2013.04.17 - Healing and Plants

Jocelyn had called Emira earlier, and asked if she had some time to possibly look over her shoulder. That axe wound was becoming more and more problematic in her daily life, and frankly she wanted it dealt with. Typical medicine didn't help, and while she'd been doing some experimenting on her own, she didn't have the training to do anything about the wound on her own.
Jocelyn had hesitated on contacting Emira because, well, she got it really shortly after meeting with her before, and didn't want to become an annoyance. That and she'd lacked anything with which to pay for the work. But some of the cash Gloria had given her for house-sitting meant that she could actually offer something in return, and getting herself patched up seemed to make sense. Of course, it might require explaining that she got slashed in the shoulder with an axe made out of energy as well as beaten up pretty badly with some deep bruising, but that would be something else entirely.
She'd agreed to meet with Emira wherever was most convenient for her, and so that girl was on her way to that location at this time. She was dressed casually, with a black messenger bag slung across her good shoulder as she walked.
Emira had decided to stay more or less at home after the events that had transpired at the bank just the previous night, and had asked that Jocelyn meet her at her apartment in upper metropolis... She had spent the last several hours going through the apartment, preparing tea and generally trying to make sure that the apartment was prepared for guests... Which wasn't too difficult, since she kept the place more or less spotless, with everything in it's proper place for easy access by the blind girl when she needed to get around.
It was a fairly sparse apartment, with only a few chairs, and no decorations to speak of, save for a collection of potted plants that were... much larger than perhaps they should have been, considering the size of the pots that they were kept in... perhaps a side effect of Emira's life-giving powers. She herself was dressed in a simple enough outfit, made to flatter her figure, but not really show it off in the fashion of SOME women in New York... It was also meant to be comfortable, while still being fashionable enough to present herself to company.
The apartment was in a fairly nice location, and didn't have a lot of the same issues with villain attacks or organized crime that other parts of the city had. That wasn't to say that they never happened, just that they didn't happen around her building. It could have been because of the strange plant growth just outside her apartment window, where all of the plants were much larger, and somewhat more active than anywhere else in the building... But at least nobody had ever bothered to break into her apartment~
Arriving at the apartment, Jocelyn made her way inside. Was there one of those buzzer things to unlock the door? Eh. Jocelyn had long ago mastered the art of tailgating her way inside, and finds herself making her way up to Emira's apartment without really thinking about it. It was basically habit for her to do that anyway. Reaching Emira's door, the woman lets out a couple sharp raps at the door. "Emira? It's Jocelyn". Because she knew the woman couldn't exactly see, so a vocal queue seemed only polite. After all, it wasn't like the woman would be able to identify her upon opening the door, Jocelyn figured.
Emira had already made her way to the door as soon as she saw the greenish blur standing in front of where she was acutely aware that the door was, and had already started walking that way before the girl had knocked. She openned the door after a moment or two... apparently it wasn't locked. "Come on in~" She offers, swinging the door wide and offering a pleasant smile before she started to walk back the other way. She didn't use her cane in her apartment, it was leaned up against the wall by the door. Clearly, she was familiar enough with her own apartment that she didn't need it. "So then~ You said that you had an... injury that you needed me to take care of?" She looks over her shoulder, staring blankly at a place a few feet to Jocelyn's right, but she was sure that the gesture was understood. "What'd you end up doing this time?"
Jocelyn steps in, closing the door behind her and nodding easily to the woman. "Thanks for agreeing to see me," the woman responds. She notes the many plants in the apartment. Well, that made a certain amount of sense, given Emira's abilities. "Nice apartment. I like the plants," she comments comfortably enough.
There is a slight frown on the woman's face when the question about her shoulder is asked.
"Well, I ended up the proud receipient of an axe made up of pure energy. Cut my left shoulder up pretty badly," the teenager offers to Emira. Along with a few other injuries, but she suspected Emira would find those out, given how the healing had impacted her before. And the worst of it was definitely the shoulder. "I had some treatment done on it, but it doesn't feel like it's healing right, for lack of a better term". Athletes tended to have an idea when something was healing incorrectly. They knew their bodies and how they worked pretty well. "I've had shoulder injuries in the past, and it feels off".
