Villain Plot - Spa day?

[esperbuthuman]

Elysium's Resort - a few days after the battle for Flotsam

A slender young girl with long green hair flanked by two stoic guards is carefully wheeled through Elysium. She is looking around in wonder, as if she's never seen anything like this. She's also covered in burns and bandages, and currently riding in a wheelchair. While the guards seem keen to keep her away from people, they don't object too strenuously as she tries to talk, and she seems rather full of questions. There's a certain innocence about her, and she seems to be curious about everything she's seeing. A far cry from how she was in the battle, for those who had the unfortunate task of facing her down.

Comments

[lightnovelexperiences]

Deedee had been hearing rumors about the green-haired, ice cold ether-casting witch the Imps had deployed against Flotsam to devastating effect, mostly from the folks she treated that had barely survived facing her in combat.

That this curious, even vivacious girl in bad need of treatment matches the witch’s physical description but not the given demeanor…

No sir, Deedee doesn’t like it.

“Answer her questions where you can, treat her how you can given her injuries. Try to upsell her handlers on the therapeutic ether massage; I want to talk to her. If not… all hands on deck.”

Deedee needs time to compose herself. She hopes the time this girl spends bathing and getting a mani/pedi will be enough.

[esperbuthuman]

Terra gives DeeDee a curious look, but doesn't make any noise of complaint. At the very least she seems rather used to having medical specialists fret over her.

[lightnovelexperiences]

By the time they’re meeting face to face Deedee has put on her customer service smile.

“Have you had a theraputic massage before?” she asks, trying not to make it too obvious that she’s trying to measure the reactions of Biggs and Wedge here flanking the girl as much as the girl.

[esperbuthuman]

"I don't believe so..." she pauses for a moment. "What's a massage?"

[lightnovelexperiences]

“The laying on of hands for healing,” Deedee says, offering hers palms-up and fingers waggling, “with or without using ether. It’s my specialty here at the spa.”

That’s not the most unreasonable thing to be ignorant of, but Deedee expects it to be part of a pattern.

[esperbuthuman]

"Oh. I suppose that is why I'm here. Go ahead."

Terra clearly has no idea what this is all about.

[lightnovelexperiences]

“Alright,” Deedee says. “Lie face-down on that bed and I csn get started.”

Deedee pauses, thinks, and adds, “Closing your wounds with my ether may sting for a moment. You look like you’ll need it.”

Keep calm. See and remember her reactions - and the reaction of the two who are either her retinue or her captors.

[esperbuthuman]

"OK."

Terra lies down on the bed face down, still clad in white robes and covered in bandages. Her guards seem to chuckle at it all, but otherwise don't really react.

[lightnovelexperiences]

In Iren’s bar, Deedee’s answer to how the battle had went was had to treat a lot of folks who said I should have seen the other guy.

She’s positive now that she’s seeing the other guy, with all the wounds the Good Guys inflicted on her in battle.

Deedee takes a deep breath, then exhales it as she infuses her hands and the warmed oil in them with healing energy.

"I might have to adjust your robes and I'm definitely going to have to remove some of your bandages. I have sheets and towels for modesty and comfort, if you need them."

[esperbuthuman]

"What's modesty? If you need my robe you can have it."

She sounds genuinely confused as she sits and begins to disrobe.

[lightnovelexperiences]

“I -“

You know what, she won’t argue. This is something that she will bring up with the girl again later, by typhoons and twisters.

“Let me know where you need more pressure, or less; or where your muscles are most tense.”

Deedee presses her palms down into the girl’s shoulders, gently squeezes, then glides her hands and the oil down her back and back up, avoiding open wounds.

As she does so, she lets vitality and healing ether/pneuma/whatever soak into the girl’s back and close those wounds.

Oh, someone will pay for this, by all the Fourteen Gods.

[esperbuthuman]

"Shouldn't it hurt more?"

Terra doesn't seem to mind the ministrations, she seems used to them at least in concept and seems more confused than anything.

[lightnovelexperiences]

“Not when done properly,” Deedee mutters - not sure if the girl can hear, but making damn sure her handlers can’t. Even if she didn’t take pride in her work, that the girl expected pain from medical treatment said nothing good about those handlers.

Deedee is careful not to press against the spine, not to use a death grip without prompting. The girl’s back is looking… better; still some angry red, but no bleeding.

After a moment’s internal debate, she drapes a modesty towel over the girl’s hips before starting work on her arm muscles.

[esperbuthuman]

"Not when done properly?"

The girl heard, and has no real reason to not speak loudly, which would be a problem if her guards were at all paying attention instead of discussing which brothels they planned to visit.

"They tell me most of the tests require some pain. Is this different somehow?"

[lightnovelexperiences]

"It's not a test," she says, as calmly as she can manage. "Just... meant to heal. Let me know if anywhere in particular hurts, or is sore, or needs more attention."