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Post by Yulia Sokolov on Feb 5, 2017 18:11:29 GMT -7
It was time to go shopping for clothes again. All things considered, it was probably time to go shopping for new clothes last month. Much to Yulia's dismay, she had to improvise just to go out in public. Most of her clothes had big holes in them, or had frayed so much at the neckline that the cloth would hang off her shoulders and expose her belly button, even if it wasn't designed to do that. Today, she was wearing a shirt that she sewed another damaged shirt onto in the shape of a sunflower in order to cover up the big hole in the chest. There was an equally big hole in the back, but that could be covered up by a jacket. The bottom had come apart badly enough that she ended up cutting the bottom into patterns herself to make it look intentional. Even the canvas jacket she was using to cover the hole in her shirt was starting to show signs of wear. The back of it was nearly white even though the rest of it was blue. But she had gotten used to this. Every other month or so she needed to completely restock her wardrobe because that's how much life she could get out of them no matter how hard she tried. It was hard on the budget, but she'd find a way to make it work.
Yulia always tried to keep her trips quick with as little contact with people as possible. With in about 40 minutes, she half a dozen bags hanging off her arms with clothes and a couple cute accessories she liked. Even though they were light, she was out of shape, so walking this much while carrying that much was tiring. She was glad it was done and eager to get back home, even if she still had a walk a good distance to get back home. Taking a bus wasn't an option, so she would have to live with walking. In the mall itself, she took the long way around to use the stairs instead of the elevator. She knew she would be sore by the time she got home.
Sadly, she'd end up even more sore by the time she got home due to her own bad luck. While she absentmindedly walked down the stairs, thinking about the route to take home, part of the stairs chipped away under her foot. Even though she felt like this shouldn't be surprising anymore given how often it happened, it still surprised her every time. She was unable to catch her balance and tumbled down the stairs, her bags and new clothes flying off her arms and scattering all over the floor. Yulia herself hit several stairs on the way down, and once she stopped falling she didn't get up right away. Her body hurt, and for a little while, laying on the floor was more comfortable than trying to put weight on her legs again. Most of her body was covered, but she had to cut her pants from the bottom up to the knee because of how they were wearing out. This at least made the damage look intentional. Her legs had a few bruises on them, some looking older than the ones caused by falling down the stairs. The fall left her left leg with a particularly dark one, but she didn't consider it a big deal. She could take care of it later. For now, she rolled onto her back and started to pick herself up.
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Post by Carlos Johnston on Feb 8, 2017 22:37:58 GMT -7
For the first time since Tiny Tim was hired, Carlos was able to leave the hotel on his own without sneaking out. The wonders of being able to go out and about without a large, imposing bodyguard looking over one's shoulders was likely taken for granted by many, but Carlos wasn't one of them. That was why he decided to go and revisit the mall, hoping that there wouldn't be any pranksters this time around.
He'd spent a few hours combing through the inventories of the many shops that caught his attention. He also made sure to at least grab a few items of interest from each one, and as such had quite a few more bags on his arms than would probably be considered normal. Half had clothes, some had CDs, some were of random collectible figurines and knickknacks, and the final few bags were filled with various art supplies. Before he came to Emerald City, he'd heard from a reliable source that drawing was a pleasant way to destress during free time. It was finally starting to look like he was going to have enough free time to actually put the advice to the test.
Pleased with his myriad purchases, Carlos was finally intending on leaving for the day. He was stopped short, however, when someone apparently decided that the stairs weren't a quick enough way to the ground floor after all and landed a few feet in front of him. Setting down his newly bought items for the time being, he quickly made his way over to the girl and offered a hand as she started to pick herself up. "That was quite a fall," he stated, watching her closely. He hadn't seen if she had hit her head or not, and a spill such as that seemed likely to cause a concussion if she had. It would be better to notice symptoms of it sooner rather than later, in his experience. "Are you alright? Where all do you hurt?" He was aware of the multitude of bruises she was sporting, but she wasn't screaming in agony, so it wasn't probable that she had broken anything and was therefore a lower priority at the moment.
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Post by Yulia Sokolov on Feb 13, 2017 19:01:09 GMT -7
The floor was comfortable enough, and Yulia was dizzy enough, that she didn't even notice that there was someone at the bottom of the stairs until he talked. Suddenly, she jerked upright and looked at the boy with her eyes wide. How could she be so careless? She quickly slid herself back into the stairs to get as far away from him as possible.
"O-Oh, it's okay, I'm fine." After one false start due to her leg giving out under her, Yulia slowly rose to her feet. "S-See? Just fine. Perfectly fine. Absolutely fine. Nothing to worry about. Happens all the time. No big deal." She laughed awkwardly and put up her hands. "S-So, I got everything. It's okay. R-Really."
Yulia looked around for the bag furthest away from the boy and started to walk towards it. Her expression was perfectly pleasant with a sunny smile spread across her lips. She was well-practiced with smiling no matter how she was feeling given how often the stairs broke under her, among other things. Even though every step sent a jolt of pain through her legs, she could ignore it. It was just like she said, it happened all the time, no big deal.
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Post by Carlos Johnston on Feb 17, 2017 16:21:40 GMT -7
Carlos blinked in bewilderment. After a fall like that, and sporting the marks that she was, she claimed to be perfectly fine? Not to mention the look on her face when he registered; someone who is genuinely fine and able to walk off a recently sustained injury doesn't act as though they are frightened. His concern about a head injury grew.
