clamp

Location: south of the farm, isolated beach

@neshionals​

The wife had found Emre, implored him to come.  She was a good farmhand; but Emre didn’t know why she’d come looking for him.  Or rather, Tomas might say that Emre pretended not to know why.  Refused to acknowledge.  Was entirely uncomfortable with the idea of being someone people would seek for help, rather than maintain a polite (or not-polite) distance.

Flummoxed, Emre followed, and became even more perplexed when they returned to her husband caught in a thicket.  But that wasn’t the worst of it - one of the broken branches had impaled itself through her husband’s shoulder, pinning him there.

And even that wasn’t the worst of it all.  Things where shifting around the fellow - brambles growing tiny, then big and gnarled.  The branch in his shoulder could blip at anytime, bulk up inside his shoulder.  Hurt him further.

“What’re you thinking, Nance?” Emre chastised.  “Go bloody find the doctor, not me!  I’ll stay here with Pe…Pa…”

“Paul,” the man panted sweatily, ever so helpful.

Nance went tearing off again, and Emre nodded at Paul.  “Right.  Let’s clear the brush around you, yeah?  When the doctor comes, he’ll look after you.  Make you right as rain.  He’s well skilled innit.  Trauma surgeon and that.  Brilliant bloke,”  Emre assured Paul, as he used his cutlass to clear the brush around, make room.

Nance did not find the doctor though; because Emre spotted the tall, rangy man himself only a short distance away on the beach, clearly on his own missions and volitions.  For a moment, Emre felt an illogical burst of pride at the sight of the determined, helpful doctor, his heart swelling with irrational love.

And truly, he intended to shout ‘Doctor Nesh’. But his addled brain and exhausted mouth instead shouted what was in his heart: “Iyaz!”

A pause, heart hammering, as Emre realized what he’d said; now sweaty Paul was looking at Emre with a slight pitying look.  Emre made a little growl, and then amended roughly and quickly.  “Doctor Nesh!  Oi!  Got a man down, bruv!” 

Iyaz..!

The name rips through the voices at the beach, through the night, through his chest and right into his heart. It picks up pace, and it beats from 75 to 130, makes his stomach turn upside down and leaves him dizzy. Iyaz. It’s Emre calling out, that he recognizes immediately. Jean, the young woman he had just knelt down beside, gifts him a confused look at the way he’s frozen into place, when he’s definitely not supposed to - trauma surgeon, and all that. Jean shrugs her pain off (her cut is small, anyways) and Nesh stops thinking and starts running in Emre’s direction - but when he arrives, there is no Iyaz, and Emre isn’t running either. No, he’s looking at Nesh. Nesh’s pulse goes from 130 to 150, and when he looks at Paul, it risks the 180. 

The doctor’s head feels as if it’s exploding, and then his knees hit wet sand and he’s grabbing things out of his bag in an instant, scalpel and towels and bottle of alcohol. The tree is moving, but Nesh is moving faster, and he pulls self-made injections into a syringe, moves to inject it and- it’s gone. It’s just like in the emergency room - unsterile! yelled in a high pitched tone, and then his supplies are gone and he has to wait. It’s just that there’s no waiting here, and he has to make other choices immediately before it’s too late. “On the count of three,” he says to Emre, “we will pull him off the wood. He will black out from the pain as soon as I start working on him. You’ll have to keep checking his pulse. His eyes. Pupils and all that.”

Nesh pulls some coke mixture out of his backpack, and drops just enough onto the wound, not reacting to any complaints Paul has. His fingers tremble a little, tempted to take some for himself withdrawal he’s been facing for the last 48 hours already. 

The last time Lina saw Nesh, she was caressing his hair, lulling him back to sleep as she tried to secretly drink her tea after their hook up the previous night. It had been some time since that happened and truthfully, she shouldn’t have been shocked that he, once again, was the one initiating the distance between them. Her assumption was that he was deliberately ignoring her, either out of guilt or maybe he thought it would lead to another good time for the two of them. 

In the hopes that it was the latter, Lina didn’t push it…for a bit Then eventually she felt like she had to. Even if ignoring her was a game, she wasn’t going to let it go too far. So even though the island was ever changing in this moment, Lina was still able to make her way to the doctors hut. It was the first place she would think to find him and luckily she was right, spotting him outside, looking like he was just…standing out there all by himself for some reason.

With the help of her attunement, her steps through the sand were silent as she moved in his direction, sneaking up behind him. “What’s got you out here all on your own? Looks like you could use some company.” She greeted as her hands took hold of his biceps and she poked her head out from behind him, looking up at him with a playful glint in her eye in the hopes he would immediately give in to her.

“Get the fuck off of me.” Nesh’s voice is ice, cutting through warm and heavy breathing, and it’s accompanied by a yank of his arm, as well as a sudden turn. The doctor is an obvious mess. He’s drained of energy, though obviously not of strength, his features are worn-out, and so is his heart. It’s almost drained empty, and Nesh looks at Lina, and feels nothing. Nothing, not the slightest hint of love drowned out by all this white noise around him, and suddenly he’s even angrier. Angry at Lina for being the way she is, for her happy, uncaring self, when there’s so much to care about. About how unsafe she had to be with Emre to get herself in danger. 

