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Post by iikagen on Mar 8, 2008 0:13:34 GMT -5
The string of questions issuing from the girl's mouth gave Iikagen a moment of pause where he stopped shaving and simply glanced her way with a raised eyebrow. It was strange how much that tiny glimpse into his past had seemed to make her forget completely about how tenuous their situation was. However, as she mentioned the condition of his injuries, he glanced down at his chest and wiped a finger across the trickle of blood that was flowing down his chest.
"Eh," he shrugged, "I'll stitch it up later..." Iikagen flicked his wrist to shake loose the hair that still clung to the razor and then dipped it into the hot water before shaving another strip off his beard. "But yeah... dat's basically how it works," he said in reference to her first question about his tattoos. "Oh, and Tengu is my tribe. Not my name...."
Iikagen lowered the razor blade and rubbed a finger over the shaved area to see how well the blade was doing its job. He dipped the razor once more into the water and continued shaving.
"Dat would be Iikagen."
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Post by tali on Mar 8, 2008 8:26:29 GMT -5
Now on her newest tangent Tali barely had time to register that he gave her his name. She was looking at his chest nervously, she didn't know much about lacerations but if they were anything like broken bones they needed to be taken care of as soon as possible or risk the consiquences. Her hands itched to just go over and look at the wound herself but she though it might either be rude or extreamly foolish. Back in town she could have sworn she saw a doctors office, he might need stitches. Maybe she could do it if he was being too stubborn, it couldn't be too much different from fixing up a shirt right?
Getting up she went over to a few of the backs searching through them for needles and thread, each pack had someone else's things in it, curiously she wondered where people were going and why they carried what they did. Every item was a key to someones life, it was a little painful to think they'd never see their things again... Iikagen didn't seem like a bad guy, he only took out the things he needed, maybe he'd be willing to give everything else back.
It didn't take too long before she found was she was looking for. With a bit of effort she strung the string through the eyehole and knotted off the end. Glancing back at Iikagen she held up her hand with the needle and thread. "Will this work?"
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Post by iikagen on Mar 9, 2008 13:16:14 GMT -5
By the time Tali had finished sifting through a few of his pilfered traveling packs and bags, Iikagen had finished shaving most of his face, save for a little spot of beard on his chin. When she turned around and held up a needle and some thread, he was posing with one are folded across his chest and the other stroking his newly trimmed beard.
"What'joo t'ink?" he asked, looking off to the side and slightly skyward, assuming a very pensieve expression. "Too much?" He ran his hand along the beard for a few moments before smirking in amusement at himself and finally looking at the Earth Kingdom girl.
"Dat'll do," he said in reference to the needle. The Igni then quickly removed the last patch of hair on his chin before soaking the rag in the hot water again and patting down his face and neck. He scraped the blade of the razor across his skin one more time to remove any lingering hair and then placed it aside. Aside from a small knick or two, he was looking like his old self again.
Iikagen reached a hand out to accept the needle from her, thinking out loud, "I've seen healers do dis before... Can't be too hard."
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Post by tali on Mar 9, 2008 13:31:02 GMT -5
Aside from questioningly raising her eyebrows at his antics she made no move nor comment on his new look, inwardly she thought he seemed a lot less scruffy with the hair gone, almost clean and civilized, though in a way still very wild, must be his cultural heritage. Nothing there he could change if he wanted to. Images of him in the river came up and her cheeks took on a red hue, though with a silent reminder there was only a rather flimsy piece of black cloth separating another view. Yet another shade of red was tacked onto her face.
" You look almost human." She mused letting a little sarcasm drip into her words, she wasn't much for it but if he was going to keep tossing it her way she'd launch her own volley not and then. Shaking her head lightly she attempted to gauge if she had enough string, it looked like it would do, and if not there was another spool in the pack.
