and the air was full [April, catchall, OPEN]

[ruinsprofessor]

Characters: Raine Sage, OPEN
Date: April, various
Location: Healers' Guild, apartment, sky, other
Situation: a variety! This is definitely your stop for Raine at the Healers' Guild, for sure. Others tba.
Warnings/Rating: None currently; will update as that changes.


A | Healers' Guild | open

Raine, most days of the week, can be found at the Healers' Guild, though rarely at the front desk. Any of the multiple kedan who volunteer or heal here will be happy to point visitors toward Raine's office, however, especially if they have an appointment; even those not strictly looking for Raine will be pointed her way if they express they want to help around the Guild.

Raine can also occasionally be found in the halls, or simply passing through the main entryway, though she will appear somewhat distracted and may take a moment to focus on someone talking to her.

B | errands, out and about -- any sector OR outside Milyn's clinic | open

Basket in one hand, staff in the other, Raine isn't an uncommon sight in markets, or especially in the streets of the Water Sector. She walks quickly, like she's on a mission, but she can't help but turn her steps in Water toward Milyn's clinic.

She doesn't go in, but she stands across the street for a long time, a distantly troubled expression on her face.

C-1 | Hatal, Lorn Level | open

Raine's been spending some more time in Hatal, lately, but this-- this startles her. A group of Kin'nal are experimenting with something she recognizes-- a strange vehicle that looks somewhere between a motorcycle and a butterfly or dragon, and a small pack. "Excuse me," Raine says, hardly able to believe she's saying it. "I-- believe those are mine."

Anyone in the vicinity will shortly thereafter be witness to a peculiar sight, as Raine takes the pack and runs her hands over it. Yes, there are her initials, graven besides the silhouette of a wing. She manipulates it just so, and the entire vehicle vanishes into it, in a curious sliding of matter. Raine lets out a sigh of relief. "Thank you," she tells the Kin'nal, who are more or less happy to let her take it, though she does insist on giving them some recompense.

She doesn't know what her rheaird is doing here, but it's a stroke of luck.

C-2 | skies over Keeliai | open to those with flight capabilities

Raine wastes no time in making sure it works as it should, and anyone in the sky or even looking up at the right time may catch sight of her. It works like a charm, and she handles it with the ease of practice as she skims over the city, mindful of the safe distance. She likes flying, a great deal more than she likes anything to do with swimming, and the rheaird is a small-impact piece of magitechnology, one that doesn't put an undue drain on her environment.

She indulges herself with a loop, when she thinks no one could possibly see.

D | apartment, Earth sector | Solomon

It's one of those days when Raine comes home after Solomon; she announces her return with a quiet "I'm home" from the door, and sets about putting her things away. Her jacket gets hung by the door, since things are warming and she really doesn't need it indoors, her staff leans next to it, and she idly orients on Solomon's mana -- his study, unsurprising -- and heads that way, turning the day over in her head as she does.

"Some days, I wonder about the wisdom of working in the Water sector," she says wryly, half to herself though it's aloud, and she leans in the doorway. Open, so he isn't involved in something he'd mind being interrupted. "How did your day go?"

[ooc: feel free to tag in to any one of these, or, if none suit, shoot me a pm or a pp at makaricrow and we can work something out! I'd love new CR as well as old.]

Comments

[ruinsprofessor]

"Even when I was first brought here, there were more than a few others." Raine hadn't thought of her early months here in some time, and the recollection was now tempered with some small amount of wistfulness. She wouldn't bring Malicant back, but there are some of the people she wishes she had the help of again. "Unfortunately, our numbers have somewhat fluctuated. While that's fortunate for those who wanted to go home, it did leave us a little short-handed for some time. Still: here, and now, there are enough of us that we can afford to call you only for emergencies, yes."

They've a ways to go, but things were better than they had been, Raine reminded herself.

"That's good." Overall, barring his difficulty with empathy, Raine couldn't have asked for a better recruit. "Is there anything you can think of we haven't covered that might be important?"

With those things more or less handled, Raine took a moment and indulged her curiosity, tilting her head to indicate his hands. "That flower. A lotus? I take it there's some significance."

[amberdrake]

"Nothing else I can think of, right now," Amberdrake said, and then glanced down at his hands at her mention of the lotus. "...Ah."

Ah, indeed.