“What’s funny about sneaking up on my like that? Hell, just, just leave, you got me? Just fucking leave.” Nesh’s hands are wet, and torn up in some places, and it’s suddenly obvious how hard he’s been washing them right before she turned up.

She’s feeling a little… dizzy. That’s one way to put it, a sure explanation for why everything looks slightly blurry at its edges, like it might move and shift at any moment. Maybe she’s just overdue for some sleep. Something like that. Hazel resolves to turn in early after she drops these supplies off at the apothecary, only to be greeted with the sight of a somewhat woozy looking Nesh.

“Hey, Dr. Nanku,” she greets with a furrow in her brow, though they lift as he explains. “Oh! Are you okay? Sit down, maybe? I’ll take your pulse, yeah, maybe you just over-exerted yourself or something? It’s hot today.”

She’d had full intentions to check for him, really, stepping toward the doctor to examine him… only Hazel’s foot doesn’t land on ground. Instead, she’s sent tumbling as the apothecary changes, the floor ripped out from under them and leaving behind… nothing. It’s barren, just a spot of sand that they’re both hurtled into. It’s gone.

Hazel sits up, all the more dizzy now as she blinks hard then looks around slowly. Her look toward Nesh is wordless but wide-eyed, a silent inquiry: are you seeing what I’m seeing?

“Yeah, I’ve had a little less water than usually, so maybe it’s about that, innit.” Nesh looks at a chair, turns around to sit down and- falls. A groan of pain leaves his lips as his body collides with the sand, and he blinks in confusion. “Okay.”, he says, then, “Hazel, dear, I think I’m hallucinating. Yeah, I think I might have something neurological. Can’t be a stroke, but..” Nesh pats around, searching for wooden floor, but just like his eyes see none, his fingers feel nothing, either.

But then his gaze meets Hazel’s, and she’s looking just as shocked as he does. “Okay.”, he repeats, “I have to admit that this is freaking me out a little, but we’ll be fine. We’ll be fine.” Nesh is not sure if she’s the type to freak out easily, given that she’s a nurse, but he makes sure to add some extra firmness to his voice, just to be sure. 

@nickalphonsus​

“All FACADES FALL sometime, then the mask comes off and the real heart is seen.” - Jessiqua Wittman

Everything had been spinning in the last few days. The houses and huts around him, the trees, the people, everything around him had went spiraling down. And due to that, Nesh was not surprised in any way when he woke up and he felt as if his head was spinning too.

What caught him off guard though, was the fact that the last thing he remembered was bright sundown, and not being tired at all. No, he had been focused on making himself a dose of this new thing they’d found against headaches, out of mint and- Nesh’s heart was beating way too fast, and the drumming in his ears was so loud that he almost couldn’t hear his surroundings. Confused, the man leaned back and looked down at his hands, twisted and turned them as he stared down at them, before pushing himself up onto his feet- water. He needed water, lots of it. His blood pressure had to be way too high - all this stress wasn’t doing him any good, maybe he had taken too much of the medicine..

The doctor paused. He knew that little tin box. Knew what was inside. “Fuck.” He’d been cursing way too much lately, but this time, he was actually freaking out. Last time he’d touched that box, he’d helped Tomas out with a surgery, and this... Nesh stumbled backwards, out of the doctor’s hut, all the way backwards, as if he himself was going back in time, back, back, back, until his back hit something soft. Confused, the doctor turned around, pupils wide, cheeks reddened, lips pursed - and there was Nick. “Oh. You.” He scoffed, shook his head, stumbled backwards and immediately fell onto his back, heartbeat picking up. He sat up quickly, pushed his messy curls out of his face. “What are you doing here?”

@hazelbeaufort​

“CHANGE before you have to.” - Jack Welch

Nesh takes a tin out of one of the apothecary’s shelves, and the shelve makes a creaking noise. With one of his eyebrows raised, he takes a step back, in preparation for it to possibly crash down. Of course, everything on this island is self-built and does have mistakes - but likely not in the apothecary, as it’s for sure been built with extra care. Then again, self-built, so some creaking is normal, and even if it hadn’t been, there’s nothing to worry.

Maybe he’s feeling like this because the whole day has felt weird to him. Fairly, they’ve gone long enough without weird things happening. Nesh lowers his hand, and the almost fully healed scars on his shoulder start to itch immediately - from movement, as they were just stretched out, nothing unusual. And still, it feels weird to him - something feels weird in general. Nesh stares at the shelve, and he swears one of the tins moves. “Oh god. I’m going insane. It’s happening.”, he whispers, and then there’s a noise behind him, so he quickly turns around;

“Hazel!” He relaxes immediately, soft smile slipping onto his lips, “Good thing you’re here. Take my blood pressure, maybe? I’m feeling a bit..odd.”

