4481/tFSoK-The Hawk's Eyes-2

tFSoK-The Hawk's Eyes-2
Date of Scene:	29 August 2016
Location:	Great Painting of Ariamis <PoA>
Synopsis:	Gough finally gets to use his eyes for the first time in centuries.
Cast of Characters:	Priscilla, Sanary Rondel, Staren, 626

---

Priscilla has posed:
    There is a limit to how many times the same place of Anor Londo can be described. Everyone present, was present the last time too. So, to the point.

    Hawkeye Gough, the giant dragonslaying Knight of Gwyn, awaits the group as before. Considerably more infrastructure has been set up, both in terms of 'desk space', and basic, universally useful medical supplies and equipment, without any obvious idea of what people could need, even if it's just a bunch of bottles or bandages for a while. The old giant appears to have not . . . actually moved since last time, judging by the monumental pile of wood shavings next to him, and the smaller pile of weird, carved expressions that speak to people on that abstract level. The helmet rests nearbye, looking about as heavy as a car sitting on its own.

Sanary Rondel has posed:
A Confederate healer is here! Again. Just as well, since she was.legitimately interested in helping the giant for unselfish reasons.

     Well, maybe a few selfish reasons. "You're gonna be fine, Gough. By the time we're done, you'll be seeing things as good as I do~" She's trying to be reassuring! "Question, though. You mind if I cut you a bit to see if my healing magic works? I'll be just as careful either way, but... You know. Just in case?"

Staren has posed:
    Staren was here last time, and here he is again. "Hi! It's me again. ...Um... Have you moved at all? Do you even, like, need to eat or anything, or do you just sit here, forever...?"

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
It'd been quite a while since Kyra spoke with Hawkeye, who had originally attracted her attention with his 'affliction'. She wanted to do something for him then but she hadn't had the time.

    Today she would make time.

    She's brought a full compliment of her medical devices, packed away in a heavy-looking backpack. "Hello! I am back, Sir Gough!"

Priscilla has posed:
    Gough looks up from his work, towards the intruders on his domain of wood carving, with the sound of a tree slowly falling over. A little bit of dust shakes off him. It fits with his stoney complexion. "My apologies. It is easy to lose track of the time when one is well occupied. I know not whether the others cautioned her, but our White Lady is quite accommodating, and has seen fit not to intrude upon my work. Besides, there aren't many places for a blind old giant to wander around productively are there?" The chuckle almost sounds a little sad.

    He finally shifts more fully from the part, setting down his lovingly hewn knife, the size of a large sword for a human, and his current work of progress; an indecipherable whorl of shapes and contours that somehow project warm and friendly greeting. "Though, mistake me not, you are a welcome sight all the same!" He 'looks' to Sanary, shrugging with those mountainous shoulders. "If only you could imagine some of the wounds I've suffered from dragon's teeth. I would laugh at myself were I to complain."

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
Kyra's eyes slide to that knife, then away. She wasn't intimidated by this but she was certainly pretty impressed since that knife was as big as /she/ was. "I've fought a few dragons since being out in the multiverse. I've seen the kind of damage that they do and I'd rather not imagine how you've been mangled."

    She climbs a bit closer, not bothered by Sanary's presence here. She was a reliable healer so she could only help. "Well! First things first, I'm going to run another Scan or two on you. The more I know, the better, after all." she says, tracing the air with a finger, sketching blue-glowing circles before her as the diagnostic spell takes hold on Gough.

Sanary Rondel has posed:
Familiar faces! And... Only probably one potentially worrying one. Thankfully, today's entourage all seem to have the same goal in mind, and Sanary's still looking and sounding confident as ever as she gets her own gear prepped from what's been made available. "White Lady.... You mean the really fuzzy one, yeah? With the...?"

     WAit. Would he take that as an insult? Shit. She's already said it, so it's not like she can take it back now. Maybe if she just subtly moves onto something else? "W-well, when we're done here? You won't have to worry about that any more. Between me and Kyra and... And..."

     She stares at Staren blankly for a few moments. "... Staren! Yeah, we'll get you up and running soon. Cutting in a few seconds, so... You know. BE ready." Sanary gives Gough a reassuring jab on the leg, then takes Kyra's cue to pick up a sword to try and put a relatively small incision on said leg before pumping some healing magic into it. Better safe than sorry!

Staren has posed:
    Staren makes a slight 'hmm' sound as Gough 'looks' at them. Why does he do that, if he can't see? "Well... sounds like they're the hands-on healers. I'm just here as an idea guy to help them out if needed, today." He watches Sanary's test incision curiously.

