thearena | Our Lights Blot Out Her Face [Closed]

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Our Lights Blot Out Her Face [Closed]

WHO| Venus and Kankri
WHAT| Kankri stitches the poor girl up.
WHEN| Last night of week one.
WHERE| Fourth floor.
WARNINGS| Blood and near-death and gore.

She isn't unconscious. She's simple deciding not to be awake. That's the story Venus Dee Milo tells herself as she wraps herself in a warm cocoon of her own blood, shrinking inside herself to escape the cold dripping on her skin.

She could stay here forever, in this half-state, drifting past the lightning trees of blood vessels in her eyes. There's nothing here, no hurt, no pain - but no boredom, either, no restlessness. It's like a trip to the beach without even the sand getting in your sandals or the sun baking your lips. It's sleep without the nagging feeling that you're wasting time, without gravity carving soreness into your muscles.

Except there's this voice.

She tries to ignore it at first, but the voice gets softer, and somehow that makes it all the worse. It goes from sad to forlorn, and then it's accompanied by the feeling of being moved, and it's invading the castle of detachment she has built for herself. She bats it away, but it wraps around her wrists, yanks open her eyes, wipes her cheek-

"What?"

It's not the most glamorous way to come back to. She's honestly only been out for thirty seconds or so, but it's long enough that the blood pooling around her is starting to cool and feel uncomfortably cold as it soaks her clothing. She tries to breath and gets a mouthful of it, and coughs and forces it back out her mouth and nose as she struggles against Kankri pulling her.

"Get off- I'm fine- where'd he go?"

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"You are not fine, Venus, I was worried," Kankri protests, but he's so, so relieved to see her awake. "He's gone. He went to another floor on the elevator after I grabbed the supplies. -It's for you, by the way. From Enjolras."

Insistently he continues to tug her back towards the cafe. "We're vulnerable out here, let's go back, please."

"Enj sent me..." Her eyes roll back into her head for a second, which looks outright horrible with the orange-tinted dreamy smile that washes over her face. Then she comes back to.

"Stop dragging me," she says suddenly. There's a trail of her own blood smeared behind her. If they go back to the cafe, they'll leave a practical roadmap for anyone looking to finish her off.

She waves a finger at the men's restroom nearby. "We can wash me off in there."

Kankri nods hurriedly. "Okay." He doesn't comment on her reaction to hearing that Enjolras sent her a gift. He's seen the footage, late at night, of the two of them in the Capitol; when he asked once or twice, she wasn't terribly forthcoming, so he figures it must be personal.

He helps Venus over to the men's restroom, and opens up the canister once they're inside. "Oh!" he says, startled and pleased. "There's a first aid kit in here. And food, and water."

The face that greets her in the mirror is not a pretty one. The bottom half of her face is a horrifying bloody visage, and red, snotty bubbles gurgle up out of the wound across her nose. The blade must have wicked through her sinuses.

Christ.

"Oh, thank fuck," she says to the canisters. Her legs buckle slightly and she catches herself on a sink. "Kankri, make sure all the stalls are empty."

They're all open, but safety first. Venus turns on the warm water, legs shaking beneath her, and lets the blood drip into little ribbons squiggling down the drain.

He nods, peeking into every corner of each of the stalls while Venus gets a handle on her injuries. "There's no one else in here," he tells her, trotting back to the sinks. "Do...do you need help with that?"

It looks like she needs stitches. Kankri's never done stitches. Oh boy is he ever nervous.

"Good, good." She's about to wave Kankri off when her knees go out from under her again, and she barely manages to keep from falling over. Blood loss isn't an injury she's all that familiar with.

"I think...napkins. Stitches." She lowers herself to the floor and sits.

He crosses to her quickly, helping support her in case she stumbles again.

"All right." He opens up the first aid kit, and there's so much there, it's great. He gets out some tissues from the novelty pack that he carries with him just in case, dabbing away what Venus hasn't washed off. "Okay. I can't read the labels, so if there's some sort of antiseptic in here you'll have to point it out to me. I think we should do that before...um. Yes. Is there any kind of anesthetic in there? For the stitches?"

He pushes it over a little so Venus can get a good look at the contents.

Edited 2014-01-25 20:54 (UTC)

"Don't need anesthetic." She isn't much more equipped than Kankri to know what's in the kit, but she recognizes antiseptic, at least. She grabs it and fumbles and shoves it at Kankri.

"Just antiseptic and stitches. And sleep and hydration. And..." She fondles something else in the kit. Booster capsules? She tries to read it and the words seem to fuzz in and out, something about encouraging blood cell regeneration.

