(no subject)

[sunbaked_baker]

(OOM: "So... apart from healing and resting and knowing there'll be questions, do we have any sort of plan?"

"So far today our track record with plans isn't too hot, Sunshine.")


From the other side of the main door, there is the sound of someone fumbling to get a key into a lock. Carefully fumbling, though, wanting to avoid putting too much pressure on the key when seemingly any pressure is too much. Why had she insisted on going in by herself instead of letting Jesse help her?

Eventually, the door opens, and Rae steps through, keys held loosely in one hand, an assortment of pharmacy bags held in the crook of her other arm. The knot of anticipated relief that had been growing in her chest swells and bursts when she sees where she is, leaving her lightheaded from pain and unsteady on her feet.

She is, it has to be said, a mess. Her clothing is mostly intact, though her kerchief is gone and her lavender blouse's neckline is charred black and fraying loose. All the better, though - she couldn't have endured the shirt's collar so close around her neck as she is now. Severe burns cover much of her neck and hands with angry red blisters, shiny with a thick application of ointment. Bruises cover more of her than even the burns, and her hair has been burned short on her left side. The frizzled fringe brushes lightly against her left cheek as she wavers. The rest of her hair is still in the long braid she had worn when she had left Milliways so many months ago and earlier today, though now it is lopsided and hanging loose on the left side.

Before her knees can give way beneath her, Rae closes the door and steps unsteadily over to the bar, spilling her collection of prescription bags onto the counter as she drops onto a bar stool. She lets herself breathe, letting the closed door behind her put distance between the events of the morning and now. Feeling faintly sick, she puts her aching head down on the cool, polished wood.

"Thank you," Sunshine whispers.

Comments

[manofbusiness]

"Miss Seddon." Childermass is just there, all of a sudden, having moved silent as a shadow from the door. "Whatever has happened to you?"

[sunbaked_baker]

Her neck is letting her know that turning her head isn't the best option, so she makes herself sit up despite her bruises complaining in turn. She manages a faint ghost of a smile upon seeing him, her breathing still heavy and her face pale from pain.

"Uh, hey, Mr. Childermass," Rae says, quiet. Her throat doesn't protest as much if she speaks quietly, but her voice is still broken and rough. "Would... would you believe me if I told you things were better than I expected them to be?"

[manofbusiness]

"Perhaps." He inclines his head in acknowledgment that things could be much worse, taking in everything he can see of her. "This will heal, in time."

[sunbaked_baker]

There is a faint movement when she almost nods, but stops herself as the angry red burns on her neck remind her why she shouldn't.

"Yeah."

In time.

"Until then, I'm... just... shit out of luck." She doubts the phrase 'shit out of luck' existed in Childermass' time, at least in that form. She suspects the feeling, however, is timeless.

[manofbusiness]

"But you are here", he says calmly, "and so can, perhaps, speed things along."

He can't do anything about that, but he has no doubt someone can.

[herr_bookman]

"Rae," Autor whispers when he spots her from the top of the stairs. He bolts down them--when he really shouldn't, as everything hurts, and he's looking decidedly green, holding a bucket. He skids to a stop before he crashes into her stool. "Rae, it's so good to see you! Are you hurt? Are you--" Autor starts, and then gags on his words.

[sunbaked_baker]

Rae recoils slightly, worried he might actually crash into her, and the sudden movement makes her hiss through her teeth in pain. "Autor," she breathes as the searing pain in her neck fades, her voice broken and words cracked. She wants to hug him, but he is clearly not well, and neither is she. "I'm so glad to see you."

[herr_bookman]

Autor bites his tongue at that hiss, guilt writ large on his face. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you move," the boy says, furrowing his brow. "What happened? I'm glad to see you, too, but you're so injured... Someone burned you? Did you get too close to a vampire when you staked them, and they exploded?"

[sunbaked_baker]

A faint smile, almost a grimace, crosses her face.

"No, not that." (Someone had set a floodlight up, which meant you could see...) "Um... the Goddess of Pain. She's some sort of Other. Couldn't see her properly, in... the light, and confusion."

The burning, the searing pain, and all the noise.

"We... made it through the meeting, though." Her voice is cracked, and the words difficult to make out when some of their sounds just cut out completely. "SOF have her in custody."

[iprotectyou]

An armorless Baze sits at the bar, wearing rubber gloves in order to glue a cardboard sphere together with cooled wheatpaste. The odor of the paste is... unique. It's made of flour and water, salt, peppermint extract, and a couple of tablespoons of borax. Baze paints strips of craft paper with the wheatpaste and adheres them to the sphere, sealing the two halves of cardboard together.

He moves slowly, cautiously, as if his back torments him--which it does--but he brightens when he sees Sunshine. That smile fades quickly as he sees her also moving slowly, and when he takes in the damage to her hands and neck.

"Oh, Rae, hello," Baze says, when she takes a seat.

"What happened? It's been months!"

[sunbaked_baker]

Rae lifts her head, wincing with a faint indrawn breath at the pain in her neck, and offers the man a faint smile. "Baze Malbus. Hello."

His first question is complicated enough that she lets her concerns over the second question take priority. "What... what do you mean it's been months?"

"You and your friend Chirrut arrived just the other day..." she looks at him. He looks thinner, smaller somehow, though that might be the lack of armor.

Milliways has been playing with time again.

"How... how long? When is it here, now?"

