Loamhedge Orphanage

The squirrel appreciated the ruffles and she sniffled a little and nodded her head. Her attention then was taken over by Raven's observation and she watched the two of them, uncertain on what to do. Why was he bleeding from the ear anyway? Did he injure it somehow from the snowball fight?

"Why's it bleeding though?"

"Raven, you don't-- thanks," Lin said, accepting the piece of cloth. He folded it up before using the thin cloth headband he had to hold it in place, effectively staunching the flow. All of the attention just seemed to make him jumpy, though, and he went back to petting Gimbold's head with his clean hand if only to keep himself a bit calm.

"'S been like that for a while," he explained, trying to sound more calm than he looked. "It just, does that, sometimes."

"That's not good Lin!"

Raven says folding her arms and giving him a stern look. Lin may have been older than she was, but it didn't excuse the fact that Lin obviously needed to have his ear looked at. She keeps a firm front, looking up at him like a parent would look down on a child.

"Why didn't you tell anybody?! This could be serious! What if it gets infected?! Or worse!? You should have told someone!"

She says clearly upset. She just sighs and shakes her head, trying to calm herself before speaking up again.

"Why don't you want help?"

Gimbold appreciated the pats to the head, calming down when Lin said it wasn't serious. Who was she to doubt his words?

Raven's scolding didn't help the girl's mood. No cookies, homesick, bleeding Lin and now Raven scolding the genie? It was a lot for the eight year old to process in a few moments and the young squirrel started tearing up, burying her face into Lin's pants even more.

Linwood flinched visibly when Raven raised her voice, despite the fact that she was clearly just worrying about him. The two young girls surely hadn't been at the orphanage long enough to figure it, but the genie was incredibly touchy as it was and dodgy about anything pertaining to his past, and when those two things combined, his first reaction was always to shut things out. Sometimes not so gracefully.

"Quit it!" he shrieked, very much uncalled for, at the poor little girl, looking more terrified than angry. He shoved Gimbold off of him as gently as his full fight-or-flight body would allow. "Just- leave me be, alright?!" He stormed through the kitchen to the other entrance, kicking the slightly ajar oven door closed as he did so, grabbing a pan someone had left out -- "Who fucking left this out?!" -- and hitting the big iron oven with it and then the door frame before chucking it into the sink basin as he walked into the main dining room.

Lin sat down at the far end of a long pew bench in the corner of the room, pulled his knees up to his chest, and buried his face in his arms and knees to hide.

The little girl was stunned when Lin pushed her away. The sudden violence scared her and she shot off towards the grounds like a rocket.

Ravens eyes widened as Lin stormed into the kitchen and started throwing things around before sitting down. Her entire body was shaking, and it was bringing back up some very bad memories for her. One of her hands instinctively reached up to grab her hair and griped tightly while the other one grabbed her arm.

"I-I'm sorry....p-please....d-dont...."

She couldn't even get the rest out as more memories from back home raced through her mind. She closed her eyes and shook her head, before running into the kitchen and sitting down in the small corner between the fridge and the wall. She pulled her knees up to her chest and buried head in her knees, her hands still gripping her head and hair as she continued to shake, trying not to cry.

Kiro walked cautiously into the dining hall, nearly colliding with a certain alarmed squirrel girl on the way. Steadying his balance as he watched her run past, he paused for a moment, then continued into the room.

"H-hello....?" He asked as he entered possibly his least favourite room in the building. "Is... is everything alright...? I heard a noise and... well..."

Linwood looked up after a short while, finding that Kiro had entered the room. The genie looked every part like a cornered animal, shivering like a small dog on the seat in the corner of the room. Kiro had been at the orphanage long enough that he'd probably lived through this kind of thing with Lin a number of times, unless of course he'd been living under a rock.

Lin felt bad about terrifying the two little girls, but he certainly wasn't ready to apologize yet. Having lifted his head up, he leaned against the walls and pressed both hands against the sides of his head, knowing both of his sorry excuses for ears were undoubtedly dripping blood now. He just watched Kiro, eyes occasionally flicking to the kitchen entrance, not really in the mood to say anything.

