Rainbow of Red [Closed] - Printable Version
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Rainbow of Red [Closed] - megs - 01-18-2018
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RE: Rainbow of Red [Closed] - megs - 01-18-2018
“I’m looking for a nurse.”Darcy Weatherfare spoke down to the harried looking woman manning the front desk of the military hospital, both literally and figuratively. He was decidedly taller than she would have been even if she had been standing, and his authoritative tone filled the space in such a way that suggested his whims would be met quickly and accurately. Darcy could intimidate without his height or his tone. All he needed was his tailored officer’s uniform and the shining bars on his chest that heralded him as a high ranking general. Even more so was the Covenant of Allied Forces, Central Command patch on his sleeve that blatantly stated that this was a man who would be listened to.
“Or a healer. Whatever it is those Eskran women call themselves.”
He frowned down at the desk-woman when she did not immediately jump into action. She was staring at him. He had that effect on people. There was no denying that General Weatherfare was a handsome man. He cleared his throat pointedly and the woman blinked rapidly.
Her gaze fell away from him, bashfully. “Of course, General…uh..”
“Weatherfare.”
Her voice had wavered when she spoke, and Darcy sympathized with her, but he did not drop his coolly indifferent facade. He had a part to play, just like anyone else.
They were in the middle of a war after all.
“General Weatherfare,” she echoed in understanding. She was Eskran as well, but her short-cropped brunette hair meant she wasn’t the one he was seeking. “Who exactly are you looking for?”
“Exactly?” His brows lifted towards his hairline. The dark locks were combed back towards the crown of his head. Warm amber eyes rolled upwards as well, but it was unclear whether they shifted in thought or in annoyance. “I don’t know. She’s about this big.” He lifted his hand, palm down, to indicate a height that was just below his sternum. “And she has red hair. Very red. She very recently treated Sargent Hart for an infection.”
The woman didn’t look happy. ‘Of average height, with red hair’ was not the most specific of descriptors for an Eskran woman. “Wait here,” was all she said after a moment of thought before she turned her back on him and disappeared further into the medical facility.
Darcy sighed and pushed his hand through his hair. His hands disappeared into the pockets of his slacks as he waited.
RE: Rainbow of Red [Closed] - saronym - 01-18-2018
It wasn’t every day that a general came looking for her. Especially not a CAF general. Ishara fought a tsunami of fear. What did they want with her? She’d been keeping out of trouble...mostly. She didn’t let her anxiety show on her face. She kept it pleasant and neutral, smiling empathetically as Leyla told her about the intimidating general waiting near triage for her. “Let me finish this dressing and then I’ll go see what this general wants.” She said soothingly to the young receptionist. Leyla looked hesitant to go tell a general he would have to wait, but Ishara gave the other woman a look to suggest there would be no arguments about it. “It’ll be alright, dear. I’ll handle him.”
Ishara did make him wait. For as long as she dared. She took her time finishing up the dressing on her present patient and checking on a couple of others before she even started for the triage area. Leyla was looking down the hallway anxiously waiting for Ishara and looked relieved when the redhead finally showed. Ishara didn’t need any indication who was waiting for her. He was easy enough to pick out by all the regalia on his uniform. A general indeed.
She marched straight up to the man and crossed her arms under her breasts and made the most impatient looking face. “Come to compliment me on my good work?” She asked without bothering to hide the obvious ridicule in it. “I’m quite busy, General ...ah…” She peered suspiciously at his name tag. “Weatherfare. That’s a funny name.” She poked the embroidered letter “D” on his chest. “What’s the ‘D’ stand for?”
RE: Rainbow of Red [Closed] - megs - 01-19-2018
Darcy didn’t know what to expect. He grew impatient with waiting, but he didn’t show it. He stood where he had been left, hands in his pockets, pretending that he wasn’t at all perturbed by the delay. He briefly considered leaving at one point. He wasn’t on official business, only satisfying a nagging curiosity. He could just come back tomorrow. He fought the urge to dip out, and it paid off. Finally, she appeared. Darcy glanced at her quickly over his shoulder, before his body turned to receive her arrival. Whoever she was, she matched Renly’s description. Small and red-haired with pale green eyes. She was pretty. No wonder Renly was all up in his feelings about her.
