You're a drug dealer?!

[holbydelboy]

Characters: Fletch (holbydelboy), Jackie Ma (jinzhong), and Milyn (cherrywood)
Date: 15th March, following this thread
Location: Apothecary
Situation: Fletch found out Milyn made dangerous hallucinogens and wants answers. Knock, knock. It's Jackie, and he brings *~*~feelings~*~*
Warnings/Rating: Angry British guys, angry triad guys, and possibly more.


So. Dust and Lucid, two of the biggest drugs on Tu Vishan, and they were made by someone Adrian Fletcher liked. He doesn't like the thought of that... So he's going to get confirmation.

It's early morning when he walks up to the clinic in the water sector, finding it open, as usual. Kind of odd for someone who's just been outed as the primary reason many people got drugged and won over to some cosmic evil's side. But, then again, Milyn wasn't exactly normal. Even by kedan standards.

So, he's going to push his way into the room. "Milyn?" He calls out, finding the front of the shop empty. "It's Fletch."

Comments

[cherrywood]

"Back here!" Milyn's voice rang out from the back of the shop where the store room was. She emerged a moment later with both hands wrapped around what looked like an enormous pineapple, a good three feet in diameter, but covered in a downy grey fur.

"Look what I got," she beams around it at Fletch. "This is a maegh, I found it in Hatal! I haven't had one of these since I was a little girl, and it's got all sorts of beneficial properties. Do you want a slice? I was going to cut some off for myself before putting the rest of it to stores for drying."

[holbydelboy]

"I... No, thanks." Sorry, Milyn, but he's not accepting anything from you until this is cleared up. "We..." He shifts a bit. "We need to talk."

[cherrywood]

Milyn doesn't seem offended by the refusal, carrying the... fruit? plant? the spiky thing to the large counter in the shop. She has a curved, cleaver looking blade that she used to begin stripping off the outer layer with, though she gestures that he can take a seat at the table they used before.

"Certainly, don't mind me, I can work on multiple things at once. Oh! You're back for that warming candy recipe I told you about, aren't you? I'm still working on the cooling version, but I'm certain I'll have it perfected before it gets too warm this year. It's one thing we never think about, being shapeshifters and all, normally we just increase skin area or extremity flow to help cool us down. Then there was that one year Tu Vishan stayed up north the whole year, we had snow at the height of summer, that was troublesome. I wonder what the warm months are like here in Tavimbi, since it seems we might be staying a while more..."

[holbydelboy]

"No, um... It's a bit more serious than that." He's not sitting down, he needs to see Milyn, to see if he can guage her reaction.

"I know that you created Dust and the base for Lucid. Hell, half the turtle knows now. I don't think it's going down well." He shifts a bit more, uncomfortable. "I just... need to ask some questions."

[cherrywood]

"Oh, I assumed Valdis would tell people," Milyn answered, not slowing her work. "The poor dear does seem a bit upset by it, but her emotions always do seem to run high, don't they? Seems like just yesterday I was helping patch her up because she'd gone and stabbed herself, if all things. Hand me that large jar there, Fletch, thank you. What did you want to know?"

[holbydelboy]

Okay, so everyone on the turtle was a bit daft in the head. Good to know.

No sense not to help, since, well... He wasn't accusing her of anything. He picks up the jar, passing it over.

"Valdis said you did it for your people. That the kedan were being stripped of their emotions." He pauses, trying to think of the best way to ask this. "Did you know about... what else it would be used for?"

[cherrywood]

"I knew what Daseng was using it for, yes," Milyn replied. "He didn't start out that way, you know. He was -- is -- a brilliant alchemist. I wanted to learn from the best, it drove me. When the initial formula for Dust was done, it only influenced negative reactions. At first I thought it was simply because those were often the strongest, and so logically would be the first to break through..."

She trailed off for a moment, unsure how to describe it. "You know, I've never really found a good way to phrase what the Emperor did. 'Muted' seems so benign, when you hear it in a sentence. But you're a healer, Fletch, you have context. Imagine living your entire existence so heavily sedated that you're only a shell of yourself. Now picture it on the scale of every person you've ever known or will know."

[holbydelboy]

Yeah, Fletch can definitely see how that would suck. In no uncertain terms. He looks down, nodding.

"So, the idea was to further work on it to push through the rest of the emotions?" He queries further, bringing his gaze back up. "But I assume your mentor wasn't okay with that?"

[cherrywood]

Milyn nods, knowing that Fletch would see the practical application to it. "Daseng wanted to keep the original formula as a baseline, he told me. I'm more aware now that was probably as much Malicant's influence as his own, but I wasn't unaware of it back then. I just thought, the benefits would outweigh that particular risk. That was when I started working on the foundations for what would later become Lucid, with the ability to target multiple types of receptors, rather than only the aggression ones."

[holbydelboy]

"So, you took a risk and thought it would pay off... and it back-fired." And her reaction. She isn't going off on tangents, she's sticking to the facts. This isn't how she normally acts.

"I've got one more question." He states. "This may seem... harsh, or... unwarranted, but..." He looks down. "Do you regret what happened with what you created?"

He wasn't going to ask if she regretted creating it. That much was possible. But if she regretted what it was turned into. That's another story.

[cherrywood]

Milyn laughed a little, finding Fletch's almost-abashed behaviour precious. "Oh Fletch, you're hardly harsh. But I never wanted Dust to work in Malicant's favour, I wanted that creature gone just as much as anyone else."

