A Golden Fall

[no_light]

Characters: Kylo Ren and OPEN
Date: Through September
Location: All over Tu Vishan
Situation: Catch-all
Warnings/Rating: None yet



A - Tea house or healer's guild

Once released from the healer's guild as a patient, Kylo Ren could be witnessed returning to his regular schedule of mornings spent studying with Raine at the healer's guild, and letting Fletch torment him with medic training (such as mastering his personal nemesis, the LifePak), while his afternoons and evenings were spent waiting at the tea house.

He seemed to be growing increasingly exasperated with his waiter job, it might be time for a change of pace soon. There was only so much best behaviour he could show before snapping.



B - Fire Sector

As a resident of the Fire Sector, he would still be regularly out and about in the sector, and if you paid close enough attention you might notice that he spent a lot of time listening in, or peoplewatching. If he couldn't find the Cultists through the Force, it might be time for more scoundrel-like tactics...

Comments

A ~ Healer's Guild

[valyriandragon]

There was a new person for him to study with and/or torment. Daenerys spied him one day, recalling him from the network. She wasn't shy about approaching, setting down the bandages she was carrying on a nearby table.

"We met, didn't we?" in a way. The technology was foreign to her and she preferred face to face introductions over peering at a small screen.

"Are you here to help or as a patient?" she had much to learn and she wasn't shy about taking a look if he had wounds.

[no_light]

It took him a moment to pinpoint where he had seen the blonde before, but when he did, Kylo's scowl lessened somewhat. He turned his back on the supply closet he had been planning on checking for refills, busy work while he was waiting for Master Raine to be done with her patient.

"Daenerys Targaryen," he said, "I did not expect to see you here." The ruler he was used to wouldn't be caught dead with bandages. Even the mental picture of Snoke rolling bandages was too bizarre to contemplate.

"I'm here to help... of a sort. I study with Raine Sage in the healing artes, actually, but when you're here almost every day you inevitably get sucked into daily operations." He couldn't hide his pained grimace at that.

[valyriandragon]

Less than warm welcomes did not bother her in the least. She had been treated like a slave and threatened before; a scowl surely ranked somewhat lower on the list, though she was curious why he seemed in such a sour mood.

"Your memory is good." she glanced around with a sigh, shrugging, "I have never learned how to treat wounds and since I plan to see more battles, the skill could come in handy."

As a Queen, she was not selfish. If her men were suffering and she had a chance to do something about it, she would.

"I study under her too." her lips quirked in amusement, "Is it so bad doing menial tasks?"

They were usually easy at least and they kept the mind free to consider other matters.

[no_light]

"Not bad as such, there are worse tasks, but it is frustrating." He picked up some of the bandages she had brought, and started to fill up the supply in one of the drawers. It was better to keep your hands busy when speaking of such things, it kept the frustration at bay. "I'm used to taking care of more important matters. Back home, I'm of very high rank."

Not as high as hers, of course, so maybe she was the wrong person to complain to about the indignity of menial tasks.

He watched Daenerys from the corner of his eyes. "My motives for studying with Master Raine are similar. I have a variety of skills which people here would call magical, but I can't heal. Healing skills will make me a better fighter."

[valyriandragon]

She made a noncommittal sound in her throat and reached over him to slide the bandages into their proper place.

"There is nothing wrong with being eager." she was eager to step off her ship and into Westeros, for example, but she had accepted that such a milestone would have to wait for a little longer.

Hopefully not a year, though.

"Our ranks are meaningless except when it comes to what they have taught us." Daenerys was a proud woman. She would not be content doing the work of servants without a very good reason.

"Such skills make you a safer fighter. I have many men under my command and if they were here, I would wish them to learn these skills beside me."

Frankly, she was tired of losing those she cared about. Healing skills - healing magic - might have saved Khal Drogo or the silver horse he had given her - as well as countless others.

B!

[shroudofgray]

Kylo wasn't the only one who was people-watching, though Yorda did so for a much different reason. She'd been in the city over half a year, but she was still playing catch-up when it came to social interactions and watching people, listening to them helped a great deal. Usually. Sometimes it just left her with more questions, but she was, at least, being fairly proactive about her education. So she had bought some sweets to sample and perched herself comfortably on the ledge of a fountain, munching contentedly while she let the sounds of the city wash over her.

