we need some healin' in here

[scrapgege]

WHO: Xie Lian, Wen Qing
WHEN: After the joyride at Ahra's tomb, which included putting bare hands on pretty much live wire.
WHERE: At the caravan camp.
WHAT: Xie Lian did promise he would go to get help if he was hurt, even if it doesn't hurt, honest, he promises!!!
WARNINGS: None really, except for Xie Lian's weird relationship to pain. There might be some triggery thing related to death/potential self harm if the conversation goes in that direction (will tag appropriately if that happens).



[Xie Lian did promise he would come for some healing if he got hurt. He still thinks that all he really needs is a bandage, maybe some sort of ointment, and the burns and cuts will basically take care of themselves in time. It's far from the worst injury he's ever gotten, after all.

But he did promise, and even if it doesn't help much, it cannot hurt.

He'll seek out her tent, and call out when he gets in front.]

Lady Wen? You said I should come if I got hurt, and...

Comments

[silverneedles]

[ After the day they've had, it's no surprise to hear someone outside her tent. Wen Qing only sets aside the work she had been doing (folding her spare robes) to push open the flap of her tent, stepping outside to look. ]

Lord Xie. [ She greets him with a formal bow, low enough to show respect to an immortal. It's quick, and she straightens up to look him over. ] You were injured today.

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[Xie Lian actually looks flustered at her bow, quickly stepping forward to try and interrupt it.]

You don't need to to that! Really, it's fine!

[He is about to tell her he is not a Lord either, but then he remembers the title most people know him as is 'Your Highness' and wisely keeps his mouth shut about it.]

It's nothing much, but you said to come, so...

[The nothing much, it turns out, is a few deep lacerations and contact burns, but he doesn't seem to be bothered in the least by it.]

[silverneedles]

[ Despite her most recent home having been a burial mound, Wen Qing has manners, and she isn't going to offend an immortal. But she does rise at his words, studying him closely, taking his arm to examine the lacerations and burns. Her touch is impersonal but as gentle as possible, to not further aggravate anything. ]

Nothing much?

[ With an annoyed sound, she drops his arm, disappearing into her tent and returning a few moments later with bandages, a bowl of water, and a pot of salve tucked into her robe. ] Qi will help but only so much.

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Haha, well honestly, if it was just me, I would have bandaged it and waited for it to heal on its own.

[Which is usually what he does with most injuries, to be honest.]

It doesn't really hurt, but since you insisted I should come, it would have been rude not to. And having someone knowledgeable tend to it is probably better than what I can do on my own, so thank you.

[Honestly, the salve will help more than the qi, most probably, which she will very much understand if she takes his pulse. He does have an absolute massive amount of it, and it's healthy. There is just... something constraining it to a slightly more manageable level that is still exceeding by far what the most gifted cultivator could hope to achieve.]

[silverneedles]

[ After setting everything down, she reaches for his wrist, only to discover that yes, a transfer of qi is useless; with the qi she can feel in him, it's a wonder the wounds haven't healed already.

So cleaning the wounds and applying salve is the best she can manage, and she sets about doing that, starting with the lacerations. ] And continue to do so as you get injured, daozhang. [ Not the best read to visit a healer but she'll accept it.

She talks as she works, covers the lacerations on his arm with a thin layer of salve, then bandages them as carefully as she can manage. ] Is it a curse?

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[It's still kind of a novelty for him to have a healer around, and one that would bother with him as well.

Her next question makes him give a start.]

... Excuse me?

[So she could feel that, huh.]

Ha, it's... complicated.

[silverneedles]

[ Luckily her hands are busy and she does have to focus somewhat, even though she's been applying bandages to people for as long as she can remember, probably could manage it in her sleep. ]

You have time to talk.

[scrapgege]

[.... Well, she's a doctor, right? And it's just the two of them, and she sensed it anyway.

Xie Lian's free hand goes to tug at the bandage around his neck, revealing that it hides not an injury or scar, but the curse mark.]

... I have another one, around my ankle. It limits my power and my luck.

Before I came here, I had broken them... but when I woke up here, they were back on. It's not that much of a problem, I've had them for hundreds of years, but I just don't know what could have brought them back.

[silverneedles]

[ She doesn't reach out and touch, like she might on another individual, but she does lean in closer, pausing in the middle of wrapping one of his wounds, and studies the mark. ]

That is not a curse with which I am familiar. [ Not all that unusual, although she saw many different curses while dealing with her uncle. ] You have had it for hundreds of years?

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I didn't think you would be. The Heavenly Emperor put those on me himself.

[He tightens the bandages again. He's not exactly ashamed of the mark, but it tends to make other people uncomfortable to see it.]

I... broke some rules of heaven that I shouldn't have. This was my punishment. The second one... when I was banished for the second time, I asked for it to be put on me, so I could just go back to the mortal world and reflect on myself.

I have carried both of those for pretty much five hundred years, I think. But I broke them, not that long ago. And the one who put them on me isn't here.

[He suddenly stiffens a little, as if he had not entertained the possibility.]

At least, I don't think so. I would have felt his presence.

[silverneedles]

[ The admission of having been carrying around two curses for five hundred years does get her to make a face, frowning at him. ] Five hundred years for a punishment?

[ It isn't the worst punishment, especially not for someone immortal, but it's still a long time, and she doesn't believe this kind, smiling man could have done something so terrible as to get a curse for five hundred years.

But... ]

If you needed that long to reflect on yourself, perhaps you should have reconsidered your methods and tried something else?

[scrapgege]

I... did some really bad things.

[Please don't make him go into details. It was bad, and he will own to it having been bad, but even after all this time it's still somewhat traumatic.]

I went back to the mortal world to live among humans and cultivate, and remind myself of certain things. I think it worked out alright, in the end. It definitely brought me back down to where I started, and reminded me of things I shouldn't have forgotten.