Interrogation Beating

The boots found something deep that fists never reach. You walk out of that room on your own two feet, and hours later you fold in the street, coughing blood, belly gone rigid as a washboard, something inside is bleeding, and only a surgeon's knife can stop it.

• You seem merely beaten for 2-6 hours, then collapse wherever you happen to be standing
• Coughing flecks of blood; skin gray, clammy, cold to the touch
• /me presses a forearm hard across their belly, breath coming quick and shallow
• Bedbound once the surgeon is done, no riding, no fighting for 7 days

Recovery Surgery tonight and 7 days flat on your back; without a surgeon, the bleeding inside finishes what the boots started.·Doctor, urgently

The rifle butt comes down twice on the same knee and the second blow turns the kneecap to gravel under the skin. You hear it go before you feel it, and then you feel nothing else at all.

• Leg splinted stiff and straight, no riding, no stairs without help for 7 days
• A cane or a shoulder to lean on everywhere you go
• /me drags the splinted leg behind them, knuckles white on the cane

Recovery Set in plaster within a day and it knits in 6-8 weeks; unset, it heals crooked and aches every winter after.·Doctor required

The boots come in a rhythm, and somewhere in it three ribs crack like green wood. Every breath after is a knife slid between them, and a deep one brings the taste of copper to the back of your throat.

• Chest wrapped tight; only shallow breaths for 5 days
• No lifting, no swinging a fist, no hauling yourself into the saddle unaided for 7 days
• Laughing, coughing, and sneezing all punish you like a mule kick

Recovery 4-5 weeks wrapped and careful with a doctor watching for a punctured lung; alone, one wrong fall could drown you from the inside.·Doctor required

A fist like a fence post spreads your nose across your cheek, and the back of your head bounces off the chair. The world goes white, then doubles, and it hasn't quite come back together since.

• Nose splinted and packed with cotton, you breathe through your mouth and sound like it
• Two black eyes blooming purple to yellow over the coming weeks
• Dizzy spells and double vision, no shooting, no riding fast for 3 days
• /me tilts their head back, pinching the bridge of a nose gone sideways

Recovery A doctor resets it in one bad minute and it heals straight in 2-3 weeks; leave it and the crook is yours for keeps.·Doctor required

A boot heel buries itself under your ribs and the world narrows to the effort of breathing. Everything you've eaten since Tuesday comes up, and your belly wears the bruise like a saddle stain.

• Can't keep solid food down for 1 day, broth and mercy only
• Belly tender to the lightest touch for 4 days; no brawling, no heavy lifting
• /me moves like a man twice their age, one arm curled over their middle

Recovery 3-4 days of rest and soft food with a doctor's say-so; a week of misery without, and see one fast if the pain sharpens.·Doctor required

One boot found its mark cleaner than the rest, and a single rib gives with a sound you feel more than hear. It's a small break with a big opinion, and it voices it every time you breathe deep.

• Chest bound in linen wraps under your shirt
• No sprinting, no lifting more than a coffee pot for 5 days
• A hitch and a wince every time you twist at the waist

Recovery 3 weeks wrapped if a doctor binds it; closer to 5 of stabbing reminders if you tough it out.·Doctor required

Somewhere between the third fist and the floor, your head struck something that struck back. You remember the room, the lamp, the questions, but not the answers you gave, and that gap gnaws worse than the headache.

• A missing hour, you genuinely don't recall what you told them
• Headaches, double vision, and a sick stomach in waves for 3 days
• No shooting and nothing faster than a walk on horseback for 2 days

Recovery 2-3 days of dark rooms and quiet with a doctor checking your eyes; pushing through it invites collapse and worse.·Doctor required

A haymaker catches you square on the hinge of the jaw and two teeth wobble in their sockets like fence posts in spring mud. The joint clicks when you chew and aches when you don't.

• Soft food only for 4 days, biting an apple is out of the question
• Two loose teeth you daren't tongue at, though you will
• Speech slightly mushy on one side; jaw clicks audibly when you eat

Recovery Teeth firm back up in 2-3 weeks if you baby them; keep chewing jerky and you'll be shopping for gold replacements.·Doctor required

The last backhand closes your left eye like a cellar door. By morning it's a purple-black plum you can barely see past, and it will paint itself yellow and green for weeks where everyone can admire it.

