WHO: Mel, Jayce, & Viktor WHAT: A little patching up and sassing each other WHEN: Day 9 inside the sphere I think?? WARNINGS: Mild wound description STATUS: Complete
If it wasn’t for the fact that they were stuck in a series of tests and puzzles and things, Jayce could have found a lot more joy in the fact that they had gotten to build some incredible things with what was here. But the danger of some rooms had outweighed his need to explore and poke around dangerously, unfortunately.
After two days split off from his people, Jayce had made the best of it, but it was somehow fitting that their first adventure back together involved Vi punching the hell out of a giant, tentacled frog. It had been looking at them suspiciously, and was a danger from the moment they got too close to the water.
But also that punch had started a fight that involved all of them, and Jayce was more than a little concerned about their two friends that tended to shy away from fighting if they had the choice. Once the frog was dead? He was pretty sure it was dead, he dropped his mace off on a rock and steered both Viktor and Mel to sit down under a warm, lush canopy. “Sit. I have to go grab my bag, but I’m pretty sure I still have some first aid supplies stashed in it.” Worry gave way to his more bossy, authoritative tone, even as he was turning away from them to go snag his things from where they’d been dropped at the doorway.
Mel had been forced rather quickly to remember she had more skills than those she'd gained in the political landscape. Her mother had insisted her education be well-rounded. Which meant she could defend herself in a fight, even if she'd do everything in her power to avoid a fight in the first place.
What her mother hadn't prepared her for was giant frog beasts. She'd used an axe and it was now coated in the creature's blood as she sank down onto a stump and leaned the weapon against her side. There was a laceration down her shoulder and in towards her clavicle and blood dripped from one of her hands. She ignored both wounds for the moment as she started shredding strips of cloth from the end of her dress.
"Remind me to be annoyed about this ruin of a dress later." Watching Jayce move towards his bag, Mel catalogued his injuries for his return and glanced towards Viktor. She gestured at his face with a scrap of cloth. "You have a solid gash there."
Viktor was the kind of exhausted that made him slow - slower than his ordinary pace. He was grateful for all the medical help he’d received in the last few weeks. Without it, he had real doubts as to how he’d have been faring under the stress of moving from room to room, never knowing what was lying in wait. The staying on his feet alone was taxing. While he was undoubtedly better than he had been, he wasn’t well, his stamina was shot, and every moment of respite he found a discreet tree to lean on or place to sit to just zone out.
So after fighting a massive frog monster? Everything hurt. It took him a few seconds to refocus on Mel, realizing she had spoken to him. He certainly wouldn’t have dropped his guard around the Councilor that much under ordinary circumstances, but well, they were in this together and she was coping as well as any of them were. “I do?” he said, and lifted his fingers to his cheek. They came back red. With a sigh, he looked back at Mel and shrugged. “Looks worse than it feels.” He reached for the cloth, wanting to pat the scrape down, and then realized that it had come from her dress right around the same time as he took in that awful tear down her front. “Here. I’ve got a…” he pulled out a glass vial that they’d determined was some sort of salve for cuts from a previous room. It made sense the fragile person was holding the equally-fragile potions. “This will help. You and Jayce got more of it than I did.”
“Keep your salve, Vik. We like staring at your pretty face.” Jayce came back with a small pack in his hands, a little healing kit he’d picked up in one his own previous rooms. He set the pack down next to Viktor’s hip and began pulling things out of it, a few clean bandages, a vial of something that looked similar to what Viktor held, but with a more purple hue to it and the scent reminded Jayce of an antiseptic, some herbs and a little thread and needle.
The last pieces made him wince. Last resort, that kind of healing. But he straightened his back and turned to Mel so his gentle hands could take in her wounds. His fingers smoothly prodded along the outside of the laceration, to determine how deep it was. “This might leave a scar but I don’t think you need uh, to be stitched up. I think. Sorry about your dress, though, I liked this one.”
Viktor’s fatigue was obvious, even for someone without Mel’s observation skills. Equally obvious was how much he still didn’t quite trust her. Which was fine, really. She trusted very few people and Jayce was the only one in this ragtag group that earned that distinction. She lifted an amused eyebrow at his teasing about Viktor’s face and pressed some of the fabric to the cut on her palm. The bandages in Jayce’s kit were considerably cleaner; she just didn’t want to sit there oozing. It was undignified.
“It’s alright. It will hardly be my first scar.” She touched his wrist with her uninjured hand to halt his attention, though. The sting was uncomfortable. “Do you think it was venomous? That beast?” What did she know about giant frogs.
Viktor treated his cut, considering Mel’s question. It was a good one. “I doubt it,” he finally said, determinedly not looking at the swampy area where the frog had been waiting for them. “While poison isn’t out of the question, it was already so large to begin with… I can’t imagine there being much of an evolutionary requirement to be more deadly.” Unless it had been engineered by magic rather than evolution, he added to himself silently, but didn’t voice the thought. They’d know soon enough if they started feeling ill.
