(no subject)

[theyregooddogs]

Who: Doctors in training and the curious
Where: Clinic
When: Day 123, 7AM Sharp

[Well, whatever way the winds blow on combat in the cooliseum or combat over the next upgrade, someone has decided to be prepared. If more wildlife comes to Imeeji, there could also be some severe reactions to it. So, the lesson for the day is allergies, from the banal to the lethal, including how to do a basic level allergy test. Sorry, it's for skin only; John is not ready to teach anyone how to work with any of the laboratory gear he has amassed for blood tests. There are practice and real epipens for students who want to be prepared . . . ]

[Or you could just gossip after class about why did John have to show that many gruesome pictures of rashes, hives, and sores?]

[[This was announced on Dissonance for anyone to poke their head in and learn something, like all first aid classes. There are some more classes over here, since I fell behind.]]

Comments

[sancrimony]

Certainly, I could not revive the dead or anything like that.

Truthfully, it's a rather complicated process - a science, really. However, I was blessed with a sort of cheat.

. . . Well, though in the end, it's only enough to heal people. I hardly have any sort of combat ability at all, and when it comes to other feats of magic, I'm beyond incompetent. So, it's hardly perfect at all.

Still, it was given to me for that purpose.

[theyregooddogs]

What "purpose"? You gave yourself a purpose, but you're talking like you were only acted upon, not the agent.

[sancrimony]

[ taking a moment, reflecting on the question ]

The purpose I had in life is different from the purpose afterwards, and after that.

. . . But, in life - with that ability granted to me by God, I thought my purpose was to save the people of a small island. For their circumstances were beyond inhospitable, with famine and plague and persecution, and they were in desperate need.

At the height of that need, I was born with that gift. Certainly, that sounds as though I was only an object - however, I also took that duty as my own.

[theyregooddogs]

[closing his eyes and inhaling, lightly shaking his head]

Right. There are, layers, to it.

[sancrimony]

. . . For what reason do you sigh?

[ like it isn't a sigh but you know, the whole inhaling thing ]

[theyregooddogs]

The abbreviated answer is I processed information.

[sancrimony]

Ah.

[ taking that pretty easily, idly thoughtful, but there's a sort of - subconsciously bracing for something, there's an air of anticipation like he's waiting for him to resume the conversation

or perhaps it's just that his own mind has wandered to a thought that's well traversed, one so close it might as well be called home, and the way his gaze shifts just so to briefly unfocus feels heavier than just nostalgia. to say that weight isn't always there would be a lie - often, there's a weighted air about him that hangs heavy enough to add some sense of maturity in his otherwise young face, though one could easily chalk that up to naturally having a mature and serious personality in the first place.

here, though, it feels a little more like bitterness. ]

I hope it isn't troubling. A few people have expressed some concern over my upbringing, but . . . well, I don't have any complaints. Then again -

[ with a light tone, expression reflecting the same - it's not an intentional mask, the veneer a natural hood. rather, somehow, it's like gallows' humor. ]

I suppose that's what people are concerned about! Ahaha.

[theyregooddogs]

[watching him, silent and placid, but being overt and obvious for a long enough stretch (easily a full minute, if need be) to let it settle into discomfort for lucifel before starting]

. . . People don't choose what they were born into. They choose how they adapt to it. If anyone has complaints about what someone does to survive, I don't really care to hear them.

[sancrimony]

[ he is uncomfortable honestly but he's also leaning into it, letting himself get used to it. ]

I wouldn't call them complaints. At least, none of them were directed to me. Somehow, it's still frustrating, though.

[ with a pause ]

Might I ask about your own circumstances, or would that be out of bounds?

[theyregooddogs]

It's denying what made you you. In essence, denying you.

You can ask, but I don't have any answers. As much as I can guess, I was an estranged child living in unstable conditions with one of my parents. Nothing as grand as a divine savior of the suffering people.

[sancrimony]

[ the whiplash of hearing something oddly comforting like - denying what made you you, and then the name of divine savior isn't particularly obvious to other people, but maybe john can see how he stops to the words, a soft sort of tentative attempt to accept the words like they're comfort -

and then the slightest press of his lips to the title, not irritation but a welling bitterness, resentment pointed inward ]

. . . I see. You aren't a fan of taking memories, then?

[theyregooddogs]

There is no purpose in them, except to create more suffering. Only began taking them when I switched units to keep my distance.

[sancrimony]

[ damn.

with a wry smile - it isn't anything like judgment but rather a subconscious feeling of jealousy and a conscious appreciation of john's wisdom, though he'd never cop to feeling jealous. it isn't something he's deserving of, after all - and oh, that only makes the bitter taste in his mouth sharper. ]

. . . Suffering due to longing for a place that you once knew, or suffering in another way?

[ with a pause ]

Aaah. Just what about that changed your mind?

[theyregooddogs]

In that and other ways. Seeing who you were and who you've become and being resentful of it, struggling to decide where to go and what to do, despairing over not knowing how good even the most banal day was . . . All of it.

And it's what I said, Lucifel. There wasn't suffering in it, anymore.

[sancrimony]

I see - that's good, then, that there isn't. And, I think you're wiser than most here, for that line of thought. Intensity-sama holds a similar opinion, I believe.

[theyregooddogs]

[small huff]

Not wiser or dumber, just the exception. Would have liked to have better company, though.

[sancrimony]

I don't think there's anyone else who is better company than Intensity-sama.

[ this is

genuinely

genuinely

not sarcasm.

this is real.

he has real admiration for intensity.

he loves this man to death. ]

[theyregooddogs]

Yeah, don't really take to the overly narcissistic types. Only mild ones.

[sancrimony]

Mild - like who?

[theyregooddogs]

[slight snort]

Sure. Let's try. —Like Whisky.

1/2

[sancrimony]

- Ah!

[sancrimony]

Certainly, he is wonderful!

[ whatever residual bitterness was in his body language is instantaneously melted for whisky love. sheer, unabashed radiating love and joy for this man ]

So "narcissistic" is "confident", then - ? I must say I don't know the word very well!

[theyregooddogs]

He thinks he's better than any other. In very select aspects.

[sancrimony]

. . . Ah, so Intensity-sama is intolerable because he thinks he is better than any other in all or most aspects?

[theyregooddogs]

Somewhat. But more because he can't be trusted. Too selfish, too narrow in his view.