[text] @doctorsin [open]

[sulfa]

This is Wade. Doc Hicks and I wanted to put the word out that anyone who needs medical attention now or in the future can find one of us - I'm in Room 310 and Gene's camped out by the bonfire. We're in the process of establishing a clinic in the chapel vestry for the sick and injured. If you have any information on new medical developments from your time or have any medications from the future, please share them.

And lastly: if you go out into the woods, bring one of us along. That's what we're here for.

Comments

[sulfa]

[ and now irwin's doing the same, because it's a vaguely stressful situation and now that gene's brought that option to mind it's hard to think about anything else but the small relief of a smoke. he really should pace himself better than he has been, but it's a thin balance between cutting back too swiftly and not tapering off steeply enough.

it takes a few moments of thought and several re-reads of the conversation's latest message for wade to come up with anything. ]

Well, tell him he's right about needing to work together. Guys like that generally enjoy feeling like they're in the right. [ god knows he'd learned that much during his time dwelling with an excess of 18-year-olds in the military. ] Maybe tell him that he's welcome to come by in case something comes up. That we appreciate the offer, I guess.

[preseance]

( gene shakes his head when irwin goes to light up one of his own, holding his breath against the exhalation as he simply holds his own cigarette out to share. better they're down one than two, an' it'll help with the rationing besides.

wryly, )

You know, it's been a long time since I ain't been the level head in a room.

( he's silent a spell. been a longer time, too, since he had need of anyone else pullin' him back from the edge of some manner of anger. it ain't about the kid at all, except in the most tangential way. that there's kids here, that they're dead, that they've apparently seen enough of war to know healin'. lord, he hates it. )

Thanks.

[sulfa]

[ wade gives a small but genuine smile in response to that, handing the cigarette back - gene's turn to smoke, his to talk. there's something comforting to having an almost formulaic give and take. ] Consider it a favor from a colleague.

[ we're in it together now, after all. ]

Better get back to him, though.

[preseance]

( cigarette roulette. gene sighs, offering it back like the changin' of the guard. )

All right. C'mon, let's get back to work.

( gene will... say something to placate the child, an' wade can go back to sortin' all the medicine they've got between 'em, an' that'll be that. )

[sulfa]

[ a small noise of agreement on wade's behalf, punctuated by a long drag. as much of a task as dealing with a young man like elden is, it's a lesser concern in the grander scheme of things, especially given that their situation here in beacon doesn't seem to be an entirely safe one - the question of self-identity rosinante had raised when they first met has been answered for him. he is a medic, present tense, as is gene. ]

[ wade hands the cigarette back, then: ] You first. [ a rarity: an actual joke. it's probably telling that most of them tend to take the form of commiseration. ]

[preseance]

Ha.

( gene shakes his head as he stands up, but he waves off that final mouthful of smoke. )

You go on. I'm tryin' to quit.

( also a joke. they're hilarious. )

[sulfa]

Don't waste it. I am too, you know. [ he delivers the retort with a straight face, but there's a trace of dark humor behind it. the looming specter of withdrawal is a relatively minor inconvenience in light of the fact that they're both dead, so he might as well joke about it - eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. or go into nicotine withdrawal. whichever. ]

[preseance]

( wade gets the faintest roll of his eyes, an' rather than let the cigarette burn down to ash in wade's fingers he takes it back. )

Fine. ( a wag of his finger. ) But only on account'a you askin' nice.

( he takes that last drag, and then snuffs out the tiny remainder with his bare fingers so's not to dirty up the church floor. )

I've got this nice gal Kara makin' us bandages, too.

[sulfa]

[ the somewhat theatrical display is met with a small chuckle on irwin's part, but he just as quickly returns to business. there's a lot they need to get done before explorations start to head out into the unknown. ]

Kara. Don't think I've met her. What's she look like? [ and a pause before he adds: ] We've got ourselves a pretty good collection of staff members, seems like.

[ meaning: job well done. ]

[preseance]

I don't rightly know. Only met her on the... tablet things.

( which isn't any sort of proper meeting at all, but. you know. he waves his hand vaguely.

it's then that the messages from vanitas starts comin' through. gene skims them with the text-to-speech app, an' then glances up at wade. it doesn't bear sayin' that the fellow seems mighty hostile. )

How do we wanna handle this?

