A Novice Vagrant [Open]

[Victor Lark]

Victor turned his hand over a few times, comparing Reaver’s work there with the gauze that covered his own dead hands. With a look of uncertain concentration on his face, he unwrapped the carefully folded bandages and considered them a moment. “Easier without the gloves?” He suggested jokingly, then resumed binding his palm.

A few seconds passed as the novice accustomed himself with the wrapping and considered his teacher’s reply. He had required and been without the picking of locks on more than one occasion, but could never find the tools or inspiration to ever teach himself. Nonetheless, he seemed to understand that asking for yet another lesson might instigate the wrong kind of annoyance in Reaver; he would oblige facelessly and this day of action would continue to age without resolution. Victor’s stomach was already whispering angrily of a missed breakfast.

“What else do you do, doctor?” He asked as he stretched his arm out towards him. Unsure how to reproduce what he had seen, he had piled the cloth over itself in a single thick layer and only occasionally around his thumb. “Wrapping gauze cannot be the only trick of your trade!”

[Reaver]

Reaver replied to the retort with a short smile. "No, I'm rather apt at working around the points. Maybe clawed critters feel the same way." Reaver watched Victor's work. "This, could work, if you did not need your hand. If your palm was injured, this would be the method you'd use, along with a soft pad to absorb blood as needed between the gauze and the palm. What else do I do as a doctor? I sew, cut, stitch, and carve. On the bigger wounds, I get to learn. Beyond that, you may wish for a better doctor. I'm starting to learn medicine, however." Reaver contemplated what it was Victor was trying to learn, other then the wrapping. "Would you like to learn to wrap like this, or move to sewing and stitching?"

[Victor Lark]

Victor unwrapped the gauze one more time, his hand twisting through the motions as it had practiced a few times now. He considered the options Reaver offered and immediately voiced his concern. “I donnot know what we would sew and atitch. Unless you would have me cut myself again!” His laugh was not quite loud enough to completely dismiss the idea, so he added with blatant sarcasm, “Do you have something sharper?”

Their teaching tool remained between his two hands as he contemplated it, not ready to give it back. “Well, what do you think I’ll need on my adventure to the West?”

[Reaver]

"You could sew the gauze, truly. It would be different when done to a person, but the process would be similar. Would you like to trust me for a special demonstration?" Reaver paused there, almost as if contemplating what he meant by it. He answered the next question while still thinking. "What you need is someone who knows what they are doing. Minus that, the ability to gain food, backup food, portable shelter, or the ability to make it, knowledge of where you are going, and perhaps an idea of what you will be doing there. Given the skills you've shown me, I doubt they'd let you do much beyond join a circus." Reaver delivered the last line with sarcasm, and a light chuckle. With that done, he pulled out his needle and some thread.

[Victor Lark]

It was true: Victor was rather unaware of the dangers ahead of him, should he venture into the wild with minimal preparation and skills. Still, same as before, he felt perturbed at the nuit’s analysis of his plans despite his appreciation for sarcasm. He folded his arms, the gauze tangled among them. “I know where I am going. And I’ve plenty of money to get around. Not all skills are easily taught or demonstrated, doctor.”

Though he had become guarded due to the offense, Victor had spoken to this man for too long to even think of dismissing his company. With that familiar curious tone, he asked, “But what did you mean, when you said special demonstration?”

[Reaver]

"Then use the money to hire someone who knows them. Also, defending yourself and fighting off dangerous animals may be a valid choice of skill. Consider hiring two allies. I don't intend to stop you, just don't think you running off alone would be a likely... victory." Reaver showed clear doubt in his last choice of word, despite certainty in the rest. He hadn't yet decided if that was the correct choice of wording, and it was rather clear. "Anyway, I was intending to demonstrate on the gauze you held, while you were wrapped in it. A nice test, to see if you can be careful enough not to cause needless damage. I will be doing the wrapping, as certain conditions should apply."

[Victor Lark]

Despite how much he did not want to, Victor secretly took Reaver's advice into consideration. He did have the money to hire someone, no matter how much he wanted to see if he could rough it on his own. Perhaps he could even trick someone into protecting him without having to pay. It sounded like fun, if nothing else. His feet began to itch the same way they had earlier that morning. How did it get to be noon? Why was he not gone like he kept saying he would be?

Oh, right: because he was learning. He stood still when he noticed his knee was shivering unconsciously, stifling his recurring ache in favor of incessant curiosity. Reluctantly, he unraveled the gauze and handed it to Reaver. Then he offered his arm for the teaching, smiling expectantly. He rather liked the idea of needless damage, but instead asked a more appropriate question: “What sort of conditions?”

[Reaver]

OOCWALL OF TEXT! Way easier on my eyes in a frame, but if your eyes suffer I could always remove it, or change the colors. I like the black most, as the high contrast is visually appealing, but the grey is easier to stare at.

