[The Infirmary] Helping People Back To Their Feet (Satevis)

Minerva breaks her foot, and Satevis helps heal her. They both work to aid others who need a helping hand.

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Center of scholarly knowledge and shipwrighting, Zeltiva is a port city unlike any other in Mizahar. [Lore]

[The Infirmary] Helping People Back To Their Feet (Satevis)

Postby Minerva Agatha Zipporah on May 6th, 2012, 3:27 am

Tock finally had the movements of the automated crutches down, and decided it was enough playing with her new toy, and time to start on something else. There were a lot of kids among the crowd that had to be carried by their parents because of their own injuries. It wasn't very fair for her to be up and about on her magic crutches, when all those kids didn't even have regular crutches.

She barely glanced at the apparent stranger who spoke up and said, "Aye, but don'tcha think yer rid o' me yet. I's got some stuff ta make fer everyone else now..."

Not expecting him to have anything else to say since she didn't recognize him at all, Tock piloted her device back to her room to retrieve the rest of her tools. Now that she was mobile, she wouldn't be lying around the Infirmary room anymore. It was a horrible place to work, with all the constant interruptions by the nurses and the constant nagging about the mess. She'd be better off doing the rest of her work down in a proper workshop.

She just needed her supplies, and she'd be all ready to get to work.
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[The Infirmary] Helping People Back To Their Feet (Satevis)

Postby Satevis on May 6th, 2012, 3:44 am

Satevis blinked as she addressed him curtly and walked off, thinking for a moment that she might be angry with him for his behavior the night before. The moment passed, and he realized that she probably had no idea who he was. This was the first time he had spoken to her before sunset. He shook his head at himself for his own stupidity, following her down the hallway and towards her room.

Hopefully she wouldn't think he was stalking him. That would just make the entire situation that much more complicated.

Satevis paused at the door, taking a breath before opening it. He stepped inside slowly, leaving it open behind him. He wasn't sure what her reaction would be, considering she didn't know who he was, and he didn't want to make his motives appear sinister in any way. "My apologies," he said. "I forgot that you wouldn't recognize me in this form. It's Satevis. I came a little earlier than usual today."

OOCSorry for the shortness of this post. I wasn't sure what else to add...:(
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[The Infirmary] Helping People Back To Their Feet (Satevis)

Postby Minerva Agatha Zipporah on May 6th, 2012, 5:39 am

Minerva was gathering up her things when the door opened. She turned and waved a chisel angrily at the intruder, shouting, "Oy! Ain'tcha know 'ow ta knock 'fore..." She then paused and blinked when the man explained who he was. She lowered the chisel, tilting her head to the side to peer at him. "Satevis? Oy..."

She slowly piloted her crutches around to look at him. "Yer shorter!" she said, laughing. "Oy, I didn't know ya'd look so... normal. Where's yer 'orns? An' yer glowy skin? An'..." she stared at him more curiously in this form than she had in his other, going mute with shock. He'd mentioned something about 'forms', and she had heard vague stories about Ethaefal here and there, but she hadn't realized that it was something so drastic.

She piloted the crutches over to him, and was actually about the same height as him with the way they lifted her off the ground. She peered at the sides of his head, searching for signs of where the horns had gone to. She reached out and brushed his hair back, searching. Then she sucked on her teeth for a moment and muttered, "Oy... well ain't 'at a fine thing..."

"So..." she asked, "'ow's it work? I mean, like, ya gotta do magic what fer ta change forms? Does it 'urt? I done seen a Kelvic 'fore, I know 'ey can change what whenever 'ey want. But I guess wit' you, iz like... the moon does it o' somethin'?" She knew he 'absorbed' moonlight, so it seemed like the logical guess. "Izzat what does 'er? Moon comes out, ya go all tall an' glowy? Can ya stop 'er from 'appenin' if'n ya wanna?" She was intensely curious. She was a scientist, after all.

"Can I watch?" she asked with a huge grin.
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[The Infirmary] Helping People Back To Their Feet (Satevis)

Postby Satevis on May 6th, 2012, 6:43 am

Satevis stared at Tock as she maneuvered over to him, studying his day form intently. Well, this was a surprise. He had expected her to be shocked, yes, but not to this extent, especially considering she had been so...nonchalant about his Ethaefal form. Usually Satevis attracted attention in his Ethaefal form and avoided it in his Benshira form, not the other way around. It was strange enough that he remained frozen in place as she examined him, snapping out of it only when she reached up and started touching his hair.

He jerked his head away from her as he felt her start pushing his hair aside looking for his horns. "Hey--what--?" he said, grabbing her hand and pulling it down. It appeared Satevis wasn't used to having his personal space invaded. "Sorry," he said, releasing her hand and taking a step back.