Emira nods a little, beaming, "Thank you~ I like the plants too... They make the apartment smell a bit nicer than just... old paint and carpet." she listens to the explaination of the shoulder and then nods again "I see..." Her brow furrows a little and then she moves to take a seat in an overstuffed armchair beneath the canopy of an overly large fern, "Well come here, we'll see if I can fix it... You MIGHT have a scar, but that's all part of the healing process." She smiles a bit, "Haven't quite gotten the hang of eliminating all the scars yet... If I ever manage to do it, it'll probably come later in life." She waves Jocelyn over. "Has it just not been closing up properly?"
Jocelyn goes to take the indicated seat. "Hey, we all have to start somewhere, and you're doing pretty well for yourself. It wouldn't be the first time I got a scar. I took some other hits too, but they were all punches and kicks. Mostly bruises and stuff like that". Yeah, the woman got into a pretty nasty scrape, but she was still up and kicking. "The wound has been closing up, but it doesn't feel right, you know? Like the tendons are healing incorrectly somehow. I know you lose some range of motion while they're healing, but, well, it's hard to explain". Just one of those things.
When Emira gets the bandage off Jocelyn's shoulder, it will be obvious that she's had some decent medical treatment, and the wound has been healing well. However, it was a pretty deep and angled wound that missed the bone and went right into the muscle and tendons.
What would be apparent with deeper, ability-focused delving, would be that the tendons are sometimes not reattaching properly due to some burns left inside from the strike which will need to be healed. There is also a lot of deep-level bruising in her midsection and her arms that came from blunt force impact.
"I can't say I've ever owned my own apartment, but when that time comes, I'm definitely doing something to get rid of the inevitable staleness they come with," the woman offers as she waits for Emira to work on her shoulder. She was actually a pretty reasonable patient while work was being done. No flinching or any twitching, or things like that. "Also, you took the fact that I got hit with an energy axe pretty well. You see a lot of this sort of thing?" she asks.
Emira shrugs, "...I see all sorts of weird things. I try to take it all in stride." She grins, "I've had people who had severe frostbite in the middle of summer, because someone took a freezing gun to them. People with arrow wounds, people with disconnected vital organs, that were luckily still with the body, and able to be reattached... I can't regrow organs, but I can put them back into place if they're still around." She nods, "I even had one person who claimed to have suffered burns from hellfire... So an axe made out of energy is... not surprising." She puts the bandage off to the side and feels the wound for a moment, not putting any healing energy into it.
She nods a little, "Mmn... I might actually be able to get you sealed up without leaving a scar, since it appears to be relatively old... I assume you didn't get this over the weekend." She raises a brow, "You'll need to get the stitches removed professionally if they're not the dissolving kind... Sometimes things that are stuck in the skin will be pushed out when I heal, but usually stitches are positioned in a way that they aren't easy for the body to force out."
She places her hand against the shoulder, and starts the healing process... The bruises heal up fairly quickly, fading from their off colors to nice, healthy looking tones. Minor fractures in the bones are next to heal, sealing up, even though they hadn't been even close to apparent, most of them having been the result of normal wear and tear from basic movements. The tendons take a bit longer... the burns having to heal before they could grow back together properly, but the burns do go away... and the skin, muscle and tendon all begin to knit quickly once that process is done. "Who hit you with an energy axe though...?"
The woman quietly watches Emira work. She seems to watch more intently this time than the last time she got healed up. She was letting her energy sight focus in on how the woman manipulated her body with her power. It was something Jocelyn was quite interested in, as her own powers lied with energy manipulation. "I've seen a few people with similar injuries," the woman admits. "And I'm glad to hear that. The wound is only a couple weeks old, so it isn't new, but not old either". She obviously didn't have the wound when she met Emira the first time.
