genessia | [ Action | OPEN ] if you jump I’ll break your fall

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[ Action | OPEN ] if you jump I’ll break your fall

Where: Attleton or Genessia City. At any park or on the way to/from any park.
What: Drake's out walking his pokemons and letting his little flock of messenger birds have fun. Info on them on his profile! (And just for this scene, his Mudsdale isn't one yet and is still a Mudbray! Right on the verge of evolving. Wanna do some cute donkey stuff on camera before BIG HUGE HORSE happens.)
Note: Amberdrake is an Empath. Unless I'm told otherwise, I'm going to assume he can feel your characters' emotions just like he feels everyone and everything else's. (And even without the supernatural ability, he's trained in reading body language and such, as well.)

- - - - -

It's a pretty pleasant day. Amberdrake's found himself with one of those rare days off when no one's scheduled to come to his office, whether placeholder or 'real' person. May as well go outside and walk his assorted critters around, right? Or fly, in most cases...

Or... drape. Jati the dratini is content, it seems, to just drape himself around Drake's shoulders like a boa constrictor, if with a great deal less danger involved in having him around the kestra'chern's neck. Somehow, the big blue and white snake creature doesn't look too ridiculous while perched amid all of the Healer's usual, colorful finery. The equally colorful feathers and single bell hanging off his head fins doesn't hurt, and the dratini bobs his head once in a while to make the tiny bell jingle.

Drabengro, the ocean-patterned vivillon, flutters high overhead, a huge butterfly among the little flock of tiny, colorful messenger birds.

And finally, there's Jel'enedra, the mudbray, galloping ahead of Drake and then veering around to gallop back again as they walk along the sidewalk, or clambering in and out of any mud she can find in the parks. Such a mess! Cute, though. Tiny, messy donkey.

The kestra'chern's brought some notebooks with him, of course, and can be found settled on a bench somewhere when he's not in route to or from a location. What's he doing with the notebooks? Well, anatomical diagrams of his present company, of course. With far too much precision, like he's actually seen the insides of his pokemon, their bone structures and nervous systems. The curious way his vivillon produces that sleeping pollen that he's taken to using in a few of his medicines for some clients...

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Bracken was far less educated on Pokemon, though he'd been asking people about them. He had an eevee, which he considered a puppy and liked to carry around, a morelull, which he thought was a mushroom with eyes, and a wurmple, which was a really big caterpillar.

The last one was the reason he decided to stop. Seeing a large butterfly in the air, he glanced back at the caterpillar he was carting about in a wagon, right next to the mushroom. He'd put it outside on a branch and given it leaves, but it hadn't turned into a butterfly yet.

A little timidly, he walked over to the man, wagon wheel squeaking ever to slightly as he tugged it behind him. All three pokemon were unleveled, just babies.

"E-Excuse me...?" his voice was a bit high from nervousness. "H-How... How long does it take f-for them to turn into a butterfly?"

Amberdrake looked up from the donkey spine he was currently detailing -- and some very interesting growth plates that he'd noticed, too -- to look at the approaching stranger.

There was a quiet calm around the kestra'chern. Literally, a calm, projected out Empathically at all times. Nothing overpowering, or overt, but it was there. Easy to mistake for just finding a scent or a color more pleasant than otherwise.

"Ah?" he glanced up at the huge butterfly that was swooping around with the tiny flock of even more colorful birds. "It didn't take Drabengro too long, I think it has to do with how much you let them fight."

Pacifist that he was, Drake hadn't exactly gone out of his way to have his critters engage in combat with each other, but... well. He lived with Koumyou and Sanzo. And they both had pokemon, too. Fighting had happened. And, Empath that he was, Drake had known none of the pokemon minded (they quite enjoyed it, even!), so he'd let it continue on.

"He didn't look like any of yours, though." So it might be different.

"E-Everyone talks about them fighting..."

