collaborative_daredevil | Slavery RP Post XVIII

Matt frowned, thinking it over very very hard, and said slowly, ten more minutes? very meekly quietly, would rather not..inflict that on you.

--

Foggy bit back a snarl at the note, understanding immediately that Matt's sickness was psychological then--he'd started developing nausea and vomiting more and more often in response to being triggered by various things, which meant at work he sipped ginger tea nonstop and at home he was more and more often having to avoid stress to keep his meals down. This wasn't a good sign at all.

"Thanks," he said to the beautiful pet--Jamie. "Could I ask Toffee if he's noticed anything else?"

"Thank you. I don't like hurting people." Danny spoke to Golubushka softly as Jamie considered his owner's request.

"I can go and ask him about that for you." Since Matt seemed wary of him he wasn't willing to ask Toffee to come out.

Okay? Matt asked, absolutely confused by that statement and unsure of how to respond, he really didn't agree at all, but it didn't sound like a lie so he didn't know what to think, and he huddled in a little closer to Foggy and tried to not start vomiting up his own fresh blood, and his guts squirmed unpleasantly.

--

"Thank you, I appreciate it," Foggy said, trying to be kind and firmly not take it personally that Toffee wasn't willing to come and meet him. After all, a number of Matt's pet friends were just too wary around free people to ever really relax or feel comfortable.

Golubushka had no right to sound that uncertain about reassurance from a man who'd been nothing but respectful of him, not when his own owner was so clearly volatile given what Matt had said and how Toffee didn't want to come out to see him. But Jamie didn't say anything, just getting up and going back to the nest to ask Toffee if there was anything else he'd noticed around the time Golubushka had got sick.

"Just that, when he came back Treacle-Matty had said I should let him know I didn't want to go out alone yet anyway, but he didn't want to hear it."

"Thank you." And Jamie wrote that down to give to Golubushka's master.

"Thank you, that definitely explains several things," Foggy thanked Jamie warmly, and helped Matt sit down with him, and for a minute or two they just breathed, with Matt clearly trying to stop bleeding by willpower alone. "I was wondering--how are things with you?" he asked the Danny, trying to make polite, low-key conversation.

"Things are going a lot better. Matt had body language tutors help him learn ways to keep people from pressuring him, and we're making sure that he gets enough time down."

"Oh, does he go non-verbal just to relax as well?" Jamie asked eagerly. "Toffee thought it meant something was wrong."

"Yeah, we should have made sure he had space for that while Toffee was with us as well." Danny laughed a bit ruefully.

Foggy smiled at the relief in the room. "It can be a bit startling, especially when they creep around like ghosts. Matt's always been good at total silence."

"Toffee's too quiet a lot of the time too." Jamie added softly.

"I feel like you need a bell," Foggy said brightly to Matt's extremely indignant squawks about how no no no, he was not too quiet thank you very much, others just needed a good dose of situational awareness!

"I cheat with my chi-sense." He mock-whispered to Jamie and Ivannya,making them giggle.

"But I think we might be talking about different types of quiet. Toffee doesn't really move that quietly, but he doesn't say when he needs attention or care sometimes."

Can be a problem too, Matt murmured despite himself, and then sighed with annoyance as the bleeding started again, he felt horrendously clogged and his nose hurt hurt hurt, would be bruised for absolutely days, and he heard Foggy gently ask if they'd like some suggestions, he was used to dealing with that problem.

"That might be helpful, yes." Even if she wasn't sure how reliable his suggestions were they'd give a useful perspective on the problem. And it would distract Golubushka's owner from his bleeding.

Foggy cleared his throat first. "Well, there are a lot of times when talking about things through other lenses can help. Are there any TV shows or popular book series that are comedies or light-hearted but are also about pets--or at least deal with them well--that you think he might go for? He also might open up much more when talking about things that are affecting him if it's completely fantasy or disconnected. And it's really important to react positively when they do start to tell you about something, even if it's really upsetting or scary. Otherwise it can feel like they're being punished for being open--damned if you do and damned if you don't. And when people feel that way, it's totally pointless to them to do the difficult work of asking for help and being vulnerable, when that before would very literally have gotten them killed."

"We've been introducing him to Pets, it's a sort of comedy slice of life show about six house pets who live in the same apartment block." She explained a bit about the show while Jamie whispered to Golubushka to keep his head forward and breathe through his mouth.

"Oh, like Friends?" Foggy asked pleasantly. "I loved that show when it first aired, I bet Pets is really fun too. Tell me about the characters," he said, in what he hoped wasn't an actual order.

--

Matt took slow deep breaths and managed to not snap that he knew what he was doing and that he did not need any help, knew Jamie-pet was being sweet helpful trying to make it stop felt bad about it? but the dizziness wasn't getting much better and the blood wasn't stopping any time he so much as moved an inch, and he winced knew he might have to be lectured about it, did not have unlimited blood, and really really didn't want the hospital visit, did not feel like he could stand it, hated hated absolutely hated doctors at best of times, felt weak and shaky and there was the horrible memory thing his brain had sealed off, and he wanted to crawl in his own nest and curl up with Foggy and Pirozhki or lie in bed and sip water and not have to think, but he was cold and tired and really worried about blood on his nice sweater.

