destinystrings | Farewell Happy Fields!

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Farewell Happy Fields!

Farewell Happy Fields!

☯

What: Aftermath of Anoli Attack: Hospital
Where: Leo Ward - Caduceus Hospital Headquarters
Summary: It is the aftermath of the Anoli attack on the Closing Ceremonies. The injured have been taken to Caduceus Hospital Headquarters, and it is time for reflection, visting, or old-fashioned escapes from the hospital rooms.
Warnings: Mild squick if people want to describe their wounds in explicit detail.

Caduceus Hospital Headquarters. It has a distinguished history within Hinoto-Ri, boasting of a staff of well-trained Healers, as well as possessing the most cutting edge medical technology possible. There was no limb they couldn't reattach, no organ they couldn't replace... - they even claimed to be able to bring someone back from the dead (with the small disclaimer that it could only occur under certain conditions and with an obscene amount of luck).

So needless to say, the hospital was more than well-equipped to deal with the aftermath of the Anoli attack on the Closing Ceremonies.

---

Nearly every hospital bed had been filled by an injured patient that night. The A&E room had been in constant chaos, with civilians crying and shouting, searching for loved ones, or demanding to see doctors or healers to help so-and-so...

There had also been plenty of reporters milling about, shouting and crying over the status of the Mayor's Secretary, and whether the Red Lion had really died at the scene, or if he was still alive and well within the safety of the hospital's ICU.

By the time morning broke, there was a false sense of tranquillity within the hospital. The healers had been pushed to their limits with the sheer number of patients being wheeled in and out of surgery, but otherwise, the situation had finally gotten under control. Now, both civilians and visitors were merely waiting for word of the conditions of their injured friends and family...

[Welcome to the winding down of the event! You are now at the hospital, where you may be visiting the injured, or be one of the injured yourself! Those with RED injuries will be in the ICU, and those with YELLOW injures will be in normal wards, for obvious reasons. Those with GREEN injuries wouldn't have had to go to the hospital at all, so they are free to come and go as they wish!

You may all start your threads and mingle!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Yes, that's right. It is usually around the age of eighteen when we begin attending college, but there are also students who attend a vocational high school where they can learn more trade-oriented skills. And even though it's less common, there are also families that have maintained a trade for generations, so those people will probably have been learning from an even younger age."

"But if that isn't common, then how--" He paused, trying to figure out how to ask what it was he was wondering about. He sighed a little, frowning to himself, but it didn't look like he was really any closer to being able to put it into words the way he'd like.

"When training to do something well takes so long, why would so many people put off beginning to do so until they're already grown, and... basically wait a third to half of their lives trying to learn everything, before they go on to do whatever it is they're going to do? I mean...."

"Because they spend the time up until then deciding what it is they want to do. Ah... Perhaps...

Avitus, do you come from a time when people are normally trained during apprenticeships?"

"'From a time when?'" He gave a bit more of a smile, amused. "That's the way it's always been, in Nosgoth, for as long as I can remember. Children in the Citadel are taught how to read and do basic math, but for the most part, apprenticeship is how anyone manages to do anything. If it weren't so, the guards would already be past their prime by the time they could fight well enough to survive the fighting outside the Citadel.

"Not that everyone does; I didn't pick up art or architecture until I was far older. I actually didn't intend to get into it at all, but..." He shook his head. "That isn't usual at all. How does your society manage to produce so much, as well as it does, if people have a whole decade less in which they do it?"

"That used to be how it was in my world as well, but people don't usually do apprenticeships unless it's a traditional vocation. Since lifespans have been extended thanks to medicine and technology, people have much more time to decide on their own what they want to do in their lives. There are also many cases when people change jobs for various reasons."

"Is that so...?" His wings sank down a little more behind him, spoon paused in scraping up the last of the ice cream from his cup. "They always choose for themselves now, then?"

His expression was hard to read, though the idea was clearly one he was playing with quite a bit at the moment. He hesitated, and then finally peeked back up again. "How long... do people live? ...in your world, I mean...."

"It depends on the country, but... In mine especially, people live quite long. It's normal for people to live around eighty years, but there are still people who can live even over the age of one hundred."

His eyes widened at that. He blinked, and stared a second, before he managed anything at all. Quietly, "Eighty? Humans live that long?"

Judging by his open shock, wings sinking down behind him, such a thing was probably unheard-of in Nosgoth.

"Mm. I suppose... their lifespans must be much, much shorter where you are from?" Just going by what he's said so far, she doesn't have a hard time imagining he must be from the equivalent of an earlier time period.

He nodded. "I think I heard that the average was just shy of forty recently, though some manage closer to sixty. The guards, less. Most in my clan weren't yet much past thirty, and a good deal were twenty-some-odd."

A sigh. "It isn't for lack of my brother Vedast trying, I'm certain. I know there was talk, back when the old clan was around, of Lord Rahab's humans nearing seventy on a regular basis, but there was also mention that they were quite addicted to their clan's blood, and... it... simply isn't done. Not in the Citadel. ...How do your people manage such a thing?"