She spotted Kylo positioned in a similar sort of vantage point, ideal for watching and listening without being obtrusive. Since he'd spoken to her on the network, the man stood out like a wound. But whatever Yorda was, she was not easily deterred. She hopped down from her seat, and approached cautiously. Despite her insatiable curiosity, she wasn't an idiot. The man was volatile and angry, having practically exploded at her over the network. But he also understood things, secret things, things her Mother kept her from knowing lest she actually become a force to contend with. And Yorda deeply desired answers to her questions. She weighed the risk and decided it was safe enough to speak to him here - if he became dangerous, she could flee into the crowd, and vanish down one of the narrow alleys.

"You spoke to me on the machine," Yorda said. "Are you waiting for a friend?"

[no_light]

Under normal circumstances Kylo Ren would not have suffered being observed, but here on Tu Vishan, the circumstances were anything but normal. And once he saw the little girl approaching him, he was glad he had not chosen to respond with hostility or just plain leaving to this prickly feeling of being observed while he was observing, for this was a conversation partner he didn't want to run off.

Well, not unless she started preaching again. Then his patience would run out very quickly.

"No, I'm not waiting for anyone." He looked around again, letting his gaze wander over the crowd on the marketplace. "I'm watching them." No denying that. Nor forbidden, if maybe a bit disconcerting.

He shot her a half-hearted glower. "Have you come to preach more to me about light and darkness?"

[shroudofgray]

"Did I preach...?" Yorda asked absentmindedly as her pale, unflinching gaze followed Kylo's to the busy flow of Kedan. She was very still as she watched them - so much so that one might easily mistake her for a statue if the wind didn't flutter her thin, gray hair and white dress. Her attention was only half on the crowd, the rest was thinking over their prior conversation. Even in person, Kylo seemed like something volatile, akin to the explosives in the castle. Yorda wasn't afraid, but she was cautious by default.

Eventually she moved again, sitting down a little ways from the Knight of Ren, and turned her inhuman stare to him.

"I came to listen and to see," she said as if this explained anything. Yorda drew her knees up to her chest and rested her chin in the small dip between them.

"There is so much I do not know. Are you watching them to learn as well?"

[no_light]

"Yes, I am." But now he watched her, a scowl still marring his face, though he wasn't feeling overly hostile. More cautiously curious, very cautiously so. After all he hadn't particularly enjoyed hearing what she had to say to him before.

"I'm trying to understand them better, and gather information." On the Cultists, mostly, but the child had no business knowing that. Bad enough he had Valdis and Rey snooping around in his affairs.

Maybe, though, he should try to be social. It didn't come naturally to him, but then this place forced him to do many things that didn't come naturally. "How have you been? Have you calmed down since we last spoke?"

B

[celticromanstone]

Heather isn't one to avoid problems. Normally, she just waits them out. They die; she lives on. That's fine with her. But, there's a few things that makes her wary to reach out any longer.

Like getting killed. That just puts a damper on a relationship. But dressed in the local style, Heather walks up quietly behind Kylo and smiles to herself.

"Hello, darling."

[no_light]

"You..." He paled at the sight of her, wholly restored after everything. He might have been told people were brought back from death, but... It was something different altogether to see evidence of such a feat. "I saw you die," Kylo breathed.

And it was one of the few deaths he regretted, too. Killing really wasn't going very well for him lately.

[celticromanstone]

"And yet, here I am." Heather says, flicking open a fan. She flicks it in front of her face, watching him. "Now, don't you have something to say beyond that?"

She is going to get her apology. She's earned one.

Maybe dinner too, while they're at it.

[no_light]

Yes, he owed her an apology and so much more beyond, but how do you even go about apologising? Kylo certainly has no experience with it.

He stands there, looking helpless and pale, and still feeling quite shaken by the sight of her. He gulped. "I wish I hadn't..." Deep breath. Start over. Just. Do it. "I'm sorry."

Should have sent a card.

A! (You asked for it.)

[holbydelboy]

"Okay, we'll go over this again."

Fletch says this whilst being able to simultaniously sound patient and exasperated at the same time.

"You use the mnemonic 'Ride Your Green Bike' for a 3-lead ECG. Red goes on the right wrist, then yellow on the left wrist, green on the left ankle, and black on the right ankle."

He then demonstrates attaching the ECG electrodes to the dummy, before taking them off again.

"Now you try."

[no_light]

It wasn't that Kylo had never used such techniques before, though he had in fact not since his days of repairing the Millennium Falcon with his father and Jedi training, but...