"Jamie, how about you go and prepare some hand snacks with dark green leafy vegetables, to help Golubushka afterwards?" He made the suggestion gently under the cover of Ivannya's enthusiastic description of the characters in Pets. Then when Jamie stood up he turned his attention to Golubushka.

"Golubsuhka, I can use chi to cauterise the blood vessels that are bleeding, that is the preferred treatment for a nosebleed that goes to hospital."

"He eats meat too," Foggy said very gently to Jamie, "Thank you so much." He wrapped his arms around Matt and kissed his hair softly. "It hasn't really stopped, has it?"

Matt shook his head slightly and made a noise of absolute frustration. Foggy kissed him again. "I hear you," he said patiently as he could. "Alright--hospital or Danny?"

Matt honest-to-god snarled, bit at his mouth, but hissed out, "Danny," looking absolutely furious at the whole situation. Foggy couldn't blame him.

"Okay. I'll be right here, please don't bite anyone," Foggy said jokingly, and took a gentle step back.

He rested his hand on Golubushka's cheek, shutting his eyes and reaching out with his chi to locate the broken blood vessels and cauterise them with a quick flare of power, pulling back at once.

"Done. Just a matter of washing the blood off now." And he glanced over at Ivannya, prompting her to offer to get some wet wipes.

Matt stayed very very still and when the Danny let him go he clutched at his nose and whimpered at the cold fire pain, sharp and horrible like something foreign and wrong touching him, burrowing into him and stabbing at him, and he yelped as it suddenly intensified, get it off me get it off me--!

What the fuck? He'd withdrawn his chi! But he knew that water would work to wash any chi traces off. "Ivannya, get a bowl of water and some cloths instead of wet wipes please. And, do you have anything Golubushka could use to irrigate his nostrils?"

"Yes, I can get a neti pot or a syringe. And I'll bring along some of the cooled water we boiled for tea earlier for that. Sir, which would you prefer?" She addressed Golubushka's master.

"The first one!" Foggy said quickly, moving to rub Matt's back, horrified at how he was panicking. Matt never panicked, would grit his teeth or else just go quiet in the face of pain (if he wasn't feeling trusting--sometimes he really trusted Foggy nowadays, would let him see how bad it was, and it was touching and horrible).

Matt was making a guttural noise of pain and fear as Foggy helped get the sweater off so it wouldn't get dirty, and clutching and clawing at his face, as Foggy had to grab his hands.

"What did you do?" he hissed at Danny. "This isn't normal!"

And he grabbed the wet cloth and started using it on Matt's face immediately.

(OOC: I thought you had Golubushka getting better with handling other people's chi, not worse?)

"The exact same thing I'd do for any of my friend who were in that situation. And no shit it's not normal, I withdrew my chi!"

Ivannya hurried back, offering the neti pot to Foggy, on a tray with the bowl of water and an empty bowl.

(OOC-- he's better at it with his friend Danny, who he trusts at least somewhat. This one is just different enough to be really unnerving, and the chi is trying to get at his self-imposed mental block from earlier in the day.)

The rinsing was agony, sharp, and Matt whined but it felt like the pain was being pulled out of him like a knife or a person done using him for now, and he cooperated better then, taking the wet towels and using shaking hands to wipe more and more water over himself, and the pain receded, leaving tender bruised-feeling face, sore, and he gasped for air for a minute, shuddering hard, and asked other-Danny uncanny-valley hated-him trying to fix my head too? Felt like, trying to burrow inside my skull.

"No, you don't use chi to get into people's heads. Well, I don't. I know better than to think I've got the skills for that." He frowned, considering the question. "I did have to probe to locate the right blood vessels to cauterise, maybe it's a combination of you being hypersensitive to chi, and the fact that it's impossible to withdraw all of my chi without taking some of yours, and that's a really bad idea."

That was kind of a creepy response (he didn't really morally object to doing that?) Foggy thought, but was mostly watching Matt, who seemed calmer, like he often did during a crisis, and nodded thoughtfully and winced. "Could be there are scars close to there. Or I got hurt without knowing and the chi was trying to fix it? Has happened before," Matt said slowly, feeling out every syllable, "But also...you could use too too much. Is like too much antiseptic in cuts. Hurts a lot more without being necessary," he said and smiled a little. "Not your fault," he said reassuringly, and sagged back against Foggy.

And then the lights flickered and went off, and a storm howled outside.

Re: Danny: Visiting and Helping

Jamie: Visiting and Helping

Re: Jamie: Visiting and Helping

Jamie: Visiting and Helping

Re: Jamie: Visiting and Helping

Danny: Visiting and Helping

Re: Danny: Visiting and Helping

Jamie: Visiting and Helping

Re: Jamie: Visiting and Helping

Danny: Visiting and Helping

Re: Danny: Visiting and Helping

Ivannya: Visiting and Helping

Re: Ivannya: Visiting and Helping

Ivannya: Visiting and Helping

Re: Ivannya: Visiting and Helping

Danny: Visiting and Helping

Re: Danny: Visiting and Helping

Danny: Visiting and Helping

Re: Danny: Visiting and Helping

Danny: Visiting and Helping

Re: Danny: Visiting and Helping

Danny: Visiting and Helping

Re: Danny: Visiting and Helping

Danny: Visiting and Helping

Re: Danny: Visiting and Helping