUH? "I thought that was for later," D'lei replies to Risa, and leans over to kiss at whatever random piece of her side is most convenient at that particular moment before she runs off… though not without giving some instructions. When Meion answers back, D'lei grins in a way like Meion's just gotten the joke he told, and he's pleased and amused all over again because someone else understands it. Not that he was the one telling that hoke, exactly, because those were Risali's words and… the interconnection between people is a thing. A theme, almost. Maybe even a fundamental nature of reality, or at least, one lens on it. A terrifying web of love! And babies.
"I will!" echoes back from somewhere near the entrance, but then RISA'S GONE. Leirith isn't, though. « AND I LOVE YOU, MINION. » But that bass and drums fades too. See? SHE CAN BE QUIET. SOMETIMES.