Day 47: Sun Room [2nd shift]

[notthistrain]

Cloud knew he should be taking the opportunity to check out the rec field during the day. The fresh air would be a welcome change from the crowded stuffiness the Institute usually provided, and he would have a chance to scope out the area when it wasn't all under the cover of darkness. When offered a choice, however, he remained in the sun room

Comments

[see_my_back]

"There was a whole library up on the second floor," she nodded, flipping through the notes she'd made thus far in her journal. While it hadn't been hard to obtain, the company was definitely lacking. "If you head up the stairs by the dorms, it'll be the hallway right in front of you. I can sketch you up a map if you want."

Not that she minded much either way doing the work. This kind of bookwormish stuff was what she thrived on. Not only was she good at it, she actually enjoyed it, much to some of her classmates' disbelief.

"Depends on the healer too," she supplied. While Hanatarou's idea was a good one, it would need some tweaking before it went into action. "Unless they're pretty good at running away or can hold their own in a fight, they'll be just as much at risk as the ones getting themselves hurt. And having a healer wounded is even worse."

So they'd have to assign a fighter with them or just send healers who could also fight to dangerous locations and maybe reserve the strict healers to a clinic set up in the patient's wing. That could work. Or at least get some of the patients to last long enough to get back to the clinic. Definitely something she could work with.

"But it's a good idea. I'd definitely be interested."

[mitase]

"Oh, I...have a map," Hanatarou replied, opening his own journal and flipping to the page where he'd copied a map off the board one day. The stairs by the dorms, hallway in front -- oh. There? Maybe he should go take a look some time. There could be other places down that hallway he'd never looked at, and they could have interesting or useful things too.

He glanced up again at her comment, a little hesitant and halfway surprised that she hadn't immediately said it was a terrible idea or laughed at him or something. "You...think so?" he asked, not bothering to try to hide his reaction. "I mean, it...I've heard about so many people getting hurt, and there aren't enough healers for every group to have one with them, but I, I don't want to spend more nights just sitting around waiting for people." Sometimes it was good to wait in the clinic, he supposed, but when nobody could get to the clinic....

"I saw a, a 'search and rescue' group on the board once, maybe they'd be willing to work with us? Or, or there might be fighters who would be willing to help. They could help us carry wounded people?"

[see_my_back]

Sakura leaned forward in her seat to better look at his map. He seemed to have found the right spot, so she didn't feel the need to point it out. It was too bad he was such a quiet guy, Hanatarou seemed to have a lot of good ideas and, Sakura assumed, medical knowledge and skill to go with it. He didn't look terribly sturdy, but one couldn't always judge on looks alone.

"Yeah. I know someone posted up on the bulletin about a club that does that kind of thing, but it sounds like whoever was running it isn't doing it anymore. Probably could use some reorganization. And if things are spread so thin like that, I don't think it would hurt for the groups to work together," she tapped her chin with the end of her pen before making a few more notes in her journal. Of course, gathering up the people and getting them to work was the hard part. Even if they were in a sinking ship, sometimes people were more likely to stay and go down with it than to trust someone new to help bail them out.

"With all your ideas, I'm surprised you're not running it. Is that how they did things where you're from?"

[mitase]

Hanatarou jotted a small note on the map in his journal, giving an absent nod as he did. A whole library of books that could maybe explain the equipment here would be invaluable -- he'd already found enough to assure him there was very little equipment that he was used to, and he needed to find equivalents that he could work with. The medicines he'd picked up could be very useful, if only he knew how to use them and in what dosage.

"No? Um. Mm, well, you're right. We don't have enough people to really spread out into a lot of different groups," he agreed, staring down at the journal without really seeing it. He hadn't seen a lot of healers speaking up on the bulletin, although there were a few who apparently knew a little of more ordinary first-aid methods, and they could definitely be useful. "It seems like people are arguing too much about which group they are and who's in charge, and...that makes it hard to get anything done."

He absently stuck the end of his pen in his mouth and nibbled on it as he considered, then froze in place briefly as she spoke again. "Er." Hanatarou glanced up again, wide-eyed and startled. "M-me? I don't, uh, n-no. I, I was...in charge of a, er, paramedic squad at home, but...I'm...." Not very visible? Useless? "I shouldn't run anything."