Ignoring his hand waiting to except the needle Tali moved over to Iikagen and the still boiling water. Carefully she dipped the needle into the water making sure it was sterile, well at least as much as it could be in the middle of no where. " Oh so your going to patch yourself up huh?" Coyly her eyes flickered up at the mans, he seemed to be a lot of bark and no bite, she'd have to test out his limits. It'd help her decide how to best handle him. She was admittedly no healer, but she could sow at least.
Also she imagined it would be more difficult for him to patch himself up, he seemed to be flexible but there were limits to that. "Let me take care of this okay?" She almost felt like a baby sitter, taking care of a child rather than a murderer, what was she going to do?
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Post by iikagen on Mar 9, 2008 21:12:35 GMT -5
Iikagen held his hand out for a moment, glancing at the Earth Kingdom girl with watchful eyes. He studied her for a few moments before pulling back his hand, curling his fingers elegantly into a gently closed fist that he then used to prop up his chin. "Okay den..." he said, offering a small shrug.
The Igni then moved his hands to the knot that kept his bandages in place and he removed the cloth. He managed not to wince as the congealed blod that was starting to form a scab pulled off with the bandages, and instead he just gently wiped the frssh blood away from the wound.
"Please tell me joo know how to do dis," he said, looking back at Tali. "I went t'rough a lot of training to get dis body... I don't want some bad stitching to make it all go to waste." Iikagen looked at her semi-seriously, figuring she would probably catch the sarcasm. But still, he would be watching her every movement during this procedure.
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Post by tali on Mar 9, 2008 21:31:34 GMT -5
Rolling her eyes she looked at the wound carefully, it was pretty bad, she'd need to be careful, she saw the blood and imagined it had to hurt, no matter how well he hid it, paying close attention to the way the skin should go together she started, her eyes glanced up at him now and then, looking for a tell tale wince, a small movement of his eye was all she needed. The needle went into the skin smoother then she thought it would. She took her time, not wanting to mess it up, she acknowledged this wasn't a shirt, every stitch here mattered. " Not really, but you admitted you'd only seen people do this so I don't think you could do any better.
It was difficult to keep her hand steady, being nervous as she was, but she managed to have half of the wound stitched up before she paused just long enough to pull her hair out of her eyes, she'd really need to cut her bangs later. Using the discarded chest wrappings she tenderly dipped it in the hot water using them to wash the stitched up skin, had this been anyone else it might be sensual, touching his chest, being so close to someone, acting so tenderly. Still with him she didn't feel much of that, maybe it was the blood and puss from the wound.
Continuing her work it felt like she only took a breath twice before she was finished tieing off the thread carefully and biting off the excess string, repeating the process of washing the skin. Rather proud of her work she allowed herself to breath again.
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Post by iikagen on Mar 10, 2008 14:44:06 GMT -5
It was a strange sensation being stitched up. Iikagen had been cut before, sometimes significantly, but he'd always been able to recouperate with just bandage wrappings so having someone thread his skin together was a relatively new experience. It reminded him slightly of when he got his tattoos. The Igni recalled specifically the line going across his eyes, and just how much that stung. This, however, was more strange than painful. He could ignore the sensation of the needle piercing the already inflamed skin around the wound, but the feeling of thread snaking its way through each hole made his toes curl.
Iikagen allowed his gaze to wander from the sight of the procedure from time to time, and every now and then he found his eyes lingering on Tali's chest or hips. However well he was at surviving on his own, Iikagen couldn't completely ignore his baser instincts. At some point he even cracked a smile and had to stifle a chuckle. He had realized the irony that even if he wanted to, taking a woman in his current state would probably kill him.
Tali eventually finished her task, and as she breathed out a sigh and patted down the stitches with the coth, Iikagen also ran his fingers along the wound. "Just like a pair of pants," he commented, offering the girl a wide grin. The Igni shoved up with his legs, pushing himself into a standing position. He resisted the urge to stretch, since that would likely tear open the wound again. Instead he simply made his way over to the small pile of clothes that they had used for bandages so far and picked up a lime green sash. Iikagen straightened it out and then tied it around his chest, looping it over his left shoulder as well this time.