He opened both hands, palm up, showing the tattoo again and also more of the ring. "Gifts from a friend I lost," he said, "the ring was first. The tattoo came years later, so that I would always have something of him that could not be easily taken away." Not without cutting off his hand, or skinning it. Not that Hadanalith, for example, wouldn't have gone for both options.

"He drew it himself," Amberdrake tilted his hand to show off the tattoo better; it was brush-work, elegant like calligraphy. Whoever had taken the needle to his skin had traced the brush strokes. Even the shading was in black lines; the gold filled it in. "It had barely healed up when I lost him."

That was one way to put it, to be certain.

And to another Healer, of course, it was obvious that the tattoo was barely healed up now! A very recent loss, then.

Not to mention that to let someone tattoo his hand... as a Healer, as a kestra'chern... it had so, so much meaning. His hands were incredibly important to him and to his work!

[ruinsprofessor]

Ah.

Raine straightened from the desk only to bend over his hand, peering carefully at the tattoo now that implicit permission was given for study. She reached out, but didn't quite touch. "It's beautiful," she said finally.

The relative newness, upon this closer examination, did not go unnoticed, and the realization that she had inadvertently touched on a possibly raw subject came close after. "I'm sorry," Raine added. "For your loss."

That would be enough of that, unless Amberdrake chose to speak on it more himself, and she leaned back to her initial position. "Do you have other questions?" she asked. "And what will be the best way to contact you in an emergency-- I would assume the radios?"

[amberdrake]

"Thank you," Drake would be a poor kestra'chern if he couldn't hold it together in such a situation. So he smiled, and set his hand back down again. For all intents and purposes, he seemed quite relaxed about it all.

The symbolism, and the freshness, of course... well, it said he was full of shit. But at least he was coping.

"Just one question, since you seem well-versed in the Healers in this town. Have you met anyone by the name of Hakkai? Surname Cho."

He was certain the youkai would have registered with the Guild, too, if he was here. And it was an incredibly long shot... but he took it anyway, just in case.

"The radios would have to do, I think. I'm a fresh arrival still, so I have yet to set anything else up. I am staying at the Midnight Hotel with a patient of mine, if that makes contact any easier. I can update the Guild on the location when I move."

[ruinsprofessor]

"Hakkai Cho," Raine repeated. It wasn't a name that was immediately familiar, but she took another moment to consciously examine her memory, just to make sure, before shaking her head. "No, I'm afraid not. A friend of yours, I take it? I can certainly let you know if I do find anyone by that name."

The radios were, fortunately, an easy enough way to get a hold of someone, and Raine was long familiar with the Midnight Hotel. She nodded assent. "Yes, please do. You're staying with a patient? If you find you require any assistance, let me know." It was possible, naturally, that his patient was purely in need of the mental aspect of his skills, but she would be remiss in not at least making the offer.

[amberdrake]

"He may not remember me," Amberdrake cautioned, "but yes, I would definitely like to know if he turns up."

The kestra'chern nodded, and got back up to his feet. "Actually, there is one other thing that would help in general," he mentioned after a second of hesitation. "Do you have a list of the local herbs and their basic properties, somewhere?"

[ruinsprofessor]

"Yes, I'm familiar with that difficulty." Raine looked very briefly downcast; but that wasn't worth dwelling on, so she didn't.

She straightened when he stood, and at his question brightened. "Yes, that I can help you with. Here." From the bookshelf on the far wall she pulled down a slim, somewhat worn notebook, which she offered to Amberdrake. "There was a great deal to learn, when I first started studying the local healing methods. These are my notes." And then she paused, and grimaced as a potential problem occurred to her. "Written language doesn't translate, however. Can you read that?"

The notebook was filled with her oddly curling handwriting, recognizably the Latin alphabet and the language that most people in the city would refer to as English.

[amberdrake]

Amberdrake opened the book and... stared at the writing. He'd been exposed to just enough English on Haven and Baedal to pick out some of the meaning. Here and there, a word made sense. Here and there, a word almost made sense.

"If I had time with it, I could read it," Amberdrake glanced up, "I don't suppose there are any other copies of your notes? Or I could come by to study it until I can make my own copy."

Or perhaps he could copy it without even being able to read it? The letters all had distinct enough shapes. He considered it, thumbing through a few pages. There were so many languages he was going to need to learn here, even just in their written forms. It wouldn't be the first time, at least.