As to the other question, the woman pauses in her speaking, considering her answer. "Do you know about the Green Lanterns? This was kind of an evil version of them. Some woman who used yellow energy instead". A pause. "You've probably figured out I'm not completely normal by now," the woman adds. If nothing else, Jocelyn thought it was possible the woman had discovered that she was a mutant from her healing of her body. Could Emira do that? Jocelyn had no idea. "The stitches will dissolve, they told me," she adds.
Once the healing is finished, the woman rolls her shoulder to test it out. "Yeah, that feels better. Was I right and something was off with the process? Or was I just being an impatient kid?" she adds as a question. Because she'd really gone more on instinct and gut level that something was off with the healing process.
Emira looks curious for a second, "Mmn... I've HEARD of them... but I don't know if I've ever met one. If I have, well I've never seen them use their powers." She grins a little, then the grin fades and she tilts her head a little, "Not normal? You seem perfectly normal to me... save for your apparently accident-prone nature and the fact that you apparently earn the emnity of ... Yellow green lanterns for some reason." She shrugs.
"Anyway~ There were some burns on the tendons and surrounding muscle... I had to remove that before I could heal it properly... Otherwise, it was fairly straightforward. You should be nice and healthy now~" She smiles sweetly, then sits back in her chair, "Would you like some tea? I had prepared it earlier..."
Oh, good. It wasn't her patience just being too low to wait for it to heal. Jocelyn was glad of that. The girl smiles a little at the comment about Emira never having seen a Green Lantern use their powers. There may or may not be a joke in there; the teen wasn't quite sure. "I've got a couple abilities of my own, though you'll forgive me if I don't tell you what name I use for that sort of thing". Her name, while not common, wasn't incredibly uncommon either, so it wasn't like Emira could out her to anyone. Besides, Emira had powers too. Seemed only fair to level with the woman. "Hence the tendency to get into fights with people like Yellow Lanterns".
A nod is given. "Tea sounds good, and I'm glad I wasn't just lacking patience. I thought they felt wrong. Burned, they weren't going to heal properly. And yeah, it feels better now. A little unused for the last couple weeks, but otherwise fine". She pauses. "So, what do you do when you're not out healing people, Emira?" the woman asks.
"Oh I'm not interested in any hero or villain identities you may have." Emira shakes her head, "I'm not in the business of choosing sides, so I don't want to know who's side anyone is on. I just heal people, regardless of what they might have done right or wrong." She stands and starts to head into the kitchen. "I stay here mostly. Read, relax... That sort of thing. Occasionally I might go out and look for a real job... but there aren't a lot of people in the city who have a use for a blind girl, even if that blind girl can heal people." She nods, "I've... had a couple instances where someone tried to hire me to heal for them, but I have reservations about someone else making money because I'm healing someone... especially since I do it for free." She shrugs, "So it seemed like a bad idea."
She finds the handle of the tea kettle, just the way she had left it, and produces two glasses, pouring the tea and then sliding one to the edge of the counter. "There you are~ Just... put the cup in the sink when you're done so I don't have to hunt for it." She nods, then starts to move back, "If you need cream or sugar, they're in the third cupboard from the refrigerator... Sugar is in the back beside the flower, cream is a powder that I have on the second shelf in between the honey and a spice rack." She nods, then sits down again.
A completely neutral healer. Huh. "Yeah, I can see a lot of people wanting to hire someone like you to heal for them. Don't know if I'd much like to be hired for my abilities either," Jocelyn says with a nod. "I might still be too young, but I can't imagine being completely neutral though. But I suppose our individual reason are part of our pasts". Jocelyn doesn't get into the hero or villain side of things, nor does she actually try to persuade Emira. She just can't see being neutral.
The girl stands and follows Emira into the kitchen. "Don't need either, thanks". She takes the cup of tea and takes a sip before following Emira back. "What sorts of real jobs do you take, when the money isn't there for the healing?" she asks curiously. "And any particular good books lately? Had a couple people getting on me that I should read more, so I'm open to suggestions," she adds.
