Anna's cleanliness was next to godliness. Everything was neat, in it's place, organized to perfection. And yet, she always found herself cleaning in every spare moment she had in her little flat. She was cleaning now, but soon she would have to study, and after studying she could maybe get two or three hours of sleep, and then have to go to work and take care of sick people without getting herself sick all day, and then go home again, rinse, repeat. It was a tedious cycle, difficult to manage, but worth it if she ever wanted to become a doctor in what was undeniably a man's world.
(sjbjghdb ended up being longer than I expected, sorry!)
(also: where does Anna live? Geographically? And what's the time period exactly? I just realized I actually need those before I can do a response)
(like…. aeoglhlhf;SAF'AD;A;ADjf;rsji;lsilj;fkd london? somewhere close to the early victorian era but just exiting the napoleonic/romantic era because I am a fool. Don't expect much historicaly accuracy tho lmao.)
(I'll just say like dkf;dgkfkjl;SDK regency area about because I dont know WORDS.)
(ajsgsggs perfect)
Elanor Hamlet Monpezat had no idea where she was going. She had snuck onto a ship from Denmark to London, but now that she was in London she did not know where to go. Her corset had been tied about as tight as she could get it, to help cut off the bleeding from being stabbed. The bandages underneath were pressed so tightly to her skin that she could have sworn it was digging into her. She stumbled a little bit, leaning a hand against the wall to keep her balance. A nearby man, probably drunk, leered at her.
"Need some help, sweetheart?" His eyes were on her chest, not on her face.
She grimaced, and tucked her cloak closer around her body. This cursed dress had a lower neckline than she would have liked, but she had been in a hurry and hadn't thought to grab something different.
She was stumbling a little as she walked. The corset helped prevent blood loss, but it was so tight she could hardly breathe. With that, plus the poison still coursing it's way through her body…she didn't know what to do. She had induced vomiting as much as possible, but she knew some still had to be in her system.
(Does Anna have any sort of sign about being a doctor either outside of her flat or outside of her practice?)
(sure.)
Anna filled a pot with some water, then put it onto her woodstove where a fire was crackling nicely, the coals letting off enough heat to warm the house nicely if you didn't get too close to the stove and boil your skin off. It boiled quickly, and she poured herself a nice cup of tea with it, sitting by the little window in the corner. The whole place was just one room, but it was a cozy little place and she liked living simple, either way. She hoped that she would have the few small hours of the night to herself, and then be able to sleep for long enough to ensure she wasn't walking like some zombie.
(is that a yes or a no?)
A doctor, she needed to find a doctor. The boat ride had been longer than she had expected and she hadn't had much to eat and drink, but at least no one would think to look for her here in England. Not for a while, anyway. She wasn't quite sure how to pay a doctor, if she could find one, or how she could explain how she had been stabbed. Most young ladies didn't show up in the night with stab wounds in their torso, and those that did were not generally the reputable type.
Then again, Elanor wasn't sure if she was a reputable type, so perhaps that didn't matter.
(Yes, I guess? Make up whatever you want I'm tired and confused and honestly whatever works for you works.)
There was going to be a full moon soon. Anna was prepared of course, but she was scared. Most of the time she just sat, shaking in her flat until anyone who'd come calling had left, but what if something bad happened? What if something spooked her? What if she went rampaging through the streets, and nobody could stop her? These fears shook her to her core, but Anna stayed steady. She might as well study if she was going to get this wound up, but maybe she was too wound up to study.
(alright! Sorry if I sounded grumpy or something, I just tend to need exact answers because I'm weird like that)
Elanor wasn't sure how long she had been walking when she saw the sign, she just made her way towards it, knocking on the door and fumbling a little as she tugged her cloak closer around her body to hide the sword hung at her side, and to hide the small bloodstain that was beginning to bloom on her middle, from where the bandages were finally no longer able to hold back the bleeding. She was light-headed and dizzy and stumbling, and close to collapsing.
Anna stood up quickly. A caller, at this hour? It made sense, a lot of people didn't want to go to the police for their troubles so they'd call a doctor instead. And she understood that, but it was exhausting. When she opened the door to see a woman close to fainting, bleeding out and looking like she'd collapse at any moment, Anna simply stared. "Uh, Anna Saville, what seems to be the problem?!" she squeaked, not sure what else to say. "Sorry, the problem appears to be obvious. Come in, quickly, and lie down on my bed." it was a fairly clean bed, too, which was good for business. She prepared some alcohol to disinfect the wound, and rushed to the mystery woman's side.
Elanor followed Anna's lead, mostly just grateful that the door had been opened and too close to passing out to wonder on the fact that the doctor was a woman. "Thank you." she managed, her words lightly accented, a Danish one. "Er du lægen? Pardon– you are the doctor?" the sword lay beside her, still in its scabbard as it had been for the entire journey. It was one of the few things she had kept.
