[Soothing Waters] The Road to Recovery

[Gunho Ma]

Winter 22, 511 AV Any young men who believed working at Soothing Waters was a ticket to getting their hands on beautiful naked women were deluding themselves. Reality was not that convenient and customers were difficult to please even when a person was equipped with the skills and training to fulfill their requests. While most customers that came to Soothing Waters to receive a massage complained only of conventional problems that were easily dealt with by the trained hands, Gunho's share of clients this day sought out something different. His fellow masseuse had discovered his specialty that fell largely under therapeutic massage. He'd come to Soothing Waters to expand his knowledge and somehow he'd been pigeonholed into a role where he had to polish his specialty further. It wasn't a bad thing in itself. Perhaps he was just being impatient for his turn at doing something different, he wouldn't have to wait long, just a few days give or take. He waited quietly for his next client, hot stones and warm oil arranged on the table while he sat in a chair with his back straight, hands over his chest and his mind immersed in regulating the slow and steady rhythm of his breathing. A customer stepped into the room a few minutes later. This one was going to be an unusual case right off the bat. The person was a young man, clearly Syliran, who was slightly chubby who had an arm far thinner than the other. Clearly something had happened but Gunho couldn't show doubt here, he was getting paid to render services and the man wouldn't appreciate someone who seemed afraid or reluctant to work on him. The masseuse firmly told himself that he would help this man however he could. "Before we begin sir," he remained polite throughout the inquiry. "I would like to know why your left arm is in the condition its in. It seems to have atrophied and unless I know the details I cannot begin a massage at the risk of making your condition worse." "I fell down a a flight of stairs and broke a bone... took me months to heal it. I consulted my healer yesterday and he told me that a professional masseuse could help to restore my muscles to how it was before faster than I could do so so alone with just exercise." the man was starting to look worried, he probably wanted to get better really soon if he was willing to go through therapy. "I'm still having a hard time moving my arm...Can you help me?" "That's my job sir, don't worry." Gunho bowed his head and kept speaking in a reassuring tone."You can get on the table and I'll inspect your arm, then I'll see what best massage might work to restore your atrophied muscles to their original shape." The man sighed in relief and hauled himself over the table with Gunho's assistance. When he was all settled up and cozy the masseuse looked over the man's arm, inspecting it with both eyes and sense of touch. He rotated the limb, determining if the broken bone had recovered completely. After a minute of palpation there seemed to be no feedback to indicate that there was still fragmented bone and with the other information he gleamed from his inspection he'd made up his mind about how he was going to do this. "Sir, we're going to have to do passive and assisted range of motion exercises. I'll move your arms for you and after we're through with that I'll massage your muscles to stimulate reconstruction..." he told the Syliran confidently. "I do recommend changing your diet to a-" he couldn't say protein could he? Besides he didn't know he ins-and-outs of explaining that either. "-a meal heavy in meat. You see sir, if you've lost muscle the solution is to eat more muscle to replenish it. The improvements will only begin to show after a week's straight session, so please bear with me as we begin." Relaxation wasn't the objective of this massage, he couldn't satisfy the man by the end of this session. It was simply a part of the treatment, it wasn't the sole solution for the man's condition.

[Gunho Ma]

Gunho started the treatment by applying a liberal amount of oil upon the man's arm taking extra care not to miss an inch of skin and risk making the man's massage uncomfortable. Then he raised the man's arm, resting the back of his arm on a pillow and slowly pressed the man's skin with his thumbs simultaneously from left and right. He watched, waiting to see if blood refilled the point where he'd made the indention and it did, slower than it may have on an ordinary man but that was all Gunho wanted to know. He started applying pressure over the man's arm, from the elbow up to the wrist, thumbs sliding back and forth to spread blood and encourage warmth. This wasn't the massage proper, as the client found out moments later, it was simply a precaution to prevent injury for the passive range of motion exercises. These involved Gunho moving the man's arm without support from the client. He flexed, extended, turned and stretched the limb numerous times and often in intervals of ten sets. After that were the assisted range of motion exercises where Gunho encouraged the man's participation as his limbs was manipulated into performing simple exercises that he had difficulty doing unsupported. Another ten sets later and they cycled again. Five times they went between passive and assisted range of motion exercises and when the man was starting to look uncomfortable Gunho immediately stopped and allowed him a short break. Now that the basics were out of the way, he could work on the muscles themselves. He held the man's arm firmly, this other fingers lifting the arm while the thumb pressed into it, kneading flesh and tissues as it slid along the route from the elbow to the wrist and back. A deceptively simple exercise, but appearances were deceiving. The former acolyte was paying close attention to the man's face, his breathing and the warmth and elasticity of the man's muscles as he worked them, pinching them but with extra restraint. The muscles he was attacking were the muscles responsible for the ability to flex located in the man's anterior forearm. Among them the pronator teres and quadratus. The other set of muscles he was dealing with there on the opposite end, the posterior forearm which house the extensor muscles important in unfolding limbs. Here he urged blood and allowed it to saturate muscles like the extensor carpi radialis brevis, extensor carpis longus and extensor capris ulnaris. This was a tedious, tiring to the masseuse, and often made for boring therapy but such was the path to healing. There was nothing remarkable about therapeutic massage when you didn't have intimate familiarity with the pressure points to evoke instant response and Gunho, even if he studied his scrolls, dared not perform pressure point massage yet. He didn't want to use it on a client that was not yet whole and healthy.