"Well..." he said, glancing around the campsite and sniffing the air slightly, "What to do while de... whatever it was joo found is cooking?" Iikagen already knew what he planned to do. H wanted to drink so water, eat some food, and then sleep for about a day. But he was still curious as to exactly what Tali had in mind.
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Post by tali on Mar 10, 2008 15:04:02 GMT -5
As per usual Tali remained obtrusively naive of his wandering eyes, there wasn't much to show with her body covered the way it was, hints of her form were hidden under a minimal of one layer of clothing, her hips, three. With all the activity she'd endured over the course of the day her black undershirt slipped from it's usual chest high position down too where only a small bit of cleavage was shown, nothing blatant enough that she felt she needed to pull the shirt back up. once more shaking her brown bangs from her face her eyes trailed the Igni as he got up. She'd never had to get stitches, it must he odd, her cheeks flushed lightly when he commented on her work. Almost like he was reading her mind.
Quietly her eyes followed him as he moved about the camp, she was partially worried he'd pop the stitched, and partially curious about what he was doing. Dusting off her lap she got to her feet stretching out with her arms over her head and her body leaning back untill she felt all of her muscles push themselves back into place. She still felt gross, honestly she was debating a dip in the river herself, figuring that the man was more mobile now she found it best not to test her luck.
"I would still have that looked at..... I'm not really a doctor..." Natural curiosity lead her to gaze curiously over at him again, honestly she wished he'd put some pants on, forcing her eyes away she pulled her long hair over her shoulder removing the chord keeping her braid in place, letting it down she trailed her hands through it removing the leaves she'd managed to get stuck in there from sleeping on the ground before she re-braided it letting it settle against her back
The smell of the yams wafted through the air, it was a good sign, it meant they might be done, fetching a stick from the edge of the camp she wandered over to the fire, pushing the ash out of the way, tenderly she pushed the stick against the flesh of the vegetable, it gave a little, not enough to say it was done though. Leaving the stick by the fire she sat down feeling rather nervous, she still wanted to make it back to the town and get her things, figure out where she was and where she would be going. She had to be closer to the temple then she was before... " So why are you all the way out here?"
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Post by iikagen on Mar 10, 2008 22:00:31 GMT -5
For lack of an amusing explanation to tell the girl, and to simply guage her reaction, Iikagen figured he might as well answer Tali's question with the truth. All of it.
"Well," he began, lowering himself into a cross-legged seated position in the same spot he had slept the night before, "I left my home island about four or five months ago... I kind of lost track of time. Wandered around de Fire nation for a while, got into a few fights, and bribed my way onto a ship heading for de Eart' Kingdom. In dat first week I got into some more fights, caused a stampede, and robbed some rich guy... Den I had a run-in wit some 'Juu Jan' archers, or whatever dose guys wit de face paint are called...." He stopped for a moment and grinned. "Dey could shoot de black of jour eye from a hundred feet away. Got a nice scar on my ass to prove it." Iikagen patted the meat of his buttock just below his waistline for emphasis. "But I'm getting side-tracked...
"From dere I rested for a few days and den came across some place in de woods filled wit' t'ieves and outlaws and a rat'er heartless bitch of a bounty hunter who I will eventually find kick in de side of de head..." Iikagen said that part with a perfectly straight face, and he added a slight nod to it to assure Tali he was serious. "Some more stuff happened and she ended up stealing my stuff and leaving me in prison wit a useless monkey man. I managed to get out, d'ough, and I found de Tengu mask hidden in dese woods and have been laying low ever since..."
Iikagen rubbed his now hairless chin, feeling that he had given a fine synopsis of his adventures since he left home. Part of him wondered how much Tali would actually buy, and another part congratulated himself on the elaboration with the Tengu mask. It sounded a bit better from stealing it in town.