“Maybe I have.” He replied to her dripping sarcasm with a smirk. Darcy had yet to remove his hands from his pockets. He did not offer to shake her hand or properly introduce himself. Which was rude and just another part of playing haughty general. His posture left him open for her poking and her questioning.
He frowned. Looking down his nose and the finger that pushed against his chest. “Dante,” he replied without missing a beat. Perhaps, he would have been honest with her if she had no called his surname ‘funny.’ Darcy played a game with misleading those outside of his company.
“And who do I have the pleasure of speaking to?”
RE: Rainbow of Red [Closed] - saronym - 01-19-2018
Ishara retracted her finger from the tall, grumpy looking general’s chest slowly and then tapped the same finger against her lips as if she were considering something. Whatever it was quickly passed and her eyes jumped back to his face. He was handsome. That was pretty much an objective fact. Ishara tried not to pay much attention to it or those alluring eyes of his. How many ruined handsome faces did she look upon everyday? His might be ruined soon enough.Something that could only be described as a wicked smile spread over her face when he asked for her name. “Pleasure?” She asked covering her mouth with her hand demurely. “You flatter me.”
“You came looking for me, but you don’t know who I am?” She asked blinking innocently. “That’s odd. No matter. My name is Ishara. I’m a healer here in this military hospital. I specialize in trauma right now. I’m not an expert but I’m learning quickly. A lot of power is needed to put your little toy soldiers back together, you see. Believe it or not, but this little body is apparently a battery for magical energy. It’s a gift and a curse.” She sighed wistfully after she relayed the little introduction rapidly. With a flick of her hand she sent a wave of red hair over her shoulder before she continued laying more irrelevant information on the general.
“In my apprenticeship, I did intensive studies on infections which is why so many of your men keep coming to me.” She paused and tsked looking genuinely concerned. “Their health is so poor, General, so poor. You really should do something about that. ” She couldn’t help but risk another jab at the apparent lacking effectiveness of his authority. She wanted to see how far she could push the general before he would erupt and expose himself.
“So!” She stopped her speech and clasped her hands together in front of her neatly. “What can I do for you?”
RE: Rainbow of Red [Closed] - megs - 01-19-2018
Darcy wasn’t so easily baited. He let her play her little game and waited her out patiently. He expected nothing less from a native whose country was literally being invaded by the very organization he worked for. Eskran women were known for their brash and fiery nature even without such circumstances. “The Sargent who spoke of you wasn’t given a name,” he explained though it would do nothing to absolve him of his ignorance in her eyes. “Yet, he spoke very highly of you all the same.” It wasn’t not entirely false. Renly spoke very highly of her, just not necessarily of her technical ability.
It was more that he went on and on about the color of her hair and the shape of her mouth. Which in his objective opinion was nice enough. He observed the way her lips moved as she chattered at him about her skills and her history. He waited only she was finished. His expression resembling something like serene amusement.
“We’re doing what we can,” he replied, noncommittally. He finally removed his hands from his pockets to cross his arms over his chest. “We have our own medical staff working to accommodate the abysmal conditions of this country.” Darcy couldn’t resist a subtle jab of his own.
“Are you formally trained?” He asked, ignoring the inquiry of what she could do for him. In truth, nothing really. He was just being nosy and scouting out the object of his friends obsession. “Is there a magic college in Eskra?”