It appeared his drastic change in appearance had sparked off a wave of questions. Satevis leaned back against the end table, frowning as he thought of ways to answer them all. He sighed. There really wasn't a way to answer those questions adequately without going into the whole story of the Ethaefal. "I am a son of Leth," he said, repeating the same thing he had told her when he introduced himself. "I change form whenever Leth takes dominance in the sky--meaning whenever the sun goes down and night falls. I can't control it. It just happens. The Ethaefal form is my true form...the form you see now is what's called my mortal seeming, the form of my most recent past life. Basically, this is who I was before I died."

He knew that that would raise another set of questions. Satevis paused for a moment, before he went on. "When we die, our souls go to Dira. She sends those souls that aren't mature yet to Lhex, who puts them back into the cycle of reincarnation. Mature souls go to whichever gods claimed them. I died in the form you see before you now, and I faced Dira. Because of the...manner of my death, Leth claimed me as one of his chosen, and I was sent to him. I resided in the Ukalas with Leth and the other chosen until five years ago."

"During the Valterrian, a rift was torn open in Leth and Syna's realms. Because of that rift, some of their chosen began to fall through. Those people were reborn on Mizahar as the Ethaefal. Five years ago...the same thing happened to me. So as you can see, a lot of the laws of nature don't apply to the Ethaefal. We weren't supposed to be here in the first place. We were supposed to have completed our purpose...supposed to be enjoying our rewards."
Talking about his own fall pained him. He didn't know how he could describe it to her--the feeling of having everything you ever wanted, and then having it all cruelly ripped away. He couldn't explain it to her. He could barely come to terms with it himself. It was a pain that all the Ethaefal shared, a pain that eventually drove all but the strongest of them mad. He folded his arms close to himself, lowering his eyes to the ground and staring at the floor for a moment as he collected his thoughts. It was clear that this was a source of great emotional distress.

"I apologize for being short with you yesterday," he said after a while, looking up at her. "Yes, you can watch. It's only fair, since you showed me your magic. And no, the transformation doesn't hurt, unless I'm wearing tight clothing. But I lived as a Benshira. I prefer loose clothes anyway. It should occur as soon as the sun sets." If he was keeping track of time right, he had about ten more minutes. The sun was already starting to sink, the room bathed in a bright orange light.
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[The Infirmary] Helping People Back To Their Feet (Satevis)

Postby Minerva Agatha Zipporah on May 6th, 2012, 11:34 am

Tock listened with a frown, struggling to out the pieces together in her mind. She was a smart girl, but woefully uneducated. There had been no formal schooling in her childhood, beyond the trade her Granddad had taught her. So as much as she was intelligent, she was simply ignorant about a great many things. Religion was chief among them.

He mentioned his Dad Leth again, and her frown deepened. Maybe that wasn't his Dad? But then the rest of his story started talking about the heavens, and reincarnation, and... "So wait, yer like a moon ghost?" she asked. She hadn't realized there was this much to the Ethaefal's origins. She knew there were walking dead, like the Nuit. But she thought the dead would either be in nasty, rotting bodies, or else ghosts floating around without form. Not glowy men with horns that transformed and ate moonlight.

"So 'at's why ya need moonlight ta live," she said curiously, tapping her chin. "Ya ain't need ta eat nothin' cause yer already dead. Oy, 'ow'd ya die?" It didn't once occur to her that that might be too personal of a question.

"An' does 'at mean ya can't die again?" she asked. "I mean, yer dead already, right? Ain't like ya can die if'n yer already dead. 'Less it's like wit' a Automaton, so's as yer soul needs ta stay bound ta a solid body. Like, if'n ya got 'urt too bad, ya'd not be able ta 'old ya soul onta yer body no more, aye?" She knew that was how it worked with the Nuit. She had studied them, to a degree, in her Animation studies. They were souls bound to a physical form in much the same manner as how she had bound a Soulcore to her Automaton. So she assumed Satevis must be bound to this mortal body in a similar way.
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[The Infirmary] Helping People Back To Their Feet (Satevis)

Postby Satevis on May 6th, 2012, 3:35 pm

"A ghost...? repeated Satevis, a small frown on his face. "I suppose you could think of it that way. But unlike a ghost, I have a solid form. And a ghost is a spirit who refused reincarnation because of unfinished business. I, on the other hand, supposedly finished all I had to do." Or had he? He wondered sometimes, as he did when he had nothing else to do, whether or not he had been taken from the cycle prematurely. If he had fulfilled his true purpose, he wouldn't be here. He still carried many of the Benshira's ideas about faith and religion. To live with no purpose was a wretched existence.