👑 @nickalphonsus​

“It’s hot everyday.” He pointedly remarked back, as he stepped in close enough to get a good look at Nesh and his poorly healing wound. “Jesus man that looks nasty you should see a doctor. Poor taste? Bad joke? Uhhh…” Nick spared a glance at the water offered, sweet, kind and probably overcompensating. Maybe Nesh did have a heart after all. “Nah, I’m alright unless you’ve got a hidden stash of booze somewhere? Coconut water just isn’t really cutting it.” Nick plopped himself down in one of the chairs and was instantaneously reminded of why he was here. The pain rippled out like a not so subtle tidal wave.

“Thought you’d be right as rain by now…” Nick murmured, some of the burning confidence tempered as he grimaced through the worst of the pain. “By the way it wasn’t my intention to match with you but I had a tiny fight with the sea stairs. All golden. Tomas has been doing a grand job fixing me up but the pain is godawful. Hoping you could help nix that in the bud, yeah? But by the looks of it you need it more than I do. No offence but you look…not good.” Between the nasty wound and a diluted radiance Nesh looked…ghastly.

“Yeah. Yeah, you’re right, man.” Nesh rubbed the back of his neck, and released a deep sigh at Nick’s joke - he was tired, his body was aching, his heart, in a way, had been aching, too - he was missing Lina, and some bad joke wasn’t going to help. “Yeah, like, both.” 

The doctor shook his head as Nick asked about alcohol - their resources were still limited, and he needed all of it for patients. Recently, also for himself, which wasn’t the best feeling, and it left him trying to heal his wound in water more often. He’d tried everything - sweet water, salt water, and nothing had really worked, so he had just given up, accepted the pain. Nick, apparently, wasn’t down for accepting the pain. He talked about Tomas, and fixing up, and Nesh immediately started looking him up and down to check for wounds.

.

Kaz absolutely loved when someone asked for suggestions and summarily dismissed them. Hey. Problem, solution. Just ideas to spur others, after all. Take them or leave them– Kaz didn’t give a fuck. “Alright,” he said, to provide punctuation and end the thought. Moving on. 

But then Nesh went further. Like a key in the ignition but the engine wouldn’t turn over. Stutters and stops, which Kaz had not heard the doctor do before. Kaz listened as he reached far back on the shelves for a large clear envelope of rubber bands. Longer and wide ribboned, not corroded by sun or water. Looked brand new. What Kaz needed for one of those myriad of projects. A glance to Nesh. If someone had to qualify they were ‘super sure’ it wasn’t romantic, then… obviously it was romantic. In his opinion, but. 

A less confident smile from Nesh. Then, a dam burst. Tried to kill me. Not a turn of phrase for contempt? Shit, the fuck had Kaz missed? Envelope set aside and his body half turned towards Nesh in attention. Someone was pregnant? What in the soap opera was happening? Clearly Nesh seemed troubled, to say the least. 

“Sooo. Someone went batshit and tried to kill– wait, really kill you? Not wise.” On multiple levels. “You alright?” Maybe the sleeplessness thing made more sense to Kaz. Nesh looking over their shoulder, sleeping with an eye open and all that. “They’re not gonna finish the job, are they?”

There were island babies. And women gave birth long before hospitals. However, the nuances not terribly clear to Kaz. Other than the island’s dangers tended to slip in so stealthy, no one never knew what might happen. 

His fingers wrapped around the wood support of the shelving. “You worried this guy is gonna hurt your friend, with her being pregnant and all?” Kaz stayed out of people’s business, so it was his natural conclusion drawn from Nesh’s words. At the same time, Kaz had a little professional experience with some of this. Not in time to help his sister, but. “He threaten her too? Can she stay with you?”

“Yeah. He like, tried to drown me.” Nesh kept pushing his long curls out of his face - he hadn’t cut them in a while, too caught up in work and too busy to find someone to do it. This conversation wasn’t enjoyable at all, which made him fidgety - but again, what recent conversation had been enjoyable to begin with. Finish the job. Nesh’s fingers went to rub his eyes, then, and he shook his head slowly. “I think I kind of got to make sure that he wouldn’t...try again.” Which, per chance, wasn’t quite as accurate as he thought it to be - it was Emre, after all, and finding out how sick Emre apparently was, made him quite unsure about what he might be capable to do to others.

Emre hurting really - very unlikely, given the way he had acted around her. “I don’t think so.”, he answered Kaz’ question, “He’s with her, you know? They’re gonna raise the baby together, or what-fucking-ever.” Nesh’s words didn’t get muddled in his mouth anymore, but he spit them out just like they were sour candy.

The doctor’s eyebrows shot up when Kaz asked if she could stay with him, and he started shaking his head, crossed his arms in front of his chest and paced around a little. “No fucking chance. She wasn’t exactly- I don’t even think she considers me a friend after all of this. She defended him actually. Which is stupid, because Emre-” Nesh stopped talking, and right in his tracks, too - in all his years or being a doctor, he had never just let some private information slip. More fed up other the fact that it had finally happened than over giving away that the guy was Emre, Nesh pulled on strands of his hair, groaned out in frustration and buried his face in his hands.