[ruinsprofessor]

"I have another copy of that particular set of notes," Raine reassured him, with a little smile. They were useful, and that was why she offered. "I'd like them back eventually, but take the time you need to. If you have too much difficulty with the language, many of the Foreigners are familiar with it, so you shouldn't have much trouble finding someone to help. But you do have some grounding with it already?" That was interesting; usually it seemed to be all or nothing, but if he had been traveling then she supposed it made sense.

[amberdrake]

"Then I will return it when I have made a copy," Amberdrake smiled in return, and closed the little book in his hands. "Thank you. And yes, this was a very common language on two of the other worlds I have been on. I never had the time to properly study it, but I have a knack for picking up such things, a little bit at a time, here and there."

It was part of what had made him such a good diplomat to the Haighlei Empire. Drake strove to understand people, and that included the languages they used.

[ruinsprofessor]

"How much world traveling have you done, prior to this?" Raine inquired, her curiosity piqued in the wake of all the matters of initial import being handled. It was hardly a common thing, especially considering that her world had only ever been one world, in truth.

"Thank you-- don't feel you have to rush," she added. "If you have questions, either regarding the language or the contents, I'm often here, or you can get in touch with me via radio or console. I'm happy to help."

[amberdrake]

"This is the third world besides my own that I have woken up on," Amberdrake tucked the little book against his side. "I have gone back to my own a few times, when I was still on the first of these strange worlds. But not since then. I know that most lose their memories when they are sent somewhere else... not so, for me. Not yet, at least."

It was a fate he was well aware of, looming over his head. Drake wouldn't willingly forget a single thing! But would he have a choice? No. Sanzo and his forgetting the kestra'chern was proof enough of that.

[ruinsprofessor]

"I don't suppose," Raine began, and stopped. He'd said it as if he had no control over it; what were the chances he would have any knowledge of how he'd retained those memories?

Slim. But she asked anyway. "Do you have any idea how you've held on to your memories thus far?" she asked. There was a note of hope in it, mostly covered by resignation. "There are a number of us here who would rather not lose our own, and if there's any way of telling..."

[amberdrake]

"No," Amberdrake folded his hands together, and inclined his head, "I know the first time it was an error on the part of the Powers. Why I have retained them since... I do not know."

[ruinsprofessor]

"The Powers?" Raine inquired, as a point of clarification. Context made the concept more or less evident, but lacked nuance.

She held back disappointment, since she had known it was something of a long shot anyway. "If you're amenable," she began, hesitated, and proceeded anyway. "There are certain people here who have the ability to perceive souls, and memory is a significant portion thereof. I understand it may be too personal to permit, but if, at some point, you were willing, it might be useful to see how you differ from others in that respect."

She wouldn't suggest meddling with a soul, of course, but if it was only looking... well, it would likely have to wait, in any case. Raine shook her head. "It's only a thought," she said.

[amberdrake]

"The people who, on Haven, took us from our worlds," Drake clarified.

He listened to Raine's suggestion with a neutral expression on his face, though he inclined his head after, thinking about it. "...Perhaps," he was hardly comfortable with the idea, but if it was potentially useful...

"I guard many secrets that I couldn't permit anyone to uncover," he said, "but if it's merely to see what differs... perhaps."

[ruinsprofessor]

"I suppose I must sound terribly casual about it," Raine said wryly, half-apologetic. "I've spent some time in study of souls myself, though I lack the perceptions some of the others do. The end result is that it's not uncommon for me to deal with matters of the soul in one way or another. And the person I would ask to look I trust without question-- although it should be considered that I am not unbiased, as I love him well enough to marry him. But I understand your reservations, and I won't press you about it. If it happens to come up again later, I'll be curious, but it doesn't need to."

Amberdrake knew where to find her now, at any rate. But they had only just met, and Raine didn't expect him to take her word for any of this, despite her position of relative authority.

[amberdrake]

"I didn't say no," Amberdrake pointed out, "but it's something that will take some consideration. There are others who would be effected, for one reason or another."

[ruinsprofessor]

Raine tilted her head a little, curious without words, but after a moment nodded. "Yes-- of course. Especially if there are others that have the potential to be affected by you. The option isn't going away, at any rate."

And that was everything she needed to bring up with him at the moment, she thought. If there was anything else it could wait. "Thank you," she said then, with a decisive nod.

[amberdrake]

Amberdrake nodded in return, and lifted the book in his hand. "Thanks again for this; I'll take my leave, now. There's much to be done." Not the least was studying said book!

He inclined his head in parting, and then turned to head out.