He was a little anxious about it. It wasn't that he was a pacifist. He hunted for his job anyway, so he didn't really care about that. It was more worry about them getting hurt. He'd never taken care of pets before. Not directly, anyway.

The other problem was that, while he had a concept of leveling up, he couldn't see such things here. People didn't have health bars or experience points floating around.

"Wh-What will happen if they don't fight?"

"I think they just get bored and restless," Amberdrake shrugged slightly, "that's what I've observed with mine, anyway."

Thinking about it for a moment, he gently picked them up and placed them near the donkey, stepping back to watch them curiously. The eevee was the first to interact, batting at a hind leg.

He didn't really know any battle commands or anything of the sort, staying quiet and hesitantly watching, still worried one could get hurt.

Drake could feel that worry, of course. Literally, feel it, like a temperature radiating off the other man.

"They'll sort it out," he offered, and moved his notebooks off the other side of the bench in case the stranger wanted to sit. "If anyone gets hurt, I'm right here."

Implying, of course, he was some sort of medic... or healer.

He was both.

'Worry' was practically his natural state of being. Though he was also trusting. He listened to Drake, and believed that he would know what he was talking about, so that soothed some of his fears.

Glancing back, he took an extra moment to decide if it was okay to sit down before doing so, sitting rigid before finally relaxing. Though they were little pokemon, they seemed interested in tussling with something much bigger than them. He didn't know what to think, but it was feeling familiar.

"Y-You're a healer?" he asked. It was the most common word association for him.

"I am, yes," Amberdrake ramped up the calming aura he projected, just a little. This man seemed to need it; an anxious fellow. He let the pokemon do what they wanted with very little oversight on his part; if he got a spike of distress from any of them, he'd know quicker with his Empathy that something was wrong than he would with his eyes. "Among other things. I was trained first as a surgeon and doctor, and then with the magical Gift."

'Anxious' might have been his natural state of being, but Bracken wasn't resistant to influence. He tended to be manipulated quite easily, magically or otherwise. He calmed, watching the small critters trying to pick a 'fight' with something much larger than them.

He nodded at Amberdrake. He understood what doctors and surgeons were just fine, and definitely understood the magical part. But then, as his mind pondered over the subject, some confusion set in.

"I... I don't think I've ever seen a doctor or a s-surgeon."

Like with many things, he had no idea why he would know what they were when he had no recollection of them. There were only healers on his world. Magic users. Hospitals weren't a thing, yet he could imagine one easily. "I-Isn't using magic easier? Or do you do i-it the other way because using magic hurts?"

"Magic is no easier nor harder, it is just another tool in my arsenal," Amberdrake folded his hands together on his lap, keeping the projection steady but raising it no higher. It was one thing to calm someone, another entirely to subsume their own feelings entirely. A balance he was quite accustomed to.

"It takes a great deal of anatomical knowledge to use the Healing Gift I have effectively. It's not a... spell, simply cast on a target and then walked away from. It's more like being able to reach in past the skin and other tissue to manipulate the damage. If one doesn't know how to set a bone normally, one cannot do it with my Gift. If one doesn't know how a particular piece of musculature ought to be put together, one cannot effectively repair it with my Gift. Depending on the level of damage, of course."

And he could make educated guesses, when he didn't know a particular creature's anatomy, based off the dozens and dozens of anatomies he had studied, both on his world and on the other four he'd been on. Plus, looking at whatever was intact could give him clues... but it took a certain knowledge level, even then, to interpret that data.

"R-Really?" He tilted his head, thinking about it and looking at his hand. He didn't have that sort of knowledge, but his spells worked. He tried to imagine what it would be like to have to be that studied. Why would it be necessary? Was it like him controlling the ground or a tornado, having to think about where he was shaping it?

At that point he wondered why one should bother to have a spell, when it seemed like they had to do so much effort anyway.

"H-Have you thought about studying more magic? Like... Like elemental healing spells, o-or other types, that are easy?"