Priscilla has posed:
    "I am to understand that the dragons out there are very different." Gough carries on conversationally, not so much grunting as Sanary jabs him. Being fair, the size of cut she can make without a proper weapon is basically a paper cut on his frame. "Though, nonetheless, I cannot say I would mind the chance to hunt anew. There is no greater calling to a knight than dragon slaying. It teases out one's dearest and most intense emotions. Even for the four score lost to every one of them defeated, I would trade nothing else."

    Sanary's work is cut out for her though. Gough's skin feels like as much rock as it looks like. Part of that is due to being jacked up on centuries of souls, part of it due to being a very muscular giant, but she'll probably need both hands and some of her body weight. His blood is thick and dark, but othersie nothing remarkable. When she goes to use the healing magic, she'll find that it closes up a wound that simple with no trouble.

    Kyra's scan spell confirms a whole lot of flesh damage. There are, as it would seem, still eyes somewhere in there, but Gough has pretty deep sockets, in keeping with that Easter Island theme of a giant's face, and it seems like the damage was so bad that it actually kind of . . . melted them inwards, then the scar tissue replaced where it came off. It's dead and thick, and looks badly burned, through a mix of heat and chemical damage.

Sanary Rondel has posed:
"Yeah, I've... Noticed that in a couple of places." Sanary chuckles lightly even as she tries not to show that it's taking her too long to get through the thick surface of Gough's leg, although she looks rather relieved when the healing magic does indeed work. "Whew... Okay, we're good to go on healing magic! And probably that spray stuff from last time, too. Should make this a fair amount easier, then..."

     Not that much easier, though. As the Confederate healer gathers more of the tools and gets herself up to Gough's face to take a better look at it, she glances at Kyra and Staren while suddenly looking somewhat concerned. "So. What's the plan? We cut off the gunk around the eyes, then..." She makes some vague pulling gestures with her hands in-between cramming tools into anywhere on her coat that'll fit. "Move... Everything around?"

Staren has posed:
    Staren nods. "That's the impression I got. His eyes probably need magic healing themselves, after damage like that, too."

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
"Hmmm. Yes, Sanary, I think we're going to have to do some serious surgery." Kyra says, considering the results of her spell. The blue circles incribed in the air all disappear as she carelessly draws her hands through the motes of light, scattering them. "The scar tissue is very extensive and actually quite damaging in the way it has healed. I think we should be able to cut away the damage and replace it with much more healthier skin. However, I am going to need a sample to really study, a healthy sample, so we can regrow the skin and flesh needed. I can culture some, actually, though that will take a little bit of time on my part, maybe an hour or so since I do have a haste module with me."

Priscilla has posed:
    Thankfully, dutiful castle servants were helpful enough to provide a variety of fairly tall ladders. Even sitting down, Gough is pretty damn big. He also, maybe thankfully, can't see Sanary's hand gestures. "I would not have asked were I not resolved to a little savagery under the knife. I fear repeating myself, but a giant is a sturdier breed than a human by far. I await patiently for whatever it is you believe best."

    Handily, there are also a variety of what look /close/ to lab tools, though they look more like the kind of stuff an alchemist would use, which is convenient for Kyra. Close analysis of Gough finds that is he is still faintly chuckling almost sub-sonically. Probably at Sanary's earlier question.

Staren has posed:
    "Wow. You can grow new tissue from a biopsy in an /hour/ with a haste module?" Staren's surprised. "Well... Awkward as it is to not be needed, I hope that the procedure goes smoothly. I'll have nanotech ready to help in case something goes wrong, all the same."

Sanary Rondel has posed:
"That bad, huh? Alright... Think I might actually need to use that saw, then." Although Sanary's trying to make that sound like a joke, to say she's still apprehensive about using it for /surgery/ would be an understatement. "Or my axe, even... Well, we'll try to make it as quick and... Not too painful, even though you are a giant."

     Then it's time to actually start. After cutting off a small-ish chunk of healthier flesh and tossing it towards Kyra, Sanary turns her attention towards the mass of melted scar tissue next. Taking her axe, the one-eyed healer's actually making some fairly precise cuts and chops into the odd mass, aiming to remove large segments of it at a time like one would use a cookie cutter on a mass of dough rather than just hacking parts off like an inexperienced butcher.

     Except in this case, it's very not-tasty flesh rather than cookies. "Kyra, need any more samples? More's coming your way soon! Staren, gimme a hand with smoothing this all out. We gotta make sure Gough looks good with his new face!"