RE: Rainbow of Red [Closed] - saronym - 01-20-2018
Ishara didn’t give him the satisfaction of preening under the compliment he gave her. So, she had treated one of his sergeants and that sergeant praised her and that's what had brought the General to her? Something about that seemed suspect. “Mmmm.” She hummed, amused with Weatherfare’s put-down of her country. “Yes, this is a country suited to a .. what would you say? A more... robust people. Whatever will you all do come winter? The war certainly won’t be over by then.” She espoused her own predictions on the course of the war letting him know she believed the Eskrans had a bit more fight in them.
Ishara laughed out right at the General’s question about her training. The sound of it was of unashamed amusement. “Oh you really have so much to learn, General.” She giggled at him behind her hand, refusing to answer the question more directly. A taste of his own medicine as it were.
She moved up a step towards him and smiled warmly as if they weren’t embroiled in a contest of wills. “Now, darling,” she cupped her hands over his cheeks, “tell me, what brought you to this hospital to see me today?”
Well...since she was already touching him. She opened herself to sensing him. His heart, breath, skin temperature, skeleton, muscles, tendons. She had long since surpassed the need to say the words to the basic diagnostic spell out loud. She just needed physical contact with her patient.
She hadn’t realized that had she raised herself up on her toes to better look him in the eyes. What was that color? She didn’t know the name of it…She was distracted and it was slowing her down. She closed her eyes for just a moment and was finished. There was nothing wrong with him except a sort of irritable mood she could sense even without magic. Maybe she had contributed a bit to that mood.
She dropped abruptly on her heels taking her hands from his face as she did and sighed. “So you did come to tell me ‘good job’ didn’t you?” She asked sounding almost disappointed there wasn’t some problem with him she could solve.
RE: Rainbow of Red [Closed] - megs - 01-20-2018
Ishara was posturing to him as if he were dealing with another general and not some chatty healer. His countenance remained much to same as it had throughout their interaction. Nothing much to discern from his features save for a pleasant neutrality. Amber eyes made lazy saccades over her person as she moved and giggled coyly. “Robust is certainly a word for it,” he bit back, calmly. “I look forward to experiencing an Eskran winter.” Darcy was of Veridian descent and had grown up on Laine, the harshest of the isles. Though Eskran temperatures could give the wintery island a run for its money he found that he personally did not mind the cold.
Brows climbed his forehead when she moved towards him, but he stood his ground before the small redhead. He’d not quite categorized her as a threat, which could have been foolish given her previous admittance to magical abilities. Her hands were soft and warm against his face. He blinked down at the short woman as she studied his eyes. He could feel that subtle tingle of magic work over him.
“You sound almost disappointed that there is nothing wrong with me,” he pointed out dryly. He scrubbed a hand over his beard and frowned down at her. “Would you rather I be dying than have come to compliment you for your work?” As soon as he said it the answer had come to him. It was perhaps the wrong answer, but his frown deepened. “Of course you would. Nothing quite like a foreigner sick at your feet.”
RE: Rainbow of Red [Closed] - saronym - 01-21-2018
She watched his hand as he rubbed at his beard. His uniform sleeves were long and tailored at the wrists but she could see tattoos peeping out from under the sleeve and on his hand. Though curious about those marks, she forced her gaze back to his. “I’m not disappointed, General.” She said quietly. She was much more subdued than at any other time during their encounter. “I’m glad you’re in good health. I pray that the blessings of Eurys be upon you and that your strength be with you that you might see an Eskran winter.” Whether her well-wishing was genuine or a more devious guilt-trip, Ishara didn’t let on. She took a rapid step towards him the blush-colored layers of her chiffon skirt swirled around her feet as she hooked her arm through one of his.
“Come now. The ones who need to hear ‘good job’ from their general are the broken men filling the trauma wing.” The insistence of her pulling suggested that she wouldn’t have argument about taking him on a tour of the wing, but it’s not as if she could move him if he wouldn’t be moved. She patted his arm encouragingly thinking all the while about the tattoos she suspected were hidden under there. She was intrigued by the general who wasn’t so cut and dry like the others and who seemed to have a near endless patience. What a fun game it was to try to get under his skin.
“Come with me, I’ll give you a tour if you have the time.”
