What are Little Girls Made Of? (Post Mantis Reunion)(Rianna Ar'klim-Organa)

[Ginnie Dib]

OOC: Takes place after the events of Heaven Is A Frame of Mind.

The disappearance of Aditya and [member="Yasha Mantis"] had been no small bit of news within the Mandalorian spheres. The family of [member="Preliat Mantis"], warrior and Mando'ad had been missing for five years. Not missing, lost in Hell. Presumed KIA.

Five years of clawing around in the muck, keeping her head and providing for her child had aged the young Epicanthix beauty more than her share. Tired and ragged, she's made it home within days of dying from sepsis, thanks in no small part to [member="Ginnie Ordo"]'s estranged birth-brother Isley.

[member="Rianna Ar'klim-Organa"] was one of the best doctors in the 'verse. Aditya Mantis kept repeating the sentiment as she walked to the location Ginnie had provided. "My Mom will fix you both up. She can help. Trust me". The seventeen year old Mando'ad said from beneath her pink Beskar'gam.

Aditya had trusted Ginnie before, and got her husband back from Sith captivity. She'd trusted Ginnie again when Preliat needed a prosthetic beskar leg. It had been Ginnie that found Preliat to tell him his family came home. The Wolf's Riduur bundled her daughter up and made for the doctor's clinic, repeating her mantra. Rianna Ar'klim-Organa was one of the best doctors in the 'verse. One of the best...

Maybe Eli wouldn't blow his top that she'd taken their precious daughter to the wife of a traitor. Preliat was a proud and noble man, he bowed to no one, fought for his family and for all Mandalore. He did not take traitors kindly. Five years without his wife and child hadn't improved Eli's temper. Aditya's search for another doctor hadn't gone well. She felt a little comfort that Ginnie called ahead to make arrangements in private, even if it was for a member of the Clan Preliat loathed the most.

As Aditya sat in the examination room before opening hours, she pulled Yasha's hood over the girl's head. "She's the best, Aditya... she's the best... she'll know what to do."

Five years in Hell. Nothing to eat but the foul meat of their kills had stunted Yasha. The other six year olds were taller, they weighed more. Aditya could pick her daughter up with one hand, and she wasn't too strong herself. "I... I tried to feed her veggies, some toast, a piece of irli but she threw it up. It's okay... Rianna will know how to fix it..." The pale Epicanthix put her hope in the woman to walk in that door.

 

[Rianna Organa]

Hospital hours and clinic hours seemed to run back to back and today was no different for her. Cases were mounting up already and staff was spread to the limit.

Rianna was looking at the next name on the list, she looked to the door that she would pass through to look at this case. A Doctor was not suppose to take sides in battles they treated everyone. Preliat had been very vocal about his hatred of Clan Ordo and imparticularly had called Ordo a traitor. He was unwilling to hear facts to know what others knew and accepted.

Picking up a scanner she headed to the door, taking a breath she walked through.

"Morning, I"m Rianna, the Doctor on shift." She looked at the woman sitting there cradling a small child, "How can I help this morning?" Rianna looked again at the chart, not much information. So,,,what did that mean.

[member="Aditya Mantis"]

 

[Ginnie Dib]

Aditya held a small child draped in a hooded sweater. The mother of one jolted as [member="Rianna Ar'klim-Organa"] entered, holding her breath for the inevitable dismissal. It never came, and Aditya gulped. Her own face was pale, blue circles surrounding her eyes and her cheeks gaunt, as if she'd been starved for months.

"Hello, Dr. Ar-um, Ar'klim? I know you probably have your opinions of my Riduur, but... [member="Ginnie Ordo"]'s always been a... a compatriot of mine. Your girl Ginnie helped me get my husband back from the Sith. She... she built him his prosthetic leg and... remember... I'm told it was five years ago. Time didn't have much of a meaning... where we've been. . . when all them folks got cast into Hell... [member="Yasha Mantis"] was still on breast milk, she was a baby and..." Say it, she thought to herself. It will be better when she said it. Aditya gulped and fondled her little girl's hooded head.

