Completed Trying to Help

[Shane Wallsly]

Timestamp: 1st of Summer 514 AV

Smash!

Both Shane and Norman's head cocked simultaneouslyto the right. “What in the Ukalas was that?” Shane asked half running half walking toward the noise. They were on one of the little paved roads that lead between each of the different districts of the Citadel. Shane turned a corner into a horrendous site. There was a man trapped under a cart. Not a man; a boy no older than Shane. A dark-haired, tanned boy with blue eyes trapped under a cart. Shane's eyes were darting around frantically picking up the most irrelevant details like the odd circular scar on the one and only other bystander's face. He was quiet and pale like Shane and something about this one man's inaction spurred him into action.

“You! Go! Healer! Medicine Man! Help!” Shane was just shouting words at the man as he moved toward the ruined cart. The boy was barely conscious taking raggedy breaths. Shane could see that the cart had fallen and splintered. Sharp wooden edges were stinking into his belly as he lay on his front under the cart. A slowly largening puddle of blood was expanding outward.

Shane knelt down in front of the man. Norman followed him his lead dragging along on the ground behind him. Shane couldn't even remember dropping it. “Hey, are you okay? Hey, wake up! C'mon, c'mon now.” Shane was getting no answer and he could still see the other person out of the corner of his eye. Shane didn't know what to do. He hadn't learnt anything about people and accidents. He was weak. He was a failure.

“Get a physician, damnit!” Shane cried rising and with a surprising amount of strength slapped the bystander across the face. The man staggered backward holding his face and a burst lip. The man was older and probably stronger than him but, for once in his life, Shane didn;t, nay couldn't, care. The man seemed briefly angry but then he replied something Shane didn't quite catch and ran off. Shane sure as Lhex hoped he was away to find someone who could help.

Credit to Skerry

[Shane Wallsly]

Shane wasn't really sure what he was doing. He'd taken off his scarf and was holding it up agaionst the poor boy's stomach to soak up the bleeding. It wasn't really out of some need to help. He couldn't stand the sight of blood any longer.

“Hey. Hey! Hey? Hello?” Shane wasn't getting any answers from him. His eyes were open, fluttery, but open. He must have been conscious in some way. Shane lightly tapped him in the cheek several times. He definitely shifted his gaze in Shane's direction as if seeing him for the first time.

“Shane,” he said pointing to himself. “Name?” he asked pointing to him. His mouth wobbled up and down as if trying to say something but too weak. He tried to enunciate something like a P and spat blood all across Shane's front.

“P-pain.” He finally said in ragged breaths. “S-ss-s—sooo much pain.” His words were ragged and breathy. Shane felt real sorrow for this man. A man who had simply been walking his cart down the road, tripped or something and was now in such a sorry state of affairs. What was the petching point in life if it could all be taken away from you at the drop of a hat like that?

“Shoosh now.” Shane said to the man. He didn't want to hear him speak any longer. It was painful for both of them in different ways. Shane looked around. The place was deserted. Would anybody who could help arrive in time? Shane knew that the best way to find out was by using the Sight. He closed his eyes and focussed deeply on that familiar Sight of his. He opened his eyes. The technicolour rainbow seemed somehow less impressive than usual. He focussed on the boy and immediately he could detect pain. It was so strong he could almost feel it himself. The splinters were lodged deep. He was already past the point of no return. He was dead but the Gods demanded he suffer first. Shane closed his eyes willing away the Auristics. Shane demanded something different for this man. Shane demanded paradise. One inescapable moment of paradise.

Shane put one hand on the boy's shoulder and squinted his head so he was looking directly into the man's eyes. “Listen to me; listen to me.” Shane layered the repetition in hypnotic suggestion. His eyes also said reassurance. “You are not dying. There is no pain. Not dying; no pain.” Shane had heard of hypnotic trances but he doyubted he was good enough for that just yet. He couldn't make the man see or really believe he was elsewhere but he believed the man wanted to not be dying so strongly that the only thing his hypnotic suggestion had to overcome was the physical sensation of pain that grounded him in reality. “It's tranquility you feel; deep calmness. You can feel it rise inside you.” Shane elicited an emotional response of peace. “No pain, just peace. Ignore the physical sensations. Concentrate on peace. Live in peace. Be peaceful. Feel euphoria and life and live and...” The boy took an unusually long and ragged breath his eyes going wide and his whole body completely relaxed. He was no longer breathing; eyes wide and the hint of a smile on his face.

Shane wondered if he had even helped at all...

Credit to Skerry

[Shane Wallsly]

Shane stayed with the body for another fifteen ticks before anyone arrived to help. The bystander and a healer of some sort. Of course the Healer pronounced that the man was already dead and offered to soothe Shane's mind for him. Shane declined. It wasn't long after Knights arrived on the scene to suss out what happened. One of them, a big fellow, clapped him on the back for staying with the boy right up until his death. Shane recounted his story a dozen times and never once mentioned his depsperate act of hypnotism. They didn't need to know. It was rhe cart that had killed him after all.

Shane heard snippets of what they had pieced together from Knight's talking only slightly out of earshot. The boy had not been pulling the cart as Shane had originally thought. The bystander had been but one of the wheels fell off and he tripped. The cart had spiralled downhill gaining some momentum before hitting the dead boy crushing and pinning him up against the wall. The boy was an altar boy at the Temple of All Gods. He was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time... Weren't the Gods meant to stop things like that from happening to their followers? Shane wondered if the man was marked. He could have been in some place covered in clothes. In any case neither a mark or his Gods had helped him out of this one. The boy was doomed to die and be reborn again only to die all over again at some point down the line.

Shane was eventually told he could go. He never retrieved his scarf, it was ruined anyway, and one of the Knights suggested he should probably buy himself a new coat since it had been splattered in the boys spit blood. Shane went straight home. It was only when he opened his door and a black figure on all fours scurried into the room ahead of him that Shane's shellshocked mind remembered Norman had been there the whole time.

Shane sat down on his bed staring blankly at the far wall of his small apartment. Norman went to his bed and quickly fell asleep. Shane didn't get much sleep that night. He just couldn't get the picture of the man's almost visible smile out of his head. Had he helped? He'd never wanted to help anyone before that wasn't himself but now that he had he couldn't help but obsess over whether he actually had.

Credit to Skerry

[Radiant]

Shane :

Experience

Skill	XP Earned
Observation	+2 XP
Socialization	+1 XP
Intimidation	+1 XP
Hypnotism	+1 XP
Medicine	+1 XP
Auristics	+1 XP

Lores

Lore Earned

Medicine: Applying Pressure To A Bleeding Wound

Hypnotism: Applying Tranquility And Peace

Loots

Notes :

Dang, a short, but dramatic (traumatic for Shane) solo, Shane. A Good read! (Though bad experience for Shane IC. ). Poor altar boy... maybe Lhex just liked to mess with him.

Enjoy your grades!

My radiance is not bright enough?

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your grade, beam me a PM and we can work it out.