⋆ 。゜☁︎ 。⋆ 。゜☾゜。⋆

“She was already unconscious when I found her,” Lily offered, dunking the towels into the water. But she was startled into stillness when Nesh abruptly told her to stop what she was doing. All she could do was follow his lead and his orders, in hope that the doctor’s efforts would bear fruit.

And eventually, it did. Lily was careful with the ice as Nesh coaxed his own water to do—whatever his plan was. She watched him urge the water to soak into the woman’s body, and thought, oh. Rehydrating, or using her gift in her favor. Gotcha.

Lily held her breath, waiting for something to happen—but the woman’s shallow breathing deepened, her eyes fluttering open. Lily, holding ice cubes against her temples, was the first one she saw.

The woman shrieked, lurching away from Lily and falling off the table. She was quick to scramble to her feet and back away from Lily and Dr. Nesh both, eyes wide and wild like an animal. “Get away from me!” she cried, then caught sight of the doctor. “Oh, god. Doc? What—what’s going on?”

“That’s not good, she was-” Nesh abruptly stopped talking when the woman fell off the table, and the remaining water splashed to the ground in an instant. Nesh reached out to catch her, but it was too late, and he immediately rushed around the table to check if she was okay. “Goodness.”, he muttered, but there wasn’t a single sign of multiple injuries, and the landing hadn’t been that hard. Nesh pulled out his miniature flashlight as he crouched down in front of her, and gently put a hand on the back of her head, touching to check for injuries.

“Just follow the light with your eyes real quick... You were dehydrated, severely. You should be good for now-”, the doctor said as he moved said light in his fingers, and the confused woman did follow his movements. He clicked out the light, clipped the pen back into his pocket and let go of her head. 

/

“Ah.” Her grin grew wide at the sudden pokes. Maybe it was the water. “And here I was, so sure my coma inspired you to become a doctor.” Sae-byeok held an essay of gratitude in her mind, scrambled letters to string into the right words with time. His kid sister’s fascination—a weak relation on the island’s extended family tree, and the only one she ever had. It made new sense why some people were still so happy to be alive; their lives had carried over in the memories of other islanders, not reset in total silence like hers.

Nesh paused his headshake on the verge of an explanation. Sae-byeok leaned back on her elbows to listen, long hair pluming below her shoulders in the water. He described the interactions between creature and environment that allowed ocean life to move. She nodding, recognizing the logical tensions involved: forces in opposition, reshaped by struggle into something new. Those armed with the knowledge could take the present into their hands, like a man sending a fish through a current or a dissident stoking a popular wave. 

A pointed foot kicked out of the water, sending a short wall of mist towards the horizon that slowly, slowly settled as she spoke. “I should probably grow beyond this sooner than later. Your method uses less water than I would have imagined. I’m guessing there’s still a limit to what you can manipulate, perhaps the size of whatever gave you that.” Her head tilted to injured his shoulder. 

He sank neck deep to heal, first sighing like a lifeboat that escaped to Meridium just to tear open. “Oh, Nesh,” she sweetly said when he was done reflecting. “You are more than doctor, but I had another reason in mind. Protection is still better than a cure, no? Who here could do greater damage more efficiently than you?” 

“I’m not that old,” Nesh allows himself to complain. He’s not quite sure how old Sae-byeok is, but she had already passed away when his sister had started telling him about her, and she looked like she was around thirty, which had him guessing that she was around fifty by now - twenty years older than he was.

The man watched the way her hair moved, and he noticed that it looked pretty as it did, but it didn’t compare to the way his heart would jump at those things when he was around Lina. Which annoyed him, clearly - not that he wanted his heart to do those things around Sae-byeok, he simply didn’t want them to happen around Lina.

Nesh crosses his arms and places them on one of the stairs, so that he can stay in the water and look up at her - and she truly does look gorgeous like this. He allows himself to make a frustrated noise as Lina keeps crossing his mind, and he tries to shut her out by shaking his head. “The shark surprised me, innit. I surely could have defended myself if it hadn’t happened all out of sudden. The limits - I haven’t really gotten to test them yet. I was practicing the other day, but most of my time goes into my work. Just like you, I’d assume.”

Who here could do greater damage more efficiently than you? she asks, and Nesh freezes. “Whut?”, he asks, all British surprise, very unlikely for him when he’s in professional mode, which he mostly is around Sae-byeok. His body stiffens and his mind wanders, memories of Emre crossing his brain. He forces himself to stay in the water - exposure therapy at it’s finest, but: “Don’t you ask questions like that. Weird thing to think about, innit.” His eyes avoid her’s for a moment before he looks up again, “I’m a doctor. I don’t cause damage on purpose.”

STRANDED TASK THREE (3).

TW: death.

Mentioned: @akbartheolder​

Note: THIS indicates spoken Gujarati.

— ⋆ ✯ ⋆ —

“The tiredness gets easier to handle the more time you spend on this island,” Tamyra said. “When I started figuring out my own attunement, I started with little waterballs and they took every bit of power and energy I had in me to make them as perfect as possible. And then it became easier with time, I could do more and more. I still can hit my limits, but it is a lot harder to reach it now, takes much more from me.” Back then even that little water ball felt like such a big victory, now she could do so much more and it only propelled Tamyra to be better and better with water even still. Water really was just the best attunement.