"Thrice folded, with a gap to bring together. I could set it as thick as skin, but as it is not as flexible..." Reaver began wrapping the gauze to his own specifications. He folded the right edge over the center, then the left edge under the center. "Skin is very flexible, like clothing is supposed to be. Gauze needs to be made to restrict that movement." He began wrapping the gauze around Victor's arm, lighter then when he had done so before. "It won't be an accurate demonstration of what the sewing will do, but it will work fine to show the process." He looped twice, causing it to seam to bend to the left. He followed with two more that overlapped at the top and bottom, but seamed to bend to the right. The gap created was about half an inch across. "If you can get it right, I might need to find you something softer to try it on." Having finished wrapping, he instead held the last wrap instead of tying it. He threw out one more warning before starting his demonstration. "You will be practicing on yourself. I suspect you will be healing yourself more then others on your trip, so learning to do this with one hand would be an advantage." Reaver showed the needle and thread in his hands, and carefully looped the thread through the needle. He did it slowly, as to show how it was done. "Learning to do it correctly is more important then quickly. However, being too slow can kill a man." Reaver hoped he didn't imply he learned that from experience. He then took Victor's arm, and held it a bit rough. "Now, it is important that you keep their arm still, or you could cause more harm then good. It will hurt, and it is better when they understand that. When working on yourself, it is less of a problem." Reaver started with a slow first loop, stitching at the bottom. Victor clearly felt the needle brush against his skin, but not poke him. Reaver then lifted the gauze, and showed the thread now through the gauze. "The larger the wound, the deeper the needle will need to go. If the injury is larger then an inch, you will need to try and hold the injury together before stitching. Just know, going deeper then the skin will hurt a lot more. Having the wounded bite onto something for such attempts is preferred." Reaver re-wrapped the gauze. Holding Victor's arm and the gauze in place with one hand, he continued with the other. He was slow and careful, so that Victor could see the process through. Making his way from one side to the other, back and forth, he had managed to get three such crosses in, formed into a sort of 'x' pattern, then starting upward. "When this far, and a little bit more every stitch or two, you will be pulling the skin on either side together." Reaver continued to talk as he continued up the gauze, slowly demonstrating. "Just enough so they touch, not much beyond that. Too tight, and you could break the thread. The thread can actually be removed on its own, if you can avoid breaking the skin." Reaver was halfway up the wound now, his speed increased a bit as he repeated the process. "The same process should be repeatable all the way to the top" Reaver finally left a moment of silence as he worked to the end of the gauze. Once at the top, he used the needle to loop the thread under the bits of thread showing above the gauze. Once on each side. The end result looked very similar to the 'x' pattern he had at the bottom. "The larger the wound, the more secure the top and bottom stitches will need to be. You can learn how to stitch at the right depth many ways. The way I'd rather teach you, is through practice such as this. I suspect you learn faster when risk is involved." With the stitching done, Reaver pulled a skinning knife from his bag. With some care, he cut down the stitched gauze. He handed the needle and thread to Victor, then re-wrapped the gauze, holding it in place once more. "Whenever you're ready."

[Victor Lark]

Victor had plenty of trouble following Reaver’s many words and clarifications, but he did his best to pick out the important information. He did not think the difference between skin and gauze would at all hinder his ability to recollect the process, but he decided it would be best not to interrupt his teacher, if only to keep the lesson from straying as it had so many times already. He did, however, let a nervous chuckle escape his throat when the nuit alluded to the injuries he would inevitably collect on his journey.

Otherwise he nodded, staring at the example more than he listened to the explanation. “What sort of risk to you mean?” He asked candidly, long past bothering to hide his interest.

Then suddenly Reaver was done, and cutting his work from the gauze, and offering the needle and thread to his student. With a look of reckless readiness, Victor took the tools and tried to reproduce what he remembered. Only then did he realize he had given the wrong arm in the beginning: the one without the injury, his right. And he was far from ambidextrous.

As he started with his left hand, his other twitched with a yearning to contribute. Every time the Lark boy would make a mistake, he would try to laugh it off, but in his eyes lurked an angry desire to do well despite his handicap. Besides, nature had no preference or sympathy for the limb it chose to damage.

The end result was much more uneven than its predecessor, each stitch slightly off parallel to the next. Reaver might have even noticed that the depth of the gauze to which the needle penetrated was irregular as well, but as Victor moved down the line it become more uniform. The needle on its extra thread swung from his arm as he stretched it out for assessment and asked, “But why the Xes at the beginning and end? Wouldn’t that pull on my skin more than keep it together?”

[Reaver]

“What sort of risk to you mean?” "By risk, I meant the risk of self-injury."

Reaver watched Victor work. He noticed the difficulties he was having, but more importantly, the improvements he was making. The depth tended to be uneven, that's something that would come with practice. Reaver nodded approvingly as his student finished. "Better then I had expected, by far. You could learn that part without me." “But why the Xes at the beginning and end? Wouldn’t that pull on my skin more than keep it together?” "Like making a rope. The ends will flay much faster then the middle. However, unlike a rope, when the end flay, the injury will pull the stitching apart. I think the design is also nicer then an ugly knot." The last line slipped out, but wasn't untrue.

"I think you have gathered enough knowledge to practice on. Just keep the pattern and depth in mind and you'll do fine. Next, cleaning a wound like that. You saw me use alcohol on the former, but what of an injury you stitch together? I do the same, but I make sure to run it down the length of the cut, so less of it lingers on the injury. It also hurts a touch less, I suspect. Also, remember to use it on the needle and thread before, and it doesn't hurt to do it again after. Unless you do a poor job, but it only hurts a little. If you can spare the supplies, also wrap the wound after. It doesn't help it heal, but it does keep it clean." Reaver sat and pondered for a while, debating what to work with next, then thought to ask his student. "Was there anything in particular you were hoping to learn?"