[November Open] | And so the chain continues!

[theresalwaystheview]

Who Bart and the village at large!
What Settling in and learning how things work
When November, through the winter months
Where The Oak & Iron, Winterbottom Clinic, the Library etc
Warnings N/A (so far)


1. Oak & Iron
For better or worse, for now, this is home. It's busy and noisy and there always seems to be something going on even if it's just a friendly card game or a group dinner, and all the while, if Bart isn't up in his room, he's down in the main room with a cup of tea, a new joy of his now that it's not synthetic from a machine that would routinely cycle through many flavors and not get cleaned often enough. If he's occupied with the writing that he can regularly be seen doing, it may take a couple of attempts to get his attention. He's gotten very good at tuning out chatter and bickering when he has something to do, and this, writing down as much as he can remember from his life before Marrow Isle, has been what he's dedicated himself to in the time since his arrival here.

When he breaks from that, he instead writes about the things that he's encountered here. The people, the plants that he cross-references from one of a dozen books grabbed from the library, the little spectral creatures that have been following townsfolk around, everything at least gets a brief note.

Accompanying his writings, sketches and diagrams take up full adjacent pages. Portraits with names beside them and brief notes about the people in question, or small things that indicate those people to him personally. A pumpkin from outside of one of the farms. The Mipha's Grace docked near the beach. Yorick's hat. A stuffed rabbit with its ear chewed and wrinkled.

He might be spacing out in your general direction as he tries to put words to a thought. Sorry in advance if he's been staring too long.

2. Clinic
On suggestion from Doctor First Aid, Bart has started helping out at Winterbottom's clinic. He's also offered an extra hand over at Dr Pierce's in those instances when he needs it. He's pleasant and chatty and eager to get to know his patients, and has extensive knowledge at least in both human and xenobiologies. If allowed, he will tangent on whatever line of thought that comes from a conversation that might have been started up over the course of examination or treatment.

During downtimes if he's not cleaning he can be seen drawing people and diagrams to be added to his notes, or reading. He's rather enjoying being at the front desk to meet whoever might be coming in to see one of the doctors, or drop things off as kind gestures.

3. In Vivo
Bart is determined to learn as much as he can about Marrow Isle's native flora so as to learn how best to approach his future farming venture. As such he can be seen out in the woods, out at the beach, out at the farms. He generally has his notebook in hand. He's started carrying more writing utensils in a pouch slung at his waist, and every so often, he will bring out a thin folder into which he's begun pressing the occasional plant for study when he's got better facilities at his disposal.

4. The Library
When he isn't at the Oak & Iron, or getting ready to move himself into a new home, or at the Clinic, or assisting First Aid or Chris Freeman out on a house call, Bart is here. He checks out stacks of books at a time and reads them when he's got time, or else keeps them nearby him as he seemingly does homework there where it's quiet, though bustling with villagers and staff alike. He's still in simple clothes, a small act of rebellion against the clean-cut image that his father always demanded that he present, and looks quite content in his work.

Currently the books arranged in neatly sorted stacks around him are all focused on mycology and related fields of study. Again, it will take a couple of attempts to get his attention if it's needed.

5. Misc
The Wildcard Option. If you want Bart, just sent him a message, give him a call at the end, say hello to him and generally be interested in him and he'll happily follow along and help however he's needed.

Comments

[graveling]

Angel's smile is a thing that flickers and fails. His face is heavy, smiles are hard. But he offers one now, and a hand waved in turn.

"Do you want company?"

[theresalwaystheview]

It takes him a moment to process what that face is, but he recognizes the intent. In return, a softer, warmer smile blooms on his own.

"I wouldn't turn it down," he replies easily, and gestures to the seat opposite him at the table. He shuffles his papers in a little more neatly, to put them away under the bulking cover of the notebook that's doubling as a folder for the moment.

[graveling]

Angel nods and quietly moves to that seat, though there's a glance at those papers for a moment.

"You draw well."

[theresalwaystheview]

He can't help the pleased flush at the compliment. It's not something he hears...ever, really.

"Thank you. It's mainly for diagrams and visual references, so accuracy is important."

[graveling]

"Visual reference..." Angel is almost visibly chewing on a thought, hearing that, but he isn't sure he's ready to commit. Instead, he sips at his beer. It doesn't affect him like most people, and he isn't sure he likes the taste, but it's what people here tend to drink.

[theresalwaystheview]

Bart returns to his notes, finally putting an end on the thought he was chasing down. He takes a moment to organize the notes he was taking, shuffling the last sketch back in with its respective writing. He's content with his tea, long-fingered, red-knuckled hands curling around the warm cup that had long since stopped steaming.

"If there's something that I can do for you, please... I'm still learning my way around this place, and people have been extremely kind to me so far. I would like to be able to help however I can."

[graveling]

“It is a strange request.” Angel can’t blush, another thing he’s just not capable of, but he manages to convey through body language the same sort of shyness. “There’s a tattoo on my back. It is hard for me to see. I…would like a couple sketches of it.”

As if he doesn’t know what it looks like for himself, not in its entirety.

[theresalwaystheview]

His brow furrows subtly at that. "You've never seen your own tattoo? Did...did you not source the artwork for it before it was applied?"

[graveling]

The question is met with a small headshake. "It's not my tattoo. It's on my body, I have it, but I didn't get it and it's not mine. Um. No one told you about why I'm so fucked up like I am, then?"