Emira grins, "Everyone has some good in them... even if it's deep down. I feel like we judge people too much by what we see on the surface, whether physically, like most people can see... or at a psychological level, like perhaps that man with the freeze gun. In his mind, he's doing the right thing. He's working toward a goal just like everyone else... yes, he hurts other people, and perhaps he's misguided... but that doesn't mean that he should be left to be in pain, or that he should be killed because of his misguided nature." She nods, "Being blind... helps me think that way I suppose." She nods, "If I could see, I might judge people a bit more harshly... perhaps based on their appearance even."
She finally takes a seat and sips her tea carefully, "I've been told that I am an attractive woman, and I've found that most attractive people tend to judge others based on their appearance on some level, more than others do... It's part of the reason I'm glad that I can't see, because I fear I might become like some of them if I could." She nods, then goes silent as she considers, "I've done some gardening... watering people's plants mostly. It's a small amount of money, but it's usually offset by donations I get from healing. Between those two, I can usually live a fairly nice life right here." She nods, "And a lot of the time, even if I don't have enough money for rent, someone else will volunteer to make up the difference. Sometimes it's been the landlady herself~ Which I think is awfully nice of her... It could be because I keep her and her family healthy though."
That was an angle Jocelyn hadn't really taken in before. The woman listens to Emira talk about her view of, well, morality in general. "That makes a certain amount of sense. I don't generally think people on either side should be left in pain either". Well, once the battle was done and hopefully the good side had prevailed. "I've seen enough people get hurt that I wish would quit resorting to escalating to violence as their way to get what they want". Which tended to require some degree of violence to end. It was a vicious cycle in a lot of ways.
"Yeah, people base a lot off your looks. I mean, I'm tall, so I get a lot of assumptions based off just that, regardless of appearance. Mostly about how I'd probably be good at basketball or volleyball". Which was likely true, but it was an assumption.
"Ever think about doing more with the gardening?" Jocelyn asks. "Working it into some other type of business than just watering plants?" Because while people with lots of money would pay a lot for that type of thing, it wasn't common or regular. "I'm sure keeping her family healthy has something to do with it, but I'd like to think at least part of it is that she's nice. If she didn't have some niceness, she'd consider it seperate business, you know?"
Emira nods a little, "Perhaps~" She tilts her head and puts a finger to her lower lip, considering the possibility of doing more with the gardening. "I'm... not sure what else I could do. I couldn't be a florist because that requires a certain degree of color arranging. I couldn't do trimming, because I'd be more likely to cut a finger off than I would to cut the right branches, and not ruin the plant. I suppose I could try and sell produce that I can grow... but other than that, I don't see a lot of options available to me." She shrugs a little.
"Go with the produce selling. Do a farmer's market sort of thing?" Jocelyn suggests casually, taking another sip of her tea. It seemed perfectly reasonable to the woman. Though she was going to leave some cash for the woman, since she did heal Jocelyn up pretty nicely. That was something the woman definitely appreciates. "I suppose it depends how much help you need to supplement your healing income," she points out. Another sip of tea is taken. "Whatever it is though, just do something you enjoy. That's what I've always heard at least when it comes to career decisions," the teen says with a small smile.
Emira nods a bit, "...Perhaps I'll try that." She sips her tea a little more, the finally puts the cup down, about half drained, "As for books... I tend to stick to the classics, since all of those are generally in braille at the library. Newer things are usually not kept in braille, though a lot of them are being released as audiobooks now... Which would be wonderful, if I had something that would play audiobooks." She chuckles, "I should get something of that sort, and find someone to tell me how to use it... but I've been fine with just braille, it's easier to use than some electronic device... and I can't use those touch screen things at all that most of them have." She sighs, "In any case... classics. Les Miserables... Just about anything by Lewis Carrol... I enjoyed the Alice in Wonderland books..." She nods, "Things like that."
 
Jocelyn nods and will discuss some book suggestions with Emira for a little while. Eventually, the teenager will need to leave to get some stuff done back home. "Thanks for the tea and talk, Emira". She places some cash on the table. "I've left some money to help out. For taking care of my shoulder". It was way cheaper than the doctor, but far more effective. Emiria will find a good three hundred dollars in payment. Then Jocelyn will make her goodbyes and head on back to the manor.
Category:Log