"Will you stop it?" Kankri snaps crossly. "I've no idea where this- this need of yours to act like nothing affects you comes from, but you shouldn't be turning down perfectly sensible measures for your well-being. Everything I've heard has told me that stitches hurt, and your face is already quite sensitive. And if you're going to tell me it's a waste of supplies, please consider that the more injured you are, the more danger I'm in! And you've done all this to protect me, yes? So don't make it have been a waste! We have the supplies, your possible matesprit sent them specifically for you to use, so we are going to use them. Now find me the anesthetic," he hisses, holding his hand out imperiously.

Edited 2014-01-26 07:37 (UTC)

That actually gives Venus pause. She had no idea Kankri had it in him to talk back to her, especially when she's been trying to project an aura of invincibility around him.

Looks like he pegged her hypercompetence as just run-of-the-mill stubbornness. Venus lowers her eyes to the medical kit and weakly picks through the contents until she finds a bottle and a syringe and puts them in his hand.

It takes her a moment to compose herself enough to look at Kankri again.

"I'm trying to keep it together for both of us, too." She rests her head against the tile of the bathroom wall, face purposefully still and serious both to let Kankri have easy access to the injury and to avoid telegraphing any of her other emotions. "And Enjolras isn't my, my matesprit or whatever you're saying. We're friends. Strictly friends. He's made that very clear."

"You're not going to keep anything together if you won't just take help when it's offered," Kankri mutters, but he seems mollified by that. Businesslike, he wipes down the nasty gash with the antiseptic. Then he takes the bottle, gulps a touch nervously, and injects the syringe into it, drawing some of the liquid out. "I think it's a reasonable assumption that this will likely sting a bit," he tells her softly, and then injects both of her cheeks with it, one after the other.

Diligently he washes off the syringe and wipes it clean afterwards. His hands aren't trembling at all, what are you talking about. "I...I'm going to go get you something to sit on while that settles in," he mumbles, and absconds from the bathroom to find a chair and also hyperventilate for a few minutes.

He puts on his calmest face when he returns, though. Two chairs, not just one. He sets them both down and takes a seat in one, motioning for Venus to sit in the other as he rummages in the kit. "How is your face feeling?" he says, more than a little awkwardly.

"I think I'll live." She holds still while the needle goes in, not letting even the slightest wince work its way into her brow. She coughs slightly as blood draining from her sinuses tries to get down her throat, and blood and snot dribble from her mouth. So sexy.

She waits with her eyes closed while Kankri goes out. She knows she should stay on guard, that there's a bloody trail advertising her as easy prey to anyone who stumbles on it, but she finds it hard to care at the moment. It's tempting to just fall asleep, and hope she either wakes in a warm Capitol bed or not at all.

It's the sound of Kankri coming back in that saves her from those thoughts.

"Numb," she says, her words mushy and soft. Her tongue feels like a bloated slug in her mouth. "Ve'y numb."

"Okay, I think that's how it's supposed to work," he says nervously, scooting his chair forward. "Hold still. I really hope this isn't going to hurt."

Kankri threads the firm cord through the needle, takes a deep breath, and silently hopes very hard that he doesn't mess this up. He winces as he pushes it into her wounded flesh, obviously very squeamish, but gamely keeps at it. The stitches are uneven but relatively small, and they do a good enough job at keeping Venus's face sewn together.

When he's halfway through he has to pause. Wipe down his sweating hands with a clean towel. "H...how is it doing?" he asks, as if it's breaking his heart. He's really not happy about having to do this, even if he's determined to.

She's a good enough patient, although she's woozy enough that at one point she sways forward mid-suture and nearly has Kankri put her eye out. Other than that, she stays still, relaxing her face so he can tug the skin around in some approximation of the right places.

"I'm not in w'ithing agony," she says. A dollop of bloody drool drips down onto her thigh. She can't help but think that she's losing all those viewers who saw her as a poised, graceful being until now. "Yuh doing a good job. 'Hank you."

She imagines it would sound much more comforting if she could talk, so she reaches a hand over and squeezes his knee.

"You're welcome," he says softly, bending in to resume his work. "It's the least I could do, when you've been so kind."

One stitch after another after another, and after what seems like an eternity Kankri can finally tie off the thread and give the end a little snip. It's not pretty by any stretch of the imagination, but it'll work at least.

For good measure he dabs it with antiseptic again. Then he wets a paper towel from a dispenser nearby and gently cleans Venus's face of the blood and snot and drool. "There we are. Try to be more careful, okay? I worry about you."

The viewers at home are probably going wild over all this.

Edited 2014-01-26 09:02 (UTC)

She'd nod but her head feels heavy, and it seems like it would hurt. She uses her hands to pull her thigh up. "I can patch up where the bastudd bit me."