RE: Rainbow of Red [Closed] - megs - 01-30-2018
Darcy narrowed his eyes at her. He didn’t know what it was about Ishara’s blessing that suddenly made him feel uncomfortable. Perhaps, it was her admittance to being skilled at magic; the words likely more a curse than a gift. It was more likely, however, he felt like he did not deserve such a boon from her. The general didn’t move away from her, even though he wanted to. His gaze dropped to the gauzy layers of her colorful skirt. He thought for a moment that the article didn’t seem very efficient for her position. There was something about her nature and her personality that made him wary of her, but he didn’t want her to know that. So he stood his ground. Even as she linked there arms together and arranged herself quite nicely at his side.
“I shouldn’t...” Darcy faltered, lamely, without an excuse. He could have said anything. He was too busy, he was late for something else, he didn’t want to, but Ishara didn’t come off to him like the type who would take no for an answer and she was already pulling him along besides. “I have...a bit of time.”
RE: Rainbow of Red [Closed] - saronym - 01-31-2018
Ishara was bound and determined to have the hard-nosed general take a tour of the trauma wing. She still had many questions as to why the man had sought her out in the first place. It didn’t seem to add up that he had come to see her on the word of a single sergeant. She ignored his feeble protests and pulled him in the general direction of the trauma wing. The receptionist gave Ishara some kind of horrified look at the way the healer had spoken to the CAF General to which Ishara gave a playful wink. Leyla was not comforted by that gesture.
“So General...erm, Dante was it? May I call you Dante?” She looked up at him from where she walked at his side, her arm still insistently hooked through his. “May I ask the name of the sergeant who mentioned me to you? And why his word compelled you to seek me out?”
She made a little skip of a step in sudden excitement and squeezed his arm against her side. “Do you have a special mission to bring me, sir? Am I the last hope for some mortally ill soldier ailing in your camp?”
RE: Rainbow of Red [Closed] - megs - 02-02-2018
To fill in her blank, he said, “Weatherfare,” as if he were bored and only grunted in response to her request to call him ‘Dante.’ It mattered little to him, she was wrong either way due to intentional misdirection. Amber eyes rolled upwards, feigning thoughtfulness, as she requested another name, before dropping down to look at her. He rubbed at his beard with his free hand. “Hart.” He adjusted Ishara’s arm more comfortably in the crook of his own, since she insisted on clinging to him. “Renly Hart.” Darcy looked down once more to where a small redhead was squeezing his arm in something like excitement. He wasn’t used to women being so familiar with him. Half were intimidated by his stature and his frown, and the other half considered him an enemy. “I told you exactly why I came,” he reminded her. His polished dress shoes clicked on the weathered linoleum flooring. “ I wanted to see what all the fuss over one healer was all about.”
RE: Rainbow of Red [Closed] - saronym - 02-02-2018
Ishara’s brows pulled together and he eyeballs rolled upwards at the ceiling as they walked. She pursed her lips and then blew air through them in frustration at her failing memory. “Hart, Hart, Hart. Hmmm.” She tapped at her lip with her index finger. She gave up trying to remember who it was, she had seen so many men afterall. She gave the General a skeptical look as he reaffirmed his claim that he was only there to see what she was about. Once again, she found that difficult to believe given how monstrous his workload must have been. The thought turned her mood kind of black. Pompous, arrogant, figured he had won the war already, eh? Burn sometime messing around with the locals, huh?
“I see.” Her voice was clipped and she tugged at his arm to redirect him down another hallway. Sounds of an increasingly chaotic situation reached them. Down the hall two double doors crashed open and a CAF medic pushing an empty gurney was running, apparently, to receive another patient. Ishara shoved up against the general though it was entirely unnecessary because he likely had sense enough to make room without her physical reminders.
