don't you ever consider giving up [March, catchall, open]

[ruinsprofessor]

Characters: Raine Sage and open!
Date: Most of March, primarily after the 11th
Location: Healers' Guild, Earth sector apartment, assorted others
Situation: Many, lots. Most post-fourth-wall.
Warnings/Rating: just going to go ahead and warn for suicide themes and discussion with Kratos. Dammit, Kratos.


A | Healers' Guild | open

While Raine's largely absent for the first third of the month, spending as much time with her husband as she can before he's inevitably drawn out of Keeliai, she's doubly present for the latter parts of March, throwing herself into work. She always has her hands in something, whether it's healing or herbs or simply scheduling the next days or weeks, and as a result she will need to be interrupted if someone wants any part of her time.

It's entirely possible to get one of her apprentices to interrupt her for you, fortunately, and she doesn't snap at interruptions anyway, only glances up with distracted eyes, slowly focusing. "What do you need?"

B | Healers' Guild | Miles

She wasn't entirely expecting to see Miles again without some grievous injury, but it's not a bad thing; simply a matter for curiosity. Raine lifts her head from the dried herbs she's disentangling and tilts her head at Miles. "It seems you're doing well. What brings you here?"

C | Midnight Hotel | Fai

Eventually, citing time concerns, Raine had had to let Fai go the previous time they'd met, and there wasn't nearly enough opportunity to speak of all the magical and linguistic things she'd wanted to. So she'd arranged with him to meet for lunch, or an equivalent meal at the time of day that worked, and now that's the reason she's at the Hotel, looking for Fai with a pair of notebooks and a slate tucked under one arm. "There you are. I'm glad we were able to sort out a time."

She doesn't look quite as cheerful as she did the last time Fai saw her, but her interest in the matter at hand is undisguisable.

D | Sky Sector, Pepper's home | Pepper

Raine calls ahead, just to be sure; but early in the month, she stops by while Pepper's in and both Gene and Tony are out. "I'm not here for very long," she says, apologetically, "but I needed to discuss something with you in person. I take it you heard I accomplished something with Bakura?"

E | Water Sector, a tea house near the Healers' Guild | Kratos

It's one of their weekly teas, and they've spent what Raine judges is an appropriate amount of time on small talk and catching up socially. Eventually she sets her tea down, arranges her hands delicately around the base of the cup. "I heard," she says, "that Lloyd was here for some little while, these past few weeks."

Comments

[redlightgreenlight]

"I'm running through the woods, but I don't recognize them," Valdis replied, thinking back to the dream with ease, "It's a place I've never been. I'm chasing something, a white wolf, I think," She looked down. "He keeps calling me to join the hunt, but no matter how fast I run, I can't catch him."

[ruinsprofessor]

White scales, Raine thought, and white feathers. She folded her arms, head bent a little in consideration. "It's possible your dreams may be trying to tell you something," she said at length. "Are you conscious that it's a dream, while it's happening? Can you choose some other course of action? Or is there, perhaps, something you're hunting here, in life, that you haven't been able to catch?" It was a number of different possibilities all thrown out at once, easily wondering; Raine didn't sound particularly attached to any specific one.

[redlightgreenlight]

"I wouldn't know," Valdis said, "I haven't had dreams before, but the wolf is...almost familiar, though I don't know why. Dreams reflect the unconscious, right? I never really thought about where they might be coming from or what is causing them." She sighed, "I suppose I've been trying to connect with my soul, but why would that surface now?"

[ruinsprofessor]

"Typically dreams reflect the unconscious or subconscious, yes," Raine agreed, adopting something of a lecturing attitude. "Often they draw from things you've seen or experienced, whether in small fragments such as one person alone or in wholesale recreation of a past event. In this case..."

She considered her phrasing a little longer, thinking over how much to say, and went on. "You think this may be to do with your ka, correct? I wouldn't be surprised. My own chose to make herself known via dream portents, as well, during a time when I was pursuing a goal that I could not complete without her assistance. I doubt the situations are identical, but it's... possible something similar is happening to you."

[redlightgreenlight]

"Yes," Valdis replied after a moment, "I didn't know that yours appeared to you in dreams...may I ask what the goal was?"

[ruinsprofessor]

"You may ask," Raine said, shaking her head, "but I won't be going into detail. It deals with someone else's personal business, as well. You may ask Bakura, however; he may be inclined to answer."

Perhaps. It would be up to them, anyway.

"The dreams I had, however, were more impressions than such specific scenarios," she went on finally. "Patterns that suggested the whole."

Then again, puzzles were something Raine was eminently suited to.

[redlightgreenlight]

"Right," Valdis said slowly, "I had noticed that something was different with him..."

She sighed, "I suppose I just need to try again, but if this is my ka, then there's nothing wrong, right?" Because the prospect of having real dreams was concerning.

[ruinsprofessor]

Raine didn't comment further, despite the leading statement. Valdis's question was more immediately relevant, and so she nodded. "If it is -- which seems likely -- then there should be nothing wrong, yes. It may be worth considering if something significant has changed recently, or if there might be some reason it's reaching out so far as to make itself obvious. It's possible your previous attempt to reach it was impetus enough; however, I would encourage you to consider the other possibilities as well. Every person's version of this process is necessarily different."