homeless_pard | A social meeting

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jason au

A social meeting

Who: Khemrys, Jason, Nat, the leopards in general?
When: Saturday of the second week in this new world?
What: A cookout to meet other leopards! And maybe drama!

Her feet were still far more tender than she wished but at least her fingers were healing far faster? She did not need bandaging on her fingers anymore and that made most things far easier, such as finishing the lord Jason's silver bordered shirt with pawprints and silvery moons picked out in embroidery thread! It was far later than she had intended such to be completed but that was neither here nor there it seemed. She had delivered it, folded, with breakfast in the donor quarters as she'd taken up cooking as she had promised, but had been too shy to await his chance to open it.

She had much to do this day after all, such as debating which of her simple garments was best suited to an outdoor gathering (she settled for the full, deep brown skirt and cream tunic over a sage shift), and...wincingly slid her feet into boots she laced tight about the thinner bandaging. It might aid her feet in not swelling near as much? Of course, the loaned slippers were to be returned today as the lord Nathaniel had been too busy to be oft at the holdings she now lived at. She had naught else to bring, but had been assured her aid in preparing items would be a far more welcome host gift. The days were shorter here she had learned, twenty four hours with sixty minutes apiece rather than her own twenty hours with a hundred, but there was a clock that she was learning to rely on at the bedside table yes.

It was past dawn now and quiet around her, but nearing nine thirty and so she stood and brushed nervous hands down her skirt to...go wait in the hall for the lord Jason so he might drive them. She was trying to focus on the fact she would be cooking with Nathaniel rather than the trip there!

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She was grateful Nathaniel wasn't also being sent off? She had arrived a stranger entire in this world yes but having even one she had known longer than those here helped against the nerves!

Worry was simply part of what she did now though. After all her entire existence here was precarious and poorly defined. Anything and everything might take away what little she knew now!

Ah and hand shakes. She was...not used to them; the night walkers were not overly touchy, nor the donors when she was cooking, so it took her a moment to grip Cherry's fingers; her own far too thin and bony, at Lillian's name she relaxed a touch though? "Another stillmistress or are you a dame akin to her?" she offered with honest relief.

Cherry handled her delicately as she noticed how frail the woman was, but there was a friendly warmth in her touch. "Kind of?" she thought for a moment. "I'm a nurse. Was a nurse, but I work as a nurse in the clinic and help Lillian out where I can." She pulled over a chair, settling down comfortably. "And you, you're like a...naturopath? Lillian was saying you know a lot of about natural remedies and stuff?"

She considered that statement a moment, bemused, "you are yet learning to be a full stillmistress or dame? As you tend rather than cure?" That was nursing, yes? "Less mayhap you tend the young as a wetnurse? Are there many so young in the clinic?" Fun with definitions time it was!

And a naturopath? "I cannot speak with plants and such?" she blinked. "I am a full stillmistress, I make medicines as well as non-essentials and may diagnose and treat others? I've a fair hand with surgery and setting, though less experience with delivery?" So a full doctor and pharmacist really?

Cherry rocked her head thoughtfully. "A lot of times you pick one or the other here. I prefer nursing because I like the more hands-on care. But yes, in that respect I 'tend' rather than 'cure'."

There was a faint flinch in her eyes, but she continued with the same friendly tone. "No, mostly it's dealing with injured lycanthropes at the clinic. Really serious injuries we need to send them to the hospital, but humans get nervous treating us, so we try to manage as much as we can at the clinic. We don't really get sick or...have kids, so...yeah, just injuries."

She cleared her throat. "But hey, making your own medicines and doing surgery? That's pretty impressive. I bet Lillian has been excited to talk with you."

"...ah, does that not cause issue?" she blinked. Wasn't it better to have everyone trained as much as able in illness and injury?! "And how might such not be 'hands on'?" That made no sense at all!

And people wouldst not tend the shifters, ah, likely as they feared infection mayhap? How very sad in this world. Also they did not have children? Hmmm. "My sympathy to your sorrows," she offered quietly. How not? It seemed a cruel world.

"Dame Lillian has been as all such, drilling me in my knowledge when we have spoken thus far, like to be certain I might be of proper use with you both? I've no fears such as this world holds toward people at your clinic."

