Raika starts forming habits.
While one may be generous and assert that these habits are way healthier than the drinking or opiates or other habits that can be formed in the swill near rock bottom, they would be at least partially wrong; at least the other habits can make a person feel better for a while. As it turns out, Ding has really put in the work over the week and change she’s started hanging out with him. Say what you will about inanimate objects with no true will of their own, but Ding puts in the work and Raika can’t help but respect the hustle. As it stands, she can stomach somewhere around twelve to twenty “tunings” before she passes out for the day and wakes up having lost her begging bowl (which has happened twice now). All the talk about pushing herself remains, but for the sake of being able to still hobble back “home” at the end of a long day, she tends to limit herself to around seventeen on average.
And then, of course, every two or three days she tries to go for twenty-five.
Notably, and notably enough that she’s started to put stock in it, she’s not as hungry anymore. She still is, obviously, but she’s gone from being lightheaded and barely able to see from hunger to just being in pain because of it. Exceptional news, considering that pain she can handle; a quarter of a year as a mortal in her state has made her intimately familiar with both pain and a total inability to escape it with Qi meditation. Hard to realize what a privilege it is, to escape into one’s own soul and view pain as a backdrop, one she had never realized she had.
Still, she pushes on. Even if she wasn’t quite as psychotically driven… she’s not exactly working on a full schedule. And, interestingly enough, she tends to have a bit more energy nowadays, enough to nod at some folk as they pass rather than just listlessly sit in front of her bowl. Now, she sits upright, right leg unfolded but left in an almost-lotus pose, and spends her days giving small smiles beneath her scarf to the generous and hitting herself in the head with a tuning fork.
It’s… surprising how genuine the smiles are. How much it means to have someone give something, anything, when all it costs them is a bit of time and care. Sometimes it stings more, like when those in fine silks leave her coppers of whatever pocket change they have left, but even then she can reflect that, well, it’s better than before, and they didn’t have to do that. Oh sure, watching fine brocades and dashing young lords and ladies occasionally pass in sight still makes her think that they really should just give her all their gold, but the gratitude remains nonetheless.
It is a little more than a week later when Raika sees a face she recognizes again (she blames the nearsightedness).
Li Shu stops in shock at seeing the ragged figure on the ground. Perhaps it was the “Dink” of Raika’s constant companion, or perhaps just the sight of such specific injuries, but she stops and stares at Raika with wide eyes.
“You’re alive!” she bursts.
Raika looks up at her, quirking an eyebrow. “Last time I checked and despite the Heaven’s best efforts,” she replies, a smile pulling at the scar tissue.
“I didn’t- you- I can’t-” Li Shu stumbles, blinking owlishly at her like she’s trying to get her eyes to focus. “It’s been months! It’s almost winter!”
Raika nods sagely. “I thought it was getting nippy out,” she rasps.
“How are you still alive?” Li Shu asks, setting down a basket of what looks like some herbs and crouching, examining Raika like one might a strange fungus one finds unexpectedly. “Do you still have some rations? Has someone helped you?”
Raika shrugs, or at least tries to. Hurts her ribs to properly lift the shoulders. “Not since you, really,” she rasps. “Out here it’s just guards who like to kick down and brats who act like birds when they see someone else’s coins. If you have more rations, though, the one with the dried berries was the best.”
Li Shu seems a mix of embarrassed and overwhelmed enough not to be proper about it. “I’ll keep it in mind,” she says with a shake of her head, “but how are you still alive? It’s one thing to be a beggar with one’s health, and even then many grow sick and die from their environment and lack of food. You came out here covered in old cuts and in some of the worst health I’ve ever seen!”
“You mean I was sent out here,” Raika rasps. She doesn’t bear any ill will towards Li Shu, but she refuses to let the comment slide. This time Li Shu does color in her cheeks, a bit of pink. It’s actually very cute, truth be told.
“...yes,” the younger woman whispers. “But I don’t know that we could have healed you much more anyways, in truth. Without meridians to send supplies through or a dantian to purify and absorb them, mortal medicine can only do so much. I still think it’s a little mad that you survived at all.”
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Raika half-shrugs again. “The gods will have to come down and kill me themselves if they want this to be done quick,” she promises, voice dry but holding something like a laugh in it. “Otherwise, I intend to drag my carcass all the way back to strength, whether they like it or not.”
