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31_days2009-09-24 07:27 pm
bane-6.livejournal.com) wrote in 31_days2009-09-24 07:27 pm
[Sept 24] [Spirited Away] Walking Wounded
Title: Walking Wounded
Day/Theme: 24) monster hospital
Series:Spirited Away
Character/Pairing: Chihiro
Rating: PG
Creatures started pouring in just before sundown.
These weren’t the eerily jolly patrons Chihiro was used to. These were walking wounded, and not from any folklore she knew of. She saw a pack of giant white hounds with bright red ears staggering in, tongues nearly dragging the ground. They were striped with blood and leaving red prints from paws worn raw. Behind them limped what she almost recognized as river and pool spirits, but they were discolored and had painful, steaming blisters.
While she gaped, she was nearly crushed by a collapsing plant spirit of some kind. It was distant kin to the radish spirit, but so disfigured by some sort of black, oozing blight that she had no idea what kind of vegetable or tuber it was. It wheezed and its multiple eyes were pleading. Chihiro eeped, but then scrambled to help it back to its feet.
“Sen!” called Linn, running up with a blanket. “Don’t touch his sores until we know what they are!”
“What’s going on??” Chihiro wailed as she had to lock her knees to hold up under the spirit’s weight.
“Something happened in the physical world,” Linn said, eyes worried. “Something bad enough to affect the spirit world too.”
“How bad is that?” she asked, thinking of Haku’s river.
“The last time it was this bad was years ago,” Linn said, loading Chihiro’s arms up with linens to be torn into bandages. “Two cities were destroyed. I never understood exactly what happened, but we were swamped, with city spirits, and urban demons, even human ghosts, killed so quickly they didn’t know what to do and just fell into step with the others.”
“Hiroshima,” Chihiro realized. Linn just shrugged.
“I didn’t learn their names,” she said, heaving up an armload of her own. “Was that someone you knew?”
“No,” Chihiro had to hurry as Linn dashed off again. She kept forgetting that Linn wasn‘t human, maybe never had been. “That was before I was born. Have you ever been to the real world, Linn?”
“Why would I go there?” Linn almost sounded angry, but Chihiro recognized that she was just worried. “Who would ever go somewhere things like this happened?” Her voice became more business-like as they burst into the dining hall, which was now lined with cots. The bathhouse attendants were nurses now, helping the injured creatures into beds and tending their wounds. “Yubaba has a contract of her own as a place of sanctuary, so they’re coming here for help. She’s forced to take IOUs for the duration, so stay out of her way.”
Linn ducked through to a room where a beautiful winged serpent with scales like mirrors was screaming in a voice like a woman’s as Kamajii had all hands busy trying to poultice its many wounds. Linn started tearing sheets into shreds to bind them with and Kamajii freed a hand to motion Chihiro closer.
“Go to the boiler room,” he said. “Tell the sootballs they can’t stop working. We need hot water more than ever. Find the drawer with this symbol on it.” He drew a glyph on her apron with the snake’s blood. “Bring me as much of those herbs as you can carry.”
She nodded and was running before she even had time to process it all. Behind her, she heard something with a doe’s head have its leg set and was glad to rush away from the screaming.
Day/Theme: 24) monster hospital
Series:Spirited Away
Character/Pairing: Chihiro
Rating: PG
Creatures started pouring in just before sundown.
These weren’t the eerily jolly patrons Chihiro was used to. These were walking wounded, and not from any folklore she knew of. She saw a pack of giant white hounds with bright red ears staggering in, tongues nearly dragging the ground. They were striped with blood and leaving red prints from paws worn raw. Behind them limped what she almost recognized as river and pool spirits, but they were discolored and had painful, steaming blisters.
While she gaped, she was nearly crushed by a collapsing plant spirit of some kind. It was distant kin to the radish spirit, but so disfigured by some sort of black, oozing blight that she had no idea what kind of vegetable or tuber it was. It wheezed and its multiple eyes were pleading. Chihiro eeped, but then scrambled to help it back to its feet.
“Sen!” called Linn, running up with a blanket. “Don’t touch his sores until we know what they are!”
“What’s going on??” Chihiro wailed as she had to lock her knees to hold up under the spirit’s weight.
“Something happened in the physical world,” Linn said, eyes worried. “Something bad enough to affect the spirit world too.”
“How bad is that?” she asked, thinking of Haku’s river.
“The last time it was this bad was years ago,” Linn said, loading Chihiro’s arms up with linens to be torn into bandages. “Two cities were destroyed. I never understood exactly what happened, but we were swamped, with city spirits, and urban demons, even human ghosts, killed so quickly they didn’t know what to do and just fell into step with the others.”
“Hiroshima,” Chihiro realized. Linn just shrugged.
“I didn’t learn their names,” she said, heaving up an armload of her own. “Was that someone you knew?”
“No,” Chihiro had to hurry as Linn dashed off again. She kept forgetting that Linn wasn‘t human, maybe never had been. “That was before I was born. Have you ever been to the real world, Linn?”
“Why would I go there?” Linn almost sounded angry, but Chihiro recognized that she was just worried. “Who would ever go somewhere things like this happened?” Her voice became more business-like as they burst into the dining hall, which was now lined with cots. The bathhouse attendants were nurses now, helping the injured creatures into beds and tending their wounds. “Yubaba has a contract of her own as a place of sanctuary, so they’re coming here for help. She’s forced to take IOUs for the duration, so stay out of her way.”
Linn ducked through to a room where a beautiful winged serpent with scales like mirrors was screaming in a voice like a woman’s as Kamajii had all hands busy trying to poultice its many wounds. Linn started tearing sheets into shreds to bind them with and Kamajii freed a hand to motion Chihiro closer.
“Go to the boiler room,” he said. “Tell the sootballs they can’t stop working. We need hot water more than ever. Find the drawer with this symbol on it.” He drew a glyph on her apron with the snake’s blood. “Bring me as much of those herbs as you can carry.”
She nodded and was running before she even had time to process it all. Behind her, she heard something with a doe’s head have its leg set and was glad to rush away from the screaming.