• Left eye swollen shut for 2 days, no depth for shooting or catching
• A bruise that cycles purple, black, green, and yellow over 1-3 weeks
• /me turns their whole head to look left, the eye a swollen slit

Recovery Cold compresses bring the swelling down in 2-3 days; the colors stay for weeks either way.·Doctor advised

Your lips split in two places against your own teeth, and your shirt front is stiff with dried blood that isn't shy about where it came from. Talking pulls the splits open; smiling is off the menu.

• Splits reopen when you talk too much or grin at all for 3 days
• Blood-stiff shirt and a swollen mouth everyone stares at
• Whiskey stings like judgment on the cuts

Recovery Healed over in 4-5 days if you keep your mouth still; a week if you insist on running it.·Doctor advised

When you peel your shirt off, the story's printed right there, heel and sole bruises stamped across your ribs like a bootmaker's catalog. Nothing's broken, but the flesh remembers every kick.

• Deep bruising down one side; sleep only on the other for 4 days
• Boot-shaped bruises, a conversation starter at any bathhouse
• No heavy lifting or grappling for 3 days

Recovery Fades through the usual ugly colors in 2-3 weeks; wrapped ribs and laudanum make the first days civil.·Doctor advised

The rifle butt kissed your kneecap and stopped just short of breaking it. The bone is bruised deep, the joint is hot and fat, and it buckles once a day just to remind you who won.

• A limp everyone notices; walk, never run, for 4 days
• Knee gives way without warning once or twice a day
• /me favors the leg hard, testing the knee before trusting it with stairs

Recovery A week of favoring it, 2-3 for the deep ache to leave; a cold creek soak each night speeds it along.·Doctor advised

No single blow did the damage, all of them together did. Your face is a relief map of some ugly territory, every ridge and hollow tender, and strangers' eyes keep asking the question their mouths are too polite to.

• Visible facial bruising for 1-3 weeks, hats and excuses only go so far
• Chewing on the left side only for 2 days
• Tender to every friendly pat on the cheek

Recovery Nothing to set, nothing to stitch; the map fades to memory in 2-3 weeks.·Doctor advised

One good punch landed of the dozen thrown, and your lower lip puffed up like proofing dough. It's tender, it's obvious, and it whistles slightly on certain words.

• A fat lip for 2 days that makes 'whiskey' come out wrong
• Slight whistle on your S's, to everyone's amusement

Recovery Down to normal in 2-3 days without any help at all.·No doctor needed

A cuff across the ear sets bells ringing that no one else can hear. The world tilts a few degrees for an hour, and your ear glows red as a stove door.

• Ringing in one ear for a few hours; say 'what?' more than usual
• Mild dizziness for 1 hour, maybe sit before you shoot

Recovery Right as rain by tomorrow; the ear stops glowing by supper.·No doctor needed

They spread the work around and nothing took the worst of it. You're a catalog of small aches, neck, ribs, jaw, the kind that announce themselves each morning and quiet down by noon.

• Stiff and slow for the first hour after any rest for 2 days
• Groans on standing that you can't quite suppress
• /me rolls a shoulder gingerly, working out where it hurts today

Recovery 2-3 days of moving like an old-timer; a hot bath cuts that in half.·No doctor needed

You slipped most of it, but one fist got through and signed its work under your right eye. It's a modest shiner as these things go, more colorful than crippling.

• A black eye for about a week, at its ugliest on day 3
• Pride bruised worse than the eye socket

Recovery Gone in a week; a cold spoon and a low hat brim in the meantime.·No doctor needed

You rode every punch like a fighter who's done this before, and their knuckles took more damage than your face. One scuff on the cheekbone is the whole of the butcher's bill.

• A single scuffed cheekbone, barely worth a comment
• Sore neck muscles from all that rolling, gone by tomorrow

Recovery Nothing to recover from by the day after; the scuff fades in days.·No doctor needed

Their arms gave out before your silence did. You're red where fists landed and rope held, but by morning there'll be hardly a mark to show for the whole ugly evening.

• Faint redness at the jaw and wrists, gone by morning
• A story where you get to say 'they quit first', and it's true

Recovery A night's sleep settles all of it.·No doctor needed

The worst boot of the night slams into your vest and meets the steel flask riding your breast pocket. The kick that should have cracked ribs cracks pewter instead, and the big fella hops back cursing a bruised instep while you spit blood-free and grin.

• A flask dented in the shape of a boot heel, the best trophy in the territory
• One tender spot on the chest, gone in a day
• /me pats the dented flask in their vest pocket and winks

Recovery The flask needs a tinsmith; you don't need a thing.·No doctor needed