Li Shu does a mix of tilting her head to one side like a confused pup and a gentle, patronizing smile, like she’s trying to tell if Raika is serious and also just trying to be nice. Raika just gives her a huff, before introducing “Ding” by performing his namesake.
“Just wait,” she rasps. “Gonna be stronger than ever soon.”
At first it’s just the smile again, but then it turns to a frown with the head tilt. “...how?” Li Shu asks. It sounds like she’s… actually being genuine.
Raika just shrugs. “I dunno,” she tells her honestly. “But Ding here sometimes makes me black out and being blind and missing your hands never stopped a good sculptor, hmm?”
Li Shu gives up a giggle at that, and it’s the nicest sound Raika has heard in months.
And then, of course, something interrupts. Because if nothing else, the gods are consistent about pissing in her rice whenever they get a chance.
“Honorable apprentice!” says a voice that sounds like it wants to be important.
Raika and Li Shu both turn their heads at the same time, looking towards the market Li Shu came from. Standing there in the colors of the… Purple-flame-something-something sect stand three young cultivators, one almost three inches taller than his fellows, the other two already following him into a polite bow towards Li Shu.
“There is no need to bother yourself with this one, honorable healer,” says the guy in the lead, laying it on a bit thick. “You are generous beyond imagining, but this is no mere beggar. They are a cripple, and any blessed healing Qi or ingredients given would be a waste on them.”
“And why is that, young master Qen Hou?” she asks, sweetly enough that Raika can’t help but… well, not giggle, she can’t do that any more, but close.
The younger cultivator looks to the others, confused. “Well… they cannot cultivate, honored healer,” replies one behind him, a young man with raven-dark skin and bright eyes. “Any medicine would go through their meridians, would it not? And since they have none…”
“And I suppose you all are apprenticed at the Ru Kai clinic, and must surely be my senior brothers and sisters?” Li Shu asks in the sweetest, most subtle tone of condescension Raika has ever heard. It’s pretty hot, honestly.
The one who just spoke averts his eyes, but the one in front who first spoke (Qen Hou, was it?) seems to take it in stride. “I would never claim this one’s knowledge of the medicinal arts would even touch honored healers,” he says, all proper and prim. “I only mean to assist you in surpassing the bounds of misplaced generosity.”
Raika rolls her eyes at that, but she can’t help it; he’s got his lines down pretty well, and he’s navigating this decently. Plus, he’s technically right; any time that Li Shu spends talking to her, she isn’t learning, helping her master, or healing someone.
Doesn’t mean she’s not gonna remember his ass for interrupting a good vibe, but she’ll probably let him off with a fucked up rib when she’s back on top.
Aaaaany day now.
Raika can’t really get up, much less bow, but she does sit up a bit straighter and bow a little. “Thank you for your time, Li Shu,” she rasps. “It has been an honor and a joy to see you, and I thank you for the kindness you have shown me. I am sure that we both have pursuits we must return to.”
Li Shu’s face falls, just a bit, just enough to make Raika feel good. She doesn’t want to leave. That, as the kids say, is the power of rizz. Or maybe just genuine interest and incredible kindness. The latter is most likely, but the part that agrees the most with it is an idiot and a coward, so obviously it must be that even in her condition Raika is simply irresistible to some degree.
The younger woman stands and gives Raika a bow much deeper than is proper. “I admire your survival and your dedication,” she says, somewhat formally, “and I am proud that the services of the Ru Kai clinic have helped to strengthen and support you. If ever you find yourself in greater straits, we welcome you once more.”
Then she pauses. “Do you often beg here?” she asks.
Raika nods. “Can’t walk very far. Here morning, noon and sunset, most days. Except thirds-days, that’s when people don’t come and the stalls give free scraps sometimes.”
Li Shu seems to take that in stride, giving a shorter bow. “Then perhaps our paths may cross again. I bid you well.”
“I bid you well,” Raika replies.
Li Shu walks on her way, bag heavy with the herbs and supplies she’s surely bought this trip. And Raika watches her go a bit.
Then “Dink” reminds her, vocally, that she’s got shit to do, and she lets herself fall back into the rhythm of trying to hold the imagined vibration as firmly inside herself as she can.
She does not notice the looks she gets from those who walk past a moment later. Not the look of derision and disgust in the eyes of the raven-skinned disciple who mentioned her cultivation, not the look of confusion from the quiet one beside him, and not the look of fleeting but genuine curiosity in the eyes of one Qen Hou.
She’s busy.