When I was looking through my document of beginnings that didn't turn into anything long enough for their own separate document yesterday, I also found this one!
Basic premise:
Meng Yao as a medical massage therapist (his mother had worked in a much different part of the massage industry, but he's damned if he's going to let everything she taught him go to waste)
Nie Mingjue as an MMA fighter who is probably about to retire (which is fine because their financial situation is much more stable now than it was when he started and he can fall back on running the family martial arts studio the way he wanted to from the beginning)
This fic 100% started because I wanted an excuse for NMJ to go on a rant about how incredibly stupid it is that the MMA world so fetishizes (Brazilian) jiu jitsu "lineage" and how it's increasingly a lie to even call it mixed martial arts anymore, because if you come from a background outside the approximately four styles a white American man has ever heard of, interviewers act like you are extremely exotic and also probably unqualified. I didn't get to that part, but I have played it out a few times in my mind. It's very satisfying. Both Meng Yao and I found it very attractive.
Opening scene:
Meng Yao set his salad out on the small table in the break room and pulled up the file for his next patient on his tablet. The Chinese name was promising, but then he scrolled down and saw “MMA fighter” listed under profession and sighed internally. Meng Yao was good at his job and he knew it, but he also knew what he looked like, and it always made him seethe when some of their more… stereotypically masculine sports medicine referrals asked for a different therapist before he even got started. Well, at least this Nie Mingjue was a referral from Wen Qing. He’d hope for the best.
~*~*~
Sure enough, as soon as Meng Yao introduced himself, he caught the guy’s skeptical once-over. He served up his most polite customer service smile and gestured him into the treatment room, privately vowing to wreck him one muscle group at a time in the most professional and therapeutic way possible.
Resolutely, he turned his attention to patient evaluation. Recovering from ligament repair surgery on his left shoulder, the file said, and he could see it in the way Nie Mingjue still held that arm too still, like he’d gotten used to it being in a brace. The shoulder rode a bit higher on that side as well. His mind started building his treatment plan before Nie Mingjue even turned around to face him again, hovering uncertainly next to the table.
“Should I…” he started, gesturing vaguely at his clothes.
Meng Yao allowed himself a very small smile and shook his head. “I’d like to evaluate you moving naturally for the moment, and for you to tell me your goals for treatment.” He ruthlessly quashed his desire to laugh as the enormous man who could clearly break him like a twig visibly relaxed. “Walk to that wall for me and then back.”
“Oh, sure.”
Meng Yao watched his back as he walked, the movements of the muscles under his shirt powerful but uneven, very much those of a person used to moving confidently and coming up against an unexpected obstacle again and again. Meng Yao thought he must actually be rather elegant when he was well, albeit in a rather large way, and felt unexpected sympathy. He certainly knew the frustration of a lingering injury in a body that had previously been trained into painstaking obedience.
“How did it happen?” he asked as Nie Mingjue reached the far wall and turned back.
“Dislocation during an arm bar.”
Meng Yao frowned, eyes trained on Nie Mingjue’s shoulders.
“It’s a move where—”
“I know what an arm bar is, thank you,” Meng Yao said, more tartly than he intended. Perhaps he should have had more caffeine with his lunch. When he glanced up, though, Nie Mingjue was looking at him with a pleased sort of surprise. He mentally shook himself and went on briskly, “I’m just not used to seeing this injury in someone with so much muscle mass in their shoulders.”
“Oh.” Nie Mingjue shrugged, still mostly with just his right side. “The orthopedist said it’s because I’m too tall. If your limbs are long, there’s too much room for torque. Leverage, you know.”
Meng Yao nodded. “I see. May I touch you?”
Nie Mingjue offered a wry smile. “Not much point in being here if you don’t, is there?”
Meng Yao later, looking up the fight where the dislocation happened for entirely professional reasons and then ending up in a YT spiral: "I refuse to let this awaken anything in me." (Liar)
Said video spiral is also when he finds videos of NHS doing fan forms, because I wasn't going to let that opportunity pass, I assure you.
I have made a post on this before, loooooong ago, but let’s talk about crutches. Break a leg, shatter a knee, snap an ankle, whatever your heart desires, and throw that oc on crutches. Here’s some unfortunate real world experiences on what it’s like to be on the damn things for an extended period of time.
First, what kind of injury? If it’s something more mild, like a broken shin or ankle, or a stress fracture, then you will be moving FAST. I could book it on crutches, like normal person jogging speed.
Now if it’s an injury that hurts to move or requires a heavy brace, you will be moving like a fuckin snail. And it’s annoying, but trying to go faster is usually PAINFUL so 0/10 recommend going faster with a severe injury like a surgery recovery.
How to use them properly. Literally, besides myself and my sister, I have never seen someone use crutches properly. They should be like 3-4” inches below your armpit, and you use your traps and triceps and related muscles to press the crutches up against your ribs.
Along those lines, there WILL be a bruise along your rib cage the first few days if you’re using them properly. The bruise goes away when you get used to them.
Back to speed. If it’s an injury that doesn’t hurt to move, and you’re hauling along like a champion, oh just wait until you get to some stairs.
Going up is easier than going down. Leg goes first on the way up, crutches go first on the way down. Do NOT rush stairs, unless you want to miss a step and tumble face first down an entire flight and freak your parents and your dogs out once again I unfortunately speak from experience 0/10 recommendation
Of course, being on crutches has a couple positives. Those back muscles and triceps? Instant workout. Everyday. It’s great. You’ll be sore the first few days, then you’ll be buff.
