genessia | Forward dated to After The Water Event because something something something

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Forward dated to After The Water Event because something something something

Who: Cassian (Now as one person) and Amberdrake
Where: Attleton, at Drake's office
Why: We've all learned an important life lesson about punching tigers.

So... returning to one body was actually a lot less painful than one would imagine. Rather it sort of happened while both halves were asleep.

The painful part, on top of clashing memories, was the insane amount of physical damage. All of it. Just all the physical damage ever. Is his jaw broken? Shit there's holes in him too holy fuck how did those get there- Oh his ribs were broken again.

... Welp.

There was always Drake, but as Cassian recalled... Drake didn't much care for Everglade. And he really didn't need this to be more trouble than it already was.

Which was why, a good... hour or more later, Amberdrake would get a visitor.

In Attleton.

In a very thick obscuring cloak, not that it'd matter due to the fact that one of them was an empath and the other one was walking around with like more than three broken bones at a time.

Not even a voiced answer to alert or greet him, just a text-

I've cocked some things up

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A bite... that several days later, was bad enough for Cassian to ask for healing? Was it infected?

Drake shook his head at the apology. "Trust me, I'm used to this." Between his brother back on his world, and Sanzo on all the others, having to re-visit his patients' old wounds was just standard procedure for the kestra'chern. "We can go into the back room, if you prefer," there was another work-room, not presently inhabited, "but I'm going to need access to all of that."

Cassian was going to have to do more than undo a few buttons to let him get at his shoulder, unless he wanted the Healer to cut open that part of his shirt.

"Aye. I know." At least he wouldn't kick up a fuss about it this time. Had to get it healed. Honestly, if it weren't as deep as it was (though still not yet deep enough to kill) he'd be fine with it. But a professional really should be poking at it.

He slowly heaved himself up off the couch with a grunt, and headed for the back, already fiddling with his shirt to unbutton it.

No he didn't want it cut open, thanks for the offer anyway, Drake.

"Just the bite and the ribs. Nothing else there to attend to."

Amberdrake gets up and follows after him, and closes the door behind them for privacy. The second work-room is in its default configuration, set up for therapy more than for massage. Cushions are scattered around a low table near the middle, and the room's massage table is folded up and pushed against a far wall.

The canvas panels hang several inches in from the walls, instead of closer to the drywall like in the lobby, and the mage-lights are set to be duller. That last bit is easily fixed, the lighting brightening up so that Drake will be able to see the damage more clearly.

The shirt is removed and folded, and it's pretty clear he's at least been taking care of it since he was injured. The wound is wrapped, no longer quite so tightly, and as he peels off the bandages its obvious he's been cleaning it and attending to it.

Honestly, other than.. just refusing to close, there's only some redness and swelling, some discharge.

"Could be worse." The broken ribs couldn't be so easily seen from the outside however. That would take some poking.

"And this was a... 'fairy'," Amberdrake doesn't mean to sound skeptical, but. It looks distressingly close to a vampire bite, other than the location being less than ideal for punching into blood flow. Drake waits until Cassian has it wholly unwrapped before he sets a careful set of fingertips around one of the punctures, eyes going unfocused in that familiar way that means the Gift is at work.

Yeah, that's plenty deep enough to be a vampire. And Cassian lives in vampire-town.

"What was this even about? Nothing political, I hope."

Edited 2017-01-17 14:17 (UTC)

"Aye. I wouldn't lie to ye about it, Amberdrake." He wasn't dumb enough to mistake the two either you leave your implications out of this. He just winced a little as the other man set about poking around the wound, letting out a long, low sigh.

"Nae. It wasn't political." And... that was about as in depth as that answer got.

"I didn't intend to suggest that you would, I apologize," Drake didn't actually know what a fairy was. Somehow over the course of five worlds, he'd yet to encounter anyone going by such a term. Something to research later, it seemed.