Guess who else likes walking their pokemon? This guy. He's humming a tune while his personal zoo walks beside. There's Simipour the sea monkey, whose calm and natural smile belied a demeanor as serious as gravestone. Every so often he fires a thin sliver of water from his head tufts at something innocuous, just to keep his skills sharp. Ted thought he was kindly tending nature's thirst. There's Kangaskhan, the mother-and-daughter duo who's as bellicose as her namesake--worrying parent--, and then there's Gengar, the old favorite. He wasn't exactly walking, per se, but he was there, submerged in Ted's shadow. Amberdrake the man might feel the slight chill that came with Gengar's presence. Amberdrake the Empath might feel his radiating aura of mischief, much to the chagrin of his trainer.

Much as Ted loved his own menagerie, he was immediately taken with Amberdrake's once he opened his eyes and received them.

"Haha, aren't you blessed! And ingenious, too. I hadn't thought to wear them in my travels. Oh, my, what a beautiful butterfly! It's not everyday you see an insect so agreeable to the birds. Ahaha, and an ass! All you need is a doddering knight to be properly quixotic. What lovely creatures; you tempt me to envy."

[When it comes to the animals, Ted's easy to please, his heart filled with praise at the mere sight of them.]

"What's your name, sir? May I pet your pets? Let's have them mingle, eh?"

Edited 2017-05-09 03:30 (UTC)

Drake's gaze flicked from Ted down to his shadow, for a moment, then back to the human.

"Jati insisted," he says of the one draped over his shoulders, raising a hand to stroke the ever-shedding snake-dragon-creature's head. How a pokemon had insisted on much of anything was anyone's guess; he couldn't understand their speech, of course, but there were other ways.

Emotion was a universal language. Jati was a clingy one, a little insecure. A baby, relative to the rest, Drake allowed for the clinging.

"You can pet them if they let you, I doubt Drabengro is coming down anytime soon." That had to be the butterfly, then. The tiny donkey, however, seemed interested enough in Ted and his group, approaching and sniffing, long ears flicked forward.

"I am Amberdrake."

Mentioned, here and there, by others. But not on the network himself, no. He's been here nearly a year and has been but a quiet, soothing, background presence to the world. Busy, as ever. Broken hearts and minds took as much skill and patience to mend as any severed spine he had ever pieced back together.

Having enjoyed the company of such intelligent beasts so long, Ted was well aware of what they could intend. Their skills at pantomime were first-rate, at least.

"Don't mind if I do!" He'd try to win the affections of all three, first seeing if Jati would mind a second hand. Drabengro was a harder mark, so he rummaged in his bag and produced a white rose, eager to see what response, if any, the butterfly would give. He liked the donkey best of all, seeing in him the belabored beast of burden, as if Sancho himself might mount him. Kangaskhan and Simipour was amicable enough, though the former and her ever-present baby made motions if they wouldn't be interested in fighting.

"I'm Ted. Speaking of names, you've given yours some interesting ones. I'm sure they aren't what comes naturally; what do they mean?"

Interest in names aside, Amberdrake's did spark his memory now that he had something to put to the face.

"Ah! You were the one asking for a discreet magician. And the one that Amalu was...living with..."

Though "living" was a stretch; his name was on the slab like the rest. Another friend lost or dead, and Ted was forced to remember that solemn fact. He'll change the subject soon.

"Jati means... rebirth, of a sorts. He is always shedding his skin, you see, so it felt right."

The snake allowed some petting before pulling back again, tiny bell jingling from his head-fins.

"Drabengro means a healer, a medicine-man. His pollen has come in useful for some medicines I make use of for some of my more anxious clients. A sleeping-aid so safe and natural? That is difficult to come by on any world."

Said giant butterfly didn't seem terribly interested in the rose; he was having fun with the flock of tiny, searingly-colorful birds who bantered in half-words and partial phrases in a dozen different languages as they flew to and fro.

"And this lady is Jel'enedra; little sister." That being the muddy donkey, of course, who tried to take a nip of that rose the huge butterfly had ignored.