Plus number two? Moses reincarnated. Aka people part like the fricken Red Sea when you’re going through a crowd. It’s excellent, especially at crowded football games.
And another fun factor. Ice. Ice+crutches is a bad combination, right up there with toothpaste and orange juice. Slipping on ice and having your bad leg jam against the ground is another thing that I would rate on the “it really hurts and don’t do it” spectrum.
Also good luck trying to find a place to stash those things, they fall over, get knocked over, get tripped over, get run into... They’re always going to be in the way no matter what you do.
And back to walking. It can be a slow progression: such as weight bearing as tolerated from day one, or it can be eight weeks absolutely no weight bearing, then suddenly full weight bearing is allowed.
Atrophy. Those muscles on the injured leg are going to be teensy tiny. And in the case of my surgery, it took a few days to actually be able to use my quads again since a nerve is blocked for surgery. Point is, that the leg will be half the size of the other one, and it’s necessary to build the muscle back SLOWLY and not overdue it
If you’re writing a character who’s just been injured - be it from a stab wound, gunshot, magic gone wrong, or industrial accident - they might go into something called hypovolemic shock.
What is that, you may ask? Glad you did.
Please keep in mind: I am not a medical professional. But I have gone through first aid and CPR training, and have done a great deal of research on the topic. If there is anything I have missed, please let me know so I may correct it.
With that in mind, let’s get into why your profusely bleeding character really shouldn’t - and can’t - do all those amazing acrobatics right now.
Hypovolemic shock, also known as hemorrhagic shock, happens when a person has lost more than one-fifth of their blood. According to Live Science, the average adult has about 1.2 to 1.5 gallons (4.5 to 5.5 liters) of blood. A fifth of that is about 0.24 to 0.3 gallons (0.9 to 1.1 liters).
Which is a fancy way of saying that if your character is looking down at a pool of their own blood, they’re already in trouble.
If a person loses this much blood, their heart can’t properly pump blood throughout the body. It can lead to organ damage, organ failure, and death. It’s serious.
And a person might not go into hypovolemic shock from an injury. Sure, it happens from serious cuts, wounds, or blunt trauma. But it can also happen if a person is bleeding internally from the digestive tract or abdomen. It can even happen with excessive vaginal bleeding. Yikes.
Loss of body fluids can also do the trick. This could be anything from prolonged vomiting, bad diarrhea, severe burns, or even excessive sweating.
Now, let’s get into symptoms.
(A quick note: it might take a while for symptoms to show up, depending on situation. Older adults might not experience anything until the shock significantly progresses. And how bad symptoms are corresponds to the severity of the injury or condition. Use your judgement.)
Nasty, for sure. But a more fit (or more battle-mad) character might be able to keep fighting. They still reaaally need to get themselves checked out, though.
Severe symptoms include:
cold/clammy skin, paleness, rapid/shallow breathing, rapid heart rate, confusion, weakness, weak pulse, blue lips and fingernails, lightheadedness, loss of consciousness
External hemorrhaging is pretty easy to spot. Blood and guts and all the nasty. Signs of internal hemorrhaging include:
abdominal pain, blood in stool, black/tarry stool, blood in urine, vomiting blood, chest pain, abdominal swelling
These are very serious things which warrant immediate medical attention, both for external and internal bleeding. Take this character to the local medic, healer, doctor, or space witch like yesterday.
Seriously. If your characters don’t get help now, the injured one will die.
So, what should be done while waiting for medical professionals to arrive?
First, have the injured person lie down with their feet elevated about 12 inches. Don’t elevate their head! That will decrease the blood flow to their brain. You don’t want that.
Second, keep the injured person warm. Pile on coats, blankets, anything nearby. Decreased blood flow means they’re going to get cold fast, which may lead to hypothermia.
Third, if there’s any glass shards, arrows, broken-off tips of swords, or anything else protruding from their body - don’t remove it! That will increase blood loss. Instead, wrap something like a shirt or towel around the area.Apply pressure if possible.
Fourth, don’t move them if there’s a spinal injury suspected. Just...don’t.
So let’s say that your poor character, who you’ve just impaled, shot, or otherwise dismembered, has reached the hospital and is now expected to live. Hooray! How does the future look for them?
...depends.
Some people might develop gangrene because of decreased blood flow to the limbs. If the infection gets too bad, your character might have to have one of the affected limbs amputated.
People with milder degrees of hypovolemic shock, and those who were in good shape before they were injured, recover faster - of course. Even so, if they suffered organ damage, they’re going to need a lot more medical treatment and will likely spend a lot of time both in surgery and in rehabilitation.
In particularly bad cases, organ damage might be irreversible. Your character might need an organ transplant - or might need to clone themselves a new kidney, depending on your world.
Older adults can have a particularly bad time going through hypovolemic shock - their mortality rates are much higher than young adults’. Which is rather ironic, since older adults tend to show symptoms much later into the progression of their injury.
No matter what, suffering this shock is going to change their life.
In summary: if your character loses a fifth of their blood or more, things are going to go downhill fast. Get them help right away. Or if you can’t, prepare for a death sequence filled with lots of confusion and cold sweat.
