The pieces of April

[baldrshand]

Who: Ethlyn and thee (prior to snek plague)
Where: Various places in Aldrip
What: Local(?) woman is confused and irritated about it
Warnings: None!


1. Healer, get thyself together
[It was strange enough waking up in a house that seemed to be made of squares and triangles, all white with steel appliances on the inside. But what's even more unsettling is what Ethlyn sees when she returns to the familiar grounds of the Willow Clinic. Why? Because they are familiar. It's as though someone picked up the farmhouse and the gardens around it, willow and all, and plopped it down in the middle of a modern city block.

There’s a shelf full of medical books and every book is full of ribbons. She can almost remember putting them there.]

I was a healer… [she closes her eyes.] I am a healer. That’s right. I know what these are. [She takes another look at a ribboned page and falls into a mutter.] Actually, I’m not so sure about the jejunum... that sounds like some foreign fruit.

[Wait. Wait that was the bell over the door.]

Oh! Hello, sorry!

2. Memories, rising from the pavement

[Deirdre. Sigurd. Leonster. Thracia.

She’s sitting at a table in the public library with a notebook and loose leaves scattered around her, trying to sort out which is which. On one page is a sketch of a sword, and a list of names–to a casual glance by a modern person, all looking like they’re about 800 years old. She’s trying to identify them. “Quan = husband” is one entry. The rest are covered with smudges and the tapping of a pen.

Finally she sighs and leans back in her chair, pushing her hands through her hair.]

What a coward I’ve been.

3. We want YOU

[Well. Whether or not she is Ethlyn the busy widow or Ethlyn the lady and battlefield healer, the Arztenritter exists and needs to be rebuilt. Right now it’s herself, Marianne, Emet-selch, and Minato… she’s… pretty sure. She isn’t entirely.

But she’s out and about around the city, on a horse named Venture, with a load of rolled-up posters in her saddlebag. Whenever she spots the outside of a likely-looking building, she’ll hop off with a hammer and nails and starts putting it up.

She found the posters in the storage closet of the clinic. Possibly they were made by someone with a passion for graphic design.]

Right. This ought to be eye-catching enough.

4. Wildcard
[If none of these suit, feel free to make up your own or plot something out with me! I'm in game disco, on plurk at compassinks, or open to PMs.]

Comments

[baldrshand]

I'm glad to hear it.

[It can be difficult to take pet owners at their word in all things, but so far the little fellow does seem to be as Minato says.

She watches Minato peruse the bookshelf, indulging in some sympathetic amusement at the look he's giving some of the titles. She's sure she looked much the same when she began reading words like Escherichia coli and duodenum and ventricular tachycardia.]

It's a book about why your back hurts.

[memori3s]

[ Oh. That definitely explains the artwork adorning the book's cover. It's a man hunched over with a pained expression, hand pressed against his lower back. ]

Do all of these books belong to you...?

[ There sure are a lot of them, offering a wealth of knowledge.

Minato glances over at Ethlyn with a sheepish expression. He'd agreed to assist in her healers brigade, but there was one small problem. ]

...I don't actually know much anatomy.

[ Who needs science when you have magic!! ]

[baldrshand]

That's all right--I had a great deal to learn when I first came here. And I began my training as a healer when I was younger than you.

[Do all the books belong to her... Ethlyn stares at the bookshelf for a moment. The obvious answer is yes, but she's not entirely sure that it's right. Wasn't there someone else here? She did not always live in Aldrip, of that she's sure, and so this building was not always hers. But then whose was it?]

I've been studying those... probably since I first arrived here. But do you know any first aid? As an emergency healer, that will be most of what you do. And it's much simpler than understanding stomach acid and the movement of lymph.

[memori3s]

[ That's the equivalent of telling him she'd started studying to go to med school before hitting high school. Truly, Ethlyn's from a different time and place...

First aid though, that's something he can do. Minato nods in response. ]

I know a little.

[ Everyone in each sports club had to learn a thing or two just in case an emergency arose mid-practice. ]

How to do your best to stop a wound from bleeding, CPR: things like that.

[baldrshand]

[Every good medieval daughter should know how to kill and how to heal before age 12!]

That's excellent. Keeping someone alive in the field means that they'll survive to come here for any more complex procedures they might need.

But there is a question that's just as important as what you know about how to fix parts of a body--have you ever done it before on someone who's actually hurt?

[memori3s]

...I haven't, no.

