MISC- Lucky Opening

HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS

The Winter holidays are about spending time with those close to you, enjoying a warm fire on a cold night, and eating festive food till you pass out. Family reunions mean lots of Pokemon around the table adding to the chaos. Maybe a Trainers Pokemon are all they have to share the season with and their festivities are a little smaller. Regardless of the size of the family, it's still a meaningful time.

Show how your Trainer spends the holidays. Do they meet up with family, exchange gifts, cook a festive meal, or simply just spend time in a warm cuddle pile with their Pokemon?

In the case of Nori and Saintalia, it seemed to have triggered a meeting under heavy stress. Can't all be merry and frolick in the snow after all, right?

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The holidays were a stressful time of year for many. In Brookfell, even the poorest of people would try to find whatever spare change they could to buy something for their loved ones, and as the streets filled with those people, pickpockets would naturally emerge from all corners of the cavernous town. Nori was one of those, a spy- assassin- pickpocket- whatever the job needed him to be. The holidays were no different for him. If anything, the amount of people on the streets made it easier for him to blend in and disappear into the night. On the other hand- it also made things easier for his enemies.

Nori was about to find that out- as he scurried past the people on the street. He had taken a datachip of valuable information and hot on his tail were hired guards, trying to find him among the people. He blended in just fine- but he hadn’t escaped without some injuries. With a hand clutched to his side, he walked over into an alley- watching as the guards were still trying to find him in the streets. Good. He lost them for now.

“Damn.”

He uttered under his breath, looking down to his blood covered hand. Quickly, he wiped his hand off on his shirt before covering it with his jacket. He was near a pharmacy, he knew that much- he only hoped they were still open.

The pharmacy was open, but in a period of lull, too late in the day for anyone doing chores or shopping to step in and yet too early for the night crowd to pop in to pick up a prescription after work. Empty allies lit by embedded module LEDs and the hum of industrial humidifiers echoing across the walls made for a dull experience overall, so Saintalia, still standing behind the counter, strongly felt she was hardly to blame for having the radio playing through her TD, if only to provide a crumble of amusement for the remainder of her shift. 

Brookfell was the sort of city that never slept- often times for all the wrong reasons- and the horned woman found herself trapped in the monotony of her day job, if only to have the funds to pay for electricity in the house, let alone something nice for herself and maybe even others during the upcoming holidays; she’d probably have to argue with the Boss-man over which one of them took up the day shift on Christmas as well. She absentmindedly cracked her knuckles as she leaned her elbows onto the counter, fidgeting her access energy away. 

A part of her considered flipping over the open sign on the door, or at least turning off the lights to dissuade others from entering the store, but Saintalia had decided against it, as having someone in the pharmacy would at least give her something to pay attention to; also, she’d definitely get caught if she closed up early. Tapping her feet to the beat of the radio was all she had going for herself at the moment, but that was about to change.

Nori found himself searching for the all familiar signs of the pharmacy, reaching for his head to scan a quick map. He turned the corner after a few seconds and made his way, a visual road illuminating with arrows as he followed the navigation. Not long after, it dinged- -and he had arrived at his destination. The man pressed the door open and pushed himself through it, closing it roughly behind him. The sign caught his eye- and he reached to turn it over before making his way through. If it were closed, whoever would still be on his track would mayhaps second guess the decision to investigate this particular pharmacy for his presence. 

He didn’t know if the store had some sort of alert that would signal his presence, but he followed the sound of– something as he walked through. Was that a radio? Some songs? He didn’t think about it too much, stumbling to the counter and only then noticing the woman stood behind it.

“Bandages– stitches. And disinfectant.”

Nori listed what he needed, his bloodied hand coming up to his head and gently swiping his bangs to show his TD. It was red in its usual state- hacked, naturally. But with the wound and Nori’s distressed state, it had started to slowly fade between yellow and red.

“And the backroom– for ten minutes. I’ll pay extra.”

“Arceus-!” Saintalia hissed as she caught sight of the man, her face morphing into a grimace when she saw the blood on his hand; her eyes flicked down to the bloodied shirt he wore as her mind raced with questions. Green eyes moved back to meet the stranger’s- something about them was familiar, but Saintalia wasn’t super focused on recollection at the moment- as her mind caught up to his request. Everything he’d asked for was in the pharmacy on the shelves, not that she’d tell him to get it himself.

