Not cool!

[wolfstrike]

Characters: Yuri Lowell and Milyn
Date: 14th of March
Location: Milyn's Clinic
Situation: Yuri confronts Milyn about her ties with the cultists.
Warnings/Rating: N/A

The day after Valdis made her announcement about Milyn, Yuri made his way over to her clinic. Undoubtably, only one of the unhappy Foreigners who would likely be visiting her after Valdis' findings. Lambert was with him as usual, the dog faithfully following at Yuri's heels and perhaps also coming along to make sure Yuri didn't lose his cool or something. Yuri's discontent was obvious to the canine. He came in to the clinic with a rather serious look on his face, not the typical easy going smile he usually had.

"Milyn? We need to talk," was the first thing that came out of his mouth.

Comments

[cherrywood]

"Hello Yuri!" Milyn greeted him brightly, as though nothing were amiss; in her mind, there wasn't. "Oh, I made treats for Lambert too, I was going to bring them by your guild later this week. They're a really concentrated protein snack, I think he'll like them."

[wolfstrike]

Yuri blinked a little in surprise at Milyn's cheery attitude. But well, he supposed he should expect nothing less than Milyn's usual self. Still, her bubbly personality was always a little disarming.

"Uh... thanks. I'm sure he'll like them."

Lambert stoically sat but did look a little interested, his ears turned forward.

"Hey, I want to ask you something. ... Is it true you were involved with the cultists and created that Dust stuff?"

[cherrywood]

Milyn opened one of the drawers in the large counter she worked behind and pulled out a bag of dried, jerky-like treats and offered one to Lambert. "Whose a good boy?" she asked affectionately, before answering Yuri.

"Word travels fast! I expect no less of Valdis, although she seemed so upset that I wish she'd have thought this through. Yes, I worked with Daseng, their leader, and studied under him for a time. Dust was initially a project we started, hoping to trigger more reaction in kedan, to counteract the magic of Eshai's spell. Science and magic, not always a healthy mix! But one does what they must, hm?"

[wolfstrike]

Darnit Milyn. He sees you bribing his dog. Lambert's tail wagging as Milyn offered him one of the treats, which he accepted. The sounds of dog chewing filling the room.

Yuri had to pause though as he digested what Milyn said next. A small frown on his face.

"I wasn't there when all that Malicant stuff was going on," Yuri confessed. "I get wanting to help your people. But you do know that its hurt people too, right?"

[cherrywood]

Milyn gives Lambert a pat and straightens, focusing on Yuri. "I am glad you missed all of that," she said genuinely. "Truly, I wish none of the Foreigners had to deal with it, even though that Enemy would never have been beaten without your help."

"As for the Dust, I never intended it to hurt anyone. I never could figure out why it only targeted certain kinds of receptors, you know! It was all so sound in theory. Those just happened to be ones attached to negative emotions, which were then preyed upon by Malicant."

[wolfstrike]

Lambert accepted the pat on the head, but continued to watch both her and his master closely. Yuri didn't really understand all of the terminology that Milyn was using, but the facts still remained.

"Whether you meant it or not, Dust has hurt people, and because of that you're responsible for it. We all make mistakes, but if you don't own up to them and try to make things right, then you're just as guilty as those who abuse your creation."

[cherrywood]

The Healer's smile dimmed a little at Yuri's accusation. "I have taken responsibility for it," she replied.

"That's why I started working on a new formula, one that would better serve the results I wanted, which ended up being Lucid. You have to understand, when I was working on these things, the kedan people were still... muted. You never saw how we were back then, it was... simply unacceptable."

[wolfstrike]

"Dammit Milyn, what's done is done. You can't take back what happened, no matter how much you try to excuse it. Slapping a bandage on it isn't going to solve anything."

Yuri sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"Back in my world, humans created something called blastia." And he raised his arm to show her the bracelet on his arm. "It helped people. We used them in our every day lives. But at the cost of hurting our planet and others that lived in it, and it caused the creation of a creature that was going to devour the world. They tried to stop it, by creating another blastia to hide it.

That worked for awhile, until someone released it. So we were left to clean up the mess of our ancestors. Everyone, our whole world, could have been destroyed."

While his story was on a much larger scale, it wasn't all that different from Milyn's predicament.

"You have to set this right. And not by making something else to cover it up. You have to get rid of it."

[cherrywood]

"No, I can't take it back, and yet people seem so eager to consider it the only important thing that I've done. What would you have me do, Yuri? Turn back time, defeat Malicant before any of the Foreigners had to get involved? Make it so Eshai had never ruined my people, erasing the need for me to care about our state at all?"

[wolfstrike]

"That's not what I'm saying, and you know it."

Had she not heard a single bit of any of that other stuff he said? Apparently he'd hit a sore spot in a bad way. But at least she's being real with him now.

"You've really been there for us when we need you Milyn, and for your people. But if you really want to help everyone, then help us find a way to get rid of the Dust and Lucid. And help us find the cultists. So we can put an end to all of this, for good."

[cherrywood]

The Healer looks at Yuri with a bit of fond exasperation. "I can't unmake knowledge, dear. I'm not pedaling Dust out of the back of my store here, you know. Daseng's people are more than capable of producing both it and Lucid without my intervention. As for where they're located, Daseng's not foolish enough to stay in one location indefinitely. I could tell you where some of his previous spots I met him were, but I don't see how that will help."