“Of course you’re busy as hell, with all that tree sleeping shit,” Tamyra nodded. “Are there a lot of people who are dealing with– with all the weird after effects from the groove?” Nesh was letting himself go more and more in the water - not that he wasn’t relaxed, but the way he stood there not even sinking did struck Tamyra until now eventually dunked under the water. She splashed some water his way once he reemerged. “You are not the first one to bring that thing up as a reference to our attunements, you know, and I don’t think I will ever really get what is so good about a kids’ show that everyone just makes the comparison.” She didn’t really want to, either, if Tamyra was being honest. “You’ve got siblings out there?” she instead switched topics. “How many? What were they like?”

It was actually disappointing to hear that the water did not talk to Nesh, it would have been something cool and interesting and extremely special thing that could be an additional connection to the water. Then again, if the water talked to anyone, why wouldn’t it have started talking to her first, so really, it made sense that there was no talking, even if she would have been excited to explore it.

“I don’t think I can sense the water that much, except– well, when I create my creatures, I can just feel them move, but not fully like water, like water touched by something else.” She couldn’t quite put her finger on how to explain it better than that, but it was a strange feeling. “Though I think that is part of me controlling them. Depending on how big and complex the figure and its movement are, I can focus on them more or less.”

He could feel the water differently, though, and that really just proved something they both probably knew, that all of them experienced water differently. Nesh could feel something now too, and then he suddenly jolted ahead and a few moments later, an otter emerged onto the surface and Tamyra couldn’t hold back the amused laughter she had inside of her as the otter carefully came up close to Nesh and then let out some extremely cute sounds and tapped at him. “I think the water was trying to tell you that a new friend is coming.”

A wide grin takes over Nesh’s face and he lifts his hands out of the water to form ropes of water, moving in weird motions all around him. He makes weird action movie comic noises while doing so, just to fall into a fit of laughter. “Sorry.” A gentle blush creeps onto his cheeks then, but he ignores it, and it’s barely visible, anyway. “Lots of people, innit. Most of them, if not all of them. Makes me feel glad that I wasn’t one of them, you know? Imagine what could have gone wrong with a surgeon being replaced.” He shakes his head, terrified at the thought - “Or just the doctor, in general.”

Nesh disregards the topic quickly, in hopes of switching back to lighter ones (he’s here to get some distance to his work and some break, after all), and it goes smoothly. Tamyra didn’t seem to be keen on talking about Avatar, and he understood that - not everyone liked to think about their past or the world outside of Meridium, so he allowed that topic to pass, too. 

“Yep,” he nods, “Four of them, actually. Sisters. Two are younger than me, and two are older. I was closest to the second to youngest, I’d say..” He’s not sure if Rahi would claim this to be a mutual feeling, but he for sure knows it isn’t Aabha. “The youngest was...my mum’s favorite, I’d say. She’s sweet and talented and sporty. She’s a professional dancer now. Or was when I left...Can’t believe she’s all grown up now.” Nesh sighs and lets himself deeper into the water, so that he’s covered up to his shoulders, “Then there’s Rahi. She’s...tough, let’s put it like that. She’s a journalist, and...super cool, I’d say. Then Aabha...Cambridge lawyer. Uh...yeah, that’s about it. And the oldest is called Chandni. She’s an ambassador in London.”

Nesh pushed a few strands of hair out of his face, then added: “My mum worked in a kindergarden, mostly for cleaning and cooking. And my dad...he’s a chef. He worked in restaurants, and he helped out at refugee homes.” He pauses, then makes sure to say; “I don’t come from money. We were pretty poor, actually. I never minded it, though - I love my parents. They are great. They really are.”

.

What do you do if you cannot sleep? He glanced over. Nesh looked beat. Kaz recognized the scratch of raw sleeplessness in the voice and on the brain. “Popping a pill is easier, mhm,” the commentary neither here nor there for Kaz. “Ah. I never minded lack of sleep back in Seattle. Gave me time to do what I wanted. Even if I suffered for it the next day.” And, things were much different. The island made lack of sleep as welcome as a cracked tooth with an exposed nerve. 

“If you fight it, it only gets worse. Becomes an enemy. Tossing and turning does fuck all. Some people say get it up and do something. That only keeps me awake, but better than staring out into the dark for hours. I use the time. Work on projects.” Uncountable ones, always revising notes, making new sketches of the island. Kaz had a few new ones, which had him in the warehouse looking for the right small tool. “Night is good for hunting and fishing too. I stay busy, mainly.” 

He set the stick aside to rapidly drum fingers on the shelf as he kept the visual search for supplies. “Otherwise, I adjusted my sleep patterns to the times I feel tired. Usually when the sun comes up I’ll catch a few hours, then I grab a disco nap in the afternoon. Might not be full 8 hours. It helps.”

No, not everyone wanted to live in such a way, but hey. Nesh asked. Kaz answered. “What’s keeping you up anyway.” 