He shifted his weight, taking stock of himself. Honestly… not too bad. Pain from injuries rather than internal illness was still something of a novel concept; it felt different. It didn’t cloud his head as much. “Here, I’ll get the cuts on your backs,” he offered, getting to his feet carefully and leaning on his cane. Viktor had audited a few first aid classes as part of his requirements for working for the University, after all. And he figured he could get a better look at the kind of wounds everyone had to determine if they were poisoned. “You can’t reach them, and we might as well make sure that they’re cleaned out properly, so when another creature tries to kill us we look our best for it.”
“I agree with Viktor.” Even as his hand was stilled, he didn’t see any signs of the wound behaving oddly. “There’s no smoke or strange color or smell. Just uh- blood.” And now Jayce desperately hoped he was right, but they didn’t have any anti-venom on them that he knew of anyway.
“How are we going to do this?” Jayce looked a little amused at the three of them, bleeding and in various states of undress, under this gorgeous canopy of greenery. It felt almost peaceful now that there wasn’t a giant frog monster attacking them, but it was hard to relax here. “Just a round robin of wound dressing? We could sit in a circle if we’re feeling impatient.” He glanced over his shoulder and winced at the movement, but pulled back from Mel enough to start removing his shirt. “I don’t think mine is that bad? But I can’t see it.”
The cleverness of Viktor’s reply earned him a thoughtful stare as Mel let go of Jayce’s hand and she turned that gaze on Jayce when he added to the observation. She would always appreciate having smart people near in a crisis. With her concerns allayed, she could focus on the problem at hand. She lifted her hands to pull the fabric of her dress away from the wound at her shoulder.
“There’s no guarantee we have much time before the next headache comes along,” she frowned. “If you sit, you can help me with this while Viktor sees to your back?” Part of her needed to take a look at Jayce’s wound herself. To make sure it was as superficial as he thought. But despite their tense acquaintance, she trusted Viktor to take care of Jayce as well as she would have. She straightened up and smirked darkly, gesturing at the spot next to her. “Is there any alcohol in that bag of yours, councilor?”
Viktor snorted at the question and sat down next to Mel, pooling together their supplies so that everyone had access to what little they had. Jayce without a shirt wasn’t an uncommon occurrence around the lab; the man was like a furnace when he was frustrated, and he was built like one besides, but Viktor rarely had an occasion to be this close. He was somewhat relieved to find that he was too exhausted to do much more than appreciate the view, and he set his cane carefully to the side.
One look at Jayce’s back later: “You didn’t say you were injured,” he chided Jayce in a voice pitched loud enough for Mel to hear, by design. “Look at this.” The cut was nasty, and while it appeared to not be particularly deep, it was long and jagged. With a noise under his breath that could only mean reprimand, Viktor set about addressing it, his fingers confident and light as they were whenever he worked within the lab. His augmented hand, for all its strange appearance, functioned just as his ordinary one, and with careful attention he was able to ensure that the wound was as clean as he could manage. “You might do with stitches,” he observed, “and it’s going to scar, but it can’t be helped. Just don’t make it worse by pushing yourself.”
Back home, Jayce would’ve winced at being called councilor. But here, when it was just Mel and Viktor - and Vi and Caitlyn not far away - it felt more like a term of endearment. That went straight to the tips of his ears as he flushed. “I don’t really think I’m in the mood for a drink right--” It dawned on him mid-sentence that she may have meant for wound cleaning, and Jayce flushed a little deeper and huffed out a laugh. “No, sorry. We’ll have to hope the salves work, I think.”
He winced a little as Viktor’s hands went to work, and glanced briefly so he could see. “You guys looked worse off.” It was an excuse, but an honest one, since he was almost always more concerned with the wellbeing of others first and foremost. It was why even now, his large hands were moving with slow certainty as he pulled her dress to the side and grabbed one of the cloths from the pile to start cleaning around it. “Tell me if it’s too much and you need me to stop, alright?”
It was impossible to both be patched up and to see the injury on Jayce's back, but Mel took a moment to draw the short sword she'd collected early in this uncomfortable experience and she used it like a mirror over Jayce's shoulder. She was careful not stick it in Viktor's face, but that probably didn't stop it from being a little alarming. She blamed fatigue and this quiet and annoying need to make sure Jayce was all right.
"I don't need you to stop," she told him, frowning at the reflection of his injury. "I do need you to be careful not to make Viktor's work more difficult." She lowered the sword with a slightly trembling hand and scooted closer. "I assume you're not hiding something worse than the damage to your face," she warned Viktor. "But if I'm wrong, I would appreciate you waiting until you're done to pass out."
“What are you going to do if I am hiding something?” Viktor asked in his quiet, deadpan way. “Stab me with that thing?”
The snark delivered, he flashed her a quick grin - a warm little thing, ensuring she understood he was joking - and then it was gone again as he returned his focus back to finishing up the mess on Jayce’s back. He wasn’t all that injured, and he hated the reason why - he had hung back knowing that his contributions to fighting would be minimal at best. Give Viktor enough time, and he could build something to defend himself, but no one expected a giant frog monster.