And he felt it, sometimes, in the long nights where he found himself staring at the moon. The feeling was something he couldn't place into words, a feeling that his people simply knew as Yahal's calling. Perhaps it was just wishful thinking, but sometimes it felt like the god he had followed out of the desert in his youth was still leading him in Mizahar now. Leth may have thought you complete, the calling seemed to say.

But I am not done with you.

He didn't know whether he was lying to himself or whether he truly felt it. But on those nights, he seemed sure. He looked up at Tock as she asked him how he died. For a moment, he thought about not telling her. But he decided there was no point in keeping it to himself. What was done was done. "By the sword," he said. "I took the blow for another. But I didn't do it for any heroic motives. I simply wasn't thinking."

Was that what had happened? He remembered the basic details of his death, but his motives were still unclear to him. Who was that girl he had taken the blow for, and why couldn't he remember her? Taras's memories were clearer than his other lives, but even they were incomplete.

He shook his head as she asked other questions. "I can die again," he said. "I may have changed, but in this body, I'm still mortal. I can get injured, and I can get sick. But if I manage to avoid any of those things, I suppose I could stay alive indefinitely. I don't age. I don't know what happens if I die again, though, considering I'm not supposed to be alive right now in the first place."

He glanced out the window, taking note of the position of the sun. It was going down rapidly now. He felt his heart beat faster with anticipation, as it always did at sunset. Not long now...

OOCI'll have the transformation in my next post. :)
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[The Infirmary] Helping People Back To Their Feet (Satevis)

Postby Minerva Agatha Zipporah on May 6th, 2012, 3:57 pm

"What, was ya a soldier or somethin'?" Tock asked, scratching her head. "Soldierin's dangerous business, aye? Can't imagine what'd bring ya to it. Back 'ome, 's likely 'nough what fer ta get stabbed in the street, wit'out goin' lookin' fer trouble like some 'ero in a book, aye?" Maybe that kind of life was for some people, but not a girl like her. She just wanted to learn, and to build life, not take it away.

And if sue got herself killed, she'd never get ANY work done!

All this Ethaefal stuff was a little above her head. She was fascinated by it, but didn't understand all of it. She was an engineer, not a religious scholar! She finally had to shrug it off, figuring she would learn by observing Satevis, and maybe check a couple of books out of the library for further study.

"Oy, ya bring me 'at stuff ya promised?" she asked. She figured the quantity of wood meant he had to have it on a cart or something outside. "I wanna get started on 'em crutches." She would wait for him to lead her to wherever the stuff was, piloting her new toy the whole way. Then she would ask him to help her get the stuff down to one of the school's workshops, so she could get to building.

Likely by the time they got down there and she started to set up shop, she'd get the chance to see his moon magic.
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[The Infirmary] Helping People Back To Their Feet (Satevis)

Postby Satevis on May 6th, 2012, 4:34 pm

"No, I wasn't a soldier," he replied. "I was a scholar and a wanderer, as I am now. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time." Or was it the right place at the right time? Depending on his mood, he believed it to be one or the other. If he had been a soldier, he might have been able to do something to fight back. Or maybe he wouldn't have done anything. As a soldier, he would have thought about it, wouldn't he? He wouldn't have been driven on instinct alone...

Well, it didn't matter anyway. His death was in the past. What mattered here was his present.

Satevis straightened up as she asked about the stuff, nodding once. "It's in a cart," he said. "I parked it outside the infirmary." It seemed like Tock was ready to get out of here, and he didn't want to keep her. There was time to move the stuff before sunset, perhaps. "Lead the way," he said, opening the door for her and following her into the hallway.

By the time they had pushed the cart to one of the school's workshops, the sun had half-disappeared beneath the western horizon. Even though they were inside, Satevis could feel it in his blood, the coming exchange of power in the sky. Syna would relinquish power to Leth, and the two would meet for a short time, and then Leth would take her place as the dominant deity. He smiled faintly. He knew his lord cherished those brief meetings before the pair exchanged roles. Absently, he unbuttoned the first two buttons of his shirt, loosening his collar. The clothes were too big for Satevis. He had made sure to wear clothes his Ethaefal form could comfortably fit in, knowing he might be transforming on short notice tonight. But he didn't want to accidentally choke himself in the event he miscalculated.

And there it was, a familiar stirring in his blood, in his very being. He turned to face Tock, knowing that she would want to see the transformation.

Three...two...one... he counted down in his head.

Thrum.

It felt like a heart beat, like his heart was beating for the first time. In one instant, he felt Leth's power rush through him, starting from his center and moving outwards. Satevis's breath caught in his throat, and he closed his eyes. A pale white glow surrounded him, shining outwards from him and enveloping him. It wasn't a harsh blinding light, but instead the faint, gentle light of the moon.

