[PXFIRE] PXFIRE II Roleplay: Convergence

[VeloJello]

Emmett “Gawain” Marshall and Kayla the Togekiss.
Avalon Apostles.
Maris; en-route to Erana.
ARPers: Everyone on Gawain's contact list - if you're an Avalon Apostle, you're eligible for the shortlist!

Gawain remembers a time when Maris was just another city to him. He’s been here a thousand times in his life on one errand or another; way back when, he was unnerved and awed by the quiet and the stone-stillness of it. Time and care have transformed it, made several of its districts into a conglomerated Avalon that’s so peaceful it borders on idyllic. While the Avalon Apostles don’t run Maris by any stretch, their presence is strong here, and unused urban areas have long since given way to community gardens and shelters for refugees. Watching a pair of Swablu darting through the trees and a young girl petting a massive, sleepy Stoutland, Emmett can pretend for a moment that all is right with the world.

The moment doesn’t last, however, as Emmett walks alongside Kayla toward the painfully prominent triage center. Cots and mats dot the tarp that’s been laid over the grass, and a few people mill about the scene. A few new patients have been brought in; they’re mostly human, looking dressed for the battlefield, although there’s an injured Pokemon there that looks like a fox with plant matter woven into its tissue. Emmett clicks his tongue and gestures to the fox, then kneels down and begins his work, barely looking up as Kayla leans over the fox with healing light glowing in her claws.

Thankfully, barring further injury or outbreaks of infection, none of this particular crop of wounded is unsalvageable. Once Kayla is finished with the fox - “Will it be alright?” he asks her, and she croons and pushes a sense of reassurance back against his inquiring mind - she begins to help Emmett, humming a healing chime to banish poisons and restore spirits. The last Emmett treats, a young woman who’s lucid enough to have removed most of her strike gear and press a bag of ice to her bruised head, gives the Togekiss a wary look.

“Over here, please.” Emmett tries not to be annoyed with her fear. He knows that Kayla means no harm; he also doesn’t live out a day-to-day series of battles with Pokemon. So he offers no challenge as he shines a light in the woman’s eyes, watching the action of her pupils carefully. “It was a rough one, I take it?”

The woman nods, keeping the ice firmly clutched to her forehead. “Big bison-looking thing. Called Bouffalant, as I recall. We brought Leafeon because he’s usually pretty good at settling violent Pokemon. Turns out, his attacks only made it stronger. Took a few rounds of buckshot to bring it down.”

Emmett nods sympathetically, thinking privately that at least this lot tried the peaceful solution rather than shooting first and asking questions later. “You’ll be relieved to know that the rest of your squad will be fine,” he says lightly, putting his flashlight away. “Now, do you have any nausea? Disorientation or dizziness? Ringing of the ears? Memory loss?”

Running though the symptoms is rote, simple. He diagnoses the woman with a mild concussion and tells her to take it easy and to find a physician if the symptoms flare up again. Kayla tries to reassure the woman with a hum; she looks disappointed when her overtures are met with suspicion, but follows Emmett quickly when he clicks his tongue and gestures for her to follow.

A doctor’s work is never done, especially in a world besieged, but there are respites. Gawain takes one now, sitting with his back against a tree and petting Kayla with one hand while scrolling through his phone with another. He hardly notices as she begins preening his hair, instead focusing on scrolling to a particular contact - one Camellia Estrada. “Any leads on Professor Sunding yet?” He texts, and he’s about to go over the articles he’s collected on the conspicuously-absent wormhole inventor when a news alert catches his eye.

His sigh draws Kayla’s attention and a fretful croon. “Duty calls,” he says. “Something big is about to tear up Erana, and we want to make sure as many people come out of that alive as we can.” He doesn’t put his phone away yet, though; he switches over to a well-used group message thread including several prominent Avalon Apostles members - everyone with the wit and the willingness to turn up at rifts and lend a hand. “Rift opened up near Erana, unsure of precise location. Something big coming through. USF likely already dispatched. Am on way from Maris. - Gawain”

The message sent, Gawain whistles a few notes and gestures to Kayla, who obligingly ducks low to the earth, not rising until Gawain is secure on her great feathered back. As she stalks toward an open patch of grass, he calls out to the others, “I’m off to help with a rift in Erana! If you’re willing and able, help is accepted! Wish me luck!” A few turn to look at him, some wave; then everything vanishes in a tumult of white feathers, and Gawain and Kayla are racing through the sky.