Kiro sighed to himself, muttering "of course..." to himself under his breath. Though Lin wasn't the only orphan who was likely to cause such a situation, he was certainly one of the more likely suspects in Kiro's experience. But Kiro didn't blame him - many of the orphans here had been through hell... in many ways, Kiro was lucky that he himself hadn't lived through any trauma... at least that he remembered. He still wasn't sure how he ended up on the streets in the first place. Unfortunately, this wasn't the kind of situation he could fix easily with his own abilities. He thoughtfully folded his arms and tapped himself on the chin with his tail.

For a moment, Kiro simply stood there, his only new movement curling the toes up on his right foot and fidgeting with them. After a few seconds, he clicked his toes as one might with their fingers and headed toward the kitchen. The loud noise he had heard sounded like it involved kitchen utensils, so maybe some more clues as to what had happened were lying in that room.

"You should probably go to the infirmary," Kiro practically shouted at Lin as he passed through the room. He wasn't sure if he was being too loud or not... it was hard to tell how loud one had to be when the person they were talking to had bleeding earholes covered up by hands.

When Kiro reached the kitchen door, he poked his head around and glanced inside. "H-hello...?" He asked nervously.

Unaware that kiro had even entered the kitchen, she continued sitting in the corner, trying to at least stop her body from shaking. She gripped hee hair a bit more tightly and couldn't hold back anymore as tears started streaming down her cheeks.

"I-I'm sorry...p-please don't hurt me..."

She would mutter every now and then to herself. When she heard someone speak, she pulled her legs even closer to herself as she gripped her hair more tightly, as if keeping her body close would keep her safe.

"I-I'm sorry...i-I'm sorry!"

She repeated under her breath.

Kiro stood in the doorway, now really confused and unsure as of what to do. It seemed that the occupants of both rooms were having issues that he was unable to deal with... he found the situation too awkward to try to get answers from either of the two... but maybe he didn't have to...

"I'll be right back... I think..." he said, before jogging out into the dining hall and then out toward the direction he had seen Gimbold run. Perhaps that one had answers... if she wasn't in the same kind of state as the other two...

Lin flinched at the words, although they were barely loud enough for him to understand. He nodded at Kiro and waited until he left the room before climbing off of the seat and darting to the infirmary.

Slips past Kiro into the area with hands stuffed into pockets and messy hair. Watching the others leave with a frown and tilting head to the side, hopefully everything's fine. Sighing and grabbing a bowl of mush and a spoon to sit down and get comfortable. Looking up to Raven, "ya alright? What happened?"

Raven was snapped out of her memories and brought back to the present day when she heard a voice. She looks over at Ruth, still shaking before nodding slightly.

"L-Lin just went off....i-I was just trying to help..."

She says before pulling her knees up to her head and burying her head in them, silently crying to herself.

Sighs and picks up the bowl of mush while standing and sitting beside Raven, though keeping at a respectiblae distance. "Sorry to hear that, did you want to talk about it?" Eating a spoonful of cold oatmeal while looking over the girl. "Or did ya want to be left alone?" Quirking a brow to her with a small smile

"H-his ear started bleeding so I gave him a part if my dress to stop it...when tried to take him to the nurse he just completely went on and started yelling and throwing things..."

She says before burying her head in her knees once more.

Kiro once more entered the dining hall, this time with Gimbold following him. He gave the room a quick study, glad to see that Lin had - hopefully - gone to the infirmary. With that sorted out, he moved toward the kitchen and gave the door a quiet knock before peering through to what was going on inside.

"Oh um..." Seeing someone else now present, he was unsure how to proceed. He stepped back into the dining hall and turned to Gim. "Maybe I should go and get Lin... I don't know if there's much I can do here... would you rather stay or come with me? Either way, I should hopefully be right back..."

Gim looked at Kiro. "Umm follow you..." it seemed the best option for her at the moment. She didn't want to be left alone here... even if there was people. She felt uncertain now about everything and was sticking to what she assumed was safe.

Kiro shrugged. "Well alright... I think Lin would have calmed down, so it should be fine but... well we'll see." And with that, he headed toward the main hall and over to the infirmary, hoping to catch Lin there to resolve this situation.