Cherry laughed. "You'd think so, but no: usually our doctors focus on being able to diagnose and treat and leave the care to us nurses. But we have our own training and knowledge. It just helps people to focus their skills: you don't want the person best at diagnosing sitting bedside and changing bandages." She waved a hand. "But of course, the clinic isn't exactly run like a hospital, so those lines get a little blurred."

Her smile wavered briefly at her quiet words and she nodded. "It is what it is, right? Anyway, it's going to be nice if you decide you want to work with us: you never seem to have enough hands to help, right?"

There was a small commotion and laughter from the group setting up the slip 'n slides. Cherry laughed and shook her head. "So how are you managing here so far? I hear you're staying at the Circus?"

"I honestly cannot imagine not wishing to tend those you treat lest there be a plague that sweeps too many within it's grasp to see to all alone," she admitted a touch blankly. "But then you have...many people here." Perhaps they were oft overwhelmed?

Is what it is mayhap? Hmmm, she'd have to research obviously. A great deal of it.

"All I have met have been quite kind, though in these lands it seems my arrival is thought rather fantastical?" she admitted wryly. "Not a land of many magics it seems, nor do your gods walk among you betimes." And that was hardest to wrap her head around honestly.

"But aye, the High Lord's keep is a wonder, and there is a lovely kitchen there now."

Cherry grinned. "Well, that's one of the perks of lycanthropy: no one is about to get wiped out by a plague. Our bodies fight off disease before it can take hold."

Zane passed by behind her, dropping off an opened bottle of beer in front of Cherry. She craned her neck to smile at him and pursed her lips in his direction. She turned back to Khemrys, happily sipping her beer. "It's not something I've ever heard of, people from other worlds. I guess there's magic plenty here, if you look at us, or the vampires, witches, who knows what else. It's just not been out in the open for very long, I guess." She blinked in surprise. "Wait, you have actual gods wandering around your world? Like, in person?"

"...you've no plagues relics from wars then? As might twist and root in magical beings such as your shifting is?" How odd honestly. How very odd. "We've many normal ailments as strike many, but even Old Blood and beings of tales may be stricken by that which the wars left..."

Ah, Cherry and Zane were sworn to each other it seemed. That was a good thing to see! She had truly begun to wonder if ALL men she were to meet were claimed by the woman Anita as others said.

"Aye? How else might they relate to their people? One might not always know when one has met a god, or ever see one in their lifetime even, but they do." She actually smiled, drawing her pendant out from under her dress to let Cherry see it's golden, amber warmth and the flashes of amethyst chips set as grapes in carving. "The Lady Gunnora offered me safe hearth in my flight, it was a kindness and one I shall never forget. We did not meet face to face but I felt her touch and her symbols allows me to speak to all here."

Cherry's eyes were wide as she shook her head. "No, I've never heard of anything like that. Except maybe curses, but we don't really see that sort of thing. Guess I should be glad I don't care for patients in your world, huh?"

"The only time I've seen anything like what you're describing is when someone wards off a vampire with a cross. But meeting God isn't really a thing here, not really until you die anyway." She leaned forward, eyeing the pendant. "Wait, how does that work? That pendant let's you talk?"

"Then the safety of your lands is a boon," she smiled. Mayhap wars in this world left fewer scars?

Ah, such had been mentioned in her short time here! "And what didst the Night Walkers do that a god of this land may always wish them harm?" she mused. "I've found no cause for such yet in my time here." At all. "Aye, I am told the language here both written and spoken is English? My own is not, the several I read and speak are in no way akin to such."

At least magically speaking...

Cherry shrugged, sipping her beer. "Hell if I know: as far as the churches are concerned, vampires are evil, and the reaction they end up having around religious items doesn't really help them there."

"It's really cool, we tried that out with her pendant. She has this really pretty foreign language without the pendant on." Jason had returned, squeezing back to his chair with a grin and immediately starting back in on his food as if he'd never left.

Cherry's expression cooled ever so slightly when Jason came back, but her smile for Khemrys was still as warm and friendly as before. "So it translates for you and for people around you? That's amazing. Does it work for any language?"

"None have offered me harm nor do they smell of the Left Hand," she shrugged slightly. "In my own lands Night Walkers were created as war machines, to corrupt and harm, but even so one or two may still choose good. Here it seems they are not forced into a path by the nature of their making." So that was a kindness was it not?

