IC INBOX | The Cherrywood Healer

[cherrywood]

text ; audio ; video ;

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Backdated to July 15 | video;

[edgeoftheknife]

[During this thread]

[Erskine is in the Hotel, he's not wearing his jacket, and his shirt and waistcoat are covered in blood--surprise! He's also a little breathless.]

Milyn? It's Valdis--she's been attacked, she's in shock. Can you get to the Hotel?

[cherrywood]

[ Milyn's eyes widen at the sight, but she nods. ]

Yes, I'll be there straight away. I know where the Water Sector entrance is.

Video - shyly skitters in here, hoping it's okay!

[retiredfromhell]

[ It took him a bit of poking about after this conversation but in general he'd found technology fascinating back in LA so it wasn't too much of a challenge. Just enough to make it worth while.

When he was certain he had the right inbox (and he was certain, despite the question in his opening tone) Lucifer began speaking. ]

Hello to a Ms Milyn?

YESSS hello hi :D

[cherrywood]

[ Oh, well... that's sure a welcome sight on the video. ]

You've reached she!

He is an ass! I am a shy cinnamon bun /o\

[retiredfromhell]

[ Of course he's a welcome sight!

And the fact that he's not yelling about dust or something may be a part of that ... who knows?

At the moment, he is smiling. ]

Excellent! [ As if he had any doubt. ] Right well I'm not big on beating around the bush, I got your name off a very inflammatory announcement about you. Don't know if you saw it, kind of hard to miss.

[ Often, he'd pause about here but he's learned, from Detective Decker, to sometimes clarify is purpose. ]

I'm not here to join the 'oh nnoooo, betrayal' [ yes that came complete with mock hand wringing and falsetto voice. ] party, for the record. Too new to all this for taking sides. Actually I was curious about what's going on?

but a very fine ass indeed ;) also SORRY, SHE TALKS. A LOT. IT'S A THING.

[cherrywood]

Mm, actually I haven't seen anything to that effect! But I might not have been looking in the right places.

[ That is, she has a network console in her shop, but not a Foreigner radio handset. ]

But given your description, I can make an educated guess! Actually that's really what I do, when you get right down to it, so much of healing is making educated guesses based on symptoms and reactions, well all of science is actually like that, much as the old Guild heads would shriek and scold to hear healing and science lumped together, as if they'd ever been separate. If you ever want a way to curb nostalgia by the way, just think of how even good things can be so frustrating by those who don't understand your methods! Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a challenge as much as the next girl but to be so completely stonewalled when you know you're right and they'r just being so obtuse about it.

So Valdis made an announcement? Oh dear, I'm really starting to be concerned about her blood pressure. Did she go the snaking shadow thing again? I'm not used to people's stress levels having such apparent outward symptoms, although I suppose it would make it easier to diagnose, stress can be absolutely unforgiving on the body.

lbr he'd agree with you. ;) omg she's adorable

[retiredfromhell]

[ Finding her so quick to chatter on, and on, Lucifer's eyebrows bounced but he waited patiently and heard her out. Her mannerism was engaging and he found himself smirking slightly with approval at her comments about people not understanding one's methods and knowing you were right and everybody else was being obtuse. ]

Eons of dealing with the Host leaves me sympathetic to your plight, love. [ He said in a dry tone before pausing to let her finished.

That she quickly identified Valdis, yet showed no outward anger or upset at the knowledge of what the woman had done, was ... informative. In fact, Milyn's focus appeared to be more on Valdis' health, rather than what the woman had said; very interesting indeed. ]

Growling, actually. [ He piped up, not holding back a whit. ] There was very dramatic growling, punctuating her message.

However, despite the intense growling I'm afraid she wasn't particularly forthcoming about what exactly was going on. She mentioned that you worked with followers of Malicant but that you also aided us [ he pointed to himself, he's picked up that he's one of the 'Foreigners' by now ] in defeating Malicant.

So I'm honestly trying to sort out where the problem is?

<3

[cherrywood]

[ Milyn doesn't get the reference of the Host, having no context for it, but she appreciates that he empathizes with her frustrations. ]

Well, I try not to hold the growling against her given her nature, dear.

I did work with Daseng's group, well specifically Daseng himself, I studied under him for a time, and developed several positively brilliant new strategies for waking us kedan from the muted state Eshai's magic had put us in. One of the earliest variants of that was Dust, although it had the poor side effect of only enhancing negative traits... Malicant capitalized on that, later.

The second base I developed however, that was much more successful. It's now called Lucid, though I didn't have any hand in developing what it is now.

And of course I did what I could do to help against Malicant; I wanted him gone as much as the rest of us.

You might be in a better position to identify the problem than I am, I'm afraid,

[retiredfromhell]

The growling I'm quite used to actually, makes for nice foreplay in the right circumstances. The one word answers to simple questions was a bit vexing.

[ Which was part of why he decided to head straight to the source, so to speak. ]

I'm sorry, love but new here and being that this is all outside my father's creative control, this is a bit of an unknown: for once. Still putting the pieces together.

Can you fill me on some of these players? Daseng and Eshai?

[cherrywood]

Of course, I'm so used to everyone knowing. Daseng is the leader of the group of cultists who came under Malicant's sway and tried to spread his taint. He's also Zanru's -- the former head of the Metalworker family -- her ex-husband.

