kore_logs | a tisket, a tasket, an angel with a basket?

Who: Balthazar, Mina and open!
Where: the library and the outskirts of town
When: Day 109, around nightfall
Summary: Balthazar's promised to try and teach Mina about angelic healing powers, because that can't possibly go wrong. He can also be found inspecting various edible weeds growing around the town and forest eaves.

On the one hand, Balthazar is as content in Kore as he has been in thousands of years. No wars, no bewildering orders from on high, no siblings murdering one another, and on top of that he has both mortal friends and archangels being relatively sociable. If it weren't for the looming fear of things taking a turn for the lethal, he'd be downright ecstatic to be here.

But the food situation is worrisome, and the monster situation is worse. He finds himself racking his brain to think of ways to keep the status as quo as possible. It's not his job, of course. He never signed on to play shepherd to a motley crew of humans and others, and most of them probably wouldn't thank him for worrying about them anyway. Maybe if there was enough alcohol available to actually keep him drunk, he wouldn't bother. Maybe he's trying to keep himself from fretting over how quickly and easily the people he cares about can be taken away.

Times like this, he misses Anna.

And so, he finds himself, circling the outskirts of the town and plucking what plants he can find out of the shadows of buildings as the sun sets behind him.

When it's finally fully dark, he crosses back over to the library, leaving his basket just outside the door. If anyone helps themselves to the plants, that's fine with him. He's not going to eat them, anyway.

He doesn't bother with a light once inside, sitting on a desk to wait for Mina. He can see well enough in the blackness, and presumably so can she.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"That's where it gets hard to put into words. The best I can give you is a visualization technique, I think."

He sits in a chair, stretching his arm out on the tabletop, and makes another shallow cut with the scalpel, using the kerchief to blot up blood. It takes a little focus to keep himself from healing instantly. "Right. Instead of letting the normal clotting process occur, try to picture the severed blood vessels. Imagine the bleeding ends closing. Pinching or constricting. If the full level of anatomical detail is too much to hold at once, simplify it and just picture, I don't know, tubes or pipes."

The full level of anatomical detail was easy. But what Mina didn't understand was how willing something to happen made it so. It was different with her abilities. She understood how to find another being's willpower in their eyes. But this was a power of the body, not the mind.

She stared down at the cut in his arm, picturing in intricate detail the spider's web of veins and arteries inside of flesh. She concentrated on the biggest of them, the ulnar artery, willing it to seal itself.

It's the process by which an angel converts energy into action that Balthazar can't explain. It's such an instinctive part of him. Perhaps it's like a bird trying to teach a human to use a hang-glider. The principles of flight are the same, but 'you just use your wings!' isn't an effective way to explain how air currents are caught and ridden through the ether.

Something's happening, though, clearly, because he feels a faint twinge in his arm. The blood flow from the wound seems to be slowing gradually, but more importantly the skin under his fingernails is starting to go bluish-violet.

"Well...that's a start. Not very comfortable." But he's willing to take it a moment longer, if it helps the learning process.

Mina pressed her palms on the table, leaning forward a little bit on them. She knew, of course, that proximity probably didn't make any kind of a difference, but she couldn't fight the instinct completely.

She found herself, once again, thinking about the night that Doctor M peeled her skin off in court. Mina tried to mimic the doctor's facial ticks, wondering if that would help her to better channel some kind of flesh-crafting ability.

If nothing else, Mina was determined.

Anything that aids her in learning is acceptable as far as Balthazar's concerned. Watching her, he can easily believe she's capable of mental domination. If that gaze were any more intense, his arm would be a smoking husk.

"You're definitely slowing the blood flow," he says, pointing out the blueness at his fingertips. It's starting to feel numb, too. Not exactly healing, but it's body manipulation and it may open the door to more. "I think you're blocking the artery, though."

There's a twinge in the muscle now, as well, and he's not certain whether it's from lack of blood flow or if her will is actually pulling at his flesh. Not a pleasant thought, but even if she accidentally snaps his arm, he'll heal. "Don't overexert yourself. Rest when you need to."

She didn't want to rest, but the unnatural colour of his hand put a stop to the experiment. Mina blinked and broke whatever sort of connection she felt. Even if she knew that he was an angel and could heal himself, her medical instincts were still there.

"Damn," she hissed, leaning back in her seat.

"What are you swearing for? That was a brilliant beginning." He heals his own wound over and shakes his hand to get some of the feeling back. "You'll just have to practice. Probably quite a lot of practice, but you have the ability and the time to learn to use it. How do you feel?"

Now that was an interesting question. Ever the consummate learner, Mina was naturally frustrated that she hadn't aced it on her first go. But all the same, she'd accomplished more, she supposed, than she expected.

She nodded slightly. "I feel...intrigued," she finally decided.

"Mind you, I still think if Raphael doesn't object to this project, you'll get better help from him. But I'll keep at it as long as you're interested." He curls and uncurls his fingers, stretching.

"Or...actually, I wonder if it wouldn't help to talk to Fortescue. I don't believe she does much healing, but she's certainly a sorceress of some sort. Her input might be useful. Do you know her?"

Her lips twisted slightly at the mention of Raphael. He had been somewhat...uncooperative. Not outright offensive or rejecting of the notion. But stubborn about it.

Her sea-storm eyes raised with interest a little at the mention of a sorceress however. "No," she said. "I don't believe I've had the pleasure."

"She's very charming. As long as you get along with cats, I think you'd like her. She's got one, you see." That Fortescue's cat carries around her soul is not something Balthazar thinks he's authorized to share, so he'll leave it at that.

"Would you like me to get in touch with her and introduce you?"

To some, it would seem old-fashioned. But Mina was still well behind the times. As much as she was ahead of her own time. Apparently. It was all rather confusing and she had far more pressing matters to set her mind to than that.

She dipped her head courteously. "Yes, I do think so."

He nods, approving of this plan. Fortescue's got a good head on her shoulders, and since he's having trouble explaining his modus operandi, perhaps she can bridge the gap.

"Perhaps we'll call it a night, then, and I'll get to work on that. I'll be your guinea pig another time, though."

"It's not every day you hear a man say that," she quipped, with the faintest ghost of a smile.

Really, it was sort of funny, how she'd gone from loathing the man passionately to almost...well...not almost...begrudgingly respecting him. But that was just a further testimony to the mercurial state of things in Kore, she supposed.

Everything was the Doctor. Wildly unpredictable.

Balthazar's on his best behavior right now, which clearly he wasn't before. He's not completely confident he won't get on her bad side again, maybe even in the near future, but he'll take whatever approval he can get in the meantime.

"I'm not an every day man." He answers with a smile in return, and rises.

"All right. I'll let you know when I've talked to Fortescue. Possibly we can just meet here again in a few days." He offers a handshake. "A pleasure, by the way. I really hope we can make this work."

Mina shook his hand. A good, firm handshake.

She did so enjoy being a gentleman, after all.

"I rather hope so as well," she replied. "After all. People do seem to have a tendency to get hurt around here. I don't imagine that'll be getting any better any time soon."

a tisket, a tasket, an angel with a basket?

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