"How is that supposed to help?" he asked blankly. "If I have to remember the exact order of the electrodes, I might as well memorize them along with the colors."

In other words, the ECG was quickly becoming his enemy. Memorizing the 12 lead ECG had to be one of the Empire's more advanced torture techniques.

With an annoyed snort, he snatched the electrodes from Fletch and slapped the red electrode on the dummy's arm, roughly manhandling it in the process.

"I still say I don't need to know this," he grumbled, "I'm never going to work with actual patients outside of my training." He certainly had no plans to become a medic.

[holbydelboy]

"Because." Fletch begins, "Even if you aren't going to be treating anyone." Because Fletch wouldn't let you near any of his patients with a ten foot barge pole.

"It still helps to know what you're healing. Just slapping an all-purpose heal onto something'll help temporarily, but targeted healing is better in the long run. Learning what problems the body can have will help you target better."

[no_light]

"But I'm not actually planning to become a Healer!" he insisted, voice sharpening again with impatience. He inhaled and exhaled slowly - he refused to storm out on Fletch a second time, that would become hard to explain to Raine, with her already hounding him about his temper.

"I understand it's necessary to understand how and why it works in some instances," he admitted, "I know I need to be familiar with side effects and long-term effects of drugs I expose my subject to. I need to know how different methods applied correlate. But that's it."

Sky Sector Gardens

[ten_zero]

[ Mag sat down next to Kylo Ren, taking a meditative pose. Ostensibly it was to watch Kylo, but it had become a bit of a comforting rock to Mag by this point. He was interesting to talk to, even if she was opposed to his philosophies. ]

What do you know of love?

[no_light]

[ He narrowed his eyes at her, just to show his dislike on principle alone. She wasn't the best company, since she distrusted him so, but not the worst either. ]

I know that it drives people to make foolish decisions, and sacrifice that which has always been precious to them. Love is a weakness.

oops imma swap to prose - i did action spam out of habit

[ten_zero]

Everything was a weakness with Kylo, wasn't it? But if she wanted a different answer, she probably wouldn't have asked him.

"Have you ever loved someone?"

haha I'm fine with either!

[no_light]

It was on the tip of his tongue to say a heated, no, yet Kylo stopped himself when he realized she would be likely to see right through it. She would call him out on it, too, she had proven so before.

"Once," he forced out, with another withering look which forbade further questions. Not that he expected her to respect it. "Everybody has loved once."

B!

[lasergrenades]

Pepper tried not to spend a lot of time in the Fire Sector, but recently she's only ended up there on police patrols. She decided it would probably be better to get to know the sector better on a more personal basis, and wandered around at least once every week or so.

She spotted Kylo from a distance, watching him as he was watching other people. Pepper studied people as a hobby, so she knows the signs, mostly. He was a little odd on the network, but there was no harm in getting to know some of the other Foreigners better. Probably.

"Picking up anything interesting?" she asked, sidling up in a reasonably obvious fashion to avoid startling him.

[no_light]

He looked up, cautiously hostile for a few moments before it gave way to mellowness as he recalled why the woman seemed familiar.

He leaned back on his bench, abandoning people watching in favor of watching Pepper Potts for now. "Not yet. Unless you would consider yourself something interesting?" he asked, voice a bit wry. "It's interesting what you learn about the movements of a crowd when you do nothing but watch."

Interesting, but also odd. Back home it wasn't his job to observe without interfering, when he got involved things happened.

[lasergrenades]

"I'm pretty fabulous, so sure, let's call me interesting," Pepper replies, only half-joking. She sits, far enough away so as not to be imposing since they don't really know each other. "I'm from a big city back home, so there's always something to look at, always new people to see. Kedan are really different than New Yorkers, but there's enough similarities to be fun. The salesman are the best, really - it's like watching a TV show sometimes," she remarks, smiling broadly.

[no_light]

Her little joke earned her an amused snort, though Kylo looked rather sour as he watched two merchants get into a row. "I wouldn't call the salesmen the best... I'm still getting used to the haggling on the market." Another snort. "At home, I lived among soldiers. Everything was provided for me. I haven't had to haggle on a bazaar since my childhood." And he really didn't appreciate the constant reminders, or the fact that the salesmen weren't intimidated by him. "I guess it's entertaining, in a way. But I've learned I'm not very fond of crowds."