Emperor Eshai was the ruler who intially brought the Foreigners, both this batch and the ones three hundred years ago, to Keeliai. She's also responsible for bringing the kedan to this world -- we're not from here, you see. We were... well, I suppose the kedan were the original Foreigners, brought to battle Malicant. But her magic damaged us, made us... muted, dull. Most didn't even know it. That was what I was trying to fix.

She died several years ago... one of the Foreigners, who is no longer here, murdered her.

video

[backwordscompatible]

[Not long after her rather shocking conversation with Valdis, Zatanna found herself contacting the Cherrywood Healer. It wasn't so much the betrayal that first and foremost weighed on her mind. That would have been bad enough, yes, but there was something else. Something potentially worse. Something which she had nearly forgotten until Valdis had brought it up...]

A few years ago, you took DNA samples. Hair from me. Blood from others, I'm guessing.

[She'd struggled to remember, with no small amount of panic, if she had ever agreed to the blood sample before remembering Milyn had accepted her refusal. The smallest of comforts.]

What did you do with them?

Re: video

[cherrywood]

Why, I used them to make those little pick-me-up treats that I delivered to you, don't you recall? I got some for Frank and Armin too. And I also used the breakdowns to make those warming candies we used two winters ago-- I'm working on cooling candies, for this year! Those aren't ready yet, however. Which isn't so much of a problem, given how northerly Tavimbi is.

video

[backwordscompatible]

[She remembered. As such, she wasn't too surprised by the woman's response, and it actually bothered her that--if it hadn't been for Valdis' broadcast, she would have accepted it at face value and thought nothing more.]

Who else did you collect from, or was it just the three of us?

[...because now she was wondering about those candies.]

Those candies...you didn't harvest any of my magic to make them work, did you?

[retiredfromhell]

[ Alright, that was a useful little history lesson, which Lucifer listened too with an intense sort of focus.

Only when she appeared to have come to a pause, did he speak up again. ]

They have a quaint little saying back home, something about paths and good intentions. [ And it sounded like this situation fit it perfectly. ]

If you'd indulge me in one more question, did you ever deliberately try to hide what you'd done or why?

Re: video

[cherrywood]

Just the three of you that time, but quite a few others helped me out with donations while I was working on the vaccine for the zhyris!

Harvest magic? That seems like such an odd thought, how would you even go about doing that? I don't have anything to do with magic, dear, I like the puzzle of the chemical side of things.

[cherrywood]

Do they? I love learning about Foreigners' sayings, they're so enlightening! Even though some of them make no sense to me, there's one about spring cleaning that I just can't seem to make line up with a practical application, cleaning should really be done year round, it's so much healthier -- I think of these things, you know, being a Healer and such -- and then another one in the same vein (see! I made a pun just then, because veins) about being clean and deities, so that's even more confusing.

Hmm, from time to time! You don't always give the patient the worst prognosis, after all.

[retiredfromhell]

[ That was a hell of a mouthful. As for Spring cleaning, Lucifer thought he'd heard Maze muttering something about it in reference to getting rid of certain waitstaff that weren't up to her standards. But as he tended to leave those details to Maze, since he rarely let it concern him, the saying went over his head.

The pun was appreciated though. But sticking to the heart of the matter for the time being. ]

Ah. [ He exclaimed at her last statement. ] Well there's the rub. Now that they've found out, it would appear that it's damaged their trust in you. At least with Vladis.

Having never needed medical treatment ... ever, I'm speaking academically here, but I believe a certain trust is necessary between physician and patient?

video

[backwordscompatible]

[Without evidence, she was forced to possibly conceed that much. That maybe her magic hadn't been used. Maybe. The fact that she'd refused a blood sample all those years ago and instead offer snippets of hair did help. She wasn't Samson, after all. Her magic shouldn't have been in her hair.]

[Still...]

I want you to destroy the sample I gave you. And anything you might have made from it since.

Video

[purrns]

[It took a little digging after Valdis' post, but eventually Adrien has found what he needs. When he speaks, his tone is calm, non-confrontational, his expression completely earnest. He wants to believe there's more to this than Valdis has said. ]

Hello? Am I speaking to Milyn?

video; private

[highprofilerichkid]

I need to talk to you, Milyn.

[Tony's voice is carefully neutral. He's no stranger to betrayal, so he's trying not to take this one so personally. There may be more to the story than Valdis had shared. He'd like to hear Milyn's side of things before throwing her under the bus.

And besides: he needs her.]

I guess you'll be... busy [fielding calls and visits from confused and irate foreigners, undoubtedly] but if you could make some time for me, I'd appreciate it. Soon. It's important.

[There's a long pause.] If it's easier, you can come see me. In the Sky Sector. It'll always be safe to come talk to me. [It's an offer of protection; as explicit a one as he's willing to make over the dubiously secure consoles. It's not particularly subtle, but Milyn isn't always quick to take a hint. He hopes she'll pick up on it.]

video;

[peridiot]

I have recently become aware that you were the origin of the substance "Dust".

Do you know where I could procure some for an experiment?

[cherrywood]

Never ever ever? That's quite a feat! How did you manage that, dear?

There is indeed, but it's part of a physician's responsibility to know what's best for the patient, and part of the patient's responsibility to trust the diagnosis.

Re: video

[cherrywood]

Well, I haven't got any of the original sample, but I've used what I learned from it to make quite a few helpful things.

Re: Video

[cherrywood]

That would be me, indeed! Another new face, aren't you just a cute one!

Re: video; private

[cherrywood]

Oh, I'm never too busy for all of you, dear. I'll stop by as soon as I can, all right?