It's late afternoon in the harbor district, and it's bustling with people visiting the shops or the beach. Most everyone seems to be having a good time- with the exception of one particular blonde, foreign-looking woman. Of course, that's hardly the main reason she sticks out. Slumped against a wall just inside an alleyway between two shops on the boardwalk, this woman is wearing an all-white jumpsuit which looks, perhaps appropriately, like either prison or hospital garb. The left sleeve is torn and stained with blood, and there's a crude bandage, made from some other piece of torn up cloth, wrapped around her forearm. Parts of the pants also look frayed and slightly burned.
The woman, who appears perhaps twenty years old, sits with her back against the wall and her head hanging slightly. People walk by without even seeming to notice her, but for the moment she doesn't appear to have any interest in being noticed or interacting with them, anyway. The only thing which the woman seems to be carrying or wearing other than the tattered prisoner's garb is a bracelet on her right, uninjured wrist. It shinse metallic silver, with a dark-red gem set in the center, quite large, and seems very out of place with the rest of her current appearance.
Nicola is wandering around, in her school uniform, just casually exploring and avoiding home. She stops when she notices the hurt woman, and slowly, carefully approaches. "Ruby, can you do a quick scan?" She asks softly, and the response is immediate. <Yes Master> And a basic medical examination spell is cast to analyse the woman, still from a little distance.
The distance is not enough to avoid notice- not when a Device is employed. Madison's head snaps up at the same moment that Ruby answers Nicola, and she, despite looking worn out, leaps to her feet with surprising grace, falling into an instinctively defensive posture as her blue eyes seek out the source of the magic.
Settling on Nicola, her eyes narrow briefly.. then she relaxes, leaning back against the wall as if leaping up had taken all the energy she had to spare. "Ah.. just some kid." She mutters to herself. Granted, a kid with a Device, which is surprising, but she's not wearing a TSAB uniform and that's all that seems important at the moment.
The medical scan returns information that the subject has a somewhat serious cut to her left forearm, minor burns on her lower legs, and is generally suffering from exhaustion.
Said kid takes out a roll of bandages from her backpack, why she carries them along is anyone's guess, and slowly heads towards Madison, trying to look non-threatening. "Hi, you look hurt. Do you need some help?" She asks softly but with plenty cheer, her accent is distinctly foreign, though it's more subdued than it once was. "I'm Nicola."
Madison, who had closed her eyes again, cracks one open to look sideways at the kid who approaches her with bandages. Her cut is already bandaged- but with a makeshift dressing, and its been long enough it could probably stand to be changed anyway.
She gives a soft groan of annoyance. "Do you always wander up to strangers in dark alleys and offer to help? You're not gonna live long if you make that a habit." She replies, her tone mildly mocking, although she's far too worn-out to offer much more than snark unless her life depends on it.
After a moment, she adds, "If you could bring me some painkillers, I'd owe ya one, kid. I don't have any money at the moment, though."
"Only if they look like they need it, and I can tell better than most." Nicola shrugs, she clearly doesn't seem to mind much, nor be scared, and starts to help out with changing Madison's bandages. "I have some painkillers, but they might not be what you're used to. I hope that's fine?"
She digs out a little bottle of oddly shapen 'pills', the purple nuggets lacking the consistent size and shape that any pharmacy would offer. She takes two of the bigger ones out and offers them to Madison. "These should help a lot with the pain." She promises.
At first Madison seems a bit unwilling to let Nicola touch her, despite the girl's seeming desire to help.. but after a moment she decides she's too tired to fight, even a kid, and just lets her arm droop down as Nicola starts to change the bandages.
She turns her gaze on the purple 'pills' that are offered. In other circumstances, she might outright refuse, perhaps thinking this is some kind of trick to recapture her, but...
She glances down to the silver bracelet on her arm. "Heartrazor. Scan those for sedatives or toxins."
<<Yes, mistress.>> Her Device responds in a businesslike voice, performing the scan with a beam of red light.
Nicola's pills are some kind of opoid, with all the associations thereof. So while they might not be a sedative, they do kind of sap energy as a side effect of their functioning. There's nothing outside of the bounds of a powerful painkiller in it, however.
"Oh, you have a device, too?" The girl asks softly, keeping on at the bandaging. She's not the best at this, but obviously she's done it before. "Did you get in a fight?" She seems curious, and there's not a hint of any awareness about who she's talking to.