"Yes." Anna said, a bit too cold and defensively for her normally very good bedside manner. "I am." she brushed her curls up into a bun she tied with quick precision, and rolled up her sleeves. "I'll need to cut aside the dress to see the wound. Is that okay?" she asked, retrieving a pair of kitchen scissors suitable enough for the task. She could afford very little professional equipment by her day job, and clients didn't typically go to see the woman doctor unless they were desperate. Meaning, little sleep for Anna.
Elanor hesitated, but then nodded. "Ja, is…is alright." she has having a bit of a time concentrating on translating from Danish to English, but she was doing her best. She was actually, in a way, peculiarly glad that the doctor was a woman. Less danger of Elanor being taken advantage of while helpless to fight back, as a lone woman with no one to look for her.
Anna cut aside a large portion of the dress and removed the corset, leaving the mystery woman mostly uncovered on the table. This sort of thing had never bothered Anna, you saw a lot of people's bodies working in her area of expertise and you learned not to care much. Besides, she was hardly that kind of doctor, the type she abhorred. She would have never dreamed of exploiting a patient, ever. "I'll need to disinfect the wound before stitching it up. I don't think any internal organs were hit, it looks shallow enough to not kill you. The alcohol will sting, dear, so grab onto my hand and pray that nothing goes wrong." she said, dampening a clean rag with some of the alcohol. She offered her hand, and began to apply it as swiftly as she could without causing even more of a mess.
Elanor's cloak was spread around her body, the folds of it still hiding the sword from Anna's gaze. She nodded faintly, taking Anna's hand and closing his eyes, gritting her teeth. A faint whine slipped from between her teeth at the application of the alcohol, but she didn't make a sound otherwise.
"Wow, you're better than most men I treat. Shouldn't be surprised, really. Women are less whiny, in my experience." she quipped, and prepared the wound for stitching. She prepared the suture, and began sewing up the wound the way she had been shown by one of her many mentors. "I'm sorry, this probably hurts. I'll give you something to help the pain when it's finished, and you'll be right as rain in just a few hours. You appear to have lost a lot of blood, I think it would be best if you stayed the night at least." she talked as she worked, it kept her patients distracted and herself too.
"Not…the most pain I through have been." she said slowly, careful not to run the words together, as she knew that her accent could be difficult for many Londoners to piece together. Her english was usually better than this, but with the pain and blood loss she wasn't really able to concentrate on it as she usually was.
When Anna finished, she bandaged the wound with some fresh cloth and left the mystery woman to rest. "Tea? I still have some in the pot, and it's good for the soul." she smiled, hoping to distract from the gruesome scene before her. Who had stabbed that woman, and why? Hopefully, she could make things at least a little easier for her. "I'll give you some of my clothes. They'll fit okay, you aren't that much shorter than me." she said, opening a drawer on the bedside table and offering a pair of moleskin trousers and a thick cotton undershirt, hoping that would suffice for now.
Elanor nodded mutely, taking the clothes and changing into them, setting the ruined dress aside. Perhaps she could salvage some of it somehow, but she doubted it. She left her cloak on, unsure how this doctor would react to the sword, and not wanting to find out just yet. She wasn't very tall, and had wavy, pale blond hair that fell to about four inches below her shoulders, and pale skin, which was even paler after the blood loss she had gone through.
Comparatively, Anna had a large mass of inky hair curled tightly, spreading out from her messy bun like a cloud of steam rolling over the edges of a pot. Her skin was a dark espresso brown that stood out against the warm light and reflected it beautifully, looking like gold had been poured out onto her brown flesh like she was a painting. Her nails were short and tidy, and her lips were large and plush, but raw from repeated biting at. She was beautiful, but in a way that didn't have to try.
"Can I get a name? Even a fake one is fine, I just think having something to call you would help." she said, knowing that maybe this woman wouldn't want her true identity spilled in the case that Anna would go running to the authorities. She wouldn't, but she understood. She had many women from many different backgrounds, from streetwalkers to even the occasional posh lady who would come for various treatments to ailments that nobody else would give. People simply didn't believe women when they were in peril, and that was something Anna aimed to change.
Elanor considered the question for a moment, then said, "You can call me El, for now." She said slowly, reaching into the bag she had kept at her side, and pulling out a scrap of navy ribbon, using it to tie her hair back into a low ponytail, just to keep it out of her face. "And yours?" The Danish woman's accent was still there, soft and lilting and hiding in the way she tended to run her words together, just a little, in the way her consonants were softened into the vowels of her words.
(i am stress so i wont be responding until later sorry)
"Anna, miss. Anna Saville. Just rest, now. You'll feel better in the morning, the pain will have subsided quite a bit and you'll probably be able to walk about a bit. I expect bed-rest, for most of your time here. If you plan on leaving after the night is over, come back in a week to two weeks for me to remove the suture, or the skin will heal improperly." she explained. "Although I'd like to watch over you here for the time being."