Not sleeping due to his job and not sleeping because he couldn’t were two wildly different things. Whenever he had come home from long shifts or crazy working hours, he had either gone straight to sleep or kept himself busy with modern day things until he knocked out somewhere in the apartment (Yes, Lila did complain whenever she found him asleep over laundry, on the couch with some book as a blanket or in the bathtub. This was different. After three years of not feeling trapped or homesick, Nesh felt as if he was going mental.

“Can’t really adjust anything here.” Though he could talk to Hazel about it, of course - nap somewhere near the doctor’s hut and just let her wake him up whenever he was needed. That’s what he had advised her to do - work the nights, sleep the days. Now he had the same problem as she did, though to wildly different reasons. What’s keeping you up anyway. Uh.

“Uhm...” Likely the first time ever since they met, Nesh looks a bit dumbfounded. “You know...” Finding the right words is hard, especially for someone as nosy as Kaz. “There’s been...someone...I’ve gotten close to? Not like, romantically. Just friends. Like, super sure about that. Uh...then she has another friend. And this friend isn’t exactly...super cool in terms of...mental...health?” Nesh offers Kaz an awkward smile. “And this...murde- unkind man, has gotten the first friend pregnant.” He rubs his forehead, shakes his head. “Man, fuck this. So there’s this guy that tried to kill me, and he got this girl I’m friends with pregnant.” Lina isn’t just some girl, but why overshare?

-

Hazel listens quietly, nodding by the end of what Nesh has to say. “How did you… how did you feel about your parents splitting? Were you an adult by then? I don’t know… I don’t know how I’d feel, even now.” She’s thinking, of course, of the incriminating files she’d found on Lina’s phone, those that had exposed her father’s less than wholesome business practices. Did her mom have any idea? Hazel has no idea and no way to tell her now. But that’s not the entire point. She nods at the mention of mothers and loss. 

“My mom lost both of her kids at once, with me and my sister, and I… I can’t even… imagine. She was a really good mom. Strong, too. But I… I don’t know what it would’ve done to her.” Back to gnawing at her lip, Hazel says, mainly to herself, “I try not to think about it. There’s nothing we can do, right?” She wouldn’t mind being wrong about that. Hazel has her doubts that she is, though.

Sinking yourself to the bottom of the ocean. Hazel gives an unmistakably wide-eyed, dubious look at that, but nods. “…Right. I’m… sure I’ll find something. I’ve been working, too, obviously, but the work is… that’s also stressful, sometimes. At least this line of work. Not saying that, like, that farm work isn’t stressful too, of course it is, but you know… you get it.”

Another hard blink as he drops a familiar name. “You were – you’re friends with Dr. Akbar?” I’m sorry for your loss, her brain offers up next, but Hazel luckily bites that back, having already been chided by Emre for mourning a loss he’s insisting is only temporary. Hazel’s not so sure about that. But it’s not her place, is it? 

“A stressful party. That sounds… not fun.” She’d never been much of a partier, personally, but she doesn’t admonish those who were. Her head tilts as Nesh goes on, mentions of other prospective dates, of new people. “Well… if anywhere is a new start, it’s Meridium,” she offers, a pivot to positivity though it doesn’t feel entirely sincere. A new start, sure, but is it for better or worse? Depends on the person, it seems. “You know. For someday. If you’re ever ready, maybe.” Does it sound like she’s suggesting herself? Hazel frowns then clarifies. “Anyone… else.”

“21. I was 21.” Nesh gets lost in his own thoughts for a moment, as he tries to remember how he felt back then. One particularly embarrassing memory crosses through his mind and he almost laughs - though this surely isn’t a funny topic. “I felt pretty shit about it, actually. I cried a lot. Studying sucked, but I was always good at that...distracting myself through school, things like that. But yeah...lots of tears in awkward moments. It wasn’t...my whole family split, not just them. My sisters...one of them didn’t really take it well.” Aabha. The one he least got along with, and still...he had known.

“Strangely enough, I never really...had those issues. Mourning my past life, missing my family...I mean, I do miss them, of course. But I don’t think about them ever so often. I think my brain simply handled all of this pretty well, and I’m not complaining. Maybe I’m too tough. Typical worries for a doctor, innit?” Nesh offers her another kind smile, though he makes a mental note to check up on her from time to time, maybe help her getting used to thinking and talking about the life she’s lost. The smile turns even wider when she mentions the stress the med field comes with, and he nods. “I worked in a restaurant as a teen, and even that was less stressful than the mildest hospital shifts.”

Nesh uses one of his hands to rub over his eyes, partially to cover the mixed emotions his eyes show whenever he hears or talks about Iyaz. “We spent some time in college together,”, he explains, “and then some more when I moved back to London. I was actually with Iyaz the night I came to Meridium.” Good memories mixed with those of his accident. “We were out drinking and a car hit me on my way back home. Sent me for a bath in Thames.” Nesh takes a deep breath, then removes his hand from his face to be able to look at her again.

