Melting Clock: Med Bay's First Arrivals

[meat_mooks]

Things had been running as usual down in the med-bay, and to first appearances, this week wasn't going to be different.

But first appearances could be deceiving. This week was going to be different. And as the next few days passed by, the Medical Department was going to find that they now had quite a situation on their hands.

[[ooc: Okay, so this

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[haruno]

Sakura wondered at exactly how right Kaya had been, looking forward to predict the situation they were in now. Where one mysterious medical problem appeared, so others would follow -- if Sakura's own guess about some of those others being brought in due to uncharacteristic, even unprovoked attacks had also proven partially true.

Sometimes there was really no winning.

As she made her rounds, more quietly observing and making notes to herself about what they knew so far, she found her eyes coming back to the red-lit form of one of their patients. One who's awake, she noted, moving toward his bed after a moment's hesitation. Getting to the bottom of all of this meant talking. She might as well keep doing that in the face of what she couldn't do. (Figure this out, for one.)

Noting the man sleeping on the bed next to his, she kept her voice low when she spoke. "How're you feeling?" She smiled, chartless and noteless for the moment. Her somewhat ridiculous question was sincere at heart -- for all the situation, monitoring how people felt going forward was as important as tracking back to the cause of this in the first place.

[haruno]

She paused, glancing at the lights. "One out of two's better than neither." Sakura redirected her gaze, blinking as she focused on his face. "You had an eventful time coming in here, didn't you?"

[haruno]

"I can do both," she said helpfully, lips quirking up at the corner. "If I wasn't planning on it. I'd hate to fall short of your expectations."

She brought one hand to rest on her hip, turning the palm of her other up to count off his options. "Let's see, we can start with the prodding, interrupt halfway through with questions on if this hurts more than that does, toss in a few pokes to prove you've got a automatic reflex system, which might or might not be all the more fun considering," she said, gesturing vaguely at him and the bed and those lovely tentacles of Stacy's, "And then end with a series of questions that won't be helping all that much with what we're looking for, but are worth asking for the sake of professionalism."

She quirked up an eyebrow. Not to say she hadn't done all of that at different points in her career, but it hadn't been on her agenda now. "Or we can talk about something else." Sakura let her hand drop down to her side. "It's your call."

[haruno]

"Mmm. If you're used to us, then you know there's a reason why we do what we do. Or so I like to believe." There were other circumstances and other medics where it was anything but reasonable. Kabuto came to mind, leaving soon after.

"I promise to minimize the clinical stuff." For the moment. Should the situation change, that promise would be right out the metaphorical window. She smiled, a more relaxed expression than before. She was making an effort to be ore outwardly at ease than she really was, given everything the last few days.

"Why don't I start over? Hello! My name's Haruno Sakura--" she paused, then shook her head. "Sakura Haruno."

[haruno]

"It's not Japanese," she said flatly. It's not the first time she's heard as much, but as an assumption, it grated time to time. Sakura made her tone lighten as she continued speaking.

"If you're right in that where I'm from we introduce ourselves by family name first."

She nodded. "Yes, Sakura's my first name. The sakura blossom is... ah, cherry blossom? Nice and symbolic, I'm sure, if for the wrong profession."

To say nothing that her name as a whole was a neat summation of her natural coloration. Pink hair, green eyes? With a name that literally meant field of spring cherry blossoms? Gotta love the parents who figured that one out for you, especially when they hadn't expected it to be quite that apt.

[haruno]

"I'll take a rain-check on the handshake, Kon." It presumed there'd be one. "Can't say I've ever heard of pokemon cards before. Are they anything like ninja info cards?"

[haruno]

"Pretty self explanatory. Information cards summarizing abilities and known affiliations of individual shinobi. They have basic information on height, a guess at weight, hair color, eye color, village, rank, things of that nature."

She shrugged. "They weren't anything I used."

[haruno]

She gave him an odd look. "What are you talking about?"