[iprotectyou]

Baze winces when she does. He sets his craft-papered-sphere down on a toilet paper roll and frowns slightly.

"You shouldn't be moving until you're healed," he says, immune to irony. He holds his gloved hands up.

"It's the fifteenth day of the second month of the year. February, sorry. I'm still not used to the Earther calendars. Just the other day, huh? So all these burns happened to you at once?"

[sunbaked_baker]

"Gods and friggin' angels," Rae breathes, floored, her voice cracking from more than just internal damage. "It's been over half a year here, since I left, and... it's been less than twelve hours, for me."

"These..." she gestures faintly, without her hands touching anything, "all happened this morning."

[man_without_fear]

Milliways comes as a surprise as Matt is stepping into a police station on his side of the door, intent on finding information for a new case.

He can't help still being a little leery of the place after his time spent Bound here, but lingering scents in the threshold make him rethink leaving.

His head cants, and he takes in the scents; burnt hair and skin, charred cloth and some kind of medicated salve. Sweat, and tears and...

Matt's head lifts in alarm as beneath the stench of injury and medication he can pick out the lingering scents of cinnamon and sugar, yeast and flour and all the other hallmarks of baking.

He focuses on the bar at large, and when he picks up on Rae's heartbeat at the counter he heads right over.

"Rae-- " His cane held tight in one hand, the other hovers near her back, but he's afraid to touch her as more information about her injuries flood his senses.

[sunbaked_baker]

Sunshine hears the voice saying her name, but is slower than normal to react. She moves like she hurts all over, which is apt - not turning her head but turning her entire upper body, careful not to put any pressure on her hands nor let anything touch them or even move them much. Some of the blisters of the worst of the burns have already begun seeping, and she can feel every little movement in the way the edges of broken skin grate against each other. There do not seem to be any broken bones, though the bruising along her neck, back, and the backs of her legs is extensive.

"Matt," she says quietly, when she sees him. Even speaking quietly, her voice's tone is cracked, rough, syllables broken from damage to her vocal cords. There is blood in her throat from internal damage, seeking to scab over and only causing irritation.

Even with the pain of her movements and in her voice, Rae is privately relieved that he can't see her. She had seen Jesse's look when he first saw her in the infirmary.

[man_without_fear]

Matt isn't doing a great job of schooling his expression.

He can practically feel the pain she's in. The burns are awful, and there is heat radiating off of her damaged skin. He hears every hitch in her breathing and stutter of her heart, and the sound of her voice comes through frayed vocal cords that make him want to shush her to spare her the hurt of speaking.

"Rae, what happened?"

[sunbaked_baker]

"Uh," she breathes, trying to focus through pain to figure out how to say it in the fewest possible words, trying to find a sitting-up position on the bar stool that doesn't make the overwrought nerves in some part of her body shout NO at her. Each inhale feels like it's pressing painfully on her bruised skin from the inside.

"Our meeting... uh, went awry. The Goddess of Pain found out we were there to... present evidence against her." Her throat is scratchy, and periodically she has to very gently clear her throat and swallow repeatedly to try to keep herself from coughing.

"And... apparently there was other evidence we didn't know about, and, uh, then things kind of blew up."

[thewidewideworld]

"Miss Seddon." Sinric rises, setting his book aside. "Can I be of assistance?"

[sunbaked_baker]

Rae lifts her head with very careful movements. Some of the blisters have already begun seeping, and every movement seems to cause the edges of the skin to grate against one another.

"Sinric," she breathes, her voice broken from damage to her throat. "I..."

Am in pain. Quite a lot. Burns are a deep, searing pain that is hard to think through, especially as her painkillers wear off.

"I have medicine. For the pain, and the burns."

[thewidewideworld]

"Would you permit me to ease some of your pain? At least until what medicines you have become effective." he holds out a slender hand, his eyes warm and gold.

[sunbaked_baker]

Yes, Rae would want that very much, and it shows in her eyes. But there is reluctance, too...

"Do not heal me," she has to stipulate, because she is not familiar with the workings of Sinric's kind of magic. "I'm facing... questions, back home, and returning there with my burns healed and bruises gone would only, uh, would only add to the questions aimed at me. But... the pain... if you could..."

[galen_erso]

"You need help!"

That's Galen Erso, not a scruffy Hannibal Letter, turning up beside her.

[sunbaked_baker]

The resemblance is enough to make her recoil in reaction to him turning up right beside her, and immediately hiss through her teeth as so many nerve shout NO all at once. Some of the blisters on her neck have already begun seeping, and even with the thick coating of ointment, she can feel each movement making the broken skin's edges grate against one another.

"What?" she asks, voice hoarse and tone broken. The pain makes it difficult to think clearly. "No. Not - I'll... I've got medicine."

(ooc: Woke up to find it a snow day and offices are closed, so will likely be dozing back off in a little while. Wanted to tag back while I'm up, tho! <33)

[galen_erso]

"You need bacta," Galen says. "Or whatever they use here. Not just medicine. I'll best take you to the infirmary."

That's definitely not Dr. Lecter.

[sunbaked_baker]

No, this is not Hannibal Lecter. This is that other person who looks like Dr. Lecter, the one who knew Bodhi.

"Ba... I don't know what bacta is," Rae shakes her head and grimaces as her neck reprimands her for forgetting it for a moment. "I just got out of an infirmary - I'll... I'll be fine."