Something about the panic on the medic’s face as he ran by jogged her memory. “Oh! That’s right. He had a leg infection. Renly, yes, I remember him. He assisted on a procedure, standing so bravely on his infected foot.” Ishara prattled about her encounter with the sergeant. “He’s a good soldier. I can tell. A bit rattled in his mind. His stress response is - well - it could use a good tinkering with.” Ishara popped up and walked on her toes to get close to the general’s ear to speak low. “Messing with the psyche strictly forbidden in our discipline but between you and me - we could work something out.” She patted her free hand on his chest in a way that was entirely too familiar. “Take a little time. Think on it. You know where to find me.”
By the time she finished her bizarre sales pitch, they had reached the double doors. She released his arm and shoved them open with a dramatic flourish that made a few orderlies and medics and wandering patients turn to see what the fuss was about.
“Welcome to the trauma bay, General Weatherfare.” Her cheerful announcement stood in stark contrast to the grisly spectacle of the place. Ishara waved her hands at the onlookers. “Shoo, shoo, all of you.” She clapped her hands at a CAF medic. “Hey. You there. Get back at it now.” The man jumped and saluted his general nervously before scurrying away.
Just seconds after her odd display, the scene returned to it’s normal bustle. Ishara and the General fell into the background as workers rushed around to tend the wounded and the wounded went on suffering.
RE: Rainbow of Red [Closed] - megs - 08-04-2019
"I think his mind has been plenty tampered with," the general said of his friend. He knew she wasn't wrong. The war has certainly taken its toll on Renly in many ways. He worried for his friend, and often considered suggesting that he retire.
There was something knowing in the redhead's smile that irritated him. She was toying with him now in some way. He was certainly getting more than he had bargained for with this small woman who held onto his arm in a way that left no room to argue with her direction.
Darcy did not want to be where Ishara had led him. It was not that he was squeamish to the effects that war had on the body. He hadn't made it to his position by avoiding battle, and had certainly faced his own share of grisly wounds. It was the smell that got to him. Antiseptic tinctures and harsh cleaning chemicals mingling with the scent of blood and infection. It was always too much for him.Amber eyes scanned the contained chaos of the trauma wing. What was he looking for? He didn't know. A familiar face, perhaps? It was hard to tell in a place like this.
Gently, he removed her arm from his. "Thank you so much for your time," he said politely. All at once acknowledging her skill, her patience and her responsibilities. He held her hand in his for a moment. "Renly is my friend," he explained, releasing her. His own hand fell to his side. "He is...enamoured with you. So, I wanted to meet you. I shouldn't have-" he sighed, amber eyes looking down at her. "You're busy." He gestured to the whole of the trauma wing. "I should go. Perhaps, I will see you again. Another time."
RE: Rainbow of Red [Closed] - saronym - 08-14-2019
Finally something had gotten under his skin. Ishara could tell it was the hospital scene that bothered him. She watched his eyes scanning the bustle and could see the hint of discomfort there. Though she didn't know if he spied someone he knew or if it was the general carnage of the scene or the sounds or the smells. It was a sensory overload. In a way, she felt bad for subjecting him to the sight. Just like deep down she had felt the ache of pity for the sad man with the leg infection. Her empathy for the enemy would surely get her in trouble.
She was lost in such thoughts even as he was trying to make his exit. Questioningly she glanced down to their hands before cocking her head at him. Had she heard him correctly? Pink lips made a determined line. She flung open a nearby door into an exam room and shoved him inside before following him. He has been content to let her move him around and now she moved with enough haste to surprise him into going along with her. She stood blocking the door with her own frame, though he could have easily moved her aside should he have chosen to.
She crossed her arms and settled him with a bemused expression. "You mean to tell me that you came over here to meet me for a bit of gossip?...in the middle of a war" Her voice modulated displaying her incredulousness. She giggled amused at the antics of men.
She paused for a second and then gestured urgently. "Well, how do I measure up, then?" She placed her hands on her hips and turned to look at him flirtatiously over her one shrugged shoulder. "Worth the trip over here? And the wait to see me?"