"Amalu didn't live with me, I rented them an apartment when it was cold outside, and I later allowed them to stay at my office when it was empty. It serves no other purpose when no one else is there, after all, it may as well provide shelter for a friend in need."

Ted nodded along and made sounds of satisfied curiosity as each name was revealed. The talking birds were very familiar, and he asked after their species name too. He's also produced his PokeBit and went to scan Amberdrake's brood.

"Ah, Drabengro is...haha, good Lord. Well, suppose he can't help it." Poor vivillon; the number of the Beast. "Glad he's not a vi*villain*, anyway. And so...adult! Can hardly wait to see the others fully grown." He laughed as Dapple the Donkey went to eat his rose, which he freely offered. "Mind the thorns, now. What a fine ass! One day you'll be big enough to ride and perform all kinds of chivalrous deeds, no doubt." Very clear which favorite he'd picked.

"Medicine-man...just like my Vileplume. Poor thing; I considered changing that name, but one doesn't idly challenge nature. She has spores to spare. And you say you make medicine from them? A physician, then?"

"I am, yes." The decades of training he'd gone through without the use of his Gifts gave him the equivalent to several PHDs. If he wanted to blind his abilities to the point of sensory deprivation and go work at the hospital, he could fill several of the roles there.

...And it would be like a gryphon pulling a cart.

"What sort of thing does your Vileplume produce? I'm going to guess it isn't a sleeping agent." With a name like that.

"Heh, all a pokemon can produce, both in quantity and variance. Sleeping, stunning, toxins. With a shake of her burdened head she can turn the air yellow. Poor dear. Her name is very sinister, but she's a good sort. With a head so heavy she doesn't much enjoy walking, and I can hardly take her out anyway lest she inadvertently send an unlucky asthmatic to an early grave. Like yourself I've managed to use a few of them for nonlethal cleanup. Thankfully it's not all bad; she knows one move: Aromatherapy. It's curative properties are nothing short of miraculous.

Say, do you ever, ah, take on pupils? Or understudies?"

"I haven't on any of these other worlds," Meaning, of course, he'd been on more than one. Amberdrake tilted his head a little to one side, regarding Ted. "I'm sure there's someone on this world who can teach medical chemistry, if that's an interest of yours."

Perhaps very few of the real people, but surely there are placeholders who know how to mix medicines?

"Aheh, it goes beyond mere interest; certainly beyond pharmacology. Any and all arts for the preservation of life would be welcome, though field triage would be best. First time for everything, eh? So, ah, is that something you might consider? Teaching, that is. One can only get so much from reading. Please?"

[Ted looks eagerly expectant, and a few of his other pokemon join in too to make the same face. He's been disappointed enough times to know that most people don't grant requests like that, especially if they're busy with work that important. But hey, you can't win if you don't play.]

"I don't honestly think I have the time," Amberdrake sighed quietly, "I'd have to drop half my client roster just to get a day off here and there. It's only a fluke that I have a few hours free today, at all."

There's a reason that, despite him being here for a year now, Ted's never encountered the kestra'chern before.

"Field medicine... surely someone else here knows enough to teach it? I cannot be the only war medic."

It's a disturbing thought, if he is.

[There's a few other doctors, though few give quite the same impression that this man did to Ted. Perhaps that's just romanticism beating practical thinking, but some feeling suggested that this one might be a cut above; it wouldn't be the first time Ted lucked into extraordinary teachers. It would, however, be the first time one refused him, however gently. His expression droops.]

"Ah...I understand. Well, I'll let you get back to enjoying those precious hours. It was nice meeting your menagerie. Ahah, and you yourself, of course."

[Ted's own made noises of similar courtesy. He waved]

"Farewell then; may your labors not be too laborious, eh?"

Edited 2017-06-08 23:39 (UTC)

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[ Action | OPEN ] if you jump I’ll break your fall

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This sat far longer than I meant for it to! Sorry!

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