Right now, there was a wound to contend with. And it was a bit nastier than a simple set of four punctures. He checked over the whole thing and then chased after any potential for infection, and drained what little inflammation he found.

Punctures themselves, particularly by teeth that still fit inside a human mouth well enough to not interfere with every day life, didn't naturally equate to the same flavor of damage as being lit on fire. There was a supernatural element to the bite; Drake didn't know specifics, but he knew something was weird.

"I don't know if this would have properly healed on its own," he said as he worked, numbing the area before he started undoing what little natural healing had occurred. It was creating pockets as some of it wanted to heal far slower than the rest. "It's responding to the Gift, but... more stubbornly than I expected."

There was fresh blood, good. Drake left Cassian for a moment, going to one of the many counters that lined the sides of the room and opening a drawer. He came back immediately with a fresh, thick pad of gauze to help contain the mess.

"If ye need more information, I can always dig a book up for ye. It might not be exact to what he is but it'll be close enough, I hope." Pooka of his home after all seemed to be a touch dissimilar to Tannusen.

He'd kept it clean and free of any sort of dirt and debris, true enough. He didn't quite nail the magical aspect of it at all however. He didn't have any specifics either to be quite honest. He just had what paltry information he knew about Tannusen's version of pooka. He'd hoped it be just like any other tiger bite.

"Is it now? ... That's interestin'..." There was a pause. "If any of it be more enchanted than the rest, remove it for me, would you? Put it in a jar or a tin." He'd have to poke at it later. Hey, learn new things every day.

There was a wince as the blood started to flow from it again, more out of annoyance than actual pain. He'd been so sure he'd had that under control too.

"You want me to remove healthy tissue... why?" Amberdrake paused what he was doing, holding the gauze in place but withdrawing the Gift so that he could glance at Cassian's expression with focused eyes. Because seriously, what?

"... What?" He didn't seem to grasp what was wrong here.

"Magic I've never seen before, I'd like to know somethin' about it. I've got scars enough on me as it is, what does it matter if I've got one more?"

Amberdrake couldn't fault the guy for curiosity, even if this didn't sit well with most of his training. "I'll take a little of the more stubborn bit for you," he offered, "will that be enough? About the size of a marble."

"Aye. That will work." The sample didn't have to be big. Just... big enough. Marble sized was actually bigger than what he was expecting.

"Thank ye." Like you know, he'd just got offered a ride to the store instead of a bloody hunk of his own enchanted flesh.

Good.

"Alright, come over to the counter so I can use it," Drake lead the way, opening another drawer with the hand not covered in blood and plucking a few surgical tools from the neat tray inside. And a small container for the sample.

"The most stubborn bit in at the deep ends of the wounds. At least your fairy had the courtesy not to hit you where it would have caused nerve damage." Or worse things.

Over he went, not at all squeemish or worried about any part of this. Why would he be? SCIENCE.

"I don't think the intention was to cause any sort of fatal damage, at the very least." Once again, that was all that was said on that front.

"Ye have any idea why it's not healin' right? What kind of magic is in it?"

"I'm not a mage, so I don't know the specifics... like what kind it is. I just know it's being more a lot more stubborn than a regular puncture. Or four." Amberdrake set to work, one of the mage-lights overhead drifting closer and brightening further to help with the impromptu surgery. The lighting in the office was all provided by these things; little floating puff-balls of colorful energy that gave off neutral light.

"Odd..." Then he'd really be needing that sample. Of course, numbed as he was from the magic, there wasn't much flinching to be had as Amberdrake worked, Cassian politely and quietly sitting as the stubborn chunk was carefully removed.

"... The lighting is nice."

LOOK. SMALL TALK. HE'S TRYING.

Drake finished extracting the chunk of flesh he'd cut loose, and dropped it into the container he'd picked out. It was indeed about as big as a marble, all sliced free in one shot. He didn't use his surgical skills with mundane tools a lot these days, but they weren't exactly rusting. The kind of Healing he used was as detailed and precise, after all. And muscle memory didn't truly fade.