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
"That's good, actually, because I was trying to run through the calculations I need to do to figure out how much anasthetic I was going to need for you and was suspecting that I didn't have enough." Kyra says cheerfully, "If you can handle being mauled by a dragon then you can handle the scar tissue being cut away-or for me taking a sample as needed." She starts opening up her bag, pulling out a few vials and co-opting the alchemist tools set out, going right for any cutting tools available. She'd prefer to use these since she suspects they'll be more successful at cutting the giant's skin and flesh, as opposed to her own which are optimized for humes.

    "Oh yeah, Staren. Haste Modules and lamps are popular in Ramuh, especially in restaurants. People demand the freshest food possible so-oh, you've never eaten in a Ramuh restaurant before, have you? They come with their own gardens." Kyra removes a large lantern-like glass vial from her bag and sets it on the table. Suspended in the middle is an orange-pulsing prism.

    "Sanary, Staren, I leave cutting out the scar tissue around his eyes to both of you." She comes at Gough with a set of the cutting tools left out herself, only to be intercepted by Sanary cutting off some healthier flesh, "Oh, this is good, thanks. The rest, just set it aside, it's damaged and I don't want that contaminating the clean skin."

Staren has posed:
    "I'm not actually a doctor." Staren points out. "...Wow, so they grow you the food right before you eat it? That's fresh." Oh, Sanary's asking for help! Staren hmms. He pulls a spraycan from his bag and sprays around the edges of the wound, monitoring and controlling the machines via an augmented reality display. "I'm no plastic surgeon, but this should hopefully help his skin to grow back normally instead of as more scar tissue." He's only mildly disgusted by the surgery. It helps that for years now he's thought of bodies as just machines made of meat.

Priscilla has posed:
    Gough wasn't kidding. With Sanary going ham on his eye sockets, the most the giant does is grunt, or shift uncomfortably occasionally. Even with pieces of flesh coming free under a heavy blade, he seems to react to it like someone does at a yearly dentist visit, getting that awful scraper tool removing built up plaque and the high pressure hose. A certain amount of damage to otherwise healthy tissue underneath can't really be helped, but liberal application of medical nanomachines, thankfully, appears to have no adverse effects.

    Perplexingly, the dead, coagulated scar tissue comes loose a lot easier than Sanary would expect after trying to jab his leg. It's tough, like cutting through dense, ancient, woody brambles, but owing to not being part of his normal body, it's not strengthened by soul steroids. It also doesn't really seem to bleed, or at least not much, in comparison to the oddly cold lump Kyra gets, as if Gough's body heat is naturally very low, though it grows fine in a mildly grotesque way.

    Sooner than later, Sanary gets to the giant's actual eyes. They're actually surprisingly large, rather than being little whale-like beads as one might expect, though very deeply recessed. The milky film, however, bespeaks a certain level of surface burn that has killed off some of the cornea tissue and rendered it almost opaque. That /probably/ implies there isn't, hopefully, interior damage to the iris or retina, but that would require more technical examination. He winces slightly, suggesting that he might at least be able to see the light level in the room now, rather than pitch blackness, even with the inside of his sockets scraped and bleeding slightly. The nanites look like they'll fix it up rather well, but predictably, they have a lot of work to do, and it's tough going for the little robots.

Sanary Rondel has posed:
"Oh, the food in Ramuh's great. Really should go there to try some if you haven't yet." Sanary's doing a fairly decent job hiding her own exertion with all that small talk, trying not to sound too much like she's putting a lot of power into her chops even though... Well, she is. There's a lot of that tissue to get through, and the fact that it's still pretty durable (even if it's not as strong as the healthier flesh) isn't making her job any easier!

     Nodding vaguely in Kyra's direction, she tosses the hunks of scar tissue into a pile away from their working area. It's better than letting all of it accumulate where they actually need to go, and she breathes a sigh of relief when the eyes are finally revealed. "Alright... We've got to your eyes, Gough. This part's going to feel kind of uncomfortable, though, so... Er. Don't blink too hard."

     Another glance over at Staren and Kyra. "Time for the fun part. Uh. You two wouldn't happen to have actually done eye surgery before, would you?" That finally being said (and probably later than she should have), the axe healer puts on some somewhat cleaner medical gloves, then takes a deep breath to steady her nerves. "Incoming." And then she starts handling Gough's eyes gently, trying to ease them out of their hiding spots into less recessed positions.