[wolfstrike]

"That's why we've got to find these guys," Yuri points out.

He pauses to think for a moment.

"When's the last time you met with him? Can you arrange something?"

If he moved around that much, that meant they'd have to make him come to them.

[cherrywood]

"Almost a year ago," Milyn answered. "We had... something of a falling out, and he's been rather angry at me ever since. Even sent some of his people to try and track me down... I daresay trying to arrange something might not end well. I could give you a few places he used to pick up my messages for, though I couldn't say whether he'd answer or not."

[wolfstrike]

"Sooo... make up with him. Offer him something he wants."

Obviously he wasn't being serious, but if they had the right bait, surely they could pull this guy out of hiding.

[cherrywood]

"Yuri," the Healer said dryly. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think you wanted me to offer myself as bait to Daseng."

[wolfstrike]

And a little smirk worked it's way up on Yuri's face.

"One's gotta do what they must, right?"

[cherrywood]

"How unkind!" Milyn replied primly. "Maybe I should be having you do something about Daseng instead, since Brave Vesperia owes me a job."

[wolfstrike]

"Trust me, I'll do something alright."

There was a darker edge to his tone. He hadn't forgotten what they did to his soul gem, he was reminded of it every day, and to those poor Kedan who were sent to other worlds.

"But I've got to find him first."

[cherrywood]

"Are you sure that's wise?" Milyn asked. "You're acting rather rashly, it seems. Not the best state of mind to be in! I could give you something to calm you down, if you'd like, it even tastes quite pleasant."

[wolfstrike]

Oh here we go. Another person who thought he was being reckless.

"Don't you remember what they did to our soul gems? And there's those Kedan stuck in some of our worlds. These guys have to be stopped, and I'm not going to keep waiting for something to happen. I'll do this with or without your help, but with might be easier."

[cherrywood]

"I'm familiar with it, yes. What more help is it that you want me to give? I don't know where Daseng is at the moment, and I've already offered to give you the location of my message drops, and to inform you of previous places I met him and know he's worked, but that doesn't appear to be good enough for you. Therefore it seems my help isn't necessary."

[wolfstrike]

Yuri sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"I guess I'll take what I can get, but you said yourself it probably won't do any good."

But he wasn't going to bully her over this. Though her lack of willingness to help did shake his rebudding confidence in her. There was probably still more to this, but it didn't look like he was going to be the one to find out what. She could be purposely leading him to a dead end.

[cherrywood]

So ungrateful, Yuri! It's not Milyn's fault that she doesn't know where Daseng is a year after the fact.

"You're being rather rude to me," she said quietly.

[wolfstrike]

"Heh, sorry. I guess I'm not feeling very nice after finding out that someone I knew had a hand in creating the stuff that caused me to lose my soul gem. Kinda hard not to be angry about that when I have to take something every day just to function."

As much as he didn't like having to expose his own personal weakness, it was the truth, and one of the main driving forces behind his frustration.

[cherrywood]

"Do you want me to look at your soul gem and see if I can reverse the effect?" Milyn questioned.

[wolfstrike]

There was a pause as the possibility Milyn could do anything about it never occurred to him. He then wordlessly reached up to unclasp the jewelry from his neck and held it out to her.

[cherrywood]

Milyn accepts the soul gem and beckons Yuri to follow her down the hallway at the back of the shop, which splits into her exam room on the left and her workshop on the right. Along one wall is an alchemy station, which she sits down at and pulls a surprisingly modern looking microscope toward her, settling Yuri's gem on the slide.

"Let's see now..."

[wolfstrike]

Yuri followed Milyn quietly and Lambert followed behind him. The dog tilting his nose in the air to sniff around as the went. Yuri glanced at his companion briefly, trusting the dog would pick up anything unusual if it was there. When the healer set his gem under the microscope, Yuri watched and waited.

"Kind of reminds me of Rita's lab," he said half to himself.

[cherrywood]

"Is Rita a friend of yours?" Milyn asked pleasantly, not raising her eyes from the microscope. After another moment, she beckons Yuri closer and gestures that he should look through the scope.

"Ah, there it is. See, a tiny little mark... and injection puncture, specifically. See how neat and tidy it is? That's why you didn't notice it before."

[wolfstrike]

"Yeah, she is."

It's an almost wistful sound. Yuri wouldn't say it out loud but he misses his friends terribly. Having them around might even be worth being on the receiving end of Rita's fireballs.

He then leans over to look in the microscope, blinking in surprise before leaning back.

"So they put something in it?"

[cherrywood]

Milyn notes the tone, smiling to herself. "That's right," she agreed. "There are certain compounds which interact with types of energy! What were your symptoms again?"

[wolfstrike]

"Dove called it Vertigo. Made me really dizzy, to the point it was hard to keep things down."

Yuri has definitely lost that edge to his voice.

[cherrywood]

"Oh yes, that would be the rinuniz! Well, good news, it can be neutralized with an extract of distilled cinit root, I'm sure I have some here..."

She gets up from her seat and goes poking through the dozens of cabinets and drawers in the workshop room. "I'll just inject a bit inside, and it should clear you up in a week or two."

[wolfstrike]

"Huh? Really?" Yuri looked dumbfounded as he watched her get up to retrieve the stuff. All this time and it had been a simple fix?

"But how do you know that'll work? What was put in it?"