"Mage-lights," he glanced up at the nearest ball of energy, "my brother made them for me when we were briefly on the same other world. Many of the sentient races on my world are feathered, or furred, making open flame dangerous."

And it was true, only the humans and hertasi were very well equipped to safely be around candles and lanterns. "I'm not from a very 'modern' world, originally. No cars, no skyscrapers, no drywall or light-bulbs. And magic is notoriously unreliable with the Storms. These little lights tend to stay stable once they're made, though."

"How'd he go about creating them? What are they made of?" May as well get a bunch of learning in while he could, because heaven only knew Cassian didn't really drag himself to the doctor/therapist a lot.

"They're quite lovely." Whether or not he'd get an answer as to what they were made of.

He'd snag the container and give the sample inside a look. No touching. Not yet. He'd have to bring it back to the rectory and try some things out on it first. See what reacted to what.

Dead flesh now.

"I don't know how," Drake laughed a little, back to working on the bite with the Gift. One hand held the gauze in place to soak up blood, and the fingers of the other were positioned around the wounds beneath it. "As far as I understand it, mage-craft is just concentration and funneling power, on my world. With the Mage Gift to let you even do that to begin with, of course. Although I'm sure I'm grossly over-simplifying it in much the same way a mage might oversimplify healing."

"Magic like this at home only exists for fairies and demons... Hard to imagine humans wield it where you're from." He's honestly not disbelieving. It's just... another curiosity. He's pretty fascinated by all of this.

"'Course, demon magic is a great deal less lovely, most of the time."

"I don't think we have demons on my world... and I'd never heard of a fairy before today. Not on any of the other worlds I've been on."

The bleeding finally slows and then halts again as Drake forces tissue to knit, and Drake is able to wipe up the last of the blood with the gauze before setting it aside to dispose of later. "While there are plenty of human mages on Velgarth, my brother in particular is a gryphon. Not a blood relation, obviously."

Edited 2017-01-18 08:16 (UTC)

"Well, at least ye know what a demon is, saves me havin' to explain it." He hopes. As for fairies. "If ye want I can give ye a short sort of definition for them." Otherwise he wouldn't talk his ear off.

"... Interestin' person to be a brother to." Blood relation or not. "Friendly fellow I hope?"

"I wouldn't mind a definition," Amberdrake chuckles, "all I know now is they can change shape and that their bites are awful."

Which is a start, anyway. At least, for a certain kind of fairy.

"As for friendly..." Drake makes a sort of middling gesture with his free hand. Because really. Skandranon Rashkae is a lot of things, but he's not sure he'd call 'friendly' one of them! Grumpy, sour, vain... "He's been a good friend to me for decades. One of the only good things to come from the War was how it pushed people at each other who would have never otherwise interacted. A very thin silver lining on a very dark cloud."

"Where I'm from, the most accepted origin story of the fae are that they're angels that fell that weren't foul enough for hell, and not pure enough for heaven. They were caught between worlds as a more neutral, albeit chaotic force. There's dozens of different kinds, as there are dozens of different kinds of demons and angels. 'Course, it's all hearsay, the only one who really knows the story is Azrael and he's been a bit mum on the facts." Hell only knew why.

"Well, at least he's good to ye, that's really the only thing that matters with family anyway. Don't have to be pleasant to anyone else, really."

"Angels and heaven are concepts I've also only heard of on these other worlds," Drake muses as he works, "maybe that's why we don't seem to have fairies on Velgarth. Nowhere for them to come from..."

Just as well, though. Things are more than chaotic on his world as it is.

"That's how most of my friends are, it seems," the Healer is amused anew, "Sanzo is the same way. Nice guy when no one's looking, but such an ass as soon as there's an audience." Nope, he doesn't have a single problem saying as much about the monk. It's not exactly a secret!

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