"But you have to understand, no one knew that defeating Malicant would restore the kedan. It was never even considered as a possibility, because it was Eshai's magic that had done it, a completely separate cause and effect. And the Foreigners... well, you have to understand. We knew you weren't here to help us. When you beat Malicant -- and truly, I have always believed it was going to be a when, not an if -- you would all return home, the duty forced on you by Eshai completed. And we would have stayed like we were, forever."

[holbydelboy]

A nod. This all makes sense. No guarantee of the magic wearing off, no hint of a future. That... Yeah, Fletch understands her viewpoint. Risks... they have a habit of being risky.

"I understand." He says, looking up. "And that's good enough for me." More than good enough. "I'm sorry I asked, but there's been question of your... morality. I... I just wanted to know where you stood by myself." Opinions of others can distort the truth after all.

[cherrywood]

The Healer smiles at him kindly. "I knew I could count on you, you know. You've made hard decisions before, when it's to save people. I don't really think this was all that different."

She does seem unconcerned by his statement about her morality, though. "You don't need to apologize. I'm happy to explain it to anyone who feels the need to know. That's why I couldn't understand why Valdis said I should run away. First of all, I have a practice to run here! What would I tell my patients? And besides, I don't believe I have reason to fear any of you, you've all been good to me until now. I've learned so much, you know."

[jinzhong]

Jackie can't believe it. He'd even tried to sleep on it, but sleep hadn't come easy. His mind had been consumed with thoughts of drugs and betrayal, and early in the morning he'd resolved to go see Milyn himself and get the story from her. Not that he didn't trust Valdis, but he had trusted Milyn, and she'd done well by them during the Dreaming Year.

He pushed the door open, and paused. Seemed someone had beaten him here.

"Um...am I interrupting?" he asked, briefly at a loss, the speech full of righteous anger and hurt that he'd been crafting in his head all night abruptly derailed.

[holbydelboy]

As the door opens, Fletch instantly turns to face it, before stopping, half-turned, forcing himself to calm down. Not everyone coming in is going to be a threat. The Clinic's still open, after all.

"Uh, no. I'm... Pretty much done."

[cherrywood]

"Jackie!" Milyn was delighted. "I haven't seen you in what seems like forever, dear, come in. I've got to say, I've had more visitors in the last two days than I had all winter. Don't rush out, Fletch, I have some more of that tea you tried last time, you liked it, didn't you? Jackie, some for you as well?"

[jinzhong]

Jackie paused, still totally at a loss. Milyn didn't seem bothered at all.

"Uh, sure, I guess?" he ventured, to be polite.

Jackie what did your mama tell you about accepting tea from drug dealers

[holbydelboy]

Fletch nods. "Yeah. Tea'll be good." He glances at Jackie, shifting his stance, trying to make it look more natural.

It doesn't work. He still looks apprehensive as hell.

[cherrywood]

She ushers them both to the little garden table that sits in the corner of the shop for just such occasions as this. Like Fletch has seen before, the colour of the tea resembles muddy water, but the taste is light and like lavender, and quite tasty!

"Now I don't want you two to fret, I'm certain this will blow over before very long at all."

[jinzhong]

Jackie sat down at the table numbly, shaking his head. His movements were a little stiff, showing that he was agitated, too. "I just...Milyn, I don't understand," he said, sounding a little bit lost. "I never thought you of all people would be involved in that stuff, you know?"

[holbydelboy]

Sitting at the table, Fletch leans his elbows on it, propping his chin in his hands. So, Jackie was affected by this, too? Seems a lot of people would be.

"It's not as black and white as we were told, mate." He points out.

[cherrywood]

"But you know I've always wanted to help people," Milyn said, leaning over and patting Jackie on the arm. "And doing so, well, sometimes that doesn't always have the neatest and cleanest route, you know? Things can get tricky!"

whhhhhoops I spilled some feelings everywhere

[jinzhong]

Jackie shook his head in disbelief and looked into his tea. "No, like...my best friend Wei, back home...this guy we knew growing up, Dogeyes, he got Wei's sister addicted to drugs. The hard shit, you know? Heroin. Got her mixed up in all kinds of shit to get her to pay him for it, if you know what I mean. Wei and Mimi had to move to America to try and make a clean break, but...Mimi still couldn't kick it. She died, y'know, a few years later. Overdosed. So it was the drugs that killed her, but it was also really Dogeyes, 'cause he gave them to her in the first place and got her hooked."

Jackie looked up at Milyn. "So what I don't get is, what makes you different? You made Dust...so what makes you different?" He was trying to keep the anger in his voice under control, but there were tears in his eyes, too.

ding dong, who's there? *~*~Exposition~*~*

[holbydelboy]

Fletch keeps quiet during all of this. They got addicts through AAU quite a few times. Heroin, cocaine, methadone... It's never pretty, it's never easy. He sympathises.

He takes a sip of the tea, letting Milyn defend herself.

[cherrywood]

Milyn listens quietly with a sympathetic look; from the times that she'd spoken with Jackie, she had inferred that his life hadn't been rosy, but this helped frame it with more context.

"That's not something anyone can prove, sweetling. I can offer you an explanation, but the only person who decides if I'm different is the person asking the question. Do you think I'm the same as Dogeyes?"