[sulfa]

[ wade frowns down at the words, again defaulting to reading instead of listening to the synthesized voice.

the boy's standoffishness is overtly apparent even without any way to communicate the tone he would probably use if saying these things out loud, underscoring the reality his reasons for wanting to come to his room and not the clinic - well, his reasons for announcing that he was coming there regardless of what the residents had to say about it - could just as easily be malicious as they could be rooted in issues of a sensitive nature. ]

Could be that he wants to be seen privately for VD, something like that. [ wade's patients have historically been much less shy about such things, but he has to periodically remind himself that he's not in a war zone any more, and that the people around him--with the exception of the man sitting next to him in the pew--aren't coming from one, either, or at least not any war zone the two of them would recognize.

but the fact remains - the instincts necessary to his survival when he was still alive aren't likely to just vanish, and god knows irwin's seen people younger than this fellow rack up kill counts in the double digits. gene, presumably, is thinking the same thing. ] Might also be something more dangerous. You have any thoughts?

[preseance]

( ghosts aplenty america and europe over that've done killin' before they were even the age of majority. he met one little french girl who died at twelve if she was a day who was hell'n'gone proud of slittin' an s.s officer's throat.

you learn to read danger in the air. the tone. the pitch an' yaw of an unsettled soul. this fella an' his veiled what-if leaves him cold. )

Well, I'm the one what's made contact, so. May as well keep on that.

( there ain't much hesitation to him, he just drops his hand down against the holster of his colt, thumbs off the leather strap an' clears it, then holds it out butt-first for wade to take. he ain't had much cause to use it, but he's kept it in fine workin' order just the same. )

Any violence I can't de-escalate by my lonesome, reckon a warning shot couldn't harm none.

( he don't like the idea of causing harm, but if it comes right down to it he'd sooner kill someone else than die. there's folks here what'll be depending on them to do their jobs, an' he won't jeopardize that on account'a someone else havin' a fit. he doesn't want to put it to wade to defend him, neither, which is why he shifts his trench knife in his webbing so it's more easily to hand.

he don't like thinkin' ill of anyone, much less someone comin' for treatment. but it's a cold reality of war an' he ain't one for livin' in fairytales. sometimes folks are violent. an' that violence can result in death. he ain't about to take any chances here, not with wade's life or his own. )

[sulfa]

[ wade almost brings up the point that this vanitas seemed pretty intent on seeing him, not gene - that doc hicks doesn't need to potentially endanger himself on his behalf - then realizes that in light of his previous conversation with alexios of sparta, saying as much could quite possibly create the distinct impression that the previous confrontation was rooted in a perception of gene as unable to take care of himself, not out of any sort of mutualistic camaraderie.

but there's also the issue of appearing to someone as though he is hiding, as though he is able to be threatened - although perhaps it could be written off as the interchangeability he's tried to convey.

wade gives a tight-lipped smile that doesn't reach his eyes. ]

Sure you don't want the weapon?

[ he knows that it's more useful for a party at a distance from the possible target to be the one with the gun, but still. ]

[preseance]

( the conflict's writ plain in him. wade ain't so inscrutable as all that, an' gene can guess at the source of it. here they are, worlds away from war an' still tryin' to have each other's backs. it's such a soldierin' thing that it makes him ache for all the fellas they've both left behind. lord, he hopes the boys of charlie company are lookin' favorably on him for irwin's sake. he'd hate to have to explain to one of his boys that he let their medic die on his watch. )

I was barely an average rifleman, fella, you'll be fine.

don't do this at home kids

[sulfa]

[ wade doesn't verbalize any of his own somewhat hesitant agreement, just takes the gun from his fellow medic and tucks the barrel into his waistband without a word, then loosely covers the butt with the hem of his shirt before glancing back up at him. ]

Can't promise I'm any better. Hopefully we won't find out.

[ but god, he's willing to find out if it becomes necessary - both because they're valuable resources and because he knows gene would do the same in his position--and, for that matter, because as of right now he's the only other person here with any real ability to understand what he's coming from without having to be told about the uncountable horrors staining his memory. ]

shoot your balls off, why not

[preseance]

( gene gives wade a bracing nod, drops a hand down against his shoulder an' squeezes, an' then goes to take up position nearer the door. may as well wait it out. )