[theresalwaystheview]

"There were notes in your file at the clinic that you were to be treated in sacred spaces rather than using any traditional methods at the clinic. My assumption was that it had something to do with faith the way certain sects would forbid the use of any medication derived from certain animal matter." This places gets stranger by the day, and that's even with the knowledge that magic as a concept was very much to be taken literally. "What do you mean by...er. Fucked up?"

[graveling]

"Not quite." He holds out his hand, wrist up. "Here, take my pulse. Or monitor my respiration for a moment."

[theresalwaystheview]

That's concerning! But he does as requested, laying careful fingers on the inside of Angel's wrist.

There's...nothing. That's even more concerning!

"...are you a corpse?"

[graveling]

Such a blunt, pointed question. Angel flashes one of those firecracker smiles.

“I am a corpse. Woke up in a shallow ditch about five years back, with no memory. So. Tattoo, here before I was. Whoever this body used to belong to got it. And the instruction about the Temple isn’t me being weird about how doctors treat me, it’s me being weird in how my body mends itself.”

[theresalwaystheview]

It wasn't the most polite way he could have phrased that, no, but there are layers of alarm that are occluding the usual instinct to be anything but clinical when confronted with something so deeply distressing. From temperature to lack of readable vitals on a man that, for all intents and purposes, does seem alive, blurting his first thought to get it out of the way was about all he could do.

Bart is still holding gingerly onto Angel's wrist, the other hand coming up to turn it to be able to examine his hand more closely. "I'm sorry, that was an awful way to phrase that, but after everything that I've learned about the way human life is supposed to work, there are very few logical conclusions to be reached with the information at my disposal. You wouldn't have told me to inspect your vital signs if you didn't have something to prove to me, after all. This doesn't mean that I don't intend to try and do as you ask, far from it! It's just, this is a very curious phenomenon, from my point of view! Reading something off of a file or an instrument's readout isn't the same as directly observing it, after all!" Nervous babbling abounds, sorry Angel.

[graveling]

“Feel free to ask questions. I don’t have answers to most of the big ones, but. I’m sure you have a lot of them. Everyone does.”

Angel either isn’t offended, or isn’t bothering to emote sufficiently to show he’s offended. The babbling is sure a reaction, though. He knows he frustrates most of the doctor-folks (except maybe Chris?) with his existence. Confounds them. Challenges all they hold as truth already.

“I don’t mind being called a corpse, by the way. But I don’t like ‘zombie’.”

[theresalwaystheview]

And Bart is, of course, confounded. Not so much frustrated as fascinated. Maybe a bit alarmed because, yeah, this is pretty weird.

The comment that he doesn't like to be called 'zombie' does get a firm nod. "Of course. The connotations being what they are, it would seem doubly insulting to label you in that way. Erm...perhaps, rather than calling you either of those, you could tell me your name. Mine is Bart."

[graveling]

"Bart. I'm Angel." The tattoo on his back is wings, and so he is Angel. He heals on holy ground, and so he is Angel. It works out. "Nice to meet you?"

There's that question mark there, because he isn't sure he hasn't totally managed to fail at social interaction.

[theresalwaystheview]

"Angel. It's lovely to meet you." Not a hint of insincerity there, either. "If you come back to the clinic while I'm there, I would love to get a fuller accounting of your...everything, really. If it wouldn't be too much trouble. I know they've got their files on you, but I'm finding that in the absence of the neural implant I did have, I learn and remember much more easily if I can write things down of my own accord. If...that's not too uncomfortable."

[graveling]

"Whenever is convenient for you, then."

Wait. Pause.

"Neural implant?"

[theresalwaystheview]

"Oh, let me explain. Part of the education that I was receiving required me to have a neural implant in my cerebrum. It augmented my ability to take in, retain, and apply information at an accelerated rate. Formally, it was to prepare me while we were en route to a deep space station that would require said education to...in essence, take over the agricultural production on similar platforms to feed spacefaring populations."

Future boy doing future things, in other words.

[graveling]

"Ah."

Did he actually understand all of that? It's very hard to tell. His stare can read as quite blank sometimes.

[theresalwaystheview]

That immediate glazed look is familiar. He fidgets a bit with his own as he rewords the information.

"Having the technology in my brain was supposed to make me better at supporting and developing farming in space. It was also supposed to prepare me to inherit Father's company. I personally prefer what I've gotten to do here, though. And, I like the people that I've met here better."

[graveling]

"Oh. Yeah, I like the people here better, too. I like...having people. As friends. I never really...you know? Before, things were...I mean."

Bart's nervousness is contagious, but it doesn't manifest in physical fidgeting so much as halting and uncertain speech. He feels stupid, needing things dumbed down for him. But it's not like he's received an education in any meaningful sense of the word.

[theresalwaystheview]

He doesn't mean any offense by the way he changes his wording, more that he's simply accustomed to having to do so when talking to others that don't have the same experience. It was why talking with First Aid had been the pleasant surprise that it was. Angel would find no judgement from him, only careful attempts to make sure that he's not talking straight over the man's head. Which...unfortunately could come off patronizing.

"Me neither," he replies quietly, curling his hands around one-another to keep from getting annoying with the restless movement of his fingers. "I'm having to learn and adapt to a new world all over again. It's actually kind of fun."

[graveling]

"Fun? I guess I can understand that. I've only been, um. Around for five years, so I feel like I'm still trying to figure everything about existing out. Especially since I'm the only one of my kind anywhere, far as I can tell."

He shrugs, looking up to meet Bart's eyes.