[OPEN] Eshai Memorial Hospital May catch-all

[survival_isnt_living]

Characters: Hospital staff, volunteers, patients, visitors, and everyone else!
Date: All of May
Location: Eshai Memorial Hospital, Metal Sector
Situation: General Hospital a la Turtle-back
Warnings/Rating: It’s a hospital, there will probably injuries/blood/etc at some point.
OOC Note: Everyone, feel free to add your own thread headers for whatever you might need!

There are still signs of the damage taken in the bombings, but repairs are taking place and are obviously not keeping the hospital from its usual busy schedule. Some of the work seems to be plumbing related: with the city water contaminated, they are trying to get a back-up system in place easier to keep purified, and sometimes some of the staff and volunteers can be found doing just that. Everyone needs sanitary water.

Some of the rooms have been reassigned uses until the repairs are finished, usually in favor of keeping intensive care as flexible as possible. First aid training still takes place in the classroom on the third floor, along with classroom-friendly aspects of field training.

Upon request, the list of active field medics will be provided by the front desk, along with who is currently on-call.
Active Field Medics:
Septimus
Raine Sage
Frank Zhang
Zelgadis Graywords
NPC kedan healers

Comments

[solo_patria]

"I HAD spoken to Madame Sabriel about learning some magic." Enjolras muses. "When that occurs, when I've been baptized, that is, I should be able to learn something of healing within charter magic."

It seems reasonable enough to go about it that way, and will allow for him to do some actual good here. It feels right, somehow, the thought of healing, and though he'll never fully make a doctor, there is something that feels good in the idea of repairing things made wrong, healing divisions...it is something of a new direction, yes, but the basic tenents of the idea are the ones he had in Paris, to repair what was broken, and to bring about a better life for as many as can be helped. Perhaps it is natural that his interests would suddenly come here then.

"Technology does seem something of a problem at the moment. I do not know that I could trust it, given what has been usurped. I know that there are many here who know what they are doing, but, once compromised...it feels unsafe, perhaps, to try the network again. And, no, I do not. I helped in one of the smaller clinics, Combeferre's, but since all of this began and things have gotten muddled, there are no schedules for anything. I should speak to him as well, of coming here, and our friend Joly. It is quite fortunate that many of those who've come from my home are medical students. They could be extra hands as well, I'm certain."

[survival_isnt_living]

'Baptized' is one of those words which Septimus decides not to request a translation of; for all that he hears the word, there just isn't an equivalent concept in Aleran life, and no amount of automatic translation can turn syllables into an idea he's simply never conceived of. So he just lets it pass, focusing instead on the logistical possibilities now offered.

Septimus smiles slightly. "I'd be happy to have them. As for you, I have a suggestion. We can use extra hands with basic errands and cleaning, as well as basic scheduling and managing. Given that people sometimes disappear I'd rather have redundancy and flexibility in who can do those jobs. If you feel comfortable providing basic assistance to the full healers around that, that can be taken into account; either way, if you put in the hours, we can certainly justify giving you a wage for it."

Between their own business plans and getting as much Imperial support as they could, Septimus is often glad when he can hire someone properly rather than just taking up their volunteer time--not least because it tends to mean more work out of them. (He can have multiple reasons.)

[solo_patria]

And since it is a different baptism than the kind Enjolras is used to, and he has no idea what it entails, it's just as well that he's not asked for further details on that, really. He could hardly give them at the moment.

He'll speak to the others, he decides, at least bring up the possibility for the moment. In the face of what has happened, it may be a better idea for all of the doctors, including his friends, to consolidate their work here. As far as the rest goes, he is nodding as Septimus speaks.

"That does make a great deal of sense, yes. And yes, I would be quite comfortable with that." He's learned a fair bit of things watching Combeferre, enough to be familiar with terms that the doctors may use here, of course. "I would certainly be glad to provide assistance full time for as long as you might need me."