[Gunho Ma]

A day passed, then that day drifted into another and eventually a week had passed and he was still entertaining the same client on the same hour of the day. He'd learned many things from the man, from their quest exchanges. The man was a sculptor who'd made a living with his talent... he still had money, but if he didn't recover soon he would lose his reputation and his livelihood. That was why the client was visiting Soothing Waters every day, that was why he was willing to spend coin. Repetition. Endless repetition. Most people would have felt the tedious strain of doing an activity over and over again but Gunho was exceptional in the regard that he didn't see what he was doing as a chore. Each session was a step towards achieving recovery and each time he met his client was an opportunity to improve his client's life. If he could change a man's fate by the simple touch of his hands, then by all means he would devote his time and energy into the passionate pursuit of that goal. Gunho eyed the limb before him, he pinched it's muscles between his fingers and noted a firmness that wasn't there before. There was a bit of muscle tone there now, bulkier than before. They'd dispensed with the passive range of motion exercises and only concentrated on the active ones and Gunho had even started to help the man recover the full use of his wrists and digits through daily kneading of blood into them. Working with a client like this was like being in a partnership. Trust was the basis of their relationship and mutual respect with each other led to the creation of a treatment plan that was starting to look more and more effective. Gunho enthusiastically changed the rhythm of his exercises. Light kneading was great, but now he would focus on deeper firmer massage. The more muscles he stimulated and were destroyed during exercises the faster the recovery would be. His role here was to provide the stimulation and regulate the pace of their treatment. A careful balance of patience and enthusiasm yielded the best results. The masseuse would not compromise this even if it meant the man's quicker recovery, especially because it was his professional obligation to look after his clients.

[Gunho Ma]

The body was the sum of its parts. No single part could stand independently, each section contributed to the other in some way. Gunho had learned this early into his training, it was a sort of epiphany for him when he was young but he had come to discover that it was common knowledge for a true professional. This was a lesson he'd kept in his heart and so that was why he was performing a full body massage even if it wasn't the service that was being paid for. He leaned over the man, elbows straight, wrists firmly locked and he moved from the waist, rocking his torso so that he could guide his hands into tracing small circles upon his client's back. Gunho's face was pure concentration as he felt his way through the contours of the surface layer of fat so he could penetrate muscle. This was a critical skill a masseuse had to learn, one couldn't assume that every person he would meet had an athletic body. A few inches of lipids could render what may be a perfect massage into a poor one. It was important then to be able to predict what was beneath the layer of fat so he could still manipulate those muscles directly or indirectly. His fingers swept under folds of the man's flabs and he used that as a kind of latch to drag his thumbs up an anchor his hands to the man's back. He kept this up, stroking on opposing sides of the man's spine travelling in the same way as the blood flow. With every rising stroke about to end, he twisted his wrist, slightly to create the sensation of the flesh being carried away. Another thing he learned in Soothing Waters was the nature of how toxins collected in certain areas of he body that were rarely used. Frequent massages helped the body flush these out by introducing them into the blood flow. The effect was supposed to be minimal, almost useless... but it could become useful if performed alongside prolonged massage therapy. Gunho was quick to apply what he had learned to use.

[Gunho Ma]

Gunho had to admit despite himself, this was a refreshing change to the unfit patrons of Soothing Waters he usually encountered. The woman sitting on the bed complaining of the pain in her legs was a girl who had foolishly ran a marthon around the city with a few new friends. Her companions had been prepared and had paced their bodies but her stupidity and drive to outperform her peers had driven her legs exhausted. She complained of pain, but upon palpation and visual inspection there was no serious damage. But he couldn't very well tell the girl that, he'd been paid and there were services to be rendered. She was a little embarrassed about her skin and had chosen to cover her body with a towel which was no trouble to the masseuse. "So what's wrong with me?" "Delayed onset muscle soreness, happens when you go beyond your limits and do things with your body you normally don't... you're lucky you didn't tear a ligament or sprain yourself. I can fix this." he told her reassuringly. "Then fix it." she snapped rudely to his astonishment. "That's what you're being paid for aren't you?" Pretty but she had an attitude he could barely tolerate. Gunho didn't let her on to his thoughts though. He only smiled, the same pearly white smile he gave his customers regardless of race or creed. He started with a tub of water that was slightly hotter than lukewarm and used it to raise the temperature of her muscles. This wasn't lactic acid for sure, that faded shortly after exercise since blood naturally took it away. He had to encourage blood flow and where there was heat, things expanded... more blood would come to her calves if he used the towel and combined it with attentive but soft pushes of his finger to encourage increased blood flow. He was slow, careful not to move through the steps of massage quickly. The girl was too much of a brat for him to proceed as he might have normally. Gunho took his time, one thumb sliding at a time, fingers retreating from each other and slowly the tense stiffness gradually subsided. It would take two hours. Two grueling hours of listening to this annoying daughter of a rich merchant brag about this or that. How Gunho kept his smile on his face that day, he couldn't even tell. What was important was that he succeeded and the girl, she left, without complaints. That was probably the best praise he could expect from her.

[Chevalier]

Gunho Ma

LORE

• Massage Technique: Dealing With Atrophy
• Massage Technique: Increasing Circulation
• Massage Technique: Aiding Bodily Detoxification

EXPERIENCE

Skill	XP Earned
Massage	5
Observation	3
Rhetoric	1
Interrogation	1

Storyteller Notes

Secret :

Good lord, I think I learned more about massage from your thread than anywhere else. It’s good, darn good. You just asked for Massage but I added some support skills that seemed appropriate for what I was reading. Also as an additional reward you can add 5gm to your character sheet due to customers being happy you’re your work.