Chapter Text
Despite all the bad things having a cursed arm caused for Vinestaff, one thing that Vinestaff was eternally grateful for was that the wooden arm didn't hurt one bit. It came in handy for a lot of situations! Back in the woods of the Thieves Den, it made for a good get away from animals in the woods, or easy to chop off to make some firewood.
The unfortunate thing about having a cursed arm is that with how big and clunky it is, it leaves her right hand doing all the tiny meticulous work in her day to day life.
That wasn't really ever a problem and she never even thought about it, until some small tasks got a bit more annoying for her.
Sewing, for example. The needle felt heavier than it used to. What once took a few minutes now left her fingers cramping. Writing became far more exhausting. She'd begun dropping items and had to make a point to herself to be extra careful when working with customers.
Then it got a little bit more bothersome. Tingling in her right hand, sharp jolts when she move it too fast, needing far more rests than she'd ever like to take. Sometimes she could shake her hand and it'd help, but it could only do so much.
Finally, it got to a point where she couldn't even do gardening without her wrist shooting up with pain.
It was raining that day and she was tending to her garden. It wasn't anything too complex, she was simply checking in between the plants for pests, unhealthy plants, or weeds. The rain was pelting down on her. Slingshot had begged her to come right back inside before she left, and she originally was going to, but now that Slingshot had said to she was absolutely not going inside. So she decided to embrace the cold rain that was absolutely drenching her outfit and flattening her hair.
Going to the vegetable section of her garden she noticed that some of her tomatoes were looking quite sad. The tomatoes were leaning downwards, a sickly yellow color spreading on the leaves. She inspected some of the tomatoes and the leaves with her right hand. Then, with her wooden arm she began to left up some of the dirt. She then grabbed the plant and pulled out the roots. Her hand pulsated with negligible throbs in response. Looking at the plants, she sighed. Probably root rot.
So, she began to dig around, inspect, and see how the other plants were doing to see if any of the surrounding vegetables were also sick. Entirely focused at this point she began to ignore any warning signs from the dull ache going up in her knees and her hand that might indicate that she needed to rest, until, she was pinching at a particularly difficult plant. She pinched the stem. She pulled. A white-hot needle of pain shot from her thumb to her elbow. The world blurred. She yelped loudly and let go.
The pain was so overwhelming that she took a step back just to try and rest it. After the tightness lessened just a little, she tried to shake her hand, like she usually did to help out the pain, but instead the pain went right back up her wrist again as she forced a sharp breath of air through her clenched teeth..
She couldn't continue checking her plants in detail with this. The pain was unbearable. Taking her wooden limb and returning the dirt back where it was, she started to do lines up and down the garden to try and get a general grasp of what was going on. But despite not using her right hand, the pain was getting genuinely unbearable.
Extremely disappointed that she couldn't even check the most basic aspect of her plants, she decided to come back to it another day. Dejection made her left arm feel twice as heavy, and she had to use her cursed arm to open the door. She fumbled and struggled, but eventually managed to open the door. She entered the apartment and let the door slam on its own.
She settled to her room and took off her kimono, putting it aside. Sat on the chair, she tried to use her healing on her arm. She channeled her gear into her wrist. The glow flickered.
It's gone just like that!
Except, it's not, because as soon as she used her arm to lift herself off the chair, a jolt of pain shot right up her arm and she yelped. Figures, healing probably isn't going to help something that she's been ignoring for who knows how long.
"Vinestaff? You good?" Muffled through the walls, but still extremely clear because the walls were not that thick, was Shurikens voice. If there's anything Vinestaff doesn't need right now it's Shuriken fussing over her.
"I'm good!" She called back, now deciding to sit on her bed.
Shuriken came over and gave a quick knock and opened the door, only giving Vinestaff a second to brace for him entering. "What was it?"
Vinestaff understood. Shuriken was bored so they wanted something to do. She had two ways to go about this. Make up a lie and entertain Shuriken by going through a whole story. Or save energy and just say that her wrist hurts.
"My wrist started hurting."
She's too bummed out about her plants to bother.
"Huh? Whats hurting it? You can't heal it away?"
"No, I just tried that. I got false confidence and hurt it again."
"…Vinestaff."
"Hey you can't scold me! You are no better! Worse, even!"
Shuriken didn't respond to the back and forth, walking over to Vinestaff, grabbing her wrist, and inspecting it. Rude.
"…Doesn't look hurt?"
"Yeah, it only hurts if I bend it or if I'm pinching things."
Shuriken took a step back and tapped their foot a bit. Trying to think of a solution, obviously.
"…Hm."