Much as he wishes not to take a wage, to see it funneled back into the hospital, the more practical part of Enjolras points out that this is a bit ridiculous. After all, even he sometimes needs to eat and change clothes and things.

More work IS quite close to what the hospital will get from Enjolras now, too. With a strong reason to be there often, and to work hard, it may be hard to get rid of him at times in fact. Le National in Paris was rather the same way about him, even though that was a newspaper, and the work was completely different. Either way, his devotion had been gained now, anyway.

[survival_isnt_living]

With a nod in return, Septimus gives him a smile. "Then let's go find you the tedious but eternally and apparently multiversally necessity called 'paperwork'. Hateful or not, it helps us stay organized."

He has a long history of finding people's strengths, guiding them to a place they feel they can help, where they can help, and helping something larger than they are--including themselves, along the way. It's really not even something he consciously thinks about, unless prompted; he just does.

And he's seen Enjolras's integrity, and likes it. Septimus will do all he can to let the man exercise it and accomplish something with it. At least this is a start.

[solo_patria]

"Ah, paperwork." Enjolras's eyeroll is good natured enough, really. "One aspect of school that I did not miss, I assure you." He is excited though, as far as these things go, to get things moving along as he can.

This is a start indeed, and it is a start that Enjolras is certainly glad to have. Through all of this, he's wanted some way to fight the darkness as best as he can, but has never considered before that not resorting to fighting himself might be a way. Upon consideration, though, he's more than grateful that he has that chance.

[survival_isnt_living]

Septimus laughs. "I admit, bureaucratic and administrative paperwork were never much part of Academy life," he notes wryly, "but they were an inescapable fact of Legion command. The worst part was that in the best of times, when there were no battles to be fought, it was one of the more crucial aspects. Academy papers were... a different kind of exasperating."

Despite the comment, his voice has a fairly good-natured asperity to it. He is as capable of administration for ruling an empire as he needs to be, and honestly good at logistics. But he's military to the core--rather unlike his father--and as such gets rather more restless when having to deal with it. But in this case... he doesn't mind being subjected to it as much as usual. This is going to help build the hospital staff up (and maybe go further, though the thought is still mostly unformed). That is worth any amount of trouble and time and boredom he can put to it.

[solo_patria]

"I was reading the law myself," Enjolras explains. "Rather quite a bit of that sort of thing in there from the start. A dear friend claimed to be deathly afraid of all of us turning him into one of us so that he'd have to do the same." And thinking of Bahorel does make him laugh, actually. "

Command...I can imagine that command would be particularly bad for that sort of thing. Crucial as you say it is, the minutiae and such does have moments of being draining. The other sort of paper...not so bad perhaps, beyond saying what one was expected to, of course." And here he is making a little face, recalling the experience that was toeing the line in law school to be allowed to stay and stretch out the experience long as he could to accomplish other, more important things.

Logistics are not unknown to Enjolras, of course, but he was never a leader of fighters by choice, but by the grim necessity of dealing with those who would prevent the rightful future from coming about. Still, the sort of work he would have done instead of using those tactics, had it been left to choice, would have been a battle waged by his pen and the press, an influence which would not have required violence and the causing of deaths he loathed. Still, some things must be, in the matter of what he did then, and in the relatively more pleasant one of turning his attention to the papers at hand. They represent quite the worthy cause of course, and so there is nothing else to do but accept them as required now.

[survival_isnt_living]

"Law could get incredibly tedious." The note of exasperation is still in his voice. "Especially considering how detailed attention needed to be, with the sheer number of bloody politicians who would exploit anything they could. I'd hope to leave that job to someone else as much as I could. Military history and practical furycrafting were much more straightforward. Theoretical furycrafting was often interesting, but sometimes the maestros had opposing opinions, often blatantly wrong--if one only thought about it."