The bleeding hasn't stopped there, and the print on her onesie is now decided stained through down her leg. She examines the injury and impassively grabs the antiseptic and a bandage.

"Human mouths are full of bacte'ia." She winces and muffles a cry as she pours antiseptic on the concave wound in her thigh. She doesn't have much fat for him to have bit through, so there's a hunk of muscle ripped out, and fibers weeping down with the blood. Tears roll from her eyes unbidden.

"Can you stitch that too?"

"Sure." Kankri gulps, getting more anesthetic to inject into it. "Could you try and hold it together while I do? It'll make it a little easier, and probably more even."

He sighs, threading the needle again. "Who was he? He looked- very wrong, for a human."

It's more painful than her face. Venus can't help but cry. Maybe if she'd had a human body for longer, it would be easier to fight it, but sometimes this physical form does things she hates.

"Don't know. New. He-" She bites down on a scream as the suture goes in. "He's playing the Game, though. Said his name was Kevin."

"I'm sorry," Kankri says softly at every flinch and choked-back sound of pain, but he keeps going. Nibbles his lip nervously.

"Well. At least whoever he is, he's likely going off quite badly injured himself, yes?" It feels weird, to be saying that's a good thing. "So he'll be less able to threaten people. And I'll bet he doesn't have any friends to look after him, mm?" He smiles shakily at Venus, trying to cheer her up a little.

"Almost done. Just a little more."

"He's new. No time to form alliances." Venus screws her eyes shut as Kankri finishes up, clutching her hands over her other knee until her knuckles blanch. Who knew the inside of the thigh had so many nerve endings?

"B'oke his wibs, smashed his face, stabbed him in the ahm." She exhales deeply when Kankri pulls his hands away. "Okay. Thank you."

Kankri nods, then remembers something. "Oh! I visited the cafeteria earlier."

From his little bag he pulls, of all things, a cup of mango yogurt. "Here. I remember you liked it." Then he turns to pull a roll of bandage out of the kit.

"Oh..."

She takes it with shaking hands and examines it. The tears return, but not from pain now - from the realization that she hasn't had someone do something that kind for her, well, ever, and from the fact that she can't eat it now because it'll taste like blood and get all over her numb chin.

"Thank you, Kankri." She reaches an arm forward for a half-hug.

Kankri isn't always the most comfortable with hugs, but honestly, after this much time in the arena he can certainly appreciate the need, and he and Venus have spent so much time in one another's company that he can feel relatively secure with her. Tentatively he hugs her back, patting her shoulder awkwardly.

"I'm sorry I can't do more for your injuries," he mumbles. "I'll try and do some of the...patrols and supply runs, to make things easier on you. If you could teach me what to look for, anyway."

"You're doing fine, honey." She pats him lightly and starts to rise to her feet. "I can still do pat'ols-"

She chews her tongue to try and get some feeling back into it, so she can talk normally. It isn't all that effective yet. "I can still do that. Just need to west first."

She leans on him while she lifts her leg up to the sink, so she can rinse the blood caking onto it off. "Anyone ever tell you you're a sweetie?"

"Ah? No, not really. Mostly that I talk too much," Kankri says, too taken aback to say anything but the first thing that pops into his head. It doesn't help that he's very much trying to avoid looking at the grotesque mess of Venus's thigh. It's still jarring, seeing that bright cherry blood in someone else. He does have to pay enough attention so he knows when she's mostly done and he can hand her the bandage to wrap the injury in, though.

"What was it like?" he asks, after some silence. "Where you're from. What did you do before you came here?"

She wraps it, making sure not to pull it too tight. While she works she continues to chew on her tongue. It brings the feeling back, even though it hurts her face to move her jaw.

"I was a superhero for hire, basically. Saving people, getting filmed and paid for it."

"Oh. That sounds interesting. It sounds nice, trying to help people and having that recognized." He gets out another tissue, dabbing slightly at a bit of blood still leaking out of the jagged cut on Venus's face. "To go from that to, well, this...it must have been quite jarring for you."

"Not really. It's more of the same." She finishes washing herself up and cleans her blade. "I'll get new clothes tomorrow."

She decides not to explain more of what she means to Kankri. There's no point in telling him that helping people was really just a way they could sleep at night after letting their agent make the tough calls - not on what was more moral, but what sold best to advertisers. No way of saying that she walked away from plenty of fights with dead teammates and no winners and comforting herself with a paycheck rather than righteousness.

So she doesn't. She just limps out of the bathroom and heads towards the cafe, and once there she curls up in the pantry with a sack of flour for a pillow.

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Our Lights Blot Out Her Face [Closed]

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wow i got really confused pretend he just said it was a first aid kit idek what i was smokin

lol I didn't even notice

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