[ Magic was usually the answer to injuries acquired during their Dark Hour missions. And the last time he'd seen someone severely wounded, he'd only been able to stand in shock. Maybe there was a part of him that understood the injury was, almost certainly, fatal. On the other hand, knowing how to mitigate that wound to at least try to minimize damage would have made him feel a little better about things.

His expression clouds a bit. If he'd at least known how to mitigate the wound, at least he could have helped even a little. ]

[baldrshand]

[Ethlyn is glad she asked that, now. She's not sure why Minato looks so troubled, whether he's remembering some time he couldn't help someone, or is simply imagining what it's like to deal with someone bloody and frightened and in pain. But either prospect is difficult to face.]

All right. That's no problem, but it's important to be prepared. We can do some play-acting practice with some of the clinic staff--that can help you get used to how it feels when someone is squirming and yelling. That way, when you have to put your skills to use for real, you won't be shocked out of remembering them.

[memori3s]

[ The teen blinks, immediately ridding himself of the distressed expression. There's no need for him to be troubling Ethlyn with his reflections of the past.

Minato offers a nod. ]

I think that would help.

[ It pales in comparison to the real deal, but it's certainly better than nothing.

He looks to Ethlyn, quietly studying her for a moment. ...she can't be that much older than him, but given what's been implied based on her medical expertise, ]

...have you done it before?

[ Did she have to put her skills to work on the real deal? How often? It's difficult for him to imagine just how young she must have been when she first entered the fray. ]

[baldrshand]

I was a battlefield healer, back home. It was a skill I had trained for from a young age.

[Much like Sigurd spending hours in the training yard swinging his child-size sword and learning how to wear mail without complaining, she had spent hours looking at images of veins in the human body, learning how to mix plaster to set broken bones, arrowheads from pieces of meat until she could do it without opening the wound further--and, of course, needlework.]

My brother learned to lead the troops in battle and I learned to care for them when they were injured in our service. And I did the same for my husband when we married and I became part of his family.

It was difficult at first--keeping your head on straight during a battle is no easy feat. But it becomes much easier with practice. You get used to the sights and sounds--and the attitudes, as well.

[memori3s]

[ Minato recalls Ethlyn's identity from that strange memory-muddling month: the wise neighborhood widow. He hadn't been aware that, outside of that strange month, the woman was already married. Minato blinks, zeroing in on that information even though it hadn't been the point of Ethlyn's anecdote.

Marriage aside, Ethlyn can't possibly be much older than him. And yet, the manner in which she carries herself already speaks of several years of experience.

She must be someone who had to grow up very quickly. ]

That's true. Practice will always help.

[ He glances down at his Evoker, nestled in its holster at his waist. ]

I wasn't a battlefield healer. But when someone was hurt, sometimes it was my job to heal them.

[ It was something only he could do, given his ability to juggle several different Personas all with various abilities. ]

It was all magic though. That's why I don't really know any anatomy.

[baldrshand]

[Ethlyn notices that Minato is looking at his gun. She wonders how often he's had to use it. In the other Aldrip, that they thought was their real home, Minato had been a student and a student alone. Now he has to get used to the idea of being a soldier again. Even if his memories are clear to him, that still has to be an adjustment.]

Mm... it's a similar story for me. I knew some, but the level of knowledge on my world--we knew what the major bones were, and the more obvious organs. But while my magic staff can cleanse and heal a wound so that it doesn't become infected, I had no idea that infections are caused by germs. [She walks over to the bookshelf and runs a finger along the spines.] It felt like I was learning from scratch, as though my years of training hadn't happened.

[Ah, here. She selects a text that should be fairly entry-level.]

Start with this one. It will help you understand what the magic was working on when you used it.

[memori3s]

[ Little does Ethlyn know, that pistol-shaped device isn't for use on other people.

Minato's gaze tracks Ethlyn as she inspects the bookshelf. He shuffles over to her, accepting the tome she hands to him. It's a basic compendium of the body, more of a dictionary than a more specialized text. ]

Okay. Thanks, Ethlyn.

[ He tucks it under an arm before glancing back at her. He recalls her putting out the message on the network, the place where their paths initially crossed, with a message that announced she was from a time before electricity became commonplace. If that's the case, she must have read a lot to gain a better understanding of how her magic interacted with wounds.

He'll have to study hard too so he can be more helpful around the clinic. ]

...I hope I can help more soon.

[ It's all he knows, stepping up to fill whatever niche was needed. ]