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Post by tali on Mar 10, 2008 22:23:56 GMT -5
It was hard to keep a straight face while he told his tale, it if was anything like what he'd been saying earlier she suspected that it was half way between lies and truth, but it all seemed to odd to be made up. She was easily reeled in, it sounded so exciting. Honestly she was a little envious, she wished she could have seen all of this, she smiled a bit as he went on about the Yu Yan, they were near legendary, if they were on your trail you were good as gone. He seemed to be a fighter, but now she had a stand point to judge it from.
It was almost laughable that he was commenting on thieves and cutthroats, what did he think he was doing. This was so much better than the made up stories she often got back home, it seemed like he actually was a traveler, someone who'd seen most of the world. The fire nation was dangerous, Tali would never get to go,she'd be lucky to even make it to the air temples like she planned. Though the Igni islands seemed interesting, maybe she could find away to see that as well, it seemed as close to a living breathing nomadic people as she'd ever get to see. Her childish dream was to meet air benders but she doubted that she'd ever get to see even one, the firenation killed them all off.
" So your running from the law? Did you do anything or-....." The girl got quiet, she'd seen him covered in someone else's blood, she shouldn't be so interested in him, it'd get her in trouble, she'd helped patch him up as much as she could. Tali's lips pursed, she would be a foot note in his odd story, she could only guess how she'd be described, perhaps she would be best to write herself out, Instead of sticking around and waiting till he felt well enough to chance another visit to a prison. "Seems like you've lead an interesting few months...."
Her eyes lingered on her thighs, her hands balled into fists on them. She wouldn't have much of a tale to tell when she got home, this would most likely be the most amusing part. It was a little pathetic.....
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Post by iikagen on Mar 11, 2008 20:40:00 GMT -5
"J'ep," Iikagen replied simply to Tali's comments on his little narrative. He really had come a long way since he slipped away from the docks where his fellow tribesmen were conducting a trade mission. For the first time, he actually wondered how long they might have waited before heading back to the Igni Islands. Not long, was his immediate answer. After all, despite being a rather prominent member of his tribe, there was no shortage of people who would love nothing more than to stab him in the neck...
Iikagen allowed a sigh to escape him, and he leaned back until he was resting against the trunk of the tree behind him. The mood was light now, but the fact that he was largely incapacitated for the time being weighed heavily on his subconscious. He lived over two decades in a jungle where constant vigilance was a necessity for survival, and even when he was in a rather hospitable environment he was still wary of danger. Being injured as he was, it conflicted with his instinct to be ready for anything.
"Dose t'ings cooked?" he asked. Iikagen had folded his hands over his stomach and was wiggling his toes. "I need to eat and get some more rest..."
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Post by tali on Mar 11, 2008 21:04:13 GMT -5
"It's that wonderful for you" She snapped back at him. Honestly she couldn't have mustered anymore sarcasm if she tried. Feeling rather sullen from a realization of her short comings she poked the potatoes again idly, they weren't to her level of completion but they would do since he was being snappy. Carefully she removed potato from the ashes tossing it in her hands until it was cooler, with that done she tossed it to the Igni, honestly she didn't care if he couldn't catch it. She was a pretty good shot and he seemed capable, he most likely would. Still it pleased her a little to think he might be hit in the face with it.
Fishing a second one out she covered the other two in the ashes letting them continue cooking. Her fingernail pressed into the thin flesh of the vegetable popping the skin releasing a puff of steam into the air. Waiting for it to dissipate she watched the fire. " I'm going to need to get going... If I want to make it to Ba Sing Se anytime soon..." He'd never asked her about her life, it was easy to imagine that he just didn't care, which seemed to be the truth. Peeling back the skin now she looked at the color and the texture of inner flesh before taking a small bite, she wasn't all that hungry.
Iikagen seemed to be well, at least enough that he could take care of himself, she saw no real reason to stick around. She'd helped him not it was his turn to return the favor. " If you could point me back to town once were finished that would be lovely."
