Completed A Flower for Your Thoughts? (Philomena)

[Leila]

Leila climbed the stairs, and entered through the door that had been left open, and could smell why. The entire flat smelled fetid, like impending death. The air felt warm, heavy, slow and lingering. Leila noticed that the woman didn't have many possessions. The flat felt more like a tomb than a home. Leila didn't like it here, not one bit. She didn't want to be here more than absolutely necessary. Leila saw the woman passed out on her bed, and decided to not disturb her. She looked around, couldn't find a waterskin, nor any wood for a fire. So it looked like tea would be out after all. She pulled her herbs from her pockets and placed them on the desk. There wasn't much left she could even do now, no cleaning really was needed. She looked all over the desk, finding a scrap of paper hidden in the back. She grabbed a quill and ink, dipped it in, and quickly scratched out a short message for the addled woman. "If you ever need help, or just someone to listen, I am always available. Leila Hughes" And with that, Leila left the poor woman to her fate, hoping she'd make it long enough to take her up on her offer. In her doorway, she looked back, "It was a pleasure to meet you Dr. Lefting." She untied Shaco, and made her way home. OOCI feel we are close to a good stopping point. If you'd like you can do one more, or turn it in.

[Philomena]

Just lying down. Just for a moment, just... just resting. Just lying down? Yes, that's all... Yes... but she could not tell, was she still awake. The dream of dog's breath came, the dream of ink and quill, the best of lullabies, an ink quill tipped across parchment... parchment. She listened to it - long, broad strokes, a fair hand. A schoolmistress hand as Lanie used to call it. Like Mara's hand, like it had been, before... long strokes. Was Mara here? She could not be, it was so late, so very late, and she was so tired, and Mara would know, and Mara, Mara would NEVER waste paper and ink on something like a note. Mara would use a tablet, to be melted flat and reused, Mara was a Qalayan, like her.

She wondered, softly, if Mara had ever been marked. Would she even know? Would Mara tell her? Would Qalaya wish her too? Perhaps Mara always had been marked... no. No, not always. Not always. For she had seen every inch of Mara's skin once, long, long ago. She wondered if Mara ... no, she was dead! The memory hit her, with the force possible only in a troubled dream, and the dream - for now even she knew it was not waking life - changed, and she was wrapped inside the damp, hot chambers of Mara's heart, cut open so her head could extend just outside the flesh, like a sailor's bairn wrapped in oilskin, but warm, warm and soft, and moving with the slow, tender beat of Mara's heart. She wondered, for a moment, if Mara, cold, steady, queer Mara, had been in love with her once. Or to the very end. A Qalaya mark, one could discover, btu the queer marks of love on the heart, these were invisible, wrapped tight inside the codex of the skin.

She rolled to the side, and the heart beat softly around her flesh, as she dreamt.

And then she was awake. The note was there, and Minnie saw it when fought to her feet, a mass of pain and sweaty blankets and disarranged clothing. A note. A note. Who was it? A girl, sh head... a girl... she had followed her. She had followed her! She had not meant to kill her? Minnie fought feverishly to her feet, and stumbeld half falling to the bookshelf, clinging to it with her one good hand, then feeling for the key.... it was there! She took it crawled on her knees to the box, and unlocked it... they were all there! The books were all there! The girl had stolen... the doll? No!

No...

No... there she sat, there crouched on Minnie's bedclothes, askew, and stained now with the Fever-sweat of Minnie's illness, though Minnie was too blind to see that. She took the doll in her good hand, and breathed. Nothing. A note. She took the note and held it close. Leila Hughes. Leila Hughes. Leila Hughes.

She stumbled across the room now. A gift for Leila Hughes, what gift for Leila Hughes? She felt blindly at her book-shelf. She was a healer, this woman? What do healers want? Money... healers wanted money? That was all she had ever given one. She had none left now, hardly, it would do nothing. She was young? She was young, and pretty, yes. Minnie took her stick up, went to her scarf box, and dug, dug, dug... in the bottom, it was out of fashion, now, but she had kept it, nothing special, but so beautiful, so beautiful, a white cotton sash, embroidered in black patterns of ships-sailing, and the flowers of the Zatuskas... IT was worth what? Not much, she wagered, but it was so beautiful, a gift from a woman who Minnie had gotten a Shipper spot in the East Wing, years ago... but a pretty young girl might wear it? She bound it tight with twine. , and took the note the girl had writ, took up the plume. Her hand was still miniscule, years of muscle memory never letting it grow, now, so the letters almost might be missed. She wrote very fine, at the bottom, in the slight palsy of the early morning.

"Ms Hughes,

You did not steal from me. You are a good girl. Now do not come again, I do not want to kill again.

Dr. Lefting"

And she bound the bundle up,c rying now, hollow with the loneliness of the letter and emotionally shaky anyway with the delirium. And she held the bundle, waiting, to give it to the infirmary girl. She would find someone to deliver it for her. The infirmary girl was so helpful, so very helpful.
x

[Stardust]

Leila

Skill	XP Earned
Observation	3
Herbalism	3
Medicine	1
Leadership	2

•	Lores Earned
•	Searching to Tea Ingredients
•	Dealing With An Overloving Dog
•	Helping A Stranger
•	A Prayer To Rak'Keli
•	A Strange Meeting: Dr. Lefting

Philomena

Skill	XP Earned
Observation	2
Rhetoric	3
Persuasion	3
Socialization	1

•	Lores Earned
•	Interrupted By A "Devil Hound"
•	Leila: An Insufficient Hero
•	An Ill State Of Being
•	Sick And Nearly Blind
•	A Strong Fear Of Dogs

Dream On

This was such a strange, yet entertaining thread! I wasn't expecting ANY of it. Leila is just so helpful. But poor sick Minnie... And for some reason I really want some peppermint tea now! Nice job!

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