Staren has posed:
    "These should speed his natural healing, but unless he'd heal this completely in a day or less, I doubt we'll see any immediate results." Staren comments. He shakes his head at the comment about having done eye surgery. "I work on /machines/. Metal and silicon. Gough, can you at least see light now?" If Gough responds to the negative, he'll shine a light into the eyes. "If you can, that's probably a good sign..." He gasps softly, and winces as Sanary handles the eyes directly.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
"Eye surgery? Well, no, not in this particular context." Kyra considers previous fights in which she has aimed for monster's eyes before, occasionally removing them. "But you look like you're doing fine." Kyra sets up a few sterile dishes in a circle around the haste lamp. She makes a mixture with a number of the chemicals she's brought with her. She lays this into the sterile dishes, then places the samples in them. Reaching over, she twists the lid of the haste module, which glows a bit brighter orange.

    Kyra withdraws, then moves to help Sanary, "As I said, it'll take an hour. How are you doing here?"

Priscilla has posed:
    Gough visibly shudders, if only because of his size, with Sanary's hands on his frigging eyeballs. Almost as if he's forgotten how to move them, they respond very slowly, making some kind of gross squishing noises as the probably atrophed muscles start working for the first time in a long while. It's ultimately pretty gross, but that's what she signed up for. "Aye." he says to Staren. "As I never thought I would again, even this much. Clouded as it is, it does my heart well, for I will always recognize the sun of Anor Londo. I am pleased beyond words to find it so radiant, despite those whispered fears that its master in name rules it with a heart of ash." He makes a vague, affirmative gesture, leaning in her direction; probably really curious what she's doing, but logically unable to really tell, save for the faint feeling of magic.

Staren has posed:
    Staren smiles. "Nice. I mean, I have no idea how we're gonna repair your frigging eyeballs, but I'm sure it's easier and less complicated than if we have to do the retina too. So, um... How /do/ we eye surgery?"

Sanary Rondel has posed:
"Just in general. I... I know I saw a book about it!" Sanary offers, trying to sound somewhat hopefuly before chuckling lightly at Kyra's reassurance. She resists the urge to wipe some sweat off her brow, too, since that'd probably just sting like crazy if it got on her hands and into Gough's eye. "I think it's going alright here. Once we get that new stuff in there, his eyes should be a lot easier to work with. I dunno how giants' eyes are supposed to look, though, so..."

     She shrugs once, then works on fine-tuning the placement of the eyes as best as she can before stepping back. "Okay... Easy, Gough. Try blinking, but not too hard. Try and ease your eyelids into... Eyelidding. " Sanary gives Kyra and Staren another shrug. It's not like she knows all the fancy technical terms for things! She also starts checking his face for any leftover scar tissue while she's at it, occasionally throwing some healing energy Gough's way just to see if that'll help him regain movement that way. "Never really done proper eye surgery myself, or I'd have an answer for that one..."

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
"Here-" Kyra knows a thing or two about surgery. She's taken some hands-on classes, watched some medical dramas. So procures herself a white terrycloth and wipes Sanary's brow for her so she won't be tempted to do it herself and thus contaminate the surgery with her own sweat. Teamwork!

    "It's looking good. And sounding good. They're probably very weak right now due to lack of exposure so I would actually expose yourself to the sunlight very slowly. Those eyes have been in the darkness of overgrown scar tissue for too long."

    With the eyes now exposed and scar tissue removed, Kyra gives Gough another Scan spell to check up on their progress.

    If Staren peered over at her setup, he'll see that the samples in the dishes are gradually becoming bigger and flatter, ideal for impending skin or muscle grafts.

Priscilla has posed:
    Gough grunts more considerably as he forces his eyelids to work, thick and heavy enough to look like they'd pin Sanary's fingers. It's the slow, tedious progress of someone who's had a limb in a cast for a while without being able to flex the joint, but he pulls it off. "Well understood, young little saint." Gough says remarkably jovially to Kyra, for a man with a notable pile of bloody tissue sitting on the nice floor a little ways away.

    The scan spell reveals much more favourable results. It really does just seem to be the surface that's damaged, without any bad internal harm. There probably was a while ago, but considerable giant vitality seems to have done well, save the thick layer of dead corneal tissue over the front. Carefully removing that, and treating the layer underneath so that it grows back to regular thickness without complication, probably necessitating some eye patches or bandages for a while, seems like a remarkably safe bet using magic, though dicey using hand tools.

Staren has posed:
    "I'll have some sunglasses ready for you next time we come by." A simple object like tinted plastic glasses, he can design in a mere moment with software and send off to the printer on his ship. "So... do we have magic that can do this part, or do we need to operate more?"

Sanary Rondel has posed:
Sanary actually looks rather surprised when Kyra tends to that sweat, and she's not quite sure how to react for a moment. She does chuckle eventually, though, giving her an appreciative nod before turning her attention back to their patient.

