Room 328 [Copacabana Palace, afternoon]

[momslilassassin]

Ben was back at the window, staring out at the ocean and trying to find some calm. He and Ender had called Karla over, and while Ben trusted her absolutely when it came to healing (he wouldn't have had her help with Ender otherwise) and he wasn't afraid of pain, he kind of...worried about her reaction when she saw exactly what the Sith Lord had inflicted on him.

Thus the truncated meditation exercise. Not because he was nervous. At all. Really.

Ben was an expert liar, after all, and had been an expert at lying to himself for years.

[OOC: For the boy and the girl! Warnings for talk of being tortured Troy Denning-ed.]

Comments

[momslilassassin]

"Sounds delicious," Ben lied with a slightly forced smile of his own. "Count me in for mine and half of Ender's."

[endsthegame]

Well, the tension in the room was lovely. Ender supposed they should be thankful that the people who caused this weren't here right now.

He finally stood up, coming up behind Ben, not quite touching him, but making sure he was a presence. "That's okay," he added. "I never finish all of mine anyway."

[glacial_queen]

"And I'm on a diet," Karla said, looking Very Solemn. "You can have my share, too!"

Wasn't Ben the luckiest?

She nodded at the bed for permission to sit. "Have you two had a chance to look around yet?" Karla hadn't. She'd gotten as far as the bar and then just stayed there.

[momslilassassin]

"The pool is astral," Ben said with a happy sigh, sitting down on the bed.

[endsthegame]

"Yes, the pool is very astral," Ender agreed, looking slightly amused.

Look, you two. He'd perfected the art of the impenetrable front. Yous alls were just imitatin'.

"Sit down, Karla. Please."

[glacial_queen]

Yeah, well, Karla had...

Not a whole lot, dammit. Except a metaphorical fist-shake at Ender's impenetrable front.

Karla sat down next to Ben, going to rest her head on his shoulder, her hand worming her way into his. "As astral as celery ice cream?"

[momslilassassin]

"Almost that astral," Ben said, squeezing her hand back. "Where do you need me?"

[endsthegame]

Ender chose to move and sit on the other side of Ben. He didn't want to get in the way, though, and so he hung back a little bit while he waited to see what Karla would want of Ben.

He'd had his own experiences with her healing techniques; he knew his role was mostly moral support.

[glacial_queen]

Karla nodded, more to herself than to them, calling in several good-sized Healing webs. This was going to involve a lot of work.

"Anywhere you're comfortable," she said. "And can lay down. You might...want to do that, later." She wasn't sure how much Ender had gone over with him. "This is going to hurt."

He'd undergone the Embrace of Pain. He probably wouldn't be incapacitated, but that didn't mean it was going to be pleasant.

"I have to reopen your wounds to Heal them without the scarring," she said quietly. "All of them. I can shunt some of the pain to myself, if you want. Not a lot, because it will affect the Healing trance, but I can take some, if you'd like."

It was going to feel like he was in the net again. With some additional burning pain as the Healing.

[momslilassassin]

"You're not going to feel any of this," Ben told her firmly, squeezing her hand. "But just these wounds, okay? Not the others."

[glacial_queen]

"You sure?" It didn't matter which question he thought she meant. She was asking for both. "I can do it. I can take care of everything."

She squeezed his hand. "I'd do it, you know. I don't mind. For you."

[momslilassassin]

"No," Ben said, with just a little hint of steel in his voice. He smiled at her to gentle his response somewhat. "I appreciate the thought--more than appreciate--but it's not something I want." He reached up to touch the scars on his face. "These, though, I can live without."

[endsthegame]

"This is going to be a drain on both of you enough as it is," Ender said gently.

Not that he wouldn't have supported Ben if he'd chosen to go for the rest of them, but he'd never really expected him to. "Where do you want me...?"

Out of the way, yes, but how far?

[glacial_queen]

"I'm not going to need much room," Karla said. "Just enough to sit and maybe move around a little, so nothing falls asleep. I guess it all depends on how much room Ben would like to have during all this."

Karla guessed that Ben would want Ender close to him, but that was for him to decide.

"Oooh. Close enough for tea, maybe?" This was going to require a lot of singing for her. Starting some tea would probably be a good idea. And possibly for the two of them as well.

[momslilassassin]

"Tea sounds good," Ben agreed, giving Ender a slight smile that was meant to be reassuring. He didn't want to seem too clingy right away. "Will the healing replicate the original injury exactly?"

It hadn't been too bad at the beginning.

[endsthegame]

"We don't really have a water cooker," Ender pointed out, after a moment. "Not to be a buzzkill..."

He moved a little closer to Ben on the bed anyway.

[glacial_queen]

A tea kettle, several packets of tea, and five mismatched teacups appeared on the desk. Two of them vanished again immediately, and Karla gave Ender a little smile. "Just need water now," she said.

She didn't want to separate them, but maybe there were water bottles in the room?

[momslilassassin]

Ben linked his fingers through Ender's and squeezed. "Do you mind, kreetle?"

[endsthegame]

"Of course not," Ender said, letting his fingers slip out of Ben's as he got up.

He walked across the room to the mini-bar, which he started rummaging through in search of the water.

[glacial_queen]

Karla looked a little unsure as she tried to answer Ben's question. "I think so, but I'm not sure? I don't normally try to Heal scars and I'm not sure how it was done in the first place, so... I'm going to open up the wounds again, but I'm probably going to do it just a few at a time, instead of all at once."

She didn't want him bleeding out while she worked--though that was a useful reminder.

"Ender, while you're up, can you get the towels from the bathroom?" They were absorbent and much easier to change out than the sheets. Karla wasn't sure how much Ben would bleed before she managed to Heal him; if the wounds were deep, it might take awhile, even only opening them a bit at a time.

[momslilassassin]

Ben's jaw clenched slightly to hear that--not because he was afraid of the pain, but because he really didn't Ender to see what this had looked like when it had been inflicted.

"Does it matter to you where you start?" he asked.

[endsthegame]

"No problem," Ender said, pulling his head from the minibar. He'd grabbed two bottles of water, and, closing the minibar, got up to head into the bathroom.

He was not precisely looking forward to this - but it was necessary, and it wouldn't be nearly as terrible as the first time he saw it.

[glacial_queen]

"I was thinking of starting at the top and working my way down," Karla said with a shrug. "But if you'd be comfortable some other way? I can work with that, too. However you feel best."

The important thing was that Ben feel comfortable. Well, relatively speaking, of course.

[momslilassassin]

"Face first," Ben decided, nodding.

And that way if it got too much to handle, he could just hide the rest of the scars with clothing.

[endsthegame]

Ender came back out with the towels in his other hand, dropping them on the bed, where he assumed they'd be most useful. "I'll get working on the tea," he added, feeling that staying peripheral would be best right now.

He grabbed the kettle and got to work.