Her fingers fumbled at her TD as she tried to mute the radio, even as she stepped out from behind the counter. “Backroom’s at the other end of the store, on left. It’s not locked, the door just jams easily,” she told the man. “I’ll need a second to grab everything-” why she was complying with the wounded stranger instead of calling a hospital, or the cops, was the question of the hour; the answer was ‘to avoid any potential bad will with gangs.’ Given the red of the TD she’d seen, Saintalia was very confident she didn’t want to get to know the bad side of this person, or any friends or co-workers they might have had.

Sprinting through the aisles, Saintalia rushed from display to display, grabbing the items that the man had listed, as well as grabbing an ice pack and muscle massage roller, on the off chance the man had tetanus and the signs weren’t showing yet. With supplies in hand, Saintalia ran towards the aforementioned backroom.

Nori had moved to the room without complaint or noise the moment she had spoken of it, opening the door with ease. He was surprised that the woman had no objections to everything but chalked it up to fear more than anything. Grabbing a chair, he turned it and stumbled down into the seat. With care, he removed his jacket- dropping it onto the floor and doing the same with his shirt, ripping off some cleaner part of it and pressing it to the wound for now while he waited for her to come. If she was. Not that he’d blame her if she ended up getting some security or anything- if this pharmacy even had such- but it’d be a shame to escalate things when it was unnecessary to do so.

He let out a shaky sigh and leaned his head back. Getting stuck like this was the last thing he’d wanted. 

Shoulder to the door, Saintalia pushed her way into the backroom, and failed to fight back her wince and intake of breath when she saw the extent of the man’s injuries. From what she could see past the ripped up shirt, their position was awkward, especially if the stranger planned on doing the stitches himself, and quick attention was needed to prevent further blood loss; potentially not immediately life threatening, but if he chose to have paramedics called, they’d need to act in the pharmacy to save him by the time they arrived.

“Disinfectant-” the woman stuck her arm out far enough to place the bottle near the man’s seat- “stitches, bandages…” These she placed on the nearby table so she could hold up the ice pack and massage roller. “You think you got tetanus?” was the way Saintalia chose to ask what had caused the injury without using the word ‘stabbed’. 

“What?”

Were the first words out of Nori’s mouth at that question- reaching for the items and pausing as he thought before shaking his head.

“No. Just need to close this up.”

He grabbed the disinfectant and got to work, pouring a bit on the cloth of his clothes and holding it against the wound instead. With his elbow, he kept it in place and grabbed the stitches to prepare them. He eyed the ice pack and the roller after.

“What is that?”

Nori knew the basics of self care– disinfect, close, wrap up. Not… whatever step was that required those items the woman was holding. 

Saintalia blinked, as if surprised. “These are for muscle spasms, vital if you have tetanus, useful if you're feeling numb anywhere or are in significant pain-” she paused, eyeing the man’s injury for a second, then added- “other pain, I mean.”

She was still left with questions about the nature of the stranger’s injury – who gave it them, where and why, and all that good stuff – but given the way he’d responded to her question, Saintalia was content to know that he wasn’t going to lash out; for a hacked user with a serious injury, he was very reasonable!

“You should drink water,” the woman murmured, almost as an afterthought. She took a moment to place the items in her hands onto the table and move towards the staff room; given that it was only her and Boss-man that supplied the mini-fridge, she doubted that there was any real water in it, but it probably had some of the weird muli-vitamin drinks that the pharmacy sold. “I’m Saintalia by the way, hi, how you doing, y’okay, aside from the-” she made a motion with her hand towards him.

“How.. am I doing?”

Nori laughed at the question, a genuine smile on his face. For some reason, she decided that was an appropriate response. 

“Aside from bleeding out- Fine. I’m Nori.”

He started, sitting up properly and starting to patch himself up. Outside, the people were still doing their shopping- but noises of fireworks, bangs, and blasts resounded this far into the city still. Despite its decrepitness, Brookfell did have some charm to it. Any fireworks let off in the middle of the crater would likely be heard throughout the entire city- as was the case now. The man shook his head in light amusement at the sound of it. Nori’s job had led him to recover data and it had been paramount to be finished before the day’s end.

“I suppose I should consider myself lucky the pharmacy was still open considering the holidays and festivities. It’s not entirely safe, y’know. Who knows what types could wander in here and take advantage of your hospitality? Perhaps it’s better for you to keep your sign on closed. I took the liberty of doing that for you when I came in.”

He might have hissed a few words here and there, the stinging of the needle and the disinfectant doing their worst on him. Despite that, he did find himself relaxing the moment he finished, leaning back in the chair and looking at Saintalia.

“Well. Merry Holidays, Saintalia.”