     "Magic? Uh... Honestly, I'm not really... Super sure where to go with this from here. I know I don't have any magic that can cut stuff more accurately than I could with a scalpel or sword or something." As if to demonstrate that, she focuses her energy into conjuring up a small gray disc. "This is more for fighting than surgery. And..." She glances back over at Gough's eyes and the damage that they've undoubtedly suffered, then takes a deep breath.

     "... Well, if we don't have any magic to do it? I'll get back in there. Just a little more, Gough~"

Staren has posed:
    Staren umms, "If we really don't, I could /try/ using the nanomachines to remove some of the dead tissue..."

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
"Ooh, this is promising." Kyra says, sounding quite pleased with how the progress is looking so far. "I think we can see a full recovery, except for a little while you will need to wear a blindfold until things settle. But some magic and some attachment of the skin grafts should have us right on the way. Until the growths are completed, well...we need to stay just like this."

    She goes to check on her samples. "You're doing well, Sanary. And she's dead-on about the surgery. Sometimes the healing needs a bit of encouragement. Magic can't fix everything."

Priscilla has posed:
    Gough looks slightly more uncomfortable at the thought of sharp things near his actual eyeballs, now that he has them again. Most healing in the lands of Lordran, where the gods hold sway and the mightiest clerics dwell, is done by miracles, or else more esoteric items such as the old estus flasks, so at least magic isn't far out. His silence is pretty telling that he has no idea what nanomachines are though.

    "Hah! A blindfold is a small price to pay. I have waited centuries for this much; a few days longer I can wait. If you expect to keep yourselves, I would suggest calling for whatever it is you need. Asides from the unpleasant task of cleaning, it doesn't do well to skip out on one's meals."

Sanary Rondel has posed:
"Really? Heh... Alright, good to hear~" Sanary sounds reassured by Kyra's encouragement, even if it is becoming clearer that the Confederate healer isn't quite sure what she's looking at. Some literally giant eyes, a lot of scar tissue, and... Waiting? Waiting. "Thanks, Kyra. Yeah, let's.. Uh. Let's get the last of the cutting done so we don't keep waiting any longer."

     Ah, if only it'd be that easy. Still, they've come this far! It couldn't be that much harder, right? "The nano-somethings should be useful here, too. If you can identify the dead parts for us, I can work on the big parts." And with that, Sanary gets to cutting! Tellingly, she's moving /much/ more carefully this time, and for good reason.

     THEY'RE IN HIS FREAKING EYE.

Staren has posed:
    Staren hmms. He can only hope the pre-existing medical data from the Argonauts, for humans and human-created species, is close enough. To identify eye tissue? He climbs down to where Kyra is. "Can this go under the haste crystals for a sec?" He pulls from his bag a bland, dark grey object about the size of a shotgun shell. "It will produce machines that will disconnect the dead tissue... hopefully. If they can't identify both living and dead tissue, they won't do anything, of course."

    Once that's ready, he's back up, spraying it in Gough's eyes. Wincing, himself. "Sorry."

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
Kyra is quick to back off now, letting Staren unleash the nanomachines to fix what little tissue was left, leaving the initial mess disconected. "I like the idea of doing surgeries through this method, Staren. Though it would put me out of a job on that front, there are still usage for guys that know how to code.

    "Once the grouwith is done, it shoudl be trivial to set up a healed limb. Should."

Priscilla has posed:
    Gough seems to understand the basics at least. Despite being sprayed in the eyeballs, it seems a better procedure to sit through then having scalpels there. Cornal cuts, while not actually severely damaging, are supremely irritating and painful when one tries to blink, after all.

    All things said and done, after the hour has passed, the group will see very positive results, as that cloudly film slowly sloughs off, and Kyra's grafts reach maturity. It's pretty impressive how far the three have come. At some point, a couple of people in white robes come to remove the dead flesh excised from the wounds before it gets gross, and clean up the blood before it stains, but otherwise, it's a clear point at which to use magic once Gough's eyes start watering from air sensitivity, and probably a proper time to apply those bandages. All hope holding out, a couple of days will do the rest.

Sanary Rondel has posed:
"If that does happen? Just means we get to focus on other stuff. Like music or pig-handling or..." Fighting. Sanary leaves that last bit unsaid, although there is a hint of hesitation in her voice before she refocuses her efforts on the surgery. Or what's left of it, anyway, until...

     The waiting game begins. Grafting, healing, cleaning, more healing, and a whole lot more waiting.

Staren has posed:
    Staren smiles. "Well... It may be awhile yet till you're properly healed, but... I'm glad we could do this for you."