After a moment, Madison shrugs and takes the pills. She's out of it enough that it won't make a huge difference to be even more out of it, and the relief from the pain of her injuries will be more than welcome. None of them are life-threatening, but they are painful.
"They teach you that kind of deductive logic in school?" Madison asks sarcastically, "No, I fell and cut myself. Yes, I got in a fight. Probably better for your health if you don't find out exactly why."
After a moment, she sighs. "Anyway, thanks. Once I sleep this off I'll be able to take care of myself but.. I ain't so ungrateful as to not say thanks for the help."
"They don't teach me much of anything at school. My classmates don't know anything and I'm expected to just sit there and pretend I don't already know everything." Nicola complains a little annoyedly, "I was excited to go to school and make some friends, but Earth is so backwards I'm surprised they even know what molecules are." She huffs, and apparently the rant is over there. "It's nothing really, I don't like seeing people hurt."
"It sure is." Madison agrees odd-handedly about Earth being a backwater. "Though near as anybody can tell there's no way to leave it, so you better make the best of it. Guess that's what we all gotta do." She scowls slightly, then slowly lowers herself back down to sit on the ground once Nicola is done with the bandage.
She smirks a little at the comment about not liking to see people hurt, since that's pretty much the exact opposite of Madison's point of view. She doesn't comment though.. this kid could be useful, at least until she can get her feet back under her. "Hey.. Nicola-chan, was it? Any chance I could get you to bring me some food? Like I said, I don't have any money at the moment, but.. it'd be a solid favor."
"I could, but my allowance isn't very big and I don't know how I'd explain to Jessamine why I need more money without telling her about you, and I don't trust her to get into a big panic about it." Nicola answers softly, though she gets a box out of her bag containing half of a lunch. "I got more lunch than I could eat, so ... it's not much, but it's something?"
She shrugs half, "Jessamine is part of this evil group, they call themselves the Space Time Administration Bureau but they're really just a bunch of people who like to boss other people around." She sounds like she really doesn't like TSAB, "And I have to stay with her because I've got nowhere else to go. It's awful."
Madison snorts slightly at the talk of allowances and such.. figures, should have known better than to ask a kid. When the lunch is offered though, she looks at it a moment.. then shrugs and takes it, starting to scoop the rice and other food into her mouth with her fingers. Beggers can't be choosers.
After chewing and swallowing, she gives the kid another look, and scowls. "Yeah, I know the TSAB and you got the right of it. Bunch of stuck-up meddlers who like to ruin other people's fun. You got my sympathy kid, I was an unwilling guest of the TSAB for a little while, too. That's changed now though. You'll get rid of 'em someday too I bet.. just don't get complacent."
"I'm sure not to mention you to them, then." Nicola promises, and smiles a little bit. "I'm not sure we'll meet again, if you're trying to get away from TSAB then you probably don't want to leave anything they can use to trace you with em. I don't know if they would notice, but better save than sorry, right?"
Madison nods her head, though inside she's shrugging. She's not terribly worried about this kid mentioning her to the TSAB in any case- she doesn't plan to be here for long, and she's confident in her ability to find places to hide that the TSAB won't be able to locate without better information than 'a kid saw her down by the harbor'.
Even so, she flashes a tired grin. "Thanks, kid. Maybe when you grow up a little bit you can join my crew huh? Well, don't got much of one yet, but by then I probably will. Disliking the TSAB is a prime requirement for membership."
"Maybe." Nicola smiles when she answers like that, seemingly in a good mood. "That's like forever away though, so I don't know if you'll even remember." She takes a couple more of those oddly shaped pills out of the bottle and puts them in a plastic bag that she hands to Madison. "Don't take any more today, but if you take two a day this should be enough for a couple more days."
Madison can feel the drugs kicking in already.. they reduce the pain of her cuts and burns to a faint throbbing. They're also starting to make her feel drowsier than she already was- a tough feet, and she was warned, but that is starting to make her nervous about hanging around outside in the open.
"You'd be surprised kid. I got a long memory." She says off-handedly, a trait more often lamented by her enemies than complimented by her friends. She eyes the pills in the bag.. but shrugs and takes them, tucking the bag into a pocket.
"Thanks kid. I mean it. Maybe I can return the favor one day." A brief, lopsided smile. "I think I'm gonna try to get inside someplace before I keel over.. see if I can sleep some of this off."