Smile or no, something was definitely wrong. Carlos, not wanting to risk walking away from a possible concussion, immediately started working through a mental checklist of symptoms. Head truama wasn't something he dealt with regularly, but he tried his best to keep himself informed of what he could. The nature of the potential injury itself, though, did nothing to help simplify the task. She had some issue with getting up; was it because she just hurt her leg in the fall or because of newfound problems with balance? There was a symptom associated with speech that he couldn't quite recall; was it stuttering or something else? She seemed to remember falling, at least, but it was also possible that symptoms simply hadn't started to manifest yet. He thought he might have read something about mood swings being a possible symptom as well.
Either way, though, he thought the best thing to do would be to grab the bag of hers nearest him and hold it out for her to take. The more time she spent walking, the longer he had to observe any negative changes in her demeanour. The same could be said about keeping her talking, he thought. "You didn't answer my question," he said calmly. "Where all are you hurting?"
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Post by Yulia Sokolov on Feb 19, 2017 13:27:06 GMT -7
"Huh?"
Yulia looked over her shoulder while she started gathering her new clothes. He was still there. While she could understand why he was worried, there really was no reason to be worried. The fact that he was worried was concerning, not because of her but because of what could happen to him. There was no reason for him to stick around.
Fortunately, Yulia had been practicing how to hide any pain or wounds with one of her friends. She'd gotten pretty good at it; certainly better than her attempts at fighting. She slipped up sometimes, like her first attempt at getting up, but once she was actually thinking about it, she could be kicked in the shins without even wincing. That much she knew from experience. It seemed like all she had to do was convince this guy that everything was fine and she wasn't hurt. That sounded simple enough.
"Oh, like I said, I'm fine," she bent over to collect her things and stood up again to move to the next pile. "See? Nothing's hurting, I was just surprised."
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Post by Carlos Johnston on Feb 28, 2017 12:52:35 GMT -7
Carlos' brow furrowed slightly in suspicion at the girl's insistence that she was fine. He had seen few exceptions to the general rule that falling down a stair or several - and sporting a few less than pleasant bruises as a result - was painful. She didn't seem to be so seriously injured as to be in shock, though, and he couldn't think of any reason why she would lie about something so potentially serious. Maybe she was among the number of rare people who can't feel pain, and therefore not a reliable source of information on her physical condition? Or worse, she might have hit something and thrown her nervous system out of order. He didn't know for certain if that was something that could actually happen, but based on his limited knowledge of head trauma, he couldn't think of a reason why it wouldn't make sense.
Suddenly determined to do a more in depth study of brain-related injuries when he got the chance, Carlos thought that the best way to proceed was cautiously in spite of - and perhaps, to a degree, because of - the girl's insistence that she was perfectly fine. "I'll take your word for it," he lied. "Still, I would feel terrible if I didn't do anything to help. Please, allow me to help you with your bags. I insist." He smiled confidently, in an effort to help convince the girl that he was willing to help and meant no harm. Despite the smile, though, he was distracted by trying to figure out what, if anything, was wrong. The smartest option he had available was to keep an eye on her, to make sure that she didn't suddenly collapse or anything else of the nature. And if the price of being able to say with certainty that she was fine was that he would have to carry around a few more bags for a short while, it was an insignificant price to pay.
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Post by Yulia Sokolov on Mar 23, 2017 15:32:12 GMT -7
"Oh, don't worry about it. I got it," the cheerfulness didn't fade. "I wouldn't want you to stick around for something minor like this."
Once a fair amount of the scattered clothes were gathered, she reached for the bag they fell out of and gently placed them back in. The moment she turned around to go gather the next batch, the strap on the bag snapped scattering the clothes on the ground once more. Though her smile did not fade, she exhaled sharply through her nose only barely slowly enough to not snort. Even simple excursions couldn't go right could they?
Yulia looked behind her in mock confusion as everything spilled back onto the floor, and quickly grabbed the top of the bag to prevent the bag from ripping in half. This probably wasn't going to convince him that she had everything under control was it? Further, the sharp movement made her falter and wince for just a moment before she forced the smile back onto her face.
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Post by Carlos Johnston on Mar 29, 2017 23:15:18 GMT -7
Carlos continued to smile and not leave despite continued reassurances that the girl was fine. He still felt that the safest option for all parties involved would be if he maintained a presence. He wasn't entirely sure what all he'd be able to do that any other bystander couldn't do, but having someone be prepared in case of serious injury likely didn't hurt anything.
When the bag ripped and the clothing inside fell out, his smile briefly reflected a hint of pity for the girl and her misfortunes. Immediately, though, he stepped forward to help while still keeping a close enough eye on her to catch the wince. She was definitely in pain, which meant that she was lying. Why she would lie was still beyond Carlos. Still, he would refrain from saying anything at the immediate moment. If she was lying - and now he was sure she was lying - she likely had some reason. Outright accusing her of lying wouldn't help anything either, and he was aware of that as well.
As he bent over to help pick up the clothes, he carefully considered his options. Stating the obvious was unnecessary, so he wasn't going to point out that he intended to help again; nor was he keen on pointing out that she lied to him. Asking her about her condition wouldn't do any good either, so he felt he was left with only one decent one. "My name is Carlos, by the way," he said with a cheerfulness intended to mask his suspicious. "And who might you be?"
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