[semi-closed]

[rebuildyourruins]

Who: Thor + various
Broadcast: no
Action: the First Breath, some other places
When: May 20th - May 27th

[After engaging in some extremely extra behaviour with a bunch of other extremely extra immortals, Thor came down with a brutal fever on the First Breath and has been holed up in Loki's room ever since. Still, there remain some things he needs to do.

If you want your character to find Thor during this time, hit me up on PM/dudemeister and I'll toss up a starter for you! Otherwise if they would just try to call or message him, feel free to use this post to do so.]

Comments

[dothelokimotion]

[ Loki squints at her suspiciously. ]

What form of healing abilities?

[watermarks]

[ How to explain this... ]

I use my bending to encourage your chi to flow down the right pathways and speed up your natural healing process. If it's a regular infection, I can help your bodies antibodies to overcome it more quickly and strengthen your resistance to speed up recovery, or I can just use it to help diagnose what's wrong and get you some medicine.

[dothelokimotion]

[ The suspicion is not letting up. ]

I am unfamiliar with chi, but what can it pick up?

[watermarks]

[ Why so suspicious, Loki, gosh. It's not like she's hiding it from you, she's saying it flat out. ]

Your chi is... in some worlds, people called it chakra? It's basically like the flow of life in your body. I can sense blockages or knots or inflammation or infection. Then I encourage the chi to flow down its normal, natural pathway, and it speeds up the healing process.

[dothelokimotion]

[ It's his nature. But he stiffens at the idea, regardless. While it sounds fine . . . the less that is known about Loki, the better. ]

Well, I have no such thing. I will wait until my body fights off the infection.

[watermarks]

[ Somewhat dryly: ] I've met animated skeletons that have chi, Loki.

[ So don't you give her that nonsense, please and thank you. But as it is, she's gathered enough from Thor to know that their physiology is very different, and she has no idea if their base temperature even runs the same. In order to properly diagnose and treat Loki, she'd need to ask all kinds of questions that, if he is denying the existence of chi in his body, she somehow doubts he'd be inclined to answer. Still, she can offer. ]

But I don't need to use my healing to treat you, especially if you have the same thing Thor does. Or I can just warm you up some soup and leave you some ginger snaps. [ A small smile. ] It's up to you.

[dothelokimotion]

[ Loki frowns, but he's also too miserable to make that much of a fuss. ]

The latter is suitable.

[watermarks]

[She almost rolls her eyes, but she doesn't.]

Okay, I'll go do that. And how are you feeling? Cold - clammy? Or warm and nauseous?

[dothelokimotion]

[ Cold? Loki hasn't really felt cold in a while. He has the illusion of coldness in his mind but he can't tell how true it seems. ]

Mostly clammy. I don't sweat and I rarely feel cold.

[watermarks]

Alright... [ Hmm... that's not much information to diagnose, but she doesn't think he's exactly going to welcome her touching his forehead to take his temperature - or even if she'd be able to tell if his temperature was the same as a normal person's. Thor's chi certainly wasn't the slightest bit normal, and they were brothers, after all. ]

Have you been throwing up or mostly just feeling weaker than normal?

[dothelokimotion]

The latter, mostly.

[ Loki brushes his hair back, glancing at Thor with a frown. ]

He had the worst of it.

[watermarks]

[ Which is why you've been taking care of him. ]

Right. So I'll go warm up the broth, and let's see how that stays down. Then maybe you can try some toast too. I'll be right back.

[dothelokimotion]

[ His suspicions haven't let up but he nods anyway. ]

All right.

[watermarks]

[ Keep being suspicious, the soup is delicious.

She gets up and heads to the kitchen, carefully warming the soup up so that it would be warm, but not hot, so it wouldn't upset his system.

Entering, she sets the bowl down on the table before approaching him with it. ]

Do you need help sitting up? [ Probably. She was abruptly equally certain that he wouldn't let her help him. ] ...Let me grab another pillow to help support you when you do.

[dothelokimotion]

[ Loki waves her off as he struggles to sit up. ]

I'm not so helpless that I cannot take care of myself. I have managed fine without help.

[watermarks]

Yes. [ Agreement, but a qualified one. After all, neither of them are dead or seriously harmed, so it looks like he has done fine. ] But now you have help, so it's silly not to take advantage of it and exhaust yourself further when your body needs its strength to fight off the sickness.

[ Still, she doesn't move to touch him and help him without permission, for any number of reasons. Part of it, honestly, is strategic. If he's wearing himself out doing something that is essentially harmless, he's far less likely to do something harmful later.

...Katara has dealt with a lot of sick, powerful boys. ] So if you do need help with something, please let me know.

[dothelokimotion]

[ Loki squints but the effort to maintain this level of distrust is exhausting, even on him. And he had spent most of his energy helping Thor through the worst of it. ]

Fine. Your support is . . . noted.

[watermarks]

Oh, good. [She bites back: Now, where do you keep your extra pillows? Instead, she moves toward Loki to just... rearrange the pillow vertically behind him so he has better support.] I'll get you your soup.

[dothelokimotion]

[ Loki tentatively leans against it. ]

. . . Thank you.

[watermarks]

[ The pillow entirely fails to vanish. Katara's back is to him as she is moving to retrieve the soup, but she casts a smile over her shoulder at him. ] You're welcome.

[ She retrieves the soup and moves it back over to him. ] Here you go.

[ She glances around to see if there is a side table she can move over so that he won't have to continuously support the soup. ]

[dothelokimotion]

You seem practiced at this.

[ He watches her movement like a hawk, fingers twitching. ]

[watermarks]

Carrying soup? It is a major staple in the south pole.

[Teasing? Yes. But that might be in part response to his Suspicion Levels, and she's starting to wonder if she should leave him be completely. The energy he's expending in watching her has got to be comparable to what he'd expend in just reheating the soup himself... unless he was weaker than he looked, which was probable, considering he was letting her do this at all.

Hmm... IS there a small table or a large book about that she can ask about using for a tray for him?]

[dothelokimotion]

[ Loki rolls his eyes. ]

I meant care-taking. I take it you've done it fairly often?

[watermarks]

I've done it enough. [She doesn't want to get into those stories. The first thing she thinks of is Zuko, and that horrible month after he'd been tortured - electrocuted to the point his chi pathways had been burned and depleted - and how scared she'd been that he'd never be able to bend again. And how awful it had been, to tend to him, after his betrayal in Ba Sing Se, after Luceti had made them think they'd fallen in love, after he'd run... and he'd been such a lousy patient. Oh, she'd definitely had practice.

Frowning a little, she grabs the side table and brings it directly adjacent to the bed. That will do.] I told you I've had training.

[Although the type of medical training she'd had was much more along the lines of 'cutting someone open and reattaching necessary parts' than serving soup, so his implied question was perfectly valid.]

[dothelokimotion]

So you enjoy this?

[ Training isn't synonymous with enjoyment. People do things because it's what they're used to or it's how they feel wanted. Necessary. Loki is familiar with all those motions. ]