"Yasha and I were thrown into Hell. We've been there for five years and we just got rescued. I know what the other girls Yasha's age looks like, and Yasha's small. She's cryin' all day since we got back, says her eyes hurt and she can't see. She keeps throwing up the food I give her. She ate some chicken and was okay for a while, but... I'm worried. No vaccines, no bacta, we lived off scraps of meat from beings that looked close enough like animals and didn't make me vomit or hallucinate. There was killin' every day and Yasha got good at sneaking up on the creatures in Hell. I don't know what growing up in Hell did to my little girl and I need your help."

Aditya pulled the hood down from Yasha's face and revealed a tiny, thin girl-child with messy brown hair, and bruises around her eyes who immediately whimpered and covered her eyes. "Mama, it hurts!"

 

[Rianna Organa]

[member="Aditya Mantis"]

Rianna listened the words poured forth from the woman quickly while she spoke Rianna gently lifted the hood from the baby to see into her eyes. Yes she was a bit small and yes living on the dead for 5 years inside the zone meant only for the dead was a problem for an adult, but for a child. Rianna frowned looking at the little body.

"The world she grew up in was dark all the time?" Rianna waved her hand and brought the lights down while she looked at the little girl.

5 years in hell, she looked at Preliat's wife, "[member="Ginnie Ordo"] is a good girl, she does what is right" There had been concern about her path earlier but that had all changed and now Rianna was sure Ginnie was secure in who and what she was, enough so that she could help others just like she had Aditya.

Rianna would learn one thing at a time while they talked.

 

[Ginnie Dib]

"Sure is.. A good kid, that Ginnie. Strong too. Darn near lifted beskar one handed last time I saw her." Aditya found it in herself to smile. Two mothers having a conversation about their kids wouldn't be the worst, nor dangerous. The mother of one let her shoulders drop and let out an uneasy breath. She was beginning to relax, feeling less of the panic of the last years.

[member="Yasha Mantis"] groaned as [member="Rianna Ar'klim-Organa"] lowered the lights and took a look. Yasha angled her chin up to look blinking into Rianna's face. Her skin was pale and flushed. She flopped her head back on her mother's cheek. Aditya pulled Yasha up and sat her back agains Aditya's chest. "Let Dr. Ordo get her look, Yash. We ain't in any danger here." Aditya whispered to her daughter's hair. It seemed to help a little.

"Yes, it was dark. There were... Flashes of light. It's how we knew the baddies were coming. I... I know you can see my eyes, Dr. I was born with an abnormality that makes me sensitive in bright light. Used to blind me so bad when I was on stage I had to learn the ballets blindfolded. When... When Yasha was born we saw she's got my husband's eyes. I'd hoped... Hoped she'd gotten his vision, too."

[member="Preliat Mantis"]' wife indeed had unusual eyes. Black in the whites and red in the irises, she had a pair of goggles perched on her head just in case.

 

[Rianna Organa]

[member="Aditya Mantis"]

Rianna looked down into the child's eyes, "flashes of light, does that mean it was continual darkness?" She didn't want to scare the child or give the mother reason to worry she just needed to find out further information in order to know what she was deailng with.

Rianna looked up at the mother's eyes, "interesting and yet unique" she looked back at Yasha , "all of this could be connected Aditya diet and eyesight, skin coloring, growth. The things you ate....since you were in hell were these things....spirit in nature?"

How did you say real? Because if you're in the Netherworld most of what was there was already dead, or trapped there from the event. So...which were these?

 

[Ginnie Dib]

[member="Rianna Ar'klim-Organa"] was a clever doctor and asked the right questions. Aditya could have smiled, the diplomatic way Rianna had with words reminded her of Atrisia. Aditya gulped and bit the inside of her cheeks. Total darkness? Her pulse began to race.