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Post by iikagen on Mar 13, 2008 16:24:22 GMT -5
The incoming vegetable fresh from the fire was undoubtedly hot, but Iikagen misjudged just how hot that would be. He reached out a hand that caught the yam from sailing over his head, but he gripped it too tightly and felt a surge of heat rush into his palm. "Ah!" he exclaimed with surprise, releasing the vegetable immediately. It fell onto his chest and rolled down to his stomach, and he quickly grabbed for it with his other hand. He held it more gingerly this time, but it was still burning his fingetips even as he shook his other hand to try and cool it off. Then, with an awkward motion he began bobbling the yam between his hands while blowing furiously at it. After several seconds he decided that it simply wasn't cooling fast enough and dropped the yam onto his sarong. With his legs parted slightly he created a little hammock for the piping hot yam to rest without being in contact with his body.
A contented sigh escaped his lips after solving the yam crisis, and about that time he became aware of Tali asking for directions on how to get back to the town.
"Joo just head that way and make a left at de trail," he told her. Iikagen pointed in the right direction. "Or joo can follow de stream and it'll take joo right to de edge of de town. Just make a right at de big tree dat looks like it wants to eat joo." The Igni made a gesture of putting both hands together with his fingers positioned like rows of teeth to illustrate his point. In truth, he'd never followed the stream very far and had no idea if such a scary tree existed. He was just curious to see if the girl would actually try and head that way.
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Post by tali on Mar 13, 2008 16:36:57 GMT -5
Tali had shaken her head at the igni's antics, he seemed like a rather silly person over all, not very serious in the least, she didn't really enjoy that aspect of his personality but she could tolerate it. That was somewhat proven at this point. Her lips pursed lightly as she looked his chest over. She knew she owed him nothing but there was still this nagging desire to go get him something for his wound. Maybe she just wanted to finish what she started. Pushing it out of mind Tali took a few more bites of the starchy sweet vegetable watching the fire.
Down the river didn't seem to touch, but for some reason a tree that could eat you didn't seem to entertaining. The path it was, she'd walked it before, perhaps she could manage to keep her barrings. Rolling on to her back she began doing lazy curl ups, rewarding herself with a bite full of food every few completed reps. She'd completely missed her morning rituals, her push ups, crunches, and her jog, she was at least about to get her jog back to the village. Almost spiteful she was arguing over coming back or not, he was a jerk, didn't even really thank her for her help at all. Why would such a rude person need any help, well at least why would they deserve it.
She'd already decided to ignore the situation with the soldiers, avoid the fact of Iikagen's involvement but after pondering it over for a bit she remembered the bodies.. They deserved proper burial, Iikagen seemed like they type of guy who would leave them to the animals, in town she'd pick up a shovel and some ointment. " Are you going to be staying here for a while?"
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Post by iikagen on Mar 14, 2008 23:40:36 GMT -5
"Depends if dat soldier comes back," Iikagen answered nonchalantly. As Tali had started her rather sudden workout routine, he had picked up the shortspear that was still laying near his resting place and wiped it clean. Using the spear as a utensil, he skewered the yam and held it under his nostrils. After taking a whiff and determining that it at least smelled edible, the Igni chanced a bite.
It certainly wasn't anything like the food he grew up on. Nearly everything on the Igni Islands had an intense citrus or spicy taste to it. This... this was bland with just the slightest hint of starchy sugar. It felt like he was chewing mush; something like a soggy fruit rind. Regardless, food was food and he would need all the energy he could get to replace all of the blood he lost the previous night.
Iikagen glanced over at the girl after he was done analyzing his food, and he noticed several things about her training methods. "Joo gonna make jourself sick dat way," he said, taking a larger bite of the yam. It was still quite hot and he had to suck in a few mouthfuls of air to try and cool his burning tongue, but after getting control of his mouth he managed to add, "Joo gotta eat before or after... Eat now and all joo chi goes to de stomach and not de muscles." The Igni chewed down his food before clearing his throat and poking his skewered yam toward her as he spoke.
"Now if joo really want some muscles," he clenched his own abdomen, displaying segmented muscles that looked to be cut from stone, "Clamp jour legs around a tree and do dose upside-down." Iikagen tore another bite off his yam and allowed a slight smirk to play across his features.
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