There is an underlying arrogance to the latter part of the rant. He has thought about it, and often discussed and debated it with his parents (especially his father). For all of that, he would never have really written any papers on it, or formed groundbreaking explanations; another would do it later. Perhaps even more arrogant is the faint smile at 'saying what one was expected to.' He didn't get a free pass just for his position--he was utterly certain of that, and would have insisted on it--but it did mean the maestros were reluctant to give him marks based on bias against some of his more unconventional opinions. There are definitely advantages, at times, to being the heir to an empire. But some of this is making him rub his temple. His education had been rather deep and highly comprehensive; for all that he is not devious, it takes more than a little intelligence just to work with it all. He hasn't been applying it much here, though. Getting back into the habit is... difficult, with emotional baggage attached.

"In some ways command does entail more of it," he admits, "but it's much more practical and far less about manipulating details. And the Legions are the sword and shield of the Realm. Keeping one tightly run, supportive for its legionares and to the civilians attached helps guarantee protection of the civilians in the area." What he doesn't add is the obvious: that makes it all worth it, without hesitation or thought or a moment's regret. He swore an oath with his official coming-of-age, one to the Senate and his father. His life was given to the Realm and her people--all his mind and energy in service to it daily and to end the stagnation he believed had set in--and, in the end, also life and death for them. A subtle difference, but one all the same. And that also for his family, his wife and their unborn child (son, he suspects), because that child isn't just one he loves. Octavian is Alera's hope and future.

And Septimus was always too restless, had too much wanderlust, believed too strongly in the Legion service and the way to the people's hearts not to choose that path despite whatever concerns his father nursed. He doesn't have the same drive, here, or a way to devote that energy. But just through the hospital alone he's starting to make one.

[solo_patria]

"Politicians." The word is spat rather than anything else the exclamation might be called. "Exploitation, manipulation." They leave a bad taste in his mouth, though the truth must be acknowledged in order that it might change. Jean-Jacques..."

He starts, then pauses, realizing that he is probably the only one in this conversation who knows Rousseau just now, and that not everyone calls a philosopher they admire so informally as that (granted, in the technical sense, Enjolras and his Jean-Jacques have been bed fellows many times, if one counts how many times he has fallen asleep over a volume of his work).

"Ah, sorry, a philosopher I greatly admired, said that everywhere men are born free, but they are held in chains, in bondage to those like you describe. A universal state, though I doubt he knew that other worlds could intersect in such a way as this. I would not be so good at it myself. I want some things so badly, need them even more that I do not trust myself. I would not place myself in a position, any position that could allow me the temptation to force change that no one else would have."

It had been different at home, persuading, taking up a cause already there, and throwing himself behind and into it with everything he had, but Enjolras in politics himself would be quite terrible he knew.

"For all that it is worth, I would have sooner worked to know the needs of others, to strike compromise in order that there may be some consensus. You speak of opposing opinion on so many points. We had precious many of those and little of compromise and mutual faith, when I last lived, even amongst those who stood united on the larger issues. That lack of unity loosened that faith we owned each other, tugged too much at the social knot that we had hoped would be a bond, and let it fray with much pressure instead. I think now that is part of why the victory I helped to win was moral, never practical."

The moral victory had been enough, but even so, knowing the situation now, being away from it enough to realize that, had clearly influenced his thinking on the matter, now that Enjolras re-examined it well enough. For his part, saying the things one wished to hear had been a necessary cover, and he'd hated it, but would have had things no different themselves, desired no special treatment that he had not earned. It may have been nice though, simply once, to say what he had wished to in the matter of opinion without making himself a greater target than he needed to be.

He is nodding now though, as Septimus speaks of command. In matters of armies themselves, instead of smaller groups of fighters, coordinated though they are, he does understand how a difference may arise, and in protecting the civilian, there is an honor he can understand too well.

His own life had been lent to him, he'd had no doubt of that, and he had been glad to use it in the greater service of not only La Marianne herself, but in the broader sense of Patria as well. Life and death for those who make her up, indeed. Even here and now, in a new world where the old hard and fast rules of his past do not apply, the principle remains the same, and yes, still worth the same things in the end.