"Like I said, medicine has come a long way. We have machines that can prolong life even if the person is comatose until their body has recovered enough to regain consciousness. Many sicknesses can be cured or outright prevented with vaccines, and a better diet makes it possible for people to live healthier lives."

It's all very general, of course. If he asks for any extra details on how most of this works, she wouldn't be able to provide much more information.

"I wonder what they use here, in this hospital...." He glanced at the door. "I mean, if it's possible to find out how those sorts of things work. Vedast relies on his Gift and blood, if I recall correctly, but if they have them here too, then... if I could tell Vedast about these new things well enough...."

Assuming he even remembered in enough detail, by the time he might be able to give such a report back home, anyhow.

"...I wonder how long the humans here live."

"Gift...?" She tilts her head slightly at that, but his other question makes her much more curious. "Well, the technology level here is higher than what we have in my world, and they can rely on magic as well... But on the other hand, due to the conditions of the city, that might also affect the health of the citizens. It's difficult to say."

"Oh." He was quiet for a moment, considering it. "I suppose it's simply something I'd have to ask those here, isn't it. ...But yes, um...." He looked back to her. "Vedast has a healing Gift. He... it's this... glow. When he uses it, it's blue, and it's in his hands, and it heals injury wherever he touches with it. It doesn't fix everything our blood does, exactly, but it isn't addictive, aside from feeling rather pleasant. Pain relief is one thing it does grant, that blood alone does not. But he's the one who has it, not me. And I think Armandus does, as well...."

He frowned to himself, almost a pout. "I wish I'd ended up with it too, honestly. Had I that one, I'd actually use it."

"That power..." She blinks a few times, before looking at her own hands. It sounds a little like...

Concentrating briefly, her hands glow a soft blue, but only for a short moment.

"You mean like that?"

He blinked, mouth falling open slightly as he stared, eyes a little wide.

"...Yes."

He sat up straighter in the chair, leaning forward a bit to see her hands better, as though that would tell him anything. "How did you do that? I thought-- I mean-- if that's some sort of magic...." He shook his head, looking back to her. "How...?"

Oh, he wanted to be able to do that! If only his kind's Gifts could be taught, he'd have figured out how by now....

"It's a power that was awakened in me in my own world. I can heal some wounds with it." Although if she wanted to tackle anything worse than that, she would have to tap into an entirely different ability...

"Oh, then it wasn't... something anyone taught you...?" His wings sank down again. "I thought--"

He glanced down, cheeks purpling slightly, and fiddled with his spoon in the empty cup. He must've just made quite a fool of himself there, he figured, getting excited over seeing her do that, thinking-- Well, it probably wasn't a thought worth continuing to entertain, was it.

"So vampires aren't the only ones to end up with Gifts, after all...."

She shakes her head, feeling bad when she sees how upset he seems to be. "No... I'm sorry." Even though it can't be helped; it was just their stars of fate to have been blessed with the powers they did.

"...How did they obtain their Gifts?"

"Through age, mostly. I've read that it was once possible for vampires to inherit another's Gift through consuming their blood, but if that were the case, water wouldn't harm any of us, after having fed on Rahabim. Unless that isn't strictly a Gift of theirs." He frowned a bit, but quickly enough dismissed the idea again.

"I heard Zeno and Vedast speaking of it, before, too. Apparently when Raziel returned, he had acquired his brothers' gifts by doing something like that... but Zeno said he suspected it was largely... er... psycho... something? That taking their Gifts was all in his head." He was a little quieter, tucking his wings around him more, probably not realizing he was. "I heard him saying that a ghost's form and abilities were logically from their own beliefs. But that aside, he had telekinesis, so now I know where that Gift comes from."

Much of this goes flying over her head. Vampires are quite complicated, it seems.

"The way we obtained our powers seemed much more like pure chance... I'm afraid I don't know very much about the people who gained it through age or other means." She's still curious, however. Even in her own world, there were those who had trained their spiritual powers instead of gaining them suddenly as Aoi and her friends did.

"Then it isn't common for it to be simply something that develops as one lives, in your world? How... did you come to have yours? You said it was awakened somehow, but... how did it happen, if I might ask?"

She shakes her head. "It's not common at all... most people aren't even aware of the existence of powers like ours. Even now, we try to keep it a secret." Or at least, they did when she was in Tokyo. Things are quite a different matter in Hinoto-Ri.

"Some people develop theirs naturally, I think, but... ours came very suddenly due to the Dragon Stream being disrupted."

Which... had been indirectly her fault, as it turned out.

"And... the Dragon Stream isn't the name of something that has to do with a path for water, is it." Chances were, it wasn't something that he was familiar with already, from his own world.

She shakes her head quickly. "It's a little more... mystical than that. I'm not sure how to explain it, but..." She pauses for a moment to collect her thoughts.

"When the Dragon Stream is disrupted... the world is thrown into chaos. In our case, it was because demons were being summoned and set out upon the city."

Farewell Happy Fields!

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