“You’re done,” he said to Jayce. “You can put your shirt back on. Or not, if you think it helps you fighting to be free and unencumbered.” Viktor leaned back, shifting weight off of his weaker leg, and propped himself up.
It was no secret from his face that Jayce enjoyed the two of the sniping back and forth at each other. It showed an ease of comfort that he liked, a rapport that he had with both of them but knew full well that they were matched wits to each other, unlike Jayce who was often half a beat behind when it came to jokes directed at him.
“I’m careful,” Jayce assured with a secret little grin on his face that he couldn’t quite mask. “We have enough wounds, no stabbing required. But--” He tied off the bandage to Mel’s hand, and shifted away so he could look over at Viktor. “You’re all done, should we tag-team him? He’s pretty shifty, so both of us might be needed to hold him down.” Jayce didn’t take the recommendation of putting his shirt back on, not having the desire to have the course fabric rub against freshly done bandages. Caitlyn would no doubt yell at him about that later, but hopefully she was too wrapped up in Vi to notice for a little while.
Oh. Mel shouldn’t have been surprised that she enjoyed Viktor’s banter. He’d always been sharp and intriguing. Just as Jayce had always been soft and surprising. She smirked at them both and rolled her eyes.
“Lucky for you both of you, I’m too tired to stab anyone. And disinclined to tell you to put your shirt back on.” That was for Jayce, as was the lingering glance. She grimaced as he finished with her hand though and followed his attention back to Viktor. Her observations over the last few years told her he probably wouldn’t mind if Jayce held him down. But this wasn’t really the time to say such things. She leaned to look him over a little better instead. “I’m not sure Jayce will accept I’m fine from you. We all know you’re the type to suffer in silence.”
Viktor looked to Jayce, saw nothing in the other man’s face to indicate that he was going to get out of this, and then back to Mel. “I’ll start complaining, just for you,” he replied, but his heart wasn’t in it, and he unbuttoned his shirt neatly, shrugging out of it with a light wince. No cuts or gashes; his shoulder and ribs were bruising a light purple over a series of surgical scars from past medical attempts to right his spine, but the bruising didn’t go too deeply. The back brace had probably helped with that. Viktor had never been preoccupied with vanity, but he disliked seeming weak, and so he met both of their gazes with a neutral, unflinching expression. Some things you didn’t make yourself smaller about, he knew. Jayce had seen the brace before, but Mel hadn’t, and while Viktor could say he knew and trusted her better now than he had from when they had sniped at one another in the lab, people were unpredictable. He set his chin, and said with his usual dryness:
“See? Fine. All my injuries are internal.” A shrug. “I’m not even going to make a mess.”
Jayce leaned in to make sure Viktor was telling the truth, giving the bruises and markings a close look before Viktor took the opportunity to snatch himself away and hide again. It was a very clinical glance-over with only a brief touch to the brace to check for any unnecessary digging in.
He snorted and shook his head at Viktor. “You know, you make jokes, but I half think you’re just hoping we’ll shove one of these mystery potions down your throat in the name of science if you do have internal bleeding.” Jayce turned over to Mel and gave her a private smile. “I think you can spare him this once from stabbing. I won’t hold you back if he keeps making internal injury jokes though.”
Mel kept her face carefully schooled. She had never seen Viktor’s brace, or the sharp lines of his torso, speckled in old scars and fresh bruises. But it was hardly the most terrible thing she’d ever seen either. He had clearly been through worse than a light roughing up by a strange beast. It was possible he would take any expression of concern as pity, though. She dropped her eyes away and stood.
“I’ll keep my sword handy just in case.” The joke was a little hollow but the soft glance she spared them both was not. “We should regroup with the others. Who knows what will come at us next.” Picking up her sword, she squared her shoulders and tried not to wince when it pulled at her injury. “I’m…glad you’re both all right. Let’s try to keep it that way,” she said stiffly as she slid between them and headed back towards the rest of their group.
Viktor shrugged his shirt back on and hoisted himself upright, leaning a good deal of his weight on his cane. A few weeks ago, he mused to himself, he wouldn’t have been able to do that without someone’s help. He was glad for Mel’s lack of reaction - and of course, Jayce had just done what he’d always done, which was see the whole of him rather than his disparate parts - and as he buttoned his shirt back up, he looked to where the frog had been.
“Did you see how long that frog tentacle was?” he said with the distinct air of someone wondering if they could maybe… break off a piece and study it.
Jayce was behind both of them and the groan he emitted echoed through the forest. He slumped slightly and then winced as it pulled on the wound of his back so he sat upright just so he could stare at Viktor. “I really don’t think that’s a good idea, Vik. Hey- no. Don’t you- I know that look in your eyes.”
Which was exactly why he got up quickly, to try and intercept if it was needed. “We’re all getting some rest firstt, the tentacles can wait until later.”