retrospec | Text

that sounds good!!!
i can be there in like half an hour???
ill bring my first aid kit

Very well.

[It was a fairly short walk from her apartment to the Square, even with her shoulder aching in a ghostly mimic of a limb she didn't have right at this moment. Despite the occasional improbable colors of things, the older woman was fairly easy to spot in her usual attire of a black and dark green dress. She was sitting on a bench near the fountain, one leg crossed over the other and occasionally glancing at her phone screen.

It was a nice enough day, half-painted or not. Good for plausible deniability if someone from the internet she'd never met before didn't appear after all.]

[It takes Sora the full half hour to get there, having to walk several blocks to get there from his house. He's easy to spot, however, coming up the path with a big white first aid kit in one hand and a dog on a leash in the other. Not to mention, it's easy to see anyone coming with only half the scenery painted.

He looks around nervously for a second before spotting Amelia, and then another moment for him to approach her.]

Hi. Um... You're Amelia, right?

[These phones didn't come with a sufficiently dramatic snap closing a book brought with it, it was inconvenient. The older woman looked up when her name was called, but she didn't stand.]

Mrs. Wagner, yes. And you are?

[He looked fairly similar to the Retrospec ID photo. His carrying around that big medical kit could be specific to their conversation or entirely coincidental.]

Oh! Um, I'm Sora. And this is Buck.

[He gestures to the dog sitting patiently next to him, panting. Hope you like dogs.]

You wanted help with a wing, right? I brought my kit.

[Amelia has no strong opinions about dogs, as long as they aren't suspiciously wolf-shaped and the size of ponies.]

I see that.

[Now she rose, satisfied she wasn't just being stood up, and tucked her phone away into a purse.]

This way. There's not enough space here.

[And she turned with a sweep of her sleeve, expecting him to follow, and walked a distance into a grassy field away from the paved path.

Before Amelia came to the end of the painted area, she stopped, and half-turned to look back at him.]

I cannot speak in my other form, so if you have questions now would be the time to ask them.

[Moving to follow Amelia, there's a moment of quiet between them before she speaks again. Sora's not really sure what to say; this woman is a stranger, as well as much older than him, despite their shared connection to Retrospec.

He's not sure what questions to ask, either. Most of his patients can't exactly talk back.]

Oh, um, well... How long have you had wings? And how long have they been hurting? Did something happen to them?

I have been able to transform since February. [Though she'd been having confusing dreams much earlier.] I only sprained the left wing a few days ago in an unpainted area.

How, though? Did you trip?

[Despite the innocence of the question, Sora does have a point to it; how hard it was hit could determine where the sprain is and how bad it was. He doesn't have as much experience with wings as he does with paws and tails, but he figures he can at least try.]

Also, um, what part of the wing?

No. I incorrectly judged where the ground was, and landed on the wing.

[She didn't roll over it, which was at least something.]

The sprain itself is on one of the middle joints. Where the...thumb would be, were it still a hand. [Amelia's shoulder twitches with the phantom ache. I can show it to you more easily.

Ah, okay. Well, um, go ahead, then.

[That was about all he could think to ask anyway, though he'll probably have a ton more questions later. And he's kind of eager to see Amelia turn into a dragon.]

[Amelia flicked an arm and sleeve, but the end of the garment didn't stop moving. It glowed white, like an ember smoldering away at the paper concealing her form, and the sleeve stretched out and out.

The light spread rapidly up her arms, her torso and face, as the woman's form reshaped itself. The light grew tall, three times her height and more, with a many-horned head curling away from the spiny shoulders at the top. The light gave way to more solid black scales, and from her final height Amelia looked down at him again. She stood straight up, much like a person in stature, but with a tail and wings and far too many features besides that declared otherwise.

One of her wings was folded closer to her body, its thumb joint swollen and hanging lower than the other.]

[Sora watched with awe at the transformation, eyes wide. Even with everything he'd seen in the last year, he'd never seen anything like this, and he almost didn't know what to make of it.

As the light faded and revealed the dragon, it took him a moment to look around again and notice the wing. He'd almost missed it from his position. Tying Buck to a nearby tree, Sora picked up his medical kit again and carefully makes his way closer to Amelia's wing.]

[...this presented a bit of a problem. Her injury was fairly high up, and unless Sora grew wings he wouldn't be able to reach it. But she wasn't about to sit or just lie down like a beast. That would gravely insult her dignity.

A moment of thought, and the dragon did at least crouch, extending a clawed hand palm up and resting it against the ground, to give Sora something to stand on. Lifting people to her shoulder seemed to work before.

Some parkgoers had stopped to gawk, of course, but Amelia paid them no mind.]

[This type of thing is much too common for Sora to gawk like a tourist like those around them for too long. Well, not the dragon part, but the strangeness of the situation in general doesn't even phase him.

He lets himself be lifted up to Amelia's shoulder, only a little bit unnerved, and then picks his way over to the joint. Gingerly, he reaches up a hand to the joint and pets it lightly, both to check under the skin and to see what Amelia would do. Not try to buck him off her back, hopefully.]

[That would be very rude. A few of the spines on Amelia's face twitched as her mouth pulled back into (more) of a grimace, but she did her best to keep the wing very still, both while Sora was sidling out there and when he touched the clawed thumb joint.

The sprained joint is warm to the touch, and clearly inflamed. Nothing seems to be fractured or out of place, which could either be anatomical strangeness or nothing to worry about.]

[Things with wings are not Sora's forte, being more used to taking care of cats and dogs, but he's had his share of birds and bats too. He slowly eases his hand along the joint, trying hard not to cause too much discomfort.]

Well, I don't think it's broken, so that's good. Um...

[He pauses again, thinking. He's no doctor or vet; everything he knows has come from personal experience. It's made a little easier knowing that at least Amelia can understand him.]

I... I think it's just sprained? So, um, you're supposed to ice sprains. And I could wrap it, I guess? Will that work, if you turn back into to a person?

[This was a bit too complex an answer for Amelia to address all pointy-toothed like this. She had her doubts that an ice pack would stay in place when she switched forms again. But she couldn't very well bandage herself from here either, and leaving a sprain untreated seemed like a bad idea.

Metaphysics, shockingly, are complicated.

The dragon shrugged--slowly. It wasn't direct as a nod, perhaps, but she curled the injured wing a bit closer to Sora. It was worth a try, anyway.]

Okay...

[He nods, almost to himself, then turns to dig through his first aid box. The bandages he pulls out are meant for humans, but the limb isn't large and it's a really big roll.

Sora examines the joint again for a second, thinking of how to start, before he firmly, but carefully, begins to wrap the bandages around. This, this is something he knows how to do, and he's quick and efficient, if slightly clumsy. It's not long before he pulls back to tie it off and examine his work.]

So, um, does that seem like it'll stay on?

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Amelia Wagner 5/21 near Enprise
I don't suppose there are...veterinarians on this network? My question pertains to a creature with no earthly equivalent. I am concerned a sprained wing isn't healing correctly. Post has been edited at 2:35 PM. (Glitches.)