The smile returns to his lips, but it morphs into more than just that - a gentle laugh leaves his lips and he shakes his head. “Don’t worry about me, Hazel.” He wants to add something, but he gets distracted by her words as his brain processes them - if he’s ever ready, Meridium’s a fresh start. Lina, is what his brain yells, Lina could be said fresh start - but he disregards that thought. He doesn’t like her like that, she’s just a friend, and even if she’s been trying to-

/

…and, and… Sae-byeok searched for the missing words through the back of Nesh’s covered head, an instinctive gaze that kept falling to wide-set shoulders as consolation. She approached his injured side from behind in slow-motion, damp sand pulling at her feet to stay. A tempted hand hovered over the broken skin, a curved diamond outlined in jagged strokes, but there were other things she wanted to know first.

Sae-byeok flicked the brim of his hat and dipped her head to check for a grin that matched the one in his voice. “I thought you’ve seen my interviews, Nesh,” she said, hand on her hip, through a smile worn like a sudden splash of water. “I’ve asked crazier things with more people watching– and never for no reason.” She stepped down onto the top stair; water lapped below her knees. He had a hand underwater and a new focus in his eyes. A fish swam around her ankles, and Nesh seemingly released, leaning back like he was satisfied.

“Were you controlling the fish just now?” Sae-byeok bunched the hem of her ratty shirt at the thigh and took a seat next to Nesh, in time to be looked over. “I’d love to know what kinds of plans you think I’m capable of,” she nearly sang, leaning closer, “but your case is more interesting. A water-attuned with your level of physiological knowledge. That carries major implications about your abilities.”

“Well, my sister showed them to me, but I was kind of dozing off, innit? Can’t disturb a poor Highschool senior on his only day off.” The smile on Nesh’s lips grew more smug. Rahi was the sister in question - born in 1990, obsessed with journalism, and very fond of annoying her older brother whenever she got the chance. Not that he wouldn’t have been interested - she simply managed to show up in all the wrong moments, yelling his name, or any stupid nickname she had made up for him. Oh, how he missed his sisters. Sometimes.

“Not the fish itself, no.” Nesh shook his head, though he stopped mid-motion, given tension built on the wound on his shoulder, and he was done with training his skin today. “Movement arises around living creatures moving in water, and is created by wind and natural conditions. I can use and control said movement without removing the energy from the water. I simply move it to another place, and add energy too it. Just like I did with the water around the fish. He was wagging his fins, and I used that movement to push him in your direction. To him, it likely felt like natural undertow or suction.”

.

Joaquin brightened at the doctor’s rather sweet offer.  “Ohhh yes!  Yes I’d very much like to hear your language! I won’t understand a word of it, so please don’t say anything bad,” he chuckled.  Sisco didn’t think Nesh would say anything bad, but he understood some people had the urges.  “The amount of times people have asked me for curse words in Spanish or French, ay dios mio.  Humanity is a funny bunch.”

He hummed, pairing Nesh’s definition against that gang that tried to beat him.  “Yes.  I’d say they bullying’d me!  I was neither younger nor a ny more disadvantaged than they, but I suppose they considered me weaker.  Ahh quel dommage.  They are all missing or dead now, though.  Que descanse en paz,” he added ‘rest in peace’ hastily, and Crossed himself.

Nothing to lose.  “What an interesting way of looking at it.  I don’t know if I’ve ever heard it said before - at least in such an, um…a non-angry way,”  Joaquin chuckled.  “You are…como se dice…taking it in stride, non?  A good trait to have as a doctor.  People look up to doctors.”  He nodded happily.  “Ah yes the brain is very strange indeed! Ha ha!  I’ve heard though that phrenology has fallen out of fashion in the 20th century.”

Ohhh the doctor was asking the good questions.  Joaquin happily harvested, and tried to keep his answer pared down, resisting the urge to ramble too much.  “I originally though such.  A purgatory for some manner of damned.  Myself included, we are all sinful creatures. That is my religion, anyway,” he disclaimered, not wanting or expecting Nesh to agree.  “But gradually I pulled away from the idea of purgatory. I read some interesting novels, you see.  Fictional tales derived from old myths, and religion.  I believe now that the island exists, perhaps…on a different plane of existence.  Which is why we can never age, never go back, but never go forward into salvation either.  What to you think, about my theory?”

Joaquin left it open-ended enough, hoping Nesh would reply in kind.  It was fun to share theories - sharing being the relevant word. And a man as intelligent as Neshdan surely had opinions of his own.

Turning with their stash though, Joaquin saw what Nesh did: their path back now obscured, other paths where there were none before.  Joaquin squinted upwards.  “The sun is going down.  We were in here longer than I anticipated.”  Joaquin looked at the two choices, then made a decision.  The right; he always chose the right.  The fireball on the tip of his walking stick burned brighter. “Andale, come now dear child.  Stay alert, and I shall keep you safe.”

“Mhm.” Nesh suppresses the urge to grin and thinks of something to say in Gujarati. “I have no idea how you managed to laugh when you fell into the lake. Or swamp, whatever you might want to call it. Those creatures were super horrifying, and I’m pretty sure that you have to be a tad crazy to laugh after potentially being touched by them.” Now, he’s actually grinning - mostly because he wants Joaquin to think that he did use some bad words. The word for crazy was pronounced similar to it’s English version (Kre-jhi), and that’s one Joaquin might catch on to.