"It was like living in the night side of twilight. The only real light we got was from fires, blasters or netherworldly voodoo. Mostly it was black stretching on to a useless grey. There was no change for time of day. Had no way of knowing time was moving but for how Yasha started to grow. Could'a told me we'd been there for three weeks or ten years... I'd've believed you."

Aditya hazarded a smirk. "They bled well enough."

She shrugged and pulled down a long glove to reveal a gigantic series of bite marks down the forearm. "Some things were... I dunno, they'd send things freaking out. Didn't make much difference to us, we're Epicanthix. Guess that was a hell of a mercy, eh?" Aditya smirked at her pun and sighed.

"Some things we ate were beasts I'd seen from this universe. Others I ain't seen but they took a good deal of shooting, stabbing and what not to kill. If we didn't kill it, we didn't eat it. You could put a ghostly boogly-moogly in front of me and I'd think it was a hologram. We ate things that were warm to the touch. That's all I can tell you, for the rest I just don't know. I ain't a forcie, no offence, and being Epicanthix any of them ghostly magic didn't really pique my mental attention. I could have eaten anything which was warm before it bit the dust and wouldn't have cared. We probably had about two meals per four or five sleeps."

 

[Rianna Organa]

The night side of twilight, not completely dark but not completely light. A child exposed to those elements for certain was affected. She would need gradual exposure to the sun she would need the vitamins that it gave. She also needed to grow accustomed to the light, so..glasses were definite with small amounts of time without them and then to increase the amount of time exposed on both.

They bled so..some type of life...yet death.

Malnutrition for certain.

"Ok." Rianna had to think, "Let's start with getting her glasses like yours to filter sun light, with a prescription that calls for her going without them let's try half hour at first, see how she handles it, and increase every couple weeks. I would also like to say at that time let her be outside, under the sun. Keep her covered, arms , legs, and head. She should play, or try to, and if a week goes by and she's not had an adverse reaction. Let her go with her arms exposed. See how that goes..everything in increments. It will help to build her up, and limit risk."

"Diet. There are protein shakes that she can try. They'll be easy on stomach, and provide a lot of the vitamins, protein, and minerals she needs. Let's give her one of those for breakfast and lunch, then for dinner I would begin introducing some baby foods. See what she likes, if she can tolerate it, be mindful of how much she takes in. And how much she...evacuates."

What advice could she give, "Don't think of her as how old she is and what culture and galactic standard says she should be doing. Let's treat her like a new babe to a new world, and go slow."

[member="Aditya Mantis"]

 

[Ginnie Dib]

"Glasses ain't so bad. Eli and I, we got a big yard, guess it's time to go clothes shopping. Get her some wears. My Chrysalid Vornskyr survived, he's taken an awful shine to Yash. Bet he'd help us tire her out in the sun. Do you... do you know what little girls play, Ma'am? I don't... I don't think Yash's played before and I don't have much on the way of source material. By the time I was her age, my Mama had me in ballet training six hours a day."

"New babe." Her girl, as new to the universe as when she'd been born and the Mantis Estate was a place of hopeful, yet cautious glee. Yasha blinked up at [member="Rianna Ar'klim-Organa"], poked her hand out and touched Rianna's wrist with a tiny finger.

"Mama, why's her skin dirty?"

"Doctor's skin ain't dirty, Yash. Our skin'll get that colour too, when we're outside a bunch."

"How'm I gonna hide in bone piles if my skin's all dirty-lookin'?" @Yasha Mantis peered up at her mother's face. Aditya's chin wobbled. She pushed her lips together tried to laugh. "Ain't nothing to hide from." Aditya pulled Yasha's hair out of the girl's face and kissed her pale forehead.

"Oh goodie. Being a Mom, eh? We get the short end of the bathroom stick every time. I can get the protein shakes. It'll be a mini trial to get her eating baby food, unless I dress it up some, but I can give it two shots and a clear line of fire. I appreciate it, Dr. Rianna. Really, do. Feels better to have a place to start, eh?"