The transformation started with his body. The magic felt like wind, rising up from the floor around him. It moved through his clothes and hair, the light cloak he wore fluttering in its passing as he changed. He grew taller and filled out more, his skin paling from the deep tan of his Benshira form to the glowing opalescence of the Ethaefal. His features changed as well, shaping into the unnatural, statuesque beauty that all of the Ethaefal wore. His hair lengthened by a few inches, changing from a length just beneath his ears to one a few inches above his shoulders. The color change started from the roots, lavender gray chasing away the Benshira form's dark brown. The color wove through his hair until there was no trace of brown.

And then his horns formed. In the spring, they were completely white. They began at his temples, pushing out from underneath his hair. The horns swept back, meeting each other at the back of his head and pinning his hair beneath them. They resembled half of the circlet his people wore above their head coverings.

Finally, the memories. They came with the wind, a rush of images and voices that filled his mind at once. In the day, he remembered only Taras. At night, what little he could remember of his past lives returned to him, the memories of different faces and forms. With the transformation complete, the wind and light rushed outwards from him, dissipating. His cloak settled back around his shoulders, his hair falling into its usual place as he seemed to diminish somewhat.

When he opened his eyes, they were violet.
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[The Infirmary] Helping People Back To Their Feet (Satevis)

Postby Minerva Agatha Zipporah on May 6th, 2012, 6:48 pm

Tock was already starting to unload the goods and clamp the first pieces down to the work table when the transformation began. When she felt the rustling wind around Satevis and looked up to see the beginnings of the shift, something unheard of happened.

She stopped working.

"Wooooow-eeee," she said softly, letting out a low whistle. It was quite a sight to see. She hadn't expected the change to be so... mystical. For some reason she had expected more twisting, ripping skin, and howls of pain like the kind of stories you hear around a campfire at night about demons in the dark. Instead, it was... beautiful.

"Ya do 'at EVERY day?" she asked. She couldn't imagine getting used to that.

Still having plenty of good hours left to work, she then lit some lamps and got started. Fascinating as the Ethaefal transformation was, it could only keep her away from her work for so long. She started off by cutting wooden poles in pairs, varying the lengths to account for a variety of heights. Some were short enough for little kids, some for teens, and some for grown adults. Cutting the poles was quite simple work, and didn't take much other than time and attention, with a few breaks to rest her arm from so much sawing.

The pieced she cut off the ends of the poles could be used for the supports. The crutches would be a simple design: just a solid wooden pole, with the arm support attached to the top. Tomorrow she would carve out a curve into the top of the supports for the arm to rest in, and drill a hole partway in each for the pole to be inserted. Once they were assembled, cloth could be wrapped around the support for added comfort, and minor adjustments could be made to the length to fit the crutches to individuals.

She kept working until exhaustion would force her to retire for the night, but would be back bright and early the next morning to continue the work.

OOCFeel free to either watch and/or help out hands on with the construction. Also, if you want you can do another day skip next post. Then tomorrow we can hand out the crutches to all the little kids, and that should wrap up the thread!
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[The Infirmary] Helping People Back To Their Feet (Satevis)

Postby Satevis on May 6th, 2012, 7:38 pm

"Every day," he confirmed, nodding at Tock. "Sunrise and sunset. Although the sunrise transformation is less...grand." The transformation at sunrise was the exact opposite. It came with no light, no rush of wind. Instead, it was just him shrinking, shedding the radiance of his Ethaefal form and appearing mortal and human once again. It usually occurred while he slept. He would awaken in clothes too big for him, and feeling hunger and thirst that he hadn't felt during the night.

He watched for a moment as Tock began to work, and then slowly moved forward to help her. He was inexperienced at carpentry and wasn't quite sure what to do, but as time passed, he moved from holding things in place for her to actually copying her movements and performing simple tasks himself. He wasn't nearly as good, though, having no experience with it. Still, it gave him something to do, and he found that he liked the work.

He helped her for an hour and a half before he remembered his responsibilities at the infirmary. Satevis stood up, brushing the sawdust from his clothes and stretching out stiff muscles. "I need to go," he explained. "I still need to make rounds at the Infirmary. But I'm sure they'll be pleased when they see what you've done. I'll come by tomorrow and help you hand out the crutches." he said.

He moved the time on her foot forward one day and left to head back to the infirmary. The next day, Satevis didn't go straight to the infirmary, instead stopping by the workshop to see if she still needed help. He came just a little after sunset this time, already in his Ethaefal form. After five days, he didn't bother to knock, instead just entering the room.

"How much have you finished?" he asked.
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