With Jason's return she began picking at her food once more, back to sampling and now that her fears over Jason not being treated kindly here had faded some the meat had proper flavors to work out? "The Lord Merle is indeed a fine cook," she noted with a smile at Nathaniel finally.

"Aye, aught so far spoken near me all may understand?"

"A lot of people would argue that they're evil because of what they have to do to survive." She shrugged again. "But they usually think the same of us, so who can say. I prefer to keep to the shifters when I can."

Nathaniel noticed the change in Khemrys when Jason returned and quirked a smile. "He really is, on the grill anyway. He usually doesn't like to bother with the rest, so it works out well with us. And more so with you around to help me up my game a bit."

Jason was working through a mouthful of food and nodded, and Cherry rolled her eyes at him with an amused look. "Well make sure that chain is strong then so you don't lose it. Are you planning on learning English just in case?"

"Shouldst it not be done in harm or intent to harm then they stand as any other thinking being might," she shrugged. "Evil in my own lads may be far more obvious, but also so may bonds and wards hold stronger it seems." And so, strangeness.

Nathaniel got another warm smile, "aye, and a pleasure to aid. I am glad such as we crafted has been well enjoyed." Indeed, "and your mushrooms proved well received!"

Speaking of, she cut the batter bread in half so she and Nathaniel might share theirs...then cut her own portion halved again so Cherry might enjoy such? "Aye, twould be an offense not to strive to learn such. Were I unable truly like as not the amulet wouldst work indefinitely, but as I am well able with language I prefer not to worry the Lady Gunnora with shielding me so."

"They spent a long time having to kill or be killed when they existed in hiding. So 'not harming humans' wasn't high on their agenda," Jason offered between bites.

Cherry snorted. "And so many of them decided not to change with the times."

Jason shrugged. "They're old and stubborn as fuck? But Jean Claude's people aren't bad. And he makes it so no one really needs to hunt."

Cherry shrugged in return. "Yeah, he's not as bad as that last one. But I still prefer shifters." She gratefully took the portion from Khemrys, taking a taste. "Thanks. Oh wow, this is really good. Nathaniel, you and Khemrys made this?"

"Yeah, with mushrooms we got from the woods with Khemrys."

Cherry nodded, finishing the piece in her fingers. "Medicine and cooking: you're really talented, Khemrys."

"You should see her sewing: she made me a shirt, and that dress she's wearing." Jason looked up at Khemrys, beaming. "I left the shirt upstairs so it wouldn't get messed up with the water games."

"Like as not I would not feel kindly about those Night Walkers then, and would like stand against them shouldst they cause harm to the holdings I am sworn to." How not? She was a healer yes, but all should stand against the true dark in any manner they might.

"The batter breads went rather quickly. Some of the breads and salad may still be upon the table though, the salad having grilled mushroom akin to meats, and the breads with the lord Nathaniel's herbs," she smiled. "I was, for a great deal of time, the youngest set of hands in my home. I tended the Dames as they aged, and learned aught I was able, from Stillwork to gardening and much between. We were such as need not depend upon the nearby village often."

Jason smirked. "Ah, but what if the holding you were sworn to was a vampire holding?"

"My grandma used to give us little crafts when I was a kid. I never made anything like a dress or anything, but I remember making little ornaments and stuff with yarn and felt. Maybe you can give lessons once you're settled." Cherry shook her head. "Ignore him. I'm going to have to go see what I can grab before it's gone, especially since I think I see Merle stacking meat to bring over to the trays. You want me to look for anything else for you? I'll try to find as much as I can that's left."

"Aye 'tis, but it is the holdings of the High Lord, not those beyond, and shouldst they stand as Great Lords and choose to abuse his kith and kine then they stand foresworn and wouldst still be an enemy unto me," she noted simply. It was...pure logic? How was that strange?

Oh, "of a certainty, aught you may wish to learn that I may teach Lady Cherry," she agreed. How not? "And no, I will be well fed from the plates I am sharing thank you, but the shifters here eat more than my own bloodline does." Wraithlike and thin as she seemed though, she couldn't counter that with gorging!

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A social meeting

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