“Yeah, I know.”, he sighed, and as he talked, a slight accent kept hinting at the language he had just spoken, though it was soon toned out by the British slang again. “My family liked to put me as someone you should definitely look up to for my younger cousins and all that, and when I ended up getting a divorce...oh boy, did they all go mad about that.” Back in India and for most middle eastern couples, divorce was rare, and most of them stayed in their relationships just for the sake of their kids (or their nosy aunties). “And for my family...I was lucky to be sure that they are fine without me. My sisters make enough money to support them as they grow old.”

Neshdan took his time to listen to the man’s theory, nodded here and there as he spoke. “Personally, I never considered this some kind of limbo, or purgatory, or paradise or whatever else one might believe in. I firmly believe in science, and science tells me that it’s very unlikely to unlock so many percent of the brain...” He paused. “Then on the other hand, I have been thinking about dimensions. Of the multiverse. Maybe we are stuck between two dimensions, or thousands, or millions. Maybe we’re living in a separate one because we made a mistake and someone wanted to save the universe.” Rubbing his neck, Nesh shrugged. “I’m a big nerd for comics. They’re just books...filled with pictures. About dragons..and magic...and heroes.”, he explained to the monk, knowing he likely didn’t know what they were. “I don’t think there’s a constant heaven and hell in Hinduism. You can feel like you’re there even in your current life, and it’s not this one endless place you end up at as soon as you die. Though I get that this being some kind of purgatory is the closest thought, especially for Christians and Muslims...and I think for Jews, too?”

— ⋆ ✯ ⋆ —

Tamyra just grinned at him as he called her mylady and let him put her down, enjoying the attention he was showing her, completely oblivious to the fact that Nesh had a whole other debacle in his head about Lina. She just enjoyed the attention, could anyone really fault her for it from a pretty face like Nesh?

The conversation then shifted to water and how the magic worked, and it was so interesting, how Neshdan clearly put so much thought into how it actually reacted to him, how he worked the water. For Tamyra, at this point, it was more on an instinctual level. She could tell that she was creating a monkey or using the water as a weapon to protect herself, but to dig into the core of how it all worked and what she did, she never really thought about it while she could remember it was something she thought a lot about when she was learning to control water in the beginning.

“It sounds like you have put a lot of thought into it, you just need practice. Which is really the best part. At least for me,” Tamyra said with a small shrug. “Doesn’t even feel like practice, really. I don’t know about you, but spending a couple of hours in water during the day feels like a need at this point instead of something extra that I do every so often.” Then again, she’s been on the island for quite some time at this point, it might have grown overtime to the point where she was now.

(Not to mention, while others spent time actively working either on the farm or on other aspects around the island, Tamyra never really felt pulled towards those kind of activities and so she naturally had more time to spend her time in the water and still have a good chunk of the rest of the day to do with as she pleased.)

It didn’t feel like he needed that much practice, though, when once again he pulled the ground under from Tamyra’s feet - this time causing the same thing to himself, too, and Tamyra ended up ducking under the water and swimming a few paces before she came back up above the surface, laughing herself. “I think we should have tried to put you against that huge wave that came crashing down on the beach after the drought ended. You would have slowed it down immensely.” It probably wouldn’t have worked, it was incredibly strong and nobody could have stood a chance, but maybe in a couple of years, Nesh would be able to level with something like that.

His last question did surprise her though. “…No, it doesn’t talk to me. I feel its pull, like it wants me near, wants me to go towards it, but no signs and especially no talking. Does it talk to you? Give you signs? Cause if so, I would love to hear about all of it.”

“Yeah, it takes quite the effort. And I’d say it exhausts me rather quickly. Not exactly physically, but it gets harder the more I use my attunement. Less quick, less easy.” Nesh nodded at her words. “Yeah, right. Feels like relaxing, innit? Taking a quick break, a quick swim somewhere and I feel less tired and grumpy, or whatever.” Going for a daily swim was now a firm part of his routine, and he mostly went in the mornings, right after the sun went up, or in the evenings, right before it went down. Now that the sand had started glowing, he kept avoiding darker hours. “If i have time, of course. The last few days have been horribly busy, and I haven’t even been getting enough sleep. Not that that’s unusual for a doctor, but it’s unusual for this place, innit. Except from those unnecessary ER incidents, those happen around here, too. People coming in for nothing.”

A deep sigh left his lips and he allowed himself to sink deeper into the water, before he started laughing about her comment regarding the wave and how he might have been able to stop it. Shaking his head, he dipped his head beneath the water, wetting his curls and brushing through them with his fingers. The hair ties on his wrist were a firm reminder of his sisters, and he spent a moment thinking of them, just to snap back into reality and therefore back to Tamyra. “Please don’t manifest potential personal tasks for me, won’t you? Imagine we get another one after I’ve practiced lots, just like in Avatar. Last time I checked, my name wasn’t Aang.” It took him a moment to remember that Tamyra likely had no idea who or what Avatar was, so he made sure to add; “It’s a series for kids, mostly. Animated. My siblings and I watched it from time to time, when our parents weren’t home.”